A Brief Intermezzo

Having returned to Halarahh, I really needed to do some study. The others went off to look for some lich or other off east while I hit the books. I sent Paazbul along, invisibly, just to keep an eye on them.

Some time later, Paazbul reported back to me that they had found an unusual amulet, so I started looking for any references to it. What I found was a little disturbing. An amulet matching the description was reported to have been in the possession of the Dimensionalists Guild some time ago. I went there to check, but it seemed that the amulet had not been in their possession for some time.

However, much to my surprise, a group of Abjurai came to the Guild to arrest me! I tried to explain that I had never been a Necromancer, but they seemed to believe that I had something to do with the missing fugitive Sharani. Since I was indeed in Halarahh with a group that was looking for her, I could not deny the charge. More disturbingly, they were charging me with murder and piracy as well.

I spent much of my time in the underground prison complex coming up with my defense. While I was there I continued to get messages via Paazbul - apparently the party had been foolish enough to give the amulet up to an Illithid. I sent them a message asking for their assistance, but it turns out that I didn't need to.

Sharani has friends, apparently. There was a guard in the prison complex who helped me to escape, on the promise that if I really was a friend of Sharani I would contact him later.

Needless to say I had no intention of doing any such thing until I was able to rendezvous with the rest of my companions. They were some days' travel away, so I made use of all of my magic in order to get to their location as quickly as possible by land and by air.

I did keep up my surveillance of their progress through Paazbul's eyes, and I can't say that I was impressed. They seemed to be attempting to infiltrate a vampire's stronghold under the mistaken impression that she was a lich. After their prisoner gambit failed because they had no idea where the prison was, they got into a fight with some very powerful vampire spawn.

Fortunately I was able to reach their location just as they worked out how to kill the undead. Unfortunately, the genasi Joan had been killed. That was rather unfortunate, as I was coming to like her. Alas, as Ilyich and Caine were alone in the stronghold with an army looking for them, I suggested that we might turn invisible and try to come up with a plan to rescue Buff. Turning all four of us invisible is beyond my present capabilities, but I'm sure that now I'm on the scene we can come up with a sensible, well thought out plan.

Home At Last

Those of my readers who have come to expect action and adventure are like to be disappointed with this particular installment, and yet it is one of the most satisfying to me personally. For I finally returned home.

There was a good deal of discussion about what we were going to do with the ship and the slave traders that owned it. I think Ilyich would have been happy with tying weights to their legs and turfing them overboard, but I don't think that idea would have gone down well with the rest of the party. Personally, I didn't care. I was more interested in the shield guardian amulets. We were going to toss them overboard, but I carefully put one away and attuned to it later. The construct was at the bottom of the sea, so it'll probably take a while to catch up.

In the end we put the slave traders on lifeboats with whatever of their possessions they could carry and some provisions. I assume that they will be back to take revenge on us later.

We turned the ship, newly renamed the Broken Shackle, over to the freed slaves. I hope they are able to make their way in the world, but regardless, they're not our problem any more.

We put to shore aboard the rowboat - again, there was a considerable amount of discussion about where we'd aim for. Sometimes I think Captain Caine should just take charge and make decisions, but he seems to think it important for us to argue about everything. In the end we made landfall some miles to the east of Lushpool.

It was no problem for us to arrive in Lushpool. While there I took the opportunity to visit the local magical library, and added a few entries to my spell book. Buff DeBuff got into some kind of gladiatorial fight. Apparently he did fairly well.

From there we signed on with a caravan which would take us through . Along the way we continued to enquire about the blockade. The most common explanation seems to be that it was set up to prevent spies from entering the country, but it seems to me that spies could just as easily have travelled via Calimport the way we did. If the blockade was indeed put in place to prevent spies, it was doing an extremely poor job.

We crossed the Talath Pass into Halruaa, and I was home. Well, not exactly home, but at least I was in the country where I was born.

We took a riverboat to Halarahh, where things were certainly not as I had left them. For a start, there were Wanted posters up everywhere depicting the girl who had been kidnapped in Waterdeep by the Abjurai. Posters! Where were the Diviners?

