# Erkonin (Campaign #2) [Session 45: Rajalmin's Agent]



## prabe (Jul 15, 2020)

This is based on notes taken by a player in a 5E campaign I've been DMing for just over a year, as I start this thread. We game every two weeks; I'll be posting every week until I catch up with the campaign. I'll be attaching documents to the entries where they become relevant. You'll be finding out about Erkonin (the world) and Urnod (the continent) about the same pace as the players--it'll be cool, I promise.

*EDIT: I have caught up to the campaign. We game every-other Wednesday. I'll post notes as I get them.*

Session 1: The Feast of Stars

Dramatis Personae:

Aldalómiel - Wood Elf Ranger
Elama - Wood Elf Cleric (Tempest)
Vinya Anar - Wood Elf Monk
Elderon - High Elf Wizard

GM: - Everyone Else

_Feast of Stars, 749 (Campaign day 1)_

We arrived at Tashimeet, the caravanserai in the Knot on the road to Tash, either individually (Vinya Anar and Elderon) or together (Aldalómiel and Elama) in time for dinner at the Tashimeet inn and dining room.

The courtyard of the caravanserai had many carts in it -- indicating that there were several groups of traders and travelers in the inn.

In honor of the feasting and generosity of the season, the innkeeper Urlocka had laid out a huge spread, with a buffet serving all manner of meats and several non-meat dishes. The cost of the all-you can eat meal was low, the beer, wine and mead were freely on tap, and the tables were packed.

There was a long L-shaped table with humans sitting together. A small table had a few dwarves who looked like smiths. Another table was seated with halflings and rock gnomes. There were some free seats at the bar at the back of the room and one small table near the entrance (and the cold blast of air that washed in every time someone entered or left).

When they entered, Aldalómiel and Elama sat there and waited to be served. Elderon went to the bar when he entered the inn, passing the buffet and the tables with feasting people. Vinya Anar, the last to arrive, was heading back toward the bar when she heard Urlocka mention something about a letter to the two elves sitting at the table nearest the entrance (Aldalómiel and Elama).

She turned around and walked back to the table.

Vinya: A letter? Sorry to intrude, but I got a letter as well.

We compared the letters we had received and they were all the same.

Vinya: Are you in charge of the whole caravanserai?

Urlocka: No. Saeno runs the place. You can usually find him at the inn.

Before Vinya could head over to the inn (on the other side of the Tashimeet courtyard) Urlocka went on.

Urlocka: A gentleman back at the bar, another elf, was asking if I knew anything about the letters.

Vinya, to Aldalómiel and Elama: I’ll see if he wants to join us.

Vinya headed back to the bar to talk to the elf back there and ask him. His letter was, indeed, the same as the ones that the others had received. Vinya pointed out to him that at the far end of the bar were two more people who had received them and maybe we had something to talk about. Or maybe we should be together. We started heading back toward the table where the others sat.

As we were walking back, a dwarf in studded leather, accompanied by five humans with shortbows out (and arrows on the bowstrings, but the strings not drawn) and a thing that looked like a sphere or globe with teeth and long skinny legs, entered the inn. The sphere thing was gibbering and making a lot of chaotic and distracting noise.

Dwarf, addressing the whole room: We know things. It came to us that in this season of sharing, we should share the things we know with you.

He began to speak with the cadence and timbre of a pulpit-pounding sermon. Initially he switched between common and dwarvish, sentence by sentence. As he got into his speech, the language changes became more chaotic, phrase by phrase, word by word. More languages, unfamiliar ones, were introduced. He began changing languages even within words.

Vinya didn’t recognize most of the languages, but she did notice that she never heard anything in Celestial, a language she had learned recently but well, in his gibberish diatribe.

Elama, to the bowman immediately behind her: Could you put your bow down, please? I’m feeling threatened.

The bowman didn’t move.

Urlocka stepped forward: Let the people eat in peace. If you want food, we have food.

In response to her words and her offer, one of the archers took a shot at her, burying an arrow into her upper chest. She was hurt, but did not get knocked down or out.

At that, Vinya jumped onto the table the halflings and gnomes were eating at, ran across with a shouted apology to the diners she’d disrupted, and leapt at one of the archers, swinging with her staff and punching. Two of the bowmen dropped their bows and drew swords to attack her while the rest of them stepped to put their backs against the wall. Elama was able to attack the one that had been standing right behind her as he moved away and he slumped back against the wall.

The gibbering sound from the sphere-on-stilts (a Starspawn Grue, and I shall call it that from now on) was distracting and it wore at our nerves. It appeared to be wearing at the nerves of the archers and distracting them as well.

Aldalómiel drew a pair of short swords and moved into battle with one of the archers, dropping him.

The civilians in the room took cover in various ways. The halflings and gnomes threw their table onto its side and took cover behind it. The humans and dwarves cowered under their tables. Elderon discreetly cast a spell on one of the archers. Urlocka ran toward the doorway that led to the back room (which had a door to the bar).

The dwarf preacher said something in Gibberish and a strange radiance flickered around Elama.

The gibbering Starspawn Grue attacked Elama and when it hit her she shouted in Elvish and lightning sparked out of the wound, coruscating around the spherical body.

Vinya, swinging with her quarterstaff and landing a well-placed kick to the throat, dropped the two that were attacking her.

Things were looking good, then the one remaining archer went to the door.

Archer, shouting into the cold night: Drocklin! We need you!

We didn’t know who Drocklin was or what his arrival would mean, except that it would probably not be good. Aldalómiel took advantage of the moment of quiet to draw her bow and shoot the Grue. When her arrow hit, it gave out an ear-piercing gibbery shriek before imploding on itself. With the Grue’s gibbering ended, and the preacher no longer expounding in many languages all at once, it seemed like a moment of quiet had settled.

The dwarf preacher was not thrilled about the situation, but wasn’t giving up either. He said something in gibberish again and we could see the wounds on the one remaining archer knit up a bit. Then the strange radiance flickered around Elderon but didn’t seem to really touch him.

The moment was shattered when Drocklin, a brawny human male with a club in his right hand, along with three more cultists entered the room. Drocklin’s left forearm and hand were replaced by a long, writhing tentacle. We could also see another gibbering Grue back there and the noise took up wearing the skin off our nerves where the other one had left off.

Vinya moved right up to Drocklin.

Vinya: You don’t want to bother these people.

He just gibbered at her in many languages and it was clear to her that he was too far gone to listen to reason. So she hit him with her quarterstaff and a punch to the solar plexus.

Aldalómiel backed away so she could fight more effectively with her longbow and tried to take out the preacher, in the hopes that without him the others would be at a bit of a loss as to how to proceed.

Elama cast a spell with a crack of thunder and a rolling shockwave that dropped the preacher and one of the cultists and pushed the rest of them out the door and into the courtyard. She then moved to the door and looked outside. She could see the three cultists in the courtyard, along with the second Grue. She could also hear a voice from the inn across the courtyard -- a sermon in many languages.

Great.

She shut the door of the inn.

With the door closed, the Grue’s gibbering was mercifully silenced for a while. Unfortunately, Drocklin’s gibbering was not silenced and his babbling was tearing at Vinya’s concentration and mental health.

The fight continued, with all of us getting in some good hits. Elderon’s frostbite spell didn’t do a lot of damage, but it froze the opponents and made it harder for them to hit through their shivering. That was golden.

Elama tried to keep the cultists, and the Grue, in the courtyard out but they shoved open the door despite her efforts. As the new combatants arrived, Aldalómiel shot Drocklin through the eye, dropping him and ending one source of the gibbering distraction.

Vinya took a swing at one of the wounded cultists and dropped him and then whirled around and kicked the grue and hit him. The other two cultists, also distracted and bothered by the incessant noise from the Grue, missed her

Vinya, to the cultists: Your little friend is hurting you as much as it’s hurting us. You need to reconsider your choice of companions.

The battle continued with everyone getting in hits. Ultimately the Grue attacked Vinya and dropped her. One of the cultists stepped over her body to attack Elama but didn’t hit her. Aldalómiel immediately shot the one that stepped forward to attack and he never had a chance to regret his poor tactical choice.

After some more chaos and battle, the only remaining opponent was the Grue, gibbering at us.

Elderon, still back behind where the halflings were hiding behind their table, heard Urlocka running through the room toward the front, then shot a firebolt at the Grue, but missed in all the chaos.

The Grue, still with Vinya’s blood on its teeth, attacked Elama and almost dropped her as well, but, though the teeth pierced her flesh, she wasn’t dropped.

Elderon’s firebolt a moment or two later hit the Grue -- which caught fire and then imploded in a puff of flame and smoke.

Urlocka ran to Vinya and poured a healing potion down her throat.

As Vinya stood up, thanking Urlocka, we all took a moment to catch our breath. Then Elama listened outside and heard the gibberish preaching at the inn still going on. When she told us about it, Urlocka went pale.

Urlocka: Saeno…

We started heading in that direction, making sure to arrive at the inn as a group.

We got to the doorway and saw a dwarf standing with his back to the inn’s counter preaching in gibberish and really holding forth. Against the wall near the counter was a human male who looked stunned or charmed or transfixed. He wasn’t moving he was just staring glassily at the preacher. Scattered around the room were three cultists, listening to the crazy sermon, two Grues doing beachball things and one burly guy with an arm-tentacle lashing around his legs listening as well.

Aldalómiel positioned herself by the door so she could shoot arrows. Vinya ran straight to the preacher to try and stop the gibberish sermon as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, that put her in range for the preacher to cast something on her -- her muscles locked up and she was held. Elderon took that as a cue to target the preacher, trying to break his concentration on the spell.

The cultists and one of the Grues attacked Aldalómiel and Elama. The other Grue went to Vinya, who had enough problems dealing with the preacher -- particularly when she shook off the paralysis from the first spell only to be immediately caught in another hold person spell.

Vinya, thinking to herself because she couldn’t speak: At least he’s not doing anything worse. And he’s stopped preaching.

The tentacle-armed guy ran up to Elderon but fortunately the Grues’ distracting gibber affected him as well and he missed with his attacks against the wizard.

After some missed attacks and minor damage, Elderon saw an opportunity and cast burning hands -- getting the tentacle-armed guy and two of the cultists in a spray of fire without catching either Elama or Aldalómiel. The two cultists dropped, smoking slightly. The tentacle guy turned to Elderon and attacked but, still distracted by the incessant nerve jangling gibbering from the Grues, missed.

The gibbering abated some when Aldalómiel killed one of the Grues -- which was a double-edged blade, helping us *and* our opponents concentrate better. Vinya finally shook off the preacher’s hold person and turned to stare at him with a cold look. The preacher ignored her and cast sacred flame on Aldalómiel.

Elama, still badly injured from the fight in the tavern, stayed near the wall and drew down holy fire on the cultists, doing some damage and staying out of the line of fire, until the preacher brought his own sacred flame to her -- fortunately she was able to dodge out of the way.

In doing so, one of the cultists found an opening and stabbed her with his short sword. Again lightning crackled out from her wound and up the sword and the arm of the attacker. Elama was left reeling, almost collapsed from her injuries, but so was the cultist that attacked her.

The guy with the tentacle arm focused his attacks on Aldalómiel, leaving her badly injured and barely on her feet. Fortunately her two attacks dropped him.

The remaining cultist and Grue were dispatched with Elama’s sacred flames and Elderon’s firebolt spells and Vinya’s quarterstaff. Leaving the preacher still standing his ground and intermittently preaching in gibberish.

Aldalómiel, really pissed, ran to the preacher and attacked him ferociously with her two swords, skewering him through multiple vital organs and dropping him to the ground.

In the quiet that settled as the last foe fell, the person who had been standing looking stunned or something by the wall shook his head. That turned out to be Saeno, the owner (or perhaps manager) of Tashimeet caravanserai, unharmed except for some lost time and perhaps some odd dreams and strange ideas in unfamiliar languages lingering in his head for a while.

In the aftermath, we took a moment to introduce ourselves to each other. Elama (“Lamie”) Galanodel from up north of The Knot had met Aldalómiel, from somewhere in the mountains to the east, while traveling. When they learned that they both had received the same letter they began to travel together and became friends. Vinya Anar travelled to The Knot from New Arvai, arriving a few days before the Feast of Stars and staying at Turlnorra’s caravanserai until the date the letter said to be at Tashimeet. Elderon travelled up from the wizard colleges in Pelsoreen.

We were given two rooms in the inn on the house, but before we went to bed we had some stuff to do.

Vinya asked Saeno if he knew any of the people. He said that he might have seen the preacher come around once before. They arrived by cart just at sunset -- the gates were open to all travellers during the day and closed shortly after they arrived. No one was able to report whether they’d been acting crazy when they arrived.

They did have a cart, and we asked Saeno to have someone keep an eye on it during the night in case there were further surprises. And to prevent anyone from looting it before we could.

We checked over the bodies before helping take them to the smithy (where there was a very hot fire that could be used to burn them) and found that the two preachers had symbols, worn like a cleric’s holy symbol, in the form of eleven rings nested together that pivoted and gimballed around in different, seemingly random, orientations. Vinya took one of those in case it might be useful later. The burly guys with tentacle arms had tattoos with a similar vibe -- nested concentric circles with opposed pairs of breaks at random points, like the gimbals on the clerics’ symbols -- around their tentacle arms. There was nothing of interest on the cultists. None of them had any papers or anything to indicate what they were doing.

The holy symbol and the tattoos sparked something in Elderon’s memory and he pulled up something about the Hunger Between Worlds or the Outer Chaos, but beyond the name he didn’t have much immediately in memory.

Because of some recent rain and the cold, we did figure out that we’d be able to backtrail the wagon, at least until traffic on the road muddied up the tracks.

With the wagon secure and the bodies in the smithy to be burned in turn, we went to the tavern. Vinya finally had bean soup. We talked to the other people there -- none of them had received a strange letter directing them to be at Tashimeet. We four were the only ones.

After eating something, we went to the rooms we’d been given and crashed. We slept until the next morning without any problems.

_1 Marroin 749 (Campaign day 2)_

The next morning, we got up and searched the wagon the group of cultists had arrived in, hoping to find further information about where they came from and what they were doing. The wagon was a fairly typical merchant wagon for the area. Saeno confirmed that there was nothing obviously unusual about it.

The first thing we found was a chest containing some coinage and some magical items.

In the wagon we also found a journal. It started as a normal merchant journal or log, recording trades made, routes taken, occasionally troubles encountered on the road. The book was fairly new and didn’t show a lot of trading history but we could learn that the traders were on the way from Tash to Auriqua.

Partway into the journal several pages were ripped out. The next page read (in Common):

I stepped into the machine and
after I stopped screaming
I saw things more clearly​
It was apparent that writing this was a struggle -- many words had been initially written in different languages and were crossed out and written in Common. Sometimes this took several tries. The handwriting was the same, though more forced and deliberate, as the trading log part of the book.

Elama questioned the wisdom of going to Auriqua, up in the north, in the middle of winter, then we noticed that there were runners on the undercarriage of the wagon and the wheels were removable -- they would be able to convert it to a sledge when they encountered snowy ground.

The last lucid entries in the journal referenced towns along the road to Tash, which headed to the North-East out of the Knot.

We ended with Lamie (Elama), pack on her back, at the gates of Tashimeet, bouncing on her toes waiting impatiently for us to go backtrack these guys toward Tash.


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## prabe (Jul 22, 2020)

Session 2: Hungry Wolves and Things That Gibber

Dramatis Personae:

Aldalómiel - Wood Elf Ranger
Elama “Lamie” Galanodel- Wood Elf Cleric (Tempest)
Vinya Anar - Wood Elf Monk
Elderon - High Elf Wizard (Loremaster)
Marxine Deepfoot - Dwarf Fighter
Mia - Firbolg Druid

GM: - Everyone Else

1 Marroin 749 (Campaign day 2) (that same morning)

As Elama waited impatiently at the gates of the caravanserai, Aldalómiel went to see about buying herself some studded leather armor with the money we just got. Elderron disappeared for a while and returned with an owl on his shoulder and introduced it as Oda.

We got the cart and horses that the cultists had arrived in (otherwise the caravanserai would just have to take care of them) and were heading out the door when a dwarf with a big axe ran out of the inn and placed herself in front of the horses, forcing us to stop.

She then climbed into the wagon.

Marxine: I’m coming with you. I can’t let this sit.

She then took the reins from Elama, and sat down, pushing Elama to move aside.

We stared at her for a moment until she explained that her name was Marxine Deepfoot and she had been working as a guard for the caravan of dwarves (the ones at the table together in the tavern the night before). Her people were attacked and she was not there to protect them. She wanted to make that right.

We all agreed that she was welcome to join us. (We weren’t entirely sure how to get her not to come with us without making a huge big deal of it but she also seemed like she’d be a good ally.)

The roads were soft but not too mucky, so the tracks remained clear. Because of the festival and the coming of winter there wasn’t a ton of traffic on the road, so Aldalómiel, walking along in front of the horses, was able to keep us on the right path. (We stayed on the road and didn’t take any side paths, so it wasn’t too hard.) The road was surrounded by woods and forest, varying in density but always wooded with a patchy mix of deciduous and coniferous trees. Though by the winter solstice, the deciduous trees were all bare.

As we travelled we introduced ourselves and told Marxine about what we’d found in the journal in the wagon (about the machine) and the little we knew. Vinya also spent some time trying to make friends with Oda the owl, giving it tidbits of jerky.

The air was cold and there was a breeze.

The day passed with us traveling along at a gentle pace, talking and getting to know one another.

We made camp shortly before sundown -- not because we were tired, but because the horses (as yet unnamed) needed a break. Marxine, familiar with the habits and practices of the caravaneers in a way the rest of us weren’t, found a good campsite, probably one that had been used before. It was well away from a crossroads, because apparently those are dangerous at night in the wilderness.

We set watches, taking advantage of the four elves in the party and their need for only four hours of rest to keep three people on watch all night and get everyone a full night’s sleep.

Or in theory, anyway -- because halfway through the first watch, Vinya, Elama and Marxine were surprised by two stealthy ogres who snuck up on our camp.

Read that sentence again.

Vinya and Marxine were relatively close to the wagon, Lamie had taken up a position in a tree so she could see from above.

Vinya ran past the cart where the others were sleeping, whacking on the side of it with her quarterstaff and yelling “Get up” as she went by, then she went to attack the one that had snuck up on Elama. Elderron stuck his head out of the cart and fired off some magic missiles at the one that was attacking Marxine.

Vinya got tent-pegged by the one she was fighting, but fortunately Lamie was there to heal her up and do some damage with a sacred flame. The one on Marxine tried more of a golf swing, but missed.

We were further surprised when a large woman with soft, kind eyes ran out of the woods and moved behind the one on Marxine, getting into a position where both of them would have flanking.

Aldalómiel came out of the wagon and pulled out a sling (a sling?) and took a shot at the one on Lamie and Vinya.

Marxine, to the large woman: You better be on my side!!

Then Marxine took a swing with her great axe and got a great hit against the ogre they were flanking.

Vinya was dropped when one of the ogres got a great hit on her. Fortunately, the other one missed Marxine. Once again Lamie healed Vinya - getting her back on her feet.

Marxine and the large woman (we later learned her name was Mia) did great work against their ogre, doing lots of damage as they hit it from both sides.

Vinya was far less successful, repeatedly missing with her quarterstaff, but stomping on its bunions or kicking it in the shins with her unarmed attack. Vinya also got dropped again. And healed up and brought back by Elama, again.

Finally at the very end, Marxine was dropped by a mighty hit just a second before Mia killed the one they’d been fighting. Aldalómiel, having pulled her bow out, killed the one that kept dropping Vinya.

Before anyone could react, Mia shoved some berries down Marxine’s throat.

Mia: They’re very good berries.

Indeed they were, because almost immediately Marxine took a deep breath and groaned and woke up.

That’s when the woman, very tall and with the most gentle eyes and pointed ears, introduced herself to us as “Mia, Firbolg.”

Vinya: I’m Vinya Anar. This is…
Mia: Oh. Oh, no. You are Vinya. I’ll learn another name tomorrow.

Mia told us that the ogres had attacked her village - she was following them through the forest to make sure they didn’t turn back and attack it again.

Mia stayed with us for the rest of the night, watching and resting. It passed without further incident.


2 Marroin 749 (Campaign day 3)

The next morning, we set about breaking camp. Vinya wasn’t quite sure how it happened, but as we were getting ready to leave, Mia helped with the horses and there was no question that she would be traveling with us.

Marxine was once again driving. Aldalómiel walked ahead of the horses and Mia walked next to them, talking to them and soothing them. The others were riding in the cart.

After a few hours of traveling, Aldalómiel alerted us to four wolves ahead of us. Marxine pulled the cart to a halt.

Mia, to the horses: They’re only wolves. Don’t worry.

Then she tried to shoo the wolves away.

Elderron noticed that the wolves looked sick -- scrawny and with rough fur. Aldalómiel shot one with her longbow, putting an arrow all the way through its chest and dropping it in one shot. The other stopped moving forward and held their ground, growling in a hostile manner.

Elama used thaumaturgy to make a loud, booming thunderous sound a few feet in front of the three remaining wolves.

Elama, shouting: Fly you fools!!

The rest of the wolves ran off and away into the woods.

Mia examined the body of the one Aldalómiel dropped -- they were badly underfed, which surprised her. Given their body condition, it seemed like they’d been hungry for a while, more than just a few days.

Mia: It’s been a good year. There is food. Why are they starving?

Elderron spent a bit of time to cast detect magic to see if there was any magical effect on it and found that there was definitely something unnatural about it.

Vinya: Maybe the wolves got into the machine, whatever that is, and this is the wolf version of that sort of craziness.

Elderron sent Oda flying up 100 feet to see if he could see anything standing out from the general forest canopy, but he could not.

On high alert for more weird wolves, we continued following the wagon tracks and, as it turned out the wolf tracks, which had come from the same direction.

A bit before the end of the day, we noticed that the wolf tracks diverged from the tracks of the cart. The wolves had walked from the forest onto the road and possibly had an interaction with the wagon. We wondered if maybe the crazy preachers had preached at the wolves and Done Something to them. It was also possible that there was a space of time between the wagon passing and the wolves.

Elderron sent Oda out again, and watched through his eyes, and just saw the forest and the road. There were no carts and no activity on the road.

We made camp in a good spot Marxine picked for us.

It was definitely a good spot, because the night passed without incident.


3 Marroin 749 (Campaign day 4)

Aldalómiel foraged a bit for our breakfast confirmed that there’s plenty of food in the forest -- so the wolves were starving for other reasons.

Vinya: Maybe they went crazy and forgot how to hunt.

We headed out and before we’d travelled more than a couple of hours, we saw ahead of us a couple of carts tipped over onto their sides at a point where a side-track joined the main road. As we drew closer, we saw two dead humans in the road near the carts.

We tied the horses to a branch and got out of the wagon (those of us who were in it) to look around. Elderron sent Oda up a hundred feet or so to look around. Oda saw four lurching humanoid figures that looked like they might also be gibbering and one of those beachball-like starspawn grues.

Our first thought was that they were skeletons, or maybe zombies, all of us having heard tales of those rising when bodies weren’t properly burned -- but they didn’t look like that. They looked sort of dehydrated or starved, like the wolves.

Oh, dear.

Mia took a shot at the grue with her crossbow -- which hit and caused the grue to begin screaming. Elderron fired off a firebolt. Marxine, who’d waited for them to get close, then attacked when they were in range, and got a good solid hit.

The one Marxine attacked then leaned over and began whispering in her ear -- whatever it whispered she winced at the pain, but managed to shake it off. Vinya ran up to one that was off by itself and felt something come over her -- she was still able to make her attack, but didn’t feel herself at all.

Lamie put a bane on three of the whispering lurching things (they’re called “Mindghouls,” and they are, in fact, undead), which had them all affected. And then Mia cast a spell that caused the vegetation to rise up and wrap around most of the mindghouls -- restraining them in the vines. Some of them were even near the edge of the writhing vegetation, so we would be able to attack them without getting into it.

Unfortunately, the one mindghoul that wasn’t in the entangle spell attacked Lamie and did enough damage to cause her to drop the bane spell. But it didn’t whisper at her and hurt her in her mind.

Elderron dropped the grue, with its horrible distracting gibbering, with a magic missile setting off a had a really good sequence of attacks as a party -- Marxine chopped one right in half. Aldalómiel shot the one on Lamie for a lot of damage. Vinya dropped one with her first attack then did a flurry of blows and got a critical hit on another one.

After that, one of them managed to break out of the entangle spell and one of them tried to attack despite being restrained (to no effect). Aldalómiel and Vinya focused their attacks on the one that got out of the entangle area.

Marxine asked Mia to drop her spell so that she could get to the one in the middle of the entangled area. Mia did so, then took a shot at the one that had broken out on its own, and dropped it. Marxine got a huge hit on the one remaining one and then Elderron dropped it with a firebolt spell.

After they were all gone, we looked at them and determined that they were definitely undead, so this appeared to be a different evolution of the crazy -- the gibbering and whispering were the same, but the preachers and the cultists at Tashimeet were alive, and able to say almost coherent things (at times).

We also checked out the wounds on the dead people by the carts -- they had suffered from slashing wounds, like the mindghouls were doing with their claw-like hands. We didn’t see any marks on the bodies of the undead ones -- no obvious wounds that would have caused their deaths. But Marxine, still with the echoes of the headache she’d gotten when one whispered in her ear, said that if that one had been able to continue whispering at her long enough, it could have killed her.

That one whispered something that started with “It came to me…” before devolving into gibberish. The rest attacked with claws. The bodies of the mindghouls all look basically the same though -- so it seems like maybe the others could also have done that whispering thing.

The mindghouls were wearing tattered clothes -- some of them appeared to have been merchants, as we expected, and some of them were wearing the remains of leather armor and looked like they might have been bandits. It looked like there might have been a bandit ambush that went really weirdly and poorly for the bandits.

Having noticed the clothes, we looked at the corpses more closely and saw that all of them had the symbol that Vinya, Elderron, Lamie and Aldalómiel had seen on the corpses of the tentacle-armed guys at Tashimeet.

Aldalómiel looked at the tracks in the area -- it appeared that they’d been sort of milling around for a while, shuffling and lurching with no direction.

While we were doing that, Elderron took a few minutes to cast a detect magic spell to see if there was anything magical on or about the corpses. There was not.

After examining the bodies, we looked around the wagons. Both of them were tipped over onto their sides. There was nothing inside but operational stuff -- ropes, spare bits of harness. No trade goods or treasure, except for a couple of short swords and a dozen arrows, which Aldalómiel collected.

We could see hoofprints going from the main road down that side path we’d noticed. Mia looked for any evidence of the horses that had been hitched to the tipped over carts. There were no horse bodies and no sign of blood or remains near the harnesses. Just those hoofprints going up the road away from this battle scene, along with some human(oid) footprints.

Before we headed out to follow those tracks,, Elderron had Oda fly up and around, looking for danger, but the area looked clear. We also made a pile of the bodies and burned them.

We unhitched our horses from the cart, after pulling the cart off the side of the road and out of immediate view. Vinya helped Marxine, who’s good with animals, onto one of them, giving her a leg up without in any way impugning Marxine’s status as a total badass. Elderron rode the other horse.

We travelled along the side path, with Elderron and Marxine riding, for the rest of the day. Though we were alert and paranoid for any lurching, gibbering dangers, there were no problems the rest of the day.

We stopped in a clearing and made camp off to the side of the path. In the middle of the night, deep in the heart of second watch (Lamie, Aldalómiel and Elderron), Elderron spotted something out in the darkness. Or maybe he heard the gibbering. Three of the mindghouls were lurching toward us.

Elderron, shouting: Hey, guys!
Aldalómiel, who also spotted them: Incoming!

This woke up those of us who were sleeping around the fire.

Aldalómiel and Elderron took their shots at the one furthest from us, while Marxine waited for them to get close. Mia took a shot with her crossbow then moved to the horses so she could protect them.

Vinya woke up and moved into a position between Elderron and the mindghouls and went into a defensive, dodging stance, which was the most useful thing she wound out doing.

Aldalómiel got an impressive shot with her bow and Elderron cast magic missile, firing the darts at the one he’d already firebolted. When one finally got to Marxine she attacked with her axe and cut it in half with one mighty blow. Mia shot one right in the eye, getting a critical hit and dropping it. Vinya flailed around a bit, but kept them away from Elderron.

When the last one was dropped, we took a moment to look at the bodies -- one of them was dressed like the bandits we’d seen on the road. The other two looked like ordinary woodsmen.

Vinya and Lamie moved the bodies away off into the forest while Oda flew up and looked around to see if there were other obvious dangers. He didn’t see anything.

Those of us who had been resting went back to sleep and Aldalómiel, Elderron and Lamie went back to being on watch.


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## prabe (Jul 29, 2020)

Session 3: We Appear To Have Saved A Town

Dramatis Personae:

Aldalómiel - Wood Elf Ranger
Elama “Lamie” Galanodel- Wood Elf Cleric (Tempest)
Vinya Anar - Wood Elf Monk
Elderon - High Elf Wizard (Loremaster)
Marxine Deepfoot - Dwarf Fighter
Mia - Firbolg Druid (Circle of the Land (Forest))

GM: - Everyone Else


We ended the previous session in the middle of the night. The rest of the night passed without incident.


4 Marroin 749 (Campaign day 5)

We continued up the side path we were on, following the horse tracks that had gone this way from the cart-bandit-gibbering undead thing interaction on the main road.

After about half a day on the road the path widened into what appeared to be a tiny village -- there was a small cluster of cottages, though none had smoke rising from the chimneys and all looked dark and cold. In the center of the village, sort of the square in among these cottages, were half a dozen bodies. Five of them looked as though something had burst out of their torsos (like a chestburster from Alien). The sixth one looked as though it had been extensively chewed on and was close to bones.

All of the blood was dry, but the corpses had not yet gotten too smelly. It was pretty clear that the bodies were those of the residents of these cottages.

There were footprints around the five that had their chests burst open - those looked like the footprints of the grues (the beachballs on stilts). Some of those footprints led to the one that had been chewed on. There were no bite marks on the ones that had been, apparently, hosts to the grues.

The horse tracks we’d been following from the main road stopped here for a while and the riders dismounted, but there was little sign of fighting. The only signs of a skirmish were near the body that was partially eaten. The others looked like they just fell where they were standing. The riders dismounted from their horses and just stood in one place, then mounted again and rode off. Eight people from the village followed them on foot.

We explored around the empty cottages a bit, making sure there were no survivors. None of the cottages had been ransacked and it didn’t look like people had left in a panic. It did look like the had stopped what they were doing right in the middle of things and stepped calmly outside.

We thought that perhaps it had been like what we saw in the caravanserai back at the Knot -- preachers came in and began speaking to the assembled people. Some became like Saeno (the manager of Tashimeet) in the inn, standing completely transfixed and gob-smacked, while the preacher preached. Some of the people listening to the gibberish sermon fell and then had grues burst out of them. Some of the villagers apparently were converted and followed the preachers. One, for whatever reason, did neither and was eaten.

A couple of the people who followed the preachers were children. Oh, dear.

We continued on down the road to try and catch up to them.

Toward the end of the day we all saw something nasty in the road about 75 feet ahead of us -- it looked like a slime mold with many gibbering mouths. Or a blorb of gibbering goo.

Lamie: Oh, god, what is that?! Kill it with fire!!

Then she cast guiding bolt on it, but was so freaked out that she missed wildly.

We proceeded to kill the thing -- Marxine and Vinya getting right up close to it, Elama, Mia, Elderron and Aldalómiel staying back and firing at it with their various ranged attacks. As it got hit it gibbered more and more loudly became more and more distracting, but Marxine and Vinya were both able to keep their wits about them.

We killed it, Aldalómiel getting in the final blow, but not before it spit out a glob of bright flashing light-goo that blinded Marxine and Vinya. Before it could take advantage of their blindness, however, it was gone.

Lamie: Really really, what the hell was that? I’m over 100 years old and I’ve never seen anything that gross.

Vinya poked at it a few times to make sure it was really dead, then Marxine flipped it out of the road with her axe.

Ugh.

We decided we wanted to be a bit away from it, so we pressed on for another 15 minutes or so before making camp a short distance from the path.

Mia offered everyone one of her good berries, which would provide enough sustenance for a whole day.

Lamie: The berries are good, but I prefer real food.
Mia: I understand.

Aldalómiel and Mia foraged for food and then we ate and rested, staying close to one another and keeping the horses close to us as well.

During second watch (again -- it’s the witching hour), the white horse (we have a white horse and a brown horse) and Elderron heard gibbering in the distance up the path. It resolved into a three way conversation in Gibberish, as though all of the speakers could clearly understand it as a language. Occasionally, Elderron could understand a word or two. He could also see a bobbing lantern or other light source. He alerted Aldalómiel and Lamie, who were on watch with him.

They woke the rest of us, very quietly. As we were quietly waking and getting to our feet, one of the horses nickered. There was a gibbery “Huh?” and the bobbing light began to move toward us more quickly.

Mia tied the horses tied securely and safely away from the path and we spread out on either side of it. The figures approached and when Mia could see them she cast Faerie Fire, limning one of them in purple sparkles.

The light from the Faerie Fire let us all see that there were two relatively normal looking humans, a man and a woman, and a guy with a tentacle arm. The woman had the faerie fire.

Aldalómiel didn’t mess around, she dropped the normal-looking man with one arrow from her longbow.

They were fairly far away, and Marxine was not on her horse, so it took a while for her to get into combat with the tentacle guy. Because of her crazy monk speed, Vinya was able to get right up to the tentacle-arm guy and attacked -- her attack with the quarterstaff missed but she was able to land a kick to his midsection.

The woman with the faerie fire screamed, gibbered and ran toward Vinya, wildly swinging a longsword. Aldalómiel shot the tentacle armed guy from out in the darkness, getting his attention with a solid hit, but he couldn’t see out into the darkness to know where it came from -- the ranged attacks from Aldalómiel, Mia, Elderron and Lamie were just coming at them from the night.

Cool!

The tentacle-armed guy attacked Vinya, hitting first with the tentacle and grappling her, then beating on her with his club. Fortunately before he could hit her again, Mia had dropped the purple-sparkly woman with her crossbow and Marxine and Elderron took out the tentacle guy.

Elderron: More of these gibbering things. They keep coming our way. Where are they coming from?
Vinya, pointing up the road: That way.

Vinya: Lamie, I’m feeling pretty poorly.
Lamie: Good luck with that.

Fortunately Mia was able to make more of her good berries and Vinya felt better after eating them.

We went back to our camp and the rest of the night passed without incident.


5 Marroin 749 (Campaign day 6)

The next morning, we gathered up the bodies of the cultists we’d fought in the middle of the night. Vinya took one of their shortbows and she and Aldalómiel split up the arrows. The guy with the tentacle arm had the concentric circles holy-symbol tattoo on his tentacle arm, like the ones at Tashimeet. Mia examined his arm, to see if the tentacle had been sewn on somehow and found that it was his own arm that had just transformed.

Mia: That is not natural. I don’t like that.

We burned the bodies and headed out on our way. We hadn’t gotten far when Elama, watching out behind us, saw three _emaciated_ wolves on the road behind us.

When the lead wolf noticed that they had been spotted, it looked at Lamie, then it mewed like a cat. It mewed again, then made a noise like a laughing kookaburra.

Lamie: Elderron. Elderron!
Elderron: What was that noise?

The rest of us, hearing the kookaburra noise (not native or natural to this northern forest) turned and saw the same wolves we’d encountered a few days earlier on the main road from the Knot.

The wolves continued to make a variety of animal noises and Mia figured out that they were gibbering in various forms of animal communication. This was the animal version of the polyglot gibberish the cultists were speaking.

Mia: We need to kill them.

We proceeded to do just that. Vinya dropped one that had been weakened by other attacks and the skinny runt of the pack with a swing of her quarterstaff and a well-placed kick. Marxine rode up to one on Brown Horse and dropped it with her big axe while still in the saddle.

Marxine, patting Brown Horse on the neck: His name is Comrade. He’s been a huge help.

We burned the bodies.

Rattled by the creepy mewing wolves, we proceeded on our way, cautiously at first, then a bit more relaxed as the day passed and we proceeded.

About the time we were starting to look for a place to make camp, two or three hundred feet ahead of us through the leafless trees, we saw a larger cluster of homes with a bonfire in the middle of them.

Elderron sent Oda the owl flying up to take a look.

Without a word to anyone, Mia’s large form shimmered and shifted and a silvery-grey fox stood in her place. She gestured toward the village with her head and then ran off in that direction.

Vinya: Well! That’s cool!

Aldalómiel slid off into the woods, getting lost in the bare branches and dark tree trunks, and moved in the direction of the village as well.

They all saw a big bonfire in the middle of the town square. There were about twenty people there -- most of them were standing agape and stupefied. There was a dwarf near the fire, orating in gibberish. Two dwarves were at the back of the crowd, presumably keeping watch for anyone to break ranks. A couple of the grues were among the gaping people. A couple of the mindghouls (the gibbering-whispering undead things we fought in the road) were at the edges of the crowd. They weren’t attacking anyone, they were just standing, looking at the preacher, and drooling slightly.

Mia, after surveying the situation from the safety of the forest edge, circled around out of hearing of the preacher and ran back to us. She changed back in mid-stride, her Firbolg form stretching and shimmering out of the fox as she ran.

Mia: We’ve got to go now. They’re trying to turn the village…

We thought for a moment about coming up with some sort of strategy or tactical approach that involved circling around the city, but in the end decided just to try and blast them -- focusing first on stopping the Orator from orating.

Elderron started things off by firing off a magic missile spell, hitting the orator with all three darts. This caused a bit of a hiccup in the flow of the oration, but it didn’t stop, unfortunately. The two tentacle arm guys turned around in response and moved into cover behind the two buildings.

Mia cast an entangle spell that got two of the cultists and the orator (and some civilians) and restrained all of them. The nearest grue and mindghoul began moving toward the party, the grue getting relatively close to Aldalómiel and Mia.

Ignoring it, Aldalómiel put her hunter’s mark on the orator and shot him well, but he continued preaching. Vinya moved to interpose herself between the grue and her friends, dropping it with a blow from her quarterstaff followed by a kick. Lamie gave a blessing to Vinya, Aldalómiel and Marxine.

Marxine, on Comrade, rode past the acolyte and attacked a cultist. She split his head in half with her axe.

In response to all of that, the Orator stopped with his preaching and gestured at Marxine. She dodged out of the way of his sacred flame spell.

At this point things seemed to be going pretty well. But then, the tentacle-arm guy near Marxine grappled and restrained her with his tentacle and then beat her with his club. A cultist took advantage of her being restrained to attack with a longsword. And suddenly, Marxine was looking pretty hurt.

A mindghoul attacked Aldalómiel -- hitting with its slashing claws. Mia moved into position to flank it and cast shillelagh, hitting it with her magical club. Aldalómiel pulled out her shortsword and attacked it as well.

Vinya, seeing that they had the mindghoul pinned between them and that Marxine was exposed and alone with lots of people all around her, ran past the acolyte (who Marxine had already ignored) shouting insults as she passed and attacked the cultist on Marxine with her quarterstaff. She then tapped into her ki-energy for a flurry of blows, and dropped the cultist with her first punch. There was no one else she could reach with the second punch in the flurry, which was frustrating.

The acolyte, motivated apparently by Vinya’s run-by insults, moved to attack her, but missed. Lamie cast a sacred flame at the one that Aldalómiel and Mia were fighting and then moved into close combat.

Marxine, badly hurt, took a deep breath and got a second wind, then tried to get out of the tentacle-guy’s grapple but only seemed to wind herself in tighter.

The Orator created a large, gimballed spinning thing as a spiritual weapon right next to Vinya and hit her with it, leaving her badly injured.

Fortunately, Elderron moved into range where he could use his firebolts and shot the preacher, dropping him. The spiritual weapon, having done its damage to Vinya, hovered and whirled.

The tentacle-arm guy on Marxine hit her with his club, taking advantage of having her restrained, and hit for as much as she’d healed herself up by with her second wind. The other tentacle guy finally made it into the knot around Vinya and Marxine, hitting Vinya hard.

At this point, Marxine and Vinya each had two remaining hitpoints. They were surrounded by the acolyte, a mindghoul, the two tentacle-arm guys and two cultists.

One of the grues that had been in the enthralled crowd of villagers went and started eating the fallen Orator. The other began moving toward where Aldalómiel and Mia were still trying to drop the other mindghoul.

The mindghoul near Vinya moved up behind her and whispered in her ear, or tried to, but she was swaying from the tentacle-arm guy’s blows and swayed out of its way. The other one was dropped by Aldalómiel after failing to hit her.

Vinya hit the mindghoul on her, thanks to the blessing that Lamie gave her. She summoned her ki-energy and moved into a defensive stance against her attackers. Then she pulled her potion of greater healing out of her belt pouch and handed it to Marxine

Vinya: Drink this if you live that long.

Lamie swung her sword forward into the air, sending a blast of force and sound forward as she cast a thunderwave spell, getting the grue, the acolyte, the mindghoul and the tentacle-arm on Vinya. Elderron moved up near her and cast a burning hands on the same group, except the mindghoul. He dropped the acolyte, thinning the herd a bit.

Marxine drank the healing potion and felt much stronger for it. Which was good because the tentacle-arm who had her grappled, immediately hit her with his club and would have dropped her if she hadn’t gotten to drink the potion first.

Vinya’s patient defense paid off because all the attacks against her, from the tentacle guy, the cultist, and the grue missed.

Mia shot the tentacle guy on Vinya and dropped him with her crossbow. Aldalómiel shot one of the cultists straight through with an arrow, killing him instantly. Vinya golfed a grue out of existence with her quarterstaff then moved around to a position behind the tentacle arm guy grappling Marxine (as yet untouched) and rabbit-punched him in the back of the head. Elderron got a great shot on the tentacle guy grappling Marxine with a firebolt, but despite getting a critical hit and doing huge damage, the guy didn’t drop.

In fact he hit Marxine with his club again, but didn’t drop her.

Lamie hit a cultist, who then turned around and hit her. Which was a big mistake, because lightning crackled out of the wound and up the cultist’s sword into her arm. Everyone looking in that direction could see the cultist’s skeleton glow inside the skin, and then she fell.

Aldalómiel moved her hunter’s mark to the tentacle guy holding Marxine and shot him nicely and Vinya immediately hit him again in the back of the head, this time a hard blow with the quarterstaff, finally dropping him and releasing Marxine. Vinya, feeling pretty badly injured, moved around to be near and a bit behind Mia.

Marxine, released from her restraints and angry at being neutralized for so much of the fight, swung at the grue next to Comrade with her axe, like a polo swing, and cleaved it entirely in half.

And all was quiet.

In the quiet after the fight, we noticed that the villagers had been starting to shake off the effects of the Orator’s speech and were looking around in bleary-eyed confusion and fear.

Vinya found someone in the group who looked older and maybe like they could be in charge. She explained that these people had come in and were preaching about the Hunger Between Worlds -- some people would have gone crazy and followed them, some would have turned into monsters. We don’t know what makes some people go one way and some the other.

We explained that they wer safe now and nothing bad had happened here. However, the last village back down the path was now a ghost town -- everyone from that village was dead except a few children who followed the cultists. The elder looked around and saw them in the crowd. He said that the villagers would take them in and take care of them.

While Vinya was explaining the situation, the others were searching the bodies, finding a pair of goggles pushed up to the Orator’s forehead, but nothing else of interest. They took the goggles then moved the bodies into the fire for cremation

The town elder pointed to two horses tied up near one of the houses.

Elder: They rode those horses into town. They’re yours if you want them.

We thanked him and said that we would like them. Looking through the saddlebags, we found stuff:

90 gp (15 each)
1500 sp (250 each)
1500 cp (250 each)
3 x 10 gp gems (we can either hold these as party treasure, or divide up the value among the party and just have some people get their treasure as gems -- if we do that we’d each wind out with 20 gp each. Vinya would be more than happy to take her share of that as two gems.)

There were also some interesting looking items.

Mia took the Orator’s goggles and held them to her eyes and found that she could see 60 feet into the darkness (goggles of night vision).

Mia: Wow!! There’s a squirrel out there in the forest.
Vinya: Those are yours.

There was also a potion of greater healing to replace the one that got used. That went to Marxine since she’s always going to be right in the middle of things mixing it up. Finally, there was a bottle of Oil of Slipperiness. For the moment, Vinya is carrying that, but it will be used when needed by whoever in the party needs to use it.

The villagers gave us a place to stay for the night and the night passed without incident.


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## prabe (Aug 5, 2020)

Session 4: Spiders In The Forest


Dramatis Personae:

Aldalómiel - Wood Elf Ranger
Elama “Lamie” Galanodel- Wood Elf Cleric (Tempest)
Vinya Anar - Wood Elf Monk
Elderon - High Elf Wizard (Loremaster)
Marxine Deepfoot - Dwarf Fighter

GM: - Everyone Else

(Note: Mia's player was out this evening, so Mia was feeling poorly and not really engaging much with things. She stayed in the inn when she had the opportunity, working on recovering.)


We spent the night in the village. Marxine asked if there was anything of value out here or further along the road. The villagers said that there really wasn’t -- just some forest for logging and some okay farmland. The track we’d followed from the main road ended at this village.

Which left us wondering why the Crazy Preachers had even come in this direction. But maybe “crazy” is reason enough.

We then spent the night in the village, and it passed without incident.


6 Marroin 749 (Campaign day 7)

We decided against taking the Crazy Preachers’ horses - the villagers said they could use them and we have Comrade and White Horse.

We headed back down the track toward the main road between Tash and the Knot. After we left the village, Vinya pointed out that at least 2 of the beachball-grues were still out there (because 5 burst out of peoples’ chests in the first village and we only had three at the village we saved).

The day and the night passed without incident.


7 Marroin 749 (Campaign day 8)

We proceeded back to the first village without incident, getting there around mid-day. Vinya called out and peeked in the empty houses, in hopes that some of the villagers had run away into the forest and returned, but that was not the case.

So we continued on our way, making camp at the same place we’d stayed on the way out. Mia, not feeling well, slept through the night, and we set our watches to let her do so.

On the first watch, Elama, Vinya and Marxine were all totally surprised by three grues that attacked Marxine from out in the darkness.

Two of them hit, one grabbing onto her leg and the other attaching itself to her face.

Lamie walked past the sleeping party members to get into the fight.

Lamie: Yo! Wake up!

Then she cured Marxine of some of the damage. Marxine hit the one on her face and then did an action surge and hit it again, critting it and killing it. It imploded in on itself, as these things do.

Vinya hit the one on Marxine’s leg with her quarterstaff, then kicked it off. It disappeared into itself as it flew out into the woods.

Aldalómiel woke up and, grabbing her sling, shot the third one and hit it. Elderron, waking up, firebolted it. But the two hits didn’t drop it, which left it free to attack Vinya. Lamie then stepped in with her sword and attacked it.

We all looked around and waited a bit with our weapons ready, on edge. This was the first time we’d seen the beachballs unaccompanied by cultists or Crazy Preachers or big dudes with tentacle arms.

But nothing else came out of the woods and eventually we proceeded with our night’s rest. And the rest of the night passed without incident.


8 Marroin 749 (Campaign day 9)

The next morning we continued on our way. We noticed that the woods seemed quieter -- the animals were behaving more normally and it all seemed like things were better. And nothing happened to us the whole day back to the main road.

We got to the main road when there was still a bit of light left. There had been traffic on the road and the mud had dried out, so we weren’t able to make out the tracks of the wagon we’d been backtracking. However, the road only goes where it goes, so following along the road isn’t hard. Hopefully we’ll find some sign if the cart entered or left the road and didn’t just come straight from Tash (though we know they were Tashite merchants before they went crazy).

Once at the main road, we continued on the way to Tash for a mile or so before making camp, just to get away from the crossroads.

The night passed without incident.


9 Marroin 749 (Campaign day 10)

The next morning, Elderron sent Oda flying up to see what he could see. What Oda saw was a cart on the road toward the Knot. It looked as though it went by while we were off on the side track rescuing the village. He saw another caravan coming our way from Tash. We would encounter them later in the morning.

Marxine: It’s a good sign there is still traffic on the road.

