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.

Reviewing the Beatles Solo Albums in Order - part 14

At the end of 2001, completely off my Radar at the time and ever since until now, was Paul McCartney's Driving Rain album. It had been three years since Linda died and Paul had already done Run Devil Run, a fun album that sounded nothing like a grieving man, but here Paul allows himself to sound sober and somber, like it was time to outgrow "silly love songs" and move on to more serious rock n' roll. Unfortunately, that meant that none of these songs were very fun, and for a Paul song that tends to mean they won't be very memorable -- and they aren't. I thought "Spinning on an Axis" and "About You" were pretty good as I was listening to them, but I already can't tell you a thing about them anymore. The CD came with a bonus track, "Freedom", which was a much better single. It's a post-9/11 anthem, upbeat, simple, but powerful, and completely different from the rest of the album.

Which brings us back to Ringo and His New All-Starr Band (King Biscuit Flower Hour). By now, these concert albums are all starting to sound pretty much alike even when the band members change; Ringo is certainly sticking to crowd-pleasers and no deep cuts from his repertoire. That said, the "Photograph" and "Back Off Boogaloo" versions we get here are heavier rock than we've been used to hearing. It's worth noting, perhaps, that "You're Sixteen" begins with the bit where Ringo would single out an old granny from the crowd, bring her up on stage, and announce she was 16 and sing to her, something that Ringo (thankfully) soon realized was embarrassing at best and creepy at worst and he cut it from his future acts.

This will be the last time we visit George Harrison in this project, as we finally reach his final project in life, the 2002 album Brainwashed. I did get this in 2002 (or maybe in 2003, at the latest) and, while it is no Cloud Nine, and it's sad George did not have one more Cloud Nine-level album left in him, this is still a worthy contribution to his catalog. Although some songs are forgettable, and "Brainwashed" is a return to the cynical paranoid side of George that has cropped up ever since "Taxman," there is some good stuff here including "Rising Sun," "Stuck Inside a Cloud," and "Never Get Over You." "Any Road" is the second best song on the album, but my favorite is another cover song, and perhaps George's oldest cover song ever, "Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea." It's fun, engaging, and remarkably memorable -- sort of like George always was, at his best.

What is there to say about Paul's Back in the World Live album? There is no new material here, nor even any new arrangements on songs that I noticed. It's interesting to hear how Paul ended some songs in concert, particularly "Hey Jude." But I'm going to share "Freedom" here because I didn't earlier when it came up under Driving Rain.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loW1binvJ7A&list=PLu3OmtA_M134jBn7fdezkvpkYtH1D0QB_&index=27

Which brings us back to Ringo (from now on it will only be the two of them) and Ringo Rama. It's off to a solid start with "Eye to Eye," Ringo's strongest new song since "Don't Go Where the Road Don't Go." Other songs are more hit than miss. "Missouri Loves Company" is nothing but something to hang a pun on. "Instant Amnesia" does interesting things, veering into different types of songs and seems to be either a tribute or a rebuttal to "Instant Karma" -- I can't figure out which, but it's a song worth thinking about. "Imagine Me There" seems to be a more straightforward tribute to John, which actually makes it less interesting. "Never Without You" is a tribute song to George, but is stronger for its universal application; it could really be Ringo comforting anyone they won't be forgotten, minus the few subtle George references. 

I didn't hear it, but "Memphis In Your Mind" allegedly has a recording of Roy Orbison's famous growl in it, making it the last posthumous song to feature Roy, but it doesn't impress me beyond that (plus, despite what I read, I think the growl is really in the bonus track song "I'm Home" -- which also doesn't impress me other than the growl). 

"I Think Therefore I Rock N Roll" is not a deep song (despite its title) and doesn't really try to be, but is just good ol' fashioned rock n' roll. "Trippin' on My Own Tears" doesn't do anything for me. "Write One for Me" is a curious song, switching between Ringo and Willie Nelson mid-song for no real reason and sadly highlights how much better Willie sings that Ringo. "Love First, Ask Questions Later" appeals to me maybe more than it deserves to; it's just a pleasant, easy rocker with a nice message. "Elizabeth Reigns" is a weird song that, similar to "Instant Amnesia," could be honoring or mocking its inspiration and I can't tell. "English Garden" is a remarkable little song, the first one to feature one of the Beatles' dogs on it, and the first new song to segue into one of the other Beatles' songs -- the short rendition of "Let 'em In" in mid-song is the longest cover of a Beatles song by another Beatle up to this point. Then, again in mid-song, the song stops and restarts as a different-sounding song, similar to the trick he used in "Instant Amnesia." 

The bonus track "Ok Ray" is a lot of fun and a good rocker.  

As tempted as I am to pick "Instant Amnesia," "English Garden," or even "Never Without You" as my song to share off this album, I gotta go with my first choice, "Eye to Eye" --    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UAD4Vq-U3Q&list=PLlKu0fStJqQxM9P-Mm7F3sSD08OmRToAe&index=1 

   

Company of the White Oak Campaign - sessions 30-31

Session 30

Goodmonth 14, 621 CY
Castle Greyhawk

Almost the entirety of the Company of the White Oak – Haruspex Niv, John Grond, Father Langdon, Percy, Reed Underbough, Brother Ulrich the Maimed, Rom Riverbluff, and Gendri, along with the henchmen/hirelings Peter, Biros Frapple, Saraband, Quentin, Herv, and Muelara Wynna – came to the raised drawbridge of Castle Greyhawk. Langdon spoke the magic command word that lowered the drawbridge, and shortly they were all within the courtyard of the castle. The south half of the courtyard was littered with dead bodies and skeletons, all recognized as the remains from their last big battle here.

