TheRPGSite

*** Campaign Background and Rules Discussion ***

This is the thread for my new D&D campaign - Caliphate of Darkness. After my somewhat of a mess of attempting a Traveller campaign (I just can't run sci-fi well), I'm going back to basics with a D&D campaign.

The rules we're using are more or less AD&D 2e mixed with some pieces of D&D 5e (I liked the streamlined approaches of parts of 5e - proficiencies and backgrounds in particular - but hate both bounded accuracy and the whole "everybody has lots o' powers" aspects). For the record, I did try playing 5e before I decided it wasn't for me.

This will be the third time I'm written my own version of D&D rules to use so I'm pretty used to it, though it always takes longer to type up the rule book than I think. Previously, I used a heavily modified version of B/X D&D for my D&D Bronze Age campaign as well as using a mix of OD&D with B/X D&D for some one shots (which I referred to as D&D Classic).

For this campaign, I wanted to use the Al-Qadim setting so I started with the AD&D 2e rules and the appropriate changes from the setting itself.

That said, I wanted something that was more flavored and less open than the standard setting (D&D settings all too often feel like a simple reskin).

I'm using the standard ability scores with 4d6 drop 1 for generating. I do use the whole proficiency bonus concept from 5, except for combat rolls (which use a BAB concept by class).

Available races are human, elf, dwarf, halfling, gnome, goblin, or orc. Each race must choose one of the four cultures (Al-Hadar, Al-Badia, Barbarian, or Outlander) - in Al-Qadim, individual races have no culture themselves.

I include both backgrounds (most very similar to 5e) and classes, but classes are restricted to the main four (which I've renamed Warrior, Sorcerer, Priest, and Rogue). I use 5e style skill proficiencies.

My warriors use 1e style combat dominance along with 2e weapon specialization and fighting style proficiencies. Rogues are close to AD&D, but with 5e proficiency mastery. Sorcerers are Al-Qadim style (pick two elemental provinces) and use a selection of AD&D 2e spells. Priests work similar to AD&D (also using a selection of 2e spells), but I've made the setting monotheistic with the three sects (moralist, ethicist, and pragmatist) being different views of the faith of the same god. Priests get one bonus power by sect (kind of like 5e).

As with D&D Bronze Age, I dropped the concept of alignment (I really hate D&D alignment). I replaced it with a focus on religion / ethos.

Weapons and armor are closer to B/X in breadth, and further restricted for a more historical accuracy to the time of the initial crusades (no two-handed swords or longbows, for example). Crossbows and arming swords are exotic weapons only used by outlanders (the faithful stick with short bows and scimitars). Armor ends at chain mail, which is essentially impractical in the setting.


Setting-wise, I'm more or less using Al-Qadim out of the box with the rather large change of religion. The faith of the people of Al-Qadim is a mix of fantasy and actual religions and not intended to portray any particular religion; but, I did want to use a monotheistic society to play up the concept of the different sects (I really don't think the pantheistic religions in the TSR setting make sense with the rest of the setting).

The outlanders (from the 1e version of the Forgotten Realms) are still pantheistic. This was another contrast I wanted to paint.

*** Session 01 - Cast of Characters ***

M'Balz Al-Badassi: A human rogue from the city. M'Balz is the member of a noble family with political connections, but is bored with his wealthy lifestyle and instead performs as a masked scoundrel for hire know as Al-Caliph.

Gra'bir Boubi: A human warrior from the desert tribe of the Wah'na Poq-yah tribe of the Haunted Lands. A superb hunter, Gra'bir has come to the city of Huzaz to look for a quest to prove himself a great warrior.

Adanband: An elf scholar and sorcerer from the city of Huzaz.

*** Session 1 - Scene 1 (of 10) ***

The tale begins in Huzaz, City of Delights, where a trio of companions look for an opportunity for adventure in Zakhara, the Land of Fate.

New to the city, Gra'bir suggests they begin at the trade harbor in the warehouse district. M'Balz, a lifelong native, agrees that many opportunities can be found there.

The harbor is busy as always, with many ships coming and going. Looking around, they spot a small crowd forming around an entertainer singing a very terrible song about mining diamonds. The crowd is clearly getting angry.

M'Balz recognizes him as Tobuscus Al-Tunar, a local half-wit who always has terrible songs and comedy routines and is frequently run off by crowds with rotten vegetables.

A dwarf near M'Balz suggests they stone Tobuscus, as his songs are so bad as to be an affront to the Loregiver. He asks M'Balz if he has heard the song the man sings about wheels.

M'Balz ignores the question and instead pulls Gra'bir aside. He suggests they may need to step in before the fool is stoned to death. Gra'bir agrees, saying a man of his talent should not be treated so.

Adanband agrees as well, saying just because a man has bad songs does not mean he should be stoned to death. He suggests they pull him away from the crowd until the simpleton can think of something else to sing about or finds another line of work.

An old man nearby overhears the comment and thanks the men. He says he was always fond of Tobuscus' classic "Don't whip me, Brother!" comedy routine (about a young man set upon by the Mamluk peacekeepers).

M'Balz leads the men to push through the crowd and form a protective semi-circle around Tobuscus. He suggests to the entertainer he take his act elsewhere before something unpleasant happens.

Tobuscus is clearly oblivious to the hatred he is generating. He protests the idea to move, saying everyone loves his music. M'Balz doesn't disagree, but tells him he is in the wrong area for his time of performance.

Convinced by M'Balz, he offers to sing his songs as they leave. M'Balz doesn't argue against it, saying it is OK as long as they leave before the stones begin flying.

The loud and obnoxious voice of Tobuscus can be heard even over a nearby merchant selling recreational wagons. M'Balz can take no more after a moment and grabs the man's zither and smashes it on the ground. He then apologizes to Tobscus, saying he slipped.

Tobuscus is aghast at the loss of his instrument, asking how he will make his money. M'Balz asks him how much he was making before. He says he would get two, even three bits a day for his songs, though usually to encourage him to spread his music to other areas.

M'Balz asks him how much he made so far this day. Tobuscus responds he has only one bit that someone tried to throw at his eye. M'Balz points out that, coincidentally, one bit is the fee for their protection services.

Tobuscus isn't sure about giving away his only money. He offers to sing a song or perform one of his comedy routines for the group instead.

Rather than endure a horrific song or comedy routine, M'Balz offers to trade for information instead. He asks for news on the docks, particularly on shipments coming in and smuggling.

Tobuscus relates his knowledge of a lizardwoman smuggler named Daria who sailed into the harbor that morning. He tells of the song he sang to her about her shiny scales and swinging his diamond sword. M'Balz asks how the lady liked the song. Tobuscus explains she spit on him, saying he was originally worried it was some kind of venom but turned out to be pear juice.

M'Balz wants Tobuscus to lead them to the lizardwoman. He seems happy about the idea, saying he can think up another song to sing. He notes he has one about zombies they may not have heard.

Gra'bir wonders about the wisdom of bringing the man back to the docks, but M'Balz says that lacking his instrument, everything should be fine. Gra'bir isn't so sure, saying the man isn't very deterred by the loss of his zither.

*** Session 1 - Scene 2 (of 10) ***

The four men head back to the docks, where M'Balz plans to offer their services to the lizardwoman for security. Gra'bir isn't so sure about serving a smuggler, but M'Balz explains that a smuggler is just another term for a merchant trying to avoid excess fees.

Gra'bir is swayed by the argument, saying he never thought of it that way. Adanband agrees as well. M'Balz says that is one of the reasons they have banded together, so he can help them see things in new ways.

They find that the crowd on the docks has dispersed and business is back to normal. Tobuscus leads the men over to Daria's ship.

M'Balz thanks the simpleton, but Tobuscus still wants payment for his lost zither. Thinking quickly, M'Balz points to behind the man, saying to look over there. Tobuscus, Adanband, and Gra'bir all look over. Taking the opportunity, M'Balz shoves Tobuscus into the harbor.

When the others turn back at the sound of the splash, he explains the entertainer has fallen into the water.

Gra'bir wonders if they need to save him again. M'Balz laments his lack of ability as a strong swimmer. Gra'bir likewise notes he grew up in the desert.

Adanband decides to dive in to save the fool. Although a strong man, Adanband has difficulty getting deep quickly in the murky water.

Eventually he spots Tobuscus. The entertainer appears to have been grabbed by one of the underwater lacedon ghouls who feed on the dead men thrown into the harbor.

Thinking quickly, the elf goes down to the surface, grabs Tobuscus, and attempts to push off from the ground to free him from the ghoul. But the lacedon is strong, and Adanband can't get the man away.

Abanband keeps trying, but the ghoul claws at him with his free arm. Luckily, the sorcerer resists the paralyzing touch of the lacedon.

After trying again but still failing to pull Tobuscus away, Adanband begins running out of air and has to abandon the fool in order to get back to the surface.

Back on the surface, Gra'bir and M'Balz see Adanband emerge from the water half out of breath. M'Balz lowers a rope down to him. Adanband explains about the lacedon down below, which M'Balz says is reason enough to get out of the water.

Gra'bir notes that clearly Fate intended for the man to die that day, as he was extremely unlucky. M'Balz calls it a tragedy, calling Tobuscus a great artist. Adanband laments he never got to see the "don't whip me" performance.

*** Session 1 - Scene 3 (of 10) ***

M'Balz suggests to the others that in memory of their friend Tobuscus, they should venture forth and offer their services to the lizardwoman. The others agree.

They head up the gangplank to her ship, finding it guarded by a rough-looking orc crewman. He asks what they want.

M'Balz introduces himself, dropping the name of his father along the way. He says they are there to offer their services to his leader. The orc confirms they are there to speak with Captain Daria, and then tells them to wait a moment.

Coming back after talking with someone inside the ship, he tells M'Balz that Daria will see them. He leads them inside, where a finely-dressed lizardwoman sits on large silk pillows. M'Balz notes to himself that she is not an unattractive woman.

Daria asks what the house of Al-Badassi wants with her. M'Balz flatters her with a tale of her exploits being known far and wide and how he and his companions wish to serve her. She casts a cynical eye at him, noting she pays well to make sure no one knows of her exploits.

M'Balz bombastically insists the Al-Badassi employs many informants to keep an eye on all sorts of clandestine activities. He asks if she knows of his father, whom he calls "The Great Badassi", but she says only that she knows of many of the noble families.

Daria wants M'Balz to get to the point of what he wants, since she doesn't see how a nobleman can be of much use to her. He explains he is a man of many strange talents, Gra'bir is a great warrior, and Adanband is a powerful sorcerer.

The captain makes a comment about the sorcerer being unable to use magic to dry off his soaked clothes. But she seems convinced enough to ask if M'Balz's "special talents" include being able to transport untaxed goods through the city undetected.

M'Balz laments the high taxes of the city, saying they make it difficult for merchants such as her to do business. He explains he has connections that could assist in this area.

Daria wants to know what M'Balz wants in return. He hints he is looking for gold. She offers them 10 dinar apiece for their services. M'Balz wants to know more about the cargo first. She says it is merely beverages, but M'Balz wants to see them.

She has the orc bring in a crate. He opens it to reveal bottles of moderate quality plum wine. M'Balz is disappointed that it is not something more valuable or exciting.

Nonetheless, M'Balz agrees to the deal. He tries to get further work by asking if she'll pay for information that could be useful as well. Daria says she might be willing to pay for something useful.

The two verbally spar for a moment, trying to feel each other out. Daria eventually asks if they know anything about an outlander named Geer. The group is unfamiliar with the name but M'Balz indicates he can obtain valuable information and will bring it back to her the next day, along with a letter clearing her of taxes on her wine shipment.

Daria seems pleased enough, informing them of where in the northwest district to deliver the wine and giving them the name of a kobold, named Qubad, they are to deliver to. She also warns them to look out for the Mamluk Captain Sargon, as he has heavy patrols in the area.

Wishing them that the Fates will guide them, she sends them on their way. She points out the location of the six crates of wine, noting she assumes they have some way of transporting it.

*** Session 1 - Scene 4 (of 10) ***

After leaving the ship, the three discuss what to do next. M'Balz points out they will need a cart, the tax letter, and information about Geer. He offers to deal with the tax letter by going to see his father.

Gra'bir, unfamiliar with the city, offers to get the cart. Adanband is left to go find information about the man named Geer.

M'Balz heads back to his family's palace in the Court District. He finds his father, Mabad, at work at his desk. He greets the old man warmly, but Mabad is clearly wary of his black sheep son. He wants to know what he wants.

M'Balz attempts to flatter his father, but the Mabad tells him he is not so easily plied by his son's golden tongue as others are. As M'Balz continues his flattery, Mabad wants to know what he has done, asking if his son has brought more shame upon their house.

Ignoring his father's criticism, M'Balz explains that he has taken his father's advice and is making an investment. Skeptical, Mabad asks what kind of investment he has in mind. He tells his father the investment is in fine wine, though the older man remains doubtful he knows what he's talking about.

M'Balz goes on to talk about the heavy use of fine wine in the city, citing his father's own consumption. Mabad prefers to phrase his wine intake as an appropriate amount. M'Balz continues with his flattery, commenting on the fitness of his father.

Continuing on with his tale, M'Balz explains he needs some assistance with a problem surrounding the taxes on the wine. Mabad narrows his eyes and suggests M'Balz is talking about becoming a smuggler. M'Balz says he considers that a harsh word, and says the "investment" in the wine will lead him on the straight path to becoming a merchant, as his father wants.

Mabad sighs, saying that it is more likely this will land M'Balz in front of a quadis to be judged. The old man begins to despair about his family honor if smuggling cheap wine to avoid taxes is the best they can do.

M'Balz insists the wine is "exotic" and will lead to more fine items being imported through the contact he is making. Mabad wants to know who the contact is, but M'Balz insists a merchant can't reveal his secrets, causing his father to scoff.

Mabad wants to know what his son wants. When M'Balz explains he needs a greatly reduced tax rate, even no taxes. Mabad tells him that would require a favor for the Grand Vizier herself, Alyana Al-Azzazi.

M'Balz wonders what he could do for the vizier. Mabad thinks for a minute, chuckling. He tells his son he knows what would win her favor then asks if he's heard about the missing gnomes. Several gnomes from the Sma'ruf clan in the farmlands outside the city has gone missing lately.

According to rumor, the gnomes were abducted by a mad sorcerer who lives several miles northeast of the city. His name is given by Mabad as Gar, or Gar Ghul'mal.

M'Balz agrees he will need to put a stop to that, as their "fine gnome friends" are an important part of the city. He agrees to handle it immediately. Mabad, believing M'Balz will not be able to fulfill his part of the bargain, condescendingly tells him he will be sure to get him a writ preventing taxes on his wine just as soon as he stops the evil sorcerer who is kidnapping the gnomes.

M'Balz attempts to get the writ upfront, but his father refuses. Mabad bids his son to leave, and return when he has vanquished the sorcerer.

*** Session 1 - Scene 5 (of 10) ***

Meanwhile, across town, Gra'bir heads to the Grand Bazaar in the Merchant's District. He looks for a horse and cart that aren't being used he could borrow.

Finding one, he begins to untie the horse when he is accosted by an angry merchant who accuses him as a thief.

Gra'bir promises the man he is borrowing it for an honorable task and will return it in the morning. When the merchant refuses, Gra'bir is confused, as this would not be a concern among the people in his tribe.

When the merchant threatens to call over a Mamluk guardsman, Gra'bir attempts to calm the situation by offering to buy the draft horse and cart in exchange for his fine riding horse. The merchant looks over Gra'bir's tribe and agrees to sell his broken down nag of a horse and the cart with the wobbly wheel in exchange for the fine desert riding horse.

*** Session 1 - Scene 6 (of 10) ***

In another part of town, Adanband looks for ways to find information about the man named Geer. Rather than ask anyone directly, Adanband slyly decides to walk around the harbor and just observe the area, looking for an opportunity to make a contact.

In addition to the usual activities around the bar, he comes across a quartet of people involved in some sort of dispute. Adanband moves in a little closer to see what is going on.

The four people are all outlanders. One is a sleazy, rake-looking fellow. Another is a scruffy thief-looking man. The third is a larger, more athletic man with an expression suggested he is somewhat dim-witted. The fourth is a slattern harlot.

As far as Adanband can tell, the men are all fighting over the girl. She appears to be enjoying, and encouraging, the fighting. From the discussion, the elf picks up that her name is Rory.

He decides to approach the group and begs their pardon. He asks what the fighting is about, and offers to assist.

The large, dumb-looking man gives his name as Dean. He says the girl belongs to him, as she was pledged to him by her mother and he took her maidenhood.

The scruffy thief gives his name as Jess. He says the girl belongs to him, as he stole her away from Dean and made him a cuckold.

The sleazy rake gives his name as Logan. He says the girl should truly belong with him, as no woman can resist his charms.

All throughout this, the girl Rory makes eyes at Adanband, hoping he will want to fight for her too. He tells the men he would like to assist them in coming to some sort of accord, though notes he cannot know how truthful they are being.

The elf then asks Rory what her story is. She says she is looking for a man powerful enough to tame her, saying that perhaps he will succeed where these three have failed.

Taking her slightly aside, he tells the harlot he may be able to help her situation, but asks what she can offer him. She tells him if he wins her affection she'll warm his bed. But Adanband is interested in something other than the communicable diseases she will no doubt infect him with; he tells her he is interested in information.

Rory asks what Abanband what he is looking for. He asks her to tell him what she knows about Geer. She initially describes him simply as "a real man". When Adanband prompts her further, she says she heard about him while working at the Golden Pleasure House.

According to Rory, Geer is a moneylender who comes down hard on those who can't pay. Geer is apparently a large, tough man who is forming a network of companions in the district. She then laments what she wouldn't give to be his woman.

Ignoring the whore's musings, Adanband asks if she can take him to Geer's hideout. She tells him she can, but only if he can defeat the other three to "win" her.

The elf looks around for anything else going on that could be a distraction. He also fails to see any Mamluk peacekeepers in the immediate area.

He tells the others that the woman can choose her own path, but that the harlot chooses none of them. Rory corrects him, saying she chooses whoever can defeat the others; she wants only the strongest man.

Dean claims he is the strongest physically of the four, as he is a mighty warrior. He starts to get out a large club while Jess starts to draw his dagger and Logan goes for his sword. Adanband tries to keep everyone calm and gets them to put down their weapons.

Instead, he convinces them to go over to a nearby shaded area and sit for a minute to talk. As they get there, he casts a quick wall of fog spell to obscure the area. Grabbing Rory by the arm, he makes a run for it.

*** Session 1 - Scene 7 (of 10) ***

Once they have evaded the other suitors, Adanband and Rory find themselves in an alley. She is a very forward woman, and mentions wanting to make it a memorable alley.

Adanband pushes her off of him, saying he wants to know more about Geer. Rory tells the elf if he pleasures her, she will tell him everything he wants to know. He agrees to the exchange.

After their brief tryst, Adanband wants to get down to business but Rory is busy trying to get him to agree to put him in his harem. He stays non-committal.

Eventually, he gets Rory to explain that Geer likes to make loans to people with assets who can't pay him back. Then he seizes their property and beats them up or kills them if they try to resist. She describes the operation as unsophisticated, but effective.

Rory gives Adanband the location of Geer's front in the Northwest District. She asks why he is looking for Geer, but the sorcerer is vague in his response.

The harlot then wants Adanband to take her back to his home, calling it "our home". Not wanting his honor besmirched by having her seen at his home, he tells her he has other things to do first, and decides to take her back to the rendezvous point at M'Balz's palace.

*** Session 1 - Scene 8 (of 10) ***

Sometime later, M'Balz is relaxing at his palace when Gra'bir arrives with a broken-down nag. Just after, he spots Adanband with his broken-down hag.

Gra'bir happily announces he has secured a trusty steed for their operation. M'Balz notes to himself that Adanband has brought something else they can ride, but out loud thanks Gra'bir and asks Adanband who his companion is, incredulously asking if it is Geer.

Adanband introduces Rory, saying she is someone he has obtained to provide them with information about Geer. She comments on the wealth of M'Balz. He agrees he is wealthy, sardonically noting he even employs a doctor.

Still flirting with the nobleman, Rory asks him if he will make her his first wife. He is more interested in the scabs she has around her mouth, which she describes as "love scabs".

M'Balz immediately summons Altaf, one of the head servants. He tells the servant to send Rory to the doctor then get her out the back door. Altaf understands, agreeing it would not be good for his father to discover her.

Once the whore is gone, M'Balz has Adanband reveal what Rory told him about Geer. Gra'bir wonders why Geer is obtaining more men, but Adanband explains it is a common practice by gangs of organized criminals.

M'Balz also notes Adanband has horrible breath. He asks the elf if he ate a bad falafel, but instead Adanband suggests he may want to see M'Balz's doctor as well.

M'Balz asks what the elf had to do to get the information from Rory. He responds that he had to use his oral skills. M'Balz agrees the elf, like himself, has a golden tongue. Adanband notes he wants to keep it golden so he still wants to see the physician.

*** Session 1 - Scene 9 (of 10) ***

While Adanband is off seeing the doctor and then to the baths, M'Balz explains to Gra'bir that his father will be happy to get them the writ of taxation in exchange for a minor favor.

Going on, M'Balz explains about the missing gnomes and the need to look for a man named Gar Ghul'mal. The rogue notes the man is also said to be a sorcerer.

Gra'bir nods in agreement. He says that M'Balz's father is very honorable, not only providing the writ but also looking out for those less fortunate than himself. M'Balz calls it the blessing and curse of his family – their deep hearts and ethical values.

When Adanband comes back, clean and with fresh clothes (as the doctor insisted he burn the others), M'Balz compliments him on his appearance and tells him about their mission with the sorcerer.

The three then head out the road out of town on the road to the Haunted Lands. Following the road along the farmlands, they keep an eye out for other travelers.

They spot one hauling his wares back into town on his ox cart. M'Balz greets the man, who responds in kind.

The man discusses needing to get his load into town to sell, that he might feed his eight children. M'Balz notes an honest man like himself has paid all his taxes. The man agrees. M'Balz introduces himself, with the man saying he does him honor.

But M'Balz continues, asking about the road toll. The man does not know of any road toll. M'Balz tells the man he is fortunate to have come across them, as a new toll has been added and failure to pay could result in his goods being confiscated.

The man is convinced M'Balz tells the truth. M'Balz goes on to say the toll is expensive, and will cost the man five dinar. The man says he has only three dirham, being a poor farmer.

M'Balz tells the man if he pays what he has and provides some information, M'Balz will take care of the problem for him. The man gives a thousand thanks for his help and wishes the Loregiver to shine down on him.

For the information, M'Balz wants the farmer to tell him about the sorcerer Gar. The farmer knows of the man, and points out the direction of his tower in the nearby hills. He notes that many gnomes and halflings have disappeared recently, saying dark magic is afoot.

Once he points out the direction and distance, M'Balz takes the man's money and scribbles a mark on his papers to avoid the taxes. As he leaves, Gra'bir tells M'Balz how good it was of him to help the man avoid the burden of the heavy taxes. M'Balz says it is his duty to the Loregiver and the fine people of the city.

*** Session 1 - Scene 10 (of 10) ***

The three continue on to the hills. After some time, they spot the short, stone tower set into the hills off in the distance. M'Balz tries to get either Gra'bir or Adanband to scout out the area, but discovers he is the only one skilled in the art of doing so.

He moves in closer, but has a hard time finding good cover. Out of the corner of his eye, M'Balz sees some movement in the sky but it is gone when he turns. He gets a feeling he is being watched.

M'Balz moves in closer and gets behind some bushes. He can see the tower itself is old and crumbling, and the area is overgrown with vegetation.

The rogue waves in his companions, pointing out where he saw something. The two have a hard time deciphering the hand movements.

When they eventually figure it out, Gra'bir looks around in the sky but sees nothing. M'Balz proceeds to move in closer to the tower.

M'Balz catches a faint glint of a yellow eye in the darkness of the upper window of the tower, but it disappears quickly. He motions for the others to advance in.

When they get close, M'Balz moves towards the door of the tower. He walks up to it and knocks confidentially on the door. No one answers.

Checking the door over, M'Balz is fairly confident the door is safe from traps and sees no runes on it. He does notice it is in disrepair like the rest of the tower, nearly off one hinge.

Pushing it open, M'Balz sees the main level inside has a single room with a couple of workbenches. He points to Gra'bir and motions the warrior forward.

Gra'bir cautiously looks inside the doorway to look around. He notices a cauldron, workbenches with alchemical tools, and the scattered small bones of gnomes, some of which are partially ground in a large mortar and pestle. There are also two sets of circular stairs – one leading up and one leading down.

The warrior then hears a loud growl of a cat as a cat flies towards him from above. He manages to fend the beast off and launches an arrow in response, but it goes wide. Gra'bir can see the cat is large and brown, with large feathered wings as it disappears down the stairway leading to the dungeon.

M'Balz calls the beast an abomination, while Gra'bir notes he has heard tales of such a creature. The rogue then turns to Adanband, telling him that as this is the lair of a sorcerer, a sorcerer should be the first to enter.

Despite his better judgment, Adanband agrees. Gra'bir follows, with M'Balz taking up the rear. M'Balz has them pause to listen, but hears nothing.

M'Balz suggests they start by heading downstairs. As they head down, Adanband notices the basement is already lit with torches.

Rounding the corner, Adanband finds the dungeon to look like an abattoir with blood splattered everywhere. Just as he notices a workbench with a knife and cleaver sitting next to meat cut off of small, humanoid bones, he hears a man say, "Azrael, attack!"

The flying cat comes straight at Adanband as he hears the man casting a spell. One of the claws slashes into the sorcerer's face as the cat attaches himself to it.

Gra'bir pulls out his dagger to attack the cat attached to Adanband's face. The dagger slips, stabbing the sorcerer in the shoulder instead.

M'Balz can't see the action from around the bend of the stair wall, but hears it. He pushes his way past Gra'bir and Adanband, knocking the warrior down but Adanband manages to stumble into the room instead.

Inside the room is a middle-aged, hump-backed, balding sorcerer with bad teeth. He wears tattered black robes and red slippers. He touches M'Balz with a chilling touch, but the rogue manages to resist the spell. M'Balz responds by shoving his dagger into the sorcerer's eye, killing him instantly.

As Gra'bir picks himself off the ground, Adanband attempts to pull the cat off of his face. Failing, Azrael digs his claws in further. Adanband collapses in a pool of blood.

The cat prepares ready to fly / pounce on a new target. M'Balz acts quickly, stabbing the cat in mid-air. It falls to the ground, dead.

Gra'bir takes the opportunity to bandage up Adanband, getting him stabilized enough to take back to town to be treated.

Before heading out, the two search around the dungeon room. They find little except for Gar Ghul'mal's spellbook which M'Balz makes sure to take.

They then check the upper level of the tower, but find little except a straw bed. Under it, they find only fourteen bits, apparently all the money Gar had.

With that, they start back to town, with Gra'bir carrying the unconscious elf.

*** Session 1 - Session Notes ***

Our first session actually happened over a month ago, I'm just slow at getting this thread started.

Right away, I can tell the game is working better than the last campaign and we're quickly finding a groove. The tone of the campaign is somewhat light-hearted, which works for the setting, and should involve a fair amount of adventure in the city (like this session and the next) combined with more traditional D&D wilderness and dungeon-type exploration (yet to come).

Obviously we started out with a couple of joke names for the characters (while "Adanband" was the result of a random elf name generator). But I rather like the characterizations of M'Balz (the very roguish black sheep noble) and Gra'bir (the naïve country boy).

I wanted to start the campaign in the city because city life is a huge part of the Al-Qadim setting. The PCs decided where they started and I went from there.

Tobuscus is named after the guy who does those YouTube videos and such. I'm not overly familiar with his work, but the M'Balz player's son loves them but he finds them obnoxious so this was something of an in joke. I learned just enough about Tobuscus' YouTube videos and background to make the jokes (such as my play on "Don't taze me bro").

The ghouls who feed at the harbor are part of the setting, so I made sure to make use of them when the situation came up with throwing him in the water.

The smuggler Daria was another planned encounter I had. My favorite part of gaming is presenting a group with a challenge they could solve in a variety of ways and seeing what they come up with. Asking daddy for a tax exemption was certainly not what I was expecting.

I rather enjoy role-playing Mabad, the exasperated father who is tired of his criminal son's shenanigans.

The evil sorcerer Gar Ghul'mal and the gnomes of the Sma'ruf clan was something I was inspired to by the fact that a flying cat is one of the monsters in Al-Qadim. Naturally the players immediately caught this joke as well.

Adanband's side story with Rory was something else I planned as another in-joke, this time for the M'Balz player's wife. She is a huge Gilmore Girls fan and reads my write-ups from the games, though never joins us. So I wanted her to have a surprise when she read this. She loved that I added it just for her, though is quite opposed to the artistic license I used with Rory's characterization. Like the Tobuscus joke, I have never seen an episode of Gilmore Girls and based the entirety of the jokes on what I could find on Wikipedia. The really funny part is that the Gra'bir player's wife was also a fan of the show, so he picked up on the references immediately during the game as well.

The mysterious Geer will have more plots to come - another of my planned encounters in the city.

Robbing the poor farmer on the road was straight out of our Cthulhbusters campaign. M'Balz could easily become Father Mulroney 2.0.

Gar Ghul'mal's tower, much like the Gargamel character he is based on, is really poor so I made sure his tower was small and dumpy. This isn't supposed to be a heroic mission so much as an errand that the important people didn't want to bother with.

Azrael nearly killing Adanband (and staying clutched to his face Garfield-style) was my favorite part of the session.

*** Session 2 - Cast of Characters ***


 M'Balz Al-Badassi: A human rogue from the city. M'Balz is the member of a noble family with political connections, but is bored with his wealthy lifestyle and instead performs as a masked scoundrel for hire know as Al-Caliph.

 Gra'bir Boubi: A human warrior from the desert tribe of the Wah'na Poq-yah tribe of the Haunted Lands. A superb hunter, Gra'bir has come to the city of Huzaz to look for a quest to prove himself a great warrior.

 Adanband: An elf scholar and sorcerer from the city of Huzaz.

And introducing...

A mysterious dwarf with no name or memory (or clothes)

*** Session 2 - Scene 1 (of 9) ***

M'Balz and Gra'bir travel the long road back to Huzaz, with M'Balz carrying the unconscious body of Adanband. Halfway through their travels, they come upon a disheveled-looking dwarf in a loincloth wandering the road with a dazed expression.

Gra'bir tells M'Balz they should help the poor traveler, as it would be the right thing to do. Gra'bir is concerned for the well-being of the dwarf, particularly since he appears to be unable to pay the road tax.

M'Balz is initially less concerned about yet another peasant traveler. He mumbles something about the dwarf perhaps being hanged and suggests it may be the appropriate thing to do with beggars like this. He asks the dwarf who he is and what he is doing.

The dwarf responds that he is suffering from some sort of memory loss; he does not recall who he is or where he is. Gra'bir notes the poor dwarf is helpless, and implores his friend to assist the man.

As they talk, the dwarf mentions he was previously able to heal himself by touch. He offers to do so for the injured Adanband.

M'Balz hands his cloak over to the dwarf, telling him to clothe himself. He then agrees to let the man lay hands on the sorcerer.

The dwarf lays hands on Adanband, giving off a glow of light. The wounds on the elf begin to recover, and he becomes conscious.

M'Balz notes that the dwarf must be some kind of priest or healer. He offers to let the man join them back into town.

*** Session 2 - Scene 2 (of 9) ***

When the party arrives back at the gate, the guard asks them for the traveler's tax to get back into the city. M'Balz tries to use his family clout to avoid having to pay, but the guard simply says that with such a rich family M'Balz should have no trouble paying.

After briefly considering alternatives, M'Balz finally consents to pay a bit for the tax but tells the guard he will remember this.

M'Balz is further annoyed to find he has to pay for the dwarf as well, but Adanband and Gra'bir pay their own ways.

Once they are done, they make their way to M'Balz's palace. M'Balz has Adanband go to the doctor to treat his remaining wounds.

The nobleman is then approached by one of his servants, saying his father wishes to speak to him. He thanks the servant for the message, telling him to have the dwarf bathed and clothed appropriately.

The dwarf is somewhat concerned about M'Balz's use of servants; he likens them to slaves, noting he is against the practice of slavery. M'Balz assures him they are honored servants. He then has the other two wait behind while he goes to see his father.

When he enters the room, M'Balz is called by his father to approach. He reproaches the youth by saying that once again the young noble has dishonored their family.

M'Balz protests, saying he has taken care of the sorcerer as asked. Mabad expresses his surprise that he has already defeated the evil Gar Ghul'mal, but M'Balz insists that he, personally, killed the man. He also explains about the death of the gnomes from the Sma'ruf clan.

Mabad notes he will have the peacekeepers look into the deaths, but that Gar Ghul'mal is not the reason he has summoned his son.

M'Balz expresses his ignorance at the reason for his summoning. Mabad explains he had an interesting visitor while M'Balz was gone, a woman claiming M'Balz was intending to make her his wife.

When M'Balz refers to her as "the harlot", Mabad is incensed, confirming that M'Balz did indeed know the woman.

M'Balz protests, saying that one of his friends brought her to the palace. He says they cleaned her up and sent her on her way, but Mabad notes she has already been back once and seems determined to cause problems.

Mabad goes on to explain he sent the whore away. M'Balz praises the decision, noting that he had no need for her though he does inquire about her location. Mabad tells him that would not be a good idea, and tells his son he had the woman banished from the city and sent out to the village of Stars Hollow.

M'Balz then moves the conversation along to discuss the writ. Mabad says he is inclined to deny the writ given the situation with Rory, but says he is a man of his honor and by the will of the Loregiver intends to make M'Balz one as well.

With plans for the writ underway, M'Balz moves to take his leave. Mabad notes that should any complications come up with the shipment of "fine wine", he will be most displeased.

M'Balz offers to send a case of the wine to his father, but the old man refuses. He mentions wanting to send someone to watch over his son and the shipment. Ultimately, he decides not to waste valuable servants on his son's foolishness.

*** Session 2 - Scene 3 (of 9) ***

Finished with his father, M'Balz heads back to rejoin his companions. Gra'bir asks how the meeting went, and M'Balz explains how "Abanband's trollop" returned and spoke to his father and intended to become part of his harem, only to be exiled to Stars Hollow.

Gra'bir asks why he simply didn't marry her. He explains the woman is a "skanky whore" and "not worthy of M'Balz". Gra'bir calls the decision wise.

One of the servants then appears with a cleaned-up dwarf. The dwarf seems drawn to one of the shrines in the palace. He recognizes the symbol of the Loregiver.

M'Balz is more focused on what to call the dwarf since he does not know his name. Gra'bir suggests that such a man might be called "Stubby" in his tribe. After tossing around variations on this, they end up with "Little Chub".

Around this time, Adanband appears fresh from the doctor. M'Balz starts mentioning their mission that night, inviting the dwarf to join them as he appears to be some kind of priest.

He notes that it is too bad the dwarf wasn't around the previous day, as they lost one of their friends, a minstrel named Tobuscus. Chub offers to give a prayer to the Loregiver for him anyway right at the palace shrine.

Giving the prayer, Chub feels a warm light flow through him. He suddenly remembers he is indeed a priest, and that his real name is Butrus. Both M'Balz and Gra'bir wonder if he was named after the famous historical Grand Vizier, Butrus Ghali. With no last name remembered yet, M'Balz suggests his full name is "Butrus Al-Chub".

Butrus explains he has no weapons or armor to do any adventuring with. M'Balz explains a loan can be arranged. He can put forth 15 dinar, but his companions have little money. Instead, M'Balz wonders if can get the equipment out of his father instead.

M'Balz then takes Butrus to meet his father, who is less than pleased to be disturbed again. His son tells him he wishes to meet a new compatriot of his; Mabad's reaction suggests he has suffered this scene more than once and gives a cynical eye to Butrus.

When his son says Butrus is a holy man, Mabad is openly skeptical, particularly when M'Balz insists the dwarf will be his ethical guide. He then says he will have the dwarf judged accordingly.

Grabbing the nearby zither that has been in the Al-Badassi family for generations, Mabad plays a note to summon forth the family's djinn servant, Kazaam.

The tall, dark-skinned genie looms over M'Balz and Butrus but gives a broad smile. He laughs at the small-sized dwarf, who proclaims with full sincerity about his story of amnesia and being a priest. Kazaam smiles while using his magic, telling Mabad that Butrus does indeed tell the truth.

Once Kazaam returns to his musical instrument, M'Balz reiterates how the dwarf will be a good guide for him. Mabad says perhaps, but wants to know what it is his son wants of him.

M'Balz admits he needs basic provisions for the dwarf, so that they may venture out and do the will of the Loregiver. Mabad seems impressed, calling the request reasonable. He does note he may have a task for M'Balz to perform in the future, but grants his request for now.

*** Session 2 - Scene 4 (of 9) ***

Once Butrus is fully equipped, the group decides what to do next. M'Balz notes they may want to get more information about Geer, going over again what Rory told them about the man.

Gra'bir wants to make sure their route to the kobold will be clear, but M'Balz is confident they won't run into too much trouble.

Butrus suggests the easiest way to get the wine through would be to have a funeral procession. He suggests putting the wine in a crypt in the cart and leading it through the streets undetected.

M'Balz likes the idea. Gra'bir agrees it will provide extra protection. Adanband likes the idea as well, as he sneezes loudly. Butrus wonders if Adanband is with the plague and should go in the coffin with the wine, but decides the sneezing would give the ruse away.

Since they need a coffin to transport the body, M'Balz suggests they will need some wood. However, they all realize that none of them are carpenters. Gra'bir suggests perhaps Mabad has men for this, but M'Balz believes his father would not approve.

Butrus suggests they go to one of the mosques in the pilgrim's district to see if they can get one already made for free.

They head to one of the pragmatic mosques, that of the prophet Zann the Wise. Butrus greets the imam there, a man named Renn and tells a tale of the visions he has received from the Loregiver. He explains about the help he has received, and that he wishes to pay back his new friends by procuring a coffin.

Imam Renn notes they do have several in storage, but requests an offering. Butrus explains he can offer his services, but no money because of his condition. He also notes that one of his friends is the son of Bey Mabad Al-Badassi, a fair and just man whose friendship to the mosque could be valuable.

The imam agrees, saying he'd like Butrus' help with a youth gang preying on pilgrims in the area, known as the Silent Starlings. If Butrus and his group can stop the thieving, it would be most appreciated by the temple. The dwarf agrees to look into it when they can.

While Butrus talks to the imam, M'Balz is approached by a beggar on a rolling cart who appears to have no legs; a blanket covers his lower body as he moves his cart with his arms.

The man gives his name as Tarik and asks M'Balz for spare change. Accustomed to dealing with beggars, M'Balz ignores the wretch. But his pleas and claims of being a former acolyte tug the heart strings of Gra'bir, who says they should help the man.

M'Balz says he can help, but prefers a man earn his pay. Both Gra'bir and Tarik insist he has no way to earn money, as he is missing his legs.

Not convinced, M'Balz confirms the man can roll himself through the city. He offers him a pay of two gold dinar for delivering a message. Tarik wants one gold now, and one after he delivers, but M'Balz won't budge.

Tarik insists he needs food now, asking if they have any dirham or bits to spare. Instead, Gra'bir offers one of his iron rations so the man may eat. Handing it to the man, he seems less than appreciative.

M'Balz gives a message saying "I am here with the city guard" without anyone seeing, and folds it and gives it to Tarik. He instructs the man to deliver it to a man named Geer in the Northwest District. M'Balz promises that Geer will reward him as well.

Sardonically, Tarik tells M'Balz he will "get to that later" and rolls himself off to accost another group of pilgrims. Gra'bir tells M'Balz how it was great how he was able to put the man to work. M'Balz responds that the Al-Badassi family is nothing if not magnanimous.

Butrus comes back to inform the others about the Silent Starlings gang. M'Balz expresses outrage, saying the Al-Badassi opposes such activities strongly. But for now, they decide to go get the cart and put the coffin in it.

*** Session 2 - Scene 5 (of 9) ***

In short order, M'Balz and his group get the writ from Mabad's vizier and use the cart to get the coffin at the mosque. They inform the imam they will look into the gang once they deal with their dead friend.

Renn asks M'Balz what his friends name was. When he hears it was Tobuscus, he is saddened by the loss of the "comedic genius" who came up with "Don't Whip Me Brother" and sang the lovely song about getting the diamonds.

As the imam laments the loss, M'Balz notes the song is burned into his memory and that he loved the entertainer like a brother. Renn says it is good M'Balz is giving him a proper funeral, which he attributes to the nobility of the Al-Badassi family.

Once they leave, Gra'bir asks M'Balz how they intend to get the body of Tobuscus from out of the harbor and into the coffin. M'Balz blithely explains that the man's spirit will join the spirits in the casket.

Butrus offers to give a prayer over the death site of Tobuscus that his spirit may find the coffin. Gra'bir is confused, noting this is not the way his tribe worships the Loregiver and handles the dead. He says the ways of the city are very strange to him.

M'Balz leads the cart to the location where Tobscus fell into the harbor. Butrus sits and goes into a deep chant, giving his prayers. Suddenly, a hand emerges from the water.

Everyone is stunned as the ghoul-like form of Tobuscus pulls itself out of the water. Gra'bir exclaims his surprise that Butrus has raised him up.

Butrus holds back to see what Tobuscus will do. Gra'bir, however, opens the lid to the crypt and invites him to find his final resting place.

Adanband springs into action, blasting the ghoul with a burning hands spell. Most of the power of the flame is absorbed by the water rather than damaging the creature.

Rather than assaulting the creature directly, M'Balz using his skill in acrobatics to kick the creature. The force of the blow knocks it back into the waters of the harbor, causing it to miss with a claw attack at Adanband.

Gra'bir asks M'Balz what he is doing, as they were "so close". M'Balz focuses on explaining to Butrus that it was the form of Tobuscus they fought. Butrus muses that perhaps they should leave the dead to be dead. Gra'bir makes a comment expressing his confusion over this particular funeral ritual.

Just then, Tobuscus starts to climb back out of the water again. He claws at M'Balz, scratching him. The magical touch of the creature paralyzes him.

Gra'bir apologizes to Tobuscus as he makes an attack, saying he must return to a peaceful rest. But his shot goes very wide, missing the creature.

Butrus tries to turn the creature using the strength of his faith, but it resists. Adanband holds back before acting further.

Moving in with his mace, Butrus smashes into the creature with a glancing blow. Adanband tries to follow up with an attack with his staff, but misses, as does Gra'bir with his bow.

The ghoulish Tobuscus claws and bites into Butrus, wounding him seriously. Gra'bir maneuvers around and fires another shot that misses as Adanband singes the creature again.

Butrus calls upon the Loregiver as he casts a spell to entangle the ghoul in a mass of vines and sea weed that emerge from the water. Adanband then runs up to the creature and uses his scimitar to behead it.

With the undead creature returned to death, the elf puts the pieces of the body into the coffin and they rest while waiting for M'Balz to recover, with Butrus praying over him.

*** Session 2 - Scene 6 (of 9) ***

After nearly twenty minutes, Butrus' prayers appear to be answered as M'Balz can move again. M'Balz gives his thanks and Gra'bir notes he is truly a holy man.

In this time, a small crowd has gathered around and claps once M'Balz can move again. Some even through bits, which M'Balz moves to collect. Overcome with emotion, Gra'bir invites everyone on the funeral procession for Tobuscus Al-Tunar.

The crowd cheers the idea. Butrus starts to wonder where they are going to put the wine. Thinking quickly, M'Balz thanks the crowd for joining them but laments that Tobuscus was a private man and wanted a private funeral. He asks them to return to their tasks and let them be on their way.

The speech appears to work and the crowd breaks up. As they move away slowly, they bow their heads and quietly and slowly sing the "Find the Diamond" song as a dirge.

Gra'bir tells M'Balz he is wise, and that Gra'bir did not realize Tobuscus was so private. He worries he may have offended the spirit of Tobuscus, but M'Balz assures him all is well.

Once they are alone again, they begin moving the cart down the river. When they reach Daria's ship, her orc guardsman asks M'Balz why they have brought a coffin.

M'Balz says simply that Daria is not the only one they are transporting things for. The orc insists on looking inside, so M'Balz opens the crypt. The orc recognizes Tobuscus, and thanks the Loregiver he never has to hear the man sing again.

The orc wonders why M'Balz would kill the man. But the noble explains that Tobuscus died from falling into the harbor, and came back a ghoul from his watery grave.

Still confused, the orc doesn't understand why they are hauling the body around if Tobuscus already turned into a ghoul and was killed again. Butrus scolds the orc for denying Tobuscus a proper burial, but M'Balz does offer that the dwarf never heard Tobuscus sing.

Dismissing the whole thing as nonsense, the orc tells M'Balz to do what he wants. He then shows them to the wine crates on the deck of the ship. Gra'bir and Adanband begin moving it back to the cart.

With no room in the cart, M'Balz wonders what to do with the wine. Butrus offers that a watery grave may be the most appropriate. Gra'bir is confused, noting they went to a lot of work to get him out already.

M'Balz notes that Tobuscus did all the work. He also agrees with Butrus, who is concerned about spoiling the wine if they place it next to a dead body. Adanband agrees to the consensus.

Butrus says they should slice up the body to prevent it from floating, though notes he himself cannot do so. Gra'bir offers to assist, saying he is experienced with dressing animals. As he does so, he becomes sickened and notes the animals he dressed were fresher kills.

Once he is done, they dump the body and the head into the river. The orc watches, shaking his head. He then growls a question to ask if they are still planning on taking the wine. When M'Balz says they are indeed, he grumbles he does not understand why the captain trusts them as they seem less than competent.

Butrus gives a blessing to the wine as Adanband and Gra'bir load it into the coffin in the cart. M'Balz elects to stand guard.

M'Balz does ask to speak to the captain, but the orc tells him the captain is not there. He asks what they want, and M'Balz says he has information to give her. He also wants to know more details about the drop off.

