April 10th-13th, 569:

GM Notes:

Much of Kharyna 's adventures would have occurred during this year, but exactly when they would have occurred his not clearly known yet. It was the late in the year before, Kharyna realized what Auril was really about and liberated the Isle of Everwinter from that foul goddess icy grasp. Kharyna and crew adventured for a time, traveled to Cynalon, freed the Dwarven city of Illefarn, and made her first steps into Gaz's Towers of Magic. In the late summer/early fall, she decides to become a mage with training being done by Lady Jallarzi Sallavarian.

While much of this time is unexplored, with the start of the Operation: Graystone game more of this year will be filled in. Since that game starts in April, this page also includes everything up to it.

The call has gone out from the Cynalonian Army seeking adventurers to join them in Operation: Graystone. This is the campaign that will see Cynalon retake the City of Gateway from the humanoid hordes and their Hextor masters. The city had been abandoned in the wake of the end of the Great War against Keln. A rag tag bunch of would-be adventurers arrive at Crossroads and travel to the military district to sign up for the campaign.

First to arrive is the Erisciana, a Priestess of Ishtar hailing from the distant Land of Fate. Vernar, a dwarven fighter/thief who seems to not know much about dwarves. Then comes Butternut, a bitter halfling who hates goblins. Ren, a gnome Shadow Mage follows and he uses a Change Self spell to take on the appearance of a half-orc for amusement, but most don't find it funny. Flare, a human Ranger of Selune follows along with Wimzy, a halfling Priestess of Azrella. Lucyus, a Paladin of Heinousness rounds out the group. These individuals are the first recruits of Wyvern Squad.

In the nearby barracks the adventurers get to know each other better and their commanding officer, Sergeant Traken. Traken announces that there is some gear that the army provides: leather armor, short swords, daggers and the like. Common weapons. Anything more extravagant will need to be purchased.

Wyvern Sqaud then moves out into Crossroads to purchase extra gear and have a meal. Several of the Squad end up at the Blushing Maiden Inn for dinner. Later, several return to the barracks for rest while others have rooms elsewhere in Crossroads.

Roster of Wyvern Squad: Sergeant Traken (PL), Butternut, Erisciana, Flare, Lucyus, Ren, Veranr and Wimzy.

GM Notes:

Operation: Graystone was the first new game that I started in a very long time. Everything else just splintered off of existing games, but this one was completely new. Well, to a point. There are a few familiar faces around in this, background characters who were background characters back in the Frontier days, which is two years in the future. Durn of Heinousness and Selinda of Azrella were part of the City Council during The Frontier game, so this will show them being part of the retaking of Gateway.

Surprisingly, there has not been all that many 'easter eggs' so far, apart from Lothar being part of Erisciana's backstory. Lothar led the bandits that the Guardians encountered in Twin Forks in the early New Frontiers posts. The building where the group is recruited and then later bunks in is the same building where the Seekers were formed two years later. The initial post mentioned that there were numerous individuals on the stage at the far end of the bunk house. These important individuals included the Crown Prince, Dame Sharl, Sir Alon Teramar, Sir Justin Moore, Squire Validar VanArkus, Squire Armon Flamehilt, and General Logan Rowen.

The Blushing Maiden Inn appeared in both Argent's and Stephanie's stories. It's an inn that Jallarzi, Sherwood and Sharadin use frequently.

Next morning Wyvern Squad has breakfast and are given a choice of mounts near their barracks. From there, they ride into an large open plaza where a huge procession will be moving from Crossroads to Fort Graystone. Leading the group is a unit of heavy cavalry, followed by the a group including General Logan, Sir Teramar, Sir Moore and their entourage. The main body of the procession includes five hundred footmen with units of light cavalry along their sides. The adventurer squads bring up the rear.

It takes nearly nine hours to reach Fort Graystone. Wyvern Squad is shown to their barracks. The barracks are in a large building where the middle of the ground floor is a common area/mess hall. The barracks surround this area and extend to the second floor.

While settling in, Sergeant Traken is approached by another officer. Words are exchanged and the officer leaves. Traken announces that Wyvern Squad has been given an assignment. In the morning they are to proceed to the Eagle's Nest observation outpost. Chimera Squad was sent there three days earlier and there is no sign that they made it. The outpost uses a flag system to report the condition of the pass. A white flag indicates that the pass is clear, while a black flag indicates danger. No flag has been flown for days now.