Caine and Thertranna seemed very concerned by this - it seemed that Breonna (who was named as Sharani on the posters) had escaped from custody since I had seen her teleported away. Looking deeper, we found that the tower of the Dimensionalists Guild had been destroyed - but in a somewhat unusual way. The upper floors had been destroyed in an explosion, but captured in a time lock of some kind, so that the detritus of the explosion were kept hovering in mid-air like some kind of art project. I found this fascinating, but was a little disturbed that it seemed that Sharani was the source of the explosion.

We also located the prison she had been kept in during the time that we were travelling, and it had been destroyed in the same way. However, the two explosions occurred twelve years apart.

I sought out the Conjurer's Guild while Joan looked for the Diviners. We found out that Sharani was the daughter of the head of the Dimensionalists Guild, Karanor, who died in the explosion, but she showed no particular magical aptitude before the event. The Diviners have been unable to locate her since she broke out of prison, hence the posters.

I'm not entirely sure what we intend to do next. It is clear that my family name at least is well-known to the local authorities as I was forced to make clear my status as a Conjurer and definitely not a Necromancer. I will have to be very careful about how to proceed from here.

Operation From The Ladle To The Slave

We were able to book passage to Ithmong, one of the ports in Lapaliiya from which we would, if we successfully made landfall, travel overland to Halruaa. There was only one problem: it was a slave transport.

Now, personally, I had no problem with that. Slavery is legal in this area, and regardless of what I thought of the practice, it was not really any of my business. But Ilyich, Caine and Joan all decided that they were going to do something rash. I thought it was a bad idea, and I said so, but the consensus of the group was against me, so I agreed to be a part of it.

The plan was to have five parts. The first part, which I was well-equipped to take care of, was to poison the crew. Ilyich had taken and refined a certain amount of venom from the wyverns, and that diluted into the crew's stew would make many of them sick with little chance of actually killing them. This would need to occur some hours before the rest of the plan was carried out, to allow time for the oncoming crew shift to dine and suffer the effects of the poison.

The second part was to create a distraction on deck. We wanted to have as many eyes looking up as possible, while we got up to shenanigans belowdecks.

The third part was to incapacitate the captain. Caine and Buff would perform this duty. They would catch the captain in his cabin and, I hoped, take him out of the picture without killing him.

The fourth part was to deal with the other passengers. More about them in a moment.

The fifth part was to kill or incapacitate the slave overseers and free the slaves.

I'm sure you're wondering at this point - with such a detailed plan, how could it possibly go wrong? And that's a very good question. It actually didn't, which surprised me. There were more dead crew than I liked, but we did manage to free the slaves in the end.

We spent most of the voyage reconnoitering the ship - determining how the crew was organised, whether we could incite them into a mutiny, how they were armed. It was a very tightly run ship - the crew reported to the Overseers, who reported to the Captain, in two long shifts. Only the overseers were routinely armed, and only in order to intimidate the captive slaves. We determined the captain's routine and decided that we would set our plan in motion at the beginning of the night shift. We also determined that there were probably fifty or sixty slaves held belowdecks.

I mentioned that there were other passengers on board. Joan tried to introduce herself to them, but that only prompted a very stern warning from the captain to leave them alone. By doing a quick flyby past their stateroom window, I was able to determine that there were four of them, and the stateroom was richly furnished - better even than the captain's cabin. We surmised that they were the slave owners.

So, with reluctance I set the plan in motion, the day before we were due to make port. It started by conjuring up an invisible servant, which I did via ritual. The servant took the vial of poison while I went to the galley and approached the cook, claiming that the glowing magically conjured apple I was holding was mystical medicine that I required in my stew for that meal. Fortunately, I was able to keep the cook's (and the cook's assistant's) attention while my servant emptied the vial into the crew's stewpot then stowed the empty vial amongst other containers on the shelf. Stage one complete.

