In celebration of the return of the Inn, I thought I would post a story of sorts based on a tabletop game I played in years ago.  It is a journal kept by my character.  Unlike player notes that are intended to help keep track of the actual game, this is a fictional account of the game recorded from the point of view of the character and was sent to the group as a way to develop backstory and offer a bit of humor at times.  Algrak was a lawful evil mage who traveled with a basically good group.  A magical amulet hid is evil alignment, he was a man who abided by the letter of an agreement not necessarily the intent and who sought to slowly turn others to the evil side.    

Journal of Algrak the Black  

                Finally the 4^th of Faumont has arrived and the Day of Adulthood ceremony is behind me.  Today I am counted as a man and am able to travel to Glantri City to seek admission into the Great School of Magic.  I have no doubt they will recognize my skills and grant me admission.  What an excellent mage I shall become.

                I arrived early and sought a room at one of the local establishments known as the Red Drake Inn.  While eating breakfast, I was joined at my table by some rather interesting individuals.  Two of them were fellow prodigies of the mystical arts.  The first fellow, the one with scaly skin, introduced himself as Saldrin.  He is a quiet fellow and keeps to himself much of the time.  He did however recognize my natural leadership ability and quickly began to support my views.  The second mage introduced herself as Crystalinia.  She is a bit more outspoken but his is easy to overlook as she is rather ravishing and makes pleasant company.  Unfortunately, not everyone was a mage.  Andue, a human ranger, and “Hiker” a centaur ranger seem to be a close knit pair.  Lastly, there is an elvin thief who fancies himself a scout.  He seemed confused as to the concept of a name and gave none.  Therefore, I shall call him “Thief” until such time as he deems it appropriate to announce his true name.  I will have to keep an eye on this one, I sense trouble.

                After breakfast, we mages set out for the Great School.  For some unknown reason, the others decided to tag along.  Angan Forester met us and introduced himself as the Dean of Admissions.  He led us into one of the high towers and to my surprise even allowed the non-mages to accompany us.  Testing for admission began in earnest after a warning to Andue, Hiker and Thief that they were to sit quietly and touch nothing.  We were drilled on our knowledge of spells and given various other aptitude type tests.  I must say that we all did quite well.  Partway through the testing, a huge explosion rocked the tower and I followed Angan outside to see what had occurred.  The fighters all drew their swords, as if that would be of any help against a great and powerful mage.  In the courtyard two figures, one a flaxen haired woman and the other an older dark-haired man, appeared to be ready for a great magical fight.  Angan quickly admonished them to fill out the proper forms before beginning any wizard duels and they skulked off like chastised children.  Once back inside, Angan identified them as Yriss Ghuth, an instructor, and Thanrae Sycloe, a researcher.  The remainder of the morning was filled with more testing and the occasional reminder to the non-mages to behave.  I have never the polymorph other spell and was hoping for a demonstration.  Alas, it was not to be today.  We were instructed to return in two days for the results.  I am sure that this is just a formality and the delay is likely due to the scores my companions received.  I would likely have been accepted on the spot without their presence. 

                As our afternoon was free, I decided to visit my friend, Antony.  He is a junior member of the Spokeman’s Guild.  He could prove a valuable ally in this city.  We traveled by gondola with Sergio as our guide.  As we glided along, he pointed out many interesting sites.  Upon our arrival (the others had followed along like sheep) I found that Antony worked for Mickquel, a spokesman for Prince Ranar who is the ruler of Glantri.  My friend may be valuable indeed.  Unfortunately, Antony was in session and would not return until tomorrow morning.  As it was approaching lunchtime, we left for the marketplace.

                                The marketplace was exactly what I expected; a noisy, boisterous mob.  Andue spied an inn called the Lavender Crawfish and requested we dine there.  As no one raised a voice against the idea, in we went.  The boiled crawfish were exquisite.  Andue tried the local delicacy, lavender crawfish, that turned out to be rather spicy and left him with lips colored in such a manner as to cause even the local prostitutes to stare.  Lavender is not his best color. 

                                Since many of us had traveled far that day, we headed towards the Red Drake.  Amazingly our gondolier for this journey was Sergio’s cousin, Antonio.  I think I see a bias in the hiring rules for the local guide’s guild.  We returned home, more knowledgeable about the sites in Glantri City.

