Campaign Timeline

Samir Neren | Faeryl T’sarran

First Cycle: The Blackcloak’s Call

1. The Calling
2. The Crypt of Yeldoon
3. Belkram’s Fall
4. The Maze

Latest Updates

• 22 January 2008, 10:08 PM EST – Campaign on hiatus. Probability of return decent, but not for a while; now we’re playing a Savage World of Solomon Kane campaign, also on Obsidian Portal: “Beyond the Elder Peaks”.
• 13 December 2007, 10:08 PM EST – Profiles added for Faeryl T’sarran and Samir Neren.
• 8 December 2007, 9:28 PM EST – Added Gyudd.

Chapter 3, Belkram’s Fall.

Part One

Played 1 December 2007

17 Hammer 1374 DR.

SiNafay Vo’dare’s force returns to the Promenade, where Qilué Veladorn asks for Yeldoon’s medallion, but Samir Neren is hardly willing to part with it. Qilue eventually buys the medallion off of Samir, in exchange for a chaos diamond. Faeryl T’sarran suffers an upbraiding from SiNafay for putting her trust in a petty thief like Samir, but Phaerun Lysaen’s faith in his squire remains unshaken. He complains about the endless studying of the wizards, insisting that the time for action is upon them. Faeryl agrees, and suggests that whatever answers might be found, will lie at the bottom of Belkram’s Fall – the six-mile vertical lava tube that forms the axis of Undermountain. Yet traversing it will be no easy task. They’ll need a thief of some kind – and that’s something Faeryl sets out to find in Skullport.

Meanwhile, Samir, tormented by continuing dreams of the Calling, has already decided to move deeper into Undermountain. Asking around about that in Skullport eventually brings him to Gyudd, a dwarven distiller who’s trying to put together an expedition of his own. He, too, is tormented by dreams, though his are more focused – a crown of black metal, with a single, blood-red gem set in the middle. Somehow, he knows it lies at the bottom of Belkram’s Fall. They arrange to meet at the docks the next morning, to head down the River Sargauth to Belkram’s Fall. By chance, Samir runs into Faeryl at the inn. Samir realizes that if he’s going to save Waterdeep, he’ll need Yeldoon’s medallion back, so he formulates a plan to rob the Promenade. He begins by preying upon Faeryl’s sympathy for the converted, offering to make amends by giving back the chaos diamond. Once Faeryl ushers him into the Promenade, Samir melts into the shadows, climbing high ledges to sneak into the wizard’s enclave. The silver raven figurine he discovered on the Dungeon Level flies in to fetch the medallion, just as Faeryl spots him on the ledge and rushes to the enclave to stop him, distracting the wizards as she charges in just in time for the silver raven to swoop in, grab the medallion, and fly out the window to take it to Samir. Faeryl chases Samir all the way back to Skullport, where Gyudd hides his compatriot from the priestess.

Distraught, Faerly returns to Phaerun to tell him that Samir got away, but Phaerun simply laughs. “Sounds like the rascal has the right idea!” he said, suggesting that if Samir is heading down Belkram’s Fall, he’ll likely need the medallion to save Waterdeep – something the studying wizards will be terribly unlikely to succeed in. But Faeryl still wants to catch him, so they decide to set off down the River Sargauth the next morning. Phaerun warns Faeryl that they are defying the church and striking out on their own – that this represents a point of no return for them. Faeryl agrees, and insists that it must be done.

18 Hammer 1374 DR.

Samir spots Faeryl and Phaerun at Skullport’s docks, and decide to wait until they’ve gone. Both groups make it down the river to Underhaven, though it has been called Spiderhaven, now that it’s been overrun by drow refugees from the Citadel. Faeryl and Phaerun make for the Fall immediately, but Samir investigates the tent city, discovering the Valenz twins who lead the refugees. Samir uses their interest in recovering lost artifacts from the Citadel’s ruins to entice them down Belkram’s Fall, though Gyudd’s painful honesty blew Samir’s plot to send them down the third remaining lift alone.

