The Quick and Dirty History of the Truth Seekers

The party which would eventually become known as the Truth Seekers was formed in Hultail, Cormyr, in the early spring. They were given a commission to deliver a package to a wizard in the town of Thurmaster. The original members of the group were: Sane, a kenku thief/illusionist; Castinar, an elven ranger/druid; Beleg, a human paladin; Dorim, a dwarven cleric; Mogo, a halfling cleric/thief; and Tharg, a trollkin fighter.

On the journey to Thurmaster the party rescued a female drow and her human male companion from a group of orcs. The pair joined the party. Ariessus, the drow, was a cleric of Corelleon, while the human was a mage named Smylie.

A few days later the party was attacked just outside of Milborne, a town along their way. Dorim was slain, but his murderer, a halfling, was captured. The party took the halfling into Milborne and turned him over to the unofficial sheriff, Garyld. When Ari’s heritage was discovered there were some tense moments. Later Smylie freed the halfling in the hope that the thief would lead him to the bandit’s “cache”. The halfling was eventually recaptured and hung for his crime. Smylie was imprisoned and sentenced to work in the local mines.

Also while in town the party learned of the disappearance of a young lady from town, Jelenneth.

The group then traveled on to Thurmaster where they delivered their package to the mage, Tauster. They learned that Jelenneth was his apprentice and that she was, in fact, missing. Tauster hired them to go search for the missing girl.

While in town the party met up with two other adventurers who joined the party. Namhar was a human cleric of Isis. Kerianna was an elven mage.

The party traveled back towards Milborne, stopping and meeting another of the rangers in the area, Kuiper. Kuiper asked for their help in finding a missing young man who had just discovered he was a werebear. The group accompanied Kuiper into the Thornwood and had a pitched battle with a group of orcs. They then tracked down and successfully captured the young werebear, meeting a feral druid named Oleanna in the process.

After discussing their options the party decided to see if Jelenneth had been taken to the local goblinoid stronghold - the Great Rock Dale. Their first foray into the Dale resulted in an inconclusive battle with an orc tribe. When they returned they fought a pitched, running battle outside where most of the party was captured. Beleg and Ari escaped and returned with help. They found that the others had freed themselves and picked up a new party member as well, a young human fighter name Armatage (Matar). However, Mogo was still missing.

The party entered the Dale again and finished off the first orc tribe, then destroyed a second as well. Before heading in again they discover that Mogo had escaped, although the halfling eventually lost his foot due to frostbite and had to leave the party. He eventually became the cleric in Milborne.

The party then wandered around Haranshire a little more and finally went up to Jurgenville, meeting with many of the key figures in the town that would eventually become their home. Namhar leaves the party to return to his temple.

The party’s next challenge was discovering what was behind the “New Mire”, a swamp in western Haranshire that had appeared a few years ago. They eventually discovered a magic item held by a tribe of goblins was to blame. They worked out an elegant solution where the goblins were moved to another area of Haranshire where their magic ring could be used to help control a restless water elemental.

The party’s next challenge was to investigate a strange temple in the southern Thornwood. Along the way they fought a group of gnolls and talked with a small flock of aarakocra. At the temple they fought the undead guarding the temple and then spent quite a while trying to “unlock” the temple. In the process they started a forest fire as the temple defended itself with lightning bolts. In the end they figured it out and freed a storm elemental, which flew off.

After training up in Jurgenville the party learns of problems the people around Thurmaster are having with giants. The party investigates the problems. At this time Tharg leaves the party to go “play” in the Great Rock Dale. In the course of their investigations the party meets Inzeldrin, a green dragon who fancies herself Queen of the Mire. The party works out a solution where Inzeldrin takes care of the giant problem (several formorian giants) and also opens up trade with Count Parlfray and Thurmaster. In return her and her lizardmen are given regular tributes. The party still has to take out several juvenile giants before the situation is fully resolved. In the process of this task Nikki, an elven wild mage, joins the party.

The party then returns to the Thornwood, following up on some suspicious activity in the area. They are attacked by bandits. Most of the females in the party are captured and carried off. Beleg is slain. The females manage to escape with Oleanne’s and her wolves’ help. Beleg is taken back to Jurgenville where he is raised to become a Holy Warrior for his god.