The orc says they need only give it to the kobold and asks what else they need to know. M'Balz inquires about what pay they should receive, but the orc explains that will be handled later. The orc also confirms the kobold knows what to expect.

He does offer to take any information they have and relay it to the captain, but M'Balz says they will need to deliver it personally and will come back later. After exchanging their goodbyes, the group heads out on the streets.

*** Session 2 - Scene 7 (of 9) ***

The funeral procession makes its way into the Northwest District, with Butrus leading the way.

As they make their way into the slums, an older dwarf woman emerges from one of the run-down buildings and beckons them over.

M'Balz sends Adanband to go talk to her. She gives her name as Mawa, and asks about their funeral cart. She asks the elf if he is familiar with the house.

Mawa explains the building is the Golden Pleasure House. Adanband recognizes it as the brothel Rory mentioned working at before.

The old dwarf madam explains she has a slight problem and asks if there is any space in the coffin. According to Mawa, one of their older customers, a seaman, was overcome by the company at the house and has expired, requiring her to need to be able to move him without attracting attention.

She offers Adanband twenty dinar to take the body and dispose of it. Mawa also offers to include the man's possessions as well, in order to sweeten the deal.

When Adanband asks the others, they agree they should do the deed to help (and get the money) but need to complete their current tasks first. Mawa tells them she will have everything ready when they get back.

She also seems taken with Butrus, whom Adanband identifies by his new nickname of Little Chub. She says she would like to get to know this Little Chub and asks he be the one to come talk to her when the group gets back.

A short time later, the group gets near the kobold's warehouse when they are stopped by a Mamluk peacekeeper force. Their leader, a man named Sargon, tells them to halt.

Butrus approaches Sargon to wish him well and plead for him to let them move quickly, for he is worried the corpse they carry may be diseased.

Sargon eyes Butrus critically and questions his name and the name of the dead. Butrus feigns ignorance of the dead, but M'Balz gives the name as Tobuscus and laments the loss of his "golden voice".

The Mamluk is unconvinced, saying he does not appear as grieved as he says. He demands they open the coffin as he feels something is amiss.

M'Balz tries to stall the captain by saying Tobuscus died of a very contagious plague known as "cockrot". Sargon ignores his story and his men open the coffin.

The Mamluk is enraged they are attempting to smuggle wine through his territory. Butrus feigns ignorance, accusing the others of tricking him.

M'Balz, ever the golden tongued rogue, explains the corporal body of Tobuscus lies at the bottom of the harbor but that this is how he wished to be remembered. Gra'bir assures Sargon the coffin was for Tobuscus.

Sargon says his men will help them celebrate. M'Balz looks at the eight man patrol and weighs his options. Butrus explains the wine is holy, but Sargon insists they are thieves and threatens to have them arrested for smuggling.

M'Balz then offers he has a writ for the taxes. Sargon asks to see the writ, then says it is in order. He then asks if they were legal, why the nonsense with the funeral and other lies about Tobuscus. Gra'bir notes the neighborhood is rough while M'Balz lays on the flattery by saying not all the guards are as honest as Sargon.

Sargon dismisses them, saying they should deliver their goods and be gone, and he does not wish to see them again. Gra'bir notes he does not wish to see the guard again either, while M'Balz urges Sargon to see a doctor as the cockrot-ridden body of Tobuscus did lie in the coffin before.

*** Session 2 - Scene 8 (of 9) ***

At the warehouse, Qubad cagily greets them. M'Balz gives his full name, causing the kobold to say he has nothing to do with noblemen.

The confusion continues until M'Balz mentions Daria's name. He tells the man to bring in the delivery, but wonders why it is in a coffin. Gra'bir offers that it has the cockrot, while Butrus notes it has been blessed.

M'Balz tells Qubad they wanted to keep a low profile, which causes the kobold to scoff at the idea of moving a coffin through town with blessed wine. He also briefly mentions Tobuscus, but the criminal has never heard of him.

He has them bring in the wine to his warehouse, grumbling under his breath that Daria chooses the dumbest couriers. Butrus tries to offer that they only have five cases of wine, but Qubad knows he is to expect six.

Once they have it inside, Butrus suggests they taste it to be sure it is good. Qubad is unconcerned about the quality of the wine and tells them to leave. He assures them Daria will pay them whatever she has arranged.

Gra'bir looks around the warehouse for anything of interest, but spots nothing. Butrus, meanwhile, hits up Qubad for a donation to the mosque. Initially he says no, but when Gra'bir comments that he has refused a holy man twice he relents.

Explaining he does not want to attract the evil eye, he goes off and grabs a crate. He hands it to Butrus and tells him to give it to the mosque as his donation to the faith.

*** Session 2 - Scene 9 (of 9) ***

After they leave and are out of sight of the warehouse, M'Balz wants to check the contents of the crate. They move in to a side alley. M'Balz checks it carefully and determines there are no traps on the box. Butrus, meanwhile, keeps watch.

The nobleman then asks Gra'bir to open the chest, but he says it would be wrong for him to open it. M'Balz then tells Butrus to open it. He does so, as the others step back.

Inside, he finds a collection of a few bolts of fabric and nothing more. It is a plain material, but suitable for making robes.

With that out of the way, they head back to the brothel. Mawa is happy to see them and wants to get rid of the body quickly. She gives the man's meager possessions to the group, which includes an old map that could be a treasure map.

As they put the body in the coffin, Gra'bir notes they are sure getting their money's worth out of it. M'Balz agrees, and says that since the dead man was an old seaman, they should return him to the sea.

When they get back to the harbor, they find a dark, secluded area and drop the coffin in the body after Gra'bir prepares it (including weighing it down with a rope and stone).

Butrus then wants to check on the Silent Starlings in order to fulfill their promise. But M'Balz wants to see Daria first.

However, when they reach the location, they find that Daria's ship is no longer berthed there. Butrus is rather nonchalant about it, but M'Balz is annoyed. Gra'bir wonders if they should get their money out of Qubad.

So, they head back over to the Pilgrim's District but find it rather quiet. They return the coffin and bolts of cloth. The imam mentions the gang isn't active in this area at night when they ask.

As they leave the mosque, they hear a voice call out for them to wait. Stepping out of the shadows is a small goblin.

He tells the men there is something he wants to talk to them about. He asks them if they've ever heard of Omar Dra'lah.

*** Session 2 - Session Notes ***

This session introduced our fourth player, who went with a Wolverine-style background (I think largely because he didn't want to have to think up a detailed background).

The session was cut a little short because we started late from dinner and the Adanband player was having bad allergies, but the session was fun and introducing the dwarf really mixed up the group dynamic in an interesting way.

I got to have fun with Mabad again, this time hinting the problem with Rory isn't going away so easily (more on that in later sessions). The Stars Hollow village is another Gilmore Girls reference.

The fun with naming the dwarf led to a million and one jokes that didn't make it into the write-up.

I actually named the character because I created the character for the player (he missed the character creation session and will be more of an infrequent drop-in player). I did indeed name him after Butrus Butrus-Ghali, something the players immediately referenced (hence the comment about the famous vizier).

The Kazaam joke didn't elicit nearly as many groans as I was hoping when that came up in game. Again, only Wikipedia and cultural osmosis are my sources for that terrible movie (never actually saw it).

The equipment Butrus gets is exactly what I originally had on his character sheet (before the player decided he'd begin with amnesia and essentially naked).

I loved the funeral procession idea. I kept imagining a very mardis gras style procession, particularly when Gra'bir tried to invite everyone at the docks.

Because I made the culture monotheistic, I have to switch the mosques to being of different prophets instead of different gods. Hence, the mosque of the prophet Zann (instead of being to the god of wisdom).

Tarik the beggar was based directly on Eddie Murphy's character in Trading Places. Another one the players picked up right away (I'm going to have to start getting more obscure). Tarik doesn't fall for M'Balz's scam because obviously he's also a streetwise con artist.

I wasn't originally going to bring back Tobuscus, and certainly not right away. But, the idea to go pray at his death site was too good an opportunity to pass up.

I loved the part about Gra'bir and Butrus assuming prayers freed M'Balz from his paralysis, instead of it just being the duration ending.

The old dwarf madam looking to get rid of a body was one of the many city plots I had planned. It went perfectly along with their funeral procession idea.

By far, my favorite part of the session was the scene with Sargon, where M'Balz's snowball of lies kept compounding and causing trouble, right up until he remembers he already had a different scheme to get out of trouble with law enforcement.

On a side note, I laughed at the whole "cockrot" disease, largely because that's one of the disease names I've used on the plague game on my tablet.

The group was very, very anxious about the gift from Qubad. But it wasn't a trick, they really did guilt him into making a donation.

The silent starlings plot will come up later. I'm going to be honest, I don't remember what my original plan was there (I think I even picked that name for a specific reason, but don't recall what it was now).

The goblin appearing at the end may be familiar to any long-time readers of my AP threads. He is Snarg, from my D&D 4e campaign (Shadows Over Fallcrest). Omar Dra'lah was the dead brother of one of the characters of that campaign (Sa'lid Dra'lah, who was Snarg's master).

*** Session 3 - Cast of Characters ***

M'Balz Al-Badassi: A human rogue from the city. M'Balz is the member of a noble family with political connections, but is bored with his wealthy lifestyle and instead performs as a masked scoundrel for hire know as Al-Caliph.

Gra'bir Boubi: A human warrior from the desert tribe of the Wah'na Poq-yah tribe of the Haunted Lands. A superb hunter, Gra'bir has come to the city of Huzaz to look for a quest to prove himself a great warrior.

Adanband: An elf scholar and sorcerer from the city of Huzaz.

*** Session 3 - Scene 1 (of 9) ***

The goblin introduces himself as Snarg, a former servant of the Dra'lah family. M'Balz suggests he is a petty goblin thief, but Snarg insists that he has never stolen anything, though things have fallen into his pockets from time to time.

Snarg then goes on to tell the tale of Omar Dra'lah, one of two brothers who were both powerful sorcerers from the area. Omar was eventually killed by an evil sorcerer known as Salazar the Maleficent many years ago. Snarg explains that when Salazar slew Omar, he took all of his treasure.

He then explains to M'Balz that he has seen their group accomplish things this night, and believes they can help each other. M'Balz is reluctant, but wants to know what kind of deal the creature is looking for.

Snarg says that Omar had great treasure when he was killed. Salazar took the treasure back to his tower. The goblin suggests that they could all venture to the tower and split the treasure they find evenly. M'Balz has a very different definition of "evenly" than Snarg.

Gra'bir wants to know what Snarg has to offer. The goblin explains he is one of the few people who knows where the tower is. He also offers his services as someone skilled with dealing with traps. He insists he will be a helpful addition, saying he was much help to his former master Sa'lid.

Gra'bir isn't convinced, and wonders how smart Sa'lid was to keep the goblin in service. M'Balz also wants to know more about him.

Snarg explains that Sa'lid Dra'lah was the younger brother of Omar and Snarg's master. He says he served Sa'lid faithfully for many years.

M'Balz takes the others aside to discuss. Gra'bir doesn't trust Snarg while Adanband wants a better idea of what the treasure will be and wonders if there might be something better.

M'Balz, however, believes Omar as a great sorcerer may have had a large amount of treasure. He also notes Snarg is not very big, and it would be easy to aggressively renegotiate the terms of the treasure once they have it.

The argument sways Adanband, who agrees to pursue this treasure. Gra'bir still doesn't trust Snarg, saying there may be something powerful or valuable in the treasure he wishes to keep for himself. He advises caution and to make sure to keep the goblin away from the treasure before everything is inventoried.

M'Balz then leads the group back to Snarg and agrees to his terms. Snarg is happy they have come to a deal, reiterating they will split the treasure of Omar Dra'lah evenly.

Snarg then wistfully recalls the murder of Omar by Salazar, saying the evil magic-user fled across the foreign seas to escape punishment. The goblin explains he accompanied his master into the outlands to pursue the evil one for vengeance.

M'Balz isn't interested in the tale, and wants to proceed with making arrangements for the expedition. Butrus tells the others he will stay behind in order to help the imam with the Silent Starlings as they already pledged to do.

After Butrus departs, Snarg explains that Salazar's tower is high up in the Al-Akar Mountains, hundreds of miles from the city. He tells M'Balz it will be a journey of a week at least to reach it. The nobleman knows that such a long journey into the wilderness could be perilous.

M'Balz tells Snarg that such a long journey will require a fair amount of supplies and asks him if he will be providing them. Snarg tells M'Balz no, and explains he has no money. He goes on to say that he has only recently escaped from an evil pair of outlander elves – an archer and a hag sorceress – and returned to his homeland.

Calling Snarg's tale a "terrible story", M'Balz says he will be glad to fund the expedition in exchange for a "slight interest" that can be taken out of Snarg's share.

Snarg doesn't disagree to the terms. He suggests they leave in the morning at first light, and asks M'Balz for his input on how to leave the city. M'Balz declares they will head out of the city along the Ghost's Route (Dihl Al-Taif), saying they will encounter less bandit activity that day.

M'Balz and Snarg agree to meet, with M'Balz suggesting Snarg be sure to arm himself appropriately for the journey.

*** Session 3 - Scene 2 (of 9) ***

The group discusses what all they may need to gather for the journey. In addition to food and water, Gra'bir would like to have some form of transportation (already missing the horse he foolishly traded away).

Adanband would prefer to use camels over horses given their travel through the desert and mountains. Pooling their money together, they realize they come far short from the amount that would be needed to actually purchase mounts.

M'Balz's family, of course, owns many horses and camels but knows his father would never let him take them out on something he would call a foolish treasure hunt. He throws out the idea of going back to Qubad for the money Daria owes them, but Gra'bir isn't so sure heading back into the slums at night to shake down a criminal for money will lead to a positive outcome.

Instead, Gra'bir suggests they just make the journey on foot or perhaps a magic carpet. M'Balz scoffs at the idea they would have the money for a flying carpet, but Gra'bir explains he was referring to looking for a sorcerer with one who may require a favor.

M'Balz mulls over their options. He is concerned about trying to go the distance on foot. When Gra'bir points out they could follow the Al-Sarif River for much of the distance, M'Balz realizes they could buy passage on a ferry for much of the trip before setting out into the desert. Everyone agrees that plan will be best. They head back to M'Balz's palace to rest for the evening.

*** Session 3 - Scene 3 (of 9) ***

The next morning, M'Balz, Adanband, and Gra'bir meet up with Snarg at the gate. M'Balz explains that they were unable to acquire mounts, so they will attempt to buy passage up the river. Snarg agrees that will save some time.

The four of them travel to the docks where they meet with Ishmael, one of the ferry captains. M'Balz mentions they are heading to the Al-Akara Mountains. The captain agrees to take them to the end of the line, and the two take a moment to haggle over prices until they settle on 20 dinar for the four of them in exchange for an agreement to assist if the ship runs into any trouble along the way.

M'Balz gives a false name of Ahab to the captain, calling Gra'bir by the name Starbuck and Adanband as Queequeg; he uses Snarg's real name. The captain greets them all and welcomes them aboard. The group relaxes on the promenade as other passengers come aboard before the ship sails.

While they are waiting around, Gra'bir notices Snarg looking around carefully. He alerts M'Balz, saying this confirms his belief that the goblin is up to no good. M'Balz can see the goblin is clearly scanning the docks and checking out the people.

After a moment, M'Balz notices Snarg stops to focus on a particular pair of men. He can see them moving along the docks towards the ship; they appear to be a couple of rough-looking outlanders. They are clearly looking in Snarg's direction.

Snarg turns to the others and says they need to get going. He asks M'Balz to pay the captain more money to launch the ship now. When M'Balz feigns poverty, he mentions the great Al-Badassi family should have enough, causing M'Balz to remind him of their false identities and says that any money he has will require a much larger percentage of the treasure.

The goblin is still agitated. He says if the ship doesn't leave now, there may not be a treasure to share. Gra'bir keeps an eye on the men, keeping his bow close by in case there is trouble.

M'Balz tells the goblin that if the treasure hunt is off, they are out nothing. But if he wants to proceed, it will cost a significant, but fair, portion of the treasure. Snarg insists that M'Balz, on his honor, declare he will only take his fair share of the treasure from the treasure of Omar Dra'lah.

Agreeing to the terms, M'Balz gives an additional 10 dinar to the captain to ship out early, to "avoid outland entanglements." Ishmael tells M'Balz not to worry, as his ship has made the Al-Akara run in under five furlongs.

As the ship pulls away, the men on the docks begin running to catch it but cannot make it in time. They stand back on the docks, looking angry.

M'Balz then picks up Snarg by the collar and tells the goblin he owes them an explanation. The goblin says he may have one or two problems to take care of. He explains that after being imprisoned by the evil elves in the outlands, he had no money once he returned to the city. To survive, he had to take out loans from a large, violent outlander.

Snarg then reveals his debtor to be Geer. M'Balz calls him a bigger fool than he thought, saying how dangerous Geer is. He tells the goblin they will keep him alive until they complete the mission, but he'll be on his own once they get back.

*** Session 3 - Scene 4 (of 9) ***

The first day and a half of the trip is uneventful. They hear little of interest from the other passengers, though one does recommend the Golden Pleasure House as a secret brothel on the northwest side they should visit. Another passenger has a crazy story about a hidden treasure in the grounds of the public gardens.

The riparian entertainments are interrupted by a sudden yell of alarm from the front of the ship as the ship is rocked. One of the crewman shouts that the ship is under attack by a herd of hippopotami.

The group decides to defend the ship, as they agreed. Gra'bir attempts to fire an arrow at one of the creatures, but the shot goes wide. Meanwhile, Adanband and M'Balz rush forward to engage in melee with one of the beasts up against the ship.

M'Balz grabs both his daggers, and attempts to drive them into the neck of the beast. One of them pierces its thick hide, but just barely. Adanband attempts to use his staff to drive the creature off, but the hippo nearly bites it into. It then chimps down on M'Balz, badly injuring his arm.

Gra'bir can see the creatures will be too tough to fight off. Instead, he plans to drive them off using flames. Using his oil flask, he makes an incendiary device and throws it at the creatures. Unfortunately, his throw is weak and it explodes on the deck of the ship. The hippos do back off, but between the fire and the damage from the beasts the ship is starting to sink.

Adanband tells Captain Ishmael to head for the nearest shore, but he tells him he is already doing it. Unfortunately, the fire is spreading too fast and it doesn't look like they'll make it.

M'Balz directs everyone to jump off the port side, as the hippos came from starboard. They make it into the water, but struggle against the currents.

Adanband easily makes it to shore while M'Balz struggles before making it. Gra'bir, however, is not a strong swimmer and begins to drown.

The elf detects his companion's issues from the shore and dives back in to save him. He manages to grab on to Gra'bir, but the struggling man is hard to control. As they struggle, a hippo begins getting closer.

Adanband begins to tire as Gra'bir continues to struggle. He suffers a serious bite from the hippo while trying to drag his friend to shore. But despite the pain in his arm and being pursued by the hungry hippo, they do manage to reach land. The hippo leaves the party alone once they are on land, returning to the rest of the herd.

*** Session 3 - Scene 5 (of 9) ***

Because of the quick jump into the water, everyone checks to see what equipment they may have lost in the water.

Gra'bir notices he has lost his sack, his belt pouch (with his coins), his quiver full of arrows (though his extra arrows from his backpack are still good), his blanket, his rations, and his wineskin.

M'Balz notices he has lost one of his daggers, his quiver of arrows, his scroll of pedigree, his grappling hook, his iron spikes, his set of dark clothing, his mirror, his blanket, the oil for his lamp, and his tinder box.

Adanband realizes he has lost his spellbook, his scholarly letter, his hourlglass, one of his belt pouches, his ten sheets of paper, his quill, his sealing wax, his blanket, the lamp for his oil, and his tinder box.

Gra'bir looks across the water, seeing the sinking ship. In the distance, he believes he can still hear the screams of those left aboard. He notes the ship was apparently of poor construction.

Just then, they spot Snarg swimming up to shore. He complains about being wet, saying the attack was quite the adventure. M'Balz grumpily notes they have lost several items and suggests Snarg go to find them and earn back some of the percentage of the treasure.

Snarg doesn't consider himself a very good swimmer, but Gra'bir says if nothing else they will need to recover Adanband's spell book; without it, he notes, they will have no way to defeat the evil sorcerer.

The goblin is confused at first, but realizes he means Salazar. Snarg explains Salazar was defeated long ago in the outlands so that is of no concern – the tower should be empty. But Gra'bir is unconvinced, saying there could still be guardians left.

Snarg isn't convinced he can do anything about it because of the size of the river. M'Balz, however, is convinced the magical nature of the book will lead to it being recoverable in the short term.

In the end, Snarg agrees to go out and search in exchange for it counting completely for his share of the trip expenses. Adanband, a strong swimmer, goes out as well.

They search the area for the next half hour or more before Snarg locates the book. Meanwhile, Gra'bir hunts for a gazelle they can use for food. He cuts it up for their meal, and takes out the bladder to use as a temporary wineskin.

M'Balz plots a quick survey of their trip. They still had half a day of sailing on the river to go, and another 45 miles through the desert after that before reaching the mountains. He also knows the nearest settlement nearby is many days travel out of their way.

They decide to rest for a while. Gra'bir attempts to make a shelter for the injured M'Balz and Adanband, but it doesn't block the sun very well and they end up with burns. Gra'bir, however, insists it is because they are weak and need a "ladies' shelter" instead so he builds them a more thorough one.

*** Session 3 - Scene 6  (of 9) ***

After resting up for the night, the group decides M'Balz and Adanband are too weak to continue. So they decide to stay another day. In the meantime, Gra'bir weaves some river reeds together to make a new quiver.

With the day of rest complete, M'Balz feels ready to continue. He tells Snarg to continue, who reminds him their path lies on the other side of the river. Not wanting to risk losing any more equipment, they elect to head along the river until they can ford it.

As they get ready to go, Adanband notices his signet ring is missing. He looks around the camp, but cannot find it. He mentions it to the others.

Gra'bir gets the elf to confirm he had it after they landed on shore. Adanband is suspicious of Snarg, asking him if he's seen it. Snarg describes it as nice and shiny but is evasive on whether he's seen it recently or knows where it is.

Adanband attempts to interrogate Snag, but the goblin manages to use verbal trickery to avoid getting pinned down. Snarg concludes Adanband is careless, but the elf is unconvinced. He forces his way into Snarg's pockets, finding his ring.

Snarg expresses surprise, saying the ring must have fallen in his pocket while he was helping the sorcerer. Adanband tells him not to do it again, and the goblin agrees to try and keep his pockets closed so things won't fall in them.

After traveling up the river for the day, they make camp. On Gra'bir's watch, he hears the hooves of horses off in the distance. He can tell they are coming closer, and sound like they are being ridden in formation. He wakes Adanband and M'Balz to warn them.

M'Balz instructs everyone to spread out and take cover. They attempt to hide behind the foliage near the river, but have little luck.

The riders spot the group immediately and surround them. They appear to be a group of tribal warriors, fifteen strong. Gra'bir recognizes them as the Riders of Blood, a violent splinter group of the Hanif tribe who oppose the Grand Caliph.

The leader of the Blood Riders, calling himself Jarif, tells the three to come out and throw down their weapons or be killed.

M'Balz gives the man the aliases he used with the river captain, and asks what they can do for the riders. Jarif demands all of their possessions or they will kill them.

M'Balz notes the unfairness of being stranded in the desert without anything and offers a possible agreement. He offers the man a cut of the treasure they are searching for. Gra'bir notes they are on a raid of the tower of a great sorcerer and ally of the Grand Caliph.

Jarif calls him a liar, and identifies Gra'bir as a member of the Wah'na Poq-ya tribe and says M'Balz has the look of a nobleman. He also calls Adanband soft and weak before demanding all of their possessions again or else they will kill them.

Gra'bir whispers a suggestion to Adanband to use his magic to obscure them. Jarif notices the sorcerer gesturing and readies his sword to chop the elf's head off, when the horse suddenly kicks and runs off. As it leaves, they can see Snarg stabbed the creature in the hind quarters with his dagger.

Adanband lets loose his wall of fog spell, obscuring the area. Between the fog and their leader leaving, the disarray is enough for the group to get loose and run to the river.

Despite having to swim in the dark, they manage to make it across the river without any difficulties. Other than their blankets, they managed to keep their equipment this time. They head down the river bank a bit until they find a safe place to make camp and go back to sleep.

The next day, Snarg reminds them they will only be along the river for a short time now, then soon will be crossing the desert into the mountains. Everyone is sure to get as much fresh water as they can.

*** Session 3 - Scene 7 (of 9) ***

The trip takes the group into the desert. As they march, they spot a circle of vultures off in the distance. M'Balz wonders if it could be the sign of a caravan.

Gra'bir says they should be cautious. M'Balz suggests sending a scout, then realizes he is the only one qualified to be one (other than the goblin, whom he mistrusts).

Approaching cautiously ahead of the group, M'Balz detects the vultures are eating off of a body of a humanoid lying on the ground. The rogue looks around carefully and approaches once he is sure there is no danger.

Getting in closer, he can see that it is the body of an elf in fine clothing, carrying a scroll case. M'Balz takes the scroll case away from the body and can tell there is a scroll inside.

Opening the case carefully, M'Balz sees the scroll is sealed with a circle of gold-colored wax surrounding a circle of black wax. He does not recognize the elaborate marking.
Looting the body, M'Balz takes the body's waterskin and searches his backpack but finds no food. He also verifies he does not recognize the man, but he can tell the body is a couple of days old apparently killed by a wound from a large, clawed animal.

Going back to the others, M'Balz gives the waterskin to Gra'bir, noting again how generous the Al-Badassi family is to its friends.

He then tells Adanband about the dead elf in the fancy clothing with the scroll case. He shows the seal to Adanband, but he does not recognize the mark either.

Adanband cannot be certain if the scroll is magic or not. He and M'Balz both agree the scroll should be opened and read. Gra'bir defers to their wisdom, being unfamiliar in such matters.

Cracking the seal, M'Balz sees that it is some sort of letter. It reads: "To the honorable Grand Vizier, I bid you greetings in good faith. The prophets behold your ascension, and you would have a high place at my table with the pearls laid before you should you find yourself in the shadows of the light of the Great Caliph Khalil al-Assad al-Zahir (short may he reign).

The time for decision draws near, and I would have your answer in 60 suns. You may send it back with this slave, or keep him for your own uses and use your pet to deliver the answer. The tent of my ear can be found at the palace of the left-handed khedive."

The letter is signed simply, "CD".

Gra'bir wonders if the letter was intended for the Grand Vizier of Huzaz, Alyana Al-Azzazi. M'Balz notes the elf was facing north, so may have been headed to Halwa instead.

Gra'bir notes he does not fully understand the politics of the city, but does appear to be some kind of appeal for allegiance. M'Balz says the slave was dressed in finery, so was the property of a wealthy man.

M'Balz theorizes the slave may have been coming from Huzaz and headed to Halwa. He believes the note is part of a treasonous plot against the Grand Caliph.

With little to go on, M'Balz feels they should get moving. He does warn the others about the large claw mark. Gra'bir believes it could be from lions living in the foothills of the mountains. The nobleman warns them all to be careful.

*** Session 3 - Scene 8 (of 9) ***

Eventually the group makes their camp in the desert. They know they have at least another day of travel ahead of them before reaching the foothills.

The next day, they resume their travels. In the afternoon, Gra'bir spots some large shapes on the ground up ahead.

The group approaches carefully, but discovers they are merely the skeletal remains of camels killed by large, clawed beasts. Gra'bir again suggests an attack by a pack of lions.

The party continues to head towards the foothills, reaching them the next day. Snarg warns them to be more careful, as dangerous creatures live in the mountains. M'Balz sarcastically notes the journey up to this point has been very safe.

Snarg tells them it will take a week or more of travel south through the mountains to reach the tower. Although they are concerned about their amount of food and water, they press on.

After a couple of days of travel, they come across a stream. While happy to get water, M'Balz urges caution as dangerous animals also live near it.

Snarg advises following the stream into the mountains, though Gra'bir is concerned about animals. Snarg suggests as adventurers, they should have no problems though Gra'bir would prefer to avoid trouble.

M'Balz ultimately decides to go with Snarg's suggestion, as the risk of animal attacks is less than that of running out of water.

After a day of travel, Gra'bir spots a watering hole as the source of the stream. There is a large cave nearby. The group decides to avoid it. Several days of uneventful travel through the mountains follow.

*** Session 3 - Scene 9 (of 9) ***

Snarg lets the group know they are getting near the path that leads up to his tower. He warns the others there is only way into the tower and it is said to be guarded by a dangerous beast.

M'Balz reminds Snarg he said the tower was empty. Snarg corrects him, noting he only said Salazar was not there. Snarg is expecting the tower to be guarded by monsters, traps, and other dangers; that's why he needed adventurers along.

Snarg does remind him that he is entitled to half of the treasure of Omar Dra'lah. M'Balz notes he is owed that, in addition to reimbursements for other expenses, but is reminded by Snarg he made the deal to erase that debt in exchange for helping with finding Adanband's spell book.

They decide to move up the pass in single file, with Gra'bir in the lead and M'Balz in the rear. On a ridge up ahead, he spots a large lion.

Since a single lion isn't usually aggressive, Gra'bir tells the others to ignore it but move quickly. He has Adanband keep an eye on the lion as he moves the group forward.

Just as they get near the peak the creature is sitting on, wings unfold from its back as it leaps into the air after them. Gra'bir realizes he has made a mistake – it was a manticore.

One of the tail spikes fires at Gra'bir. It hits his shoulder with the force of a crossbow bolt.

M'Balz fires an arrow back at the beast, missing it. Gra'bir readies his sword for the manticore's incoming attack.

Adanband, however, uses his wall of fog spell to cover the area. Obscured from the manticore, they decide to move forward on the path towards the tower.

When they emerge, they see a large mountain peak with the tower built into it. It has been shaped to look like a large serpent is encircling the peak, with a large head and open mouth near the top, and a set of double doors near the bottom of the tail.

Everyone makes a run for the doors. They have a large "S" in the shape of a snake, the symbol of Salazar the Maleficent. They manage to get inside and shut the door just as the manticore is about to reach them.

*** Session 3 - Session Notes ***

Sorry for the delay in posting these notes. This session actually occurred way back on Nov 21st. But between holidays and grieving from a death in the family, I just hadn't gotten around to posting these yet.

We actually haven't had a chance to game since. I was still feeling too down (from dealing with grief) so I cancelled our Dec 4th session, and then a couple of the guys couldn't show up for the Dec 18th session so we didn't end up having that either.

Anyway, back to this session. Unfortunately, the Butrus player couldn't make it that session either, so we had to proceed without him. Overall, the session was fun but it was a quick reminder that it is hard to have much of a D&D style adventure with less than 4-6 players.

Having only three players worked fine for our Cthulhubusters campaign, but the M'Balz player and I (the two most reliable of the group) are concerned and would like to find more players.

Unfortunately, we've tapped out our contacts. Everybody we know is either too busy with their other hobbies / family, isn't interested, or is one of the people we'd rather not play with because of personalities / gaming style clashes. It's just hard to find people in their 30's / 40's (our age group) who aren't too busy with family or don't already dedicate their free time to a different favorite hobby.

We have considered the "advertise for random strangers at the game store" plan, but hesitate. We get nervous about having random, potentially creepy individuals over at our houses as well as the feeling we'd not likely attract many gamers our age. But I digress.

So this session begins the adventure I'm calling "The Lost Treasure of Omar Dra'lah". It began with a quick recap of the Dra'lah brothers and Salazar, all who came from my D&D 4 campaign (Shadows over Fallcrest), as did the "evil" elves Snarg mentions.

I didn't want Snarg to put on his engineer hat and start up the steam engine, so I left it to the players to decide how to best get to the mountains where Salazar's tower was located. I actually had the whole region planned out, so different things would have occurred depending on what they decided to do.

The Moby Dick references started because I used the name of Ishmael for the captain. The M'Balz player was an English major so is always ready to reciprocate when I throw in a literary homage. He also slipped in the Star Wars one, another of his favorites, so I responded in kind.

Geer being after Snarg for money was one of the first plots I planned for the campaign. It will come up again later. Snarg making M'Balz pledge to only take his fair share of Omar Dra'lah's treasure is a foreshadowing set-up for later (assuming they actually get to the treasure).

The rumors the group hear come from my "table o' rumors" for the area. Unfortunately, they didn't get any of the more interesting ones.

The "riparian entertainments" language was an homage to Keeping Up Appearances, for anyone that didn't see that episode.

I fully admit, I made the hippo encounter far too dangerous. I should have left it to one hippo. That said, the PCs kind of sucked in the encounter so maybe it wouldn't have mattered too much.

During the encounter, many a "Hungry, Hungry Hippos" joke was made. Then the group found it a lot less funny when they almost drowned and lost half of their equipment (I had them roll an item saving throw for each). To avoid complete catastrophe, I let them find the spell book.

If this session suffered from one big thing, it was a whole host of terrible die rolls. From the combat encounters, to the item saves, to building the shelter, everything seemed to go wrong for the PCs this time.

Snarg really got the better of the Adanband character during their verbal sparring. It was pretty funny (though I'm not sure the Adanband player enjoyed it quite as much).

The Blood Rider encounter was a random encounter, but their lair is one of the planned encounters in the region. I had to have Snarg save the day long enough to allow Adanband's spell to get them to safety (after another bad initiative roll). I did take pity on them and didn't have them lose anything on the second trip across the river.

The dead slave with the message from the mysterious "CD" is part of a large plot I have going on in the campaign. More on that will be discovered in future sessions.

I actually gave a printed out scroll to the players during the session. As with the Cthulhubusters campaign (and the D&D 4 campaign before that, and my long ago Rifts campaign), I absolutely love handing out cryptic clues to players. As with all the previous times I've done this, the players couldn't make much out from the clues (though they at least understood some of the basic gist of it); hopefully they'll start putting things together more later.

The remains of the camels were a warning about the planned encounter of the lion caves (which they wisely avoided). Actually, having lions in the region confused the players a bit until I reminded them about Asiatic lions and their former habitats across Asia. I think they were a little too focused on thinking about modern African lions.

The manticore encounter was planned (he guards the tower for Salazar), but I purposely let them believe he was part of the lion cave encounter to surprise them. It worked wonderfully.

The description of Salazar's tower and it's design is purposely over the top, as Salazar was intended to be a very flamboyant villain. I wanted it to have a feeling like it came straight out of something like He-Man.

So, hopefully later this week we may yet have another session. If the Butrus player can make it, I'll have to come up with a way to get him to the tower. They could really use a healer, as the tower is naturally designed like a dungeon, full of various dangers.

*** Session 4 - Cast of Characters ***

M'Balz Al-Badassi: A human rogue from the city. M'Balz is the member of a noble family with political connections, but is bored with his wealthy lifestyle and instead performs as a masked scoundrel for hire know as Al-Caliph.

Gra'bir Boubi: A human warrior from the desert tribe of the Wah'na Poq-yah tribe of the Haunted Lands. A superb hunter, Gra'bir has come to the city of Huzaz to look for a quest to prove himself a great warrior.

Adanband: An elf scholar and sorcerer from the city of Huzaz.

Butrus: A dwarf priest with a fervent faith and damaged memory.

*** Session 4 - Scene 1 (of 9) ***

Many days ago...

Butrus hangs around the Pilgrim's Quarter during the day, looking for evidence of the Silent Starlings gang that Imam Renn asked him for help dealing with. It doesn't take long before he spots a boy cut the purse of one of the pilgrims.

The youth sneaks off into one of the back alleys. Butrus follows. As he approaches the alley, he sees the boy with another boy emptying the purse and counting the money.

Butrus slowly approaches the boys, trying to sneak up on them. He isn't quiet enough, however, and one of the boys spots him. The youth yells out, "Juda, look! Let's get out of here!"

The two begin running. Butrus chases after them. The boy apparently named Juda is quite fast, but the other boy trips and Butrus is able to catch up to him.

The dwarf looms over the youth, brandishing his mace. He tells the boy not to move, saying they need to talk. The boy seems scared, saying, "Please sir don't!"

Butrus calmly explains to the boy he is a man of faith. He says he would hate to smear his blood all over the ground. But, he continues, he is a man of faith and of the mosque and he does not like those who prey on pilgrims and cut their purses, like the boy just did.

He asks the boy what they can do about this. The youth says that he just does as he is told. Further questioning reveals the name of the leader of his gang as someone named Ihab.

Butrus tells the boy to send a message to Ihab that the Pilgrim's District is now off limits. The boy agrees to take the message to him. Butrus expresses his confidence that Ihab will be reasonable and listen, but warns that if he does not then he has other friends with various talents who may like to use their blades on young boys.

The boy agrees, saying Ihab will certainly move them somewhere else; it is a large city and there are plenty of other ways to make money. Butrus tells the youth he does not want to speak to him again.

After thanking Butrus immensely, the youth runs off in his soiled clothing. Butrus then returns to the temple to given the imam the good news and to let him know if the boys do not stop.

*** Session 4 - Scene 2 (of 9) ***

As Butrus leaves the mosque, someone comes up behind him and puts a heavy hand on his shoulder. A foreign-accented voice calls out to him, saying they need to speak with him. Butrus sees that two large men stand behind him to either side; both appear to be outlanders.

Butrus asks what they wish to speak about. The outlander tells the dwarf he was with the others and asks if he knows the goblin. The priest responds by explaining about his memory loss and encountering the others on the road.

The outlander, speaking in broken language, says they need to find the goblin and asks where he went. Butrus says he isn't sure.

He asks if they want him to deliver a message, but the man says they will go looking for the goblin and Butrus will accompany them to make sure they do. The priest asks if they are asking him to go with them, or telling him.

The man asks if he has heard of Geer. He says that Geer is telling him to go, saying he speaks for Geer. Butrus maintains a genial disposition, saying that since they've asked so nicely and he is a man of faith that he will be happy to accompany them.

*** Session 4 - Scene 3 (of 9) ***

The three begin at the docks, where the men arrange for a new boat to head up the river. After a day of travel, they spot wreckage of the boat Butrus' companions were on.

The next couple of days are spend scouring the area for clues that the goblin and the others survived. They do manage to locate the remains of a camp with some blankets.

The men then encounter a patrol of the Riders of Blood, who they pay for information. They find that the goblin and the other members of Butrus' group were there a couple of nights ago.

The days that follow have the three heading into the desert, following the trail of the others. Along the way, Butrus catches that the names of the men are Gulbrandr and Rudesind.

Although the others had a head start, the trio appear to catch up to them. One day they even catch sight of them in the far distance, but by the time they reach the location there is nothing but some vultures eating on a days-old corpse of an elf (who Butrus can see is not Adanband).

The journey moves into the mountains, where Gulbrandr makes a point to avoid an area that appears to be active with lion activity.

Eventually the trail leads them to a small passage between mountain cliffs. Gulbrandr does not like the look of the area. He tells Butrus to scout ahead.

Butrus advances carefully. He spots a cave up in one of the mountainsides. A winged lion creature, a manticore, appears to live in the area and seems to be guarding the pass up ahead.

Thinking quickly, Butrus looks around for a place to hide. Getting under a small rock ledge, he hides and waits for the outlanders to move in.

After a brief time, the two men do indeed head up after him. Rudesind is upset about letting the dwarf go, but Gulbrandr insists he is up ahead.

The two men bicker so much they fail to notice the manticore up ahead. It swoops down and attacks, and Butrus can hear the screams from the two men.

Gulbrandr takes one of the manticore's tail spikes in his throat. He collapses trying to breathe as blood goes everywhere.

Rudesind does better with his mace and shield, fending off the creature for a few moments. Butrus stays hidden, watching the fight.

After some fighting back and forth, the manticore grabs on to Rudesind's mace arm with his teeth and rips it off. Blood sprays the canyon walls as the man dies.

As Butrus expected, the manticore takes the dead men up to his cave. He takes the opportunity to sprint up the pass while the creature is occupied.

When he gets up, he sees the mountain tower with the doors at the tail of the snake. He quickly heads inside.

*** Session 4 - Scene 4 (of 9) ***

Inside the tower, Butrus sees he is in a long, narrow hallway. His companions are lying about in the hall, resting.

Adanband is the one on guard when the dwarf comes in. He greets him with surprise, saying he didn't expect to see him. Butrus says he was expecting to see them.

The dwarf goes on to ask if they saw the manticore. Adanband says they have, pointing to Gra'bir's bandaged shoulder.

Butrus tells the elf how the creature is eating two of Geer's men, who took him along to look for the goblin. Snarg, emerging out of the shadows, expresses surprise that Geer's men were able to track them to the tower, saying it is not good.

The dwarf tells Snarg the men wanted to "talk" to him, but he isn't sure what the talk was about. Snarg tries to dismiss it as a "minor matter", telling Butrus not to concern himself. Butrus says it sounded like more than a minor matter to him, saying he didn't expect to make it out alive with the men so he's glad he escaped them and rejoined the others.

Gra'bir wakes up around this time and greets Butrus. He explains they entered the tower the previous day, but he was injured by the manticore so they've been resting up.

Everyone then decides it is probably safe to move on. Butrus tries asking Snarg about the tower, but the goblin has never actually been in it before.

The immediate hallway they are in leads north for a distance before curving to the west. Before heading out, Butrus lights his lamp so they will have two lamps when heading into the darkness.

*** Session 4 - Scene 5 (of 9) ***

The group moves out, with Gra'bir and Snarg in the lead, Adanband after them, Butrus behind him, and M'Balz guarding the rear.

About halfway down the hallway, Snarg points out strange paintings on either side of the walls ahead; they appear to be murals of flames.

Butrus examines the ground carefully, noting the stones have scorch marks on them. He points it out to the others.

Gra'bir has Snarg examine the area for a trigger, but he finds nothing mechanical. He does remind them that this is a sorcerer's tower.

M'Balz suggests someone, meaning Snarg, should go down the hall first. He even suggesting throwing the goblin across.

Butrus has a better idea; using a prayer, he casts a detect magic spell. He can tell the flames are a magical ward; anyone passing through and not giving the proper incantation will set it off, causing them to immolate.

The priest can see the incantations written in magic on the wall, but he is unable to read them. Instead, he points them out to Adanband.

The sorcerer uses his read magic spell to decipher the runes as M'Balz slinks back to safety. But once the words are spoken, the painted flames seem to lower on the walls and Adanband knows it is safe to pass now.

*** Session 4 - Scene 6 (of 9) ***

As they turn the corner in the hallway, they see it continues on for a distance but also has a passage off to the left after a short distance.

Gra'bir peers down the passage and sees it ends in a door. Butrus looks around for signs of danger; he can see there are cracks in the floor that appear to be coming from the other side of the door.

He warns the others of a potential trap with the door. He can see small bits of rock near the door, as if they came from under the door. He suggests something heavy could fall on anyone who goes through.

M'Balz calls for Snarg to bring the light over and approaches to check out the door, but can find no traps on the door. He pushes the door open, there is a large room beyond.

Snarg announces his intention to move back to the rear so they can investigate. M'Balz tries to push him through the door, but the goblin slinks away. Snarg tells the others they will need to go in first, as they are adventurers and he is not.

M'Balz shines the light in the door, seeing that it is a large audience hall. The lamp can't illuminate the entire room, but he can see a long red carpet from the door leading up to a dais with a throne on it.

Gra'bir suggests looking up, but M'Balz sees nothing on the ceiling. Still cautious, M'Balz picks up some pebbles and tosses them in, but nothing happens.

The rogue slowly edges his way into the room, trying to avoid triggering any potential pressure plates. He fails, and a panel opens in the ceiling dropping a large stone on him. He manages to roll out of the way to avoid being hit dead on, but the blow still knocks him to the ground, nearly dislocating his shoulder and cracking his skull.

Hearing the crash and seeing the stone fall on M'Balz, the others carefully enter the room. Butrus can see the panel in the ceiling has closed. Being careful to avoid the pressure plate, he approaches M'Balz and uses his healing touch on him.

With everyone in the room, they look around at the fully-illuminated area. There is another door parallel to the one they entered along the wall, as well as a door behind the throne area.

Butrus is concerned about the inhabitants of the tower being altered to their presence by the trap going off. Gra'bir reminds him the tower is supposed to be uninhabited. Butrus suggests Gra'bir lead them on then.

Gra'bir wants to check the nearer door first. After Snarg confirms it is safe, the warrior opens it to find a hallway that goes on a short distance before curving to the right. He surmises that it must link back up to the other hallway they went down, suggesting this door was used by those smart enough to know the other one was trapped.

In addition, there is a passageway off to the left before the hall curves, leading to another location. Gra'bir decides to close the door and not investigate it for the moment.

They then examine the throne, but find little of value on it. It is adorned with the usual snake carvings of Salazar's style. The hall also contains several old, rotten portraits of the sorcerer along the wall along with rotten tapestries showing his sigil.

Gra'bir has Adanband look around for more magical traps, but he sees nothing. Butrus tries to talk to M'Balz about other traps, but the man is still dazed from his hit on the head.

Butrus examines the door behind the throne. It is a large stone door with a keyhole; Butrus suspects it is locked.

Praying to the Loregiver, Butrus attempts to sense evil at the door. He is given a divination that beyond the door, deeper into the tower, there is great evil. But he also senses there is a lesser evil off in the direction of the passageway off of the other door that Gra'bir examined.

*** Session 4 - Scene 7 (of 9) ***

The group spends some time deliberating what to do next. Eventually, they decide to go investigate the lesser evil, with the hope they will be able to find a key to open the door behind the throne.

This time, the addled-minded M'Balz decides to take the lead, with the rest of them taking their same marching positions (leaving Butrus to take up the rear).

Following the hallway, it curves around to the right to lead to an archway leading into another large room. Before they get to the doorway, M'Balz can see some old, dusty weapon racks ahead. He calls out loudly to the others.

Suddenly, the room lights up. In the center of the room is a copper automaton, carrying a flaming scimitar. It moves somewhat slowly towards the group.

