Adventure 7

War Rafts of Kron



Session One - All Over the Known World


New horizons beckoned for the heroes. After bringing about the downfall of the Master of the Desert Nomads, they each looked to their own ventures. Lithanor was eager to return to the Emerlas to see about its restoration after the attack by Khordarg and his minions, work that had already been set in motion before he had left to join the company in their desert venture. Sneaky too was eager to return to oversee her operations in Thyatis where she had established a base of operations. Mazaramus journeyed north to Glantri to begin his studies in the 2nd Circle of Cryptomancy.

Morgan, Gandi and Klaus had accepted the offer by Darokin to become landowners and rulers within the Republic. In the event of future attacks by hostile nations, they were to provide military support to the Republic. They chose as the site for their dominion the ruins of Ardelphia, close to the Broken Lands. It was hard to tell whether their choice elicited elation or looks of horror. Ardelphia had a dark history. People shunned the place, a former bastion against dark forces, now believed, with good reason, to be haunted. Morgan set out to investigate the site. He was to be accompanied by Klaus and Gandi, but these two had departed for Karameikos after Klaus had had a vision guiding him to assist Lithanor, in dealing with some troubles in the Emerlas. Gandi's motives for accompanying him are unclear, though likely inspired by visions of an entirely different nature. Morgan approached the site of Ardelphia alone. The warnings from townsfolk and the ominous feeling that he got when he approached to within a few miles of the ruins made him rethink his plans, and so he returned to the city of Darokin.

            Terror Under Granitgape


Klaus and Gandi arrived at Dorneryll in the Emerlas. There they were met by Lithanor and a hermit named Roark Melstoel. The dwarves of Granitgape, had been believed to have been slain when the dragon attacked. However, Roark had a vision wherein the dwarves were still alive, and trapped inside the ruins of the stronghold. Moreover, some unnatural evil was preventing them from making any attempt to find their way back to the surface.

The three of them found entrance to Granitgape using magically enhanced strength to clear the rubble
blocking the entrance. Once inside, they located the source of the evil, an undead elven spirit called a Wyrd, and vanquished it. Further into the stronghold, they discovered the dwarves, some thirty or so, their food supplies very low due to the food caverns being overrun by various nasty creatures, including a group of trolls led by a bargda. It was only thanks to their cleric, Gorin Shieldcleaver, that they had not already perished through lack of water. Lithanor, Gandi and Klaus proceeded to clear the mines of the stronghold of the infestation of monsters, discovering in the process a rich vein of minerals and rubies.

With the dwarves rescued, they were soon able to help in the rebuilding of the stronghold, and provided invaluable assistance to the elves of Dorneryll. Even Scrubton, the human community that had been devastated, was being rebuilt, under the guidance of Mynra Myrtle, a conjuress that Lithanor had freed from the influence of Khordarg's magical charm. Lithanor was eager to be about building some new constructs. First of these were bipedal dragon-like creatures called drolemites, that he intended to use as troops to help defend the Emerlas. The second was an idea inspired by the juggernauts that they had fought in the Sind Desert, only this was to be made of iron. This was to be quite an undertaking. Luckily, one of the dwarves, Nalia Firehammer, was of the Skarrad clan of Rockhome, and still had contacts in Rockhome that may be of assistance with this project.

Lithanor had completed construction of the drolemites, and the juggernaut project was now in the capable hands of Nalia. Shortly after completion of his work, a strange pale-skinned elf ventured into the Emerlas, seeking Lithanor and his companions. At first, they thought him to be a shadow elf. They soon realised that he was actually a water elf when he revealed that his companions needed his help with a mission in the Minrothad Guilds.

            Strange Dealings in Thyatis


Mazaramus had completed his studies and ascended to the 2nd Circle of Cryptomancy. Following this, he returned to Darokin and met up with Morgan, who had just returned from his scouting venture in Ardelphia. a mysterious messenger had informed him that Sneaky required the assistance of both Mazaramus and Morgan, and that they should proceed to Thyatis with all due haste.

In Thyatis, Sneaky was becoming acquainted with her apprentices. Profits from their activities were slight due to having to lie low since the theft of an Imperial Scarab from the house of a high ranking official. Sneaky was even more disturbed to learn that, according to her apprentices, she had made the theft herself, something that she knew nothing about. Checking her quarters, there indeed was the Imperial Scarab, hidden away in a secret compartment at the bottom of a chest. Disposing of the Scarab was out of the question. Any attempt to get rid of it could be discovered. Better to leave it where it was for the time being until she could get to the bottom of how it came to be in her possession.

After sweating over the dilemma (and the highly likely possibility that an imposter, possibly a doppleganger, had infiltrated the organisation and framed her) Sneaky was visited by a quite richly dressed man who introduced himself as Cordate of the Guild (he didn't say which guild). He was aware of the theft, and apparently a witness had identified Sneaky as being at the scene of the theft. He offered Sneaky a deal. Carry out a mission to steal a gem from a wizard's tower some 50 miles outside Thyatis, and he would ensure that this witness remained silent. During this discussion, a black door appeared in Sneaky's room. From it stepped Mazaramus and Morgan, who had teleported in using the House of Zebulon. Cordate extended his offer to include these two as well if they wished to help their friend.

And so, the three ended up attempting to stealthily infiltrate the tower of the wizard Tormaq to steal this apparently valuable amber gem. They managed to steal the gem after bypassing many of his guards and traps, though Morgan fell afoul of a particularly nasty trap involving a circular room with a retracting bridge, an invisible door and a black pudding. Sneaky remained all but undetected during the mission until she tried to steal some pieces of art and set of a magical alarm. They even came under attack by Tormaq himself, but the wizard withdrew after his magic missiles aimed at Morgan were reflected back, cancelling his mirror images and projected image.

With the gem now in their possession, Sneaky used the scroll of teleportation given to them by Cordate to safely return to Thyatis. Morgan was holding the gem. It had been trapped by Tormaq so that they would instead be teleported to the cells of his dungeon instead. Mazaramus went in search of them, but soon fell afoul of a trap, after being cursed by some sprites causing him to cast a random spell whenever he tried to use his magic, and found himself teleported into a separate cell, this one designed to hold a powerful wizard.

Tormaq was merciful. Being somewhat impressed with their attempt at infiltrating his tower, he offered to spare their lives if they agreed to steal the Staff of Fazzlewood from his rival, Felspel. Once they were fully healed, and Mazaramus allowed to relearn his spells, Tormaq teleported them to the cave entrance leading to Felspel's sanctum. Before they went, Tormaq gave them a talisman of homing that would teleport all three of them to Tormaq's location once they found the staff. Unfortunately, Tormaq was unaware of the curse on Mazaramus and had not removed it. This would be interesting.

The cave was guarded by a few ogres. They could have easily slipped past, but it is here that Mazaramus found out about his curse when he tried to cast a sleep spell on the ogres. Instead, he made the group invisible. This at once aroused their suspicions, and they emerged from the cave looking for the source of the magic. One of them found Sneaky, and Morgan had to hack them down, while Mazaramus looked on helplessly, reluctant to use another spell after his disastrous first attempt.

The way to Felspel's sanctum was a series of tricks and illusions. Oddly enough, it was Morgan who saw through most of the illusions. Mazaramus decided to ignore Morgan's discovery of a secret passage hidden behind an illusory wall, believing it to be a trap. Instead, the wizard went to investigate a set of double doors, thinking that by flying over the runes on the floor in front of them he would be unharmed. The last rune was a rune of anti-magic, causing the wizard to come tumbling to the ground, which in turn collapsed beneath him, and he went tumbling down a 30' deep chasm, with rocks raining down on him as he fell.

Finally, they found Felspel's inner sanctum, and were beset by two invisible bone golems, as well as Felspel himself. Mazaramus risked casting a spell, and by sheer luck cast a dispel magic, cancelling Felspel's protections, the invisibility hiding the golems, and the haste spell on the golems. Felspel himself retreated using a teleport spell after his lightning bolt was reflected by Morgan's ring of spell turning, badly wounding him.

After defeating the bone golems, it was Morgan once again who uncovered the illusion hiding the Staff of Fazzlewood, which had been made to appear as a sword hanging on the wall. They activated the talisman of homing and were teleported to where Tormaq was waiting. Instead of being in Tormaq's tower, as they expected, they found themselves in a large hall. Several richly dressed people were assembled there. With Tormaq was Cordate, who explained that the 'missions; they had been sent on were to test how worthy they were and whether they could help them with a much more important task. Shortly, Felspel joined them, having been healed after being hit by his own lightning bolt. He even reassured Sneaky, telling her that the Imperial Scarab would be returned to its rightful place, with no repercussions to her guild.

The doors to the hall opened, and Lithanor, Klaus and Gandi entered, accompanied by a pale skinned water elf. They had sailed from Specularum to where they were now; Seahome, the second largest city in the Minrothad Guilds. Cordate, accompanied by some other Minrothadan officials and water elves, now explained why they had been brought here.

Several ships had been disappearing recently. Of greater concern was that Princess Corinna of Ierendi had been travelling to Minrothad when her ship too disappeared. They offered the party a substantial reward, and would give them a ship, if they would help them by sailing out and investigating the cause of these disappearances, and, if she was still alive, rescue the princess. The party took them up on their offer. Their ship was made ready, and they prepared to sail.

            The High Seas


They headed out into the open waters of the Sea of Dread, having only the vaguest idea of which direction to head in. Their best guess was to stick to the well travelled trade routes, working on the assumption that the Minrothad vessels would have been in these areas when they disappeared. Their guess was right. Two days later, the ship was attacked. Mazaramus lay in his hammock when he heard loud crunching sounds, and moments later water gushed forth through several large leaks in his cabin. He looked to where the leaks were coming from, and saw large mandibles the size of daggers burst through the wooden walls. He quickly cast a polymorph self spell, only just in time, as a huge hole in the wall of his cabin was ripped out and water flooded in.

Elsewhere on the ship, sailors were running about frantically. Lithanor and Gandi were above deck, and they saw several creatures appear in the water about a hundred yards from the ship. They appeared to be some kind of aquatic horses heads. These were in pairs, and behind each pair, stood on some kind of small wooden raft was a strange humanoid creature. At this distance, they appeared to be green-skinned elves, and their legs seemed to be covered in scales.