Sure that something is up deep within the Thornwood the party returns. They find an old keep in the middle of the forest called Broken Spire Keep. It is now the lair of a group of bandits - the same ones who attacked the party. The party sets up an elaborate plan and attacks. The bandits prove stronger than expected and the party has to retreat. Beleg is captured covering the party as they flee.

Desperate to free Beleg, the party quickly launches a second assault. This one goes even worse than the first. Everybody in the party with the exception of Sane and Nikki are taken prisoner. The prisoners are raped and tortured for several days. In the dungeons they meet up with a young human paladin, Sigurd.

Meanwhile Sane is busy organizing a rescue. He gets the rangers from the area, Tharg, Maxim, and Tharg’s new friend Zith - a thri-kreen fighter/shaman - and even Mogo to come help with the rescue. The bandits had been sufficiently weakened by the party’s second attack that they fell before the rescue party. Both Sigurd and Zith end up joining the party. The party discovered an entrance to the Underdark in the keep, but are warned off from entering it by Zith’s spirit guide. It is in the Keep that Castinar finds Hunter, one of his companions.

The party temporarily splits up. Most go up to Jurgenville to train and to follow up on something found in the elemental temple. They eventually find a hide-away that once belonged to a powerful mage. They recover several rare spellbooks. Meanwhile, Sane and Ariessus spend time down in Harnshire and the surrounding area trying to track down Smylie, who has fled.

When the party gets back together they receive terrible news - Mogo has been kidnapped. They immediately set out tracking the kidnappers down. The trail leads to an abandoned mine called the Garlstone. The party enters the mine and encounters another group of bandits. Once again it takes them three tries to break through the defenders, but in the end they are victorious. They search the area but find no sign of Mogo. They do, however, find another entrance to the Underdark.

The party then takes a break with a few members follow up on some leads. They fight a wraith in an area known as the Gleaming Glade and recover some magical items.

The clues gathered reveal that Mogo is being held in the shallow Underdark by a tribe of orcs called the Bloodskulls. The party enters the Underdark and eventually finds the Bloodskull lair. Sane sneaks in and finds Mogo, but his rescue attempt goes awry and a full-scale battle is joined. The party easily wipes out the orcs and rescues Mogo.

After a nasty argument about what to do with the orc leader the party looks further into the Underdark and meets Carmeneran, leader of a group of svirfneblin, for the first time. She suggests they aren’t quite ready to enter the Underdark quite yet. The party returns to the surface and trains.

When they return to the Underdark the deep gnomes tell them the only way they will allow the Seekers to travel through their territory is if they prove themselves by wiping out a troll infestation near the edge of the gnome territory. The party agrees and marches to the troll lair. They fight three long battles, but succeed in wiping out the trolls. However, in the process of mopping up the stragglers and exploring the area Kerianna is killed by a tribe of troglodytes. The party argues over what to do and ends up splitting up. Some take Keri’s body to the surface right away while the rest wait a day and heal up before following.

The split proves to be fatal. Both groups are attacked by ropers (in the same area, but at different times). Kerianna’s body is taken from the first group, while Zith is killed in the second group.

The party returns to the surface, grieving. In Jurgenville they recruit two new members. Katrina Hunter, a hengenkoi cat-woman fighter/thief, and Diana, an elven cleric/mage. Sane becomes the new party leader.

The Seekers return to the Underdark once again. Clues about the kidnappers lead them down a long tunnel leading to a location known as the City of the Glass Pool.

On the way they stumble across a series of caves filled with grell. They fight a pitched battle in which Diana is almost killed. After recovering the group scouts around some more and encounters a deepspawn. Ari is almost killed and Castinar disappears for a while as a result of the ensuing battle. When Castinar returns he brings along a new follower, a mute elven fighter named Shadow.

Upon returning to Jurgenville the party finds itself trapped on the surface. There is a war going on in the Underdark as the drow move against the last elven enclave in the High Wood. Jurgenville seals off all the entrances to the Underdark in the area, preventing the Seekers from continuing with their quest. So instead they hire themselves on as “bodyguards” for the city as a whole. They then prove to be key in repelling an attack on Jurgenville which became known as the Battle of Red Vale. It was also during this time period that the group started construction of their new home, a large, fortified compound outside of Jurgenville which would become know as the Truth Seeker’s Retreat - TSR.