M'Balz quickly looks over the room – it appears to be 25 feet wide and 55 feet long, giving him plenty of room to maneuver. He decides to make a run for it, moving along the edge of the walls to try and get around the creature, making strange noises.

Butrus elects a different tactic, telling the automaton they have been sent by Salazar to aid in cleanup of the tower. The automaton does not appear to listen.

Gra'bir lets loose an arrow, but it bounces off of the copper creature. Adanband elects to hold back, readying his staff.

The automaton points his scimitar in a path ahead of M'Balz. It creates a wall of fire that blocks his path. Seeing a door on the wall ahead of him, he decides to head inside it. He finds himself inside of a cloakroom.

With the guardian focused on M'Balz, Butrus decides to run around him the other way. Adanband wisely decides to hold back.

Gra'bir, meanwhile, grabs one of the rusty spears off of the old weapon racks and charges the automaton. The spear head shatters on impact.

Back in the cloak room, M'Balz finds that it wraps around to another opening along the same wall. The fire wall appears to have dissipated, and the creature is focused on attacking Gra'bir.

M'Balz comes up with a plan to tie his rope to his small hammer. Swinging it around, he throws the hammer at the creature, hoping to wrap it around it. But his first throw fails to reach the creature.

Behind him, Butrus is dismayed at the combat abilities of his fellow warriors. He charges the creature and smashes into it with his mace, but the blow fails to penetrate his armor.

Gra'bir tries to smash the automaton in its eye with the haft of the spear, but only succeeds in making his makeshift quarterstaff into a makeshift club as it snaps in half.

Seeing his friends in danger, Adanband charges in and attacks with his staff. But his blow has no better luck (though at least stays in one piece).

The automaton slashes out at Gra'bir. The blade grazes him, giving him a scratch along his arm.

M'Balz uses his makeshift lariat again, this time winding it around the automaton. It isn't tight, but does seem to restrict his arms a bit.

Butrus attempts another mace attack, but is fended off. Gra'bir pulls out his shield and bashes it into the automaton but also fails to be effective. Adanband's staff has no better luck.

The automaton's body then glows with heat. The ropes around him quickly burn off. He attacks at Gra'bir, but the warrior deflects the attack with his shield.

M'Balz thinks about trying to tackle the creature, but is concerned about his glowing heat. Instead, he rushes up to attack with his dagger but finds the creature's armor to be heavily plated.

Butrus calls out to Adanband to use the incantation from the hallway that put out the flames, but the sorcerer ignores him. The priest's mace also fails to strike.

Gra'bir crashes into his shield into the face of the automaton, causing it to stagger. Adanband follows it up with a solid hit with his quarterstaff, knocking it over. The heat from the automaton causes the stone to become soft, and he sinks slightly into the ground.

The automaton picks himself back up, just as M'Balz stabs him in the back with his dagger but it bounces off him harmlessly. Butrus has no better luck with his mace nor Adanband with his staff. Gra'bir, however, has better luck as it knocks into it again with his shield.

M'Balz then stabs again, this time burying the dagger deep into the creature's back. Butrus finishes off the automaton with his mace. The copper melts into the ground as the automaton is defeated.

Searching the room, the group finds little of value except for a couple of quivers they can use to replace their reed quivers.

Butrus focuses on searching the cloakroom, where he finds a ring of keys hidden behind one of the rotten cloaks.

*** Session 4 - Scene 8 (of 9) ***

With the key in hand, they head back to the audience hall. Butrus wants to move ahead but M'Balz manages to slur out that he needs to rest first.

Everyone concurs that resting before continuing on would be safer, and clearly no one has come after them yet.

Looking over the rooms, they decide the audience chamber will be safest since it has doors on all entrances to it.

After resting, M'Balz feels back to his normal self, especially after he uses his healing kit to wrap his wounds.

Once everyone eats and drinks for the day, they approach the door behind the throne room. M'Balz examines the door, and claims it is free of traps.

Butrus gives the keys over to M'Balz to find the one that fits the lock. He tries to get Snarg to come near him, but the goblin uses his wits to argue why he should stay in the back.

M'Balz finally opens the door, seeing a T-intersection. To the left, it goes down a short ways then curves right. Similarly, the right passageway goes a short distance then curves right.

Hearing no noises either way, M'Balz feels it is safe and has Gra'bir lead them on to the right while M'Balz heads back to the rear of the marching order.

After a couple more curves, the hall leads to an open doorway. Butrus can smell a faint smell of sulfur coming from it. Gra'bir tries to fire an arrow into the dark room, but hears only the sound of the arrow breaking against the wall.

Gra'bir decides to move ahead and has Snarg illuminate the area with his lamp. Inside is a square room with a dome-shaped ceiling with various geometric patterns painted on the walls. There is also a foot-sized hole in the wall next to the floor that Gra'bir believes was made by a creature.

Butrus advises that the room has nothing of interest to them and they should move on. Adanband, however, wants to investigate the symbols.

He can tell the room was used (presumably by Salazar) for geomancy. As he investigates, a giant centipede emerges from the hole in the wall. The sorcerer crushes it with his staff.

Adanband can see more of the creatures trying to come out the hole. He moves in his staff to block the hole, but one of the centipedes starts crawling up it. Using his bare hand, he crushes the beast and narrowly avoids the effects of its natural neurotoxins.

Thinking quickly, Gra'bir blocks the hole with his shield while Butrus goes back to the cloakroom to get some cloaks to plug up the hole with.

*** Session 4 - Scene 9 (of 9) ***

Once they are out of danger form the centipedes, they decide to go back and try the other hallway. It winds around for quite some distance until it eventually has another passage off to the right.

The side passage appears to have a finer quality stonework for the flooring. Butrus suggests they follow it to lead them closer to the treasure.

Heading down that hall, it curves around some before they see the hall has skeletons manacled to the sides of it. Gra'bir is very disturbed by them.

The skeletons make the group uneasy, but they do not animate. M'Balz is able to confirm the key ring contains keys that would unlock the skeletons, but they choose not to do so.

Instead, they ultimately decide to destroy the skeletons and use their femur bones along with the remaining rags from the armory to make some makeshift torches to use, as they are getting low on lamp oil.

The group continues to follow the hall around more twists and turns until they eventually reach a set of stone stairs leading up to the next level of the tower. They decide to head up.

*** Session 4 - Session Notes ***

These notes are for the session we had last week, so I'm all caught up. It was a really good session - not only was everyone there, but it was a fun bit of exploration into the first level of Salazar's tower (that was more dungeon exploration than hack and slash dungeoncrawl, which is what I was going for, not only for this particular adventure but the campaign style in general).

I knew that the Butrus player showing up would mean I'd need to come up with some way to get him with the others. Some GMs would just have him magically appear with them, but my style is always to preserve the integrity of the story so the immersive feel of being in a real fantasy world is not lost.

I came up with several different ideas based on how the player may handle things. Ultimately, I decided that Geer's men tracking down the companion of the people who Snarg ran off with made the most sense for the start.

But before that, I wanted to give him a chance to complete his side story about the Silent Starlings. The intimidation approach the player used was great and can lead to some follow-up plots later. I do have some more thoughts in mind for the boys - but that's a surprise for later.

Turnabout is fair play, so Geer's men naturally get to intimidate Butrus. I was glad the player recognized the genre convention and wisely played along until he had a chance to get free; I've had problems in the past with players who don't get the concept of tropes and approach any kind of "being forced into something" situation as an excuse to launch into a suicidal attack against the villain (or even non-villainous NPC authority figures), thus not only wasting the character but spoiling the fun of the plot for everyone.

I didn't want to do the day-by-day with Butrus and group retracing the first group's steps, so I resolved it as a sort of montage. It allowed the game to progress quickly to the more important part (catching up with his allies) while still giving the feel that it took time to get there and giving a somewhat shared experience of the original journey he missed out on. There is something of a question how Geer's men were able to track the others so easily, but I claim dramatic license.

Originally, I thought Butrus would lead the men into the trap with the manticore and use the battle to escape. But he thought that would be too risky, and felt it made more sense to make a run for the tower while it was feeding. Naturally, once the group leaves the tower they'll need to resolve the situation with the manticore (who has a cave o' treasure, btw - hence my mentioning the cave this session).

Once again, I'm using dramatic license to explain why the rest of the group stayed right next to the entrance door of the tower and didn't explore more before Butrus arrived.

I loved the way the group used teamwork to handle the magical trap in the hallway.

M'Balz's attempt to kill Snarg did get a role - Snarg doesn't have plot immunity or anything. That said, I'm hoping he survives through the tower until they find the treasure so I can use a joke I have planned.

The trap on the door was a great moment. The PCs know the door is likely trapped somehow, yet can't stop themselves from entering. The real funny moment is later where they realize if they would have just continued down the hall, they wouldn't have risked death from the trap (which is not only funny but proves that Salazar's original plan was a good one yet deviously simple).

Careful observers may notice that Butrus used one more spell than he should have been able to when he cast Detect Evil. Basically, neither I nor the player were paying close attention to spell limits when he cast it and I didn't think about it until after the fact. Given that it doesn't do anything but add flavor to the scene, I might have allowed it anyway.

The copper automaton was modified a bit from the out of the box rules - I didn't have him heat up at first (they are only 1st level PCs so I didn't want it to be too deadly) and gave him the ability to shoot fire. Between that and heating up to burn off the ropes, the battle had a very superhero feel to it. Except for all the misses; the guys rolled mostly 4s and 7s, causing everything to miss for a while.

The geomancy room is just there for atmosphere, though I loved luring in the sorcerer while everyone else insisted there was no reason to risk going into the room. I also liked how they handled the encounter with the centipedes - resolving it creatively rather than through brute force.

Finally, the hallway with the skeletons was hilarious because it unnerved the hell out of the players. There were sure something strange was going to happen, but really it was just meant to be atmosphere.

So, all in all a great session of dungeon exploration.

*** Session 5 - Cast of Characters ***

 M'Balz Al-Badassi: A human rogue from the city. M'Balz is the member of a noble family with political connections, but is bored with his wealthy lifestyle and instead performs as a masked scoundrel for hire know as Al-Caliph.

 Adanband: An elf scholar and sorcerer from the city of Huzaz.

 Butrus: A dwarf priest with a fervent faith and damaged memory.

*** Session 5 - Scene 1 (of 5) ***

To make sure their escape route stays clear, Gra'bir stays behind to guard the stairs while everyone else advances to the second level of the tower.

 M'Balz takes the lead in the group, followed by Adanband with Butrus acting as the rear guard. When they reach the top, they find the stairs enter the side of a hallway. To their left, the hallway curves around to the right after a short distance. To the right, the hallway leads to an arched doorway.

Believing the arch will lead to a room, M'Balz leads the group on. He can see the archway is indeed an open doorway into a very large room – his torch cannot illuminate all of the room at once. Butrus points out the torches along the walls and suggests M'Balz light them.

Once the room is illuminated, they can see it is one very large room indeed, filled with work benches and alchemical apparatuses. The northeast and southern walls of the room also have archways leading out.

Looking around, they see the room's floor has the strewn remains of organic flesh smeared in various spots; it looks relatively fresh.

M'Balz complains to Snarg that he said Salazar was dead. Snarg responds that it couldn't be Salazar, as he is dead.

The wealthy rogue then asks Snarg more details about Salazar's death. Snarg doesn't give many details, but says the evil sorcerer was killed many years ago in the Outlands by a group of allies of his master, Sa'lid. He also grumbles something about that group containing the pair of wretched elves who imprisoned him.

Butrus is curious about Salazar's family – if he had any children or siblings. But the goblin is unaware of any relatives the sorcerer may have.

M'Balz coordinates a careful search of the room. Right away, they notice one of the workbenches contains a set of three crystal bottles containing liquids – one with a green liquid, one with a purple liquid, and one with a red liquid.

None of the bottles are marked, nor do there appear to be any papers around with writing. Butrus can tell these are potions of alchemy, and not divine healing potions. He asks Snarg, but the goblin says he doesn't know what they might be, but does want one as the bottles are nice and shiny.

Butrus refuses to give him one of the potions, saying they don't constitute "treasure". Snarg agrees he will honor their original agreement, to split the treasure of Omar Dra'lah with them fifty-fifty.

The priest wants ideas from Snarg on how to determine what the potions are, but the goblin's only idea is to drink them. He then suggests perhaps the sorcerer may know. Butrus agrees, wondering aloud why the sorcerer hasn't spoken up yet.

Adanband laments he does not have a spell that can identify the potion. Butrus does find some remnants of herbs and other materials nearby, but the elf can only say for sure that the potions are magical. He also notes that there are likely papers hidden in the immediate area that contain the formulas for the potions, but a search of the room turns up empty.

M'Balz tells the others there is little else they can do, so he suggests Adanband carry the potions for now. Butrus uses some sealing wax to make sure the stoppers on the bottles stay in place.

*** Session 5 - Scene 2 (of 5) ***

M'Balz decides the best thing to do is investigate the archway exits. Butrus notes they have no writing or markings over them to say where they lead.

The group decides to approach the southern archway first. As they get closer, they can see it has hinges, with a door of rusty iron bars attached to it that is open. Beyond the archway appears to be a hallway immediately leading to the east. The floor of the hall appears to be filled with piles of humanoid bones.

M'Balz hears a rustling sound from inside the hall and tells the others to ready themselves. With the sounds coming towards them, Butrus calls out for whoever it is to halt and be recognized.

The rogue moves up to the cell-like door, using his might to pull it shut while Adanband readies his staff.

Just as the door shuts, the clawed hand of a ghoul reaches out from between the bars. M'Balz narrowly moves his hand back in time. He sees the undead creature staring out at him from behind the gate.

Taking a step back, M'Balz fires an arrow into the ghoul's shoulder. Adanband attempts to poke his staff at the creature through the bars, but finds the attack ineffective.

Butrus readies his mace to smash the ghoul's hand if it attempts to reach through the gate again. When it does, he makes his attack but misses. The ghoul, however, smashes open the gate door, knocking it to the floor.

M'Balz attempts to take another shot, but misses as he overcompensates for trying to not hit Butrus. The priest, for his part, calls on the power of the Loregiver to drive back the creature into the hall.

The group decides to pursue. They make their way into the hallway, but find it difficult and slow to move through with all of the bones. Butrus wonders where all the bones came from. M'Balz agrees, saying the ghoul is obviously responsible for the remains in the laboratory room and the bones in the hall, but wondering where the victims came from.

When they are about halfway down, they see the hall curves back to the north. They also see more pairs of ghoulish red eyes appear out of the darkness. M'Balz counts around nine of them.

M'Balz calls for the group to retreat. They quickly run out of the passage. Butrus notices the ghouls do not appear to follow them.

Back in the room, the party decides to try the other archway. As they get close, they see the second archway is another hallway that curves south and is filled with bones. Before they can react, two ghouls rush out and attack M'Balz.

The rogue manages to fend off the first attack, but the second claws him. As the claws dig in, he is paralyzed from their magical effect.

Adanband thinks quickly, throwing the bottle with the purple liquid in the middle of the ghouls. He hits his mark, but the splashed liquid does not seem to affect them and the potion's magical effects go away as it drips into the cracks of the floor.

Butrus once again calls on the Loregiver, causing one of the ghouls to run back into the hall. The other stands his ground.

The ghoul moves towards the paralyzed M'Balz, biting his face and ripping out a chunk of his cheek.

Butrus charges in to help his friend. He grazes it with his mace. Adanband scores a more solid hit with his staff.

In response, the ghoul claws Butrus. It slashes his arm, but the priest shrugs off the paralyzing touch of the creature. The attack still causes the dwarf to be shaken, and he misses with the swing of his mace. In the midst of the struggle, Adanband fails to find a good opening to attack with his staff.

Butrus shoves the creature back and brings down the full might of his mace. The creature's head smashes like a grape and it collapses to the ground.

Knowing the other ghouls could come out any minute, Adanband grabs the paralyzed M'Balz and they head back into the hallway.

*** Session 5 - Scene 3 (of 5) ***

Heading back to the stairs they came up, they stop to rest a moment and allow M'Balz to recover. Once he is mobile again, the three agree to leave the ghouls be and head down the other side of the hallway.

As they turn the corner, they see the hallway has a small alcove to the side then curves around another corner. After finding no secret doors hidden in the alcove, they proceed around the corner to find another set of stairs leading up. M'Balz is surprised to find this level of the tower contained only a single room.

Once they reach the third floor, they see it leads up into another hallway. The hallway continues straight ahead, but after a short distance has a side passage on the left.

Heading down the side passage, they continue to follow the hall as it rounds another corner and eventually leads to a place where there is a passage to the right with the hall also curving to the right after another ten feet.

Butrus tries to discern if either passage is more used than the other, but can't tell. After some consideration, they decide to head down the side passage.

The hall is very long. After some time, it finally curves to the right. The hall then continues only a short way before it ends in an archway with a side passage on the right shortly before it. All around this area of the hall are more skeletal remains manacled to the walls.

Wary of another room with an archway, they once again head down the side passage. After a couple more twists and turns, that hall eventually ends at a door.

Butrus heads over to the door and listens. In the room beyond, he can hear all sorts of noises – men toiling, whipping sounds, and the dripping of water.

He quietly tells the others, saying hearing whipping is not good. He once again points out the tower is not empty.

M'Balz whispers to Snarg, confronting him about the occupied tower. The goblin muses that someone must have moved in.

The rogue sarcastically says that of course, once again Snarg has no knowledge of who it could be. The goblin confirms, saying he did have suspicions which is why he needed adventurers to accompany him.

M'Balz demands Snarg tell him about his suspicions. Snarg explains that a remote tower of a sorcerer like this could attract other sorcerers, genies, or all sorts of evil creatures. Forced to take an educated guess, he suspects either a sorcerer or more likely a dao genie.

Butrus suggests they crack open the door and peek inside. M'Balz opens the door, spotting over a dozen slaves of various races working, overseen by four guards wearing padded jackets and armed with clubs and whips.

One of the guards spots the rogue and yells out. Butrus pulls M'Balz and leads the others back down the hallway to get ready to fight.

M'Balz decides to hide in the dark corner in the hallway and readies his dagger while Butrus and Adanband remain in plain sight around the corner.

The two guards come running down the hall just as they get into position. Butrus catches one of the guards with a glancing blow while M'Balz hurls himself on the back of the other. Stabbing wildly with his dagger, he kills the man before he can respond.

The other guard gets ready to strike when Adaband's staff smashes into his face, causing an explosion of teeth as his face is crushed.

*** Session 5 - Scene 4 (of 5) ***

Butrus looks through the bodies but finds nothing other than a ring of keys. He instructs Adanband and M'Balz to dress up like the guards.

They take a few moments to discuss different ideas – including calling the guards over, pretending to bring in a prisoner, heading into the other room as guards, disposing of the bodies using the ghouls...

Eventually, they decide to head in as guards dragging the bodies to get the drop on the other guards.

M'Balz fails to trick the guards however and they rush the rogue and sorcerer. The guards are not overly skilled, and the two manage to fend off their club attacks.

Reaching out with his dagger, M'Balz kills one quickly by stabbing him through the neck. Adanband strikes the other, breaking his nose but not downing him.

Butrus heads into the room just as M'Balz slashes at the other guard. The rogue misses, but the priest follows up with a mace strike that smashes in the side of his head.

With both remaining guards dead, they look around the room. It appears to be a large, square kitchen with three doors along the north wall. The slaves have stopped their work preparing food to stare at the dead guards.

Butrus tells the slaves he is a powerful priest who has come to free them. One of the men expresses surprise, asking if they are really there to free them from Alknar.

The priest reassures the men. He asks how many more slaves there are, but the men say all are in the room. The man explains Alknar keeps them toiling away during the day to feast himself and his servants.

M'Balz asks who "Alknar" is. The slave explains that Alknar is an evil Yak-Man who has taken control of the tower. All of slaves are men kidnapped from the surrounding lands by Alknar's forces.

When asked how long they have been imprisoned in the tower, the man says it varies. Some slaves have been there only weeks, others for many months or possibly years.

The man continues to explain that most were captured by Alknar's "creature", Jalil. When M'Balz asks, he says that Jalil is a powerful dao in service to Alknar.

The man then works with M'Balz to tell what he knows about the tower. Using M'Balz's partially-drawn map, he explains the arch room to the north is the dining hall while showing one of the other passages they didn't go down as being the living area.

Butrus wonders about the dining routine. He learns when the meals are scheduled, and how Jalil will come quickly if there is any trouble during one of them.

The man also points out where the opening of the snake's mouth is located, saying Alknar likes to throw slaves off of it who displease him. He also explains two of the doors lead to the cistern in the tower and that the guards often trapped one of them at random with a needle coated in with a substance causing paralysis. Apparently, he would randomly pick a man to open the door every once in a while; if the man became paralyzed, the guard would drown him in the cistern as an offering to their dark god.

The group then decides what to do next. Butrus very much wants to free the slaves, while M'Balz wants to use them more as cannon fodder.

M'Balz, however, does ultimately decide Jalil is likely too powerful for them to defeat, particularly after the man details his powers – creating walls of stone, assuming gaseous form, skin as hard as stone, and the strength to rip a man in two.

When he tells Snarg they will need to come back at a later point, Snarg makes a sarcastic remark but M'Balz reminds him they are more than capable of taking on a goblin.

Snarg finally agrees, saying he was not prepared to take on a yak-man. M'Balz isn't as worried about Alknar as he is Jalil, until Snarg reminds him the yak-man controls the genie so is likely even more powerful.

Feeling discretion is the wiser course of action, M'Balz tells the slaves they will lead them out of the tower and to the safety outside in the mountains. Butrus has them take a couple of the guards' bodies to throw to the ghouls. He also makes sure they gather enough food and water from the kitchen to survive once they get out.

When they reach Gra'bir, he asks what they are doing – confused that they are freeing the slaves instead of getting the treasure. M'Balz says it is not what he would normally do, but they will get the treasure of "feeling good about themselves". He also mentions the yak-man and the genie as being contributing factors. Gra'bir praises him for being so wise and compassionate.

*** Session 5 - Scene 5 (of 5) ***

When they reach the entrance door to the tower, the concern is about the manticore. M'Balz carefully opens the door to look outside.

He can see that it appears to be mid-afternoon and there is no danger outside. He leads the others out.

As they move towards the passage through the mountains, the manticore appears in the sky. It begins circling the group, preparing to attack.

M'Balz lets loose an arrow, but misses. He yells for Adanband to create cover. The sorcerer casts his wall of fog spell, covering the area in mists.

Butrus loses his way from the others in the obscuring fog. He finds himself heading up a path onto a peak, where he discovers a cave.

The cave contains the fresh remains of outlander humanoids, with clothes very familiar to Butrus. He also sees a large pile of treasure in the back of the cave.

The priest looks over and inspects it. He sees three scrolls, a pile of thousands of silver coins, and a shiny lance.

Although he cannot use it with any skill, he grabs the lance. He also takes a quick look at the scrolls, discovering two of them are maps and the third is written in magic.

Meanwhile, the rest of the group realizes Butrus is missing. Gra'bir tells M'Balz they should go looking for Butrus and he can lead the slaves to safety. M'Balz convinces him to allow him to take half the slaves in the search "for safety".

They discover Butrus just as he is exiting the cave. He hands the scroll to Adanband and shows them the lance.

Feeling the Loregiver has given him the lance to defeat the manticore, he calls out for the beast to come at him.

M'Balz leads the slaves into the caves for safety. Once inside, one of the slaves points out the silver. M'Balz and the slaves all begin gathering up the treasure.

Butrus lowers his spear into position to set against the manticore's charge. The creature evades it, and slashes the priest's shoulder with one of his claws. As it passes by, Adanband lands a glancing blow with his staff.

The priest backs himself up against the cliff side to prevent the creature from doing more fly-back attacks. After yelling more insults at the creature, it moves in to attack. The manticore lands and slashes out with his claws, striking Butrus twice. Adanband tries to fight it off with his staff, but is ineffective.

Butrus wonders where his ally, M'Balz is, but the rogue can't hear the battle over the jingle of coins.

The priest then calls for Adanband to use his magic. The sorcerer casts his burning hands spell, lighting the creature on fire. Butrus follows it up by throwing his remaining lamp oil on it.

The manticore, on fire, flies off with a shrieking howl.

Hearing the shriek, M'Balz comes out to investigate. He asks Butrus what happened and how he got injured. The priest argues with him for being too stupid to come out and help his allies in the fight instead of focusing on sinful silver.

Once they are done arguing, the two go along with Adanaband and the slaves to reunite with Gra'bir and the others.

After they reach a safe location, they find a place to camp for the night. They agree to divide up the treasure and give some to the slaves for their troubles.

Away from the slaves, Butrus shows the maps to the others. Both appear to be treasure maps. One points to a cave very near their current location, about an hour's hike away. The other shows a cave around 8 miles away.

M'Balz looks over the maps for any writing. In the margins of the second one is written, "Pet the beast and say the password – INDO RAGI is mixed up and blind".

Not sure what to make of it, they go to sleep.

*** Session 5 - Session Notes ***

Our last previously-scheduled session got cancelled at the last minute due to some people being out sick.

Unfortunately, this session the Gra'bir player couldn't come because of other commitments, but we decided to continue on without him (though it was nearly canceled as I had yet another death in the family to contend with the previous weekend).

Still, it was nice to get (most) everyone back together and get another session in. I'm concerned the frequent interruptions are hurting the momentum of the game and will kill interest in it.

In particular, I'm concerned about my own interest. I'm already planning a street-level supers game using the Mayfair DC/Batman rules about local heroes having to contend with Chicago supervillains who are driven out by the heroes there (it's an analogue to our problems with Chicago gang bangers moving in to our city). I call it "Cedar Rapids Under Siege".

The other idea I have half-planned is for Palladium's After the Bomb game. It'd be about mutant animal bikers on the west coast. I call it "Sons of Hamarchy".

Anyway, the session went pretty good, but was short because we kept running into technical problems. The Adanband player connects in with Skype (which works OK most of the time, though he's not always the most engaged player). But for some reason, the house we were at kept tripping the circuit breaker for the outlet the computer was on, so we'd keep losing him (glad I don't have to be the one to call in an electrician to figure that one out).

There isn't too much to point out this session that didn't make it into the write-up.
* The potion that they wasted was a potion of strength. I don't know why they were expecting a "potion of grenade" or whatever.

* Alknar and Jalil will show up as villains later. I was glad the PCs recognized they would be outpowered by them.

* The manticore can be expected to be back soon, too.

* After this adventure, the PCs are all level 2 / 3 so hopefully they will be a little less fragile. But D&D does work better with 4-6 PCs, so doing it with 3 is always a challenge.

* The "INDO RAGI is mixed up and blind" clue is an homage to the movie Midnight Madness, a particular favorite of mine (for being a cheesy 80's comedy).

*** Session 6 - Cast of Characters ***

M'Balz Al-Badassi: A human rogue from the city. M'Balz is the member of a noble family with political connections, but is bored with his wealthy lifestyle and instead performs as a masked scoundrel for hire know as Al-Caliph.

Gra'bir Boubi: A human warrior from the desert tribe of the Wah'na Poq-yah tribe of the Haunted Lands. A superb hunter, Gra'bir has come to the city of Huzaz to look for a quest to prove himself a great warrior.

Adanband: An elf scholar and sorcerer from the city of Huzaz.

Butrus: A dwarf priest with a fervent faith and damaged memory.

*** Session 6 - Scene 1 (of 9) ***

Before bedding down for the night, Gra'bir wants to take a closer look at the two treasure maps Butrus found. He notices that M'Balz had misread the maps – the closer cave is still around 25 miles (or three days travel) away, and the further one a bit over 100 miles away (or nearly two weeks of travel through the mountains).

They also take a minute to review all of the treasure everyone was able to carry out. Between everyone at the cave, they were able to take all of the dirham, a total of 6300 silver coins. Gra'bir, Butrus, M'Balz, and Adanband carry as much as they can and divide the rest among the slaves to carry.

M'Balz notices the total treasure does not seem to be as much as it appeared in the cave. Around the same time, Butrus wonders if Snarg will want a cut as well. M'Balz realizes Snarg is not among them, nor can anyone recall the last time anyone saw him. Gra'bir believes the goblin absconded with some of the treasure.

Butrus wonders if they can locate Snarg's trail, but no one is even sure when he left; Gra'bir notes it would be difficult to track him through the mountains, particularly if he took the opportunity of the manticore attack to sneak off.

As they discuss what to do in the morning, they are approached by the leader of the slaves. He formally introduces himself as Nazmi abu Qadi. He thanks them again for freeing him and the others, and explains his town is only a few days' journey to the south. Nazmi suggests they escort the slaves back to his town, called Zayir, which he describes as a quiet farming and fishing town. He offers to join up with them afterwards, should they succeed.

While M'Balz would prefer to investigate the closer of the caves indicated on the treasure maps, he realizes they would have no way to take any more treasure anyway. He wonders about getting a cart in Zayir, but Butrus is skeptical about the risk that would bring.

Butrus is more interested in how often the area is attacked by Jalil, wondering if it might give the group an opportunity to attack the genie without having to deal with the yak-man as well. M'Balz wonders if the town could assist, but Nazmi warns his people are ill-equipped to deal with a dao. The group ultimately decides the trip back to Zayir is the more logical and they head out the next morning.

*** Session 6 - Scene 2 (of 9) ***

The next day, the group heads out. Gra'bir and Butrus take the lead, followed by the slaves, with Adanband and M'Balz acting as the rear guard.

At the rear of the group, M'Balz and Adanband feel a sense of unease but shrug it off while six of the slaves scatter in different directions, yelling in abject fear.

Emerging from the mountains around them are a pack of debbi, predatory creatures that appear like a cross between a hyena (with their head, back legs, and jaws) and a baboon (with their front hand-like paws and nimble bodies). The debbi quickly pounce on the terrified slaves and begin tearing into them.

Gra'bir takes the lance Butrus gave him and plunges it into the creature nearest him. He is surprised how easily it slides into the beast and how grievous of an injury it causes; truly it is a remarkable magic weapon.

M'Balz decides to keep his distance and lets loose an arrow, but it fails to find its mark. Butrus has better luck charging at one of the creatures with his mace, but strikes only a glancing blow.

Adanband has better luck attacking another of the debbi with his staff, crushing its skull. Even Nazmi attempts to help out with his club, but the beast fights him off.

Gra'bir quickly moves into position to attack another of the creatures, stabbing it through the back of the head as M'Balz misses with another of his shots.

Nazmi still has no luck with his club, nor does Butrus or Adanband. The beasts stop tearing into the corpses of the slaves and fight back. One of them bites into Nazmi's arm, badly injuring him. Adanband is likewise injured in his leg, while Butrus fights off the one attacking him.

Eventually, the creature breaks through the priest's defenses, biting hard into his shoulder. The other again tears into the leg of Adanband. Nazmi manages to fend off another bite by swinging his club wildly.

Gra'bir moves in to protect the sorcerer. He stabs hard into the creature, causing a critical injury but not quite killing it. Adanband finishes it off with his staff.

M'Balz fires an arrow into the back of the creature attacking Nazmi. It shrugs off the injury as it fends off Nazmi's club. Butrus moves in to heal Nazmi with his divine touch, completely removing all traces of his injury.

One of the debbi circles around and goes after M'Balz. Using its lightning speed, it charges into him before he realizes the danger. It tears into his chest, badly injuring him. The other claws out at Butrus, scratching into his arm.

Adanband starts heading over to help the dwarf as Butrus scores a solid hit on the creature attacking him. Nazmi assists with his club, killing the beast.

M'Balz quickly takes out his dagger to stab at the debbi, thrusting into its chest. As it bleeds, Gra'bir throws his lance at the beast, finishing it off when it impales the creature in the side.

*** Session 6 - Scene 3 (of 9) ***

M'Balz is less than thrilled the nomad could have inadvertently injured him, but Gra'bir insists he was well-trained by his people and is an accurate hunter. Butrus believes M'Balz should be more grateful for the warrior saving him.

Butrus then heals M'Balz and Adanband with his remaining healing spells while Nazmi and Gra'bir gather up the surviving seven other slaves.

The dwarf inquires about local practices dealing with the dead, and Nazmi explains the people in his area observe the practice of leaving the dead to be feasted on by birds before their bones are buried. M'Balz, more used to the modern customs, calls the practice disgusting but agrees to abide by local custom.

M'Balz then eyes the debbi carefully as Butrus asks about using the debbi for food. Nazmi explains they are not typically eaten, but their fur could be quite valuable in a major city (though not his fishing village).

Once they realize the hides are more valuable than the silver, M'Balz and Butrus broker a deal with Nazmi to let the slaves keep almost all of the silver in exchange for assisting in skinning the hides and letting the group keep them.

After an hour of skinning and preparing the hides, the group moves on. The rest of the day is long and hard, as the group moves through the mountains and down into the foothills. M'Balz notices how much slower the group moves with Butrus, as the smaller man has a slower pace due to his short legs.

As the day draws near an end, Butrus has them look for a cave in the foothills where they can safely spend the night and sets up a series of shifts, while also being careful to make sure the hides do not give off too strong a scent that could attract predators.

*** Session 6 - Scene 4 (of 9) ***

During the first watch, as darkness settles over the hills, Gra'bir spots a flame in the sky. As it moves around in the sky and gets closer, he can see it is actually four flames moving in unison.

Unsure what the source of the flames is, and unable to see much with his human eyes, the warrior awakens Adanband and asks him what his elvish eyes can see.

Looking out, the sorcerer sees the flames are the flaming hooves of an equine-shaped creature. Gra'bir realizes the creature is likely a nightmare – a demon in the shape of a horse. Adanband warns him he believes the beast has noticed them.

With the monster flying quickly in their direction, Gra'bir and Adanband wake the others. Nazmi warns the demon can kill them all. M'Balz slinks off in the darkness to the side of the cave to get into striking position, but Butrus assumes he has ran off to safety.

With their leader gone, Butrus takes charge and suggests they get into a wedge formation in the back of the cave, with Gra'bir in the front to hold off the monster with his lance.

The flaming-hooved creature makes his way towards the cave, landing at the entrance. As it steps in, the beast lets out a loud snort, and a cloud of hot gas emerges from his nostrils. Adanband, Gra'bir, Butrus, and Nazmi ignore the effects of the fumes, while the other slaves and M'Balz become violently ill.

Gra'bir attempts to give the creature a greeting, but the beast does not appear to be very intelligent and moves forward aggressively.

Jutting out with his lance, Gra'bir is surprised by the speed of the demon having been lulled into complacence by its horse-like appearance. Nazmi calls out to the warrior that he needs another weapon, and Gra'bir points to his scimitar lying next to his backpack.

Meanwhile, Butrus covers himself with his blanket and covers it with water. He tries to smack the beast with his mace, but finds that it has no effect.

Adanband decides to use his usual tactic, calling forth a wall of fog that fills the cave, after Butrus cautions him against using the burning hands spell he started to cast.

The nightmare reaches its head over the top of Butrus and grabs one of the slaves by his clothes with its teeth. It then turns and flies away into the night.

Concerned the beast may come back for more, M'Balz and Gra'bir suggest they move out while Butrus is concerned about attempting to travel through the mountains in the middle of the night. Butrus also harangues M'Balz for "taking off" during the fight, suspicious he is in league with Snarg. The thief rejects the notion, explaining he was trying to get into a concealed position where he could make a flanking attack.

Eventually, they decide to move out. After some time, they find a cave with a narrower opening and decide to spend the night inside. M'Balz suggests they cover the entrance as best they can with larger rocks so as to keep out any unwanted predators.

*** Session 6 - Scene 5 (of 9) ***

After getting through the harrowing night with no more incidents, the group emerges from the cave into the bright, shining light.

As they get out and stretch under the sun, Gra'bir notices they have made a deadly mistake – the cave they chose was near the nest of a trio of giant scorpions.

The scorpions bury their stingers into three of the slaves, causing them all to die painfully as the poison is injected into them.

Gra'bir stabs out at one of the monsters with his mace, but it is deflected by the hard carapace of the scorpion. M'Balz has no better luck with his bow.

Nazmi strikes a blow against one of the scorpion's claws, carving off a small piece. Butrus tries to follow it up with his mace, but is fended off trying to avoid a stinger.

Adanband decides the best thing to do is make a run for it, employing his usual fog.

The next few days pass uneventfully, and near the end of the fourth day the group can see farms off in the distance. Nazmi explains they are getting into the area of the outlying farms soon, and should be able to reach Zayir by nightfall.

*** Session 6 - Scene 6 (of 9) ***

The fishing town of Zayir does not have much, but Nazmi explains they do have a small palace for the local qadi and should head there. M'Balz likes the idea of that, saying he has slept in enough caves. The other three surviving slaves agree, happy to return to some kind of civilization.

The local overseer and judge of the town, the qadi, is a young woman named Asami bint Nazmi. In greeting Nazmi, she reveals to the others she is his daughter.

She asks the rest of the group to introduce themselves and M'Balz takes the liberty to give him name first. Asami explains she recognizes his family name, having studied at the Grand University in Huzaz.

Asami tells M'Balz he is honorable for saving her father, and assumes the others are his servants. M'Balz doesn't exactly disagree, but does introduce each in turn.

She is particularly intrigued by Adanband, whom M'Balz describes as a "powerful sorcerer who can create puffs of smoke and sometimes light things on fire". She explains the town has no sorcerers pass through, and the last magic-user she saw was back in her university days.

Asami offers the group the hospitality of the palace to allow them to rest up. M'Balz agrees to her offer, planning to stay the full three days considered customary.

M'Balz does want to visit a weaponsmith or armorer, but Nazmi explains their town is too small for such things and they will need to go to a city for that. Still, they decide to visit the local bazaar to resupply all they lost since leaving from Huzaz.

He also asks about somewhere he could buy a cart. She explains finding a draft horse or mule with a cart would be possible, but offers a free mule with saddlebags if they wish since her father is planning to join them on their next expedition. M'Balz mulls over the possibilities, trying to think of how much treasure they could haul.

Butrus asks Asami about the raids by the dao in the area. She explains it has only happened a couple of times in the past and their town has too weak of forces to fight off genies. He feels the town may be due for another visit by Jalil, but not everyone is so sure.

M'Balz is more interested if Asami is familiar with "Indo Ragi". When he explains it, she is delighted at the idea of a riddle but has no idea what it means. She does point out that the "blind" part of the phrase is probably the key. Gra'bir believes it means to take out the "I"s, but M'Balz ignores him.

With that, they take their leave and plan to meet back up with Asami and Nazmi later that evening at the palace, where a banquet is planned in their honor.

While the others shop, Butrus decides to go visit the local shrine. Having been some time since a priest was in town, many of the locals come to pray with him.

M'Balz also talks to some local fisherman, and arranges for passage out to the main shipping lanes where they could find a ship on its way to Huzaz.

The noble rogue also talks around to the townspeople to try and get an idea of anything of interest in the area. He hears little except for one man who mentions that a temple called the Mosque of the Thirsty Jann lies far to the east, saying that priests from there sometimes lead pilgrims to the town on their way north.

*** Session 6 - Scene 7 (of 9) ***

Later that evening, they are guests at a large banquet at the palace, with the other nobles of the town in attendance. They primarily speak to M'Balz, given his family connections.

One of the men, named Akil, explains his cousin once knew a member of the mysterious Al-Kamari family of Huzaz. M'Balz is surprised, as the Al-Kamaris have not been seen in many years. According to Akil, before their disappearance, the family discovered a lucrative gold mine somewhere in the Al-Sayaj Mountains. Unfortunately, the man explains, everyone who knew of the mine's location is now dead.

M'Balz immediately perks up at the news, as Butrus sneers at the noble's greed. He shows Akil the maps they found in the manticore cave. The man is surprised, asking M'Balz if he really thinks one of them could be the map to the Al-Kamari family gold mine.

Saying he believes so, M'Balz encourages Akil to examine the maps and see if either is familiar; giving the explanation that his family wishes to restore the honor of the great Al-Kamari family. The man does not recognize the locations, but says the closer location would not be it. He does believe the further location could be a possibility.

Akil asks M'Balz what the writing on the map means; in particular, the riddle about INDO RAGI. M'Balz changes the subject and quickly takes the map back.

After dinner, Nazmi hints around to M'Balz about his daughter being attractive. He asks the noble if his father, the great Badassi, has arranged his marriage yet. When M'Balz says he has not, Nazmi hints a union between their families could be beneficial, but M'Balz isn't so sure his father would approve given Asami's family is still several stations below his, though he says nothing to discourage the man.

When they are alone, M'Balz looks at the clue on the map again, still puzzled. He consults an atlas in Asami's library, looking at a larger map of the region for any words that could scramble to INDO RAGI.

Gra'bir begins sketching out some options on his own, using one of Adanband's spare pieces of paper while the sorcerer studies the scroll spell. Adanband is delighted to find out the scroll is of the powerful spell, acid arrow.

Butrus is less interested in the riddle and would rather plan their next trip, but no one is in a hurry since they have another couple of days.

Taking out the "I"s, Gra'bir unscrambles the clue. He yells out "Dragon!" to the others, saying that is what the name of the beast is in the clue. Though true dragons are extremely rare in Zakhara, all are familiar with the tales of the great wyrms of the outlands.

M'Balz wants to head to the cave before going back to Huzaz, but everyone else disagrees. The next day is spent with discussion about the best course of action, with several sardonic barbs traded.

The group has still not decided by the dinner that night. The choice is forgotten as they once again talk to the townspeople.

This night, a different man named Muzakkir asks M'Balz about their adventure in Salazar's Tower. He says he's heard tales of the tower, and how Salazar himself has returned from the dead as a lich, allying the yuan-ti and the yikaria together.

M'Balz plays along, saying he does not know but did not see Salazar. The nobleman tells Muzakkir that he was told by a deceptive goblin that Salazar was dead. The man notes that Salazar dying does not mean he couldn't now be a lich. He also points out that Nazmi did say the tower was under the control of one of the yikaria.

Agreeing there was a yak-man at the tower, M'Balz still isn't so sure though Muzakkir is convinced this means the rumor is true. He asks if M'Balz and his band of adventurers will go hunt down the lich, praising their bravery for fighting all of the yikaria and yuan-ti themselves. M'Balz explains that is how the Al-Badassi family handles things.

Once dinner is over, the group finally comes to an agreement to head back to Huzaz the next day.

That day, they have a fine going-away lunch before heading out on the fishing boat.

One of the women, named Sandeejah, hears they are heading back to Huzaz. She tells them to be careful, for the news is that Prince Tannous is plotting against his childless nephew, the Grand Caliph, in order to take the throne for himself. She claims he is plotting with the Efreet.

This story reminds M'Balz of the message they found on the elf in the desert. He takes it out and shows it to the woman. She does not recognize it, but says it certainly sounds like an evil plot against the Grand Caliph. She wonders who the elf was, where he was coming from, where he was going, and who the "C D" is who signed the note. M'Balz laments he has no answer to those questions.

Butrus, overhearing the conversation, believes they should warn the caliph when they return to Huzaz. M'Balz agrees, mentioning he wished that had occurred to him earlier. He says he will speak to his father when they get back to see how they can contact the Grand Caliph.

*** Session 6 - Scene 8 (of 9) ***

After a little over a week at sea, the group's ship finally docks at Huzaz. During the trip, the rest of the group tire quickly of M'Balz's various musings and conspiracy theories about what is going on.

As they pull in, M'Balz realizes he recognizes one of the ships as the one belonging to the lizardwoman, Daria. Once they land, he immediately leads the others over to the ship in a fit of anger.

But by the time he reaches the ship, his anger has cooled and he realizes it would be better to put the situation more to his advantage. He greets the familiar orc on the ship and exchanges barbs.

As before, ultimately Daria calls out for the brute to let them see her. She greets M'Balz and his companions, asking what she can do for them.

When M'Balz reminds her she still owes him money, she explains something came up suddenly and they had to leave quickly. M'Balz makes veiled threats about his family's control of the ports and how bad things can happen.

Daria is unimpressed by his empty threats, saying he is overstating his family's power. Still, she agrees she owes him a small sum of money and offers to settle accounts for a reasonable offer.

Butrus offers to make things good by her providing some armor and a weapon to Nazmi. She does so, though the dwarf is disappointed she doesn't have any magical goods. But, Daria explains, that is not her business.

As they are equipping Nazmi, Daria asks if everything went OK. She asks if they ran into trouble with Geer at all, noting they were asking about him last time.

When they say they did not, Daria relates a humorous story she heard about a goblin around town who owed Geer money and got some foolish people to protect him and take him out of town. She comments about how happy she is not to be those people, as Geer will certainly be looking for them.

*** Session 6 - Scene 9 (of 9) ***

From there, the band of companions heads back to M'Balz area of town. Deciding they need to sell off the furs, he stops to sell them first before making his way home. Feeling he is the most charming of the group, M'Balz chooses to personally act as the peddler.

M'Balz has good fortune, making maximum profit off of the furs. They divide the money up, with Nazmi getting a half share of 133 gold and the others getting a full share of 266 gold. Not trusting M'Balz to store their money in his family vault, the others seek out money lenders to hold the majority of their treasure.

With the money dealt with, M'Balz leads the group back to his family estate. As he is putting his gold in the family treasury, one of the servants spots him and tells him his father wishes to see him.

M'Balz heads in to see his father with the others. His father asks why his son treats him so, complaining about him dishonoring them by hocking furs in the market like a common merchant. M'Balz claims it was an act of kindness for his poor friends, who were unwilling and unable to sell the furs themselves.

Mabad is unimpressed, wondering about the great treasure his son set out to get. M'Balz explains the furs were a profitable venture but his father isn't so sure.

M'Balz then explains about the note and the plot against the Grand Caliph. Mabad laughs him off, saying there are always plots against the caliph but nothing ever comes of them.

Asking his father for his advice on what to do with the letter, M'Balz is disappointed when his father suggests he see if the servants are running low on bath paper.

