THE STANDING STONE
GAME 1
Bob absent, Craig plays Andrinor.
The Speaker in Dreams is dead and his devils are banished and Ben
takes over from Kirk as Dungeon Master. Griffon seeks out an elven master boyer
while Kaliq begins his paladin training at
Varden and Falin arrive in Brindinford searching for heroes. There
is trouble in Faerun and they need to fulfill a prophesy. Bringing back strong
fighters will help too. The locals direct them to the
A messenger from a Lord Caraway approaches the three original
party members. Having heard of their success against The Speaker, he wants to
hire the party to find out what happened to the
Varden and Falin enter and talk the drunken monk down off the bar.
Everyone meets and a deal is forged: the five will work together, first in
Ossington, then in Faerun. “We never had liquor at the monastery.”
The next day, we begin the three-day ride. On the way, our camp is
raided by a dire bear cub and his mother, who eat all our food.
The third day, almost to Ossington, we see a villager running for
his life down the road. The ghostly Horseman from the cover of the module is
chasing him. Varden swoops him up and the party attacks the Horseman, but he
slays the villager and the horse stomps the remains into the ground. Finished,
they vanish, but not before Andrinor casts detect
evil, and sees none. We discover two other villagers the Horseman has slain
and Casartes and Varden approach a nearby farm house for help. Farmer and
Daughter explain that the Horseman and the gurgach wild elves have kept them
from doing any farming for a long time. We take care of the bodies, and do some
work for the Farmer. Daughter is very friendly toward us, but we decline her
“hospitality” until another time.
We ride toward Ossington, noting that there is no animal life in
the surrounding forest.
As sundown approaches we come upon a chapel serving a deity of
each of the nine alignments. It is attended by a crazed, strung out, starving
druid named Henwyn, and her companion, an animal known as Habya. She prays
non-stop all day, and finishes only when it is dark. She asks us, “are you
prepared to die?” We camp in the chapel that night, which causes the shadows in
the crematory pits to attack us. Andrinor easily turns them, but Henwyn
explains that they only attack people in the chapel after dark. “Oh, did I
forget to mention that?” We head for Ossington the next morning.
Ossington is surrounded by huge, ancient monoliths, like
How can we
feed these people with no crops or game nearby? What would make normally good
wild elves and a non-evil ghost hate these villagers so much?
THE STANDING STONE
GAME 2
Everyone present.
We’ve agreed to help the villagers of Ossington deal with their
elf and ghost problem, but what’s going on? We explore the forest, finding some
clues and a lot of trouble. We also battle the Horseman a second time.
Just as we slay the last summoned bird,
a girl arrives, out of breath, with her sword. “Am I too late?” Her name is
(Swordgirl). She introduces us to Dyson, the village sorcerer who is now in
charge after the assassination. We pledge to help the village, and then look
around a little bit before camping for the night.
The next morning, Andrinor and Varden
use their magic to feed the village. Varden questions Dyson extensively about
the area’s history and recent events. The standing stones were erected at least
900 years ago by druids. The area was the site of two huge battles where a
Safenar lead good against evil invaders. He and the druids were slain in the
second battle by the dragon Ashardalon. Four months ago the Horseman arrived,
visiting five local sites, the chapel, this circle, the Silence Keepers,
Redhorse and the Old Barrow. Three months ago the gurgach began their attacks.
Ossington sent a party to negotiate and the wild elves massacred them.
We decide to head north to explore the
He emits a terrifying moan then attacks
us. Andrinor and Falin soon catch up and we battle him and his mount. The horse
attacks Casartes with an effect that reduces his charisma. Andrinor tries to
turn the horseman and fails, provoking him to telekinetically throw the cleric
into the air. He survives the fall and uses sunburst on the ghost.
Confused by our toughness, the Horseman vanishes.
Do we go to Brindinford for help? No,
it will take too long. We decide to visit Henwyn anyway but return to Ossington
this night. Henwyn tells us the same things that Dyson did, except for one
detail: when the horseman visited her chapel four months ago he was not a
ghost. We begin to think all is not what it seems here.
We decide to rest two days, restore
Casartes, feed the village again, and return to the site of the slain villager
to question him using speak with dead.