Most of the group has dinner and settles in for the evening. Butternut take a look around Fort Graystone.

GM Notes:

The officer who gave Sergeant Traken the mission was his immediate superior. That would be Lieutenant Shea, who oversees all the adventuring squads. Two years from now Shea is a Captain and the right hand man to General Logan Rowan. Yet another familiar face in all of this!

Next morning Wyvern Squad rides off from Fort Graystone towards the Eagle's Nest observation post to discover the fate of Chimera Squad. The first leg of the trip is uneventful and the forest is alive with signs of regular animals such as squirrels and rabbits. Near mid-day the group stops for lunch.

No longer after setting out again, Wyvern Squad comes to a side trail that leads to the Eagle's Nest. It's a small path that forces the riders to travel single file as it winds its way up the hills and to the base of the mountains.

Sergeant Traken explains that the Eagle's Nest is at the top of the mountain the group is riding towards. There is cavern at the base of the mountains that has been converted into a stable. A tunnel from there leads up the mountain and eventually reaches the Eagle's Nest at the top.

Wyvern Squad reaches the stable area and is surprised to find Chimera's Squads mounts are present! Flare tends to the horses and discovers that they haven't been feed or given water for days now. Some of the Chimera Squad left their food and water with their horse.

Butternut examines the dirt outside the cave and discovers the tracks of a band of goblins! The creatures were here before Chimera Squad! Perhaps they walked into an ambush?

Sergeant Traken directs the group to start up the passageway that will lead to the top of the mountain. The scouts are in the lead while Lucyus brings up the rear. The group spends over an hour climbing the ramp up the mountain.

A wind is finally felt and sounds can be heard leading Wyvern Squad to believe that they are near Eagle's Nest. The tunnel underneath Ren's foot suddenly shifts. Right after that the entire passageway violently pivots! The end Ren is at rises up into the air, while in the back Lucyus has the passage drop away underneath him!

Wyvern Squad falls into a new, steeper passageway that sends them hurtling out of control deeper into the mountain. Finally the slide ends with everyone falling into a large pool of stagnant water. Some weapons and torches are dropped and they also fall into the pool.

Those with infravision can see that the group has arrived in a good sized cavern while those who do not have infravision are virtually blind. A body is noted on the shore of the pool as Wyvern Squad emerges from the water and attempts to make sure everyone is accounted for.

Sergeant Traken's body is found at the bottom of the pool with a spike piercing his chest. A goblin is found in the pool as well with a spike through his throat. The body on the shore is discovered to be a half-elf. The half-elf is missing much of his flesh. It appears something has been eating the body!

Using strips of cloth from the half-elf, Butternut is able to use her flint and tinder to make a fire to light a torch that was covered with try cloth and oil to help it burn. Talk of who shall lead the group with the death of Sergeant Traken comes up. The group decides that Vernar and Lucyus will be co-leaders for now.

With a torch lit so those without infravision can see, the group moves along looking for a way out of these caverns. A body of a slain goblin is found not far away from the stagnant pool. The group continues on and comes to a four way intersection of tunnels. Looking up the left hand tunnel Ren sees what he believes to be another goblin, but this time floating in mid-air!

Wimzy determines that no undead are present Flare fires an arrow towards the body, but it hits something before it comes to a complete stop. Ren tosses a coin and the same thing happens to it. The group quickly realizes that the goblin and other objects are suspended in a nearly transparent creature! This creature is dissolving the goblin inside it!

Wyvern Squad backs off and goes down the middle passage away from the gelatinous cube. This passage winds its way along and comes to another intersection. There are tunnels going to the left and to the right with a small cavern up ahead.

The group decides to explore the cavern while taking a look down the side passages. A glistening is seen in both passages with it being less in the right hand passage, but stronger in the left hand one. It is believed the cube the group just evaded had come this way and that the left hand passage leads back to where they just were.

As Wyvern Squad gets closer to the cave, Wimzy suddenly lets out a shriek of “Undead!” that startles everyone! Then she runs into the cavern without any weapons! Those who follow find three figures on the right hand side of the cavern eating a body on the ground. Wimzy says that they are ghouls.