Rune-ward brace.

Both parties navigated the ancient Melairkyn guard stations along the way, and defeated two of the three grell philosophers of the colony that infest them. In the Citadel, Faeryl and Phaerun struck camp, keeping watch for Samir. Under the direction of the Valenz twins, Samir and Gyudd were put to work searching the ruins. Isolated, Samir came under attack from a patrol of drow direguards, but Faeryl intervened, and together, they managed to defeat them. Samir told Faeryl about the twins, and they hatched a plan.

Samir and Gyudd attacked the twins, who were caught off guard when a second pair of drow attacked. Faeryl’s ferocious charge nearly killed Zhallandra, and when she turned her back, Samir quickly finished the job.

Realizing that they needed each other, when Faeryl understood that Phaerun was right about Samir, they decided they needed to set aside their differences and work together to reach the bottom of Belkram’s Fall, discover what has happened to the Mantle, and save Waterdeep and Undermountain.

• Previous Chapter: The Crypt of Yeldoon
• Next Chapter: The Maze

Chapter 2, The Crypt of Yeldoon.

Part One

Played 1 December 2007

16 Hammer 1374 DR.

At the Promenade of Eilistraee, Faeryl T’sarran undergoes initiation as a formal priestess of the Dark Maiden. Meanwhile, Samir Neren is left to follow up on some of his research, before Faeryl shows him to Qilué Veladorn.

Qilué shows them a painting of Yeldoon Amcathra; it shows him wearing a peculiar medallion, one Samir recognizes from his dreams. Qilué identifies the style as Illefarn, and notes that it possesses powerful chthonic magic bound to the Illefarn high magic of the Mantle. When Yeldoon recovered it, he became bound to it, and it drove him with “the tombing urge,” as Undermountain veterans call it. He descended into Undermountain, established a crypt for himself on the Storeroom (second) Level, and sealed himself in. Qilué had sent Sword Dancer SiNafay Vodare with a small force to take the Crypt of Yeldoon, but at last report, they had not fared well. Qilué asks Faeryl – and Samir, if he is willing – to join SiNafay and aid her. She points them to the portal indicated on the map Samir got from the flameskull as a quicker way to find them.

Light-absorbing statues.

Going through the city and using the portal to the Helmwatch, Samir insisted on heading south, despite the directions Qilué gave to rendezvous with SiNafay’s encampment to the north. They entered a chamber where two black statues sucked the light from Samir’s ever-burning torch, but Faeryl’s darkvision could see the eyeless grimlocks moving towards them. Faeryl charged two of them, while another two attacked Samir. They managed to kill one grimlock each, but there were simply too many of them….

Slaying Hukurus.

17 Hammer 1374 DR.

Faeryl awoke first in SiNafay’s encampment. Phaerun Lysaen had mounted a patrol, hearing that they were to expect reinforcements from the Promenade, and managed to fight off the two remaining grimlocks just in time. The apothecary Nym Agrach Dyrr had managed to heal them.

They find that a party of six had been dispatched a tenday before and not reported back, and SiNafay has grown sully and overly cautious as a result. Phaerun goads Faeryl to assert her new-found authority as a priestess, and lead a new charge herself. SiNafay objects, but there is little she can do. She remains behind with Nym to man the encampment, while Faeryl leads Phaerun and Samir to find the Crypt of Yeldoon.

The Crypt of Yeldoon.

They first discover the newly-formed colony, supposedly built by drow and dwarven slaves, but Faeryl and Samir soon surmise that something is amiss. Samir postulates that these identical creatures may be products of a deepspawn. That hypothesis proves true, when they find Hukurus’ lair, guarded by two grimlock deepspawn (proving that the grimlocks that nearly overwhelmed them before were also part of this deepspawn colony). But Hukurus is only a child deepspawn, and the companions manage to defeat it, destroying the colony.