When we return to the forest we
encounter trouble in the form of animated trees. We evade them and keep heading
toward the villager’s corpse, except for a frustrated Varden who stays just out
of reach of the slow-moving trees. He yells to the unseen spellcaster in elven
“call off your trees! We mean you no harm. We’re not the villagers’ allies; we
just want to know why you’re at war… and I’m staying here until I you tell me!”
Will Varden get the attention of the gurgach or will he just get
peppered with arrows? What will the slain villager say?
THE STANDING STONE
GAME 3
Everyone present.
We spend a long day gathering much information from the slain
villager, Red Horse and the Great Barrow. We learn The Horseman may not be what
he seems, and we meet the infamous Warlord Saithmar.
Varden holds against the attacking
trees demanding an answer from their enchanter. A treant calls unseen “leave my
forest if you want to live.” Varden courteously declines and joins the other
party members at the site of the slain villager.
Andrinor and Varden learn only that the
villager is human and that the Gurgach hate the villagers because of “the
massacre,” and no more. We decide to explore Red Horse and notice that we’re
being followed by some hobyahs in the trees.
We come upon a swamp at the base of a
cliff. On top of the cliff is an ancient carving of a horse. The hobyahs will
follow no closer and we continue on. Then The Horseman arises from the water.
Not wanting a needless confrontation, Varden steps forth and tells The Horseman
we’re simply gathering information for our lord and wish no fight. The Horseman
actually seems to understand this and sinks back into his lake -- performing
the sign of Pelor!
Casartes immediately jumps into action
and dives into the lake. Sure enough, he finds the remains of a man and a
horse, but no skull. Varden wildshapes into a porpoise to better search for any
hidden clues, but finds none.
We are puzzled about what to do next
but finally decide to give the remains a proper burial. This gets the attention
of The Horseman who approaches us, curious about the grave and his remains, and
allows us to question him. He cannot speak but we learn that he has unfinished
business on this plane and if we continue the burial he will depart. Henwyn
has, or is at least responsible for, his head, and he is not really allied with
the Gurgach. We guess that our horseman was a paladin of Pelor slain before his
time. Moved, we offer to help him complete his task. He charges toward
Ossington.
Ready or not to confront the villagers,
we follow him, but the hobyahs leap on us from the trees! Varden casts calm
animals, but they just flash evil grins and attack with poison bites.
Thanks to our swordsmen we slay them all before they can poison us or report back
to who ever may be controlling them. Henwyn?
It’s getting late, but we’re worried
about just attacking Ossington with no hard information. Consulting our map, we
decide to explore the Great Barrow. We come upon a large man-made mound with
one arched entryway. It is marked in Druish: “Saithmar the Warlord.”
Inside, we find a warren of halls and
traps guarded by wights, which Andrinor is able to turn or destroy. A trap
injures Falin and a large earth elemental charging right out of the rock face
almost slays Taliesan and Falin. Varden’s summoned small earth elemental is no
help, so he finishes off the guardian with his khopesh.
At the end of the maze of hallways we
discover Saithmar’s tomb. The archway is inscribed in Druish: “The heart grows
bolder, courage grows greater, will grows stronger, as our strength lessens.”
What does it mean? Do we open the tomb? We don’t have time to decide because
the undead Saithmar emerges from the walls with two assistants, closes off the
hallway and demands to know our business. Varden tells him the truth and asks
if he knows anything about the current situation. Saithmar states that the
world of the living is none of his business and agrees to let us go -- if we
win a one-on-one sword duel with him.
Casartes volunteers and we fortify him
with greater magic fang, barkskin, bull’s strength, cat’s grace, shield of
faith, and Ramtetkahan, Varden’s +3 khopesh.
We’ve learned more about the identity of The Horseman and that,
with the hobyah attack, puts doubts on the intentions of the Villagers. In the
Great Barrow we’ve found no clues or treasure. Can we trust Saithmar to fight
fairly?
THE STANDING STONE
GAME 4
Everyone present.
This game consisted of two combats, Casartes’ duel with Saithnar,
and our reluctant battle with the gurgach and their treant.
Saithnar dominated Casartes early in
the duel, striking critically with his great sword. The monk was able to get
away and use his wholeness of body ability to heal. Then he took a round to
rest and came back out strong, striking hard and defeating the undead warlord.
He thanked us for the “fun,” answered
all our questions, gifted us with a stone of luck of some kind, and admonished
us not to reveal his whereabouts to anyone.