The ship lurched violently. Lithanor managed to grab hold of a mast. Doing his best to keep hold of it, he took aim and fired at the elf-like creatures behind the sea horses. Gandi, using his ring of water walking, simply charged across the waves towards the nearest raft. As he ran, the creatures on the rafts, which were in fact tritons, spotted the dwarf. The four closest tritons began chanting, and Gandi was hit by several lightnng bolts. Undeterred, he carried on, finally reaching the nearest triton and began hacking at him with his axes.

Below deck, Mazaramus had transformed into a great white shark and swam out of the hole in the underside of the ship. He saw several tritons, each with a pair of huge termites that were ripping great holes in the hull of the ship. He slammed into the nearest triton, the one that was controlling the termites that had ripped a hole in the side of his cabin. Moments later, blood filled the water as Mazaramus bit into the triton. The termites, freed of their leash, simply swam off. Spitting out the body of the dead triton, Mazaramus saw that the other tritons were withdrawing. Above him, the bulk of the ship was rapidly descending. He swam out of the way of the sinking ship, returning to the surface.

Morgan, Klaus, Sneaky and the captain and crew of the sailing ship had little recourse other than to dive into the water. Lithanor sprouted gold dragon wings, and one by one went in to rescue his comrades. Gandi had slain one of the tritons and knocked out a second, but now the rest were submerging again. Lithanor used the two rafts that Gandi had salvaged to as life boats for those in the water. Mazaramus provided some assistance too, polymorphing into a sea hydra and managing to retrieve a large bulkhead from the ship. Using his runes, he reshaped this to make a third lifeboat.

How many hours they waited there, clinging to the rafts, was uncertain. There was no sign of the tritons. Were it not for the heroics of Gandi, Mazaramus and Lithanor, maybe the crew would have been slain by the tritons or perished in the waters. Now there was only the choppy waves, and some distance off, what looked like sharks circling about them, attracted by the blood in the water. The sharks began to close in. They had no idea how many there were. Huddled on the rafts, they prepared to fend off the incoming sharks. Just then, several shapes were seen just below the water darting very quickly towards the sharks. This seemed to drive the sharks away.

As they were pondering this sudden change of fortune, the waters nearby frothed and burst upwards. Emerging from the water was a huge copper-haired bare-chested man. Even with his lower half submerged beneath the water, he towered over the group huddled in the rafts. Lithanor shouted up at the giant "What are you? Friend or foe?" The giant replied "I am Koom. The dolphins told me of your plight and the attack by the tritons. Come! I will take you to my castle. There I shall explain as best I can"". Reassured that they had found an ally, they allowed Koom to take them to his castle, not that they had much choice. The dolphins that had driven off the sharks returned and helped pull the rafts along. Sneaky ventured to try to read the thoughts of one of the dolphins using her innate ESP ability. The dolphins were intrigued, and shared a joke about the surface-dwellers being more intelligent than they had previously supposed, and were finally developing psychic powers.

En route, they interrogated their captive triton, but Koom insisted that they not harm him. They learnt very little, but through using ESP, picked up the word 'Ulobon'.

Soon they reached Koom's castle. It appeared from a distance to be just a cliff face in the side of a small island. As they got closer, they saw wide cave openings, with carved steps leading from one to another. Koom led them in via a hidden cave mouth near the surface of the water. Koom led them to a large chamber, walled with some marble-like material. He lifted them onto a huge plush sofa (apologising for not having any furniture more to their size). Once he learned that the party had been sent by Minrothad to investigate the disappearing ships, Koom, somewhat disturbed by recent happenings, told them that the tritons and the people of the Minrothad isles had co-existed peacefully for as long as he had known. To this end, he suggested that they go to the undersea city of Suthus, seek out the king of the tritons, and find out why tritons are now attacking merchant ships.

They looked blankly at the giant, then asked how they were supposed to reach this city under the sea. Koom told them that he could help them with this. He gave the party a brief tour of his castle, showing them his giant crabs that guarded the entrances near and under the water, then led them to a cave filled with a large pool of sea water. In this cave was a spectacular sight, a boat, but unlike any boat they had ever seen. It was only 30' or so long, but completely closed over, covered in some strong wood like material banded and reinforced with some strange bronze-like metal. Two windows at the front gave it the appearance of some mechanical fish.

Koom gestured to the boat. "You can borrow this. It's of little use to me, except as a keepsake." Mazaramus looked at the giant and said "You wouldn't consider selling it, would you?"  Koom agreed to let him keep the boat for 10,000 gp. Mazaramus didn't think twice. What a bargain!

They climbed inside. Mazaramus found a console at the front with levers and various coloured gems that acted as buttons. With some experimentation, he managed to get some degree of control after narrowly avoiding hitting the walls of the subterranean lagoon. Eventually, he managed to guide it out of the tunnel leading out to sea, and they followed Koom's directions to Suthus. The sailors and captain of the sunken ship remained behind, Koom having offered to transport them back to the Minrothad isles. The captive triton was also released and allowed to return to Suthus, at Koom's insistence.

            Suthus


The trip to Suthus took about two days. Lithanor travelled alongside the boat, using a water breathing spell and his carpet of flying. Mazaramus grew more and more familiar with the controls, even figuring out how to turn the forward beam-lights on, though there were still a few gem-buttons that he was unable to determine the function of. They even found that it had a small storage space that contained a dozen potions.

The journey was not uneventful. Lithanor gained some first hand experience in the dangers that lurk beneath the waves. Savage flesh-eating manta rays that lay undetected beneath the silt of the ocean bottom, ready to lash out with poisoned stingers. Electric eels that delivered a nasty jolt before they closed in to attack. After this, Lithanor decided to remain inside the undersea boat with the rest of the party. When Mazaramus spotted a group of four giant electric eels closing in, much larger than the ones Lithanor had fought, he turned the boat and headed away with as much speed as he could coax out of the machine.

At last, they saw ahead some huge coral dome. Around the edges, six towers at equidistant points projected upwards, the light emanating from them illuminating the water around them. When they were a few hundred yards from the city, a spear-armed triton riding a sea horse appeared before them and ordered them to halt. The triton demanded to know what brought them to Suthus. Once they told him that they had a matter to discuss with their king, the triton led them towards the city. More tritons appeared, some of them cast water breathing spells on the party members, and they were escorted into the city, all except Gandi, who refused to leave the boat, so three triton guards remained on the boat with him.

They were taken through twisting tunnels of the coral city to the audience chamber of King Lopra. To human eyes, he seemed quite young, in his late twenties, but Lithanor guessed that the tritons had lifespans as long as the elves. Beside the king, on either side, were two robed tritons, apparently his advisors. These were Uthom and Ulobon, the name of the latter being one that they had already heard from the triton that they had captured. Mazaramus approached the king and asked why they were attacking merchant ships of the Minrothad Guilds. The king flatly denied such attacks. He demanded that Mazaramus withdraw his accusation. Mazaramus apologised, and offered instead that perhaps rogue tritons were acting without his orders. Again, Lopra said that this was absurd. All tritons were loyal to him, knowing full well the penalty for disobeying his laws. Lithanor intervened. He suggested that some other unknown power was staging these attacks, perhaps by using illusions in an attempt to lay the blame on the tritons. He asked whether the king could lend what help he could to get to the bottom of this matter. Lopra considered this. He then dismissed the party for the time being, having them taken to waiting rooms while he considered what they had said.

They were taking to two separate waiting rooms. As they waited, they were given refreshments, and some time later a triton guard handed a message to Mazaramus. It was from Uthom. It stated that Ulobon was plotting to bring about the downfall of Suthus. If they were willing to help him, they should meet him in the Coral Garden in one hour. Lithanor, in the other waiting room, received a message from Ulobon, stating that Uthom was plotting to overthrow Lopra, and that they should meet him in the Coral Garden in two hours.



Session Two - Investigations


It was obvious that the party were being used as pawns in the power struggle between the two advisors, one of whom was possibly behind the attacks on the Minrothad ships. They would meet with both Uthom and Ulobon at the appointed times. Lithanor would meet with Uthom first, and Mazaramus, accompanied by Sneaky, would meet Ulobon. Lithanor took Morgan and Klaus along with him. Morgan and Sneaky would use their ESP abilities to hopefully uncover the true motives of the advisors. Meanwhile, Mazaramus decided to take Sneaky and do a little snooping around the city before his meeting with Ulobon.

When Lithanor met with Uthom, he seemed quite sincere, and deeply concerned about the state of affairs between Suthus and Minrothad. He admitted that the tritons of Suthus (and not some group of renegade tritons) were indeed attacking the merchant ships. He did explain why the ships were being attacked. The city of Suthus had been,until recently, menaced by attacks by a horrific undead creature called a velya. Evidently, Ulobon had made a pact with this creature, and agreed to send the velya captured sailors and merchants from the Minrothad ships, providing it ceased preying on the tritons. 

Uthom asked the party to help overcome Ulobon and his apprentices. Perhaps with Ulobon's power broken, such a show of strength might even convince Lopra that other means of dealing with the velya might be possible. Lithanor agreed to help, but suggested waiting until Mazaramus returned before they dealt with Ulobon.

Mazaramus and Sneaky, being unfamiliar with the city, and not wanting to draw too much attention to themselves, especially as most of the triton guards had detect invisibility spells, found little of use, and ended up in an auditorium, a huge spherical chamber in the coral city. Sneaky discovered that Ulobon's chambers adjoined this auditorium, and at least a dozen apprentices and acolytes guarded his sanctum. Sounds, including from spell-casting, would carry well in this place, and would easily be picked up by the keen-eared tritons. They left this place and went off to the coral gardens where they were to meet with Ulobon.

