As DM, I'm still getting a feel for exactly what the (new) party is capable of and how they work in terms of tactics and motivations. In other words, I'm trying to not be completely surprised by Joe's hurricane tactic of last session. So, the first few adventures will continue to be short one-offs until I know what will be a good adventure for the party.

This time, the party was enjoying themselves in Glorium, the gatetown to Ysgard. They were spending time (and money) in a longhouse, enjoying the local mead. As per the usual, a prospective employer approached them with a job offer. In this case, the job offer came from a celestial - an astral deva by the name of Toves. And, it was quickly discovered that despite half the party being of firmly avowed good alignment - including a sorcerer who gets his power directly from the Upper Planes - nobody was doing anything to benefit the cause of good without getting paid. (Well, Zin easily accepted the job without promise of payment, but his Vow of Poverty might have something to do with that.)

It should also be noted that there was an undercurrent of tension between Oz and Toves - they knew each other back when Oz used to be an Astral Deva himself, prior to his fall. After much tense and heated negotiations (a.k.a "arguing"), the party accepted the task for the promise of a limited wish for each of them.

The task in question was to travel to the realm of Brillig on the first layer of Bytopia and help a fallen paladin named Vhawn regain her purity and paladinship. It would seem that Vhawn had been slain while crusading against evil on the Abyss, and had been returned to a semblance of life as a member of the tanar'ri hordes - an armanite. Toves had found her and sensed the faint spark of the creature's original spirit dwelling within the demonic shell; so he took her to Bytopia, placed a collar around her neck to prevent access to her tanar'ri abilities and set her on the task of performing a noble quest to rid the realm of a rampaging beast. The deva hopes that the quest will reignite her purity and allow her to be reborn as the bariaur paladin she once was. However, it would appear that he's not that confident in her redemption as he's asking the party to go along to act as guards, guides, and conscience.

Following Toves' directions, the party quickly arrived next to the cave of Oberion, the centaur blacksmith who was helping Vhawn craft a weapon which was capable of harming the foul beast she'd been tasked with slaying. The party arrived just in time to find the armanite giving in to her vile nature and strangling her supposed mentor. The group quickly stepped in and seperated the two quadrapeds, and Twig (surprisingly) was the one to finally calm her down and get the tanar'ri to be patient enough to finish her work on the sword - completing her task by endowing it with vorpal qualities. With weapon in hand, Vhawn expressed her desire to finish this distasteful task as quickly as possible so that she could be released and return to her unit in the Blood War.

The party quickly headed into the Tugley Wood, seeking the Whimsey Caves where the great beast was said to dwell. After several hours of travel, the party found a small house which was home to a family of halflings - the Borogoves. Several members of the group noticed that the halflings were frantically waving at the party, and gesturing towards the wagon which was parked in front of their home. Unsure of the danger, Rusteen crept forward eventually lurking under the wagon and near a large boulder which was next to it. Unfortunately, the boulder was actually a deathwatch beetle in camoflage. However, Rusteen proved to be very hardy and survived it's initial rattle. The giant vermin was then quickly dispatched by a lightning bolt from Jack, a few scorching rays from Oz, and a well-placed punch from Twig.

The grateful halflings told the party that the Whimsey Caves could be found by traveling upstream from a dead tumtum tree that was located a few miles from their house. The party was also asked if they could find and return the Borogove's missing mule, Mr. Trotsalot. Quickly leaving to prevent the tanar'ri from eating the halflings, the party trekked through the woods and soon found the moss-covered remains of the tumtum tree - and a mule eating said moss. The party was briefly confused when the mule spoke and requested that the party leave him alone and not return him to the halflings. Buttercup decided that talking or not, the mule would be returned. So, she ran over, picked him up, and carried him back to the halflings. In the meantime, Rusteen found that when he went near the tree, he lost all memory of the past 24 hours.

At this point, night had fallen, so the party chose to make camp. Vhawn, Rusteen, Twig, and Zin choose to sleep under the "sky" of Bytopia, while everyone else took refuge in one of Jack's rope tricks. During the night, a small demonic creature tried to mesmerize the party with magic and steal the vorpal blade. Although Rusteen and Vhawn fell prey to the magic, and Zin wandered too close to the tumtum tree and also gained a day's worth of amnesia, Twig remained composed enough to slaughter it in very short order. With no further enemies detected, the party resumed their rest in preparation for the trip upstream to the Caves in the morning.

Authored by: Ken Lipka E-mail me: krlipka@yahoo.com

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