8/11/03- Jom woke up one morning and Zeph was missing, along with all of her things. She began to worry but later received a message from him saying he was alright, he had just been having dreams that he needed to go and see if they were real or not. After a few days Zeph came home, accompanied by a dark man named Tadash. After quite a large fight between Jom and Zeph (mostly Jom was doing the fighting), and several trips to the Hall fo Truth. Jom couldn't get out of Zeph exactly where he had gone. Tadash later told Serenla that they had met while Zeph was seeking out a dream he had had. Zeph told Serenla in private that he had actually gone to look for the perfect wedding gift, as well as a good honeymoon spot.
Jom still had her suspicions but who wouldn’t? Especially considering that Coinspinner was missing, but Zeph denied any knowledge of where the sword might be. Upon scrying for the sword she found her crystal ball broken, which she also blamed Zepheria for (can you feel the love?) So eventually, after much cooling down on Jom's part, the gang decided to teleport around and look for anything interesting. They didn’t dare go confront Rastlin, Mephetis or Wood, since they all had swords that were one step ahead of them.
They stopped in Tristam to check on the temple to Spencer, which seemed to be going well. They went to a few other towns as well, but nothing incredibly interesting. Jom decided then to teleport to The Turtle Monastery with just Zeph to try and adopt a baby. Jom wandered off and said hello to Tirathia but she was pulled aside by Zepheria. Upon getting somewhere private, Zepheria pulled out his sword and attempted to attack Jom! She quickly teleported into the temple and went to Tirathia for help.
Upon teleporting back, Tadash was standing with Zeph and they seemed very calm. Tirathia questioned Zepheria about his behavior and concluded it was demons. The two teleported to the Hall of Truth and Jom began firing question after question at Zepheria. They were both informed by a servant that there were two men fighting nearby, but they were too busy too bother with that right then. Zeph kept darting around the issue and eventually made a run for it.
Outside the castle, Jom managed to get Zeph in her bag of holding after cursing him so he could no longer use his legs. Tadash could be seen flying towards the two and reached them just as Zeph cut himself out of the bag with Sightblinder. Tadash suggested they all go into the hall of truth and discuss this. They reached the Hall of Truth and once Zeph calmed down he told Jom everything that had happened. He had been possessed by demons and could not control himself. Later, it was thought it might have been the work of Rastlin, since he may have the power to control demons.
Serenla, Tadash and Zeph raced to see the fight 5 minutes away from the castle. They were surprised to see Mephetis and Rastlin themselves duking it out. (a href="https://www.angelfire.com/empire/roplga/fight.html">See the fight here). In the end, Rastlin emerged victorious. Taking Mindsword and Townsaver for himself. He now controlled Mindsword, Soulcutter, Townsaver, and Wayfinder. After he left, Mephetis came alive again, apparently raised by his God, and flew off.
8/6/03- After much uneventful searching for his brother, Oskar returns to the castle. He meets up with Jom and Zepheria and has everything that has happened, be explained. The group teleports to where the black cloaked figure is, and talks with him about retrieving the nearby sword Stonecutter. He suggests they retrieve Dragonslicer first, and then getting Stonecutter while he seeks out Soulcutter. They teleport back to the castle, and decide that instead they want to seek out Soulcutter, because Zepheria wants it, and they decide it’s better if they get it before the cloaked figure. They teleport where it was last seen, and see to their horror that the sword is gone, but not to the black cloaked figure. They can tell by a strange formation of corpses in what appears to be a strange R, that it was in fact Rastlin who has taken Soulcutter.
Slightly disappointed they scry Rastlin and see that he is trekking through fog, obviously in search of Wayfinder. The group quickly teleports to Wayfinder and after a brief encounter with Shadows, they retrieve the sword. They teleport away just in time, because as they were standing there, they all felt a strange feeling of sickness and death over them, as if some strange force was coming closer.
Oskar realizes that the sword Wayfinder is apparently no better then his locate person spell, and decides that he’s had enough sword hunting for one day, and decides to give Jom the sword, and to leave the treasure hunting up to Zeph and Jom.
In the middle of the night Jom is woken by a voice in her head, claiming to be Spencer. He tells her he needs the sword, and will make her a devoted if she lets him have it. She brings it outside and gives it to a griffon, who claims to be Spencer in mortal form.
Zeph and Jom retrieve equipment to allow them to breath underwater, and after a short battle with a Sea Hag, nearly killing Jom, they retrieve Dragonslicer. They teleport to the desert and quickly slay the three dragons guarding Stonecutter. They take their new prize, as well as three undead dragons and teleport to where Shieldbreaker was, unfortunately they see that Shieldbreaker has also been taken. They raise yet another undead dragon and scry for the next sword they desire, Sightblinder.
