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.