PAXLAIR - May 30, 1999 - Pfredd Mudd
Friday night a grandmaster mage, 'the infamous Cattica'
appeared in PaxLair, asking for adventurers to help her recover a treasure.
Well, since she said she'd decoded the map using magic, most ignored her at
first, until she did a divination for me, telling me something only a few
knew. At that point, even though I still doubted the magic involved, we
began gathering folk together. After a short search, we had roughly 20 folks
gathered, some constantly asking her if it was a 'level 5' map, which seemed
to confuse her to no end.
After preparations were complete, we jumped through gates to Vesper,
then walked the graveyard road south and then out into the forest, ignoring
the stares of passersby at the large group (and frightening a couple of
folks.) We reached the crossroads by the gate to buc's den, examined the map
again, and Lord Darius led the charge south into the woods. As we came close
to the spot, a horde of headless attacked us, which led some to conclude
this was no ordinary map.
We approached the site, which was the ancient site prepared by Seer
Daemeon that used to enter Dungeon Shame. While the site looked normal at a
distance, when we approached walls of stone would appear, blocking us from
entering. Some folks teleported in or gated in, but the mage insisted we
find the proper entrance in order to decode the map properly. We finally
did, and a master lockpicker BardBart attacked the door, finally wrestling
it open. Inside, everything was calm, though there were a few knew things
about.
Cattica began attacking the ground while some folk gathered behind a desk
-- one or two complaining of how bored they were, others standing nearby her
ready to help. A gout of flame appeared once or twice, nearly singeing my
beard, and two others'. Finally we decided it must be a sign, and asked her
to dig there. The 'clunk' of her shovel heralded the chest as it appeared,
along with four poison elementals and a blood elemental. The group of bards,
myself, June, and Soloman Mythos, made sure they didn't hurt too many folks,
though there were two casualties, super swat team and chadda darkmane.
The chest was opened and folk converged pulling out the items. Five elder
gazers and more elementals made it clear this wouldn't be that simple. After
a battle that raged back and forth, we were finally victorious. The book
that the lady needed was found in the chest, and handed to her. As she
opened the book, her eyes flicked eagerly around the pages. Questions piled
upon her as she read, her annoyance only barely concealed.
The book seemed to be by a mage Githmore, and described "something" he
attempted. She said that after she had studied the book, she'd be back to
Paxlair to gather other things that the instructions called for.
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