I find my husband and friends in an encounter with what appears to be some sort of vampire lord.   About the only thing going well for us is the fact that he apparently can’t move beyond these two fire pots in the front of the room.

I see a wave of magic go over Robinn and he turns to us with bloodlust in his eyes.  There’s no way I’m going to let a charmed party member get in the way of things.  I quickly fire off a sleep spell and Robinn crumples to the ground unconscious.

Meanwhile, our ninja is at the back of the chamber trying to detach a gold plate from the back wall.  The vampire lord walks back to his chair and taunts us.   “Go on and slaughter yourselves, then.”

The unfortunate thing about vampire lords is that they’re very intelligent creatures.   The fortunate thing is that he wants to get out of here more than he wants to eat us.

Ruairan asks him if we can be of some assistance.

“You think you can help me?” the vampire sneers.

“It seems like you’re trapped, we’re not!”

The vampires smile fades.   “You put out the fires and I’ll let you live and walk out.”

“What guarantee do I have that you’ll stick to your word?”

His shoulders barely register a shrug.  “You don’t.”

I negotiate for the release of Robinn.  With a cursory wave of his hand, the magic leaves the eladrin’s body.  I kick Robinn in the behind to wake him up from my sleep spell.

“What the – ?”

We fill him in on everything he missed when he was asleep.

“Do we really wanna let this bloodsucker out?”

We remind him of the part of the inscription that said “through the fires you must travel.”

I suggest we jump in.  We argue over the nature of the fire and what exactly “through the fire” should entail.  The vampire lord is tapping his toes and looking irritated.

Ruairan sticks a torch near the magic fire and it disappears.    Jumping in the fires is definitely out.  He reads at the base of the fires “no undead can squelch these fires”.

Our choices seem to be to try to kill the vampire (who is really strong, despite being emaciated), or put out the fires and see what happens if the vampire is released.

Just when I forgot he was part of the group, we hear a clatter of metal as the ninja pops the amulet off the wall.   The vampire lord looks at him and shakes his head, disappointed.

“I’m getting impatient.”

“What is this?” the new guy asks.

“A piece of gold, for all I care,” the vampire lord sighs.  The ninja throws a vial of oil into one fire and it disappears.  He throws a vial of water in and the fire goes out.

The vampire lord looks at it with lust in his eyes and clutches the arm of his chair.  We’re afraid to douse the second fire and let him loose, but we’re out of options.

Ruairan goes to get more water and douses the second fire.  The vampire lord is quivering in his chair.   As the second fire dies, the doors open.   The vampire lord vaporizes into a mist and whizzes past us and out the open doors.

We run after him as he heads down the hallway.  As we turn the corner, we feel a cold burst of air and are pretty sure he went through the EXIT door into the snowy mountains.   The ninja tells us that through the door is probably the Spine of the World, wherever that is… somewhere up north.

Far away from here, at least.

We head back to the front room and wonder where the other corridor leads… I mean, we just went to the edge of the world and released a vampire lord.  Do we really want to go down the other way?

But leaving no stone unturned, we decide it must be explored.   We arrive at a door. The boys open it, letting the light in.   The room is coated in spiderwebs.   The ninja, in his infinite wisdom,  touches his torch to the web. The fire spreads quickly and we hear jaws gnashing.

Jaws of spiders, of course, who are none too happy that we have incinerated their home.   Did I mention they are deathjump spiders?  They jump over the fire and towards us.

Ruairan runs up and shoots arrows at the spiders. The fire starts to climb the walls, burning off all the webs.  I walk into the door and cast grasping shadows in the center of a group of three spiders and laugh as two of them fall on their backs and die.  So glad I took the time to learn that spell – it’s fabulously fun.

We kill off the last of the spiders and search the room, but don’t find much of anything.   The ninja whips out a knife and starts dissecting spiders to harvest poison sacs.

The last room we find houses a broken well with some green lights somewhere in its depths.   There’s a faint magical aura, but after the day we’ve had, nobody feels like jumping inside to check it out.

We leave the crypt and head back to town to rest.  Which reminds me, I really should be sleeping instead of writing this…

“What do we do with the drow?”  I hear someone ask.

I suggest we shove him in the bag of holding, but Robinn revives the blackie, who immediately turns tail and leaves.  We wonder if we should even bother to finish this quest since it was HIS quest.

“I’m going to finish this,” says Robinn.

“Does anybody ELSE have a vendetta here?” the ninja asks.