We continued on. After a few hours we encountered the small caravan of two wagons that Oda had spotted. There was one wagon with gnomes riding on it and a couple of goliaths who appeared to be guards, but the bulk of the people were humans. They were flying a Tash flag and a flag from a human merchant family. Marxine recognized the flag, though she wasn’t personally familiar with the family.

They all appeared to be fine and reported no problems on the road.

Vinya told them about the cart that was attacked by bandits a week and a half or so ago.

Merchants: What happened to the bandits?

Vinya hemmed and hawed about telling them that they’d been turned into monsters that we’d killed and getting into all the crazy business.

Vinya: Well, um at least some of them are dead.

That just alarmed them. Elderron stepped in and was no more reassuring.

Marxine then spoke up: We tracked them to a village and killed them.

That put them back at their ease.

We asked about traffic on the road and pointed out that from what we could tell there had been no one travelling between The Knot and Tash for something like a week. They said they hadn’t really thought about it, but that was weird, even with traffic being lighter at this time of year.

We then thanked them and wished them safe travels.

Marxine: At Tash we can ask if a caravan or cart has gone missing.

(Reminder: The cart we’re on did not have any flags, which the traders use to identify where they’re from, which merchant house or group they’re with, etc. It would have had them when they left Tash, but they were not in the wagon when we got it at The Knot.)

Around nightfall we got to a village, Tormul -- it had an inn, with a tavern attached, and a shop that seemed a bit bigger than we expected for a roadside hamlet. Seeing people move around and interact, the vibe of the town seemed largely unstressed.

We went to the tavern for food (and beverage) and to arrange for rooms for the night.

At the tavern, we spoke with the owner, a human woman named Barluta. We told her that we were heading from the Knot to Tash and had noticed that there’s not much traffic on the road.

Barluta: Yeah. It’s a bit slow.
Vinya: Any idea why?
Barluta: We haven’t heard about problems on the road. Some of the villagers here have had problems out in the wood. A couple of weeks ago we found that a section of the woods was covered with spider webs and really quiet. A couple of our teens saw big spiders and swarms of smaller spiders.

Well, that was interesting, but not immediately related.

Vinya: Have any of the travelers coming through talked about a machine?
Barluta: Some crazy dwarves came through a couple of weeks ago raving about something. They wanted to talk and when I wouldn’t let them they got belligerent. They got driven off by the shopkeeper, Tessixylin.
Vinya: We want to talk to the shopkeeper
Barluta, to Marxine: No offense, ma’am, but when dwarves go bad they go real bad.

Marxine, Elderron and Vinya went to talk to Tessixylin, who was a dragonborn, six and half feet tall and thickly built with mottled reddish scales. The shop carried a lot of general goods, including weapons and some armor, and a few scrolls. They also had a one foot long rod that could extend into a 10 foot pole. Vinya bought that because it seemed as though it might be handy sometimes.

We asked Tessixylin about the crazy dwarves that had come through. She told us that they had no flags flying on their cart when they arrived. They kept talking about “Something came to me”.

We asked about the spiders and the teens who saw them. Tessixylin said that she could have them come around to the tavern to talk to us if we wanted, which we did.

We then returned to the tavern, rejoining Aldalómiel, Elama and Mia (still feeling poorly) for some food. The teens showed up after dinner, introducing themselves as Jellan and Castrus.

They said they’d seen the spiders a day or two ago. They’d gone looking because the villagers had friendly relations with a couple of pixies and sprites out in the woods and hadn’t run into them for a couple of weeks. So they went to the area where they could often be found looking for them. And about 2 hours from the town they found lots of spider webs and saw some swarms of spiders. When they saw a spider the size of a horse, they fled.

They gave us directions to find a path into the woods that led in the right direction.

Elderron: We’re following something weird and this is weird. We should check it out.

We all agreed to that.

We then went to our rooms in the inn and rested for the night, enjoying the comfortable beds.


10 Marroin 749 (Campaign day 11)

The next morning we left Mia sleeping soundly and the horses in the stables and headed down the path that Jellon and Castrus had pointed us to.

After an hour or an hour and a half, we started seeing spider webs in the trees, first just clusters and globs in the trees, then thick sheets that came all the way down to ground level. Elderron shot one with a firebolt, just to see what happened, and it burned along, but didn’t set the forest on fire. The trees in fact, looked healthy and alive.

Marxine and Elderron cleared the way ahead of us, Marxine using her axe like a machete and Elderron firebolting, so we could walk without continually walking into spider webs.

Lamie was in the middle of the group looking around in a paranoid fashion, Scooby Doo style, occasionally trying to wipe webs off her arms and face.

We knew there were spiders in the woods, but we didn’t know which specific direction they’d be coming from so we were all surprised except Aldalómiel when five spiders came out of the woods from different directions to attack us. Stocky, wolf-sized spiders.

One of the spiders bit Lamie and Aldalómiel shot one and this was looking like it was going to be a long fight, then Elderron cast sleep on three of them, thinning the crowd against us, Vinya then dropped hers, kicking it out into the woods, and moved between the sleeping spiders and Elderron and Elama, to protect them. Aldalómiel and Marxine took care of the other one that wasn’t asleep. That left just the three sleeping spiders, and we dispatched them one by one.

We continued deeper into the spider forest, with Marxine and Elderron clearing the way of webs again. We weren’t surprised to see three spiders the size of horses 15 feet up in the trees. Well, we _were_ a bit shocked at how big they were but not surprised that they were there and attacking us. They appeared to be a larger and more imposing variety of more or less normal looking spider.

Elderron started things off by magic missiling one. Aldalómiel shot a different one with an arrow. Marxine pulled out her handaxe and threw it, hitting the third one. Vinya shot an arrow at the one Elderron had magic missiled and dropped it. It fell out of the tree with a bit of a splat.

That was a good start to things -- then the two remaining spiders shot out webbing, hitting Aldalómiel and Marxine and restraining them in their webs. Ew. Lamie tried to pull Aldalómiel out of the webbing and failed. Fortunately, even restrained in the web, Aldalómiel was able to fire her bow and do a great deal of damage to one. Marxine threw another handaxe at the one that had webbed her and did it a big chunk of damage. Vinya shot at the one that Aldalómiel had hit and dropped it, leaving just the one.

It skittered down its webbing and attacked Marxine, but missed despite her being caught up in the webs. Elderron cast another magic missile on it and left it looking badly hurt but not dead. Lamie tried to free Marxine with no success. Aldalómiel tried to free herself with no success. Finally Marxine, still restrained in the web, attacked the spider with her greataxe and dropped it.

Working together we finally got Aldalómiel and Marxine out of the webs and took a short rest. While we were resting, Lamie tried to see if her sacred flame spell would set the webs on fire. It didn’t, alas.

After our short rest, we continued proceeding, not convinced we’d found everything wrong with the forest here. Our suspicions were confirmed when we noticed that the webbing was getting thicker and denser as we went along.

All of a sudden we passed through the thickest of the webs into a clearing with none. There was, however, a dead guy in the clearing.

We all wondered what was keeping the spiders at bay in this clearing, because we could see webs in the trees all around it. The corpse was kind of strange as well -- he was clearly dead and there was shiny stuff around his body.

Marxine: No one in the village was upset about someone being missing?

While we were pondering that, two humanoid figures with spider faces came out of the woods. Ick.

Lamie: It’s like a Spider...man.
Elderron: I’ve heard of these. Ettercaps.

While we were processing that information, someone nudged the corpse with a toe and a swarm of spiders poured out of the dead body. Ew!!

Other spiders came out of the woods into the clearing. In all there were 2 of the ettercaps, 1 swarm of spiders, 2 of the wolf-sized spiders and 1 of the horse-sized spiders.

Marxine took the brunt of the first round of attacks from them -- getting bitten and poisoned and the spiders swarming over her, but didn’t take much damage from it all.

One of the ettercaps spat webbing on Elderron, restraining him, and the other ettercap missed Marxine with its webbing. They were both still in the trees, along with the giant, horse-sized spider.

Lamie, with the verbal component “Ew! Ew! Ew!” cast sacred flame on the swarm on Marxine.

The extra-giant spider spat webbing at Aldalómiel, but missed her. Vinya used her quarterstaff and a kick to take out one of the merely wolf-sized spiders, then moved between the extra-giant one in the trees and Elderron. Marxine attacked and got a good hit on one of the wolf-spiders.

The swarm got into her armor and bit her badly and dropped her. Dammit! The ettercaps came down out of the trees and attacked -- one missed Aldalómiel and the other missed Elama. Aldalómiel, dropping her bow and drawing a sword, did not miss. Neither did Lamie, who attacked with her sword. She then used healing word on Marxine.

The horse-spider attacked Vinya and got a hit. She attacked it with her quarterstaff and a kick and did a good chunk of damage to it -- she didn’t drop it, but she left it looking bad.

Marxine got her second wind and attacked a wolf-spider, dropping it with some prejudice.

Elderron cast frostbite on the swarm, still covering Marxine, and hit, doing some damage and leaving it chilled and weakened and less able to attack effectively.

The ettercap on Lamie bit her, injecting poison with its spidery mandibles -- lightning crackled out of the wound and into the ettercap. It screamed.

Aldalómiel drew her other sword and attacked the other ettercap twice and hit it two times, but it didn’t fall. It didn’t even fall after Marxine hit it with her greataxe. Though it was looking rough.

Elderron cast frostbite on the swarm on Marxine again. It moved when Marxine moved but couldn’t get any meaningful bites in because of Elderron’s spell.

The ettercap that Marxine and Aldalómiel were fighting attacked Marxine and did a small amount of damage. The one on Elama hit her with its claws for a small amount of damage as well. Those two combats were close enough to one another that Aldalómiel was able to move to get a flanking attack on the one on Lamie and dropped it, then she turned to attack the one she’d been fighting with her second attack and hit.

Lamie, who’d been getting beaten up, disengaged and moved away screaming something about spiders and nightmare fuel.

Marxine moved away from the swarm and attacked the ettercap, but missed it. Which left an opening for Vinya to first drop the horse-spider with her quarterstaff and then do a flurry of blows on the remaining ettercap, dropping it as well.

Elderron cast frostbite on the swarm, now just swarming on the ground, leaving it chilled and less able to attack effectively. It moved to Elama and swarmed over her -- she was now living the nightmare that had been merely fueled thus far -- but didn’t get any good bites in.

Aldalómiel attacked the swarm on Elama and, with her swords, scraped the spiders off, killing them.

We looked around and no more spiders came out of the forest at us.

So we searched the dead guy and the shiny stuff on the ground around him. The dead guy was an elf -- apparently he got ambushed by the spiders. He had a couple of short swords, a longbow and six arrows. He had clearly been dead for a few weeks and was very dessicated.

He also had:
8x50gp gems (one for each of us and two left over for future disbursement
Potion of Fire Giant Strength (which went to Marxine)
Pristine, elf-sized scale mail that seemed lighter than it should be. On investigation this turned out to be mithral scale mail. It went to Elama.

Searching the webbing, we found the cocooned bodies of a couple of pixies and sprites, thoroughly desiccated and drained. And long dead. And some coinage.

1600 cp (266 each with 4 left over)
1200 sp (200 each)
30 gp (5 each)

Elderron cleared away a lot of the webs, and with a bit of exploration we figured out that this clearing was the center of the spider infestation. The ettercaps may have been dispersing from elsewhere. They are known to attract spiders to themselves.

This was a good thing to do but it didn’t give us any leads on our mission to find what happened to those normal merchants to turn them into Crazy Preachers.

We went back to the town to tell them that the spiders had been dealt with but that sadly their fey friends were gone.

We found Mia in our room in the inn, hopefully starting to feel better, and stayed the night there.

When we wake the next morning, we will be third level.


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## prabe (Aug 12, 2020)

Session 5: We Found The Machine

Dramatis Personae:

Aldalómiel - Wood Elf Ranger (Hunter Conclave)
Elama “Lamie” Galanodel- Wood Elf Cleric (Tempest)
Vinya Anar - Wood Elf Monk (Way of the Sun Soul)
Elderon - High Elf Wizard (Loremaster)
Marxine Deepfoot - Dwarf Fighter (Champion)
Mia - Firbolg Druid (Circle of the Land (Forest))

GM: - Everyone Else


Before we woke up the next morning -- in the wee hours of darkness -- Aldalómiel went out into the woods outside of town and used her newly developed ranger senses to try and detect any Githyanki or Dragonborn within five miles. All she detected was the shopkeeper, Tessixylin, who we already knew about.


11 Marroin 749 (Campaign day 12)

We woke up the next morning with everyone feeling stronger and Mia having recovered from whatever had laid her low. Marxine was feeling like she might have had it coming on (her player was stuck in traffic) so we let her ride in the cart while someone else drove.

The sky was cloudy and grey and rain was foreboding.

Mia: Might rain. The plants will like it.
Lamie: It only becomes cool rain when it starts to thunder.

We headed out along the way, watching carefully for any sign that something had been dropped off the side of the road or been shoved into the underbrush. Vinya was looking for the trader flags from the wagon we’d “inherited” from the crazy cultists. And any sign of their trade goods.

About halfway through the day we encountered a small caravan traveling from Tash. They were flying trade flags from a trade company Marxine was vaguely familiar with. There were a mix of humans and dwarves traveling together.

Lamie: Hail. Have you seen any weirdness going on up the road?
Traders: You’re the first people going toward Tash we’ve seen. Other than the light traffic, there was nothing unusual.
Mia: If you see any people speaking gibberish, run away fast…
Trader: Solid advice.
Mia: Have a safe journey. It might rain.

We wished them well and continued on our way, continuing to look for anything weird or out of place along the road. We saw nothing and the rest of the day passed without incident.

As we began to look for a place to camp, Marxine was feeling better and she helped us pick a good location about 65’ off the road.

Not too deep into first watch, Marxine was woolgathering and Lamie was staring at the stars, but Vinya spotted three wolf-sized spiders coming out of the trees toward the camp. These spiders are usually ambush predators, but they failed their ambush.

Vinya jumped over the sleeping Elderon and attacked the one approaching him. Then yelled for people to wake up. Lamie cast spiritual weapon and attacked the one that was threatening Comrade and White Horse. She cast sacred flame on another. Then she ran up to the one she’d flamed.

Lamie, as she ran: Must conquer fear!

Lamie then got bitten by the spider she’d run up to, and lightning crackled out of the wound and around the spider, but it didn’t die.

Elderon then woke up, sat up and cast Magic Missile -- sending darts to Lamie’s spider and to Vinya’s.

Elderon, firing off the magic missiles: No, NO, NO!

The one on Lamie exploded into spider bits.

Aldalómiel woke up and took a shot with her sling. Mia woke up and took a shot with her crossbow. Marxine then hit hers hard, cutting it into three pieces with her axe. Vinya crushed hers with her quarterstaff, then moved to attack the one threatening Comrade, but wasn’t able to kick it. Fortunately, Lamie stepped in and killed it -- protecting the horses and vanquishing the last of the spiders.

Vinya, looking around: I think you can all go back to sleep now.

We went back to our night’s rest.

Toward the end of third watch, before any of us had finished our long rest, Vinya, Elderon, Mia, and Aldalómiel were on watch. Vinya and Mia were talking about the forest and the ecosystem, nattering away, but despite that everyone noticed three ogres blundering toward us from the direction of the road.

Mia cast a Moonbeam spell right on top of one of them, then moved behind a bush for cover.

Mia: Wake up!

Elama woke up when Mia yelled.

Lamie: Huh? Oh. Really.

She got up and cast sacred flame on one.

Marxine also woke up at Mia’s call. She got out of her bed-roll and moved as close to them as she could, then yelled and brandished her axe, trying to get their attention.

Aldalómiel took a shot at one that had been hit already and the arrow pierced deep into his chest with the extra-damage boost she got from her new colossus slayer ability.

Vinya moved as close to them as she could manage and then moved into a defensive position and began to dodge. Elderon fired off a volley of magic missiles into the one that had been most hit.

The combat got better when Lamie cast Bane on all of them. The minor curse then caused them to fail saves and miss characters with their big clubs. Everyone was taking their shots and Vinya was doing that and taking advantage of the fact that she could attack and go into her patient defense and dodge their incoming blows.

Two of them were attacking Vinya and one Marxine. Elderon moved around to get a clear shot to cast Aganazzar’s Scorcher and a beam of fire shot from his outstretched hand, hitting both of the ones on Vinya.

One of those then promptly turned to attack Elderon, but the club bounced off of Elderon’s shield spell.

Lamie cast a shatter spell behind the same two Elderon had scorched and called down the power of the tempest into her spell, which crashed with a mighty roll of thunder. They were badly shaken up by that, though one more than the other.

Aldalómiel took a shot with her longbow and hit the one that was threatening Elderon and hit well. Vinya then followed up with her quarterstaff and dropped that one. Elderon then took the opportunity to move further away from the front line and cast magic missile, sending two darts to one and one to the other. The one that got two darts was killed by the force of them impacting its chest. The other one was still standing there, barely, but before it could do anything, the light from Mia’s moonbeam was enough to crumple it to the ground.

We checked in the pre-dawn gloom and it was clear that the ogres hadn’t been traveling along the road -- they were traveling through the forest and just crossed the road in our direction. We’ve seen ogres out in this forest before, so they might be at least somewhat common, or not-uncommon in these parts.

We finished our long rest.


12 Marroin 749 (Campaign day 13)

The day dawned grey and rainy, the clouds hanging low and oppressive and a cold drizzle soaking through our clothes. Most of us rode in the covered cart, except Aldalómiel who walked as she usually does. Aldalómiel and Vinya (from inside the cart) continued to keep an eye out for anything weird or out of place along the roadsides.

It was a quiet day traveling over increasingly hilly terrain. Close to dusk, we rode over a rise and looked down into a valley between a couple hills. We saw a circle of wagons with a tent in the middle of it. The tent was big enough to park a wagon under, but only just barely. There were six wagons circled around it, some in the road, some off the side of the road. The wagons circled around had flags -- most from Tash, but Auriqua and Embernook were also represented.

We realized when we saw them that he hadn’t seen a single wagon going toward the Knot (or heading toward Tash) all day.

Elderon sent Oda flying out to take a look and see what he could see. The horses were still hitched to the circling wagons, but there was no sign of horses associated with the tent. He also saw a bunch of people standing around outside the tent. This was all right around the road, so either the wagons we’ve encountered just went around it and ignored it (and then didn’t report to us that they’d seen anything weird) or it wasn’t there when they went by. But with six carts around it -- that’s more traffic than we’ve seen this whole trip.

Mia turned into a cute little brown pine marten and she and Aldalómiel went to scout around the scene. Neither of them hid very well, but fortunately Mia was a cute little woodland creature so anyone who saw her would just see that. Aldalómiel was saved by the fact that no one in the group of people around the tent was paying much attention to anything out in the forest.

They saw that there were twenty or so humans and dwarves standing around looking stunned, like the people in the village that were being preached to. The crowd included some of the tentacle arm cultists. Under the tent was a wagon with a thing on it -- like a mechanical thing big enough for a humanoid to go into. Near the machine was a person preaching in gibberish, the Speaker for the Machine.

As they watched, the Speaker gestured for a one of the stunned looking people to go into the machine. The screaming could be heard by the rest of the party, aways off on the hill. When the person came out of the other end of the machine he had a spark of clarity in his eyes and a tentacle for an arm.

Mia, in weasel: Holy naughty word!
Aldalómiel, who can understand woodland beasts: I think we found The Machine.

They got back to the party and told us what they had seen.

We decided to split into two groups -- Team Stealth (Vinya, Aldalómiel and Elderron) would be going around in the woods to the side, getting into a position to the side of the first rank of wagons (from the direction we were heading). Team Cart (Lamie, Marxine, and Mia) would have Lamie and Marxine riding on the cart, with Mia, in the form of a spirited warhorse, looking like she was on a lead line attached to the back of the cart.

Team Cart continued along the road, prepared to interact with the people if that was appropriate. If not, prepared to move like they were going around the assembly, if they would be allowed to do that. As they approached on the road, one of the dwarves stepped away from the assembly to intercept them in the road. He looked much like the dwarf preachers we’d fought at Tashimeet in the Knot.

Lamie: Good evening.
Preacher: Hello.
Lamie: What’s going on here? I see a bunch of carts and about fifty bazillion people.
Preacher: You’re welcome to join us.
Lamie: Sure….?

The preacher moved to give the cart a clear path forward. Marxine, taking this as a cue, smacked the reins on the horses backs and tried to run him over with the cart. Unfortunately she missed with her attempt to trample. Mia-warhorse charged a cultist and missed. Elama gave the signal to Team Stealth and the battle was on!

Aldalómiel shot the Speaker (the Boss) with a designating arrow for a pretty decent amount of damage and he was now under a faerie fire spell for the rest of the combat.

Vinya moved to get between Elderron and the cultist nearest him -- missing with her quarterstaff, of course, but dropping him with a well-placed kick. Then she moved to cover Elderron against anything incoming.

Elama jumped off of our cart and cast spiritual weapon on the tentacle arm nearest to the Speaker of the Machine (she didn’t quite have the range to attack the Speaker himself), then she attacked the dwarf preacher that had come to talk to the cart with her sword.

There was a lot of mostly ineffectual flailing by the cultists -- who moved around, took wild swings at people, and Did Things without much effect.

The Speaker for the Machine had much more effect when he fired off two black bolts from his hand. One of them was aimed at Aldalómiel, the other was fired so wildly that we weren’t able really to guess a target. Then he moved back behind the tent for cover.

Elderon cast a web spell on an area between Team Stealth and the Speaker of the Machine. The webs thwipped out over an area that had a cultist, a grue, and a tentacle arm but we didn’t know if any of them had been fully restrained yet.

Mia the warhorse stomped on a nearby cultist hitting it twice and killing it with her hooves in an unpleasant crunch.

Then we went back into a period of flailing by the tentacle arms and the grues - the highlight of which was a tentacle arm attacking the spiritual weapon (to no avail). One of the grues did hit White Horse, earning our ire. One of them was stuck in Elderon’s web.

Marxine jumped off the cart onto Comrade’s back, using her axe to cut the harness hitching him to the wagon, then she rode over to where Vinya was facing a lot of opposition (many cultists, tentacle arms and a grue had all gone in her direction).

Vinya, when she pulled Comrade up just a few feet away: You and me, together again!

One of the dwarf preachers got Vinya and Elderron in a bane spell, but it only lasted for a couple of seconds before Aldalómiel cast Zephyr Strike and shot him, dropping him with one arrow. Then she moved around to where she’d be able to get a clear shot on the Speaker the next round.

Vinya continued her pattern of missing with the quarterstaff but landing kicks on things, hitting the grue that was making things gibbery and distracting in her vicinity.

The cultist that was next to Mia-warhorse was freaking out, because it just watched this beautiful horse in front of it crush the skull of one of its associates, and missed her utterly. Only one of the two on Vinya hit. A third came to join that party and missed because of the distracting grue. Which caused Vinya and Marxine to reconsider targeting those.

A cultist got past Vinya and Marxine to attack Elderron but it missed. The cultist in the web broke itself free and climbed over one of the carts to attack Aldalómiel, but it missed. The Speaker fired off two black blasts at Aldalómiel then took cover behind one of the carts.

Elderron cast a sleep spell, trying to do as much as he could to thin the herd building up around Vinya and himself. He got two of them, which was a big help.

There was a lot of swinging and missing (on us) and swinging and hitting (on them) and moving around the battlefield to get to new opponents or line up opportunities.

A grue attacked Comrade and then stayed bitten onto the horse’s flank. Marxine attacked that grue to knock it off her horse, and hit it hard with her axe. The gibbering took on a rather shriekish aspect.

Aldalómiel stayed focused on Speaker -- keeping herself in position to shoot at him and peppering him with arrows whenever she got the chance. Lamie backed her up bashing at him with the spiritual weapon (a floating cloud that shoots out bolts of radiant lightning). Unfortunately, the Speaker was aware of where the damage was coming from (and smarter than the tentacle guy who attacked the spiritual weapon) and he kept firing eldritch blasts at Aldalómiel, which, along with a tentacle guy who was supporting the Speaker, ultimately dropped her.

Elderron was unable to get free of the cultists (who’d mobbed Vinya and Marxine with Elderron very nearby) and pulled his short sword to make an attack.

Mia-warhorse was incredibly effective at charging and attacking cultists and preachers over on that side of the combat (which was her and Lamie). She dropped several of them with her hooves, galloping way from counter attacks to set herself up for another charge.

The cultists and tentacle guys around Vinya and Marxine kept missing because of the grues, so (aside from the one on Comrade) we stopped targeting them. They were helping us more than they were hurting us. Ultimately, they started getting the upper hand, so Vinya was able to move to where she could help Elderon more.

Once again the Speaker fired off eldritch blasts. One of them narrowly missed Lamie. The other blasted apart one of the forest trees.

Elderon cast sleep again, putting two of the cultists that he and Vinya were dealing with to sleep.

The combat was huge and chaotic -- the grues got in some good bites, mostly on Marxine. One of them bit her and the gibbering went to her head and she was a bit muddled for a while (attacks against her were going to be at advantage, which would just cancel out the disadvantage from the gibbering grues). Mia got sacred flamed by one of the preachers.

Lamie was able to disengage from her opponents and jump over a cart so she could heal Aldalómiel. The cultist she’d been fighting with followed her, but was unable to attack.

The Speaker continued to focus his blasts on Mia, who was doing so much damage to his minions. But he missed. Mia immediately justified his focus by charging one of the preachers and dropping him, then turning and kicking one of the tentacle guys.

Aldalómiel, healed, stood up and moved so she could get a clear shot at the Speaker for the Machine -- her arrow pierced his side and he dropped, as she was moving back into cover.

After that there was a lot more combat dealing with the remaining cultists, grues and tentacle guys. Marxine dropped a tentacle guy and finally had herself free of everyone having flanking against her. Vinya dropped a tentacle guy and then punched Marxine’s grue. Elderon moved to position himself for an Aganazzar’s scorcher on the group on one side of Marxine and dropped a grue and a cultist.

Aldalómiel, her main target (the Speaker) dropped, took a shot at the tentacle guy on Marxine. Vinya went to help in the fight against that guy, moving around the scrum to stay out of Aldalómiel’s line of fire. Mia kicked her tentacle guy in the throat, dropping him.

Vinya shoved a stunned civilian out of her way and moved into a position to flank the last cultist not sleeping from one of Elderon’s spells. She dropped it with an unarmed strike. Elderron dropped the last tentacle guy with a firebolt.

After dispatching the sleepers, Lamie cured Aldalómiel.

As we looked around the stunned civilians were emerging from their daze, blinking slowly and looking around.


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## prabe (Aug 19, 2020)

Session 6: The Passage to Madness


Dramatis Personae:

Aldalómiel - Wood Elf Ranger (Hunter Conclave)
Vinya Anar - Wood Elf Monk (Way of the Sun Soul)
Elderon - High Elf Wizard (Loremaster)
Marxine Deepfoot - Dwarf Fighter (Champion)

Absent but traveling along:

Mia - Firbolg Druid (Circle of the Land (Forest))
Elama “Lamie” Galanodel - Wood Elf Cleric (Tempest)

GM - Everyone Else

Note: Elama's and Mia's players were unable to attend, but they stayed with us, riding in the carts and resting while we traveled.


12 Marroin 749 (Campaign day 13) (immediately after)

We looked around after the last of the cultists fell to see the stunned civilians beginning to rouse from the daze they’d been under looking varying degrees of freaked out by the experience. Elderron called them away from the Machine, so that no one could wind out going into the machine. They were still a bit under the influence of the Speaker for the Machine and therefore easily led and they went where Elderron told them to go.

We got people 60’ away from the Machine, hoping that would be a safe distance for all of us to be away from its mental effects.

The civilians remembered themselves and remembered something of what happened while they were there. While the Speaker was talking he made sense to them and seemed to be leading up to _something_, but they couldn’t now reconstruct the sense and they didn’t know what he had been leading up to. They went back to their wagons and their original traveling companions. They reported that there were some people missing, but only a few.

The Speaker and the cultists had been gathering people there in the road for a couple of days -- so some of the civilians had been standing there brain-snarfed, without eating and without resting for over 48 hours. They were exhausted and sore. They told us that some people had gone into the machine more than once and came out different every time -- whether with physical or other changes. The people who went in while they were gathered to listen were individually invited by the Speaker, one at a time and personally.

While the merchants were seeing to their horses, who’d been standing in their traces for two days as well, we took a look around at the wagon the Machine was on. We saw a couple of corpses on the wagon -- with gaping holes in their chests, so it seemed that at least a couple of the grues (beachballs) had come from these guys.

The traders who’d encountered the Machine wagon first reported that it was heading _toward_ Tash when they encountered it. The last traders we’d encountered on the road (early the day before) had said they encountered no one heading toward Tash at all until us. So those traders must have dodged a bullet.

Also, the Machine and its cultist entourage must have entered the main road to Tash somewhere between where we encountered that wagon (just outside of Tormul, the village with the spider problem) and this spot. We’d noticed some side tracks along the way, but not paid much attention to them as we were focused on the road to Tash.

We talked to a couple of the traders and told them that there was a town a couple of days back they could stay in. All of them, including those who’d been on the way to Tash (and for whom it was two days away from their destination) agreed that they’d head to Tormul in the morning. It was clear that they planned to travel together as a group for safety’s sake.

We asked about our cart, which we got from the cultists we initially encountered in Tashimeet, to see if there were any clues or indications on it to point to which trading house it had been associated with. They agreed that it looked like it was from Tash. We were told that it looked pretty new -- though they couldn’t tell if it was new equipment for an established trading house or starting equipment for a new house. They did say that it looked to be in good shape.

Marxine: Is there a new trading company?
Traders: There are always companies starting up and fading out.

As the merchants pulled their wagons away from the Machine, ultimately settling in a cluster about 150 feet away, it became clear that a second wagon was left abandoned, next to the Machine wagon. None of them claimed it and it apparently belonged to the Speaker and his entourage. So we took a look at it (the Epiphany Machine took up all of its wagon and there was no room for anything else in it).

In the wagon we found a bunch of stuff. Some of it was laid claim to by the other wagoneers and traders. We let them take their own stuff back. When they had done so, we looked through what was left.

We found many things. The magical items Elderron picked out for us were:

Potions of: Healing, Greater Healing, Climbing and Stone Giant Strength
Staff of Bird Calls (This seemed like a Mia thing.)
A backpack (which turned out to be a Heward’s Handy Haversack)
A Moontouched longsword (its only magical property is that it glows) (Elama)
Scroll of See Invisibility

Elderron was also interested in a book which had several pages torn out of it, and other pages had text scrawled over the already written pages. It turned out to be a spell book. Elderron sat down to look at what he’d found.

With Elderron now distracted, the rest of us dumped out the handy haversack and found:

4 silver trade bars (worth 2500 sp each)
110 platinum pieces (!!)
1700 gold pieces
400 copper pieces

We also found seven art items, each worth 25 gp, to wit:
Two bone statuettes, a matched set of Elven nudes, one male and one female (art, not erotica)
Small gold bracelet
Embroidered silk handkerchief
Set of bone dice
Gold locket with a portrait of a gnome child
Cloth-of-gold vestments

(Vinya would like the two statuettes and will put 25 of her own gold into the pot to buy one from the party, and take the other as her share of the division of treasure.)

(The coinage and art (excluding the trade bars) divide to 18 pp, 1 art object, 283 gp, and 66 cp each. The trade bars will have to wait for a city. This division left over 2 pp, 3 gp, and 4 cp for the party kitty.)

We decided to make camp about 120’ from the Machine wagon, but didn’t want to leave the Machine unattended all night, so we divided up our forces somewhat. Vinya started the night staying with Machine while Elama and Marxine kept watch at the main camp.

Vinya took a look at the machine by torch and lantern light while she was keeping watch. It didn’t look like much -- it looked like a pile of metal bits and rubble, dirty and old -- old steel piled up into a sort of a tunnel. She couldn’t see anything that looked like a moving part or machine, just a pile of rubble that she could sort of see through.

Elderron replaced her on watch at the Machine and she pointed out her observations about the Machine. He noticed that some of the spaces and gaps in the machine met up in ways to make the broken circles in the cultists’ holy symbol. He also spotted some geared pieces in the Machine, but the gears didn’t engage with any other gears, so it wasn’t clear that they were usefully moving pieces.

After Vinya left for her rest, Elderron looked over the Machine for any runes or writing, but didn’t find any. Not even any gibberish.

On third watch, Aldalómiel took over at the Machine. Her examination noticed three shiny, silvery strips of metal integrated into the chaotic structure.

Aside from our explorations, the night passed without incident.


13 Marroin 749 (Campaign day 14)

The next morning, we prepared to leave with the traders. The harness on our cart had been damaged by Marxine during the course of the battle with the Speaker and we got some assistance from one of the wagonmasters in repairing it. We decided, over a bit of objection from Marxine, to keep our cart and let the traders take the cultists’ cart. (The argument for keeping our cart was that if we wanted to find out more information and possibly identify the original owners of our cart, we needed to have it still. The argument against was that we’d gotten probably as much information on that score as we were going to from the traders and having a new cart would be nice.)

Elderron wanted a horse to ride, so we kept two horses for the Machine cart, our two horses (Comrade and White Horse) and one of the horses from the cultists’ wagon. The other horse from the cultists’ wagon was given to the merchants to go with the extra wagon.

We weren’t totally decided what to do with the Machine. Some of us wanted to destroy it, others were more ambivalent about that, but none of us were sure about how to go about it safely or where we should make the attempt. We decided to take it with us, because we obviously couldn’t leave it here as a trap for people to stumble over.

We headed out toward Tormul, watching for side tracks. Mia drove our cart and Marxine the Machine wagon. We closed up the cover on the Machine wagon, so the Machine wasn’t at all visible, just the canvas cover on the wagon. The merchants all stayed behind us, so they wouldn’t mess up any tracks that we might possibly find useful, though with the rain the day before, we weren’t sure how much useful we’d find.

Early in the day, we ran into a trade wagon coming from the Knot. We greeted them and asked if they’d encountered anything weird along the road. They said they’d encountered some really large cat tracks, like tiger or jaguar sized, back on the other side of Tormul (most of two days away).

Marxine: How’s the Knot doing?
Traders: We heard about a kerfuffle -- there were some crazy people at Tashimeet who had a catching form of craziness who were killed before they hurt anyone.

Well, that sounded familiar. So we thanked them and let them continue on their way. Elderron sent Oda up looking for big cats and side tracks.

In the afternoon, we found the side track we’d been looking for, heading to the right into the woods. Aldalómiel and Marxine both thought they could see some evidence of cart traffic on the road, but it was kind of vague because their best guess it predated the rain we’d travelled through.

We parted ways with the merchants and headed up this side track. The side track was cart navigable, but we wanted to have everyone together, so we hitched the Machine wagon to the back of our wagon and had four horses pulling (with Elderron riding his horse alongside).

Right around dusk, as we were travelling up the side road and starting to look for a place to make camp, we heard a lot of loud and unpleasant noises -- a gust of air and much grinding of metal-on-metal and metal-on-wood -- from the Machine. We looked back and saw that the canvas cover on the cart had stuff poking into it at odd angles.

Marxine groaned in pain (she and Aldalómiel had failed a save against a bit of influence from the Machine earlier and Marxine failed another save and took some damage as that bit of influence was wrenched from her).

We looked under the cover and into the wagon and found that the Machine had collapsed in on itself. Elderron cast detect magic and found that the Machine was no longer magical -- all he could detect was a fading magical residue.

We realized that it had been 24 hours since we’d fought the Speaker for the Machine and the cultists -- so perhaps that amount of time without the Speaker, or without having a person fed through it, caused it to collapse.

We poked at it with poles and sticks. Aldalómiel noticed that some coils of wire were rusting and corroding as we watched. We could also see patches of rust and corrosion on the larger pieces of metal spreading and expanding under our eyes as well. As we contemplated that, Aldalómiel also noticed that the three silvery strips of metal she’d spotted were gone -- just disappeared.

Elderron remembered that he’d heard of some powerful items that are hard to destroy because they go away before anyone can do that. Sometimes they come back. Sometimes they don’t.

Great.

Vinya used a piece of chalk to mark the extent of one of the rust patches, so we could keep an eye on how fast it was growing.

We made camp, since it was sunset when the Machine collapsed.

We tied the horses to the carts and made a fire about 15 feet away. During first watch, we saw the fire reflecting in the eyes of a large cat, something like a jaguar. The jaguar circled around the camp and the fire toward the horses. Lamie went to wake up Aldalómiel and Elderron while Vinya moved to the horses nearest the cat, untying them so they weren’t sitting ducks for the jaguar to attack, then she got between them and the jaguar.

(Note: Mia was deemed to be feeling poorly and allowed to sleep instead of taking a watch. Elama was there, but stayed out of combat -- she was available for healing if needed and we decided she could do things like waking people up.)

Aldalómiel stood up and used her sling to hit the jaguar in the flank with a solid shot. The jaguar then proceeded past the party, circling around the horses and out into the woods. Elderron got up and moved in the direction the cat had gone and waited, holding a spell, until it came back.

Vinya yelled for Elama to hold the horses, then moved around the camp to where she could see the jaguar again, keeping an eye on it. Aldalómiel moved to the edge of the camp and waited with her sling until she was confident that it had gone away.

We moved the horses closer to the fire and the camp, so they wouldn’t be so vulnerable if the jaguar came back. The rest of the night passed without incident.


14 Marroin 749 (Campaign day 15)

The next morning, we took a look at the Machine. The wire had completely degraded away, leaving nothing but a haze of rust powder where it had been. The rust patches we’d marked the evening before had grown in extent and were deeper -- with rust flaking off the surface. The bronze pieces in the Machine had turned green with bronze disease. It looked like normal metal aging, but very accelerated. We figured there were maybe a few days before it was entirely gone.

We continued on the track with the remains of the Machine in its wagon hitched to the back of our wagon.

Before noon, we spotted some humans dressed like woodsmen or loggers crossing the road. They jumped and yelped in startlement when they saw up.

Loggers: We weren’t expecting to see anyone.
Us: Sorry. Has anything weird been going on?
Loggers: A few days ago we heard someone screaming...screaming and sort of gibbering on this same road. That wasn’t you?

We assured them that it wasn’t.

Marxine: What’s up the road?
Loggers: Just woods.
Marxine: Where are you coming from?
Loggers: There’s a logging camp that way (they pointed behind them). We’re heading toward another camp in the woods over that way (pointing into the woods on the other side of the road in front of them).
Marxine: This road goes somewhere.
Loggers: Well, there’s a big logging camp up the road -- there’s a sawmill that cuts the logs into boards. They put some logs and the boards on to carts to take a back road to Tash. It’s a bit of a shortcut from here and they can stay off the bandits on the main road.

We thanked them and wished them well and continued on our way.

Shortly before nightfall, we came up on an old stockade which surrounded an old logging camp. The wall looked to be in good shape, but the gate was open and the camp was completely abandoned. The buildings looked as though logs and lumber had been pulled down and used for something else.

That something else appeared to have been something in the middle of the camp. There we found a pile of rotted wood -- really moldy, rotted, and soft to the touch. Looking around we saw that the stockade, the parts of the buildings that were not torn down, and the wooden furniture all appeared to be normal -- they weren’t showing much sign of aging or wear. But the wood in the middle of the camp, approximately the same age, was rotted and nearly turned into compost.

The stockade showed no sign of there having been a fight or struggle around it, but some signs of that would have been lost in the rain and might have been missed.

Interestingly, despite the chaotic nature of the Machine (which appeared to have been made of wood in this camp) the buildings appeared to have been un-built or disassembled quite methodically from the top down.

Elderron looked around the village for a smithy or a forge. When he found it, he noticed that all of the metal he’d expect to be associated with a forge was still there. He also could see that someone had done something with a lot of metal. It was as though someone had brought in a lot of metal -- it wasn’t smelted or forged here, but they were breaking down metal into smaller pieces, pulling wire, that sort of thing.

It looked like the metal Machine we’d encountered was perhaps at least partially built here, replacing the wooden one in the center of the camp.

There was no sign of anyone alive in the camp.

The road didn’t continue on past this point…

Vinya: Well, crap, y’all.

We observed that we have a chicken and egg problem -- crazy people make the Machine to make crazy people.

Elderron: Maybe the warlock (the Speaker) made a pact with the Hunger Between Worlds to learn how to make the machine. Making more cultists.

Elderron also noticed that there was no saw here -- not even a place for one. Maybe they had a portable one? We checked in the remains of the metal Machine and didn’t see any sign of anything like a saw blade.

We tried throwing some pieces of wood onto the composting wood pile and it didn’t change -- it just continued to be wood. Bringing the remains of the metal Machine near to the remains of what we believed to be a wooden Machine didn’t do anything, so we made camp inside the stockade, since it would be a defensible and safe position.

We realized that this could be a cultist camp.

We kept watches during the night, even though we were in the safety of the stockade. We heard at various times of the night the yowling of the jaguar hunting in the woods around us.

On second watch, Elama, Elderron and Aldalómiel heard what sounded like shrieking or laughter off at a great distance in the direction we’d been going.

Elderron: That’s highly unusual.

He woke everyone else up and we all listened, poised for anything to happen. Fifteen minutes later, the shrieking laughter stopped.

Elderron sent Oda out to take a look, but he didn’t see anything close to the camp.

Marxine: The cat could have made a new meal.

We agreed that was a definite possibility.


15 Marroin 749 (Campaign day 16)

The next morning dawned cold, clear and wintry.

Looking at the road outside the logging camp, we saw signs of something large and heavy having been dragged along the ground in the direction we’d been heading. That was the same direction we’d heard the shrieking laughter from.

We headed out, going that way, following the drag-mark tracks. We presumed these were the sign of the heavy load of metal having been dragged to the camp from somewhere.

Shortly after lunch, we started getting into some more mountainous terrain.

We came upon a narrow valley with something that looked a bit like a Greek ampitheater, sized for giants, with the seats in an arc carved out of the mountain on one side and the stage against the mountain on the other side. We entered at the top of the seats.. From a distance, we could see something in a square (or polygonal/angular structure). As we got closer we could tell that it was an 11-ringed gimballed circle, like a huge version of the cultists’ holy symbol. Inside the innermost circle was a desiccated corpse. (The metal holy symbol is 11 rings joined to gimbal and spin in different directions. That was mounted so that it could spin on yet another axis inside the metal polyhedron on the stage. The corpse was inside the symbol.)

Marxine looked at the corpse -- from the distance we were at (about 150’) she could see no sign of it being rotten, but we were still a ways off.

Vinya looked around for any structures other than the ampitheater built into the sides of two mountains -- huts for actors to be in, a building with a green room or any of the other infrastructure specifically associated with a theater, a village for people who attend the theater in this place. That sort of thing. There was nothing in the vicinity.

Elderron cast detect magic and walked toward the amphitheater, accompanied by Vinya and Marxine (in case this was an ambush of some sort).

When the party were about 120’ from the stage, the rings began to spin, each on its own axis, until the corpse was facing us, its head lolling. Then its eyes opened and it began to shudder and twitch, yanking itself against the rusty spikes holding its hands and feet to the rings. Shrieking laughter rang forth in many voices and many timbres, while the body in the rings stared fixedly at the party.

Beyond, a section of the cliff wall and floor slid down and away with a deep grinding and small showers of rock dust, opening a passage into the darkness.

We ended there, with the darkness beckoning in front of us.


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## prabe (Aug 27, 2020)

Session 7: Into The Creepy Place

Dramatis Personae:

Aldalómiel - Wood Elf Ranger (Hunter Conclave)
Elama “Lamie” Galanodel- Wood Elf Cleric (Tempest)
Vinya Anar - Wood Elf Monk (Way of the Sun Soul)
Elderon - High Elf Wizard (Loremaster)
Marxine Deepfoot - Dwarf Fighter (Champion)
Mia - Firbolg Druid (Circle of the Land (Forest)

GM - Everyone Else


15 Marroin 749 (Campaign day 16) (immediately after)

We ended last time at the top of the amphitheater, scaled for giants, looking down into the bowl of the theater at the stage, where a square (or polygonal/angular structure) sat. It was an 11-ringed gimballed circle, like a huge version of the cultists’ holy symbol. Inside the innermost circle was a desiccated corpse, with its eyes open staring at us. The sound of crazed laughter echoed through the amphitheater, but didn’t appear to be coming from the corpse.

Before we went into the passage that had opened behind the stage of the ampitheater, Elama cast Aid on Aldalomiel, Marxine and Mia.

The amphitheater (and the stairs down toward the stage) were scaled for giants, but someone had made a ramp that filled in the giant steps. The gouge marks we’d been following marred the surface of the ramp.

As we descended the ramp, the gimballed contraption turned to keep the open eyes of the desiccated corpse facing us at all times. It appeared to be a young giant -- ogre-sized but clearly a child. Once we got to the stage, Elama cast sacred flame on the corpse. The corpse was destroyed but the laughing continued.

The drag-mark trail came out of the cliff opening and went up the ramp. There were some smears of blood in the drag marks, but not enough to suggest that they were dragging a corpse. More a suggestion that one or more of the people doing the dragging had been injured.

It appeared to Aldalomiel that from the tracks there might have been several trips with heavy things.

The steps (converted to a ramp) continued descending into the cliff, so we just kept going down into the darkness (that, thanks to Mia’s night-vision goggles, we could all see in). When we passed through the opening into the cliff face, the shrieking laughter stopped.  After a bit the ramp flattened out into a large (45’ square room with doors on each of the other three rooms. Everything in the room was both giant-scale, and broken. There was a litter of broken chairs and tables and other furniture. Marxine couldn’t get a sense of what kind of giant this might have been. The art on the doors, however, looked almost fey, but at giant scale. Vinya looked for writing or pictographs and saw none.

We listened at the doors and didn’t hear anything. The door on the far wall clearly was where the drag-mark trail went. The other two doors appeared to have been opened. Elderron checked the drag-mark door for traps and found that there was some sort of counterweight mechanism -- he didn’t see any indication that it would deal damage (no stones dropping or anything) but opening the door would make _something_ happen. Perhaps an alarm.

He didn’t see any traps at the other two doors, so we decided to explore those first. Elderron used his mage hand to open one. There were four humanoid skeletons in there -- completely aware of our presence and ready to attack the moment the door opened.

They hit most of the party while we were still standing there gaping, giving Elama a chance to use her retaliatory lightning bolt retribution. Mia cast Faerie FIre, hoping to give us advantage on attacking them, but most of them dodged the sparkling effect. Aldalomiel’s swords hit, but with less effect than usual.

Vinya managed to shatter one with her quarterstaff then punched the one on Elama, dropping it as well. Marxine, seeing how effective the bludgeoning blows were compared to Aldalomiel’s swords, punched hers to death as well.

The last skeleton managed to get a good critical hit in on Elama before it was smashed by Mia’s shillelagh.

We searched the room we found the skeletons in and there was nothing in it but broken, giant-sized furniture.

The room on the other side (without drag-marks) had nothing but four piles of rotting meat -- apparently the flesh that was once on the skeletons. It was pretty gross so we closed the door and decided to save that room for more in-depth searching if we wound out with no other direction to explore.

Elderron used his mage hand again to open the third door, with the drag-marks through it. It opened onto a small corridor. As the door opened, the stairs behind us (i.e. the only known exit) rose up into the ceiling, so that there was nothing but blank wall.

Elama closed the door again, but the stairs didn’t come back.

Well, naughty word.

Elderron didn’t see any traps in the hall, so we proceeded that way. The walls of the corridor were decorated with frescoes depicting giants in the halls of Fey Nobles. Elderron has heard of there once having been giants that were native to the Feywild. They did something  and were exiled from the Feywild. This could be where they lived in their exile.

On examination, Elderron found that the door at the far end of the corridor also had some sort of counterweight. We had some vague hope that it would open the stairs back up so Elderron used his mage hand to open the door. We heard some thumps behind us (in the direction of the entrance room) and got our hopes all up, but when we checked, the stairs were still gone.

Dammit.

Looking through the new door, we found a very large room with 40+ foot high ceilings -- the room itself disappeared into darkness, even for everyone in the party with dark vision. We could see six broken statues lining the walls near the entrance. Elama lit up her sword, for comfort as much as anything else, and Elderron had Oda fly into the room 60’ ahead of us to see what he could see.

