Alexander had a pile of gold for the infernal bazaar but wanted that one big item that would attract attention and garner good trade. Malik Deth knew about an ancient a cranky god that might be easily tricked into giving up something of value. Alexander was dispatched to Hades and in particular the home of Morgion the Black Wind (I forgot the exact location it is in some book of the outer planes). Alexander negotiated with a lich for a disease that would only kill paladins; and without a second thought the lich handed over a crystal sphere containing a black liquid. Of course the deal would be too good to pass up, what diseases could kill a paladin; something so nasty that it would outright kill everyone: the bubonic plague. Alexander had to intention of using the disease on Birthright but selling it at the bazaar could fetch a nice price.
Back to Karem for a minute; Karem was traveling dimensions with the vampire/cleric but was never allowed to reveal all the details to the Royal Flush Gang. Karem stole the Sword of Enlien and planned on selling it at the infernal bazaar and along with treasure collected by the Royal Flush Gang, Karem planned to cash in at the bazaar. The player for Karem wrote down a laundry list of minor and major magical items to be on the look out for.
Because the game was down to two full time players I decided to go easy on them and offer a few different things to do at the infernal bazaar. Both players traveled their independently and did many of the same things without crossing paths (this was the first time that Alexander learned that Karem was back from the dead but the character did not know that but the player did). Both players opted to purchase private tents and janni stewards to act as go betweens and couriers. The players could sit comfortably in their tents sending out the janni to look for items, the players could travel around on foot with a janni to act as translator, or the player could go to the main stage an compete in the high end auction (both players paid a hefty fee to get an item on the main stage: Alexander the plague and Karem the holy avenger).
There were many interesting things on the main stage: a captured green dragon, a small army of undead with intelligent captain, an eleven astral skiff, a human spelljamer (no one cared about this so I did not have to go into detail), a gold dragon egg, a high level paladin/cleric nailed to a cross, a pile of weapons from the Blood War (both demon and devil weapons), and the items up for sale by the players. Karem bid on and won the eleven astral skiff and paid quite a large sum of cash. It was interesting how the mage stage worked; while the item was on the main stage, the person with the item would receive offers until they decided to take an offer. Both players were offered very tempting offers for their items but they held off for gold.
Alexander purchased magical bracers, a variety of rings and necklaces, magical gloves, magical bag, scrolls and potions. Karem purchased quite a bit more: the eleven astral skiff, an odd automaton, a chime of opening, a deck of illusions, an empty iron flask, some wands, scrolls, and potions. The automaton was a large plate mail covered clockwork creature with fiery eyes. Karem was all like hey lets use this chime of opening on the automaton: the plate mail fell to the floor and an angry air elemental attacked. Karem quickly used his new iron flask and caught up the air elemental. The world’s greatest detective that Karem is figured out he was hoodwinked: the clockwork creature was not really clockwork; it was a non functional clockwork frame with an air elemental bound between it and some plate mail.
Maybe I am not describing it well: there was a man sized and shaped clockwork frame (clockwork robot body), an air elemental, and some plate mail. Some wizard took these three things and bound them together and sold it as a clockwork creature. Karem would have to track down what the heck was up with this so he tossed it all in a bag of holding for another time.
Now both players, Alexander (warrior/thief/cleric) and Karem (cleric), had some form of clerical power and both independently headed out on the same quest. They both headed for level 222 of the Abyss, Shedaklah and in particular the Forest of Poisoned Dreams. If a mortal can survive eating the local fauna for one week they would gain two points of wisdom. So here we had one of those classical meet up at a bar moment but only instead it was in the Abyss and the players were tripping mushrooms.
Alexander and Karem stumbled upon each other while living off the land in the Abyss. They conversed and trained stories but were interested to learn about each others new god and how they were both at the infernal bazaar and did not cross paths there. While they were having a good time they were “attacked” by a fungal dragon (something made up). This was the first time they busted out a trick that they would go back to a few times; Karem summoned a Hero’s Feast. While this spell is not really in the domain of the new dark god it was a little funny and effective. The fungal dragon smelled new food, fresh meat, and started to devour the feast while the players were able to slip away.