There was the matter of where they could leave their mules safely. The stables seemed empty, this time, and Peter and Quentin were staying behind to guard them. 

Now the intention was to return to the castle dungeons and find the second level, at last. But which way to go down? John suggested the spiral staircase under the central tower, as it brought them furthest south into the dungeon. Like elsewhere in the upper works, the chapel to Zagyg on the ground floor of the tower was empty and nothing stopped them from going down. They passed the conspicuous lever on the halfway landing and, still highly suspicious of it, left it alone again and moved on to the rooms below.

The first room below was empty and the corridors beyond were silent. Wanting to reach new ground quickly they avoided rooms and navigated the corridors south to where the stairwell from the keep emptied out. But things were very different when they reached that point, for where they had expected to find a long, wide, north-south corridor, there was instead only a landing on a spiral staircase that went far deeper into the dungeon. The north-south corridor was still there, south of the staircase, on a ledge overlooking the shaft. There was still a narrow 5’ passageway heading into the north part of the dungeon level from here. All of this, strangely, matched the map of Ommetog the Shade.

There was no need to tarry on the first dungeon level any longer, so they followed these new stairs to see where they led. After a full circle around the spiral stairs came to a landing on the west side. There was a corridor heading west from here, but the stairs continued down past it. The Company decided this must be the long-sought level 2 and exited into the corridor. Haruspex cast an ESP spell and soon detected thoughts coming from a side passage to the south.

There were two doors down that side passage (plus it led further south past those), but the thoughts were coming from behind the east door. The Company barged in on three dwarves sitting on a scale model trebuchet in a wood-lined room, eating mushrooms. The dwarves picked up their hammers and assumed defensive positions. Several members of the Company could speak Dwarven and they chose to parlay with these three. The dwarves claimed to work for the Greyhawk Construction Company. They did not know who their employer was, but money would show up in their “account” and they would come to the castle. They had found the spiral staircase opened to the lower levels and decided to check it for maintenance before taking this break. They had also just chased four hobgoblins from this room. Haruspex suggested they all travel together to “check for maintenance,” to which the dwarves agreed, but not until after their half-hour lunch break.

With time to kill, the Company went to examine the room across the hall, and immediately heard loud snarling and growling coming from behind the door. Haruspex’s spell, however, detected no thoughts. Langdon’s thoughts immediately went to ghouls, something they had not seen except that one time up in the keep. They barged in and found a room with bas-relief carvings of giant fern-like plants on the walls and a 10’ diameter tunnel leading out of the west wall that was completely, magically dark (as they had seen inside the cairn at the center of the Hidden Dell’s Ringstones). The noise was definitely coming from inside there. A crossbow bolt fired into the tunnel did not overly disturb the creature or creatures. John, suspicious, sniffed and smelled no trace of monsters. But John, Reed, and Herv did venture into the pitch black tunnel to explore it, with rope tied around them and counting out their steps loudly. Or at least, they thought they were. The others did not understand right away why they kept marching in place in front of the tunnel and counting already, but they spun the three of them around and they found they were back in the room. Everyone was sure at this point that the tunnel was just an illusion. They even found Reed’s crossbow bolt, damaged, in the room with them. Before leaving, Muelara, who claimed to be good at finding secret doors, did a thorough search but turned up none.

Although they had been in that room for nearly a half-hour already, they didn’t want to bother the dwarves yet. So they went back into the initial east-west corridor and followed it further west. They reached a room with some skeletons on the floor (which proved to be safe to pass), and from here they could go west or south. They were interested in hunting those hobgoblins and found tracks heading south. These led down a corridor to a door, and behind that door was a wide alcove and a turn in the corridor to the east. There was another door to the north, but the hobgoblins had ignored it, so too then did the Company. But as the corridor turned south, the tracks passed a door with a big lock on it, and this was too tempting to pass up.  

Reed checked for traps on the door, found none, and then picked the lock while Biros watched an expert at work. Inside was a black curtain. Behind the black curtain was a room surrounded by more black curtain. The Company moved into the room and, ascertaining that the floor and ceiling were safe, began lifting back the curtains to check the walls. They found two more locked doors – and a man with a dagger!  The man with the dagger became locked in combat, primarily with John at first, as John tried to grapple with the man and drag him from the wall so more of the party could get around him and surround him. Langdon, Reed, and Rom were able to assist as John struggled with the man. Although outnumbered 12 to 1, the man expressed fanatical confidence that he would win because he was “The Assassin of the Green Claw” and could not be stopped. Only he could, ultimately brought down by Reed who mocked the assassin in his final moments by saying his dagger was better.

It was a good thing no one had been hurt by that dagger because it was clearly poisoned. Haruspex had no qualms about taking that into his possession. The assassin had also been wearing a gold ring set with an emerald (that would later turn out to be very valuable) and had a set of keys. The keys worked for opening all the doors concealed in the room, but one also worked on the trunk they found in a niche concealed behind the north wall. This trunk was not trapped and it contained 1,757 sp and 590 ep. Reed checked it for false bottoms and found a concealed compartment that held …a wineskin? The Company found that odd, but it was excellent liqueur that was so tempting Reed that John had to share his flask of aqua vitae with him to keep him from drinking the treasure.