About 120’ ahead of us, the ceiling of the chamber was collapsed and the back corner of the room was in rubble. The rubble filled up the room all the way to the ceiling -- there was no way to climb over the rubble to get beyond it, but there appeared to be a gap on one side. There were also two doors -- one on each side wall.

Marxine and Vinya wedged torches into the statue-rubble, lighting up the end of the room. The ceiling showed more frescoes -- beautiful giants doing wonderful things.

Mia turned into a panther and she, along with Vinya and Aldalomiel (Team Sneak), went to explore the rubble and to see what that passage looked like. There appeared to be a way to get around the rubble on the left side of the room, a narrow passage between the rubble and the wall of the room.

The rest of the party (Elderron, Marxine, and Elama -- Team Not-Sneak Plus Wizard) moved a bit closer to our end of the room so there wasn’t so much space between the two groups.

While Team Sneak looked around and Team Not-Sneak waited for their return, Elama in the back was attacked by two flying, flappy winged things made of stone. Gargoyles. 

She did her lightning retribution on the one that hit her then screamed to get everyone’s attention.

Mia-panther ran back to the rest of the party and pounced on one, attacking with a claw. Vinya shot a bolt of light like sunlight from her hand, summoning her ki to shoot two more times when the first one hit. Aldalomiel’s swords sort of skittered over the stone, but didn’t really do much damage. Elderron cast magic missile, but with radiant darts (rather than force darts), having seen the damage that Vinya’s sun-bolts had done.

The gargoyles both attacked Aldalomiel with claws and bites, hitting her many times. Mia turned back into her normal form and cast a Moonbeam spell over both of them. Aldalomiel got a more solid hit with her sword just before Elama cured her wounds up.

Marxine hit the one that we’d done more damage to with her axe, then it turned to her and savaged her with a critical hit from its claws. Mia hit that one with her shillelagh and knocked its head right off of its shoulders. Then she moved around to try to set up flanking for Elama, or at least get close to it on the other one. Vinya fired off another sun-bolt from her hand, which missed, then she went up and just punched it.

Elama took a few steps around the gargoyle to get into a position to flank it with Mia then attacked with her magical sword, which took a big chunk out of the gargoyle. Marxine took a swing at it with her axe but missed, then it turned and attacked her. Fortunately she’d gotten a second wind and was able to withstand the blows. After a couple more hits, Aldalomiel hit it with both of her swords and was able to drop it.

Vinya went and poked the other broken statues to see if any gargoyles were going to come out of them, but they seemed to be okay.

We wanted to take a short rest there before proceeding, but didn’t want to be attacked by anything coming from the side rooms, so we used pitons to spike the doors closed. Mia also propped up Marxine’s shovel on one and put her pot in front of the other -- so we’d have an audible alarm if the doors were opened.

After our rest, Team Sneak tried again to see what was going on around the rubble and especially what appeared to be a gap around the rubble on the left side of the room. Vinya and Mia both tripped over some of the rubble, so Team Sneak wasn’t very sneaky this time. They could hear some voices gibbering from inside the rubble then some grues (beachballs) came out through gaps in the rubble. Six of them.

Vinya hit one of them with her quarterstaff (a rarity) then punched it, dropping it, then she moved to keep Elama from getting two of them on her. She wound out with two herself, who got flanking against her, but mostly missed. And Elama still had two, one of which missed so badly we weren’t actually sure who it was swinging at.

Marxine moved to attack the one threatening Elderron and utterly destroyed it with her axe.

While we were fighting them, a gibbering mouther appeared at the end of the rubble corridor and began moving in our direction.

We dropped the remaining grues as quickly as possible so that we were ready to focus on the gibbering mouther. Vinya shot three sun-bolts at the mouther, hitting it twice, then it spit out a blinding flash in her direction but she covered her eyes. Elderron cast magic missile on it, hitting it well. Mia stayed back and shot with her crossbow, staying out of the difficult terrain around the mouther.

Aldalomiel moved right up to it and attacked with her swords. Vinya shot another sun-bolt at it. Once again it spit out a blinding flash, but both of them had their eyes closed and were not blinded. The mouther then attacked Aldalomiel, but the bite wasn’t nearly as bad as it could have been.

Marxine took it out with a thrown axe.

We proceeded around the “corridor” around the rubble to a cleared space with a hole in the floor. There were drag-marks around the hole in the floor. Vinya and Marxine looked down the hole and saw a pile of rubble -- it could be clambered up and down, but didn’t make a ramp all the way to the edge of the hole. There were four humanoid corpses on the pile, two of which had a bunch of eruptions -- like multiple grues had burst out of them. There were also what appeared to be two humanoid skins, wet and red inside, like the insides of a person had come out of the skin.

Marxine: We haven’t seen this before.

The remains appeared to be quite fresh.

Elama cast sacred flame on the skins.

We put a piton in the floor and tied a rope to it, preparing a way down. Vinya stuck her head down the hole and saw an otherwise empty room about 25’ by 40’ with openings -- hallways or excavated passages -- out of it.

We decided to go back to the two doors out of the room with the rubble and see what was through those side doors before going down a rope into the unknown darkness. Elderron used his mage hand to the first one and there was a lot of rubble beyond. There was a narrow space around the rubble and it appeared as though people had been excavating the room. Marxine peeked around the corner and saw a passage through the rubble that lead to some giant-sized stairs that went down into the darkness. The rest of us joined her. Elderron and Elama heard claws skittering on the stone at the bottom of the stairs.

We backed out of the room and closed the doors, securing them with pitons and using Mia’s pot as an alarm again.

The other door just had rubble on the other side, filling the room to the ceiling (or at least above the door) without any sign that anyone had dug in there at all.

We went back to the hole and listened carefully for that scratching, skittering sound and heard nothing.

So we climbed down the hole.

There were two openings out of the room, both of which had some of the drag-marks through them. The openings went into symmetrical rooms. The stone looks like it has been worked, but these rooms are not scaled to giants -- the ceilings aren’t high enough.

Following the left-most path of scrapes in the floor we found our way through a number of rooms laid out so that we were weaving through them in a series of what felt like U-turns, ignoring a few openings/doorways until we found a very large room, though still not giving a sense of being giant-scale (as far as the ceiling height, door height, that sort of thing), with a door at the far end.

The scrapes on the floor didn’t go in that direction, so we continued to follow them into a long narrow room which ultimately opened up into a great big room with a fair amount of metal scrap piled up around on the floor. Marxine and Vinya saw a pattern in the ceiling that indicated that the bright metal bands that had been in the Epiphany Machine (and disappeared from it when it collapsed) could once have been attached to the ceiling of this room.

The walls were worked stone, unpainted and undecorated.

We checked the scrap metal on the floor for any sign of unnatural rusting and found none. On the other hand, the ceiling was extremely weathered or churfed up looking. Unnaturally aged.

We started to hear the sound of skittering, as though lots of things with claws were skittering around.

We turned around to find something skittering up behind us -- it looked like something was erupting from a humanoid body and bringing the body along with it.

We ended with that appearing from one of the unexplored passages we’d ignored in our focus on following the drag-marks.


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## prabe (Sep 2, 2020)

Session 8: Through the Circle


Dramatis Personae:

Aldalómiel - Wood Elf Ranger (Hunter Conclave)
Elama “Lamie” Galanodel- Wood Elf Cleric (Tempest)
Vinya Anar - Wood Elf Monk (Way of the Sun Soul)
Elderon - High Elf Wizard (Loremaster)
Marxine Deepfoot - Dwarf Fighter (Champion)
Mia - Firbolg Druid (Circle of the Land (Forest))

GM - Everyone Else


15 Marroin 749 (Campaign day 16) (immediately after)

We were looking out of the big room with the scrap metal in it down the hall and saw a nasty-looking thing (a star spawn mangler) skittering up behind the hall. We could also hear some grues as well, their gibbering echoing into the room.

The mangler was far enough down the hall that we couldn’t immediately engage them, which was probably for the best.

Mia cast a faerie fire on the mangler, but it was more nimble than it seemed like it should be and avoided the effect. As it was dodging away a bunch of grues (5 of them) boiled out of the doorway behind the mangler. One of them ran up to Aldalomiel, who’d moved up into the  hallway and was dodging, and bit in her general direction.

Elderron shot that one with a firebolt. Lamie cast sacred flame on the mangler, but it again saved against it. Vinya shot a bolt of sunlight from the palm of her hand at the grue on Aldalomiel. Marxine moved forward as far as she could, trying to get into combat.

The mangler slithered and slimed its way to Aldalomiel, unfolded and extruded a lot of bladed tentacles and arms and attacked her many times, missing with all of them -- some because she dodged the blows, some because it was swinging wildly. In return, she attacked the mangler with her two swords, hitting with both of them.

Mia cast a Thunderwave on the mangler and two of the grues -- all of them took some damage from the thunderous noise, and one grue was pushed away from the party.

The grues continued boiling forward, two of them attacking Vinya and one more going to Aldalomiel (since they were furthest forward in the party). Both of the grues hit Vinya.

Elderron shot some magic missiles into the mangler. Elama cast bane on the mangler and two of the grues. Vinya used her quarterstaff and a punch on the grues on her, hitting the one that had been faerie fired.

Marxine chugged past Vinya, putting a healing potion into Vinya’s hand as she went, then attacked the mangler on Aldalomiel. It turned around and attacked her with its six bladed tentacle/arms and hit her a couple of times.

Aldalomiel attacked the mangler with her two swords again and again hit both times doing really a lot of damage. Which softened it up so that when Mia cast another thunderwave, it dropped, collapsing into itself. Two grues were pushed away from us and another one died in the thunder’s roar as well.

The two that were pushed away ran back to Aldalomiel and attacked her, getting a hit. Elderron cast a sleep spell on the 4 remaining grues and the mangler, which we believed to be dead but weren’t totally sure. Two of the grues fell asleep. Elama dropped one of the grues that was still awake and Vinya killed the other one. Then we dispatched summarily the two sleepers.

Vinya drank a healing potion and Elama cast cure wounds on Aldalomiel. We went back to the large room with all the scrap metal and found an exit on the other side of the room symmetrical to the entrance we were in. Aldalomiel, Vinya, and Elderron took a short rest while Marxine and Mia looked around at the room. The stone ceiling of the room looked unnaturally aged and weathered and showed signs of metal bands having been across the ceiling. Those bands were gone. The scrap metal in the room did not appear to be unnaturally aged or aging -- it’s just scrap.

Elderron: How did the metal get here?

The scrape marks on the floor that we’ve been following went through both doorways to this large room and we were not able to tell whether they were marks from the metal being dragged in or out.

After our rest and exploration in the scrap metal room, we left by the other door and explored in that direction. This complex appears to be entirely symmetrical, which struck us all as strange for a chaos-infected place. The whole area had some very old elven-seeming decor -- it was non-representational but something like, but not exactly elven, lines and motifs. Marxine recognized it as not elven, but Fey. There was no furniture -- the only things we’d found in the complex were the pile of rubble (under the hole in the floor we’d come down through) and the scrap metal.

In our explorations we found a door that couldn’t go anywhere but to the scrap metal room, in a place where there was no door in the scrap metal room. Elderron examined the door and found no traps or anything on it, so with most of us standing well back he used his mage hand to open it.

Through the door was a 20’ square room (that would have to be IN the scrap metal room) made from an entirely different kind of stone than where we are.

Vinya threw a rock into the room -- it just landed with an entirely predictable clatter. Then she held onto Marxine’s belt so that Marxine could lean into the room and touch the rocks. They were rocks.

We took ten minutes for Elderron to cast detect magic and he detected potent conjuration magic at the doorway. He figured that this was a gateway or portal. Because of the Fey carvings and decorations on the door, we guess that it would be a portal to the Feywild.

There was no indication that the Cultists of the Hunger Between Worlds were interested at all in this room, so we saved this doorway for later and went to another doorway we’d found and not yet explored while Elderron still had the detect magic going. In all we found three magical doors all radiating powerful conjuration magic (presumably portals to the Feywild), each with different decorations on them. Elderron spotted the name of one of the families of Fey Nobles on one of the doors while he was looking at it, sort of worked into the decorations. With that information we went back to the other two doors and found the names of the other two Fey Noble houses. The three are Tiziano (whose eldest members are The Voice in the Hills and the Irresistible Flow), the Verdis (whose eldest members are the Blossoming Tree and the Enveloping Wind), and the Dantes (whose eldest members are the Unfathomed and the Seething Mountain).

We saved in the back of our mind going through one of the doors -- probably not the Dantes since either of the other seem like they’re probably nicer, based on the information we have.

We decided to finish out this complex by going back up through the hole in the ceiling to the floor above and heading to the giant-sized stairs, where we’d heard skittering noises earlier. As we went we checked and confirmed that the exit back to the amphitheater was still closed (it was).

The stairs were dimly lit (with the same phosphorescent/bioluminescent fungi we’d seen elsewhere in the dungeon) and opened out into a very very large room that looked perhaps like a throne room. We didn’t really get a chance to take in the details, because there were four of the grues and a gibbering mouther in it.

We focused first on the mouther, because it was the bigger threat -- Elderron cast a powerful magic missile at it, Vinya shot three of her sun bolts at it, and Elama cast a shatter spell and drew down the power of the tempest into it to give it maximum damage killing a couple of the grues. Marxine moved into the room and dodged, as did Aldalomiel (who still had her swords in her hands).

The mouther moved closer to us (slowly, slowly) and spit a blinding flash on Marxine and Mia. Mia was blinded by it. (Note: this worked out okay, because her player had to leave early and this left Mia not actively participating in the combat.)

Aldalomiel killed a grue and wound up next to the mouther. Elderron cast burning hands on one grue and the mouther, killing a grue. Vinya used her quarterstaff to take out the mouther and then punched the final grue into oblivion.

Then we were able to look around the room. There was a raised dais/platform at the far end of the room, with a few giant-scale steps leading up to it. There were humanoid-sized doors symmetrically placed on either side of the dais. On the dais was a rubble of broken wood. In the middle of the dais were giant-sized double doors. The room was decorated with frescoes of beautiful giants in the feywild.

We checked out the double doors and, seeing no traps or locks, Elama and Marxine worked together to open them. There was a large room on the other side, with an arch-shape inset on the far wall. The arch wasn’t an opening, just an arch of different stone, giant-height, with four tiles at the top of it and one blank space. There were more tiles on the floor. Elderron cast detect magic and determined that this was also powerful conjuration magic. The art in this room was also of noble giants and noble fey.

Marxine took a look at the tiles on the floor -- they were the size and weight of a dinner plate and had symbols on them. We laid out the ones we had and noticed that they had dwarven letters on them, but the four at the top of the arch didn’t look like they were getting ready to form any word that Marxine recognized.

Mia, recognizing the dwarven letters as the ones used to write giantish, thought maybe this was going to be a word in giantish.

Marxine went back to the previous room and looked at the rubble on the dais. Most of it was the ruins of a throne, but looking at the pieces of the throne she saw no sign of letters or a name.

We decided to explore the two humanoid-sized doors to either side of the dais. They were both the same -- they led to halls with 3 doors on each side and a double door at the end. The doors on the sides led to small rooms with broken and unusable bunk beds (8 to a room). The double door at the end of the hall led to a large, sunken bathing room. The bath had warm and really very unpleasant looking stagnant water in it -- it had been sitting at body temperature for a hundred years or more.

Ick.

So we left the baths, and the bunk rooms, undisturbed and went back to play with the arch and the tiles.

Elderron recognized the letters on the arch as forming part of a word that would be cognate for an old fey name. He found the tile on the floor necessary to make that complete and used his mage hand to put it up in the empty tile slot. Veins in the green marble arch began to glow and the arch filled with green mist.

We watched it slightly nervously for a minute, at which time the mist disappeared and the tile fell to the ground with a clatter (and without breaking).

Elderron cast another mage hand, picked up a tile at random, and put it in the empty slot. There was a low, sustained pinging noise then the tile fell to the ground, but there was no mist or anything.

We decided to take a long rest in the room with the arch. While the others were starting to set up camp, Vinya and Elama went to look for the stairs back out to the amphitheater in the mountains. They figured that it might be possible to un-jam the mechanism to open the door and have access to the stairs out again. They did not do so -- with the dungeon cleared out, it was kind of safe down there. They did go back and report this to the others.

The night passed without incident.


16 Marroin 749 (Campaign day 17)

The next morning, Vinya got Mia to teach her how to pronounce the name we were going to be making (the first one, cognate to the old Fey name) in proper giantish. Then Elderron used his mage hand to put the tile into the slot in the arch and we all walked through the green mist.

We came out of the mist into an identical room -- identical except that the huge double doors were open and broken. The arch had four different letters at the top and an empty slot for a fifth -- but there were no extra tiles on the floor.

So we weren’t going back that way.

The room on the other side of the broken double doors looked more broken up and with more rubble, including stone where apparently some of the passages had collapsed. We could see sunlight coming in through the stairs up. The art wasn’t the same as at the hall we’d left -- but the content (beautiful giants and fey) was basically the same.

We looked down the two side halls (with the bunkrooms and bath rooms) and the halls were caved in entirely.

We went up the stairs toward the light. At the top of the stairs were another pair of broken doors in the back of a cave facing east. We were seeing the sunrise in an unfamiliar location -- the terrain was rocky and hilly and the vegetation was drier and scrubbier than we’d left. It was cold and our breath blew out in clouds - wherever we were, it was still winter. There was a river glittering in the distance.

The curvature of the river suggested to Vinya that perhaps we were in the mountains east of the city Erlin, on the Hochor River. If so, we were perhaps fifteen days from Erlin.

Looking around the cave it appeared that this cave compound had been abandoned a century or centuries earlier.

It was also abundantly clear that there was no way back to where we’d come from. We just had to go forth and start traveling.


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## prabe (Sep 8, 2020)

Session 9: Falaggo, The Walking Man


Dramatis Personae:

Aldalómiel - Wood Elf Ranger (Hunter Conclave)
Elama “Lamie” Galanodel- Wood Elf Cleric (Tempest)
Vinya Anar - Wood Elf Monk (Way of the Sun Soul)
Elderon - High Elf Wizard (Loremaster)
Marxine Deepfoot - Dwarf Fighter (Champion)
Mia - Firbolg Druid (Circle of the Land (Forest))

GM - Everyone Else


16 Marroin 749 (Campaign day 17) (immediately after)

It was early in the day -- we stepped to the mouth of the cave in time to see the sun rising in the east. Off to the north we could see a river, probably the Tulnod River, which runs into the Hochor River around Erlin. The cave we were in had clearly been unoccupied and disused for a long time -- the best guess we could make was that it had been empty for hundreds of years.

As is always a good idea when lost in the wilderness, we headed toward the river, with the plan to follow it downstream to the Hochor. At least then we’d be in a city and be able to figure out what we wanted to do.

Elderron expressed some dismay at the loss of the horses, left behind outside the giant amphitheater. Hopefully someone will come along to take care of White Horse, Comrade, Brown Horse2 and White Horse2.

We headed out of the cave along a fairly wide track, still in giant-scale, that went along the side of the mountain -- steeply up on one side and steeply down on the other (like driving in the mountains). The track had clearly not been used in a long time and had not been maintained. There were some boulders (rockfall from above) and scrubby vegetation fairly thickly in the track, making it difficult terrain. (Fortunately, Aldalómiel was able to guide us all through it.)

After a while we heard voices, multiple voices, arguing up ahead and saw a deep red splash on the road surrounding some sort of heap of mess. That resolved into the body of a mountain sheep surrounded by a large blood stain in the road. There were two giants, each with two heads, having a heated 4-way argument about who got to eat the dead mountain sheep. There was clearly no allegiance or fondness between any of the heads -- it was kind of a war of all against all.

We decided to fight them, because Elderron had heard of these things, ettins, and knew them to be evil. Also, while we thought we were way out in the wilderness far from any outpost of civilization, we could have been wrong and if we were, they would be a danger to people.

We split into two groups -- Vinya, Elama, and Aldalómiel snuck around on the mountain-goes-up side of the track and Marxine, Mia, and Elderron snuck around on the mountain-goes-down side of the track. The ettins were so busy arguing amongst themselves that they didn’t notice us until we had them completely surrounded.

Once we were all in position, with the ettins flanked on both sides, Aldalómiel fired an arrow at them but just missed. Vinya followed up with radiant sunbolts, hitting with two and firing one into a rock in the road. Then she dodged around behind a large rock outcropping. Elderron cast a Mind Spike on one of them, doing it a great deal of mental damage.

Somehow despite all of that, they continued arguing with one another.

Elama cast Shatter right on top of the poor dead sheep, scattering its remains in the blast of thunderous energy and also catching both of the ettins. Mia turned into a black bear and attacked, but not to great effect. (Mia spent the entire combat being disappointed by the black bear form. The war horse was a more impressive combatant.

Marxine, who’d been working on improving her foot speed, was able to rush in and attack the same one that Mia-bear was attacking. Aldalómiel took another shot, since there was no real reason for her to get into melee. Vinya, on the other hand, ran in and attacked one with her quarterstaff and a kick to the kneecap.

Elderron cast what looked like a magic missile spell, but we all saw that the darts were made of flame. Elama ran in with her long sword and Mia-bear attacked again.

Cool!

Eventually, the ettins twigged to the fact that they were under attack and got stopped arguing with one another. One of them got a hit on Elama with its big spiked club. She did her retaliatory strike, but the lightning bolts were really weak and didn’t do much damage. The other ettin got a good hit on Mia-bear -- it didn’t do quite enough damage to knock her back into being a firbolg. But it was close.

Marxine got in a really good hit. Aldalómiel cast hunter’s mark and then took a shot at the other one -- doing a tremendous amount of damage as the arrow went in through one ear, out the other side of that head, then lodged deeply into the other head. It dropped.

Vinya turned her attention to the other one, hitting it with the quarterstaff and a roundhouse kick to the other kneecap. Elderron, a bit away from the combat, moved closer and cast a firebolt on it. Elama hit it with her longsword.

None of that was enough to drop it, which was a pity, because it turned around and hit Marxine with its greataxe.

Fortunately, Mia-bear was there and clawed it to death.

We contemplated the wreck of the mountain-sheep carcass for a moment, trying to determine if there was anything edible there.

Even as a bear, Mia turned her nose up at it.

We continued on our way -- we decided that none of us were badly hurt enough that we needed even a short rest.

After a few more hours of walking, we came around a corner of the mountain and the trail looked across a valley. On the other side of the valley was a cliff that clearly looked like a huge human face.

The trail began to switchback down that side of the mountain, so we got the opportunity to see the face from different angles -- Marxine noticed that from some angles it looked like a carved and weathered face. From other angles, it just looked like weathered stone.

When it looked like a carving, the style was clearly not the same as the Fey/Fomorian art in the cavern complexes we’d been in.

We decided to head in that direction when we got to the valley floor -- it took a few hours but we got to the base of the cliff. From that vantage point there was none of the perspective that allowed the face to be seen -- just uniquely weathered rocks.

We walked around the base of the cliff looking for signs that people had been there. Also looking for a place to make camp because it was getting on toward sunset at that point. Mia found a bit of an overhang under the face -- not a cave but it did provide shelter from the elements. This overhang showed signs of having been used as a campsite before -- previous users had cleaned up well, but there were signs of a fire here and places where the soil had been tramped down. All the signs were old and human-scale, not giant scale. And there was no sign that it had been used as anything more than just a campsite -- there were no signs of ritual activity around.

Mia went out to look for firewood while Aldalómiel hunted for our dinner, then we settled down for a nice evening’s meal and relaxation with the fire. The moon was full, or nearly so, so the night was bright even away from the fire.

As people headed to their bedrolls, while the first watch got themselves settled, someone observed that if there were wolves around the area, at least they wouldn’t mew.

The night began quietly, but early in second watch, Elama, Elderron and Marxine saw a roiling patch of dense ground fog roll up the valley. It didn’t cause much alarm until it rolled into camp.

As the fog boiled around us, we heard all the sounds of war -- dragon roars, screams, giants yelling and making war cries. Those of us who were sleeping (or in trance) jolted awake as the clash of weapons and screams of the dying rang around us.

Then the fog rolled on over and away and the night was quiet again.

Elama, still rattled: And I said I was glad to be away from the creepy stuff.

We looked around and saw that while it had looked like fog, it hadn’t left any moisture behind.

Looking out from our shelter under the overhanging cliff face, we could see the “fog” as an amorphous cloud, about 15’ across, still rolling around the valley, without any aim or purpose.

Aldalómiel, shaken, sensed to see if there were any dragonborn nearby, and sensed none.

While she did that, Elama gave Elderron guidance while he tried to think about whether he’d heard of anything like this before. After a moment of thinking Elderron and Mia both remembered that way way back before the Severance -- longer before the Severance than it was before the now - there was another cataclysm. It either was, or led to, a great war between the Giants and the Dragons. The huge, ferocious battles left marks on the land in the form of this cloud (and other things). We wondered if maybe the presence of the cloud had something to do with the full moon.

It occurred to us that the face in the cliff could have been a giant face.

We eventually went back to resting and the rest of the night passed without incident.


17 Marroin 749 (Campaign day 18)

Leaving our campsite in the morning, we found the trail that the previous campers had taken to get there and followed it down and away toward the river. It was not a very travelled trail -- our best guess was that people maybe used that overhang as a campsite one or two times a year. (So this was somewhere between an actual track and a game trail.) After we headed out the wind began to pick up and pick up and pick up until it was practically howling up the valley, though the sky was clear. It seemed perhaps a bit strange to Aldalómiel and Mia, but not unnatural.

Around noon-ish the track became more clearly an established trail. Shortly after that there were two rock-piles, one on either side of the trail, and some broken rocks across the trail. Marxine figured out that there was once a stone arch, probably human-sized, across the trail here. It collapsed more recently than the Fomorian cave complex was abandoned. Vinya picked up one of the rocks and looked at the under-side of it, where it had been protected from weathering, and saw that there were Elven carvings there. Not words, just Elven decorative motifs.

Once we have a firmer grip on where this place is, Vinya will want to mark it on a map so we can learn more about it. As we walked we talked about where we were -- we figured that we still had about a day’s travel to get to the little river that goes to the Hochor. Once we were at the river, we’d be on a proper road and possibly in more civilized territory.

Over the course of the day, the temperature dropped by a lot (close to 40 degrees) but the wind moderated, so the cold wasn’t blowing right through us. Clearly a cold front had come through.

As the day wore on, the trail began to look like a legitimate trail. Eventually, toward the end of the day we saw some wheel ruts in it. Which seemed a little weird because where would anyone be going in a cart out here? There’s nowhere to go.

Anyway, we eventually found a good place to make camp. Mia and Aldalómiel foraged for food and firewood again, bringing us back supplies to make a good stew and a warm camp. The moon was completely full and bright, lighting the area around us with bright light and stark shadows.

Most of the night passed, until early third watch. Aldalómiel had gone a bit away from camp (still clearly in sight, but far enough away to make it clear that she wanted to be alone). The rest of us saw a tall man, looking more or less human-ish, wearing dark woolen clothing with dark fur trim, heavy boots, and a small rucksack on his back. The boots looked like he’d walked a million miles in them, and the rucksack was so worn that it had practically shaped itself to his body.

He greeted the camp.

Vinya invited him to warm himself at our fire then, once he’d sat down, introduced herself and asked if he’d been traveling in the area long.

Man: I’ve spent a lot of time here, yes. My name is Falaggo

Vinya asked him about the face in the mountains while Mia put the stewpot back on the fire to warm it up for him. We also woke up Elderron and Elama.

He asked us where we’d come from and Vinya said that we’d come out of a cave in the mountains, having gotten there from somewhere else. He named the cave we were in near Tash, Feynon, and the cave we’d just walked out of. Since he clearly knew about the Fomorian caves, Vinya didn’t hesitate to tell him that we’d been after cultists with the Epiphany Machine and hoped to destroy it, but it had disappeared and the trail had lead only to the Fomorian complex near Tash.

Fallago: The Machine is why we kicked them out.

We figured out quickly that Fallago was a Fey and talking about the Fey kicking the Fomori out of the Feywild.

Elderron: Have you found anyone touched by the Machine here?
Falaggo: Not here. My cousin had problems up around Auriqua.
Vinya: How do we destroy the Machine?
Falaggo: I don’t have those secrets. My niece, Nicolana, might keep those.
Elderron: Is there more than one Machine?
Falaggo: No, there is only one, But it can be in more than one place.
Elderron: Where can we find your niece?
Falaggo: Generally, where people hide information.

Somewhere around here in the conversation, Fallago said that he is the Walking Man and we remembered the Elderron had mentioned him when we were talking about the Fey Nobles in the creepy cave complex. He’s maybe a second generation Fey Noble.

He also mentioned another niece who seems to specialize in public knowledge, where Nicolana seems to specialize in hidden information.

Mia: Is there anything you would like to know from us?
Falaggo: You came from Feynon and are going to Erlin. <<looking at Mia>> Erlin won’t know what to make of you. There aren’t really firbolgs in these parts. Sometimes the people of Erlin live up to their reputation for closed-mindedness. But then, sometimes they don’t -- after all, the mayor is a genasi.
Elderron: Are there any bad things around here? Monsters? Things that need killing?

Falaggo didn’t get a chance to answer that, because Aldalómiel, having returned to the camp, started talking to him in Sylvan. She told us later that she was describing someone who has disappeared and asking if he’d seen her.

Falaggo: Wherever she is, she’s not been on the roads where I’ve been. I will keep an eye out, though. If you ever want to find me, camp at a crossroads at the new moon or full moon.
Vinya: We’re not at a crossroads now…
Falaggo: No. But you were out here in the middle of winter. Your people don’t usually do that. I was curious.

Mia gave him a bowl of warm stew and he ate it, then he stood to make his farewells.

Elderron: How many days walk is it to Erlin from here?
Falaggo: Twelve days or so. Come morning, for you it will be six.
Vinya: I hope your travels are safe and pleasurable and that you see many beautiful things.

Then he left.

Elama, after we were sure he’d gone: Even when the Fey are nice, they’re creepy.

The rest of the night passed without incident, though even the people on watch dozed off toward the end of the night..


18 Marroin 749 (Campaign day 19)

The next morning, we woke up at a place where a little rutted trail entered a road along a river. Not at all the same place where we’d made camp.

We believed that this was the Tulnod River and began to walk following the river downstream. This road looked like it got a lot more travel -- it was still dirt, of course, but packed and maintained. The land around us was grassland and sagebrush. Occasionally we saw fences and ranch houses set far back from the road.

As it got close to sunset, we saw a ranch house relatively close to the road. There were cattle in pens and small pastures beyond it. We decided to knock on the door to see if they had any news. And also to ask if they minded us camping on our land.

When we knocked, we were greeted by the rancher. He didn’t have any news of Erlin for us at all, except some vague reference to some adventurers having gone there and there having been chaos. We asked if he had anything that we could help with -- spiders or wolves or monsters bothering his livestock and he didn’t have any particular problems.

He did offer us the use of his bunkhouse for the night, which we accepted gratefully. The bunkhouse was warm and had a wood stove in it and the night passed comfortably and well.


19 Marroin 749 (Campaign day 20)

The next morning, Elderron (at Vinya’s urging) used his prestidigitation cantrip to leave the bunkhouse a little cleaner than we found it. Then we headed out, leaving with a wave to the rancher as he headed out on a horse to tend to his cattle.

The road ran right alongside the river, with trees (like cottonwoods and other river-bottom trees) on the other side.

After a while we saw ahead of us a cart with four horses and some people walking alongside of it. About the time that we saw they were a band of hobgoblin, the wagon (a covered Conestoga-type wagon, as most are that we’ve seen) halted and one of the hobgoblins stepped forward. He made a show of taking his sword and handing it to one of the others next to him, then handing his javelins to another on the other side before walking toward us.

Elama handed her sword to Aldalómiel, then went forward to talk to him.

Lamie: Hail.
Hobgoblin: Hello.
Lamie: Where are you going?
Hobgoblin: We’ve done business in Erlin and are now heading home.

To the extent Elama could see into the cart, she saw nothing but normal cargo, such as they might have picked up on a supply run to the city.

Lamie: Is there anything up the road that we should be cautious of?
Hobgoblin: There’s a circle of standing stones. Don’t camp there -- the Korred are doing their dances. They’re earth fey and we’ve had problems with them before. They don’t like being watched.

Mia moved to one side to let them go by. Vinya moved to the other. Elderron checked out their horses with covetous eyes.

Lamie: Do you often go this way?
Hobgoblin: Every couple or three months.

With that we were all satisfied, even Elderron, and we stood to the side to let them go by. Hobgoblins tend to be evil, but these appeared to be part of the society and economy of the area and were going about blameless business.

We continued on our way. After a few hours, we saw the stone circle the hobgoblin had mentioned about a hundred yards off the side of the road. It was evening, but not yet night and the moon hadn’t risen, so Aldalómiel and Vinya went to look at it. The circle was made of 10’ tall stones, standing (just single standing stones, not trilithons like at Stonehenge). The stones were carved with stylized decorations with a Fey look to them -- trees and weather and stylized animals. We didn’t see any footprints inside the circle, but could see that the ground inside was packed very densely, as though many feet had trodden on it.

Aldalómiel and Vinya went back to the others and we continued on our way for about another hour or hour and a half to get well past the circle. There we made camp and the night passed without incident.


20 Marroin 749 (Campaign day 21)

The next morning, we got back on our way. Not too long after we got started, we were surprised by three vaguely leonine winged things, but with human-like faces, up in the air (3 manticores). When they spotted us they flew close, circling in the air a distance away from us, and let loose with a volley of iron spikes from their massively spiked tails.

Their first volley was at Aldalómiel and Marxine, both of whom were hit for a little bit of damage. Then, while we were still reacting to them being there, they fired again. The second volley they’d gotten the range getter and both Aldalómiel and Marxine were hit pretty hard.

They held their position up in the air, not coming low enough for any of the melee fighters to attack them.

Aldalómiel put her hunter’s mark on one hit it squarely with her longbow for a lot of damage.

Vinya moved toward them, taking a position as close as she could get to underneath one, and took a defensive stance.

Vinya: Come down and get me, you wankers.

Marxine moved to where she could throw one of her handaxes at the one over the grassland (rather than throwing it into the river) but couldn’t get there. So she moved and dashed and got right up underneath it. Then she got her second wind. Elderron cast magic missile on one of them.

Mia cast moonbeam on one of them that was about 15’ up, but out over the river. Elama cast a spiritual weapon on the other one that was out over the river, hitting it with a lightning bolt from spiritual storm cloud, then she too began to dodge.

One of them landed to attack Marxine, bless it, and then missed with all of its attacks. The other two attacked Vinya and Elama from the air and both of them missed because they had started dodging.

Aldalómiel moved off the road into the trees and underbrush, then took a shot at the one that was attacking Marxine, dropping it. 

Vinya moved up as close as possible and used her radiant sunbolts to shoot at the one that had attacked her -- summoning her ki to get more bolts to fire. Marxine moved so that she could throw a hand axe -- aiming at the wing of the one that Vinya had just shot. She hit its wing and did damage, but not quite enough to knock it out of the air. Elderron cast Mind Spike on the same one -- it wobbled in the air but was able to catch itself and stay airborne. Mia moved her moonbeam back onto it.

Elama moved her thundercloud toward the other one, then cast guiding bolt on it, doing damage and leaving it sparkling with an energy that would make it easier to hit.

The one that Vinya, Marxine, Elderron and Mia had been focusing on started to fly away -- moving as fast as it could.

The other one shot tail-spikes at Elama, getting a critical hit. It then began to move away as well, though it looked like it was doing more of a fighting retreat than the pure flight of the other one.

Vinya pulled out her bow and took a shot at the one that Elama had cast guiding bolt on.

Marxine, seeing nothing around in range, went to find her axe. Mia moved the moonbeam closer to the one still fighting, but couldn’t get all the way there.

Mia: There’s a moonbeam coming for you!

Lamie cast a sacred flame at the retreating manticore before both of them flew away. Aldalómiel took a shot, hitting one solidly, but not solidly enough to knock it out of the air.

Lamie: And stay gone!

Aldalómiel got one last shot at the more wounded one and killed it -- we saw it fall out of the sky and plummet to the ground, but the other one got away.

While Mia was checking to see who needed to be healed (Aldalómiel had taken the most damage), Vinya and Elama were searching the bodies (including the one that fell a couple hundred feet from the road). Neither of them had any treasure, but they collected the tail spikes, ultimately harvesting about 30 from the two manticores.

We went back on our way and the rest of the day and the night passed without incident.


21 Marroin 749 (Campaign day 22)

The next morning we headed out on our way again. After a few hours, we noticed that the river and the road were both looking bigger and more travelled. We also saw the occasional cart, but aside from normal greetings, we didn’t interact with them much. We didn’t see much travel in the river -- though there were a few very small boats (like rowboats and canoes) because this river is not navigable for larger vessels than that.

At about mid-day we arrived at an actual settlement -- a small town called Traddons. There was an inn with a tavern, a general stores, etc. Marxine, Aldalómiel, and Elderron went to the general store for a bit of shopping -- picking up arrows and other very general supplies. Elderron, who had never stopped missing the horses (or at least having a ride), asked if there were any in town for sale.

Shopkeeper: No horses for sale. We need them all.

Elderron’s disappointment continues.

Mia, Elama, and Vinya went to the tavern to talk to people and get a sense of what was going on.

Elama: We saw some hobgoblins on the road.
Tavernkeeper: Yeah. They go through a few times a year. They have a village up in the mountains.
Vinya: Do you have any news from Erlin?
Tavernkeeper: Not really. Except that there has been some chaos in town to do with some adventurers that went through recently.
Vinya: Well, we’re not like that.
Tavernkeeper: That’s good.
Vinya and Mia: Are there any problems in town that we can maybe help with? We’ve helped a town with spiders. We’ve protected people from cultists.
Tavernkeeper: No, it’s really quiet around here.

We were slightly disappointed by that answer, but it didn’t stop us from taking a room in the inn and making plans to stay the night.

We stayed in the tavern drinking and relaxing and taking advantage of not being on the road for a change. It had been 11 days since the last time we slept in beds.

The night passed without incident.


22 Marroin 749 (Campaign day 23)

We will begin here next time.


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## prabe (Sep 16, 2020)

Session 10: Sleepy Cow Town

Dramatis Personae:
Aldalómiel - Wood Elf Ranger (Hunter Conclave)
Elama “Lamie” Galanodel- Wood Elf Cleric (Tempest)
Vinya Anar - Wood Elf Monk (Way of the Sun Soul)
Elderon - High Elf Wizard (Loremaster)
Marxine Deepfoot - Dwarf Fighter (Champion)
Mia - Firbolg Druid (Circle of the Land (Forest))

GM - Everyone Else


22 Marroin 749 (Campaign day 23)

We headed out on the road after a nice night’s sleep in the inn in Traddons. We were told when we left that we were two days from Erlin, so we were excited to be heading out despite they grey cold skies and flurries of snow. We were also told that there wouldn’t be another settlement or town. The terrain was open and rolling -- sagebrush and prairie. The kind of landscape people raise cattle in, which is why people raise cattle here.

Shortly before dinner the sky cleared and it got a bit warmer. Mia activated the Staff of Bird Calls to brighten our walk.

We had been informed in Traddons that we were about two days from Erlin and that there wouldn’t be another town on the way.

Our first day’s travel was uneventful and we made camp alongside the road (though not at a crossroads). We were in open terrain, having just come out of some rocky hills. So there weren’t many trees, but there were some rock piles and small outcroppings.

During first watch (Vinya, Elama, and Marxine), Vinya saw three lizard-looking things with six legs (each) coming out of the rocks. They looked like burly iguanas with extra legs -- big heads and strong muscles.

Vinya, very loud: What the hell are those?
Lamie: What? I don’t see anything.

Vinyas shout was, deliberately, loud enough to rouse everyone who was resting.

Aldalómiel, despite having been in trance, stood up first. She put her hunter’s mark on one of them and hit one solidly with an arrow. Elderron followed and cast magic missile on the same one.

Elderron and Marxine recognized these things as basilisks.

Vinya: Are these things we don’t want to look at?
Elderron: Yeah.

They warned everyone about them having a gaze attack. It’s important to avert your gaze when close to them in order to avoid that attack.

Vinya moved closer to it and fired off some radiant sun bolts from her hands, taking advantage of being at too great a distance for its gaze to affect her. After the basilisks moved closer, but not close enough to attack, Elama backed up and missed with a guiding bolt.

Mia stood up and, keeping her eyes on their feet, placed a flaming sphere between two of them. Then she hit one of them with the flaming sphere. Elderron fired magic missiles at the same one he’d hit before. It dropped. Unfortunately, Aldalómiel and Marxine both missed. Vinya, with her eyes averted, made her way gingerly around the flaming sphere to attack a different one. She missed with her quarterstaff (as usual) but hit with her kick.

The basilisks, being of animal intelligence, moved away from the hurty fire -- one toward Marxine and one toward Vinya. The one that attacked Vinya hit her and poisoned her. She warned people that they hit hard.

Elama cast a spiritual weapon, but the lightning bolt missed one. Her sacred flame hit, however. Mia hit one with the flaming sphere. Aldalómiel moved off to the side to get a better shot, then used her ability as a sharpshooter to hit one of them for a whole lot of damage. Awesome!! Elderron kept his gaze down and, following Mia’s lead to watch their feet, found a good line to cast Aganazzar’s Scorcher on two of them, dropping one. Unfortunately, he had to get right up on the other one to do so.

Vinya, moving carefully watching their feet and avoiding the flaming sphere, found herself in a position to take advantage of the distraction that Elderron was causing and hit it twice. It tried to move away from the flaming sphere, but doing so allowed Vinya to take an opportunity attack -- she dropped it with that.

Marxine: What a naughty word show!

Elama started butchering the three basilisks for their venom glands. The first two went just fine. Marxine noticed what she was doing with the third one.

Marxine: Maybe I should do that.

As she said that, Elama punctured the venom gland on the third one and got sprayed in the face with poison, taking some damage.

After that, the rest of the night passed without incident.


23 Marroin 749 (Campaign day 24)

We woke the next morning to Mia’s staff of bird calls used as an alarm. The day was gray and unseasonably warm.

Marxine: Good morning, poisoned friends!

Fortunately, Vinya and Elama felt much better in the morning.

Around midday, after an uneventful morning of travel, the road took a little hitch to the left just before the bank of a small stream. The bridge was about 20 feet from the normal line of the road. We could see the remains of the old bridge (in line with the road) that had been washed out. On the other side of the river, the road over the new bridge connected up with the regular road.

As we were looking at all of this, Mia saw crystals in the opposite river bank -- they emerged when one of us took a step, then faded back into the earth of the river bank. Every time we put a foot down, a crystal (or a few) surfaced, then as we stood still they sank back away. They were clear and about the size of a hand. Marxine looked down to check the bank on our side of the river and saw nothing.

Vinya, to Elderron: Could you use your mage hand to try and grab one?

Elderron cast mage hand and Vinya stomped on the ground to bring one to the surface. When the spectral, magic hand grabbed the crystal, it began to sink back into the earth, dragging the hand with it. The hand let go.

Both the currently functional bridge and the washout of the old bridge look new, but we can’t tell if the washout had anything to do with the crystals in the riverbank.

Vinya and Elama crossed the new bridge. From the other side of the creek, they couldn’t see any crystals near where the rest of the party was standing, even when they stomped their feet.

Elama cast an augury spell to ask what would be the result of picking up one of the crystals and holding onto it. The answer she received was “weal AND woe”.

Elama: Both good and bad. So we’ll leave it alone.

We continued on the way.

The rest of the day passed without anything of note happening until, toward the end of the day, we began to see a city with a wall around it. We could see a high place, like a promontory of rock, rising up in the middle of the city, like a bluff. The walls were made of stone and wood -- different sections in different materials. There was a bridge, Gate Bridge, that went over the Tulnod River -- we could see that the bridge was made to be readily collapsible, turning the river into a moat, if the city was attacked. The other end of the bridge was at the wall and a gate into the city.

There were some guards on the bridge -- they came to greet us as we crossed the bridge. But we noted that they didn’t close the gate behind them.

Vinya Hello. Do we need to do anything to enter your city, except enter?
Guard: Are you adventurers?
Vinya: Well, we like to help people and take care of problems. So yeah, I guess.
Elama: We want a room, and beds, and some ruckus.
Vinya: No. No ruckus. We help people. We’ve been on the road a long time.
Guard: Okay. Don’t cause any problems.
Elderron: We heard about some adventurers. What did they do?
Guard: The less said about them the better. Just don’t cause any problems.
Vinya: We’ve never been here before -- can you recommend an inn for us?
Guard: Maybe Garlin’s in the Het’s Ell neighborhood.
Vinya: Is there anything like a job board -- where people put up requests for assistance. Maybe the guard has something?
Guard: If you ask at the guard house, they sometimes have work for people.

We entered the city.

Mia: Did we come here for a reason, or just because it was here?
Lamie: We couldn’t go back.

As we walked through the streets of Erlin, right after sunset, we noticed that some of the businesses were still open, but many of them were already closing down. It appeared that to a great extent Erlin rolls up the sidewalks at sundown.

We decided we’d stay for at least a few days, shopping and resting.

We made our way to Garlin’s, where we met Garlin, the proprietor -- a short, skinny, 60ish year old human male. Vinya asked for three rooms, kinda together. We paid for two nights. We asked after an open air market -- he told us that there wasn’t anything like that. However he recommended Therri’s as a shop that sells magic items -- she opens early. Very early.

Elderron: Have there been problems with Hobgoblins in town?
Garlin: No. There are some that live up the Tulnod.
Vinya: Do you need any help with anything? What about elsewhere in town -- where to people who need help go to find people who can help them?
Garlin: I don’t know.
Elderron: Is there a local militia?
Garlin: There’s the guard. Captain Althorn has occasionally hired people from outside, but he may not be inclined to do so right now.
Vinya: Do you know anything about those crystals in the river bank a few miles up the Tulnod?
Garlin: There’s a sage in Sunlit, named Jamil, who might be able to help you with this. If he can’t help, maybe some of the merchants who trade in that direction might know something.
Mia: Is there an armorer in town who’s good with leather?
Garlin: There are some leather workers in the neighborhood or maybe in Orlitton.

There wasn’t a restaurant attached to the inn, so Garliin referred us to a nearby restaurant for dinner. We rested and relaxed there. There was a bard playing, but he wasn’t very good.

Aldalómiel left on her own after dinner to find a green space -- in the Sunlit neighborhood -- to do her private musings and meditations.

The rest of us at the restaurant did not get raucous.

After dinner, we went for a walk, with Mia in the form of a dog with floppy ears, so she wouldn’t attract attention. The evening was warm and getting warmer, but nothing about the weather seemed unnatural -- just a warm fall evening.

We made our way wending through the city to get back to Garlin’s, where we met up with Aldalómiel. There we rested for the night.


24 Marroin 749 (Campaign day 25)

The next morning we got up for an early breakfast, then we headed out.

Our first stop was Therri’s -- the magic items shop. It was a little shop, not much bigger than a closet. Therri herself was a really small gnome.

Mia (in her natural form): Hi.

Therri pulled out a ladder and climbed up so she was at eye level with Mia.

Therri: Hi! How can I help you?

Mia asked after armor, but there was nothing like that in the shop.

Mia: Some of the people in my party want a bag of holding.
Therri: Everyone wants a bag of holding.
Mia: What do you have?
Therri, looking Mia over: You don’t seem like the sort to think a good offense is the best defense.
Vinya, perking up at that: Oh?
Therri, looking Vinya over: You don’t seem like the sort to use an axe.
Marxine, perking up: What’s that?

Therri pulled out a battle axe -- smaller than Marxine’s usual greataxe, but magical, on sale for 200 gold. Marxine said she’d think about it.

Marxine: How do you get these things?
Therri: People want to sell things, sometimes.

Mia asked how much Therri would pay for the Staff of Bird Calls. She said she’d pay 75 gold for it. Mia declined the offer.

We asked Therri about the crystals in the river bank.

Therri: You didn’t try to grab one?
Vinya: Elderron tried with a mage hand…
Therri: That’s the safest way to do it.
Vinay: Do people get sucked in?
Therri: If they don’t let go in time, yes.

Vinya then asked about interesting things to see and do in Erlin.

Therri: This really isn’t an interesting town.