They teleported to Sightblinder, and the undead dragons make quick work of the Frost worms guarding it. Zepheria claims the sword and they scry the next sword on the list, Coinspinner. They find is sitting at the side of who appears to be a harmless woodcutter and quickly teleport to him. They ask for the sword but the woodcutter seems reluctant to give it up. Suddenly Zeph’s two remaining undead dragons explode. A paladin reveals himself and mentions how lucky it was he was walking by to dispose of the vile creatures. Jom uses Mislead but the woodcutter conveniently moves out of the range for her to grab at the sword. After much more trying, the dou manage to envoke sympathy in the woodcutter and he gives them the sword, they quickly teleport off.
Seeking the only unowned sword, they teleport to the large tree which contains Woundhealer. Sightblinder reveals Zeph as some sort of elven lord to a nearby worshipper, but she leaves. It luckily begins to rain, which would keep any worshippers home, and away from the Tree of Life. After a few minutes of chiseling at the tree, Zeph retrieved Woundhealer and they disappeared.
At this point Zeph had the swords Woundhealer, Doomgiver, Dragonslicer, and Sightblinder. Jom had Coinspinner and Wayfinder. The thought that with their swords, the noble who wielder Shieldbreaker would be an easy battle. They teleported to him, and after a long discussion identified him as Wood the wizard. He offered to fight Zepheria for the sword Shieldbreaker but Zeph refused to use one of his lost swords in the battle so Wood began to leave. After continual taunting and attacking Wood got fed up and used his knowledge of the swords to reveal something about Doomgiver that Zeph had not known. Wood challenged Zepheria to honorary combat, and when challenged honorably Doomgiver must comply, Zeph quickly learned as Doomgiver flew from his pouch into his hand. The fighters ran and clashed swords, there was a flash of light and time seemed to stop for a moment. Doomgiver exploded, shattering into hundreds of useless shards of metal. Jom grabbed Zeph and teleported away.
After much mourning over the loss of Doomgiver, they teleported back to Wood, but the meeting was not as expected. Soon after they arrived in the town, the same sickening feeling the felt in the Plains of Fog, they now felt again. “Demons” said Wood. They walked outside and saw Rastlin landing in the middle of the town on the back of a Griffon. He smiled at Jom and she realized what she had done as Rastlin patted the hilt of Wayfinder, now on his belt. “How ironic” came a voice from behind them, they turned to find the black cloaked figure standing behind them (they found out from Wood his name was Mephetis, a paladin of Hextor). Realizing to their horror that all 11 of the remaining swords were now in the same place, and they quickly teleported off.
Safely away, they decided what their next plan of action would be. They decided to travel to a casino in Cape Yasa, and try out Coinspinner’s power. Whenever they used Coinspinner they seemed to win, no matter what game they played. At one point, someone who seemed to be a guard was walking off to report Zepheria for cheating when he luckily collided with someone carrying drinks, and fell unconscious. Eventually Jom was pulled off by guards and told she were being arrested. Jom went to the bathroom and teleported out front to meet Zeph, they teleported off and concluded they would need disguises.
7/29/03- The black cloaked figure, eyeing the sword in the river below him disposed of his cloaks and dove in, retrieving Farslayer in a matter of moments. Upon resurfacing, he eyed his new sword and a smile grew on his face. Jom and Serenla were preparing to leave when the man began to do something strange. He started spinning. He held the sword pointed straight out and began spinning, chanting a strange phrase, "For thy heart, for thy heart, who hast wronged me".
In the next moment, Farslayer seemingly ripped itself from his grasp and flew past Jom into the clouds. It was followed by a rainbow streak in it's wake, and accompanied by a unearthly howling sound. The man began to laugh, softly at first, but gradually louder, and more maniacal. "So it begins... I never knew it would be so easy..." He said finally.
A peal of thunder could be heard as it began to rain. But Jom quickly noticed that this was not normal rain, but blood, raining down from the clouds. "What happened. What did you do?" Jom shouted over the noise of the storm.
He gazed at her with a certain insanity in his eyes that she had never noticed before as great black wings sprouted from his back, and he took to the air. "Not much..." he said as he took wing, and began to fly off, "Just killed a god..." And the last thing Jom could hear as he flew away was his maniacal laughter.
Jom and Serenla quickly teleported back to the castle where they met up with Zepheria, his new sword swinging at his side. After a short conversation, they were cut off by an entering servant, apparently 10 citzens of Tristam had come in search of their lady. The three days had worn out and these were the left over people who still desired a ruler. Jom quickly spoke with their leader, and then asked him to leave. While servants made the travelers comfortable, Jom and Zepheria went to the dining hall and traded stories in private. Jom told Zepheria of Mindsword, and Farslayer, while Zepheria in turn told of his search and recovery of Doomgiver. After being all caught up, they pondered what was the next move they should make.
7/28/03- Zepheria, feeling the itch for adventure, decided to set out, accompanied by Ariel, to try and find one of these fabled "lost swords". He remembered Jom saying something about one of the swords lying in the grave of General Yasa, so with high hopes, and the incentive of seeing a graveyard again, the odd pair set off.
They reached Tristam only to be run up to by about 10 villagers asking where their "lady" was. After a lengthy questioning period, and after noticing a new temple to Spencer in the background, Zepheria deduced that they were speaking of his beloved Fiancee Jom. He offered to take a few of them with him to "look" for Jom, even though he still desired to find a sword.
