Moondog's Comicland newsletter

I'm only including a small selection from this one issue. One reason I'm sharing it is nostalgia, for at one time Moondog's was the comic book chain in this area. Another is a reminder, thanks to that published letter, that Moondog's newsletter had a limited print run. Someday, collectors are going to consider these valuable and I'll be kicking myself for letting my collection mildew so badly that I'm throwing them all out.

Another reason to share these pages is because they prominently feature two former Moondog's employees who I now consider friends -- Keith Anderson, who still runs a comic book store in Schaumburg to this day, and Chris Ecker, co-founder of Big Bang Comics. Though most of my Big Bang Comics-related business has been with his partner, Gary Carlson, I still run into Chris almost annually, selling antiques at some show or another, and a good conversation always ensues. 

 

First "paycheck" for being a writer

Okay, not a paycheck, per se, but a prize in a Valentine's Poem writing contest at Elgin Community College. I had shown up with nothing in hand but, underwhelmed by the competition, I had borrowed a pencil and paper and wrote up a joke poem on the spot that not only won me second prize*, but the poem was published in The Spire, ECC's literary magazine that year. 

*I remember it being first prize in its category, humorous poems, but it's possible it was considered second prize because the serious poem category was considered more important.

When I was 20, I figured I would be making enough to live off of from my writing by the time I was 25. Little did I know how little more I would be making for my writing by 50!

Rejection letter from TSR

 My first and only time being published in Dragon magazine was "Treasure Trove of Tomes" from Dragon #253, of which I am still immensely proud. But it was not my first attempt to get published therein. I believe that would have been this 1994 letter suggesting a series of Marvel Super Heroes related articles. 23-year old me didn't understand that the reason Dragon had stopped publishing MSH articles was because they didn't have the license for it anymore, as Dale Donovan quickly explained to me in that corner note, rather than enclosing an entire rejection letter in the Self-Addressed Stamped Envelope we had to use back in the before-email times.

Bill Justice

William Barnard Justice was an animator and engineer for The Walt Disney Company. Justice joined Walt Disney Studios as an animator in 1937 and worked on such features as Fantasia, The Three Caballeros, Alice in Wonderland, and Peter Pan. He died in 2011 at age 97. 

I got to meet him (I think) in 1991, when he was 77, at the Stay Tooned Gallery in Barrington. He spoke to the audience before the signing. I don't remember anything specific that was said and I know he didn't say anything to me; I was just another person in line. Still...

I wish I had taken better care of this print he signed.

 

Stay Tooned Gallery newsletter

When I was 20, instead of counting the days until I could go to a bar and drink, I was counting the days until I could next go to the Stay Tooned Gallery in Barrington. This was 1991 and the height of the collectors' craze for animation cells, and Stay Tooned Gallery was committed to not only supplying that need, but in attracting the best talents from animation to come and do signings at the store. 

This blog is meant to be a repository for my own writings, not someone else's newsletter, but I figure there should be some record on the Internet of what their newsletter was like, before I trash my saved paper copy.

Descartes, Professor Dunham, & Philosophy Class

Ouch, these scans are hard to read! 

I'm sharing this, not because I think I had any huge insights into Descartes here (it was a pretty simple regurgitation of what I'd learned in class), but as further evidence of why Joe Dunham was one of my favorite teachers. For a quicker pay-off, you can skip the first half.

Philosophy Class Doodles

 More scans of old mildewed paperwork that needs to go...

Some of the doodles were of classmates. The girl who wore hats to class always intrigued me, which is why she got drawn twice. She worked on the school newspaper, but I don't know what her name was.

The above character is Marcy the Lich, who's already been featured on this blog in the past.

That was a terrible portrait of Joe Dunham, my philosophy teacher at Aurora University. He was a great teacher, perhaps never exemplified better than our above exchange. I had long doodled on tests, but here Joe met me on my own turf and answered my doodle with a doodle of his own! Yes, that's his Ziggy next to my Skyler from the comic strip Shoe. I never had another teacher do that.

Ouch, this one came out really light on the scanner! At the beginning of my notes from class that day is an ode to my favorite TV show at that time -- something you never hear about anymore today -- The Gary Shandling Show. It reads: 

These are the notes to Casper's class

The notes to Casper's class

Dunham called on me and said

"You've got to take some notes, son."

 

I was also big into Finnish mythology at that time, hence the portrait of Vainomoinen Suvantolainen. 

 

This showed up a little better. First is Thanos with his infinity gauntlet, showing its soul gem and its rap gem. I was pretty funny back then! And the second doodle is a much better sketch of Professor Dunham himself, much as the man looked, though I don't know why I left the temples off his glasses.

Company of the White Oak Campaign - Sessions 36 & 37

Session 36
Ready’reat 7, 621 CY
City of Greyhawk

The White Oak Company was assembled at the Blue Dragon Inn to discuss what project to undertake at this week’s end, when Vask arrived. He had just come from Ford Keep and a meeting with the wizard Prospero, and Prospero wanted to help with the vampire problem…

“I had hoped the Adversary's focus was turned away from you and your friends by now,” Prospero had said. “If the vampires are still watching you, then he must know some or all of the prophecy about how you will stop him. If your companions are amenable to it, we might be able to lay a trap for the vampires...but you would all have to serve as the bait, and there are obvious risks there…”

It was not even much of a discussion; Haruspex Niv and John Grond were sick of those vampires and wanted them gone. No one, not even the new blood like Ulrich, objected. And so it was decided. But what form would the trap take? And where? Where were the vampires now?

Vask believed he should go outside, shout Prospero’s name, and tell them they accepted the challenge, and then Prospero would do all the rest.

But then nothing else happened. Until-

Ready’reat 8, 621 CY
City of Greyhawk

The companions Haruspex Niv the Theurgist, John Grond the Anti-Hero, Percy the Curate, Reed Underbough the Hobbit Cutpurse, Rom Riverbluff the Swordsman, Gendri the Swordsman, Vask the Veteran, and Ulrich Fallingwater the Acolyte were back at the Blue Dragon, deciding if they should seek Prospero out, when Roger Bacon, Prospero’s right hand man let himself into their conference room. He explained that he was now aware of the situation and already had the beginnings of a plan. It involved having the White Oak Company announce openly that they had found a secret weapon under Castle Greyhawk that would let them stop the Adversary, then head to the ringstones in the Hidden Dell and hide behind the magical wall of repulsion there. The vampires might follow, but Roger and a force he was raising would follow them, surround them at the wall, and then wipe them out. In theory it would work, though there was no telling if the vampires would travel alone.

Liking the idea, and having no better one of their own, the entirety of the companions agreed to chance it.