M'Balz then tells his father about the map that could be the location of the lost gold mine of the Al-Kamari family. He says the venture could be profitable, but Mabad says anyone who believes the legend of the gold mine is a fool.

When asked why he believes it is the lost mine, M'Balz explains about freeing the slaves from Salazar's Tower. He goes on to talk about how the rescue has spread the good name of Al-Badassi.

Mabad, however, is less proud of his son when he learns they did not succeed in actually taking control of Salazar's tower. He refers to his son as sneaking in like a thief in the middle of the night, stealing slaves. Though his demeanor warms a bit when he learns Nazmi, the father of a qadi, has joined his son's group.

But harsher questioning continues when M'Balz is unable to explain what their plan is next. Mabad is also critical of their previous wine-based scheme, and notes the servants are gossiping about some underworld figure they have upset.

M'Balz starts to tell his father about the problems with Geer, but Mabad wants to know what exactly they did. Not wanting to admit to what happened with Snarg, M'Balz makes up a vague and stumbling story about Geer extorting a local temple. Mabad sarcastically remarks how his son's story rings of truth and has him stop in the middle rather than listen to more lies.

Mabad also complains his "intended's" mother, a woman named Lorelei, came by looking for M'Balz to follow through with marrying her daughter. Mabad mentions dealing with the woman by having the servants over serve her wine then dumping her off in a bad part of town.

After confirming his father doesn't need him to do anything (with Mabad telling his son he has done enough already), M'Balz pledges to go do more good in the name of the Al-Badassi family. Mabad begs him to leave the family name (and honor) out of his schemes.

With the discussion with his father complete, M'Balz focuses on planning their next move. He realizes that adding the map from the old sailor, they have three possible treasure maps to follow up on and will need to decide where to start.

*** Session 6 - Session Notes ***

This session occurred over a week ago, I just forgot to post these notes until today (I've had a busy last couple of weeks).

Getting a session in with everyone in attendance made a world of difference; my enthusiasm for the campaign has been recharged and I feel things are moving again. We have another session this Friday that will hopefully continue things along with everyone as well.

So, some random notes about the session:

* All of the encounters this session were random encounters. To make sure the game keeps moving, I plot out all the different things the party is likely to do between sessions and roll for random monster encounters and their treasures ahead of time.

* I had Snarg disappear because the PCs gave me a good opportunity and I want to keep the NPC around to cause more trouble later. The players, naturally, knew this would happen. Should the PCs have gone to one of the caves instead, the encounters would have been different.

* Nazmi abu Qadi is an attempt to give the PCs a henchman. Note that his last name literally means, "Father of the Qadi" (while Asami's name translates to "Daughter of Nazmi").

* Strictly speaking, Gra'bir shouldn't have been able to throw a lance very effectively (as they are too long), but I let the player claim dramatic license.

* Unlike most DMs I know, I like tracking encumbrance. This session had a couple of decision points on how to divide treasure because you can only carry so much. That said, I'm using the 50 coins = 1 pound that 5e uses along with 5e carrying capacities; the old D&D rules are brutal (with 10 coins = 1 pound).

* The nightmare probably should have killed everyone, but I figured taking off a slave would do.

* The scorpion encounter was to originally occur at night, but the PC's preparations made sense that they would be protected. So instead, it happened the next morning.

The PCs were wise to run from the scorpions, but the creatures did have a nice cache of treasure nearby they missed.

* Adanband's overuse of his wall of fog spell has become a joke even among the players. I definitely need to get him more opportunities to get more spells.

* I wanted Zayir to be somewhat of a rest and relax period, but I kept to the rule of "guests stay 3 days" in the Land of Fate setting.

* There were no armor or weapons in Zayir because I want to enforce the difference between a town and a city.

* The rumors the PCs hear are all from a list of random rumors I created. I roll each time before telling them what they heard. Naturally, some are true, some only half-true, and some completely false.

* The Gra'bir player missed last session so he only saw the INDO RAGI clue that night. The fact he solved it right away was hilarious after the M'Balz player spent two weeks thinking about it.

* Anyone with a map of Zakhara can see that the Al-Sayaj Mountains are far to the south, so the second treasure map can't possibly be the location of the Al-Kimari's rumored gold mine. But whether or not the PCs figure that out before they head there remains to be seen...

* I was very pleasantly surprised they decided to negotiate with Daria for cheating them instead of trying something more physical. I have a feeling she will come up again (as will her "joke" warning them about Geer).

* The reference to Lorelei is another name drop for Gilmore Girls. But it is also foreshadowing for later.

* Mabad is still my favorite NPC - the weary and disapproving father towards M'Balz's "Better Call Saul" style shenanigans.

*** Session 7 - Cast of Characters ***

M'Balz Al-Badassi: A human rogue from the city. M'Balz is the member of a noble family with political connections, but is bored with his wealthy lifestyle and instead performs as a masked scoundrel for hire know as Al-Caliph.

Gra'bir Boubi: A human warrior from the desert tribe of the Wah'na Poq-yah tribe of the Haunted Lands. A superb hunter, Gra'bir has come to the city of Huzaz to look for a quest to prove himself a great warrior.

Adanband: An elf scholar and sorcerer from the city of Huzaz.

Butrus: A dwarf priest with a fervent faith and damaged memory.

*** Session 7 - Scene 1 (of 8) ***

After several days of rest in Huzaz, the party still cannot agree on what to do next. While M'Balz sees the larger treasure being from one of the maps, Gra'bir would prefer to look into the rumor about the treasure at the palace gardens they heard from the man on the boat when they set out with Snarg. Butrus is skeptical the rumor will prove true.

M'Balz eventually sees things Gra'bir's way, and Butrus agrees to go along with it. They decide that since the original man they heard it from was no doubt eaten by hippos, they will need to do some more research. They also elect to keep Nazmi out of it, as he is the father of a qadis and would no doubt find this particular mission to be too immoral to participate in.

Butrus begins by heading back to the Mosque of Zann the Wise, and speaking with Imam Renn. He asks the priest if he knows anything about treasure hidden in the public gardens at the palace. The imam says the gardens themselves are a treasure, with the singing tree and the talking bird as the prized treasures of the Grand Caliph, but nothing about monetary treasure hidden there.

The dwarf explains he is not after treasure himself, but is trying to assist his friends. Imam Renn cautions against despoiling the gardens in any way, for they are loved in Huzaz and attempting to loot them could lead to being stoned to death by the populace. Butrus says he will try to find the wisdom to talk the men out of it.

Meanwhile, M'Balz wants to go looking for the Silent Starlings. He begins by going to a local winery, and asks around about the gang. One old man, too fond of his wine, has heard of them and mentions they like to steal from pilgrims in the temple district but he hasn't seen them for a couple of weeks. He says something about them being led by "that creepy looking elf boy" Ihab.

M'Balz heads over to the Pilgrim's District. He sees little of interest, though does spot Butrus coming out of the mosque. He also notices the beggar on the rolling cart, Tarik, is still active in the area.

The rogue approaches Tarik, who asks him for "spare change for a former soldier". M'Balz greets Tarik by name, who clearly does not remember him. M'Balz accosts Tarik for not delivering his message, and the two argue over whether or not M'Balz paid the man to deliver it (with M'Balz blatantly lying that he already paid him).

Tarik tires of the argument and starts rolling himself away. M'Balz follows him, allowing him to beg a pilgrim for more money and then continuing his harangue. The rogue finally offers to allow Tarik to "make it up to him" by giving him some information about Ihab, offering a small monetary award in the process.

The two haggle over money, with Tarik wanting 10 dinar and M'Balz only wanting to pay one. They eventually agree to one dinar and two silver. Tarik says that Ihab and his gang used to frequent this area, but were ran off by a dwarf (who he believes is the man standing nearby).

M'Balz has Tarik get to the point, at which he explains the Starlings moved over to the Northwest District and are now working for Geer. M'Balz wants more information about Geer, but Tarik says only that knowing things about Geer is trouble, so he'll keep his mouth shut.

Before leaving, M'Balz mentions still wanting his message delivered, and Tarik still responds that he'll get to it later. Butrus also comes over to accompany M'Balz back to his family palace. He gives Tarik a warning about needing to donate to the temple, threatening the man (whom he believes to be a liar and thief).

While the other two browbeat a pathetic beggar, Adanband stays at the great house of Al-Badassi to meditate, while Gra'bir seeks to recon the gardens themselves. Entering the public gardens, he pays a dirham to get a guided tour of the garden. They visit the golden pool, the reflecting pool, the singing tree, the talking bird, the crematorium, and all of the other popular sites of the garden along with a discussion about the various flora there.

Gra'bir is most interested in the singing tree and the talking bird. The singing tree sings songs with a beautiful cacophony of voices. The talking bird, however, remains perched up high in the trees. The guide explains the Grand Caliph found the bird years ago during his travels, and it will only come down and speak with the most pious of individuals.

Saying his tribe has a legend about buried treasure in the garden, Gra'bir asks about the history. The guide explains the public gardens were established back in the days of the First Caliph, as a place of beauty and relaxation for the people. He says he has never heard anything about a treasure, but such legends may be found catalogued at the university.

After his tour, Gra'bir attempts to get a better view of the Caliph's private gardens. He sees nothing else except more bushes, trees, and many more flowers – in particular the Grand Caliph's orchid collection. With nothing else to do, he heads back to the Al-Badassi house.

*** Session 7 - Scene 2 (of 8) ***

Later that afternoon, the group all gets together to discuss what they've learned. Butrus mentions that the talking bird and the singing tree could be treasures themselves. He does wonder if the songs of the singing tree could be any kind of clues, or perhaps use a special type of bird food to lure the bird down.

Gra'bir explains about his tour of the garden. He wonders if the treasure is inside the private gardens of the Caliph. He mentions the university may have more information about lore related to the garden. Adanband notes he studied at the university but has no knowledge of any legends about the gardens; however, he offers to go research the archives there.

M'Balz is more intrigued by the crematorium. He believes the treasure may not be buried so much as underground, accessible by some tunnel from the building.

Butrus wonders how they would get any treasure out, since it would be stealing. Gra'bir is confused, believing the public gardens would make the treasure available to the public. Butrus tries to shame M'Balz by asking how his father would feel about his stealing from the Caliph, but M'Balz is adamant he doesn't see things that way.

Adanband spends the evening searching through the archives, but finds nothing of interest.

*** Session 7 - Scene 3 (of 8) ***

The next day, Adanband goes off to do more research while the others decide what to do in the meantime. M'Balz believes it would be worth tracking down the Silent Starlings to see if they have any information. Butrus scoffs at the idea, saying the Starlings would have taken the treasure for themselves if they had any knowledge (and that even bringing up the thought with thieves, they will likely create trouble for themselves).

M'Balz says they could use them to find more information about Geer. He reasons that if Geer is out for blood because of the situation with Snarg, it would help them stay alive if they get more information.

On the advice of Butrus, the trio decide to go to the Northwest District disguised as well-dressed pilgrims. After wandering around a while, giving the appearance of naïve tourists, they notice they are being followed by a pair of boys. Up ahead in the alley, they also spot another pair of figures getting into position.

Gra'bir whispers to the others to ready themselves. Before they have a chance to do anything else, the boys step out – two in front of them and two behind, all brandishing their knives. They tell the group to hand over their money.

As M'Balz attempts to stumble drunkenly over to one of the boys, the boy shoves at him hard. M'Balz manages to avoid being knocked over and grabs the youth, throwing him over his shoulder to the ground and bringing his blade to the young thief's throat.

M'Balz tells the others to stay still, with the thief repeating for them to back off. He tries telling M'Balz they are merely children and to keep his knife away. M'Balz laughs while Gra'bir and Butrus cast off their disguises and ready their weapons.

Butrus tells the boy they are only there for information. When asked what information, M'Balz explains they want to know about the boys' employer, Geer, and his activties.

The boy explains they don't know anything about Geer or what he's up to, they just pay a cut of their earnings to him as a tribute so they can operate in the area. M'Balz questions further, discovering the boys are ignorant of anything about a goblin or Geer looking for anyone. The boy does mention that Ihab may know more, since he's the one who deals with Geer.

M'Balz wants the boys to take them to Ihab, but the boy wants money first, saying Ihab does not want visitors. The two argue and trade threats, with M'Balz threatening to kill the boy and the boy reminding him they are still outnumbered.

The boy is not so easily intimidated. Gra'bir decides to escalate the situation by throwing his dagger at one of the other boys.

Seeing Gra'bir's intending attack, the boy on the ground knocks M'Balz's dagger away with his arm and scrambles away on the ground. The others stab at the three of them, with only Gra'bir getting injured. He does manage to hurl his dagger into the leg of one of the boys.

M'Balz attempts to grapple the lead boy on the ground and yelling out for everyone to stop. Butrus attempts to stun the boy that attacked him with his mace, but gets only a glancing hit.

As the situation descends into chaos, a man's voice yells out, "Stop in the name of the law!" Everyone stops fighting and turns to see that Sargon and a troop of mamluks has been attracted by the fighting.

M'Balz calls out to Sargon to help, as they are being mugged. Sargon looks the situation over, seeing the dagger sticking out of the boy's leg. He says that both sides seem to be holding their own in the fight.

Sargon tells the boys to leave and detains the group for further questioning. He recognizes M'Balz as the man with the coffin and wine. He wants to know why M'Balz is there, as it is a bad part of town.

M'Balz says his business often takes him into this part of town. Sargon says he saved the three from trouble, which M'Balz acknowledges. Gra'bir, having lost his knife in the leg of the boy, notes he is unarmed while M'Balz points out his wound to the patrol captain.

Butrus worries the situation with Sargon is delicate, and tells the man a tale about his mosque asking them to go talk to the boys about staying away from pilgrims, but the boys tried to attack and rob them. Sargon is skeptical that the dwarf is telling the whole truth of the situation, but is mollified for now. He tells them to leave the matter of law and order to him and the mamluks and tells them to leave.

They return back to the great house, Gra'bir stopping to buy a new dagger on the way. When Adanband returns later that evening, he confesses he has not found any information yet. He notices Gra'bir's wound and asks about it, but the nomad says only that he was just trying to make a warrior out of one of the boys in the city, saying he left the lad with a battle scar he won't forget.

*** Session 7 - Scene 4 (of 8) ***

The following day, M'Balz is discouraged by their lack of progress and wonders if the treasure of the garden may need to stay hidden. Butrus suggests they all go to the university and help Adanband in his research.

They all agree to give it one more day. They head across town and across the river to the Al-Bidir Sallah University, paying a bit to take the ferry pushed by the two dao servitors.

Everyone pours through the old scrolls, but find nothing on any legends about the gardens. One of the scholars there recognizes Adanband as having been there for the past three days and asks him what he has been looking for.

When Adanband explains they are there for information about the public gardens, the librarian offers to get a research assistant to assist him for an honorarium of 10 dinar for the "library fund". The elf inwardly winces at the amount, wondering how much he will be asked to pay for the university's "annual fund" later.

Adanband agrees to pay the fee, getting a student assistant for the day along with a scroll certifying his membership in the "friends of the library" group at the bronze membership level.

After some time they do manage to find information about the gardens – including both the history of the gardens as well as a legend about the singing tree.

According to the legend, there is a specific incantation (which is written in the notes about the legend) that must be said in front of the singing tree. The speaker must then fire an arrow into the air, which will summon the invisible swordsman who will take him to where the treasure is hidden.

Butrus is highly skeptical of the legend, but M'Balz and Gra'bir believe that it sounds reasonable. They decide to head back across town, discussing how to accomplish his goal. Gra'bir wants to be the one to fire the arrow; Butrus warns him not to hit the bird.

*** Session 7 - Scene 5 (of 8) ***

Later that afternoon, the group decides to put their plan into action. Instructing that the mamluks will not let anyone near the palace with a bow, Gra'bir decides to take only a bow string and will make a makeshift bow from a tree branch in the garden, figuring he does not need to have a very good bow for the magic to work.

The four head into the gardens shortly before closing. When the magic mouth spell activates on the garden columns, announcing it is time for all visitors to leave, they each attempt to hide in the bushes.

Unfortunately, M'Balz does not hide very well and is quickly spotted by one of the mamluks. The guard calls out to him, asking what he is doing. M'Balz attempts to act intoxicated, saying he got lost.

The guard calls out for others. They come quickly and take M'Balz into their custody. The head guard says M'Balz is drunk and should be taken to the holding cell.

Trying to buy his way out of trouble, M'Balz offers the guards money to forget the incident ever happened, giving them a sob story about one of his wives leaving him. The guard tells him he will be held for the evening and will see the qadis in the morning, to answer charges of public drunkenness and attempted bribery.

Meanwhile, back at the garden, Gra'bir emerges from hiding as soon as the men step away. He takes a branch to make a bow, but the first one breaks when he attempts it. His second attempt produces a much nicer bow. But just as Gra'bir is finishing it up, another mamluk guard happens by.

The guard calls out for Gra'bir to halt, but the warrior attempts to make a run for it. He attempts to head towards the private gardens, but is unable to scale the wall quickly. A short time later, M'Balz gets a new cellmate.

Adanband and Butrus elect to leave the garden without attempting to do anything else. Luckily, they manage to escape without being seen by the mamluks.

Seeing if they can bail their companions out of jail, they head over to talk to the peacekeepers. After some discussion, Adanband is able to identify which of the many people arrested that night he is talking about.

Because Gra'bir was arrested for desecrating the garden and M'Balz for attempted bribery, the two must be held until they can be judged by a qadis. The mamluk suggests hiring a lawyer for them. Adanband tries to get the men released into his custody, and after some discussion the man agrees to see if a qadis can be called in that night.

After waiting around another couple of hours, the qadis passes judgment on the two. Because of M'Balz's family status, they will only need to pay a fine of 300 dinar instead of having their hands chopped off. Along with a lifetime ban from the public gardens.

M'Balz and Gra'bir agree to split the cost of their fine. Because Gra'bir stored his money with a moneylender instead of at the Al-Badassi treasury, Adanband is forced to wait until the next morning until he can collect the money for them and pay their fine.

*** Session 7 - Scene 6 (of 8) ***

Once they are out, Gra'bir wants to plan how to try another tactic. M'Balz, however, has reconsidered and suggests they abandon the pursuit of the garden treasure as they have many other options.

Gra'bir reminds M'Balz they still need to warn the Grand Caliph about the note they found on the elf from the mysterious "C D". M'Balz suggests they want to let some time pass before they approach the caliph.

While Gra'bir worries about not getting the chance once they leave town, Butrus offers a compromise that he and Adanband can deliver the message so as not to get the two arrested again.

Butrus and Adanband head up to the central palace to meet with the Grand Caliph. Gra'bir tails them at a distance.

A guard stops the two at the main gate, asking their business. When Butrus says they need to speak to the Grand Caliph, he asks they have an appointment.

Butrus explains they have an important message for the caliph. He asks if there is someone of high importance in the palace they could speak to instead.

Four hours of waiting at the gate passes before a man comes out. He gives his name as Thindrus, the Secondary Assistant to the Junior Deputy Vizier of Community Relations.
Butrus tells Thindrus the story of how they found the dead elf with the scroll and how they brought it there to warn the Grand Caliph. Thindrus is unsure what to make of the scroll, finding much of it to be gibberish. But, he does agree to take the scroll and send it up through the proper channels.

Meanwhile, Gra'bir looks on for an opportunity to sneak into the gardens, but does not find a good moment. Butrus, however, notices him.

The dwarf approaches Gra'bir and exclaims that clearly he is not ready to give up the quest. Butrus suggests they get as close as they can to the tree while still outside the gardens and fire the arrow later that night. He believes this will be as effective as the interpretation that Gra'bir has made.

Gra'bir, however, does not wish to wait for the dark. Instead, he fires the arrow into the air near the palace in broad daylight. The invisible swordsman does not appear, but some guards do.

This time, Gra'bir elects to speak in his own defense to the qadis. He tells the judge that his people in his tribe have a different customs. In order to honor the dead, Gra'bir explains, he must fashion a bow from their bushes, give a prayer, and fire a ceremonial arrow into the air.

Hearing the warrior's impassioned speech, the qadis decides against his better judgment and does not increase the fine, keeping it at 200 dinar.

Gra'bir asks the others to help him out with paying half of the fine. Butrus tells the others he thought the plan has always been foolhardy, but has been trying to help them with the compassion of the Loregiver. However, he is beginning to rethink the wisdom of this approach.

In the end, Butrus agrees to help if Gra'bir promises not to go back to the gardens. In the end, they each agree to pay a share of the fine.

*** Session 7 - Scene 7 (of 8) ***

Hoping to end the foolishness, Butrus and Adanband volunteer to go to the gardens instead and pray to the Loregiver in front of the tree for guidance.

M'Balz attempts to convince Butrus to take a "miniature bow and arrow" to use, but the dwarf rejects their plan as foolhardy.

The two head into the gardens, where Butrus makes his way to the singing tree. He listens to the singing and says the incantation, then communes with the Loregiver and tries to talk to the bird.

The bird flies down a little closer. It calls out to the dwarf to ask his name. He gives his name as Butrus Al-Chub, though notes his last name is not his true name. He explains about his memory loss and how he came to be with his companions.

Butrus also explains about his companions' interest in the gardens, and how they believe a treasure or other good is kept there. The bird says the dwarf is truly a shepherd of fools, and Butrus somewhat agrees saying the Loregiver has put him with the others to provide them guidance.

The bird tells Butrus to pray to the Loregiver while honoring the dead and he will find what he seeks. Butrus asks the bird if he means the crematorium, but it simply flies back up to its high perch.

Butrus realizes others have noticed the bird having honored him. He exchanges blessings with each of them, and he and Adanband wander around the gardens for quite some time before cautiously making their way back to the crematorium.

Butrus prays there, but no divine intervention is made. Butrus then elects to wander around the area for a short time.

He then wanders back to the singing tree, listening to the songs for a while. He detects nothing in the wording of the songs that will help them.

Convinced the bird speaking to him was a sign, Butrus makes his way back to the crematorium. Adanband, however, finds peace from meditating and spots something as they leave; one of the bushes next to the building seems to be concealing something.

Adanband wanders over to get a better look. He can see that it is a heavy door in the ground. He motions over to Butrus to show him the door. Because the area is crowded, the two decide to walk away and perhaps come back later at night.

Against his better judgment, Butrus decides they should tell the others about what they found.

*** Session 7 - Scene 8 (of 8) ***

When Adanband tells the others about the door (which Butrus explains came to him because of his prayer to the Loregiver), they are anxious to go investigate.

M'Balz wonders why Adanband didn't use his magic to gain access to it, while Gra'bir suggests tying up the guards first this time. Adanband recommends they go back at night and sneak in.

Butrus suggest M'Balz and Gra'bir disguise themselves as women to get inside. Then, they can pay someone to make a distraction to draw the attention of the guards while they go down into the secret tunnel.

They discuss the specifics of the plan for some time. M'Balz wonders about using Tarik, while Gra'bir wants to use Adanband's wall of fog spell. Butrus tries to talk them into a more reasonable plan, all the while reminding them that if they are caught a third time, they will likely be executed.

Finally, they decide to just have Butrus and Adanband head in. As they meet poor peasants, Butrus hands out some money and convinces them that someone is handing out money on the other side of the garden.

With the guards busy dealing with the rush of people, Butrus signals M'Balz and Gra'bir. Adanband quickly moves in and tries to open the door. He doesn't have much luck, even with Butrus' help.

M'Balz and Gra'bir rush in just as they get the door open. They see it opens to a narrow tunnel down with iron rungs built into the sides.

The four lower themselves into the darkness and close the door behind them. Butrus lights his lamp in the dark, revealing they are in a smoothly-crafted sewers. An inch or so of water flows towards them at a slow pace, then drains down into the ground to lower drains.

Blocking their way forward is a large metal grate. After spending ten minutes or more, they do manage to force it open. The creaking noise echoes throughout the sewers.
 
Moving forward, they see the passage continues but also goes to the right. In the intersection, there are metal rungs leading up to the top with another door.

After doing some estimated measurements, they determine the passageway up leads aboveground. They move around the sewers for a brief time, finding it has a very square layout in their immediate area. The direction of the sewers appears to be leading away from the palace, which they find confusing.

As they continue along, Gra'bir notices a very rank smell in the area. He does not recognize it.

Suddenly, some tentacles come down from the ceiling. Butrus and Adanband are hit by them while Gra'bir moves out of the way. The sorcerer shrugs off the effect of the tentacles while Butrus is paralyzed.

Looking up, they see they are under attack by a trio of carrion crawlers on the ceiling. Gra'bir quickly strikes at one, hitting it with his lance. M'Balz follows up with his dagger, getting in a solid hit.

Adanband lets loose with his burning hands spell, flaming all three of them. Gra'bir follows up with his lance, killing one of them.

M'Balz stabs at another with his dagger, badly injuring it. Adanband attacks it himself with his staff, finishing it off.

The remaining crawler attacks at Gra'bir. He manages to avoid one of the tentacles but is hit by another and paralyzed.

M'Balz and Adanband trade attacks with the crawler for several minutes, with no one able to hit the other. Eventually, the creature hits M'Balz but he shrugs off the paralyzing touch. M'Balz stabs into the creature at the same time, killing it.

They have to wait a half hour for the others to come out of their paralyzation. While waiting, M'Balz notices the crawlers came out of a small tunnel in the side of one of the vertical shafts.

Once the others have recovered, he elects to go up the rungs and go inside the cavern, taking Butrus' lamp with him.

Inside he spots a pile of rodent and humanoid remains. He also sees something shiny inside the pile.

M'Balz has Adanband hand him his staff and uses the staff to move around the pile. Underneath, he spots some coins.

Readying his dagger, he moves in closer. He discovers a cache of several hundred coins of gold, silver, and copper. He decides to take the gold and silver but leave the copper.

Underneath the coins, he also discovers three sets of very fine studded leather armor. He hands them down to the others. He elects to take one of the sets, giving the others to Butrus and Gra'bir.

*** Session 7 - Session Notes ***

For most of this session, it had the feel of the "Cthulhubusters" campaign - essentially a caper plot where everything goes horribly, horribly wrong.

The funniest part was that most of the players, at various times, advocated dropping the whole scheme but there was always just enough encouragement that would keep one of them interested in continuing on.

Originally, the palace gardens treasure was a throwaway false rumor that they got through my random rumor table. It basically still is, but I decided that instead of amounting to nothing, it would be a way to get them into a dungeon-esque sewer area (which borrows heavily from the Day of Al'Akbar module for AD&D). I also have some more surprises in there that will help tie it back to another plot element.

Other random notes about the session:

* When the session began, they still hadn't decided on what they were going to do next. I had areas prepared for both map caves, the island, and the gardens depending on which direction they went.

* Butrus' player was certain the palace gardens treasure was a fool's errand, and kept making fun of the others the whole time.

* In the actual session, we forgot all about Nazmi until halfway through. I came up with the rationale that they wouldn't involve him in that particular plan.

* I'm not sure why the PCs went with the "let's talk to random NPCs we know" direction at first to try and find information about the gardens; it really made no sense so I didn't have it amount to much (though kept trying to hint they should focus on doing real research).

* Ihab is described as creepy-looking because I modeled him on Issac from the Children of the Corn movie. More on that later...

* I found it funny the PCs are pretty certain Tarik is faking his lack of legs, but have yet to reveal him as a fraud.

* The singing tree, the talking bird, and the layout of the gardens are all from the TSR setting.

* The plan to try and get information out of the Silent Starlings very nearly turned deadly. I had Sargon appear because the whole point is that he keeps things from devolving into chaos.

* The jokes about the "library fund" and so on are more of an in-joke; two of us, and one spouse, work for academic fundraising organizations.

* The legend about the singing tree and the invisible swordsman is a joke, playing off of the similar legend in the movie Three Amigos. I thought this would be obvious, but it turns out I'm the only one who's ever seen it (I must have watched in a hundred times in my youth and all my friends at the time loved it, so that was odd to me that it was considered obscure by others).

* It was both funny, and strange, how the PCs would try to mold the legend to be easier to fulfill; as if you can weasel word your way into making magic work (though, again, this was a false legend).

* I was having too much fun with the bad decisions (and rolls) that ended up getting the PCs thrown in jails. I made their fines heavy because if M'Balz wasn't nobility, they probably should have been maimed or killed.

* Thindrus' title is clearly a joke about the baroque system of civil service titles as well as a way to let the PCs know they didn't get to talk to anyone remotely important.

* I had the bird talk to Butrus because, if nothing else, he is fervently pious. Plus by this point, the whole effort needed some payoff (besides, I'd hate to draw up my dungeon plans for nothing).

* The time in the dungeon took a lot longer in game because the PCs spent forever trying to figure out where the sewers might lead, slopes, water sources, what the manhole covers were, etc.

Just noticed this thread here....



My Badass Balls?

Grab her Boobies?

Are your players 13 years old?!?



...I'm going to keep reading. Hopefully it gets better, my friend. :banghead:

EDIT:

THEY'VE NEVER SEEN THE THREE AMIGOS!!!

...are you sure they aren't pod people?

Quote from: Novastar;818878Just noticed this thread here....



My Badass Balls?

Grab her Boobies?

Are your players 13 years old?!?



...I'm going to keep reading. Hopefully it gets better, my friend. :banghead:

EDIT:

THEY'VE NEVER SEEN THE THREE AMIGOS!!!

...are you sure they aren't pod people?

I can forgive the stupid joke names, but I agree that not knowing the Three Amigos is unforgivable. :D

*** Session 8 - Cast of Characters ***

 M'Balz Al-Badassi: A human rogue from the city. M'Balz is the member of a noble family with political connections, but is bored with his wealthy lifestyle and instead performs as a masked scoundrel for hire know as Al-Caliph.

 Gra'bir Boubi: A human warrior from the desert tribe of the Wah'na Poq-yah tribe of the Haunted Lands. A superb hunter, Gra'bir has come to the city of Huzaz to look for a quest to prove himself a great warrior.

 Adanband: An elf scholar and sorcerer from the city of Huzaz.

 Butrus: A dwarf priest with a fervent faith and damaged memory.

*** Session 8 - Scene 1 (of 7) ***

The group takes a moment to replace their armor and rest up. Adanband also studies his spell book and finally gains mastery over the stinking cloud and flaming sphere spells he had been researching.

Despite being partially fatigued from the fight with the carrion crawlers and Butrus' belief they are wasting their time on fairy tales, the group decides to move on with exploring the sewers. Gra'bir and Butrus take the lead, with M'Balz and Adanband behind them.

Gra'bir leads the group to the north, continuing to find various intersections of sewers; many of them have access to the surface. When they eventually hit a T-intersection, they head back west towards the palace.

The sewers do not go very far before turning back to the south. They decide to follow it back towards where they came in since the layout of the sewers appears to be a large grid.

As they near the point they had explored before, they spot a high mound of mud and refuse that has collected in the middle of the sewer canal. Gra'bir looks at it carefully, saying it does not appear natural.

M'Balz looks around to find a small stone. Finding one, he hurls it at the mound. It suddenly shakes to life, with a host of eyes and mouths emerging from it; it is a huge gibbering mouther.

Gra'bir takes a few steps further back and lets loose with his bow, but misses. M'Balz draws his bow as well, but finds no luck injuring the creature.

Adanband also attempts to attack with an arrow, an acid arrow, but the creature appears to eat it.

Butrus prefers the direct approach, moving in to charge at the monster with his mace. But the creature sloughs off the attack and responds by biting him several times; the deep wounds burn with acid.

As he writhes in pain, Butrus is spit upon by the gelatinous beast. He finds himself blinded.

Gra'bir tries to help with another arrow, but still cannot damage it. M'Balz has no better luck. Butrus calls to the Loregiver to give him a flaming blade. He blindly slashes at the creature with it, injuring it.

Adanband moves in to help Butrus. He smacks into it with his staff, causing some injury. The gibbering mouther bites several times into the sorcerer, causing him immense pain.

While Gra'bir still cannot find his mark with an arrow, M'Balz has better luck but scores only a glancing hit.

Regaining his sight, Butrus stabs into the mound again with his flaming blade. Adanband takes the opportunity to move back so can start a spell.

The gibbering mouther strikes out at Butrus, biting him another couple of times. Gra'bir decides to drive the creature back by dropping his bow and striking out with his lance but the blob shifts out of the way of its path, dodging an arrow of M'Balz in the process.

Adanband conjures a flaming sphere and moves it to attack the beast. As it burns the creature the intense heat can be felt by Butrus, causing him minor burns as well.

The mouther does not appear to like the sphere and attempts to move away. Adanband has the flaming sphere pursue, as does Gra'bir. He stabs into the monster with his weapon, managing to use its reach to avoid the heat of the sphere.

M'Balz follows up the attack with an arrow that scores a solid hit. Butrus, meanwhile, is badly injures so he calls on the Loregiver to heal himself.

Adanband is also badly injured from his wounds, as the acid continues to burn him. He tries to focus on attacking the fleeing creature with the magical ball of fire he conjured.

Gra'bir follows up with another deep stab with his lance. M'Balz tries to finish it off with another arrow, but misses.

Butrus quickly heals Adanband before he succumbs to the burning acid on his skin. It gives him enough time to finish off the creature with his flaming sphere. It melts into a burning, slagging mess.

*** Session 8 - Scene 2 (of 7) ***

After the fight is over, Gra'bir uses his lance to autopsy the creature to see if it had anything of value inside. He discovers a pair of tourmalines and a topaz.

Once they've taken a moment to recover, Butrus insists they leave the sewers as he and Adanband have been badly injured and are exhausted of their powers.

Gra'bir and M'Balz lead the others to a nearby manhole exit, not wanting to risk getting caught exiting back into the gardens after hours. Gra'bir climbs up and lifts the drain cover slowly, peeking out. He finds one that appears to be in an alley.

The fighter goes first, then lifts the others out. As they exit, a pair of young boys pass by. Scared by the sudden emergence of the group, they yell something about "chuds" being real (referring to the local legends of cannibalistic humanoid underground dwellers who live in the sewers) and run off.

Making sure they know where they exited so they can come back later, the group heads back to the Al-Badassi home to rest for the night.

While everyone else goes to their guest rooms and has the servants draw up baths, the head servant tells M'Balz his father wishes to see him. The rogue nervously complies, knowing his father has likely found out about his recent arrest.

Steeling himself, M'Balz enters his father's study. Mabad sits behind his desk, wearing his sleeping robes. He calls out to his son, asking what he has done to dishonor the family now.

M'Balz claims he was chasing a thief. Mabad says he must have been chasing the thief in the sewers, noting he smells awful.

While his son tries to lie about defending the honor of the city by catching the dirty thief, Mabad relates he has heard a most disturbing rumor. When asked what the rumor was, Mabad says he heard of a rotten, unappreciative son found drunk in the public gardens.

M'Balz tries to play dumb, though says he did have a run-in with some guards while catching the thief. Mabad warns him that any further such run-ins would lead to him being exiled from the family palace. M'Balz calls the situation unfair, but accepts his father's judgement.

His father goes on to bemoan the strange habits his son has subjected him to for years. He says it is perhaps time to take M'Balz more under his wing and give him a nice desk job in the ministry. M'Balz tries to act appreciative as Mabad goes on to say it is also time M'Balz was married and how he plans to arrange a marriage to a woman with nice wide birthing hips.

Mabad relates that of course, once he is married and working at the ministry he would not have time for his friends or adventures. M'Balz, not wanting to lose his inheritance, agrees. Backed into a corner by forcing to admit his father's plan pleases him, M'Balz is told he will be expected at the ministry the first thing the next morning.

His father then dismisses him, saying his odor offends him. M'Balz decides to bathe and go to sleep without talking to the others first.

*** Session 8 - Scene 3 (of 7) ***

The next morning, M'Balz reports to the ministry as ordered. He is shown his duties by one of the junior assistant ministers, who takes him into the basement where he is given a task to sort the archived receipts. He finds the archive room to be piles of unsorted receipts for the last three years.

The assistant minister tells M'Balz to sort them by date, department, and amount; and when he is through, he can move on to the older archived receipts that are not as well ordered. M'Balz realizes he could spend the rest of his life in the basement, sorting papers, but begins working.

Meanwhile, Butrus awakens at the palace and begins looking for his companion. He is told by one of the servants that M'Balz has gone to work at the ministry.

The priest decides they should go visit their friend to see what is going on. Adanband agrees to go with but Gra'bir begs off, saying he wants to sell off the gems so they can divide the treasure.

Butrus and Adanband arrive at the ministry and ask to see M'Balz. They are informed he is hard at work in the archives, but can relay a message to him.

Thinking quickly, Butrus lies and tells him they have been sent to assist M'Balz in his work. The attendant lets them through, giving them convoluted directions to the archive.

Down in the archives, M'Balz is surprised to see Butrus and Adanband show up. He explains to them about his father forcing him into the job to avoid being cut off by his father. Butrus blithely notes that is likely to occur in due time regardless.

M'Balz tells them he has a few ideas to get out of his situation. As he has been placed under the most junior minister, he plans to bribe the man to get out of work. But he says nothing to his friends, instead asking them to meet him in a few hours at the Coffee House of the Oaken Gnome.

After they leave, Butrus forms another plan. He tells Adanband that if M'Balz's plan doesn't work, they can just set the archives room on fire and get him kicked out of his job.

*** Session 8 - Scene 4 (of 7) ***

Meanwhile, Gra'bir finds himself at the shop of Marghab Goldman, a jeweler. He shows him the gems he found under the sewers.

The jeweler comments on the shininess of the gems. Gra'bir says they have been given a special acid wash, a rare technique.

Goldman offers Gra'bir 1200 dinar for the trio of gems. Gra'bir, not knowing much about the value of gems, agrees it is a fair bargain.

With the deal made, Goldman also offers the banking services of his business partner, Samaan Sachs. He notes they can offer very competitive service rates. Gra'bir, however, wishes to keep his money with his current banker. He feels much more comfortable once his money is safely held by the trustworthy brothers, Emran and Hani Lehman.

Gra'bir then heads back towards the ministry, encountering Butrus and Adanband along the way. He tells them he has sold the gems for a good sum and deposited their money in their accounts.

Butrus catches Gra'bir up on their meeting with M'Balz and his plotting. Gra'bir admits he wouldn't mind spending some of his new money on a drink.

As they talk, Butrus explains his theory that M'Balz will eventually be disowned for his activities. Unless, he speculates, they can gain favor by doing something heroic. Gra'bir notes the Great Al-Badassi is not someone who appears to be easily impressed.

Gra'bit, however, thinks the idea could have merit. He suggests they go see Mabad personally to offer their services. Butrus likes the idea, saying they have plenty of time before they are to meet with M'Balz.

The three head back to the ministry. When they meet the attendant this time, Gra'bir says he has been sent there to speak with the Great Al-Badassi. When asked what his business is, Gra'bir lies and says he has been given a task to perform by Al-Badassi and needs some clarification.

The attendant explains he will need to confirm some details. He leaves for some time and when he returns he explains he has spoken to Mabad. He tells them Al-Badassi was happy to hear from them and glad they have arrived.

Continuing on, the attendant explains they have been given an assignment to head to the nearby village of Star's Hollow on a "goodwill tour". Around this time a small contingent of mamluk soldiers arrives. The attendant explains they are there to escort them to Star's Hollow, for their "safety".

Gra'bir starts to put together they are being exiled from the city, just like Mabad did with Rory. Butrus tries to interject they will need to go back to the palace first to get their things, but the large men with spears insist there isn't time.

*** Session 8 - Scene 5 (of 7) ***

Later that afternoon, M'Balz uses his coffee break to sneak off to the Oaken Gnome. But looking around, he finds no friends but is approached by Kazaam, his family genie.

Kazaam greets M'Balz with his usual large smile and pleasant laugh. He tells him he has a message from his father. He tells him there is no need to wait for his friends, for they are gone.

M'Balz asks after his friends but Kazaam says only they have gone away and he will likely not see them again. He tries to appeal to M'Balz's pragmatic nature, asking if it is not time for him to settle down and learn the family business.

Trying to find an angle, M'Balz says he wants to return his friend's belongings to them as a matter of honor. Kazaam offers to fly the goods out to them, and M'Balz attempts to get the location out of the genie but the djinni is no fool. He tells M'Balz his father would not want him to know, and cheerfully but seriously notes he sees the glint of the efreeti in M'Balz's eyes but reminds him his family is a noble one.

M'Balz relents, but still wants Kazaam to go ask them about their belongings. When the genie flies off, M'Balz can tell he is heading in the direction of Star's Hollow, which would fit with his father's usual modus operandi.

After he returns, M'Balz gathers their belongings from the palace as well as their money from the Lehman brothers' bank and gives them to Kazaam to deliver.

Once the genie is gone again, M'Balz packs up his own things. He then gets ahold of one of the horses from the stables and sneaks out of the city.

*** Session 8 - Scene 6 (of 7) ***

Later that evening, out in the desert, Butrus quietly forms an escape plan with his companions while the guards make camp. He is concerned the guards may eventually kill them.

Gra'bir suggests Adanband use his stinking cloud spell to allow them to escape. Butrus uses his entanglement spell as well.

Once the guards are distracted, they make their escape. Butrus leads them towards Star's Hollow, assuming the guards will not expect them to go that way. Gra'bir, meanwhile, tries to cover their tracks.

A short time later, M'Balz approaches a group of mamluk soldiers with torches ahead. They appear to be looking around for tracks. M'Balz approaches them slowly, then bursts into a gallop as he gets close to get by before they can react.

In the desert up ahead, the rest of the group can hear a horse approaching. Gra'bir readies his lance, but sees it is a sole rider. Looking more carefully, he can see it is M'Balz.

Gra'bir signals him over and greets him. Butrus explains M'Balz's father cast them out of the city.

At first, M'Balz is confused why his father would have exiled them for no reason. It becomes much clearer once he realizes Gra'bir tried to speak to him at the ministry. He chides them for trying to talk to his father, saying his father doesn't particularly like them, especially the dwarf. Butrus says nothing, but mentally notes he was the only one Mabad actually liked.

M'Balz drops the matter, agreeing with Butrus the only way to win their way back into Mabad's graces would be to perform a heroic deed to bring honor to his family.

After weighing their options, the group decides to look for the island treasure on the map they got from the dead sailor at the brothel. Since Star's Hollow is along the water, they elect to continue their journey to there and find a ship.

*** Session 8 - Scene 7 (of 7) ***

After marching through the night, the group arrives in Star's Hollow by the middle of the next day. To keep a low profile, they decide to stay at the first nasty flophouse they find, the Independence Inn.

They are barely up in the morning before a wanton harlot appears in the doorway. She starts to greet them asking if they are new sailors in town when she recognizes M'Balz.

Rory quickly approaches M'Balz, saying how excited she is he finally came for her. He tells her they need to find a ship. Rory is excited M'Balz plans to take her on a cruise.

M'Balz tells Rory he will work on finding the ship, and will meet her later that evening at the (fictional) restaurant, "The Golden Slug". Rory assumes he is referring to Jojo's because of its terrible cuisine. She tells him she will meet him there in her finest dress.

After she leaves, M'Balz tells the others it is imperative they find a ship and leave quickly. They begin looking around the village, heading past the "sores and boils alley" where the lepers dwell and the village center with its run-down gazebo and statue of the great warrior Kasim Al-Pulaski.

When they arrive at the harbor, they find a single large ship there, named the Wanderer. It appears to be somewhat rundown, and the captain is a boisterous large man with an eyepatch who gives his name as Captain Rayyan.

M'Balz elects to have Adanband handle the negotiations. He tells the captain they are looking for a ship to purchase, but backpedals a bit when Rayyan (who quirkily calls everyone "boss") asks if they are sailors.

Rayyan tells them they don't want to handle the ship without experienced sailors. He offers his services, saying he has sailed all over the world.

A circular conversation emerges for the next several minutes as Adanband negotiates back and forth between hiring Captain Rayyan for a small tour (though notes the last time he was hired for a three hour tour it caused him months of problems) or hiring him for the several days it will take to get to the island they are trying to get to (which they can tell is near Ruhh Island).

Finally, Butrus calls everyone together for a side conversation. M'Balz wants to avoid giving the location of the island but since it isn't really near anything there isn't a good way to do that (with Ruhh Island being uninhabited and all).

They eventually settle on a price of 400 dinar. The captain takes 200 of it upfront and deposits it in the local treasury.

While they wait for him to return, the group is approached by an old woman. M'Balz asks what she wants. She introduces herself as Mashirah, the hakima of the village.

Mashirah explains she has seen four visions related to M'Balz and his friends. He asks the wise woman what they were.

The first vision she describes as a comet that falls from the sky with a flaming serpent emerging out of it.

The second vision is described as a dark version of the Grand Caliph's palace sitting out in the desert, surrounded by powerful genies.

The third vision is a wave in the sea made of swords. It crashes into the land, drawing blood.

The final vision is of high cliffs, with a yak-man surrounded by faceless beings in the sky.

M'Balz takes particular notes of the one about the yak-man, thinking of Alknar. The wise woman warns them that all her visions eventually come to pass – some quickly, some far in the future. M'Balz tells her they will take her warning seriously.

When Captain Rayyan returns, they sail out of the harbor. M'Balz notes Rayyan has no other crew and must be planning to perform all the tasks himself.

*** Session 8 - Session Notes ***

Yes, this campaign is still active it was just that illnesses, work trips, deaths in families, and other events kept disrupting our usual game night for nearly three months before we could get back together again. Luckily, when we were finally able to resume everyone was able to make it.

The session did not at all go like I thought it would; I had the rest of the sewers mapped out which included a couple more dungeon-esque encounters followed by a big reveal and plots involving city politics.

But then the PCs did the unexpected and left. I knew M'Balz would have to get called out on his antics again but I expected him to talk or plan his way out of it; the plan by the others caused further problems and before I knew it I had to put together the village of Star's Hollow and add some new NPCs into the mix.

Various notes on the session:
* Three of the PCs gained a level last session, which is how Adanband gained some new spells. That really helped them survive the later encounter with the gibbering mouther.

