Here is the seventh edition of the D&D Game Summary.
Please refer to the earlier editions for character backgrounds and other
exploits.  


Summary of "NorCal Campaign" Part 7
-----------------------------------

This adventure was based on "Beyond the Glittering Veil" which appeared in
Dungeon Magazine issue #31.


ADVENTURE NOTES--Day #25--04/15/94

Training: (May 6, 697)
    Galen trained for 5th level.  This took him away from Kestria for
a time.  When he returned, he was carrying a small wooden box which he said
he was to carry to Strafferberg.
    Melody and Studedly both trained for 6th level in Kestria.
    The group got back together after training and spent a couple of days
deciding what to do and then equiping themselves once again.

Shadows in the Night: (June 10, 697)
    The group continued their travel by going south from Kestria in their
two-horse cart.  On the evening of the third day, they reached the small
town of Silver Rise.  They went into the Inn to have a late dinner.
The service was excellent.  The innkeeper Ardy seemed to anticipate their
needs and brought food and drink without being asked.  The town consisted
of about 200 people scattered across the land.  Perhaps 50 or so lived in
the town proper.
    As the group was eating, they heard a loud scream from outside the
inn.  Everyone but Galen ran out onto the porch to see what was up.  What
they found was a woman screaming as if she was being attacked in the dark
but no creature was evident.  Furnes cast a Faerie Fire spell on the 
woman to light up her attackers.
    She did this just in time to see the woman be killed by the four
Shadows.  As they watched, her body caved in and a Shadow was birthed from
it leaving a sooty residue on the ground.  The Shadows then moved to 
attack the inn.  Melody quickly brought out her Continual Light juggling
ball to make it easier to fight.
    Melody used a Color Spray spell on the Shadows with no effect, then
Furnes Turned the creatures.  They fled into the night.
    As the group discussed what was happening, they heard more screams.
Turning the Shadows merely made them go find easier prey!  The group came
to the aid of an elderly gentleman and lady who were relaxing on their
porch.  Rhodan and Spike struck out at the creatures with their blades
while Melody and Galen used Magic Missles.
    The battle was quickly over although several people had some of their 
strength drained by the Shadows.  Melody used her music to calm the people
down.

There's Something Afoot in Silver Rise: (June 10, 697)
    Just as the battle finished the innkeeper Ardy showed up and began
babbling about how the apprentice of the town wizard Lenchros had come    
into town hysterical last night.  The boy claimed that his master had
tried an experiment on the Travel Stone south of town, and then had
disappeared through some sort of shimmering wall.  He then went on about
a black ghost that came out and chased him.  We thought that he was
drunk or something and sent him off to bed.  Maybe the kid was right!
Thank the gods you were here to kill those things.
    A mysterious woman walked up as the innkeeper spoke.  She was leaning
on an gnarled cane and had only one good eye.  She introduced herself as 
Lady Moore and said that the boy was indeed right.  But that these were
not the only Shadows.  More will be coming unless something is done to
stop them.  
    She impressed the need to hurry, and the group responded by gathering
their adventuring gear (but leaving behind the bulk of their supplies
and Galen's box) and heading south toward the Travel Stone.  She also 
spoke of a dream she had in which Lenchros acted as if he were going away 
on an adventure.  As the town mystic and a friend she went to talk to him 
about this.  She fell asleep while talking to him and he was gone when she 
awoke.
    Studedly was upset at the rash pace and wanted time to search the
wizard's home to see if he could learn anything.  Lady Moore said that
she had already searched and all she found was Lenchros' diary.  She
insisted that it must be important, but no one could find anything
particular about it until Galen used Detect Magic and discovered that
the last page was magical.  He then used Dispel Magic to remove the
spell that kept the last page appearing blank.  There was a letter written
there addressed to Lady Moore:

        Dearest Alicia, please do not be cross at me for putting you to
        sleep like that, but if you are reading this then perhaps there
        might be some truth to your dreams (for once!).
          I have spent years trying to deciper the eroded writing on the
        Travel Stone, and you know I have always yearned to discover its
        purpose.  At long last I think I have found it.  The writings
        speak of the Stone summoning a 'glittering veil' which I believe
        is a gate to the city of the Stone's builders.  I must go there
        to learn more about the Stone and these strange powers that Ardy,
        you and I share.  There must be a connection between the powers
        and the Stone, for we all feel them ebb whenever we travel more 
        than a league away from Silver Rise.  Perhaps there is a way to
        make our powers permanent, beyond the 'glittering veil'!

