The Febrile Fibrillations of the Fra
Following records of Fra Nevjest were recovered after his untimely death.
Written by Fra Nevjest's player.
Episode 1
Fra Nevjest is a cleric of Kodeus, God of Dexterity, Thieves and other minor bits and bobs. Actually, he’s a wanna-be cleric. In as much as the young fellow is intelligent (15) and wise (16), his dexterity is lacking (5) after his uncle, seeking to enhance the family gene, experimented on him in infancy: praying to Kodeus for a stronger bloodline. Kodeus, ever a humorous god, gifted Fra with a Bump of Direction, which is imbedded between his ears… but in exchange left the babe with a rather low level of dexterity (minus 6 to what it was). The uncle, feeling guilty for his experimentation on a family member that would never be condoned by the Clerical Society of the Astral Planes, grandfathered him into the service of Kodeus (or maybe uncle was just getting his own revenge on the deity?).
Fra is a willing servant, lively and healthy, but rather unable to tie his caligulae without making a knot or three. Being no fool, and realising that only Kodeus can reverse his condition, Fra seeks to ingratiate himself in the lawful side of the brotherhood and wishes to catch Kodeus’ eye, preferably favourably...
In his first foray away from the abbey, he has agreed to help 3 brothers: Fitzedward (a veteran fighter), Doud and Hobart (less than bright peasants) in looking for their sister and her husband, kidnapped by some miscreant evil elders. In the process of seeking the decrepit burial temple where the elders have holed up, he makes the acquaintance of Orda, a lawful Mongolic fighter, who seems to enjoy battle cries that sound more like a mammoth in labour and Orion, a chaotic thief, who embarrassingly shares the same deity and is as weaselly as … as… well… a weasel.
A walk from the village pub brings the party into marvellous fields and forests that eventually give way to a large hill, atop which are ruins of the elder’s temple. There seem to be three entrances, two are lower down and barrow like, while the third, the grand entrance is a set of huge iron doors with a carved symbol of law, now circled with drawings of chaos. In better times it was a resting place for great templars and clerics. Concerned the doors could slam behind of us, we sought the SW barrow, a simple access carved in lawful runes.
As they entered the tunnel, a large blue apparition rose out of the ground. They engaged it with respect and learned with relief it was lawful. The figure lamented the condition of the temple and sought their help to cleanse it of the evil elders who had desecrated and occupied the place. Fra and Orda jumped at the opportunity and even offered to help reconsecrate it. They were offered tools to complete the quest on condition these were returned at the end. While this conversation went on, Orion avoided the lawful exchange and scurried off to explore.
Fra and Orda each entered sarcophagi rooms occupied by dead clerics and paladins respectively. Fra found a brooch that would protect him from evil, while Orda got a sword. They thanked the dead and prayed for them. Entering a 3rd room, they found desecrated sarcophagi, collected the bones and tried to put them in the right place, praying again. Meanwhile 2 giant rats assailed Orion and the brothers, the rats were slain with minor difficulty.
They continued exploring, entering a large pillared room. To the south was a corridor with two guardian stone cats, which Fra went up to admire and pat. Orion, fearing a trap wormed past them on his belly. They entered a brightly decorated room with a 3-panel sarcophagus in an offshoot. Orion rushed to a huge gem set therein. Fra warned him off taking it, but was distracted by a scream far behind. As they rushed back to the main corridor, Fra saw the little thief palm the gem out of the corner of his eye … he ground his teeth in disgust.
The horrible sound came from Doud, dying under the claws of a tusked being, covered in wrinkled decaying skin. Fitzedward and Orda slew it.
The party continued through more passages. At one point Fra went on a ways, to guard the passage, while Orda and Orion checked another painted room, bright yellow with patterns and dice painted on the ceiling. A very narrow passage led off to an alcove and Orion squeezed into it, encountering 4 waist height stone balls in shallow depressions, one at each corner of the limited space. Hoping for treasure, he struggled to move the balls and 4 centipedes eventually came out from under one to assail him viciously. Three died under his struggles but the fourth climbed up his pantaloons and bit his privates, putting paid to one of the pair… Orda reached in and dragged him forth, punching him in the groin and crushing the interloper… Orion was greatly diminished (sic) and ill from the poison and pain, but he dragged himself after us rather than return alone to the surface.
Orda and Fra chanced onto a series of rooms, again beautifully decorated. Fitzedward followed, prepared for combat while Hobart carried a torch and Orion hobbled in the rear. The last room dedicated to Aeblos, also contained an ugly statue. Fra approached and the statue hissed and came to life in reaction to the brooch. The group fought it and brought it down. As it fell, shouts for help were heard and a narrow passageway was found leading to a small prison room where the missing couple were shackled to the wall. The heroes released them and the family (what remained of it) was gratefully reunited.
The group left the temple, but not without assuring the blue apparition that they would return to keep their promise.
Episode 2
After two weeks resting in Dontrap, a desolate hamlet on the far reaches of the Borderlands, the adventurers sallied forth to return to the temple. Fra, Orda, Orion were again joined by the brothers Fitzedward and Hobart as well as a new colleague, Tamren, a well accoutred Paladin of Coriptis, God of war.
The Fra strode bravely forth, confidence growing from having survived his first delve into the depth of chaos. The party marched across the meadows and fields leading to their destination. Suddenly there came a loud beating of wings as a monstrous eagle swooped on Orda and injured him. The party lagged in its surprise. The eagle had time to lunge for another prey and this time hooked its talons into the Fra’s chainmail, pinning him to the ground. Shaken with surprise, the Fra did not react, hoping his colleagues would strike the fowl fiend and rescue him. They indeed struck the eagle but did not get it to relax its hold. With little effort, the bird lifted the Fra into the air, 160 feet or more… Arrows thudded into it and with a squawk, the bird of prey dropped the Fra… Fra’s last thoughts were “why am I so clumsy?” as he plummeted earthwards and died (16 x d6 damage…).
