Adventures in West Weng

These are the adventures of West Weng.

Characters

 * Hedjtep Kanut
 * Alwar Stonefist
 * Laharl
 * Melfaren

Non-Player Characters

 * Elric
 * Quartockz

The Wolves Cry
West Weng is starting to become the budding town we always hoped and dreamed. However two villagers, the son and daughter of our illustrious town mayor, were discovered missing from their homes. At about the same time, the nightly howls of the wolves have been increasign and random encounters from gnolls have been happening more and more frequently. The faithful heros who founded the great village of West Weng took off in search of the villagers with their newly acquired friend, a gnome monk.

After tracking the gnolls through the local forest and across an ancient battlefield they were able to discover the dwelling of the gnoll horde and set upon them with a vicious distaste. In short order the gnolls were dispatched along with their wolven pets and our intrepid heros continued on to search for the missing villagers. After a small distance of the sun's shadow, the villagers were discovered chained to the floor of the cave, but alas, it was too late for them. They had been infected by a lycanthrip poisen and had turned into werewolves. With tears in their eyes, the group of adventures had to make the horrible decision of killing them, rather than risking the spread of horrible infection.

With the poor villagers "rescued" persay and the gnolls wiped out, our sad heros returned back to town.

The Dwarven Alchemists
As journalled by Hedjtep Kanut

Before out journey to Murann to save Karakas, we had one more expedition to "our" town of West Wang. I felt it important to check on the temple there before I left the country, perhaps for good. Melfaren and Laharl both accompanied me, as they too had business in the town.

When we arrived, the mayor informed us that the threat from the forests that we investigated previously have not stopped. Night upon night, villagers from the outskirts of town were dissapearing. Knowing we couldn't refuse, we set out the next morning. We traveled to the cave structure, and it looked largely as we remembered it to be. Besides the random gnoll, it was eerily quiet.

We first decided to investigate the crudely blocked off passage marked "haunted." The path was found to be short, ending on a door to what appeared to be a prison cell. Lying at the door were skeletons of what looked to be long-dead dwarves. Inside the prison door, we heard rustling, as if someone was pacing back and forth. A look through a small hole near the bottom seemed to tell us the impossible: someone was alive in the cell.

History started coming back to me, and the tale of a great battle near this land came to my mind. The battle involved a dispute over the land and resources, fought between dwarves and humans. After opening the door, we found a rather surprising image: a ghost, pacing back and forth, seemingly oblivious to his now skeletal corpse in th corner. The ghost was confused, claiming he was Elric, the leader of the humans who 600 years ago fought the battle near here. Laharl, tactful as always, finally convince him that he is dead, and the battle and the dispute is long over. Elric did not too kindly to this, and a short battle ensued. Elric, and his skeleton guards whom he willed to life, were quickly disposed of. Left, on a table in the corner, was a spyglass, looking far newer than 600 years old.

The three of us traveled back to the main corridor, and to the room where we previously found werewolves many moons ago. The rune in the floor in the center of the room proved to be some sort of teleporter, and the key was found to be the spyglass. Looking in it transported us to another section of the cave, and gave us a vision of the history the battle that was fought on the ground above us. Less than 20 dwarves managed to fend off hundreds of humans using extremely powerful weapons. The weapons were blotted out from the vision, but the essence came through - they were powered by some very intense elemental magic.

We found ourselves in another, almost identical room, where we were stricken with a vision of ghostly dwarves, roaming the room, oblivious to our entrance. As we tried to make sense of this, something seemed to be attacking us, and it was quickly realized we were under the influence of some kind of illusion. I managed to break free of the magic, and saw our attacker: several shocker lizards, who thought hitting us was quite amusing. Soon Melfaren broke the spell too, however Laharal failed and seemed to briefly go crazy and try runnign out of the room, despite my attempt to trip him.