    The group immediately began asking questions about what "strange
powers" Ardy and Lady Moore had.  She deftly deflected their questions
and was saved from more of them by their arrival at the Travel Stone.

Through the Gate: (June 10, 697)
    The Stone itself was a nondescript pillar of limestone about 3 feet
in diameter and 9 feet tall.  Even though the pillar itself was glowing
brightly, what caught their eye was the shimmering 4 foot by 7 foot plane 
of energy which stood next to it.  The gate was an opaque topaz color with 
flashes of silvery light dancing across its surface.
    As they watched, the surface of the gate shimmered darkly and a shadow
emerged.  Furnes quickly ran forward and with one blow of his Mace of
Disruption destroyed the creature.
    Lady Moore asked that the group go through the gate immediately.  She
wanted them to find Lenchros and then to find a way to close this gate.
She would stand guard along with the 13 men of the town militia. 
    The group agreed and so they went through the gate, but not before
Galen asked Lady Moore to keep a good eye on their belongings.

Darkness Surrounds Us: (June 10, 697)
    Entering the gate they found themselves in numbing, freezing darkness.
The characters stumbled through unable to draw a breath and stinging of
cold for what seemed like an eternity before they reached the light at
the other side.
    They found themselves on a large ledge on a hillside overlooking
an incredible pyramidal structure.  Three moons stood in the cool night 
sky.  The land around them was completely barren and rocky.  A path
led from the Stone (yes, there was another Stone and gate on this side)
down the hillside in a zig-zag to reach the base of the pyramid.
    Studedly and Galen were not feeling well when they emerged from the
gate.  They were stunned, confused, and a bit manic.  The rest of the
group held them down to keep them from hurting themselves until they
managed to regain their senses.
    Rhodan began looking for tracks.  He found one pair leading from
the gate and out over the edge of the ledge.  Looking down he could see
something small on the next ledge, 30 feet down.  Once the rest of the 
group was feeling up to moving on, he  led the way down the path to the 
next ledge.  When he leaned down to pick up the small metal item, a
Gray Ooze reached out of the cliff face and attacked him.  Fighting the
Ooze was difficult without hurting Rhodan who was underneath most of it.
Furnes used a Produce Fire spell and Spike attacked it as soon as Rhodan
managed to shake his way free.  The Ooze was killed.
    The small metal item they found was a wand.  Galen immediately sat
down to identify it and discovered that it was a Wand of Illumination.
    Rhodan discoverd no tracks leading away from this area.  Lenchros
was probably Ooze-bait and the wand was probably all that remained.

The Pyramid: (June 10, 697)
    While walking down the path toward the pyramid, Furnes got a sudden
sense of someone hurt and dying.  He could feel the pain as this person
struggled to go up the path as if fleeing something.  The feeling seemed
tied to the location in which he was standing.  As he moved away the 
feeling left him, but if he moved back it came back.
    At the base of the hill, they found themselves at the gatehouse of
the pyramid.  The pyramid itself was probably a mile long and a fifth
of that tall.  It was surrounded by a dark, apparently bottomless, moat,
and there was a stone bridge that crossed it to a gatehouse.
    Melody used Comprehend Languages to read the sign that was posted
above the entrance.  It said "Travelers to Topaline, prepare a toll or
turn away.  If you have no gold, bother me not!  Twenty Five pieces each
thrown into the trench.  That is my price."
    The group decided to throw the money in.  Once they did so, a few
minutes later the gate opened and a strange lizard skinned but monkey-like
creature led them through the gatehouse and out the other side into
Topaline.