While we tried to decide what to do
next, Tully from Ossington arrived and begged us to return to the village. She
led us into a gurgach ambush.
We tried and tried to convince the wild
elves and their treant that we were no threat to them, and believed we had the
same purpose, but they attacked and attacked and we had to defend ourselves. In
the end we slew the treant and left only two elves alive.
A dejected and angry Varden decided to
interrogate Tully.
THE STANDING STONE
GAME 5
Craig absent, Eric and Anthony play Casartes
We almost lose Falin in a punishing battle and finally learn the
awful truth about what happened in Ossington.
We bind Tully as best we can and
Andrinor casts Zone of Truth. Ironically, he’s the only one who doesn’t
save against its effects and Tully just tries to mislead us some more.
Frustrated by the battle, and the idea that he’s been betrayed by an evil druid
once again, Varden pommels Tully. With the help of Casartes, knocks her out.
Then we tie her and the two remaining elves to trees and rest in preparation
for the inevitable assault on Ossington.
In the night the wild elves awake and
Falin convinces them to join the party.
Then, at the stroke of
Taliesan awakens Casartes and Falin for
help and asks the paladin not to slay her yet. Casartes sees the situation very
clearly and explains that we might not know for sure the right thing to do, but
The Horseman, as an agent of his god, does. The elves are convinced, and they
allow him to slay her.
In the morning we attack the village.
We form a line on the north, backed up
by The Horseman and the Gurgach. Varden and Andrinor will take the roof of
Dyson’s tower and Falin the roof of a nearby house. Taliesan and Casartes will
fight through the front door backed up by Eric.
Dyson, Henwyn and Cuckoo appear on the
roof before we can take it. We keep Dyson from casting spells for a short
while, but he hits us with two cones of cold and a fireball,
nearly slaying Falin.
The villagers swarm out of the houses,
but an entangle and The Horseman effectively stop them.
Taliesan finally bursts through the
door, followed by Casartes. Cuckoo meets them on the third floor, revealing
himself as vrock demon! Luckily, it flies away, abandoning Dyson and Henwyn
when it grows bored with the battle.
Varden summons a large earth elemental
to the roof, and then Taliesan and Varden make it to the roof. Dyson tries to
cast a spell but the elemental and the ranger both it him, finally slaying the
sorcerer.
Henwyn attempts to heal him, but Varden
injures her and Taliesan knocks her out.
We’ve won.
Henwyn explains that Dyson, a tiefling,
and the demon slew all the villagers. They used the magic in the standing
stones to transform the local animals into a loyal army to conquer Greyhawk.
She just went along with the plan, even feeding The Horseman’s head to the
fiendish hobyahs.
We give her to the Horseman, who slays
her, and then we travel to his burial site to send him on his way to the other
side.
We still need to make arrangements for the few remaining
villagers, and report to Lord Carraway and the
THE STANDING STONE
GAME 6
Bob absent, Ethan joins.
We kind of ended game 5 late, so this is a wrap-up of Standing Stone and the bridge into Rana
Griffon arrives just at the end of the
fight with Lord Caraway and his men. We find much of treasure and return to
Brindinford to spend it. All the characters get great magic items.
Later, Griffon discovers a Banda
fighter in the woods overlooking Brindinford. They battle and Griffon nearly
loses his life defeating him. He finds a circle of teleportation at the camp.
When Varden returns from Ossington
after researching Dydd the druid and visiting Teranna and her father, he urges
the party to leave for Faerun as soon as possible. We decide on two days. Devin
Nightsoul, a sorcerer, is looking to get out of Brindinford quickly, and joins
the party.
When the party meets at the Golden
Swan they find Eric wandering the docks, half dead. Taliesan discovers that
there was a fight and Varden and Andrinor are missing. The party returns to the
Word is Mr. M. is the man to see about
the mystery and he does find the party later that night. It turns out Mr. M. is
our old friend Meepo, the kobold dragon trainer from Sunless Citadel.
Varden and Andrinor have been abducted
by members of a headhunting tribe known as the Banda. They are in the employ of
someone with a grudge against the party, but he does not know who. He sells the
party a journal with the information they need to rescue the men. It will
involve traveling to the Amedio Jungle, up the Ran Pe river to the ancient
temple-city of Rana
So begins Rana
Mor, where we should attain 10th level.