Narratives

Being the report of Sir Clayton Crow, Knight of the Realm regarding the incidents recently having taken place in Mowbrenn. 592CY

I will begin with the understanding that these events took place in a time of civil war. The details of that war will be better documented elsewhere as my part in this was that of a soldier and not that of a historian.

All Nyrond soldiery and adventurers loyal to the crown were summoned to the Castle. It was there that we were mustered for various assignments. It was explained that Mowbrenn was to be the new seat of power for the traitorous prince unless we could accomplish several objectives. These were outlined to us by the Count himself. Once the objectives were stated the Count began to call for volunteers. I of course stepped forwards. I and the group around me were assigned the task of protecting and bringing to safety the Greyhawk Ambassador to Nyrond who was in a home not far from the castle. Being a visiting dignitary, and apparently a close friend of the Count's, he was a sure target for the insurgent forces.

None of the others in the team were military so I was given command of the mission and the responsibility should we fail. It was an...interesting group. There were three sneaky-types. Arissa Kell, whom I have worked with in the past, was there. I know her to be excellent with languages. A woman named Avrien was also there. She seemed of a similar nature to Arissa, though more martial in nature. A halfling wizard was also there by the name of Vito. He was not known to me either. And, as a matter of surprise, Vazentar Kosan, head of the Oerth Theatre Guild was also there. With him was a beautiful maid-servant whose name was Milicent Loria, a healer.

The trip to the home was uneventful though we were all wary. Thankfully our careful movement did not delay us overmuch or we would surely have failed. For as we approached the front gate of the house, it opened, revealing a readied coach surrounded by black liveried armed men.

Battle ensued immediately. Vito put to sleep most of the men, keeping us from being outnumbered at the start. They came straight at us, targeting me. One of them was a sneak-thief of no small skill. They surrounded me and the battle was joined. Vazentar's bow, and the rapier's of the women made relatively fast work of the brigands. And despite our battle, Miricent the fair kept them from perishing as they lay. For we had been warned that they were but simple folk and had had their minds clouded by the works of the enemy. As the enemy fighters were thinning out, a great howling beast was summoned to aid them. Avrien lept to engage it at great personal risk, Arissa followed soon after and it did not last long against them. As I finished the last attacker, the enemy leader showed himself. He was obviously a cleric of Hextor. He cast his foul magics but our onslaught was too great. The wizard was first to reach him and Vazentar's arrows were next. Overwhelmed, he fell to the forces of righteousness.

We found the dignitary unconscious in the carriage. Obviously they had meant to make him a hostage and use him to embarrass Count Cunal in the eyes of Greyhawk. We bound the men who fought against us and put them all inside the wagon. I am happy to report that there were no casualties on either side.

Day two was bleak. There were many wounded and the news of missing or dead soldiers kept coming in. The west gate was ours, but the east was theirs so no reinforcements would reach the city for either side. Given everything, this probably worked to our advantage. We had saved the temples, but the enemy headquarters was still active and worse; our men sent to capture it had been taken captive.

We were organized into our groups again, but Miricent's talents were more needed to tend to the wounded, so she gracefully departed us and we were assigned a druid. Once again, I was given command of the unit. I asked the team if they were willing to lay down life and love for their country because it was my intention to attempt to cut the head off of the insurgency and take out the headquarters. All were with me, so I approached the sergeant handing out orders. Grimly, he handed me the intelligence on the suspected enemy headquarters.

We dispatched early and went through the gates into low town. Before long we were met by a guard who had been surveilling the warehouse. His unit (of three) had seen many people go in after curfew and none had come out. There were two guards. He wished us well and told us he would monitor and send back word of what happened. We approached as near as we could without fear of being seen. As we were debating how best to assault the place a couple of roguish looking men approached the guards. A short conversation took place in which the following words were exchanged.

Guards: "What is the password."

Men: "Hextor is my master."

Being several hundred feet away, none of us were able to hear this, but Arissa Kell was somehow able to read the lips of the men speaking and that, more than any single thing was the key to our success at this mission.

Now having the password we quickly devised a plan. The druid shapechanged into a bat and stayed on Avrien's shoulder. Avrien and Vito approached quietly and in the shadows. I gave up my weapon and hung my shield arm straight down as though it were broken. Arissa wrapped her whip around my neck and Vazentar disguised himself to look like one of the rough types who seem to frequent low-town.

