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Volume 4                                                                                                                                                             Number 5

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Aaaaacccckkkkkkk!
        Maybe I have been in the bub to long and I'm now way too peery.  The announcement last edition hit me big, but now I hear nothing.  It has been very quiet since the death of Bwimb.  But now I'm almost jumping at my own shadow.  I'm glad I'm here in the Cage, not where some big god killer can get me.  However, I seem to be the only one worried.  Oh well, not much good it does all.  So here is the next report of the heroes, may they not be dead soon.

I. Role Call
        Well, it has been a while since I made the movers of the plot fully listed.  Here they are all again:
        A.J. - The tank of the group who is really hard to take out.  Played by Phil.
        Ed - Prime worshiper of Athena who is sick of planar spellcasting loss.  Played by
            Mike.
        Glaradrin - Thing in a dark cloak that currently doesn't even believe in himself.
            NPC.
        Melana - Experienced planewalking, Axe wielding aasimar who's got something
            with the Greeks.  Played by Marie.
        Morningstar - Ex-bodyguard who is getting more in touch with his mind, what is
            left of it...  Played by Daniel.
        Quell'Ath - Prime elven mage who is getting more and more skilled in battle
            magics.  Played by Tommy.
        Teb - Halfling thief dedicated to Selune with an ever growing collection of small
            blades.  Played by Rob.
        Xandar - Musical mage who loves to cast his burning mandolin spell.  Played by
            Nick.

II. Where was I?
        This is for comparison for Yogi's other campaigns.  This is the year Hashkar 126 (for those on Sigilian calendars), approximately 8 months after the completion of the Great Modron March, and about two plus years since the original swallowing of Plague-Mort.  For those keeping track, that is about four and a half since a certain elf and his party first accidentally used rotten pomegranates to go to Baator... And yet we still trek on...