From there, Samir leads the way to the Crypt of Yeldoon. There, Phaerun recognizes the reanimated zombies as the patrol sent to find the crypt, who had not reported back. First defeating the magically-empowered zombies guarding the crypt itself, Faeryl and Phaerun pound their way through two heavy, iron doors, to the sarcophagus of Yeldoon. A wight crawls up out of the sarcophagus as Samir creeps into the room, and attacks the professor. He slams him on the ground, as Samir’s skin tuns placid and the life drains from his face. Then, an allip forms and fights Phaerun. In a desperate battle, the companions manage to overcome the undead body and the tortured spirit of Yeldoon, claiming his cursed medallion and the rest of his funerary hoard.

• Previous Chapter: The Calling
• Next Chapter: Belkram’s Fall

Chapter 1, The Calling.

Part One

Played 17 November 2007

12 Hammer 1374 DR.

The snow falls lightly over Waterdeep, descending softly and gently, to alight upon the cold tiles of the rooftop-landing mere moments before the rushing boot of Samir Neren falls on top of it.

“After him!” the gruff voices behind him shout. Neren glances quickly behind him to see the two barbaric house guards still chasing him as he races across the peak of one building’s slanted roof. He comes to the end of it and in a single motion springs himself across the alley to the next roof. They’re still hard on his heels, but he can tell he may have a chance as he nearly loses his footing on a sheet of ice, but manages to keep himself steady. He makes it to the end of the second roof and attempts an even longer jump, but fails; instead, he’s able to tuck into a roll, spring off the side of the opposite building, and landing gingerly in the alley below. One of the guards loses his footing on the same sheet of ice, and falls down the sloped roof, crashing into a merchant’s stand in the street below. The other guard makes it, and brings himself to an unsteady halt at the roof’s edge, looking about frantically. But Neren has already pulled his cloak up and disappeared seemlessly into the crowd, the golden Illefarn statue of Coronal Ynoleth safely tucked inside his shirt…

“Bah, does anyone ever believe your stories, Samir?” the professor’s listener scoffed. Samir was in the Yawning Portal Inn, recounting his most recent tale of daring to a fellow patron. For a tenday now, the nightmares had grown worse, and Samir knew he would have to venture into Undermountain if they were to ever stop. He had come to the Yawning Portal each day for the past four days, but had yet to talk himself into actually going down the well. Today, though, he met Ellithral the Golden, a bard who told many tales the professor knew to be untrue; but he also offered an updated, post-quake map of Undermountain, sold by his “good friend,” Errya Eltorchul. Recognizing the family name of his Academy’s patron, Samir decided to arrange such a meeting, and went down the portal.

At the bottom, he hid carefully from a bugbear who wandered into the chamber, obviously distraught. Behind him, Samir ran right into a dark elf – a female, who seemed to be stalking the bugbear. When she charged him, Samir made a break for it.

In the corridor leading to the Hall of Many Pillars, Samir discovered an ambush set by the Sluggard goblin tribe, and tried to trap them, instead. He was nearly overwhelmed by their numbers, but the dark elf had since killed the bugbear and doubled back after the professor, charging into the thick of the goblin ambush to rescue Samir. Both badly wounded, they took refuge in the Sluggard’s guardpost, as the dark elf tended Samir’s wounds.

13 Hammer 1374 DR.

When Samir woke up, the dark elf introduced herself as Faeryl T’sarran, a Darksong Knight. Samir’s former research gave him enough background to recognize Faeryl’s affiliation. A Kenku approached them, having obviously watched them for some time now, and offered his services as a guide, mentioning an undead infestation to the west, and beyond that, the Falling Stair, where a ghost lives. He offers to take them to the ghost, and Samir agrees. Instead, he leads them to the Hall of Many Pillars and runs off to the south, as one of the pillars comes to life and begins brutally attacking Faeryl and Samir. As they retreat south after the Kenku, the column eventually stops its pursuit and returns to the hall, but Faeryl and Samir find themselves turned back around by a blue dragon. As they make their way back, the Kenku launches its ambush, but Faeryl and Samir manage to kill him, instead.