The first door out they tried was to the west, and right behind that door was five gnolls waiting for them with polearms. The gnolls did not stand there for long; Muelara dropped them with her sleep spell. The room had nothing but straw pallets for the gnolls, but what they lacked in furniture they made up for in coin -- they had silver, gold, and even that rarest of coinage, platinum, on them.  There was another locked door to the west, but the Company was getting impatient waiting to get back to hunting hobgoblins.

They took the south door from the assassin’s room and that connected up with the T-intersection they had already seen at a distance from the locked entrance to this room earlier. Returning to hunting hobgoblins they tried to pick up the tracks again and managed to only because Gendri was so good at finding the faint tracks, earning the nickname Gendri the Hunter from his companions. Soon they were in a new room where they surprised five hobgoblin archers – and dropped them in their tracks with a sleep spell from Saraband. The hobgoblins were lighter on treasure than the gnolls, but they had very fine bows and silver arrows, which all became party treasure.

Sleeping foes did not stay alive for long around the Company of the White Oak, but they kept one of them alive because Gendri could speak Goblin and Niv could charm the hobgoblin. Communication was halting, since only Gendri could talk to the hobgoblin and the hobgoblin would only talk to Niv, but Gendri taught him what to say and then the hobgoblin was ready to lead them there. The path west was narrow and the hobgoblin moved past two wider passages that led north, telling Niv those ways led to a trap. The Company also saw stairs heading up. All this time they had struggled to find the way down to level 2, and now they had found two stairs in one day!

Soon they came to a pair of doors. Niv’s ESP sensed a group behind the south door that were getting ready to sleep and a group behind the north door was eager for action. The Company decided to give the north group what they wanted and sent their fighters in. The six hobgoblins behind the door did not last long in the ensuing fight, but long enough that the six more hobgoblins from the south had time to come in before the Company had time to loot. The six from the south were dropped one or two at a time by Hold Person spells from the clerics, while John and Reed tried to come around behind them (which proved difficult because there was an extra room between the side door they had earlier sensed them behind and the room they were coming from now). The last two hobgoblins surrendered. There were four rooms in total in their lair, but only two of them inhabited. They did not have a lot of treasure, just scattered coins, 518 sp, 44 ep.

Though no one had been hurt yet on this easy expedition, the treasure was starting to get heavy to carry and weighing down the magic-users (who carried the heaviest loads), so they turned around and returned to the surface.   

Session 31

Goodmonth 27, 621 CY
Castle Greyhawk

An abbreviated version of the Company of the White Oak arrived at Castle Greyhawk – the theurgist Haruspex Niv, the anti-hero John Grond, the priest Brother Ulrich the Maimed, and the swordsmen Rom Riverbluff and Gendri (along with the hirelings Peter, Harvard, Biros Frapple, and Vundar). It was not lost on them that they were missing some of their most skilled members, the curates Langdon and Percy, and the cutpurse Reed Underbough. Yet they had an ambitious plan – they were going to descend to level 3 of Castle Greyhawk and see if they could handle it.

Father Langdon was actually already at the Chapel to Boccob at the castle, so the company just joined him there and camped out in the back. The hirelings guarded the mules in the stables overnight, while all but Peter would be coming with in the morning.

Goodmonth 28, 621 CY
Castle Greyhawk

A small party of eight proceeded into the keep. They did not exactly know how to get to the central stairwell from inside the upper level of the keep, but they had seen where the stairwell came down onto level 1 of the dungeon and it seemed like the stairwell should be coming from somewhere northwest of the gargoyle room in the keep. So they went in search of it, ignoring the hinged statue inside the tradesman’s entrance that screamed of a trap to them, and moving into the gargoyle room to find it, thankfully, now gargoyle-free (and indeed, no sign of their remains from months back). There was a pair of double doors to the north they had not tried before, so they did so now, revealing a short hallway lined with statues of noblemen. The company formed up with fighting men all up front and proceeded right past the stone statues without incident (though they remembered well the dangers of messing with amber statues!). Haruspex cast his ESP spell and sensed no thoughts here, but he did sense thoughts coming from the next room – thoughts so alien he could not tell what they were thinking…

Through a second pair of double doors to the north they came into a huge hall that spanned the width of the keep. A blazing fire started out of nowhere in a giant central hearth and they could see a dozens of green, ghostly figures moving around the hall, partying around a feast, with no interest in the intruders. The company cautiously moved inside, but as careful not to interact with the ghosts as they were with the statues. They could see stairs going up to the northwest and northeast into the corner towers, a balcony onto the second floor above them, a door to their right, and an archway to the left – which would lead them in the right direction for the stairwell they sought.

First, they had to cross past two alcoves, each of which had a stone statue of a swordsman in it. One of the statues had one gem remaining for an eye. Again, everyone kept their hands to themselves and moved past – and found the grand spiral staircase! Although the staircase was 30’ in diameter here, the company knew it widened to 50’ in diameter by the time it reached level 2 of the dungeon. It spiraled down clockwise, with a deep open shaft in the center of it. Down they went, spiraling past levels 1 and 2 and coming to a landing on the south side of the shaft on what must be level 3. 