One evening, several weeks after an encounter with a band of gnolls, the group; consisting of Ariel, Zepheria, Karel the wizard, and two fighters, awoke one night to a hideous sound. A gibbering mouther had happened upon the camp! After devouring one of the fighters the party had to think fast. Zepheria erected a Wall of Ice, which the wizard melted into a large puddle. As the Gibbering Mouther walked through it, Ariel called a lightning bolt and fell the beast once and for all. The party mourned the loss of their comrade, but did not tarry, and continued onward the next day.
Upon reaching Kaliburn, the gang stowed away on a smuggling ship. Zepheria and the fighter paid for passage; while the wizard hid in a crate and Ariel took the form of a sparrow for free voyage. During the journey, Zepheria realized they were on a smuggling ship. They were rewarded when the wizard gained the party 15 gold from the spices that he took which were hidden in the crate that he had been hiding in.
The party proceeded to ask around for any news about Jom, and the fighter learned that Jom was a heroine of Caanaras, and that they could go to the Castle of Heroes to wait for her. Zepheria talked them into staying and digging up General Yasa's grave at nightfall by saying that if the sword was still there, that meant she hadn't been here yet and they could look for her at the castle.
When darkness fell the party, shrouded by fog (courtesy of Karel and Zepheria), dug up General Yasa's grave and to Zepheria's pleasure, unearthed one of the 12 Lost Swords. Karel quickly identified this as Doomgiver, but he assumed it must be a copy, since the lost swords didn't really exist.
Soon after Zepheria started wearing the blade he noticed he began to be able to identify the alignments of people just by concentrating on them. "How convenient..." said Zepheria.
On their way back to the castle, Zepheria dropped Karel and the Fighter off at Tristam to get the other remaining followers of Jom, who would later come to the castle and wait for her. As Zepheria and Ariel headed back alone, they were encountered by bandits. Zepheria, brandishing his new blade made quick work of the bandits. He awed in the awesome strength and recovery power of his sword. After he has successfully mangled their corpses, the proceeded home. Zepheria's hand resting at his prized hilt, hanging at his side.
7/25/03- After teleporting back to Tristam, Jom proceeded to the magic items shop, with her new prize swinging at her belt. She asked to purchase a teleportation ring. Jom decided the price was too high, and reluctantly drew her sword for the second time. After spending about 15 minutes calming down the dozens of villagers that were now bowing at her feet, she commanded them to build a temple to Spencer. If they did this then she would take them with her. Jom and Serenla quickly grabbed a Ring of Teleportation Without Error and a Cloak Of Blend In II. While the villagers were out working, Jom and Serenla teleported to the river where the sword Farslayer was hidden.
Much to their suprise, the black cloaked figure who had sent them on this journey was just stepping through the brush when they arrived. He quickly exchanged 25 Platinum for Jom's sword, after much assurance that he would not use it on them. He strapped his second sword onto his back, and gazed down into the river where Farslayers glint could still be seen.
7/20/03- Jesse and Crystal were the only ones in attendance for this gaming session. Jom and Serenla well knew about the tale of how the planet was formed and how the races were made. But they had never thought of the 12 "lost" swords as anything short of myth, and legend. On this particular day though these myths were about to have a lot more truth in them the before. A cloaked figure came to the castle and met with Jom, Serenla and Zepheria. He explained a proposition to them, that he would pay 25 platinum (2500 gold, 250,000 copper pieces) for one of these "lost" swords. The gangs skeptism was cut short when they realized they were in the Hall of Truth, and when they saw one of the god-forged swords themselves swinging at the man's belt. So they set out. Jom scryed on each of the swords and picked one, supposidly on top of Mount Daemone. The journeyed many days, "bravely fought off" Girralons, narrowly avoided what appeared to be a Nymph encampment, and reach Mount Daemone. Suddenly to their IC dismay but OOC hilarity, they realized that they had travled all this way... without climbing gear.
And so they set off towards Tristam, and Jom purchased a teleportion ring (climbing equipment... of the FUTURE). Jom and Serenla teleported to the swords wherabouts only to be overcome by a caucophony of voices screaming in their heads. It drove them to the brink of insanity, and jumping clear off the cliff to get away from it passed through their minds often. Eventually, Serenla got up the concentration to cast a shaky Mage Hand spell to carry her sheath up and sheathe the glowing sword. The voices stopped. They slowly walked over and picked the sword up, noticing a symbol resembling a white flag flapping in the wind. The Mindsword was theirs!
Curiosity killed the cat, but Jom drew the sword anyways. The affect was not what she had expected at all. Completely unlike her, Serenla threw herself at Jom's feet with tears in her eyes apologizing repeatedly for all the ways she had wronged her. She pledged herself as Jom's loyal friend and companion and begged forgiveness while repeatedly kissing Jom's feet.
So with bright shining sword in hand, a smile on her face, and a worshipper at her feet, Jom gazed down the mountain, over Canaaras, and thought about whether selling the sword was really worth it... And which sword she would go after next...