When it was clear that the oncoming shift were all sick to some degree, the captain went to the galley to investigate what might have been the cause of the mysterious illness. As he was returning to his cabin, the second stage was initiated by Joan. Somehow she managed to throw flame into the ship's rigging, creating a commotion on deck and drawing most of the sailors out. There were overseers in the fo'c'sle and poop deck, and another amidships by the mast.

As this was happening, Caine and Buff ambushed the captain, and I sealed the slave owners into their cabin with wedges and magical webs. And the fight was joined.

I had hopes of keeping the fighting non-lethal - I was able to put several crew members into a mystical sleep - when a pair of large constructs burst from the stateroom. Fortunately they became caught in my webbing, giving time for Joan, Joan's mystical lion, and Ilyich to finish off the overseers on deck and intimidate the rest of the crew into surrendering.

Caine, bearing the magical greatsword which I'm sure isn't having the best effect on his sanity, started hewing at the constructs, pushing one of them overboard. The slave owners were the last to surrender.

The ship was ours.

Buff started freeing the slaves with keys that we found in the hold and on the captain's person while I flew aft to retrieve the ship's navigator, who had jumped overboard.

The original plan was for the ship to transfer its cargo - the slaves - to another ship from Lapaliiya at sea rather than put in to port. I'm not entirely sure what the new plan is. The slaves have been freed, but I'm not sure how many of them are sailors. Many of the ship's original crew survived, including all of the second shift, but the captain and the overseers had all been killed. I think Caine's plan included somehow turning the ship over to them, or maybe to the slave owners, but I'm not sure how well that will work. Many slaves have known only a life of slavery, and do not know how to be free. It's also not at all certain that the slave owner will keep his covenant to get out of the slave trade. We could be simply handing the slaves back to those who had enslaved them.

I guess we will find out.

Wyvern Frenzy

In the morning we set off across the desert to Calimport. Captain Jimmy had plenty of cargo to sell, so we accompanied his caravan as "guards". And it was a good thing we did.

There were many caravans crossing the Calim Desert, and individual caravans would travel fairly widely spaced so as not to interfere with one another. It helped to protect them from robbers and bandits along the way. On the third day, we realised that the caravan ahead of us had stopped. We halted our caravan and I flew on ahead to see if I could work out what had happened.

Well, what had happened is that the caravan ahead of us had been attacked. The carts were overturned as the road passed through a gorge between two cliff faces, but none of the goods had been taken, so I knew it was not bandits. There were some dead caravanners and guards strewn around that appeared to have been rent as though by wild beasts. I returned to my comrades to report what I had found, and a plan was drawn up.

In retrospect, it could have been a better plan. I continued my aerial reconnaisance, while Caine and Buff took opposite sides of the road - each at the top of one of the bluffs. Ilyich and Joan (mounted on a lion) took the road up the middle. I saw the attack as it came, but there wasn't a lot I could do to prevent it.

One of the wyverns attacked Caine on one side of the road, while another attacked Biff on the other. A third came up the middle and landed in front of Joan and her leonine mount. Unfortunately the mount did not survive the attack - vanishing mysteriously and leaving no corpse. I figured that Buff was perfectly able to handle himself, so after loosing a few magical darts at the wyvern that had attacked I moved to the aid of Caine. Unfortunately for me, that wyvern decided that I was a tastier snack than a vanished lion, and took to the skies. Turning, I blasted it with more darts, which fortunately seemed to be enough, sending it plummeting to the ground.

I was just about to set down to assist Caine when he killed the wyvern he was fighting, and we looked over to the other bluff to see how the great gladiator Buff DeBuff was going. Horrified, we saw the Wyvern dragging his limp body away.

The others made a heroic effort to cross the gorge, and we all arrived on the other side at about the same time that my spell of flight wore off. The wyvern had dragged Buff to a cave that they had apparently been using as a lair. We fought it in the cave, and I think Ilyich dealt it the final blow, though with all of us hacking at it, it was hard to be sure.