Drawn to the Light: (June 10, 697)
    What they found inside was a complete city built under the pyramid.
From the inside the walls of the pyramid were transparent and showed the
night sky (the walls appeared milky-opaque from the outside).  The city
appeared deserted.  There were movements in the darkness (probably 
Shadows) but nothing penetrated the sphere of light provided by Melody's
juggling ball.
    They found themselves with three main roads to possibly travel.  They
chose to go left and shortly thereafter saw an area that was lit off in 
the distance.  They went directly toward the light.
    The lit area turned out to be a fenced in park.  The park was in strong
contrast to the rest of the city because it was teeming with life.  Birds,
insects, trees, and ponds decorated the landscape.  The only structure was
a single vine-covered tower in the center of the park.
    They ventured into the park.  Rhodan took the lead and entered the
tower alone.  He discovered that it was hollow and that books lined the
walls of the tower to it's 100 ft height.  Stairs and balconies lined the
walls as well.
    The occupant of the tower introduced himself to Rhodan as Kingapus and
asked who he was.  Rhodan told him who the group was and without being
asked told why the group was here.  Shortly thereafter the rest of the
group arrived in the tower.  Kingapus welcomed them and told them to be
at home.  Galen went orgasmic over the great quantity of books available
and went looking through them.  He used a Comprehend Languages to read
through one of them, then Kingapus lent Galen his glasses and Galen found
he could read any of the books now.  The only thing particularly odd was
that Kingapus did not speak aloud.  He spoke so that they heard his voice
in their heads.

Story of the Mystics: (June 10, 697)
    The group decided to camp out here for the night and settled in.  Galen
stayed up with Kingapus collecting information relevant to their quest to
close the gate.
    Galen found out that the city of Topaline was founded by a race called
the Mystics.  This race used psionic abilities of all sorts.  The Travel
Stone was an invention used to travel between cities.  The problem was
that the Stones were not completely stable.  Over time the "distance" 
(the darkness) between the two gates got longer and then Shadows began
leaking out.  This problem was discovered after they came to rely on the
Travel Stones, so they were researching something called a Planar Amulet
to replace the Stones with.  There were some notes on how a gate could
get stuck open.  To close it, one needed to "ground out" the planar 
energies using another planar device, such as the amulet.
    The city itself was doing well until a pack of shadows made it inside
and began slaying the populace.  They fought them for a while but then
wholesale evacuation began.  The people had to fight their way out, and
many did not make it.  Now the city is abandoned and occupied primarily
by Shadows.
    The Mystics worshiped three gods.  Mintar was the god of honor.
Rujsha was the god of justice, and Gorn was the god of knowledge.
    Kingapus added that he was the guardian of the library and could not
leave.  He also told them that the Planar Amulet work was being done in
the main Mystic temple under the center of the city.  Perhaps they could
look there.  When asked about other residents, Kingapus said that there
was a person named Lady Nightshade who lived somewhere in the city.

ADVENTURE NOTES--Day #26--04/29/94

Feelings from the Past: (June 11, 697)
    In the morning the group left.  It was kind of odd to call it morning,
though, because no sun rose over the city of Topaline.  It appeared to be
perpetually night.
    They made their way toward the center of the city.  Furnes had another
strange experience.  He suddenly felt the fear and anger of a woman trying
to get her family to run, but she was being attacked and could not help
her children.  It was a strong feeling that left Furnes a little drained.
    Spike found a small child's toy on the ground.  When he picked it up,
he too had a strange experience.  He could feel the enjoyment of the child
that owned this toy.  It was her favorite, and was given to her by her
uncle.  She would not leave it behind when mom tried to take her.  She
was in pain when she dropped it.  Nothing more could be told.
    They began mulling over what these strange experiences were about.
Could some outside force be sending them, or what?

    Suddenly they were attacked by a pack of undead that leaped out of the
darkness at them.  10 Skeletons, 6 Zombies and 18 Shadows attacked them!
    Galen immediately used his Wand of Illumination in "nova" mode to
destroy a full third of the creatures.  Furnes then Turned the Zombies, and
Melody (although blinded by the light) cast a Flaming Sphere in front of
the Skeletons.  Rhodan, Studedly and Spike attacked and killed a few more,
then Galen used his Wand in "nova" mode again!  This killed most of the
rest of the undead and the fighters cleaned up the remnants.