Wimzy rushes the ghouls and as she gets closer a bluish glow comes over her fists. The halfling Priestess of Azrella punches the ghoul and her fist emerges from the back of the undead's head! That ghoul dies instantly. A second ghoul is wounded and then finished off by Lucyus. Vernar kills the third ghoul.

The cave is explored while Wimzy asks that the bodies be burned to ensure that they are destroyed. Vernar finds a muck covered shortsword while Butternut a pouch of platinum coins. The ghouls and their victim are burned, lighting up the area. Ren finds an arrow engraved in the wall outside the ghoul cave pointing down the right hand passageway.

It is decided to explore the left hand passage first. This tunnel does lead back to where Wyvern Squad encountered the gelatinous cube, but another much larger cavern is found along the way. There are several dead goblins present and their clothes are missing. A camp site was set up in the cave and the group believes that Chimera Squad rested here. Seeing that the cave is defensible, Wyvern Squad sets up camp for the night.

Roster of Wyvern Squad: Lucyus and Vernar (PL), Butternut, Erisciana, Flare, Ren and Wimzy.

Next morning Erisciana and Wimzy both pray for Purification spells. The magic is cast on the groups food that was dunked in the stagnant water the day before. Now edible, the group eats heartily.

Wyvern Squad gets ready to head out once more. Ren goes to check on the position of the jelly blob encountered the day before. He discovers that it moved back to the area the Squad landed in and in the process picked up all the bodies that were left behind. From there it moved deeper into the system of caves.

Erisciana casts a Firelight spell making one of the torches emit a brighter light that covers a larger area. The magic should last for several hours as well.

Wyvern Squad moves out heading back the way they came towards the ghoul cave. Following the arrow etched into the wall, the Squad continues on past the ghoul cave and eventually arrives in a large intersection. Four more exits are noted in this area, but that is not all. The faint sound of running water can be heard overhead!

Pitons are noted embedded in the wall and they seem to lead upwards. High overhead, there is an opening in the ceiling and the sound of the running water seems to be coming from there. Ren climbs up the pitons and reaches the area overhead. A small wall surrounds the hole and rings to secure ropes to are noted on the side. A new looking rope is already secured here. It is long enough to reach the area below.

There are eight exits from this new area. One of the tunnels has a soft orange glow to it. The passage immediately to the right has the sound of the running water coming from it. The rest of the squad joins Ren overhead. Those who can climb up the rope and the rest are pulled up.

Faint voices are heard coming from the tunnel with the orange glow. Butternut realizes that the orange glow is not a campfire, but rather light from a lava flow! The group creeps down this passage and finds a group of four individuals at the end. The lava light emerges from a crevice in the floor. The lava itself flows deeper in the earth, but is close enough to illuminate this room.

The four individuals are in a deep discussion, but the lone elf among them notes Wyvern Squads arrival. These individuals are Sorvani , a human mage, Kendell and Vardra, human warriors and Kaylessa, a lady elf. These are the survivors of Chimera Squad! The two groups relax for a bit and Wyvern Squad shares what food they have with Chimera Squad as they have not eaten for days.

The story of Chimera Squad is not dissimilar to Wyvern Squad. They joined the army, traveled to Fort Graystone and then were assigned to the Eagle's Nest. Along the way they fell into the trap and were dumped deep within the earth. Lacking a priest, they were unable to purify their food and so have not eaten for days.

Just as Chimera Squad was pulling themselves out of the stagnant water, goblins attacked them. These were the same goblins that Butternut tracked outside of Eagle's Nest. They too had fallen into this ancient trap. Many of the goblins were killed and the rest ran off. A half-elf by name of Roleth died in the fight.

The lone dwarf in Chimera Squad, Tagith, had gone berserk and chased after the goblins. Sergeant Dewcan, the commander of Chimera Squad order everyone else to remain where they were and he would retrieve Tagith. Neither man returned.

The four remaining members of Chimera Squad decided to move out and look for shelter. They eventually found a large cave that would serve their needs. The rested for the rest of the day in the cave. Days later Wyvern Squad would use this same cave.

The next day Chimera Squad moved out to look for their companions and a way out. They discovered the cavern with the opening in the ceiling and decided that it was the way out. They looked around and found the body of Sergeant Dewcan being chewed on by a ghoul. The undead was slain.