III. When we last saw our heros...
        With Quell'Ath lapsing into a coma from a poisoned dart (gotten where, no one really knows), the group rested in Sigil, back at Jo-Ann's for a few weeks.  This let them catch up, get better at their skills, and, for some of them, finally start getting used the planes.  Quell'Ath did finally come out of his coma, and started to catch up.  However, one night, while relaxing, the group was approached by three planars with an offer they couldn't refuse; Go to the Lady's Ward with them and speak with their employer.  They would be paid 1000 GP just to go and listen.  A hefty bit of jink, that is for sure.
        They were escorted through the city, and were led up to one of the homes of the Golden Lords.  The estate was huge, with the aides leading them through a series of checkpoints with many gibberish phrases.  And that was only the seen guards.  They knew this for sure; whoever they were going to see, it was a real high-up.
        At the front door of the lavish building, they met Annom, the "butler" (gorilla body that could only make him a body guard) which led them to a place for them to leave their weapons.  After an embarrassing time where some didn't want to drop leave their weapons ("Teb..."), the heroes were lead to a waiting room.  There, they waited (duh!) until an angry looking man stormed out.  Then they were called into the lavish and dark room.  There, from the shadows behind a large lighted deck, they met a possible employer, the enigmatic aasimar known as Spiral Hal'oight.  Being a "glorius lord", he was heavy in jink, and heavy with chant.
        He gave them their money, and explained that the esteemed group of cutters was chosen for their good name, and he needs top-shelf bloods like them.  If they are interested, there is a mission of prime importance for them to steal battle plans that could worth a lot to them.  The long and the short of it is that they were to go to the Grey Waste and steal the battle plans of the Baatezu from the infamous Field of Nettles.  This could be accomplished because a great battle was just fought there, and practically everyone on both sides was dead, and new troops were not supposed to be able to get there for almost a month.  Shouldn't be THAT hard, however, if anything did go wrong, he wanted cutters he knew could handle it.  The negotiated price was 500 GP each PLUS a magic item called Lawbreaker, a baatorian forged specifically strong versus Baatezu.  SURE, this was to be easy...
        They took the rose portal to the Grey Waste and viewed the desolated landscape.   From there, they took the long walk to the Styx, where their contact was to meet them.  They got to the edge, as saw the Marraenoloth (yugoloth river agents) waiting for them.  It asked them for payment, but the heroes insisted that it had been paid for (they were right).  The ‘loth gave in immediately, but didn't look happy.  The ride on the black, purulent river was fraught with twists and waves, and a few drops even splashed up and hit A.J., Quell'Ath, and Glaradrin.  They lost their last days memory, and the last thing they remembered was being in Spiral's office.  This was not a good sign.
        A day later, they were dropped off at the edge of a huge battle field.  From the close bluff, they could see the entire battle field, a large feat, and saw it covered hundreds of miles, with many hills and valleys that had the occasional mudslide.  They couldn't tell where on the map they were, but they could see one close camp and a far camp.  The far camp also looked like it had a river by it that looked like the Styx.  The close camp was about 35 miles on a side, and was less than a days walk from where they landed.  They started heading down to it.
        Getting down there, and examining the encampment, they found evidence that it was heavily the Tanar'ri encampment.  That meant that they had quite a bit of trekking to do to get to the Baatezu camp.  Worse yet, now that they were down there, they could see that the "hills and valleys" were piles of dead fiend and mercenary bodies.  Even though the bodies were greying from the Grey Waste's effects, it still was fairly colorful (especially red).  This was not going to be a happy trip.
        The whole trip took a little over two weeks to get to the far side, but these are the big events and happenings along the way.  It all sort of runs together in my mind, but hey, I don't care.  This is the best you can find.
        The first night was odd, what with the odd odors, and screams and moans that would be just irregular enough to cause problems.  Everyone was on edge when morning came, and started the long trek.  First thing they noticed was a strange being watching them as it walked past.  It had an elongated head and red slitted eyes, but didn't get close and just sort of... watched.  The group was ready for combat, but that day, it never came.  However, that night they got a bit of a scare.  During the watch of A.J. and Morningstar, they saw a rat with it's brain showing, and felt a minor probing in their mind.  They tried to attack, but it ran back and hid amongst the bodies.  Nothing much came from the encounter, but they were now more tense than ever.
        The next day game them bloodshed though.  While they traveled between great piles of bodies, they came upon a group of carrion crawlers having a good day.  However, carrion only goes so far, and they wanted the fresh taste of adventurers.  The heroes really seemed to be the ones interested in killing, and quite efficiently, they exterminated the bugs, without even the little tentacled beasts doing much damage.