Similar the part of level 2 they explored two weeks earlier, level 3 seemed to consistent of lots of short corridors linked by doors. The first corridor they took west led into a room from which Haruspex detected animal thoughts (of hunger) coming from. They were, then, not surprised by the three gigantic crabs, each at least 5’ in diameter, waiting for them inside the room! Haruspex tried to take them down with his one prepared Sleep spell, but it only dropped one of them.

The fighters all rushed in to surround the giant crabs, with John Grond working his way around to attack from behind. Rom and Gendri were hurt by their pincers, and it was tough piercing those armored carapaces, but soon there was only one left and it skittered away, trying to flee up a corridor to the north. That corridor had ended at a door, but the door opened on its own for the giant crab as it approached.  That still didn’t keep the company from catching up to it and killing it, as they did with the other two. 

There was no treasure in the room, just a 5’ alcove full of dusty offal and a 5’ wide square column in the middle of the room. The corridor north led to a short dead end corridor heading east, to what must have just been a single wall between it and the spiral staircase. These all seemed like ideal places to hide secret doors but, despite the reputation elves had for finding secret doors, Vandur found none here. 

They headed south and then west and found a door where Harurpsex again sensed animals’ thoughts. The plan was to open the door, lure one out, slam the door shut, and kill the one, but when John got the door open and found it had four huge spiders in it, he slammed the door back shut right away. And then the company did something they had never done before – spike a door shut, so it would not open for the spiders like it did for the crab. 

The spider’s lair was either a wide hall or a long north-south room, and they had not seen what was at the north end of it – but finding out did not seem to be worth fighting venomous monsters, especially now that they were out of potions of neutralizing poison. 

They headed south from there, finding an abandoned office with a locked cabinet. Biros apologized profusely when he could not pick the lock on the cabinet, but after some effort and noise they managed to knock the hinges off the cabinet to get inside. Inside was a stack of blank sheets of vellum and an odd sculpture of two metal cylinders, one clearly a stand, but the smaller cylinder attached to the side by a ring and a cord. It seemed to serve no purpose, but was taken with in case it was treasure.

The room to the east of that room had three rotting corpses on the floor, festering with bugs. If the bugs were dangerous, they were too afraid of torch fire to do anything to the companions and they used the torches to scatter the vermin. Nothing of value was found by the corpses or under the moldy straw in the room. 

The next room to the east was larger and had an opening in the ceiling that led to a wide, but low-ceilinged space above the ceiling here. Rom lit an arrow on fire and fired it up into the crawlspace, but it flushed out no monsters. The room was filled with broken trash, bits of what was once wooden furniture, but there was no pattern to its scatter, nor any treasure hidden among it. While searching the room, they all heard a loud hum coming from what sounded like behind the southwest wall of the room. They formed up into battle formation, but nothing emerged from the wall to attack them. And, again, there appeared to be no secret door there.

Haruspex sensed human-like thoughts coming from the room to the south. They barged in on another large room filled with trash, this time including mounds of offal, and saw three large rats accompanied by two rat-men. This time the fighters charged in with only one Magic Missile spell for support. They found the rat-men were resistant to non-magical weapons, so the swordsmen, Ulrich, and Haruspex focused on killing off the rats (a fourth one soon emerged from the dung heaps). John and Harvard (Harvard was using John’s magic javelin) were too much for the rat-men and they went down before scoring a single injury on the company. Sadly, all they were guarding was junk, though the company recovered some rope, iron spikes, and a rusty axe. 

Having seen enough of level three, they returned to the giant crabs, cut off as much crabmeat as they could carry, and returned to the keep. They encountered nothing else until reaching the ex-gargoyle room, where they surprised four men-at-arms.  The men-at-arms were terrified; they had been hired by an adventurer who had come to explore the castle. Something big and shadowy had crept up on them and killed the adventurer, so the men-at-arms fled through the closest door, which led into the keep. Now, though, there was no sign of this ‘big, shadowy’ monster in the courtyard, though they did find fresh blood.

The men-at-arms were invited into the chapel, where everyone was told what they had encountered to Langdon, while Biros cooked much of the crabmeat. Later that afternoon, they left Langdon here and escorted the men-at-arms back to civilization.   

Reviewing the Beatles Solo Albums in Order - part 13

I'm amused now to think that, when I heard McCartney II, I thought that was Paul's experimental phase. I was completely unaware of his pseudo-anonymous albums, where he called himself "The Fireman." Now I've listened to some of Strawberries Oceans Ships Forests (which I listened to out of order, having to jump back to 1993 for) and all of Rushes (the 1998 sequel album) and...well...it's very experimental stuff. Some of Rushes is almost not terrible, elevating it above John's and George's experimental albums, but that's really not saying much.

Which brings us back to Ringo. VH1 Storytellers: Ringo Starr, was a TV special turned into a "best of" album, with the added bonus that Ringo introduces each song with a humorous anecdote about that song. It's fun to listen to the stories and makes me wish more Best of albums had this kind of framing device.

