D&D Campaign Session for June 1, 2002

Played with 3rd Edition Rules

Spellbinders Player Characters:

Kari Morningdew, Human Female Ranger/Cleric of Fharlanghn (Andy)
Kessem Chexz, Female Elf Wizard (Neil)
Odlits Burdfriend, Male Half-Orc Wizard (Bill H.)
Mariella, Female Half-elf? Paladin (Dennis)
Sakara, Female Elf Fighter (Greg)
Selena, Female Gnome Monk of the Order of Zuoken and Xan Yae (Scott)
Simon (a.k.a. Corin Wyndin), Male Half-Elf Sorcerer (Geoff)
Ra Ben Shiva, Female Human Wizard/Cleric of Wee Jas (Caleb)
Male Dwarf Fighter (Bill C.)

Visions of Yig

I had to write this down first during my watch because I want to remember as much of it as I can. As I slept I had a vision…or it was a dream or some sort of out of body experience. Reddof was there and he led me to a temple in the ruined city. It was peacefully quiet and there were no signs of any activity. We walked through the debris blocking the entrance and then to a room with a pool filled with a murky substance. He told me to step into it and I did…I began to change into a different version of the mongrelmen…I guess it was what they once were. As I changed Reddof had me drink some of the murky substance which I did and suddenly I felt as if I was experiencing someone else’s life or memories I’m not sure which. It was that of a slave to these “snake devils” he thought of them as. They were similar in appearance to those snake people working with that Wizard Shiva worked for…she may still work for him as far as I know.

Anyway I was one of thousands of slaves in a great serpent empire. These devils worshiped all sorts of deities as well as the god Yig which the mongrelmen referred to as their god. (I’ll get to how we found that out). Apparently we…I mean the slaves secretly worshiped Yig and he was not pleased with the snake devils and their worship of evil gods. A resistance was secretly organized (Gods! I just realized that must be what the mural depicted in the other ruins Kessem found…the revolt of the slaves! I don’t quite know if I want to go public with this just yet. I’ll talk to Kari about it later) and they began building their own temples of worship deep in the catacombs of this city. The mongrelmen were given a prophecy that heroes would be sent to their aid. The poor mongrelman that I was tagging along with met a brutal death at the hands of a burrowing creature in an arena with others to be slaughtered for the snake devils' amusement.

I reverted back to my “normal” self and Reddof told me that his task was done and basically that he released me of my vow to get his body to Pitchfield stating that he was “content” where he was. He wouldn’t tell me what God was responsible for our reunion but given his knowledge of my past I have very little doubt that it was really him. I also asked him if I should return to that temple and he said that it was something I had to decide, he was only the messenger.

We walked the rest of the way back to our “hut” and I saw my body sleeping where I had been when I went to sleep. After giving my brother a hug good bye I reentered my body and was immediately awaken by Kari and Maryella to go on watch with Corin. I quietly related my story and as I did I could hear talking outside of the hut and to my shock I could understand the mongrelmen! At Kari’s request I quickly stepped out and got them to quiet down and go to sleep for the rest of the night.

I told Kari that I thought leaving was a mistake and that we needed to go check out the temple. As I sit here I start to wonder why did the Gods chose Reddof to deliver this message to me? And more importantly why did the Gods choose me? I mean three of our current group have direct connections to Gods and the Gods know I currently don’t strictly follow any one God…unless it was Yig but again why me? Pelor could also be trying to direct me to follow his path of protecting others. I’ll try to think of a way to approach Maryella about the subject. I feel it’s my obligation now to defend the mongrelmen and convince the others that we should find a way to protect them. That whole sequence in the arena, being force to fight for the pleasure of those snake devils has dredged up the painful memories of what the Orcs forced me to do. I vow to Pelor, Yig or whatever God sent me that vision I will do everything in my power to give these mongrelmen the second chance Reddof said they deserved -- or die trying. What was it Mark said to me once…“Our destinies cannot be avoided, but the path to them is our own.” May Pelor guide your soul Mark…and may I forgive myself one day for sending you to your final destiny.