Ready’reat 9, 621 CY
On the Road

The next morning the companions set out north from the city. They needed to move with speed, so the practice of those who normally wore heavier armor in dungeons traveling in leather armor was introduced to Ulrich. The cart was left behind, but one mule was brought along just in case. Most of the hirelings and henchmen were left behind, except for Harvard and Herv, being the most experienced henchmen. Everyone understood this mission was going to be dangerous, maybe their most dangerous yet.

There was no sign of Roger Bacon all day, but the understanding was that the forces he had quickly gathered were following them at such a distance that the vampires would hopefully not notice that they were being followed too.

That night, they camped in the Cairn Hills. They set watches and were extra careful, but no encounters happened.

Ready’reat 10, 621 CY
Cairn Hills

Moving on, the companions crossed the valley that separated the eastern Cairn Hills from the western Menhir Hills early. The rest of the day, though, was filled with delay after delay, as trails seemed strangely unfamiliar, or familiar ones led nowhere, and the companions had to search over and over to find the Hidden Dell, as if it was avoiding them now. Only at sundown did they find it, and the double ring of menhirs that had once stood by Greyhawk City, or were an exact duplicate of them. The fastest way inside was to open a gap in the wall by killing the shadows that could be summoned out of the menhirs. Two shadows were quickly dispatched before they could hurt anyone, and then everyone hustled inside. Announcements were loudly made that they had arrived and would be taking the weapon into the cairn in the morning. And then they made camp. And waited.

They did not have to wait long. Ten minutes later, as twilight descended on them, they saw a group of about 20 barbarian-like warriors approaching the ringstones. Out of that group of men stepped two familiar-looking vampires. And then they flew – literally – straight at the company, only to be repulsed by the invisible barrier. They were both surprised. One of them threw himself at the barrier again, while the other one said, “Not possible!”

The companions were not idle, nor had they been that first day before leaving the city; they had quietly stocked up on well over a dozen vials of holy water, distributed among the company, and they hurled vials and vials of holy water through the barrier at the companions. Perry threw oil instead. Reed and Rom dipped quarrels and arrows into holy water before getting ready to fire them at the vampires.

Though the vampires burned and were in pain, one of them tried to coerce Reed into stepping out of the barrier and joining them, but it didn’t take. So one ordered his berserkers to charge, while the other summoned wolves and a huge flock of bats to the scene. Of the berserkers, two just happened to try the right gap between menhirs that was open and made it through, but they were struck down quickly, too quickly for anyone to immediately figure how those two got through.

At that was when Roger Bacon dropped a fireball on the vampires. Roger was closer than they’d known, invisible and levitating 200 yards away and 20 yards high. The vampires burned, more so because of Perry’s oil, yet the vampires were still only lightly injured.

The vampires fell back from the barrier, just as the wolves began finding their way in. They were dire wolves, the largest wolves any companion had ever seen. Four made it in before Percy set up a barrier of flaming oil through the gap in the invisible barrier, and even then two more wolves came through anyway. Of them, one turned out to be a werewolf, but all of them were slaughtered quickly, even though several fighters received nasty bites. Haruspex Niv cast Phantasmal Forces outside the barrier, making it look like reinforcements had arrived. The berserkers and some of the wolves kept busy attacking the phantasmal reinforcements, which kept Niv busy having them all react accurately, too busy to make any of them appear to hit.

Meanwhile, Roger had dropped a lightning bolt and another fireball on the vampires, but the lightning bolt had not affected them at all. The same happened when Haruspex fired a magic missile at them, and then he remembered the magic resistance on the kobolds who served the Adversary outside Prospero’s house, long ago. The vampires were taking huge amounts of punishment, but were still only lightly injured. Worse, they had taken to the sky and brought the fight to Roger. In close quarters he could get off no more spells and was trying, and failing, to defend himself with a dagger.

And where were Roger’s forces? They had never crossed from the entrance to the dell, but the fighting could be heard from here, including the screams of the men that suggested the fights were not going well. Only the companions, safe in the barrier, were doing well, but for how much longer? It was going to be necessary to take the fight to the vampires and save Roger. But would everyone go? Herv and Harvard would stay behind, with Percy staying behind to heal Herv (the most injured member of the company so far, though over half the company remained uninjured), and Niv would stay behind to distract the forces outside with his spell. Everyone else charged outside and into the chaos between themselves and Roger.

Ulrich found himself confronted by a wolf, and Reed’s progress was momentarily blocked by a flock of bats. Vask was attacked by a berserker. But other combatants were starting to leak into the dell past Roger’s forces. A ghoul leaped out of the darkness and bit Gendri. And worse, two wraiths flew by, one just missing Rom, while the other clutched John and drained energy from him. It looked like a deadly fight was in front of them all (or most of them, Reed just sprang away from the bats with his magic boots), but just then Percy saw what they were dealing with. Percy stopped in the middle of casting a curing spell and raced out to turn undead. The ghoul and the wraiths all fled, all also wounded by magic weapons (Gendri and Rom were using borrowed weapons), and that left a lot of people to rush to Ulrich’s aid just as Vask cut down his berserker foe. And Ulrich needed the aid because his opponent turned out to be not an actual wolf but a second werewolf, and Ulrich was the only one with no borrowed magic or silver weapons. Herv joining the battle with his magic spear that was super-effective against lycanthropes made quick work of the werewolf and left everyone free to rush the vampires.

Roger, still struggling, had been slowly levitating closer to the ground, most likely because he saw the company’s approach and wanted their help in the fight. But then a fresh ally arrived from the unseen fight on the other side of the dell -- a lamassu. The lamassu flew in and took over fighting one of the two vampires, while the other vampire launched himself down at the companions. Vask’s magic battle axe met the vampire’s charge -- and dropped him! The companions were quick to pounce on the corpse and drove a wooden stake through its heart. Meanwhile, the lamassu managed to drive the other vampire off. With the vampires gone, the wolves and bats -- and presumedly the undead who were out of sight -- dispersed. The battle was won!

The companions scrambled to look for treasure on the vampire’s remains, but found nothing that appeared of value other than a gold amulet of intricate design.

None of the companions had even been seriously hurt, and some not hurt at all. It was truly a remarkable success, with only Roger bleeding profusely and shaken. But they had won, and better than they knew, for soon they were found by Fridswid who told them the other vampire had now also been caught and slain. But they also learned of the terrible cost of protecting them from the worst of the vampires’ minions; 1 canon, 1 swashbuckler, 1 thaumaturgist, 4 priests, 1 swordsman, 5 warriors, and 13 veterans all died trying to hold the entrance to the dell.

Session 37
Ready'reat 19, 621 CY
City of Greyhawk

While most of the Company of the White Oak was still busy with their downtime activities, Percy, Rom Riverbluff, and Ulrich Fallingwater assembled to discuss whether to launch a smaller expedition to Castle Greyhawk the next day. When Reed Underbough (and his henchpeople Herv and Muelara) joined them, Reed had another suggestion.