* Because it was described initially as a large mound of refuse, the gibbering mouther was thought of by the players as the Great Trash Heap from Fraggle Rock.

* Terrible rolls and an indecisive Adanband player meant the gibbering mouther encounter actually took up nearly half an hour of play.

* The "chuds" comment was a reference to the movie "C.H.U.D.", which was a reference most of the group caught (which makes me wonder how they saw that but not Three Amigos; for shame).

* Mabad's comments about getting M'Balz a wife was heavily influenced by Nigel Hawthorne's scene at the end of "The Madness of King George".

* M'Balz job at the ministry was intentionally the lowest possible job I could see him being given as a means of punishment by his father.

* I gave a long, rambling set of instructions to Gra'bir as to how to find the archives room, complete with various left and right directions and letter/number combinations for each room, hall, and stairway. The intent was to make the ministry seem like a large, overly complex bureaucracy.

* In game, M'Balz actually called it the Inn of the Oaken Gnome (making up the name on the fly) but I changed it to a coffee house to better fit the setting.

* The references to Goldman, Sachs, and the Lehman brothers are of course jokes at the expense of the financial institutions.

* The gems were actually worth 2500 gp, not 1200, but Gra'bir neither correctly identified their value nor tried to haggle.

* When the PCs came up with the idea to try and talk to Mabad, I knew I had to kick them out of the city to stay in character. I used Star's Hollow since that's where he exiled Rory.

* The "goodwill tour" is of course a joke that they are being sent on a meaningless journey to get them out of the way (inspired by the goodwill tour of Africa the VP is sent on in the movie "Dave").

* There was some question as to how Kazaam knew where to find M'Balz. I claimed dramatic license and just told the players "he's a genie..."

* I knew the PCs would try to get away from the soldiers, but I never actually expected anyone to go to Star's Hollow so I had to invent up the village on the fly.

* I didn't have time to look anything up during the session, so the Gilmore Girls-specific names/references were added later in the write-up (again, Wikipedia was the source; I've never seen the show).

* Rory's "new sailor in town?" line was a rather quaint cliché of a joke, but still worked for humor value.

* Kasim Al-Pulaski is the Al-Qadimization of Casimir Pulaski, whose statue is in the Gilmore Girls version of the town.

* Captain Rayyan is modeled heavily after Kurt Russell's titular character from "Captain Ron".

* The negotiation scene took forever in game as the PCs argued in and out of game about what the best thing to do was to secure a ship to the island without having to actually pay much upfront or let the captain know where they were going.

* Originally I don't recall if I actually told them the treasure island was off of Ruhh Island (I think at one point it was going to be more of a mystery they had to solve); but I just assumed I did for this session to keep things moving.

* The old wise woman's visions were something I kept meaning to incorporate into the campaign for several sessions now but always forgot. My initial plots for the campaign revolve around four major world threats, each identified with one of the four elements.

* The PCs have already encountered clues about three of the four threats/visions, though they may not have realized it yet. The fourth will be revealed in time.

*** Session 9 - Cast of Characters ***

 M'Balz Al-Badassi: A human rogue from the city. M'Balz is the member of a noble family with political connections, but is bored with his wealthy lifestyle and instead performs as a masked scoundrel for hire know as Al-Caliph.

 Gra'bir Boubi: A human warrior from the desert tribe of the Wah'na Poq-yah tribe of the Haunted Lands. A superb hunter, Gra'bir has come to the city of Huzaz to look for a quest to prove himself a great warrior.

 Adanband: An elf scholar and sorcerer from the city of Huzaz.

 Butrus: A dwarf priest with a fervent faith and damaged memory.

*** Session 9 - Scene 1 (of 10) ***

On the open seas, the group watches the coastline of Star's Hollow fade away as they make their way into the Suq Bay. Captain Rayyan begins rambling on, starting to talk to M'Balz.

He begins speaking of how he is happy to be out of Star's Hollow, for a new woman in town has been after him. According to the good captain, she seems rather skivvy to him. He tells M'Balz that he's sure he knows the type, but the rogue insists he does not.

Rayyan continues, saying the woman's name is Rory. M'Balz quickly says he has never heard of her but Butrus recalls the name and asks if it is the same woman that M'Balz was supposed to marry. Captain Rayyan tells him he would not want to marry that woman, saying that sea lane has seen a lot of traffic, saying those are some rough waters and something about a lot of flotsam and jetsam floating around there.

M'Balz heads off to the other side of the boat to avoid any more discussion. Butrus apologizes to the captain, saying the subject is a touchy one for M'Balz. The priest, grinning mischievously, says he believes M'Balz is in love.

Captain Rayyan then starts talking about how stranger things have happened in Star's Hollow. He asks Butrus if he's ever heard of the Sma'rufs. Butrus, who was not involved in the earlier adventure, says he has not.

The captain says they are good people, who live over in Sma'ruf Village just a little ways outside of Star's Hollow. He describes them as a strange lot; gnomes who paint their faces blue.

Rayyan explains a good deal of his money comes from selling the gnomes sarsaparilla berries, which they call Sma'ruf Berries (another of the gnomes' eccentricities is replacing various words with their clan name).

Other tales the captain relates involve a magic flute said to be held by the gnomes, as well as how many of them were recently killed by an evil sorcerer in the nearby hills named Gar Ghul'mal despite hiring a couple of outlander mercenaries to protect them (a knight named Johann and his halfling squire, Pirlouit).

According to the captain, Gar Ghul'mal had been suspected of using dark magic for years, but was protected by his uncle, Bey Balthazar. Rayyan asks Butrus if he has heard of Balthazar; hearing that he has not, he explains Balthazar is also a sorcerer of some repute with a raven as his familiar (which Rayyan warns to look out for).

Captain Rayyan then starts talking about all the Sma'rufs he's met. He says there is Pap'ya Sma'ruf, the village elder (who wears a fancy red hat the captain likes), along with Hef'ti Sma'ruf (a warrior), Bra'ni Sma'ruf (a scholar), Han'dee Sma'ruf (an artisan), Joq'i Sma'ruf (a jester), and Ta'lur Sma'ruf (whose profession the captain can't remember). He also mentions seeing a baby Sma'ruf (though can't recall the name), and being unsure who the parents are since he's only ever seen a single female in the village (who he describes as having an unnatural hair color he suspects is the work of sorcery). He is just starting to talk about a savage Sma'ruf in the village that he believes was raised by squirrels in the jungles between Star's Hollow and the town of Zill.

Around this time, M'Balz is seriously debating killing the captain just to shut him up about the Sma'rufs. Gra'bir offers that he already knows a lot about the Sma'rufs.

Captain Rayyan takes the opportunity to change the subject, saying it is not Sma'rufs or sorcerers they need to fear out in the ocean; but rather, it is pirates they should be worrying about.

True to form, the captain begins rambling on about the pirates he knows – the Shark of Suq Bay, the Reaver, and Zargar Quarterman. He explains to Butrus he should be the more worried about Zargar, whose name comes from the pirate calling dwarves "half-men" which he then likes to chop up into "quarter-men".

Butrus asks Rayyan if he avoids the pirates by outrunning them. The captain laughs at the idea his vessel could outrun anything, but says he is an excellent sailor so they shouldn't have any trouble.

*** Session 9 - Scene 2 (of 10) ***

 Later that day, M'Balz notices a ship closing in on them from the south, only 200 yards away. He can't understand how Butrus and Adanband, who were on watch, managed to miss it for so long.

 He calls out to the captain, calling him an idiot and saying a ship is closing in on them. Captain Rayyan says that is no good, pointing out the ship could be pirates. The ship is too far away to make out, but it does have a black background; Rayyan indicates that is not a good sign.

 Butrus, thinking quickly, asks Rayyan about the flag for a plaque ship. Rayyan tells him that is a good idea, and describes how the flag should look, with its black and yellow checkered pattern. Adanband assists in making the flag. While Butrus puts together the flag, M'Balz wraps up his body in fake bandages. Gra'bir follows suit.

 Rayyan looks at the flag and says it is not the best he's seen, but they can give it a try. Meanwhile, the other ship closes in to a hundred yards. Onboard, various humanoids can be seen as the crew; they are clearly pirates.

 As the ship continues to close in, it appears to notice the flag. It immediately begins to turn around, but lets loose a flight of arrows before leaving. Butrus and Gra'bir get hit by arrows, but suffer only minor wounds.

 Captain Rayyan tells Butrus that was good thinking. The priest praises the Loregiver for granting him the wisdom lacking in his fellow crew to save them. M'Balz praises Butrus for being only half as stupid as he thought he was.

 The captain goes on to say he saw the flag, a quartered man, as well as the name of the ship, the "Whack-a-Dwarf"; it was clearly one of Zargar Quarterman's fleet. He notes there are still many perils left to face on their journey.

 M'Balz wants to yell at Captain Rayyan, but Butrus argues with him that it was their own fault for not setting watch. They also decide to take down the plague flag before anyone decides to sink them and spend some time making a more authentic-looking flag.

*** Session 9 - Scene 3 (of 10) ***

 No one pays attention to Butrus' suggestion for setting watches and they all go to sleep. Later that night, they are woken up by a quick jolt as something causes the ship to violently rock to one side. Gra'bir, unable to react fast enough, falls over the side of the ship into the cold water.

 The others hear the loud splash. Gra'bir yells for help as he tries to stay afloat but is sinking under the waves.

 Butrus grabs a rope and throws it out to Gra'bir. In the dark sea, he spots a giant sea turtle that must have inadvertently surfaced under the ship.

 Gra'bir goes under the water before he can get the rope. M'Balz grudgingly dives into the water to save him. He grabs the warrior and ties him to the rope so Butrus can haul him in. Nearby, the sea turtle ignores them and swims off.

 Once he is back aboard, everyone decides to go back to sleep; this time with a watch.

 The next morning, Captain Rayyan emerges from his cabin discussing the virtues of a nice, uninterrupted night of sleep after a long day of sailing.

 Butrus asks the captain about fishing equipment and decides to fish for some fresh food.

 M'Balz tells the captain they should tie down at night. Rayyan mistakes him to mean laying anchor, but when M'Balz clarifies they are to tie themselves down the captain says there are no sirens to worry about in these waters. M'Balz, getting frustrated, tells the captain the purpose is to avoid falling in the water; the captain tells him he wouldn't want to fall in the water, as that could be dangerous.

 Butrus explains they had some trouble the previous night with Gra'bir falling overboard, and that Gra'bir is not a good swimmer. Captain Rayyan helpfully notes that if he isn't a good swimmer he shouldn't go in the water, pointing out he could drown.

*** Session 9 - Scene 4 (of 10) ***

 The next several days pass uneventfully at sea. On the morning of the fourth day, Captain Rayyan says they will be approaching the city of Wasat soon. He explains he plans to stop there briefly for supplies, to make sure they have plenty of fresh food and water for the rest of their trip (as Ruhh Island is another couple of days to the north).

 Butrus is concerned about pirates in the harbor at Wasat. M'Balz doesn't want them to appear healthy to others, lest it prevent them from using their plague gambit again. Rayyan, however, points out they won't be let into the city if they are a plague ship.

 Instead, he suggests they just try to appear as merchants or something. He explains that a great many ships pass through Wasat so they shouldn't draw too much attention.

 Off to the side, Gra'bir and M'Balz wonder if they could find a better captain in Wasat; though that would have the risk of a captain smart enough to steal the treasure for himself.

 Captain Rayyan begins his customary rambling, talking about how he wants to stay on the side of the bay with Wasat and away from the other side, as that is where the City of the Dead is located. He tells the others they definitely don't want to go there.

 M'Balz and the others have not heard of the city, so Rayyan explains it was once the city of Abbudin. According to the captain, many years ago the city was ruled by Bey Rasheed Al-Fayeed. Al-Fayeed allied himself with a large number of genies and desert tribes, hoping to become an independent caliphate.

 The caliph of Wasat opposed him, and the Grand Caliph sided with him. A minor war broke out, and the genie forces of the Grand Caliph destroyed the city in the process.

 Al-Fayeed and his oldest son, Ihab, survived the assault on the city and fled north to their family palace at Ber-Gethay. But it, too, was eventually reduced to ruins. The Al-Fayeeds surrendered and were exiled from Zakhara, with their current location unknown.

 According to legends, treasures can still be found in both the City of the Dead and Ber-Gethay. But according to Rayyan, both areas are haunted and cursed, and no one has ever returned from them.

*** Session 9 - Scene 5 (of 10) ***

 When the ship docks in Wasat, Captain Rayyan heads off to get supplies. M'Balz relates to the others what he knows of Wasat, known as the Middle City. It is a rather quiet, sleepy city (despite its size of 90,000 people) considered to be a quaint waystation for travelers along the trade route. The ruler is Caliph Haroun Al-Raqqas, a distant relative of the Grand Caliph known for his benevolent rule.

 Butrus decides to go find a temple to talk to one of the local priests. Adanband decides to follow. Like Huzaz, Wasat contains a temple of the prophet Zann the Wise.

 The imam at the mosque greets Butrus and the dwarf begins asking questions. His first is to ask if the priest recognizes him, relating his story of amnesia. But the imam says he does not know him.

 He does warn Butrus to be careful with his memory loss, for pirates and their agents come through the town. He particularly warns against Zargar Quarterman, who Butrus is familiar with.

 Butrus then asks about the City of the Dead. The imam describes it as a scarred, unholy place and advises him to stay away from it. According to him, a great evil lurks there.

 The dwarf then asks what the imam knows about Ruhh. The imam says he knows it only as a large, uninhabited island but warns against getting too close to Roq Island.

 With the discussion drawing to a close, the imam asks for a donation but Butrus noncommittally says only that if he and his companions find treasure and make their way back to Wasat, he may be able to donate something.

 Meanwhile, Gra'bir has headed to the local bazaar to look for any women in need of help. He finds none, but does have a chance to chat with the locals. He hears a rumor about the previous caliph of Wasat not dying from an accident, as is the official story; but rather, the old caliph was assassinated by a holy slayer for crimes against the faith.

 M'Balz decides to spend his time checking out alternate travel options at the harbor. He spots a better, and yet familiar boat in port, the "Chameleon", Daria's ship. M'Balz makes sure to stay out of sight and keeps an eye on the ship.

 After a short while, Daria and her orc mate show up with some supplies and load them up on the ship. As they cast off, M'Balz notices they head due west.

 Everyone returns back to the ship and finds Captain Rayyan loading up supplies. In addition to goods for their travel, he has a couple of crates of sarsaparilla berries he plans to sell to the Sma'rufs when they get back. He once again starts rambling on about all the Sma'rufs he knows.

 M'Balz interrupts him to ask about the Chameleon and Daria. Rayyan doesn't recognize the name of the ship (though admits he's "not good with names") and asks if Daria is the one with the brown hair and the bad eyesight (clearly thinking of a different woman). M'Balz makes a comment about being overcome by the captain's great intellect.

 Butrus then asks about Roq Island. M'Balz, thinking of a different location, asks if it is the city that lies near the Four Cities but the dwarf explains he means the island next to Ruhh. The captain tells them there is a roc on Roq Island, so they don't want to go near there.

 When M'Balz has the captain clarify the "roc" he is referring to is one of the large birds, Rayyan calls it "the big chicken". M'Balz asks about defenses against the creature, but the captain says they are limited to trying to sail away. Given the slow speed of the ship, M'Balz is less than comforted.

 Before they head out, there is some discussion amongst the group about how to determine the exact location of the treasure since the instructions are written in a cipher. M'Balz believes Adanband could take it to a local sorcerer's guild to have it looked at, but the elf is not so sure. They spend too long discussing the matter when they realize the captain has already pushed off from the harbor and they are headed back out to sea.

*** Session 9 - Scene 6 (of 10) ***

 When they get near the island, Rayyan tells them they will need to let him know where they are headed soon.

 M'Balz tries to decipher the treasure map, but can't make sense of it. With no options left, they decide to show it to Captain Rayyan. He is not surprised to see the treasure map, saying he expected their journey was something like that.

 Butrus and M'Balz try to say it is not necessarily a treasure map. Butrus tells a tale of M'Balz being disgraced to his father and needing to find an artifact to get back in his good graces. Rayyan doesn't make much sense of the story, but does find some kinship in that his own father didn't believe in him either.

 Captain Rayyan studies the map for a bit then relates its contents to the group. M'Balz wonders if the cipher is something any sailor could understand, but the captain says only someone with his long experiences on the sea could do so. He then begins to relate a tale about the first time he saw a treasure map like this back in Sma'ruf Village, which may have led to the location of the magic flute.

 M'Balz interrupts his reverie to get things back on track. The captain navigates the ship to the correct small island and lays anchor off of it. He tells the group they'll need to take the small boat in from there.

 When Captain Rayyan tells them he'll be there when they get back, M'Balz is surprised the captain isn't planning to come with them. He tries to get the captain to come along, even offering a cut of the potential treasure. But Rayyan says he once ran into a lot of trouble with a treasure map from the notorious outlander pirate, One-Balled Billy, and wants no part of any more adventures looking for treasure.

 Butrus is more concerned with the captain leaving prematurely. He asks how long he plans to keep the ship around in case they run into trouble. Rayyan admits if they aren't back by nightfall, he'll assume they are dead and take off.

 Gra'bir suggests they could light a signal fire to let the captain know if they can't get back in time. He agrees to look for it, but Rayyan warns them others could see it as well.

*** Session 9 - Scene 7 (of 10) ***

 Landing on the shore, Butrus makes sure they drag it well up shore to make sure it doesn't float away with the tide.

 After making sure there are no footprints or other signs of anyone around, they head further into the island. Gra'bir takes the lead followed by Butrus (who thinks M'Balz should be in his place), Adanband, and M'Balz.

 As they get near the location of the treasure, Gra'bir spots a pack of six giant crabs up ahead.

 The crabs quickly advance on the group. M'Balz tries to use a lighted flask of oil to drive them back, but it harmlessly lands in the sand.

 Gra'bir lets loose an arrow, but it bounces off of the crab's hard shell.

 Growing concerned, Adanband casts his wall of fog spell. Butrus, annoyed by the fog, backs up slowly.

 The sea wind is dissipating the fog quickly. Adanband tells the others to run for it. M'Balz follows his advice as Gra'bir steps back but also manages to fire a shot into one of the crabs. Butrus steps back tactically as well.

 The crabs move forward through the fog, still pursuing them. The crabs strike with their pinchers, injuring Gra'bir. He tries to fight back with his lance, but the creatures fend him off.

 M'Balz is likewise struck. But with his poor health, the rogue is badly wounded by the attack. He turns and runs, hoping they will be stopped by Gra'bir.

 As the other crabs circle around towards Butrus and Adanband, Adanband creates a flaming sphere to stop the advance.

 Butrus takes a different tactic, calling upon the Loregiver to let him speak to the crabs. He tries telling the creatures they mean no harm while telling his companions to stop attacking. The tiny brains of the crabs can't fully understand him, but it does manage to confuse them.

 With the crabs stopped in confusion, M'Balz finds a tree on the island to climb. Gra'bir and Adanband like the tactic and find their own trees to climb.

 Butrus stays back to touch the lead crab and uses a remove fear spell to calm it. The crab then leaves, with the others following.

*** Session 9 - Scene 8 (of 10) ***

 After the crabs leave, everyone comes down the trees and Butrus uses the last of his healing abilities to mitigate the wounds of M'Balz and Gra'bir.

 They then resume their way back to the treasure. When they reach the spot, they realize they did not bring a shovel.

 M'Balz finds some fallen wood they can use as a makeshift shovel. It takes a long time, but eventually they dig down enough to hear a loud thunk.

 The rogue carefully digs around the object, which is revealed to be a medium-sized chest. He carefully brings it up.

 Gra'bir and M'Balz want to open it immediately, but Butrus warns them against it since they are still badly wounded. Gra'bir disagrees but M'Balz goes along with the dwarf's advice.

 Butrus also has them check to make sure nothing else was buried below the ship. By the time they verify that, they notice the sun is setting.

 Everyone rushes back to the boat. They manage to make it there just in time, with M'Balz firing a flaming arrow to make sure the captain doesn't leave before they get there.

 The captain greets them; noticing the box, he asks if they found their treasure. M'Balz downplays the situation by saying they found a box, buried on the island. Rayyan says that sounds like treasure.

 Butrus asks the captain if he has any healing potions, as M'Balz and Gra'bir are still injured from the crabs. Rayyan explains he does not, and he doesn't like magic. He also asks they not open the chest on his boat, just in case it is cursed.

 The dwarf settles for the healer's kit on the ship to bandage everyone up. Rayyan explains they will stay anchored off of the island over the night and head back to Star's Hollow in the morning.

 Before they settle for the night, Butrus suggests they set a watch. Captain Rayyan laments he no longer has a crew. Butrus asks him what happened, and the captain explains there was a disagreement, remarking how some people can be ill tempered. Wistfully, the captain talks about how he used to be able to just get a couple of you boys, make them swabbies, then beat them until they became seamen. Rayyan laments those days are long gone and it is hard to find good help these days as the group exchange looks with each other.

*** Session 9 - Scene 9 (of 10) ***

 The next day, they head back out on the open sea. Gra'bir is designated lookout, but he fails to notice an approaching pirate ship until Captain Rayyan points it out.

 The captain says he can try to get around them, but it will require heading towards the City of the Dead. M'Balz tells them to ready the plague flag; they can make towards the city but head back if the pirates are turned away by the plague flag.

 As the ship gets closer, they can see the black flag with the white shark on it; the flag of the Shark of Suq Bay. The ship is smaller than the one of Zargar Quarterman, appearing to have only a dozen men on it.

 The pirate ship lets loose a flight of arrows, with Gra'bir and Butrus hit by arrows. Gra'bir and M'Balz fire back with flaming arrows aimed at the sails of the ship, but their attack proves ineffective.

 The ship continues to close in and the pirates ready their grapples. Gra'bir manages to score a solid hit on the sails but M'Balz does not.

 Adanband wants to help with a spell but his flaming sphere does not have enough range and he is unsure if his acid arrow would be effective. Butrus helps him light a flask of oil, but his throw is off and misses the other ship.

 With the grapples in place, the pirates pull the ships together. Six of them and their commander board the Wanderer.

 Butrus uses a prayer to heal himself while Gra'bir decides to board the pirate ship, taking the last flask of oil with him.

 M'Balz fires an arrow at the pirate commander, wounding him. Adanband rushes towards the pirate crew but they fight off his staff attack.

 The pirate commander and two of his men advance on M'Balz. His heavy armor protects him from their attacks.

 Two more attack Adanband and the other two on Butrus, both sets score hits. On the other ship, two of the pirates also score wounds on Gra'bir.

 Butrus attacks with his mace, but the pirate parries with his cutlass. Adanband has better luck with his staff, crushing the skull of one of the pirates.

 M'Balz is forced to drop his bow and slice out with his dagger. He scores a deep stab, but the commander stays up. Behind them, Captain Rayyan approaches with his sword to help M'Balz out.

 On the other ship, Gra'bir uses his lance to quickly cut down the two pirates fighting him. He presses the attack, charging the men putting out the fire on the sails. He runs one of them through with his lance.

 Butrus takes down one of his attackers with his mace, while Adanband caves in the face of the pirate with the end of his staff.

 M'Balz tries to take out the commander but is fended off. Captain Rayyan does no better.

 Two of the pirates hack into Captain Rayyan, injuring him badly. The commander scores a flesh wound on M'Balz.

 With a second attack, the commander slices M'Balz across the chest. Behind them, the two pirates hack Captain Rayyan to pieces.

 Across the way, one of the pirates manages to score a hit on Gra'bir as the two other pirates onboard rush at him.

 M'Balz stabs the commander again, but the man manages to stay up. Adanband casts an acid arrow at the commander; he screams as he melts into a pile of goo.

 Butrus tries to kill the pirate on him, but fails. Gra'bir has much better luck on the pirates surrounding him, killing all three of them.

 M'Balz stabs out at one of the last pirates, but is once again fended off. A second stab finds its target, cutting the pirate's jugular vein. Adanband tries to assist with the other pirate attacking the rogue, but misses.

 Butrus, however, is able to break the neck of his target with his mace. Gra'bir, seeing his companions have the situation in hand, spends his time trying to separate the ships.

 M'Balz and the remaining pirate fence back and forth, neither scoring a hit. Adanband looks for an opening to attack, but finds none.

 The dwarf sighs and moves over to finish the job. He kills the last pirate with his mace.

*** Session 9 - Scene 10 (of 10) ***

 As soon as the battle is over, Butrus rushes over to help Captain Rayyan but the man has bled out some time ago. With all of the pirates dead, they realize they are now stuck on a ship without anyone who can sail.

 Butrus heals M'Balz while everyone discusses what to do next. Before unhooking the ships, they decide to search the other ship.

 The pirate ship has no treasure on it, but does have some food and water. They decide to move the supplies back over to their ship while moving all of the bodies to the pirate ship.

 Following Butrus' idea, they then put out the plague flag then releasing the pirate ship to float away.

 Butrus then believes they should try opening the treasure chest to see what it contains. M'Balz is more wary because of his injuries.

 M'Balz decides to go ahead and try to open the chest. Unable to pick the lock, he tries to pry it open with his dagger but only manages to break the weapon. He decides to give up.

 The men attempt to sail the ship east, but have challenges not being experienced sailors. The next day finds them dealing with becalmed winds, adrift in the middle of the ocean and hoping they can eventually make it back to shore.

*** Session 9 - Session Notes ***

 This session went really well; we actually got started on time and didn't have any technical issues with our Skype player until 2/3rds into it. It got to be a nice mix of character interaction and action for the session; the main goal of the party got advanced and some side plots were brought up (whether the PCs noticed them or not).

 Random notes about the session:
 * I purposely made Captain Rayyan rambling and obnoxious, and had to do a lot of prep to make sure he had enough to say before the PCs would try and get him to shut up.

 * Nearly everything the captain says about the Sma'rufs is based on established Smurf stories.

 * Balthazar will show up in time, I'm sure.

 * The captain not remembering the profession of the guy named Ta'lur is a joke because the name is so obvious.

 * The jungles between Star's Hollow and Zill are a location I have planned for my campaign sandbox. Should the PCs ever go there (or to Zill), there is a story there (and no, it has nothing to do with Wild Smurf).

 * Rayyan talking about the pirates is clear foreshadowing. The Reaver and the Shark of Suq Bay come from the TSR setting material (for the City of Huzaz), but Zargar Quarterman is my own developed NPC.

 * Originally, I conceived this campaign as being pirate-based, with Sid Meir's Pirates! my inspiration (and originally it was going to be a slightly more modernized Palladium Fantasy setting about colonies being established off of the Yin-Sloth region). While the player preferences had me ultimately switch to Al-Qadim / D&D, I converted a lot of my pirate notes.

 * The transition between scene 1 and scene 2 was intentionally a "Gilligan Cut", even during the game (the instant I got done having the captain say they wouldn't have any trouble with pirates, the pirate encounter started).

 * Again, note that I had rolled out the random encounters for the trip to Ruhh Island ahead of time. This pirate attack was one of those encounters.

 * The plague ship idea was quick thinking, though it is too bad; that pirate treasure had a fair amount of treasure on it as well as a hostage who had knowledge of Butrus before he met the group.

 * The name "Whack-a-Dwarf" is a play on that favorite arcade game of kids, Whack-A-Mole.

 * The PCs were smart not to attack that turtle; that would have gone bad.

 * Captain Rayyan's ramblings about the City of the Dead are clear exposition. Some of it is to set up the locations of it and Ber-Gethay as potential adventure sites (I have dungeons for both of them). Some of it was to drop some clues related to previous things the group was told (though they did not catch it, and instead confused the Al-Fayeed family with the Al-Kamari family).

 * The Al-Fayeeds are taken from the FX show, Tyrant. I originally conceived of them when planning the campaign last summer (though the role they take here is actually of the Rashid family in the show).

 * Daria being in Wasat is part of a storyline the PCs would have discovered if they had either followed her or gone to the City of the Dead.

 * The pirate M'Balz mentions, One-Balled Billy, is a joke name inspired by One-Eyed Willy from the movie The Goonies.

 * The giant crab encounter ended up being far more brutal than I intended, so I let Butrus have some latitude with his speak to animals and remove fear spells (particularly since it was a pretty innovative way to deal with the situation).

 * Captain Rayyan's joke about beating the boys until they became seamen (a version of a joke I remember a friend using back in my middle-school days) stopped the game cold for a moment with exasperated laughter because I caught them so off-guard.

 * The pirate fight seemed to take forever; like the previous session, it was comical how roll after roll would be terrible.

 * I found it hilarious the whole session was around finding a treasure chest the group never manages to open.

 * The PCs lost at sea is going to be pretty serious. One of the players thinks they should be able to easily sail back to land, but I don't agree (this is the same player who believes it is almost impossible to get lost in the wilderness). Next session should be interesting.

*** Session 10 - Cast of Characters ***

M'Balz Al-Badassi: A human rogue from the city. M'Balz is the member of a noble family with political connections, but is bored with his wealthy lifestyle and instead performs as a masked scoundrel for hire know as Al-Caliph.

Gra'bir Boubi: A human warrior from the desert tribe of the Wah'na Poq-yah tribe of the Haunted Lands. A superb hunter, Gra'bir has come to the city of Huzaz to look for a quest to prove himself a great warrior.

Adanband: An elf scholar and sorcerer from the city of Huzaz.

Butrus: A dwarf priest with a fervent faith and damaged memory.

*** Session 10 - Scene 1 (of 7) ***

Out in the great Suq Bay, the Wanderer sits waiting for wind. Butrus uses the time to fish and heal the others, but there is little else to do.

By the second day, everyone is getting bored. They decide to look through Captain Rayyan's possessions, but find nothing of value except a spare eyepatch, an outlandish-colored shirt, a terrible poem he was attempting to write, some old mementos, and a few copper coins.

Butrus decides they should search the ship for any hidden compartments. They manage to locate a shallow berth useful for smuggling things.

At the end of the third day of no wind, Butrus prays long and hard to the Loregiver. His prayers appear to be answered the next day, as a light wind from the west. Using the sails, they catch the wind enough to begin moving east.

Gra'bir keeps a lookout as they move along. He spots a lot of movement in the water about 50 yards out. He yells out to the others to warn them.

Butrus looks where the fighter points, and sees the forms of great beasts under the waters. He can tell it is a large pack of killer whales. While the others start to panic, the priest convinces them to stay calm and the whales will ignore the ship.

Gra'bir, not fully convinced, ropes himself to the deck. Butrus sees the foolish act but it does remind him to tell the others to brace for impact, should the ship accidentally hit one of the animals. But the whales move out the way, and the ship sails through easily.

The next morning, the wind picks up speed and shifts to the north. Adanband adjusts the sails and the ship begins quickly moving along.

Near twilight, Butrus spots some birds in the sky. Gra'bir looks off in the distance, and sees what might be land but it is difficult to see in the dimming light. M'Balz would prefer to move in while there is still wind, but Butrus is concerned about steering the ship into a rocky shoal in the dark.

The group decides to drop anchor for the night. Butrus keeps an eye out for light in the distance, but none is seen; he surmises they are along an uninhabited section of the coast.

*** Session 10 - Scene 2 (of 7) ***

The night passes without incident and the next morning the land can be clearly seen far off in the distance. Around the ship, a large patch of floating seaweed has formed and extends in to the coastline.

M'Balz sees the seaweed as a bad omen, but Butrus wants to take the dunij to shore to scout around. Adanband and Gra'bir decide to accompany the priest, leaving M'Balz on board by himself.

Adanband and Gra'bir row the small launch boat while Butrus directs them. Rowing in the seaweed is relatively slow and difficult as it wraps around the oars.

Butrus looks out for any trouble ahead. About halfway to shore, he spots something in the water moving under the seaweed. As one of the movements gets closer, he can see they are sea lions.

Gra'bir and Adanband pull their oars into the ship to avoid having them damaged. The three then ready their weapons as one of the sea lions emerges on the side of the boat and prepares to attack.

The lion lashes out at Adanband, badly mauling him with its claws. Butrus, acting quickly, casts an entanglement spell to cause the seaweed in the water to wrap itself around the creature and drag it back into the water.

Grabbing the oars, they quickly start to make their way to the shore. Another of the sea lions approaches to Gra'bir's side.

Gra'bir grabs his lance and stabs out at the beast. He manages to injure it and it growls in pain.

Adanband follows up with a jet of flame from his burning hands spell.

Butrus tries to use another entanglement spell to grab this monster as well, but the lion manages to claw his way out of the seaweed quickly.

The sea lion lashes Gra'bir across the chest, carving out some of his flesh. Butrus once again attempts to entangle it, but fails.

Gra'bir scores another solid hit with his lance. Adanband tries to finish the creature off with his staff, but fails.

The fighter, reacting quickly, jabs his lance into the beast again. It slumps over, dead.

Knowing there are still several sea lions out in the seaweed, they get back to their oars and quickly make their way to shore before any more can attack.

Once the boat is brought up on shore, the group decides what to do next. They elect to follow the coastline south.

The day's travel is uneventful along the quiet coast. They decide to make camp for the night when it gets dark.

*** Session 10 - Scene 3 (of 7) ***

Despite the odds, M'Balz also has a quiet day on the ship but stays paranoid as darkness falls at night.

By the next day, his paranoia gets the best of him. With his companions not returned, he decides to pull anchor and sail to the shore.

As the ship picks up speed, M'Balz spots a coral reef sticking out of the seaweed. He tries to adjust the sails to go around it, but doesn't quite make it enough. The ships shudders as the hull scrapes against the reef.

The Wanderer begins taking on water. M'Balz tries desperately to make it to shore in time. He rams the beach hard with the ship, wedging it into the sand.

M'Balz then makes his way onto the shore with all of his belongings and looks around. He does not spot his friends.

Fearing being alone, he works to light the ship to make a signal fire in the hopes his companions can find him.

*** Session 10 - Scene 4 (of 7) ***

Meanwhile, many miles to the south, Butrus, Adanband, and Gra'bir continue along the coast, eventually coming to a section of farmlands. Greeting a passing farmer, they discover they are on the outskirts of the city of Wasat.

Butrus expresses his joy they have discovered their location, which should allow them to return to their ship to sail it into the city harbor. The farmer agrees it should be a quiet journey.

The farmer asks Butrus for news from far-off lands. The priest defers to Gra'bir, who only mentions being lonely from being at sea for too long. The farmer noncommittally suggests they find some companionship in the city.

Before they leave, the farmer does warn them about dangerous plots afoot in the city. He begins talking about the previous caliph's death not being an accident as commonly believed, which Gra'bir recalls being said to be the result of a holy slayer. The farmer, however, has heard a different story; he attributes the murder to one of the caliph's courtier.

The three companions then head back north to get back to their ship.

*** Session 10 - Scene 5 (of 7) ***

As night falls, the ship continues to burn along the beach. The winds blowing to the southwest carry the smoke out to sea. M'Balz tries to stay nearby, but out of immediate sight.

A couple of miles away, Butrus and the others observe a light up the beach. Not sure what the light source could be, they decide to go investigate. The priest does warn that only a fool would light such a large fire in a deserted area and not expect someone to show up, so it could be a trap.

Meanwhile, M'Balz sees that other creatures have observed the light. Three hideous female creatures, clearly sea hags, emerge from the seaweed-filled water. M'Balz finds them terrifying, and hopes they don't come anywhere near him. He starts to slip away quietly.

As the sea hags investigate the area, they form together to cast a spell. Once the spell is completed, one of the hags looks straight at M'Balz – her eyes piercing through the darkness. She calls out to the others, "There!"

M'Balz starts making a run for it. The hags follow after.

After running for some time, M'Balz spots three travelers along the beach. He runs right past them, yelling "Sea hags!"

Butrus, Gra'bir, and Adanband look and spot the three hags coming up quickly. Each of the creatures casts a magical gaze at the three adventurers. Butrus and Adanband shake off the effects, but Gra'bir suddenly becomes paralyzed.

Adanband quickly grabs Gra'bir to get him out of danger. Butrus casts his flaming blade spell then stabs into one of the creatures, wounding her.

Stopping to recover his breath, M'Balz realizes his friends are the ones he ran past. Behind him, M'Balz fires an arrow into the hag Butrus wounded to finish her off.

Butrus tries to attack one of the other hags, but she fends him off with her dagger. Adanband tries to cast his wall of fog spell, but the creatures of the sea easily see through it.

As the fog rolls in, M'Balz fires an arrow into one of the hags, wounding her. In retaliation, she lashes out with a dagger but misses.

The other hag slashes at Butrus, cutting across his face. He slashes back with his flame blade, but misses.

M'Balz fends off another dagger attack by the hag, slashing her back with his own blade.

Adanband calls forth a flaming sphere. He sends it towards the hag attacking M'Balz but she moves out of the way in time. M'Balz barely resists the heat of the flames himself.

Seizing the weakness of M'Balz in the face of the heat, the hag slashes out at M'Balz. The attack slices through his throat; blood sprays everywhere as he collapses. But the creature spends too long gloating in its victory, allowing Adanband to move his flaming sphere in to finish her off.

The sorcerer then moves the sphere towards the remaining hag, but she moves out of the way. Butrus likewise makes sure to avoid the flame.

Using his own flame, the priest stabs the hag in the side. The hag attacks back, but misses.

Butrus stabs the creature again, wounding her badly. Adanband's flaming sphere finishes her off.

*** Session 10 - Scene 6 (of 7) ***

With the battle over, Butrus looks at M'Balz wounds. Unfortunately, he has bled out and is dead.

Gra'bir, for his part, is still paralyzed. Adanband recalls the gaze of a hag can paralyze for up to three days.

Butrus feels their best bet is to get M'Balz back to Wasat and see if a high priest can be found to raise him from the dead. He tells Adanband they need to get everyone back to the ship so they can sail to Wasat.

When they reach the site of the ship, however, they realize the light source was the flames of their ship. Butrus says the hags must have lit the ship on fire, causing M'Balz to flee.

The priest does spot the tracks in the sand from where the hags came. Knowing such creatures may have large amounts of treasure, he feels it is worth the risk to investigate as it will cost a great deal to raise M'Balz.

Shedding his belongings, Butrus dives in. Near the spot the hags emerged, he spots an underground cave.

The priest swims up into the cave. There he discovers the treasure the hags have stolen from their victims – several chests containing a large amount of silver and gold coins, several gems, a couple pieces of jewelry, a bottle containing a liquid (labeled "oil of horridness"), and three fine-looking javelins.

After several trips, Butrus manages to get all of the treasure up to the surface. Luckily, he encounters no sea lions on his trips.

Adanband and Butrus move the bodies and treasure away to a safe location for the night. The next day, he sends Adanband off to head back south and see if he can rent a mule and cart to bring the bodies and treasure back.

*** Session 10 - Scene 7 (of 7) ***

For a small fee, the farmer agrees. By the time everyone is back in Wasat, the paralyzing effect on Gra'bir begins to wear off.

The group immediately heads over to the temple of Zann the Wise, with Butrus again speaking with the imam. Imam Kafeel explains they will need to see the high priest of the temple of Kor the Venerable, High Priest Waqar.

Waqar agrees to raise M'Balz from the dead for a fee of 4000 dinar. He also agrees to identify the magic potion and javelins for a lesser fee.

To pay for the resurrection, Butrus hands over all the treasure from the hags except for the magic items. He and the others must also dip into their personal wealth to cover the balance. To pay for the identification of the magic items, he uses money from M'Balz treasure collection.

M'Balz's body is washed and prepared. The high priest spends most of the day performing the ceremony, with M'Balz finally raised. Waqar warns him he will be weakened by the experience, and that returning from the dead gets progressively more difficult so he should be careful.

M'Balz, for his part, seems confused. According to him, he remembers nothing after the group found the chest on Ruhh Island. Butrus catches him back up on what occurred.

As for the magic items, the high priest identifies the potion as mislabeled and actually being a potion of delusion. He also identifies the javelins as powerfully deadly weapons.

The group still has the locked chest from Ruhh Island. They drop it off with a local locksmith to get it opened and plan to pick it up the next day.

As they leave, they notice the "Whack-A-Dwarf" is docked at the harbor. A group of pirates, including a large ogre, are locked in chains and being led away by mamluk soldiers.

A flamboyantly-dressed man is talking with some city officials, apparently being given some kind of reward. By what they overhear, the group can tell the man is quite arrogant; apparently he is a pirate hunter by the name of Sidi Haji.

As Haji leaves, a man is brought out of the ship, apparently a prisoner. He appears to be a rather disheveled-looking nobleman. They can hear him give his name to the officials as Evhad Al-Ajami.

Butrus notices Evhad catches sight of him and stops to stare for a moment. Then a flash of recognition comes across the eyes of the man. Evhad tells the authorities to arrest Butrus, claiming he is a con man named Duha Al-Meha.

*** Session 10 - Session Notes ***

This session was shorter than the last one; we had a barbeque cookout before the game and one of the guys showed up a little late so it took a bit before we got started.

This was I believe the first time since the campaign started we've managed to get three sessions in a row without interruption, which was nice as people finally remembered what happened the last couple of sessions. Sadly, I'm almost positive we'll have another month delay before the next session as I have a major work project going live during the weekend of our next regularly-scheduled session.

Overall, it was a fun session though M'Balz setting fire to the ship was a bit madcap and out of character; I think part of it was being annoyed at being left behind on the ship.

Random notes about the session:
* As usual, I predicted the likely course of action ahead of the session and rolled up the wind, random encounters, etc. ahead of time so as not to take up session time with it.

* Butrus praying on the third day and getting the wind on the fourth day, therefore, was a complete coincidence. And a very funny one.

* I didn't originally plan for the Wanderer to have a smuggler's compartment, but since they looked for one I figured why not. I was interested to see what they'd try to do with it, but it never came up.

* The "brace for impact" line with the killer whales was said in full Star Trek mode. We also joked about setting the ship to yellow alert and raising shields.

* M'Balz was very insistent the seaweed was going to conceal a monster. Originally it wasn't so I did another random monster check when they got halfway across and came up with the sea lions.

* Everyone was picturing the Titanic when the Wanderer scraped the coral reef.

* As soon as M'Balz said he was taking all of his possessions off of the ship, everyone knew he was going to light it on fire.

* Butrus made many more comments in game about their nice ship, how they could use it to travel or sell, etc. after the player knew the ship was burned but the character did not. He was fairly annoyed at M'Balz burning it up.

* Gra'bir's comment to the farmer was actually more about his sheep starting to look attractive.

* I used some dramatic license on how long the ship fire burned and how quickly the others returned. I figured M'Balz deserved a random encounter for burning the ship, but knew he'd be quickly killed on his own (he has about 1/2 or less the hit points of everyone else due to his extremely low CON).

* The hags were rolled up randomly, as was their treasure. I used a fair amount of dramatic license to allow Butrus to find the cave underwater, but I knew they'd need the treasure to bring back M'Balz.

* M'Balz's death in battle was the result of a bad critical hit by the hag.

* I liked the idea of going back to the farmer to cart everything back to the city.

* M'Balz started with a Con of only 6. He barely survived the raise dead, and I use a rule that Con gets lowered by 1 with every resurrection, so now's he's down to only 5.

* The Ruhh Island chest had to stay a day at the locksmith's because I forgot to bring my notes from the previous sessions saying what was in it.

* The Ruhh Island chest is probably going to be anti-climactic when it gets opened. It was always supposed to just be a side treasure, not a great quest.

* I wanted to use some of the plots I had developed with the Whack-A-Dwarf, so I thought the logical thing would be to have a pirate hunter capture the ship and introduce the elements that way.

* Evhad's claims about Duha Al-Meha will be a major theme of the next session, as Butrus starts to learn more about who he was before his memory loss.

*** Session 11 - Cast of Characters ***

M'Balz Al-Badassi: A human rogue from the city. M'Balz is the member of a noble family with political connections, but is bored with his wealthy lifestyle and instead performs as a masked scoundrel for hire know as Al-Caliph.

Gra'bir Boubi: A human warrior from the desert tribe of the Wah'na Poq-yah tribe of the Haunted Lands. A superb hunter, Gra'bir has come to the city of Huzaz to look for a quest to prove himself a great warrior.

Adanband: An elf scholar and sorcerer from the city of Huzaz.

Butrus: A dwarf priest with a fervent faith and damaged memory.

*** Session 11 - Scene 1 (of 8) ***

The mamluk guards move in to arrest Butrus. He protests, complaining about a lack of due cause and asking who the accuser is to be ordering his arrest. The head guard tells him to be quiet, saying the magistrate will decide what to do with him.

As the others look on in surprise, M'Balz politely suggests he believes the accusation could have merit though he is clandestinely observing Evhad Al-Ajami departing with the city bureaucrats and some of the other guards.

Gra'bir decides to ask Evhad what he knows about Butrus. When he calls out to ask what he knows of the dwarf, the Evhad responds very rudely asking how a peasant like him dare to speak to him. He tells Gra'bir to go back to his desert tribe.

M'Balz apologizes for Gra'bir, saying his servant speaks out of turn; he tells Sidi that Gra'bir is not very bright but useful.

Evhad seems temporarily mollified, but says he would have his servant whipped for such insolence. M'Balz says he will take care of it, then changes the subject back to Butrus. He asks the nobleman if he knows anything about the dwarf, saying he met the man in his travels and was disheveled and deranged when they found him.

The nobleman says he met Butrus a couple of months ago, in his home city of Hiyal. Evhad explains the dwarf gave him his name as Imam Duha Al-Meha. Gra'bir finds it interesting that the alternate identity was also that of a priest.

M'Balz says they know nothing of the dwarf, other than they found him with a goat on the way back to town. Evhad says that is not surprising, as Butrus was a most foul individual. The man goes on to explain that Butrus sold him what he believed to be indulgences from the Loregiver, but he later found out they were false.