Feelings of Horror: (June 11, 697)
    At the center of the city was the town square.  In it stood two statues.
The first was of a stern warrior with sword in hand and was guessed to be
Mintar.  The other showed an eyeless woman leaning on the shoulder of a
handsome man.  These were guessed to be Rujsha and Gorn.  The statues stood
over 30 feet tall and the town square was about 300 feet long.  A door
was to be seen in the base-block of each statue.
    While looking at the first statue, Rhodan got this feeling that there
was a really nasty undead creature in the area.  When he wanted to leave
immediately, the others agreed and they made their way to the second
statue.
    Again the feeling of the nasty undead creature came to Rhodan.  This
time the group discussed the issue.  While talking, the Wraith came out
of the darkness and attacked them!  The battle was fierce and the Wraith
managed to hit Galen, Rhodan and Furnes with its energy-draining effects
before it was utterly destroyed by the might of the group's combined
forces.
    With the Wraith gone, the feeling of dread was lifted.  The group then
proceeded to investigate the doors.  They found stairs leading down to
a hall that connected the two statues.  They also found the Wraith's nest.
In it was 5325 sp, two gemstones (diamond=1000 gp, emerald=500gp), and
98 mithril coins.  (This is pretty fantastic since mithril had not been
seen in the known lands for many years!)
    They found a tunnel heading south that was completely caved in.  Spike
estimated 2-3 weeks to dig through it.  So, getting into the temple this
way was probably out.

Amazing: (June 11, 697)
    The group headed south hoping to find another entrance to the temple.
On the main road they came across a huge fence with a gate on it.  As they
approached, Galen suddenly knew that the gate was poisoned!  He warned
the others.  When they argued about how to handle this, Galen just urinated
on the poisoned area to ruin the poison.  It worked.
    Through the gate, they found a garden.  When 8 Skeletons leaped out,
Melody and Rhodan killed two of them quickly and Furnes turned the rest.
    The garden itself was arranged as a maze of paths between 7 foot high
hedges of brambles with sweet smelling flowers growing on them.  The group
argued about what traversal algorithm to use to solve the maze.  They 
chose to "go left first".  After a while they started feeling tired and
everyone but Studedly fell asleep.  He was unable to wake them, so he took
off his shoes and ran them under Spike and Rhodan's noses to wake them up.
The three of them managed to get the others out of the garden to recover.
    The next time they went in, they used a wet cloth over the mouth and
nose to keep the smell out.  They found the center of the maze fairly
quickly.  Two Ogre Skeletons were standing guard but ignored them as they
went up to the rickety house that stood there.
    The house looked pretty bad, but Spike assured them that it was not
likely to fall down.  It just looked bad.  In any case, Rhodan and Studedly
were extremely careful on the creaky porch.
    The occupant was Lady Nightshade.  She was a thin, frail woman, with
a South Carolina accent and manner.  She invited them in for tea and talk.
She flirted a bit with Rhodan.  Most of the group would not touch her food.
    From her they found out that she's the only one in the town (other than
Kingapus) and that she's from "The Realm" and a city of which they had
never heard.  They also found out that she knew a way into the temple.  A
back door of sorts.  
    When they expressed interest in going immediately, she showed them 
through the maze to a hidden trap door.  She warned them not to go through
a door on their left as they enter the temple because she keeps her wine
cellar there and she wouldn't want her "protections" on it to hurt them.
She also warned them of the Barron, who she described as a vile man who
deserves to be dead.  
    They went through the trap door.

A Peek Down Under: (June 11, 697)
    They went down quite a ways under the city before finding the doors
of which Lady Nightshade spoke.  They did not go through the door she
warned them about and instead made their way into the temple proper.
    What they found were a series of empty rooms.  They were stripped bare
of furnishings long ago.  There were frescos on the walls, but they were
all virtually destroyed by someone at some time in the past.
    One door was locked.  Once again Galen got the feeling that the door
was poisoned.  Studedly was careful and managed to disarm the poison needle
and then open the lock.  Inside, they found a small temple shrine that
was not damaged.  When they moved into the room, 4 Shadows attacked.  They
were quickly dispatched by a group effort.
    Searching the room discovered a secret door.  Beyond the door was a
small room with a rosewood box on a pedestal.  Melody used Comprehend
Languages to read the inscription which read "Open me and bring light
to the city".  Inside was an octagonal key, and a necklace which Galen
quickly discovered was magical.