A few weeks earlier, John Grond's hireling Turmrulda had been beaten and robbed. Reed had looked into the matter through his contacts and discovered the attackers were a group of demi-human-hating rakes, led by a thief named Eike, and spent most of their time in one of the city's private bathhouses. Reed and his people had been staking out the place for days and learned there were no more than a dozen possible opponents, very few of whom should be wearing any armor or carrying weapons.

Everyone agreed that they should teach these rakes a lesson, even though combat in the city meant outright killing them came with its own legal dangers. People accustomed to fighting with swords equipped themselves with clubs so they could deliver a good beating.

With Rom's hireling Genevieve along, it was a group of seven adventurers in full adventuring gear who marched into the bathhouse a few hours later. Going straight for confrontation, they wound up in a series of short battles, first with the two rakes in the entrance, and then with groups of one to three reinforcements who kept showing up. No one had even made it more than two rooms into the bathhouse - and because of that, Eike and a cleric working with him were able to escape out a window at the back of the building. The beaten rakes did have a fair amount of treasure that was removed from them, but then the company beat a hasty retreat before the law arrived.

Ready'reat 21, 621 CY
Castle Greyhawk

Having arrived at the Village of Hawfair Green yesterday, the four companions spent this morning traveling to the castle with their henchmen and hirelings, including Percy's carter and the carter's guard, Bella and Everard. The drawbridge was up, but Reed recalled the magic word that caused it to lower.

They had left for the castle with no plan, but en route had realized there was a square tower along the curtain wall they had never explored before. Reed climbed the outside walls and checked the interior through windows -- and saw the third floor was occupied by a strange bird man. Down below, the others could even hear some others on the roof of the tower, singing. The company moved in from the ground level and found all three floors unoccupied. Instead, the bird men had all retreated out onto the roof. Reed jumped out for a look and saw the bird men looked like black-skinned men, their bodies covered in black feathers, but with bare bat-like wings. They were ready for a fight, but not a sleep spell cast by Muelara from inside. Those who didn't fall to their deaths were asleep on the roof. All but one was killed in their sleep. They tied up and woke their prisoner to question him, but when they couldn't communicate with it, they killed him too. They had almost no treasure; just primitive weapons with little resale value.

So they decided to go down into the dungeon. They had seen little of level 2 to date, so they aimed to rectify that. They went down through the courtyard's trapdoor and made their way quickly to the new spiral staircase down. On the second level, they headed west into unexplored territory. They found some empty, or mostly empty, rooms, and lots of corridors that intersected at sometimes odd angles.

They also encountered two men in platemail armor. One, Gabriel, threatened them with a two-handed sword and clearly wanted to fight. The other man seemed to be Gabriel's henchman, Denis, who hung back. Gabriel was subdued, though he held his own for a few minutes. Denis surrendered. Gabriel had been trying to gain experience down here and was looking for big challenges; Denis explained that they had just passed through a room full of zombies next door that Gabriel hadn't wanted to bother with. The Company decided to leave Gabriel with Denis and bother with the zombies.

It turned out to be a dozen zombies in the room, surrounded by mining equipment. Percy was able to blast just a few of them into dust, leaving the rest in need of destroying by weapons. The battle started out rough when the zombies still had numbers, but soon they were whittled down to nothing. By the time it was over, everyone had been injured on this expedition, though none seriously. A gem was found in the room, but that was it for treasure from this expedition.

Art for a Day

I don't even remember taking this field trip, but apparently we went into Chicago to see the Art Museum during art appreciation class, and our assignment was to have an aesthetic experience and write about it. I only got an A-, possibly because of my unanswered questions about aestheticism. Still, I'm awful glad to still have this, as I don't have memories this clear of any other visit to the museum!

 

Renaissance Men Reborn, or, A Better Picture of the Giants

I remember being so excited about this idea. Tired of writing nonfiction essays for college, I decided in art appreciation class that I would write a fiction piece, imagining a confrontation between Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, that would be well-researched enough to count as an essay. It didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped and my teacher's critique still stings in my ears -- "That's all they would have said to each other?" In the end, though, he decided he couldn't resist the idea of the piece and I think he gave it an A-.

Past page 2 I had to revert to my handwritten rough draft because those darn dot-matrix print jobs fade so badly!

 

 

Old Doodles

An unrealized project I apparently once planned to make happen, sometime around '91-'94, was a comic strip called The BIG Network, which was going to lampoon television with fake pitches for TV shows. All that exists of it is this page with a sample logo and the next page, with a first panel.

Besides my impeccable handwriting, these old notes were worth saving for the margin doodles I often did in class. This one was on the rough draft for an essay I wrote for art appreciation class and the rest were all notes from that class or a literature class I was taking at the time.

Old Poems

More from old moldy school papers...apparently I was annoyed by the pretentiousness of the poetry I was studying, so I wrote these gag poems. Interestingly, I'm not sure if I had already read Kafka's Metamorphosis before writing the first poem. It's possible I wrote this after just hearing about it...

I. [untitled]

I awake and found myself a bug
Not an itty bitty bug with mandibles
Gnash, gnash, gnash,
But a big one.
Scuttle, scuttle, I crossed the room.
Grandma, she stepped on me.
"Land sakes, I die now, too,"
She said.
Then hocked a big goober
into Grandpa's old spittoon.
"Spit until you croak, old fat Granny,"
My spirit said as it ascended.
"I am better than you now."

II. Fire

Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow,
That's hot.

III. Reincarnate

Now I sit upon a shelf.
I hold water 'til I'm poured.
I'm a jug
jug
jug.

Old Cartoon Samples

Oh no! A lot of my old paperwork stored in the garage is infected with mold. Time to scan it all and throw it away...

Below are some drawings I had done, submitted and rejected for political cartoons while I was at Aurora University back in '91-'94. My, they don't age well, do they? I was quite the conservative, highly suspicious of multiculturalism and spending. Though unlike Republicans, when I lose in the culture wars I lose gracefully and accept things have changed...

 

Company of the White Oak - Sessions 34 & 35

Session 34
Patchwall 7, 621 CY
Castle Greyhawk

Reed Underbough the Hobbit Cutpurse and Rom Riverbluff the Swordsman (along with their hirelings Herv and Muelara and Rom’s newest hireling, Genevieve the Acolyte) had been convinced by Thorin the Dwarven Veteran to take his two newest recruits out into the field for some experience at Castle Greyhawk, and this time Thorin came along. The raw recruits were Vlad the Elven Medium and Reginald the Hobbit Veteran. Since the rest of the company was busy -- why not? 

One of the sentries welcomed them politely with a prepared speech about how Captain Throk had taken over the keep in the name of the Law and that adventurers were still welcome to pass through on their way to the dungeons -- but at a toll of 5 silver pieces per person, and 1 electrum piece to watch the cart and mules. Reed paid in full for everyone and one of the sentries escorted them through. The vestibule was full of more chickens. The hallway of statues leading to the ballroom was the same as in the past. The sentry, not knowing some of them had been here before, explained how the next room was haunted. The room was normally safe but, if there was any trouble, they should shout for help.