Marxine asked when she’d be open, if she decided to get that axe after all. Therri said she opened before most people had breakfast and closed before dinner.

We left and walked around until Mia found a leatherworker. She was looking for studded leather armor in her size. Or possibly getting her own leather armor studded up. She found a shop with a set in her size, so she sold her old armor and got the new. While we were there, Elderron went to a nearby gem shop. He met us at the armor shop before we left.

After that we went to Sunlit to find the sage Jamil. We had to ask around a bit to find him, but eventually we did.

Jamil was a 40ish year old human male with frizzy hair going out in all directions. At that we realized that most of the people in the city were human. (Which is true of most cities on Urnod.)

Elderron talked to him about being a student of wizardry in Pelsoreen, then we offered to take him out to lunch at a place of his choice. He led us to a restaurant advertising Mahassari cuisine. Elderron and Vinya had both had Mahassari food in the past, and knew it was both delicious and fiery.

Vinya: I’ve had this. It’s fantastic.

Jamil ordered his dish “as the chef makes it for himself”.

Vinya, to the others: Don’t do that. Get mild.

Most of them followed her advice, except Elama, who also ordered it as the chef makes it for himself.

When the food was delivered to our table, Lamie took a bite and broke into a cold sweat.

Vinya pushed the plain rice in her direction and advised against trying to wash it down with water or ale.

Elama: I’m experiencing something new! It tastes like burning!

Elderron asked Jamil if he’d heard of any trouble with cultists of the Hunger Between Worlds.

Jamil: The Servants of the Hunger. Not around here.
Mia: Have you heard about this Machine thing? We’re concerned about how it disappeared.
Jamil: It’s done this before. It appears and disappears.
Mia: Is it possible to get rid of it permanently?
Jamil: It is probable that it can be destroyed, but I don’t know how.
Mia: How can we find it?
Jamil: I don’t know.
Mia: Is it being controlled? Is it sentient?
Jamil: Some people think the Hunger is not sentient or aware. Other people think it is but on a scale so big it doesn’t even notice us.
Mia: It may not know it’s hurting us, then.
Jamil: Some people are able to get power from it and not go insane. But they always have that voice whispering.

Jamil knew about the Fomori cave in the mountains, but he didn’t know that the teleportation circle still worked.

Vinya: What about that big face on the cliff? And the fog in the valley?
Jamil: The face is called Annam’s Face. Annam was the chief god of the Giants, well before the Severance. The fog...well, all I can say is that the world remembers.
Vinya: What about the collapsed stone arch over the path on the way into that valley.
Jamil: I’m not familiar with that.
Vinya: It had elven carvings on it.
Jamil: It might have been a portal to the Feywild, but I’m really not familiar with it.

When asked about the crystals in the riverbank, he told us that the boundaries between the planes are really thin on Erkonin. That spot in the riverbank is a place where the boundary to the elemental plane of Earth is very thin. Not a portal, exactly, though he believes that if you hold onto one of the crystals as it drags you into the riverbank you’ll get dragged into the plane of Earth.

Mia: We’ve been trying to help people, since we have talents and skills other people don’t. Is there any way we can help the people of Erlin?
Jamil: I haven’t heard of anything, but I wouldn’t know. Maybe to talk to Captain Althorn at the guard. He sometimes gives jobs to outsiders if there’s anything that seems appropriate for them.
Elderron: Are there any ruins nearby that would be worth studying?
Vinya: Yeah, I’d like that.
Jamil: Not in the city, except in Promontory.
Marxine: Why are they so exclusive? Why keep people out?
Jamil: It’s small and hard to build in these days.
Marxine: Yeah. But why keep people out?
Elderron: What’s the structure here, politically and socially?
Jamil: …
Marxine: There’s a pretty stark class system.
Jamil: There’s a mayor, elected every four years.
Marxine: But if the mayor is in Promontory, where people can’t go…
Vinya: If a regular person wanted to talk to the mayor, how would they do that?
Jamil: There’s an office in Het’s Ell. The mayor is there every other day. Also, people can vouch someone into Promontory if they have business there.
Elama: So it’s mostly just getting through red tape to get in there.
Vinya: Have you heard anything about cultists of Zariel?
Jamil: I heard about a problem in New Arvai.
Vinya: Yeah. They scattered to make new cultists.
Jamil: Or die.
Vinya: That’s the optimistic view.
Aldalómiel: What about followers of Sonatis?
Jamil: The Blue Death sticks to the Scoured Hills.
Vinya: The Blue Death?
Aldalómiel: He’s an adult blue dragon.
Jamil: I know him as an ancient dragon. I need to do research. He was up in the expanding badlands up to the east -- north of Mahassar.
Elderron: Are there magic shops in town?
Jamil: Therri is the most likely to have stuff people are willing to sell. Anything else will have more of a black market element.

As we talked it became clear that Erlin is not a place where people typically come looking for adventure.

Elama: It’s more of a passing through place?
Jamil: Even the cattle pass through.
Vinya: Do you know of any Elven ruins from before the Severance?
Jamil: Not on Urnod.

After lunch with Jamil, we headed to the guard house in River Gate, looking for Captain Althorn.

Captain Tarlin Althorn is about 30, athletic-looking, and human. He was in an office in the guardhouse. We made it clear that we wanted to talk to him and he took us to a conference room. We offered our services to help the city. Mia particularly offered her help with healing people who might need it. He gave more vague rumblings about the previous group in town -- something about them showing up looking for fire elementals and finding them.

Vinya: We’re not like that. We just want to help.
Elderron: Is there someone in charge of the stockyards and the granaries?
Captain Althorn: Sure. There are ostlers in the stockyards and people running the granaries.

Captain Althorn didn’t have any work for us at that time.

Vinya: Well, damn, y’all.
Captain: We’ve been sacked, but it’s been a while. The Hobgoblins in the hills haven’t always been so civilized. They used to be warlike.
Vinya: What changed?
Captain: One group suffered a violent decapitation. Maybe a group of elves found them and backtracked them.

We told the Captain where we were staying and told him he could reach us there.

As we walked back to Garlin’s we talked about our next moves.

Mia: How long until spring?

We talked about planting ourselves and staying in Erlin for the winter. We also talked about taking a boat down the river to New Arvai, which might be more interesting to overwinter in. Mia asked Garlin and he confirmed that boats are going down river all winter. The river up in Embernook is probably frozen though, so it would be more difficult to get there.

We decided that we would probably go to Lonoj or maybe New Arvai, but decided to wait for a couple of days, since we’d just offered our services to Captain Althorn.

Elderron: We could go to the stockyard and ask if any of the ranchers around are having problems.

Since it was getting on toward sunset, we decided that all of that could wait until morning.

We went back to the restaurant that Garland had recommended, then found a bar that was a little livelier. There was a good bar with a good bard. Vinya and Mia danced.

After some drinking and dancing, we went back to the inn and the night passed.


25 Marroin 749 (Campaign day 26)

The morning passed with no word from the guard. After breakfast, waffles and danishes, we went down to the docks to book passage for the 10 to 12 day journey to Lonoj.

We had a choice between two boats -- a passenger boat would cost us 4 gold per person per day. So 40 to 48 gold per person. Working as crew on a cargo boat would only cost each of us five gold for the whole trip.

Elderron asked if there was a boat with a passenger cabin that would accept some of the party as workers and him as a passenger. We found one that met that criterion.

Marxine: Paying for the privilege of working for the merchant class…

We decided to stay in town for two more days and booked our passage to Lonoj, the next city down the river. We figured we could see if Lonoj was livelier than Erlin.

Elderron went to the market. Mia found a very small druidic circle to hang out with. Vinya went to tell Captain Althorn that we were leaving in two days. Then she found a dojo and spent time training and sparring.

The day passed and we met up at Garlin’s in the evening.

In the middle of the night there was a loud cop-knock on the on door of one of our rooms. It was loud enough that it carried to the other rooms and we were all woken up.

Vinya: Helllo.
Mia: Who is it?
Captain: The city is not on fire. But get dressed and come down to the guard house. We have something for you.

We got geared up and headed to the guardhouse. (Marxine was not in her armor, because Althorn made it clear we shouldn’t take that much time to get down there.)

At the guardhouse, Althorn was there in the meeting room with two teenage boys who looked like they’d been traveling and running for a while. Which was accurate -- it turns out that they’d been running for at least six or seven days. There are gnolls coming from the south -- they raided the boys’ village and the boys got away.

He wanted us to scout the situation -- find out how many there are and how far away they are. He gave us a sheet of dragon paper, which Elderron recognized, to get a message back when we had information.

If we don’t find them in 10 days, we are to use the dragon paper to let him know and then return to Erlin.

The boys reported seeing more than 40 of the gnolls, along with a whole lot of hyenas and some walking mouths, but we don’t know the full strength of the force or where they are. Or what those walking mouths are.

We’ll be paid 2 gold pieces each per day and were given 20 gold each as an advance.

We talked to the kids -- they said they’d been running for at least six days. Part of that was overland, part of it on roads. Mostly at first they were just running away. They looked terrified. And also clearly suspected that their families were dead and their town razed.

Marxine: Can we get some horses to ride to get us there faster? As equipment?
Althorn: Yes, but we need them back.

When we spot the gnolls, we are to put the location and numbers and any information that might be useful to the guard on the dragon paper and send it back to Captain Althorn.


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## prabe (Sep 22, 2020)

Session 11: We Found Some Gnolls

Dramatis Personae:

Aldalómiel - Wood Elf Ranger (Hunter Conclave)
Elama “Lamie” Galanodel- Wood Elf Cleric (Tempest)
Vinya Anar - Wood Elf Monk (Way of the Sun Soul)
Elderon - High Elf Wizard (Loremaster)
Marxine Deepfoot - Dwarf Fighter (Champion)
Mia - Firbolg Druid (Circle of the Land (Forest))

GM - Everyone Else


26 Marroin 749 (Campaign day 27)

We headed out from Erlin very early in the morning. The kids that had fled to the city to warn them of the gnolls had traveled six or seven days on the road and a day or two (or maybe more -- they were in a panic and not paying attention) off-road. They had been able to tell us where we should leave the road, so we knew what landmarks to be looking for.

As we rode along on the loaner horses from the guard, we talked about what we collectively knew about gnolls. In addition to the very common knowledge (they often travel with hyenas and there are multiple different kinds of them) - Elderron was able to tell us that because they are, literally, demon-spawn, they generate weird effects in the area around them. The effects vary but include roaming packs of hyenas, unnatural spoilage of food, freaked out animals, strange human behavior, etc. Gnolls are destroyers -- they leave behind a swath of destruction. They don’t loot or pillage, they simply kill and destroy.

We made camp after an uneventful day of traveling. As we were choosing a spot for our camp in a large grassy area with a stand of trees in the distance, we noticed that the stand of trees looked like giant skeletons, swaying in the wind.

Vinya, Elderron, and Mia went to look at the giant skeletons, while Aldalomiel, Marxine and Lamie stayed to set up camp.

As we got closer we could see that the trees were really birch trees -- deciduous, so their leaves had fallen by mid-winter. Elderron didn’t get the sense that they were magical or that there could be a magical effect that would do this. Vinya broke off a twig. Mia had never seen birch trees that looked like this and was suspicious.

But after a bit, we realized that there was nothing here but weird looking birch trees. So we went back to where the party was camping -- cold and dark because we were actually out looking for an enemy army and wanted to break camp early in the morning.

The night passed without incident.


27 Marroin 749 (Campaign day 28)

We broke camp really early to head out quickly. The first half of the day passed without any incident at all - the road paralleled the river (more or less) and it was all quiet.

About lunch time the road went through a gulch with cliff faces on either side of it. At one point, on opposite sides, we could see carved faces on the walls of the cliff. These were not like Annam’s Face (the giant face in the cliff we saw when we first emerged from the Fomori cavern system in this part of Urnod) -- Annam’s face is a natural feature that just looks like a giant face and took on religious significance (in deep history) because of that. These are really detailed carved faces, a la Mt. Rushmore. One of them had its mouth open and was yelling. The other had its face turned slightly away and its mouth closed. The faces were different -- clearly these were representations of different people. The faces were incredibly lifelike. Their eyes were open and they were looking at each other, but there was no indication of superiority or rank between them. Marxine got the sense that these were really old carvings.

At the same time, we heard a really low-pitched sound in the air -- so low we were feeling it more than we were seeing it and it was hard to localize the source of the sound.

We also saw some fortifications at the tops of the cliffs.

Vinya rode a few steps forward and said “Hello” in all the languages she knows (Common, Elvish, and Celestial). Everyone else in the party followed suit. There was no response from the faces.

We were on the main road from Erlin to Lonoj (and then on to New Arvai, one of the biggest cities on Urnod) and there is a fair amount of traffic along it. If there were any danger or threat in this, people would know (and the road would be somewhere else). Particularly because we were only a day and a half from Erlin.

We continued on our way and the rest of the day passed without incident.

We made camp out in the open, so we could see any enemies coming toward us. The night was dark -- the new moon is only a few nights away and there was little light in the sky.

The night passed.


28 Marroin 749 (Campaign day 29)

The morning dawned a bit warmer, but dry. This was an almost springlike day, but overcast. We proceeded through a stretch of trees and dense forest. Just off the road in the middle of this dense forest was a bare patch about half an acre in size -- in the middle of that patch was something grey and large. We stopped to take a look.

The large grey thing was a gargantuan statue of a winged lizard frozen in position. The bare patch was completely bare -- not even a bit of grass or the smallest start of the forest encroaching on it. The edges of the patch were very crisp and clear -- abrupt even -- and there was nothing inside it except bare earth and the statue. The statue was shockingly realistic -- or it was originally. It now showed signs of long-term weathering and rain but it was clearly of an ancient dragon. It appeared that an ancient dragon got turned to stone during the Giant-Dragon War.

Mia couldn’t get a good handle on what was keeping the ground barren but it was utterly so -- the earth itself was hard, ossified, with a texture like sandstone, though the statue looked more like granite.

Vinya climbed up the statue to see if it let her see above the trees, but it wasn’t tall enough. So Elderron sent Oda up above the trees looking for any sign of the gnolls. He didn’t see anything.

We resumed proceeding and the rest of the day passed. We made camp in the open after the forest thinned out -- dark and cold -- and the night passed as well.


29 Marroin 749 (Campaign day 30)

We broke camp on a cold and drizzly morning. Oda flew around to take a look while we were doing so. Mia was with the horses getting them ready and the rest of us were rolling up bedrolls.

Elderron, Elama and Aldalomiel felt the ground moving and a horrible, beaked thing, a bulette, came up out of the ground on the other side of the horses. Its giant beak snapped closed, but it didn’t manage to catch or hurt the horse it was near.

Aldalomiel took a shot at it, bouncing an arrow off the thick armor between its eyes. Elama cast a guiding bolt right in its face to try and scare it away -- hitting it and setting it to sparkling and glowing. That made it easier for Elderron to hit with his chromatic orb, which he had doing acid damage. Nice.

The horses, not being stupid, scattered -- the one next to the bulette dodged away and didn’t get eaten by the monster as it fled. Four went in one direction and two in another.

Without a horse to try and eat, the bulette attacked Mia and hit her, hard. Aldalomiel did a sharpshooter shot at it, hitting for a whole lot of damage. Marxine rushed up and attacked with the new battleaxe she’d picked up in Erlin but just missed with both her main attack and her action surge.

Marxine: I’m here to be bitten.

Elama, watching Marxine’s blows bounce off the thick armor, cast bless on Aldalomiel, Vinya and Marxine.

Vinya attacked and missed with her quarterstaff, but got in a good kick at it. Elderron hit it with a higher level magic missile.

Mia moved around so that she and Vinya were flanking it, then hit it with her shillelagh. In doing so, she was hoping to be behind it and not its target.

Unfortunately, it tracked her as she moved and it attacked her again, dropping her with a huge bite from its beak.

Aldalomiel took another shot at it -- getting a critical hit with an arrow to the eye that dropped it mere moments after it dropped Mia. The arrow went through the eye and well into the brain box.

Elama rushed over and performed CPR on Mia by casting healing word on her.

While Elama was helping Mia to her feet, the rest of us rounded up the horses. Fortunately they were well-trained guard horses and hadn’t stayed panicked for long.

Mia, Elderron and Marxine rested for an hour while Vinya, Elama and Aldalomiel soothed the horses and broke camp. Then we headed out on our way.

The day passed.

In the evening, we made camp. As we were setting up, we saw something the size of a small hill floating toward us from the east about 150 feet above the ground. It was once a hill with a human-scale tower on top, but now it was uprooted from the ground and floating upside down, so the tower pointed toward the ground. The tower was broken. It was floating in a sort of random walk, but was not drifting entirely randomly or blowing with the wind.

Elderron sent Oda up to take a look at it and report back. Oda’s report conveyed that there were no floors in the tower -- it looked like it had been hundreds of years abandoned. It wasn’t clear whether it had been broken before or after it began floating upside down. The top side of the hill (what would have been the bottom when it was right-side up) looked like earth that has been ripped out of the ground. There was no sign of vegetation or life on that patch of floating earth.

Marxine: This is some wizard naughty word.

Elderron and Mia agreed -- both of them had heard about wizards floating towers using some sort of high ritual magic. Clearly something had gone wrong with the ritual, which was why it was upside-down.

Elderron: I want to go up there.
Vinya: Me too! How do we get there?

We all wanted to get up to the floating tower, except Marxine who thought it was irritatingly whimsical, but we couldn’t figure out how to get up to it. The floating island moved out of sight while we talked about it.

The night passed without incident.


30 Marroin 749 (Campaign day 31)

The next day we woke to a much colder day with snow falling. As the snow accumulated on the ground it was red.

Marxine: That’s gnoll naughty word.

Oda went up to look ahead. He saw a semi-fortified ranch about a half a day south of us, with cattle inside the walled fortification. On the very distant horizon, he saw a wisp of smoke.

We mounted up and rode hard and fast to the ranch, getting there in a couple of hours, rather than half a day. We saw a group of people on horseback moving cattle toward the fortification. We rode up to them fast, waving our arms and yelling about gnolls.

As we rode close, we saw a couple of people with crossbows on top of the wall.

We told the people on horses, most of them human though there was a half-orc and the group was led by a tiefling, that an army of gnolls was coming and they should probably get out of their way.

Tiefling: Mr. Alzey probably won’t want to leave.

They took us with them to the ranch. Once there, Elderron sent Oda up to look again to see if the gnoll army had moved in our direction since this morning. The rancher, Alzey Telsom, pointed out that armies don’t move all that quickly, not even ravaging armies. They were probably two days or more away and it would probably take us about a day to get to them.

Marxine, to the rancher: Do you know of anything between here and there?
Mr. Alzey: Our neighbors, if you like. They’re in a less defended settlement. No walls.
Elderron: They’re two days away?
Mr. Alzey: If you ride as hard as you were when you arrived here, it’d be about a day. If you’re coming back we can give you fresh horses. [looking at Mia] We even have one that will do for you.

We accepted their offer of fresh horses and headed out, riding as fast as the horses could manage. As we got closer the smoke in the sky got clearer and nearer. We also noticed that the snow fell looking like normal when it first landed but it lay on the ground bright scarlet, then it crusted over with a red-black like a scab.

As we got close, just after sunset, we stopped and tied up the horses. We talked about what we need to know for Captain Althorn in Erlin -- he wanted to know numbers, location, armor and arms, movement direction, etc.

We decided that Mia (in the form of a hyena), Vinya (with invisibility cast on her), Elderron (with Oda in the air), and Aldalomiel would go sneaking to scout the camp and get the informaiton. Elama and Marxine stayed with the horses and made a base camp, basically by sitting down and declaring the space “base camp” and making it a space Aldalomiel could lead us back to. Elama climbed into a tree. Marxine did not.

Many of the people in the stealth party stepped on twigs or immediately found a patch of dry leaves and rustled through it. Mia, with hyena senses, realized that the gnolls’ hyenas smelled like smoke and human blood and she did not. She sat down. Aldalomiel and Elderron realized they were not being quiet and sat down with her.

Vinya, invisible, was more sneaky and she went into the camp and got a good look. She counted a total of 24 hyenas, 38 gnolls, 6 human-sized walking mouths (the description the boys in Erlin gave was very accurate) with 4 legs, 4 arms and a mouth that opens vertically downward.

There was no sign of human life remaining in the settlement. The gnolls were milling about burning things and eating what they found. As she watched, Vinya saw that there were some smaller groups within the larger assembly that seemed to stick together.

She figured out there were four groups -- the main body of the army and three splinter groups. None of those groups were patrolling at this time, but if they were to send out an advance band, it would probably be one of the splinter groups. Of course, it occurred to her that there might be an advance band on the move already. Some of the gnolls were surrounded by packs of hyenas. There did appear to be some leader-types. One appeared to be in charge of each of the smaller groups and one who was in charge of the whole army, who appeared to be in charge because he was bigger and tougher looking.

They had no siege engines or complicated weapons -- they were armed with spears and poorly-made longbows. There was no sign of magic, except the maw things.

They had clearly thoroughly sacked and destroyed the ranch and were probably going to be moving on before too long. Gnolls don’t loot -- they kill and destroy and burn. If there was any treasure in this ranch it would still be in the ranch when they leave.

Vinya circled the ranch -- it was clear that they’d come from the south and were heading north. They would get to Mr. Alzey’s ranch first and then Erlin a few days after that.

She went back to where Mia, Aldalomiel and Elderron had stopped and tapped Aldalomiel on the shoulder.

Vinya: Let’s go back.

Back with the others we discussed the situation. It appeared that the smaller advance bands would leave first, heading off on different tracks heading in the same direction. If one of the advance bands found something, they’d make a lot of noise and get a lot of attention, then the other advance bands and the main body would follow.

We talked some about what we knew of gnolls, based on general knowledge we’d gained in our lives. There are some special gnolls, the ones accompanied by hyenas -- if those gnolls kill someone and the hyenas eat what they kill, the hyenas will then become gnolls. This is how they reproduce. Vinya had seen four of those gnolls with the hyena packs around them. She’d also seen several that looked really scarily fast and some that looked like they might be stealthier or sneakier than others.

It appeared that each of the advance squads included 8 gnolls, 1 demon, and 4 hyenas. Of the 8 gnolls, one was a speedy gnoll, one was a sneaky gnoll, and one was a brawny breeder gnoll.

We also had heard that everything eaten by the Maw Demons, the proper name for the walking mouths, winds out in the gullet of Yeenoghu, the demon behind, and empowering, gnolls.

We sent the information we had on the dragon paper back to Captain Althorn -- including numbers of the whole band and the various special kinds we’d seen, the structure of the army as far as the advance bands (and the composition of the advance bands). We also included that Mr. Alzey Telsom’s ranch was in their direct line of march toward Erlin and was probably going to be their next target in a day or so. We said that we were going to be at Alzey’s ranch, but if they needed us to be elsewhere, including back in Erlin, they could let us know and we’d go where told.

After sending the dragon paper on its way, we rode as hard and as fast as the horses could manage through the night back to the ranch. We got back in the morning to find that all of the cattle had been brought into the fortified compound.


1 Blizzarin 749 (Campaign day 32)

We talked with Mr. Alzey about the defense of the ranch. He said they’d have ten people on the walls with crossbows, who would then fight if the gnolls got into the enclosure. There was also Mr. Alzey, his wife, and their grown son.

Elderron: How many people were at that other place?
Mr. Alzey: There were more people, but they didn’t have walls.
Elderron: Oh.

We talked with Mr. Alzey and some of the ranch hands about whether we could find a pressure point to ambush them before they got to the walls of the ranch -- at least in part because Marxine and Vinya wouldn’t be at their most effective fighting from the top of the walls.

After some discussion, three of the hands agreed to come with us to provide fire support. But they were not going to stand and fight. If things got ugly or turned against us they were going to return to the ranch as quickly as possible. The hands knew of a place between Mr. Alzey’s and the destroyed ranch with cover and a choke point so we could set up an ambush. It even provided places where the least stealthy among us could find cover.

They led us to a gulch two miles from the ranch -- about 20 minutes to half an hour, depending on how fast we moved. The ranch hands set themselves up on a bluff about 30 feet up -- it was not an unclimbable cliff -- an athletic person with a move and a dash could get up from the base, but it gave them a good vantage point and that would give them a chance to get away if someone started heading in their direction.

The party took up positions in the brush on either side of the gulch. Vinya and Elama were on the same side the ranch hands were shooting from. Elderron, Mia and Aldalomiel were on the other side. Marxine was in a patch of brush a little closer to the direction they were going to be coming from.

After a while the gnolls arrived -- there was a big, sharp-toothed guy with four hyenas around him (a breeder gnoll), a maw demon, a speedy gnoll, a sneaky gnoll and five regular gnolls. They were absolutely not expecting an ambush, so we had them surprised for a few seconds.

Aldalomiel, from cover, took a shot at the breeder gnoll and got a good hit to kick things off. Elama moved out of the brush and got behind some rocks then dropped a shatter spell on top of the breeder and the four hyenas, killing the four hyenas immediately. The ranch hands on the top of the gulch focused their fire on the breeder, seeing where the party was attacking, and each of them hit, dropping it.

Huzzah!

Mia cast plant growth on all the remaining gnolls, and the plants around and under them got hard and spiky, making difficult and damaging terrain around them. Vinya moved across the gulch and into the brush on the other side. Marxine moved out to the edge of the spike growth and dodged, waiting for one of them to cross the spike growth and come to her. Elderron cast a web spell on some of those in the plant growth -- to space out when they could come in our direction.

Aldalomiel took a shot at the sneaky gnoll from her position in cover. Elama cast her spiritual weapon next to the same one and shot a lightning bolt out of the storm cloud, but it missed. She then hit it with a sacred flame. The crossbowmen again followed Aldalomiel and Elama’s lead and shot at the sneaky gnoll. Only one hit, but that shot dropped it.

Huzzah again!

The gnolls started shrieking and gibbering and “laughing” like hyenas.

One of the regular gnolls ran straight through the heart of the spike growth toward Marxine, ripping himself apart on the thorns and spikes, dropping a few feet from her. Another one ran through the thorns and spikes, taking a great deal of damage on the way, but made it all the way to attack Marxine, hitting her with a spear. One of the regular gnolls and the maw demon were stuck in the web and remained there, struggling against the sticky webs. Another actually had a brain cell fire and it stepped out of the spike growth by the most direct route and ran around it to get to Marxine, attacking and hitting her.

Mia stepped out of the brush and took a crossbow shot at the speedy gnoll, stuck in the spike growth and web. Vinya stepped out of the brush and attacked the smart one that had skirted the spike growth with her quarterstaff and a kick. Elderron threw a cold chromatic orb at one of the ones stuck in the web -- it breathed in the ball of cold then coughed out a cloud of ice crystals as it expired.

Marxine hit the one in front of her with her new magical axe. Despite a great and damaging hit, it stayed, swaying, in front of her, nearly dead.

The speedy gnoll, the only special one remaining, managed to get out of the webbing, but didn’t think to avoid the spike growth (or didn’t notice it). He ran forward toward the party, ripping and tearing himself apart on the spikes and dying on the way.

All that was left were two of the regular gnolls and the maw demon -- and the demon and one of the gnolls were restrained in the webbing. The one that was free to move was clearly nearly dead.

Aldalomiel took her shot at the maw demon, hitting it solidly. Elama’s spiritual weapon hit it next the lightning bolt hitting it with a great deal of force. It sagged in the web then began to turn to a nasty slimy liquid that then evaporated away.

The crossbow-wielding ranch hands focused their fire on the restrained gnoll and dropped it.

The last gnoll tried to keep up the yipping and gibbering but looked distressed and didn’t manage much volume. He also didn’t manage to hit Marxine. Mia dropped it with a crossbow bolt.

In all, the advance party managed a round of the yipping and chortling. And, of course, there was Elama’s shatter spell.

We listened to hear if more were coming.

We heard that same shrieking and yipping coming from a path off to the right of the gulch, heading this way and maybe a quarter mile away.

We were discussing whether to try to take out another advance party here or retreat back to the ranch. (Note: I think we’d decided to retreat back toward the ranch.)


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## prabe (Oct 2, 2020)

Session 12: Gnoll Army - Defeated!


Dramatis Personae:

Aldalómiel - Wood Elf Ranger (Hunter Conclave)
Elama “Lamie” Galanodel- Wood Elf Cleric (Tempest)
Vinya Anar - Wood Elf Monk (Way of the Sun Soul)
Elderon - High Elf Wizard (Loremaster)
Marxine Deepfoot - Dwarf Fighter (Champion)
Mia - Firbolg Druid (Circle of the Land (Forest))

GM - Everyone Else


Note: Before we started playing, Mia's player told us that she was going to have to bow out of the campaign for personal reasons. The rest of the table agreed to continue with a five person party.


1 Blizzarin 749 (Campaign day 32) (immediately after)

We decided that instead of returning to the fortified ranch immediately after the gnoll fight, we’d move along the gulch toward where they were coming from, so they wouldn’t see the bodies of the first advance party of gnolls and be alerted to an ambush.

We spotted another advance scouting band coming along the gulch -- the composition of the band was the same as the previous one -- one breeder (with four hyenas), one speedy gnoll, one sneaky gnoll, one maw demon, and five regular gnolls. Unfortunately, we didn’t hide nearly as well, so they spotted us fairly quickly and started screeching and chortling and howling.

Alda took the first shot at them and hit the breeder solidly. Marxine got her second wind, to help her heal up from the previous fight, and then ran out into the middle of the gulch to draw their attention, the started dodging and dancing around.

The breeder gnoll took Marxine’s bait and ran to her and attacked -- but it missed because she was dodging. The sneaky gnoll moved forward and shot vaguely in Marxine’s direction with its longbow.

Vinya ran out and attacked the breeder and hit it with both her quarterstaff and a punch, joining Marxine in the middle of the gulch. The regular gnolls, seeing the bait there, moved toward Vinya and Marxine but couldn’t make it all the way to them.

Elderron had found himself a position on a hillock in the gulch while we were waiting for them to arrive. He stepped out from behind a rise and tolled the dead on the breeder, then ducked back into cover.

Mia cast a spike growth centered on the speedy gnoll, hoping to have the same excellent results she had in the previous fight. The speedy gnoll, the sneaky gnoll, the maw demon, three regular gnolls and two of the hyenas were all in the spike growth.

The two hyenas in the spike growth were smarter than the gnolls in the previous fight. They saw that the ground around them was spiky and painful, and sat down, refusing to move at all. The other two hyenas, outside the spell area, also saw the dangerous ground, and ran around the area to attack Vinya -- both of them hit her.

The speedy gnoll, not as smart as the hyenas, took a great deal of damage running through the spike growth, then it attacked Marxine, hitting with its first swing. The second swing was very vigorous and forceful, but also entirely wild and missed entirely.

The maw demon took its cue from the hyenas and refused to move.

The ranch hands with their crossbows up on the rim of the gulch sent some of their shots to the breeder gnoll and some to the sneaky gnoll. Aldalomiel took out the the breeder with a perfect shot that went right into its eye, then she moved her hunter’s mark to the speedy gnoll.

Marxine hit the a gnoll right in front of her solidly. Vinya lamely hit one of them (it was a hit in a critical spot, but not a good hit) then used a flurry of blows to drop the two hyenas that had circled the spike growth to attack her.

The sneaky gnoll moved to Marxine and attacked her, hitting her solidly. The two regular gnolls not in the spike growth rushed Vinya and Marxine.. The regular gnolls attacked using spears. Marxine was hit hard by one. One hit Vinya. The other two were so wild with their attacks that it was almost impossible to know who they were targeting. One seemed to have targeted the ground with a powerful blow.

Elderron came off his hillock and cast magic missile on the sneaky gnoll, dropping it. Mia cast shillelagh and then used it to attack one of the gnolls that were mobbing around Vinya and Marxine.

The hyenas in the spike growth continued to sit there, unwilling to move through the painful ground. The maw demon did as well.

Elama cast sacred flame on one of the gnolls on Marxine and Vinya, hitting it with some radiant damage.

The crossbow wielding ranch hands moved along the top of the gulch and started shooting at the maw demon, since it was being a sitting target for them. They did it a lot of damage, setting it up for Aldalomiel to move her hunter’s mark over to it and drop it with an arrow right into its heart.

Marxine attacked the one that was between her and Vinya, taking advantage of having it flanked, and hit it well, twice, using an action surge to do so. That gnoll went down. Vinya turned to another one and hit it with her quarterstaff, but missed with her punch. The gnoll survived.

Which was a genuine pity, because another gnoll was able to find a position of flanking against Marxine and hit her very hard. Marxine looked fairly rough at this point. Another gnoll missed Vinya.

Elama ran over and healed Marxine, who was looking a lot better after that. The crossbowmen started working on the hyenas sitting in the spike growth -- hitting one of them well, but not dropping it.

Aldalomiel moved her hunter’s mark to the gnoll that had hit Marxine so hard and shot an arrow that went through its neck and into the back of its skill, dropping it instantly. Marxine took an opportunity attack from one of the gnolls to get flanking on another one, but then missed with her swing. Vinya took advantage of the flanking Marxine arranged to hit with her quarterstaff and attack with a flurry of blows.

She dropped one of the two remaining gnolls, but one remained standing. (There was also still a hyena in the spike growth.)

That last gnoll stopped its screeching and laughing and listened for a bit. Then it attacked Marxine and missed.

Elderron tolled the dead on the last gnoll but it didn’t quite drop. Mia let the spike growth drop then used her shillelagh on the last gnoll and dropping it. Marxine took one of their shields.

Mia looked at the last hyena, the last member of this advance party still alive, and tried to talk it out of being a gnoll-associated hyena. Before the hyena had a chance to repent its ways, the crossbowmen on the wall dropped it.

We immediately headed back toward the fortified ranch -- we got our horses and went back to the ranch.

The gnolls had to come through the gulch to get to the ranch -- so we left the bodies to distract them (Vinya figured they’d eat them) as they headed toward Telson’s Ranch. Mr. Alzey Telson and his wife Timma were happy that none of us were dead. So were we.

We told them what we saw and what we fought and rested for a bit, hoping to have a chance to get our breath back, gather our energy and prepare for the main body of the army to arrive at the rance. As we rested, Timma Telson showed up with two greater healing potions.

Timma: You look really beat up. Take these. You’ll feel better.

Marxine and Vinya drank the potions.

We were able to rest for a whole hour before we started hearing the screeching of the gnolls coming through the gulch toward the ranch. They were about fifteen minutes away when we started hearing them.

During that time, Marxine asked if they had any options for ground fighters, as neither she nor Vinya are at their best fighting at range. They loaned her a crossbow and Vinya a longbow.

Marxine: Well, it’s better than nothing. But not by much.

They also showed us the defenses they had behind the gates, in case the gnolls breached the gates. If they did, Vinya and Marxine would get off the wall and join the defenders at ground level.

The party took up positions on the wall on either side of the main gate, along with ten crossbow-wielding ranch hands, including the three that had been with us out in the gulch.

Elama cast a fog cloud about eighty feet away from the base of the wall.

Elama: I don’t know why the storm grants me this spell, but dammit I will use it!

By the time the gnoll army made it into range of the crossbows, long-range fire had whittled the army down to 10 gnolls, 10 hyenas, two maw demons, three speedy gnolls, two breeders, and the pack Alpha (not a flind).

Elderron shot one of the regular gnolls with a firebolt, but not for much damage. Aldalomiel missed with a sling bullet. Vinya hit with her unfamiliar longbow, but not for much damage. Marxine, on the other side of the gate from Vinya, missed. The crossbowmen shot at the closest targets, the speedy gnolls that were rushing the gate, and dropped one of them. The crossbowmen on Mia and Marxine’s side of the gate all missed.

Mia: Good practice round, guys! We’ll get them next time.

The hyenas rushed the wall, some of them getting right to it, but they were unable to do anything but mill about and chortle. The Alpha moved forward and began to dodge and weave, bracing for attack. The rest of the gnoll army moved forward as far as they could -- mostly rushing toward the gate rather than merely toward the wall.

Mia threw a moonbeam on the Alpha. Elama cast sacred flame on one of the hyenas, which was in range for her. Elderron cast magic missile on the Alpha, doing a nice amount of damage. Aldalomiel put her hunter’s mark on the sneaky gnoll that had already been hit by one of the arrows earlier and fired off a sling bullet at it, getting a crit. Unfortunately it didn’t drop, so Vinya took a shot at it to far less effect than Aldalomiel’s shot. Marxine missed with a crossbow shot at one of the regular gnolls.

The two speedy gnolls, got right up next to the gates, but had had to run their fastest to get there. The crossbowmen focused their fire on them and dropped them both.

The rest of the hyenas joined their packmates at the base of the walls and were unable to do anything there. The Alpha took some damage from MIa’s moonbeam then he moved closer and dodged again, as did the maw demon.

Mia moved the moonbeam back onto the Alpha then called out encouragement to the archers on her side of the gate.

The gnolls made their way up to the gates and started hacking at them with hand axes.

Elderron traded places with one of the crossbowmen and shot an Aganazzar’s scorcher that caught three of the regular gnolls -- all of them survived, but looked and sounded very pained. Aldalomiel got a critical shot on the same speedy gnoll she’d been shooting at -- caved in his chest with a sling bullet. Nice!

Elama: WTF was that?

Aldalomiel then moved her hunter’s mark to the other of the speedy gnolls.

Vinya, once again, got a nice hit with her arrow, but it paled compared to Aldalomiel’s prodigious shots. The archers on Mia’s side of the wall responded to her encouragement and took out a gnoll. The archers on Vinya’s side did as well.

The Alpha once again took damage from the moonbeam spell -- then he ran out of it toward the wall and dodged. The maw demons also moved up, finally getting near the wall themselves.

Mia dropped the moonbeam spell and cast an entangle spell on the area right outside the gates, to keep the gnolls from breaching the gates. Only one of the regular gnolls at the gate eluded the clinging and grasping vines. That one moved back, away from the gates, to get out of the spell’s area.

The Alpha got up to the wall and started attacking the gate with a glaive. Elama tried to cast a guiding bolt on him, but missed. Elderron cast another Aganazzar’s scorcher, catching the leader and a couple of the regular gnolls. The regular gnolls were both dropped, but the leader survived.

Aldalomiel shook the foundations of the world by missing with a sling bullet. Vinya got a nice shot on a gnoll near her.

Marxine, with a target finally near enough to use a preferred weapon, threw a handaxe at the Alpha and dropped him!

The crossbowmen on the wall took out the gnolls in the entangle spell.

The maw demons, seeing the Alpha dropped and most of the gnolls dead, started to flee. So did the regular gnolls and the surviving breeder gnoll and speedy gnoll. The hyenas milling about at the base of the wall started running away.

Elama cast a sacred flame on the maw demon.

Elama: That’s right! You better run!!

Elderron cast magic missile on the same demon, hitting solidly. Aldalomiel, Vinya and the crossbowmen all focused their fire on the breeder gnoll, but weren’t able to drop it.

Marxine finally got a crit with a crossbow (actually with any weapon on a 19, because she’s a Champion Fighter), but unfortunately it did very little damage.

After the gnolls got out of the range of our crossbows and bows, we jumped off the wall and mounted horses. We chased down and killed the demons, gnolls and the breeder gnoll. The hyenas we didn’t worry about.

Mia said that away from the gnolls and the influence of Yeenoghu the hyenas would revert to their natural state.

The Telsons told us that the people in the other settlement probably have some stuff and gold. They asked us to escort them to the ruined ranch.

We did so.

At that ruined ranch, we found mostly burned buildings. One of those buildings had a brick vault in it. Inside the vault we found some coin and some items. The Telsons wanted to keep the money and the art pieces in the vault, but said that we were welcome to keep any of the items we found.

The first thing we found was a maul bracketed to the wall over the vault. We also found two pairs of gloves, a flute, and three potions.

After we identified the items and discovered that the maul was a +1 magical weapon and one of the potions was a potion of supreme healing, we figured that the ranchers had forgotten (or didn’t think about) what was in the vault when they were being attacked by the gnolls. Either that or they couldn’t get to the vault in the assault.

The items were identified as:

+1 Maul (Marxine)
Gloves of Thievery (Elderron)
Gloves of Missile Snaring (??)
Pipes of the Sewers (Vinya)
Potion of Water Breathing
Potion of Animal Friendship
Potion of Supreme Healing

The potions were kept as party treasure. It’s possible that Alda kept the gloves of missile snaring, on the theory that she could supplement her ammo supply with them, but my notes don’t say that for sure.

After all of this fighting, Mia told us that she’d been getting weird dreams and signs that her people needed her back. She’d just intended to leave for a little bit to take care of the ogres she’d been following when she found us. She handed Vinya a handful of goodberries.

Mia: Remember, they’re only good for 24 hours.
Vinya: I had something to give you.

Vinya and Elama hugged her, and then Mia headed out toward Tash, across country, to get back to her people.


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## prabe (Oct 8, 2020)

Session 13: Ghouls In The Storm Sewer


Dramatis Personae:
Aldalómiel - Wood Elf Ranger (Hunter Conclave)
Elama “Lamie” Galanodel- Wood Elf Cleric (Tempest)
Vinya Anar - Wood Elf Monk (Way of the Sun Soul)
Elderon - High Elf Wizard (Loremaster)
Marxine Deepfoot - Dwarf Fighter (Champion)

GM - Everyone Else


1 Blizzarin 749 (Campaign day 32) (immediately after)

We took a long rest at Alzey Telson’s ranch and the night passed without incident.


2 - 6 Blizzarin 749 (Campaign days 33 - 37)

We left the next morning to head toward Erlin and hopefully meet up with the force from Erlin. We travelled without incident or trouble until we got to the valley with the two faces on either side of it.

There we found Erlin’s guard setting up a defensive line when we got there around mid-day.

We told the leader of the unit that we’d killed all the gnolls, except a few hyenas. They looked quite relieved at that. We also told them that we hadn’t backtracked them at all beyond the ruined ranch, so we didn’t know where they’d started or if there were people who needed help.

A party went out to go backtrack the gnolls. We travelled the rest of the way back to Erlin with the rest of the guard. While we traveled we asked about the dragon statue and the valley with the faces.

The valley is called the Valley of Argument. Those of the longer-lived races knew that the faces were moving and the droning deep noise we could hear changed over time. It appeared that the faces in the walls of the valley have been and are having an argument in archaeological time.

The dragon statue had been there since the Giant-Dragon war and was once an ancient dragon.

We also asked about the floating upside-down tower, but they didn’t know anything about that.

Once we were back in Erlin, around sunset on 6 Blizzarin (Day 37), we went to talk to Captain Althorn.

Vinya: We just went ahead and killed the gnolls. With the help of Mr. Telson’s ranch hands who were great with crossbows.
Captain: I’ll keep that in mind.
Vinya: [waits for more reaction than that][waits some more]
Marxine: So I think we were owed more money.

We each get another 10gp, which is what we’d agreed on.

Vinya: You can reach us at Garlin’s, until we leave town.

We headed down to the docks to arrange passage down the river. There weren’t any boats heading in that direction for six days, alas. So we arranged to be workers on a boat, The Reed, leaving in six days (on Day 43).

We were looking at six days of downtime in Erlin.

When we got to Garlin’s, he pulled a card out from behind the counter and handed it to Marxine. She showed it to us -- it was a divination card in style, but it clearly showed a photorealistic image of Marxine herself standing on a causeway with water on both sides of her during that golden hour in the afternoon when the light is so gorgeous on everything. It was clearly a painting, but incredibly detailed. She was wearing armor and with weapons, a greataxe and a maul, slung over her shoulder. She looked like she was walking or going somewhere.

Elderron recognized the location as one of the causeways connecting Pelsoreen to the mainland.

Elderron: Have you ever been there?
Marxine: No.
Elama: We could take a boat there from New Arvai.

The back of the card had an abstract design -- it wasn’t similar to any elven motifs or dwarven motifs, or to the fomori design elements we’d seen in the caves. The card itself was of indeterminate age.

Up in our rooms, Elderron checked the card out. It was very faintly magical and on thinking about it he remembered that he’d heard of these cards. They attach themselves to people and follow them around. They’re harmless -- showing a possible fate or future.


7 - 11 Blizzarin 749 (Campaign days 38 - 42)

During our days of downtime, Elama went to talk to armorers about what can be done with the Bulette armor and learned that the answer was “Nothing in six days.” Then she asked about what to do with the basilisk venom glands she’d collected.

She got referred to Jamil, the sage we’d eaten Mahassari food with, or Thierry, the magic stuff seller.

She decided to go to Jamil, who looked at them, carefully, handling them with forceps and having a protective shield in front of his face. He gave Elama 50gp for them.

Jamil: I did some research on that dragon if your friend wants to come back.

Elama went to get Aldalomiel, and other members of the party, so we were all together visiting Jamil.

Jamil told Aldalomiel that the dragon’s name is Sossonatissis, an ancient and powerful blue dragon who was an adult before the Severance. He goes by the moniker The Blue Death. He lives mostly in the Scoured Hills on the other side of the mountains to the east of Tash. He occasionally gets obsessed or focused on a particular goal or idea. He’s been known to suborn entire tribes of dragonborn and to hire mercenaries from other planes. He’s also created draconic servants -- not dragons or dragonborn but other draconic entities. He was left alone for a long time after the Fiend Wars because he killed very many fiends, including devils.

Aldalomiel: The information my friends and I found was different from that.
Jamil: He’s been known to spread disinformation.
Aldalomiel: We will have to do more research, then.

We talked some about how to get that information to Aldalomiel’s friends and learned that Jamil had some of the dragon pages (like we’d gotten from Captain Althorn). We bought one from him for the entire party.

Aldalomiel bought three for herself -- one to send to the friend who researched the blue dragon for her and one to send to her vanished girlfriend, with a blank sheet for a return message.

Elama showed him a book that she pulled out of her pack.

Elama: I found this in the temple that I trained in. It won’t hold marks of any sort of pen, ink, pencil, paint or any writing implement at all.
Marxine: Have you tried other ways of making marks?
Elama: I’ve tried every kind of writing instrument I’ve encountered.

Vinya took a dart from her belt and with the tip scratched some marks into one of the pages, marring the paper. Elama closed the book -- when she opened it again, the marks were gone.

Jamil: I’ve never seen anything like that.
Elama: Me either!

Jamil asked about our plans and we said we were leaving for New Arvai on the 12th of Blizzarin. He asked us to do a favor for him -- he had a box that needed to be delivered to the Head Librarian at the School of the World in New Arvai. He said that he couldn’t leave Erlin because he had responsibilities and asked if we could deliver the box for him.

Vinya: We can take your box.
Jamil: It’s currently sealed.
Elama: I assume you want to keep it that way.
Jamil: It’s better for the contents if you do.
Vinya: Is there anything we need to know about the contents? For its safety and ours.
Jamil: It’s a very old history book -- 400 years old. It’s about the Kotimanov succession wars.

Not something any of us were terrifically interested in.

Much more interesting -- Jamil offered to let Elderron copy spells from his spellbook pretty much freely.

We left Jamil’s and went into a montage of time passing:

Elderron learned and copied spells from Jamil’s spellbook
Aldalomiel spent the time writing letters on her dragon paper and meditating in one of the city’s parks
Vinya sparred and worked out in a dojo with other monks
Marxine did Marxine things, nonspecific
Elama gave small items to squirrels and sent them on their way, then, after an hour or so, used Locate Object to find the items.
After dinner on 11 Blizzarin (Day 42), so the evening before our boat The Reed was to be leaving in the morning, Captain Althorn showed up at Garlin’s.

Captain Althorn: Some people in the city have been disappearing in Angler’s Ladder over the past weeks. Can you look into it?
Vinya: Our boat…
Captain: I can ask The Reed to wait a few days while you deal with this.
Elama: Let’s move. I don’t want to just sit here.

So we began to walk and talk with the Captain toward Angler’s Ladder while he explained what was going on. People on their way to or from late or very early shifts at the harbor have been disappearing, mostly between Angler’s Ladder and the Harbor district. We asked him to take us to where the most recent disappearance had happened. All that was left behind was a foul, foul smell.

