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The Wizards Campaign

A Daemon Is Born


John F. Sasso
10/15/02

Cast of Characters:
Elswitch, Starling, Dwayne, Shae, and Pote - Doug Jackson
Zunggh and Mac - Sherman Chong

Game Master:
John Sasso


A long overdue conclusion to an old story:

All was quiet in the Cave of Making. Rodames, Shae, and Pote sat idly. Quonth was biting his nails. Dwayne stared down into the great bubbling vat, fretting. It had been more than two hours since he lowered the long dead body of Teeba into the concoction. He was certain of the procedure, but a transformation had never taken this long before.

It started as a low rumbling, and then the ground itself began shaking. All lept up in confusion, small bits of the ceiling falling around them. The machine began glowing with eerie green luminescence. The shaking became worse. Great fissure opened in the walls and floors. Quonth ran to the quaking vat with a combination of fear and hope. Dwayne was more pragmatic. He and Rodames screamed to each other so that they could be heard over the cthonic rumblings and crashings of great stones. Shae and Pote ran to their master Dwayne. Rodames chanted the words of power. Dwayne, Shae, and Pote disappeared as if they were never there.

Rodames looked up at the machine. A figure rose from the vat, glorious and unholy. Quonth turned away, averting his eyes from the unbearable light. Rodames repeated the incantation, and Quonth disappeared. The daemon glared at the magician and laughed. The ceiling gave way and the entire cave collapsed, but by that time, Rodames too had vanished.

Meanwhile, in Myseria:

Mama Tazano's Espresso Emporium is the place for adventurers to meet up while in the bustling metropolis of Zarko. Elswitch the magician, Starling the half elf, and the warriors Zunggh and Mack were discussing whether to take the offer from Mama. After much debate, they decided that was no better offer, eventhough they were all uncertain exactly how much free espresso one can drink in a year. The task was to perloin at least one barrel of special super mystical elixer from the pool of tantalizing auras in the caves of perditious trepidation near the mountain of thundering sadness in the land of fortuitous wonder, up the road a few klicks.

After more arguing and bickering, the crew rode west with a four wheeled wagon and four empty barrels. Along the way they caught glimpses of various ungodly creatures slithering, crawling, and flapping in a north easterly direction. None of the monsters stopped to bother the adventurers.

The caves were not difficult to find. The crew dismounted and walked through the main entrance, leaving the horses and wagon outside. Elswitch opened the first door that they encountered, and walked through. He looked up just in time to see an orange icky thing fall from the ceiling and plop onto his face. Mouth agape, he felt the slimy thing slither down his throat, and explode!. (Doug made the worse perception roll so far in any campaign. Five dice, three 1's. Poor Elswitch. JFS).

Zunggh, Starling, and Mack averted their eyes from a magickal explosion of smoke and light. Orange goo, blood, and flesh scattered around the room, spraying the adventurers. When the smoke cleared, they saw a dwarf and two humans standing in the spot that was Elswitch. Zunggh and Mack took an immediate dislike to the intruders. Starling, no stranger to the vagaries of magick, knew a teleportation spell when she saw one. And besides, she never really liked her companion Elswitch very much. Dwayne the dwarf told Starling in Elvish to keep her humans quiet, and asked who, where, and what was going on. She explained the situation and discussed an alliance between the two while Zunggh and Mack stood confused and angry since they did not understand a word of the conversation. Starling told the two warriors that Dwayne will join them on their adventure, replacing the lost Elswitch. With disdain but no recource short of treachery, Zunggh and Mack agreed. Pote and Shae were sent out to keep an eye on the horses and wagon and to keep out of trouble.

In this room was a slime covered treasure chest. Mack lifted the top of the chest, and stepped back in confusion. Inside the chest was a shining sword, and on the sword was a pink kitten, alive and staring back at Mack with more than feline intelligence. Preferring his axe to any sword, Mack deferred to Zunggh, who reached in and grabbed the sword, toppling the kitten in the process. He lifted the sword and turned toward the rest of the adventurers, and then toppled foward onto his face, the pink kitten on his shoulder, fangs into his neck between helm and gorget. Mack struck at the cat, but it lept away safely. He picked up the sword, and likewise toppled onto his face, with the kitten on the back of his neck. Dwayne checked to make sure that the two bravoes were sleeping and not deceased. Starling offered the kitten a bit of meat from her supplies, and they became fast friends. With the kitten on her shoulder, purring and rubbing, Starling picked up the sword. The blade glowed pink with power. The kitten was pleased with the new sword bearer. Zunggh and Mack recovered a few minutes later. Groggily Zunggh asked Starling what happened to his sword from the chest, and where did she find the pink glowing one. He was never the sharpest knife in the drawer. She came up with a satisfying fib.

Bored with the initial room, the crew wandered up to the next door, and had a listen. The sounds of arguing and clanging were evident. They barged in to discover two wizardly looking men arguing over an overloaded pack lizard. Both asked for assistance. They decided to trust the man with the flying fish motif robe over the man decorated with symbols of skulls and bones. The latter they grabbed and trussed up with ropes. They threw him over the lizard and bid the fishy mage adieu as he led his animal out through the entrance door.

The other door in the room crashed open. A gigantic spider the size of an elephant crawled through and attacked the group. All four lept into the melee and quickly dispatched the beast. Zunggh was credited with the killing blow when he lept upon the monster's back and buried his sword up to its hilt into the spider's thorax; he gave it a twist for good measure. As expected, the next room was filled with sticky spider webs. Stuck up near the ceiling was a decaying corpse in shining platemail, and lurking near the floor was another spider which spit webs in the general direction of the adventurers. Dwayne took a grappel and rope. He used this to draw much of the webbing through the door and annoy the spider enough to attack. It was quickly dispatched. Mack pulled down the armored corpse, but the platemail was too small a fit for either Zunggh or himself, and Starling had no interest in it.

The next room contained a couple of otherworldly spirits which tried to trick the crew into a large gilded cage. They declined the offer, and spirits departed. The room after that contained a mandrake lord and human slave. The dragon man was dispatched, and the maiden promised the adventurers a reward for her return to her estates. They declined, told her to skedaddle, grabbed some bootie, and continued on. After a room filled with charnel remains, they came upon the pool, which was not spectacular in the least. They went out, grabbed the barrels, and filled each to the brim. A drink apiece proved that the waters did have an envigerating effect.

Epilogue:

Out of the ground emerged a two legged, large headed lizard like creature. Fire flickered around its gaping mouth. It wandered into the deep of the Norvold, searching for a safe haven to lay its brood of eggs.