        Night came and went as they continued, and soon they came to a large clearing that was circular and about 100 yards in radius.  In the center, there was a tall tower made of bones about 200 yards high.  It even seemed to be growing before them, yet the section at the bottom seemed not to move.  At the top, the tower had a strange beam of blue light that seemed to go around the great circle and stopping a certain points.  This beam was focused on the far side of the circle while the heroes pondered.  Within the clearing, all they could see was various metal items, with nothing around it to claim it.  They knew danger was here.
        At this point the light beam and moved to a spot just in front of them, and seemed to target a human body on the edge.  It started to scream an convulse.  The heroes to live up to the name then, and tried to pull the man to safety away from the tower.  Teb pulled the man, and while he was in the beam, he felt incredible pain while he pulled.  Plus, the beam even followed them.  Then Morningstar jumped in and helped pull them back faster.  However, the beam followed them.  They all felt the intense pain, and then A.J. in his armor and shield stepped in the way to block.  The beam reflected off away from the shine, and A.J. got the idea to reflect the beam back at the tower.  It shuddered, grew a little shorter, and moved a little away.  Quell'Ath took the idea, and rushed into the circle to grab an extremely polished large shield.  The beam returned to hit him, but he reflected it back, and the tower shrunk even more.  Xandar decided to try a simple damage spell at it, and when the tower shrunk more, the heroes commenced to barrage it with magical might with others reflecting the attacking beam back to reduce the structure to rubble, with the blue glow never to strike again.
        The saved man called himself Marel Talon, and he thanked the heroes greatly when he came to (he passed out from the pain of his losing some bones to the tower.  He was a mercenary that was from Xaos (where things are normal) to fight for the Tanar'ri.  However, he hid during the mass combat and became stuck.  Now, all he wanted to do was go home, and he new a portal if he could get to the mercenary pass.  So, for at least a little while, the heroes had a traveling companion if they wanted.  After searching the metal items for anything useful (of which they found a little), they headed on.
        It was a calm night (or whatever can pass for that on the Field of Nettles, so names because of the Nettle plants that actually sucked blood if you got too close).  Actually, it was a relatively easy day, with the only confusion being when they found a split in the path (this was something not shown on the map Spiral gave them).  However, Marel helped here by telling them that the branch went in the direction of the mercenary road (where he was going to re-find his portal) and helping Melana, the party cartographer, find the parties location.  And thus the party trudged on towards the Baatezu camp.
        The next day found some interest in the party, in that it started with a couple of the cutters getting diseased, and having a bad day when neither of the clerics could cure it that day (Ed had very little in spells do to his distance from his deity, and Melana hadn't memorized the proper spell).  Later, as the drudge of the bodies continued to be even more sickening (the bottoms of the piles were liquefying), they came upon a large mountain of bodies, and atop the small mountain of the dead was a beautiful woman with a bag of scrolls.  Scrolls that had spells, as she sent a volley of magic missiles down upon the heroes.  She pulled more scrolls out, and continued the volley down upon them.  The heroes responded with spells, with charging up the mountain of dead fiend bodies, and simply with hiding.  She fell from the spell volley from Quell'Ath and Xandar just before Teb and A.J. got to the top.  However, off her they pulled a bag of scrolls (each containing Magic Missiles) and a fine black dagger.  Again, what does AD&D teach us?
        They continued on for another day or two with minor encounters (including that strange faceless cone-like head thing and out-witting a group of bar-lagour), and then they came upon a great fire (grey, of course) that burned in a giant dirt bowl.  The bodies were sliding from the great piles in, causing the fires to furn higher.  At the end of the path they were following (that went right up to the edge), they saw clouds that may form a series of stairs leading up to a large, greasy black cloud that hovered over the fire.  After testing the clouds for stability, and realizing they had no other way to go (especially as their map didn't even show this!) they headed up into the cloud bank climbing the cloud stairs.
        In the great cloud, they found an almost completely desolate city, where all the walls and ground and all was made of smoke.  The smoke also had unseeable holes to, which nearly took the life of a few heroes.  All they saw was small open buildings, and a small group of fiends running around the little city.  Entering one after going a few blocks, they came upon a barbazu (type of Baatezu, for you clueless) sitting bleeding in a corner with a chipped and broken glaive sitting next to him.  He tried to stand up and defend himself, but really just showed he was weak.  However, the heroes decided not to kill him (they had no reason), and they hoped to interrogate him.  However, then a group of rough and tumble cambions (a type of tanar'ir) came in, and assuming the heroes were helping the wretched thing, attacked.  It was a bloody fight that included Quell'Ath nearly dying, Morningstar getting a major boo-boo on his left leg, Xandar burning the fiends, and A.J. (the Tank, as they call him) chopping a few up.  In then end, they had saved the barbazu.  In return, he led them out of the city, and told them to find the plans in the commanders building, in the strategy wing.  Once out of the city, both sides were happy to split from each other.