The spyglass was broken, and Laharl broke free of the spell; the shocker lizards were then quickly disposed of. We turned left at a T in the tunnel and found a room ahead. Inside, alongside a wall, was a fountain of amazingly cold water, falling on and being absorbed by a smooth looking stone. Blocking the flow with his sword, Laharl removed the stone. Gazing at it gave the impression of an ocean, trapped and bottled inside the small stone.

Moving on, we came to a a minor roadblock in our trek: a rather bored looking elder fire elemental. The room immediately in front of him served up a way around, however. Inside, drooping from the ceiling was a pillar that had an end with an aperture perfectly shaped for the water stone. Laharl pushed it in, and Melfaren and I pulled two levers that were on the wall near the door. The first lever dropped a gate over the door, the second activated the stone.

A rush of water so powerful exited the stone, it rocketed us against the door, as it broke through the wall and rushed toward the unsuspecting elemental. Upon interacting with the fire, an equally energetic explosion rocked us back in the opposite direction, knocking Melfaren out cold. The rush eventually died down, but never completely stopped. Wading out to the hallway, we encountered the elemental, now looking like a sick, wet hairless cat. We quickly disposed of it, as the water rushed past us and down a crack in the floor. Waking Melfaren, we attempted to retrieve the stone, but found it encased in ice. We moved on, but only after finding a rather odd looking sword floating in the current - it was totally made of crystal, and had a spot on the base that looked perfect for the water stone we just had.

Moving on, we quickly found two more stones, one absorbing lighting, another flame. In the process we learned that the water from the first stone flowed down into a shocker lizard colony. Hundreds of shocker lizards were attempting to move away from the growing water.

After a few more transportations using the runes in the ground and the lighting stone, we eventually were led down to the deepest part of the cave. It was a circular room, and we stood on a ledge that traveled its circumference. In the center, on a thrown, sat a odd looking dwarf. At his feet were a dozen creatures, what could have only been the mutated lycantropic versions of the West Wang missing villagers.

The dwarf told us that he was the sole remaining survivor of the battle so long ago, and he had spent all these years attempting to revive his fallen comrades. He had been using the villagers as test subjects, but they all had failed. Growing impatient, he ordered his minions to attack us.

During the brief conversation, it was noticed that the west wall of the room was about to cave in - mostly due to the mountain of water and shocker lizards on the other side. Lizards streamed out a crack at the top, trying to escape being exposed to the water. As the wolves attacked us, Laharal and I fought them off as Melfaren (after an ill fated attempt at throwing the lighting stone at the wall) shattered the wall open. The water rushed in, electrocuting hundreds of shocker lizards and the attacking werewolves. The high ground saved us and the dwarf, who now was not amused. He moved at us, now putting into full view a large mace with what could only be a earth stone powering it.

The battle was intense, as the dwarfs mace seemed to control the very land we stood on. Clearly, he knew how harness the stone's true power as the mace vibrated with power as he swing it toward the ground. Barely missing falling into the pits the dwarf created, Laharl landed took massive blows to the dwarf. The wounds, however, seemed to heal as fast as they were dealt, and in one massive fury, the dwarf cracked open the earth right from under him. He fell, into what seemed like an bottomless pit. Left on his thrown was armour, again with a slot to insert a stone, and a diary, explaining the dwarf's mad vision. In the process of trying to revive his fallen companions, he become immortal, and could not be killed.

Convinced what threat was left had been dealt with, we returned to West Wang and reported what we found. For the rest of our visit back, Laharl attempted in vain to harness the power of the stones through his sword. The magic still remains a mystery.

An Elemental Awakening
Years later, as peace finally settles upon West Weng, fate has decided to take things into its hands. First an earthquake hits, then a tidal pool in lake Waheeng, and then a lightning storm. What could be causing all this unnatural weather, the elders don't know but fear not, for Cedric the doom-sayer does! Cedric is convinced it's the fault of the creatures in the surrounding wilderness so he is rallying the troops to wipe the forest clean of all inhabitants! Those pesky beasts won't be snacking on any West Weng citizens if he can help it.

Will the creatures survive? What's really happening in the area? What exactly is Cedric's intelligence score? Find the answers to these questions and more in ...

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