Kaylessa drove pitons in the walls and managed to climb to the upper area in the cave. There she secured a rope to a ring embedded in the low wall and tossed it down for the others to climb up. The group noted the glow down one cave and the sound of running water. The other openings were quickly explored, but they seemed to just go around in circles. They all led back to this central area. The cave with the glow was found to be caused by lava from below. It was bright enough for the humans to see properly, so Chimera Squad decided to use as their base of operations.

The passage where the water was running was explored next. An underground stream flowed past this area and it provided fresh water for the group. In one direction the stream traveled upwards and rapids proved to difficult for Chimera to get past. Travel was more pleasant going the other way. These direct led to another series of caverns. The walls along they underground stream were coated with a glowing fungus that helped the humans to see.

The new cave system lead to an area where natural rock bridge crossed over a large crevice. Flowing lava could been see at the bottom of the crevice. This area eventually led to a set of worked stairs and climbed up. At the top of the stairs was a large worked room. Standing in the middle of this chamber as a 9' tall statue made to resemble a dwarf. However its arms ended in weapons instead of hands. The dead bodies of at least twenty goblins laid on the floor about the Stone Dwarf.

As soon as Chimera Squad got too close, the Stone Dwarf started to move and chased them! The squad were able to outrun the dwarf and it stopped chasing them and returned to the room with all the dead goblins in it, crushing their bodies with his passage.

Chimera Squad continued to follow the water, but soon found that it ended at a water fall and darkness. Sorvani theorized that maybe the Stone Dwarf would let not attack a real dwarf. To that end, they needed to find Tagith!

Retracing their steps, Chimera Squad returned to the cave with the hole in the floor. Kaylessa climbed down and started to search for Tagith, leaving arrows carved into the walls behind for the dwarf to follow, but did not find him. Instead she found more ghouls and was forced back up the rope. This was days ago and Chimera Squad was weighting their options when they were found by Wyvern Squad.

It is decided to see if Vernar would be attacked by the Stone Dwarf or not as both groups are rested and fed. Kaylessa leads the way back to the Stone Dwarf. Soon the combined squads arrive at the hallway with the Stone Dwarf. An open door can be seen past the Stone Dwarf.

Vernar cautiously moves closer and the Stone Dwarf does not react. Further in the back of the room a plaque is noted with dwarven runes on it. Vernar translates it to say, "Welcome sons and daughters of stone. All others will be treated harshly."

Vernar motions for Butternut to move closer and the Stone Dwarf does react. Ignoring anything that Vernar is saying, the Stone Dwarf moves after Butternut forcing everyone else to flee. Once far enough away, the Stone Dwarf returns to its guard position. Vernar notices light reflecting off a ring worn by one of the goblins. The ring is retrieve and it glows for a second when Vernar puts it on. In response, the eyes of the Stone Dwarf also glow. The ring has 'control' written on it in dwarven runes.

More writing is noted on the plaque and Vernar translates it into say that this place is called Bollo's Shield and that it was dedicated 1100 years ago. No one knows who this Bollo is.

Vernar tries the ring and and mentally commands the Stone Dwarf to move to see if he has any control over it. The Stone Dwarf does not react. Next he verbally orders the Stone Dwarf to move into a corner and not attack the rest of the squad. The Stone Dwarf complies! Wimzy if the first to move closer and the Halfling priestess is not attacked.

With the Stone Dwarf circumvented, the Squads go into the room past the door. It is a large square room. There are defensive walls in place where dwarves could launch ranged attacks against those coming from the caves. Behind these is a pair of large wooden doors bound with metal. The group tries to pull the doors open, but they won't budge. The doors are barred from the other side and a large wooden timber keeps them shut.

Kendell attempts to use the sword Vernar found in the much the day before as a lever to lift up the timber on the other side of the door. The sword instead breaks under the strain.

Vernar summons the Stone Dwarf and the large construct pushes the doors open, shattering the timber in the process The doors swing open to reveal a new area. The overwhelming smell of waste and garbage assaults the squads. Butternut declares this area to be the home of goblins!