The ballroom was again haunted by the ghostly revelers at their feast -- but this time it was different. They could hear the revelers, who were silent the last two times, and everyone could smell the delicious feast. In fact, over half the present company was magically compelled to step up and sample from the feast, either food or drink. In just about every case, there was some strange result of sampling the food and drink. Herv and Genevieve each drank the mead and felt like they had eaten an entire day’s worth of food. Thorin drank the ale and immediately cramped up really bad. Vlad tried the pork and became immediately gassy and flatulent. Since the mead seemed to be safer, Thorin tried that and his beard quickly grew out until it stretched over 4’ long. Rom tried the mead and turned into a dwarf! Only Reginald, eating a sweet cake, seemed to only enjoy the sticky treat with no effects. Reginald tried engaging a ghost in conversation, but it only laughed and said nothing.

No one wanted to spend any more time around all that magically haunted food, so they beat a hasty retreat through the side arch that took them to the spiral staircase. They chose to go down and, at level 1 of the dungeon, had to make a decision about exploring more here or going deeper. It was a difficult call, but the majority wanted the safer bet of exploring the largely mapped first level. In fact, Reed and Rom wanted to go back to the area where they had last killed giant beetles and see what else was there, in the vicinity of Herg the Half-Goblin’s old lair.

They found that someone, or something, had moved in, brought more stuff, and moved other furniture around in the suite of rooms. And then they found out what kind of something when a goblin wearing platemail armor showed up. It managed to hold its own against the company for two minutes before going down.

As the victors were looting its corpse, Thorin and Reginald heard something running away from the room. Everyone followed, and a second goblin in platemail armor, even bigger than the last goblin, was cornered at a door and engaged in melee. This battle was even tougher to win, but the company did with hardly any injuries, thanks to the goblin surrendering once it was weak. Between the two goblins, they seemed to have a fair amount of treasure, including an electrum ring that Thorin tried on in case it was magical (it did not appear to be, and turned out later, wasn’t).

What to do about the prisoner was an ethical dilemma, with the company almost evenly split between killing it and keeping it as a prisoner. Keeping it alive won, and the goblin was tied up and dragged along behind.

But they weren’t ready to leave yet. There was a room on the map north of the giant beetle room that said “giant spiders” on their annotated copy. Were they ready to handle giant spiders? They seemed confident -- but when they entered the room they found the past occupants were gone and it was now barracks for six goblins. A sleep spell from Muelara finished them off quickly before the new recruits got anymore practice fighting. They were poor goblins and their throats were slit in front of the company’s prisoner. They killed their prisoner too after Thorin changed his earlier vote.

They detoured to the northeast corner of their map of the dungeon level to make sure those rooms were empty (they were), and then headed back south towards never-before-explored territory. Their annotated map said one room had an ogre in it -- and it still did! But not for long. Even though it hit Rom really hard, none of the companions went down before the ogre died from Reed’s backstab.

The ogre’s lair contained barrels and one of them was sealed. The barrel was crazy suspicious -- it seemed light as if it was empty, nothing rattled or sloshed inside it, yet sealed? Beyond curious, Reed cut the seal and opened the barrel -- exposing the flammable gas inside to the fire of the party’s lantern and -- boom!

Rom and Muelara were moderately hurt, Genevieve and Thorin were seriously hurt, but Vlad and Reginald took the brunt of it. Although everyone tried their best to extinguish them quickly, it was too late. Vlad died with one last explosive flatulence. Reginald’s last words were a curse in Goblin he had learned quickly from their prisoner earlier -- though, to be fair, Reginald had mistaken it for something nicer.

Session 35

The vampires had returned; the Company of the White Oak learned this when Haruspex Niv and John Grond were discovered to be charmed and, after the spells were magically lifted (at great expense), they revealed how they had both awoke (on different nights) to find the vampires in their rooms, for some no-doubt sinister but unknown purposes, but then compelled both to silence on the matter. The entire company was now taking many nightly precautions, including sleeping surrounded by garlic, mirrors, and silver, for those who did not yet have magic weapons…

But life went on and everyone was eager to get back to searching for treasure in the Castle Greyhawk dungeons, to at least replenish what had been spent on dispelling charms. Thorin was not going to be able to make it this time, but had told everyone that Ulrich would be joining them. All were glad, for Brother Ulrich the Maimed had not adventured with them in some time, but when they met with Ulrich they found this was someone new named Ulrich. Ulrich had been made to understand that he was going to be a full member of the company, not a hireling. The company, slightly embarrassed by the misunderstanding, took him on without complaint.

Rom, often mistaken for the company's leader because of his higher standard of living, had been approached by the Dwarven Ambassador at Grossettgrottell with an offer for a bounty on a dragon, Chondis, believed to still dwell on the third dungeon level of Castle Greyhawk. All the ambassador wanted was the dragon's head and a chalice from its treasure trove. Intrigued, the company planned to go in search of it...

Patchwall 21, 621 CY
Castle Greyhawk

On a cold, but sunny autumn day, Haurspex Niv, John Grond, Percy, Reed Underbough, Rom Riverbluff, Ulrich, and the henchmen Peter, Harvard, Biros Frapple, Herv, Muelara, and Genevieve, along with Percy's hirelings, a new carter and guard for the mules and cart, made an impressive 14-man (or 12 men and 2 women) pilgrimage to their favorite adventuring site. Last time the sentries guarding the keep, Captain Throk's men, had guarded their cart and mules, but the cursed drink in the haunted ballroom had also turned Rom into a dwarf (permanently, it seemed!), so they had reasons to avoid the keep. The mules were dropped off at the stables with the two new hires to guard them, and then the company entered the dungeons via the main tower.

It was a quick jaunt from where those stairs came down to the central stairwell that serviced both the keep upstairs and the dungeons at least four levels deep. They had John's partial map of the third level to follow once they reached the second landing down and headed south. This time, they would explore east of the rat (and wererat) lairs and see what was there. What they initially found was a series of interconnected rooms where the floor was flooded with murky water, and they had to traverse the rooms on dry paths of stepping stones. The first rooms were unoccupied, though the third room had a suspicious-looking chest in it, and the fourth room contained five new monsters -- some kind of 'lizard men'! The lizard men were embarrassingly easy to drop with a sleep spell, as were the four they next encountered. They reached the end of this suite of rooms and backtracked to the chest, that just screamed trap to them -- and they were right, as Reed found when he searched the chest for traps. It was connected into the floor by a chain. They hoped the nearly-naked lizard men had a key on one of them and Peter was directed to search under their loinclothes, but came up empty (and disturbed by the experience). By balancing the chest just right, Reed was able to open the chest without pulling the chain and found the chest was -- empty.