Samir decides he’s still going to find the ghost the Kenku mentioned, even though he missed his appointment and the Kenku turned out to be a thief, so Faeryl stays with him. They move west from the Hall of Many Pillars, making it to the Hungry Face, which they have no means of understanding or overcoming. As they make their way back, Faeryl falls into the camoflouged pit and is beset by a swarm of eyeballs. Samir jumps into the pit to save her, and together, they defeat the swarm. They make it out of the pit and manage to work their way back to the Entry Well, where they can take a rest at the Yawning Portal.

Durnan & the Yawning Portal.

Part Two

Played 20 November 2007

14 Hammer 1374 DR.

Faeryl awakens in the Yawning Portal, and recognizes Durnan, whom she happened to rescue when he made his first journey into Undermountain many years before. Samir is eager to return; his nightmares have featured prominently a ghost-like creature at the Falling Stair, so he knows there’s more to the Kenku’s story than the simple bait of a trap. Rearmed and reinvigorated, they make another run,and manage to find the Falling Stair. Withstanding its many illusions and obstacles, Samir and Faeryl finally make their way to Jhesiyra Kestelharp. Faeryl reaches out to receive the Horned Ring from her.

On their way back to the entrance portal, Faeryl and Samir find themselves ambushed by undead under the thrall of a potent flameskull. Cornered into Whitehelm’s Tomb by the undead, they confront the flameskull and its two baneguards. Defeating the baneguards and forcing the flameskull to retreat, Samir finds maps of the Blue Mermaid Passage, and a portal to the Helmwatch.

But the flameskull has not been defeated; instead, he has laid an ambush for Faeryl and Samir in the flooded corridor. As they enter battle against his dreads, he sets the oil on the water on fire, but Samir manages to grab the floating skull with his grappling hook and pull him close enough for Faeryl to destroy him.

They make it back to the Yawning Portal, where Faeryl tells Samir that she had been sent from the Promenade of Eilistraee to find a hero who can help them save the Mantle, and she has fallen for Samir’s boast to be the greatest hero of the Sword Coast. Appealing to Samir’s ego, the professor agrees to go with her to meet Qilué Veladorn.

• Next Chapter: The Crypt of Yeldoon

Midwinter, 1373 DR.

The last day of the Year of Rogue Dragons, the festival of Midwinter. The past two years had been hard for Waterdeep. The war with Shade had taken its toll. In Waterdeep, Deadwinter Day gave the nobles a time to renew their alliances, and for the city folk, Midwinter nights always meant rejoicing for the peaces that would continue, and to celebrate the half of winter already gone. But as the first drunken revels were winding down and the church bells marked midnight and the first moments of the new year, the earth shook.

The tremor was a minor one, and anywhere else would have meant little. But this was no ordinary place; this was Waterdeep, built atop the vast underhalls of Halaster Blackcloak, the mad archmage of Undermountain. For six miles, monster-infested, diabolically trapped levels upon levels of dungeon humming and glowing with magic layered upon magic, stretched beneath the city. The city of Waterdeep did not have a foundation in earth; it had a foundation in magic.

Long before, Waterdeep had been the site of another great city: Aelinthaldaar, capital of Illefarn. Even in their day, their alliance with the Melairkyn dwarves had undermined the city’s foundations, and so they had worked a high magic spell called “the Mantle” to keep their capital standing. Since then, Halaster had only expanded the vast tunnels of Undermountain. The earthquake itself caused little damage, but what it presaged awoke Waterdeep immediately in panic: the Mantle was failing. And if the Mantle failed, then Waterdeep would soon collapse into Undermountain, a vast, metropolis-wide, six-mile hole filled with destruction and hundreds of thousands dead.

But many in the city did not awaken from the earthquake, or even from the panic that followed; they were awoken by nightmares. They dreamed of Undermountain, and its mad archmage; they dreamed of treasure or adventure. But they all seemed compelled to explore Undermountain’s depths. They became known as “the Called,” and they flocked to the Yawning Portal Inn, and just as often delved to their doom.

And among their numbers was an associate professor at Eltorchul Academy, named Samir Neren.