Captain: Some of the guards looked around a little, but they were unable to track whatever did it because the smell was too strong for them. It should have dispersed by now.
Vinya: Were there any witnesses?
Captain: In some of the cases witnesses have heard a choked scream and bad smells. One witness reported hearing the sound of bestial eating, but they didn’t want to investigate.
Vinya: How frequently have these disappearances been happening?
Captain: They started just before you got back from Telson’s ranch, when the guard was short staffed. A couple of guards disappeared the night before you returned. Then one the next night. Another one the night after that. The night after that three people disappeared. Last night four people.

When we got to the location where one of the most recently missing people was last seen, we saw an entrance to the city’s sewer system.

Elama: Be bored or go into the sewers. Tough choice.
Captain: This is more like a storm sewer. It’s not that bad.
Vinya: How big an area are the people missing from -- just right around here?
Captain: No. It’s probably 20 blocks or more, with multiple access points to the storm sewers.

We looked around for blood -- Vinya and Elderron both spotted a dried smear of blood around the sewer entrance, heading in.

The Captain said he was going to set up a cordon around the area where people had been disappearing and encourage people not to go into the area -- but he knew it wasn’t going to keep everyone out as some people live and/or work in that 20 block area.

We headed into the sewers -- Elama fired up her glowing sword and also cast a light spell on her shield. Elderron cast mage armor on himself.

The storm sewer had narrow walkways on either side of the running water. Vinya tested the depth of the water with her extending rod and found it to be several feet deep. We went some distance into the sewer, following the intermittent smears and splotches of blood.

After a time, the whole party, save for Elama, was surprised by a swarm of very gaunt, humanoid-ish figures swarming up out of the water onto the ledge with us -- clawing and biting at us. Because we hadn’t noticed them in the water, most of them were attacking the back of the line of us (Elderron, Marxine and Aldalomiel).

Their surprise attack got in a couple of hits on Elderron and Elama.

Aldalomiel cast zephyr strike, so she could move away from the three on her, and dropped the one nearest to her with two arrows. Marxine got a critical hit against hers -- it survived but was cut from collarbone to pelvis. Vinya, as usual, missed with her quarterstaff but managed to land a punch. Elama cast her spiritual weapon and it shot a lightning bolt at the one attacking Elderron. Then she cast sacred flame on the one that was attacking her.

Elderron cast a new spell, fireball, placing it with surgical precision but not much power. It was a relatively weak puff of fire, but it hit four of the monsters without any of us being put in danger. Two of the ones in the fireball dropped in flames, so it was definitely a serviceable fireball.

They attacked and Vinya and Elama were both hit.

Aldalomiel shot one, softening it up for Marxine, who then dropped it with her first attack. Then she attacked the other one right next to her, cleaving it in half, the pieces falling into the water. Vinya dropped the one on her with the quarterstaff (which actually hit something!) then dropped the one that had been attacking Elama with the first punch of her flurry of blows. She was able to do a graceful maneuver to get to the one that was attacking Elderron and hit it as well. Elama then dropped it with her spiritual weapon.

With the last one dead, we looked again for the blood trail we’d been following. Elama and Vinya spotted it. Aldalomiel missed it. Before we continued on our way, we waited for 10 minutes while Elama cast a prayer of healing.

We continued on, following the blood trail, up the storm drains, away from the river. We came upon a pile of bloody bones, clearly gnawed on, with scattered viscera around. Bloody footprints of bare feet with long claws, continued up a narrower feeder pipe with water that we had to walk through (no ledges on the sides of it). We continued up that feeder sewer. There were openings in the walls where other, still smaller, pipes flowed into the feeder sewer we were walking through.

As we walked, we started to smell something absolutely foul, like days-old nasty death, and were all looking around for the source. Vinya, Elama, and Aldalomiel managed to hear something coming down one of the smaller pipes.

Aldalomiel backed up a few steps so she could look down a side passage and saw two of them coming down the hall.

Aldalomiel: There’s something back here.

She then put her hunter’s mark on the closer of those two and dropped it with her first shot, then fired her second shot at the other one.

One, reeking with a foul odor, came out of a side passage and attacked Marxine and another reeking one came out of a side passage and attacked Vinya. Both missed. Then some regular ghouls came out of a different passage, attacking Vinya and Marxine. Marxine was hit by one of them.

Marxine, not happy at having been hit, attacked the smelly ghast, hitting with both of her attacks. She followed that up with a surge of additional attacks, hitting it two more times and dropping it! Beautiful work.

While we were still appreciating Marxine’s awesome performance, two pale, translucent figures drifted out of the walls -- they looked humanoid, but their bodies trailed off into mist. One of them hit Elama, who did her retributive lightning shock against it in response. The other one missed Marxine.

Elama cast a new spell, spirit guardians, and was surrounded by little balls of light that shot out lightning flashes and small crackles of electricity when they hit enemies.

Aldalomiel moved her hunter’s mark to the ghoul fighting her, drawing a short sword. Unfortunately she missed with both of her attacks. Elderron cast magic missile on the spectral enemy near him, doing a lot of damage.

Vinya hit the smelly ghast on her with her quarterstaff, doing a stunning strike. When it was stunned, she used some of her ki energy for a flurry of blows. It took a lot of damage, but was still standing at the end of it. It then took damage from the spirit guardians.

The ghouls on Vinya then attacked her, hitting her hard. Marxine was hit by one of them. Aldalomiel was wildly missed.

Marxine attacked the one threatening Elderron, dropping it. The spectre on Elderron was dropped by Elama’s spirit guardians. Elama then cast sacred flame on Vinya’s stunned ghast -- it shrieked and flared with the radiant flames, then fell. Then she cast healing word on Vinya, who was very grateful.

Elama then moved so that all of the ghouls on Vinya were in the area of her spirit guardians. Aldalomiel drew her other sword and attacked her ghoul, dropping it. She moved to the ghoul that kept hitting Marxine and hit it solidly, but it didn’t drop. Elderron, finally without anyone in melee with him, cast a scorching ray, hitting Marxine’s ghoul with one ray and one of Vinya’s with two. That created the possibility for Vinya to drop one of the ghouls on her and hit another of those.

Two of the remaining ghouls on Vinya were dropped by Elama’s spirit guardians. The last ghoul left on her attacked Elama and hit her. The ghoul on Marxine and Aldalomiel attacked Marxine and got a hit.

Despite that, Marxine attacked the spectre -- dropping her shield and attacking with the battle axe. She hit it twice and dropped it. Elama cast sacred flame on the one in front of her and Vinya, dropping it, then moved, with her spirit guardians, back toward the last remaining ghoul (the one with Marxine and Aldalomiel). Aldalomiel hit it twice, with her hunter’s mark on it, and dropped it.

Elama listened for noises and heard some, similar to the claws in the pipes that we’d heard just before they attacked from the side passages. Vinya peeked down a side hall -- she didn’t see anything but she also heard the scrabbling claws that sounded like they were coming toward us.

Elama extinguished the light spell on her shield and the light from her sword. Aldalomiel cast pass without trace and we started sneaking down a side passage, still following the blood trail. Because of Aldalomiel’s spell, we were all incredibly sneaky, even Elama and Marxine.

We followed the passage for about five minutes, with occasional glimpses of the blood trail and the smell of decomposition and death from the ghast. We got to the edge of a large junction, where several passages intersected with one another. The floor of the junction was lower than the level of the passage we were in and it was filled with rubble and debris and detritus that had washed into the drain and accumulated.

Inside the room were a lot of ghouls, some of which smelled terribly, and possibly a few of the translucent spectres.

We ended there on the edge of the junction -- Elama has five minutes left of the spirit guardians. Aldalomiel has 55 minutes left on the pass without trace.


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## prabe (Oct 14, 2020)

Session 14: On the Way to Lonoj

Dramatis Personae:

Aldalómiel - Wood Elf Ranger (Hunter Conclave)
Elama “Lamie” Galanodel- Wood Elf Cleric (Tempest)
Vinya Anar - Wood Elf Monk (Way of the Sun Soul)
Elderon - High Elf Wizard (Loremaster)
Marxine Deepfoot - Dwarf Fighter (Champion)

GM - Everyone Else


11 Blizzarin 749 (Campaign day 42, night) (immediately after)

We had been fighting ghouls and ghasts in the storm sewers of Erlin and had followed the stench of ghast and a blood trail from the sewer where we’d had a pretty big fight to the edge of a large junction area in the sewers where several pipes flowed into an overflow area. There was some rubble and debris that had washed into the sewers on the floor, lots of ghouls (the stench indicated that some of those might have been ghasts), and maybe some spectres barely visible on the edge of the room.

We watched the ghouls milling around a bit and realized that we were in a safe place -- they weren’t going to inadvertently stumble on us and if they did we were in a defensible position -- so we decided to give up on the remaining time with Elama’s spirit guardians and Aldalomiel’s pass without trace and take a short rest. During the rest we observed the room and talked strategy.

Elderron: I think we can announce our presence with a fireball.

We all agreed with that strategy.

Elama blessed Marxine, Vinya, and Aldalomiel. Marxine quaffed her potion of giant strength. Then Elderron proceeded as planned -- with a very big booming fireball.

That blew up three of the ghouls right out of the gate. The spectres, which had no idea where the big boom had come from, moved away from the source of the fire.

Aldalomiel took a shot at one of the ghasts, the smelly ghouls, and missed once then hit solidly. It made angry noises as it turned toward where we were cloaked in darkness.

Unlike the spectres, the ghasts moved toward us. One attacked Marxine and one attacked Vinya. They established the pattern for the undead for most of the combat -- they missed.

The mysterious, not-spectre incorporeal thing flew over to where it could attack either Marxine or Vinya. It swung wildly, missing both.

Elama observed that there were four things bunched up right in front of Vinya and Marxine (two ghasts, one ghoul and the not-a-spectre floaty thing) cast a shatter spell, calling on the divine energy of the tempest to do as much damage as possible. One of the ghasts was immediately killed. The others were badly hurt, but didn’t drop.

The rest of the ghouls started moving in our direction. The Swol Ghoul that survived the shatter spell and one of the others attacked the unarmored elves (Elderron and Vinya). They missed horribly.

VInya dropped a ghoul (not Swol Ghoul) with her quarterstaff, then summoned her ki and stepped back a few feet so she could shoot a sunbolt at the floaty incorporeal thing (the wraith). Marxine then hit the incorporeal thing with her magic maul and dropped it. Woot! Then she attacked again and dropped the ghast in front of her.

Elderron misty stepped to get out of the front line then cast toll the dead on the ghoul that had attacked him.

The spectres, which had fled to the other side of the room when the fireball went off, came back, moving about halfway (or slightly less) and dodged. Aldalomiel, seeing this, put her hunter’s mark on one of them and shot it twice, dropping it. Elama cast a guiding bolt on the other spectre, hitting it and leaving it with a glow that would make it easier for others to hit.

Marxine and Aldalomiel were attacked -- Marxine by three ghouls -- but with all those attacks swinging around, only Marxine was hit and she was only hit once. After Vinya popped a ghoul a couple of times with her quarterstaff, Marxine dropped Aldalomiel’s ghoul with her first swing and Vinya’s with her second, leaving only two, both unhurt. At least until Elderron magic missiled one.

The remaining spectre, still glowing from the guiding bolt, attacked Vinya, but continued with the monster’s theme of missing all around. Aldalomiel put it out of its undead misery with her first arrow. Her second arrow dropped one of the two ghouls.

The last ghoul hit Marxine, then we all piled on it with gusto until Marxine knocked it down and continued attacking it until it was really entirely dead.

We explored the room. Elama spotted some stuff down one of the sewer passages that led into the room. Lots of stuff.

569 cp
6502 sp
2069 gp
75 pp

5 art pieces, each worth 250 gp: 1 robe with silver embroidery, two silver necklaces with bloodstone pendants, 2 gold birdcages with electrum humanoid skeletons with bat wings inside.

Elderron, seeing the birdcages: I’m keeping Oda in his pocket dimension.

We also found some items, which we identified later:

1 Potion of Healing
1 Potion of Greater Healing
1 Rod of Alertness (very cool item)
1 Spell Scroll of Banish Shadow, which might have been more handy earlier
1 Mystery Key (has a chance to open any lock, but it only works once)

Elama lit up her sword and her shield and went to look at the puddle of super-darkness. The magical light dimmed in the area of the puddle.

Elderron recognized it for what it is -- a shadowpool, a portal to the Shadowfell. Unlike portals to more distant planes, it doesn’t take a lot of magic to make a portal to the Shadowfell. All it takes is for the arrangement of things in this plane and the Shadowfell to match up and align, and to stay aligned for a number of weeks. It’s possible to break a shadowpool by breaking up the correspondences. A dispel magic on top of that will completely deactivate and destroy the portal. Breaking the correspondences will keep it from getting worse and keep things from coming through.

Hearing that breaking up the match between this plane and the Shadowfell was the first step in getting rid of the shadowpool, Marxine started bashing on the walls -- but in a smart way so as not to bring anything down on our heads. Elama considered shooting a guiding bolt into it, but decided against, because she might need the spell power later. Vinya fired a couple of her radiant sunbolts into it -- they disappeared into the darkness, but there was no effect.

Elama found an exit from the sewers that didn’t involve trekking all the way back to where we’d entered from. We emerged from that in Rivergate, pretty near to the guard house. Handy!!

We went to talk to Captain Althorn.

Vinya and Marxine: There were a lot of ghouls and ghasts.
Vinya: And Elderron, tell him about the shadowpuddle.
Elderron: There was a shadowpool. A portal to the Shadowfell. We broke it up some, but it needs permanent dealing with.
Althorn: Oh. Yeah, the people up in Promontory won’t be happy.

We left him muttering about the people in Promontory. Vinya, Marxine, and Elama went back into the sewer to keep an eye on the shadowpool and make sure nothing came through while Elderron and Aldalomiel went to find Jamil to see if he could help.

Aldalomiel: We thought you might want to look at the shadowpool. And maybe you can close it?
Jamil: One moment!

He disappeared back into his house for a bit then came out dressed for the sewers.

Aldalomiel, Elderron, and Jamil arrived at the scene of the shadowpool to find Marxine, Vinya, and Elama moving the rubble around and breaking walls.

Marxine: We’re improving things.
Vinya: The hydrology…

Elama offered to help Jamil as he pulled out a scroll of dispel magic. He thanked her but declined the offer, then read from the scroll. When he got to the end of the spell, the pool disappeared entirely.

Elama: Do undead usually make those pools?
Jamil: Wraiths and other free-willed undead do.
Elama: Where did the wraith come from? How did he get here to start making it?
Jamil: Who knows?
Vinya: It’s easy to dismiss it that way. But not helpful.
Jamil: I’m not dismissing the question. It’s just not readily answerable.

We went back to Captain Althorn to report that the shadowpool had been entirely dispelled. We gave him all of the copper that we found and a lot of the silver (all but Elderron’s share of it). Vinya and Aldalomiel also contributed a chunk of their gold shares. That was to be used as restitution and assistance for the families of those who were killed by the ghouls.

As we left, Elderron realized that if he worked at it all night (and slept on the boat the next day) he could copy another spell or two from Jamil’s spellbook. With Jamil’s permission, he went that way while the rest of us returned to Garlin’s.

The rest of the night passed without incident.


12 Blizzarin 749 (Campaign day 43)

The next morning, Vinya stopped at the guard house to talk to Captain Althorn on our way to The Reed.

Vinya: We’re getting out of your hair. Maybe you don’t hate adventurers so much after our help.
Althorn: Whenever adventurers are around, there’s grumbling from on high.
Vinya: Right. Well, we hope we’ve left the city better off than when we arrived.

Then we got on the boat and The Reed sailed away.

The day aboard ship passed uneventfully. As did the night.


13 Blizzarin 749 (Campaign day 44)

The next day on the boat we were approached by a mountain dwarf merchant named Ullard Stonebright. He offered to pay us to escort him from Lonoj to Torm Brinnom.

Elderron: What’s torn britches?
Marxine: A dwarf stronghold.
Vinya: We have a box to take to New Arvai. But we don’t have any particular reason to think it’s pressing.

He offered again to pay us, 100 gp each.

Vinya: That’s way more than we made for killing a whole passel of ghouls.

Marxine was obviously, and vocally, very leery about going to a dwarf stronghold.

Vinya: Maybe we can just go to the door and see him inside -- we don’t need to go into the stronghold at all.

Vinya, to Elderron: Do you have something that would let you talk to someone a long way off?
Elama: I can do that. Tomorrow.

The rest of the day and the night passed without incident.


14 Blizzarin 749 (Campaign day 45)

The next morning, Elama used a sending spell to talk to Jamil.

Lamie: Hey! Is there any rush for us to get the box to New Arvai? We may have a job.
Jamil: As long as you don’t destroy the book, there’s no real rush.

We asked Mr. Stonebright if we could have a little time to caucus about taking his job. He said that was fine as it would be several days before we got to Lonoj.

Over dinner, Vinya looked at the coins we got from the shadowpool. Some of them looked old. When she examined them more closely, she saw that two of them said they were from Ambernock. She consulted with Elderron and he said that Ambernock was the city that was where Embernook is before the Severance.

She put those two coins into a very special place so they wouldn’t get accidentally spent.


15 Blizzarin 749 (Campaign day 46)

The next day, we sailed past an old ruined fort or castle on a hill. The captain of The Reed, Tulia Shirvon, a water genasi, said that it went back to the fiend wars. She said that some nobles, or people who wanted to be, built it.

The boat wasn’t going to stop, so we marked it on our map for possible future exploration.

The day and the night passed.


16 Blizzarin 749 (Campaign day 47)

Elama cast augury to ask if taking the job as guards for Ullard Stonebright is a good idea. She got the answer “weal”.

Elama: Good!

We decided that while we respect Marxine’s concerns about going into the dwarf stronghold, Torm Brinnom, we also respect 100gp each and the agury. We’ll just do our best not to have to go inside.

Vinya: Mr. Stonebright, we will do your thing.
Stonebright: Excellent! I figure that with a dwarf in your group, I’ll be in good hands. Even with all the elves.

Ullard Stonebright told us that we’d be getting onto a different boat in Lonoj to take that river up into the mountains -- as far as where the river turns to the west.

We continued to sail along. Elama cast water walk on herself and Vinya and they walked, or ran mostly, next to the boat for a while.


17 Blizzarin 749 (Campaign day 48)

Early in the morning, as we were waking up and shuffling around to get coffee and stuff, the boat entered a section that was a bit choppier and more characterful.

Marxine: We’re gonna die!!
Captain Shirvon: No, this is fine.
Elama: I can cast water walking.

As we were dealing with the river being somewhat rougher, we heard shrieking like something being tortured coming from the water. As the boat hit the water, as it bounced and jostled along, the water screamed.

Vinya went to look over the side of the boat.

Elama: What’s that?
Captain Shirvon: Oh, it happens.
Vinya, thinking back to sailing this part of the river in the other direction: I remember this. I remember a stretch of screaming.
Elderron: The Screaming Rapids.

We noted the screaming rapids on our map.

The rest of the day and the night passed without incident.


18 Blizzarin 749 (Campaign day 49)

The day and the night passed.


19 Blizzarin 749 (Campaign day 50)

After breakfast, while Vinya, Aldalomiel, and Elama were working on deck (Elderron and Marxine were down below), Vinya spotted two huge shapes coming through the water toward the bow of the boat. Two huge shapes with lots of heads.

Vinya: What the hell’s that?! Elama! Aldalomiel! Look at that!

Her shout got the attention of the sailors and the sailors banged a bell to get more attention from the rest of the crew and the captain. A bunch of sailors, as well as Elderron, came out of the lower decks of the ship.

Elderron: Well, I guess I’m going to have to fireball one.

Which he proceeded to do -- to good effect.

The one that Elderron cast fireball on swam right up to the bow of the boat and attacked a sailor. The other one was just a little too far away.

Elderron let us all know that they need to take fire damage in order not to regenerate. Otherwise if you kill a head and don’t do any fire damage to the beast, two heads will grow back.

Elama held onto the mast and cast call lightning, striking the hydra with a lightning bolt.

Aldalomiel cast hunter’s mark on the one that was fireballed and shot it, missing once and hitting. Vinya used her radiant sunbolts, summoning her ki to shoot that injured one four times -- she hit three times and one of those was a critical hit. Unfortunately the head she was shooting at didn’t die. Marxine charged up the stairs from down below and hit the hurt one, finally killing one of the heads. Then she did an action surge to attack again but wasn’t able to drop another head. (Note: Apparently two heads had already been killed.)

The sailors, seeing that they had people willing to run toward the hydras on board, ran away to the other end of the boat. The captain, on the other hand, pulled out a crossbow and shot the hurt one.

Elderron backed away from the hydras and cast a magic missile that he turned into fire damage on the hurt one -- cauterizing the wounds from the heads that had been killed.

Both of the hydras, with all of their heads, attacked Marxine, who was all alone up there right next to them. Marxine took three hits, but was still standing at the end of it.

Elama cast a healing word on Marxine then called a lightning bolt out of the clouds onto both of the hydras.

The one that was already wounded died, its body sinking away into the river.

Elama: Woo! I didn’t expect it to die like that.

The other one lost a head to the lightning bolt as well!

Aldalomiel, going all David and Goliath on it, used her sling on it twice and took out a head. Vinya shot four sunbolts at it and took out another head. Marxine got one hit and then got her second wind and healed up a little bit. The captain missed with her crossbow. Elderron cast a fireball toward the back of the hydra -- which cauterized the wounds where the heads had been killed but didn’t hit either the boat or Marxine.

Distracted by the pain of its wounds, the hydra missed Marxine with both of its attacks.

Elama threw a lightning bolt at it, then hit it with a spiritual weapon. Vinya only hit with one of her four sunbolts. Marxine hit twice. Elderron finally dropped it with a fire magic missile.

Vinya, to the Captain: What happens when these things show up and you don’t have fighters aboard?
Captain: It’s never really come up.
Aldalomiel: You might want to consider it.

The rest of the day and the night passed, without incident.

And there we ended.


Treasure:

569 cp (given to Captain Althorn)
6502 sp (1300 for each of us -- only Elderron kept his share of the silver)
2069 gp (413 for each of us)
75 pp (15 each)

5 art pieces, each worth 250 gp: 1 robe with silver embroidery, two silver necklaces with bloodstone pendants, 2 gold birdcages with electrum humanoid skeletons with bat wings inside. (There’s one piece for each of us. Vinya would like one of the necklaces as her share of the arts.)

We also found some items, which we identified later:

1 Potion of Healing
1 Potion of Greater Healing
1 Rod of Alertness (very cool item)
1 Spell Scroll of Banish Shadow, which might have been more handy earlier
1 Mystery Key (has a chance to open any lock, but it only works once)


----------



## prabe (Oct 21, 2020)

Session 15: Class War


Dramatis Personae:

Aldalómiel - Wood Elf Ranger (Hunter Conclave)
Elama “Lamie” Galanodel- Wood Elf Cleric (Tempest)
Vinya Anar - Wood Elf Monk (Way of the Sun Soul)
Elderon - High Elf Wizard (Loremaster)
Marxine Deepfoot - Dwarf Fighter (Champion)


GM - Everyone Else

(Note: This session was held on Discord.)


20 Blizzarin 749 (Campaign day 51)

We continued sailing along on the Reed to Lonoj. Mr. Stonebright, our employer, told us that he was going to arrange a boat and then land transport from Lonoj to Torm Brinnom, the Dwarven stronghold we’re going to be escorting him to. He said he had some planning he was going to need to do.

Vinya: Are you going to need help?
Stonebright: No, I’ve got this. But it’s going to take a few days.

The rest of the day and the night passed without incident. As did the next day and the night.


22 Blizzarin 749 (Campaign day 53)

The Reed pulled into a slip in the Lonoj harbor in the mid-morning and we debarked.

We stood around contemplating getting rooms in an inn for the few days we were going to be waiting for Mr. Stonebright to make arrangements for us to go to Torm Brinnom.

Vinya: Maybe we should stay in the same inn he does, so he can find us.
Elderron: If we work for him, can he pay?

Vinya found our employer and asked for a recommendation of an inn. He said he was going to be staying at a place in The Slips called the Soaring Gull, so we decided to stay there as well. We went with him to the inn.

Elama: What is there to do in this town?
Stonebright: The usual things you find in most towns.
Elama: Erlin was very boring.
Vinya: What makes Lonoj Lonoj?
Stonebright: Facet Square.
Vinya: Let’s go there!

We arranged for our rooms then followed directions, and the sound of bustle and goods being bought and sold, to the very large open-air market that is Facet Square. Elama scurried around looking at all the things she’d never seen before. The market had one sector where people were specifically selling gems and jewelry, and we were told that was how the market started, but all manner of goods were being sold from foodstuffs to common pottery to exotic wares from other continents.

Elderron bought himself some very fine clothes, so he could look like a proper fancy wizard.

As we walked around through the gem and jewelry markets we noticed that there were arguments going on in a number of the gem cutting stalls. It seemed like the workers were trying to negotiate for raises. As we listened more closely to this we noticed that the workers didn’t appear to have any leverage because the bosses were colluding with one another.

Marxine: The merchant class is keeping people down.

We asked a little about the government of the city, just talking to people in stalls. We learned that the government is a mercantile oligarchy. It’s ruled by a Council of Guilds with a mayor that serves at the pleasure of the council. Mayors tend to stay in power for a while because the council values consistency in the governance of the city.

It seemed that the people complaining were mostly gnomes and dwarves, so we got concerned about this being racial oppression as well as the class oppression, but it became clear that the workers mostly worked for people of the same race and argued with their bosses whoever they were.

Marxine was a miner in a Dwarven stronghold, working for a mining company - she recognized the struggles of labor versus management, even though she’d been more at the getting the gems out of the mountains side of the process than gemcutting, jewelry making, or jewel selling.

We went to find a place to have dinner just away from Facet Square in Orbi’s Round, one of the neighborhoods where the workers live. We didn’t go far before we found a bar with a lot of noise and bustle for the size of the establishment -- the Silver Loupe. Most of the furniture inside was sized for gnomes and dwarves. It turned out not to be overly crowded, but the crowd inside was festive and jovial and happy.

We went in, the largely elf party getting some strange looks and a beat of silence before people went back to eating, drinking, and talking with one another as normal. It seemed as though they weren’t used to seeing non-locals in the bar any more than they were used to seeing elves.

Elderron said a greeting in gnomish to the first gnome he saw. Marxine rolled her eyes. Both of them were hearing pretty normal bar conversation. Elderron approached the bartender, a gnome who was short and wiry, even by gnome standards

Barkeep: Welcome to the Silver Loupe . How can I help you?
Elderron: We’d like wine and food.
Barkeep: There’s a table in the corner that you folks might be comfortable at. I’m Smolly. How can I help you?

We ordered ale and mead and wine and meat and potatoes and veggies and cheese and bread -- each of us according to our preference. We were served a very good meal, especially for the quite modest price Smolly asked for the food. The meal was delicious and a bargain. We had found ourselves a really nice local spot.

Smolly, to Marxine: Why are you in here? We don’t normally get new people. It’s been four years since we’ve had new people.
Marxine: You must have a reputation and draw in new customers.
Smolly: Well, okay. New people usually come in with locals though. Like they’re brought in by someone who’s a regular. We don’t just get people coming in on their own. That’s been a long time now.
Marxine: I’m from a stronghold on the East side of the continent.
Elderron: It seems like there’s been complaints and commotion. Maybe we can help?
Smolly: The jewellers and gem-cutters are up to their old tricks. They’re colluding to keep wages down. And they have a blacklist, so workers who complain too much are getting blocked from working anywhere.
Vinya: How long has this been going on?
Smolly: It’s been building for a year but it’s coming to a head now as even the most skilled workers are not able to get higher wages anywhere. I hope you bought what you want today.
Vinya: Do you think something is going to happen tomorrow?
Smolly: Well, last time this happened, 50 years ago, the workers went on strike and got some concessions from the owners and the guilds. I don’t think the owners want to have to do that this time.
Elderron: Are the workers suffering or living in squalor?
Smolly: Well, they’re not selling their kids like they do sometimes in New Arvai…
Elderron: Selling their kids?
Smolly: Yeah.
Elderron: I’m from Pelsoreen. My parents sold me three times.
Smolly: In New Arvai kids get sold to the gangs. That’s how the gangs do most of their recruiting.
Vinya: What do you expect to happen tomorrow? Another strike?
Smolly: Yeah. Probably stores tomorrow will have hard times with staffing and staying open. People who want to shop will have to cross picket lines and the shops will have to find scabs to do the work. Depending on what happens after that, there may be other unpleasantness.
Elderron: In the Chimney Shell neighborhood?
Smolly: Probably there will be some shenanigans there, but mostly in the Square at the retail end.
Marxine: If the retail workers can get the manufacturing workers on their side, that would give them more leverage.
Smolly: They’re trying.
Elderron: Where do the guildmasters live?
Smolly: Blossomside.
Vinya: This happens every human generation?
Smolly: Yeah, about that. It just spreads -- one or two of the owners get the idea and then it spreads out.
Elderron: The businesses are doing well, but the guilds don’t want to share the wealth.
Smolly: No. They never do.
Marxine: That’s the point of capitalism -- to grow wealth.
Elderron: We’ll keep our eyes open tomorrow.
Vinya: And eat this lovely dinner.

The lovely dinner was followed by an almost magical strawberry cake (in the middle of winter!). After dinner the bar got quieter.

Marxine went to the bar and bought a round for some of the dwarves to get a more explicit idea of the workers’ plans, but though they accepted the beers they didn’t talk about what they had in mind for the strike the next day. She gave them a power fist sign and then walked away.

Vinya, to Smolly as he came to bring more drinks: Are there any elf communities in Lonoj?
Smolly: There’s a little group of wood elves in Blossomside, near the greenspace in the city.
Vinya: Do they also work in the jewelry trade?
Smolly: Not necessarily.
Marxine: Maybe they grow the strawberries.

We finished eating and then went back to the Soaring Gull for the night.

Vinya and Marxine contemplated going and finding trouble on our way back, and Marxine watched for people milling about or moving, but she didn’t see anything but the place emptying out.

The night passed without incident.


23 Blizzarin 749 (Campaign day 54)

The next morning we heard rumblings even in the Soaring Gull about goings on in Facet Square. The departure of several of the ships in port was being delayed because many of the people who would have been sailing out wanted to take gems and jewels with them and the shops were closed.

We ate breakfast and headed to Facet Square. Many of the major entrances to the Square, especially those near the gem and jewelry stalls, were blocked by picket lines -- striking workers with signs. There were also picket lines at some of the larger jewelry shops. The signs had slogans demanding fair wages, freedom to negotiate, and an end to blacklists for qualified workers. They were in gnomish, dwarvish and common. The dwarven ones were blunt and to the point. The gnomish ones were cleverly worded calumnies. In either language, when a specific person was called out it was for not supporting fellow gnomes or fellow dwarves. They were evoking the strong community leanings of both the gnomes and the dwarves and calling out people for failing to abide by that.

Elderron looked around for the union leaders and organizers as well as the city watch and what the guild leaders were doing. The city watch wasn’t interfering with the picket line or the people crossing it. They were clearly there to intervene only when things got violent. They didn’t appear to be at all inclined to harass the striking workers or kick their heads.

Elama: What’s our goal?
Elderron: Have we chosen a side?
Marxine: <<laughs>>
Vinya: I’m with Marxine.

The striking workers had mostly blocked the entrances to the square near the gem shops - the other shops selling general merchandise and food were still open and doing business without crossing the picket lines.

Elderron: I’d like to go to Blossomside and see the other side of things -- get a sense of what the guilds and merchants are going to do.
Vinya: Yeah, see what they’re planning in response.
Marxine: I’m staying here.

So Marxine stayed in Facet Square while the rest of the party headed to Blossomside. We agreed to meet up at the Silver Loupe for lunch. Elderron was looking for guildsmen, members of the merchant-owner class, having conversations. Maybe a tavern to have a late second breakfast where people might be meeting. Elama and Vinya noticed a cluster of wood elf homes in a greenspace. They also noticed a lot of people in the street, some of them heading toward an upscale bar, that had a lot of noise and bustle coming out of it, though the sign on the door said that it was closed.

Vinya, to Elama: Clairvoyance would let us look into the bar.
Elama: It’s a great spell. But I didn’t prepare it today.

Vinya looked around for an alley or side window or something where we might be able to get close and overhear something. We found an alley on the side of the building where we could stand without being totally obvious about it. And from there we could hear and see a little bit.

There were a lot of people in the bar -- clearly merchants and gemcutters and jewelers -- guildmasters and shop owners and business owners and silversmiths. We heard some argument about what to do. It was clear that at that time they were not planning to give into the strikers.

Vinya took a peek in through the window looking for Mr. Stonebright, our employer, but didn’t see him.

We heard some talk about breaking the strike -- some people mentioned the name Armok, wondering what his thoughts were, asking what he’s doing. It was clear that his suggestions and ideas were going to carry a lot of weight.

Vinya: Any idea on how to find this Armok guy?
Elama: Maybe he’ll show up.
Vinya; We can wait for about an hour before we’re meeting Marxine and there’s only one entrance to the bar. Let’s mill around on the street and try not to be too obvious about it.

About 45 minutes later we saw a dignified looking, old, dwarf man, with an ornately braided beard and ornate robes, flanked by two much younger, similarly dressed dwarves who looked like they might be related to him. We realized as he entered the bar that none of us who were there could understand dwarvish. So Elderron cast comprehend languages and tried to listen to what was being said in the bar.

Unfortunately he couldn’t hear very well. The rest of us who could hear better couldn’t understand the languages being spoken. We collectively got the sense that there was a question from Armok and agreement from the assembly.

Meanwhile, back in Facet Square, Marxine was antsy and anxious because she’d done this before and it had gone poorly for her. She was milling about, keeping an eye on the guards around the picket lines, nervous they’d be doing something to attack or harm the picketing workers.

As she was keeping an eye out, she saw about a dozen orcish guys with leather armor and shields barreling toward a picket line a few hundred feet away.

At her top speed she was going to get there about 40 seconds after they were going to get there, which meant that they were going to have plenty of time to hurt a lot of the picketers. Some of the people on the picket line, seeing the orcs coming, changed their grip on their signs, ready to swing them in their own defense. Some of the picketers scattered.

Marxine ran that way with her shield ready, prepared to come between the workers and the orcs. She was also prepared to try and rally people back to the picket lines.

The orcs arrived at the picket line well before Marxine could -- she could only watch them attack the protestors. Two of the protestors were dropped hard -- it was clear to Marxine that the orcs weren’t pulling their blows. They didn’t care if they killed people. The orcs were indiscriminate in their attacks -- they hit anyone in or near the picket lines, including one of the guards, who they dropped.

Much of the line, and the guard keeping an eye on it, broke and scattered. The orcs didn’t put any effort into killing the ones who were dropped but they didn’t care about avoiding lethal damage either.

After breaking up the picket line, the orcs waded into the square toward some of the lines picketing specific shops. Some people were trying to help the picketers. Many were trying to get away. Marxine ran in their direction.

As Marxine got close, she dropped her shield and grabbed the magical maul with both hands as she met up with the orcs in the middle of the square. She hit and dropped one of the orcs with two blows then dropped another one with a single blow.

Marxine was so caught up in the fight that she was taken aback and surprised to see a tall, pale, thin human-looking man who ran into the fight at about the same time she did from the other side of the orcs. He stopped about 15 feet away from the group of orcs and dark, skeletal wings came out of his shoulders and he was surrounded by a terrifying aura. Three of the orcs looked rattled by him and attacked Marxine, but only one hit. The others turned and attacked the winged guy, and he was hit three times.

Marxine didn’t have time to figure out the guy with the skeletal wings -- she just kept swinging. She hit one of them twice -- the second shot knocked his head right off. The winged guy started laying into the orcs with two-handed swings with a longsword. He dropped two of the orcs that were attacking him. As he hit them, there were little flashes of light. He was also not trying to do non-lethal damage.

The two remaining orcs on Marxine hit her once between them. The winged guy was hit a few times by the several orcs on him.

Marxine dropped another one with her two hits and the winged guy, who appeared to be doing shots that flashed with blackness and a bright energy (both radiant and necrotic damage at the same time), dropped two of them, one with each blow.

After another couple of shots from the orcs on each of them, Marxine hit her remaining orc once but didn’t drop him. The winged guy dropped one then got a critical hit and did a paladin smite pulling down radiant energy that exploded in a big ball of energy. He then turned and looked at the one remaining orc, on Marxine, and growled something in orcish.

The orc wet his pants, dropped his club and ran away.

Winged guy: You fight well, tovarisch.
Marxine: Thanks for the help.
Winged guy: They needed stopping.

There were still a few protesters around -- most of them scattered but some had not. Some of the people who had been knocked down by the orcs were getting help -- folks were helping them up. Medics were hovering over a couple of the others.

Marxine, looking around: Are you helping these people? Are you staying around?
Winged guy: I can stay here. You appear to have picked the correct side.
Marxine: These are people trying to eat. The bosses are taking from them.
Winged guy: The world could use more people fighting for them. Where are you staying?
Marxine: The Soaring Gull
Winged Guy: I’ll find you there later.
Marxine: What’s your name?
Winged Guy: Erloto.

Meanwhile, the group trying to do surveillance and reconnaissance in Blossomside (and mostly failing) headed toward the Silver Loupe to meet Marxine for lunch armed only with one name, Armok, and the sense that the people in Blossomside had been in agreement with something he’d suggested.

On our way back to the bar we saw a beaten up and bedraggled orc running to Blossomside, though it didn’t go to the bar we were at.

Marxine and Erloto went to where the picketers and guards had been injured. Erloto went around laying hands on the injured, healing their wounds. Marxine took one of the injured people to the Silver Loupe, considering that a safe place where the person could get food, drink and tending to his wounds.

Marxine noticed that no one came to take care of the orcs.

We met up at the Silver Loupe.

Vinya: We got a name. You got a friend.
Marxine: You can tell by the blood -- some Pinkertons came to crack down on the protestors. I cracked back.

We told Marxine about what we heard, about Armok, and the distinguished dwarf with the two associates.As we talked we figured that the agreement we heard was about bringing in the brute squad.

Marxine: That would be a dwarf -- ending a strike with mercenaries.

We all agreed that bringing in brutes like the orcs on the first day of a strike was not okay.

Marxine went to talk to Smolly.

Smolly: Good to see you here again.
Marxine: I wish it was better circumstances.
Smolly: It could have been worse -- though two innocents died. And one of the guards.
Marxine: Have mercenaries been called on strikes before or is this the first time?
Smolly: It’s been done before, but this is the first time it’s been this quick. And that was as violent as it’s ever been.
Elerron: Who’s Armok? We saw a richly dressed dwarf…
Vinya: With two younger dwarves -- maybe his sons or nephews.
Smolly: That was a son and a nephew. Yeah, that’s Armok Fireruby.
Marxine: There’s an aristocrat name.
Smolly: He’s the head of the Jewellers’ Guild. His brother was the head of the Gemcutters’ Guild. His nephew is the head there now. His son is an up-and-comer in the Jewel Merchants’ Guild.
Elama: Are we going to kill this guy?
Vinya: Well, that’s not the plan.
Elderron: What can be done then?
Vinya: Maybe we can be guarding or helping the workers -- fighting the mercenaries.
Marxine: We don’t have time for a revolution.
Vinya: Maybe we can negotiate with Armok. If we could find an edge against him, leverage, to get him to back down…
Elderron: So we need to find people who might have leverage….

We talked about the possibility of getting his class allies disgusted with him for being so crude.

Elama: Do we have proof he hired the orcs?
Elderron: He arrived and talked and got agreement. Then there were orcs.

We talked about the fact that there was a human guardsman among the dead and decided to go talk to the guard. At the guardhouse, we noticed that there was a lot of busy-ness and commotion. We got in by throwing Captain Althorn’s name around.

Elderron looked around to see if there were any picketers being thrown in jail and saw none. He also didn’t see any orcs. But the guards were tense at having lost one of their own.

Elama: Hey, guys! Why are you so busy?
Marxine, Vinya and Aldalomiel: <<facepalm>

The reaction from the guard we were talking to was a three second pause.

Guard: Fustercluck in Facet Square.
Elama: We weren’t there. She was. <<pointing to Marxine>>
Marxine: Sorry about your comrade.
Guard: We want to find out why they killed him. He wasn’t a threat.
Elama: Do you have any orc corpses?
Guard: ….
Elama: I’m a priest. I can speak to dead people. Tomorrow.
Guard: Let me see if I can get you in to talk to Captain Toris.

The guard went deeper into the guard house then returned a couple of minutes later with a human man with greying temples, in his mid-fifties but still pretty trim, and introduced him as Captain Konasik Toris.

Captain Toris: You want one of the orc corpses.
Elama: Tomorrow. We want to know who hired the orcs.
Captain: We want to know that too. If we can figure out who did it, we can present a case to the mayor and the guilds. We can make sure this asshat gets punished.
Marxine: Even if they have money and influence?
Elderron: We’re here to help you.
Captain: Our guy wasn’t there but to keep order. He didn’t sign up to fight mercenaries. He wasn’t armed or equipped for that.
Elderron: So bringing in the orcs was crossing a line?
Captain: Yeah. It was. If two groups are going to fight each other, they need to make sure no one is caught in between.
Marxine: Only one side wanted to settle things this way. You’re not interested in the dead workers?
Captain: I’m being practical. Them having killed the guard is how to get justice -- if we can figure out where in the guilds this came from. The guilds won’t care about the dead workers but they will care about a dead guard. You can get justice for them by getting justice for my guy.
Marxine: Yeah. It just sucks.
Captain: Yeah.
Vinya: Any suggestion on where to begin?
Elama: There’s this Armok guy.
Captain: Armok Fireruby?
Vinya: Maybe…

Captain Toris then described perfectly the older, ornately-dressed dwarf we’d seen, as well as his two companions. Vinya told him the little we heard from the bar up in Blossomside.

Captain: Armok has a reputation as a ruthless dwarf.
Vinya: That would go with bringing in orc mercenaries on the first day of a strike.
Captain: Yeah.
Vinya: Where does he live? How can we find out more about him?
Captain: I don’t know a lot. I do know that the Firerubies aren’t in Torm Brinnom because the other dwarfs didn’t want them there.
Elama: Isn’t that where we’re escorting that guy?
Vinya and Elderron: Yes.

Torus gave us directions to the Fireruby estate.

Vinya: I bet there are big, conspicuous ruby-looking gems on the gate columns.
Elama: Is that a dwarf thing?
Marxine: If you’re an naughty word.

We left the Captain and headed toward the bar that the elf contingent of the party had been at in Blossomside to see if they’d opened by now. They had and it was less crowded open than it had been when it was closed earlier.

Armok was not still there.

Elderron, before we went in: Are we going to go in and ask a lot of questions?
Vinya: I think just listen for a while.
Marxine: If we talk to any of these people, I’ll go insane.
Vinya: But you can listen?
Marxine: Yes.

So we went in. Though there are a large number of dwarves and gnomes living in Blossomside, the bar was mostly sized for humans. We went in and got beverages and some bar food. This was a very rootsy-tootsy bar, with a bard playing a harp very poorly in the corner, and the food and drinks were expensive. They were not, however, any better than the food and drinks at the Silver Loupe. The only difference was that we paid a lot more here in Blossomside.

Elama and Elderron both noticed that the beverages tasted exactly like the wines they were drinking at the Silver Loupe. Exactly. They also noticed that there were no labels on the bottle. They pointed this out to the others, very quietly.

Vinya: I dislike these guys even more.
Elderron: So what are people paying for up here?
Vinya: They’re charging what the market will bear.

We then started to listen to what was going on in the bar. Aldalomiel heard a human a couple of tables away talking to his companions.

Human: I can’t believe the goons Armok hired got that out of hand. I also can’t believe so many of them wound out dead.
Marxine: <<suppressed cackle>>

We asked the bartender if he knew who that guy was but he had no idea. We watched carefully to see if the bartender gave the guy any indication that we’d inquired, but there was no communication.

Elama quietly cast thaumaturgy and created a whispering next to the guy’s ear that said, “This is your conscience. You are guilty of those deaths. Go confess your sins.”

After a few seconds of that, the guy sat up straight and looked around startled. The guy he was talking to looked puzzled at his companion’s behavior, but didn’t appear to be able to hear the whispering himself.

After 10 seconds of the whispering in his ear, the guy freaked out and fastwalked out of the bar. Aldalomiel put her hunters’ mark on him as he left.

We ended there, planning to let him get a little bit ahead of us before we left to follow him.


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## prabe (Oct 28, 2020)

Session 16: What’s Dwarvish for naughty word?


Dramatis Personae:

Aldalómiel - Wood Elf Ranger (Hunter Conclave)
Elama “Lamie” Galanodel- Wood Elf Cleric (Tempest)
Vinya Anar - Wood Elf Monk (Way of the Sun Soul)
Elderon - High Elf Wizard (Loremaster)
Marxine Deepfoot - Dwarf Fighter (Champion)

GM: - Everyone Else

(Note: This session was held on Discord.)


23 Blizzarin 749 (Campaign day 54) (immediately after)

A few minutes after the guy who had been talking about Armok walked out of the bar, we followed after him, trying to be subtle. Aldalomiel, even aided by her hunter’s mark, lost him in the crowd, but Elama spotted him at a distance down the road, so we were able to follow him without being noticed.

We were expecting him to perhaps head to the Fireruby estate, but he made his way out of Blossomside to Facet Square. He went into a two story haberdashery, Turlont’s, in a side of Facet Square that is not dedicated to gems and jewels. There were no picketers outside the store, but someone had planted a sign out front calling on them to support the strike.

We watched as he entered the building -- after a few minutes lights came on upstairs -- but we could see that the shop was still open. Vinya and Aldalomiel walked around the building looking for alleys and other exits or entrances to the building.

While they did so, Elderron, Elama, and Marxine went into the shop under the guise of Elderron looking for cufflinks to go with the fine clothes he’d bought himself when we arrived in Lonoj.

Shopkeeper, a human woman: Welcome to Turlont’s.
Elderron: Might you be Mrs. Turlont?
Shopkeeper: Yes, yes I am.
Elderron: I’d like to peruse around. I’m interested in fine things.
Mrs. Turlont: Please look around.

Elama started grabbing cool things she found in the shop and putting them on Elderron -- cravats and tie pins and cufflinks and scarves.

Marxine: Can we get a man’s opinion?
Mrs. Turlont: Certainly.

She went upstairs and then returned with the guy from the posh fern bar in Blossomside. He stepped into the room adjusting his clothes slightly -- his clothes were as nice as the very nicest stuff in the shop. He began offering cogent fashion opinions and pointing Elderron to options at a variety of price points. He also talked to Elderron a bit about what he liked and was interested in -- he wasn’t simply pointing out the most expensive items in the store or aggressively upselling but pointing to things that Elderron might like. Everyone but Marxine got the sense that he wasn’t scheming or being an oily salesman -- he genuinely wanted a happy customer. Marxine saw him as a social climber.

Turlont pointed Elderron to some cufflinks inlaid with mother of pearl owls, which Elderron bought. Elderron praised the shop and Turlont’s help in spotting the owls.

Elderron: How are you being affected by the strikes?
Turlont: Not too much really. We don’t make things here and we don’t primarily sell jewels or gems. We only have a couple of workers come in from time to time--mostly it’s me and my wife. Our supply is going to be affected eventually and foot traffic is down in the Square.

Marxine asked about the fighting earlier in the day.