We continue along the path into the crypt and come up to a room with four coffins in it.  One is open, one is slightly open, and the other two are shut.  On the wall to the right there are carved markings:

Great treasure lies within
Mightiest hunters beware
This hall bears no exit
For he who lacks (smudged)

A horror awaits the brave of heart
Through the fires one must travel
To obtain his desire

Well, that’s lovely.

The open coffins are empty and the other two are welded shut.   The open ones have been broken open from the inside – more undead, I assume.  The ninja knocks on a coffin and we hear banging coming out of the inside.  The good thing is whatever is in there doesn’t seem powerful enough to break out.

Andric suggests that we go down the hall.  The new guy takes the lead, checking the area for traps.  As we walk, it gets colder and colder.  The door at the end of the hall is freezing to the touch and has a sign that says EXIT in Primordial.  It is not magical cold, which is odd since we are in a warm climate.  The door on the left is locked and sounds like metal is grinding on the other side.   The ninja picks the lock and opens it.

The room is 40 by 40 feet and has gears turning on the walls.   We can’t seem to see what’s turning the gears.   There’s one sarcophagus in the room and a door on the far side.   I examine the gears and find they are turning by some magical force, but I can’t tell if they’re affecting anything in particular.  Frustrating, to say the least.

“I love messing with technology,” Robinn says. “Do we have anything to stick in the gears?”

Robinn and the new guy open the sarcophagus and a puff of smoke comes out.   The new guy opens the door and finds a wall.

He closes the door, sticks a shuriken in between two gears, grinding them to a stop.  The door starts to glow.  Robinn opens the door, sees a wall of flames, and immediately closes the door.

Andric tries to break the sarcophagus so we can stick chunks of it into the gears, but it refuses to break. The new guy takes his first shuriken out and the door stops glowing.

He puts it in another gear.  The door glows again, Robinn opens it and we see clouds.

Lather, rinse, repeat.  Water.  Robinn sticks his head in the door and almost gets sucked into the door.

“That was a bad idea,” he says, shaking it off.  “If you’re trying to get rid of somebody, this is the door to go to!”

The next gear seems to be sucking the light out rather than giving it off.  I don’t like the looks of this door.  Andric and I hold hands in the back corner, waiting to see what happens.

There’s this ghastly image, shrieking as it barrels towards us.  It slams into an invisible wall right at the door and Robinn slams it shut.   I scream and grab my husband.  It’s the scariest thing I’ve ever seen.

After collecting ourselves, we go back into the hallway and try the cold door.  When it opens, we see bright light and through the door we see snow-capped mountains and a village in the distance.  There are definitely not snow-capped mountains anywhere in the desert, but maybe we walked through a portal somewhere before? I’m not feeling terribly confident about my wizarding skills lately; I need to hit the library and bury my nose in some books.

We go back to the room with the coffins.   Our ninja peeks in the door that was ajar and sneaks through.   As the rest of the party is sneaking through, the door slams on its own, pushing me back into the coffin room with an amazing force.

Ouch.  I sit on my arse.   Crap.

My hubby and companions are on the other side of the door and I’m stuck.   I hear a loud cackle and a voice that says, “It has been so long since fresh meat has wandered into my grasp. Today is going to be a good day.”

We were still doing all our work for the town when Shynte, our drow companion (as it seems he is now), comes back from his assignment to tell us that he may have found something to help us in our ‘quest’. One of his contacts from Memnon, Grey Fox, has told him that if we can find for him an amulet in some catacombs, he may be able to help us. It seems that we have no other clue right now on how to defeat the Genasi or how to go back home, so why not try this.

So we leave Almraiven to go to Suldolphur, a town that we can reach crossing some mountains. This is a nice travel where we can discover what this new world has to offer in fauna and plants. Nothing major happens during the 3 days trip, but Joelle keeps on eyeing the drow with a really dark look, muttering something about thieving and gold. It seems that our dark elf companion has not been happy to get no share of the money that was retrieved and that I got some without participating. As I said, money will make them lose their minds if they go on like that. Joelle even pretends that the drow tried to pick her pockets. I don’t know what he would gain in that. I’ll have to settle the dispute between those two one day before it degenerates. Maybe when we get back to Almraiven…

On the last night of the travel, we stop at a monastery. This is a place for weary traveler to stop in those mountains. The place has very simple cells to sleep and simple food that the monks grow, but the welcome is warm and the place is filled by children that play, people that talk and monks that … pray. I spend most of the evening to help at the monastery to pay for our stay. I wish some of my companions would help me but it seems they have better to do. At one point, when I’m cutting wood outside, I hear some commotion inside. During supper I hear people talking about a thief that was chased by a monk. And yet another person causing trouble because of money…

The next morning, an old man is waiting for us next to our rooms. He is accompanied by another monk and they accuse Shynte to be the thief. They don’t really have other proof than what this monk is saying, but Joelle has this ‘told you so’ look, which is actually followed by a real ‘told you so’.