        Then next encounter was also very dangerous.  The group was hit by a swarm of stirges.  This battle was much harsher than they expected, especially with Melana getting hit through the neck (making her not able to talk, and cast healing spells for quite a while) and one sucking brain from Morningstar.  Morningstar inertial barrier helped, but as these Waste Stirges are psionically attuned, they went after him.  They like eating brains...  After a few days, these wounds were healed, but the team was certainly hurting for a while.
        Another day later, they came upon something rather interesting.  The saw a crab being (that they later identified as a Piscoloth) bossing around a group of petitioners.  It was forcing them to dig a trench to a large pond of blood.  To speed up work, they saw it fling on fallen petitioner into the pond.  It tried to swim back, but it was taken down by some tentacled thing take it down.  Ick!  So they decided to take down the evil slaver.  It was just one crab thing, not difficult, right?  The thing nearly killed three of them before finally going down (let's just say everyone was really lucky in avoiding its death tentacle.
        However, this left the heroes with a new problem.  The petitioners, as they just stared blankly.  The heroes tried to tell them they are free, but they didn't even bat an eye.  So the heroes sighed and told them to follow them.  This they did.
        They had a few more fights, but they did finally get to the Baatezu encampment, and because the information they got from the barbazu, they started the long hike to the command building.  A day later, they finally got there.  There, it was completely empty from what the heroes could tell (of course, having a small army of petitioners following you because you told them doesn't help).  Therefore, they were taken a bit off guard when the three spigons started lighting them on fire from the air.  The spigons were smart, and hit the heroes with the fire spells and stinking cloud before sweeping in.  The heroes recovered, but they took some major pain.  They killed two and took a wing off the third before it surrendered to them.
        Villark, as he introduced himself was told to stay their by the commanding pit fiend to guard the strategy wing (where the heroes were) with his two companions.  However, now that they were lost, he could turn stag with no one knowing.  When told to lead the heroes to the battle plans, he led them to the room that supposedly had them.  It was supposed to be in one of the ten urns next to the wall that were far to large to move comfortably.  Unfortunately, Villark claimed not to know which urn held the plans.  So the heroes, imagining themselves crafty, used an augury and a clue they found to try an urn by setting up a rope and opening the urn from another room.  However, do to the special magics, half the group was instead held when they opened the wrong urn.
        The ones who remained decided to try to open another one.  This one also was trapped and empty, leaving only Teb, Xandar, Vallark, and a few petitioners unheld.  So they decide to wait.  A few hours later, when the hold spell hadn't lapsed, they got worried, but tried another urn.  This time, they got it right, and inside they found markings on a skin that looked suspiciously like human.  As they waited for the others to unfreeze (and becoming more and more aware of how low on time they were and having no idea if portal lag might have hit them), they looked at the plans.  They couldn't understand it all, but when they found the Field, they found it was marked as only a minor battle.  They slowly realized that all of this carnage was just a feint for the Baatezu.  Ouch.
        The next day, a few people came out of it, and with the help of the recovered cleric, they dispelled the remain effects.  Able to move again, the went to the shore of the close river that looked remarkable like the Styx at the other side (except it flowed in the opposite direction), the heroes found a small skiff and prepared to leave when they remembered they had a ton of petitioners were about to try to start boarding, which would have sunk the small vessel.  They told them to go back to the building a wait for the baatezu.  They did.  Villark then asked to be allowed to come along.  He didn't want to be around when the big bosses came around, and the heroes it was ok (at least to get him away from the field, so it would be harder for the fiends to know it was them.  Then the heroes set out (of course forgetting that the Baatezu will be able to rip apart the minds of the petitioners to learn about who stole the plans...)
        After a few hours of scary travel on a black river, they decide to set to land to try to use Teb's Dream Stone (to learn about that, you'll have to wait until PSN Volume two is posted) to open a door to the Infinite Staircase.  They landed, but in a final desperate escape attempt, Villark tried to break free.  He was tackled by Glaradrin, however, they both went tumbling into the Styx.  The heroes quickly threw out a rope to save Glaradrin, and succeeded, as Villark disappeared beneath the waves.  They pulled him in, and careful not to touch the wet rope, let him out of it.  He looked up, and knew none of them.  Oh boy.
        Teb opened the door successfully, and they got to the Stairway.  On the way, they stopped to check for message at the Planewalker's Guild and Xandar decided to stay to study on how to return Glaradrin's memory.  The rest of the group went to Sigil and Jo-Ann's, with a new problem on their hands...