Fortunately Buff was not dead, merely unconscious. There was a very strong smell, which I traced to a broken bottle that had previously contained an extremely aromatic rag. I tore a little of it off as a sample, sealing it in a bottle until I could get it analysed.

Returning to Captain Jimmy, we continued our trip, arriving at Calimshan a few days later. After exchanging some more of my heavy coins for gemstones, I took the smelly rag to an alchemist. Apparently what I had was wyvern bait. The creatures had been lured to that location, possibly in order to attack and kill caravans so that bandits could come by later and collect the discarded goods. I can't remember who it was that was paranoid enough to suggest that they had been lured there specifically to try and stop us from reaching our destination. I couldn't think who might know about us, apart from that Shark fellow back in Memnon.

The talk in Calimshan about the blockade was not much more informative than it had been in Memnon, though we did hear that there was a war going on out east, and a lot of traders were shipping weapons in that direction. However, this war did not concern us.

We pored over a map of the region, trying to decide what we were going to do. There were several ports on the southern coast of the Shining Sea that we might be able to get passage to, but rumour was that these ports were largely closed, and we would be unlikely to dock there. We would have to buy a small boat and make our own landfall if necessary.

The last thing I did before retiring was visit the city guards. I figured that they might like to know that someone had been baiting wyverns to the road from Memnon, and I left them the container with the scrap, hoping that they might be able to find the perpetrator.

Too Much Money

The low elf, Berrian, found an interesting-looking bottle belowdecks. Before I could stop him, he opened it. There was a gout of flame and I expected the worst, but in fact all that came out was a warrior in old-fashioned plate armour. She seemed friendly enough, apart from a little smoke that seemed to perpetually rise from the joints in her armour, which was a little offputting at first. I thought I detected the slight smell of sulphur when I was close to her, but that might just have been my imagination. We questioned her, found out her name was Joan Gearhart, and that she thought the year was some four hundred and more years before the present day. I assume that she had been imprisoned in that flask at that time, the way it is reported that some Genies are, and she was freed when Berrian opened it.

After this minor bit of excitement, Captain Caine commandeered the privateer vessel and the stricken ship slowly sank. He worked out a deal with Captain Jimmy to borrow some of his crew and make the ship seaworthy. There was a small problem of a large hole in the hull below decks, which I offered to magically repair as soon as I had finished my dissection of the giant octopus. Caine, however, wanted to get underway as quickly as possible, and so I was forced to temporarily abandon my scientific pursuit and head below.

In the hold, I encountered someone who appeared to be trying to stow away. It looked like he had climbed in through the octopus hole, and quite likely had nefarious intentions. I didn't recognise him, so I attempted to restrain him with a magical web before informing the Captain about the interloper. He dodged out of the way, and I didn't try a second time as he appeared to have no violent intentions.

I accompanied Caine, Buff and the... person... who had popped out of the bottle... belowdecks where we confronted the newcomer. Caine asked him his business on the ship. He introduced himself as Ilyich, he definitely had a past on the wrong side of the law, and he was on the ship looking for a particular jewelled bottle - apparently the one that our new companion had come from. Since the goal of his contract was now unobtainable, he wanted to get as far from his previous employers as possible, so Caine offered him a job, with my own stipulation that he keep his hands out of legitimate pockets, and he readily agreed.

By this time I had already lost interest in the conversation and proceeded to mend the ship's hull so that I could get back to the octopus on deck. The dissection was worth it - it had a fascinating anatomy. I also found a small gold nugget in the creature's stomach, as well as being able to harvest a small amount of its ink.

Finally we were able to set sail, and the rest of the voyage proceeded fairly uneventfully. But as we approached Calimshan, we realised that the approach to the Shining Sea was blocked by a large number of ships.

I performed some aerial reconnaissance, and found out that the blockading ships flew the colours of Halruaa, Lapaliiya and Tashalar, with many ships milling about on our side of the line. For some reason the navies of those three governments weren't letting anyone into the Shining Sea.