Karem led Alexander to the eleven astral skiff, were Alexander was surprised to see the Royal Flush Gang and kind of angry they knew things that he did not. But never the less, Alexander agreed to accompany Karem on his next quest to figure out what was up with is busted automaton. The players headed to an interesting point in the Astral Space that I made up; it was called Grimm’s Rock.
Grimm’s Rock is named after Warlord Grimm who conquered a gate town in the Outlands that led to the Astral Realm where a large chunk of rock was home to a port for Astral travelers. Both players had traveled to Grimm’s Rock on a few various missions that I did not mention so it was kind of funny when Karem was trying to introduce it to Alexander who had already been there.
Warlord Grimm held court once every three days and held three wizards in his employ. The three wizards were never given name but that was not important; what was important is where the three wizards came from: one from Oerth, one from Krynn, and the last from Toril. These wizards were sage level and for the right price could give information and point Astral travelers in the right direction. From the sages, Karem learned of another town in the Outlands that had a lot to do with clockwork creations. Karem waited a few days and went to the court of Warlord Grimm.
Karem presented precious jewels to Warlord Grimm to curry favor; Karem asked to be allowed to moor his ship on the rock until he could return from his travel. Warlord Grimm was pleased in his openness and gift of value and gave permission and attached a guide to led them over the rough landscape of the Outlands. The players tipped the guide very well and the guide waited around for both legs of their travel. Karem, Alexander, and their guide headed out to the gate town that leads to the outer plane of clockwork creations (I should Google what this place is but you guys get the point).
Oh it should be pointed out that Karem had an item that kept Alexander in check. It is very much in Alexander the character and player to lust for more bloodthieft and Karem would have been a prime target. So in the proliferation of power in the D&D world; Karem had to get a few things to have a competitive advantage. Karem’s new dark god granted thief powers better than Eoele and granted Karem some access to wizardly shadow magic. Karem also kept an ace up his sleeve; universal dissolvent that could utter destroy a target if used on it. Alexander had his magical mount, nice armor, magical accessories, and skills of a warrior, thief, and cleric and of course the +5 Tighmaevril spear so there was much to be feared from him.
So the pair of adventures, Karem and Alexander, with their guide headed to the gate town of Automata in the Outlands. In the town of Automata they sought a machinist that would deal with them. They meet a wizard named Mega Volt the machinist who offered to look over what Karem had: an inert clockwork humanoid creature, a pile of plate armor, and an air elemental trapped in an Iron Flask. Mega Volt saw the pile of junk for what it was and saw an opportunity to get some quests done: an exceptional troll’s heart, the horn of a unicorn, and the brain of a mind flayer. Mega Volt said he needed time to “study” what Karem had brought.
The pair of adventures returned to the gate town of Grimm and consult the sages three, learning that they might chance upon a mind flayer in Erelhei-Cinlu, the Vault of the Drow. The adventures depart again traversing the Outlands with their guide once again; the players were generous with the gratuity. The adventures paid to travel to Sigil, the City of Doors, and used magical means to disguise as drow to pass through the portal into the Vault of the Drow.
Displaying signs of being from an off-world drow tribe would not earn the adventures any bonus points; their mission had to be swift: find a mind flayer and get its brain. A little bit of gold goes a long way in the Vault of the Drow but the players were smart and traded in low value jewels and silver as to not attract in comparison to flashing gold and platinum. The adventures learned that there was a mind flayer hiring monstrous humanoids.
The adventures approached the location of the mind flayer with caution, sneaking up when it looked like all activity was dieing down for an evening (if there could be such a thing as evening in an underground city). Karem the Shade uses his blood power of Shadow Form to turn two-dimensional and checks out the mind flayer’s holdout. There is one main room with a back room. The main room has a small group of troglodytes sleeping, a group of hobgoblins sitting around a fire, and a large troll in the corner. The mind flayer was to be found in the back room devouring what looked like a half-drow.