IV. When we next meet...
        Tagalong Game: Sunday, December 12th, 1999, at 1 P.M. in the Pfeiffer Hall Main Lounge.  I should be there by noon, for those who need character work or want to deal with their experience cards, which will be ready then.

V. Comedy Corner
        This is not a section I will ever write in.  I'll do that at other times.  However, I do take submitted things.  I needs to either be gaming, AD&D tied, Planescape tied, or actually campaign tied, with the ones later in the list that are later having best chances on getting in.  So feel free to send it.  Here is the first one, from one Tommy Stolz.  Enjoy!

Climate/Terrain:          Any                    --------------Flavor Text-----------
Frequency:                  Uncommon            |                                           |
Organization              Solitary               |                                           |
Activity Cycle:            Any                    |                                           |
Diet:                         AD&D Players       |                                           |
Intelligence:                 Genius (17-18)          |                                           |
Treasure:                   None                   |                                           |
Alignment:                  Neutral               |                                           |
____________________         |                                           |
No. Appearing:              1                        |                                           |
Armor Class:              0                       |                                           |
Movement:                 15, F 40(A), S 10      |                                           |
Hit Die:                      8                       |                                           |
THAC0:                     13                       |                                           |
No. of Attacks:           0                       |                                           |
Damage/Attack:         None                   |                                           |
Special Attacks:          Surprise, Speak         |                                           |
Special Defenses:           Invisible                |                                           |
Magic Resistance:         30%                    |                                           |
Size:                         1 Sentence +            |                                           |
Morale:                    Elite(13-14)             |                                           |
XP Value:                 3,000                 |                                           |
                                                       |                                          |
Appearance: Flavor Text is formless.          --------------------------------------
There is nothing to be seen, only heard.
 
Combat: All a Flavor Text ever does
is speak.  Since it is invisible and
has no form it always surprises its
victims.  When it speaks, all those
who can hear it go insane (no save)
and commit suicide in an effort to                Ecology: Flavor Text used to be
end the text.  Language barriers and              just a good way for a GM to liven
deafness are not a problem as text               a dull scene.  The resistance by
spoken is done directly into the                     Dan against them and his line: "I'm
targets mind.  Those who try to run             rolling against the next flavor
away are hunted down by the Flavor          text." is what ultimately created
Text and then are subjected to an                 them in their form today.  Now
extremely long and painful flavor                their sole task it to torment
text.                                                     players and their respective
                                                           characters.
Habitat/Society: Flavor text can be
seen anywhere and have no society.
It is possible to have multiple
Flavor Texts  in the same space,
describing the same thing.  Flavor
Text never do any harm to anyone
else than AD&D Players.                             Flavor Text Variants: The enjoyed
                                                           Description seem to feed off the players
                                                           will to is a harmless version which aids
                                                           be rid of the flavor text.  Players and
                                                           character alike in achieving their goals.

[VI. Prime Prattlings
        I've released a limited number of PSN balls into the worlds of many primes via the Celestial/ Infinite Staircase.  PSN Balls are little report modules that display the PSN and yet secretly record what is happening around them.  The items in the square brackets will not show up on the reports they see, and this way they can not know what is going on.  I figured it might make some interesting chant, but otherwise, I'll use this as the funnies for this rag.  I'll report on a few things I see.  However, of the four prototypes, on was released in a small gnomish village, one was in a drow elf city, one was in mountain dwarf city, and one was in a illithid city.  Let us see what happens of interest.]

VII. Bazaar Bargains
        This edition, we'll look at a small shop at the edge of the Bazaar called Hard
Heads
         Plemus Yatso runs a small shop that caters to warriors of all walks.  He specially focuses on helmets and other protective head gear.  This includes those of magical nature, psionic nature, and non-magical from various workers and planes.  He has a few with really special powers, but most are simple protective abilities.  His special is currently actually a leather helmet that actually enhances sounds in front of the wearer, as opposed to being harder to hear.  However, it also makes sonic attacks stronger.  He is offering if for a simple 1,000 GP.  Not bad.  Talk to him, and you will find him a Harmonium that actually enjoys the nickname hence, the name of the store), but he isn't full militant about it.  As long as you don't try to anger him, he can be fairly open minded.  However, don't cross him; he can also give quite a headache!