ADVENTURE NOTES--Day #27--05/13/94

The Baron: (June 11, 697)
    They found nothing else of interest in the body of the temple with the
exception of the carved double doors. Opening the doors revealed a huge 
octagonal room with three 20 foot tall statues standing in it.  The 
fragmented remains of 5 other statues littered the floor.  
    As they entered, the light from Melody's juggling ball dimmed down and
a voice from the darkness told them to leave.  Furnes started walking in
bantering, but then he saw that his own shadow was moving differently
than he was and he retreated.  They decided to stall a bit as Rhodan walked 
into the room.  The voice was that of the Baron and he wanted them to 
leave his home and stop trespassing.  When they did not leave, Rhodan was 
suddenly hit by a throwing star with incredible force!  Galen cast a Web 
across the area which the star came from and Studedly began sneaking across 
the room.  Rhodan told the Baron that the group had the "key" with them.
This angered the Baron more and another throwing star hit Studedly. He fled 
back to the entrance of the room.  The Web obviously did not work.
    They would still not leave and the Baron was getting very mad.  Furnes
tried using Pyrotechnics to light up the room, but the effects of the spell
blocked much of the room from view.
    Galen decided to open up with his Fireball wand and blasted much of 
the room.  When the Baron responded with another throwing star, Galen
blasted the room with another Fireball!
    As the dust settled, the party made for the octagonal door which the
Baron was protecting.  Suddenly he appeared again!  This time several rock
fragments on the ground exploded in front of Melody (she used tumbling to
get out of the way) and more throwing stars began flying.  Spike tried his 
Javalin of Lightning on the Baron but it did not seem to affect him.  
Melody cast a Flaming Sphere.  Rhodan cast his sword away from himself while
in combat.  Galen was hurling Magic Missles which sometimes seemed to have
no effect.  The Baron obviously had some sort of magic resistance!
    The Baron was pretty badly hurt (but so were most of the party members)
when Studedly finally got the octagonal door open and the group hurried
through and barricaded themselves on the other side.

The Light: (June 11, 697)
    This room was large as well, and a tower went up the center of the
room into the darkness above.  A stairway circled up the tower.
    After resting, the group made its way up the tower.  At the top was
a flat surface with an orb mounted on a pedestal.  Melody went forward
and touched the orb.  She heard in his head "State desired fuction please".
This freaked her out.  She discovered that the orb was some sort of
environment control device which was controlled by keywords that you think
at it.  One could control lighting or heating.  Melody managed to turn on 
the lights in the room but felt drained afterwards.  Others in the group
contributed and they managed to get the lights up to near daylight levels
before everyone was tired.
    They decided to camp in this room and rest.  During the "night", the
lights dimmed to darkness in about 6 hours.  
    In the morning, they turned the lights back up.  Spike then drank his
Potion of Heroism and set out to hunt down the Baron.  They did not find
the Baron in the big room, but they did find the door to the caved-in
main entrace.  In the second room, they did find the Baron who appeared
wilted in the heavy light.  They quickly killed him off.

Cleaning Up: (June 12, 697)
    The second room was a workshop.  Spike discovered a forge which was
brainpower activated as well as some awesome forge tools.  He took the
best set for himself.  They also found shelves of books and paperwork.
Galen took a few.  Spike looked for ones on forge-work and took one.
Melody took one that appeared to be about the Planar Amulet.
    They also found a magical staff (+1/+2 against psionic creatures), a
magical sword (+1), and a scroll of "Vetriloquism", "Darkness 15' radius",
"Phantom Steed", "Massmorph", and "Mordenkainen's Faithful Hound" at
the 12th level of ability.  Finally, they found 226 ingots of gold,
300 ingots of silver, and 180 ingots of steel (each ingot wieghs as much
as 10 coins).
    Oh, and they found the Planar Amulet which they had been searching
for.

Getting Out: (June 12, 697)
    Galen cast two Tenser's Floating Discs to carry to treasure out in.
The group loaded them up and they made for the temple exit quickly.  Only
Rhodan stopped to talk with Lady Nightshade.  The others moved on.
    Rhodan's was curious about her lavendar eyes (the same as his), but
she seemed interested in getting him to stay in Topaline with her.  There
was a lot of flirting, but in the end he decided to leave.
    Studedly and Melody helped Galen, Spike and Furnes load the Wraith's
treasure on board, then the two of them went off to see Kingapus.  Melody
delivered some books for Galen as a gift to Kingapus.  Studedly gave
Kingapus the octagonal key in case someone else may someday need it.  Then
the two of them made their way toward the gatehouse.
    The other three went directly to the gatehouse.