Karem returned to the main room, left the Shadow Form and opened the door for Duke Nightmare (aka Alexander). The pair snuck past all the creatures in the main room and quietly opened the door to the back room. Quickly the adventures sneak attack the mind flayer, with Duke Nightmare wielding a sword of sharpness that lops of one of the mind flayer’s arms off and Karem stabbed the mind flayer in the back. Duke Nightmare cuts off the mind flayer’s head, turns and walks back to the main room. Holding the mind flayer’s head high, Duke Nightmare proclaims, in eleven speak, that they all work for him now.
In the main room there are three troglodytes, one troll, and five hobgoblins. The hobgoblins look the stupidest and weakest to Duke Nightmare, so Duke Nightmare thoughts down his sword of sharpness in front of the group of hobgoblins; telling them that there is only room for one of them in his organization. A fight amongst the hobgoblins ensued with only one surviving. Duke Nightmare asked for his sword back and the hobgoblin handed it over, so Duke Nightmare made the hobgoblin his squire (I forgot the name he gave it).
Duke Nightmare and Karem cut the brain out of the mind flayer’s head and placed that in a large glass jar. Karem used a magical spell to allow him and Duke Nightmare, along with his new motley crew, to travel to the Astral Realm and navigate back to the Rock of Grimm. Now back at Karem’s astral skiff we have the Royal Flush Gang (Salim, Alyza, Josef, and the Mystery Man), adding to that we have Karem, Duke Nightmare, a hobgoblin, three troglodytes, and one troll. Now the adventures still needed two more components; a unicorn horn and the heart of an exceptional troll. They looked over the troll that they had and thought he was real lazy and wanted to just sit and not do anything, so they would need to find a better troll than what they had.
The adventures decided to visit the sages three once more (the sage prices were so astronomical they formed constellations). The question was posed in what remote forest they could find a unicorn; the answer was Dim Forest, south of the Barrier Peaks, on the world of Oerth. Now the adventures learned a thing or two about killing unicorns from the fiendish Red Hood, so they would go prepared.
Karem piloted the astral skiff to the World of Greyhawk, were at the port of Dyvers they stocked up or had imported whatever they needed before the grand hunt for the unicorn would begin. Using the astral skiff, the adventures found a lazy river near the Dim Forest and set down. The pair of Karem and Duke Nightmare took there supplies and headed off into the forest, staying cloaked with magic to conceal note only their location but very presence as well.
The trap was simple, in the port of Dyvers there were able to buy one lion and one tiger. They placed there great jungle cats in cages but with long chain leashes that could be used once the cages were opened. The cats would be spaced apart that they could never reach each other with some space in between them were a woman would be placed. Duke Nightmare summoned his namesake nightmare steed and rode off to find a young virgin lady to use as bait.
The woman was lashed to a tree with great jungle cats on ether direction trying to break their chains. The pair of evil adventures hid silently waiting for some action. When a unicorn did show up it was an epic event, the creatures trotted gracefully and swiftly toward the woman in despair but then quickly turning and goring the lion to death before stomping soundly on the lion before coming to the woman’s aid. The adventures struck and quickly impaled and impeded the unicorn until they brought it down with many blows.
The adventures packed up there loot; they cut the horn off the unicorn using the sword of sharpness, drained the unicorn of it’s blood, and prepared to carry the carcass of the magical beast back with them as well. They still had the tiger and were able to put it back into its cage, using the cage that was for the lion to put there new woman friend in. They even took the body of the slain lion with them; it did cost them 5000gp after all.
Traveling back to the astral skiff through the forest, the pair came across a small band of bugbear slavers. They decided that they would come back for them with some reinforcements once they drop off their heavy loot at the skiff. That pair of adventures took the Kid and the Mystery Man back with them to check it out. Using a bit of magic, they came back to where they had seen the slavers and the Kid used his tracking abilities to get a sense of where they were heading.