I can’t have this kind of problem stopping us in our travel. Shynte is the only one that knows the contact that can help us and I really can afford to lose whatever information he may have that may be able to get us home. The old man doesn’t look upset either and is very quiet when he talks with me, but usually monks are not known for great displays of character. I ask if there are any ways we can repay for the trouble he may have caused, that I’m ready to answer for him. The old man says that he wants to help the drow coming back to right and thus he asks us to take his young apprentice with us so that he can teach him what is right and wrong. This makes Joelle chuckle.

I fear that this travel is getting more and more complicated; what did I do to Kord to deserve so many troubles. As I want this to end quickly and without any trouble, I accept the old man’s request. Having another party member in this mission may prove a good thing in the end.

After this, we pack up and leave to Suldolphur. We head directly to the place where the crypt is. According to Shynte, the paw of one of the Gargoyle will open the way. The main problem is that the place we go to is ‘Gargoyle City’. They are everywhere. We are ready to try to pull all the paws of all the gargoyles there, when I realize that one of the gargoyles near me is set up in a way that it covers something. Like an underground passage. That is my lucky day, at last! I lift the paw and the gargoyle moves, leaving a 2ft wide opening, going underground.

I crack a sunrod, and Joelle points to me that she can cast light. Years of training with the elves and I’m already forgetting the fundamentals. This trip will kill me, I fear. I decide to go first in the cave, what has fate in store for us…

(Disclaimer: The racism of Joelle the half-elf wizard is in no way a reflection of the personal beliefs of her player.)

After much arguing about what to do with the money, some of us (*cough* my husband *cough*) decide to give all the money to the town.  I’m going to keep 8500 of mine and give the rest to Almraiven.

Sitting in the inn, I feel my coin purse shifting and my first instinct is to whip my staff back to smack whoever is behind me. There’s nobody there, but the blackie looks suspicious.  Drow are shifty horrible pieces of excrement and I wouldn’t put it past this one to steal from me.

I head into town to do some shopping with the part of the money I’m choosing to keep.  My husband can be all valorous and give his all away, but I’m not going out into the wilderness to fight battles in the cheap armor we came in with! The wizards are supplying us with enough clothes and basic provisions, but I get myself a nice new magical robe, a beautiful staff, and some shiny silken bracers.

Grey Fox, the blackie’s contact from Memnon tells us we need to find an amulet in some catacombs near Suldolphur.   We have to cross over the mountains, which is pretty tough.   The short route is never the easiest.  I fall and twist my ankle a bit but we make it to the monastery safe and sound.

Andric offers his services to help around the monastery for the evening.  I would have rather his arms stay wrapped around me for the night, but he can use them for charity… I suppose.  I kill time entertaining the other guests of the monastery with wizard parlor tricks until it’s time to retire to bed.

The next morning, there’s a really old man standing at the door.  He must be the Master of this monastery.  He accuses the blackie of stealing from the people in the monastery.  I whisper (really obviously) to Andric, “See? I told you that you can’t trust a blackie.”

The Master doesn’t look angry.  Andric steps up to ask what’s going on.  The Master explains that the blackie has been accused of theft.  At this point, I’m not terribly interested in what happens to the idiot. The Master assigns some ninja from his monastery to teach the blackie morality.  This should be hilarious.

We pack up our stuff and head off to Suldolphur.  We know that if we lift the paw of one of the gargoyles that the entrance to the crypt will reveal itself.  Problem is that the place is full of gargoyles.  What are we going to do – run around town shaking paws with all the statues?   Yes, apparently this is our ingenious plan.   Andric points out one of the gargoyles that looks like it’s set to move back.   He lifts the paw, the ground rumbles, and the gargoyle slowly moves back, leaving a 2 ft wide hole.

My husband cracks a sunrod, a total waste of supplies since his wife can cast Light.   Sometimes Andric just doesn’t think.

He hops into the hole first.  “Hey, come on, it’s empty!” he shouts.   I wait for the blackie to go in first.  I follow behind him and he disappears in front of my face.   Ugh.   What’s worse than a blackie?  A blackie rogue.

We’re in a square room with two corridors, one on each side. We can see the one to the right clearly but the one to the left is obscured in magical darkness.

Robinn says that he feels the forces of good and evil are fighting each other here.   I fire up my staff with a light charm.   It seems that part of the power is being pulled towards the left into the magical darkness.

“If the magic is this way, we should fight the magic darkness and go this way!”  Andric’s sense of logic is a little on the obvious side.  “Honey, come with me please.”