Evhad confirms to M'Balz that Butrus did appear to be a legitimate priest of the faith, having the look about him. M'Balz also asks the man if he believes the dwarf to be dangerous, but Evhad says he is a petty thief and blasphemer, not a violent man. He also confirms with M'Balz that Butrus had no companions working with him either.

Once everyone leaves, the group decides what to do next. They know that blasphemy is a serious crime; in a moralistic city it would be a death sentence, but here in Wasat it would probably require only a large fine, a public whipping, and perhaps a minor form of maiming.

*** Session 11 - Scene 2 (of 8) ***

Meanwhile, Butrus is taken back to the city jail. Along the way, he tries to get more information out of the mamluks about Evhad, but they refuse to respond.

When they arrive at the building, he is thrown into a cell with the pirates. Several of them crowd him. One of the pirates, a kobold, leers at him and starts talking about how Zargar likes dwarves like him that can be cut into little pieces. He tells Butrus to watch himself.

Using his magic, Butrus conjures a flame blade. He tells the kobold to back off before he cuts him. The kobold gets quiet quickly and everyone backs away from him.

Off in the corner, the ogre captain chuckles quietly to himself. He tells Butrus, "You have spirit, little one." Turning towards him, he asks the dwarf what his crime is.

Butrus extinguishes his flame. He explains he has been accused of being a con man by the prisoner from their ship. He asks the ogre what he knows of the man.

The ogre says the prisoner was not worth the effort it took to kidnap him. He explains the man's family refused to pay his ransom. The ogre goes on to say the man must not be well-liked, noting he apparently spent a lot of his money buying indulgences for the sins he committed. He says that only a fool such as the man would fall for such an obvious fraud.

Butrus then asks the ogre what his plan is for escaping. The ogre tells him not to mistake them having an enemy in common for being friends.

The priest continues to press the issue, saying it would mutually benefit them to work together to get out of jail. The ogre thinks for a minute, and agrees. He formally introduces himself, giving his name as Solak. Butrus introduces himself back.

Solak cautions the dwarf to watch himself around the others, particularly the kobold (whose name he gives as Dakhil).

Butrus hatches a plan, saying Solak should stand witness before the magistrate that Evhad talked of blaming someone at random in order to get out of whatever trouble he was in. Once he is freed, Butrus would then help the ogre to get free. Solak is skeptical the plan will work, saying the magistrate is unlikely to take the word of a pirate.

*** Session 11 - Scene 3 (of 8) ***

Around this time, the guards come to bring Butrus before the magistrate. Out in the gallery, M'Balz, Gra'bir, and Adanband watch on. The magistrate, an elven woman named Qaniah, hears the evidence against Butrus presented.

Once Evhad is finished with his charges, the qadis asks Butrus for his response. Butrus is defiant about the charges; he says the evidence amounts to little more than hearsay.

Just then, Gra'bir decides to stand up and attempt to speak to the qadis. Butrus groans inwardly.

Gra'bir explains he is a traveler from the Wah'na Poq-Ya tribe and has seen proof that Butrus has the powers of a holy priest. He makes the argument that the Loregiver would not grant healing powers to a con man selling indulgences. The warrior then cuts himself to allow Butrus to show proof, though staggers a bit as he cuts a little deeper than intended.

The crowd begins to get loud at the act, but Qaniah calls for quiet. Butrus tries to go to Gra'bir, but the mamluks move to block his way. The qadis then tells them to step aside, saying she will allow him to prove his healing powers.

Unfortunately, Butrus takes two healing attempts to fully heal the dagger wound. Once he is done, the qadis says it is a strange case; she acknowledges he has healing powers but notes it did require multiple attempts.

Butrus tries to excuse the weak showing of his powers then tries to present his argument that Evhad's family would not pay his ransom and falsely accused Butrus to further his agenda.

Evhad begins yelling that Butrus is telling vicious lies. Butrus calls for the man's family and the pirates to be brought as witnesses.

Qaniah stops everyone from talking further. She says the circumstances are odd, but there is enough evidence for a formal trial. She releases Butrus on his own recognizance in the meantime, as long as he pledges to not leave the city, and sets his trial for three days hence.

Before leaving the magistrate's court, Butrus inquires after the pirates. He learns they have already been set for trial in two days. Knowing the pirates are likely to be found guilty and hanged, the dwarf realizes they will not be useful as witnesses for his own trial.

*** Session 11 - Scene 4 (of 8) ***

Reunited, the group tries to decide what to do next. Gra’bir wonders if they should skip town, but Butrus wants to see what happens first. M’Balz likewise worries they will be caught if they try to flee.

They pass by the docks so Butrus can check on the Whack-A-Dwarf. He notices the ship has only a couple of guards. He ponders the idea of taking the ship, noting they would need to hire a crew.

Butrus then suggests M’Balz go to try and find Evhad and learn more information about him and his charges. M’Balz isn’t sure where to start, but the dwarf suggests he go looking for information in various coffee houses and other locations around town starting with the finer locations.

M’Balz is still unsure, so Butrus suggests he start by seeing if anyone at the magistrate’s office knows where he’s staying. The magistrate’s office doesn’t know, but suggests one of the nicer inns in town would be likely. M’Balz comments that it is interesting he would be able to afford it, but the clerk notes Evhad’s expenses were being paid by Sidi Haji.

Taking the pirate hunter as a strong lead, M’Balz gets more information about Sidi from the clerk. He gets some ideas of where the Sidi might have gone.

M’Balz starts with the lowest-end coffee house in the upper class area. Asking around, the people have heard of Sidi; he has apparently captured several pirates in the Suq Bay area. According to one man, he frequently clashes with Zargar Quarterman, who is believed to be allied with mermen.

No one around has heard of Evhad, so M’Balz gets little information there. He does discover Sidi Haji frequents an establishment known as “The Painted Lady”.

Heading to that location, M’Balz quickly spots the flamboyant pirate hunter sitting in a corner booth with a woman on either side. He appears to be drinking heavily and regaling them with his stories. Evhad is nowhere in sight.

M’Balz approaches the man, saying he is sorry to interrupt but may be able to make it worth his while. Sidi is not amused, immediately challenging M’Balz to his identity.

The young Al-Badassi introduces himself, but Sidi is not impressed. He tells the rogue to get to the point quickly, for he wants to finish his story. M’Balz says he, too, is looking for a story; he wants to know more about Evhad.

M’Balz goes on to explain Evhad’s charges against the dwarf, and how he knows nothing about it though always mistrusted the small man. He tells Sidi he wants more information to try and find the truth.

Sidi tells M’Balz to let the local constabulary handle it, though notes M’Balz has the look of a man who is not completely unfamiliar with dealing with the law. He sneers that one day he believes it may be a bounty on M’Balz he will be after.

M’Balz graciously bows out of the conversation as Sidi gets increasingly belligerent.  The rogue can tell the man is not trying to hide anything, but is merely an unpleasant, arrogant individual.

Spending the rest of the evening talking to others, M’Balz gets no closer to finding Evhad but does get stuck listening to the conspiracy theories of drunks. One such tale he hears is about a local sorcerer named Azuah Al-Jawwaf, who advises Caliph Haroun, plotting something with Prince Tannuous, the uncle of the Grand Caliph.

He also gets the attention of a very stupid woman named Lor’hi who offers to manage his business. Wisely, he tells her to leave his sight.

*** Session 11 - Scene 5 (of 8) ***

Later that night, they all retire to their rented inn room at the Iron Gnome. In the middle of the night, they are woken to the sound of someone rapping on the door.

M’Balz draws his dagger and cracks the door. He asks who it is. The person beyond the door says with an outlander’s accent that he is looking for M’Balz Al-Badassi.

The rogue is intrigued, and notes that is not the question he asked. The man gives his name as Jess.

Butrus calls for M’Balz to let the man in, addressing him as his servant. M’Balz lets the man in but tries to immediately grapple him. Jess slips the grapple attempt and quickly puts a knife to the rogue’s throat. He then puts it away and smiles, telling him he means them no harm.

Adanband recognizes Jess as one of the three men he originally met with Rory. He greets the sorcerer as “smoke elf”, bidding him greetings.

Jess explains he is there on an errand, he’s been told their presence has been requested by his new boss (who he identifies only as “she”). The young cutthroat explains that after Rory left, he had to find a new job.

Gra’bir asks him about his job. Jess says he works on a ship. He describes the job as OK, though notes the grumpy orc named Klaver he works with isn’t the most cheerful person.

When asked the name of the ship, Jess says it is the Chameleon. Gra’bir suspected as much.

Feeling they have nothing to lose, they decide to go with him. Along the way, the outlander rambles on. He says he doesn’t mind the sailing, but he has trouble getting used to the strange locations and customs in Zakhara. Jess especially voices his dislike for the “ruined city” he had to go to in order to meet with “that strangely-dressed elf”. He also voices his dislike for local noble titles – naming caliphs, khedives, and sultans – saying he prefers proper titles like kings or barons.

When they board the ship, they find Klaver and Daria waiting. She greets M’Balz warmly, though his response is more guarded. She tells him he has gotten himself into trouble again, but M’Balz clarifies it is the half-man who has the issue.

Daria says she hears things and thinks she could help the situation, should he be willing to help her. M’Balz says he lives to serve, but notes she doesn’t live to pay, alluding to their problem last time.

The lizard woman says she will arrange to get the dwarf freed should they agree to move some more wine for her. Jess mumbles something about “that creepy city” being a strange place to pick up wine, but is silenced when Klaver smacks him in the head and tells him to shut up.

M’Balz wants to know if Daria plans to free the dwarf with real evidence, or manufactured. Daria confirms he really wants to know, but explains she actually knows very little about Butrus.

Daria does say that Evhad’s claims are both true and not true. According to her sources, Butrus did go by the name Imam Duha Al-Meha, but she knows that is not his real name.

M’Balz wonders if a serious beating would help restore the dwarf’s memory, or perhaps a drink of the wine. Daria tells him they can’t waste any of that wine, for Qubad is waiting for it. M’Balz clarifies they only need to deliver the wine once they are all back in Huzaz. Daria says Wasat is only a stopping point for part of her business.

The rogue also wants to know what Daria knows about Evhad. She says only that she knows enough to get him to drop the charges against Butrus should the right word enter his ear. According to her, he has peculiar tastes.

M’Balz wants to know what she means by that, but Daria refuses. She says it wouldn’t be any good to him anyway without all the details. She says she wants a fair trade; she’ll dispatch Jess to convince Evhad to drop the charges if M’Balz agrees to come back to Huzaz after and assist with the wine delivery.

The group agrees, though they know they do not want to be in Daria’s debt. She sends Jess off, who complains about having to go back into the city again. He mumbles something about how he should have gone east with Dean.

*** Session 11 - Scene 6 (of 8) ***

M'Balz gathers the others together once they are off the ship. They decide the best course of action is to follow after Jess and wait to grab him once he's done talking to Evhad.

After a short while, he emerges from the inn. The group quickly surrounds him, stopping him from escaping into the shadows.

He asks them what they want. Butrus tells him that his name is being slandered, so he needs to know what is going on. Jess doesn't see what difference it makes since Evhad agreed to drop the charges, but Butrus insists he needs to know, threatening his life.

Jess says he only delivered the message he was told to by Daria. When asked what the message was, he says that it concerned the reason why Evhad was trying to buy indulgences. After Butrus presses the matter, Jess explains Evhad has a taste for young boys.

According to Jess, Daria learned Evhad was a customer of a vile clan of inbred troglodytes known as the Du'Gar clan. The clan lives in an area known as the Rape Caves of Yar, where they have a fanatical interpretation of the Loregiver's teachings that it is holy to peddle one's children to assuage the urges of men who desire them.

Butrus assures him the information will go no further and tosses him a couple of dinar. M'Balz offers a couple more, should the youth give them more information about the wine.

Jess says they've already went to a lot of trouble for the cheap wine. According to him, they sailed all the way up to Wasat and then over to a ruined city to meet with some strange elf.

M'Balz wants more information about the elf. Jess says he was dressed finely, but had the trappings and mannerisms of a slave. The youth believes he is from one of the cities of the ancients in eastern Zakhara based on the style of clothing and his accent. He gives the elf's name as Kinza.

Butrus asks more about the wine, but Jess knows little about that other than it is red, no one shook it, and all they did was take it from Kinza and load it on their ship.

M'Balz gives the couple gold to Jess, and the two agree this meeting will not be mentioned to Daria.

*** Session 11 - Scene 7 (of 8) ***

Butrus still wants to go talk to Evhad so he can learn more about his background. The group discusses possible plans for some time.

The priest does not trust Daria and is positive the wine is not on the level. He says they should break one open to see what is really inside. M'Balz is concerned Daria would keep too close an eye on the wine for them to be able to slip one away.

M'Balz wants to use Sidi Haji to double-cross Daria, while Butrus would rather focus on freeing the pirates. In the meantime, they decide to knock on Evhad's door.

The man calls out to ask what they want now, and the group barges into his room. Butrus tells him they are all being used as pawns by others, but he wants to learn the truth.

Evhad tells Butrus the truth is the dwarf is nothing more than a thief. Butrus brings up the topic of little boys, saying he doesn't wish to start judging each other on morality.

Butrus then tells the man he simply wants to know what the man knows about him. Evhad explains he met Butrus a couple of months ago in the great suq, the bazaar of Hiyal, when he was looking for a new rug for his entryway. At that time, the dwarf gave his name as Imam Duha Al-Meha.

Evhad goes on to say after making the imam's acquaintance, his... troubles... led him to a need to cleanse himself with indulgences which he knew Duha was selling. He purchased some from Imam Al-Meha, but then later discovered he'd been cheated when the high priest of Hiyal, Imam Raman bin Alurah min Najm, declared all indulgences were fake and outlawed as blasphemy in the name of the Loregiver.

Shortly after discovering the falsehood, Evhad says he was captured by pirates attacking his merchant ship and spent the last couple of months imprisoned.

While Evhad is talking, an image begins to form in Butrus' mind. He sees a red brick building and sees himself entering a room in it through a secret door. Once inside, he sees himself putting some papers into a small locked box. The dwarf can tell the man appears to be telling the truth.

Butrus ponders the matter a moment. He says his memory is gone, but he believes the man to not be lying. Going on, he asks Evhad if he has any funds. Evhad laments he is forced to rely on the charity of Sidi Haji, who is no doubt going to expect patronage in turn once he gets back to Hiyal. The priest notes that deal could cost him more than he realizes.

M'Balz tells Evhad perhaps they can offer a better option – one that does not involve pirates, pirate hunters, smugglers, or what happens to pederast prisoners. He offers to have the group escort Evhad back to Hiyal in exchange for dropping the charges and helping them get to the bottom of what's going on.

Butrus tries to see if Evhad could assist in freeing the pirates, but he flat out refuses to help his captors. He does not believe the priest that the pirates could be a cunning way to get back to Hiyal.

The group discusses a number of possible scenarios – waiting for another of Evhad's merchant ships to visit, finding someone Evhad knows in the area, trying to steal the pirate ship, trying to frame Daria for a crime so they can steal her ship, and so on. Eventually, they decide to just find another ship on the docks they could buy passage from.

*** Session 11 - Scene 8 (of 8) ***

The next day, the group continues with their plans. M'Balz wonders about paying Jess to get one of the bottles of wine, but Butrus still believes it is too risky. They eventually decide to get their chest from the locksmith, ensure the charges are dropped, and try to sick Sidi on Daria if possible, if for no other reason than to keep her out of the way.

They begin with having something to eat for breakfast. Then they head over to the locksmith's shop, where the unlocked chest is waiting for them.

They try asking the locksmith for a back room, but he does not have one. Nor is he willing to leave his shop while they open it.

Gra'bir uses his blanket to cover the chest and they decide to haul it back to their room at the inn. The covered chest does gain some attraction from local youth criminals, but they decide not to try to rob the group.

Once they are back in the room, M'Balz quickly opens the chest. Inside is a bottle labeled "potion of diminution", two suits of fine leather armor (one of them studded), and a pair of scrolls. Butrus uses his detect magic spell to detect all the objects are magical.

Looking at the objects closer, Butrus can see one of the scrolls is a priest scroll. It contains the spells of cure disease and pass plant. The other is a sorcerer scroll that Adanband identifies as contains spells of gust of wind and wind wall.

They decide to have Adanband go to the sorcerer's guild to get the magic items identified. He is able to get the armor identified at a cost of 100 dinar each.

Meanwhile, Butrus and the others arrange for transport to Hiyal at a cost of 20 dinar each. The priest also passes by a pie shop, but the others do not let him stop to purchase one of the tasty raspberry pies he smells. He continues to complain about wanting pie the rest of the afternoon.

Once everyone is back together, the group decides to sell the suit of regular leather armor and the studded leather M'Balz is currently wearing (as the new suit is better).

Adanband is elected to go sell the armor. After some minor haggling, he sells both suits to a leatherworker for 550 dinar.

Butrus then heads over to the magistrate and gets papers indicating he has been cleared of all charges. They also coordinate with Evhad on when the ship will leave for Hiyal.

Afterwards, they pay a poor youth a couple of dinar to verify the chameleon is still in port. M'Balz then tries to talk to Sidi Haji again. But the arrogant man wants little to do with him, saying he is a boring man wasting his time as Daria has no bounty on her.

At the appointed time, they all meet up on the ship but Evhad never arrives. Butrus does not want to hold the ship late in fear of Daria interfering, so he gives the captain the OK to push off.

With that, the ship begins heading north to Hiyal.

*** Session 11 - Session Notes ***

This session was pretty off. It started late, ended early, and had a lot of distractions in the middle. The only reason the write-up is so long is the entire session was character interaction.

The M'Balz player and I have been busy all weekend on an upgrade project. Texts regarding that project kept coming in during the Friday session since the upgrade began that afternoon. Compounding matters were a late arrival of one player and problems with the internet (delaying our Skype player). In retrospect, I probably should have just canceled the session given everything going on.

That said, its not that the session was bad, it just was a bit of a jumbled mess (both the M'Balz player and I frequently lost track of what was going on in the game, and the Adanband player via Skype had a hard time following what was being said at times).

Some misc notes about the session:
* The part about Butrus being a con man priest was always part of the character when I first rolled him up for the player. The player came up with the amnesia thing later, so I'm just slowly revealing the background I already came up with for him (this is one of those players who dislike creating their own character so they just have me do it).

* M'Balz throwing Butrus under the bus was quite funny, though I would have expected more conflict because of it.

* The part about "indulgences" is clearly borrowed from Christianity. Again, the faith of the Loregiver is a pastiche of various real world religions with all of their oddities (the goal is just to have a realistic-ish faith).

* I have no clue what the Butrus player was thinking about trying to ally with the pirates. Not only was it severely out of character for his normal moral compass, but the whole "lie to the magistrate" plot didn't even make any sense.

* Butrus' trial is a bit of a kangaroo court, on purpose (because it is a trial about blasphemy; as in real life, such accusations typically require very little proof).

* I'm glad the PCs didn't get themselves killed doing something stupid like staging a prison break or attempting to steal the pirate ship.

* Why the PCs thought Sidi Haji would assist them (not once, but twice) is another decision that stumps me. I made it pretty clear he was a self-interested opportunist.

* The stupid woman at the Painted Lady was an in-joke referring to someone we know.

* I had Jess show back up because I thought it made sense and didn't want to waste a good NPC (I love recurring NPCs). And yes, I have ideas for Dean and Logan to make their appearances again, too.

* Jess gave a lot of exposition and a ton of clues that could have revealed more information if the PCs asked about it. Sadly, they did not. I have the worst luck in trying to use "mystery plots" with players; they rarely seem to take a hint.

* I finally gave Daria's orc mate a name since he's shown up so much.

* Clearly Daria is delivering more than wine in those bottles. Why the PCs didn't pick up on that the first time I don't know. What's in the wine actually connects to a couple of plots I have going on.

* Evhad's crimes were given a bit more background information in the write-up than I gave during the session. I had some time to add in some pop culture references.

* The "Rape Caves of Yar" is another in-joke, this one aimed at the Gra'bir player who loves to rant about Tasha Yar being a useless character on Star Trek: The Next Generation who adds nothing to most episodes except talk about the "rape caves" on her home planet.

* I think the PCs caught enough of the clues about Kinza, but they aren't really putting the pieces together yet.

* Another head scratcher for me - the PCs go to a lot of trouble to make a deal with an admitted child rapist to avoid aiding a mere smuggler; even going so far as to only make a deal with him for him to do something he was already planning to do in exchange for protecting him on his trip back home. ?!?

* There was a rather hilarious moment in the session when they are hauling the chest around, where they almost make the mistake of taking it into a nearby alley instead of going back to the inn, before realizing what a bad idea that was.

* As before, they give the job of negotiating selling of the armor to Adanband because they know he will do a bad job but find it funny.

* Again, I have no clue why the hell the PCs thought Sidi would have anything to do with Daria. The plan made no sense at all to me (nor did it to the M'Balz player, he just kind of went with the flow while he was distracted).

* Evhad not showing up will be part of the repercussions of the events that happened this session. Let's just say that not everyone is so forgiving when it comes to blasphemy.

*** Session 12 - Cast of Characters ***

 M'Balz Al-Badassi: A human rogue from the city. M'Balz is the member of a noble family with political connections, but is bored with his wealthy lifestyle and instead performs as a masked scoundrel for hire know as Al-Caliph.

 Gra'bir Boubi: A human warrior from the desert tribe of the Wah'na Poq-yah tribe of the Haunted Lands. A superb hunter, Gra'bir has come to the city of Huzaz to look for a quest to prove himself a great warrior.

 Adanband: An elf scholar and sorcerer from the city of Huzaz.

*** Session 12 - Scene 1 (of 10) ***

The group sails out of Wasat on a sambuk merchant ship called The Rising Tide. The captain of the ship is a dwarf named Qaim, who has 20 sailors and laborers aboard. The group is housed down in a barracks room with another 40 passengers making their way to Hiyal.

The trip is said to be over 250 miles and take a couple of weeks, depending on how favorable the winds are. Gra'bir keeps a look out at the sea and any land when they are near it; he is concerned about getting lost at sea again. Butrus spends his time being extremely sea-sick.

M'Balz makes a point to circulate among the other passengers and crew. One of the people he talks with, coming from Wasat, tells him about Prince Tannous having secret meetings with Caliph Haroun. M'Balz thinks about the other rumors he heard in Wasat about the Grand Caliph's uncle's activities.

The ship makes good time the first day, picking up to a strong gale that moves the ship to the northeast. By mid-day, the winds shift to the southwest, slowing travel. At the end of the day, the winds ships back to the northwest and the captain decides to continue to sail at night; with the high winds, anchoring would be impossible anyway.

Later that night, the group is awoken when a mighty crash rings out and the ship shakes. M'Balz can hear men yelling up on the ship's deck; in his half-asleep stupor, he calls out a warning about hippos.

Adanband, however, takes more time to hear what the men are saying. He can make out the sailors are yelling about a sea wyrm. When he informs the others, M'Balz tells him to prepare his "windy spells" for battle.

Gra'bir isn't so sure they should charge into battle, but realizes when the hull cracks from the impact of the beast they will surely drown if they don't help defend the ship.

When they reach the deck, they see the huge beast attacking. It looks like a giant sea snake with the head of a dragon. It grabs one of the sailors in its mouth and eats him.

M'Balz takes a position out of reach of the creature. He readies his bow to attack, but the high winds blow the shot wide. Adband's conjured acid arrow fares no better.

Gra'bir tries asking one of the sailors how to appease such a monster to get it to stop attacking. The man's only advice is to kill it. Gra'bir is not enamored with the level of sea lore the man has imparted and moves into striking position with his lance. Using it as a long spear, he stabs into the creature scoring first blood. The wyrm howls in pain then turns its attention to Gra'bir.

Maneuvering around, he stabs into the beast again. M'Balz tries to follow it up with another arrow, but it again misses wildly. Gra'bir yells out that he needs to get his sea legs.

Adanband conjures a flaming sphere that he moves towards the beast. It singes the creature.

In response, the wyrm opens its mouth and covers the deck in a cloud of gas. Gra'bir holds off breathing it, but Adanband falls asleep from its magical effect.

The wyrm swoops in to attack Gra'bir, but he fends it off. He darts back with his lance, but misses.

Jutting to and fro, the monster gets by Gra'birs defenses, biting down on his arm. The pain prevents him from attacking back. M'Balz fires off another pair of shots that miss.

The beast and Gra'bir trade attempts to attack the other, but neither makes progress. M'Balz, however, manages to get a glancing hit with one of his arrows, but it does not seem to slow the creature much.

Suffering another bite to his shoulder, Gra'bir again finds himself stunned with pain. Another arrow finds its way into the beast's hide.

Gra'bir fends off another attack, then strikes back into the beast with his lance. M'Balz follows it up with an arrow into the creature's eye.

Badly wounded, the sea wyrm breaks off the attack, diving back into the water. The sailors rejoice, glad the creature was driven off. One says the beast likely went back to its undersea cave, noting it probably has a lot of treasure.

The mention of treasure intrigues M'Balz, but ultimately he and Gra'bir decide it will be too difficult and dangerous to try and find the underwater cave. After ten minutes or so, Adanband finally wakes up.

*** Session 12 - Scene 2 (of 10) ***

The next day, the winds slow to a strong breeze blowing to the northeast. During the day, the ship gets close enough to land at one point that a pack of fifteen desert giants, mounted on giant lizards, can be seen herding their flock of sheep along the cliffs.

M'Balz continues to talk to people, hearing a story about the sultana of Hiyal taking on Zargar Quarterman as a lover. Little else of interest happens during the day, and the ship drops anchor at night when the winds shift.

The third day out, the winds pick up again and a storm rolls in. All the passengers decide to stay below deck as the ship rocks violently. At one point in the day, M'Balz hears someone say one of the sailors caught a glimpse of the two-headed roc of Roq Island passing by in the clouds.

As night falls, the winds shift south and the ship is propelled backwards. It eventually crashes into a reef. The hull breaks open, flooding the ship.

Everyone goes crazy trying to escape. In the chaos, Gra'bir tries to grab Butrus but he is sucked out into the sea before he can get to him.

Gra'bir, Adanband, and M'Balz manage to force their way up to the ship's deck. Gra'bir immediately begins looking for a lifeboat. He spots several of the sailors attempting to ready a qarib to escape in. Since there is still room on the boat, they decide to help the crew and get on.

With everyone working together, then manage to get the boat into the water but the violent waves making rowing difficult. At one point, M'Balz falls overboard. Gra'bir is able to save him but the rogue notices some of his belongings were lost to the sea – including his quiver of arrows, his blanket, his healer's kit, his small hammer, his set of dark clothing, his small mirror, his pry bar, his flask of lamp oil, and his tinder box.

The qarib manages not to capsize as it makes its way to the nearby shore. It does, however, nearly break in half when it slams into the shore. Gra'bir takes part of it to quickly put together a make-shift shelter as the storms continue.

The storms rage on for the next three days before it blows out. Luckily, the three companions manage to survive with their shelter. The other sailors are less lucky, with one dying of dysentery.

*** Session 12 - Scene 3 (of 10) ***

Once the storms are over, they emerge from their shelter to take stock of their surroundings. They appear to be marooned on a small desert isle, with only a couple of trees with coconuts. Some pieces of the ship float in the surf as flotsam.

M'Balz suggests they gather the wood to prepare for a signal fire to attract a passing ship. Gra'bir agrees, but doesn't want to light the fire until they spot a ship. While they wait, M'Balz and Gra'bir attempt to fish using their javelin and lance, respectively, while Adanband gathers some seaweed for food.

Later that morning, Gra'bir spots a ship off in the distance. Gra'bir lights the signal fire to attract it.

After the smoke begins, the ship begins making its way over to them. As it gets closer, the group can see it is a large ship, a nobleman's baghala. When it gets close enough, they can read the name as "The Magnificent." It appears to have a large crew manning it, about forty men.

When the ship gets close enough, it launches a qarib. A small crew rows it out with a nobleman standing in the middle. He calls out a greeting to everyone on land, giving his name as Suelasta and asking how he can be of service.

M'Balz speaks for the group. He explains they have been shipwrecked and asks for assistance. Suelasta agrees to help, saying he can always use more sailors. The shipwrecked sailors on the island look happy at the prospect of both escaping the island and new employment.

Looking closer at M'Balz and his two companions, Suelasta notes they do not have the look of sailors about them. M'Balz explains they were passengers on the ship, headed for Hiyal. Suelasta notes they are well-armed passengers.

Suelasta also explains they have good fortune, as he is headed for Hiyal as well. He makes them a proposition; explaining he is a monster hunter who likes to trap strange and exotic creatures to bring back to his zoo in Tajar, he offers them passage in exchange for their agreement to help him capture any monsters they come across that he wants to add to his collection.

Gra'bir, a mighty hunter himself, happily agrees. M'Balz wishes Butrus was around so they could sell him as an exotic creature. Out loud, he asks Suelasta the name of his zoo; the man gives the name as "Suelasta's Magnificent Zoo", which M'Balz calls "very original." Gra'bir asks M'Balz about going after the sea wyrm, but M'Balz feels that would be too difficult.

Once they are all aboard, Suelasta shows them the converted cage areas he has made on the ship. He warns them to watch out for one of the cages, as it contains a Sumatran rat-monkey. When Suelasta describes the creature as very dangerous, M'Balz asks what it does. The nobleman explains the creature's bite is said to turn people into ghouls.

*** Session 12 - Scene 4 (of 10) ***

The baghala moves along at a brisk pace with the moderate winds blowing to the north. In the afternoon, they pass near some of the outlying islands near Ruhh Island. One of them appears to have a recent shipwreck on it.

Suelasta suggests they go investigate. The party agrees, with M'Balz hoping for treasure and Gra'bir hoping they find Butrus.

The four of them take a qarib over. Suelasta has Gra'bir take the lead with M'Balz and Adanband following him while Suelasta himself guards the rear.

As they move closer, they see a large hole in the side of the ship. Gra'bir spots a couple of corpses lying just outside of the hole, in the shadows of the ship.

Moving in cautiously, the approach the bodies. M'Balz readies his bow, borrowing a few arrows from Gra'bir.

When they get within 20 feet of the bodies, they can see the bodies are worse for wear. The lower halves appear to have been eaten on by crabs.

Gra'bir spots a flag inside the hole. M'Balz realizes it is a plague flag. Everyone begins backing up slowly to avoid getting the plague.

M'Balz then realizes the flag is familiar; it is the flag Butrus made and the ship is the pirate ship with the corpses they set loose in the sea days ago. Just then, two giant crabs emerge from the wreckage and head towards the group.

Gra'bir stabs out with his lance, but it bounces off the creature's hard shell. M'Balz has no better luck with his arrow.

Adanband summons his sphere of fire and moves it towards the creatures. It doesn't harm them, but does manage to keep them at bay for the moment.

Taking the opportunity, Suelasta tells everyone to leave, saying he already has giant crabs in his collection. Following his lead, everyone makes a run for it. They easily outpace the creatures and make it back to the qarib.

*** Session 12 - Scene 5 (of 10) ***

The rest of the day is uneventful. By night, the ship's navigator estimates they have made it halfway to Hiyal. But the winds shift south as the sun falls and the captains drops the anchor for the evening.

Suelasta has the party join him for dinner on the promenade. He tells them they have already had a good adventure and offers them rum. M'Balz and Adanband suspiciously decline, but Gra'bir drinks the fine rum and enjoys it.

Much of the evening is spent with Suelasta regaling everyone with tales of his wonderful zoo exhibits. He also has many stories about how great he, personally, is – often referring to himself in the third person as "Suelasta the Magnificent." Gra'bir finds the gregarious yet prideful man to be quite entertaining.

In the middle of the tale, a trio of strange creatures climb over the side of the deck. They appear to be dwarf-sized humanoid figures made of coral. One of the crew yells out, "What in the name of the Loregiver?"

Gra'bir asks Suelasta if he needs one of these creatures for his collection. He says he does, as he's never seen such a thing. The warrior then tells him to step aside and he'll procure one. M'Balz also leaps into the fray, yelling "By the lost ball of One-Balled Billy!"

The dense structure of the creatures proves tougher to penetrate than expected, as Gra'bir finds when he lance deflects off of it.

Trying a different tactic, M'Balz gets out his rope. He tosses one side to Adanband and then circles two of the creatures to bind them. Unfortunately, the creature's strength and sharp coral bodies allow them to quickly break out of the ropes.

Gra'bir manages to get in a penetrating hit on one of the creatures. M'Balz, meanwhile, uses half the rope to try his gambit to tie up the creatures again. Once again, it fails to contain them.

The creatures attack back, but everyone manages to fend off their attacks. Gra'bir drops his lance and grabs on to one of the creatures. The sharp coral of their bodies cuts his hand and the creature manages to break out of his grip. However, he starts heading for the sea but seems to dry out and crumble into pieces before he gets there.

M'Balz and Adanband get the remaining rope around the other two creatures. They again break out quickly.

Gra'bir draws his sword and slashes into one of the creatures. The sword itself does not appear to do a lot of damage but the creature is drying out and getting more brittle looking by the moment.

Adanband, however, focuses on trying to incapacitate the creatures. He casts a stinking cloud spell; one of the creatures ignores it and gets back to the sea, while the other is incapacitated.

Suelasta acts quickly, throwing a net around the creature and having his men stuff it in a water barrel. He thanks the group and says it will be a magnificent exhibit, whatever it is. He later researches the creatures and decides they must be a monster called a colenite.

Gra'bir, meanwhile, is worried about his injuries. He asks after a healer, but Suelasta does not employ one. He mentions they can find one in Hiyal, which is a week or two away at most. Gra'bir starts hinting Suelasta should pay for the healing since they did him the service of defeating the creatures, but the nobleman reminds him that was merely part of their agreement for passage to Hiyal.

*** Session 12 - Scene 6 (of 10) ***

The next morning, strong winds to the north take the ship past Roq Island. M'Balz tries to suggest Suelastsa attempt to capture the two-headed roc of Roq Island, but he says both they are not powerful enough to defeat such a creature, and could they fit it on the ship in any case.

M'Balz tries to bait Suelasta more, but he does not go for it. He does mention that should M'Balz be getting any ideas about trying to take the ship, the crew has explicit orders to kill all of them should Suelasta come to an unfortunate end on any of their outings.

The rest of the day is uneventful, other than passing somewhat near another merchant ship. By the end of the day, they have traveled an estimated 45 miles, putting them much closer to Hiyal.

The next day the winds pick back up to a gale. In the morning they blow to the south, effectively halting the progress of the ship. By mid-day, the prevailing winds shift again and they are able to make some progress.

At night, however, the winds shift again. The captain tries to sail the ship effectively, but the ship is blown into a sandbar.

The heavy winds continue to blow for the next two days, preventing repairs and leaving the ship stranded on the sandbar. Then a storm hits, showering them for another two days before it breaks.

Stuck inside the ship, there is little to do but talk. The group hears several rumors, most of which they've heard before – the sultana taking Zargar Quarterman as a lover and the previous caliph of Wasat being killed by holy slayers for crimes against the faith. They also hear a little more about Hiyal, and how the foundries there produce some of the best weapons in all the land.

Once the storm breaks and the winds die back down, the crew makes their way outside and begins repairs. The ship's boatswain informs Suelasta the carpenter estimates repairs will take four days.

Taking in some of the sun, the group sees they are marooned on a sandbar along a coast. The beach continues for a short ways before becoming thick jungle.

*** Session 12 - Scene 7 (of 10) ***

Restless, Gra'bir convinces Suelasta they should head into the jungle to hunt. After exploring a distance, the warrior finds some animal tracks; they are not overly familiar to him as the creature is not from the desert, but appear to be large, monkey-like tracks.

Suelasta looks at the tracks and believes they are ape tracks. Gra'bir asks if he needs any apes in his zoo. The hunter responds it depends on the type of ape, but he wants to follow the tracks. Gra'bir agrees, noting apes are rarely dangerous.

After following the tracks for a while, Gra'bir spots some of the apes up high in the jungle canopy ahead. He counts a total of five, and sees they are large, carnivorous apes. He suggests they try to isolate one to capture it.

M'Balz believes Gra'bir's plan has merit, and asks what he has in mind. Gra'bir says they should create some kind of distraction then use some kind of tactic to separate one of the apes, mumbling something about using food. M'Balz tells him the details of his plan are lacking.

Coming up with his own plan, M'Balz suggests Suelasta yell at the apes and get them to chase him, and then the others can grab the smallest, weakest ape from behind as they pass by. Suelasta likes the plan in general, but suggests Adanband would be better to create the distraction.

Changing tactics, Gra'bir decides to use a snare instead. Looking around, they find some vines to wind together to make the snare. M'Balz voices his concern that the plan is awful, but goes along with it anyway especially after he asks Adanband for advice and the elf has none.

Adanband and Suelasta keep watch, but the apes are still keeping their distance. M'Balz approaches the apes a little closer and starts to make "ape-like" motions towards them and "talk ape" to them. Gra'bir, feeling this is a stupid but distracting plan, sneaks off to find a smaller animal for bait.

The apes seem genuinely confused by M'Balz's actions. He continues on with them for some time until Gra'bir comes back with a chicken he captured.

Gra'bir uses a piece of rope and spike to spike the chicken to the ground and sets the snare around it. The group then moves back a ways, with Gra'bir holding ready the rope to snare the chicken.

Hopes of the plan are dashed when one of the apes swings by on a vine from the trees and grabs the chicken. He lands on a nearby branch and starts eating it. M'Balz tries to hit him with an arrow in mid-swing, but misses.

Gra'bir hurls a javelin, striking the creature in its backside. M'Balz hurls one of his as well, hitting the beast in his leg. Adanband and Suelasta hold back at the ready.

The other apes jump down from the trees and charging at the group. The ape in the trees pulls the javelin out of his hind quarters and throws it back at M'Balz, but misses.

The apes reach the group quickly, each taking on one of the group. The one attacking M'Balz claws into him, as does the one attacking Adanband, while Gra'bir and Suelasta manage to fight off the ones attacking them. The ape in the trees throws the other javelin at Gra'bir, but misses again.

Gra'bir then stabs at the ape in front of him with his lance. It strikes deep, but the beast fights on. M'Balz likewise stabs the one attacking him with his remaining javelin, using it as a small spear. Adanband, however, has no luck with his staff.

The ape in the trees swings down to join the others while M'Balz is clawed twice by one of the beasts, though he manages to prevent getting bit. Adanband is likewise clawed twice and not bitten.

Using his lance, Gra'bir finishes off the ape attacking him. M'Balz scores another hit with his javelin as well, but the ape attacking him is tougher and fights on. Adanband smashes the one attacking him, but it likewise sloughs off the blow.

The ape attacking M'Balz claws into him deeply, badly wounding him. Adanband takes another series of injuries.

Moving quickly, Gra'bir maneuvers over to the ape who came down from the trees and drives the lance through it. M'Balz grazes the ape attacking him with an attack as well, while Adanband uses his burning hands spell to light the one attacking him on fire. The fiery ape runs off into the jungle, screaming.

The ape strikes M'Balz again. He barely manages to stay conscious while Gra'bir finishes the beast off with his lance.

Around this time, Suelasta manages to knock out the ape attacking him and wraps it up in a net. Throwing it over his shoulder, he says they should head back to the ship. He notes M'Balz looks injured, and the rogue promptly crashes to the ground.

Gra'bir notes his companions are not are hearty as Suelasta and he are. Suelasta suggests they should bring a healer along with them in their travels.

As they head back, with Gra'bir carrying M'Balz, they discuss their victory and plans to celebrate with rum. Suelasta is excited to have the ape in his zoo. He decides to give him a mighty name that people will fear him when they see him – calling the ape "Cesar".

Celebrating back on the ship, Suelasta explains he has a few other apes already in his zoo. Suelsta says one is an orangutan named "Bear", because the man who sold him to him believed he was some type of bear. M'Balz, familiar with the story, confirms he is talking about a caravan trader named Be'jhay.

*** Session 12 - Scene 8 (of 10) ***

The next day passes uneventfully as the group tries to rest and heal up. On the third day, repairs continue but the boatswain notes that two men who went into the jungle to get more wood have disappeared.

Suelasta asks the group for help in finding the workers. Gra'bir is happy to volunteer, though M'Balz is concerned about heading back into the jungles as he is still badly injured.

Gra'bir quickly finds the trail of the men. Following their prints, he finds a pile of wood that appears to have been dropped.

Scouting around, M'Balz finds a large set of footprints. They are humanoid but giant-sized. He also sees a huge, primitive arrow imbedded into a nearby tree.

Gra'bir takes the arrow and they head back to explain what they found. He urges the boatswain to accelerate repairs.

M'Balz, however, makes an offer to Suelasta for them to go and try to locate the men but needs some kind of healing. Suelasta does offer the use of his one healing potion he keeps locked up.

After M'Balz drinks the potion, the three head back into the jungle. Gra'bir picks up the giant's tracks, but as they follow them, the tracks suddenly, abruptly stop.

A giant arrow then whizzes by Adanband's head, coming at them from behind. M'Balz realizes the jungle giant has backtracked and ambushed them.

Before they can react further, another arrow shoots out. This one fires straight through the middle of Adanband. He falls over, dead, looking like an elf kabob.

Gra'bir and M'Balz take cover. Gra'bir can see the giant back in the trees, also behind cover.

The two maneuver their way around, trying to stay behind cover while the giant moves into position to fire at them again.

When they reach the edge of the treeline, Gra'bir makes a run back to the ship while M'Balz hides. After a moment, the giant approaches the area. It looks around, but clearly doesn't spot M'Balz nor does it move to attack the others back at the ship.

M'Balz briefly considers trying to backstab the creature, but realizes he wouldn't be able to kill it in a single shot and would be quickly dead. Instead, he stays hidden as the giant walks past him. The creature then puts away his bow, draws a giant dagger from a pouch along his leg, and heads back towards Adanband's body.

Back at the ship, Gra'bir updates Suelasta and the captain, and the men prepare fortifications to protect them while they continue through the night to finish the work on the ship. They also light fires along the tree line so the monster can't sneak up on them.

After some time, M'Balz emerges from the trees. Suelasta and Gra'bir are surprised, believing M'Balz had been killed as well. They ask after Adanband's body, but M'Balz says the elf is likely being used as dinner by the giant.

Gra'bir is saddened by the loss of their sorcerer, wondering what they will do without his powerful array of spells. M'Balz laments the stories he's heard of jungle giants anally raping the dead before eating them. Suelasta calls the situation "unfortunate", but suggests they could recruit another sorcerer in Hiyal.

*** Session 12 - Scene 9 (of 10) ***

Despite their fears, the giant does not attack from the jungle that night. They do see smoke at one point and smell a strangely-tasty odor emanating from the jungles.

As they push the ship back into the sea, Gra'bir laments the loss of two of their companions on their journey. M'Balz doesn't seem to miss the dwarf, but Gra'bir is saddened by the loss of "Little Chub", even with his stiff disposition.

The ship makes good progress towards Hiyal, with the navigator estimating they will reach it by early evening. As they get close, the ship comes near a courier ship. The captain decides to hail it for news.

M'Balz and Gra'bir accompany Suelasta and the captain over to the courier ship. They are greeted by the captain of the ship, a halfling named Adel.

Adel tells them the latest news from Hiyal. One of the things he mentions is about refugees from Calisham (a Zakharan kingdom in the outlands) flooding the northern cities; apparently conflict has arisen between Calisham and a kingdom called Tethyr.

As they are talking, M'Balz happens to notice the large pile of scrolls being couriered contains one scroll with a strange-looking seal of gold wax around a seal of black wax. The design seems strangely familiar to M'Balz, but he can't remember why.

M'Balz asks Adel where he is headed. The halfling explains he will be heading to Wasat, then Huzaz, and then over to the pearl cities from there.

The rogue calls out the scroll with the strange seal, saying it looks strangely familiar. Adel explains there are actually three of them with that seal.

Digging the scrolls out of the pile, Adel tells M'Balz the scrolls are scheduled to be delivered to Wasat, Huzaz, and Tajar. According to the halfling, he was paid to deliver the scrolls by a strangely-dressed elf woman who spoke with an accent of the cities of the ancients.

The elf woman is also described as having a fourth such scroll she was delivering to someone in Hiyal. Adel is curious why M'Balz is so interested. M'Balz offers to "assist" in the delivery, asking after who the scrolls were to be delivered to.

Adel offers he might recall who they were being delivered to, and hold out his hand. After M'Balz hands over a few dinar, Adel gives the contacts as a courier named Atif in Wasat, a desert tribesman outside of Huzaz named Nabhan, and a courier in Tajar named Durriyah.

Sensing M'Balz's high level of interest, Adel notes if he were distracted by, say, a pile of gold on the deck of his ship, he might not notice if the scrolls just disappeared.

M'Balz throws down twenty dinar and grabs the scrolls. They bid the courier well and head back to their ship.

*** Session 12 - Scene 10 (of 10) ***

Back on the ship, Suelasta asks M'Balz what all that was about. He gives him a line about his father being in government in Huzaz and wanting to help.

Once they are alone, back in their stateroom, M'Balz reads the scrolls aloud to Gra'bir. He begins with the one going to Huzaz.

That scroll reads, "To the honorable Horselord of the Crimson Rivers, I bid you greetings in good faith. The prophets behold your ascension, and all the shifting sands of the desert should give rise to your dune should you find my tent upon it. Together, we shall seek our retribution and stop the beating of the heart of the heart.

The time for decision draws near, and I would have your answer in 30 suns. You may send it back with this courier. The tent of my ear can be found at the palace of the left-handed khedive." It is signed "C.D."

Neither M'Balz nor Gra'bir are sure who the letter is addressed to (unfamiliar with the "horselord of the crimson rivers"). They do recognize the style of the letter as being similar to the one they found in the desert. M'Balz is fairly sure the "stop the heart of the heart" section refers to killing the Grand Caliph (who is known as the heart of the heart of Zakhara).