Now that I’ve got that down and rambled a little I should back up to write about what happened before I was enlightened. After the delegation left we discussed our options. Kessem wandered over to the mongrelmen in an attempt to once again communicate to them without magic. To my surprise Mariella suggested that we go for additional help thus ruining my delusion that Paladins were thick headed when it came to evil. During our discussion and failed interrogation of Ben Shiva (I’m starting to think she’s a plant by the wizard) Kessem I guess wandered off because she came back asking, or was it telling Ben Shiva to come with her, that she had found a ruined temple of some sort to a god called Yig. I went with them, at that time to protect Kessem. I had no intention of staying at that time so I just looked with detached interest. We found the mural I now believe is the uprising of some of the slaves against the snake devils and a stylized map of the city with a snake encircling the city. At that time Kessem figured out that the mongrelmen followed an ancient god called Yig. When we left the ruins Shiva put her hands up in the air and shouted “YIG!” which got all the mongrelmen worked up. We linked up with the rest of our group with the mongrelmen shouting “Yig!” and following us back to our hut. Just as they were starting to quiet down Shiva got them worked up again making it difficult for the others to sleep. This brings me back to my vision and my duty to convince the others that we need to stay.

I’m happy to say I didn’t need to do much convincing. The others had pretty much decided to stay due to the fact that we are too far away from civilization to get help. It’s up to us. I’ve got to write this down quick because were about to drop into the lower level of this temple Reddof led me to. With Mariella backing me I didn’t have to explain much of what happened last night and that it would be a good idea to check out the temple Reddof led me to.

I will admit I did enjoy the looks on everyone’s faces when I started conversing with the mongrelmen. Ben Shiva asked me when did I learn to speak mongrelman and I told her that it was just something I picked up.

We went back to the temple that Kessem found and looked around some more but didn’t seem to find anything more of value so we headed out. The mongrelmen didn’t want us to go but I told them we would attempt to be back before the woman came for our answer but that Yig wanted us to go. They offered to assist us. While the others were unsure they wanted help, I asked three of them to come with us. We ended up with a fourth, a little one followed us in the pouring rain. I led the others to the ruins and we dug through the rubble until we could get down in there. The temple itself was in bad shape and the Dwarf didn’t like the stability with all the rain. I pressed on anyway.

We ran into some sort of zombies of the ancient mongrelmen with a green mist around them. They came at us from both sides of the corridor. While we tackled the ones in front of us the mongrelmen held off the ones behind us. Kari managed to turn some of them temporarily but when I rounded the corner to get to where the pool would be they came out from there. We managed to kill the zombies without too much difficulty.

Corin seems to be enjoying his wererat form a little too much and unfortunately I haven’t had a chance to fully recover from the drugging so my aim is still bad. I don’t have the quick reactions that I normally enjoy…almost my turn to go down. The mongrelmen were about to dispose of their severely injured and I spent a long time convincing them not to. Kari helped my argument by healing the two back to the point where they could fight.

When we explored the pool area we found that the pool had the same green mist that came out of the zombies and realized that the pool must be desecrated. Kari lacked the spells to take care of it so we would have to come back later.

Then we heard a crash back down the other corridor that the mongrelmen held and the Dwarf replied dryly that Kessem had found a weak part of the floor. Then the dwarf shouted that Kessem was in trouble and there was an explosion followed by the howl of a Dwaven war cry and a crash of metal. We raced back over as another explosion sounded. The Odlits fired a fireball down into the room after Corin dropped in and that puts us where were at now. Several skeletons are torched and we're going down to look at this new area. In my opinion I think there was a lot of firepower wasted down there but I’m no mage so I can’t say for sure and I wasn’t down there. Well it’s my turn to go down…may Pelor or Yig or whatever god is guiding me now protect us. We need all the help we can get.

Here endeth the session, as excerpted from the journal of Sakara Galanodel.