I come up behind him to see if my light makes any dent in the darkness, but it’s only about 15 feet.  Our ninja points out that there are traps to the right side, obviously guarding something.  He disarms one on the wall with the help of the blackie.  At least he’s useful for something.

We decide to go off to the left.  Andric scouts off in front with his Little Sunrod That Could.  At any given point, we can only see 15 feet or so in front of us.  Looking back, the corridor is clear, but the room we started in has disappeared into darkness.  We turn the corner and keep walking.  There’s a door to our left and the corridor which turns to the right.  Blackie unlocks the door.  It opens into a well-lit room with dead bodies everywhere.  Robinn points out that the corpses seem to be well-preserved.

We walk in to the room.  These seem like undead, but they’re not moving.  The ninja walks in and snaps the neck of one of the bodies.  The one at the far side of the room stands up and Ruairan our ranger shoots him down with one arrow.  The second one stands up and moves towards the ninja.  The third stands up with the same goal.

I cast my shadows in the space between the zombie and the blackie.   The shadows grab at both the zombie and the rogue, but not so well.   It’s a new spell, I’ll have to work on it some more.   The best part?  My hubby hadn’t seen the spell yet, so when he uses his warlord mojo to shift the rogue, the blackie took even more hurting.  Hahaha!  It was really funny.

My husband is being smacked by zombies, not good!   But then the blackie starts to attack me with his throwing stars.  “What’s going on here?” Andric shouts.  I try to get the darkie back, but I’m too weak to concentrate on the spell.

My hubby kills one zombie, Ruairan takes out the other one, and then shoots an arrow into the blackie’s hand.  He hits dead on.  “STOP. This is not the place!!” our normally silent ranger barks.

The blackie disappears and reappears behind me in the doorway.   The eladrin glares at me.  “Quit it. Move away from the drow.”  He pushes me out of the way.   The blackie throws more stars at me and I crumple to the ground.  Where is my husband?

You see, I was still working on the fortifications for Almraiven, when the group came to me, saying things about going out or whatever.  I was really deeply involved in a conversation with some officers to set up the watches and the pairs between wizards and soldiers and I hadn’t time.  I was sure that my wife would oversee that everything was fine there.

To say I’ve been disappointed is an understatement…

They encounter armed forces, watched a fight, got involved in some way and came back with hundreds of thousands of gold pieces. After asking some questions, it seems they have mislead the persons that previously owned the money into a false trail. My thought on that is that they stole money from an army that may want it back, let witnesses that can recognize them go away and took no real precaution than hiding the chest in a curious illusion.

My wife being the nicest person I know have decided that I should get a part of the money which is very sensitive. But this money is dangerous, and maybe dirty and the wizards of Almraiven may need it to help secure the town.  I’ve decided to give my full share to the town.

And you’d think that they would be thankful after taking us by force here, having us help them in their war and me giving them about 80k gold pieces, but no, noithing! It makes me wonder if this town and those people deserve to be saved…

An Almraiven guard comes in to talk with us.  There’s a skirmish of sorts just outside town and he’s hoping that we could investigate.  He leads us on top of the town wall where we can see the scuffle about a mile out.

We get closer and find 30-40 people, mostly Genasi and a few humans, going at it.  Some are fighting one-on-one, others are getting beaten by multiple opponents.   We stand back for a bit to assess the situation… what should we do about this?

Some of the group are wearing red tunics.  The rest are wearing beige.  The flagbearers stand on either side of the battleground.  We recognize the crest of Memnon on the red flag.  The beige Genasi bear a symbol that looks like a trident.   We’re not sure that we recognize it.

As the battle rages on, the Memnonites seem to be losing.

I fluff up my hair and go to talk to the beige army’s standardbearer.  He eyes me appreciatively and says that they were marching towards Calimport from their town and met up with the Memnonites and got into a fight.   His people believe in Calim.  Interesting.

My friends and I back off to find a safer place to watch the battle unfold.    We learn a bit about how the Genasi fight, which I know my husband would have loved to see.  The flagbearer from Memnon throws down his flag and leaves as only two of his men remain against ten of the beige warriors.

They chase the Memnonites.  When they’re far enough away, we sneak in and loot the Memnonites’ bodies.  We find a decent longsword and some pocket change.  We find one well-dressed Genasi body next to a hand-carved chest.  Just as we’re arguing over who is going to unlock it, Robinn realizes that it is unlocked.  There’s a TON of gold in it – maybe 300-400 thousand.

As we’re drooling, we realize that the beige warriors are returning.  Robinn turns the chest into a rock and we load the rock on to my floating disk.