Now everyone wanted to see what the trap did, so they tied a rope to the chain and were ready to pull it from outside the room, from the room to the south. Just then, three more lizard men appeared from the already-explored room to the east, and two entered just as the trap was sprung. The floor fell away, "flushing" the room into a 10' deep pit. The lizard men were injured by the fall and the third lizard man, surprised but catching himself in the doorway, was quickly killed by arrows and bolts. The two in the pit were also quickly killed with arrows… "like shooting lizards in a pit," as would soon become a saying.

But what of this pit? Was there treasure down there? To make sure, Reed and Biros climbed the wall down, while Muelara and Rom were lowered by rope into the pit. They worked together to comb the area and kept finding gold in the muddy (or at least they hoped they were handling mud!) water and found well over a hundred gold pieces, plus six pearls.

Moving on, the company circled south and west around the rat lairs and found themselves in an enormous, oddly shaped chamber, or great hall, with many corners. The 20' vaulted ceiling was supported, just on the east end of the hall, by columns carved to look like giants supporting the ceiling. Everyone was careful not to touch them! Exploring the interior while John methodically mapped the perimeter, the company found a mural and altar along the south wall, and it seemed dedicated to the god of magic, Boccob. Percy was the first to sit a small offering of gold onto the altar and felt a good feeling, like he had been blessed. When he expressed this to the others everyone wanted in on feeling blessed and were soon leaving small offerings as well. Genevieve was the first of the hirelings to get a turn and she also discovered that she only had to touch the altar to get the same feeling, without a sacrifice, and the rest of the hirelings jumped in on this. Only John stubbornly refused to get his 'good feelings' from a god of neutrality, and urged the party to move on, as there seemed nothing else to see here.

Reed was concerned; Ommetog the Shade had told him once that the third dungeon level was a maze or labyrinth, but so far they had seen little evidence of this. Perhaps this oddly-cornered hall was the start of it? The exits to the north were narrow and perhaps led into a maze. So they ventured south instead -- and that is where they hit a maze. It was not a maze of narrow, twisting corridors, but long straight corridors that interconnected without seeming to lead to any rooms. They even found two stairs that went up to level two, stairs they had never seen before from the other end (they went up one, but only as far as the door at the top). The one room they did find seemed to be a long-abandoned office with nothing of value to be found in it.

They backtracked away from it and headed east, where they did two more rooms. The first contained 12 coffins. They girded themselves for a big battle against undead, but were disappointed to find the coffins were all empty. They were all in perfect condition, as if brand new -- which was itself odd because the room was full of years' worth of undisturbed dust and grime that had to be wiped off the coffins. Was this the secret lair of the vampires, at last? Everyone produced the garlic they had been carrying for safety and smeared it all over the coffins, just to spite the vampires.

But the next room to the east had a different message in it -- literally, scratched into the far wall. "Beware of mummies." So the coffins belonged to mummies? Much of the company recalled having to flee for their lives from mummies on the trip back from Verbobonc many months ago, so they were eager for some mummy-related revenge. Since there were no mummies about, they torched nine of the coffins (hmm, garlic seasoning!) and made the henchmen carry three coffins out, as they seemed valuable.

But where to go next? They couldn't very well face a dragon now if all their hirelings were carrying coffins (it also sent a bad message to the henchmen, as if they were carrying their own coffins). So it was decided to leave. Except they almost couldn't.

Just before returning to the spiral stairs, they rounded a corner and Reed almost stepped into a big pile of offal. Except this offal moved! Though a gelatinous mass, it oozed across the floor, and much faster than the green slime had moved in the Forbidden Caves of Grossettgrottell. Everyone ran to escape it, but it was dogging close on the heels of the slowest hirelings, so the company stopped and lit up oil between themselves and this slime to stop it. It worked, and they were able to circle wide around and come at the stairs from another angle.

While moving through the first level, they had one final encounter, with five undead skeletons, in the long corridor between the old berserker room and the weasel dens. How laughable that this might have once challenged them! Percy simply held up his cross and blasted four of the skeletons to dust with the power of his gods, while the pent-up aggression of the rest of the party -- who had not been able to fight anything in melee all day! -- was unleashed on the lone remaining skeleton until it too was pulverized into nothingness.

And maybe the best part of the day was returning to the stables and finding their mules and hirelings were alive in the stables this time! 

Company of the White Oak Campaign - Sessions 32-33

Prologue 2

Thorin the Dwarven Veteran had barely survived the injuries he sustained from the kobolds and Jake the Acolyte was seriously hurt, but at least they survived. No one else from that expedition into the dungeons of Castle Greyhawk remained.

It took Thorin three weeks to recover, physically, but mentally he developed an aversion to danger and had no desire to return to Castle Greyhawk, or continue as an adventurer.

A year and a half passed. Out of shame for having avoided him all this time, Thorin looked into reuniting with Jake, only to learn that Jake had continued adventuring, for a time, without him. Jake had even joined a new adventuring party and gone back to Castle Greyhawk, an adventuring party that was now called the Company of the White Oak, and had quite the reputation.

Though Jake had since retired, Thorin reached out to this company and revealed his connection to them. He wished to try adventuring again, but the company was unsure if they needed any more inexperienced help. Thorin countered that he could assemble an ‘apprentice team,’ fledgling adventurers that one or two senior members of the company could train on adventures during their downtime. This, everyone agreed, seemed like a useful idea.

Over the next few weeks, Thorin scoured the city and turned up two elves and a human companion who desired to see Castle Greyhawk for themselves. The elves were Alred the Elven Veteran and Draezen the Elven Apprentice Thief, plus Alex the Human Veteran.

Percy and Reed Underbough agreed to take them on an adventure. They leaned towards the Forbidden Caves of Grossettgrottell, but were overruled by the apprentices who badly desired to see Castle Greyhawk instead. And it was true, there were plenty of areas of the castle they had passed by on their way down to the third dungeon level. Unfortunately, Thorin “forgot” to come at the last moment, leaving a party of five (plus Reed’s hirelings, Herv and Muelarara) to forge ahead... 

Harvester 14, 621 CY
Castle Greyhawk

The drawbridge was down and the courtyard was empty. The adventurers discussed ways down into the dungeon from here, but Percy had another suggestion. There was a tall townhouse-like building on the east side of the castle, abutting the Chapel of Boccob, that they had never bothered with before. This was agreeable to everyone. So the cart and mules were left on the doorstep, and Herv forced open the front door.

Inside was a smelly room, the length of an audience chamber, but full of cheap furniture and trash. There were also rats -- and a giant rat! Herv, Reed, and Alred all fired arrows and bolts at the giant rat, killing it instantly.