Lithanor had remained at the gardens, having informed Uthom that Ulobon had also arranged to meet with them. Ulobon seemed determined to have Mazaramus do away with Uthom, who was becoming rather troublesome to him. When Sneaky used her ESP on him, it was clear that he cared little for the fate of the party, and would use them as scapegoats when it was discovered that Uthom had been assassinated. Mazaramus feigned agreement to his scheme. To ensure that the task was carried out, Ulobon had a triton guard who was loyal to his cause accompany the party and show them the way to Uthom's quarters (unaware that Uthom had already left, accompanied by some of the other members of the party). As they neared the quarters, Lithanor knocked out the triton, using the pommel of Scorbane. Uthoms two apprentices came out to see what the disturbance was. Lithanor explained that Uthom was in danger and Ulobon was plotting to have him assassinated. The apprentices accompanied Lithanor and they returned to where Uthom was waiting.

Assaulting Ulobon's quarters proved to be a difficult proposition. Casting preparatory spells elsewhere in the city would attract the attention of the city guards. The auditorium was right next to Ulobons quarters, so they would perhaps be able to cast a single spell before they were heard, giving away the element of surprise. Nonetheless, Lithanor cast a polymorph self spell on himself, ready to transform into a great white shark, and Mazaramus moved towards Ulobons chamber and prepared to cast a conjure elemental spell, with Morgan and Klaus going ahead of him. Sneaky had already moved into Ulobon's chamber, relying on her elven cloak and boots and her talents at remaining hidden to approach Ulobon who was at the far end of the chamber.

As soon as the group entered, the acolytes and apprentices turned and began casting spells. Mazaramus summoned a water elemental and sent it across the room to attack Ulobon. Lithanor, in the form of a great white shark, had already swam at full speed towards Ulobon, catching him with a savage bite. Sneaky also surged forward from hiding and plunged her rapier into him. The acolytes finished casting their spells. Morgan, Klaus and Mazaramus were all suddenly held immobilised by the power of the triton's enchantments. The elemental, no longer under Mazaramus control, turned and went straight for the helpless wizard.

Uthom saw how badly things were going, and cast an ice storm into the centre of the chamber. This caused some damage to the elemental, but not enough. Several tritons were also caught in underwater blizzard. Lithanor returned to elven form, drew his wand of fear, and fired it into the mass of tritons. He had no idea until then how resistant to magic the tritons were. A single apprentice turned to flee.

The elemental had reached Mazaramus, and was sending wave-like arms battering into him. There was little that Lithanor or Uthom could do while Ulobons tritons were still fighting them. Lithanor had drawn Scorbane and had brought down one of the acolytes. Uthom's apprentices sent lightning bolts into the chamber, one of them illusory, as Uthom had instructed them to avoid any unnecessary killing. However, the onslaught was so devastating that a few of the tritons were slain rather than incapacitated. Finally, Uthom and his apprentices were able to turn their attention to dealing with the elemental, dismissing it by sending volleys of magic missiles into it.

The last few surviving tritons that had been under Ulobon's apprenticeship surrendered. Ulobon himself, although badly wounded, was not dead. Once the spell holding Klaus wore off, he was able to attend to the tritons, saving those he could, and brought the others back to life using raise dead spells (though some had to be resurrected the following day once Klaus had relearnt his spells again). Uthom confronted Ulobon, accusing him of treachery by conspiring with Hadric, the undead velya, and risking war with the nation of Minrothad by attacking their ships. Ulobon denied having anything to do with this, but one of his apprentices pleaded for mercy and confessed that Ulobon was indeed in league with the velya. Ulobon was adamant that the word of even one of his apprentices was not sufficient proof. Nevertheless, when Uthom took Ulobon before Lopra, the King of the Tritons saw that maybe these adventurers could be the salvation of their city and his people.

Lopra told them that they needed to travel to the floating city of Kron. The people of Kron have been helping Suthus by supplying them with the rafts that they use to attack merchant ships, and also hold the prisoners before they are sent to the velya. Uthom reminded the party that the people of Kron, like the tritons of Suthus, are not a nation of warmongers. It was likely that some individual in Kron was connected with the raids on Minrothad and may be in league with either Hadric, Ulobon, or both.

            Kron


Following the directions given to them by Uthom, they left Suthus in the undersea boat. Rising to the surface, they soon saw some miles in the distance a huge floating city, bobbing about with the ocean waves. They had approached to within half a mile when a group of half a dozen catamarans were sighted. One of the catamarans moved closer towards their vessel. They could see now that each catamaran had three men riding it, one on each of the runners, who were armed with bows, and a third in the centre controlling the catamaran. On the craft that approached the party's vessel, was a muscular man with a cutlass at his side. He hailed the party and asked what business they had with Kron.

Mazaramus came up with the idea as masquerading as allies of the tritons, and were bringing more tributes to be taken to the velya. Little did he know that this was precisely the wrong person to make this known to. The man, whose name was Falcon, showed open disgust upon hearing this. He directed them towards a kind of harbour where they could moor their boat, and followed them in. Once they disembarked, Falcon asked why the tritons were not bringing the tributes themselves. Mazaramus came out with some glib answer, but Falcon showed little interest. All he said was that they need to deal with Morak regarding the prisoners. He would have nothing to do with it.

Mazaramus used his medallion of ESP to read Falcon's thoughts, adn found out that he was indeed opposed to the attacking of Minrothad ships and the capturing of prisoners to be sent to the velya. He turned to his comrades, most of whom were pretending to be captives of Mazaramus and Lithanor, and said simply "Okay! Drop the guise".

Lithanor began to cast a sleep spell. Mazaramus stopped him and asked what he was doing. Lithanor said "You told us to drop the guys". Mazaramus could only slap his own head in exasperation.

Mazaramus explained to Falcon the real reason for their coming to Kron and why he had felt that the deception was necessary. Falcon, somewhat relieved, said that it would have made things a lot simpler if he had told the truth in the first place. He would arrange an audience with One-Eye, the king of Kron, and warned them to be watchful of Morak, the king's sorcerer.

They were soon taken to the throne room. There, in a throne shaped like a huge cupped hand, sat One-Eye, appropriately named as he wore a patch over one eye. Standing close to the king was a robed man, evidently Morak. Falcon took his place near the king on his left-hand side. Mazaramus explained to the king that they had come to help save the city from the velya that cursed both their kingdom and that of the tritons. Morak leant over and whispered something to the king, then the king spoke. "We do not need your help here." He paused while Morak whispered to him once again, then spoke once more. "Unless you have further business, I suggest you leave Kron immediately and return from where you came".

Mazaramus shrugged, then said "Sorry we couldn't be of help. We will be on our way." They turned to leave and departed through the throne room doors. As soon as they were out of sight of any guards, Lithanor turned to Mazaramus and said "What? Is that it? We're just going to leave?" Mazaramus said he had an idea. He cast an invisibility spell and told the party to wait for him at the boat. Mazaramus then turned and went back to the throne room.

As soon as he entered, Morak, who had seemingly been in discussion with One-Eye and Falcon, turned to look towards the doors. He stated aloud "Well! It seems as though our visitors aren't ready to leave just yet" Morak turned to the king and ordered him to stay there until he returned. Flacon moved towards the doors, but Morak glared at him and said "...and where are you going, Falcon? Stay here and guard the king" Falcon glared back angrily, about to retort, but remained silent.

Morak left the chamber and ordered the guards to close the doors and keep a careful watch. The doors closed before Mazaramus could reach them and follow. Instead, he went towards Falcon. However, Falcon simply waited until Morak had left before himself leaving, not even bothering to ask his leave of the king,. One-Eye just sat in his throne staring ahead with vague disinterest. The guards at the doors looked at Falcon with puzzlement, the told him that Morak had given orders that no-one was to leave. Falcon asked them since when did Morak give the orders, and the guards moved aside. Mazaramus followed him through the doors.

Morak was now out of sight, so Mazaramus scried for him using his crystal ball. He saw him walking along a corridor to a door on the left. He walked through the door, then everything went black. Mazaramus was puzzled. This didn't seem like the kind of interference caused by an amulet vs crystal balls and ESP or anything like that. Moments later, the vision of Morak returned. He had entered another room, this one littered with work tables strewn with alchemical and magical research apparatus. He saw another robed figure at work at one of the tables, and Morak walked past some huge orange-furred feline creature. He crossed the room, went through another door, and went to a hammock padded with cushions, sat in it, and began pondering. Mazaramus abandoned his scrying and hurried after Falcon.

Falcon began making his way towards where the party's boat was moored. Mazaramus caught up with him and told them that they were waiting for Mazaramus to find out more about Morak. Falcon continued walking, though more slowly so he could converse with the invisible Mazaramus without looking too suspicious. Falcon told him that Morak had to be dealt with. The king was under his spell, as Mazaramus had guessed. If they dealt with Morak, they may be able to break the enchantment on the king.

They reached the rest of the party waiting at the boat. Falcon repeated what he knew to Lithanor and the others. He also told them that the last batch of prisoners had been collected by the tritons only three days ago. Ulobon had remained close-lipped about which tritons were also involved and knew the location of Hadric's lair, though they suspected that some of his acolytes were among these. Falcon also revealed that the Princess Corinna was amongst the last batch of prisoners.

The party resolved to help Falcon and deal with Morak. Based on what he had seen when he had been scrying Morak, and the general direction to Morak's quarters provided by Falcon, Mazaramus and Lithanor would carry the party above the roof of the building and from there, Mazaramus would use his runes to open up a hole in the ceiling above where he guessed Morak's quarters to be. Falcon would return to One-Eye and ensure that the guards didn't intervene should the party's activities be detected, or at least delay them.

Mazaramus guess as to the precise location of Morak's quarters were not far off. They found themselves descending into the workshops that Mazaramus had seen through the crystal ball. Other parts of the workshop were partitioned off by large curtains. As for Morak, there was no sign. At once, the apprentice in the workshop shouted out an alarm, and they could hear several more of Morak's apprentice magic-users approaching. One of the curtains bulged out and was almost ripped off of its hangings as a huge gold-furred cat lunged through and pounced at the group.

Lithanor had brought out his new weapon, two of his drolemites that he had constructed, and unleashed them on the warlocks. One was caught in a blast of ice and lightning. At the sight of this, his comrade beside him dropped to his knees and begged for mercy. Morgan, Klaus and Gandi met the charge of the huge cat-like creature, recognising it as an amber golem. The rest of the apprentices fell at the blades of Lithanor and Sneaky. The fight was over quickly. Lithanor demanded that the apprentice who had surrendered tell them where Morak was. He pointed at a door at the opposite end of the workshop.