“What happened to the chest?” the warriors demand.

“Some guy ran off with it!” Robinn says.

“It was a heavy chest.”

“Well, he more… schlepped it.”  Robinn somehow manages to make this sound convincing.  We point away from Almraiven and say the thief went that way.   They check the bodies and realize we didn’t loot any of their dead.  However, we’re really not sure we want to leave any Genasi alive – especially some that were witness to our involvement in this scuffle.  I hit the two soldiers with my Thunderwave and they both collapse to the ground.   The leader screams out for help.  The three of us finish him quickly, with my Cloud of Daggers finishing him off.

We turn around to see the leader’s reinforcements turn on their heels and run away.  I have to admit, if I saw my leader taken down by daggers of force, I’d probably back off too!

We’d loot him, but we’re rich now, why do we need to loot bodies?  We’d feel guilty about stealing their money, but if they believe in Calim and were heading to Calimport, it stands to reason that they were supporting the wrong side of this battle.     We can keep the money for our cause.

The guards at the gates of Almraiven are curious about our giant rock on a floating disk.   We tell them that we’ve never seen rocks this color in our world and that we wanted to bring it back to study it.  Somehow we say that rocks are the color of cotton candy on Aereth.  The guards are amazed and smile a bit, probably thinking about us sitting in our room in the inn, staring at a rock.

If they only knew…

We count the gold and find that divided four ways (me, Andric, Robinn and Ruairen).   The elves are in agreement that the drow should not have a cut of our money.  Of course, when Andric comes home, he is not amused by the events of the day.  He schools us about what we should have done.  Blah blah blah.  We’re in a strange land with no family, no real friends, and no way to support ourselves.  This money was a gift from the gods to help us on our quest.   He can be all goodie two-boots if he wants, but I’m not listening.

…for Andric’s side of the gold issue, stay tuned!

Because of your knowledge of warfare, you have been asked to join the city guard to help strengthen their defenses.  In the process, you will learn more about the Genasi battle tactics, their leadership structure and desert warfare.

Week 1:

As the old manuals say, know your enemy.  I’ll spend my first week this way:

• Morning training with the soldier of the militia. Getting to know them, to know their strength and have a better understanding of the area (patrols, getting their experience of actual fights against Genasis, and their potential allies).
• Lunch with Joelle, what would be a day without her.
• Afternoon, between the academy and the library, getting as much information as possible on the genasis.  I will also discuss with some wizards on how they would fight against Genasis, get actual facts about fights against them, their known strength and weaknesses.
• Diner with Joelle, what would be a night without her.  Followed by a discussion on arcane facts about the Genasis, I know she’ll get a lot of information being inside the academy all day.

Week 2:

• Day 1: With everything I know about the area, our strength, our weaknesses and our enemies, I’ll spend the day to prepare an action plan. I hate acting without planning.
• Day 2: Calling a meeting with officer of the militia and wizards of the Academy. Exposing my reflexions about our chances. The fact that our enemy rely a lot on its arcana background is our best hope. For every soldier of the militia, a wizard must also train to help defending the town. Soldiers will be the steel against the steel, wizard the magic against the magic. It is time to have some more coordination between all the people of this town.If we act against them, they will eventually try to attack the town. Some examples of defense are putting fire wizards near the river. Water/Ice Genasis would attack from there and would probably be more susceptible to fear fire magic.
• Day 3-5: Time to recruit wizards that will be able to help the soldiers. Forming pairs, they will have to learn to weave their differences into one strong force.Being used to working with both weapons and magic, I will be the teacher.   I’ll ask one of the wizards of the Academy to help me, showing some of the things I had learned with the elves.
• Day 6-7: I will take some of the most promising pairs to perform some operations in the area. I will be able to see what they are worth (in a very little time) and also have them see what it is to really fight. (There are probably big game to catch in the nearby woods).

What has been done during days 3-7 of week two, will be repeated, under my monitoring, or officers of the militia (that will be paired with teachers of the academy).

The most important thing to do will be to equip soldiers with magical weapons that would help the work with the wizards.

I exchange a few words with one of the guards that is close to us, trying to get some information on where we might be.  He knows no Punjar or Aereth, he says that the world we’re on is called Toril.  I’ve felt that the magic seemed different here, like we were in another place.  I’ve learned a few things about the planes during my apprenticeship with the elves, but not enough to know exactly where Toril would be.

After that we are taken in a dressing area where we are given some armor.  Slaves in armor?  This sounds strange.  Are we going to a dangerous place?  I mean, more dangerous than a place with elemental-like beings that enslave people from other worlds…

In my armor, I find a piece of paper, written in elven.   It says – Don’t do anything rash. When we are out of sight of the city you will get your gear back. I have been sent to rescue you all. – R.