                                Uopn our arrival, we headed to out room.  As we opened the door. We were greeted by the sight of a corpse with a dagger in its back.  We quickly identified it as Thanrae.  Interestingly, the dagger protruding from his back belonged to Thief.  He immediately pointed out that he was with us all day in the tower.  I am not sure what to think of a thief who has his possessions stolen.  We did not have long to ponder the situation.  As we turned to descend the stairs and report the incident, the town guard was waiting for us in the hall.  Several heavily armed guards pushed us back into the room and accused us of murder.  The constable gave them a sign as if to say “kill them”.  We opted to flee out the window.  I found it harder than usual to run as if I was carrying extra weight in my backpack.  A brief stop and inspection yielded an amulet and a note.  The author begged us to safeguard the amulet and return it to Angan.  Seeing no other alternative and remembering that the School had truth spells that would vindicate us, we made haste to the Great School.

                                We ran with lightning bolts from the constable providing unwelcomed light.  Luck was with us a gondola was immediately available.  During our travel I noticed our gondolier was deathly pale and robed in all black.  Perhaps the rumors of vampires freely roaming the streets were true.  At that moment I could not have cared if our boatman was one of the old, evil gods incarnate as he was moving us away from the guards. 

                                As we approached the Great School, we realized it was shut for the night.  It never occurred to us that it might not be open as the rest of the city was teaming with activity.  While we were contemplating our next move, a wizard ambushed us from the rooftop.  We managed to avoid the first few lightning bolts but the last one caused the ground beneath us to crumble and we dropped into a dark void.  The icy waters of an underground river saved us from a certain death from the fall.  Cold and weak we managed to grab a ledge and scramble back onto solid ground.

                                Unable to see in the vile blackness, it was surely a magical darkness as even the elves could not see, we stumbled along and ran headlong into two snakes.  The fighters quickly dispatched them.  I suppose they do serve a purpose after all.  Continuing along, we came to a locked door.  Once more, brute strength proved valuable as the fighters broke the door from its hinges and we passed into a tunnel system.  We wandered around for some time in the darkness.  At one point, I fell into a pit while a carrion crawler attacked my companions.  Hiker killed the beast single-handedly and I found a pouch on a decaying body.  I struggled not to be overcome by the putrid scent and managed, with a bit of help, to escape the pit. 

                                Some time later we came upon a great beast imprisoned in a chamber.  After securing its word that it would not harm us, we freed it from its chains.  He introduced himself as Zeradon, a lamasu, and he healed me of my wounds.  The stink of goodness was all around him, but he did serve a useful purpose.  Zeradon had the body of a lion, the wings of an eagle and the face of a human. He confirmed my suspicion that the darkness was magical.  It had been growing over the past years and he was afraid it would one day take over the entire world.  After telling us that there were potions of great use nearby, he teleported away. 

This was the end of game session 1.  I will continue the story in the coming days.  Hope you enjoy the journal   

Game sessions 2 and 3 were kind of short on play it seems.  We probably talked too much about non-D&D stuff and I believe our wanderings took up much of the sessions.

      We found a set of stairs and acended further into the maze of tunnels.  It was not long before th local denizens came calling.  Something moved in the darkness and Saldrin cast a LIGHT spell causing our shadowy attacker to flee into the darkness.  THe elves in the party noticed they could once again see body heat.  We followed our attacker into the tunnels but found our way blocked by rubble and so we headed back into the magical darkness once more.  After some time, we entered a room and were attacked by skeleton warriors.  By luck we managed to survivethe fight although perhaps Hiker and Andue played a significant part in generating that luck.  We found various potions and Thief took one of them and was healed.  The party seemed to believe he deserved the potion dispite his disrespect towards his betters, the mages.  He will have to learn some humity is he is to survive long.  I believe Andue has taken him under his wing and will explain to him his proper place in life.  As such I expect no further insolence from him.  Sladrin and I jeach took a potion and did not fare well but we now know the acrid taste of poison.  

     Sometime during our journey we found a room with an obelisk.  As each of the mages touched it we found we could immediately recall one spell we had cast earlier in the week; a most fortuitous find.  Much of our time was spent wandering, hoping to luck upon a way out of the tunnel.  The fighters moved too slowly for my taste and often spent a great deal of time determining the exact dimensions of the rooms we encountered.  This was utterly futile as the magical darkness made mapping impossible and they quickly forgot the information as new rooms were found.  I began to fear we would not find our way out.

