The Warlock of the Stonecrowns (TSR 3110) aka the Far Flung Adventure, an adventure in two parts. In part one we catch up the brave and the bold: The Royal Flush Gang meets the Monster Society of Evil. These groups are run by Karem the Shade and Duke Nightmare (aka Alexander) from each group respectably. The combined adventuring party totaled fifteen when all accounted for and after meeting the Eyeless One, the adventurers were ready to jump into the Dark Path. Malik Toadspit had dug a hole outside of his tower to access the Dark Path and the adventurers hopped in the hole: Duke Nightmare ordered one of his henchmen to go down, one without fear, an orog berserker (whose name escapes me at this time). As the orog jumped down the hole, Karem along with two new thief trainees joined (one a gnome thief/illusionist and the other a grippli thief). The only menace the adventurers ran into were a series of huge bats (the orog berserker torn them up and the frog-like grippli thief scored his first kill).
Once the entirety of the adventuring party was inside of the underground tunnels below the
While winding through the maze like underground passages, Alyza about stubbles into an odd natural trap, a dozen hairy spiders had formed a ball of web and were all chilling on it waiting for a passerby to walk into a ball of thirteen spiders. Alyza is trained as a thief, even though her profession is as a cleric to the new Dark God, so Alyza deftly avoids the spiders and alerts her compatriots to the hairy spiders. Arquan the Gary being a dwarf and naturally resistant to poison wants to just kill the spiders while the Red Hand wants to eat them if it is possible. Karem considers burning them with fire and moving on but instead moves to trap them.
With the assistance of Arquan, Karem moves to cut the line on the web and grab the spiders in a sack (in game terms Arquan rolled badly and Karem rolled even worse). Karem fails to successfully cut the line and the spiders assail him. Karem take the bites and slowly removes the spiders one at a time and put them in the sack, getting bite by the spiders along the way. Arquan helps out and by the time they are done, Karem had been bitten over half a dozen times (game terms Karem was hit eight times and took forty eight damage). Karem had a magical item in his possession that allowed him to shrug off the brunt of the spiders attacks. Karem and Alyza used some of their clerical power to restore health and vigor to Karem, afterwards the four members of the stealth squad moved on.
The stealth squad would come across a patrol of six orogs in armor carrying weapons. The player’s rolled their hide in shadow skills and Karem noted that Alzya had real crummy hide skills and wondered why by DM fiat she was in the party. I reminded him it was because Duke Nightmare declared Arquan the Gray as Alzya’s personal bodyguard so it was the best chance for us to see the pair in action together. So of the four members of the stealth squad, three of them hide themselves from orogs while Alzya is sticking out like a swore thumb.
The orogs notice a lone human female in their cave system and move to attack. Alzya steady herself and cast clerical protection to dampen the sound around her in fifteen feet. The orog rush forward and Alzya moves back to allow the orogs to move into the kill zone for her hidden compatriots. When the orogs move to get into striking distance of Alzya, Alzya decides to try and attack but falls to the ground helpless against her attackers (in game terms the player rolling for her got a natural one on the dice).
The orogs stand menacingly over Alzya momentarily but their death is imminent when Karem, the Red Hand, and Arquan the Gray all successfully backstab and slay three different orogs. The orog numbers cut in half, the next round of battle was swift. Arquan the Gray easily moved and stab two different orogs with his long knife, dropping both dead to their knees. Karem drove his pick deep into the brain of the last orog (in game terms Karem rolled a natural twenty).
By the time that the stealth squad has finished looting the bodies of the orog guards, Duke Nightmare has caught up to their position and seeing no live orog to interrogate, uses evil clerical power to speak to the dead. Duke Nightmare asks three questions of the fallen orog: where to these tunnels leads (to the orogs mines), where is the warlock (the orog knows of the warlock’s personal tower), and do you know about the Dark Cauldron (special orogs drink from a well in the Great Hall). Karem asks five questions of the dead and then Duke Nightmare raises five of the orogs as skeletons to serve him. Karem cuts of the head of another to fashion into a trophy.
I had just recently picked up this module and has impressed by the intricate work the Warlock had put into his citadel, but the players somehow found the quickest room to his personal bed chamber. Upon review we are really surprised how unguarded the Warlocks disposal shoot was, there was only a grease spell protecting the lining. Master thieves easily get around programmed illusions and level one wizard spells routinely, so for all the death traps the Warlock put in I guess he through the dead-body shoot was just that, a greasy place to drop waste. The adventures would come up out the sewer in their own words to kill the Warlock.
Alyza and Arquan were retired from the stealth squad and Duke Nightmare along with the necromancer Andre Livengud joined Karem and the Red Hand to move in and investigate the orog mines. The stealth squad found the mines empty and quickly moved into a cross paths section, with four possible ways to go. Two of the ways were blocked by wizard protected doors, the other two were just more caves. The stealth squad moved down one while the rest moved to the other (and that is when we leave these guys for part two).
The stealth squad moved cautiously down the path be fore them but was eventually overtaken by the stench of death and decay. The adventurers began to search for traps and Duke Nightmare discovered a false section of the floor was an illusion. Upon searching the players found a small shat that would lead up to the floor above. Duke Nightmare prepared himself by using a ring of free action and using his thief training ascended up the shaft. It was simple business for Duke Nightmare to lower a rope to get the rest of the stealth squad past the grease trap on the walls that the ring of free action allowed Duke Nightmare to pass easily.
Duke Nightmare wanted Karem up in the next room to see an incredible sight, a bound celestial deva. The Warlock had bound a movanic deva in chains with words of evil written on the wall. The deva begs for his release and the players can see the deva has been tortured and scared by the Warlock. The players simply proceed up the stairs in this room to find themselves in the bed chamber of the Warlock.
I decided that because the players had moved so quickly the Warlock was caught up guard and while the players were checking out the deva, the Warlock was able to cast a few protection spells and hide himself in the room using his shadow form ability hide in the room. The Warlock thinks himself a cunning individual and tried to tempt the players with ticks and treats if they would leave him alone or work for him. Duke Nightmare talked up the guy while Karem read from a scroll. Now the Warlock is a smart individual but did not have time to roll a spell craft check when Karem started reading the scroll, the Warlock was caught up in planning a backstab on Duke Nightmare. The Warlock sensed only cleric magic from Karem so thought nothing of the scroll (thinking that there is no way Karem would be reading a wizard scroll) and the Warlock wanted Duke Nightmare’s blood power (being that Duke Nightmare was the person in the room with the most blood power).
The Warlock strikes Duke Nightmare out of the shadows with a dagger to the back (in game terms inflicting more then twenty five percent of Duke Nightmare’s total hit points). Karem’s scroll being read surrounded him in a five foot globe of anti magic aura. Karem then rushed the Warlock and got so close that none of the Warlocks magic or blood abilities would function. What proceeded next I dubbed the weakest melee battle ever (Duke Nightmare assisted Karem in killing the Warlock). Karem would eventually stab the Warlock in the heart, claiming a fraction of his blood power and all the Warlocks remaining regency points.
The Warlock was dead, they collected his ashes, but for the adventures the real adventure had only begun. The Royal Flush Gang and the Monster Society of Evil needs still to rescue the goblin ambassador for the Eyeless One and loot the Warlock’s citadel before the Gorgon arrives with a new blood-silver spear in hand only to find his son already dead.
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