I keep the note in his armor wondering what this means.  Friend or foe, I cannot put my trust in anybody but my wife.  And maybe my companions, even if I don’t really know them that well.  After donning the armor, we’re put in manacles (arms and feet).  We have to climb into a cart (which is not easy with the manacles) pulled by a donkey, driven by the drow.  I ask him where he’s taking us.  He says that we’re going to see our masters, pointing the brand on my arm and that he doesn’t have time to talk now.

The cart is covered and we cannot see the outside, but the various noises imply that we are leaving the city.  When the noises all around us are no more than a memory and only the wind of the desert can be heard, the drow stops the cart and tells us to get out.  The heat of the desert is almost unbearable and the manacles burn on my flesh.

“I’m sure you have several questions.” says the drow.  “We’re still near the city. I suggest you get out of your bindings quickly.” He tosses me a key. “It’s for the collar of your friend,” he says pointing Robinn. We are all unlocked and… free.

“You’ll find your equipment, weapons, rations, and a healing potion each in the wagon. I suggest you get your stuff and keep up,” adds the drow.

We get our stuff and go back in the cart, puzzled by what happened, too surprised to react.  We grab our belongings and everything. We’re in the wagon. I try to ask questions to the drow but he says he’ll explain at night.  When we stop, I help him to set up the camp, trying to gauge this man who was the one that put the paper in my armor.

Once the camp is setup, I try to talk with the drow to get some information.  He’s gruff and not very talkative but I manage to get some idea of what we’re doing here.  He’s part of the Orion Group; they are a group of ‘rebels’ against the Genasi, the elemental-like people.  He said that we’re supposed to be champions that have been brought here to fight them, or at least help the Orion Group to fight them.  He says also that our branding will grant us passage and will serve as identification documents, but as we’ll be in a safe place they will be removed. Thanks be to Kord, my wife’s pretty butt will get back to normal…

He’s not ready to say more.  We’ll have to wait to reach our destination to exactly know what’s happening to us.  The next morning we get back on the cart.  It takes 3 days to get to our destination.  I sit up front with the drow talking about the history of Calimshan, to try to get a better understanding of our situation.  That’s Military 101 – knowing your surroundings, the history, the fighting forces, etc. J oelle doesn’t seem very happy that I talk with the drow, but this is for the greater good.  I’m sure she’ll understand.

After the 3 days trip, we arrive in the morning in Almraiven, a very big city, surrounded by a forest.  This is a big change from the desert and it seems that no Genasi dwell here.  We see a lot of humans and practitioners of magical arts.  We are directly led to a big meeting hall to see the elders of the city.  The drow introduces us as the people that fit the profile, but he implies that we are small fry and that something is wrong. Then he leaves with one of the elder.

The remaining one tells that his name is Micah and asks us to follow him in his office where he’ll answer our questions.  We go in a smaller room where he sits behind a desk a motions us to sit.

“Let me explain to you why you’re here. We’re Orion – the last remaining free humans in Calimshan.  About 100-200 years ago there was a magical explosion known as the spellplague.  When it happened, a prison that held two beings of great power was destroyed.  Calimshan used to be ruled by the humans.  The beings caused the Genasi from around Toril to come to Calimshan.  They overthrew us and have enslaved our people.”

Robinn interrupts, asking if it’s why they chose to enslave people from outside their realm to help fight against the slavers.  Micah looks embarrassed and goes on with his explanation.

Almraiven is the premier center for magical research.  They think they have the power to fight back.  In their studies, they have found an ancient text that explains that they should find and locate champions to help them meet our goals and one ritual of summoning to get those heroes.  It sounded like a prophecy and they have decided that every little bit of help could be good.  Apparently the ritual didn’t work properly.  They were supposed to summon the most powerful champions to end the Genasi reign, but it seemed – sorry for the insult – that it didn’t work.

I tell them that we are sorry that we are not as good as expected.  They can just send us back and try to get better champions if they think it will help them.  He looks even more embarrassed than before when he says that were a little hasty in their process and don’t really have a way to send us back home.  I tell Micah that as this seems to be a town with a lot of magical knowledge, we’ll try to find our way home and we won’t bother them.

We are put up in a very nice inn, for free.  We walk around the town, trying to get to know this place that will be our home while we find our way to Punjar.  My thoughts are still for my family.  What is happening to them while I’m here?  But brooding won’t help us, so we try to learn thing about this place.  In Faerun, magic was once contained by the Weave.  Upon the death of Mystra, the local Goddess of Magic, the Weave exploded causing a massive change in Toril, the Spellplague.  Maybe this is what cause the problem in the ritual.  Maybe we can try to restore things, find the real heroes and get back home.

