REPORTS(2000-2001)

Turnip's Report

Report from Turnip McFeegle on the Quest to retrieve the Unicorn Horn (to be read with a Scottish accent)

We went oot, killed some stuff and got the horn.  Loads of drew and undead were involved but now exist mostly in little 
pieces.  There was also a bit with some human earth mage which was a bit nasty but I'll let the others give yoo more details 
aboot what happened on the quest. There's two things that I want ta go into more detail aboot though.

We came across a goblin whose baubles had been stolen.  Justive Priest Caffrey ordered me not to kill it.  I was tellin it 
that that I was goin ta find its baubles, pick them up and put them in ma pocket. But, it only heard the part aboot me 
finding its baubles and then "attached" itself to me.  It then insisted that we get married!  Justice Priests Caffrey and 
Methonwy (the healers) were leadin the party.  At no point during this entire incident did I show any interest in doin 
anythin other than choppin the goblins into little pieces.

I was walkin away, not wishin to take part in this goblin marriage at all when Mathonwy ordered me to come back and hug the 
tree which the goblins took as being the important bit in us gettin married. Methonwy and Caffrey did, however, go along 
with the idea that we couldn't be married until someone from Clan McFeegle said we were married.  I invited the
goblins and all that knew and cared about them to come to the Highlands to come to this "weddin" and, of course, the weddin 
feast (which won't be held anywhere near any trees).  This would leave no-one behind who gives a damn aboot them.  When/if 
they ever come, I promise you that we will chop them into lots of little pieces and if the Barony doesn't like this then 
they can kiss ma hairy ass.
 
The other thing I wanted ta say somethin aboot was an elf on the party known as Jordell.  This is an elf, the likes of 
which I have never seen before.  He's the only elf I've ever known ta get stuck inta battle and also ta show so much glee 
in killin mages.  He still has a few problems with the way he thinks, mainly with regards forcin the spirits to do his work 
but if ever there was an elf who showed promise in givin up the ways of the pansy mage and adoptin a more acceptable path 
then it would be Jordell.

Mathonwy's report

To: The Temple of Justice 
From: Marshal Mathonwy ap Gwydion 
Subject: Retrieval of Unicorn Horn

To whom it may concern,

I am pleased to report the successful conclusion of the recent mission to retrieve the aforementioned Horn from the hands of
the Drow. Please find below an account of the details of the mission.

The squad sent to retrieve the Horn consisted of myself, Marshal Caffrey, High Master Tarack of the Temple of Might, 
Lieutenant Fiddilo of the Guards, Jordell of the Thorn Knights, and Turnip MacFeegle, one of the witch-doctors to Clan 
MacFeegle. We were met in the Barony by a mage from the College of Air, who performed a surprisingly effective teleportation 
spell to take us to an area around 150 miles north-east of the Barony. Our task was to locate the party of Pathfinders who, 
we were told, had the Horn in their possession.

As we set off into the forest, we were set upon by a number of Tree Goblins, who were dealt with in reasonably short order. 
Shortly after this, we came across the remains of the Pathfinders whom we had been sent to meet. Only one of their number was 
still alive by the time we reached them, and he was close to death. We were able to save him from that, at least, though he 
had been mutilated by his attackers, and lost both eyes. It seems that the Pathfinders had been ambushes by a number of Drow, 
who had taken the Horn and fled into an area which had gained a reputation for being the haunt of necromancers and their 
creations. Perhaps most worrying was the report that the Drow had attacked the Pathfinders in daylight. Whether this was an 
indication of the importance of the Horn to the Drow, or part of a general increase in the willingness of Drow to extend 
their operations into the daylight remains to be seen.

It was quickly decided that the only possible course of action was to pursue the Drow and attempt to retrieve the Horn. We 
anticipated having to fight our way through a number of undead, and indeed, we were not disappointed. We had barely entered 
the area when we were attacked by a group of undead creatures and a necromancer. Between us, Caffrey and I cast protective 
miracles on the party, and the undead were soon defeated. At this point we were met by another Pathfinder, who had left the 
main camp in search of the missing. Having identified himself to the Pathfinder we had rescued, he warned us of what was 
ahead and took the injured Pathfinder back to the camp for further healing.

We fought our way through further groups of undead, and whilst most were dealt with quite effectively, a pack of ghouls 
paralysed most of the party at one point, and an unusually aggressive one managed to kill Jordell. Fortunately Lieutenant 
Fiddilo had been highly Blessed by Caffrey, and was immune to the ghouls' attacks. He killed the ghouls, and then had to wait
while the paralyses wore off. We recovered Jordell's remains, and carried them with us for resurrection. (I had, at this 
point, forgotten about the potion of Resurrection that I had with me.)