Without delay, they hurried through the door. Morak began casting a spell as soon as they entered. He never finished uttering the final syllable that would unleash his magic, falling under a hail of blades and axes. A careful search of his quarters uncovered a generous amount of magic items, and more importantly, a letter, signed by Ulobon, to Morak, implicating them both as being in league with Hadric the velya.

Sneaky took one of the magical rings that Morak was wearing. Later experimentation revealed this to be a ring of human control, evidently what Morak had used to keep One-Eye under his sway.

They left to return to Falcon and tell him that One-Eye had been disposed of. Falcon already knew. He greeted them and took them to One-Eye. The king looked at the party as though he was seeing them for the first time. He thanked them for releasing him from Morak's enchantment. He also announced that the sending of tributes to the velya was to be stopped. Mazaramus showed the letter to Falcon and the king. With this, their was indisputable proof that Ulobon was guilty of treachery. Falcon took the letter and told the party that he would get this to the tritons as soon as possible.

Falcon questioned the captured apprentice, and confirmed his suspicions that the lair of the velya was in the sunken city of Colhador. One-Eye and Falcon wished the party luck in slaying the velya, and so they departed once more in the undersea boat, heading westwards and down into the depths of the Sea of Dread.



Session Three - The Sunken City


The voyage to the sunken city of Colhador took about two days, and was not without incident. The undersea boat suddenly slowed when a giant squid grabbed it with its tentacles. The matter was solved rather rapidly when Lithanor used a polymorph other spell to turn it into a goldfish. When they were still a days travel from the sunken city they came across the wreckage of a ship lying on the sea floor. Some booty was still to be found inside it, though they did have to contend with the sea snakes that lurked amongst the wreckage, as well as a lone triton, who seemed to live a kind of hermit-like existence away from his own kind. Although not belligerent, he did not want the party lurking around and was quite eager for them to be on their way. Mazaramus suspected that he might be some kind of were-creature, hence his reluctance to remain with his own kind.

On the beginning of the third day, they sighted the ruins of the sunken city. Most of it was perched atop an undersea cliff ledge, the remainder having crumbled and fallen over the edge of the cliff, with little remaining except rubble. They did a quick scout of the area, finding a number of small buildings that seemed quite unremarkable, and a fortified section on the edge of the cliff that was still mostly intact. Numerous cave openings were seen on the cliff-face. One object of particular interest was a well near the main building. Lithanor suggested taking the boat down this if it was wide enough, if not they could swim down it. This idea was soon put aside when they passed over the top of it and a very strong current flowing upwards from the well pushed the undersea boat sideways.

They decided instead to investigate the cave openings in the side of the cliff. One led into a chamber with rumes covering the walls. Gandi, left the boat and ventured in. As soon as he entered the chamber, he saw across the room what looked to be a fire giant. Embedded in its chest was a magnificent looking sword. Gandi expected the giant to pull the sword from its chest and brandish it. However, it simply advanced with raised fists. Gandi swam back out, hoping to draw the giant into range of the party where they could attack it en masse. Instead, the giant returned to its position against the far wall.

Lithanor surmised that this was not a fire giant, but more likely a bronze golem, remembering how tough they were from when they had encountered them when they were on their Quest for the Heartstone. Mazaramus summoned up a water elemental to send into the chamber to fight the golem. Lithanor and Gandi followed the elemental, with Lithanor lending some magical firepower or shooting arrows at the golem. Gandi stood ready to charge with his axes, but prudently stayed out of the fight lest he got caught by their blows.

The two titans fought a fierce battle in the chamber. Mazaramus' deft control of the elemental kept it wide of the golem's blows for the most part, striking back with a watery arm that sent the golem reeling. Lithanor put several magical arrows into the golem, causing fiery blood to issue forth and after a while turn the water about the two duelists to steam. Eventually, the elemental won out, the golem collapsed in a heap, and the sword on its chest fell loose.

Gandi rushed up and picked up the sword. Instantly, he felt a wave of agony and was forced to drop it. Lithanor swam up. He reached for the sword and held it, ignoring Gandi's warnings. As soon as he held it, the sword spoke. "I was made to slay the velya, Hadric". Scorbane interjected. "That may be so, but this is my elf!". Lithanor had the presence of mind and the strength of will to keep both the blades under some degree of control. He reasoned with Scorbane that they may need this sword if they were to defeat the velya. Scorbane reluctantly agreed to allow Lithanor the use of this sword for the time being and only for use against the undead!

The other caves in the cliff front yielded little of interest, and they paid little head to the smaller caves around the side of the cliff face. They took the boat up to alongside the part of the fortress that was overhanging the cliff. The remains of several rooms could be seen. Rather than explore themselves, Mazaramus sent the water elemental in to deal with whatever may be lurking in these rooms. A sea hydra burst forth from the silt lying in one of the rooms, and although it landed a couple of hefty bites, was no match for the elemental and was soon slain. The other rooms were of little interest, containing only more muck and silt, with a some sea snakes in one and a couple of gray oozes in another. The elemental was invulnerable to the attacks of these creatures, and Mazaramus had them mercilessly dispatched by his conjuration.

There seemed to be no doors leading further inward from these rooms, so they took the boat around to the front of the building to where they had seen a door earlier, Mazaramus keeping control of the elemental the whole time while Lithanor steered the boat. The elemental proved invaluable as a scout, although their were very few monsters on the top level. They did come across a number of traps, a well-calibrated underwater crossbow trap, an apparently empty room, though full of very clear liquid and devoid of any muck or silt that actually turned out to be a room filled with acid that was somehow magically kept from flowing out of the room. Another room was a maze of glass with sharp protrusions that they had to carefully feel their way through.

The one room that had any monsters at all was filled with skeletons. Mazaramus wanted to deal with these by having the elemental take them all out, but Lithanor and Klaus were itching for a good fight. They edged past the elemental and joined the fray. Klaus for some reason deigned to use his turning ability, instead giving his mace a taste of dealing with the undead. One skeleton got a lucky sword thrust in, piercing Klaus' armour with its short sword. Klaus looked at the skeleton angrily and sent it whirling through the water. Lithanor cleaved the skull of one skeleton with Hadric's-Bane, using the same skull still embedded in the blade to smash a second approaching skeleton. Soon the carnage was over. The skeletons just a pile of smashed bones floating about in the water.

There was still a sizeable area on the eastern side of the building that had not been discovered. Evidently, this portion was accessible only by a secret door, and so the party began retracing their steps, searching the likeliest places for a means of access. Eventually, one was found. It meant having to leave the building and return to the outer rooms overhanging the cliff. The secret door they found led into a chambe occupied by some huge tentacled monstrosity, unlike anything they had ever seen. Sneaky recoiled in horror at the the sight of the thing-that-should-not be. Mazaramus sent the water elemental forward once more, but the beast lashed out with a tentacle, severing Mazaramus' now tenuous hold and sending it back to the elemental plane of water. Gandi charged the beast, slicing with his axes, only to cause it to vanish as soon as it was hit. The whole thing was just an illusion, albeit one dreamt up by some very  twisted mind.

They must be close to the entrance to the building's lower levels by now. Gandi opened a door on the far side of the room wherein the illusory beast had been. Another room, this one with another door leading from it. Gandi rushed into the room to cross to the far door. As soon as he entered, he began convulsing. A dispel magic field had cancelled his water breathing spell and he began to drown. Lithanor held his breath and swam in to pull him out. When he was clear, he downed a potion of water breathing. Mazaramus drew a rune of water and shaped the water so that it moved away from Gandi to form a bubble. Gandi was still gasping. There was no air in the bubble, Mazaramus expected this. He held tight shut a bag of holding, placed its opening against the edge of the bubble and pushed it over Gandi, quickly closing it again before any water could rush in. Fortunately, the undersea boat was parked in the room just outside the illusion room. Mazaramus took Gandi back to the boat before the air inside the bag of holding ran out, Klaus checked him over to make sure he hadn't suffered any adverse effects from beginning to drown, and he was given another potion of water breathing.

They still had the problem of how to cross a room that would cancel any magic that they had running, given that they were all relying on water breathing spells or potions. Lithanor had a brainwave. He would use a scroll of protection from magic. These were quite powerful. Even a dispel magic couldn't cancel its effects. Lithanor read his scroll and they safely crossed the room. Opening the door on the adjoining wall, they found that this did, as they had hoped, lead to the top of a flight of stairs leading down to the lower levels. They descended the stairs. As they did, the power of the scroll of protection from magic expired, but they were safely across the dispel magic zone.

The stairs led to a large triangular shaped room. From its dark, murky depths emerged a group of our wraiths, their eyes glowing with an evil light as they advanced to feed on the life force of the party. Klaus presented his holy symbol and blasted two of the wraiths into oblivion. Lithanor and Gandi swiftly despatched the remaining two.

Two doors led from the room, one in the southern corner and one opposite that on the northern wall. They took the southern one first. This led via a long turning corridor to a hexagonal shaped room. In here they discovered two tritons, apparently prisoners of the velya. No chains were required as the tritons were too fearful of the wraiths that guarded the room leading to the surface. When it was evident that the party were here to destroy the velya, the tritons, named Seramyar and Estivenwir, agreed to accompany the party and help them, if they could.

They returned to the triangular room and this time took the northern door. This led into a long narrow cavern. The walls, floor and ceiling were covered with a colourful yet noisome array of slimes, mold and fungi. Among these were numerous of the nastier monster slimes that the party had encountered on several previous adventures - black puddings, ochre jellies, gray oozes and green slimes. The problem they had was that most of these were only harmed by fire, something that was difficult to create in the underwater environment.

Mazaramus ventured into the long, narrow chasm on his broom of flying, hoping to keep out of reach of the various slimes by keeping to the centre. Some way further in, he saw a hole in the cavern floor, about 20' long and 8' wide. Before he could take a closer look, a black pudding lashed out at him with a pseudopod. Horribly wounded by the acidic tendril, Mazaramus returned to the rest of the party.