Arissa and Vazentar led me up to the gate and gave the password. We entered, causing a bit of a scene as we did. This allowed Avrien and Vito to sneak in while the door was open. The sight that met our eyes was unfortunate indeed. There were 7 more guards at a table by the door. A group of several dozen townfolk was also in the building facing an altar. Behind and beside the altar was a priest and two acolytes and behind them was a statue of the six-armed god. The priest called out asking our business. Vazentar replied that they had taken me prisoner. The priest bid them approach with me. This allowed us to get right next to the priest and the acolytes. As they asked for Vazentar to put me on the sacrificial altar, I started to struggle. This was when Avrien acted. She cast a silence spell upon an arrow and shot the priest with it. Seeing this, Vito began to work on the guards, putting some to sleep, dazzling others. The druid's companion snake distracted the guards outside. The acolytes began calling for aid, but the crowd was too confused and did not know what to make of things. Some started going for weapons. But now the battle was joined. I used my shield to attack the priest, Avrien rushed in to aid me. While Arissa dealt with one Acolyte, the second Acolyte was felled quickly through the druid's magic. Vazentar took the opportunity of confusion to change himself into a hideous avatar of Hextor and proclaimed that he was displeased and would sacrifice all who were present. This sent the crowd into complete panic and they began to run for the door. By now, the guards were subdued either through magic or by the druid's companion snake. Vito, ever quick witted, greased the area in front of the door so no one was able to leave.

We were victorious and better still, through all the melee there was only one unintended death. We were able to bring all of the traitors to justice alive and were able to keep from killing any of the possibly innocent commoners who had been ensorcelled.

Every member of my teams performed excellently and did credit to themselves and all loyal citizens. They are all to be congratulated and praised. However, I would like to take this opportunity to add my personal commendation to Arissa Kell, without whose skill in reading lips we would surely not have met with such great success at the enemy headquarters. Also Miricent Loria, whose selfless devotion to the health of the innocent led her not only into the thick of battle (where one so gentle should not be) but also away from the side of her lord, Vazentar.

Sir Clayton Crow

Having been successful in his escort mission the day earlier, Clayton Crow, squire of the Knights of the Kingdom, reassembled his strike team for a far more dangerous mission. Previous member, Miricent Loria, was reassigned to tending to the wounded at the castle and was replaced by the dwarven foreigner, Wang-Lo Treehugger. Rejoining the team were Arisa Kell, Avrien Riatin, Vazentar the Radiant, and the arcanist Vito.

Their mission, as briefed by the commander of the military forces defending the City of Mowbrenn, was to infiltrate the enemy headquarters. Deemed a suicide mission by most, Squire Clayton nevertheless secured the valiant commitment and resolve from each of his team members.

As the party neared the headquarters, a large, guarded warehouse, they kept their distance and observed the enemy for a moment. As fellow Hextorites arrived, they appeared to give a password to the guards at the doors. Keen-eyed Arisa actually managed to read their lips and related the code phrase to the party: "Hextor is my Master."

The strike team discussed various plans, eventually deciding upon Vazentar's suggestion. The lead performer of the Oerth Theater would magically disguise himself as a worshipper of Hextor, using the outfits and equipment he had seen the previous day, and approach the headquarters with a seemingly captured and bound Squire Clayton. "We have a prisoner," would be the bluff. The others would either act as fellow Hextorites or quaff Avrien's potions of sneaking and hiding to slip inside unnoticed once the doors were opened. Wang-Lo would transform into a bat and enter on the shoulder of an ally.

The plan worked well, and the party entered the headquarters without raising suspicion. A devotee of Pelor, Squire Clayton was relieved at not having to personally recite the blasphemous password. Lirrite Vazentar, however, considered it just another role to portray.

The warehouse was large and contained around 50 Mowbrenn citizens worshipping towards an altar in the far corner tended by three clerics. Vito ducked to the right and remained near the entrance by a table of armed guards. The rest of the party approached the altar, either directly or sneakily along the wall.

Effecting coarse diction, Vazentar informed the clerics he had a captured prisoner, gesturing to the squire. The head priest nodded and immediately attempted to ensorcel the 'prisoner' with a binding enchantment. It failed, and the villainous Hextorite beseeched his fell god to answer other dark prayers. Eventually, the hidden spymaster Avrien took the opportunity to surprise the enemy with a silenced arrow and sunk the missile deep into the priest's shoulder.

Combat ensued on all fronts. Wang-lo, using the subsonic keen of his bat form, called forth his animal companion, a dire snake that had been lurking in an alley near the entrance to the warehouse. Vito loosed spells upon the armed guards at the table, and Avrien tossed Clayton his military pick for use in battle with Arisa. Bursting through a window, the dire snake occupied the attention of the guards both inside and outside of the warehouse.