Which, like a ping pong game, brings us back to Paul. In 1999 -- completely unknown to me at the time -- Paul came out with Run Devil Run, a really fun albums of rock n' roll covers. I've talked before about how much I love it when the Beatles, together or alone, cover their nostalgic, favorite rockers because they seem to be having the most fun when they're doing this. This album has several surprises -- apparently, Paul wrote three original songs that feel like rock n' roll oldies and hid them in the album so they would seem like covers. Surprisingly, the best song on the album is the most obscure oldie -- the 1958 skiffle song, transformed into a slower, haunting piece by Paul, "No Other Baby" -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YipnDL3VrCw&list=PLNZ4pVtD8MsEYxFGTbGHJQ5guU7mFUdKZ&index=18 -- but in other cases Paul wisely knew better than to mess with the originals, like his slavish recreation of "Coquette." But there's not a bad song on the album.   

And next we pong back to Ringo for I Wanna Be Santa Claus, the only solo Beatles Christmas album. I don't have access to the full album, but have heard the treacly title track "I Wanna Be Santa Claus," "Come On, Christmas, Christmas Come On" -- a solid rocker, if not overly Christmas-y, and his cover of "The Little Drummer Boy" -- which is no Mormon Tabernacle Choir version (or even Burl Ives version), but seems so appropriate for Ringo that it can be forgiven. 

Paul's Working Classical is his third classical music album and his second best one, after Standing Stone. The highlight of the album is the inclusion of snippets of instrumental versions of some older and newer Paul songs (up through Flaming Pie), and not just with the vocals cut out, but actual new arrangements for different instruments. They sound really nice and, as snippets, they solve a problem a lot of instrumental covers have where, not the entire song really stands out well enough to be enjoyed just for the music, so you lose your place in the song if you're mentally singing along. These snippets highlight just the most iconic-sounding bits from the songs. Unfortunately, the original tracks also sound like they're just snippets, even the ones that kind of ramble on for up to 12 minutes.

From August of 2000, just four months before getting the Beatles' 1 CD for Christmas (I think most of the family gave each other copies, in fact), Paul then came out with Liverpool Sound Collage, yet another of those experimental albums. The first piece, "Plastic Beetle," isn't too bad, and it's kind of fun hearing random noise punctuated by the Beatles just talking and laughing. But "Peter Blake 2000" is just someone saying "Blake," I'm guessing, 2000 times and it was so awful I bailed on listening to the rest.

Which brings me to 2001 - the 21st century, at last! -- and Ringo's The Anthology ...So Far. This is Best of album, with material from the first three All-Starr Band albums, but there is so much extra material here that it feels like I'm listening to something brand new, or at most just similar to the previous albums. There's Ringo covering the songs you expect him to, and people from The Band, The Who, The Eagles, The Guess Who, and Billy Preston performing songs you would expect them to, and then surprises like Peter Frampton covering "Norwegian Wood" and Rick Danko of The Band covering Buddy Holly. Granted, I had to look up the names of everyone on this album other than Ringo, Billy Preston, and Joe Walsh of The Eagles because I'm not an expert on these bands, but I liked everything I heard and I'm sure that, had I been aware of this 3-CD set at the time, I would have snatched it up and fallen head over heels for the All-Starr Band, instead of wondering what that was all about all these years.

Which brings me to the multi-disc CD set (2 instead of 3) that I did get, Wingspan (though I didn't get it right away in 2001, but a few years later). And...well, what is there to say I haven't already said about dream Best of collections for Paul? It doesn't make sense to compile another Best of Wings collection because there's been no new Wings music to add to the last one. Though on the other hand, this is the one I bought and not the previous one, so maybe from a marketing standpoint this did make sense. 

It's also worth pointing out that Wingspan includes a lot of past singles, while I've been sticking to songs that appeared on albums. The weakness of my approach being that it left "Live and Let Die" out of contention.

   

Company of the White Oak Campaign - Sessions 28 and 29

Session 28

While most of the Company of the White Oak was celebrating Richfest in Grossettgrottell, Haruspex Niv and Reed Underbough (with their hirelings) had returned to Greyhawk City and found out the name of a thief to contact among the gnomes.

They returned with one, Gimlen. After a few days they found him. Gimlen did not know Ommetog the Shade, but the thief who trained him had trained under Ommetog the Shade, and Gimlen could take them to where he thought Ommetog lived. Since this was a minor side mission, not everyone went – just Haruspex Niv (and Peter), Langdon, Reed Underbough (and Herv), Rom Riverbluff, Brother Ulrich the Maimed, and Gendri.  

Reaping 7, 621 CY

Grossettgrottell

Grossettgrottell was a township of five connected villages and the Company had never seen the other villages. Gimlen escorted them to Verseglise, the next village over, with more militant gnomes. Gnome guards accompanied by large badgers in leather barding met them at the entry tunnel and escorted them through straight tunnels with right-angle corners.

Next was Radonnaz, a village with no posted guards and twisting tunnels. Down one uninhabited tunnel was a small, round, steel door. Gimlen explained how no one actually knew who lived behind this door, but everyone else was accounted for so people said this was Ommetog’s home .

Of course the door was locked and it proved to be a tough nut to crack, too tough for Reed to pick. Not giving up, the companions searched the floor of the tunnel for tracks and found some that disappeared by a wall. Looking up, they saw a narrow shaft leading up into the ceiling there. The humans would never fit through it wearing any armor, but Reed was small enough to climb up easily. The shaft went straight up 10’ and then gradually bent sideways before widening into a large tunnel and coming to a T-intersection. Reed was clearly well above and about 100’ south of the locked door. 