The slimes had sensed the party, and were beginning to encroach on them  They were rather slow moving, and Mazaramus and Lithanor did what damage they could using wands of fire balls and fir balls from Mazaramus' staff of power. The effectiveness was severely reduced, though they did manage to wound and even slay a few of the slimes. Lithanor resorted to finishing off the ones that had approached the closest using his longbow of flaming. Lithanor even ventured 'flying' out (if you can call it that in this underwater setting) on his flying carpet, taking with him his drolemites, suing their cold and lightning breaths to inflict damage on the slimes. The cold breath was ineffective, but he found that the lightning managed to slay a few gray oozes. Following this, they retreated back to the door leading to the cavern. If there were any more slimes, they were at the far end of the cavern or hiding near the hole that Mazaramus had seen, and were no longer pursuing the party. However, they had used up a fait amount of resources doing what damage they could to the slimes, and their were certainly many more lying in wait.

They eventually agreed that the only way forwards seemed to be the hole in the centre of the cavern. The slimes seemed to be avoiding this hole for some reason. They would take their chances and ride as quickly as possible on their flying devices. Lithanor summoned his dragon wings, as both the broom and the carpet were at full capacity, and the tritons could keep up the pace with their speed at swimming.

Making a mad dash, they dived down the hole, in which the water seemed quite warm. Lithanor took a nasty swipe from a black pudding's tendril as he approached the hole, but soon was out of  reach. His wounds would require healing by Klaus, as his ring of regeneration could not heal the acidic damage.

For all they knew, the hole could have been bottomless or come to a dead end. Luckily, neither of these were the case. They soon emerged into another cavern, this one larger and longer. On either side of the vast cave were two ledges on which were what remained of circular rooms, now semi-circles. They went to the northern of these two. Both rooms were empty, and a single passageway led away from each into the heart of the underlevels of the sunken city. Looking down over the ledge, they saw a huge cave mouth at the bottom of the cavern. Occasionally, vents of steam emerged from the cave, explaining why the water inside the hole was considerably warmer.

Lithanor swam down to investigate the cave. Sneaky followed, but remained above the cave entrance out of the way of anything that might emerge from it. Lithanor approached the cave and peered in. He saw the huge snout of some dragon-like creatures, steam issuing forth from its nostrils. Beyond, he could make out the shell-like body of the dragon. It was a dragon turtle, a creature so fearsome that it comes with a health warning in the Companion Rules set. Despite being hidden by his elven cloak, the creature must have sensed that their were intruders about. It advanced, emerging from the cave. Lithanor backed off. As it emerged, Sneaky scrambled down from her hiding place, swimming alonglightning bolts at it, Morgan using his ring of spell storing.  The tritons fired their wands, and the dragon turtle was hit by a cone of cold and a third lightning bolt. Hit by a volley of fierce magic, the dragon turtle roared and the cave shook. Badly wounded but still alive, the dragon turtle lunged at Lithanor, swiping at him with both foreclaws. It moved in to deliver a savage bite that could have easily snapped the elf in half, but Lithanor managed to push himself back out of the way just in time. The dragon turtle reared up prepared to lunge at Lithanor once again, when suddenly it gave an agonised scream and collaped to the cavern floor dead, Sneaky's rapier plunged through the thick skin of its under-jaw and thrust deep into its brain.
the roof of the dragon turtle's cave to the rear of the creature ready for a backstab. The party up above on the ledge saw the dragon turtle emerge. Lithanor began casting a spell. As they saw the creature, realising how deadly this thing was, Mazaramus handed some of his wands to the tritons to use and then began casting his own spell. Lithanor engulfed the creature in a fierce blast of icy water using his spell. Simultaneously, Mazaramus and Morgan unleashed

They searched the cave that the dragon turtle had emerged from. Further in they found the wreckage of several ships, presumably dragged there by the dragon turtle. Amongst the wreckage was a vast amount of treasure, coins of every type and chests brimming with jewels and gems. So large was the hoard that their bags of holding were filled. The remainder of the treasure they would have to come back for later once they had deposited what they had gathered in the undersea boat. As they were searching, Klaus found what remained of a cabin, it's door swinging open ominously, and inside in the murky darkness, could make out some large wooden object....a coffin!



Session Four - Out of Their Depth


The coffin was empty. Apparently one of Hadric's spare coffins. Klaus smashed it to pieces with his mace, making it unusable by the velya. The fact that they had found a coffin in the dragon turtle's lair meant that Hadic had no fear of the dragon turtle, and probably kept it as a pet. Once they had gathered as much treasure as possible, they proceeded to explore the rest of the level. Mazaramus was concerned that the heat from the steamy breath of the dragon turtle was what was keeping the slimes on the level above at bay. With the dragon turtle now slain, the water would cool, and the various oozes might start encroaching down the shaft into this cavern.

They returned to the northernmost of the two semi-circular rooms and followed the corridor northwards. This soon ended at a door that opened up into a room filled with rubble and the remains of several statues. As they proceeded across, they were attacked by several shadows that had been lurking amidst the rubble, but these were easily despatched. Two doors led from this room, both at the western end. The first opened up onto a corridor that ran diagonally south-westwards. They ignored this for the time being and investigated the other door. A corridor led westwards, soon opening up into a strangely shaped room that gradually widened as they went in. As they advanced into the room they encountered a magical effect that seemed to slow them down. At the same time, two large, four-armed skeletons, bone golems, emerged from the darkness and advanced to attack. Mazaramus unleashed a lightning bolt from his staff of power, quite forgetting from all his research on these constructs that they were totally immune to such attacks. Gandi, Lithanor, Klaus and Morgan moved to meet their advance, deflecting most of their array of sword blows and eventually hacking them down. They carried on across the room, which began to narrow again, and they were out of the area of the magical slowing effect.

Another corridor led from the far end of the room, turning northwards at the base of a long flight of steps. At the top of these steps they came to a landing that was seemingly a dead end. A search revealed a secret door on one wall. Going through it, they found themselves in a large room. The walls and floor were severely scorched, and several skeletons lay strewn about. In the centre of the room, a dragon turtle turned to face them, smoke billowing from its nostrils. Another one? Surely an illusion! Gandi hacked at it and it disappeared, as did the illusion of scorched walls and skeletons.

The only other exit from the room led via a corridor to a small 30' square room. A door was in the centre of each wall, and in the centre of the room was the statue of a triton, a look of horror on its face and holding its arms out as if to ward of some evil from the north and east doors. Mazaramus thought that the triton might have been petrified by a medusa or the like, and considered whether it might be worth using a stone to flesh spell from one of his scrolls in the hope that it would restore the triton. If it was indeed a petrified triton, it had had its eyes gouged out and replaced with emeralds.

Lithanor, after some deliberation, decided to open the north door to see what the triton was warning them about. As soon as he opened the door, he was sucked through it by a very strong current. Klaus, Sneaky and both of Lithanor's drolemites were dragged  towards the door and shot upwards along the shaft on the other side of the door. Morgan, grimly holding on to the base of the statue, was just able to reach the door with his feet and gradually nudged it closed. The current would have sucked him through too, but he braced his feet on the outside of the door and used his momentum to push the door fully closed.

They pondered what fate had befallen their comrades and where they were. They guessed the only way they could find out was to open the door again. Morgan had everybody leave the room by the western door, the one they had entered by, except for himself and Gandi. They then tied a rope around the base of the statue, looping it round several times, and the other end as securely as possible about Morgan's waist. Gandi remained to make sure that the rope remained secure and help Morgan if he ran into problems, himself keeping a firm grip on the statue. Morgan opened the door and was sucked up as far as the rope would allow, about 10'. He saw that the shaft, about 10' wide, went up and down as far as he could see. The rope was rubbing against the top of the doorway, so Morgan pulled himself back in before the friction wore the rope away and caused it to snap.

They debated as to whether they themselves should open the door and hope that Lithanor and the others were unharmed and hadn't fallen into some foul trap, or continue on exploring and hope they somehow found there way back to them. Morgan suggested the south door. It was the only one other than the door they had entered by that wasn't indicated by the triton. Gandi, for some reason, was curious about the east door. Morgan argued that if the north door was unsafe, then the east door would be too. Gandi ignored him and opened the door. Again, a strong current pulled him through instantly. The remainder fought against the strong current. Morgan and the tritons managed to avoid being swept through, but Mazaramus went hurtling through the door into a large circular shaft and sucked downwards by a fierce whirlpool. Eventually, Gandi and Mazaramus, somewhat battered by the buffering they had taken, found themselves in a circular room with two doors opposing each other. They had no idea which way was which. The singing that they had heard since arriving at the sunken city was clearly audible now. Mazaramus was entranced by the singing, and had an uncontrollable urge to go to the source of the singing. He pulled open a door and swam along a series of corridors. Gandi, unaffected by the haunting melody, followed Mazaramus at a discrete distance.

Morgan was now in somewhat of a quandary. He didn't like the idea of going through either of the doors that swept you of to the Gods knows where, and backtracking meant going through the cavern of slimes. The only recourse was to either stay where they were, or take the southern door. Accompanied by the tritons, he went through the southern door. This opened up onto a corridor that soon ended at another door. He found that this opened up into a fairly large room with quite a number of sharks swimming about. He quickly closed the door again, just in time as one of the sharks swam towards him, and a loud thud resounded as the shark butted the door. There was only one reasonable choice left, to return to the triton statue and wait.

Lithanor, Klaus and Sneaky had been swept rapidly upwards and out of the well that had buffeted the undersea boat. About a hundred feet above the sunken city, they were finally free of the current and could swim back down again. They waited for a time to see whether or not their comrades would also chance the chute leading to the surface. When it was apparent, that they had been given up, they decided to make their way back through the levels, using more potions of water breathing after holding their breath and getting past the dispel magic room, and once again making a mad dash through the slime cavern. By the time they returned to the triton room, only Morgan and the tritons were their. Morgan explained what had happened to Gandi and Mazaramus.

Gandi saw Mazaramus walk into a large room with several doors lining the walls, and three strange structures running along the centre of the room, each of which also had a door in the side of it. Mazaramus walked up to a pale human, yet there was something not quite human about him. The way he effortlessly moved through the water as though born to it. Gandi was having to rely on his infravision to some extent, and the creature was totally devoid of any heat. This must be Hadric, the velya. Hadric questioned Mazaramus for some time, then he turned to face Gandi. "So, you are one that has been sent to slay me". Gandi didn't fancy his chances of taking on an underwater vampire single-handedly, never mind one that had a powerful wizard under his thrall. When Hadric saw that Gandi had submitted, he told Mazaramus to put him in one of the tombs. He would deal with him later. He then told Mazaramus to wait until he returned. Hadric then disappeared, transforming into an almost invisible current of water.