Shortly thereafter, we came across the end of a meeting between a vampire (identified by Caffrey as the vampire who sired 
Pathfinder Bunty) and a Drow female. It appeared that the Unicorn Horn had found its way into the hands of the vampire, who 
sold it to the Drow in exchange for lands in the Underdark. We were prevented from interrupting the transaction by a powerful 
Life Ward, cast, presumably, by the vampire. Another warrior was also trying, unsuccessfully, to attack the vampire. 
Realising that there was nothing useful we could do at that time, we persuaded the warrior (who introduced himself as a 
Flagellent) to take us to his village for the rest of the night.

Arriving at the village, we were given lodgings for the night by the Flagellent, who offered his people's protection while we 
slept, and the possibility of Resurrection for Jordell the following morning. This we gratefully accepted, and true to their
word, the Flagellents ensured that we were undisturbed for the duration of the night. They maintained successful defences 
until just after we had broken our fast, when a group of trolls attacked and managed to get as far as our camp. These were 
quickly and efficiently defeated, although we were not quite quick enough with the firelighters to prevent their 
regeneration. When put down for a second time, however, they stayed down.

It was at this point that we were introduced to the priesthood of the village. In spite of some... unusual... practices, they 
seemed to be primarily Life-aligned, although how that fitted in with the Flagellents' "death and glory" attitude, I am not 
entirely sure. In any case, following a lengthy ritual, Jordell was successfully resurrected, and although there were some 
unusual side effects, they appear to have been mercifully temporary. However, we then discovered that the staff Jordell had 
been carrying, and which we had missed in the darkness of the previous night, had been a fairly powerful Thorn Knights' item. 
It would be my guess that the staff is now in the hands of a necromancer or a Drow - in either case, it may well be worth 
mounting a mission to attempt to retrieve it.

Following the resurrection, we had the chance to talk briefly with the head priest regarding the Horn and the Drow. He 
offered to treat with his god for information, if we were prepared to retrieve an item held sacred to their religion. This 
item had apparently been stolen by a mage, whom the Flagellents had been unable to defeat. Given our lack of other options at 
this time, it seemed sensible to go along with the idea.

Setting out into the forest, we first encountered a couple of men standing at a gate, who were charging for use of the gate 
and the path beyond it. As there was no immediately apparent evidence to contradict the legality of this, but noting also 
that the gate only covered the path itself, we paid them a reduced rate for use of the path alone and merely walked *around* 
the gate.

Continuing into the woods, we then met a small goblin, who had apparently had her "baubles" stolen by a group of bandits. It
turned out that the men we had met at the gate were part of this group of bandits; they had tried to stalk us along the path, 
but seemed to be incredibly poor at actually staying hidden. Once they had blown their cover, they attempted to attack us. 
Before long, all four of them had been brought to justice. Turnip retrieved the goblin's stolen baubles from the body of one 
of the men, and returned them to the goblin; the upshot of this was that the goblin fell madly in love with him and declared
him to be her hero. She then took us to where her friends were. Shortly thereafter, the goblin asked Turnip for his hand in 
marriage. Following repeated orders from myself and Caffrey not to kill any of the goblins, Turnip eventually yielded to the 
inevitable and agreed to marry her. The marriage (or at least, the goblin half of it) was arranged for later that same day.

Leaving the goblins to their preparations, we continued our quest into the forest. We realised we had reached the edges of 
the mage's territory when we came across what were apparently statues. As we approached, however, they became animated and 
started to attack us; one entangled us with some sort of web, and the other was a more traditional stone-type golem. These 
were dispatched without too much difficulty. Further into the forest, we encountered two similar pairs of golems, which we 
also defeated.

Proceeding onwards, we came across an elf being attacked by a group of trolls. We rushed to his aid, defeating the trolls and 
healing the injured elf. The elf, who seemed most disappointed that we had prevented his aim of achieving "death and glory",
nevertheless led us back to his village. I have come to the conclusion that the Priests of Amen are a somewhat dangerous 
group of people to let loose near some of the more impressionable peasants.

To be continued ...

Jordell's Report

FAO: Thorn Knight Council
MISSION: Unicorn Horn
OPERATIVE: Jordell

Sirs,
	having returned from my mission, and recovered my damage I can offer you this summary of what occured on the 3 day 
mission into the enemy lands.

The barony party was:
	
Fiddello: human guard. incapable of command, combat and cohertion. If this is an average guard then the college is less 
protected than we thought.