Reed returned to the shaft and lowered a rope down for Niv. Niv tried climbing up but, not having just average strength, he lost his grip on the rope just inside the entrance to the shaft and fell back down (safely, but embarrassingly). Unwilling to try again, that left Reed to explore on his own. He chose to go left at the T, heading in the direction of the front door, found a trapdoor that went up instead of down, went past that, and found the tunnel ended at a single round, wooden door. This door opened onto a luxurious bedroom. 

Which Reed started looting. He had stripped it of four tapestries and an antique nightstand when the far door of the bedroom flew open and, though Reed could see no one, he heard someone yelling. “Thief!”

Reed ran back to the shaft and descended to the others, who all beat a hasty retreat from the spot. Not everyone felt good about this thievery, since they were not even sure it was the thief who stole magic items from Niv they had stolen from, but when Reed fenced the goods he got 500 gold pieces for them, which was split between Niv, Reed, and Rom (plus Langdon later insists on a third-share for Saraband). 

Later that night, they were discussing going back to the Hidden Dell of the Ringstones on the next morning. They returned to Corrippo’s Inn to discuss it with the rest of the Company still resting there. Vask, fresh off his latest performance with Gert the trained bear, was willing to go along.    

Reaping 9, 621 CY

The Hidden Dell

The 8th had been an uneventful day of travel through the Cairn Hills. Even without Trotter there to guide them, they found their way back to the Hidden Dell late on the afternoon of the 9th – to find it not abandoned. 

Ten orcs were there, nine of them watching and roaring with laughter while one of them was repulsed by the barrier around the inner ring of menhirs. But then they spotted the White Oak Company and battle was joined. A short, one-sided battle. Soon, the companions were picking 50 electrum pieces off the fallen orcs. 

Afterwards, Reed tried to lead everyone through the gap they had left in the barrier – only to be repulsed by it again. Finding the barrier had been restored in their absence, they lured the shadows out of the same two menhirs and destroyed them again with the magic axe, the magic javelin, and Niv’s newfound admiration for the Magic Missile spell. 

Now the way inside was clear, so everyone proceeded to regather the items from the altar stones. Langdon’s method of swinging a grappling hook at the items from a distance until they were knocked off the top was time-consuming, but worked on three altar stones, and a pole was used to push the items out of the altar stone that was a hollow tube. No one was hurt by the elemental traps on any of them. 

They reopened the spiral staircase from the inner room of the cairn at the center of the rings and descended. But what next? 

There were four columns in the room, so they assumed the columns had some important role to play. They examined them for symbols, or indentations to insert items from the altar stones, but they were plain, smooth pillars. 

The secret clue that was hidden in the runes on the inner menhirs suggested they take the east door out of this room. It was a yellowish stone slab instead of a normal door, so Vask offered to move it out of the way. As soon as he laid hands upon it, he and the three people closest to him were hit by a magical explosive force. Vask was knocked unconscious, while Reed was seriously hurt and Haruspex was moderately hurt. 

Maybe, they quickly decided, they didn’t want to solve what was down here so badly after all…

After healing Vask and making sure he survived, and other injuries were healed until the last of the healing spells were spent, everyone packed up and headed back the other way to Grossettgrottell.

Reaping 11, 621 CY

Grossettgrottell

The journey back had been unremarkable. However, once they returned, and more spells were cast and everyone was healed back to normal, a vote was cast on where to go next. Back to exploring Castle Greyhawk…or to look into this Lord Robilar’s Castle they heard about? They needed more downtime to reassemble the full company for an expedition there…but everyone currently assembled was free for a reconnaissance trip, if only they knew where the castle ruins were!

Langdon solved that, asking around until he learned of a mapseller in Grossettgrottell with a map of the Menhir Hills. It clearly showed Lord Robilar’s Castle on it, and it only cost 15 gold (Langdon would later ask for reimbursement for this). 

Using the map, they embarked once more westward out of the Cairn Hills…

Reaping 12, 621 CY

Western edge of the Cairn Hills

They only got this far before needing to camp for the night. During first watch, Langdon and Saraband were startled by the silhouettes of eight men quietly walking up to their camp. Saraband tried to put them to sleep with his spell, but it failed. When the men got closer, Langdon could see why – they were zombies! He turned them and all eight fled.

On the next watch, the zombies came back. This time, realizing they were going to have to do something about the persistent dead, the companions were roused from their sleep and battle was joined. The zombies proved to be unexpectedly dangerous and many companions were hurt, but in time all of the zombies were felled. They had come from the north both times; no one knew what source for zombies might lie to the north,  but they already had a destination in mind and planned to stick to it in the morning.

Reaping 13, 621 CY

The Ruins of Lord Robilar’s Castle

Two thousand feet of open field lay between the castle and the trees that concealed the Company. Reed climbed a tree for a better vantage point. They could see that the whole east end of the castle was in ruins. The outer curtain wall was pentagonal in shape, with a main keep in the north triangular part of the pentagon and two smaller buildings on the west side south of the keep. There were also two intact towers in the curtain wall. It sounded like they had horses inside and Reed could see men – or more likely orcs, but it was impossible to tell at this distance – in armor moving about inside. There was a dry moat around the ruins, like at Castle Greyhawk, but no intact drawbridge like at Castle Greyhawk. Though, surely there was some way across for the orcs to come and go. 

