Dave Wood's

Campaign

SUPPLEMENTS

Adventures

Quoerere Terra Firma

When last we left our intrepid heroes...

Balthazar, Kuros and Elhana had ventured to the frozen island of Todstien. They had followed clues which led them to the discovery of a fiendish family of intelligent undead, called Lebendtod. This group of undead were created by a powerful wizard named Meredoth and assumed the livelihood of the Graben Family. They were responsible for delivering bodies to the island, of which Captian Garvyn decided to make these grisly deliveries.

Icy Crypt

On Todstien Island, the group trekked inland through a blizzard to a small crypt. There they gained entrance, and battled with many undead until they finally entered the reclusive Wizards' chambers. There a great battle with many powerful magics ensued with a strange man that was seemingly made of ice.

Kuros and Balthazar managed to fly up to his platform, Elhana was caught behind. Injuring the ice wizard, the two chased him into the depths of his lair, where Kuros cut him in twain with one blow from Griever.

Upon further inspection, the wizard was indeed made from frozen water! The wound that was opened by the massive sword gash revealed the anatomy of the wizard to be nothing more than solid ice! After a few minutes, he began to melt turning into a puddle on the floor. Upon his body the following was found a number of items.

The two searched the rest of the wizard's labratory. A creaking door gives way to a vast, dark room. Your nose stings and your eyes water as putrid stenches surround you. The odors of rotting flesh, ammonia, stagnant swamp water and mildew are detectable among many smells. A ghastly array of equipment, tools and bubbling experiments lie before you.

Row after row of shelves fill the narrow end of the L-shaped room. Bottles, jars, baskets and canisters filled with chemicals and herbs fill the shelves. Many jars contain human and animal organs, methodically sorted and neatly labeled in Meredoth's personal code. Many more jars, labeled with a variety of symbols, seem to only hold blood.

The wide end of the room holds many experimentation tables, some topped with marble and others topped with granite. Some of the tables contain evidence of Meredoth's dissections. An incredible array of knives and scalpels, varieties of which you have never seen before, fills a rack at least 15 feet long.

Meredoth also had a small chamber for sleeping and eating, with three tables covered in notes, loose paper, books, ink, reading candles. Among the more interesting items on the shelves and on the desks, were a great number of books.

After exploring the icy labratory, Balthazar and Kuros gathered what they could carry. Balthazar also summoned some extra strong Astral Constructs to carry the remainder of the books back to the surface. They soon returned to the room where the battle had taken place. A field of slimy black tentacles blocked the way out. Elhana's broken body lay inside, crushed to a pulp, the tentacles still sqeezing at her lifeless body. Kuros managed to cut down the 'forest' with Griever, and get to Elhana's remains. Kuros managed to gather what he could of her remains, and wrapped them in a shroud.

Venturing up to the top of the crypt, they found the passage was sealed by a cave-in. The two also realized that the 'stone' blocks that made up this crypt were slowly melting. With no time to lose, Balthazar created a shimmering door and both he and Kuros stepped in and appeared on the surface. The constructs were left behind to dig a tunnel out and bring along the books.

A body discovered

The air outside was crisp and chilled, the forest was completely silent save for the slow creaking of some old pines in the salty breeze. The Blizzard had passed! The two made their way down to the beach where they would wait for Captain Garvyn's men to return. Over the next day, the temperature greatly increased, the snow was quickly receeding. As the snow melted away a figure was revealed at the side of the mountain, that was prevoiusly buried under the snow.

It was a man who had been completely scorched! Upon futher inspection, Balthazar determined that the blackness in his skin was an extreme case of frostbite! The worst he had ever seen! The figure wore leather uppers, and a kilt with a decorative dirk strapped to his right leg.

Frozen around his neck was a crude metal necklace with a metal plate. Embossed on the plate was an incscription in Falkovnian. Kuros translated as: Niklas Eberhardt / Heim Wache I. Other than a few Falconheads (Falkovnian GP), there is nothing else of interest on the body.

The next day, the Endurance arrives on the horizon, they put to anchor, and a small rowboat arrived on the beach to pick up the heroes. Captain Garvyn is on the boat and personally thanked Bathazar and Kuros. He was elated to see that the bilzzard has ceased, not only that, but his curse is broken and he can actually leave his ship! He asked where the beautiful elven woman was, but then noticed the lonely shroud lying on the beach. His jovial mood turned melancholy as looked again at the two haggard men before him. "This is a sad end to an even sadder tale" he remarked as he inquired as to what happened on the Island.

Once abord, Garvyn invited the tired companions into his cabin where he asked them to relate their tale. He offered to help in any way that he could. Balthazar asked to go back to Graben Village and obtain a cart, so they can trek out the remaining equipment from the lab.

The Captain agreed to help and he sailed the Endurance sailed back to Graben Village, picked up the necessary supplies, and then back to Todstien.

The Endurance sets sail

The seas were no longer churning, and the island itself was wet with runoff from the mountain. New life could be seen poking it's way through the melting snow. The path back to the crypt was muddy, and the air was fragrenced sweetly with mud and earth. The Heroes trekked back to the Crypt, upon reaching the site they were suprised to find the structure melting, wilted like a dehydrated flower. Getting inside was extremely difficult, as the wizard's manse could collapse at any moment. Balthazar and Kuros mangaged to get to the battle cavern, using fly and dimension door, Balthazar was able to get most of the labratory equipment out.

They eventually got everyhting back on board the Endurance and headed for the mainland.