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DM: Robin
Players: Lynn, Mike, Missy, Rachel, Todd, Tracy
They were all in Timber for different reasons. Trenar the dark elf and Kayla the high elf were fleeing to the borderlands where their forbidden love might not be noticed. Tellar, the berserker from the Skyfall Mountains to the west, was looking for adventuring companions to help him avenge the death of his people. Shao Tsang, the psionicist from the oriental land (orient means west in this world) of Kara Tur, was on a journey of personal enlightenment. Victor was on a mission which is best not discussed at this point. Og . . . Well, Og was just there.
They might have passed through the village of Timber without ever speaking to each other if there hadn't been an angry mob about to execute Ezren when they showed up. Ezren had been accused of murdering several townspeople. The fact that the victims had been stung to death didn't seem to faze the mob. They were sure it was Ezren, partly because he had a grudge against a local wizard (Kasmordo) who had refused him as a student. Shortly after turning Ezren down, Kasmordo had died, and the murders had continued since then.
The PC's intervened, taking Ezren
to the local tavern ("The Dryad's Fountain" at the time, but it changes
with the owner's whim) where they could discuss the matter quietly. Og occupied
himself by chasing a loose chicken down the street. The sun went down. While
Ezren was explaining to them that he wasn't even in town when Kasmordo died,
and that he didn't have a poisonous stinger, another victim was killed outside.
The PC's spotted a sinister shadow of a skeletal humanoid with a huge scorpion's tail. Ezren said it looked like a bone devil. Despite concern that any sort of baatezu could slaughter them all easily, they pursued the creature through town, and out into the fields, where they found only a large goat. Shao Tsang read its mind and heard, "Hee-hee, they think I'm a goat." They attempted to seize the goat, only to see it change into a bird and fly up to the top of Kasmordo's tower.
Pursuing into the tower, they encountered several monstrous larvae and then, up in the laboratory, a menagerie of caged monsters. The creature led them away, then released the monsters into Timber. This included, among other things, a leucrotta, a giant spider, an ankheg, and a troglodyte.
Returning to Timber, they found
that the monsters were wreaking havok. They split up, hoping to drive most of
the creatures out. They had some success, and killed the troglodyte, but then
found the goat, standing on a rooftoop while larvae squirmed and villagers were
being sacrificed inside. The goat turned out to be an imp, formerly Kasmordo's
familiar. Victor and Og climbed up to the roof to fight it, inadvertantly knocking
it onto Shao Tsang, who was stung. Eventually, with some magical support, they
managed to kill it and stop the ritual.
Most of the monsters were driven out of town, except for a giant spider that had built a web across the east road. Afraid that Ezren's suggestion that they burn the web (okay, Victor was concerned; Og was just afraid of fire) would end in disaster, Og and Victor killed the spider themselves. Trenar and Kayla had vanished in the chaos, and Shao Tsang was seriously ill from the imp's poison.