Caffrey: human priest (justice). Whist he had many miracles to combat the undead and heal injured, he fought like a coward, 
incapable of holding his own it seemed. Also, required armour to announce our presence to the whole area.

Mathonwy: human priest (justice). Again, a support priest with healing. Also over burdened with armour.

Tarrack Ironheart: human priest (might). Stubbon, slow and stupid enough to stand infront of enemies getting hit! Never 
before have I seen anyone willingly take that much damage. He fought well though, but was very represted and un-open to 
compromise.

Turnip McFeegle: Barbarian Witchdoctor (general / light). A barbarian with countermagic. He fought wildly, charging in and 
getting damaged, but he made few insults to me. With no other elf to worry about, and with my combat skills, he was never a 
worry.

The mission:

Friday (PM)

We were sent out by teleport with a human air mage. (why does this barony insist on using these mundane mages when we provide 
better psychics that they ever could?) He was, as expected, very poor, and didn't give us much information. On arrival, we 
entered a forest, that was pitch black, and even my eyes could not make much distance in the light.

We had a few small skirmishes with goblins, but it was too dark to make out friend or foe. 

Then we reached a combat against a ghoul. He was paralising with his claws, but i was too quick for him. But there must have
been a second ghoul i did not see. The next thing I knew, I had died and was resurected by a strange suicide cult. The party 
had thought it better to decapitate me, and leave my equipment. This is why i must appologise for the loss of your weapon. I 
am eternally sorry and will, if you wish, make a quest back there to retreve it.

Saturday (AM)

I was resurected. There methods were poor and left my mind hazy. The day was spent combating GOLEMS and SLIME GOLEMS (see 
attached foe info). These were being generated by a human eath mage. Having assasinated him, his creatured were dormant. We 
incounted an orc / troll band and an elf of this suicide cult, trying to "die goriously". I recommend dispaching a group of 
warlocks to nurtalise this cult to prevent the spread of this properganda. After this we returned to camp.

Saturday (PM)

This was where the drow were to be found, so we went out and sought them. A large number of drow assasins and rouges were 
located and all drow were destoyed, except for two shadowmasters who evaded me. I tried to killed them, but they fled before 
me. I have included in my report the talismen of all the drow mages that were killed, except for two I needed for a trade (I 
can't remember exactly how mant, but I got all of them except 1 earth and 1 water used for trade...this "party bounty" was 
not shared with the party). After this, we patrolled on and found a friendly village and camped there for the night, under 
the assumption we were safe.

Sunday (AM)

I was awoken to the sound of a dawn raid. I powered myself up, and emerged to find 2 drow (1 warrior, 1 crossbow poisoner) 
and a giant spider. I charged the warrior drow, and avoided the second until the giant spider webed me. Unable to move I was 
then shot by the crossbow which was poisened with paralisis venom. However, The drow were betten back before they could kill 
of interogate me.

Sale venders came offering items for sale, and I have included two hats, one of resurection, and one of undeath, with this 
report.

We patrolled on to the expected ritual site, encountering minimal undead resistance. The drow were bribing humans to delay 
us, but they should have got better help, as the humans died easily and painlessly.

A drow blockade on the top of a ridge caused me a problem. Obviously I had become well known to be a warlock, as they 
unleased a series of dispels on me before slowing me. However, even in a slow state i fought back, and their blockade fell 
though with assistance from the humans.

We then prepared for a final push to the ritual site. At the ritual I was imdiately targeted by a slow spell, and then the 
drow necromacer became so terrifying i had to hide from her. I was latter informed that she fear spelled me, but this shame 
of fleing from a drow will haunt me for some time.

Once she died, I charged (albeit at a slow pace) at the remaining drow warlock. He was taken down eventally and I took his 
talismen as a trophy. With the horn reurned we headed back for camp, where the human mage returned to teleport us back. 

I belive my report is complete, but if you have any further questions, i will be in the combat areas honing my skills.

	My life is yours

		Jordell 

Appendix:

Stone Golem:
Slow, strong and unaffected by bladed weapons. Shatters when damaged sufficently. Emerges from the ground to Attack.

Slime Golem:
Slow, entagling and unaffected by blunt weapons. Ooses into ground when destroyed. Emerges from ground to attack.

Giant Stone Golem:
Very strong. Very armoured. Causes earthquakes if it strikes the ground. Immune to sharp weapons. Very Slow.

Giant Slime Golem:
Absorbs any blunt weapon that hits it. Immune to blunt weapons. Very hard to kill. Does poison damage. Slow.

Items:

Hat of resurection. Hat of Undeath. About 10 talismen (or more, I can't remember)