Then a rear door opened and a man in tattered robes appeared, asking them to kill no more of his rats. His name was Denis and, though he seemed to definitely be insane, he seemed harmlessly intent on being a good host and providing them with stale bread to eat. No one touched their bread, but allowed Denis to open the doors at the rear of the room and leave them open under different pretenses. Soon, while chitchatting with them, he asked a favor of the party -- he wanted them to be food for his rats! Suddenly, more rats, ranging from normal-sized to giant-sized (dog-sized, really) came pouring into the room from the two doors.

Alex and Alred rushed the strange man, but found the slashes from their swords were not drawing blood or really hurting him much. Alex pulled back to deal with giant rats along with Reed, Herv, and Muelara. Draezen found the giant rats too dangerous, being seriously hurt by one, and pulled back to deal with the normal-sized rats. Even those proved dangerous; they seemed to sense he was injured and, whenever he failed to kill one, they massed and drove towards him until they finally overbore him and bit him until he lost consciousness.

Percy, suspecting what Denis was all along, started reading his scroll of protection from lycanthropes even before Denis transformed into a ratman. Percy rushed Denis and the power of the scroll repulsed Denis into the corner. Reed, Percy, and Alex rushed Denis and kept attacking him, with Reed’s magic dagger and Percy’s silvered mace being the only weapons that could hurt Denis. Alex eventually gave up and pulled back, and Percy stepped back only far enough to keep Denis pinned to the corner. The plan was to step back so Reed and Herv could take Denis down from a distance with silver arrows and bolts, but when Denis did a good job at dodging them anyway, they changed their plans yet again. Now Reed and Herv were going to grapple Denis, but Herv got bit. So Reed gave up on trying anything else and stabbed Denis to death.

Percy started casting a cure light wounds spell and saved Draezen just in time before he died.

This room was devoid of treasure, unless stale bread counted as treasure, but there were two doors at the back of the room. The side door led to a storage room with lamp oil and a spool of wire the adventurers claimed.

The door at the back of the first room led to a bedroom with two locked chests in it. Reed let the revived Draezin take a crack at picking both locks first. They managed to get the first chest open easily enough, and it contained 279 sp, 78 ep, 31 gp, a plain electrum necklace with an ornamental stone set in it, and a clerical spell scroll that Percy was quick to grab up.

The second chest was trapped and Draezin set it off -- spraying poison gas in his face that was killing him, until Percy cast his second cure spell and saved him again. The poison gas kept spraying out and threatened to fill the room, but Reed got right in there and deactivated the trap, only taking some damage from the poison gas. The reward for this was finding only an electrum medallion set with tiny gemstones and a pearl wrapped in a red silk kerchief.

Stairs led up to the next level, so the adventurers continued exploring. On the next level, they found it gutted and stained with urine and feces, and they found six more giant rats, that were quickly dispatched. Searching this level, they found no treasure other than a scroll in a scrollcase. This scroll was actually a letter, explaining that this building had long ago been a chapel of Celestian, the "Celestial Father," before the sole canon tasked with manning it decided to become an adventurer. The canon had mentioned in the letter seeing rubies, sapphires, and diamonds in the sky from the roof; Alex, hoping this was literally true, was eager to get to the roof.

Which seemed unlikely. From here the building was severely damaged, with holes in the floor on the third floor and the separate staircase up to the third floor looking damaged. No one trusted to try it, but Reed leaped up with his magic boots to the upper level and lowered a rope for the others to climb. And he was hoping they would join him quickly because a giant snake was sleeping up here.

Although a few people fell, most everyone was able to scale the rope, even wearing armor. Which was good because the giant snake was a fearsome foe Reed could not take down alone. Alred was bitten and poisoned by the snake, while Draezin was seriously hurt -- yet again. But the snake was put down before Percy even had a chance to climb up. Everyone knew there was a chance to save Alred by sucking the venom from his wound, but the only one would chance it was his boon companion Alex. Alex safely spat out the venom and both men lived. The room was strewn with broken weapons (the only intact room on this level was the empty armory the weapons had come from), though five javelins were retrieved and what appeared to be a ceremonial spear of excellent design.

There was a fourth level above them that looked even more precarious than this one. Reed leaped up for a look -- and right into the midst of a bunch of huge wasps! Not wanting to fight more venomous foes, he leapt right back down -- and they all decided to call it a day.   

Session 33

Harvester 28, 621 CY
Castle Greyhawk

Percy the Curate, Reed Underbough the Cutpurse, Rom Riverbluff and Gendri the Swordsmen, and Vask the Veteran -- along with their hirelings Bart, Herv, Muelara, and Vandur, and Gert the Bear -- all arrived at Castle Greyhawk, without any solid plan of what to do there. The original plan was to descend deep, maybe level three or four of the dungeon, but that was before several senior members of the Company of the White Oak wound up having other plans. The confidence of the assembled forces here was shaken a little -- could they survive the deeper levels with only one cleric and only a novice hireling for a magic-user?

They decided they could not, and that they would return to the first level of the dungeon. There was, after all, much of that level left unexplored, and some areas on the maps they had still unexplored. That would become their focus. But first, they left the cart and mules in the stables with Bart and Vundar to guard them.

For old times’ sake, they went down the trapdoor in the courtyard and past the old prison cells. They circled around the old brigand and orc lairs and made their way east, reaching the smashed laboratory where the stairs went up to the tower. Here they became curious again about the mystery lever on the landing in the stairwell, and resolved to finally pull it like they had long talked about doing.

But they took precautions. Percy figured out the right location to hammer a spike into the wall so they could loop rope underneath it, and pull the lever down from a great distance, outside the laboratory. They heard the sound of stone grating and, when Rom volunteered to check it out, he found a secret door had opened in the landing, a secret door that no one had ever detected there. Below was a 20’ deep shaft with metal rungs set into the wall, and a tunnel heading south at the bottom. With a rope tied around him for safety, Rom climbed down to investigate. The tunnel ran south 40’, turned southeast for 20’, and ended at a second ladder going up to a second trapdoor, only 10’ lower than the first one. 

Looking at the maps, there was clearly a large walled off section that could contain a large secret room. Everyone was eager to explore, but there were two problems. One, if there was anyone above the trapdoor, they would be hard to reach except one at a time by the ladder. And then there was Gert the Bear, who was very talented, but not talented enough to climb down a ladder. They needed another way into that space, on this level.

Further east was another room the company had never bothered exploring before. It was a narrow room that only seemed to serve as furniture storage, but they found a secret door in the east wall that led to another storeroom, this with four semi-valuable-looking portraits hanging in it. They rolled up the paintings to take with, but grew frustrated in their search for secret doors. They needed another one that would lead into that room, but there was no additional doors leading into that space. After much searching all around that area they finally gave up. Vask would guard Gert, while they were in that narrow room, with the door spiked shut behind them. And everyone else would go explore that secret room.