Everyone was sure there would be an exit tunnel to be found somewhere about the hill on which the castle stood, but no one was ready to look for it yet, as searching for it in broad daylight posed problems, while trying to search at night in the dark posed its own separate problems.  It was resolved that they would go and maybe try to come back with the full Company another time.

Reaping 14, 621 CY

Menhir Hills

On the way back, they came across a dead tree they had not noticed before. It drew their attention this time because five giant centipedes were swarming over the tree. Niv put them to sleep before they could pose any trouble. And that was the closest to trouble they had on the way back…

Session 29
Reaping 28, 621 CY
Grossettgrottell

On the last day of the first month of high summer, the Company of the White Oak was still “vacationing” in Grossettgrottell. During this vacation, a thief had stolen magic items from Haruspex Niv and items from John Grond while everyone was renting the Corippo Inn and, today, Haruspex Niv, John Grond (accompanied by his new henchman Biros Frapple), the three holy brothers Langdon, Percy, and Ulrich the Maimed (and Langdon’s henchman Saraband), Reed Underbough (and his henchman Herv), and Rom Riverbluff planned to get them back. Biros, a local (local thief, but a local gnome nonetheless) escorted them through the Village of Verseglise and safely to the Village of Radonnaz (west of Grossettgrottell), where stood the Steel Door.

The 4’ diameter, locked, steel door had blocked them before, but they had more tools to try and gain entry this time, including new, stronger lockpicks Reed had bought. These did the trick, and the door was opened.

Inside was a hallway, heading east, with straw mats covering the floor. John took the lead, with Reed sitting on his shoulders, poking ahead of them with Herv’s 10’ pole. This was fortunate, because John might have otherwise walked into a 5’ wide pit concealed under the mats. Lifting the mat, they saw the pit was filled almost to the top with what looked like water covered in green scum. Rom tossed some food in and watched it sink. Satisfied that it was not acid, they let it be and moved on.

The door at the end of the hallway was just stuck, and John shouldered that open. Beyond was a second hallway that went left and right. To the left, just 20’ away, was a dead end. In front of the dead end was a very unusual statue that looked like a large bear, with a lion’s head, carved from a single huge chunk of amber.

John poked it, tried to lift it, and found it to be exceptionally heavy. Percy found this odd because amber, he knew, was lighter than stone. John swallowed his pride and asked Herv to help him lift. The statue was not anchored to the spot, just unnaturally heavy, and they were able to move it only a few feet before sitting it down. Reed went behind it and checked the floor where it had stood, but saw nothing there.

No one recognized the statue as having any religious significance, it was just some fanciful artist’s creation perhaps, but Rom convinced the others that it might have some secret compartment underneath it and wanted them to tip it over. Even with Rom helping them, the three strongmen were not able to gently set the statue down, but had to loudly tip it over.

And then it animated and attacked.

It lightly raked John with its claws at first, as if toying with him. John damaged it with his magic sword, but when Rom struck it soundly with his morning star the weapon just bounced off of it as if he had struck a stone wall. Now the amber monster reacted more strongly – putting John in a bear hug and nearly tearing his right arm off with a bite from its lion mouth. John was about to die.

For the first time in a long time, companions began to panic. Langdon stepped into melee so Rom could back out, but then Langdon too fled. Reed jumped onto the statue’s back from behind and kept plunging his magic dagger deep into the monster, got bashed into the wall once and was moderately hurt, but kept holding on. While he distracted it, Herv picked up John and ran for the exit. Percy followed, already having begun casting his Cure Light Wounds spell to save John. Haruspex also tried distracting the monster, at close range, with a magic missile. It barely cracked the surface of the statue, but the monster responded by crushing Haruspex in a bear hug, then nearly biting off his right arm too. Now Haruspex was dying.

Rom had run, but not far. Seeing John’s magic sword lying there on the floor and knowing the monster would be vulnerable to it, Rom picked it up. But unbeknownst to him, the sword was chaotically aligned and wanted Rom to die for being lawful. Rom was overwhelmed with pain -- and now he was dying on the floor too!

Although they were losing members fast, Reed kept attacking and Herv came back and also picked up the magic sword. The sword liked Herv, though, and accepted him as his new master. Between Reed and Herv (and a little help from John and Haruspex earlier), the enchanted statue crumbled into little lumps of amber all over the floor.

The three clerics unleashed all their cure spells and everyone was saved in time. No one had yet responded to all this noise, so their next priority was filling every sack and backpack they had with amber. There was a lot.

But there was one other treasure that was hard fought over -- the chaotic magic sword. John wanted it back, but Herv didn’t want to give it up. Langdon cast Hold Person on the two of them, which took on Herv, allowing John to get his sword back. Both men were acting suspiciously irrational, but once John had his sword resheathed he seemed his old self again.

There were a lot of gem merchants in Radonnaz; they knew because when they went to the first shop, the gnome summoned all the other merchants in the village to come see all this amber. They pooled their resources to buy it all from the Company -- 4,000 gold pieces worth. The Company went to the local tavern, Bos Rolbasoreg (gnomish for The Dinner Rolls), to celebrate. But, as the evening wore on, they began to become concerned that Ommetog would visit them in the night and try to punish them.

They tried to rent the cellar of the tavern to hide in for the night, but the greedy tavernkeeper, Felbis, would not for less than 35 gold. Most everyone would be holed up in the 30’ x 30’ cellar that night while rotating guards would watch from the common room upstairs. Felbis was behind a locked side door for the night; only one lone drunk gnome was in the common room with them.