The Gatehouse: (June 12, 697)
    When Furnes, Galen and Spike got the the gatehouse they were unable to
find a way in, so they pounded on the door.  Shortly thereafter, they
found themselves teleported into an undergroud cell lined with metal.
Before they could really react, someone outside used a blowgun to gas the
room with the same smelling stuff as the flowers.  Furnes and Galen fell
asleep.
    Spike was unable to get a grip on the blowgun or his captor.  
Eventually, he faked being asleep.  The captor was the same creature which
had opened the door when they entered the city.  It dragged Galen off and
put him in a neighboring cell.  When it returned, Spike attacked.  It
tried to attack back, but when it failed it bolted for the exit.  The
creature was very fast, and when Spike made it out of the cell area into
the large workroom, there was no sign of the creature.
    In the meantime, Rhodan, Studedly and Melody arrived at the gatehouse.
They found the two discs floating there with money on them.  This meant
that Galen was within 30 feet of them, but he would not answer.  Finally,
they resorted to banging on the door as well.  They were also teleported
to the jail cell to find Spike at the ready and Furnes waking up.
    Furnes used Shape Stone to free Galen from the cell he was locked in
and then again to free a guy named Dresmond from another.  Dresmond was
sent through the gate about a day ago to look for the group and ended
up here when he banged on the gatehouse.
    Now all together again, the group found its way out of the deserted
gate house.  They did not search hard, but they did not find the residents.
They did find lots of incredible (if grizzly) sculptures and sculpture
materials.

Closing the Gate: (June 12, 697)
    Melody opened the gatehouse gates while the Galen cast two more of
Tensor's Discs and the others loaded the discs with money.  They made
their way quickly back to the gate.  On the ledge they found a dead
man.  He appeared to have died of incredible frostbite from coming through
the gate.  Dresmond picked up the body of Charlie, and the other members
started stashing all the money on their persons that they could possibly
carry.
    The second time through the gate was less of a surprise and they made
it without any problems.  They arrived just in time to see a man there
cut down a Shadow that must have just preceeded them out of the gate.
    Melody then walked up close to the Travel Stone.  Close enough that
sparks of energy began leaping between the Stone and Amulet before she
threw it at the Stone.  The explosion shattered the Travel Stone and
threw her backwards.  Furnes ran forward and helped her.
    The gate was closed.

ADVENTURE NOTES--Day #28--06/03/94

Aftermath: (June 13, 697)
    A lot had happened while the adventurers were gone.  They left on the
night of the 11th.  The town did very poorly that night and many people
died because they had no magical weapons and did not know that they
needed them in order to hurt the Shadows.  
    They were all scared and exhausted on the 12th when a band of raiders 
attacked the town.  The raiders were about 20 strong and came on horseback
from the south.  They wore black and red uniforms without any insignia,
and killed two townspeople while they were here.  One of the raiders was
killed but the raiders took the body with them.  They also took a lot of
food and supplies from the general store and inn as well as the cart 
which belonged to the party (and also contained Galen's box).
    Luckily enough a pair of adventurers came into town later that day 
bearing magical weapons.  Darren the fighter stayed up most of the night
killing Shadows as they came out of the gate, while his partner Garret
hunted down Shadows across town.  Garret was killed when some Shadows
ambushed him, but the town was held for another day.
    Three men went through the gate after the adventurers did in hope of
closing it before they all died.  The first was Dresmond (which was found
in the gatehouse).  The second was Reily (who was never found).  And the
third was Charlie (who was dead on arrival).
    Through all of this some 50 townspeople were dead and the town itself
was in shambles.  But at least it was safe now.  Patrols by Furnes, Rhodan,
and Spike were unable to discover any more Shadows in the region.  They
all got a good night's rest at the inn.

THE FUTURE:
    This leaves the adventurers ready to hunt down the raiders and to
reclaim Galen's box.  Furnes earned enough experience to make 6th level
once he finds time to train.
    See Summary #8 for how game session #28 continued.