VIII. Jo-Ann's Bulletin Board
        I place this board up with yet no responsibility for what gets put on it.  I make only two rules in regards to this board.  One, I want nothing promising or directly causing violence.  Two, no extreme factional screed.  A little word here or there is fine.  But this ain't your soddin' podium.  Just use it to get in contact with other cutters, or spread general messages.  If not, Downbeat will make your brain-box into mush.  Thanks, and hope this is good.
                                                                Jo-Ann

        That goes double from me, plus Tokkon will want a piece of you too!
                                                                Mara

    Hey berk!
          Do you like to spend a few spare moments between adventures playing the
    Blood Wars CCG? If you don't know it, come and take a peer.  If you like this game,
    please head over to The Deadbook and help support it. If we get enough Club members,
    I'll ask Jim Butler save the game from the leafless tree.  Maybe the bashers at
    WotC will give us an escalation pack or two. And even if they don't, I'm working
    on making templates, allowing you to make your own fan cards. Meanwhile, feel
    free to discuss the game, exchange links, and make trades. Please visit the 'Book at
    http://clubs.yahoo.com/thedeadbook.
                                                                Elric

    Uh, help?
        I'm kittensitting, and the damn thing is yowling at all hours and keeping me up
    when I want to sleep.  Any cutters out there have a clue about these creatures?!?
    I need sleep!
                                                                Harmony

    Hey all!
        Just want to make a reminder about the website.  This is where I call names and
    you get publicly embarrassed because you haven't sent me information I want for the
    webpage.  I warned you this was coming, so no whining!  Some of these characters
    are long gone, but I'd like to get them up there.  Let me know if you can't think of
    anything, and I'll make something up maybe.
        OK, first, I need to the following players to send me their descriptions of the group
    from the character's eyes listed.  Look at the page for examples, or talk to me.  Here
    are the delinquents:
                Daniel - Morningstar
                Eric - Ralsek
                Harry - Roland, Quintina
                Jeff - Christian Nightsong, Rune Blackthorn, Tzarkin Cane
                Jennie - LeCarra
                Justin - Hurin
                Ken - Talaris
                Marie - Mara, Melana
                Mike - Ed
                Nick - Xandar
                Phil - A.J.
                Ron - Teb
                Thomas - Loc, Max, Stumpy
        I also need to get these reports for people off-line.  If anybody can get me this info
    for Angel, Baruk, Butterfly, Father Francis, Janfri, Palla (Pala?), or Zoe (Zowie?), let
    me know.
        The second area I need is character descriptions.  This can either be in or out of
    character (your choice), but I will make comments at the end of each.  See the page
    to see what others have done.  Here are the delinquents in this catagory:
                Bryan - Armstrong, Nayrb, Tokkon
                Dan - Seglan
                Daniel - Morningstar
                Eric - Ralsek
                Harry - Quintina, Roland
                Jeff - Christian Nightsong, Rune Blackthorn, Tzarkin Cane
                Jenine - Jerika Cabbit
                Jennie - LeCarra
                Justin - Hurin
                Ken - Talaris
                Marie - Mara, Melana (Melane?)
                Nick - Xandar, Xorliarrian
                Phil - A.J.
                Rob - Teb
                Steve - Kailrin
                Thomas - Stumpy
                Tommy - Quell'Ath
        Offline characters (help please?) - Angel, Baruk, Butterfly, Father Francis, Janfri,
    Lan, Palla (Pala?) and Zoe (Zowie?)
        I hope to get these from you folks.  If not, more drastic measures may need to be
    taken.  Consider yourself warned.
                                                                The Webmaster

        Harry,
              You and I need to discuss what should be put up for Magnus.
                                                                Yogi

Do you want to say something clever, useful, or just put something on the board.  Then give it to the management, and it will be posted.  Or you can post it yourself.  Just let us know.
         The Management

IX.  Footnote
    I am grateful for the publishing of these chronicles.  It lets me keep in touch with you all, and friends are always worth keeping in touch with.  I hope you feel the same.

                                                                     David "Yogi" Ugorek
                                                                     DUgorek@hotmail.com