The 50 or so commoners enthralled to worship Hextor seemed susceptible to intimidation, and Vazentar, who was still maintaining his guise as a Hextorite, again magically changed his appearance, morphing into a near-seven-foot tall, six-armed avatar of Hextor. Summoning all the gravel his voice could muster, Vazentar boomed, "I am your god, and all here shall be sacrificed unto me!"

The commoners began fleeing as Avrien, Arisa, and Clayton continued their battle with the clerics. The wrath of nature came roaring down as Wang-Lo summoned a flame strike. In short order, the battle was won. The high priest was never able to overcome Avrien's silence.

After returning to the castle, Squire Clayton's strike team was well decorated with medals and ribbons. For his yet further duty to crown and country, Clayton Crow was knighted in grand ceremony. He would be hereafter known as Sir Clayton.

The day one battle was tough and gritty. Farl (Drd 3) and a bunch of other lower level characters had teamed up with a couple of higher level PCs (including Mara) to balance us out at APL 4. It turned out that with the rest of us adding fine support, especially the first level wizard who kept putting our enemies to sleep, the more experienced PCs were able to hack down our enemies fairly quickly and take the position. Farl's wolf, Ugat, helped out a lot by flanking and tripping up the enemies, while Farl lobbed fire all over the place. Somehow, even with our disparate power levels we made a pretty good team, and everyone got out alive.

The second day found my group at a disadvantage. With the departure of the two experienced characters, Farl was left the leader of an APL 2 party. Fighting in the street against a bunch of orcs, including an adept and a half-orc barbarian, we were truly outmatched. The human knight who was leading the orcs didn't even have to fight; he simply rode around waking up any orcs that our wizard put to sleep. Ugat was reduced to zero hit points from a single hit and slunk back to stand behind Farl. Suddenly, the adept cast a web that caught all of us in its area. Farl had started throwing flames the previous round and used the produce flame effect to burn his way out of the webs, but took a bit of damage and was immediately set upon by the barbarian. After an intense single combat, in which the doomed druid kept stepping back and torching the half-orc with produce flame, Farl was finally cut down with a fatal seventeen hit point greataxe strike. One other party member was unconscious, and the remaining two quickly surrendered. They were later rescued and Farl's money was used to reincarnate him rather than raise him, as per his last request. Although he had hoped to come back as one of his people's sacred wolves, he instead found himself in the body of a pixie. Laughing at Beory's cruel joke, he set off to find Ugat and make the long, arduous journey through the Gnatmarsh to report to his former people in the Abbor-alz and then find a more suitable home in the Celadon.

A recounting of the events around Mowbrenn, according to Ayodon Pyr, Elven Sorcerer Extraordinaire, whilst in the tavern of the Arcane Wanderer, told over a mug of Frothy Brew.

I found myself in the castle, amongst some varied friends and acquantences. L'lora Tisha the Deepwood Sniper, Falon Kilbourne of St. Cuthbert, Telor Borotin of Heironious, Eleri Tanner the Gamboge Ranger, Dart our nimble leader, and myself. Dart volunteered us to take and hold the west gate of the city, that we might prevent enemy reinforcements from overwhelming our defences.

Off we set, ever watchful, avoiding patrols of Hextorians that we might assualt the gate at our full strength. It had been warned that the gate was heavily fortified and presented a difficult challenge. As we approached, we encountered signs of necromancy and abjuration, where we identified foul magics had been used to animate some of our fallen comrades. Magical alarms also peppered the area, thus we prepared to meet with undead knowing that our enemy would surely be advised of our arrival.

Sure enough, when we broke cover at the edge of the houses, naught 100 feet from the gate, we could see skeletal archers lining the parapets. A voice called down that we should leave or die. My raven familiar was able to spot that one of the gate doors was ajar, and thus Dart formed our plan. L'lora and myself were to provide cover distraction while our team could get inside to secure the way up. I opened up with a flaming sphere, and found the skeleton archers easily consumed by fire. In less than half a minute, L'lora and I were able to completely quell the rain of arrows. I did get hit twice tho, and here are the two scars those foul creatures left me. At this point, L'lora quaffed a potion to allow her to scale the wall, while I ran up three flights of stairs. I learned that my four comrades who had initially ran in, had secured the first three floors without incident.