In the triton statue room, the remainder of the group resolved to follow Mazaramus and Gandi into the whirlpool. First they made preparations. Klaus cast a number of protective spells, including a silence 15' radius, while Lithanor gained some added protection by casting a mirror image, though the casting was rather weak and only created a single image. Having dumped the treasure from the dragon turtle in the undersea boat, they now had some room for most of them to climb inside one of the bags of holding so that only one of the party would take damage from the whirlpool.

Arriving at the bottom of the whirlpool, they found themselves in the same dilemma as Gandi had earlier. Two doors, but no idea of which direction they were facing. Thanks to Klaus's silence 15' radius spell, they could not hear the enchanting song of the velya. They took a door at random, and by pure chance, happened to follow the same route that Mazaramus had earlier. They arrived in the vast room of doors, but it was empty. They noticed that most of the doors had plaques above them, with writing on some ancient language. Sneaky deciphered them. They seemed to indicate the names of the former royal family of Colhador.

They decided to investigate the large tombs running along the centre of the room first, starting with the easternmost one. The plaque on this tomb was blank, unlike the others. Inside, they found Mazaramus, huddled against the far wall. They helped him to his feet. Klaus wanted to ask him what had happened and where Gandi was, but the silence spell prevented this, so he stepped outside of its area of effect in order to talk to him. At once he heard the song of the velya, but was able to resist its effects. Mazaramus told them that Hadric meant them no harm, providing they left him alone in his undersea city. As for Gandi, Mazaramus seemed confused, vaguely waving towards the doors lining the walls of the large room.

Klaus went back inside the area of the silence, dragging Mazaramus with him. They then began searching the tombs, starting with the larger ones in the centre. The central tomb was occupied by a spectre, which Klaus blasted into oblivion with his holy symbol. The last contained a sarcophagus with a mummified corpse inside it. However, it was just a corpse, not an undead creature.

The central tombs had yielded no results in their search for Gandi, so they began checking the doors on the outer walls of the tomb chamber. The first door they checked was one adjacent to the corridor they had entered by. This door did not have a plaque above it. Morgan opened the door. It was the same chute that had sucked up Lithanor and the others on the upper level. Morgan was drawn through, as were Lithanor's drolemites, though the remainder of the group managed to avoid being sucked through and closed the door.

With Mazaramus apparently charmed by the velya, Morgan back on the surface, and Gandi missing, they were down to just Lithanor, Klaus, Sneaky and the two tritons to deal with Hadric should they encounter him. They considered following Morgan to the surface. Even Mazaramus was in favour of this idea, but they couldn't abandon their search for Gandi. Lithanor and Klaus came to the conclusion that Gandi was not likely to be in any of the tombs. More likely, Mazaramus was trying to dupe them or lure them into one of Hadric's' traps.

Through the only door on one of the narrower walls, they found a long wide corridor, so they chose to explore this way. They found that this led to a series of large halls. The first was what seemed to have been once a music room, filled with various instruments, most notably harps, some still usable. After this they found a room that used to be a ball room. Several chandeliers had fallen to the ground. Submerged in the muck and algae covering the floor were a number of skeletons and zombies that rose up to attack. Assisted with Klaus' turning, they quickly dealt with these minor undead. After this, they found what was evidently a throne room. As they entered, two spectres arose from the thrones. Klaus turned one of them, and the second was slain by Lithanor with Hadric-slayer (whether this sword actually had name was uncertain, but given that this was it's purpose, it seemed appropriate). A third spectre had been lurking in the shadows and flew at Lithanor. He dodged the life-draining touch of the undead creature and Klaus sent this one back to the nether plane from which it came.

Another door led from the throne room, as well as a stairway leading to the level above. They thought it unlikely that Gandi was on a different level, so they would continue searching by taking the door. First, they searched the thrones and found a hidden compartment. In it they found a few magical items, including potions and scrolls. One scroll tube held a letter that explained how Hadric had become an undead creature, along with a means of slaying him - a wooden stake in the tube with the letter. One of the scrolls turned out to be cursed, bearing the image of a fool. Lithanor was the one to look at this, and would have had ill fortune bestowed on him (game terms - saving throws become that of a 1st level character) had he not been wearing a scarab of protection. The scroll then crumbled and disintegrated.

Gandi, sat in a tomb with only the skeleton of a child for company, was wondering what the velya had in store for him. For a brief time, everything went eerily quiet. Up until now he had taken little notice of the undersea sounds, and its sudden absence made him wonder if he was going mad. Just as suddenly, the sounds returned. He checked his possessions. The velya seemed overconfident, even complacent, and hadn't bothered to have Mazaramus take his items from him. He pulled out a potion of diminution and drank it. There was a hole in the door that he was now small enough to fit through. Swimming up to the hole, he swam off, heading for the door leading to the bottom of the whirlpool. If his comrades were to come looking for him, this seemed as likely a place as any that he might meet up with them. Besides, he didn't fancy exploring the remainder of the ruins on his own, being only 4" tall.

Morgan, up above, Morgan waited near the well, with only the drolemites for company. A group of eels had approached, but he had managed to drive them off by firing bolts at them using the crossbow they had recovered from the trap in the upper level. He didn't like the idea of waiting out in the open having to fend off all manner of sea creatures, and the drolemites were of little help. Other than defending themselves if attacked, they would only obey instructions given to them by Lithanor. Morgan therefore swam off, down the cliffside to where they had left the undersea boat. Once there, he had a go at controlling it and eventually managed to manoeuver it back to the top of the cliff, landing it near the well and the drolemites.

Back on the level below, Lithanor, Klaus, Sneaky, the tritons and a less than helpful Mazaramus, left the throne room and followed another corridor. This led to an algae filled room strewn with the remains of furniture. They entered, and found another door in the side wall. A wraith moved through the door and advanced menacingly towards them. Yet again, Klaus vanquished it with his holy power.

How many more of these undead waited ahead of them they had no idea, and they were still no closer to finding Gandi, if he was still alive. They had been searching for some time now, and Klaus's protective spells were beginning to wear off.



Session Five - Then There Was One


After defeating the wraith they went through the door. It led into a long hallway lined with several doors, presumably cells. One of the cell doors was bricked up for some reason. Sneaky brought this wall down with her horn of blasting. Inside they found one of Hadric's coffins, which they promptly demolished in order to prevent Hadric from being able to use to regenerate. They then searched the remaining cells. Most of them were empty, but in one they found...the Princess Corinna!

Although unable to speak to her for the time being without leaving the protection of Klaus's silence spell, the princess didn't seem to be under Hadric's spell. Apparently he had provided her with water breathing to keep her alive for whatever foul purpose he had in store. They motioned for the tritons to protect her as they proceeded to search for Gandi.

At the far end of the hallway they found a secret door. On the other side of this, a corridor ran perpendicular to the hallway. They followed the corridor to the left, which shortly turned left again.  They were proceeding along this long corridor when suddenly they could hear Hadric's singing. Klaus had already resisted the effects of the enchanting song and as such was now immune to its effects. Presumably so had the princess. Sneaky and the tritons managed to override its enchanting effects as well, but Lithanor, bearer of the sword that was made to slay Hadric, suddenly stopped and stared about in awe and bewilderment. He said "Our Master awaits us" and swam onwards towards the end of the corridor.  The corridor came to a dead end, and they suspected that there was a secret door there.

Searching the end of the corridor, they indeed found a secret door. Beyond they found a large room, about 60 wide and 40' deep. A stone sarcophagus was in the centre of the room, and standing before it, a pale-skinned human with fanged teeth. He spoke to Lithanor and Mazaramus. "You will remain and serve me. These others seek to slay me and must die." Klaus stepped forward, holding his holy symbol before him. The velya held his hands up in front of his face and said "Creatures of the sea. Destroy these invaders/ Klaus continued to boldly advance, and Hadric disappeared, turning into an invisible current of water. As he did so, the silt on the floor of the room swirled and several large flat creatures with long tails ending in stingers rose up. Manta rays! They quickly left the room, dragging Lithanor and Mazaramus with them, and closed the secret door.

Outside, Lithanor turned on Sneaky and Klaus. "Why do you defy our Master!" Klaus quizzed Lithanor, trying in vain to explain to him that they were to slay Hadric, not serve him. Mazaramus interjected. "Perhaps we have outstayed our welcome. We have the princess. We can return her and leave Hadric in peace" Klaus continued to argue. He pointed out that just returning the princess will not end the problem. The velya will go back to praying on the tritons as he had before Ulobon made a pact with him.

While Klaus and Mazaramus were talking, Sneaky lifted Mazaramus' bag of holding from him, then hoisted it over his head, keeping it closed until it was tight about his head so as not to let too much of the sea water into the bag. He then pulled it down, trapping Mazaramus inside its extra-dimensional space. At once, Lithanor drew his sword, pointing it at Sneaky. Klaus and the tritons grappled with the elf, holding his sword-arm down. Sneaky grabbed Lithanor's bag of holding and did the same to him as she had done to the ensorcelled wizard.

With the two enchanted party members trapped, hopefully they wouldn't further hamper their efforts. They retraced their steps, going back through the hallway of cells and into the room were they had encountered the wraith. There Hadric was waiting for them, as were the manta rays. He pointed to the party and ordered the manta rays to slay them. Klaus once again held forth his holy symbol, driving the velya away. A ray swung at him with its tail spike. Klaus responded by pulling out some branches of coral, threw them before him, and cast a spell. The coral branches turned into sea snakes and attacked the manta rays.

They deemed that they had little choice but to fight their way past the manta rays. Princess Corinna remained huddled in the corridor outside. Sneaky drew her horn of blasting and blew it. Shock waves emanated through the room. Several manta rays were sent reeling, and a couple of them now swam about in an erratic fashion as if dazed. However, there were still quite a number of these creatures. Klaus drew his mace and swung at the rays, knocking one sideways. Two of his snakes bit at the rays, and they now floated lifelessly as the venom from the snakes coursed through them. The tritons also advanced, bravely fending off the rays with their spears, and between them managed to skewer another and bring it down. Sneaky drew her rapier and dagger.