There was a little discussion about whether we should just try to run the blockade, but our vessel was not a fast vessel, and as I pointed out the blockade was being maintained by ships of the navies of Halruaa, Lapaliiya and Tashalar, it was decided instead to put ashore at Memnon, and make our way across the desert to Calimport.

Memnon was not a large city, made all the more squalid by hundreds of sailors who had come to the same decision we had. We split up and tried to find out more about the blockade. Myself, I went to the library. Predictably enough, the librarian did not have a great deal of information about the blockade, but he did have a very interesting book for sale that documented the genealogies of certain Halruaan families between 650DR and 800DR. I couldn't resist buying it, since I had plenty of money to buy it with - the "spoils" of our piracy having been divided between us. I was interested to see whether the Gearhart family was mentioned at all. It was a very large book, so I lugged it about with me until I could get back to the tavern where we were all meeting. After all, I already had two quite large books in my backpack.

After that, I decided to make a visit to a gemcutter to exchange my coin for something a little more manageable. I didn't get a great value exchange, but I did pick up a number of very nice gemstones - some chalcedony, citrine and onyx, and some small pieces of moonstone, agate and malachite. I also picked up a large pearl, which is required for a ritual that I might want to perform some day, a fine piece of amber, and a large cabochon-cut tourmaline. All fit neatly into a small pouch and don't weigh me down like coins do.

Having had the chance to compare notes back at the tavern, it seemed that there were basically two prevailing opinions on the reason for the blockade, and the second was merely that the first was wrong. The first opinion was that the Yuan-ti of Chult were making war, as they often did, but it seemed that the blockade was an overreaction to such an event. I'm sure that it will become more clear once we reach Calimport.

At one point Caine got up to relieve himself. I didn't notice because I was studying the book I had bought, but apparently he was gone for quite a long time. When I looked up, the tavern had emptied except for a few people, whose attention was all on us. Of course, a fight ensued.

I tried not to get too involved. Buff (in his usual flamboyant style) and the new guy Ilyich seemed perfectly capable of dealing with the problem on their own. It appeared that a pair of thugs had ambushed Caine outside the tavern, and when they brought him in they realised that perhaps their gang had bitten off more than they could chew.

When it was all over, and Caine had recovered, we searched the bodies and found that the thugs had been sent by the gemcutter I had visited earlier, to relieve me of "too much money". The nerve. I decided that we would pay a visit to the gemcutter, a fellow known as the Shark.

Fortunately I was able to resolve the situation without having to resort to violence, though I was prepared for that. I think it was clear to the Shark that he wasn't dealing with a rich fool, and that I and my friends could certainly take care of ourselves. I don't think we'll be hearing from him again.

The Murder Octopus

It turns out that we have taken passage aboard a straight-up pirate ship.

This wasn't entirely clear at first, but since it was Captain Caine who booked passage, I suppose I should have predicted it. I had at first naively mistaken him for a regular ship captain, perhaps an armed merchantman or naval vessel. It hadn't occurred to me that he might have been a privateer. I'm not entirely happy about this situation - especially in light of subsequent events - but there's not much I can do about it now. I have thrown in my lot, and I have to live with the consequences.

The ship's captain is perpetually drunk. Quite frankly I'm surprised he's capable of maintaining the duties of a captain. I strongly suspect that he takes what amounts to a ceremonial role on board ship, which is actually run and directed by the first mate - who is imaginatively called "Number One".

The voyage was at first largely uneventful. I spent the time conjuring minor illusions to amuse myself - occasionally at the expense of the dignity of some of the crew. Fortunately no-one noticed my meddling. If they had, I suspect I would have found out the meaning of the word "keelhaul".

About a week in, we drew nigh the Moonshae Isles - a dangerous area, according to the captain. Though the captain's concern was more for the potential for "booty" - by which I assume he means plunder.

I volunteered for some sentry duty, as I can see better in the dark than most humans. The ranger Berrian took position in the crow's nest and I looked out over the bow. It was dark and foggy, but as we rounded a headland, I could see a bright glow, as if from a fire. Alas, if I knew then what I know now, I would never have alerted the crew.