     After many hours of wandering, sleep weighs heavy upon us.  Finally we fall asleep in a corner, exhausted from our ordeal.  It seemed as if days had passsed before we awoke but we found later that it had been but a few hours.  We returned to the obelisk in order to use its light to read our spell books.  It was not until after we arrived that we realized it would tak eanother day of rest to reagin our spells.  That was not a luxury we could afford as we were scheduled to retuen this very day to verify our acceptance into the Great School.  I did however tak ethe time to make notes of our previous journey in my journal.

    We proceeded back into the inky blackness.  Some time later, we heard a clicking sound of unknown origin.  Notlong after we found it came from a giant scorpion.  Knowing that the viel creature possessed a posionous sting, I allowed the fighters to move to the front of the group.  Their armor would provide better protection than my robes.  At this point I had a vision of the party being eaten by the creature.  Fortune smiled upon us and Hiker and the other fighters quickly reduced it to a harmless paste.  

   A bit further on, we came into a well lit room.  Here a shade of Thanrae appeared before us.  The others were filled with dread but I noticed that it appeared drawn to me.  Remembering the talisman I carried, I told the others to hold their attacks.  The shade asked for the amulet and used ot to take over my body.  I remember nothing of the events I shall describe and am only relaying information gleaned from tthe others.  Apparently the amulet recorded the Thanrae's murder as it happened.  Yriss and another were responsible, a fact that did not surprise me at all.  Thranrae directed us to return the amulet to Angan in order to prove our innocence and appease his spirit.  The shade offered to answer any questions we had, but my companions could think of none save how to exit the cavern and it was quickly given to them.  They did not have the foresight to ask why Yriss killed Thanrae or even who the accomplice was.  I suppose they were under a bit of stress and the oversight is understandable (even if I would not have made such a mistake).  Thanrae's shade bis us use the talisman wisely.

    As we moved towards the exit, we ran into two fighters and the mage that accused us of the murder at the inn.  They told us they were sent to ensure we never left the caverns.  Their incompetance held a heavy penalty.  We continued on and approached two huge, iron doors.  Etched upon them were words that identified them as a gateway to the Brazier Empire (an old term for Glantri).  We deduced that behind them were the canals buthow were we to breech such an obstacle?  Saldrin remembered that Zeradon told us there were potions we needed to escape and so a search was begun in earnest.  It was not long before we found an alcove containing 4 bottles.  Above it was a sign "Put back what you do not use".  Each of us downed a dose of the potions of what we believed must be water breathing.  Crystalina wanted to slip Thief a dose of poison instead and I was wont to agree with her.  However, he might prove useful later and I convinced her to spare him for the moment.  One of these days he will severely overstep his bounds and his carcass shall serve as fodder for the creatures of the night.  But not of this very night.  Once ready, we pulled a lever that allowed water to fill the room.  Thief panicked like a yong school girl and Andue sat on the floor hoping that if we were wrong about the potions his end would be swift.  We were all just fine and soon found a ladder that led to the surface near the marketplace only to be met by a mob shouting "murderers!".  Had we escaped the tunnel only to be beaten to death by third-class rabble?  Suddenly Angan appeared and we told him of the amulet.  He whisked us back to the School and into the office of his master, Uerd-al -aras.   Unbelievably the hoel that had swallowed us was gone and the ground was once more solid.  Uerd-al-aras looked at the amulet and was convinced of our innocence.  His anger towards Yriss was eveident in his scowl as he promised she would be dealt with swiftly and severely.  Some of my companions went with a group of guards to arrst her but I fent it was prudent to keep a safe distance.  As I feared, she escaped capture using a teleport spell and remains free.  

    As gratitude for our bringing the real murderer to justice (and possibly as an apology for our false accusation) Christilina,Saldrin and I received a year fo free tuition at the Great School.  Our companions each received a magical weapon (+1) suitable to their profession.  Curriculum guidance and a syllabus were provided and we were infomed that class would begin 9 days hence.  Until then we were free to do as we chose.

     My studies, combined with the casting of a few spells in the caverns have allowed me to become a more proficient mage (advanced to 2nd level).  None of my fellow mages have advanced so quickly but that is to be expected.  They do not have my level of raw talent.  I am looking forward to the start of classes and the chance to further my abilities.  It seems that the class schedule will even allow for adequate time for a bit more adventuring.

That was the end of sessions 2 and 3.  More to come.  Please feel free to make comments.