Turlont: Bloodshed like that is bad. And bad for business. Especially in the shops selling finer goods.
Elderron: How uncivilized…
Turlont: The violence was unnecessary, but there are those who don’t want to pay their help... and they don’t want others to pay either.
Elderron: Were there fatalities?
Turlont: A couple of picketers were killed. What bugs me most is that a guard was killed.
Elderron: That’s dreadful! Who was involved? Were picketers and owners actually fighting in the streets?
Turlont: Some of the gem people thought they could get the strike over more quickly by hiring someone to come in and beat up the picketers.
Elderron: That’s unfortunate.
Turlont: Yeah. It’s just going to agitate the strikers and make it go longer. That’s if there aren’t repercussions from that guard being killed. Maybe that will shorten the strike.
Elderron: That’s to be hoped for.
Turlont: I don’t expect it.
Marxine: Why not? You don’t expect the guilds will face repercussions?
Elderron: What about the captain of the guard? Is he going to favor the guilds too?
Turlont: I expect Captain Toris will be displeased.
Elderron: Does he have authority to do anything?
Turlont: He may be able to make a case to the Guild Council, but he’ll have to be sure of his evidence.
Elderron: Are there rivalries in the Council or are they pretty united?
Turlont: There are some merchants and guilds where you want to be very careful around the leadership. I’ve had friends who found themselves sharply undercut to the point of not being able to sell at a profit. One I was closest to was a milliner, so not even in the gem business directly.
Elderron: Are the guilds you are talking about here the same ones being picketed?
Turlont: Yeah.
Elderron: That explains the brute squad, then.
Turlont: There’s a strange combination of self-assuredness and desperation.
Elderron: Desperation? How?
Turlont: They hired orcs. They can’t have had an expectation of finesse or subtlety.
Marxine: It says they don’t want to negotiate.
Turlont: Yeah. The message is to conform or get beaten down.
Elderron: Whoever hired these orcs is clearly not much for negotiating this strike.
Turlont: He’d be willing to negotiate if there was no danger of losing.
Elderron: I guess they thought the orcs would cause fear and he’d get leverage against the picketers.
Turlont: Or break their will. But given how well the exercise went for him, I don’t expect it to have worked.
Elderron: Fear can be a useful tool if used properly.

They thanked Turlont and prepared to leave. Marxine didn’t think it appropriate to jump on his chest so she turned back just to ask another question.

Marxine: I think I know something about the guard being killed. If you or some of the people who’ve been screwed in the past aren’t free to take action, maybe we can. We can help fix the power balance.

Turlont looked at Marxine for a second then his eyes got wide and there was a spark of recognition.

Turlont: You were one of the one who killed the Spearbreakers! I would love for the Guilds to get it through their heads that the Firerubys are greedy and bad for everyone else’s business. The dead guard may be the last straw.
Marxine: I’m hoping to help the guards get justice, so the dead picketers can get justice.
Turlont: I hear things. I do business with the Jewelers’ Guild. Other merchants don’t know how ruthless the Firerubys are. They don’t know that Armok has a son and a nephew rising in other guilds.
Marxine: Who can we talk to to connect the Spearbreakers to the Firerubys?
Turlont: I can’t help with the Spearbreakers. I have spent too much time avoiding interactions with the Firerubys.
Marxine: If any word gets back to you, let me know. And if you hear of trouble coming for you let us know. We’re staying at the Soaring Gull. We don’t want you to be a victim because you talked to us.

He did give Marxine a bit of information about the Firerubys.

Armok Fireruby is the head of the Jewellers’ Guild. They get the raw gems out of the ground and to the Gemcutters.

Artock Fireruby, his nephew, is the head of the Gemcutters’ Guild.

Kurkul Fireruby, his son, is up-and-coming in the Gem Merchants’ Guild.

Marxine, Elama, and Elderron left and met up with Vinya and Aldalomiel outside. Marxine told us that she was meeting with someone who’d fought alongside her at the Soaring Gull. So we decided to forgo the delicious dinner we knew we’d get from Smolly at the Silver Loupe and went for dinner at the Soaring Gull instead.

At the Soaring Gull, we ran into our employer, Ullard Stonebright, who was looking pretty discombobulated.

Elama: Hi, Mr. Stonebright. What’s wrong?
Stonebright: There’s a lot of tension and upset around. I’m sure you’ve noticed. I’m having a bit of a hard time finding anyone who wants to sail toward Torm Brinnom.
Elama: All the hubbub in town has to do with the jewelers. I don’t know that it would stop people wanting to leave the city. We’ve been looking into it and hearing the name...Fire...help me out…
Vinya and Marxine: Fireruby.
Stonebright: They didn’t get far. I’m not surprised you’re hearing their name.
Elderron: Why?
Stonebright: They were notoriously ruthless and greedy. The other clans in Torm Brinnom kicked them out.
Marxine: Does hiring orcs also sound like them?
Stonebright: Uh...possibly?
Elama: Don’t dwarves hate orcs?
Marxine: I have more of a grudge against Firerubys.
Stonebright: It’s not universal. Some strongholds have had real problems with orcs since the Severance. Others haven’t. Since the Severance, the orcs are no longer so driven to violence by their gods. Some have changed, some haven’t. That’s the real variation, I think, not the dwarves.
Marxine: The Firerubys hired orcs to break the strike.
Elderron: What do you think of that?
Stonebright: I think that won’t end well.
Elderron: Do you know them?
Stonebright: They were kicked out before I came of age. But the interactions I had even with the children of the family were unpleasant. They’re the sort that give all dwarf merchants a bad name.
Elderron: Did he give Torm Brinnom a bad name?
Stonebright: I was young and that was all happening among the elders. But even the kids were unpleasant.
Elderron: Do you remember names?
Stonebright: <<thinks for several moments>> Ar...Artok maybe. I remember him being a self-important bully.

We made a bit more small-talk then Stonebright headed up to his room and we stayed in the tavern for dinner.

Vinya went to talk to the bartender, since they always know about things in their cities.

Vinya: Are there resident orcs in town?
Bartender: There’s a band of orc mercenaries for hire, the Spearbreakers. They do most of their work out of town, guarding caravans or ships on the river.
Vinya: How do we get in touch with them?
Bartender: They’re in Ash Hill.

He gave us directions into the right part of Ash Hill then suggested that from there we could ask someone for directions. Vinya thanked him and went back to our table.

After dinner, a very tall, slender, exceedingly pale man came in and greeted Marxine. He looked like an albino with white skin, pale hair, and very pale blue eyes.

Pale man: Greetings, tovarisch. I am Erloto Oddrnov. That was brave. It is not everyone who will stand up for those who cannot stand up for themselves.
Marxine: I HAD to.
Vinya: You have to help people.
Erloto, still looking at Marxine: It’s good to have allies.

Marxine introduced us.

Elderron recognized him as a fallen aasimar -- a person of celestial heritage who has been touched by darkness or turned to evil. He couldn’t understand how it worked that Erloto was helping people.

Elderron: Erloto, tell us about yourself.

He told us that he’s from Kotima -- several months travel by boat away from here. It’s also called the Broken Continent. Kotima has families of aasimar diplomats and envoys. He noticed Elderron’s wariness and said that he had fallen from the grace of his Planetar guide and the Celestial hierarchy by refusing their pressure to do good only by taking a very broad view. He preferred to help the needy and oppressed right in front of him.

Erloto handed Marxine a sheaf of papers -- handwritten notes about justice and helping the downtrodden. Everything she needed to become a paladin and take the Oath of Liberation, if she so chose.

Elama: Do you understand things about Celestial and otherworldly stuff?
Erloto: Some….
Elama: Can you take a look at my book?

She pulled out her book that wouldn’t retain any mark and showed it to him. He looked at it, flipping through the pages, looking at some of them very closely.

Erloto: Maybe it’s already full.
Elama: But it’s empty.
Marxine: What do you think we should do for this town next?

Erloto talked to us for a bit to get a sense of the information we’d gathered.

Erloto: I think maybe if you can get pressure onto the other members of the guilds they are trying to lead that could cut them off from their political power. If you can convince those three guilds to stand up to them, that would put a lot of pressure on them.
Elderron: Pressure in what way? What do you think about propaganda?
Erloto: It might work.
Marxine: And pointing out they killed a guard…
Erloto: If you can find clear evidence linking them to the death of a guard it could cut their legs out from under them.
Elderron: Where can we find these Spearbreakers?
Erloto: They’re in Ash Hill. Be careful, the Firerubys are not very nice and if you press them they may become desperate.
Vinya: It seemed like Armok Fireruby got agreement about bringing in the Spearbreakers from the other owners and guildsmen.
Erloto: Did he get consensus or just present them with a fait accompli?
Vinya: Good point.

Erloto left shortly after that, Vinya walked with him for a bit and they talked. Then he left the inn and we retired to bed. The night passed without incident.


24 Blizzarin 749 (Campaign day 55)

Our first step in the morning was to go to the guardhouse to talk to Captain Toris and to talk to one of the dead orcs.

We got there and found the captain looking haggard.

Vinya: What’s up, Captain? Is everything okay?
Captain Toris: Things aren’t worse.
Marxine: We have some information -- do you know anything about the Firerubys’ past?
Captain: Your people operate on a different timescale than mine. (Reminder: Captain Toris is a human.)
Marxine: They were ousted from their stronghold for the things they’re doing now -- ruthlessly trying to manipulate the market in their favor, driving people out of business. That sort of thing.
Captain: Interesting.
Marxine: It’s kind of their MO.

We asked to see the corpse of one of the orcs then and he took us to where they’d kept the corpses.

Elama started to put candles around the corpse, as part of casting speak with dead.

Elderron: Can anyone speak orcish?

He cast comprehend languages to solve that problem. Elama suggested to Marxine that she not be in the room, because the orc would know if an enemy was present and might refuse to answer, or to answer truthfully. Marxine reluctantly agreed to stand just outside the door, monitoring the proceedings from just out of site. Captain Toris, however, stayed in the room with us as an official witness of the proceedings.

Elama went back to setting out candles and cast the spell. We had five questions.

Elama: Who hired you to fight the picketers?
Corpse: The dwarves.
Elama: What was the name of the dwarf who hired you?
Corpse: Aaarrrmooooochhh
Elama, after consulting with the party: What was the entirety of your contract?
Corpse: We was told to hurt as many protestors as possible as badly as we could.
Elama, after another consultation: Who negotiated the deal within the Spearbreakers?
Corpse: Kronsk
Elama: How do we get in touch with Kronsk?
Corpse: Go to the Spearbreakers and talk to Kronsk.
Vinya: That’s straightforward.

After the ritual was over, we left the room and talked to the Captain about how he’s feeling about things now.

Captain: I don't know what to make of that Dwarven name. This was the third goon from the left so he may have just repeated what he heard from other Spearbreakers.
Vinya: It sounded like Armok to me.
Captain: I wish it had been more clear.
Marxine: Our next step is to go talk to this Kronsk guy. He may not want to talk to us if he’s going to be dragged into court for killing a guard.
Captain: It’s probably going to depend on what he tells us. If the contract didn’t say anything about the guard -- whether hurting them or avoiding doing so -- it may not land as badly on the Spearbreakers as on the Firerubys. But let’s see what he says.
Marxine: I’m going to keep that in my pocket for when we talk to him.

We headed off to Ash Hill to find the Spearbreakers. Ash Hill is a run down neighborhood, there was more poverty and hardship than we’d seen anywhere else in the city.

As we walked we decided that our best bet for getting in to talk to Kronsk would be to say that we wanted to hire the Spearbreakers for a job.

We followed the bartender’s directions as far as they took us then stopped a roughed up looking goliath with a limp and Vinya asked where we could find the Spearbreakers to hire them. He looked at us for a moment, then looked around and pointed in the direction of the city wall.

Vinya: Are they outside the wall or up against it?
Goliath: No. Just that way.

A couple of minutes later we found a seedy looking house with a fence around it. Over the gate were a pair of crossed spears that had been fractured but not entirely broken.

Elderron cast comprehend languages quickly, then Elama stepped forward to knock on the door. Marxine
stayed at the back of the party.

After a bit there was a voice from inside the gate.

Orc: What you want, elf?
Elama: Hi! We want to talk to Kronsk.
Orc: Why would Kronsk want talk to you?
Elama: We want to talk about what happened in the Square.
Marxine, pushing forward: We want to talk about a job!
Elderron: Do you want gold?
Orc: The Square? Why you want talk about Square?
Elama: We want to know who was responsible so they can be arrested.
Marxine: NO!
Vinya: Who hired you? We want for that person to be arrested!
Orc: You wait.

After five minutes of waiting and four minutes of Marxine being sure we’d bungled it, the orc came back.

Orc: You want talk Kronsk, when door open you step in. Close door. Put your weapons on ground. You in robes, put wand, staff on ground. When other door opens, step through. Leave stuff on ground.

We nodded. Shortly after that, the door opened in front of us. We followed the instructions -- we stepped inside and saw a single orc standing, unarmed and unarmored, by the inner door. We also saw a lot of murder slits around the side and inner walls. Everyone in the party set their weapons down. When we’d done so, the orc opened the door and pointed to the inside. We went where we were pointed and stepped out into a large courtyard. The door closed behind us.

A large and burly orc was walking toward us, with two more orcs behind him. He had a great axe over his shoulder, as did the other two orcs escorting him. He stopped about 15 feet away.

Kronsk: I am Kronsk. Who are you? [he turned to Marxine] You let one run away.
Marxine: I had things to attend to. I am Marxine Deepfoot, Miner and Warrior.

We introduced ourselves.

Marxine: Things are whacky in town. You’ve noticed, I’m sure.
Kronsk: Things are muddled.
Marxine: We’re not here to fight. We want to settle the town down. We want to get to the people who are the root of the problems.
Kronsk: We were hired by Armok Fireruby to hurt as many of the picketers as we could as badly as we could.
Elama: Did the contract say anything about the guard?
Kronsk: We were told to commit the most mayhem possible. We were not told not to harm any person, group or place. Precision isn’t our strength.
Elderron: You were just following orders.
Kronsk: Doing what we were paid to do.
Elderron: What was the form of payment?
Kronsk: Gold.
Vinya: I suppose it’s too much to hope that anything was written down.
Kronsk: We shook hands.
Vinya: Would you be willing to tell this to Captain Toris?

Kronsk looked at Marxine.

Marxine: We’re not after you. We’re after the guys who set you on that mission, because they set you up.
Kronsk: It is much easier when we’re just protecting a boat or caravan.
Marxine: You’re not happy about what you did either…
Kronsk: Fighting is what we do. But feh.
Marxine: I’ll be on your side. Vouching for you.
Kronsk: Wait one.

He went back into the building on the other side of the courtyard. He came out a few minutes later with two more orcs.

Kronsk: Let’s go talk to the Captain.
Marxine: Yeah!!

We retrieved our weapons and we all walked together through the city to the guard house in Thivvel.

Vinya talked to him about the Spearbreakers and the work they do as we walked through the city. They mostly work guarding ships and caravans -- mostly between here and Torm Brinnom or between here and New Arvai. Kronsk’s grandfather was the first of the tribe to move into Lonoj, though they’d been doing the work for a long time before that.

We got to the guardhouse in Thivvel -- we decided to go around Blossomside rather than risking alerting the Firerubies to what was going on by walking through the wealthy neighborhood with the Spearbreakers.

Captain Toris greeted us outside the guardhouse, having seen us coming. Vinya asked Kronsk to tell the Captain what he’d told us. He did so.

When he was done, Captain Toris sighed and asked if Kronsk would mind coming in and telling that story one more time, so that he could have someone write it down. Kronsk agreed to do that.

Marxine: Can I have a copy of that testimony?
Captain: I can arrange that. It will take a little time though.

We left Kronsk with the Captain and headed toward Chimney Shell to see if we could find an older dwarf who might remember the Firerubys. On the way we decided to stop by Turlont’s shop to see if he could recommend any blacksmiths. He said no. So we proceeded on to Chimney shell.

Marxine asked around for the master blacksmith, THE guy. We were pointed to the shop of a dwarf who had been smithing in Lonoj for 150 years and in Torm Brinnom for some number of years before that. One of the people we asked told us that if he was willing to say that he’d taught you, which he wasn’t always, it was definitely a good mark on your skills. This was definitely the right guy for us. His name was Gimarul Hammerhammer.

Vinya: A true blacksmith’s name.

It was not hard to find Hammerhammer’s forge -- it had two hammers over the door. We found a very burly, ripped looking dwarf with not much hair and a very trim beard.

Hammerhammer, to Marxine: What are you doing bringing elves to my shop, girl?
Marxine: They just started following me.
Vinya: Or something like that.

Marxine introduced herself and they shook hands. Hammerhammer’s grip was strong but not brutal. Marxine shook her hand out.

Hammerhammer: Ah, I didn’t break anything.

Marxine put down her shield, taken from a dead gnoll, and told him that she wanted an upgrade. He recognized it.

Hammerhammer: Why are you carrying that piece of shite?
Marxine: I took it from one I killed and haven’t had a chance to get something better.

Marxine: I hear you learned our craft in a stronghold. So you know your naughty word.
Hammerhammer: Lots of people learn in strongholds.
Marxine: But not out here.
Hammerhammer: Sometimes people do things for reasons that work out for them.
Vinya: So you’re making better money out here?
Hammerhammer: I thought I would.
Elderron: What’s holding you back?
Hammerhammer: In the stronghold, there were whole clans of people who have been smithing for 200 years. Here it’s just me.
Marxine: Clans from Torm Brinnom don’t get out much?
Hammerhammer: You know how dwarves are. It’s a matter of comfort. Some people don’t fit in.

After a bit of talking, Marxine asked about the Firerubys.

Hammerhammer: I thought you might be asking about them. What do you want to know?
Marxine: We know their behavior here is part of a pattern. What started it?
Hammerhammer: It started with greed. There is little they won’t do if they think it will make them richer. There were rumors they had arranged deaths of other dwarves. By the time I left no one would go on a mining expedition or a trade caravan with them -- it was not uncommon for them to return and their partners to be lost.
Vinya: Didn’t someone tell us that the former head of the Gemcutter’s Guild died -- and now Armok’s nephew Artock is the head of it?
Hammerhammer: I don’t follow Guild politics. At least not in other guilds.
Vinya: Do you have anything for someone like me?
Hammerhammer: I mostly make armor. Which won’t be useful for you. [turned to Marxine] But I can’t let a dwarf leave with that piece of naughty word.

He handed her a shield with two hammers painted on it.

Hammerhammer: Take this. I insist.

Then he picked up her gnoll shield and bent it double over his knee. Marxine asked to pay and he refused to let her. They bickered over that for a bit.

Elama then pulled out the bulette hide she’d collected off the bulette we killed. Hammerhammer was very interested in that and thought he could make something good for her with it, but it would take time and the services of a master tanner as well.

Elama: We’ll be coming back through Lonoj after we take Mr. Stonebright to Torm Brinnom. We can pick it up then.

(He’ll sell one shield to Elama for 250 gp and have three others to sell for 500 gp.)


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## prabe (Nov 5, 2020)

Session 17: Dwarven Oaths


Dramatis Personae:
Aldalómiel - Wood Elf Ranger (Hunter Conclave)
Elama “Lamie” Galanodel- Wood Elf Cleric (Tempest)
Vinya Anar - Wood Elf Monk (Way of the Sun Soul)
Elderon - High Elf Wizard (Loremaster)
Marxine Deepfoot - Dwarf Fighter (Champion)

GM - Everyone Else

(Note: This session was held on Discord.)


24 Blizzarin 749 (Campaign day 55) (immediately after)

As we left Hammerhammer’s smithy, we talked about next steps. We thought about looking into suspicious deaths among the merchant class. VInya thought she understood that the former head of the Gemcutters Guild, replaced by Artok Fireruby (nephew of Armok), had died.

We thought about going off to talk to Captain Toris, but realized that it was near dinnertime, so we decided to hold that for the next day and went back to the Silver Loupe for dinner. As we went, we passed through Facet Square -- there was picketing going on, but there had been no major actions like the day before. Marxine noticed that morale was still good among the picketers.

When we got to the Silver Loupe, the people there recognized Marxine as someone fighting on their side and she was greeted warmly.

Smolly: Some of the merchants are negotiating with the workers -- they’re breaking ranks to increase wages and provide better conditions.
Vinya: Huh. Cool!

Marxine told Smolly what we’d been working on as far as finding information that would cause the guilds to step away from the Firerubys.

Smolly: The other guildsmen are undercutting Armok and the other Firerubys by coming to the table. I’ve heard of one or two merchants offering concessions to workers who’d been employed by other people.
Elderron: I wonder what Fireruby thinks about this.
Smolly: I don’t know what to expect from Fireruby, either the clan overall or the few doing most of their Guild business.
Vinya: What do you know about the death of the former head of the Gemcutters’ Guild?
Smolly: Well, I know she was a very old hill dwarf. I thought she died of old age. Her clan is still here, but I don’t think she has any immediate relatives in town.
Elderron: Where does the clan live?
Smolly: Not too far from the Firerubys.
Elderron: What was her name?
Smolly: Thodrina Frostgem.

Marxine went to talk to some of the dwarven workers in the bar. They said they were surprised that things were happening in their favor so quickly.

Elderron, to Smolly: Who’s been increasing pay? We’d like to know what changed their minds.
Smolly: There’s a human named Cordun Emmlin, a gnome named Skorada Stickyfingers Orindon, a hill dwarf named Molg Faceteye, and the Frostgems.
Elderron: Thanks!
Smolly: We aims to help.
Marxine: You really have.

We enjoyed the food for a while then Vinya asked one of the workers if Marxine’s friend Erloto had helped to broker the deals between the guildmembers and the workers. The workers said they had the sense that the guard had evidence from the Spearbreakers that he was going to present to the Council.

After dinner, we went back to the Soaring Gull and the night passed without incident.


25 Blizzarin 749 (Campaign day 56)

We had breakfast and then headed out to the guardhouse to talk to Captain Toris. We immediately noticed that he looked less stressed than he had been.

Captain: Good morning.
Marxine: You look good.
Captain: It’s amazing what happens when you act as though there aren’t powers that be that will stop you from doing the right thing.
Elderron: Do you think you have enough of a case for the jury? Will it convict?
Captain: Interested parties within the station have passed word about the information we have to the guilds.
Elderron: Have you heard about what happened in Torm Brinnom?
Captain: I know he had some problems there.
Elderron: Talk to Hammerhammer.
Vinya: It was thought that Armok was responsible for the deaths of other dwarves. Have there been mysterious deaths among the guilds that the Firerubys are in?
Captain: There haven’t been any unexplained deaths, no. But some interesting and disturbing property crimes.
Marxine: Property crimes?
Captain: Stores burning down in situations where one of the guilds have discouraged a full investigation. We haven’t figured out whether that was from the entire Fireruby clan or just from the upper echelons.
Marxine: Do you know which people have had places burned down? Can we get names?
Captain: I can give you names. The victims have been mostly humans.
Marxine: Elves and dwarves hold longer grudges.
Captain: The Council of Guilds is meeting this afternoon -- this will be on the agenda. The other guilds are not happy.
Marxine: We’ll talk to the store owners who had their shops burned down. If we shore up their resolve maybe they’ll be willing to testify.

He gave us two names: Tara Grastim, a milliner, and Dallatin Turst, a dry goods merchant.

A dry goods merchant seemed like quite an outlier in the Fireruby’s sphere of influence -- gems and jewelry -- so we went there first. We found Turst in Naggedon. His place had been burned down one year before and we followed Captain Toris’ directions. We found a stone building under construction, with masons (mostly human) under the direction of a person who was clearly the master mason. There was someone else there who we assumed was Dallatin Turst.

We talked to Turst about the circumstances leading up to the fire that had destroyed his building. He said that he had provisioned a Fireruby caravan going to Torm Brinnom. Armok Fireruby said he needed a little float on what he would pay, but he would make enough money to pay the full bill when he sold his goods. But when the caravan returned, Turst didn’t get paid, even when he asked for the money he was owed. When the Firerubies came to him to get provisions for another caravan, Turst declined to do so, because he was still waiting to get paid for the previous one. Right after that, his shop was burned down. He felt somewhat lucky that no one was hurt.

Marxine: Captain Toris is reopening the case and reinvestigating it. Without restrictions from the guilds. The Firerubys world is crashing down. You should get the word out to your guild.

He agreed that he would consider it.

We then headed to Facet Square to go to the shop of Skorada “Stickfingers” Orindon, a gnome dealing in flashy and gaudy, but well-made, jewelry.

Skorada: Top o’ the day to you! How can I help you?
Marxine: We want to talk to you about the strike.
Vinya: And why and how you resolved it with your workers so quickly.
Skorada: Oooookaaay….
Marxine: What brought you to the table so soon?
Skorada: It’s one thing to stick with your guild, but when you find out your guild is killing people. That’s another thing. I chose not to stand with them when I found that out.
Vinya: How did you hear about them hiring the Spearbreakers?
Skorada: If I hadn’t been in that fern bar in Blossomside, it still wouldn’t be hard to figure out who hired them.
Elderron: Was it the elder Fireruby or one of the younger ones?
Skorada: Armok is the older one, he was the main force. He arrived at the fern bar with the two youngers, Artok and Kurkul.
Elderron: Would you like to see him removed from your guild and from the council?
Skorada: The number of guilds on the council varies. Right now there are twenty-seven guilds. Of those there are twenty-four votes to exile them. How many more beyond that will depend on how many meet between now and the Council meeting. Or in the case of my guild, the Jewelers’ Guild, he’s already been voted out in a meeting held in private.
Vinya: Has he been informed?
Skorada: That is in progress.
Elama: Why are you called Stickfingers? Do you really have stick fingers?
Skorada: You get your hands caught in the vise one time--ONE TIME--and a nickname sticks.

We left for Blossomside to see what was going on at the Fireruby estate. When we got there, we sauntered past the gate, through it we saw that the shutters on the house were closed and the shades were all down. Four grim looking guards stood at the front gate.

Elama: It’s almost like they’re expecting trouble.

The estate had a wall around it, solid and high which made it impossible to see in except through the gate. We walked around the estate, casually as possible. We could see an upper story and the roof of the mansion inside, but we couldn’t see any activity or movement. Around the back we saw a second entrance, clearly a trade entrance -- less grand and a wider gate. This back entrance was also guarded by four guards. They also looked grim, even by dwarf standards.

Aldalomiel noticed that they didn’t appear to merely be grimly waiting for bad stuff to be coming from outside their compound, but were more broadly unhappy with what was going on in their life.

Through the gate, we saw that there was some activity in the courtyard. There was a cart waiting with some chests in it, but it wasn’t anything like big enough for the whole clan to be moving. Marxine thought Armok was leaving because of the heat. Vinya, considering the grimness of the dwarves on guard duty, wondered if he was being kicked out of the clan.

We decided to head to city hall to see if we could pick up anything about, or at, the council meeting. We then realized that we didn’t really know where that was. Vinya went back to talk to the guards outside the back of the Fireruby estate.

Vinya: Can you please point us in the direction of the Council building? I love architecture and really want to see the building. Do they let visitors in?
Guard, looking puzzled: Really? It’s that way. Turn left after ten blocks.

The council building was really bland with the only windows clerestory windows at the tops of the walls.

Vinya, still playing idiot, architecture-obsessed tourist, went right to the door of the council building and asked the person at the entrance if we could go in and look around.

Vinya: I find government buildings so interesting, don’t you? I’d really love to look into this one. Is that possible?
Guard, looking over his shoulder, then back at Vinya, puzzled: Umm, there’s really not much here. I’d be happy to let you see it, but the Council is going to be meeting in just a few hours and I can’t let you in. If you come back tomorrow…
Vinya: Oh, well, shoot. I don’t know if we’re still going to be in town tomorrow. Can you at least tell me what the building is like inside?
Guard, still just puzzled: It’s a room. With some smaller offices around it. There’s a table. Come back tomorrow if you can.
Vinya: I definitely will! Thanks!

We found a quiet place not too far from the council building and Elderron sent Oda to fly up and look through the clerestory windows of the building. He saw a conference table with 27 chairs around it. There were additional chairs lined up on the side of the room, that we surmised were for witnesses who were going to speak to the council.

We decided to head over to the same bar we’d seen the guildmasters meeting at the day of the Spearbreaker attack, the fancy fern bar, which was just a couple minutes walk away. It was the closest restaurant/bar/eatery to the Fireruby estate, but sadly not very close to it (several minutes away). As we went in that direction we saw a group of well-dressed people of a smattering of races, humans, dwarves, gnomes, elves, a halfling, all moving in the direction of the Fireruby estate. We let them go by then casually sort of went in that direction, staying back and trying to be subtle about it. We noticed other people standing and staring, or openly and obviously following the group.

When the group arrived at the front entrance to the Fireruby estate, we noticed that there were only three guards at the gate now. Most of the party went to the back of the estate, thinking that there would be some action back there -- probably an attempt to flee. Vinya stayed at the front to see what happened with the group.

After a while a female dwarf who looked to be about the same age as Armok came to the gate with the fourth of the guards who had been on duty there. She spoke with the well-dressed group in a quiet but very intense conversation. Vinya heard one of the group say that they had come to tell Armok that he was no longer the head of the Jewelers’ Guild.

Fireruby Matriarch: By telling me, you have told him. We will not contest this.

Hearing that, Vinya circled around the building, without crossing in front of the gate, and joined up with the others in the back. We stayed back there until shortly before the council meeting. As we hung out, Marxine and Vinya saw movement through the back gate inside the estate. We saw movement and one of the guards headed toward the front.

Elama started casting clairvoyance.

Elderron sent Oda toward the front of the house to see what was going on up there. He saw a mature dwarven woman, escorted by four guards, head toward the council building. Oda followed them to the building then watched through the window. Elderron could see the people in the council room and we were hoping that Elama would be able to hear.

Unfortunately, her spell failed and Oda was unable to hear anything that happened. We figured that there must be a spell or something blocking anyone listening in on the proceedings.

Elderron continued to watch. He saw the meeting coming to order, then the dwarf woman walked in without her guards. She insisted on speaking to the council before any of the witnesses, talking intensely and fiercely. She looked scared and uncertain -- maybe of what the council would do, maybe of Armok.

The dwarves among the council and sitting in the witness chairs, were stunned by her words, their jaws literally dropping. After that there was some explanation from the dwarves to the people of other races, then everyone seemed to be stunned and surprised.

She spoke for another minute or two, then there was animated discussion among the witnesses and the council, while the woman left the room. A moment later Elderron saw, through Oda’s eyes, as she left the building with her four guards and turned down the street toward the Fireruby estate.

Vinya moved to the front of the building, while the rest of the party stayed in the back, and hid up between the Fireruby fence/wall and the neighboring estate. A few minutes alter the dwarf woman got to the front entrance. One of the guards opened the gate. When she entered, two of the guards stayed at the front gate and the other two went in with her. Vinya noticed there were six at the front gate now -- four facing in toward the house and two facing out to the street. Like they were trying to stop something from coming out of the house even more than they were trying to stop something from going in.

Elderron had Oda fly around the house looking for windows, but they were all shuttered or shaded. Vinya saw a glimpse through the gate of people taking a chest out to the cart we’d seen before. It looked like it had seating for three people, and there were three chests on it. It had been moved from the back of the house to the front and looked like it would go out the front entrance. Oda could see more clearly, so Elderron noticed that it wasn’t a very high quality cart -- not better or fancier than the ones we’d used between the Knot and Tash.

Vinya ran to the back of the estate to tell the others what was going on in the front. Then she ran back to the front without seeing if they were following her. Oda saw some dwarves leaving the mansion -- it was Armok, Kurkul, and Artok, only in ordinary trader’s clothes -- not the finery they’d worn when we saw them days ago.

Elderron conveyed to Marxine what he was hearing, repeating the unfamiliar dwarvish words as best he could, but Marxine couldn’t understand him. It definitely sounded like there was argument. And Armok giving orders, but no one was following them, then the realization that he was not in charge anymore. There were guards on the doorstep of the house, to prevent the three of them from going back in.

Armok, Artok, and Kurkul climbed onto the cart and the woman led the cart to the front gate. The guards opened the gate and she led the cart out onto the street. Once on the street, she started speaking forcefully in dwarvish.

By that point Marxine and the rest of the party had moved to the front of the alley between the Firerubys and their neighbors. Marxine heard the woman name each of the three men fully, not just their given names and clan names, but the names of their ancestors going back several generations.

Fireruby Matriarch: By the forge on which your souls were made and the hammer that made them, you are cast out of this place. You are no longer of us.

The cart then started moving away from the house, generally in the direction of Silent Up and the main city gate. Armok, Kurkul, and Artok weren’t going meekly -- they seemed more angry than humbled or shamed -- but none of the three were fighters and they went.

Oda flew after the cart until it had left the city and turned down the river in the direction of New Arvai. Then he returned and reported to Elderron what he’d seen.

Maybe an hour and a half after the cart left, Captain Toris and a group of people, which Elderron recognized as the council members, arrived at the Fireruby estate with a large contingent of guards. We stepped out from our secluded alley so we could see better and Captain Toris waved us over to him.

Captain Toris: You know the Firerubys kicked Armok, Kurkul, and Artok out?
Vinya: Yeah. We saw them leave.

The dwarven woman came out of the house and came to the gate.

Fireruby Matriarch: Captain. What is the council’s decision? We have kicked the offenders out of clan and city.. The offer of restitution is sincere and still stands. We have learned from talking to him that our entire clan was not exiled from Torm Brinnom, just those three. They lied to us and betrayed their whole clan. If the council has determined to exile us from the city, we will accept that.
Captain, to Marxine: She said something about a hammer and forge of souls.
Marxine: Yeah. That’s how dwarves are made.
Captain: So if she’s swearing by that it’s a big thing?
Marxine: Yeah.
Captain: I wanted to hear that from someone not from Lonoj.
Marxine: I was positive something bad was going to happen until she said that.
Captain, to the Fireruby Matriarch: We accept the justice you have dispensed within your clan and we accept the restitution you offer. Furthermore, no one in your clan is allowed to lead a guild in this city, nor may their children or grandchildren.
Vinya, to Captain: Does the restitution they offered include the dead workers or does it only go as far as the dead guard?
Captain: The individual guard’s family, and our widows and orphans fund, will all receive money. All of those who work for the clan will receive better pay. There will also be money for the families of the dead picketers. There will be no punishment for the Spearbreakers except that they are not allowed to take jobs within the city.

He took us back to the guard house and paid each of us 250 gold pieces for the help we’d given the city.

Vinya: Is the strike over?
Captain: Artok, Kurkul, and Armok were the main drivers and instigators of the merchants and bosses refusing to back down and refusing to negotiate. With them gone, the workers will once again be able to negotiate for better pay and working conditions.

We headed then to the Silver Loupe to relax and hang out. There was a big shout when we entered. Smolly waved us over to the bar.

Smolly: A bunch of the people chipped in with a bit of money and some of them had things sitting around that they didn’t have a use for and they thought maybe you did.
Vinya: Oh, that’s not…
Marxine: I’ll respect their kindness and we’ll accept their gifts.

Smolly put a chest on the counter (it had 1000 gp in it) and three magical items which, when identified, turned out to be an Elixir of Health, a Rope of Climbing and a magical flail, a Flail of Warning.

Vinya and Marxine each stood around for the whole bar, then the whole party decided that would be from all of us. (So we spent 10 gold out of the chest they gave us.) Some of the people there bought us drinks. And we celebrated and partied until late in the night.

We stumbled our way back to the Soaring Gull to find Mr. Stonebright waiting up for us.

Stonebright: Good news, everyone! I’ve found us a ship to Tuntori. The Riverspark will leave tomorrow afternoon -- the captain is a hill dwarf so I expect no problems on the way.

We got the details on when and where to meet him to board the Riverspark and headed off to bed.

And there we ended.


----------



## prabe (Nov 11, 2020)

Session 18: Traveling the Aralin River


Players:

Aldalómiel - Wood Elf Ranger (Hunter Conclave)
Elama “Lamie” Galanodel- Wood Elf Cleric (Tempest)
Vinya Anar - Wood Elf Monk (Way of the Sun Soul)
Elderon - High Elf Wizard (Loremaster)
Marxine Deepfoot - Dwarf Fighter (Champion)

GM - Everyone Else

(Note: This session was held on Discord.)


26 Blizzarin 749 (Campaign day 57)

Bright and early the next morning, we planned for how to spend our last few hours in Lonoj over breakfast. The Riverspark would be leaving in the afternoon for Tunturi so we had a little time.

Vinya wanted to visit a magic item shop among other things. We asked at the Soaring Gull, and then at Smolly’s, for a recommendation. Smolly sent us to a shop run by his cousin. Vinya bought a cap of waterbreathing, since we were going to be on a boat for a while.

We walked around Facet Square and did some general shopping -- arrows, warm clothes (since we were heading into the mountains), etc. As we were walking Vinya suddenly remembered that she’d told the guards at City Hall that she’d come back if she had time before we left town.

So she scurried that way, with Elama to keep her company, while the rest of the party continued to stroll around the now-quiet Facet Square.

At City Hall, Vinya went back into her Architecture-Obsessed Tourist act and ascertained that there was, in fact, some sort of spell on the hall that blocked scrying into the council chamber. Which is what we suspected. Apparently it was cast long ago.

After that we all assembled at the Riverspark in the early afternoon to meet Mr. Stonebright. We were introduced to the captain of the Riverspark -- a hill dwarf named Captain Strongaxe. We observed that Mr. Stonebright didn’t have any cargo -- he was not heading to Torm Brinnom with a cargo of goods to sell. He had some personal possessions, but nothing resembling trade goods

Marxine noticed that Captain Strongaxe...had some sort of tense reaction to Mr. Stonebright. It seemed to be entirely on the Captain’s side. Mr. Stonebright appeared to be totally trusting of Captain Strongaxe, but the Captain clearly did not share his regard.

Before we cast off, while Mr. Stonebright was getting settled in his cabin below, Marxine talked to Captain Strongaxe dwarf-to-dwarf. Though a hill dwarf, he had some family who live in Torm Brinnom (as sort of resident aliens). He’d heard of Marxine’s stronghold, Torm Hastraf, near Tash, though he’d never travelled that far. Torm Hastraf is a large stronghold, with 18 clans in it. Torm Brinnom is rather smaller with only 10 clans.

After a bit of conversation, when they were comfortable with one another, Marxine turned the conversation toward our employer.

Marxine: What vibes are you getting off Stonebright?
Captain: I don’t really know him, but the story is he’s supposed to have killed someone in Torm Brinnom and is now persona non grata there. I did not ask him to swear on the forge and hammer but he said that he would swear that he did not kill anyone.
Marxine: I’ll keep that in mind.
Captain: Either he’s bad enough that he’s willing to lie in an oath on the forge and hammer, which would make him very dangerous, or he’s been framed and there’s a bounty on his head unjustly. Which would make him dangerous to be around.
Marxine: We’ll keep that in mind, and keep our eyes open, but we want to stick with this job for now.
Captain: Fair enough…
Marxine: Either he’s very confident that he’s got evidence that will exonerate him. Or he’s very stupid.
Captain: In my experience those go together.

After that we cast off for a 10 to 12 day trip upriver to Tunturi, where the river would become impassable and we’d have to continue our journey on foot.

Once the boat cast off and was sailing, Marxine went below. Vinya, Aldalomiel, and Elama spent most of their time on deck during the whole trip.

The rest of the day and the night passed without any incident other than watching the city slide away behind us and the countryside roll around us as we sailed toward the mountains.


27 Blizzarin 749 (Campaign day 58) (Day 2 of the 10-12 day journey)

Early the next morning, the party members on deck noticed a small irrigation-type canal that went off to the side of the river -- it was clearly diverting water from the river. About 150’ from the riverbank, water was shooting into the air in a spray like a geyser. There didn’t appear to be any settlements or houses or structures nearby.

Elderron sent Oda over to take a look -- as he watched through Oda’s eyes, Elderron said that there was a pipe at the end of the canal that turned upward to the sky and the water was shooting up out of that.

Elama turned to a nearby crewman: Hey, has that been that way for a while? Do we need to fix that?
Crew: Been that way for a long time.
Elama: How long?
Crew: 100 years or more. Have you seen the floating islands?
Vinya: Yeah.
Crew: There was a guy who had one tethered here and needed water. Then the island floated away and the pipe sheared off.

We decided there was no harm in the geyser -- no one further from the river needed the water from the irrigation canal and the canal wasn’t taking enough water from the river to matter downstream. And the boat wasn’t going to stop anyway.

So we sailed on.

Just after dinner, as people were preparing for bed, Vinya and Elama, still on deck, noticed two roundish humanoid shaped things the size of a house heading toward the river and the ship.

Vinya, to a crew member: What the hell’s that?
Crew: Captain! Hill giants!!

The rest of the party came up on deck as the captain did.

The giants were walking toward the riverbank, making a line so that they’d be near to the boat. Vinya moved to the side of the boat nearest the giants.

Vinya, to the Captain: Are they going to attack?
Captain: Probably.

Vinya held a shot with her bow for one of them to make an aggressive move toward the boat or anyone on it. Elama also moved to that side of the boat and waited to see what they’d do.

Aldalomiel, perhaps having more experience with hill giants, didn’t wait for them to act. She fired two arrows at one of them, hitting with both.

In response, the giants threw rocks at her -- from 200 feet away -- both of them hitting her squarely with large rocks that knocked her out almost immediately and punched holes in the deck of the ship.

Vinya took her shot against one of them and hit, but barely noticed that in her concern for Aldalomiel and her stress about the damage to the ship. The hull wasn’t breached at all, just the top deck, and the ship continued to sail -- moving closer to the giants.

Marxine encouraged the sailors to move the boat to the other side of the river, so we’d be further away from them. Vinya took two shots with her bow, against the same one she and Aldalomiel had already hit, hitting with both of them. Elama cast a powerful healing word on Aldalomiel, who stood up and then started to dodge. Elderron took a shot with his longbow, hitting once on the same one.

After Elderron’s attack, the giants stopped moving and we could hear some guttural conversation between them. The one we’d been shooting at made an angry gesture at the arrows sticking out of his body and then stomped away over a hill. The other one looked at the boat, then at his disappearing friend, then back at the boat. Then he turned and trudged after the other one.

Vinya: Does that happen often?
Crew: Not often. We should definitely stay alert. They may be back.

We helped the crew keep watch, with some of us hanging out on deck, for the rest of the night. But it passed without another visit from the hill giants, or any other incident.


28 Blizzarin 749 (Campaign day 59) (Day 3 of the 10-12 day journey)

In the morning, after breakfast, we heard a shout from a watchman in the bow.

Crew: Slicks!! Slicks on the water!!

We were all looking around in some confusion, except Vinya who’d experienced these before when sailing along this river to get from the monastery in the mountains she’d started her monk training in to New Arvai and the Chiaroscuro Temple where she’d finished it.

A moment after the crewmember’s call we suddenly were seeing around us a snow-covered forest with a majestic, huge tree that had a rainbow bridging between it and the sky.

Before we could really adjust to that, pretty as it was, we were back, sailing along the river with forests passing by on the riverbanks.

Vinya: Can we go back to that?

Then we were back in the snowfield and there was a beautiful crystal palace visible, with the huge tree distant in the background.

Aldalomiel recognized it as matching the descriptions of Ygdrasil, one of the outer planes. (A chaotic, chaotic good plane)

Captain Strongarm: Sometimes on the river there are patches--slicks--that are something like windows to another plane. They can be really bad. This one was nice. No way to tell.

After that we enjoyed the balmy (especially for mid-winter) weather and the rest of the day passed without incident.

At bedtime, we saw a very ancient and very ruined castle on a bluff that overlooked the river. Elderron sent Oda to investigate and saw that the castle was surrounded, and in places encroached on, by wild forest. It was clearly abandoned.

Vinya: We need to go on a history tour, y’all. Visit all these great ancient places we’ve seen. Maybe we could fix up part of that castle and live there.

We sailed on into the night, which passed without incident.


29 Blizzarin 749 (Campaign day 60) (Day 4 of the 10-12 day journey)

The next morning dawned grey and crappy and rainy and everyone was grateful that the Riverspark had the equipment and supplies necessary to have done rough patches to the deck where the hill giant boulders had broken through.

Elama and Vinya stayed on deck, despite the rain, but everyone else was inside. In the morning, they noticed some structures on the sides of the rivers -- arches on either side of the riverbank, opposite each other, and massive stone stubs in the middle of the river. Like there was once a bridge here.

Vinya looked for where a road might have gone from the side of the river, if this were, in fact, a bridge, and saw some hints of a road -- an area where the trees were slightly shorter and maybe thinner, that went inland and along the river, possibly toward the castle we’d seen .

Vinya marked her map of the continent with the bridge, the road, and the castle we saw the day before.

The ship sailed on.

Toward bedtime, the river started getting a lot more rough, like we were approaching rapids. Vinya remembered these, and the canals that bypassed them, from her previous trip on this river. Captain Strongaxe ordered the Riverspark to the far bank and weighed anchor.

Captain: For what I need to do here, I need light.

Then we all went on with our evening.


30 Blizzarin 749 (Campaign day 61) (Day 5 of the 10-12 day journey)

The next morning, we could see why the captain had pulled to the side of the river and anchored for the night -- there was a canal with a lock that went around a cataract on the river. Getting the Riverspray into the lock took a bit of maneuvering. Going through the lock and the canal took about an hour -- there were some people there with a team of oxen to help move the lock gates and to help move the ship into the lock and out into the main canal.

Vinya and Elama, at least, watched with interest.

Around toward bedtime, we passed the remains of another ruined bridge, stubs of the supports in the river bed and arches reaching out from the shore. Vinya tried to look for a road and saw the traces of one through the forest. It looked like it could also lead to the castle we’d seen.

After that it was bedtime and the rest of the night passed without incident.


1 Dorrinin 749 (Campaign day 62) (Day 6 of the 10-12 day journey)

It was crappy and rainy again, so Vinya set up a tent-like structure on deck and she and Aldalomiel hung out there for the day watching the shore go by and the rain. Elama mostly basked out in the rain, letting it soak her hair and clothes.

Vinya: Well, at least Lamie’s happy.

Just at sunset, the captain pulled to the side of the river again.


2 Dorrinin 749 (Campaign day 63) (Day 7 of the 10-12 day journey)

The next morning, the Riverspark went through another canal with a couple of locks around a cataract in the river. The canal was on the same side of the river as the previous one. Once again there were people and oxen who clearly worked at the canal assisting travelers through.

Despite our travels upstream and closer to the mountains, the weather was getting even warmer. It was still raining, hard enough that even Elama went below, leaving Vinya and Aldalomiel in the tent on deck.

Just after dinner, there was a cry from the lookout.

Crew: Slicks!!

Moments later all around, there were gears turning, fast and slow, intricate connections between the large and the small gears as far back as we could see. Aldalomiel and Vinya, out on the deck, were seeing the gears but feeling the rain on their faces.

Then we were back on the river.

We went through several patches of what Elderron recognized as Mechanus, the plane of pure law. During one of the passages, Vinya reached out and tried to grab one of the gears, but only managed to grab some rain.

After we got through the slicks, the night passed without incident.


3 Dorrinin 749 (Campaign day 64) (Day 8 of the 10-12 day journey)

The day dawned cooler and clearer and it wasn’t raining, finally. Elama came back and spent the day on deck again, along with Vinya and Aldalomiel. Elderron was on deck and enjoying the very nice day. Only Marxine was down in her cabin.

Right after we got out on deck, Vinya saw a winged reptilian creature flying toward the ship.

Vinya pointed it out to the others.

Elama: Is that what it looks like?
Elderron: It looks like a winged, reptilian, flying creature. But it only has two legs. I don’t have a good feeling about this.

It was definitely coming toward the ship with something that looked like intent, though it was about 320’ away when we noticed it.

We alerted the crew and the captain. Captain Strongaxe sent the deck crew below while he stayed on the deck to man the helm.

It was flying very fast toward the Riverspark, coming in hot. Aldalomiel readied a sling bolt for when it came within range. Vinya readied a radiant sun bolt for when it came in range (apparently she rethought that because she fired an arrow later).

Elderron prepared a slow spell to hit it with if it came within range. Marxine used the Rope of Climbing to climb up the mast -- she got about half-way up before it started to come in range of the various held actions.

It was coming in fast when Elderron’s slow spell caught it -- it actually slowed down so suddenly that it looked confused.

Elama cast a guiding bolt that did it a great deal of radiant damage and left it marked for Aldalomiel’s sling. Aldalomiel hit it twice, one a critical hit that did it a huge amount of damage. Vinya, having thought better of the sun bolt, shot it twice with her bow.

Then Elderron cast a magic missile spell on it -- peppering it with four darts. Marxine, at the top of the mast, was able to throw one of her hand axes at it and dropped it!

It landed in the river just in front of the boat with a great splash.

The sailors pulled the corpse in, which allowed Vinya to recover her arrows and Marxine to recover her hand axe.

The crew said that they were going to sell the wyvern parts, including the venom from the sting -- we only spent a second deciding how we felt about the moral ambiguity of selling the poison before we decided we were fine with that. It’s a natural product and not an inherently evil one.

The rest of the day passed without further incident, except the sailors harvesting valuable parts off the wyvern corpse.