Klaus was struck in the back by the stinger from one of the rays, and within seconds fell still, paralyzed by the numbing poison of the manta ray. Sneaky and the tritons fought on, as did the snakes that Klaus had created. Some of the rays were now stabbing at the snakes. It wasn't too long before all of these had been killed, turning back into pieces of coral, but they had drawn off some of the attacks from the rays. Sneaky considered pouring a potion of healing into Klaus to counter the paralysis, but feared that this would leave her vulnerable to the rays tail spikes. Both of the tritons had been struck several times by the manta rays, but they were quite hardy and resisted most of the numbing effects of the poison. Finally, it was too much for Seramyar, and even he succumbed to its paralyzing effects. Estivenwir was impaled by tail spike and fell. The wounds he had suffered were just too severe, the dying body of the triton fell to the ground.

Sneaky was alone. She had little choice but to fight on. Only five manta rays now remained fighting. Knowing that even a single sting from the tail spikes could be enough to finish her, she deftly avoided their swipes, striking back with her rapier and dagger, felling one, then quickly moving aside as another closed in. One after another, she slew the manta rays, all the while moving and dodging through the water, until finally, she slew them all, including the two that were still dazed by the sonic blast.

Now, she pulled out a potion of healing and poured it into Klaus' mouth. The paralysis left the cleric, and he went to tend to the two tritons. Seramyar was easily revived, using a cure light wounds from the staff of healing. Estivenwir had fought bravely to the death. Klaus called upon his holy powers. Bright white light surrounded the cleric and then the fallen triton. Moments later, Estivenwir opened his eyes. He was alive again! Seramyar looked on in awe.

Sneaky looked at the rest of the group. "We really have to get out of here, with or without Gandi." Klaus reluctantly agreed. They needed to get Princess Corinna to safety, and they didn't know how long the air inside the bags of holding would last.

Gandi, waiting outside the whirlpool room, was getting a bit fed up of hiding and skulking about. The potion of diminution began to wear off and he grew to his normal size again, so he began making his way back to the room of tombs. It had been deserted when he last left that room. With any luck, the velya would be gone and he might be able to find Mazaramus and shake some sense into him.

Sneaky, Klaus, the tritons and the princess hurriedly crossed the throne room, the ball room and into the music room. There, Hadric was once again waiting for them. As they entered, he raised his hand and gestured towards Klaus. Sneaky sensed ripples of psychic energy and the holy symbol about Klaus neck began to raise. Klaus grabbed the holy symbol firmly and presented it once more. Hadric's telekinetic influence was at once broken, and once more the velya was driven off by Klaus' turning of the undead. They hurried on across the room and into the corridor beyond. There they found Gandi swimming towards them. Gandi explained that Mazaramus had been somehow affected by Hadric. He then looked at the group, wondering where the rest of them were.

They returned to the hall of tombs and went straight for the door that led to the strong current that had sucked Morgan up to the surface. Within minutes, they were all back at the upper city ruins, ejected from the well and then being able to swim free once the current dispersed. Hurriedly, they swam to the undersea boat and rejoined Morgan inside. Only then did they release Mazaramus and Lithanor, overpowering them as soon as they were released, and tying them up to ensure that they didn't go swimming back to Hadric.

They were all quite exhausted. Dark as it was at the extreme depths they were at, it was now almost totally dark, and they guessed that it was night. Sneaky, Morgan and the tritons shared watches while they allowed Klaus to rest fully so that he could regain his spells in the morning. Even Lithanor and Mazaramus slept, though they guessed that even in their dreams they were somehow in contact with the velya. Those on watch had an uneasy feeling that at any moment, something might pounce from the dark waters to assail them.

Nonetheless, the night passed without incident. Maybe Hadric had been held at bay by Klaus' divine power. Another thought that occured to them was that the velya wanted them to leave, taking with them his two new emissaries, to extend his influence into the lands above.

As soon as he had meditated and regained his spells, Klaus cast a spell of commune. He stood staring, apparently at nothing. Sneaky and Morgan guessed that he was communicating with some divine entity which they could not see. Moments later, Klaus looked at the group and said "There is still hope". He moved over to Lithanor and cast another spell, laying his hands upon the elf's shoulders. Lithanor slumped forward. Klaus untied his bonds and Lithanor leapt to his feet. He looked at the group, and then at Klaus. The mesmeric expression was gone, replaced by his usual lucid demeanour. Klaus was relieved to see his friend free of the velya's influence. What is more, they once again had the use of the undead slaying sword with which they could defeat Hadric.

They looked at Mazaramus. "What about him", Lithanor asked. Klaus explained that he only had the power to free one of them. Mazaramus would have to remain in the boat, guarded by the tritons and Lithanor's drolemites, which he now brought in, having had to remain outside throughout the long night.

Once Lithanor had relearnt his spells and they had refreshed their water breathing, the five heroes set out once more into the ruins of the city. In order to bypass the dispel magic room, Sneaky blasted a hole in the wall above the stairway using her horn of blasting. Lithanor cast an invisibility 10' radius and they proceeded down to the lower levels, once again having to make a mad dash past all of the slimes and oozes in the large cavern, before going down the shaft to the cavern where the slain dragon turtle still lay. This time, they went to the southern of the semi-circular rooms overlooking the chasm. Their were still areas of the undercity that they hadn't explored, and were determined to root out every single coffin that Hadric might have hidden away.

They soon came to a hexagonal shaped room that appeared empty. A 20' wide corridor led westwards. As they crossed, some of the party inadvertently bumped into some living crystal statues, also invisible in the water. Now that they had been detected, the statues attacked. Though they were difficult to see in the water, they dispatched these with little problem, but their invisibility 10' radius had now been cancelled.

The corridor led to a wide stairway leading downwards. They found that this led directly to the throne room on the bottom level. They had never bothered to see where this stairway led when they were previously here. They were now quite close to the room with the sarcophagus where they had first encountered Hadric. They made for this room, having to pass through the room where Sneaky had made her stand against the manta rays which still lay slain in the room. It occured to them that Hadric had managed to reach this room rather quickly when they had backtracked, so they conducted a search for secret doors. They found one in the west wall, that led directly to the sarcophagus room. The sarcophagus was too sturdy to be smashed apart, so Klaus consecrated it by casting a bless spell on it.

Taking the time now to look at their map, they found that they had not taken the corridor to the right, leading southwards, on the opposite end of the cell hallway. They found that this led to a secret door which opened up into the chasm with the dragon turtle.

Looking once more at their maps for where Hadric might be hiding, they found that there were three possible unexplored areas left; one on the second level, one on the third level, and the large room with the tombs. They ignored the latter, deeming that this was probably filled with undead that would likely weaken or at least harass the party, and that it was too obvious for Hadric to keep one of his coffins here.

They swam up through the chasm to the northern ledge,and then to the rubble filled room where the shadows had attacked them. An as yet unexplored region led off from this room via a diagonal corridor running south-westwards. This ended at another door. Opening this, they found a large room that was evidently once a dining room. Rotting nets hung from the ceiling and lay on the floor. A large oak table was in the centre of the room, with corroded candelabra still standing on it. Around the table sat eight skeletons. They entered, weapons at the ready in case the skeletons animated, though Klaus remained at the door keeping a careful watch. Morgan and Gandi went to inspect the nets and Sneaky examined the candelabra, which she found were actually only slightly tarnished and were in fact silver and quite valuable.

As they explored, Klaus saw the water shimmer in front of him. Suddenly, Hadric was standing before him. Hadric slashed at him with his life-draining claws, but Klaus dodged back out of his reach. Immediately, the others turned and swam to assist Klaus. Sneaky moved in, holding the wooden stake she had found earlier, and thrust as hard as she could at the aquatic vampire. The stake pierced the velya, but she was wide of his lifeless heart. Releasing her grip, Hadric simply pulled the stake out, the wound instantly closing up again. Morgan and Klaus, not wishing their quarry to escape this time, tried to grab the velya. Hadric sidestepped Klaus, but Morgan managed to get a purchase. Hadric seemed not even the slightest hampered, and turned to deal with this bothersome warrior. Too late, he saw Lithanor thrust at him with Hadric-slayer. The sword plunged deep, thrusting through his chest and out the other side. Any mortal would have been instantly slain. Hadric, a look of intense agony on his face, shimmered again, turning into a current of water and disappearing through an unseen grate lying underneath the murk of the room's floor.

They knew that Hadric was not slain. He would return to his coffin and regenerate. How long this would take they had no idea. They had to locate the last of his coffins before his strength returned and he came after the party once again.

They took the only other door leading from this room. A short corridor led westwards into a small room with a single door in the north wall and a corridor leading south. The north wall was painted to look the face of a vampire, with the door as its mouth. Ignoring this ominous sign, Gandi opened the door. Once again he was sucked through, Klaus along with him. It was the same whirlpool that had sucked him down to the bottom level from the level above them.

Lithanor, Morgan anad Sneaky pondered whether to open the door again and follow them down. Lithanor ventured that they knew how to get to the bottom level now without using the whirlpool, so they began taking their way back through the level towards the chasm and the hexagonal room beyond where the stairs led to the lower level. Gandi and Klaus, slightly battered by their trip down the whirlpool, had the same idea, and quickly made their way back towards the throne room and the stairs to the level above. They were not beset by Hadric on their way back. They guessed that Lithanor had dealt a grievous blow to the velya, who was still regenerating.

At last, the two groups reunited, and they returned to the room with the vampire face and the whirlpool, ready to explore the corridor leading southwards.



Session Six - The Hunt for Hadric


The corridor led to a door, which opened up into a small room, 10' square, with a door in each wall. Sneaky could hear the sound of chains rattling in the water, but couldn't make out which door it was coming from. They opened the east door first. They saw a large room in which Koom, the storm giant, lay slumped and chained against the far wall, his legs reaching almost to the door. He pleaded with the adventurers to release him before the life was drained from him. Gandi thought this odd that he would be down here, suspecting it to be an illusion. The giant shimmered, and Gandi saw instead a large sea serpent waiting to lunge at any who approached. There were no chains.