At the end of the day in Almraiven, a messenger is waiting for us at the inn, asking us to go to the meeting area.  Three wizards are waiting for us, the two elders from yesterday and a new one.  They confirm my idea that the ritual was damaged during the Spellplague.  And for them, the ritual chose us.  Not the result I was expecting… According to them (and the Gods and the Planes then), we are the saviors of Calimshan.

I want to go back home and I want the elders to fix the situation.  They say that this is the will of the Gods and let us time to think about it.  Robinn is the only one in the group that is not eager to go back to Aereth and particularly Punjar.  He’s wondering what’s for us if we stay.

The elders offer us weapons, money, a free house as a base of operation.  They say that will try to find a way to send us back home, and ask us to consider helping them meanwhile.  We don’t agree on anything yet as I want to find by myself if what they say is true. We try look at the ritual but we’re so sleepy we can’t make sense of it. It will take time to find the answers.

We go to bed and get some sleep at the inn, waiting for a house to be set up for us.  The next morning we check out the ritual again, trying to get as much information as possible.  I try to use my knowledge of the Arcane to understand our situation and exchange ideas with Joelle.  By the end of the day, we reach the same conclusion: it was definitely the gods that chose us.  For some reason, the gods chose us to help the Orion Group to free Calimshan from the Genasi.

This is time for us to try to do something.  Only the will of the Gods will take us home.  We go to get our markings removed, and traveling papers.  They won’t work everywhere, and as a human, I should avoid Genasi patrol and cities.  The Genasi hate Almraiven… but it seems that their ranks are not as strong as they used to be.

The prison that shattered held a djinn and an efreet.  Both are enemies and rule over a genasi tribe.  The Genasi hold on Calimshan is tenuous at best.  If we get the two Genasi tribes to fight each other we can get them to destroy themselves.  I fear that they’ll use the slaves to fight for them which doesn’t seem to bother Robinn.  We’re in a tricky situation.  It’s time to plan for battle, and this what I was born to do…

Since it appears the gods want us to be in Almraiven to help the people of Calimshan, my only course of action is to learn whatever I can about the magic of this world.

All I can say is that it feels different than the magic of Aereth.  There are some things that are similar, but others that are so different.

It’s hard to explain in words.

The wizards of Almraiven wanted me to teach them of the magic of Aereth and in return they would teach me of the magic of Toril.   It only seemed fair, but I wanted my information first, so it was off to the library!

The library of Almraiven is huge, lined with shelves upon shelves of books describing all the magic and history of the land of Toril.  I certainly have my work cut out for me!

Week One:

• I spend mornings in the library, reading about the history of magic in the land of Toril.
• I take a break from reading to eat lunch with my husband, who blathers on about fortifying the city.  I nod idly while my mind mulls over what I had read in the morning.
• In the afternoons, I read spellbooks and rituals from both before and after the Spellplague.  I experiment with some new spells but am finding this new magic harder to master than my native arcana.

Week Two:

• I spend the mornings in the library, reading as many books as I can get my hands on.  There is so much to learn and so little time in which to do it if we want to help the wizards defeat the Genasi.
• My husband is very excited about his work fortifying the city.  I’m very excited about my research, but I listen to him instead.  It makes him feel important when he gets to share his battle tales.
• The afternoons are spent with the wizards of Almraiven.  I pick their brains about their magic, a sort of mind control magic that I have not yet seen in use.  My favorite spell is one that convinces the target that the ground has disappeared from beneath their feet.I teach the wizards the magic taught to me by my uncle Ayin.  I also tell them of the spells that I had read about in Aereth and seen cast by more powerful wizards.  Some of magic is actually similar, especially the spells that call upon the powers of the elements.

  I am fascinated by this mind control magic and wish to learn more of it while I am housed in the city.  I think that this type of magic will be very useful when it comes to the type of mission the gods have sent us to complete.

Andric asks where he’s taking us and he replies gruffly that we’re being taken to our masters.

“Who’s our master?” my husband asks.

“Look at your arm,” the drow snaps.

After we pass well beyond the boundaries of Calimport, the wagon stops and the drow comes around to the back.

“I’m sure you have several questions,” he says, unlocking our restraints.  “We’re still near the city.  I suggest you get out of your bindings quickly.”

What is going on?  If we’re slaves, why is he letting us free?