The area beyond the doors are of worked stone. The squads have entered into the old dwarven lair. A hallway is entered with multiple doors and ways to go. The doors have all swollen from the passing of years and no longer close properly. The door creaks loudly on its rusty hinges when opened, but nothing comes to investigate the noise.

The first room checked is an ancient storage area. Gear take from the caves was initially brought here. Most of the gear is old and moldy by now. Much of it on the floor and most have no desire to even touch it. A connecting door leads to an old barracks. Most of the bunks have rotted and collapsed.

The Squads continue to advance down one of the hallways. The passage reaches an intersection. A faint breeze is felt coming from one of the passages, while a soft noise is heard from behind another door. The door is opened to reveal a gaming room. There are tables here with coins and dice scattered on them. This room is much cleaner and shows signs of recent usage. However, the source of the noise is not here. Rather its from beyond the door on the other side of the room.

Recognizing the noise, Butternut quietly goes forth to seek out the source. A short hallway leads to a much larger area where many goblins have gathered! Butternut can't see much but there has to be hundreds of goblins in the area.

Suddenly a voice calls out in dwarfish, "Get'r mangy paws of a me, ya flea-ridden mongrel!" The voice sounds like a dwarf coming from somewhere deeper in the room!

Realizing that they are hopelessly outnumber, Vernar retrieves the Stone Dwarf and sends it forth into the ancient dwarven lair. The construct moves along at a slow pace until it finally sees the goblins. Then it lets out a hollow roar and rushes to attack! Nothing Vernar says stops the Stone Dwarf from engaging this hated enemy of the dwarves!

The Stone Dwarfs arms flail about it striking any goblin in its path! Most are killed immediately, but those who do survive the hit do not withstand the impact from being thrown. The Stone Dwarf crushes any goblin underfoot. The construct does not care if any women or children goblins fall before it.

The immediate area where the Squad entered this large area is cleared of goblins and the Stone Dwarf continues to chase them. There is a pit in the center of the room and a dwarf down there is being menaced by a worg. The beast is put down by ranged attacks and magic.

Vernar and Wimzy jump down into the pit. The dwarf barely clings to life and Wimzy pulls him back. The dwarves companions where not as fortunate. It is then that they realize that there are more goblins on the other side of the pit. The Stone Dwarf is chasing them around the pit, meaning that the group will soon be swarmed by fleeing goblins!

The rescued dwarf is helped out from the pit. He introduces himself as Sann Silverbeard, an Agent of the Ministries of Histories, whatever that is. The Squads quickly bunker down in the small hallway that runs parallel to the large room with the pit. The group splits up to guard the entrances from this area from the goblins.

A surge of goblins comes running past the Squad positions. The goblins are to focused on running for their lives to attack. Some do run back to the game room and flee the area. Ren uses his last vial of Alchemist Fire to block of the area from the goblins. The rest of the goblins run past the group and flee to the south. Eventually they go past with the Stone Dwarf chasing them.

Sann gathers his wits and says that the way to the south, the same direction the goblins and the Stone Dwarf went, is the way out. Cautiously, the combined Squads follow after the fleeing goblins and the construct chasing them.

A fresh breeze is also felt along the way. This direction seems to be the way out! Eventually, outside light can be seen and the group climbs up a set of stairs and exits the ancient dwarven lair! The fleeing goblins and the Stone Dwarf continued on in their underground pursuit.

Not far from the entrance, Sann Silverbeard finds his mule and the mules his companions rode where they left them. There is some spare food and water to be hand. Flare and Butternut get their bearings now that they are outside and believe that they can find the way back to the Eagle's Nest outpost.

The squads start to walk back to Eagle's Nest. Along the way, Sann reveals who he is and how he ended up in the goblin's lair.

"I be an agent for the Ministry o' Histories an' I be on a great mission," Sann says. "Most of ye know of the Keln Lands to the east of here? What ye now call the Frontier lands? But can you name what that land was before Keln? Anyone?"

"Ye can't! No one knows!" Sann calls out. "That be the mystery I be seekin' to unravel! We dwarves are long lived and have thousands of years o' recorded history. But there be a hole in our history and that hole is what was who lived in the Frontier Lands before Keln. Our records for that area go back a few thousand years, but before that there be nary a thing! It's like a whole civilization just vanished an' all records o' it were erased!"