There were two vessels - one was on fire, and the other appeared to be boarding it. I assumed that we were intending to rescue the striken crew from raiders. We boarded longships and came abeam of the intact vessel, intending to board her. But we were spotted. The ship's crew opened fire with crossbows - fortunately not hitting anybody. I had the foresight to turn invisible, so none of the crossbows were aimed at me.

As Berrian, Caine, and the thoroughly ridiculous Buff DeBuff climbed ropes to board the ship, I chose a far more sophisticated method, and translated myself through space directly to the deck. I had hoped to assist the boarders, but our ship's crew swarmed aboard before I had a chance.

Buff and Caine could not have been more different during this fight. Buff was, as usual, brash and loud, shouting challenges and drawing a lot of attention to himself. Caine, on the other hand, drew a rather sinister-looking greatsword and started slaughtering enemy crew with what appeared to be glee. I did not like the look in his eyes as he disembowelled a fourth crewman.

Buff of course had headed for the toughest-looking fight - the raider captain, who was dressed in a fine doublet with many buttons and a big hat. He sported a magnificent beard.

Still unseen, I searched around for any way I could help. I spotted what appeared to me to be a team of pirates carrying loot and prisoners off the damaged vessel and saw my opportunity. It spoiled my invisibility, but a well-placed fireball destroyed the gangplanks and quite a few of the apparent pirates. Captain Big Hat was just barely out of the radius of the explosion and his magnificent beard was terribly singed. He engaged in one-on-one combat with Buff and appeared to be taking the upper hand. But Caine, apparently drunk with bloodlust, came along with his greatsword and ended the fight in a very bloody fashion.

I looked around, and noticed the unsophisticated elf Berrian engaged with the helmsman - a large bare-chested man with a heavy maul. I sent a few darts of force his way to help before renewing my spell of concealment.

The battle won, "our" crew began to loot the ship. A number of them went below decks to the cargo hold. Shortly thereafter a number of gurgling screams were heard from the hold. Invisible, I went to investigate.

I found them - or rather, I found bits of them - they had been torn apart and their various body parts flung about the hold with what appeared to be great force. I suspected a fiend of some kind, but I could see nothing. I bided my time, knowing that Caine, Buff and Berrian would also be coming to investigate.

Berrian went to check the aft hold while the rest of us went forward. We still couldn't see what had caused so much carnage. Buff and Caine spread out to search the forward hold when the creature revealed itself. A huge cephalopod had camouflaged itself as a bulkhead. Fascinating.

Of course, it lashed out at Caine and Buff, catching them both. It wrapped a tentacle around Caine and drew him towards its horrid beak, but planting one foot on either side, Caine thrust his sword down the creature's gullet. There was not a lot I could do except help with more magical missiles, and I was becoming weary - I could no longer generate as many darts as I had earlier in the fight. I was keeping a magical reserve for a powerful translocation spell in case of emergencies, but soon I would be down to my cantrips.

Fortunately we were able to damage it enough that it escaped through the hole it had made in the hull of the ship. Determined not to let it escape, Buff and Caine raced up to the deck to try and find it. Buff had the brilliant idea of trying to search for it in the longship. It worked. The creature grabbed the boat and capsized it, dropping him into the water. Caine and several of the remaining crew grabbed harpoons, and I sent the last of my darts at the creature, finally killing it.

I requested that the crew haul the beast on board, which they did, and while they continued to loot the ship, I set about dissecting it. It had a fascinating anatomy, and I will include my complete notes along with this package. I was able to recover some of the creature's ink, and Caine appropriated some of its tentacle claws for a necklace.

It was while I was working on this task that the real story of what we had done emerged. It was not a raider that had fired and looted the ship. What we had assumed to be the raider was an escort. An accident aboard the second ship had started the fire, and the crew of the escort were recovering its cargo. Those that I had assumed were bound prisoners were actually bandaged survivors.

