The Quest For The Serpentine Owl

About the Saga

Timeframe

• Greyhawk Date: Sunsebb 15, CY 585
• Real World Date: Nov. 3, 1996
• Read other Blackrazor Guild Sagas

Cast of Characters

• Malphas, wily elven rogue/mage
• Alton, elven archer
• Sir Eric McCay, repentant human paladin
• Trevor van Helsing, human paladin and hunter of the undead
• Killian the Red, human ranger
• Trezan, human druid
• Calvin Cloudmoore, incompetent human thief and henchman of the elf Alton

Notable Quotes

No quotes are available.

What Has Come Before

The adventurers have been strong-armed by Randell's leader of the Canter Guild into retrieving an expensive totem owl from a band of goblins. To insure that they return with the treasure, the Guild puts a ''ball of binding'' around the neck of their henchman Calvin Cloudmore -- the ball creates a thin metal band that slides around ones neck Once there it magically binds itself to the person -- any attempts to tamper with it cause the ball to contract instantly. Also, failure for the owner to speak the command word within one month after the ball was attached to the a victim's neck also causes the contraction.

The Saga

Sunsebb 15, CY 585

Toward Knurl

Setting out from Randell mid-month, the party (without Killian the Red), the party paralleled the Tesser Toreent on the North Province side of the river. They spotted, but did not identify, a High Orc mounted patrol on the other side of the river. After coming across a shallow crossing, where they saw signs of a gnoll patrol, the party continued south, remaining on the North Province side of the torrent. The gnolls, with their hyenas running out front, later engaged the party. But quick thinking on the party’s part slaughtered half the group and sent them yelping towards the hills.

Soon after, the party cross the torrent, and rode towards Knurl, only to find that city overrun by humanoid forces. A large army of humanoids surrounded the ruined city’s walls – seeing this, the party decided to head north and try their luck in the southern reaches of the Blemu Hills. On their way there, the party was attacked they were attacked by a large party of worg-riding goblins, which they promptly and efficiently, destroyed.

At this point Alton began to notice that Cal Cloudmore, his former Grindsman henchman, was beginning to act erratically, swinging from neurotic to perfectionist in minutes, from the stress of having the ball of binding around his neck.

Soon after entering the hills, they came across a war trail, which the goblins had been using to move from their main lair to Knurl.

Into the Lair

After setting up an ambush in the hills, the party succeeded in wiping out a small, four-goblin patrol. When no others came along, the party moved north, eventually coming across the entrance to the goblin lair.

Sleeping outside the lair were a handful of goblins nestled up against two worg mounts. Standing at the entrance to the lair were two guards – Alton, with the party’s other archers, took out them out in a whisper, and then slaughtered the small goblin party "guarding" the site.

Slowly Alton, Cal, Trezan and Malphas entered the lair. Seeing a long corridor ahead of them, Malphas moved ahead and tried to open a secret door.

He failed.

Then, after Malphas moved out, Cal tried, also failing but this time setting off a trap which released a black ooze from the ceiling and dropped a gate at the entrance to the shaft. Alton and Malphas managed to fight off the ooze, but not before the creature could eat through Cal’s armor, and (on the plus side) the enchantments of the ball of binding.

But the trap set of an alarm, which sent goblins scrambling through a secret door on the eastern side of the room. Alton, Trezan, and Malphas fought the masses while the paladins, Sir Eric and Trevor, worked their way through the narrow entrance into the chamber. The party finally managed to defeat the goblins and spiked the secret door.

A quick search of the rest of the room found a secret door to the west. Again Alton and Malphas entered the room, carefully walking through a room filled with a benign form of green slime. Arriving at the bottom of the tight, curving shaft, the three were attacked by an angry group of goblins. The rest of the party – Sir Eric, Trevor, Cal and Trezan – slowly moved through the green slime room but triggered a trap. Everyone but Sir Eric managed to grab a handhold through the slime; the paladin, tied to Malphas, feel 20 feet to the spike-filled bottom of the shaft.

The others managed to pull themselves from the shaft, and, eventually, to get Sir Eric out of the pit.

Meanwhile, at the base of the tunnel on the second level, the goblins had retreated.

The party reassembled there, with Malphas, Trezan and Cal heading down a shaft to the northeast, while the paladins walked toward a hallway to the north. But as they did a horde of goblins rushed them, swarming past Trevor to claw at Sir Eric. Meanwhile Malphas and Trezan, in another of the claustrophobic tunnels to the northeast, began fighting their own goblin attackers.

Cal and Alton stood their ground behind the paladin’s where every they could, killing goblin after goblin. As they did so Trevor lost weapon after weapon, mishandling his sword and dropping his shield. He was finally able to engage the goblins in hand-to-hand combat, slaughtering them with well-placed hits. Sir Eric, meanwhile, found himself surrounded by the humanoid scum. Both paladins inevitably fell to the goblins, who swarmed over their bodies to fight Alton, who was joined by Trezan. Malphas, meanwhile, had managed to clog his corridor with goblin bodies, and taunted the others to engage him.

But the remaining goblins, mostly females and children, kept to the tribe’s slime-field harvest chambers at the tunnel’s end. Outside of the tunnel the archer and druid fought slayed the last of their opponents.

The rest fled out of the chambers and to the surface.

Taking a few minutes to recover, the party moved northwest where they found the clan’s treasure room. Sitting on a pedestal at the center of the room was a one-foot tall jade statue of a serpentine owl. Surrounding the pedestal was an immense pile of cooper and silver, with a handful of gold and gems mixed in with some weapons and what appeared to be magical item.

Grasping the Serpentine Owl

While half the party loaded up the loot, the rest searched for and found a secret door behind the goblin king’s crude throne. The party moved into the tunnel beyond the secret door as Malphas cast unseen servant, which he then used to lift the owl from its pedestal. That immediately triggered the lair’s finally trap, a collapsible door on an underground aquifer which rushed to fill the lair with water. The throne room secret door slammed shut before the servant could get through it, but the paladins lifted the door open. Owl in hand, the party began moving to the surface. All but the paladins made it out – the warriors were overrun by the rising water and erupted to the surface behind the stream.

Experience

Not available.