The secret room turned out to be a secret cave and it had one single resident -- Elspeth the Cobbler, a crazy woman the company had met seven months ago in the dungeon on this level. She did not remember any of them, but made the same offer to fix their shoes. She also revealed that she had stumbled upon this room, found nothing but an empty coffer down here, and was using this place to hide because there were more hobgoblins on this level these days, and she found them particularly scary. She also revealed that she was dangerously low on food and drink.

It was about this time that Gendri, standing off to the side, was attacked from behind! Something with fiery breath had bitten him and it turned out to be a huge, dark red dog with glowing eyes and fire in its mouth. As the Company fell in to attack it, it breathed a line of fire that injured three more members of the company. But once it was surrounded, it only took two minutes for the company to slaughter the huge beast.

The beast had clearly not been in here before, but had possibly jumped up through the open trapdoor behind them. And, while they were debating skinning the beast and Percy was casting a cure spell -- they noticed a human woman and a male orc outfitted like thieves had climbed up the trapdoor without being noticed until now. The intruders were shocked that the beast was dead. And while the company was trying to get answers out of them, they found there was actually another unseen intruder in the cave with them, an older woman who moved out of the shadows and backstabbed Gendri. Poor Gendri, targeted again, was bleeding out and about to die. Luckily, the gods were really paying attention to Percy today and they granted his spell quicker than normal.

That was when Reed told Muelara to cast her sleep spell. It put all three thieves to sleep, but also Rom and Herv and Gendri, just as he was recovering (and probably also Elspeth, who had gone fetal as soon as she’d seen the scary hound). At the same time, Percy was casting Hold Person on the backstabber, so that one was both sleeping and held. Luckily, since the battle was now won (again), it was easy to wake up the sleeping companions. But what to do with the prisoners? The paralyzed backstabber would be taken with as a prisoner, lowered gently into the tunnel and then carried between Rom and Gendri. Knowing that Percy, Rom, and Gendri were three of the biggest goody-goody’s in the company, Reed and Herv promised to take care of the other two while the rest of the company went to go check on Vask and Gert.

They did not get far, for three more people were waiting for them -- a young male and two even older women, old crones -- and all three of them were spell-casters. Gendri and Rom tossed the prisoner into the eldest crone, disrupting her spell, but Gendri, Rom, and Muelara were all put to sleep again. Percy was joined by Reed and Herv from above, using spell-disrupting missile weapons to help win this battle, just in time for the sleeping party members to be roused awake for.

Only the one prisoner was taken, but much treasure had been culled off of all six of them. They returned to Vask to tell him all he had missed. Because everyone but Reed and Vask were hurt, there was talk of returning to the city now, but they were convinced to press on a little further so Vask could get some much-needed experience. Returning to the map, they saw there was a series of rooms south of them, past the muralled hall, they had only half-finished exploring in the past (Herg the “Half-Goblin” had been encountered there, long ago).

One of those rooms had at some point become the lair of five glowing giant beetles. It was another short fight to squish them all, though one of them seriously hurt Percy with a vicious bite before it was all over. They had no obvious treasure, but thinking glowing beetles might be valuable specimens, rope was tied to all of them and they were dragged out behind the company.

The thief, a woman in her mid-50s, was the party's prisoner and she was no longer asleep or magically held (indeed, she had been tied and gagged for some time now). On the way out, the company stopped to finally interrogate her. She revealed herself as Idony, professional burglar. She was once an adventurer, like them, until she became lost on the third level of the dungeon and forgot the way out. She lived down there ever since, joining other lost adventurers, including the women who formed a coven of magic-users under the leadership of the Azure Enchantress. The Azure Enchantress never had them, but Idony and Sigrid (Sigrid had been the one struck with Idony) were the ones who had dreams sent by the Adversary, telling them to find and kill the Company of the White Oak, and sent them the barghest (the fire-breathing giant dog) to help.

But she refused now to tell them anything else that would help them. "I'd sooner die than help you. At least I have the satisfaction of knowing we took some of you with us."

No one understood that last part until returning to the stables -- Bart the Carter and Vundar the Elf were dead.

Company of the White Oak Campaign - Interlude 6-8

Wealsun 7, 621 CY
The Yatil Mountains
The Obsidian Citadel

Mordenkainen, just shy of his 100th birthday, sat alone in his study. He still considered his mind to be sharp, but his eyesight was now nearly gone. Luckily, he had developed a new spell about a decade ago that created a magical voice that read to him. He could choose the voice and it was a melodic female voice, an elven voice - ironically once belonging to an elf he knew he had now outlived.

The tome being read to him sounded enchanting in that voice, but the words of the book were troubling him now. This work, A Treatise on the Nature of Abjuration by Iggwilv, had played an unsung role in Oerik’s history. When then-Canon Hazen of Veluna, before he became Pope Hazen, used the Crook of Rao to instigate the Flight of Fiends in the year 586, archmages like Mordenkainen saw this as not the ending but the beginning of sealing off the entire continent from dangerous manifestations from the outer planes. Studying this book had been instrumental in Mordenkainen’s contributions to The First Great Barrier Spell, ritual magic so powerful that it had taken Mordenkainen, Basiliv, Leomund, and Nystul to anchor the spell. The spell changed the very way magical gates would work anywhere on Oerik, so that beings native to Oerth could open gates, but beings gated in from the outer planes could not in turn open gates of their own.

But now, as Mordenkainen listened to the book being read to him, he realized these were not the same words he had read before. Was there an error in the casting of his spell? Some flaw in the spell’s creation? Because if these words were true, then…

“A spell could be made to trap us all in…” Mordenkainen mused out loud.

It was just then that the meteor swarm struck the citadel. Fiery missiles fell hard and fast from the sky, crushing through the citadel’s defenses like they were no more than paper, and killed Mordenkainen.

Luckily, Mordenkainen was prepared for that.

Long ago, he had wished for contingencies in place in the event he was killed. Time rewound three minutes. Mordenkainen was still alive, with an idea about what had killed him.

The first thing he did was teleport to the highest roof of the citadel. He watched for signs of his attacker, but seeing no one, he cast Dispel Magic, to prevent the Meteor Swarm spell. But the meteors still came. One of them struck him directly, incinerating him on the spot.

Time rewound again, but this time only by two minutes. Mordenkainen was still on the roof of the citadel, as if he had just arrived there. Someone just cast a spell at me that even I couldn’t dispel, Mordenkainen thought. Terrified, he cast the most powerful monster summoning spell he possessed. Four manticores appeared in the air above him -- right in the path of the meteor swarm. Two of the meteors vaporized the manticores, but veered off course, including the one that had incinerated Mordenkainen. The other two meteors crashed into the citadel, including one into the tower a few floors below where Mordenkainen stood. The tower crumbled and the floor broke up under his feet, but Mordenkainen cast a Fly spell before he tumbled into open space. He soared away from the fiery inferno that was his citadel and down to the courtyard below.

