Well, it's been about 8 months since anybody has seen my uncle Roscoe. I'm beginning to wonder if he's in need of a rescue. I began asking around and it seems that Roscoe got together with some of his old adventuring buddies and left town. I remember Rolf, a nice dwarven fellow that liked to scare the crap out of the kids around town, and Wintershiven, a creepy half-elf. There were more, but I don't remember the others very well.

Asking around town yielded little information. It seems the organizer of this expo didn't say much about it or where they were going. I went through some of Roscoe's papers and found a note about a tower that is supposed to be a couple hours out from Marsember. The note was dated about the time that he went missing so I rented a pony and headed out there.

I found the hill, but there was no sign of a tower, nor any sign of ruins, a struggle or anything. Feeling a little discouraged, I headed for home. On the way back I passed by a hin druid named Hyacinth Bu-kay that got on my case about making the pony useful. She calmed down after I talked a little sugar to her. I got out of her that nothing would grow on that hill and no animals ever use the area for their lair. The druids in the area are confused by this, because they can't find a reason for it. I wonder why they don't just ask the animals why they don't like the spot, after all, they ARE druids and all ... shouldn't they be able to talk to them? Eh, what do I know.

Back in Marsember I went to the library and managed to find a few obscure passages about a haunted tower or vanishing fortress being associated with the hill.

July 6, 2001

Todays intrepid adventurers are:
Me, currently a Rogue/Sorcerer (6/2)
Tarn, The Barbarian Cleric and now Templar of Kord (4/5/2)
Coletan, The Wizard (10th)
Ragnar, Paladin/Templar of Heronious (5/1)
Iceal, a Monk with temperament problems (7th)

I returned from my investigations to find a 4 foot tall obelisk in the middle of Roscoe's living room. Coletan and I checked it out and as far as we can tell the writing on it is some precursor to elven. It radiates no magic, and there are no signs of how it got here.

Prices in Marsember have been going up drastically. Rumor has it that there is a war brewing with the giants. That's awesome! Finally things will get interesting around here. Hmm, what's the best way to fight giants? I'm thinking I'll have to work on my magical skills. Were the hell are the giant lands, anyway?

We are finally starting to get some respect around here. Idool summoned us to a meeting just to see how we were doing. He also gave Iceal and Ragnar the free beer rings. I asked him about the rumors of a war with the giants, but he dismissed them as fanciful. My thinking is that if the rumors are strong enough to drive prices up, there must be something to them. Idool is probably just too aloof to give a crap.

Crystal, the lass that runs the breadshop in Tunderstone, stopped by with some interesting info. It seems Tarn's thirst for dragonblood has come to the attention of some sort of dragon cult founded by someone named "Samaster". She thinks there may be some assassination attempts directed at us.

As she was leaving, Tarn and Rangar got back from looking at some property to build a Kordian Church on. They looked like they ran into some trouble. Tarn had a sword and a crossbow with draconic markings on them. Hmmm... 2+2=?

Crystal said she knew of a woman (ex-sage) that might be able to help us with the obelisk that lives a few hours outside of Marsember. So, we threw the obelisk into the portable hole and the whole group headed out of town to find this old woman.

We found her camp on the beach and when we went to wake her, we were surrounded by a mist that transported us to a tavern that none of us recognized. There was a feeb at the bar and four ruffians at a table. After a few vain attempts to figure out where we were, the ruffians got up and starting harassing Norman (the feeb). Of course, a fight broke out. The ruffians were using non-lethal methods, but they seemed very skilled. Coletan and I tried to subdue the ruffians but Tarn and Iceal scoffed at us for taking to long. "This is how you end a fight!", Exclaimed Tarn as he started cutting down hooligan after hooligan. Iceal was breaking backs over his knee as well. Rangnar and I voiced our opinions that that might not be the best course of action, but things were happening too quickly. Norman freaked out at the carnage, and the mist returned to transport us out of the tavern. I was left thinking that we had just been tested and failed.

While in the mist we saw a Paladin running off to hell to rescue some boy. A solar appeared and told the Paladin that he would surely be defeated if he went after the boy. He didn't care and then went. I said to the solar that we would help if need be. She berated me for addressing her incorrectly, so I tried my best get it right. "Sorry, Mam." The scene disappeared and I felt as though we had made some progress.

Next, we saw a scene of the Paladin helping the boy to a cabin. The boy was in very bad shape. We healed the boy up, and the mist enveloped us again.

Next, we got to partake in some action. The boy was in hell, about to be crushed by a demon. The demon just got finished disembowling a fighter just as we departed the mist. Calling on the Luck of the Irish (and my trusty Wand 'o Chaos) I called upon the powers of transformation. Lo, and behold, it actually worked! The demon was transformed into a rather upset duck. There were high-fives all 'round and as we turned our thoughts to all the despicable things we could do to the duck, the mist enveloped us once more.

The next test had us in a cave with two ogres and a ranger in a cage. The ranger called to us to help him retrieve his sword. He thinks it's in the pool over there... So Tarn and Ragnar beat the hell out of the ogres and we got his sword back. Yippie. Enter mist.

The next test we saw the ranger receiving the sword from some sort of saint or deity manifestation. As the ranger received the sword, he was about to be ambushed by a humanoid with a dozen snakes in place of it's head. Combat ensued, we prevailed, and we moved onto the next test.

Just as we were beginning to think this whole thing was a cakewalk, we saw something rather disturbing. The Ranger from the previous scene was rescuing a maiden from a cave. The maiden exited the cave, but we saw her turn the corner and wait for the ranger. As the ranger was trying to flee the cave, a friggin HUGE firegiant strode up to the ranger, booted his body UP off the ground, kicked it a few more times hacky-sack style, then volley-ball spiked the remaining limp mass into the ground. It then looked at us and assumed a monkish fighting stance. If that weren't enough, it was wearing a pink robe. We were stunned. Being the quick-witted hin that I am, I quickly deduced that there was no way in hell we were going to beat this guy, Tarn or no Tarn. The test must be about something else (IhopeIhopeIhope). The girl. Yes, the girl must survive! So, I ran over to the girl to persuade her to move along before she gets crushed. The rest of the party tried to hold the kung-fu firegiant off. It took some persuasion, but I eventually got her to run for her life as the party yelled in unison "Cue the MIST!" (whap, thud) "OHmyGOD! You bastard! You killed Iceal! Cue the MIST! Get us out of here!", and none too quickly, the mist took us to the next test.

The next couple of tests revolved around Norman (the feeb from the first test). We had to help him gather stuff for a potion that he was making. We defended him from a harrier on a cliff, and some zulus in a jungle (Tarn made mincemeat out of the zulu's champion). Then we re-did the first scene. This time we wisely didn't kill anybody, and Norman's self-esteem rose considerably.

There were two other tests after that. One involved a Hag, the other and angry crowd of townspeople. After the kung-fu firegiant, these were hardly worth noting.

Finally, we returned to reality. We were back by the old sage, and she was just awakening. She told us that she had just been dreaming about us, going through time and helping right situations that went wrong. Oh what a warm fuzzy feeling we all have now (except for Iceal - he has a cold, clammy feeling.)

The sage-lady told us that the obelisk was an ancient elven marker used to delimit the boarders of the elven lands during the time of elves. It could not possibly be real, because it was in perfect condition. Hmm.

We purchased a scroll of dead-raising and got Iceal back on his feet again. The first thing he did was go off to tell his necromancer friend about his experience. Who's side is he on, anyway? Then, we plotted our next move...