4 Dorrinin 749 (Campaign day 65) (Day 9 of the 10-12 day journey)

The Captain told us over breakfast that we were making great time up the river and that he expected we’d get to Tuntori late in the afternoon the next day. Unless something weird happened.

We talked a little amongst ourselves and realized that throughout the trip Captain Strongaxe had been interacting with Mr. Stonebright as little as possible, though Stonebright wasn’t avoiding him at all.

In the mid-morning, Elama, Aldalomiel, and Vinya were all out on deck watching the river flow past us. They all saw a ripple in the water that turned into a still space in the current. Then a face that looked up at them and blinked.

Vinya: There’s a person down there! We need to rescue them.
Crew: That face is seen very rarely. It never moves or does any harm.

Captain Strongaxe said that he’d seen it once in the time he’d been on the river.

The rest of the day passed without anything happening.


5 Dorrinin 749 (Campaign day 66) (Day 10 of the 10-12 day journey)

In the evening, after a quiet day of traveling, the ship pulled into Tuntori, a small town.

Before we debarked, Vinya recommended that we stay at the inn she and Hragdor, her first teacher among the monks, had stayed at on their way down the mountains and down the rivers to New Arvai, a place called Allerd’s.

Stonebright accepted the recommendation of Allerd’s.

He paid the Captain and went to collect his few bags of personal belongings. When he was dealing with his things, the Captain took the party aside and gave us 500gp as our share of the sale of the wyvern parts. We thanked him, then most of the party went to help Mr. Stonebright as he got off the ship.

Captain Strongaxe pulled Marxine aside and said that we deserved more than he’d been able to give us. Since he couldn’t afford to give us more gold, he offered her something else.

Strongaxe: I can write you a letter of recommendation to my clan living in Torm Brinnom. You’ll have a place to go if things go badly for your employer up there.
Marxine: Thanks! That will be a big help.

We then all left with Mr. Stonebright and went to Allerd’s inn. Allerd was a human male in his mid-thirties who walked with a pronounced limp, but otherwise looked physically quite capable.

Vinya got the sense he recognized her from her trip through town almost two years ago. They talked a bit about what had been going on in the mountains since Vinya left.

Mr. Stonebright said that in the morning, he was going to rent a wagon and some horses, if one of us knew how to drive one. We all turned to look at Marxine.


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## prabe (Nov 19, 2020)

Session 19: Talking and Walking

Dramatis Personae:

Aldalómiel - Wood Elf Ranger (Hunter Conclave)
Elama “Lamie” Galanodel- Wood Elf Cleric (Tempest)
Vinya Anar - Wood Elf Monk (Way of the Sun Soul)
Elderon - High Elf Wizard (Loremaster)
Marxine Deepfoot - Dwarf Fighter (Champion)

GM - Everyone Else

(Note: This session was held on Discord.)


6 Dorrinin 749 (Campaign day 67)

The next morning, Vinya went to a shop and bought some arrows first thing and then we got into the wagon that Mr. Stonebright had rented and headed out on the road toward Torm Brinnom.

The road was quiet and not well travelled (this is still winter after all and we’re heading into the mountains). The day passed without incident until we’d started looking for a place to make camp.

We found a place with a tumbledown well about a hundred yards away from the road. We went to check it out while Stonebright stayed with the cart near the road and started making camp. There was a piece of wood board leaning against the wall of the well. The board, weathered and old looking had worn painted letters that read “True answers. 1 gold piece.”

Vinya shrugged and threw a gold piece in the well.

Vinya, quietly to the well: Is Mr. Stonebright a murderer?

Voice, whispering only to her: He is a heartbreaker. Not a murderer.

Vinya quietly told the others what it had said.

She decided to test the well, since we didn’t have any idea if that was actually a true answer. So she threw in a gold piece and asked where she’d started her training as a monk. The gold piece flew back out of the well and hit her in the chest.

Voice: You know the answer to that.
Vinya: I was checking if you do.
Elderron, throwing in a gold piece: I’ll ask that. Where did Vinya first study?
Voice: If she hasn’t told you that she studied at the House of Sky and Stone you should ask her why.

When Elderron relayed the response, Vinya confirmed that the answer was correct.

Elama and Vinya nudged Aldalomiel from opposite sides, urging her toward the well.

Vinya: Ask about where your girlfriend is.
Aldalomiel, throwing in a gold piece: Where is Lothiriel?
Voice: Castle Dante in the Feywild.

Vinya threw in another coin.

Vinya: How is it that you do this?

The coin shot back out of the well, but didn’t hit her.

We went back to Mr. Stonebright and made camp for the night. The night was quiet and relaxed.


7 Dorrinin 749 (Campaign day 68)

The next morning, before breaking camp, Vinya and Elama went back to the well. The sign had fallen over face down. Vinya tried to stand it up as it had been again. It tilted slowly then fell face down again.

Elama, throwing in a gold coin: Thanks for the info.

The coin landed with a thunk. Vinya looked in the well -- it was dry and she could see a glint, as from a single gold piece, at the bottom of the well.

They went back to camp and helped load the carts and make ready to head out.

Vinya, to Mr. Stonebright: Have you heard of this well that answers questions?
Stonebright: No, but I was in a hurry when I came through here the first time. I didn’t pay attention to much off the road.

Elama: It doesn’t seem to last long.
Marxine: We as a group got three questions -- ignoring when it got cheeky with Vinya’s test question.

We headed out and everything was quiet until lunchtime.

Around then, Aldalomiel noticed some large figures in the woods ahead of us and slightly to the side of the road. They weren’t walking or _going_ in any direction -- milling around and then being still.

We pulled the cart off the road and found Mr. Stonebright a safe space away from the cart and away from where we thought any battle would be. Aldalomiel cast pass without trace and we snuck up toward them, hoping to ambush whatever it was.

We saw four ogres, sitting around a dead and mostly dismembered deer. They clearly hadn’t noticed us and, aside from being ogres, there was nothing that was directly harmful about them.

Elama stepped forward into the clearing.

Elama: Hey, guys!! What’s up?!

The ogres turned to look at her, jaws dropping open.

Elama: I didn’t know you were eating. We’re just passing by.
Ogre: What you want?
Elama: We just wanted to know if we could go by. Do you need anything?
Ogre: We good. We killed deer.
Elama: Excellent. We’ll just go on by then.

She came back to us and said that they were going to take a moment to put that together. We quickly got the cart and Mr. Stonebright and rode by where the ogres were sitting a hundred or so yards from the road, moving by without stopping.

Elama waved as we rode past.

The ogres nodded, one waved a little, and they went back to eating their deer. A good minute later, when we were well down the road, they burst out onto the road with their clubs in hand roaring in our direction. When they saw how far away we’d gotten, they looked confused, then shuffled back into the woods.

The rest of the day passed without and we made camp in a nice spot. The night was quiet and pleasant, if cold.


8 Dorrinin 749 (Campaign day 69)

We headed out in the morning very early and passed into a deep valley where the sunlight had not yet gotten to the bottom of the valley. Riding our cart in the pre-dawn gloom in this valley we saw a waterfall. It took a moment to notice something odd -- the water was flowing UP.

Elama: Well, that’s something you don’t see every day…
Vinya: This looks like wizard stuff. Elderron?

Elderron recognized it as a standing magical effect. Vinya didn’t remember seeing it when she travelled this way out of the mountains. About the time that Vinya was wondering why she hadn’t seen it, the sunlight finally reached down into the bottom of the valley.

When the light touched the waterfall, it began to flow normally.

Vinya: It would be so interesting to put something that floats, like a cork, into this river and see if it just goes back and forth or if the water eventually makes progress out of this field.

We continued on our way. A few hours later we noticed a shadow pass over us and looked up to see a dragon-shaped shadow. It waggled its wings at us as it banked around, clearly turning to come back toward us.

We got Mr. Stonebright out of the cart and about 100 feet into the forest, in a safe place under a tree with low-hanging branches.

After a minute, we heard something coming along the trail.

Presumably the dragon: Hello, the wagon!
Elama: Hi!
Dragon: What are four elves and two dwarves doing here this time of year?
Elama: We’re going to Torm Brinnom. Do you live around here?
Dragon: Yeah. Ish.
Elama: Is it okay if we pass?
Dragon: Yeah. I like the dwarves. And not in an eating them way.
Elama: We can’t see you.
Dragon: Yeah. I saw you hunkering down and didn’t want to alarm you any more than necessary.
Elama: Yeah. We saw you flying overhead.
Dragon: I was backlit.

Elama crept forward and saw a young silver dragon curled up in a cat-like pose.

Elama: You’re not as big as I thought you were.
Dragon: Everyone thinks we’re all as big as my grandma. My name is Tultorla.
Vinya, who crept up herself: How long have you been living around here?
Tultorla: Just a couple of decades. My grandma said this was a place I could live, and she’d definitely know.
Vinya: Have you been running into any problems?
Tultorla: There’s a red dragon south of here. He’s much bigger and more dangerous than I am. I stay clear of him.
Vinya: Where’s your grandmother?
Tultorla: Up in the Icerasps. I’m here just enjoying the cold and the mountains.
Vinya: It’s beautiful up near the House of Sky and Stone.
Tultorla: Yes.
Aldalomiel: Do you know anything about a well a couple of days from here that tells the truth?
Elama: It answers questions for a gold piece.
Tultorla: Oh, that. I believe that is something one of the Fey is doing out of a sense of whimsy. Maybe the Keeper of Secrets.
Vinya: If you need us or if there’s something we can do to help you, please let us know.
Tultorla: I will, thank you. I’m going to go over that way to take off -- because I don’t want to upset your horses.

She then went down the trail away from us until she was almost around a curve in the road then she took off with a leap and a huge flap of her wings.

We gathered up the cart and Mr. Stonebright, and continued on our way.

The rest of the day passed without incident. As we rode along, we talked to Mr. Stonebright about how long this trip was going to be and learned that it’s about a month’s travel from Tuntorla to Torm Brinnom, which is about what Vinya remembered. Though since she and Hragdor, her first teacher, had been going downhill it might have been a bit faster for them.


9 Dorrinin 749 (Campaign day 70)

We got on our way in the mid-morning. The road was getting steeper and colder as we went, and we were glad that we’d gotten warm, winter clothes for the trip.

In the mid-morning, we saw a clearing a couple hundred feet off the road with a circle of 9 stumps all sawn off at the same height. The circle was close to perfect and the height was exactly the same for all of them. We estimated that they’d been cut off a decade or so ago.

Vinya went into the circle and got a feeling like when a thunderstorm is looming and smelled ozone. She looked carefully at the stumps and saw writing on them in Sylvan. It read:

Not all roads are laid on the ground
What you leave behind will take you home

Vinya left her shawm in the middle of the circle and stepped out of it. A single note was played on the shawm then it fell silent on the ground. She went in and picked it back up.

Elama took her book, with pages that won’t take a mark, and put it down in the circle. It was picked up by invisible hands and the pages were flipped through.

Elama went and collected her book.

Elama: Vinya, cast see invisibility from the rod of alertness.
Vinya: Good idea!

She did so. She saw the stumps all connected by invisible lines on the ground, both in the circle around and with lines across the inside of the circle connecting each stump to each other stump. She also noticed something on top of every stump -- a circle. None of this was raised -- it was like the lines and circles were painted with invisible paint.

Marxine took out the card with her image on it. The last time we saw it, there was an image of her on the causeway in Pelsoreen. This time it showed her in a circle of stumps, holding a card, which had an image on it of Marxine in a circle of stumps, holding a card ....

Marxine: Huh.

She put the card into the circle. Nothing happened so she retrieved it.

Vinya took the letter she’d received that invited her to go to Tashimeet at the Knot for the Feast of Stars and set it down in the circle, staying next to it. She could see letters forming on the paper, but nothing that wrote them. The writing said:

P.S. Your path still lies ahead of you.
P.P.S. It’s good the dwarf joined you.

Vinya told the others about this message and we agreed that it was interesting. We also agreed it was good Marxine joined us. But we weren’t sure what to make of it.

Vinya, to the circle: Is there something we’re missing or that we should do here?

There was no response. So we got back on the cart and continued on our way.

During the afternoon, we saw a huge wall across the valley, sized to keep out giants. It was completely collapsed in parts and partly worn down in others. It looked ancient. We continued on our way, riding along as the road passed through one of the collapsed parts of the wall.

The rest of the day passed quietly and it was a restful night.


10 Dorrinin 749 (Campaign day 71)

The next morning dawned a bit warmer than it had been, a nice respite from winter in the mountains. As we headed out from our camp, we went into a glacial gorge -- a valley with a wide bottom and steep sides. The glacier had long retreated, but we saw that the walls of the valley sparkled so we went to investigate. There were quartz crystals sticking out from the walls of the valley, rounded and smoothed by the action of the glacier.

Elderron, to Mr. Stonebright: Are these of value?
Mr. Stonebright: It is not gem quality, but people in the stronghold will crush them into powder and use them on grinders and polishing cloths. They will pay for them.

Elderron, Elama, and Vinya each grabbed a couple of the stones. Vinya grabbed a couple of hand sized ones to sell and another one that fit neatly into her palm, to keep.

While we rode along, we talked with Mr. Stonebright about why he needed to get back to Torm Brinnom so urgently that he was making this trip in the winter. Since he clearly had no cargo or goods.

He told us that his clan has been feuding with another since he left. The other clan, the Turnstones, were demanding that he, Mr. Stonebright, stand trial for the murder of one of their sons in order for there to be peace. And the leaders of Torm Brinnom just wanted peace between the clans.

Mr. Stonebright was returning to stand trial.

Vinya: Do you have any evidence or anything that will prove your innocence?
Stonebright: Only, that I didn’t do it. I admit that I jilted my bethrothed, but I did not kill her brother.
Vinya: Did he confront you after you jilted her?
Stonebright: He was there. I left. They say I threw him off the wall of the stronghold.

He looked at himself, thin and clearly not nearly as strong as is typical for a dwarf.

Stonebright: I’ve never had the physique for that.

He looked at the four elves in the party for a moment.

Stonebright: It’s so easy for you elves to deal with these things. We dwarves have arranged marriages -- the goal is to have children and rebuild the clans and the strongholds. It’s very important. My clan arranged for me to marry one of the daughters of the Turnstone clan, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. They would have done better to have asked me to marry her brother. That I could have done. After I left, he was found at the base of the wall outside the stronghold.
Vinya: So someone from his own clan could have done it, if they found out that he was not interested in marrying a woman to build up the clan?
Stonebright: Perhaps. I do not know.
Vinya: Or perhaps he could have thrown himself off.
Stonebright, looking more sad: Perhaps.
Vinya: When you ask us for help, you get the full service package. At least from me. I will help you however I can. If you didn’t kill him, you shouldn’t be punished.
Stonebright: Thank you.

The day passed while we had this conversation. We made camp and passed a pleasant and uneventful night and evening.


11 Dorrinin 749 (Campaign day 72)

The next day we had an uneventful day of travel until it was time to find a place to make camp for the night. We found a clearing where all the grass had been turned to stone. We made camp, with one of Elderron’s tiny huts. The night passed without incident.


12 Dorrinin 749 (Campaign day 73)

As we were wheeling the cart to the road the next morning, we were surprised by a 20’ tall grey humanoid stepping out onto the road in front of us.

Elama: Hi!! Why do you block the road?
Giant: <<said something in Giant>>

Elama cast Tongues then asked the Giant to repeat himself.

Giant: What are you doing here this time of year?
Elama: We’re on the way to Torm Brinnom. Just passing through.

The giant looked at the party, focusing on Mr. Stonebright.

Giant, to Elama: Ask him if he knows the way.
Elama, to Stonebright: He wants to know if you know the way.
Stonebright: Tell him I know the ways both long and short.
Elama, to Giant: He says he knows the way. The shortcuts too.
Giant: We would not have you where we live come the Festival of Rain.
Elama, to us: He wants us not to be in his territory on the Festival.
Giant: Take the tunnel that is longer than it seems. He knows it.
Elama, to us: He said something about a tunnel that is longer than it seems.
Stonebright: I know it. Tell him we’ll be there just before the Festival.
Elama, to giant: He knows. We’ll be there in time.
Giant: Good.

The giant then slid away into the woods and the rocky crags of the mountains.

We continued on our way and got to a valley with petroglyphs carved into the patina on the rock walls of the valley. Giant sized petroglyphs.

We stopped for lunch and while we were resting, Vinya started drawing the petroglyphs. Copying them into her sketchbook.

Elama and Marxine recognized these and knew that they had deep religious significance, possibly magical significance as well, and copying them might actually cast a spell.

Elama, to Vinya: Hey, maybe you shouldn’t do that.
Elderron: Maybe draw them out of order. Or mess them up a bit.

Vinya did that, but drew the most interesting of the figures. She noticed as she did so that some of them looked very old, but as though they were still being maintained. Some of them looked very new. And they covered all the span of time between.

The rest of the day and the night passed.


13 Dorrinin 749 (Campaign day 74)

The day was notably warmer still than it had been in previous days. It was rainy and slushy and generally crappy out. The grizzly grey, rainy day passed into a grizzly grey evening and we made camp.

The night passed without incident.


14 Dorrinin 749 (Campaign day 75)

The morning was quite a lot colder, by at least 20 degrees, but at least it wasn’t raining. Vinya dried off the horses and we broke camp.

As the day passed, it just got colder and colder. Later in the day it did snow.

The cold night passed. With us in a climate-controlled tiny hut.


15 Dorrinin 749 (Campaign day 76)

In the morning, as we were breaking camp, a single humanoid figure walked toward us on the road from the direction we were heading in. He was dressed elegantly and expensively, though his clothes didn’t appear to be especially warm. His clothes were blue and black and white and his skin was pale blueish-grey.

He stopped well away from the party -- at a non-threatening distance.

Him: Hello, travelers!
Elama: Greetings! Do you come from Torm Brinnom?
Him: Alas, I do not.
Elama: I didn’t think anything else was up here.
Him: I have been sent by my mistress to walk on this road. There are often people who overestimate their abilities or underestimate winter in the mountains. There are deals to be made.
Elama: What kinds of deals?
Him: The deals are not to my benefit, but to my lady’s and to the people who make them. If they keep them.
Vinya: Why does everyone keep being surprised that we’re traveling this road?
Him: There’s very little travel in the winter. But there are always some people who will try.
Vinya: Do you make it colder around you?
Him: No.
Elama: I think we’ll be fine.
Him: Very well.

He left, continuing down the mountain.

We broke camp and started out. As we did so, Elderron thought about it for a bit then decided that he might have been an agent of the Tundra Queen. Vinya remembered the lore in her village (on the other side of these same mountains) warning people not to make deals with blue-skinned strangers, but she didn’t know about the Tundra Queen. Elderron told us that the Tundra Queen is a Fey noble mostly active quite a ways north of Embernook. This seemed to him to be very far south for her.


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## prabe (Nov 25, 2020)

Session 20: Helping A Friend

Dramatis Personae:
Aldalómiel - Wood Elf Ranger (Hunter Conclave)
Elama “Lamie” Galanodel- Wood Elf Cleric (Tempest)
Vinya Anar - Wood Elf Monk (Way of the Sun Soul)
Elderon - High Elf Wizard (Loremaster)
Marxine Deepfoot - Dwarf Fighter (Champion)

GM - Everyone Else

(Note: This session was held on Discord.)


15 Dorrinin 749 (Campaign day 76) (immediately after)

As we walked along, we talked about maybe trying to meet up with the Walking Man, Falaggo, again and possibly see about getting a short-cut to Torm Brinnom. The timing was right, the full moon would be the next night, but unfortunately we hadn’t seen a single side road the whole way.

So we weren’t going to be able to be at a crossroads on the full moon.

We kept our eyes open though, and the day passed without incident.

We made camp and the night passed without incident as well.


16 Dorrinin 749 (Campaign day 77)

We headed out in the morning. After a few hours of travel, as we went up toward a mountain pass, we saw ahead of us, crossing the road, a large wagon with a yoke that looked as though it was over the shoulders of a pair of oxen (as far as being at the right height) but there were no animals in the yoke. There were five human-sized figures with black-feathered wings walking around the cart, one where the heads of the oxen would be and the others around the wagon itself. They were traveling off-road and heading generally northward.

On the cart there was something large that was bundled up with tarps and tied down with ropes. It was shifting and stirring slightly. Elderron spotted a silvery-blueish flash as the shape under the tarps shifted around.

Vinya, when Elderron said that: They haven’t caught our dragon friend, have they?
Elderron: We need to talk to them.
Elama: Hello!! Travellers!!!

They turned toward us. We could see that their faces were gaunt to the point of skeletal. One of them straightened and stepped toward us.

Winged humanoid: Good noontide, travelers.
Elama: Where are you going? We are on the way to Torm Brinnom.
Winged humanoid: We are on our way to the north. We are taking this :gestures to the large wrapped shape on the wagon: to our lady.
Elderron: Who is your lady?
Winged humanoid: We serve Vortana Verdi. We are returning this to her.

Elderron recognized this as the name of a Fey Noble, and whispered this to us.

Elderron: What are you transporting? It must be of great importance.
Winged humanoid: She has not told us why she wants it. We believe she is endeavoring to make a point.

Most of the party was trying to see what was under the tarp during this conversation. Marxine, on the other hand, was checking them out to see how they were armed and what their fighting capability was. She didn’t see any weapons, but they did have long claws and obviously sharp teeth.

Vinya, having not seen anything but with some strong suspicions: We hope you have safe travels. We’ve been meeting some very interesting people in these mountains - a blue skinned guy who wanted to make a deal, a stone giant, and a really nice Silver Dragon named TULTORLA WHO WE SAID WE WOULD BE HAPPY TO HELP.

She was shouting the last part loud enough to be heard by whatever was under the tarp. As she shouted those last words, the figure under the tarp stirred feebly. At the same moment, the winged figures leapt into the air.

Vinya: And we’re off…

Mr. Stonebright slid off the cart on the side away from the attackers and hid underneath it, as we’d been teaching him.

Aldalomiel took two shots with her longbow, hitting the one we’d been talking to twice despite the great distance (almost 200 feet) to the things. Vinya shot the same one with her shortbow, and got one hit, then moved forward 35 feet.

One of them moved and dashed and flew right into Vinya’s face, but wasn’t able to attack her after moving so far. The others moved up to where they were 100 feet away, spread out into two groups of two on either side of us. Then they pulled feathers out of their wings and threw them at Vinya. Fortunately all of them missed, though one was close.

Marxine moved up to the one on the ground and attacked it, getting one good solid hit. Elama moved up near Vinya and cast call lightning. She hit the wounded one with a lightning bolt. Elderron cast a fireball that got two that had not been hurt at all -- they weren’t killed, but large chunks of them almost sublimated, vaporizing away.

Aldalomiel again got two hits with her arrows.

Vinya suffered from ill-effects because of being so close to one of them, but she was still able to hit the one on the ground in front of her with her quarter-staff twice and then with her unarmed strike.

That one then turned around and bit her, then clawed at her with razor-sharp talons. The damage from the actual claws and teeth wasn’t so bad, but there was a lot of necrosis and withering that went along with it and Vinya was immediately dropped.

Marxine was hit by one of the feather-darts thrown by the ones in the air and found herself becoming exhausted. Despite that she attacked the one that had taken Vinya out, hitting it once. She got a second wind, but didn’t get any additional hits.

Elama healed Vinya and then dropped the one that Aldalomiel and Vinya had initially hit (one of the ones in the air) with lightning from the Call Lightning. Elderron followed that up with a lightning bolt, though he changed the damage to fire damage because Loremasters are awesome that way. Unfortunately he was only able to hit one that was previously uninjured, but it took lots of damage from the fire. Aldalomiel took a couple of shots at the most injured one, but it did not drop.

Vinya stood up, then hit the one that had dropped her twice with her quarterstaff. Then she did some patient defense, in hopes of not dropping again.

One of the ones in the air broke away from the others and landed in front of Elderron, attacking with claws and teeth, and the other two threw feathers at him. Elderron was able to use his shield spell to keep the attacks from hitting him. The one on the ground attacked Marxine and missed.

Marxine hit the one that she and Vinya were on twice, doing a lot of damage. Elama cast a spiritual weapon on the one that was attacking Elderron, then she called lightning on the most hurt of them -- which was left very wobbly shading to barely not dead. Elderron used misty step to move 30 feet away from the one one the ground then he firebolted it for 10 points of damage. There was a terrible shriek from it, but it didn’t die. Aldalomiel put her hunters mark on the one on Marxine and Vinya and dropped it with a well-placed arrow. Then she turned and fired at the one Elderron had just shot with his firebolt and dropped it too.

Vinya, seeing that she had no immediate opponent and figuring that the others had things in hand, ran as fast as she possibly could toward the wagon, getting well more than half the way there.

The two creatures in the air threw feathers at Elderron, hitting him for quite a lot of damage and a level of exhaustion.

In return, Marxine threw her handaxes at the most damaged of those two, dropping it with her first axe. It fell out of the air in a spiral. When it hit the ground it shattered into a cloud of sleet and ice. She threw her second axe at the other one in the air but missed. Elama hit the last remaining one with a lightning bolt from her spell, but it didn’t drop. Elderron followed that up with a magic missile spell, altered to do fire damage, that it didn’t like at all, but it didn’t drop. Aldalomiel moved her hunter’s mark and shot at it twice, finally dropping it.

Vinya got to the cart and pulled the tarps and bindings off of Tultorla. She was bedraggled and exhausted near to death. Vinya removed the ropes that were holding her down.

Tultorla: The Tundra Queen sent them. She has a hate on for my grandmother for some reason.

The others came close, after helping Mr. Stonebright out from under our wagon.

Elama stayed with Tultorla while Vinya went to check out the oxen. She offered a treat (or as close as she could come, which was crushed hardtack) to one of them, holding it on her hand in about the location where an ox’s head would be, but there was no reaction. Elderron came over and after a bit of observation realized that the oxen were something like the effect of a Mordenkainen’s Faithful Hound spell, but created by the yoke. They have no independent action, but will follow someone who leads them.

The yoke and the cart were both of obviously fey design and decoration.

We took a short rest while we discussed how to proceed.

We decided that we’d take the fey cart with the magical yoke with us and Tultorla could just ride on it and stay with us until she was feeling better. We used the tarps to disguise the cart a bit, though we realized with a bit of dismay that it wouldn’t stop someone who knew the cart from scrying on us.

After our short rest we continued on our way along the road, and the day passed without incident. We made camp that night, but without a tiny hut, since Tultorla wouldn’t be able to stay in it with us.

The night passed without incident.


17 Dorrinin 749 (Campaign day 78)

The next morning, before we left, Elderron examined the fey cart and the yoke. It appeared that the yoke was activated by connecting it to a hitch. We decided that, despite our concerns about scrying, we’d continue with the fey cart and the phantom oxen at least until we got to Torm Brinnom.

As we travelled, we noticed that Tultorla was perking up some, though she still didn’t feel great.

The day passed without incident. Despite not having a tiny hut again, the night did as well.


18 Dorrinin 749 (Campaign day 79)

In the morning, as we were waking up, Tultorla informed us calmly that there were stone giants around, just shadowing us.

Vinya: I wonder why? We’re doing what they want and continuing on our way out of their territory.
Tultorla: Some dragons and some giants still have bad feelings toward one another even these thousands of years after the war.

We continued to break camp. Just as we were getting about to head out, Elama used thaumaturgy to make her voice very loud.

Elama: Good morning, Mr. Giant!

There was no response and we headed out onto the road. Between the dragon we were traveling with and the giant or giants shadowing us, the day was eerily still and quiet.

We made camp and the night also passed completely without incident.


19 Dorrinin 749 (Campaign day 80)

The next morning, as we broke camp, we talked about the fact that we had 10 days to get out of the giants’ territory. Tultorla, who was feeling still better, flew and looked around as eyes in the sky getting an aerial view of the surrounding area.

She landed back on the cart and told us that she’d spotted a shorter route to a tunnel, but it might not be the same one Mr. Stonebright was planning on using.

Vinya, to Mr. Stonebright: Would that be okay with you?
Stonebright, after consulting his map: Yes. I can work with that.

Tultorla’s route involved going off-road. We checked to make sure that both of the carts were equipped with sled-runners if we needed them. Both were, so we felt good about going this new way.

We headed off in that direction and had no problems with the wagons off road. Tultorla occasionally flew up for a moment or two to help us scout out the best routes. She was also feeling enough better that she walked with us, rather than riding in the cart, to make it easier for traveling off road.

The day and the night passed quietly.


20 Dorrinin 749 (Campaign day 81)

When we woke and made breakfast the next morning, a couple of stone giants came to the edge of our campsite.

They said something and none of us could understand. So Elama cast tongues, then spoke to them, inviting them to repeat what they’d said.

Stone Giant: Are you lost?
Elama: We are heading toward a shorter route to get out of your territory sooner.

Mr. Stonebright offered to show them a map, but they clearly didn’t understand the concept of maps.

Giant: So long as That One :gesturing at Tultorla: is with you, we are concerned.
Elama: She’s the one who told us about this shortcut.
Giant: We do not trust That One or those who befriend it.
Elama: She’s cool. You’re cool. Why can’t everyone get along? What do you fear is going to happen?
Giant: We are not happy about it walking on top of our mountains.
Elama: Yeah, but that was a long time ago.
Elderron: We understand the old scars.
Giant: We hope you are not being led wrong.

We told him where Tultorla was taking us. He did know the way and he agreed that it would get us to Torm Brinnom, if Mr. Stonebright can open the way. He said that he could.

We headed out on our way, with Tultorla walking along with us. She was feeling much better.

Tultorla: My grandmother said that adventurers were the best investment she could make.
Elama: You’re going to stay with us for the rest of the trip right? I like talking with you.
Tultorla: I’ll stay with you until the tunnel to Torm Brinnom. I could be less conspicuous if I were older.
Elama: How?
Tultorla: If I were older I could look like a humanoid.
Elama: Why would you?! You look awesome!
Tultorla: It’s easier to spend time with humans and other humanoids in their form. There’s less gushing over how awesome we are.

We continued to proceed. After a while, we noticed that we weren’t being shadowed by the Stone Giants anymore.

Despite their absence, the day and the night passed.


21 Dorrinin 749 (Campaign day 82)

The day was a little colder than it had been in previous days. Tultorla used some dragon paper she retrieved from somewhere and sent a letter to her grandmother to let her know about the winged-things sent to capture her and also about how helpful we had been to her. She got all of our names to include in the letter to her grandmother. And, she said, she’d be able to send us messages with dragon paper with our names.

The day passed without incident until shortly before sunset. At that point, Tultorla showed us a cliff-face with the shape of a stone arch carved into it. (Like a bas-relief of a masonry arch.)

We said goodbye to Tultorla.

Vinya: Be careful and watch out for those things. And other agents of the Tundra Queen. And call on us if you need us.
Tultorla: I know how they work now and how to stay safe. I will contact you again someday, I’m sure.

With that she flew away.

After she had left, Mr. Stonebright took something that looked like a cameo, only the image was of a stronghold, out of his pocket. He used that to tap on some of the carved “stones” in the arch. After a minute there was a gust of wind and the inside of the arch opened to a wide valley. On the other side of the valley, there was a large mountain with a horizontal slit carved into it.

We goggled at this.

Mr. Stonebright: This is old, old magic.

We walked through the arch, stepping through it to the other side of the mountain.

Vinya, looking ahead: How did they do that to the mountain?
Stonebright: Dwarves can be very persistent.

We made camp not far from where we stepped out onto the road on the other side.

The night passed.


22 Dorrinin 749 (Campaign day 83)

The next morning dawned a little warmer and drizzly. We headed out. After a couple of hours, six dwarves on stout ponies came by. Five of them pulled out crossbows as they approached, but didn’t point them right at us.

Marxine tried to shove Mr. Stonebright down into the cart, but he resisted her.

Stonebright: If I’m hiding, it will be worse.

They came closer, with their crossbows pointing down, clearly not expecting trouble.

Dwarf: Good morning.
Elama: Hello!
Dwarf: It’s been a while since we’ve had an elf, let alone :he made a show of counting: four of them. Why are you here?
Elama: We’re escorting someone here.
Dwarf, studying the fey cart: That’s an interesting cart.
Vinya: Some fey creatures with wings attacked a friend of ours. We rescued her from them and got this wagon in the process. We’re thinking of selling it.

He proceeded to talk us more or less out of selling the cart.

Dwarf, looking at Stonebright: He must be the one that hired you?
Vinya: Yeah.
Dwarf, to Stonebright: Welcome back. Glad you enjoyed your trip.

They rode off and we headed on our way. After they were out of sight Vinya turned to Mr. Stonebright.

Vinya: What did they mean by you enjoying your trip?
Stonebright, after a moment’s thought: I don’t think they meant anything.

Okay.

We continued on our way through the valley, making camp at sunset. Mr. Stonebright told us he thought we’d get there mid-day the next day.

Vinya asked him what we should expect when we arrive. He said that he would most likely not be arrested immediately. At most the guards will escort him to his clanhold. His family will be expected to produce him for trial.

Vinya: How long until the trial, do you think?
Stonebright: Probably not long, since the elders and chiefs of the other clans really want the feuding to stop.
Vinya: How will the trial work?
Stonebright: I hope some people in my clan will argue for me. I’m not good at that.
Vinya: How can we help you?
Stonebright: I’m probably not going to be allowed to leave my clanhold, so I don’t know how I’m going to be able to talk to people and find witnesses.

We offered our assistance with that. And with arguing in court if necessary.


23 Dorrinin 749 (Campaign day 84)

As we got closer to Torm Brinnom, we noticed that the slit in the mountain was about 50 feet tall. The road led up the mountain toward a gate that looked like they knocked a section out of the bottom of the slot -- the gate was 75 feet tall and the top of it was more or less level with the bottom of the open slit in the mountain.

We also noticed that there were more and more dwarves on the road as we approached the city gate.

As we entered through the gate, the guards stopped us. Mr. Stonebright gave his name. They clearly knew his name and who he was, but there was no move to arrest him at all.

Guard: Mr. Stonebright, go on through.

We went on through. The road was in a deep canyon-like slot that was 20 feet below the level of the floor of the hold. Over the course of a quarter of a mile, the trench rose up until it was at the level of the floor and it went out into a large largely open area with a lot of smaller buildings in it. There was also one larger building, about the size of the Fireruby compound in Lonoj. Beyond this open area were 10 large clanholds. Each of them was many stories tall and Mr. Stonebright told us that they also continued underground. The compound in the common area was where the hill dwarves live.

The 10 clanholds were arranged in a kind of arch around the open, common area. Stonebright lead us to the third one from the left, taking us right to the gate.

At the gate, he spoke to the dwarves on guard.

Mr. Stonebright: I’m Ullard Stonebright. I would ask that my companions be admitted as my guests.

The guards asked us to wait and some of them disappeared. After a while they returned with a matron who said that Ullard Stonebright would be allowed to have guests. However he would not be allowed to leave the compound.

At that the gates to the Stonebright clanhold opened in front of us and we rode in on our carts.

Once we were inside the compound, we had a bit of a drive to the house.

Vinya: Who can we talk to to help you? Your mother? Your father? I don’t know how this dwarf stuff works.
Ullard Stonebright: Tanlot is our Elder. I will ask if you can talk to her. I don’t know who would be in town now.

We went inside and were greeted by an elderly dwarven woman. She greeted Stonebright a bit tensely, but it was not cold or unfriendly. She told us that we’d be able to come and go as we pleased, but that Ullard would be expected to remain in the clanhold. He has already fled once.

The dwarven lady, and a couple of other dwarves who showed up, began to talk to Marxine about where she was from (Torm Halstraf) and her clan, the Deepfoots. As have other dwarves we’ve met, they recognized that stronghold life is not for everyone. They were also horrified that as a miner, she was not treated well by her employers. They clearly felt that it reflected poorly on her employers and not at all poorly on Marxine. Eventually, after a bit of discussion, they realized that they knew some of Marxine’s people in Torm Halstraf.

Once they had sorted out that connection to her and her people, they were more welcoming to the five of us.

And there we ended.


----------



## prabe (Dec 2, 2020)

Session 21: Investigating a Murder

Dramatis Personae:

Aldalómiel - Wood Elf Ranger (Hunter Conclave)
Elama “Lamie” Galanodel- Wood Elf Cleric (Tempest)
Vinya Anar - Wood Elf Monk (Way of the Sun Soul)
Elderon - High Elf Wizard (Loremaster)
Marxine Deepfoot - Dwarf Fighter (Champion)

GM - Everyone Else

(Note: This session was held on Discord.)


23 Dorrinin 749 (Campaign day 84) (immediately after)

We were told that we’d be staying in the Stonebright citadel (or clanhold).

We got a bit more information on the layout of the clanhold. There is a high wall around it with a gate. Going through the gate, the driveway descended, so most of the clanhold is below the level of the ground. The individual homes and quarters have facades carved into the rock -- like there are streets carved like canyons in the rock and houses carved into the walls of those “streets” within the clanhold.

Sort of Petra meets Luke Skywalker’s Uncle Owen’s House in Star Wars (but maybe more Petra).

We talked to Mr. Stonebright about what happened. The man who died was named Jarek Turnstone. He and Mr. Ullar Stonebright, our employer, were in a relationship when Mr. Stonebright was betrothed to Jarek Turnstone’s sister, Tamna Turnstone.

We asked what kind of investigation the guard did and Ullar Stonebright didn’t know. He’d been gone for more than 30 years. He left before the body was discovered. Because he didn’t know a lot about the investigation or exactly why the Turnstones were so certain that he was the one who’d killed Jarek, he asked if we could meet the Stonebright clan elder, Tanlot.

While we were waiting for word on that, we talked more about the events leading up to him leaving Torm Brinnom and Jarek’s death. He told us a little about Dwarven marriage customs (at least in Torm Brinnom) -- when a clan has a young adult of the right age, they go to an elder of another clan, someone who’s known as a matchmaker, and that elder arranges a marriage with a young person from another clan.

Ullar Stonebright said he was surprised that someone tried to arrange a marriage for him - it was no great secret that he’s gay. The elder who arranged it was named Amnok Rockbreaker.

We asked what the Rockbreakers would gain by making such an inappropriate match. Could they possibly be going for power within the stronghold? He said that one clan has a hereditary leadership of Torm Brinnom, the King or Queen, but there is a clan council and on a vote of no confidence the clan that is in power would have to step down and another would step into their place.

Currently the Ironbeard clan are the hereditary monarchs.

We asked about the hill dwarves, including Captain Strongaxe’s people. He said that the resident hill dwarves lived in the compound that we saw in the common area as we came into Torm Brinnom. He agreed that talking to the Strongaxes is a good idea -- they might have an outsider perspective on the affairs of the mountain dwarf clans.

Going back to his arranged marriage to Tamna Turnstone -- the marriage was arranged by Amnok Rockbreaker, who had a good reputation as a matchmaker. However, even before the disastrous pairing between Ullar Stonebright and Tamna Turnstone he’d developed a pattern of making some very iffy matches -- personality mismatches.

About then we were informed that we would be having dinner with Tanlot Stonebright, the clan elder. Ullar Stonebright wouldn’t be there. We were told that Tanlot had a suspicion that we’d all speak more freely that way. Ullar wasn’t thrilled but he accepted the situation. Not that he’s worried about what would be said -- but he wants to know what’s going on and why his own self.

We were escorted to our dinner -- we entered a room that looked sort of like a den or a small dining room. An elderly dwarf lady, Marxine estimated she was 400 or more years old, stood up as we entered and gestured to the other chairs at the round table in the room, inviting us to sit. Beer was brought in followed by a very nice stew.

She told us that Ullard and Jarek had a relationship -- they might have thought they were keeping it quiet, but it was not a secret.

She told us that Amnok Rockbreaker, who had arranged the match between Ullard and Tamna, had disappeared shortly after Ulllard left.

We asked why Ullard would have killed Jarek. She said that the guard, and the Turnstones, said that they had witnesses who said they were arguing.

Vinya: How do they know he was murdered? It seems like he might have fallen, or jumped, off the wall.
Tanlot: His neck was broken before he was thrown off the wall. Also he was found far enough from the wall that he clearly didn’t just _fall_.

Tanlot told us that Tamna Turnstone had another marriage arranged for her, this time by a matchmaker in the Anvilhands clan, to a young man in the Goldbrews clan.

Vinya: Since the pairing of Ullard with Tamna was so obviously not going to work, why did you accept the pairing? Do you have an opportunity to say no to an arranged marriage?
Tanlot: There’s a time when only the elders of the two clans know what match has been arranged -- during that time we have a chance to reject it. Once the pairing is announced publicly, though, it’s much harder to call it to a halt. In this case Amnock Rockbreaker announced it before we had a chance to reject the match.
Vinya: Are the Rockbreakers still here? Are they still making bad matches?
Tanlot: The Rockbreakers are still in Torm Brinnom, but they do not have a matchmaker in their clan since Amnok disappeared.

We asked her what form the feud between the Turnstones and the Stonebrights had been taking. Or dwarf feuds in general. She said that they start with personal arguments and business disputes, then clans start making shady deals with one another. She said that could lead to a revenge cycle of shady deals. Eventually fighting starts -- though it hasn’t gotten to that point here in Torm Brinnom yet.

Tanlot: At this point nothing has been said that can’t be unsaid. Though there have been some fistfights.
Marxine: We have a letter of introduction to the Strongaxes in the hill dwarf compound.
Tanlot: Lorto Strongaxe has a good head on his shoulders. It will probably be helpful for you to talk to him.
Marxine: It would be helpful for us to have a letter from you, so we can let people know that we’re connected with you if we need to.
Tanlot: I will do that.
Vinya: My first teacher as a monk was Hragdar Goldbrew.
Tanlot: I do not know him.

After dinner, we decided to go to an inn or bar where the different clans socialize together. We found the Adamant Gorgon, a big bar in the common area with lots of people from the clans and the resident non-mountain dwarves and guests. There was a hill dwarf greeting people at the door.

We found a table with a couple of hill dwarves and a rock gnome sitting at it -- and five empty seats. They’re playing a game where they’re bouncing coins into a glass. Marxine went to drop a copper into the glass and knocked a player’s coin out.

There were a few moments of good natured bickering over whether that counted as him getting a coin in the cup or not during which they invited us to sit with them.

Gnome: What brings the lot of you here?
Marxine: Adventuring.
Gnome: What adventure brought you here
Elderron: We were escorting someone?
Gnome: Who?
Elderron: Ullard Stonebright.

Everyone at the table knew that name and were interested that Ullard Stonebright was back in Torm Brinnom. They told us that things were really very tense in the stronghold -- the feuding had spread beyond the Stonebrights and the Turnstones. All of the mountain dwarves were treating each other badly, which is not the normal way of things.

Vinya: How long has this been going on?

They looked at each other and talked for a moment then all three of them agreed that it had been getting tense for about 10 years.

Vinya: And Ullard has been gone for about 30.
Dwarf: Did he do it?
Marxine: No way.
Dwarf: The tension started to build almost instantly when he left. According to the Turnstones, Ullard jilted the girl and killed her brother. But you say he didn’t do the latter.

We introduced ourselves and discovered that one of the dwarves we were talking to was Lorto Strongaxe, kin to Captain Strongaxe on the boat from Lonoj.

Lorto: This here is Arl Stormfist and the little guy is Quipperwhill.

We mentioned the bad matches that Artok Rockbreaker had been making before making the disastrous one between Ullard and Tamna. Lorto said that other people have been making weird decisions and behaving strangely. And that many of those people, like Artok Rockbreaker, have then disappeared after starting arguments or shorting merchants.

Lorto: I can think of eight who have disappeared over the last decade.
Marxine: That’s a lot of disappearances!
Vinya: Damn!
Marxine: Can you tell us some of the people who’ve behaved oddly and then disappeared? We’d like to look into this.
Lorto: There was a merchant from the Anvilhands who was shorting people. A smith from the Hammerhammers did shoddy work and sold some of it to the Silversmiles, Ironbeards, and Rockbreakers. He claimed the Goldbrews had sold him some bad iron, but they could prove they hadn’t.
Vinya: We’ve met a Hammerhammer -- he was an amazing smith.
Lorto: That’s their reputation and it’s important to them. It was a really big deal this guy making shoddy products -- it hurt their reputation for a while and caused a lot of stress in the clan. But then the guy disappeared.
Vinya: Who from outside Torm Brinnom would benefit from the social fabric fraying?
Lorto: People always think there’s good stuff in a stronghold.
Vinya: Are any of these other feuds getting big?
Lorto: The biggest dispute right now is between the Stonebrights and The Turnstones.
Elderron: Has any of this people behaving oddly happened recently?
Lorto: I haven’t heard of it.

We talked to them about the murder of Jarek Turnstone. They all agreed that it seemed weird. What the guard and the Turnstones say happened -- that Ullard broke Jarek’s neck and threw him off the wall of Torm Brinnom -- doesn’t match what the guards found. The guards say he fell or was pushed, but from how he landed it looked more like he was flung by a trebuchet -- he flew farther from the wall than even a normally muscular dwarf could possibly throw someone.

Vinya: Ullard is not a normally muscular dwarf. He’s quite slender and not terribly strong.
Elderron: Why won’t the Turnstones listen to that evidence?
Lorto: They were hurt by the end of the betrothal.
Vinya: Why were they so attached to what was obviously a very awkward match?
Lorto: I don’t know.

We ordered beer and spent the evening hanging out and playing their coin game, Coppers, until we went back to the Stonebright clanhold.

In the safety of the clanhold, the night passed entirely without incident.


24 Dorrinin 749 (Campaign day 85)

In the morning, we had a private breakfast in our chambers, and discussed what we wanted to do. Vinya wanted to talk to the guard about what evidence they had -- perhaps there was actual evidence that pointed to Ullard as the killer. We also wanted to talk to Tamna Goldbrew, formerly Tamna Turnstone, the jilted betrothed because we thought she might have an interesting perspective.

We started with the guard. Armed with Tanlot Stonebright’s letter of introduction and some talking up our connection with Captain Althorn in Erlin and Captain Toris in Lonoj, we found ourselves fairly quickly talking with Captain Tulkon SIlversmile. He was pretty tall and burly for a dwarf and had very dark hair.

Vinya: We have some questions about Ullard Stonebright and Jarek Turnstone. We’re trying to find out who did it, because we want justice to be done for all parties.
Elama: Did anyone ever cast speak with dead on his remains?
Captain Silversmile: Yes. He didn’t know who killed him. The last person he talked to was Ullard. He spoke to him on the wall. The last person he saw was Ullard. He saw him on the wall. Those were our five questions.
Vinya: That’s not very conclusive.
Captain Silversmile: Stonebright left Torm Brinnom -- his wagon was seen leaving, but the driver was cloaked and no one could conclusively identify the driver. We have witnesses who saw them arguing, but the reports are questionable and inconsistent. One said they were arguing outside the gate to the Stonebright clanhold. Another said they were outside the gate of the Turnstone clanhold. At about the same time.
Vinya: How close are the holds?
Captain Silversmile: Far enough apart that there couldn’t be a mistake about it. And they couldn’t both be right.
Elderron: Who were the witnesses?
Captain Silversmile: A patrol of guards saw them arguing outside the Stonebrights’. A merchant from the Goldbrews saw them arguing outside the Turnstones’.
Elderron: What about these disappearances we’ve heard about?
Captain Silversmile: There have been too many of those. Far too many. There have been at least 25 people who have disappeared without a trace over the last 25 years. Artok Rockbreaker was maybe the most prominent -- he was well trusted in the community until he started making those bad matches at the end. He was last seen at about the same time as the murder.
Vinya: So Ullard ended the betrothal and then is supposed to have immediately killed Jarek?
Captain Silversmile: No, there was a couple of days between the end of the betrothal and the murder.
Elderron: What was the most recent disappearance?
Captain Silversmile: Tardot Silversmile. He disappeared six months ago. He is my uncle.
Vinya: I’m so sorry!
Captain Silversmile: How would you have known?
Vinya: I’m sorry for your loss.
Elderron: Was he acting strange before he disappeared?
Captain Silversmile: He was short tempered and seemed to think he was more of an elder in our clan than he really was. He’s a fine dwarf, but doesn’t have as much authority as he was claiming
Marxine: What kind of authority?
Captain Silversmile: He was trying to give orders to our forces.
Elderron: What kind of orders?
Captain Silversmile: Like preparing the forces for an attack.
Vinya: Against who?
Captain Silversmile: It didn’t get that far. But Darmon Silversmile, another of my uncles, Tardot’s brother, is the head of our clan militia and they look pretty similar.
Vinya: You have a militia within your clan?
Captain Silversmile: All the clans have a militia. Each clan is responsible for training up a militia, but they're not supposed to deploy them without orders from the King except in the gravest emergencies.
Elderron: How are the mines doing?
Captain Silversmile: I don’t spend much time there. The miners found a seam of adamantine, which has people excited.
Marxine: What’s the timeline for the trial?
Captain Silversmile: The trial will probably happen within half a month. Some of that time will be spent finding three people from other clans, acceptable to both the Stonebrights and the Turnstones, who will be the judges.

