Day Twelve

We walked for three days before arriving in Derelune. Upon arrival, we found that the army was there and the city was almost in a panic. A guard told us that they were expecting to be attacked by the monster army that had conquered Cormyr. We entered the city, sold some gear and re-equipped ourselves.

Having no other leads, or any idea of what to do next, we decided to try to speak with the mayor to offer our services to the city, since we are experienced warriors.

We ended up talking to someone from the army. He told us that a few months ago, monsters had swarmed out of the Storhorn Mountains into Cormyr. They quickly ravaged the land and conquered the country. Now, they are marching on the city and only one day away.

He told us to go to the east gate of the city to aid in the defense. Victor decided to leave us and go to an underground cistern and aid in defense that way, to avoid the sunlight.

We finished out the day with various small tasks. The cleric visited the temple, the bard put on a small show for some soldiers, etc.

That night, we climbed up to the wall over the east gate. We could see torches approaching. They grew closer and then stopped. Soon thereafter, campfires were kindled. The attackers had arrived.

The next morning, the attackers broke camp. While they were doing that, our bard cast an illusion of the god Garl Glittergold to appear over the camp. The kobolds and goblins started to panic, but the orcs in charge restored order after a few hours.

At midday, they began marching on the city.

A line of kobolds led the charge, followed by goblins, followed by orcs bringing up the rear. Once they were in range, the archers on the wall with us began to attack. We joined in with our missile weapons and various spells used to confuse them or hinder them.

Eventually, they arrived at the wall and started putting up ladders. We tried pushing over the ladders, but the goblins at the bottom were holding them in place. The cleric dropped a fire bomb on one and killed a few goblins and destroyed the ladder.

We couldn't hold them off though and they gained the wall. We killed off most of the attackers, but the bard ended up getting surrounded. He cast a spell to hypnotize them and ordered them to jump off of the wall to their deaths. The sorcerer killed the last remaining goblin and it was over. At least for the moment.

Day Eleven

From the bedroom in the keep, we entered the door. We walked a hallway to the west exploring each of three rooms to the south along the way. In the second room, we fought two vampires and prevailed. At the end of the hall, we passed a spiral staircase going up and entered the final room.

There was a large feces smeared dais that also sported a few dead rats. There was a door to the north that we suspected lead outside. There were also two doors to the west. We entered the first one and found a hallway leading to a circular room. We checked the other door and were attacked by five vampires. After this fight some of us were pretty beaten up. Some had suffered vampire bites and their constitution was dropping. We decided to rest in this room.

Unfortunately, we forgot to lock the door and a vampire broke in. Victor slew him with one attack. This time we locked the door and piled some broken chairs in front of it to hinder any intruders. We slept through the night without any more attacks. However, we periodically heard scratching at the door, followed by pounding at the door. A little later, we heard a squishy thump at the door. After that there was a chopping at the door, but no one got in.

The next morning, we opened the door and a dead feral vampire slumped into the room, his head smashed in. There was some superficial damage to the door. There was no other evidence of what had transpired. We walked back to the spiral staircase and went upstairs. We were in a hallway leading north and south. We proceeded north and entered a door. This was the master bedroom, but there was a coffin in the middle of the floor.

Being daytime, we tore all of the curtains off of the walls and opened the coffin. The vampire inside instantly turned to dust. We looted the remains and obtained the Amulet of Abyssal Warding. We cheered heartily.

Still weak from the day before, we decided to leave the keep rather than explore the rest of it. We left the keep and walked far away before discussing our options. We knew that we were somewhere in Sembia. The bard suggested that we head west towards Cormyr. We walked for two days whereupon we found a road. It led to the southwest and we followed it. Upon evening of that day, we found a farmhouse.

The farmer showed us much hospitality. We had dinner and then he sent his kids to bed. We asked for directions to the nearest town or settlement. He said that if we walk east across the fields for two days, we would reach the main road. If we took that to the southwest for two days.


He suggested that we swap some tales. We spoke briefly before finding out that that Cormyr had been overrun by goblins months ago. We were quite puzzled because we had not been gone for that long. Apparently, refugees have been coming into Sembia.

We spent the night there and in the morning, we had breakfast. The cleric offered to bless the man's well and livestock. He accepted. We decided to head to the closer town, Holka, to the east. We walked thirty miles that day and arrived in Holka.

We spent the night in Holka and looked at a map that one of the villagers had. We decided to walk back the way we came towards Derelune, 75 miles to the southwest along the road. We wanted to get close to Cormyr and plan our next step.

Day Ten

Tyr and Lathander opened a portal that took us to Sembia. We stepped through and arrived in a forest near a keep where the Pendant of Abyssal Warding was supposed to be. We approached the keep and found an open gate that led into it. Unfortunately, we could not open the gate without force. We wanted to be quiet, so we climbed the vine covered wall to get in. Two of us stayed up on the walkway to cover the area with ranged weapons and the other three descended steps into the courtyard.

There were five doors leading into various buildings down there. The three on the ground checked the first one, were attacked by a vampire and staked it. We dragged it into the sun to let it cook.

We checked the second door. There was a terrible, pungent odor of dookie emanating from behind it. We moved on. The next door opened into a hallway that probably led to a tower next door. We decided to save this for later.

We headed over to a fountain to check for secret triggers, items, etc. Buried under leaves and muck in the dried out fountain we found a portable hole. We rejoiced.

Next we entered the first door on the other side of the courtyard. Inside were three vampires. The cleric turned them and after a brief fight, they were staked and dragged out into the sun.

We noticed a door within the room and decided to examine it next.