He tosses Andric a key that unlocks the anti-teleportation collar that bound the eladrin.  Soon we are all free, rubbing our wrists and looking confused.

“You’ll find your equipment, weapons, rations, and a healing potion each in the wagon.  I suggest you get your stuff and keep up.”

Andric wants more answers, but the darkie refuses to explain further until later in the evening.

“I’m part of the Orion Group,” he explains.  “We’re the survivors.  We’ve brought you here as champions to help defeat the Genasi.”

What?  This makes absolutely no sense to me.  Can’t they fight their own battles in this world?

We continue on our travels for three days.  My ever-inquisitive husband sits up in front with the darkie talking about the history of the area.  I can’t believe he’d sit next to a drow, but he doesn’t know what I know.  We sit in the back of the wagon and eavesdrop on the history of Calimshan.

Finally, we arrive in the city of Almraiven.  It’s a much more forested area compared to the desert heat of Calimport and there are no Genasi here.  There are lots of humans and – I’m happy to note! – lots of wizards.   We’re being lead by the drow into a large meeting hall, where we see a group of elderly human wizards.

“Here they are,” the drow reports.  “They fit the profiles you gave me.  They’re not from here.  They know nothing of this realm.”

The wizards look concerned.  “We were expecting… something bigger.  Something’s wrong here.”

The drow goes away and one of the wizards invites us into his office where we sit in some nice comfortable chairs.

“Let me explain to you why you’re here.  We’re Orion – the last remaining free humans in Calimshan.  About 100-200 years ago, there was a magical explosion known as the Spellplague.  When the Spellplague happened, a prison that held two beings of great power was destroyed.  Calimshan used to be ruled by humanity, but the beings caused the Genasi from around Toril to come to Calimshan.  They overthrew us and have enslaved our people.  We’re -”

Robinn interrupts.  “So you’re enslaving people from outside your realm to help you?”

Thankfully, the wizard does not seem to be offended.  He explains that Almraiven is the premier center for magical research.  They could fight back, but they’re not strong enough.  In their studies, they found an ancient ritual that was supposed to find and summon champions.  They used the ritual to summon the most powerful champions to end the Genasi reign, but it seemed – he apologizes profusely – that it didn’t work.

“If you think we’re not up to the task, you can send us back.” Andric says.  “I have family to find.”

The wizard’s face falls.  “Unfortunately, in our rashness we didn’t think things through.   We don’t really have a way to send you home, but we’ll start researching immediately to find it.”

In the meantime, we’re put up in a nice inn with big beds.  We explore the town and learn more about this world of Toril, the Spellplague, and the weave called Mystra.   I ask one of the old wizards about the drow, just to see if the darkies here have a different reputation than those home on Aereth.  He affirms my fears, saying that the drow are nasty people.  There are a few, he says, that break the norm.  Very few.

Upon our return to the inn, we are summoned to a meeting room.  Three wizards are there, including one we haven’t met yet.  “We’ve been reviewing the spell and apparently one of the rituals was damaged during the Spellplague.  For whatever reason, the ritual has chosen you four as the champions.  The summoning ritual was damaged, which is why you ended up in Calimport instead of here.  You are what the planes and gods think can free Calimshan.”

That’s all fine and good, but we’d like to go home.  Andric steps up and lets them know that we’ll just wait here in Almraiven until they can find a way to send us back home.

Robinn is not so sure.  “I don’t want to be in a war-torn country, but I don’t want to go back to Punjar or take the chance that if we get back I’ll end up with my ass attached to my head.  What’s in it for us if we stay?”

“We have…” the wizard says.  “I have…”

My husband interjects again.  “I need to know it’s the will of the gods that we’re here.”

The wizards offer us housing, a base of operations in Almraiven, weapons and money if we fight for their cause.

“Do we have free women?” Andric asks.  I shoot him a dirty look.  “FOR MY FRIENDS!!” he clarifies.

I light a tiny fireball and shoot it at his backside.

“Well, I’ve never killed Genasi before…” Robinn muses.

We look at the ritual scroll but we’re so sleepy that we can’t make heads or tails of it.  After getting some sleep we check it out again and Andric and I agree that the gods have indeed chosen us.  It appears that at least for now, we will be staying in this strange place.

We go and get our markings removed and receive our traveling papers.  We learn more about the situation, including that the Genasi hold on Calimshan is tenuous at best due to their thinning numbers and division in the Genasi tribes.   If we can get the two tribes to fight, perhaps we can get them to destroy each other.

Andric is concerned.  “They’ll use the slaves to fight for them…”

Robinn casts an indifferent glance our way.  “And…?”

Stay tuned to He Said, She Said to hear Andric’s side of the story…