Upon the top of the gate, we were to encounter the true test of the day. An evil trio of Hextorians, a cleric, a mighty warrior, and a wizard, awaited us. L'lora was the first to make it up to the top, via the wall. Telor opened the door and Falon initiated our entry by summoning a celestial bison. Not a second after it appeared, the assualt on our forces began in earnest as the greatsword wielding Hextor Fighter charged into battle with the bison. Telor and Dart, nimble as rogues, tumbled thier way into the combat. Telor was charged from the rear by the Hextor Cleric wielding a dire mace. Grevious blows were landed on each side. I assaulted with my spells, and found I had to put extra effort into targetting with my flaming sphere, as the Hextorians were magically protected of fire.

L'lora, having topped the battlements fired a good 3 shots at the evil wizard, felling the arcane caster before she could get a spell off. Her skill with her bow likely kept us all alive with her quick action. Telor at this point fell unconscious, having born the brunt of a full attack by the cleric. Falon charged up the stairs in an attempt to push the evil fighter off the parapet, but was resisted the rush. I fired off my magics at him, scorching him in his less protected areas. The fighter then pummeled Dart to the point that he too, also fell. Eleri came to thier rescue, however, dispatching the fighter with a whirl of her sharp blades.

With the Hextor cleric thus left alone, he was easily dispatched. The gate was ours, tho we suffered grevious wounds. Two of our men had fallen, with Falon, Eleri and myself all having shed blood on the field. L'lori was sent off to report our success, bring reinforcements to better hold the gate, and obtain our mission for the next day. Falon tended to the wounded, and great was his healing power that by nightfall, we were all fully healed of our wounds.

The next day saw us assaulting a warehouse in Low Town, suspected as a hiding place for the evil hextorites. It was rumoured that not all squads had reported in and some were thought to have been taken prisoner. We made our way to the warehouse in question, eager to be on the offensive against the evil of Hextor. We found what appeared to be a full warehouse, filled with boxes. We entered covertly through the office window, wary of traps that may have been set at the doors. Dart and L'lori searched the outskirts of the boxes and found a hidden entrance that revealed the warehouse was but a disguised temple of Hextor. We entered the temple area, finding store rooms and bunks. Yet all was empty. A prominent double door area signified what would be the temple proper.

Upon opening the double doors, we found a large room, completely hidden within the boxes, with a vile unholy alter, and grotesque statues each with six armes holding axes and flails. Upon our entrance, two of the statues sprung to life, attacking. I started off with a fire attack, yet found them immune. Our warriors sprung into melee with them. L'lori devasted them with her longbow. Alas, poor Telor and Dart found out that facing six armed mostrocities almost proved to be his death. A straight out melee with these foes would be devasting for us. Dart and Telor tumbled out of melee in an attempt to nurse thier wounds whilst I pelted the monsters with magic missiles, to which they were not immune. Elori charged into battle so that our warrior/rogues might not be overwhelmed.

At this point, I realized that our front line troops would need help with thier hit and run tactics, due to the small confines of the temple. Since my flaming sphere would be of no effect, I used a pyrotechnics spell to create a cloud of noxious air. In this way, I was able to consume the enemy within the cloud. Of course, this also hindered my use of magic missile, and L'lori ability to hit with her bow, but it saved Elori from a blow that would have certainly taken off her head, Dart was able to continue his evasive maneauvering, and Telor, tho stuck in my cloud, was able to tumble along the wall into 'relative' safety. Even within the cloud, Elori was able to almost supernaturally know where the enemies were, striking them easily despite not being able to see her foe.

With Dart and Telor close to the Hextor altar, the monstrocities moved back into the temple proper to engage them. This drew some concern as they were the greatest hurt of our group. Falon and Elori rushed into the room. The battle climaxed behind the altar with Telor, Dart, Falin, and Elori all engaging and dispatching the monsters.

With my cloud hindering both L'lori and myself from being effective in combat, concern about a stairway leading down drew our attention. L'lori moved so that she could intercept anyone attempting to flank our party. I moved to assist her, and we both moved down the stairs. The end of the hallway found a torture chamber, with a prisoner alive within. Thankfully, the basement of temple was deviod of any enemies.

After dispatching the temple guardians, we sanctified the temple. During this process, Dart noticed a loose flagstone which revealed a secret chamber. Within we found more prisoners. They had been in fact, one of the missing squads of adventurers sent out the previous day. With elation, we set back to report to the Captain.

That evening we heard word that the Army had finally arrived from Rel Mord, and that the day saw much success. And that my friends, is how I recieved this Medal of Honor, and lovely Pin you see here.