Once he alighted on the ground, Mordenkainen was feeling pretty good about how he’d escaped death. Twice. But then his right leg went weak and then numb. The numbness was suddenly all over the right side of his body, through his arm, and even half his face. He stumbled, unable to catch himself, and fell to the obsidian flagstones in the courtyard. He was confused, unsure what spell could have caused this affliction. What he had no way of knowing was that he had just suffered what physicians on Keith Winton’s Earth would have called a stroke. Not one of his magical defenses was prepared for it, so they did not stop it.

Mordenkainen opened his eyes. He felt groggy, like someone who had slept too long. It took him a few moments to focus on his surroundings. It looked like the master bedroom of the Obsidian Citadel. He was in his own room, in his own bed. Someone was sitting next to the bed, a fat, old man with a white beard as long as Mordenkainen’s own.  The man was dressed all in blue.

“Good heavens…” Mordenkainen said with a voice that surprised him with its weakness. “Is that you, Tenser?”

The fat, old man nodded and smiled. “It is indeed. It’s good to see you awake.”

“It’s good to see you too, old friend. Is it really you? Not a bad clone…?”

Tenser’s smile melted back down to a grin. “No, it’s really me. I just let myself go in my old age.”

“Best time for it…” Mordenkainen tried to focus his thoughts. He should be remembering something. What was it?  …Oh! “Tenser, the citadel was…under attack…”

“I know. The attack stopped.” Tenser rose quickly as Mordenkainen struggled with his bedsheets. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“I’m not lying in bed all day,” Mordenkainen grumbled. “I’ve got to inspect…” He couldn’t finish his sentence, as just trying to sit up seemed to drain the last of his strength from him.

“You need to rest, Mord. You haven’t just been asleep. The strain of protecting the citadel was too much on you. You had some kind of …attack of old age. You’re only here with us now because of the healing and curative spells that have been cast on you – just about everything short of a wish spell.”

Mordenkainen felt so tired. He just wanted to go back to sleep, but he struggled to stay focused and ask. “How…long?”

“Two days, it was two days ago. I’ve been here the past twelve hours, most of it sitting here with you. This isn’t the first time you’ve woken up either. You’ve been half-awake, half-lucid, before, and said—“

The silence grew thick in the room after Tenser cut himself off. Mordenkainen had noticed it immediately, but needed to gather fresh strength to speak again.

“What did I say?”

Tenser shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. Just some--“

“What…did I say?”

Tenser let out a heavy sigh. “You said…you recognized me and said you were glad to have me here…before the end of all things.”

Mordenkainen closed his eyes. He needed to go back to sleep, even if it was an eternal sleep he would never wake up from. But he still had more to say. He fought for more focus, more strength. “It is right that you should know. Tenser…the end is coming. The past…is catching up with us.”

Tenser felt sure this was not some delusional raving this time. Mordenkainen was struggling to tell him something important. “What, from our past?”

“No…a different one.”

 

Mordenkainen was sleeping when Tenser left the room.

Outside the private chambers of Mordenkainen was a marble-lined hall, with decorative columns reaching the ceiling 20 feet above the floor. Dancing lights circled through the air around crystal chandeliers. Long burgundy curtains concealed the alcoves in which iron golems stood, waiting to defend their master’s chambers. But the only thing that surprised Tenser was seeing Robilar.

“Robilar!” the old, blue-robed wizard said. The mithril woven through his archmage robes was enchanted to be as blue as the fabric. Though bare-headed in front of Mordenkainen, Tenser now had on his turquoise helmet that gave him immunity from all mental attacks. “You still don’t look a day over 50.”

“That’s good,” Robilar said, “because, between you and me, I am starting to feel 57.”

Both men laughed.

Robilar had a white beard now, but his face bore the wrinkles of a man 20 years younger. Though bedecked in gold-chased adamantine plate armor, it was no doubt enchanted to be no heavier than a suit of clothes, and even if It was heavy, Robilar wore his old belt of giant strength. A sword was sheathed at his side, but he bore no other noticeable weapons.

“How is he?” Robilar asked at last.

The smile faded from Tenser’s lips. “Fading fast. It is good you came when you did. I fear you would have missed saying your good-byes by morning.”

Robilar nodded. “And you?”

“Oh…” Tenser said, waving his hand as if to swat away the kind gesture of asking. “Just the ailments that come with old age. Nothing a dab of healing ointment now and then can’t fix…”

“No, I mean, were you attacked as well?”

Tenser nodded in understanding, but then shook his head. “Ah, no, at least not so far. And we do not know his assailant yet either. Though I am heading to see the current Circle of Eight in Greyhawk next to see what we, together, can ascertain.”

“Good. Then go now,” Robilar said.

Again Tenser nodded, then left to find a location in the citadel from which he could teleport safely.

Robilar approached the doors to Mordenkainen’s room, but he did not go in. Instead, he turned around with his back to the doors, like a sentry. He stood there for a full minute, until the sound of Tenser’s footsteps no longer echoed down the long hall, and then a minute longer, through the long silence that followed.

“One does not free as many imprisoned gods as I have,” Robilar said at last, “without being able to smell them coming. …Show yourself!”

There was no response at first, but then shadows began to coalesce in the center of the hall. The dark blot hovering in the air began to grow and take shape.

Every Earth has a legend of death taking the form of a reaper. Oerth was no different, but here that reaper had a name -- Nerull.

Nerull, god of death, stood there like a tall skeleton draped in a blacker-than-black shroud, wielding a terrible-looking scythe. Nerull seldom personally manifested. When he had, men usually died of fright at the sight of him.

Robilar just drew his sword and pointed the black blade at Nerull. “I knew you would come. I was hoping to find the Sword of Kas to battle you with, but it eluded me. I had to make due with borrowing Blackrazor from its current owners. Well? Think I can take you with it?”

A voice that sounded like shovels in the dirt at a grave answered. “Stand aside, Robilar. It is not your time.”

“Suppose I make it my time…” Robilar said, and he charged forward.

Nerull raised one bony hand in the air and instantly cast a repulsion spell. Robilar, though, braced himself for it and stood his ground. Nerull, being a god, simply doubled the power of the spell. Robilar was now struggling to keep his footing and had to take some steps back to steady himself. Nerull threw in a telekinesis spell and Robilar was thrown completely off-balance. He toppled backwards until his head hit the wall. Worse, as Nerull approached, Robilar found he could not move from where he was.

“Stop…face me, you coward…” Robilar said as he struggled.

Nerull moved past Robilar and the doors to Mordenkainen’s room flew open at his approach.

“No…take me, damn you…”

“When your time comes, it will not be my doing.” 

The doors closed behind Nerull as he moved inside. Robilar just laid there, knowing he could do nothing to save Mordenkainen now, as surely as death had spared him yet again.