During first watch, Reed gave Herv a good talking to about the sword incident. Herv confessed that he had been feeling scared and vulnerable, more aware of his own mortality, since Vask died and then almost died again.

Two watches later, it was looking like Ommetog would not find them, but the third and final watch was Langdon, Saraband, Percy, and Biros. While Percy sat with his back to the cellar door, Langdon was just standing around when a sword came out of nowhere and stabbed him in the back. Langdon was seriously hurt, but not out of the fight, as Ommetog the Shade appeared (though still concealed in magical shadow and only visible in silhouette).

Ommetog shrugged off a Hold Person spell from Percy, but Saraband managed to get a one-arm hold on Ommetog, and then Langdon managed to grab the other. Suddenly, and as other members of the Company began to show up who were awakened by the short combat or Biros, Ommetog wanted to parlay.

The Company was, equally surprisingly, open to his terms. He would return the stolen items and the map of Castle Greyhawk they knew he had and never come after them again. In return, they would not come after him again, and he was free to steal back his amber if he wanted it. Ommetog said he never planned to return to Castle Greyhawk anyway, so he was game to give back the map. And he only came out of retirement every few years to “stretch those muscles,” but had never encountered a challenge like the Company before and they had his respect. He even suggested they might all work together someday. Reed further sweetened the pot by offering to report to the dwarven embassy that they found Ommetog dead, so the bounty on him would be lifted. Ommetog found this gracious and said he would throw in a gem for that.

But the question was, could they trust Ommetog’s promises. They kept his sword as insurance and waited at the tavern. Time passed. The tavernkeeper opened his door, asked what had happened, and then barricaded himself in. A half-hour passed, but Ommetog came back with everything they had asked for, plus a 100 gold piece gem.  And with that, Ommetog waved and simply walked out.

The tavernkeeper did emerge eventually. The drunk gnome (who had not been Ommetog, though Haruspex had suspected such) woke up, and staff started to arrive to open for the day. Biros helped Felbis make them a decent breakfast and then everyone left -- except for Haruspex and Reed. The two of them had plotted in secret to steal the 35 gold back from that greedy gnome, so Haruspex cast Sleep on the tavern staff, caught all of them -- and Reed -- woke up Reed, unlocked Felbis’ door, and raided his private rooms for all the loose coinage they could find.

And with that, everyone headed out, back through the tunnels, to return to the surface at Grossetgrottell, retrieve the others at the Corippo Inn, and head back to the City of Greyhawk!   

Company of the White Oak Campaign - Interludes 4 & 5

[These both occurred before Session 25.]

Interlude 4

Wealsun 11, 621 CY
City of Greyhawk
The Black Dragon Inn

On the table before them was a hand-drawn map on parchment of the layout of Castle Greyhawk. Draxus, as dramatic as ever, stabbed the map with a knife on the spot where the long building along the south end of the curtain wall stood.

“There. If they aren’t in the dungeon, they must be holed up there.”

Tiffy, the hobbit who drew the map, sighed. She had put a lot of work into that. “That was my conclusion, based on my reconnaissance. I couldn’t get inside, but it seems to be them.”

The six founding members of the Band of the Black Dragon stood or sat together in the back room of the inn. Private planning sessions had become their thing before each expedition.

“Do we have any idea what their numbers are like now?” Crato asked.

“Not at all,” Hobar, their magic-user, said. “We should assume they’ve had plenty of time to recruit from the bottomless well of the castle dungeons. Who knows what manner of creatures may have allied with them by now?”

“I agree, we’ve waited too long as it is,” Draxus said.

“I don’t think that was his point,” Logos countered. “We need to spend a week hiring more men-at-arms. We are primarily a party of clerics, but what we need are men experienced in siegecraft.”

“What if we combined forces with the Company of the White Oak?” Tiffy asked. “They probably know the castle better than we do.”

Draxus shook his head. “I think they finished off the ogres only to clear a path to the dungeons. They don’t seem that much interested in clearing the upper works, which leaves more for us.”

“Then it’s up to us,” Crato said. “If the gods favor our efforts, we will finally put an end to the Hydra Company.”

Interlude 5

Planting 20, 621 CY
Duchy of Ratik
Quasqueton

A mouth appeared in the back wall of the east alcove and boomed in a loud voice, “Who dares enter this place and intrude upon the sanctuary of--”

Prospero finished casting Dispel Magic before he would have to hear the rest again. He was, after all, leaving and not entering. “Fool should have worded his spell more carefully…” Prospero grumbled.

It was not, of course, because of the magic mouth that Prospero was upset. He had come seeking Zelliger in his mountain stronghold because he needed more allies. Or, more precisely, he knew the Company of the White Oak would need allies. Fifteen days grilling the Augury Mask had told him that their best chance of stopping The Adversary lay with those novice adventurers out of Greyhawk.

But there had been no sign of Zelliger, nor his partner Rogahn, and their stronghold had been overrun with orcs (Prospero had taken care of that last part, though). And this was the third wizard Prospero had sought out who was dead or missing.

Prospero emerged from the entry tunnel into the light of day, in time to see the winged being descending towards him. Prospero smiled and waited patiently, while muttering to himself, “Well, well, it seems the cavalry has arrived…”