Once the war ended the party returned to the Underdark. They travel down the tunnel to an area which the gnomes call the Slime Temple. Their first foray into the area almost ends in disaster when Castinar is nearly killed by a black pudding. The party returns to Jurgenville where Laila saves Castinar’s life. At this time Sane leaves the party, wanting to take a sabbatical and live with his own people for a while as the kenku have set up a trading post under Jurgenville. A local dwarven fighter named Thengal is recruited to help round out the Seeker party. Castinar becomes the party leader.

The party again returns to the slime temple area. After being repulsed by some crystal oozes they wander into an area defended by a half-crazed mage. Once again Castinar almost dies. When the battle turns in favor of the party the mage grabs Shadow and flees. The party tracks them back to the surface, where they find that Shadow has escaped from the mage, but that the mage has escaped himself. While in Jurgenville a dog begins following the party around. Eventually the group discovers the dog is really a polymorphed halfling. When they release her from the spell she joins the party. Amber is a cleric of Tymora.

For the third time the Seekers return to the slime temple. This time they make it past the crystal oozes and enter the shrine. They fight a pitched battle with numerous oozes, puddings, and slimes. To make matters worse, right as the battle is ending they are attacked by a rakshasha which had been disguised as a mongrelman. In the end they are victorious, but it is a difficult encounter.

After cleansing the temple the party starts heading back to Jurgenville. Along the way they meet with Sane, who is working for the svirfneblin. (Sane has several gnome friends in Jurgenville.) Sane convinced the party to try and resolve a problem the gnomes are having with a tribe of quaggoth who are attacking the gnomes.

The party travels to the quaggoth lair and try to negotiate with the beast-men, but it doesn’t go well. After a lengthy fight about what the group should do Hunter tricks Castinar into attacking the lair again in an attempt to rescue Katrina, who encountered a specter while scouting. The quaggoths are wiped out and the specter dispelled. But before the party can rest they are attacked by a tribe of hook horrors lead by another disguised rakshasha. The party finds an intelligent sword in the rakshasha’s stash. It calls itself Finslayer. It chooses Castinar when it learns that Castinar is, in a way, a descendant of the elf that Finslayer was originally made for.

After another few weeks training in Jurgenville the party returns to the Underdark, this time to investigate a side passage they noticed when dealing with the quaggoth. They bring with them two less-experienced adventurers: Xaveus, a dwarven cleric, and Garrah, a human cleric. They discover a very strange complex of caverns which they term the Swirl Caverns. Clues in the caverns point to the existence of a race of subterranean elves who are not drow. Castinar is especially driven to find them as he has had dreams of them, and some in Jurgenville believe he is destined to discover “those who have been in the darkness”.

However, the exploration of the area isn’t a cake walk. Ropers and Xorn wander the caverns and several pitched battles are fought. In one Katrina is almost killed after suffering a massive bite from a roper. Only Ari’s considerable healing skills save the cat woman.

Another break in Jurgenville for training. During this time Sane rejoins the party and returns to his role as party leader. It is also during this time that both Garrah and Xaveus choose to leave the party to pursue their own agendas.

When the party once again returns to the Underdark they decide to check out an area on their map labeled “great lizards”. After wasting several days in a large cavern filled with subterranean penguins and large beetles they find a great lizard the hard way. Sane is scouting ahead when he almost literally runs into a behir. The kenku barely escapes with his life. He returns, gathers the party, and they move forward and easily dispatch the behir.

When the party continues exploring the tunnel they encounter a shadow dragon, which uses an illusion to lure the party in. A very long, very violent battle is fought. At one point the command to retreat is given. Diana does so, and then uses a spell she has developed to go to Jurgenville to get help. In the end both the Seekers and the dragon pull back to lick their wounds. Diana then returns with her help - the Mage Guildmaster in Jurgenville, Valdaeron. He negotiates with the dragon, who is still badly injured. An agreement is reached where Valdaeron sends the dragon back to the demi-plane of Shadow, but the dragon has to leave all of his treasure here. This is done, gaining the party a huge haul of treasure. Of note, during the battle Nikki cast many spells which surged, creating an intelligent bank of pink fog which fills one of the caverns in the dragon’s lair. Ari and Diana befriend the fog.