"While diggin' through our historical records, I found an old entry to places called Bollo's Shield and Bollo's Spear," Sann continues. "Now I be assumin' that ye have no idea who ol' Bollo was. Bollo was the most miserable despot to ever sit on the Dwarven King's throne! After decades of his foul rule, the dwarves rose up and removed Bollo from the picture. Permanently, if ye be getting' me meanin'. The dwarven senate was formed after that to balance an' reign in the King's power."

"From what I can tell, ol' Bollo feared the rise of the humans and elves to the east o' the dwarven lands. So he built an observation post to keep an eye on things, that be Bollo's Shield. In case that there be trouble, Bollo's Spear was a dwarven fortress where his armies could launch attacks into the human an' elf lands. When ol' Bollo was removed from the throne, his spear and shield were abandoned as they be on the fringe of the dwarven lands. We didn't have any trouble with the humans o' Cynalon so these bases were all but forgotten."

"So now ye be wonderin' why I came searchin' for Bollo's Shield," Sann states. "These places be old enough that perhaps historical records here could have the information I need. Perhaps here I could discover who used to live in the Keln Lands! So that be me quest! Lore an' forgotten knowledge!"

"With the blessin' of the Minstry o' Histories, me and me companions set out to find these locations and perhaps clues to the lost history of the Frontier Lands! We rode south from Fort Karrak to try an' find the spear and shield. The maps I found showed a few roads through the mountains so we could avoid the goblin city at the end o' the pass. After many days o' travel, we found this place and just started to explore when those dung slingers swarmed us!"

"The rest ye all know," Sann concludes.

As the group walks back to the Eagle's Nest, talk turns to trying to reach the top once more and the trap that sent everyone deep into the mountain. Ren theorizes that the trap works like a teeter-tooter. The trap was unlocked when he stepped on the loose stone and it was all the weight in the back that caused it to tilt, sending everyone sliding down. If small groups go up the ramp and they stay together, they should be able to avoid falling into the trap again.

Late in the afternoon, the Squads reach the base of the Eagle's Nest where they stabled their horses. The mounts are taken care of while Sorvani works on making a fire pit. Butternut and Kendell gather wood for the fire. There is a stream nearby, so there is fresh water to refill the skins. The girls clean themselves up first, and then later the men.

The Squads to sleep outside tonight by the campfire. The subject of leadership comes up and there is passionate discussion on the matter, but no consensus is reached. A guard rotation is set up and many turn in for the evening.

Combined Roster of the Squads: ?? (PL), Butternut, Erisciana, Flare, Kaylessa, Kendell, Lucyus, Ren, Sann, Sorvani, Vardra, Vernar and Wimzy.

GM Notes:

That was a very long day!

The sword that Vernar found down in the ghoul cave and then Kendell later broke was a Shortsword +2. Opps!

The maps for the caves and the dwarven lair are from the basic game adventure module B5 - "The Horror on the Hill". As most of you know, I freely cannibalize things from various sources. The maps themselves were heavily edit to make smaller and the majority of the encounters simply ignored. In fact the upper and lower caves were all from the same map! The gelatinous cube and the ghouls were from the module itself.

Likewise the caves leading up to where the Stone Dwarf was found were paired down to what I showed. None of the encounters were carried over there. A few random encounters are fine in an MB game, but you cannot do as many as you could in a live game. You'd never get anywhere!

The caves and lair were from the end of the adventure. The above ground portion was used many times in face to face things. In fact I'm sure that Sherwood adventured here before back in the days when I was playing him. The outside was used elsewhere in this game. It ended up as the setting for the Temple of Mystra in the swamp mentioned several times before. Kaylin Tremayne adventured there back in the Borderland game on Q-Link.

At one point I did have something else going to happen in these caves, but ultimately never did anything with it. The ancient dwarves would have build a method where water from the underground stream was collected and stored. Once there was enough water, the weight of the water would force a gate open and the entire lower level of the caves would be flooded! This would happen once a week or so and would explain why there was still water in the trap area. It was the a low point where water would collect after a flood. There were other areas in these caves the players didn't explore that had other pools of water and sink holes to explain where the extra water went. The idea was the flood was used to clean up the caves from the things trapped down there. It was bad enough being stuck down there in the dark without having the players risk being drowned as well! See? Sometimes I am merciful!