Morgan and Lithanor also saw through the illusion, but Sneaky and Klaus were convinced that it really was Koom. Sneaky went in to release the giant. As soon as she went to release him, the illusion vanished, and the serpent lunged at Sneaky. Gandi, Morgan and Lithanor quickly swam in to fight the beast, and Gandi sliced through it with one of his axes before it could pounce on the unsuspecting Sneaky. As its guts spilled out, they found that it had swallowed a number of gems and a few potions, which they discovered to be potions of water breathing.

In the southern room they found a group of six mermen shackled to the walls. Various implements of torture lay scattered on the floor. They suspected this too to be an illusion, nut the mermen were quite real. Nevertheless, Morgan used a detect magic from his claymore, and the mermen did indeed radiate magic. They released the mermen, and asked them if they knew anything about the dungeon or Hadric. The mermen had no memory at all of how they came to be here. They gladly agreed to help the party though, and grabbed some of the torture implements to use as makeshift spears.

The western room was littered with corpses. As they entered, half of them rose up as zombies. Between Klaus turning, the prowess of the fighters, and the mermen helping out, the zombies were soon slain, with only a slight wound to one of the mermen who Klaus soon healed. On the far wall hung a horn made from a large shell. Gandi took this and tried it out. A shock wave sent him backwards as part of the wall was shattered by the blast. It was another horn of blasting.

They had, as far as they knew, completely cleared the third level of the undersea city, so they proceeded towards the room with the triton statue to deal with the sharks that Morgan had discovered the previous day. As they left, one of the 'corpses', a triton that was playing dead, transformed into a shark and followed the party for a time before leaving for the lower tombs.

The adventurers arrived at the door leading to the shark room. Lithanor prepared an ice storm spell and cast it into the room as soon as Gandi opened the door. A good number of the sharks were instantly slain, but the room was quite large and several more of the brown sharks emerged from the murky darkness. Gandi, Morgan, Klaus and Lithanor drew their weapons and hacked at the sharks as they moved in. Soon, they could see very little due to the amount of blood in the water. Just when they thought they had slain them all, two more sharks moved in, biting at Morgan and Gandi. These had slipped in unnoticed during the fighting They were bluish-gray in colour and somewhat larger than the bull sharks, being about 12' in length. Lithanor hit them with magic missiles, and Morgan and Gandi finished them off. As these last two sharks were slain, their bodies transformed into lifeless tritons...weresharks!

Two other doors led from the room, but the weresharks had not entered through either of these, but through a secret door. In this secret room they found the treasure of the weresharks, a chest containing a good number of gold coins.

Of the other two doors leading from the room, the party first investigated the closest one, being on the same north wall as both the door they had entered by and the secret door. Beyond this a long corridor wound onwards, turning at times until ending at another door. This led to a large room with bright murals showing scenes of conquests and great treasures depicted on the walls. At the northern end of the room they found a large statue of an octopus-like creature holding a bowl in its tentacles. The statue, itself glittering with precious metals, was adorned with gems of various sizes and colours. They approached the statue, failing to notice until it was too late the four giant electric eels that slithered round from the rear of the statue. The water sizzled with electrical energy. For a moment, the party were helpless, convulsing with the shock. The mermen that were accompanying them now floated, unconscious, overcome by the shocking attack of the eels. Sneaky, hidden by her elven cloak, moved behind the eels ready for a surprise attack of her own. Morgan and Gandi hacked at the two closest eels, delivering mighty blows and leaving large gashes in the monstrous fish. Klaus tended to one of the mermen, using the staff of healing to revive him. Another shock wracked the party. The merman that Klaus had revived, and the others that whad been unconscious, were now dead. Even more strange was that they transformed into lifeless bull sharks once they were slain.

Sneaky delivered her strikes, a combination of savage cuts that almost slew one of the eels, almost, but not quite. In retaliation, the eel delivered its shocking attack. Sneaky, more than anyone else, reeled from the electrical pulses surging through the water. She was very weak now and knew that another surge would kill her. She swam as fast as she could for the door at the end of the hall, hoping that she could get far enough away to be out of range of the shocking attacks.

Lithanor , Gandi, Morgan and Klaus concentrated their attacks on the one unwounded eel, the one that had not as yet unleashed its electrical pulse. They slew it before it could pulse, then turned to finish off the wounded eels. Their guess was right. They could only use their shocking attack once before they could 'recharge' for another. Morgan was hampered by the fact that his claymore was now fighting a battle of wills with him in his weakened state. Lithanor fought as though possessed. Hadric-Slayer was now in control. Even Scorbane submitted to the superior, if not single-minded, will of the undead-slaying sword.

With great relief, Sneaky looked back to see that the eels had been slain. Even her own rapier had made a feeble attempt at taking control in her wounded state. Her relief turned to disappointment when she saw that the gems adorning the statue were actually coloured glass, and many of them had shattered when the water was electrified. The statue itself was also valueless, the enameled shiny paint peeling off in places to reveal the drab stone underneath.

Much healing was administered by Klaus. So badly had the party been hit that Klaus had to use charges from his staff of healing and they even resorted to using their stock of potions of healing. Once they were back to fighting strength, they pondered their next move. As for the mermen that had changed into sharks upon their death, they thought that these two might be lycanthropes, but then realised the truth of the matter. They had been polymorphed, which explained their lack of memory, as well as the magic aura about them. No doubt some trap of Hadric's was meant to transform them back into sharks at some opportune moment.

They still hadn't found Hadric or any more of his coffins. At Gandi's insistence, they checked the walls of the room for secret doors, but found nothing. Lithanor was increasingly insistent that they stop wasting time and resume their hunt for Hadric.

They returned to the shark room and took the only remaining door. This led on to a corridor that seemed to lead to a dead end, but actually adjoined the area where they had fought the wraiths in the triangular room with the demonic murals on the walls. Here they found two secret doors, meaning they could now access all of the areas of the undersea city without having to go through the cavern of slimes.

There was only one place left to search - the room of tombs on the bottom level. Only now did they recall seeing a large set of double doors there along with all of the other doors leading into the tombs. Hadric had to be here.

They set off, hoping that their search was nearing its end. How much time they had left before Hadric recovered from his wounds they could not tell. There, in the room of tombs, they found that most of the doors were now open. Whatever undead creatures had been inside them would now be roaming free about the place.

They didn't have to go far. As they searched through the large room, they found the last few undead, a zombie, two wights and a wraith. Klaus sent the wights to oblivion, holding up his holy symbol and invoking the power of Pellar. Gandi hacked down the zombie with a single stroke, and the wraith was slain by Hadric-Slayer. As they fought, a large mako shark moved in from behind, heading straight for Klaus. Just in time Klaus turned and dodged to avoid its bite. Then Klaus realised with horror that just as vampires could transform into certain creatures like wolves or bats; velya most likely had a similar ability to transform into sea creatures.

Before he had chance to warn them, Morgan, Lithanor and Gandi ran the shark through with their blades and axes. The shark changed into a triton. As it died, it seemed to thank the party.

They approached the large double doors. Sneaky translated the inscription above it. It read - HADRIC, SON OF HADOR. They cast a few preparatory and defensive spells first, and Morgan, using his ring of spell storing, cast a haste spell on the party. Gandi then opened the doors and they ventured in.

Beyond, a short wide corridor led to a chamber, 30' deep and 60' wide. A sarcophagus stood in the centre of the room. Behind it stood a pale, sharp fanged figure. With slow, menacing deliberateness, it rounded the sarcophagus and advanced on the party. Morgan met its advance, cleaving it in two with his claymore. They expected it to transform into water again. Instead, the creature, a mere zombie made to appear similar to Hadric, sank to the ground.

Gandi lifted the lid from the sarcophagus. Inside lay Hadric, his eyes closed. Their was still time! Sneaky pulled out the stake and plunged it into the creature's unbeating heart, being sure this time not to miss. Hadrics eyes and mouth open wide....then, the centuries of lifelessness caught up. The flesh shrivelled and then disintegrated, until finally only the bones remained, the stake still lodged in its chest.

At that moment, Hadric-Slayer spoke for the last time. "It is done! Hadric is slain!". Lithanor was no longer under the control of the sword. Hadric-Slayer still retained some of its magical potency, but was no longer an intelligent, speaking sword.

After taking the two magical rings that Hadric had been wearing, they returned to the undersea boat, very carefully taking Hadric's bones along with them, carried on a piece of wood as a makeshift stretcher. Sneaky kept a close eye on the remains, ensuring that the wooden stake remained in place. Klaus had a theory that if regular vampires could be permanently destroyed by immersing them in running water, then the underwater version could be similarly dealt with by taking it to dry land.

Once back at the boat, Mazaramus seemed his usual self again, though with vague memories of what had happened and rather disturbingly remembering eating barnacles and sea insects. They returned to the surface and sought the city of Kron to let One-Eye and Falcon know that the velya had been slain. They wanted to show Falcon the remains as proof, but as soon as they opened the hatch, a breeze of fresh air entered the cabin. The bones crumbled to dust, and soon even the dust was forever dispersed to the wind. Only Sneaky's stake remained lying on the floor.

Word reached Suthus of the party's valiant deed. Ulobon was deposed as advisor to Lopra and imprisoned for his crime. It was only that Ulobon believed that he was acting in the best interest of the tritons that Lopra was merciful and spared him the death penalty.

Princess Corinna was taken back to the Minrothad Isles, her original destination after setting out from Ierendi, to resume her diplomatic duties. Tormaq, Felspel and some of the Minrothad officials greeted them, thanking them for their heroics. The Minrothaddans probably never realised how close they had come to all out war with the tritons. Tormaq and Felspel, who were probably as much outsiders in Minrothad as the party were, gifted them with some useful magic items. Finally, as one last reward, Mazaramus was given a land grant, making him the beneficiary of a small island. There was just a couple of problems. The only charts they had for the island seemed ancient, and most of the writing was blurred. They could barely make out the scale, showing the island to be six miles wide. Secondly, and probably quite embarrassingly to a nation that prides itself on its seafaring and navigation abilities, they had lost the island.....

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