Next, he reads the one headed to the courier in Wasat. It is extremely similar to the first letter he found, with some slight differences, reading, "To the honorable Grand Vizier, I have not yet had an answer, so I believe my first servant was waylaid. I bid you greetings in good faith. The prophets behold your ascension, and you would have a high place at my table with the pearls laid before you should you find yourself in the shadows of the light of the Great Caliph Khalil al-Assad al-Zahir (short may he reign).

The time for decision draws near, and I would have your answer in 30 suns. You may send it back with a courier or use your pet to deliver the answer. The tent of my ear can be found at the palace of the left-handed khedive." Like the other, it is signed "C.D."

M'Balz realizes the first letter wasn't intended for Huzaz, but must have been going to Wasat. The rogue knows the comment about the "pet" is a key to understanding who it was sent to, but isn't sure what it means.

The last letter, going to Tajar, reads, "To the honorable Young Master Lancer, I bid you greetings in good faith. The prophets behold your ascension, and your greatness will inspire the return of the sultanate, with the riches of all trade flowing through your house, should you find yourself in the shadows of the light of the Great Caliph Khalil al-Assad al-Zahir (short may he reign).

The time for decision draws near, and I would have your answer in 30 suns. You may send it back with a courier or use one of your bodyguards to deliver the answer. The tent of my ear can be found at the palace of the left-handed khedive." It is also signed "C.D."

Seeing what they all have in common, M'Balz wonders about the "palace of the left-handed khedive." He asks Suelasta about it, but the man only says he knows that two cities of the ancients still use "khedive" as the title of the ruling lord – Rog'osto, City of Spires, and Kadarasto, City Most Sinister.

M'Balz isn't sure what to make of all this, but clearly the conspiracy is much wider than he originally believed. As he contemplates everything, the ship begins heading into the smoke from the foundries on the outskirts of Hiyal.

*** Session 12 - Session Notes ***

This session was a return to a more normal flow. We got started on time and didn't have any technical issues. We did break a little earlier than normal, mostly because we wanted all the PCs ready to go once we start in Hiyal.

Butrus' quick exit this session was simply that the player couldn't show up. Nothing permanently bad will happen to him, I simply used the shipwreck as an opportunity to move him off screen for a bit. He'll turn up like a bad penny later.

Everything that happened this session was rolled up ahead of time (random wind strengths, directions, encounters, etc.) I actually had to do a fair amount of prep because I never planned for the PCs to actually go to Hiyal. But, putting together the random encounters and some thoughts on how to integrate some of the campaign plots, I think it worked out great.

Other notes about the session:
* As always, the rumors the PCs hear come from various random rumor tables by location I have. Some are true, some are false.

* I originally had a reason the merchant ship was called the Rising Tide, but I can't recall what it was.

* Combats this session were crazy. The PCs got some abysmal rolls (again), while I rolled a dozen or more 10s on 1d10 whenever we rolled initiative.

* I did roll up the treasure for the sea wyrm; but I don't see how the PCs could have ever actually found it.

* For M'Balz's possessions, I again made him roll an item save for each to see what he lost when he fell into the water.

* Suelasta was a random encounter, but when I rolled the encounter I came up with the idea of a monster hunter being the owner of the ship as a way to fuel more adventures.

* The Sumatran Rat-Monkey is a call-out to Peter Jackson's movie, Dead Alive (aka Braindead). Sadly, the reference was lost on my players who weren't familiar with the film.

* When I rolled a shipwreck encounter, I knew it would have to be the pirate ship they let loose at sea.

* I'm not sure why the PCs got so suspicious of the rum offered by Suelasta.

* I really liked it when the M'Balz player had his character give a call-back to One-Balled Billy.

* The rope trick M'Balz and Adanband were trying was doomed; not sure why it took so many tries before they realized that.

* There was a lot of discussion about the plot to capture an ape. All the players thought the plans were dumb, but couldn't think of anything else.

* I somewhat cheated by having the ape steal the chicken via vine-swing, but I claim rule of funny.

* Naming the ape "Cesar" is, of course, an allusion to the ape from the various Planet of the Apes films.

* The orangutan Bear and his owner Be'jhay are joke allusions to the old tv show, B.J and the Bear. At least the M'Balz player caught that one.

* Adanband's death was the result of a natural 20 roll by the giant. Since they didn't recover the body, he'll be replaced by a new character in Hiyal.

* I wanted the giant encounter to have a Predator sort of feel.

* Originally, I had rolled for a jaguar encounter and tiger encounter as well during their time waiting on repairs. Given the death of Adanband and M'Balz being so badly wounded, I took mercy.

* Adel's news about Calisham and Tethyr sets up one of the four major plot points of the campaign, though the PCs won't realize that just yet (think of Tethyr as the European Christians and Calisham as the Moors of Spain).

* When I played out Adel's conversation with M'Balz (hinting about wanting money) I was thinking of the scene between Eddie Murphy and Gilbert Godfrey's characters in Beverly Hills Cop 2 where he's trying to get out of the unpaid parking tickets.

* As I did before, I typed up and printed the scrolls so I could hand them to the PCs.

* The scrolls contain a fair amount of clues about the conspiracy, but the PCs are having a tough time trying to figure them out. I think part of the problem is they keep trying to solve them without actually trying to research some of the things mentioned instead of just thinking it referred to something they should already know / be able to puzzle out. For example, this session was the first time they actually tried to figure out what "khedive" meant (though the left-handed part is a riddle).

* One interesting fact the PCs don't know yet that was purposely done to cause confusion - in each case, the final destination of the scrolls isn't the same city / location where the scrolls were being delivered.

* As for what "C.D." means, that should become more obvious in the next session or so.

*** Session 13 - Cast of Characters ***

M'Balz Al-Badassi: A human rogue from the city. M'Balz is the member of a noble family with political connections, but is bored with his wealthy lifestyle and instead performs as a masked scoundrel for hire know as Al-Caliph.

Gra'bir Boubi: A human warrior from the desert tribe of the Wah'na Poq-yah tribe of the Haunted Lands. A superb hunter, Gra'bir has come to the city of Huzaz to look for a quest to prove himself a great warrior.

Butrus: A dwarf priest with a fervent faith and damaged memory.

*** Session 13 - Scene 1 (of 9) ***

The city of Hiyal is a gray industrial city, surrounded by a cloud of smoke filled with the stench of its foundries and kilns. As their ship docks into port, M'Balz and Gra'bir can see that everywhere appears to be covered in a grimy layer of filth.

As they get off the boat, M'Balz complains that without the dwarf, there is little point in them being in such a disgusting city. Just then, they hear a nearby fisherman complaining about a dwarf being caught in his net.

M'Balz looks over, seeing a large net filled with fish (which Gra'bir identifies as scrod) and a rather slimy-looking Butrus. Gra'bir expresses his surprise, certain their companion was dead.

The dwarf appears to be in some sort of stupor, but does start yelling for someone to get him out of the damn net. M'Balz moves to cut the net open with his dagger while Gra'bir helps to widen it.

Butrus finds himself standing on the dock, somewhat confused. The last thing he remembers is being swept out to sea from their wrecked ship. The city, however, is vaguely familiar to him.

M'Balz, smelling the fish scent, tells him he needs a bath. The priest is more interested in what happened to him. M'Balz says he does not know, as they assumed he drowned since he went into the water many, many, many, many, many leagues away and there is no rational explanation on how he managed to get to Hiyal. Butrus takes it as a sign the Loregiver is taking care of him.

Saying the Loregiver has watched over all of them to get them to their destination, Butrus asks how everyone is doing. Gra'bir says they are well, but M'Balz clarifies that Adanband must have angered the fates. Butrus asks if the elf went overboard as well, but the rogue says he ended up in the belly of a giant.

M'Balz points out that Adanband gave his life to try and get Butrus back to this city and passive-aggressively tells him not to feel any guilt about that. Butrus notes that M'Balz likely doesn't feel any.

Gra'bir hands the fisherman a copper for his troubles. The man still grumbles about the hole in his net, but nods in appreciation. M'Balz briefly considers trying to cut the fisherman's purse, but thinks better of it.

Agreeing the dwarf needs cleaned up, Gra'bir looks around to see where he might do so. He sees little of interest except buildings related to shipping and a flophouse identifying itself as The Rusty Barnacle.

M'Balz is more interested in finding somewhere he can replenish his lost equipment, in particular his arrows. Since there is not a merchant operating on the docks, he finds a nearby mamluk guard and asks him where he might replenish his quiver. The guard holds out his hand after the question is asked and M'Balz drops in a silver dinar.

The mamluk tells him the best arrows in the city are found at a store called The Gilded Lily, found in the Great Suq (the grand bazaar of Hiyal). He points the rogue in the right direction. M'Balz thanks him for his assistance, though internally wonders if he's being had as the name sounds odd for a weaponsmith's shop.

Gra'bir decides to head off with M'Balz while leaving Butrus to clean himself off using the rain barrel outside of the Rusty Barnacle.

*** Session 13 - Scene 2 (of 9) ***

M'Balz quickly makes his way to the Gilded Lily. He finds that it is indeed a weapon shop, though the weapons have many colorful accoutrements.

The burly man behind the counter asks what he wants. M'Balz explains he is looking for a quiver and arrows. The trader says he has the best in town.

The man hands over a finely-embroidered quiver. He offers his wife can stitch M'Balz's monogram on it for no extra cost, but the rogue declines. It becomes clearer why the store is so fanciful.

He then hands over the arrows, which are fletched with the feathers of a pink flamingo. The man explains his wife does the fletching.

M'Balz then asks about exotic weaponry. The man takes out an arming sword of the outlanders; he comments on how it is a crude weapon with its straight blade.

While the trader shows him the weapon, he comments about the increased demand for the weapon by mercenaries lately. Gra'bir prompts for more information, and the man explains they contain both Zakharan and outlander mercenaries who are heading east to join an outlander company. According to the man, an outlander named Admiral Anderson MacCutcheon is said to be coming out of retirement and heading to Ayfal for some reason and many of the mercenaries are hoping to find work as a result of that.

Ultimately, M'Balz decides to go with a scimitar instead. After making that purchase, he asks the man if he's heard of Imam Duha Al-Meha.

The merchant says he is not sure if he has heard of someone with that name, but might if something were to refresh his memory. After M'Balz tosses him a few silver, he does recall someone in the area using the name. The trader says the imam has not been seen in a few weeks.

M'Balz tosses a few more silver the man's way, and he recalls more information. Apparently, the man's wife saw Imam Duha talking with foolish travelers and getting them to pay for false indulgences.

The rogue uses a few more silver to pry from the man that he was seen talking heatedly with a dervish woman and another priest (who appeared to be from the eastern lands of Kara-Tur) shortly before he disappeared.

*** Session 13 - Scene 3 (of 9) ***

Meanwhile, Butrus has finished cleaning himself off at the docks and notices his companions have wandered off. He focuses on looking around, hoping to see something familiar. He is particularly interested to see if he notices any particular temple or minaret.

The dwarf wanders towards the heart of the city, the Great Suq. Before long, he spots M'Balz and Gra'bir purchasing some lamp oil and a rope from a provisions store.

After M'Balz and Butrus exchange some friendly barbs, Gra'bir asks him what he recalls of the area. Butrus says he feels drawn to a particular dark alley off of the Great Suq next to a red brick building.

The three head that way, cautious of any threats. The alley is unoccupied, however, and even with the smoke of the city in the air seems safe enough.

Butrus focuses on a particular section of wall in the alley, which Gra'bir finds odd. M'Balz suggests perhaps the dwarf suffered brain damage. But they are quickly proven wrong when Butrus activates a secret door.

Gra'bir leads the group inside the room beyond. It is a small, dark room and Butrus lights a lamp on a table in the middle of the room. Other than the table and a couple of chairs, the room is empty. Sitting on top of the table is the lamp and a small chest.

The chest appears to be locked. M'Balz offers his services, quickly popping the lock open using his thieves' tools after checking to make sure the chest does not appear locked.

Inside, the chest appears to be filled with various scrolls. Under the scrolls are a pair of gems Butrus quickly palms before M'Balz is able to see them.

Gra'bir gets frustrated, saying he is on a quest for manhood and if all they ever find are papers he does not believe his tribe will bestow him the honor of being a true warrior.

Ignoring the tribesman, Butrus begins looking through the papers. A couple of them are the indulgences he used to sell; they promise forgiveness and eternal life in the heavens for anyone holding them who calls out their true name to the Loregiver.

Mixed in with the indulgences are the forged identity papers for Duha Al-Meha as well as a legitimate set of identity papers for Butrus ibn-Duha. Reading them, Butrus realizes the papers are true and he finally knows his full name.

No great memories flood back into Butrus' mind, but he does get a sudden flash of the temple of Zann the Wise in Hiyal. He decides they should head there next.

Before they go, he explains to M'Balz how the indulgences could be used to get more money but M'Balz finds the idea reprehensible because of the blasphemy involved. Butrus decides to keep one set of the papers just in case as well as his false identity papers and puts the rest back in the chest.

*** Session 13 - Scene 4 (of 9) ***

On the trip to the temple, M'Balz wonders to Gra'bir if they should head to the lands of Kara-Tur for adventure. He watches Butrus carefully to see if he reacts, but the dwarf does not.

Once they arrive, Gra'bir decides to wait outside while Butrus and M'Balz head up to the door. At the door, they are greeted by a young female dervish; she appears a little rough and has clearly grown up a street orphan.

The woman gives her name as Sister Saffanah and asks what their business is. When Butrus starts to explain, she recognizes the dwarf showing surprise he has returned. She says the imam will want to see him and leads them inside to the reception area.

After a moment, a priest emerges; he appears to be originally from Kara-Tur, so M'Balz knows he and Sister Saffanah must be the two people the arrowsmith mentioned.

The priest introduces himself as Imam Dao Ling. Butrus starts to explain about his lost memory, but Dao Ling interrupts him and says he has been expecting him.

The man then utters a single word, "Ouroboros". As soon as Butrus hears the name of the serpent that eats its own tail, his memory instantly returns.

Butrus recalls he grew up impoverished on the streets of Hiyal. As a young man, he joined the priesthood but grew envious at what others had. Eventually, he started using his position as a priest to manipulate others for his own material gain.

Eventually, this lifestyle led Butrus into conflict with elements of the criminal underworld in Hiyal and he was nearly killed. Repentant, Butrus went to his friend Dao Ling for assistance. He in turn brought in the high priest of the temple, Imam Qonta bin Mala, to create a special quest spell that would cause Butrus to lose his memory until he atoned for his misdeeds with charitable works in the name of the Loregiver.

After allowing Butrus a moment to process everything he has recalled, Dao Ling asks him if he feels he has truly atoned.

Butrus tries to answer, saying he has done some good deeds and with his companions has been on many quests to rid evil from the land. However, he notes they are currently unsure of what to do next.

Dao Ling says he has seen visions from the Loregiver of Butrus' coming along with his companions. He tells them they will all be involved in events yet to come related to dark forces gathering around Zakhara. The priest goes on to say there are four threats he has foreseen, one for each of the elements and each powerful enough to bring a time of darkness to the land. He describes the threats as genies gathering in the desert, armies rising from the seas, yak-men with dark gods in the winds, and a powerful sorcerer rising form the flames.

The priest then asks Butrus what he and the others know of these threats. M'Balz thinks of the yak-man Alknar and Butrus can think only of Kazaam but notes he is not an evil genie. However, both of them seem to vaguely recall someone mentioning something about four great threats in a similar manner, but it was apparently so long ago they no longer remember anything about it.

After M'Balz and Butrus try in vain to remember anything about the four threats, Dao Ling tells them the temple may be able to help them in their travels but will need something in return. He explains they've had problems lately with the Beggar King growing in power.

Butrus recalls the Beggar King (also called by some the Beggar Caliph) to be a secretive boss of organized crime in Hiyal. Dao Ling explains he has been investigating the man for the last several weeks and has uncovered his true name, Bah'lain, and that he resides in a labyrinth hidden below the Great Suq.

Uncertain, Butrus asks what they must do with Bah'lain. Dao Ling explains they must go down into the labyrinth and find the Beggar King, and eliminate him. Butrus questions the morality of the plan, but Dao Ling explains Bah'lain is an evil threat and they are allowed to vanquish the wicked; whether they be a beggar king, a monster in a tomb, or a woman who talks back to her husband.

With the clarification it is permitted to do bad things to bad people as long as it is in the name of the Loregiver, Butrus is satisfied. The dwarf tries hinting around they may need some better equipment to go take on the Beggar King, but Dao Ling explains that part of the challenge is they must make sacrifices.

Dao Ling then casts a quest spell on Butrus and M'Balz. M'Balz shakes off the effect, but Butrus does not. He feels compelled to go find the labyrinth and eliminate Bah'lain.

M'Balz is annoyed by the attempt to cast a spell on him. He begins telling the imam about how the last spell caused Butrus to have some unfortunate incidents with farm animals when they found him. Dao Ling says the Loregiver will judge all accordingly, though notes that anyone lying with an animal would be stoned to death. Butrus just gives M'Balz an annoyed look.

Butrus wants to know if they have any more information on Bah'lain, but the priest knows little more than he already said. They will have to find the entrance on their own. The dwarf also wants to know how they can keep in contact with Dao Ling without bringing back any trouble from the underworld to the temple. The priest explains that Sister Saffanah is a master of disguise and can find them when needed.

*** Session 13 - Scene 5 (of 9) ***

When they emerge, Butrus tells the story of his background to Gra'bir and how he is on a quest to rid the city of Bah'lain. M'Balz cracks a few jokes about all the "honesty bursting forth" from Butrus while Gra'bir approves of the quest as it means they will not be hunting paper.

Butrus also discusses the four threats that Dao Ling warned them about to Gra'bir. The tribesman also finds them vaguely familiar, as if he had heard them before but didn't really pay attention enough to remember them. But it does sound like a mighty quest of vanquishing evil so it excites him.

M'Balz makes a sardonic comment about living to vanquish evil. Gra'bir tells his friend he knows he is only after the treasure, but for himself the action is the reward; though he still wants his cut of the loot.

The more they think about the four threats, the more they think they heard about it on the docks somewhere. Butrus recalls it was somewhere that was a "dumpy shithole", but admits that hardly narrows it down.

M'Balz wonders if it was Jess, but Butrus believes it was a woman. The dwarf thinks it was Daria but Gra'bir thinks it was an older woman; he wonders if it was the old woman at the brothel, but that doesn't make sense since they didn't meet her at the docks. M'Balz has a breakthrough, recalling it was at Star's Hollow; he remembers her name was Mashira, the hakima.

Leaving the matter to the side for the moment, Butrus focuses on how they can find the Beggar King. Gra'bir finds the answer obvious – they must find the entrance to the labyrinth below the city.

Butrus heads them back to the Great Suq, where they can find the black market. M'Balz wonders if they can sell the indulgences to make contact with someone who knows the location of the labyrinth entrance.

Heading into a coffee shop, Butrus sees the usual crowd of rough-looking individuals. Across the room, he spots someone he knows; an orc named Brull. Butrus sends him over a drink.

Brull comes over to say hello, greeting Butrus as "Duha". Butrus explains his companions are "friends of the cause" and Brull greets them, giving his full name as Butrus Al-Lornac. M'Balz gives his name as Ra'uf Al-Man'ne. Gra'bir gives his actual name; Brull recognizes him as one of the desert people but is unfamiliar with the Wah'na Poq-Ya tribe.

Butrus tells Brull he is back in town looking for some action, and he and his companions are looking for a job. When Brull asks what they had in mind, M'Balz drops the name of the Beggar King. Brull asks what he knows, but when M'Balz admits he knows very little the orc tells him it is unwise to throw the name around. Butrus explains his companions are new to town, but will learn.

Brull suggests they head back to the gambling hall to speak with his cousin, Chorgan.

*** Session 13 - Scene 6 (of 9) ***

They find the hall to be a half-filled warehouse with a group of men throwing dice. Chogan Al-Lornac greets his cousin and asks him to have his companions introduce themselves.

Butrus gives his name as "Chub", which Chorgan finds funny. In contrast, he just finds M'Balz's fake name to be odd. When Gra'bir gives his full name and tribal association, Chorgan explains he once knew a man from that tribe, named Bi'gus Dik'us. Gra'bir assures him he was a mighty warrior.

Once the greetings are over, Butrus explains to Chorgan he is looking for work. The orc explains he and his boys are also always looking for work, and they laugh. Butrus says he wants work with a quick reward. Chorgan says a quicker reward is always best, "or at least that's what I tell my wife." Butrus laughs along with the others, saying he's sure Chorgan's wife always gets it in the end.

Just then, Gra'bir spots a figure emerging out of the darkness near Chorgan. The fast-moving blur appears to be feminine.

Gra'bir immediately throws a dagger, striking the woman in the side. The woman drops a dagger held in her own hand as she falls to the ground.

Everyone readies their weapons. Butrus puts his mace up to her face; he sees she is an elf. M'Balz gets an arrow ready, and does Gra'bir.

The elf woman starts to stand up and reaches for her dagger. Butrus smashes his mace into her. The blow doesn't seem to stop her so M'Balz moves in to grab her dagger.

Standing up, the elf starts towards M'Balz to grab the dagger. M'Balz responds by thrusting it into her chest. Stabbed through, she says something about "failure" and falls over dead.

Taking a second, M'Balz realizes she is strangely dressed; possibly the same strangely-dressed elf woman mentioned by the courier. He starts looking through her clothes.

Meanwhile, Chorgan is demanding to know what is going on. Butrus says she is an assassin, obviously trying to kill them all. He starts rambling on about how the Loregiver has protected him and how his warrior companions through great skill and strength have saved the life of the orc.

M'Balz finds some identity papers on the woman. Chorgan wants to know who the woman was. M'Balz says the papers give her name as Yuta Al-Tralesta.

Chorgan is confused; his clan was once at war with the Tralestas back in their original homeland of the Ruined Kingdoms, but the Al-Tralesta clan was wiped out by the Al-Lornac clan over a century ago (long before they migrated to Hiyal). Butrus and M'Balz posit that at least one of them appears to have survived.

Agreeing the woman was clearly sent to assassinate him for revenge, Chorgan grants Butrus any boon he wishes. Butrus says he wishes to find the Beggar King. Chorgan says he can show him the entrance to the underground labyrinth, but it will be up to them from there.

*** Session 13 - Scene 7 (of 9) ***

The entrance to the great labyrinth is a secret door hidden in one of the many alleyways in the Great Suq. The stairs are very long and the labyrinth appears to be deep underground.

Gra'bir takes the lead, with M'Balz following behind holding the lamp for light. Butrus takes the rear guard position.

At the end of the stairs, the hallway continues for a short way before curving to the right. At the point of the curve is an idol of an efreeti with ruby eyes, staring at them.

Gra'bir suggests plucking out the ruby eyes, but M'Balz is more careful. He approaches the statue carefully, noticing the way the light reflects off the eyes they are more likely colored glass than gemstones.

M'Balz proceeds with approaching the statue and pops out the eyes. He puts them in his pack, calling them a "rich reward" (likely planning to use them to bilk his companions out of their share of treasure later).

After spending some more time looking around the statue and finding nothing of interest, they decide to move on.

The passage goes only a short ways before turning the right again. After another short distance, a side passage off to the right is found. Shining the light in, the side passage appears to almost immediately curve left and run parallel to the hallway they are already in.

After much consideration, the group eventually decides to proceed forward in the current hall. However, after only a short distance is traveled, the path ends in a dead end. Butrus searches around for traps or secret doors, but discovers nothing.

They then turn around and follow the other path. It goes down a ways then turns right. As they continue to follow the hall, they see it has a side passage to the right but also curves right shortly after.

Again, they decide to stay on the main path. Around the curve, the hall continues for a short way before turning left, then shortly turning right again. After a short distance, the hall ends with a door on the left wall of the hall.

Gra'bir listens at the door, but hears nothing beyond. He finds, however, the door is locked. Butrus moves up to pick the lock.

Opening the door, Gra'bir sees it is a medium-sized room. Across the room are a couple of doors on the opposite wall. The room appears to be large enough the lamp does not illuminate the whole room.

Everyone heads inside the room and immediately "fall" to the ceiling, as the gravity in the room is reversed. Gra'bir gets injured in the fall, while Butrus and M'Balz manage to land on their feet.

Now inside, they also spot another door along the same wall as they entered in the far corner of the room.

M'Balz grabs some pebbles on the ceiling as part of a plan to avoid further surprises. They then make their way over to the door in the corner after the three split up to listen at each, with no one hearing anything.

After having some trouble opening the door upside down, M'Balz manages to get it open. He throws some pebbles inside, seeing the gravity is back to normal.

He hops down and shines his light around; the room appears to be large and filled with empty bookshelves.

The room also has another door on the same wall next to the door M'Balz entered from. As the others come into the room, they look around more and discover another door along the opposite wall in the corner. Just to be safe, the group searches the room but finds nothing.

Butrus listens at the far door and hears nothing. He finds it is unlocked. Looking inside briefly, he sees the hall beyond immediately turns left. He closes the door.

Gra'bir then heads over to the other door. Beyond, he hears a light whistling of wind. That door too appears to be unlocked.

Opening the door, Gra'bir smells the air beyond is musty. The passage beyond immediately curves right.

The group decides to head down the musty hallway. After some time, it curves left then shortly turns left again.

As Gra'bir rounds the second left, a net drops down. M'Balz and Butrus manage to step back to avoid it but their companion is entangled.

Butrus looks around carefully to see if there are any other traps, but before he can look for too long a creature emerges from the other direction. They can see it is a large, primitive ogre – known as an ogrima.

The ogrima carries a large club but ignores M'Balz and Butrus. Instead, it grabs the entangled Gra'bir and starts dragging him back.

While M'Balz grabs on and tries to cut the net with his dagger, Butrus calls out for him to stop and talk to them.

The ogrima ignores Butrus but sighs when he sees M'Balz trying to cut the net. He drops the net and smashes out with his club, but the rogue slips out of the way.

M'Balz manages to get the net cut open and Butrus helps widen it. Gra'bir gets himself free. With the quarters too tight for his lance, Gra'bir readies his sword.

Moving in, Gra'bir slashes into the beast. M'Balz tries to maneuver his way behind the creature, but fails. Butrus smashes the orgima's knee with his mace.

The ogrima attacks back at Butrus, narrowly grazing him with his club. A second swing misses.

Gra'bir stabs into the creature, running him through with his scimitar. Pulling the sword out, guts spew everywhere.

*** Session 13 - Scene 8 (of 9) ***

With the ogrima dead, Butrus finds he has 8 gold in his pocket (though he tells the others it was only six). They decide to continue down the passage and quickly find a small passage off to the right.

The passage appears to be the ogrima's lair. It contains a bed of straw and many skeletal remains. Searching under the straw, they find a large cache of a thousand copper bits but decide they aren't worth taking.

They also find a cache of potions, all labeled. The first is labeled "Oil of Romance" and the second "Oil of Obedience"; M'Balz jokes about what kind of evening the ogrima had planned for Gra'bir. The remaining potions are labeled "Oil of Horridness", "Oil of Great Faith", and two marked "Poison".

Heading back to the main passageway, they find it turns to the right after a distance. A short distance, it curves left then right again after another short distance.

Up ahead, the wind blows. There appears to be a 10' wide chasm in the middle of the hallway that leads deep into the earth.

Butrus looks around but spots no traps or ways to get across. Without thinking, M'Balz jumps across landing easily on the other side.

The rogue then throw his rope across to the others. He then hammers a spike into the ground and secures the rope to it.

Gra'bir is nervous about the spike staying in the ground so he examines the rock; but he can't tell if it is limestone or dolostone.

Using the rope tied around his waist, Butrus easily makes it across. After it is thrown back to Gra'bir, he jumps across without issue as well.

Butrus then has a plan; he wants to take a second spike from M'Balz and plant it parallel to the other then use a piece of the rope to create a trip wire. M'Balz, using his expertise, explains that the hempen rope is too thick to be a tripwire, so anything that doesn't see it would likely fall into the chasm anyway.

*** Session 13 - Scene 9 (of 9) ***

Talked out of the plan, they resume their travel. The hall curves right again, then left after a distance, then right again. Shortly after the last right there is another passage off to the right.

The group continues down the main hall. Just after the side passage, Gra'bir unknowingly steps across a warded area and is shocked by electricity. Despite the surprise of it, his mighty bowels manage to hold firm.

M'Balz and Butrus spot the ward, but without Adanband's mystical guidance they don't know how to avoid it.

Butrus tries grabbing on the M'Balz and heading through, hopefully he will get the shock instead. The plan doesn't work when M'Balz steps out of the way so he gets shocked after all.

M'Balz tries various schemes to avoid getting injured, but can't think of anything to do. Eventually, he decides to just go for it. His luck holds out, and he receives no injury from the ward. He tells the others his cat-like reflexes must have saved him.

The hall continues for a short way past the ward before ending. There is a door on the right wall.

After Gra'bir makes sure there is nothing at the dead end, Butrus hears nothing at the door. They find the door unlocked and open it.

The room beyond is decently large. Halfway down the left wall, there is a door but the room continues on as well.

As they step in, they see a large statue in the center of the room of two soldiers fighting, one driving a spear through the middle of the other. The statue is blackened with soot as if a fireball or something similar hit it at some point from the direction they entered.

Fearful of a trap, M'Balz uses a small stone to throw at the statue but nothing happens. He then enters the room and looks around but finds no trap mechanisms.

As they get in closer, M'Balz can also see a door along the left wall in the far corner. He sees nothing else of interest on the statue.

The group tries the door on the right first. Butrus finds the door safe of traps and Gra'bir hears nothing beyond. When they find the door locked, M'Balz tries to pick it but fails.

They then head down to the other door in the far corner. Butrus again declares the door safe and Gra'bir still hears nothing beyond.

This time, Butrus goes to try the door to see if it is locked but the door pull turns to a thick glue in his hand, sticking his hand to the door. Gra'bir wonders why the dwarf's hand was so sticky but Butrus yells at his that it was a trap.

The dwarf tries to pull his hand off, but can't make any progress. In the process, he manages to get one of his feet stuck to the door as well as he tries to push against it. Clearly the door is made of some kind of magic glue.

Gra'bir pulls out his scimitar, saying the only rational choice is to remove the stuck limbs. Butrus tells him there is no need, and slips out of his boot to free his foot. Gra'bir says his hand will still need to be chopped off.

The warrior says he should let it go quickly, before he loses any more limbs. But the dwarf does not want to lose his hand and yells for him to stop in mid-swing.

Butrus believes his magic can save him, while Gra'bir tries to convince him to just let him cut off the hand (saying he still has another one).

M'Balz, however, opts for a more practical solution. He has them tie the rope around Butrus and pull. Gra'bir suggests that will hurt more, and perhaps they should burn the door.

Butrus likes M'Balz's plan best. The rogue ties the rope around the dwarf, briefly considering robbing him but deciding against it. The two men pull mightily on the rope, ripping Butrus off of it with minimal skin loss.

After discussing how to open the door for a while, M'Balz ties the rope to an arrow and fires it into the door.

They then pull hard on the door, and the door comes off and splats on top of M'Balz. His entire front is covered in the glue door and he mumbles as he tries to breathe.

Believing it is the only way, Gra'bir prepares to light the glue on fire. Butrus stops him, casting a spell to destroy water.

The glue door then dries up, becoming cracked and brittle. Gra'bir uses the butt of his lance to break the door apart. It crumbles to pieces, with M'Balz able to breathe again.

He thanks the dwarf and tells Gra'bir he is a man of action, but should be more careful at indiscriminately lighting things on fire. Butrus, meanwhile, retrieves his boot and puts it back on.

Looking at the empty doorway, the group can see there is more hallway beyond.

*** Session 13 - Session Notes ***

This session illustrated once again the pacing problem with our gaming sessions. It's hard for me to have any kind of larger plot going on or keep any kind of thread moving when we have to skip so many sessions because of people being busy or out of town or whatever. By the time we try to pick it up a month later, everyone has pretty much forgotten what it was they wanted to do last time.

I'm in a bit of a quandary; on the one hand, the players want a more high-fantasy style "save the world" game. On the other, they can't even recall their own personal goals from the previous session much less ever remember to follow up on any of the dozens of clues I drop to strange things going on. They also try to actively avoid danger to a degree, which again makes it challenging to set things up.

The players even acknowledge it is a bit their own fault, but they aren't sure what to do next. So, this session I set things up to give them an actual quest and a dungeon to explore. Though even then they seem surprised by the labyrinth actually being a maze (several times the Butrus player commented the layout of the labyrinth didn't make sense, which is laughable since it is the secret maze below the city specifically designed to confuse/kill intruders).

Hopefully next session will occur this upcoming Friday, everyone will be able to make it, and the quest will get concluded so they can get a reward and feel safer taking on more challenges.

Random notes about the session:
* I originally thought about the first dwarf being caught in the net the captain of their first ship, then finding Butrus naked and re-amnesia'd later. But I thought that would be more hassle than it would be funny.

* The Adanband player does have a new character ready to go, but got stuck at work that night so couldn't join us.

* Obviously it makes little sense how Butrus managed to get to Hiyal, but I claim dramatic license to keep the game moving.

* The Rusty Barnacle is obviously a joke name. I debated if Rory would be inside if they approached it, but that would probably be one coincidence too many.

* I liked the idea of a weapons shop where the wife made everything overly fanciful. Pink flamingo feathers for arrows make no real sense (particularly in this location), but its really a rule of funny thing.

* Anderson MacCutcheon comes from the TV show Lost. I used his name in my 4e campaign, so in this campaign he's coming out of retirement.

* There's more (a lot more) to the MacCutcheon fleet story, but more on that later.

* I wanted to introduce the idea of Butrus' hideout right away to give him some solid background. I figure if they bother to come to the city to learn a story, it's my job to give them one.

* Imam Dao Ling and Sister Saffanah are based on Father Dowling and Sister Stephanie from the Father Dowling Mysteries TV show. I specifically made the imam from Kara-Tur so I could fit that joke in.

* The "Oroborus" line comes from issue #350 of the Fantastic Four where the real Dr. Doom uses it to restore Kristoff's memory. I've always liked that and have used it several times in RPG campaigns over the years.

* The four threats are intended as the "high fantasy" aspect of the campaign; should the PCs bother to pay attention enough to what is going on.

* The Beggar King comes from the Al-Qadim setting, though there he's called the Beggar Caliph (I changed the name to avoid confusion with another plot going on that isn't fully revealed yet). The Bah'lain part is all my idea, related to Father Dowling, and should be revealed next session.

* I had to heavily hint the players along when they tried to remember who told them about the four threats (hence all the false guesses).

* Brull and Chorgan Al-Lornac, along with Yuta Al-Tralesta, are all taken more or less from the episode The Vengeance Factor from Star Trek: The Next Generation. Despite everyone at the table being big fans of the show, I don't think anyone caught the reference even though several lines I spoke were lifted straight from it.

* Yuta isn't just here for that plot line; her family and its ties to the conspiracy plot are still a major plot point (that again, the PCs show no interest whatsoever in pursuing).

* The Bi'gus Dik'us joke is taken from Life of Brian (which personally is my preferred Python movie; I find the Holy Grail a bit played out).

* The labyrinth crawl played out much, much slower in session. Just deciding which passageway to go down at the first branch they came to took forever. I had to keep telling them it is a maze so they better get used to a lot of decisions along those lines.

* The labyrinth is intentionally bizarre and nonsensical (the way dungeons are originally described in D&D - the lairs of mad geniuses). I wanted it to be much more strange event and trap-heavy than others we'd done to make it more unsettling.

* The ogrima was a last minute addition to give the net trap some extra bite.

* The glue door was my favorite trap, particularly when the players' utterly terrible problem-solving ideas all involved maiming / potentially killing the person stuck in the glue.

*** Session 14 - Cast of Characters ***

 M'Balz Al-Badassi: A human rogue from the city of Huzaz. M'Balz is the member of a noble family with political connections, but is bored with his wealthy lifestyle.

 Butrus ibn-Duha: A dwarf priest with a fervent faith, trying to atone for a past as a con man who sold false indulgences.

And introducing...

Abdul-Aziz: A warrior from Hiyal who ran afoul of a local gang.

*** Session 14 - Scene 1 (of 7) ***

Looking at the doorway beyond, Gra'bir decides to stay back and guard the rear while Butrus and M'Balz investigate. He makes sure to hold on to the map, not trusting the two not to lose it as he wants to be sure they can get out.

Butrus takes the lead as they head down the hall. After immediately curving to the left, the hallway goes down a long ways. The two continue to follow it as it eventually curves to the left.

As they round the curve, they see it continues for a bit then curves right, but there is also a door along the right wall. Butrus makes his way towards the door, but a cloud of burning gas fills the chamber. M'Balz is blinded by the stinging gas while Butrus resists it.

Butrus takes the blinded rogue by the hand and leads him back in the corridor to wait and see if the blindness wears off. He tries using his waterskin to wash out M'Balz's eyes but that doesn't seem to help.

Around this time, a figure emerges from around the corner. It appears to be some kind of skeletal servant in robes.

It's moving quickly, so Butrus knows he can't outrun it. Instead, he tries to use his faith to turn the undead creature, but it resists.

The crypt servant moves over and punches the dwarf hard. Butrus calls out for M'Balz to assist him. The blind rogue swings wildly, but trips and falls on his own javelin, wounding himself. He cries out that the "knave has got him", telling the creature it will pay for that.

M'Balz gets himself up and charges at the direction he believes the creature is at. His head smacks directly into one of the corridor walls.

Butrus scores a solid hit on the monster with his mace, and fends off its counterattacks. M'Balz, still swinging wildly, manages to cut himself again with his javelin.

The priest then scores a smashing blow, crushing several of the skeleton's bones. It hits him back with a punch, then follows it up with two more.

M'Balz tries to use Butrus' grunts of pain to target his attack, but still misses. Butrus himself fares no better as the creature fends off his attack and strikes back with another powerful blow.

Butrus misses with another of his attacks, but M'Balz scores a lucky hit with his javelin. The creature begins to weaken, and turns its attention to the rogue. Its punches are ineffective at penetrating his armor.

The priest breaks off part of the creature's arm with another solid mace hit but M'Balz can't find the mark a second time. The crypt servant however, does, landing a couple of punches on the rogue.

M'Balz tries to attack back, but misses. Butrus misses with his attack as well, and is punched in response. After taking the last blow, Butrus crushes the creature's skull, destroying it. The remains fall into a piles of bones.

Butrus searches the remains, but finds nothing. As he finishes up, M'Balz's sight begins to return.

*** Session 14 - Scene 2 (of 7) ***

Before heading forward, Butrus uses his magic to heal himself and M'Balz. They then head back to the door, with M'Balz reminding Butrus about the gas trap just as he sets it off again.

This time, M'Balz manages to resist the burning gas but Butrus is blinded. M'Balz tells the priest he will protect him, but instead of retreating back into the hall again, he listens at the door and says it is quiet.

Since Butrus is blinded, he feels he has improved hearing and wants to listen at the door as well. When he listens, he can tell there is something in the room beyond but can't tell what it is.

M'Balz ignores the warning, believing the dwarf to be mentally addled due to the gas. He opens the door, seeing a large room beyond. He can see it has a couple of doors – one along the left wall and one on the far wall; the right side of the room cannot be seen.

As they head inside, the lamp illuminates the pack of three giant lizards nested on the right side of the room.

The lizards move in to claim their meal; both M'Balz and Butrus suffer a bite. In response, M'Balz stabs into the one attacking him with his javelin while Butrus tries to figure out what is going on.

Nearby, an unconscious man named Abdul Aziz on the far side of the room wakes up. He does not recall how he got there, but does notice the dwarf and man under attack by lizards. A trained warrior, he readies himself for action.

As Abdul readies his weapon, M'Balz stabs the javelin into the lizard again, killing it. Butrus just tries to back up, still not fully understanding what is going on.

The two remaining lizards bite M'Balz and Butrus, badly wounding each of them. Abdul attempts to attack one with his scimitar, but misses.

M'Balz tries to explain what is happening to Butrus, but is unable to score another hit. He and Abdul manage to fend off the lizards' attacks.

Butrus tries a different tactic, using his speak with animals spell to attempt to warn the lizards to leave or die. The lizards seem unfazed by the attempt.

However, the attempt does distract them long enough for M'Balz to score a solid hit with his javelin. Abdul also strikes the other one with a grazing blow from his scimitar.
The lizards attack back, badly wounding M'Balz. He collapses to the floor, unconscious. Abdul tries to strike them back, but misses.

Butrus decides to go ahead and swing wildly. It connects with the wall. One of the lizards bites his leg hard.

The other lizard bites Abdul's arm. Shaking off the attack, he strikes out with his scimitar, slashing across the beast.

Butrus continues to swing wild, but the attacks are ineffective as is Abdul's scimitar. The dwarf is then bit again by a lizard and begins bleeding.

The bleeding increases as Butrus is bit again. In desperation, he drinks the potion of horridness. He suddenly realizes the potion must have been mislabeled, as it was really an elixir of health and cures his blindness. Meanwhile, Abdul once again fails to penetrate the lizard's armor.

One of the lizards bites into Abdul. He then drives his scimitar down through the lizard's head, killing it.

The other lizard bites hard into Butrus. As he collapses from his wounds, he smashes it's spine with his mace, killing it as well.

With the battle over, Abdul notes the two humanoid appear to be dying. Looking around, he spots a pair of healing potions in the lizard nest. He quickly pours the liquids down the throats of the men, stabilizing them.

*** Session 14 - Scene 3 (of 7) ***

M'Balz and Butrus wake up to find Abdul standing over them. M'Balz greets him and asks his name. The man introduces himself as Abdul Aziz, saying he doesn't know how he got there but must have upset someone.

Considering the name a moment, M'Balz asks if he was related to minister Tariq Aziz. Abdul explains that is his older brother.

Butrus introduces himself as well, saying he is a priest but is currently weakened. He explains he and M'Balz are down in the labyrinth to kill a man. When Abdul asks what the man has done that is so evil, M'Balz clarifies they don't actually know the man or much about what he's done.

When the dwarf goes on to explain he is on a quest from his temple, Abdul understands better. Abdul surmises that as Butrus is a holy man tasked by the church to kill the other, he must be the good one in the conflict.

Philosophical discussion aside, M'Balz is convinced they must leave the labyrinth for now to recover. Butrus, however, feels a compelling urge from the Loregiver to stay down there on his quest.

M'Balz grabs a large sack from his backpack and points over to a corner of the lizard nest, saying "Jewels!" When Butrus turns to look, he covers him with the sack and tries to capture him to haul him out. After some rather feminine slap-fighting, M'Balz prevails.

With the dwarf slung over his shoulder, M'Balz starts to head out of the room. Abdul finds the whole matter rather strange, but agrees living to fight another day takes priority. M'Balz explains how the dwarf is under a quest spell and will need to be moved.

Butrus, inside the sack, confirms he is on a quest from the Loregiver. Thinking quickly, he drinks the other potion he has, the potion of great faith. However, it, too, appears to have been a mislabeled potion of growth as Butrus begins to grow to 25 feet tall, splitting the bag and his clothes and popping off his armor and equipment.

Because of the height of the room, Butrus is forced to be bent over, filling up large amounts of the room. Abdul muses the potion would have been more valuable during the fight while Butrus explains the growth shows the will of his god to remain in the labyrinth.

Frustrated at the dwarf's obstinate behavior, M'Balz slaps the giant dwarf penis in front of him as hard as he can. Feeling the sting, Butrus responds by pinning him up against the wall with his huge hand, warning him not to do that again. He once again tells the others they may leave freely, but he is staying there. He then releases the rogue.

M'Balz once again makes an impassioned plea to Butrus that they need to leave. But the dwarf is not swayed, saying he needs to fulfill his mission of faith.

After considering a plan for M'Balz and Abdul to head back up for supplies and rest, M'Balz ultimately decides they can just rest in this room.

*** Session 14 - Scene 4 (of 7) ***

As they make plans, M'Balz realizes he has not introduced himself to Abdul yet; he gives his name as Ra'uf Al-Man'ne. The two lament they've met under such unusual circumstances, noting the dwarf is usually better behaved.

M'Balz goes on to explain how they are hunting for the Beggar King. Abdul agrees to join their group as he is looking for good deeds to accomplish.

With Butrus positioning his large body to block one of the doors, M'Balz has him take the first watch while the two of them sleep.

About an hour later, Butrus shrinks back down to normal size. At the end of his shift, he passes it to Abdul. When M'Balz has his watch, he notices the dwarf is returned to normal size as well.

As the night moves along, the door they originally entered through suddenly opens. Several of the crypt servant creatures begin pouring into the room.

M'Balz calls out to the others to wake them and quickly lights a flask of lamp oil, throwing it at the floor in the middle of the throng. The explosion of fire keeps the creatures at bay for a moment, singeing a couple of them.

Butrus wonders if they should head out one of the other doors, but elects to first try to use his power to turn them. Summoning the strength of the Loregiver, he calls out and forces them back. The creatures slink back into the darkness.

M'Balz then spikes the door shut. They also pile the lizards along the side door, trying to make them look menacing while blocking the door. They then go back to sleep.

*** Session 14 - Scene 5 (of 7) ***

After waking, Butrus uses his healing spells to recover himself and Butrus as best he can. The healing magic has trouble curing his many wounds, and at the end he is still badly wounded.

M'Balz tells Butrus they should stay and heal up another day, noting that way they wouldn't be leaving the maze per his ridiculous demands. Butrus agrees, feeling it would not violate his quest.

Several hours into the waiting, pounding begins at the spiked door. It appears the door will be breaking down soon.

Butrus calls for them to go, but M'Balz wants them to take positions in front of the door while he hides off the side. His plan is to slip behind them and backstab them.

The dwarf decides to try and pantomime movements with the dead lizards (inspired by a story he heard about a couple of simpleton servants and their weekend at the home of a wealthy merchant named Bihr Na'hi). Abdul crouches behind the corpses, hoping to use them as a makeshift rampart.

When the crypt servants break through the door, Butrus attempts to force them back again, but this time fails. The creatures quickly pour into the room, with six of them making their way in.