The group then presses further down the tunnel, finding a dead end. As they are investigating the end of the tunnel Castinar, Ariessus, and Nikki are all kidnapped, pulled straight into the stone. After casting several augries the party decides to wait for them to return. A week later the three do return, although they will not speak of what happened to them.

Unknown to the rest of the party, the trio were taken by the Rockseer elves, the subterranean elves Castinar had been dreaming about. The three had to promise not to reveal the existence of the Rockseers before they were allowed to leave.

Once again the party spends time up in Jurgenville training. They then return to the Underdark and continue down the tunnel. After clearing a tribe of goblins out of the slime temple and making it past an area called the wormholes they meet up with another adventuring group. After luring them in the other group attacks. A pitched battle is fought, one that the Truth Seekers barely win. However, Ariessus is captured and disappears. The party tries to track the slavers that escape, but are thwarted in their efforts so they return home.

In Jurgenville they meet with Valdaeron and discover that Ari is being held captive in Sakar, the city of her birth, by the house which destroyed her family. Val offers to help the Seekers rescue Ariessus and overthrow the drow house at the same time. After some preparations Val, the Seekers, and the Dark Stalkers (Val’s personal mercenary company of drow warriors) head to Sakar. The fighters all wait, hidden in the city, while Val sets up the attack. As they wait a strange surge of magic passes through the area (OOC: our way of explaing the 3e conversion, which took place at this time in the game). Later the plans change when Val announces that King Azoun of Cormyr has been slain and may of the Cormyrian nobility killed in a civil war. A young Cormyrian noble with close ties to the throne is being held by another of the drow houses in Sakar. The Truth Seekers agree to rescue him, while Val will lead the Dark Stalkers to free Ariessus.

With some inside help the Truth Seekers rescue the noble (Narlan Silversword). They fight earth elementals, gargoyles, drow, and a demon bebilith before they make it to freedom. They then teleport back to Jurgenville for some well-deserved rest.

Narlan Silversword is returned to Cormyr. A few days later the party is summoned to meet with the Steel Regent. All but Nikki, Sane, and Ariessus head down. There they are knighted as the Knights of Thornwood, an order of the Knights of Cormyr. Castinar receives a further honor as a Knight of the Green Vanguard, an order of the Knight Defenders of Cormyr. But Matar receives the greatest honor of all as he is elevated to nobility and appointed as the Count of Thornwood, a new county which encompasses much of the area the party adventured in during their early days together.

Most of the party then stays in Suzail for a week as Matar is taught about his new responsibilities. They then join him as he tours around his new county, meeting those he will now rule over. While he is away adventuring his father James will be Warden in his stead.

The party reunites in Jurgenville for a day or two before they split up again for almost two months. Each party member does what they feel is important to prepare for their return to the Underdark as Matar continues working with his father.

The party then returns to the Underdark. They bypass the wormholes by means of numerous fly spells. They then discover and attack a small derro fortification, killing half a dozen derro and a mind flayer, but a second mind flayer escapes. Lots of divination spells gives the party additional information and they decide to go back and take out the purple worm. They do so, but in the process Amber Rose is killed. To everybody’s surprise, it is Thengal who raises her after agreeing with the shade of his clan’s founder to become a cleric.

After deciding on a strategy, the party sets out to find the ‘rebel’ derro. They find them and, after a small skirmish, convince them to talk. The derro give the party valuable information about the lair of their foes, the servitor derro. The party takes this information and scouts out the lair. After preparations they then attack. It is a difficult battle, but the Truth Seekers prevail. After resting for several days (allowing the rescued slaves to regain their strength), the party returns to Jurgenville.

There they discover that they are no longer “needed”, as the Harpers have a group closer to the final goal, and they (the Harpers) have convinced Regent Alusair to call off the companies representing Cormyr, including the Truth Seekers. Once the Harpers leave the party has a meeting which turns nasty. By the time it is over, the Truth Seekers are no more. The next morning they meet and officially disband.