It was most unfortunate that it was my fireball that killed them. I regret that. But as they say, when on board a pirate ship, do as the pirates do, unless you really want to be thrown overboard.

The Shaved Stag

In Waterdeep I found the group of adventurers I was seeking. Their half-orc bard extolled their virtues in a way that was frankly unbelievable, until I saw them in action. Actually, it was still unbelievable.

I was in the Shaved Stag tavern, trying to avoid interacting with a certain halfbreed pit fighter who was being singularly annoying when there was a loud bang. I knew immediately that magic was at work, though I did not recognise the spell from its sound alone. Two humans and two elves had teleported into the tavern, and one of the humans laid a hand on one of this party's number - she appeared to be an adolescent human female of no particular noteworthiness, but her abduction fired the group into immediate action.

I cast a Web around the girl to try and hinder her abductors while I observed the group in action. One, a lesser elf, used an enchanted bow and failed to miss even once. Their halfling was drunk, of course. One of their number appeared to be a clumsy human who both failed to tip the table, and when assisted by another tavern patron he awkwardly vaulted it only to be caught in my web. I had to dismiss the spell to release him.

I was interested to note that the abductors bore a symbol that I recognised, though for my life I couldn't say where I knew it from. It was definitely familiar though, and the abductors themselves bore enchanted items: maces that discharged lightning, gauntlets that paralysed, and magical shields which protected them from damage. It seemed that all this magic had its downside though - one of the abductors disintegrated into a glittering powder when killed. The others managed to escape with the girl. I collected a sample of the powder once the fight was over.

So I was presented with a number of small mysteries, which fired my enthusiasm. First: who were the abductors and why did I recognise the symbol that they bore? What enchantment did they carry that disintegrated the user upon death? What had the girl done to warrant their attention?

I was able to find the answers to at least one of these questions in the library of the Mages' Guild where I had been staying. The abductors were Abjurai from my homeland. I recognised the symbol because I had seen it during the attack on my parents' home, though at the time I didn't recognise what it represented. The Abjurai are representatives of the Government of Halruaa, tasked with tracking down and bringing to justice those who misused magic for evil ends - my parents and sisters, for example. The girl therefore must have been a practitioner of great evil for the Abjurai to have come so far from their homeland. When I mentioned this to the clumsy sailor he responded defensively, as though he bore a great loyalty to this girl, and my observation was an affront. In my experience necromancers do not tend to inspire loyalty in their minions. Certainly not that level of loyalty, anyway. And as a rule they do not associate with peers. There is more to this than meets the eye.

They were determined to find and rescue this girl, and so I offered my services as a spellcaster. They were, after all, headed for my homeland. My first impressions of my new party follow.

Heironymous Caine, human. Seems to be the leader of the group, and possibly the only one with a modicum of intelligence among them. A sailor, though currently shipless. He has organised with an old acquaintance for us to get passage to Calimshan, from which port we can make our way to Halruaa.

Berrian, elf. This is the one with the bow. An exceedingly good shot, but not very bright. Maybe just focused. It was hard to tell. He accompanied me to the Mages' Guild, but didn't say much apart from “are there dragons?”

Buff deBuff. This was the halfbreed pit fighter I mentioned earlier. Also not very bright. More manipulatable than Berrian though. I attempted to pull a prank on the captain of the ship, but he didn't see the humour and gave me ten days at the oars. Buff enthusiastically offered to take my place. I think I could probably get him to do anything if I phrased my request in the right way.

Two previous members of the group would not be travelling with us:

Thertranna, half-orc. The singer declined to accompany us to Calimshan, claiming that she was applying to the Bard's College. She seemed competent enough, but I think her tales of the party's exploits were exaggerated.

Seraphina, halfling. Drunk, like all halflings. Seemed moderately competent once sobered up, but left on some vitally important mission. I was a little disturbed by her claim that she would steal whatever she needed. Were these people travelling with a petty thief?

We're boarding the ship tomorrow. With any luck the trip to Calimshan will be uneventful and quick. If I have to spend too much more time interacting with Buff DeBuff, I may go slightly mad. Perhaps an elemental or two might help.