The Fra’s eyes fluttered open, his head and body ached as if he had been dropped from a great height. How was he alive? He looked around the little temple and saw the old priest who resided there. “Your colleagues thought you were worth the effort of one of the Revive Dead scrolls I had in our meagre treasury. You are fortunate, firstly that the scroll still worked and secondly that you weren’t your colleague Orion, who your colleague’s opted not to save”.
Muttering a prayer of thanks to Kodeus, the Fra re-joined his friends. After his death, the party had been attacked by Altarian barbarians, as the party returned to Dontrap. They were all slain, but at the cost of Orion and Hobart. The party had now been joined by Bright Goose, who looked a little like Orion, with his flaming hair and his odd predilection for all things avian.
The group walked back to the temple, with the Fra nervously scanning the heavens. It was decided to re-engage in the original passage in the hopes of meeting the Guardian again. But there was consternation and disappointment as the apparition was gone and the sarcophagi in all the rooms they had visited were now desecrated and smeared with blood. The entered the skeleton room that had held skeletons – all were shattered. One of the cat statues was broken, as if it had received one or more blows. A little further in was the passage to the sarcophagi that Orion had stolen the gem from. A cat blocked the access and it would appear that it was indeed a guardian and had fought off whatever evil had entered. The Fra immediately went to pat the statue and passed around it into the sarcophagi room. Opening a panel, he found therein two bags. One contained a huge bright green sphere, the other held gold coins and a mace. The Fra called back to his colleagues for advice. Take it all they said, we’ll need everything we can to cleanse this nest of evil. As he withdrew the sacks, the sphere and the gold disappeared, leaving him with light, well balanced mace.
The party returned to the main corridor and explored a dead end or two before finding a narrow passage to the east. Tamren and the Fra followed it into a small room. Two wrinkled creatures shied back from the torch the Fra held. Tamren charged in striking at one of the mole men, while Fra courageously rushed at the other. While Tamren dismembered his adversary, the Fra repeatedly lived up to his lack of dexterity missing his opponent 4-5 time. Ultimately the mole man won through, gouging the Fra badly and claiming his left eye. The Fra was healed in combat but continued missing the mole man who hit him again. Tamren clove the creature, to the Fra’s relief and exhaustion. Tamren found a ring and 11 gp from the rotting remains.
The Fra wondered if he would have been better off dead after all… was Kodeus laughing at him?
Episode 3
Bright Goose healed Fra to the best of his abilities, but the damage was serious. Resigning himself to the fickle humour of Lord Kodel, Fra vowed to carry on. In the main corridor, the party encountered a solitary fighter, Harkir, who was welcomed into the party.
A cursory revisit to the narrow corridor revealed nothing but another empty room. Re-engaging in the main passageway, the party came to a forking passageway with strong soot marks on the ground and smell in the air. Heading north they followed a spiralling path which narrowed and forked again. Taking the left-hand fork and following the heavier soot trail, the adventurers came upon a larger room, another dead end. It contained a large, broken, white statue with thousands of coins at its feet, around it were three black statues, abominations similar to the one encountered when Fitzedward’s sister was rescued. The statues charged the party as did a sudden apparition, a dense cloud of soot with a pair of burning eyes pulsing form it. The combat was fierce. Fra’s attempts to dispel the soot creature and to use the brooch failed – perhaps not undead? Fra was hit and fell back. Harker and Oda did their best but could not destroy the adversaries – the soot creature was strangling Orda in a cloud of… soot. Fitzedward leapt in and with amazing skill overcame all 4 horrors. The soot demon exploded in a massive cloud depositing a very thick coat of soot across the room.
As the party caught its breath Fra went to the statue and prayed. He noted a large sword inside, which he sought to extract, to no avail. The weapon carried medallions of a feathered bird, a horse and a resting dragon on its hilt. Fra also recovered his brooch, with extraordinary good fortune.
While this was going, Harker retraced his steps to bring Tamren and Bright Goose to join the party. He discovered them fighting a group of naked maniacs whipped forth by two molemen. Thinking quickly, Harker told Tamren and Bright to withdraw, while he threw oil at the fiends. Thrice he smote them and each time burned one to death. The survivors fled momentarily, allowing Harker to fall back. As he looked over his shoulder, a vast collection of maniacs was rushing towards him and flowing up the corridor that led to where the white statue was.
The monstrous wave hit Orda, Fitz and Fra, who were almost caught unawares. The trio fought furiously, killing the first four, but all succumbed. Fra’s last vision was a filthy hand gouging out his surviving eye. With a sigh Fra fell to the ground, dead. In his mind’s eye he saw Kodel laughing insanely at him, but he also had a strange vision of an elf in in some odd and unrecognisable armour surrounded in light. Then, he was no more.
As Orda died, he sank his Phoenix Sword into the floor and a great gout of flame erupted and incinerated the attackers like a gust of volcanic wind.
Harker, Bright and Tamren cautiously scouted back to the statue room, seeking survivors. There were only charred remains and even the coins had all melted and fused together. Harker noticed that the lawful statue remained, as did the sword. He reached in and withdrew it, a fine two-handed weapon. Suddenly voices boomed out in his head. “This sword will help you, but you will be unable to release it or leave this temple before you have cleansed it, reconsecrated it and returned it to its former glory”. The spirits revealed the lay-out of the temple and directed the survivors to a room nearby, with a fountain of holy water flowing into a pool – a place of sanctuary.
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