The group of adventures came across a cliff side dwelling and decided to sneak in and see what was going on. The group used a variety of invisibility spells and thief sneaking to get past what they needed to get a feel for level one before moving down to level 2. Level one of the bugbear slaver’s hold seemed like just that: a common room for female and juvenile bugbears, a room for slaves, a room for warriors, rooms for the chief. So they went down to level 2 and were a bit more surprised at what they found. Level 2 was a series of twisting caves that the adventures did very good at note getting lost in, using a variety of things like paying attention and marking turns with chalk. Level 2 was a series of troll holes, homes to male trolls that are slowly turning human or eleven women into troll brides.
The adventures dispatch many trolls on this level, they are very much moving twisting cave to twisting cave fighting trolls all along the way. They reach a door the shape of a dragon’s mouth carved out of the stone walls. There was a lot of searching for traps and sending the Kid first. The door led down another corridor that ended in a pool of water, where the adventures were all sorts of like, “yeah let us use magic to aid us in our underwater exploration.” That is when a green dragon popped its head out of the water and breathed a horrible gas upon Karem, Alexander, the Kid, and The Mystery Man. I do not think it went well for the adventures because they decided to flee to the tight troll passageways.
The adventures were stuck, they could not exit out to the water and when they checked upon leaving whence they came, the slavers and trolls were alerted to their presence and it was just time before the green dragon would be on them. Magic was the solution to many of the common dungeon and dragon adventures; admittedly defeated in raw power the adventures made a quick jaunt to the Astral Realm to hop back over to Karem’s skiff. The world of Oerth was a tough but magical filled voyage that the adventures would mark as a possibility to return to.
The adventures now had the brain of a mind flayer and the mind flayer’s gang and the rest of mind flayer for that matter. The horn of a unicorn and rest of it as well. And while in the Green Dragon’s Troll-hole Factory (trademark pending) they stumbled upon two-headed trolls; so they had a troll heart of an exceptional quality. With the items of their quest assembled the adventures returned to the wizard Mega Volt (what a stupid name, you know how we refer to him? The guy that screwed you over that one time that you said you need to go get revenge on if you ever get powerful enough to do that-guy). The journey of course goes as such: take the astral skiff to Grimm’s Rock, pay tolls, get the old guide and head to Automata.
Mega Volt the wizard machinist eagerly awaited the return of the adventures and took the items greedily and proclaimed that Karem bought a lemon at the infernal bazaar. The man like clockwork skeleton inside the plate armor was made by Leonis the mad machinist. Mega Volt told them that he might be able to do something with it (no way) and that the adventures might be able to travel to find Leonis (have fun in some stupid demi-plane). When asked what the items were for, Mega Volt told them in a bragging manor: the unicorn’s horn was to make a potion to keep of the effects of aging, the troll’s heart for a ring of regeneration, and the mind flayer’s brain; well that, Mega Volt thought they might just die but the brain is very exotic and should net Mega Volt some nice trade loot. The players are pretty pissed but not much they can do about this super high level wizard that has all sorts of clockwork creations so the players pretty much got to just roll with it. Mega Volt does say they can have one of his guardian creations as a replacement for their lost clockwork creation, picking one at random Defender-Bot #10 is assigned to them (later this magical clockwork creature would become the new Ten of Spades).
The adventures left Mega Volt with new companions and loot and from Grimm’s Rock they departed off into the Astral Realm to find their way back to their world. Alexander believed he could sense the direction back to their home world and gave directions to head. Karem’s astral skiff traveled for some time before coming upon a great barrier of Shadow Energy in the Astral Realm. This was the home world they were seeking, when Azari did whatever he did by DM fiat I decided that when Azari tried to pull the “spirit world” into the “prime” world, a barrier of evil Shadow Energy would form over every thing pushing it was into and over the “spirit” world and encapsulating the “prime” world too.
The adventures stood pondering their options on the deck of Karem’s astral Skiff when from out of the shadows a path appears; a shadow stream of dark water flows out into the astral. This path would seem to allow the skiff to sail on and into the Shadow World. While thinking over the weird situation at hand, a small company of dark faeries appear. Two of the dark faeries play sickly sounding trumpets followed by the third dark faerie reading a proclamation from a scroll that states, “Duke Nightmare and all his stewards are allowed entrance to the Unseelie Court by the grace of Lussina, the Dark Queen.”