Introduction

To understand where I am going, it is necessary to first understand where I have been.

My name is Oto Nightwood, and I was born in the village of Anabniel, under the North Wall of Halruaa. My parents, who are now both dead, were Lihatinn and Galarh Nightwood. I have two older sisters who are not dead - Ubrial and Andiel. They have both, unfortunately, followed in my parents' footsteps and become necromancers and followers of Velsharoon. My other living relatives, of which there are many, operate on the more legitimate side of the river, being mainly merchants and craftsfolk.

There is considerable speculation over the circumstances of my birth. The one thing that is not in contention is that I was born under an unusual astronomical conjunction. It is possible that this lent power to an unholy ritual in which my lifeforce was drained, as several of my uncles have opined, and that is why I turned out sickly. Regardless of the reason, there were few years of my childhood when I was not suffering - either from the diseases which ravaged my weak body, or from the tender ministrations of my sisters and cousins, who viewed me with nothing more than contempt. A poor excuse for an elf, they said.

I threw myself into books. My parents had amassed quite a collection over many years, and I found myself learning ancient and rare languages with an adroitness that my siblings did not share. When I was old enough, my parents started to instruct me in the rudiments of magic since I was already picking up the fundamentals through my own study. I did not learn of my parents' necromantic activities until much later, despite my insatiable curiosity. Perhaps I just didn't want to know. I was not encouraged to study - I did so because I wanted to - because I had to. I was too weak to take up the sword, and too sickly.

I was in my thirties when I first started to become aware of my parents' reputation in the village. Until then I did not think it was unusual to live underground, on the outskirts of town. I did not think it was unusual for shopkeepers to close their doors as we approached. And I did not recognise the looks of fear and loathing on the faces of the other villagers.

The climax came when I was fifty-five. A delegation of villagers led by Dihenail Anoliad - a priest of Sehanine Moonbow - came to demand that my parents cease their activities and leave the dead to rest. My parents, of course, refused. During the resulting battle, I was teleported away by one of my aunts. It was my first experience with teleportation magic, and despite the traumatic circumstances it fired my curiosity. I resolved to learn all I could about such arcana.

It wasn't until weeks later that I was able to return to my childhood home. I tried to speak to several villagers, but until I had spoken with Dihenail and assured her that I did not follow my parents' example it was hard for me to get real information. I was permitted to visit my childhood home accompanied by the priest and a pair of experienced warriors, and this was my first adventure. To my surprise I found an extensive series of caves and tunnels beyond my father's "study", which were filled with undead monsters. Deep in the tunnel complex I found a book older than any that I had seen before. It was clearly a book of great and terrible evil, but unlike most of the books from my parents' library I could not read all of it. What I could read terrified me. I hid the book from Dihenail - I couldn't imagine what she would have done if she'd have found out about it. I have carried it with me ever since. Such a tome would be extremely dangerous in the wrong hands. 

From there I was determined to continue my studies of magic. To that end I sought out the temple of Mystra and the great library at Mount Talath. Expectedly, I was a quick study and my mastery of magic grew. I was curious about everything, but especially about the Netheril, even going so far as to learn their ancient tongue so that I could read the dusty scrolls that told of their empire. My sisters found me there once, but they left when they realised that I had no intention of following them into necromancy. They didn't say how they escaped the attack on my parents' home. I left Mount Talath after twenty years, seeking new magics and new experiences.

I have seen and learned much since then. My weakness has been a challenge to overcome, but I have sought out ancient tombs and libraries, forgotten ruins and lost towers. I believe I even once skirted close to the Underdark when I was following the trail of an orc shaman. I have avoided danger when I could, but it has been difficult. I am now convinced that I should find and join a group of adventurers. Such folk would compensate for my inherent frailty as I quest for more knowledge and more magic. My spells would surely be much sought-after among adventurers.

I have been in the city of Neverwinter for several weeks now, but I will leave the city tomorrow.