Butrus calls for them to retreat. Abdul maneuvers the lizard bodies out of the way and Butrus throws open the door, only to discover it is a 10' x 10' closet.

M'Balz sprints for the other door. He tries to open it, but finds it locked.

Two of the crypt servants rush at Abdul and M'Balz. M'Balz is hit with one of the attacks, but Abdul defends himself.

M'Balz manages to pick the lock and rushes inside. Butrus can see it is a narrow, long room. They all get inside and the rogue spikes it closed.

As he does so, Abdul looks around. He notices the high ceiling has spikes on it, several with corpse remains still stuck on them. He alerts the others of a possible room trap.

Butrus looks around, but can't find the pressure plate that activates it. Abdul has no better luck. Butrus warns them not to move.

M'Balz advances a little ways in, and discovers the trigger mechanism. As they get in further, they see the far end of the room has no spikes. He tells the others to head across to the safe area.

Once everyone is at a safe point, they wait until the creatures break down the door and enter. M'Balz then triggers the trap, causing the ceiling panel to crush down on them then go back up. Several of the creatures survive the attempt but are stuck on the spikes on the ceiling, squirming around trying to get free.

The rogue responds by continuing to trigger the trap until they are all dead. Exploring around, they find no other exits or secret doors and decide to rest another day inside this room.

*** Session 14 - Scene 6 (of 7) ***

After the group feels rested and recovered, they head back out to the hallway and decide to continue on the path they didn't take before. Abdul now takes the lead.

The hallway curves many times as they follow it before ending at a T-intersection. Abdul leads the group to the right, only to find the hall ends abruptly in an old, plundered catacomb.

Turning around they head the other way. Another series of twists and turns in the path continues until they come to another T-intersection.

Turning right again, they follow another long, twisting hallway though many, many twists and turns. Butrus, unaccustomed to the design of labyrinths, believes the engineer who built the tunnels must have been drunk.

Eventually the corridor has a passageway off to the left but Abdul elects to continue straight. Eventually, the path comes to a dead end so they backtrack back and take the left passage.

After twisting around, that hall eventually continues on and has another passage off to the left. Again Abdul elects to go straight.

A short distance later, they come to yet another T-intersection. Butrus examines it, fairly certain they have not been this way before.

Abdul elects to take the right passage, though this time is careful to mark the intersection. Unfortunately, that way ends in a dead end so he is forced to go back.

After following various twists and turns in the hall, the group finds themselves at another T-intersection and elect to head right.

Many more twists later, they find the hallway broken up by another deep chasm. M'Balz drives another spike into the ground, tying the rope to it and around his waist. M'Balz then jumps across.

The rogue underestimates the distance, failing to make it to the other side. Luckily, the rope he has around himself holds for the moment, the spike saving him from the abyss.

Abdul and Butrus try to pull him up with the rope, but have problems. The rope begins fraying along the sharp edges. They eventually manage to get a good hold, but M'Balz slams into the side of the chasm wall. It takes some time, but they eventually get him up.

Once M'Balz is pulled back up, they double-up the rope to account for the fraying. On his second attempt, M'Balz makes it across. Butrus and Abdul follow, both easily making it across.

*** Session 14 - Scene 7 (of 7) ***

Continuing down the hall, they come to another T-intersection. Heading right, they eventually reach a door.

Abdul listens to the door, claiming it is safe beyond. M'Balz looks over the door, finding no traps. Abdul then opens it.

The room beyond is quite large and lit by a fireplace along the back wall. The fire appears to be magical in nature, as it creates unnatural shadows along the walls.

Unnoticed by the group, the shadow of M'Balz comes to life. It attacks him, causing injury. He dashes off to the side to try and not cast a shadow, but the move is ineffective.

Abdul tired from all the walking, spends his time trying to stay awake. Butrus leaps into action, trying to attack the shadow but missing.

M'Balz strikes out with the javelin, injuring the creature. Butrus misses with his mace, but Abdul connects with his scimitar. Unfortunately, the scimitar has no effect, causing M'Balz to figure out that only magical weapons will affect it. The rogue tosses his other javelin to Abdul, telling him it is magical.

The shadow lashes out at M'Balz again. He fends off one flurry of attacks, but is hit by a second. M'Balz stabs back into the creature, further injuring it. Abdul hits it as well, causing the creature to shriek out and disappear.

Butrus wants to head out of the room quickly, but M'Balz would rather stay and search the area. They decide to stay and search, but find nothing. Luckily, no more shadows emerge.

The room has doors on either side. With Butrus' prompting, Abdul elects for them to take the door to the right.

Beyond the door is a long hallway lit with magical candles. Butrus feels they are getting closer to their target. At the end is another door.

M'Balz checks the door, feeling it is free of traps. Butrus listens at it, hearing the slightest sound of water.

Abdul tries to open the door, but finds it locked. After M'Balz opens it, they find another hallway beyond.

Following the hallway through a couple of twists and turns, they discover a door off to the right. Listening, Butrus can tell the water source lies beyond it.

Once again, M'Balz clears the door of any traps and they open it. Inside, there is a small room with a natural spring in the corner and a bucket.

The rogue drinks some of the water. After making sure nothing bad happens to M'Balz, Butrus takes a drink as well.

As Butrus is filling his wineskin, M'Balz fills the bucket and pours it over the dwarf's head. Although annoyed, Butrus notices his armor seems shinier and stronger afterwards.

M'Balz repeats the process for all of them, having the same effect. A second attempt on Butrus does no good, but he continues a couple more times just to be sure. Eventually, the dwarf takes the bucket away from him to get him to stop.

The group decides to rest in this room for the night.

*** Session 14 - Session Notes ***

Unfortunately, this was a case of another session, another out of game mess. The Gra'bir player had to cancel at the last minute, the Abdul (formerly Adanband) our Skype player nearly canceled then showed up late because he wanted to do some things around the house first and finally kept falling asleep during the later half of the game. And obviously, things got way too silly.

D&D is one of those games I really like because it is easy for PCs to have clear goals, a clear mission, and not too many options. As a player, you have a crystal clear idea of what kind of character you can play and what your options are, and as the DM you can just set up a sandbox of adventure hooks and plots and let things progress.

Unfortunately, D&D also has a downside - you really need 4-6 solid PCs in a group to make the game hum along if you want to do much adventuring. All the PCs are level 4 or 5 now, but it is still a major challenge to have them encounter anything without it being a TPK (part of this is not the rules, but the fact the players tend to be terrible problem-solvers). When only 3 players can make the game, it is nearly impossible to do without fudging a bit (hence things like the conveniently-placed healing potions and the trap that helped them against the crypt servants).

While I fully intend to continue this campaign along, I'm focusing my creative energies towards setting up a future Cthulhubusters campaign (called Cthulhubusters - Crescent City, set in faux-New Orleans). Given the smaller number of players (and their tendency to be anti-heroes at best) I think that has potential with this group.

Random notes about the session:

* As explained, Gra'bir guarding the rear was just an excuse to explain why the PC suddenly went missing.

* The game started off terrible for the PCs, with M'Balz rolling four or five straight 1s (hence all the times he injured himself trying to act while blind).

* The fact they forgot about the gas trap and set it off again was hilarious.

* Strictly speaking, the room was probably too small for the giant lizards because I didn't pay enough attention to their size when I was placing monsters around.

* The original idea was for the PCs to find Abdul in the hallway at some point, with a story about how he ran afoul of a gang and was thrown down there for punishment. Since he showed up late, and M'Balz and Butrus were clearly going to die, he started out in the lizard room.

* Obviously the healing potions were a fudge to keep the PCs alive. If we lost two more characters then and there, the campaign would have imploded.

* The M'Balz player through in the Tariq Aziz joke reference, but no one actually caught it because we hadn't been paying attention to that bit of news.

* When Abdul said Butrus was clearly the good one since he came from the church, no one was sure if that was intended to be sarcastic or not.

* M'Balz trying to stuff Butrus in a sack didn't make much sense, and it got worse from there. Though we had a lot of laughs with the ensuing slapstick, it was pretty silly and makes little sense in the story.

* Butrus' potions were actually mislabeled (actually, all the potions they got were). I have the list of what each potion really is, so the potions curing blindness and causing growth were serendipitous, not something I fudged.

* Butrus' clothes coming off when he grew was rule of funny.

* M'Balz actually gives his false name as Ralph Al-Manah. I'm using Ra'uf because "Ralph" doesn't make much sense. For the last name, it's more a case that I didn't realize how the player intended the name to be spelled and by the time I did I'd already been writing in the other way and didn't want to bother to retcon it.

* M'Balz originally wanted to light the lizard corpses on fire with a flask of oil, until I reminded him the group only had one left.

* Butrus trying to make the dead lizards move to scare the undead was fucking stupid, so I'm the one that made the Weekend at Bernie's joke about it to mock him.

* I'm not sure trying to use the corpses as sandbags made much more sense.

* The 10' x 10' closet was on my map the whole time, as was the other door being locked. The fact they waited to even check the doors until monsters were invading shows the lack of planning.

* I took much pity on them with the spike trap to avoid a TPK.

* About half-way through the session, they had made so many bad rolls I started using the YouTube app on my tablet to play the "Price is Right Losing Horn" every time they rolled crappy. It was hilariously mocking by the end.

* The Butrus player seemed continually confused that the maze was a fucking maze. That really got on my nerves after a while, and even the other players were like, "Duh it doesn't make any sense, its designed to keep people out".

* The chasm caused more confusion, as he was thinking it was a cavern for some time. Despite the fact they encountered the exact same thing last session.

* Obviously I gave a lot of chances to M'Balz at the chasm - one more bad roll and he was gone for.

* Originally the plan was for all of their shadows to come to life, but by the time they reached the room, that just seemed cruel.

* M'Balz clowning around was the only reason they discovered the magical effect of the water. I felt I'd used the "magical water source heals you" bit way too many times, so I wanted this one to do something different.

*** Session 15 - Cast of Characters ***

M'Balz Al-Badassi: A human rogue from the city of Huzaz. M'Balz is the member of a noble family with political connections, but is bored with his wealthy lifestyle.

Butrus ibn-Duha: A dwarf priest with a fervent faith, trying to atone for a past as a con man who sold false indulgences.

Abdul-Aziz: A warrior from Hiyal who ran afoul of a local gang.

Gra'bir Boubi: A human warrior and hunter from the desert tribe of the Wah'na Poq-yah tribe of the Haunted Lands, looking to prove himself as a great warrior.

And special guest star...

Mirah: A teenage human sorceress.

*** Session 15 - Scene 1 (of 7) ***

Waking from their rest in the room with the magical spring, M'Balz, Butrus, and Abdul see the door suddenly open to reveal Gra'bir. He appears to have also gained a companion in the maze, a teenage girl who is dressed like a sorcerer.

Gra'bir proclaims he has "rescued a damsel". After some coaxing, Butrus gets out of her that her name is Mirah. Butrus asks Gra'bir if she is a good sorcerer or a bad one, and he responds he has not witnessed her magical prowess but she hasn't tried to kill him yet and thus is morally superior to at least two of their group.

Butrus then complains to Gra'bir about the sack being put over his head and rambles on about the mission from his god and its importance. More grounded, he notes they do still need to heal up first as their journey thus far has left them weakened.

M'Balz hopes the sorceress has some healing potions with her, but she does not. Gra'bir suggests Butrus use his god-granted magical powers. Taking Gra'bir's suggestion, Butrus uses his magical powers to heal M'Balz twice, curing him of all his injuries.

Gra'bir explains he and Mirah got lost in the maze; he attempted to map his travels, but notes it is a maze and thus makes no sense. He even managed to lose the map he started when they first entered the maze, though he was able to track down M'Balz and Butrus.

The two groups catch up quickly, with Butrus and M'Balz giving a brief (and not completely accurate) account of some of their encounters in his absence. They also introduce Abdul.

In their discussions, M'Balz realizes Gra'bir and Mirah have not been enhanced by the powers of the spring yet. He quickly pours water on both of them to give their armor and robes the magical protective powers granted by the liquid.

Once that is done, the group decides to continue on their journeys down the hall outside the room in the direction they haven't been through yet. Gra'bir takes the lead with Abdul behind him. Butrus takes the third position with Mirah behind him, and M'Balz in the rear guard.

They quickly find the hall continues on or goes off to a passage on the right. Gra'bir takes the passage to the right. After a brief turn, it ends in a door. Gra'bir knocks heartily at the door as Butrus wails in disbelief of his stupidity. To everyone's surprise, the door opens...

*** Session 15 - Scene 2 (of 7) ***

Standing before Gra'bir is a large copper automaton wielding a scimitar in either hand. It immediately attacks, badly wounding the warrior with two deep cuts from its blades.

Gra'bir nimbly shuffles himself behind Abdul for protection as he bleeds everywhere. Abdul attacks out with his own scimitar, scoring a solid hit.

Butrus likewise moves out of the way to allow the sorceress through. Using a magic missile spell, Mirah blasts the automaton. Meanwhile, M'Balz calls to the others to charge at the creature.

Abdul attempts to lead a charge against the monster, but the uncoordinated Gra'bir manages to cause Butrus and M'Balz to bunch up. The automaton does stagger back a bit, but not enough to give them room to maneuver into the room beyond.

The automaton lashes out again with his slashing blades. Abdul fends off one of the hits but is struck by the other.

M'Balz tries to shift to the flank and attack, but his blow is fended off. Gra'bir hurls a javelin but it misses its mark.

From behind them, another of Mirah's spells blasts the copper automaton again. It seems only moderately damaged. M'Balz does little while Butrus actually bothers to check behind them to make sure nothing is coming up.

Abdul fends off a flurry of attacks from the creature. He maneuvers in and slashes across the creature's chest, causing more metal plates to go flying.

Gra'bir tries an attack of his own, but can't get a good opening. Low on spells, Mirah decides to hold back with Butrus and M'Balz.

As Abdul misses, Gra'bir scores a solid hit on the creature. It collapses to the ground with a loud crescendo.

*** Session 15 - Scene 3 (of 7) ***

Abdul takes the scimitars off of the inanimate body of the automaton as Butrus makes sardonic comments about how the sorceress is clearly powerful as she was more effective in the battle than the warriors. Gra'bir ignores the last part of the comment, saying her power was the reason he brought her to them.

M'Balz and Abdul begin searching around the room for any treasure, but none is found. Butrus checks the body while wondering what Mirah's mother looks like.

The room is smaller sized than many they have seen, with an open doorway leading out along the opposite wall. M'Balz looks around for any secret doors or traps, but none are found.

Butrus wants to get moving; he has everyone organize back together in their marching order and tells Gra'bir to lead them on.

The hallway outside the doorway has several twists and turns and another dead end as they follow it along. Their journey is slowed by having to stop every so often for Mirah to pick up her bag of spell components she keeps dropping.

After some time of walking along the hall, Gra'bir spots a pair of glowing red eyes up ahead. He has the others stop.

The warrior draws his javelin and throws it, aiming between the eyes. He hears a clink sound as the arrow apparently bounces off of whatever it hit.

M'Balz suggests they move closer. As they do, the lamps illuminate another statue of an efreeti on a small pedestal in the middle of the hallway, similar to the one they found when they came down into the dungeon.

The rogue moves in closer to investigate. He checks for traps or secret mechanisms or moving parts, but finds nothing. Butrus suggests Mirah use her spell to detect magic on the statue, but she denies him so M'Balz proceeds with prying off the fake ruby eyes.

After Gra'bir spends some time convincing M'Balz to give him back his javelin, the group moves on again. Shortly after, they find a passageway off to the right and decide to head that way.

*** Session 15 - Scene 4 (of 7) ***

After following more twists and turns in the labyrinth hallway, Gra'bir finds it leads to a door. He listens at the door, but hears nothing.

After M'Balz fails to find any traps on the door, Gra'bir opens the door. The room beyond is rather wide – they can see the opposite wall but not off to the right. There is another door along the wall in the far corner.

As they move into the room, they notice a strange odor. Butrus again wonders who built all of these large rooms under the city and what they could have possibly been used for.

Illuminating the rest of the room, they spot what appears to be a pile of molten iron off in the corner. It makes Butrus nervous and he tells the others to stay away from it.

Gra'bir has them shine the lamps on the ceiling above, but they see nothing. Ignoring Butrus' warning, M'Balz searches around the pile but finds nothing; though the molten pile gives him a strong sense of unease.

As Gra'bir muses about touching the pile, Butrus yells out to the others to not go near it, saying either his god or common sense is telling him to stay away. M'Balz backs away.

Butrus tells the others to leave quickly out the other door they found but M'Balz and Gra'bir are still fascinated by the pile.

Gra'bir fires an arrow at it, which hits. But the arrow gets absorbed in the pile almost instantly. The warrior suggests to the others to stay away from it, which Butrus sardonically remarks he would have never thought of.

The warrior then listens at the other door. He hears nothing, but does hear something in the room they are in, behind him.

Turning around, Gra'bir and the others notice the pile isn't as far in the corner as it used to be. It seems to have moved a couple of feet. M'Balz confirms the pile is definitely moving.

Nervous, Gra'bir tries to open the door but finds in locked. He tells Abdul to help him break down the door.

Meanwhile, M'Balz is watching the pile. But when he blinks, the pile moves yet closer to them. Pushing Abdul aside, he tries to pick the lock on the door but fails.

The two warriors begin hacking at the door with their scimitars. M'Balz turns around to see the pile has moved closer. He dashes to the other side.

Butrus also moves to a different corner of the room. Feeling a strange connection to the dwarf, Mirah follows him. As they stand waiting, he asks her if she will introduce him to her mother. She flatly tells him no, and the dwarf agrees it probably wouldn't have worked out anyway.

With the door broken down, Gra'bir and Abdul head through to the hallway beyond. Butrus sees the pile continues to move towards M'Balz. He and Mirah run out as well.

M'Balz finds himself alone in the room with the strange object moving slowly towards him whenever he blinks. He circumnavigates around it and gets out the door as well.

*** Session 15 - Scene 5 (of 7) ***

Everyone meets back up in the hallway and resumes their normal marching order. As they follow the twists and turns of the maze, Butrus again suggests the engineer was drunk when he designed the halls.

After some time, they come across a passageway off to the left. As they contemplate which way to go, Abdul has M'Balz check the rear; the pile appears to still be following them, lying just at the edge of their lamp light.

Gra'bir leads them down the passageway to the left. It comes to a door, but Gra'bir finds it locked.

With the pile slowly advancing on them, M'Balz attempts to search the door for traps but fails. He does get the lock picked as the pile gets close to the sorceress. Everyone quickly heads inside and shuts the door.

The room beyond appears to be illuminated by bright sunlight by magic. It is some kind of solarium, filled with various plants. There appears to be a door along the left wall and two doorways opposite of where they entered, one blocked by bars.

Butrus looks around at the plants for anything edible. He spots some berries growing on one of the bushes.

M'Balz is very nervous about the room. He suggests they leave quickly. He carefully makes his way over to the door avoiding any plants or potential traps along the way.

Gra'bir makes his way over to the bars blocking the doorway. Abdul follows over. Butrus and Mirah guard the door they entered from.

At the door, M'Balz puts his ear up to listen. The acid-coated door immediately melts his ear off as he screams out in pain.

Ignoring the rogue's screams, Gra'bir checks out the bars. There is a hallway beyond. He can't find any mechanism to open it from this side. He suggests to Abdul they attempt to force the bars open, but they fail.

Butrus moves over to the open hallway; it continues on for a while.

Driven from his senses by his pain, M'Balz grabs some berries and eats them. He finds them very bitter but encourages the others to try the "tasty" berries. He claims they have some kind of healing power.

Butrus tries the berries as well. He doesn't find any healing properties and finds them very bitter. He suggest M'Balz lacks his superior palate but the rogue says he must have got a bad one.

None of the others wish to try the berries, though Gra'bir suggests they take some for the road. M'Balz puts some in his pouch.

Following the hallway, they find it curves to the left but after a bit comes to a dead end. M'Balz finds neither traps nor secret doors at the dead end. He then tries knocking on the wall, but nothing happens.

They head back into the solarium. As they enter the room, they notice the pile of molten iron on the opposite side of the room. Butrus can see the door they entered from is still intact, so the pile did not appear to enter through it.

M'Balz investigates the bars and finds the mechanism locking them into place. As he turns to tell the others, he can see the pile has advanced on them again.

The rogue tries to lift the gate, but can't budge it. Butrus and Mirah see the pile getting closer to them so they move back further. The dwarf stares at it intently and can swear as he looks at it, the pile appears to blink out of existence and blink back in a little closer.

With M'Balz and Gra'bir lifting together they manage to raise the bars. The rogue yells out for his friends, and Little Chub, to get through.

Abdul wonders about using one of their potions marked "poison" on it. M'Balz counters that all their potions to date have been labeled incorrectly.

The warrior decides to just throw one of the scimitars he got off of the automaton at the pile. As with the arrow, the pile absorbs it. And with another blink, it gets even closer; almost touching the others.

M'Balz again yells for everyone to get through. Abdul, Butrus, and Mirah finally head through.

As they get through, M'Balz turns to move himself but finds his foot is now in the middle of the blob-like pile. He feels a burning sensation as his foot melts off. He hobbles away, with Gra'bir helping him down the hall.

The gate drops on the blob, but the creature appears to absorb it. Spotting the maimed rogue, Butrus mocks him about his missing foot as Gra'bir helps him along the hall.

The blob continues to follow. M'Balz throws his berries on the creature but all that does is turn it purple.

Everyone rushes along the hallway, passing by a set of plundered catacombs. Abdul in the lead narrowly avoids falling into a deep pit trap as he rushes around the corner. He warns the others.

Butrus waits by the pit trap until Gra'bir and M'Balz get by. When they make it to the others, Abdul fashions a peg leg with his extra scimitar and they continue on. Up ahead, they see it ends in a dead end.

Meanwhile, the dwarf still waits hoping to lure the blob into the pit trap. The gambit appears to work, as the blob gets closer then suddenly is no longer seen. To add extra insult to injury, Butrus urinates down into the dark pit.

*** Session 15 - Scene 6 (of 7) ***

Back at the dead end, Gra'bir searches around until he finds a secret door. However, he is also fairly sure it is trapped.

Gra'bir calls over to M'Balz for help, but the recent injuries are unhinging the mind of the poor rogue. In desperation, he drinks one of the potions marked poison. Alas, it was apparently mislabeled as it simply gives him a feeling of strength. Drinking the other, he finds it has the same effect.

After further urging from Gra'bir, M'Balz disables the falling block trap over the secret door. He then opens the door, revealing a large room beyond.

Inside the room appears to be a workroom with benches, tables, and tools. Pieces for copper automatons lie scattered about. There is only one door out of the room in the far corner.

M'Balz and the others work together to use the materials to fashion a prosthetic foot he can wear. Butrus uses a strip of wood and his warp wood spell to fasten it tight. They also "shoe" it with wood to make it slightly less noisy.

Butrus also comes up with an idea to fashion a headband and creates an ear horn for M'Balz as well. They also manage to scavenge enough lamp oil to refill their flasks.

After some debate, they decide to rest in the room for the night. Luckily, it passes without incident.

*** Session 15 - Scene 7 (of 7) ***

The next morning, Butrus heals injuries again. M'Balz is saddened to see the healing will not restore either his ear or foot.

Ready to move along, they approach the door. M'Balz is unable to pick it so Gra'bir and Abdul must break it down again.

They head into the hallway beyond, with Gra'bir setting off a spear trap. He moves out of the way, but Abdul is not as lucky. However, the wound is quite minor and M'Balz seems disappointed Abdul's trap is not as disfiguring as the ones he encountered were.

Gra'bir has the group continue on along the winding passageways. Eventually they take a passage off to the left. After some time it twists and turns until it comes to a door.

M'Balz finds the door has no traps and hears nothing beyond. Finding it unlocked, he opens it.

The room beyond is very large and M'Balz's lamp can only see the walls next to the door they are at. He rushes into the room and a patch of green slime falls on him. The acidic nature of the green slime begins burning his head.

The rogue attempts to grab his fine clothing from his pack to wipe the green slime off of his head, but the creature simply eats the clothes.

Abdul moves in to grab M'Balz. He yanks hard, pulling M'Balz back to the others so they can render aid.

Gra'bir decides the best course of action is to pour flaming oil over M'Balz's head. The rogue moves out of the way. With the pile of burning oil on the ground, M'Balz kneels down and dips his head into the fire to burn the slime off.

Butrus remarks he cannot help the stupidity, as he has no spell for that. He kicks M'Balz in the ass to get him away from the fire, but manages to kick him face-first into the fire.

The green slime burns off. M'Balz pours the water from his wineskin over his head and face. The flames go out, but he is badly burned and knows he will never regrow his hair or a beard and will be horribly scarred. Butrus suggests it is a good look for him.

Looking around, M'Balz can see there are more green slimes along the walls. There is also some broken glass in the middle of the room.

The rogue dashes in towards the glass. When he reaches it, the ground around him collapses and he falls into a spiked pit trap. He ruptures one of his testicles in the fall.

Calling out from the pit, M'Balz yells to the others he has found the way out. He then begins laughing maniacally and then changes to making owl sounds.

Gra'bir tells the others they may need to accept the fact their friend M'Balz has succumbed to the perils of the labyrinth. Abdul does not notice Gra'bir using a different name for M'Balz than he was given (Ra'uf).

Butrus, however, wants to help. He carefully approaches the pit and finds the half-insane rogue down below. As M'Balz is the one carrying the rope, Butrus calls out for him to throw it up to him.

M'Balz decides to tie the rope to an arrow and fire it up. He fires it up, managing to avoid hitting either his companions or the slimes.

The injured man is confused why the dwarf needs his rope, saying he has found the way out. Butrus tries to tell him it is just a pit, but M'Balz begins carrying on about the berries he found down there.

Butrus tosses the end of the rope back down to M'Balz and has Gra'bir and Abdul pull him out. He is still laughing hysterically when he emerges from the pit.

As Gra'bir ponders mercy-killing M'Balz, Butrus looks around for exits. There are two doors on the opposite wall from where they entered, but both have slimes near them.

M'Balz tells the others they can just speak to the slime. He walks over to one of them and begins barking at it like a dog. He then beckons over Butrus, insisting it is friendly.

Gra'bir approaches M'Balz and attempts to shove him into the slime. The rogue moves out of the way at the last moment, causing Gra'bir to fall into the slime. It begins covering his hands and face, burning them.

M'Balz laughs at Gra'bir, saying he has heard the voice and knows the slime is his friend. He begins barking at Gra'bir.

Butrus ignores the plight of the warrior and heads over to the door. He finds it unlocked and hears nothing beyond. He opens the door and heads through, saying the room is clearly cursed to turn people into idiots.

Mirah and Abdul follow Butrus' instructions to follow him, walking past Gra'bir rolling on the floor howling in pain.

Eventually, M'Balz asks Gra'bir why he is howling in pain as he is talking to his friend. M'Balz creates another pool of fire with his lamp and shoves Gra'bir's face into it.

As before, the slime burns off, leaving Gra'bir's head, face, and hands horribly scarred.

*** Session 15 - Session Notes ***

I'm not sure how to feel about this session. Everyone was able to make it this time with no problems, but the game was as silly as ever and I'm starting to wonder if we've gone down a bad path towards turning it into an actual Hackmaster style game. I chose to interpret it in the writing that they are going insane because of being stuck in the maze; I may have to cheat a bit to get them to the end soon before things get off the rails any further.

We did have the last minute addition of Mirah - who was the daughter of the Butrus player. Having a half-laconic teenage girl around made for some awkward moments; most of us had to be very careful to censor ourselves.

I'll admit to having a double standard. I have no kids but I was a teenage boy a couple of decades ago and I had brothers growing up so I'm a lot more comfortable when the other guys brought their sons into the game than I was with having the daughter at the game. With teenage boys, I feel like the trick is to not go too far to encourage bad behavior (because I know they won't get concepts like knowing when it is and isn't appropriate to repeat a joke, etc.) With a teenage girl, I feel compelled to try to avoid a "hostile environment" of any kind; for example, I didn't even feel comfortable referring to M'Balz by name while she was around. Now, her father kept telling us it wasn't a big deal and we were being overly sensitive, but there's no way in hell I or the other guys were going anywhere near a dirty joke when it was a group of adult males in a room with a teenage girl (particularly one already acting fairly shy).

In any event, it was no big deal avoiding dirty jokes for a session, just that it did change the dynamic a bit.

Other notes about the session:
* Mirah actually had no name in the session, I had to add it later. She was very shy and didn't want to come up with a name for her character (she has roleplayed before with her dad in other games I guess and seemed OK with playing, but I'm assuming she was just shy around a bunch of her dad's friends she didn't really know).

* Gra'bir's comments about the maze making no sense was the player's way of teasing (or perhaps coaxing) the Butrus' players' past comments (particularly since he knows I found them rather odd).

* There didn't seem to be a particular reason for Gra'bir to knock on the door; it was being silly for silly's sake I guess.

* The Abdul player, over Skype, must have said four times he wanted to take the scimitars from the automaton, as he kept missing my confirmation response each time due to various conversations occurring at once. It became a running gag later on, where we'd add "and Abdul takes the scimitars" whenever everyone was describing what they were doing.

* Butrus' joke about wondering what Mirah's mother looks like is a in-joke poking fun at the fact they recently divorced (as is the later exchange about hooking them up).

* Mirah dropping her spell components was a joke about her constantly dropping her dice under the table as she was playing around with them.

* Originally, the pile of molten iron was just a piece of flavor text for the room. But they kept making such a big deal about it that I turned it into a type of creature. I was inspired by the movie It Follows to give a sense of dread as it kept moving ever so slowly towards them.

* M'Balz's various disfiguring injuries were a cause of much joviality among the group, except for the M'Balz player himself. He decided the injuries would drive his character mad and started rolling dice to randomly determine his actions.

* When M'Balz had the scimitar peg leg, various "blade runner" / Pistorius jokes were made. (Side note - the M'Balz player loves to tell the anecdote where he asked his wife if she was familiar with the movie Blade Runner and she assumed it was about Oscar Pistorius).

* Once again, the mislabeled potions came into play. I was disappointed they didn't inadvertently strengthen the blob with it though, as throwing the poison bottle at the blob was considered for a little while.

* I originally had an empty room where the workshop was found. I figured they needed a way to make a prosthetic for M'Balz.

* After they added the ear horn headband, we agreed M'Balz had become the worst Steampunk cyborg in history.

* M'Balz and Gra'bir trying to kill each other with the green slime was hilarious to me, but the Butrus player got annoyed and that's why he had everyone just leave them to their stupidity.

*** Session 16 - Cast of Characters ***

M'Balz Al-Badassi: A human rogue from the city of Huzaz. M'Balz is the member of a noble family with political connections, but is bored with his wealthy lifestyle.

Butrus ibn-Duha: A dwarf priest with a fervent faith, trying to atone for a past as a con man who sold false indulgences.

Abdul-Aziz: A warrior from Hiyal who ran afoul of a local gang.

Gra'bir Boubi: A human warrior and hunter from the desert tribe of the Wah'na Poq-yah tribe of the Haunted Lands, looking to prove himself as a great warrior.

Mirah: A teenage human sorceress.

*** Session 16 - Scene 1 (of 5) ***

By the time M'Balz and Gra'bir make it out of the green slime lair, only Abdul is left in the hallway. He tells them that Butrus and Mirah slipped out of his sight while he was watching them.

Heading down the hall, they find it ends in another door. After determining it is free of traps, M'Balz also informs the group there are no noises beyond.

The door opens to a large room. From their vantage point, the three see only two of the walls, both filled with empty bookshelves.

As they look around, they see Butrus and Mirah. They also look around the large room and see a couple of doors along the north wall. The room seems very familiar to them.

After some time, they eventually realize this is the room they entered after the reverse gravity room. Butrus says they should go back the way they came and try one of the other passages.

This plan is quickly abandoned when they head back to the slime room and Abdul heads inside without being careful, leading to some slime dripping on him. M'Balz makes sure to tell Abdul he found his friend and begins barking at him.

After Gra'bir burns the slime off of Abdul, he tells the others to follow him as he found his initial partially-completed map in the bookshelf room and knows the way out. He then heads back down the hall to the bookshelf room, confounding most of the group but they reluctantly follow as they assume he knows what he is doing.

This plan doesn't go very far either once Butrus figures out Gra'bir is actually trying to lead them out of the maze. He gives a long argument about how his god is insisting he stay in the maze until he kills the enemy. Mirah openly comments she believes he is insane.

Gra'bir, believing they are foolish for wanting to continue on, says if they want to continue they could just go down the other hallway near the exit.

He then opens the door to the reverse gravity room. He tries to enter with a flourish and a somersault, but missteps and ends up badly spraining his ankle.

For the others, Butrus suggests they lower themselves into the room safely. On M'Balz's turn, Butrus pushes him into the room, causing him to hit his head hard on the ceiling. Gra'bir warns M'Balz to be more careful.

After they are all inside the reverse gravity room, Gra'bir suggests checking one of the doors along the north wall they never tried while they were in the room the last time.

The group spends a little time getting inside, only to find the hallway beyond leads in a circle back around to the other door in the gravity room. They decide to head back to the gravity room and sleep on the ceiling for the night to rest up (except for M'Balz, who stays in the U-shaped hall).

*** Session 16 - Scene 2 (of 5) ***

The next morning, Butrus heals up Gra'bir and Abdul. M'Balz notices he was excluded from the healing and comments about how strong he feels.

Eventually, Gra'bir leads them out and back to the location where the hall originally branched when they first headed into the dungeon.

Heading along, the path twists and turns like the other hallways they encountered. Eventually, there is a passage off to the right while it continues forward a little bit before coming to a dead end.

M'Balz urges caution. Gra'bir looks around for any secret doors but finds none. M'Balz neither finds a trap nor hears anything at the door.

Flinging the door open, the rogue finds a small room with a chicken pen. It has a dozen or so chicken inside with a bowl for water, a bowl for feed, and some straw bedding.

Butrus finds the room very strange. He notices there is another door in the small room along the same wall as the door they opened.

Looking around, the priest finds evidence the chickens are indeed real. He surmises they must be used for food by the labyrinth inhabitants.

The dwarf walks inside to get a better look at the chickens. When he does, he notices one of the chickens is actually a cockatrice. Before he can react, the monster pecks him, turning him to stone.

Seeing their companion petrified, M'Balz and Gra'bir leap into action. They both throw their lighted lamps into the room to try and start a fire, but the flames go out and they only succeed in spilling oil everywhere. They close the door quickly, finding themselves in the dark as they have no lit lamps remaining.

Abdul has a lamp but no oil left. M'Balz tries to fill it with his waterskin but Abdul finds it won't light despite M'Balz insisting it is oil.

As the darkness begins driving him madder, M'Balz starts shouting out about how he needs light. After some time, Mirah finally agrees to light her lamp, though wonders if her companions are mentally deficient.

Gra'bir suggests they try a different direction but M'Balz wants to save the dwarf. Butrus wants to use Mirah's lamp oil to light one of his arrows on fire so he can shoot it into the room and ignite the oil.

He eventually convinces her and puts his plan into action. The resulting fireball kills everything in the room but M'Balz manages to avoid getting burned himself and closes the door.

*** Session 16 - Scene 3 (of 5) ***

After the heat dies down, M'Balz opens the door again. He can smell the cooked chicken.

Inside the room are the cooked remains of the chickens and the cockatrice. In addition to the charred lamps and statue of Butrus, there appears to be a pile of blackened coins and other materials back where the straw used to be.

Gra'bir goes inside to examine the treasure. He ignores the coins but looks for a potion. He does find one, but it has likely gone bad. Undeterred, he pours it over the petrified Butrus, but nothing happens.

Also in the pile is a blackened ring and a blackened horn. Gra'bir grabs the ring while M'Balz spots the horn and immediately blows it.

The magical horn emits a very loud blast of sound, deafening everyone in the room and throwing them to the ground.

Cracks begin forming along the walls of the room and the ceiling starts to cave in. Moving quickly, everyone exits the room out the other door while M'Balz and Abdul pull the dwarf statue out. Just after, the room completely caves in, blocking their way forever.

*** Session 16 - Scene 4 (of 5) ***

Leaving the dwarf statue at the caved-in door, the others head off down the hall to investigate the area further. After following the hallway through twists and turns, it eventually comes to another door.

M'Balz checks the door and can tell it is connected to a trap on the other side of the door. He performs some actions that he believes will disarm it and listens to make sure there is no sounds beyond. He tells Abdul it is safe to proceed.

Abdul opens the door and it immediately hit with a spear from the door trap. When he comments to M'Balz, the rogue insists there must be someone in the room but Adbul is pretty sure it fired at an angle from somewhere along the ceiling.

Gra'bir can tell the room extends 30 feet and has some bars blocking a hallway beyond. The far east side of the room is still shrouded in darkness.

M'Balz decides to rush into the darkness to investigate the rest of the room. Hearing crunching sounds, he realizes he is standing on a giant swarm of locusts. The locusts begin swarming around M'Balz, biting him.

The rogue decides to douse himself in the water from his wineskin. This does not seem to deter the biting insects. He yells to the others to light the locusts on fire.

Gra'bir calls for Abdul to help him with the bars. He manages to get them started and has Mirah put his shield under them to keep them up.

Everyone goes under the bars to the other side, including M'Balz who is dismayed to see the locusts are continuing to follow and bite him. And now that he is near the others, the swarm is attacking them as well.

M'Balz blows the horn again. It liquefies the locusts and blows the bars through the door on the other side of the room. Mirah is also knocked to the ground again, deafened.

Gra'bir tries to grab the horn away from M'Balz, but fails. Mirah takes the opportunity to grab for the horn herself, taking it away from him. He tries to get it back from her but she pushes him away, storing it safely in her backpack.

*** Session 16 - Scene 5 (of 5) ***

Once that matter is dealt with, the group heads out again. With Abdul injured, Gra'bir takes the lead.

Eventually, the hall has a passage off to the right or continues on. Gra'bir can see the hall continues on then curves to end in another door.

Gra'bir listens at the door. A blade comes out, narrowly allowing him to move away quick enough to only have the tip of his ear cut off by the trap. However, he could tell there were a lot of loud scurrying noises behind the door, leading him to believe it is a nest of giant rats.

Not wanting to encounter the giant rats, the group moves off to check out the other hall. After some curves, they eventually see a barred doorway off to the right. Beyond the bars appears to be an empty room they can only illuminate part of.

The hunter decides to lead the group on down the rest of the hallway. It eventually comes to another set of bars blocking a doorway. Shining the lamp through, they can see the room beyond is large with a number of scattered humanoid bones. They do spot a door along the east side wall in that room.

While they decide what to do, M'Balz sneaks around and picks Mirah's backpack. He slips the horn back into his own belongings.

He then tells the others they should lift the bars, as he believes their salvation lies in those bones. Gra'bir reluctantly agrees to go along with his suggestion.

After some effort, they manage to get inside the room. Gra'bir stays off to the side while M'Balz starts loudly rustling through the bones with his javelin.

Gra'bir heads over to the door. He checks the door for traps, but finds none. He doesn't hear anything behind the door until it suddenly opens; standing in the doorway is a large berserker. In the room behind the berserker, chanting can be heard.

Suddenly, the bones come together and form over a dozen skeletons surrounding M'Balz. The berserker lashes out with his scimitar, but Gra'bir fends off the blow. Gra'bir attacks back, injuring the berserker.

M'Balz calls out for everyone to cover their ears. He then takes out the horn and blows. Unfortunately, the horn's magic backfires and explodes. M'Balz splatters all over the room as he disintegrates into a thousand pieces.

Abdul strikes out at a skeleton, injuring it but not destroying it. Meanwhile, Mirah casts a sand slumber spell on the berserker, causing him to fall asleep.

Gra'bir steps over the slumbering man, calling out for Mirah to slit his throat as he heads after the sorcerer who cast the animate dead spell.

As he enters the room, Gra'bir sees the ghul lord sorcerer. He stabs out with his lance, badly injuring him. The sorcerer runs away through a door on the south wall of the room and closes it behind him.

Back in the doorway, Mirah slits the berserker's throat. Unfortunately, this gives time for some of the skeletons to come up behind her and cut her down. Across the room, Abdul manages to destroy one of the skeletons as the others slice him to pieces.

Gra'bir heads up to the door to find it locked from the other side. Using his scimitar, he begins to cut it down.

The skeletons begin pouring into the room behind the warrior; one of them badly wounds him. He slips on the ring he found, only to find it is a cursed ring of folly. He can feel the ring magically draining his intelligence and wisdom.

The warrior returns to breaking down the door the rest of the way. He succeeds just as the skeletons chop off his head.

The End

*** Session 16 - Session Notes ***

So, after a TPK we decided to end the campaign. That's the first time I've actually ended a campaign with a TPK (though it has happened in a one shot or two).

I think it was inevitable at that point. The players couldn't seem to get out of "zany mode" and long since stopped approaching the dungeon as serious adventurers. As a result, they made poor decision after poor decision that kept them blundering into new bad situations. I'm not trying to be a deadly DM here - these are 1 HD skeletons we are talking about that killed a party of five characters levels 3-4.

And that's why I didn't fudge anything to stop it. If I tried to excuse one bad choice it was like peeling back an onion. For example, M'Balz died because he blew the horn one too many times. He blew the horn one too many times because he was low on hit points and surrounded by skeletons. He was surrounded by skeletons because they chose to ignore a room filled with bones as a potential threat and because he started loudly messing around with them. There's also an entire other branch where he was low on hit points because they didn't have a healer because the cleric got petrified, because he scouted out a room instead of someone else and they couldn't get back out to get a scroll to revive him because of stupidly blowing the damn horn. It just goes on and on from there.

In any event, we'll move on from here. I'm going to let the Butrus player run his "as deep as Warcraft" D&D game for a few sessions while I finish up my plans for Cthulhubusters: Crescent City.

Before we dive into that next campaign, I'm having some discussions with the players to make sure everyone is on the same page with what we are trying to get out of the game since our last couple of campaigns have fizzled (I completely lost my focus as GM on the Traveller 2300 game, and the players seem to have completely lost their focus on this one).

I want to say I really do like my current group and any given session has been pretty fun. We just have some challenges in getting the right campaign going:
* We don't have quite enough players coming regularly to get D&D to work well.
* The characters tend to be somewhere between morally gray and sociopathic, which takes entire genres off the list.
* We have people missing a lot, making complex plots very hard to follow. Plus, all of them are terrible at solving mystery plots (I found this with my previous group, too; RPG players who can put two clues together seem to be rare).
* None of the players really want to lead but a couple take issue with being told what to do (again, a problem I've seen for years with various groups; leadership skills are in short supply in real life).

Then there's my own shortcoming - I love baroque James Ellroy-style plot webs and always make my plot backstories five times more complicated than anything that ever gets revealed / discovered in the game.

In any event, I'm going to try for smaller, independent plot arcs next time and see if that works better.

*** Epilogue - The Secrets of Al-Qadim ***

In case anyone was interested, here's a few things in the Al-Qadim campaign that never got revealed during the game. I think it is pretty comprehensive, but if there's something I didn't cover that you wanted to know about, just ask.

* Bah'lain was the genie duplicate of Father Dao-Ling (this is a play off of the TV show, where Father Dowling's identical twin, Blaine, was a gangster).

* If the group would have defeated Bah'lain, everyone would have received various stat improvements and other bonuses as a reward from the Loregiver.

* Logan was going to show up in Hiyal as a consort to the female ruler there.

* The Dragon riddle cave they never went to had tens of thousands of coins of treasure there - more than enough to level everyone up a level and then some.

* The other cave map (the one found in the Salazar's Tower) was actually a fake, leading to a trapped cave with several bronze automatons.

* Neither cave was the lost gold mine of the Al-Kamari family (but that mine did figure into things, see below).

* If the group would have ever found the treasure inside Salazar's Tower, Snarg was planning to screw them over by insisting it was Salazar's treasure and only Omar's diary was the treasure to split (using that stupid "knowledge is the real treasure" cliché).

* After they left the tower, Snarg went back to serve as Alknar's toady and would have shown back up.

* There never was any treasure under the palace gardens, that was a false rumor. I thought it would be funny to steer them into the sewers instead.

* If they would have kept going in the sewers, they would have discovered the hidden headquarters of the thieves' guild and there was a whole plot about how the guild was at war with Geer.

* One of the thieves' guild guys was actually the son of Al-Fayeed in disguise as part of a larger plot (see below).

* The four threats prophesized referred to:

1. Threat of Wind - Alkar (the yak-man) and his worship of dark gods known as the Nameless Ones. That threat was the easiest to defeat and where I was planning to steer the game to next.


2. Threat of Sea - This one had to do with a whole plot around Admiral MacCatcheon leading an invasion force into their lands as part of the Holy Crusade of Tethyr as declared by the Council of the Isle of Claremont and High Priest Otho (various other homages to the First Crusade were in there as well).

3. Threat of Flame - This one had to do with Salazar sort-of returning from the dead in multiple ways (he had a clone, a simulacrum, and genie double going around) and forming an army with the Yuan-Ti.

4. Threat of Sand - This was the large conspiracy and meant to be the most challenging of the plots. The whole "C.D." thing referred to someone known as the "Caliph of the Dark", a man who formed an army of evil genies (along with a small clan of elves thought to be extinct) and was plotting with various rulers for the downfall of the Grand Caliph. The caliph of the dark was actually the exiled Al-Fayeed patriarch.

There was a large adventure planned as part of this plot around how Al-Fayeed found the lost gold mine of the Al-Kimari family and stopping the forces of his genies transporting the gold (it was based in no small part by the anime, Ninja Scroll).

* Daria, who they were so worried about, was shipping wax tubes filled with "powder of the poppy" inside her wine. She was a mid-level drug trafficker, but her only real relevance in the story was she got her drugs from the elves who served the Caliph of the Dark (it was how he financed his return to power, along with finding the Al-Kimari gold mine).