After talking to Captain Silversmile, we decided we needed to go talk to Ullard again and get a bit more information and detail from him.

Vinya, to the rest of the party as we went back to the Stonebright clanhold: I feel like something is replacing or duplicating people.
Someone: Like a doppelganger?
Vinya: Maybe. Or someone with a really good disguise kit. Or a disguise self spell. Maybe a few people. I mean people saw Ullard and Jarek arguing in two different places at the same time. So if they’re both right, someone was duplicating Jarek in one place and Ullard in another. It would also explain these disappearances and Captain Silversmile’s uncle acting like he thought he was his brother, the head of the militia. And Jarek’s corpse saying that the last person he saw was Ullard, two days after Ullard left Torm Brinnom.

To Vinya’s surprise, the others didn’t think this was completely nuts.

Back at the Stonebright hold, we asked Ullard for the timeline of events, from his point of view.

Ullard: I found out I was betrothed and went immediately to talk to Jarek. He was more argumentative than usual and really seemed determined that I should go through with the betrothal. We had an argument about it. I came home. I figured out that I wasn’t going to go through with the marriage. So I packed my things and loaded up a cart. The next day I went to talk to Jarek, but he wasn’t at the Turnstone clanhold. The guards seemed weird -- as though they were wondering why I was asking for him. They seemed to think I should know. So I asked to talk to Tamna. I told her I was going to leave Torm Brinnom.
Vinya: Did you ask her where Jarek was?
Ullard: No. I got in my wagon and pulled my cloak around me and headed out of the stronghold.
Marxine: To be absolutely clear, you never spoke with Jarek on the wall?
Ullard: Not between the announcement of my betrothal and me leaving Torm Brinnom. Some places on the wall are kind of secluded and couples have …. meetings there. It’s like a lovers’ walk. So we’d been there before.
Elderron: What was his reason for wanting you to go through with the marriage?
Ullard: He said it would be better for our clans and that Rockbreaker knew what he was doing.

Ullard said that he’s found out since he returned that there was some thought that Jarek left with him, until they found his body.

Vinya had a really good feeling that he was telling the absolute truth.

We talked about where we needed to go from here.

Vinya: Whatever it is that is copying people and however it’s being done, they’re going to be targeting the people selected as judges, I’d think.

We decided that since we were there we could talk to the head of the Stonebright militia -- Annim Stonebright. We asked him if he knew about Tarnot Silversmile trying to order the Silversmile militia to prepare for an attack.

Arnim: He was acting like his brother.
Us: Yeah. Who’s the head of the Turnstone militia?
Arnim: Kemmit Turnstone.

We filed that away in case it became useful later, but decided to go to the Goldbrews to talk to Tanma.

When we got to the Goldbrew clanhold, Vinya stepped up and threw around Hragdar’s name, asking if he was there. He was not. So she then asked if we could speak to Tanma.

We were asked to wait in a waiting room near the gate. After fifteen minutes or so, Tanma came into the waiting room.

Tanma: The last time I spoke to Ullard he came by to speak to Jarek, but he wasn’t there. He asked for me then. He told me that he was leaving Torm Brinnom because he thought it would be easier for my clan to find me another husband if he was entirely gone. And that would be easier than getting Rockbreaker to change his mind.
Vinya: That actually speaks pretty well of him.
Tanma: Yeah. My clan wanted the marriage to happen, but I knew about Ullard and Jarek and I didn’t think it was going to work well for anyone.

She told us that Ullard looked like he was bundled up for travel and had a wagon outside the gate. It was clear to her that he was going to be leaving as soon as they were done talking.

Vinya: When was this?
Tanma: Around lunchtime. Earlier, the day before I guess, I’d talked to Jarek. He seemed upset. He said that Ullard had been acting weird, but he was going to try to talk sense into him. It sounded like Jarek thought Ullard was going to go through with the marriage. When Ullard said he was leaving the next day, I thought he and Jarek had a talk.
Vinya: We’ve heard about people acting strangely around the stronghold. Have you seen anything like that?
Tanma: Well, my dad has been pretty weird. He never seemed like a vengeful sort before, but now, like in the last five years, he’s become determined to have vengeance on the Stonebrights.
Vinya: What’s your father’s name?
Tanma: Ult Turnstone. It’s become a fixation for him. An obsession.
Vinya: Is he the clan elder?
Tanma: No. But my uncle is and my father has his brother’s ear.

We ended on that alarming note.


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## prabe (Dec 9, 2020)

Session 22: Oni Coming Out of the Woodwork

Dramatis Personae:

Aldalómiel - Wood Elf Ranger (Hunter Conclave)
Elama “Lamie” Galanodel- Wood Elf Cleric (Tempest)
Vinya Anar - Wood Elf Monk (Way of the Sun Soul)
Elderon - High Elf Wizard (Loremaster)
Marxine Deepfoot - Dwarf Fighter (Champion)

GM - Everyone Else

(Note: This session was held on Discord.)


24 Dorrinin 749 (Campaign day 85) (immediately after)

We ended the previous session still in the middle of our investigation of the dead of Jarek Turnstone. We had just learned from Jarek’s sister, Tamna Goldbrew (nee Turnstone), that her father was showing some of the signs that we’d identified as possibly being a marker of someone having been _replaced_ by whatever it is that is duplicating and replacing people. And her father has the ear of the Turnstone clan elder. Which could be really bad given that the Turnstones are mainly driving the feud with the Stonebrights.

We started by continuing that conversation with Tanma.

Vinya: If I suggested that your father had somehow been replaced by someone or something who looked just like him, but didn’t have his memories or personality -- whether by magic or monster or simply a very excellent ability to impersonate someone, would you think that was possible?
Tamna: That could be possible, yes.
Elderron: If it was the case, how would you feel?
Tamna: Sad. Distressed. If they can get to my father, they can get to anyone.
Elderron: Would you help us try to find out if he has, in fact, been replaced by a duplicate?
Tamna: I can get us an audience with my uncle, Eskin Turnstone. He’s the clan elder and he could arrange for a test with my father.
Vinya: How long would it take to get that set up?
Tamna: I can talk to them today. I’ll let you know.
Vinya: You can get a message to us at the Stonebright clanhold.
Tamna: How’s Ullard holding up?
Vinya: He’s stressed. Quite resolute about standing trial. He was very determined about coming back for the good of the Stronghold.

We then thanked her and left.

Vinya: Should we go talk to….
Elderron: Yes.

We went to the guardhouse to talk to Captain Tulkon Silversmile.

Vinya: You told us about your uncle acting oddly for a while before he went missing. Would you believe it possible that your uncle was replaced by something that duplicated him by some means? Would that make sense to you?
Captain: That actually makes a lot of sense.
Vinya: It seems like there was some amount of duplication of people going on around when Ullard Stonebright called off his betrothal to Tamna and left Torm Brinnom and Jarek Turnstone’s died. Among other things it seems like there were two arguments going on at the same time between Jarek and Ullard -- one outside the Stonebright clanhold and one outside the Turnstones. Ullard reports that Jarek wasn’t acting like himself when they argued. Tamna said that Jarek told her Ullard wasn’t acting like himself. Two different arguments.
Captain: naughty word!
Elderron: Something’s definitely fishy.

We told him about Tamna saying that her father hadn’t been acting like himself for a few years and that he has the ear of his brother, the Turnstone clan elder.

Vinya: I’m envisioning Tamna’s father influencing selection of the judges, then disappearing. And then the judges in the trial sitting before anyone has a chance to notice that one of them is acting oddly.
Marxine: There’s got to be a short list of who’s likely to be selected for this. Dwarves in other clans well-respected for their integrity and honesty. Probably elders.
Captain: Yeah. I can make a good guess who the judges will be.
Vinya: It would probably be a good idea to ask the people close to those most likely judges if they’ve been acting oddly. And also just to keep them protected so that they don’t get replaced at the eleventh hour.

We then went back to the Stonebright clanhold to talk to Ullard. He wouldn’t know if anyone in the Stonebright clan had been acting oddly, because he’s been gone for 30 years. But he said we could talk to his cousin Affird.

When Affird came to talk to us we told him that we were looking into the murder of Jarek Turnstone because we wanted to make sure that justice was done.

Vinya: One thing we’ve found as we’ve been talking to people is that a lot of people associated with the case, and with the stronghold in general, have been acting strangely and not like themselves. Has there been anyone like that here?
Affird: Our elder’s husband. He had a bad memory and was acting strangely a few years ago. The memory has mostly gotten better. But his personality seems permanently changed.
Vinya: What happened?
Affird: Ekrit was the one who handled a few of the early responses to the Turnstone’s initial complaints. They appeared to be deliberately very insulting. Tanlot doesn’t allow him to do that sort of thing anymore.
Vinya: Would he have her ear as far as important clan affairs go?
Affird: Not anymore.
Vinya: Would it be possible for you to believe that Ekrit had been somehow replaced by someone who looked just like him but was not in fact him?
Affird: That makes a terrifying amount of sense. You should tell Tanlot. I’ll see if I can arrange a meeting.

At that point it was about dinner time so we ate at the clanhold with Ullard and Affird and other cousins of theirs in the same age group. We were served roast meat with roasted vegetables and potatoes. And beer.

During dinner Vinya asked the person sitting next to her if there was a sage or wise person in town we could talk to.

Vinya’s dinner partner: Well, Tylrok Hammerhammer is the smartest person I know.
Vinya: Thanks!

A lot of the conversation at the table was Ullard’s cousins trying to draw him out about what he was doing the last 30 years while he was going. He wasn’t super talkative about it and tried to dodge their questions. Elderron, Aldalomiel and Elama got the sense that he didn’t think his family would understand what he’d been doing or what he’d experienced. Elderron passed that information to Vinya, quietly. So Vinya started deflecting them by talking about the stuff we’d seen on the trip here from Lonoj -- meeting the dragon, and talking to the Stone Giants and the well that gave true answers to questions, and the hydra we fought on the boat. That successfully deflected their interest.

After dinner, Affird went to Marxine and told her that Tanlot would be able to talk to us in half an hour in the same room we’d spoken to her in before.

We went to talk to her after spending half an hour getting spiffed up -- Vinya put on her dress gi, Elderron put on his fine clothes with his owl cufflinks, etc.

When the time for the meeting came, we met with Tanlot in the same meeting room, which was a rectangular room with a round table with twelve chairs around it.

Vinya: If we suggested to you that some people in the stronghold had been replaced by other people who looked just like them, whether by magic or excellent impersonation or whatever, would that be something you could believe?
Elderron: Let me be more direct. Can you think of anyone who’s been acting like they weren’t themselves in the last several years?
Tanlot: My husband. Five years ago he had a bunch of things fall out of his memory.
Vinya: Did his personality change?
Elderron: Perhaps old projects were abandoned and new ones taken up.
Tanlot: Not the projects abandoned but his memory was very bad. And his personality…
Vinya: It’s likely that whatever is doing this may be able to pick up on social cues to either pick up things they ought to be remembering, or to fake remembering them. But the personality changes are likely to be permanent.
Tanlot: That does describe my husband.
Vinya: With people possibly being duplicated, we’re worried about the integrity of Ullard’s trial.
Tanlot: That’s a concern

At about that time in the conversation, all of us but Elderron noticed mist flowing under the two doors to the room. It coalesced and formed into blue-skinned, horned humanoid-shaped things -- Elderron recognized them as Oni (or ogre-magi).

Fortunately, because of the flail of warning that Marxine carries, even Elderron wasn’t surprised. He just wasn’t sure what he wasn’t being surprised by. There was one at either end of the room with us in the middle.

Elderron let us know quickly that they were Oni and had some magical powers, including shapeshifting into humanoids. They eat people. They also, from time to time, work as mercenaries in groups.

Alda put a hunter’s mark on the one nearest her, then drew her sword and moved to attack it -- hitting with both of her attacks. Elama moved between Tanlot and the same one Aldalomiel attacked and cast sanctuary on Tanlot, then cast sacred flame on the one she was blocking from Tanlot. Elderron misty stepped away from the Oni, all the way to the wall of the room, then cast toll the dead on the one that Aldalomiel and Elama were fighting.

Vinya planted the rod of alertness near where she was at the opposite side of the room - creating an aura of light that gave everyone some protection and allowed us to see invisible things. Then she got between the Oni and Tanlot and did her patient defense. Marxine got next to Vinya, between the same Oni and Tanlot, and attacked with the maul, getting a good hit.

The one Aldalomiel was next to attacked her and the other one attacked Marxine. Both, fortunately, missed. We did, however, see them healing some of the damage that had been done to them.

Tanlot moved to be as far away from them as possible -- against the wall in the middle of the room.

Aldalomiel moved so she had flanking with Elama, then drew her second sword and attacked three times, hitting with every strike. Elama took a step away from the Oni.

Elama: Sacred flame in the face!

But unfortunately, it saved.

Elderron shot a lightning bolt at the one on Aldalomiel but altered it in the casting so it did fire damage. Unfortunately something in the changing of the spell made it a little weak so it didn’t do as much damage as it might have done.

Vinya missed with her two quarterstaff attacks but then used an ability that she’d just worked out -- a searing arc strike. Fire shot out from her hands in an arc and damaged the Oni. Marxine moved to get flanking with Vinya getting a critical hit!

Unfortunately, even with both of them having taken fire damage, they both still healed as they attacked us.

Vinya: Fire doesn’t do it, y’all!

Aldalomiel was hit once, as was Marxine -- fortunately only once on each of them.

Vinya tried to tell Tanlot to get under the table, where she’d be harder for them to get to, but she was at least a little frozen in fear and stayed where she was.

Because Elama had stepped away to cast sacred flame, Aldalomiel no longer had flanking with her -- but she still was able to get a critical hit on it, as well as a regular hit. She did loads of damage. Elama dropped a shatter spell on the one on Aldalomiel -- there was a huge crashing noise and the Oni dropped. The Stonebright guards would have undoubtedly heard that. Elderron cast another altered lightning bolt -- this one did cold damage -- on the remaining Oni. Vinya punched it three times and got one hit. Marxine, having gotten into a groove with her swing, got two very consistent hits.

The one on Marxine and Vinya got a hit -- doing a lot of damage to Vinya. We kept an eye on the one that had been dropped by the Shatter spell -- it did not regenerate or get back to its feet. Whew!

Aldalomiel moved her hunter’s mark to the other Oni, then she dropped her swords and fired two shots with her bow -- which dropped it.

We all stayed alert and watched to make sure they weren’t going to regenerate. They didn’t.

Vinya went to Tanlot to make sure she was okay -- she said she was.

Elama opened the door to the room and saw guards coming down the hall.

Elama: Come in. We were attacked by blue, horned things.

We suggest the guards go look for Tanlot’s husband. They couldn’t find him.

Vinya asked one of them to please go get Captain Silversmile. Tanlot nodded and waved one of them off to do that. Vinya sat down and started to meditate, starting a short rest, but the Captain Silversmile and two other guards arrived about half an hour later.

Captain: Apologies for it taking so long. We’re short-handed tonight. One of our guards didn’t show up for his shift.
Vinya: These things attacked us while we were talking to Tanlot. There are probably more in the stronghold. We need to talk to the Turnstones.
Captain: Tanlot, you okay?
Tanlot: ::waves him off::

Elderron told us that the Oni have magical abilities -- they can shapechange, turn invisible, and have a gaseous form.

We asked if the Captain can go with us to the Turnstones with some proof of these creatures. We headed out quickly to go to the Turnstones with the Captain. At the Turnstone clanhold, Captain Silversmile got us all in to talk to Eskin Turnstone, the clan elder, in a quiet and private room.

Eskin: I spoke with Tanma and was expecting you tomorrow.
Vinya: While we were talking to Tanlot this evening we were attacked by blue-skinned things called Oni. Elderron can tell you all about them if you want the information.

Elderron gave them the information he has on Oni. Focusing on the fact that they eat babies.

Eskin: <<looked sad>>
Vinya: Would you find it possible to believe that some people in the stronghold had been replaced by duplicates that look just like them?
Eskin: That makes a surprising amount of sense, actually.
Elderron: Have you seen Ult Turnstone?
Eskin: At dinner. Let’s go look for him…

We went with Eskin to Ult’s home within the Turnstone clanhold. We were greeted by some house servants who were cleaning up. At Erskin’s request they let us in and told us that the last time they saw Ult, he was going to his chambers. Eskin asks them to wake him and bring him down.

A few minutes later they came back, surprised, because he’s not there. They saw him less than an hour earlier. (Note: It had been more than an hour since we were attacked with Tanlot at the Stonebright clanhold.)

Vinya: So he’s not one of the two who attacked us at Stonebright’s.

Captain Silversmile was very displeased at the thought.

Elderron: Do you think Tamna is in danger?
Eskin: Please check in on her. I’ll have our guards looking for Ult in the clanhold.

We went with Captain Silversmile and his guards to the Goldbrew clanhold. While we were on the way, Vinya had a thought and asked if one of the guards could please be sent to the Stonebrights to ask them to have someone keep an eye on Ullard. Captain Silversmile agreed that was a good idea and sent one of the guards to do that.

At the Goldbrews, we got to speak with Tamna pretty quickly and found her fine and confused to see us again.

Tamna: I was going to send you a message in the morning. I arranged a meeting with Eskin Turnstone.

We explained the situation to her and she said that she’d be careful. We left a couple of guards to keep an eye on her.

We went back to the Turnstones to help with the search for Ult, and to let Eskin know that his niece was okay. We were met at the gate by Tanlot Stonebright. She was holding an unrolled scroll and had a dozen of the Stonebright guards with her. They were standing 40 to 50 feet away, not letting her out of her sight.

She handed the scroll to Marxine.

Tanlot: Can you read this?

Marxine couldn’t but fortunately Aldalomiel had been working on learning giantish and was able to. It said:

We have a deal. I will pay you and your brothers 10,000 gold each, for a total of 70,000 gold, and magically empower your glaives, and I’m sure the stronghold has other magics for the taking--they’re yours.

This is a long-term project, I know, but it will be worth it to you in the long run.

Signed,
Rajalmin

Marxine had the sense that “Rajalmin” was a fiendish name, but she couldn’t dial it in better than that.

Vinya: There were seven of them. We’ve killed two. That leaves five.

Elderron took a few minutes to cast detect magic before we knocked at the gate of the Turnstone clanhold. Vinya had see invisible going (from the Rod of Alertness). Elderron was hoping that detect magic would let him see something that was polymorphed. Neither of them saw anything out of the way.

We went back to the Stonebrights to find Ullard. We asked him to stay with us for the night, so we could be sure to keep him safe.

Captain Silversmile said that he was going to send a message to the Hammerhammer sage, so he’d be expecting us first thing in the morning. He also said that he’d contact the short-list of possible judges to check if they were okay.

Oda spent the night flying around over the stronghold, listening for screaming or commotion.

We took a tense and stressed long rest, but the night passed without incident.


25 Dorrinin 749 (Campaign day 86)

Breakfast in the Stonebright clanhold was quiet -- most people weren’t talking much. Toward the end of breakfast, Tanlot came into the dining room.

Tanlot: I received word last night that Ult, or whatever was pretending to be him, returned to the Turnstone’ clanhold last night. They were able to kill him, but at the cost of several of their guards.
Vinya, horrified: Oh, I’m so sorry!! We should have stayed there. Has your husband returned?
Tanlot: No. And Captain Silversmile says his guard has not returned.

We got a description of the guard, Garton Anvilhand, and realized that we’d seen him as part of the guard contingent around when we were talking to Captain Silversmile. Elama cast locate object on something he was wearing. We started walking toward the Anvilhand clanhold and when we were a bit away, she started picking up the location of that object within the clanhold.

At the door of the Anvilhand clanhold, Elama asked for Garten.

Guard: He’s not here.
Marxine, in Dwarvish: Can we go in and ask if he’s okay?

We followed the locate object spell to Garten’s fairly plain room. It looked very very neglected -- like he hadn’t cared about his room or his surroundings for a while. The object Elama was raising was in a pile on a bedside table. We got the sense that he’d taken off his guard uniform, and perhaps the trappings of pretending to be Garten Anvilhands.

Vinya used the rod of alertness to cast see invisible, but she couldn’t see anything.

We thanked the Anvilhands and decided to go talk to the Hammerhammer sage.

And there we ended.


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## prabe (Dec 16, 2020)

Session 23: Us and a “Gem of Seeing”

Dramatis Personae:

Aldalómiel - Wood Elf Ranger (Hunter Conclave)
Elama “Lamie” Galanodel- Wood Elf Cleric (Tempest)
Vinya Anar - Wood Elf Monk (Way of the Sun Soul)
Elderon - High Elf Wizard (Loremaster)
Marxine Deepfoot - Dwarf Fighter (Champion)

GM - Everyone Else

(Note: This session was held on Discord.)


25 Dorrinin 749 (Campaign day 86) (immediately after)

On the way with Captain Silversmile to talk to the Torm Brinnom sage, Tylrok Hammerhammer, we discussed what we wanted to learn from him. We wanted to know if he knows anything about this fiend Rajalmin who hired the oni to disrupt the community in Torm Brinnom. If he does know anything about Rajalmin, what could the fiend possibly have to gain with this? Is there some way to identify the oni other than going around the stronghold and asking if people are acting weird.

Captain Silversmile introduced us to Tylrok Hammerhammer and the sage said that he’d been told already that there was an infestation of oni in the town.

Vinya showed him the letter from Rajalmin.

Tylrok: My father’s aunt, before she was a Hammerhammer, sent Rajalmin back to the Hells. He’s a Rakshasa.
Elama: What’s that?
Tylrok: A devil-creature. Their primary hobbies are corrupting civilization and revenge.
Vinya: Apparently what he’s doing here is a two-fer.
Tylrok: Yes, but the good news is that if he’s hired oni to act for him, he’s probably not here.
Elama: Is he a shapeshifter too?
Tylrok: Yes.
Elama: Is there any way to figure out who in the stronghold is an oni?
Tylrok: A gem of seeing would do it. Maybe one of the clans has one? I know we don’t.
Captain Silversmile: ::shakes his head::
Vinya: Is there any way to draw them out so they find us?
Tylrok: Using yourselves as bait?
Elderron: We’d prefer that.
Elama: I’d prefer that to all this sleuthing.
Vinya: We’d prefer it to them attacking dwarves who may not be trained in fighting.
Tylrok: It would be clever if word could get out that we have a gem of seeing… They may have ways of contacting each other. There haven’t been any new disappearances for a while, six months I think since your uncle, Captain, right? Maybe some of the elves in town have a gem of seeing ...

We ultimately decided that we were going to _fake_ a Gem of Seeing by putting a Nystul’s Magic Aura (conveniently Tylrok had a scroll for that and he gave it to Elderron) on one of the chunks of crystal we picked up on the way to Torm Brinnom.

Armed with a fake Gem of Seeing, we walked around the Hammerhammer clanhold with it, thanking Tylrok for the loan of his gem of seeing. Elama checked people over with the “gem”, examining them with it. Vinya cast see invisibility from the rod of alertness.

The clans in Torm Brinnom are: Stonebright, Turnstone, Hammerhammer, Anvilhands, Goldbrew, Silversmile, Rockbreaker, Ironbeard, Diamondeye, and Blackgranite.

After going through the Hammerhammer clanhold, where Tylrok had told us no one was behaving oddly, so we weren’t expecting much, we headed with Captain Silversmile and two guards (who never earned names) to the Stonebrights, because we figured we could work on our schtick of looking with the gem of seeing there, where we figured we’d flushed out an oni already (and weren’t expecting any more).

Ullard was a bit non-plussed with our show of searching. Vinya gave him a wink as Elama was looking him over with the gem.

We went from there back to the Anvilhands, where we’d already been this morning before going to talk to Tylrok (looking for the missing guard). They were pretty cooperative.

Anvilhands guard: Two guards we didn’t recognize came by after you left. They were also looking for Garton. They left just a minute ago.

(Note: Garton Anvilhands is the guard who is missing.)

We got a description of the guards who had come by. Disturbingly, Captain Silversmile didn’t recognize them from the descriptions.

We went from the Anvilhands to the Silversmile stronghold. We let the Captain take care of the discussion there, since this was his own clan. They were a little unhappy that their own clansman was subjecting them to the search.

We went from there to the Rockbreakers. In addition to looking around with the “gem of seeing” we asked about people acting weird. The door guard at the Rockbreakers gave us a weird look. Apparently word of what we were looking for, and what was going on, had gotten around.

Guard: It’s not natural having something pretending to be us.

We agreed with that.

We decided that if we did too much “looking with the gem of seeing” and _missed_ one of the oni, it would give our game away. So instead of just going around all the clanholds in order we were going to focus on places where we didn’t expect to find anything -- like the Turnstones, where Ult had already been revealed -- and on getting the word out that we had the gem.

We decided to go from the Rockbreakers straight over to the Turnstones, which involved cutting through the common part of the stronghold and going past the guest dwarves’ hold.

As we were going through the busy and bustling common area, on our way to the guest dwarves’ hold, with Captain Silversmile and our two nameless guards, we saw ahead of us two people, a gnome and an elf, turn into oni and lift off the ground and fly.

Aldalomiel cast hunter’s mark on the one in front of us -- hitting twice. Elama cast call lightning, taking advantage of the high “ceiling” in the stronghold. She damaged both of them.

Marxine moved forward and pushed one of the civilians back toward the rest of the party, then put herself between another civilian and the oni. Vinya, having had the same thought, ran up to where she could see around the buildings and into a couple of alleys, where there were two more oni. She saw a civilian standing right near an oni, where it would definitely be threatened by the oni’s big glaive. She pulled the civilian away from the oni, taking his place, and send him going toward the party. Then she called out to the others about there being two more in the side streets and did patient defense.

Elderron cast a hypnotic pattern on the two he could see, changing the save to a dexterity save. One of them went a bit slack jawed and the other turned to it and looked at it with an irritated expression.

The civilians ran -- one of them who was in range of a big glaive had the presence of mind to disengage before running.

Captain Silversmile moved forward to place himself between a civilian and an oni. The guards stepped in front of Elama and Elderron and shot at the two oni straight down the street in front of us with their crossbows. One of them got a hit.

One of the oni moved toward Captain Silversmile and shot a cone of cold down the street toward the party that caught Elama, Elderron, Aldalomiel, the two guards, and a number of civilians. The guards and the civilians were frozen solid and killed instantly. The cold damage caused Elderron to lose concentration on the hypnotic pattern, freeing that one (though fortunately it didn’t get to attack that turn) and Aldalomiel to lose concentration on her hunters’ mark. One of them moved to Marxine and attacked her twice, hitting once, from a position hovering 10 feet over her, because oni are bastards. Vinya was attacked by the one she’d gotten close to, but it missed (barely) with both attacks.

Aldalomiel cast hunters’ mark again, shooting twice at the one nearest the party (the one on Captain Silversmile). She did her usual great deal of damage. Elama cast fog cloud on herself, Elderron and Aldalomiel, then she moved to a different position so they wouldn’t be able to guess where she was in the cover of the fog cloud.

Marxine ignored the bastard in the air and went to the one that had been caught in the hypnotic pattern (but was now free) and attacked it, getting in one good hit. Vinya attacked the one she was on -- she tried to do a stunning strike, so she followed her attack up with a searing arc strike (burning hands). Elderron peeked out of the fog cloud and cast lightning bolt on two of them -- the one that cast the cone of cold and the one that had been caught in the hypnotic pattern.

The two civilians that had survived the cone of cold got away down the alleys or past the party and were safe.

Captain Silversmile pulled out a warhammer and attacked the oni on him twice, getting one hit. Not bad. The captain was attacked by two oni (the one who cast the cone of cold and the one that had flown over Marxine, each getting two attacks. One of them hit him twice, the other missed twice, and he survived the volley of blows. Marxine was attacked by the one she attacked, who was not flying, and hit once. Vinya was once again missed.

Aldalomiel moved out of the fog cloud, shot twice at the one that cast the cone of cold (currently on Captain Silversmile), since she’d already put her hunters’ mark on it. She got a solid hit. Then she moved back.

Elama peeked out of the cloud and found a spot where she could drop a shatter on some of them without hitting either the Captain or Marxine. The boom-crash of the thunder dropped the one that had cast the cone of cold, but didn’t hurt either the Captain or Marxine. Nice!!

Marxine attacked the one that had been in the hypnotic pattern -- she missed with both of her attacks, but her action surge let her attack again and she hit twice with that extra effort doing good damage with both of those attacks. Vinya hit with her main attack and did a stunning strike, which worked. Then she did another unarmed punch and hit with that as well.

Elderron stepped out of the fog and shot scorching rays -- two at the one on Marxine and one on the one on Captain Silversmile. He missed the one on the captain, but hit the one on Marxine twice and dropped it! Nice! Then Elderron faded back into the mist.

The Captain got a hit with one of his attacks, which was cool.

The good feelings didn’t last long, however, because he got hit hard by the one on him -- he stayed on his feet, but only just barely.

Aldalomiel moved her hunters’ mark to the one that was flying and hit solidly. Elama got right up behind Captain Silversmile and slapped him on the back, delivering a big cure wound. Marxine moved to the one that was flying and attacked by means of jumping up and swinging while at the apex of her leap. That worked amazingly well -- she hit twice, one of them a critical hit, and did lots of damage.

Vinya punched her stunned oni twice, hitting it twice, then spent her last bit of ki energy to do a flurry of blows, getting two more hits, doing a lot of damage herself. Unfortunately, it then shook off the stun.

Elderron walked out of the cloud and cast a high-level scorching ray, sending two bolts to Marxine’s oni and two to Vinya’s. Unfortunately, he missed Marxine’s but he hit Vinya’s twice. Then he ducked back close to the cloud, unable to get all the way into it because of how far he’d had to move to see Vinya’s.

Captain Silversmile followed Marxine’s lead and leapt into the air to attack the hovering oni. His first two attacks missed, but he did his action surge and attacked again, his hammer moving at blinding speed. He also got a hit and a crit in the attack.

Vinya’s oni attacked her and, again, missed twice. The other one took one swing each on Marxine and Captain Silversmile, missing both.

Aldalomiel attacked the one on Marxine and the Captain, but unfortunately missed twice. Elama dropped her fog cloud and cast a guiding bolt on the one on Marxine and the Captain, doing damage and leaving it easier to hit for the next person. Marxine got one hit.

On the other one, Vinya got one hit with her unarmed strike but otherwise missed. Elderron gave her a hand and shot three scorching rays at it, hitting twice. Then he moved so he was not in cone of cold formation.

Captain Silversmile got a solid hit on the one he and Marxine had been fighting, dropping it!

Elderron’s move away proved to be prescient because the one remaining oni, the one on Vinya, cast a cone of cold that caught Vinya, Elama, Marxine, and Captain Silversmile. The Captain and Elama were both dropped by it.

Vinya: You bastard!!

Aldalomiel moved her hunters’ mark to the one oni left and shot it twice, dropping it!!

Vinya: We need a healer or a cleric! Captain Silversmile needs help!

We stabilized Lamie and the Captain with the healer’s kit and about the time we had done that, some people started showing up -- guardsmen and a cleric or two from the guest dwarf hold were the first to arrive. They were followed shortly after by other guests in the Torm (because we were in the common/guest area so they were closest). Once the clerics were helping Lamie and the Captain, we checked out the guards -- they were both beyond saving with the only spell we could muster (revivify). We hoped that the guards or the stronghold itself would be able to raise money to have them raised. The dead civilians would have to be raised (or not) by their own people.

Lamie and the Captain were healed and gotten back on their feet before the Torm Brinnom guards arrived.

Captain Silversmile agreed that those four should account for all of the oni in the city. (We knew there were seven from Rajalmin’s letter, which talked about paying them 10,000gold each, for a total of 70,000. We killed two in Tanlot’s council room at the Stonebright stronghold. The Turnstone guards killed one there. With the four dead here in the street, that was all seven.

We asked the Captain what he knew about rakshasa. He told us that rakshasa live in the Hells and are derived from devils, but are sort of their own thing.

Captain Silversmile said that he understood the Council would be meeting on the issue this afternoon. We went back to the guardhouse to wait, with blankets (because we were all still chilled from the cone of cold), cocoa, brandy, and a chance to take a short rest.

After a couple of hours, we went with Captain Silversmile to the Council Room in the Ironbeards’ clanhold. Captain Silversmile gave a good summation of the situation with the oni and how they had been the source of the mysterious disappearances over the last 30 years or so. Tylrok Hammerhammer talked about the rakshasa connection and that the oni had been hired as mercenaries to take on this job. The Council agreed that we would be rewarded for our efforts on behalf of Torm Brinnom.

The Council also said that they were going to discuss, in private, asking us to help them with the rakshasa Rajalmin.

Captain Silversmile said that one of the oni had killed Jarek Turnstone and that there was no evidence that pointed to Ullard Stonebright. King Ironbeard commanded the Turnstone and Silversmile clans to use that information and come to a resolution of their feud that is mutually agreeable.

Vinya: Mutually agreeable and that recognizes that Ullard Silversmile is actually innocent of Jarek’s murder. That’s important.

The king nodded at that, which Vinya didn’t feel entirely comfortable with.

We ended in the Council Meeting.


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## prabe (Dec 23, 2020)

Session 24: Traveling with a Silver Dragon

Dramatis Personae:

Aldalómiel - Wood Elf Ranger (Hunter Conclave)/Druid
Elama “Lamie” Galanodel- Wood Elf Cleric (Tempest)
Vinya Anar - Wood Elf Monk (Way of the Sun Soul)
Elderon - High Elf Wizard (Loremaster)
Marxine Deepfoot - Dwarf Fighter (Champion)/Paladin

GM - Everyone Else

(Note: This session was held on Discord.)


25 Dorrinin 749 (Campaign day 86) (immediately after)

As the Torm Brinnom Clan Council meeting about the innocence of Ullard Stonebright, the oni, Rajalmin, and all the disruptions the oni caused wound down, we decided to go for a walk around the stronghold -- just getting a vibe-check on the city. Ullard decided to come with us.

There was a little buzz in the air, because we’d fought the oni right in the streets of the common area of the stronghold.

We decided to go to the Adamant Gorgon, where we’d visited our first night here and met with the hill dwarf, Lorto Strongaxe, Arl Stormfist, and Quipperwhill the gnome. There were plenty of people in the bar who’d seen us fighting the oni -- so we got our dinner for free. We heard a bit of buzz and talk about the civilians who had gotten flash frozen by the oni’s cone of cold and the funeral arrangements that were being made. There was also some concern for the guards who got flash frozen -- but the consensus was that money to raise them would come from the council, because they were killed in the line of duty.

We found Lorto Strongaxe in the crowd.

Lorto: Hey, heroes! How are you?
Elderron: Good
Vinya: It feels weird celebrating -- there’s still a lot of emotional naughty word that’s still stirred up.

We talked for a bit about Ullard being innocent and Captain Strongaxe on the boat from Lonoj to Tuntorla suspecting him. Vinya asked Lorto to help get the word about Ullard out to the Strongaxes and other visiting hill dwarves in Torm Brinnom (and Strongaxes outside of Torm Brinnom).

Lorto, to Ullard: If you stay here, word will spread pretty quickly.
Vinya: Ullard, what are your plans?
Ullard: Stay here. There are always businesses that can use a clerk.

The vibe check on the bar seemed to suggest that people were still processing what is happening.

We asked about the elf and the gnome that two of the oni had been disguised as but no one recognized them when we described them. They apparently had disguised themselves as just random people moving through the city, so no one would know. There are still some people who were oni who we haven’t identified yet, but the stronghold will figure that out.

We headed back to the Stonebright clanhold to rest.


26 Dorrinin 749 (Campaign day 87) (immediately after)

(Note: We woke up at 7th level.)

We breakfasted with in the dining room where we’d eaten with Ullard and his cousins. While we were eating, Ullard showed up with five pouches.

Ullard: Way back when, I said I’d pay you 100gp each to escort me. The trip was far more hazardous than I expected. I didn’t expect you to clear my name. Especially not in a way that exposed such a threat to the fabric of the stronghold.
Vinya: We were happy to.
Ullard: You’ll be happier when you look inside.

While we were talking to him, Tanlot and Tylrok Hammerhammer, the sage, showed up.

Hammerhammer: I did some research. I believe that Rajalmin the Rakshasa is still in the Hells, but he clearly has some plan for getting here. My aunt killed him on this plane, so he can’t return unless he is specifically summoned.
Vinya: Could the oni have summoned him?
Elama: How did he talk to them?
Hammerhammer: He can get out of the Hells. He just can’t come here.
Vinya: So he could have hired the oni on a different plane, then they came here?
Elama: Can they do that?
Hammerhammer: Not innately, but with spells.
Elderron: If Rajalmin is in the Hells, how do we get to him?
Hammerhammer: If those oni didn’t have the wherewithal to summon him, and we don’t think they did, he had a plan to get here. You could look into that.
Vinya: Do you have a lead? I’m 100% in favor of no fiends, but he could come through anywhere, right?
Hammerhammer: There are two cities with extensive libraries of magical knowledge here on Urnod.
Vinya: We need to go to New Arvai anyway -- we’ve got that book to deliver from Jamil to the Library of the World.
Elama: Aren’t these reshushers hard to kill?
Vinya: Rakshasa. Did your aunt tell any stories?
Hammerhammer: She said that low-level magic just didn’t work at all. But they had some very good and heroic people in her party. They appeared to take extra damage from piercing weapons wielded by those heroic people. They are immune to many things and hard to track down -- but one thing that can help in finding them is that they are quite hedonistic.
Elama: I have this new spell that will let me send something back to its home plane.
Hammerhammer: My aunt’s group tried that and didn’t have a lot of luck. You need to do research at an actual library -- that’s all I know.
Elama: What can we learn at a library? We can’t just look up “where is Rajalmin”?
Hammerhammer: A library may tell you where he’s been or where he might have contacts. You might find the names of people he’s dealt with.

Marxine pulled her divination card out of her pouch and looked at it -- it showed her on a snowy path with a dragon shadow over the path.

Vinya, looking at the card: That nice silver dragon’s grandmother had some issues with the Tundra Queen.

We turned back to Hammerhammer.

Hammerhammer: I might be able to get you somewhere.
Elama: We need to go to Lonoj.
Hammerhammer: I’ll have to call in a favor, but I’ll get on that. It’ll take a few days.
Vinya: Isn’t the spring equinox soon -- we can’t leave before then because it’ll just make the Stone Giants unhappy to have us in their territory.
Hammerhammer: Yes. Come talk to me after the festival. I should have something arranged for you then.

After this conversation, we looked in the pouches that Ullard had given each of us: 100 platinum pieces were in the pouches. Ten times the amount we’d contracted for. Tanlot pointed out that this money was thanks from the entire Stonebright clan and Torm Brinnom.

With three days of downtime, and then a festival to enjoy, we asked about a magic shop and spells for Elderron. And maybe an armorer where Marxine could get some full plate.

We went first to the armorer and arranged to have armor made for Marxine. It would be ready in time for the festival.

Vinya spent some of the downtime talking to people asking if they knew anything about what the Stone Giants would be doing during the equinox. No one had any details, but they said it seemed semi-druidic. And also like they were trying to call back their gods, because they don’t seem to be convinced that it just won’t work.

Vinya: Or they think that it doesn’t hurt to try. I totally understand that.

We sold the crystals that we found on the way up to Torm Brinnom -- Elderron and Elama sold all of the ones they’d collected. Vinya sold two and kept the one we’d used as our fake gem of seeing.

We spent some time shopping -- Aldalomiel was looking for a bow, or maybe a way to store arrows. She found two magical bows. One doubled the longbow range (which is already huge). The other, three times a day, a target hit by it has to save versus faerie fire. (It regains all charges at dawn.) Elama bought a helm of detect thoughts. Elderron was tempted by a ring of mind shielding, which seemed like a good counter-point to the helm of detect thoughts. Vinya bought a silk glove, described by the shopkeeper as a Glove of Starting Something (when worn on the dominant hand as an action you can slap someone across the face and cast compelled duel). She also bought a small geode that would let her get back 3 ki points once a day. (The command word is in dwarvish, so Marxine is going to have to help her with pronunciation.)

Elderron got a scroll of protection from fiends from Hammerhammer and spent some time learning dimension door at his place.

Vinya also spent some time helping the Stonebrights decorate for the Feast of Rain. Elama went around annoying people with the helm of detect thoughts.


Feast of Rain (Campaign day 92)

We enjoyed the feasting and the celebration. This spring festival is, in part, celebrated with people making declarations of love.


1 Plantarin 749 (Campaign day 93)

The day after the festival, while we were at breakfast, Captain Silversmile came into the dining room.

Elderron: Hello, Captain.
Vinya: Hi!
Captain: Good morning! There is someone standing outside Torm Brinnom asking for you. He says he’d come in but understands that he’d have to shapeshift to do that, but we probably don’t want that. I told him yeah, we appreciated that.
Elderron: Who do we know who shapechanges?
Vinya: Tultorla the silver dragon said she’d be able to when she got bigger.

Our curiosity piqued, we went to the gate to Torm Brinnom to see who was waiting. The first person we met was Tylrok Hammerhammer.

Hammerhammer: My favor has arrived. I didn’t expect it to be so dramatic.

Outside the gate we saw a silver dragon, larger than Tultorla and somewhat shinier. We mentioned having made friends with Tultorla on our way up here. He said that he was her cousin, Alinmorax. When he got our names, he realized who we are.

Alinmorax, to Hammerhammer: We owe them. Your debt is not discharged. Thanks for thinking of us.
Vinya: Can you take us to Lonoj?
Alinmorax: That shouldn’t be a problem. My grandmother has teleportation circles widespread.
Vinya: Oh! I thought you were going to fly us there!
Alinmorax: I forgot my howdah.
Vinya: I worry about Tultorla and those things coming for her again.
Alinmorax: She’ll learn how to deal with them.
Vinya: But the Tundra Queen has other agents.
Alinmorax: That is true. She now knows to be alert.
Vinya: Do you know what the beef is between her and the Tundra Queen?
Alinmorax: I don’t know what grandmother did, but the Tundra Queen did not take it well.
Vinya: Given the lifespans we’re talking about, it doesn’t even have to have been something recent.
Alinmorax: They’ve never liked each other. But this is recent.

We asked him if we could take a little bit of time to say our goodbyes in Torm Brinnom and he said that wouldn’t be a problem.

We went back to the Stonebrights -- we thanked Tanlot and told Ullard that we were leaving, but if he needed us he could get in touch and we’d help him. We went and thanked Captain Silversmile.

Then we left and joined Alinmorax. We walked with him until we were out of sight of the stronghold.

Alinmorax: We can go to Lonoj. We’ll show up in a bar there.
Vinya: I hope it’s not that fern bar.

As she was saying that, Alinmorax folded himself in some until he was in the form of a human male in his mid-20s.

He started drawing the teleportation circle. Ten minutes later, we stepped through the circle into the back room of a bar. We could hear a raucous happy crowd outside.

Alinmorax held the door to the bar open for us and we stepped through into the bar. It was Smolly’s!!

Vinya: Best place in town!

Smolly saw us coming out of the back room with Alinmorax behind us and trotted over.

Smolly: I didn’t know you had dealings with the Gleaming Dame!
Vinya: We met her granddaughter on the way to Torm Brinnom.

Vinya recognized the moniker The Gleaming Dame -- she was an ancient dragon during the Fiend Wars. She was known for being reckless and liking a good scrap during the Fiend Wars and for a few hundred years later. For the last few hundred years, when people meet and interact with her, they don’t talk about it much. She seems to be keeping a low profile. Her lair is in the Icerasps.

Alinmorax, when Vinya mentioned that: Grandmother doesn’t mean it as impersonally as it sounds when she says adventurers are the best investment she could make. She feels she can do more good that way.
Vinya: She can expand her reach and have parties in multiple places, where she can only be in one place.
Alinmorax: She hasn’t been personally active on Erkonin in a while.
Elama: Maybe she can help us with the prison break heist in the Feywild.
Alinmorax: Who’s in the Feywild?
Elama: A friend being held...though we don’t really know she’s being held against her will, do we?
Vinya: We just know that she’s in Castle Dante.
Alinmorax: ::
Vinya: Well, if we find out our friend is being held against her will, we may consult with her about the jailbreak. But that’s a future project.
Marxine: There’s also this fiend thing. Since she was active in the Fiend Wars she might be able to help there.
Vinya: Yeah. Alinmorax, do you know anything about any specific rakshasas?
Elama: Reshusher.
Alinmorax: I’ve come across one. They’re not real pleasant.
Vinya: Do you know the name of the one you encountered?
Alinmorax: I didn’t have any way to hurt him, so I was scrambling to get away. I didn’t have time to get his name. You’re going to need to hit him with powerful magic and magical weapons.

We finished our drinks and told Alinmorax that if he, Tultorla, or the Gleaming Dame needed our assistance, to please contact us. We like to help our friends.

We then left Smolly’s and went to pick up the bulette shields from Gimarul Hammerhammer. Marxine and Elama each bought one. The shields are blank on the front, ready for decoration with holy symbols, rather than Hammerhammer’s crossed hammer emblem.

(Later, when we were back in the inn, Vinya painted crossed lightning bolts on the front of Elama’s shield.)

We went then to the docks to arrange passage to New Arvai. We’re not expected to work on the ship, but we will be expected to help defend the vessel if anything attacks. Our fare to New Arvai was reduced on the strength of that expectation. We were going to be leaving in a couple of days and the ship captain wanted us to pay the 20gp fare (per person) half now and half on arrival.

Vinya and Elama went ahead and paid the full amount so we wouldn’t have to remember to pay later.

Having arranged passage to our next destination, we went to Smolly’s cousin’s magic item shop. Vinya and Elderron each got a healing potion. Elama got a ring of warmth.

Then we went to see Captain Toris, who was reasonably happy to see us. He didn’t have any work for us, but he appreciated us swinging by to offer assistance for the few days before our boat was going to leave.

We went shopping in Facet Square for some warm weather clothes. Elama got something nice and fashionable looking. Vinya got a sleeveless gi.


2 Plantarin 749 (Campaign day 94)

Another quiet day of downtime montage.


3 Plantarin 749 (Campaign day 95)

We got to the port in time to get on our boat, The Emmerson, and meet Captain Siltreen, a human male in his 30s.

Vinya: How long will this trip take?
Captain Siltreen: Ten days.

We boarded the boat.


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## prabe (Dec 30, 2020)

Session 25: Sailing to New Arvai

Dramatis Personae:

Aldalómiel - Wood Elf Ranger (Hunter Conclave)/Druid
Elama “Lamie” Galanodel- Wood Elf Cleric (Tempest)
Vinya Anar - Wood Elf Monk (Way of the Sun Soul)
Elderon - High Elf Wizard (Loremaster)
Marxine Deepfoot - Dwarf Fighter (Champion)/Paladin

GM - Everyone Else

(Note: This session was held on Discord.)


3 Plantarin 749 (Campaign day 95) (immediately after)

We boarded our boat, the Emerson, and started sailing down the river to New Arvai. He said the river might be running strong so the trip might be a little quicker than he thought -- nine to ten days.

As we left the port, Vinya found herself a spot to hang out on deck where she could watch things go by, as did Elama, Aldalomiel and Elderron. Marxine went below decks where she didn’t have to think about the water too much.

The day passed smoothly. As we were just settling into first watch -- with Elama, Vinya and Marxine doing circuits on deck and Elderron and Aldalomiel resting below -- Marxine got a strong sense, thanks to the flail of warning, that _something_ was coming from the starboard side of the ship, right off the bow. So she moved to that side of the ship and had her axe at the ready. Vinya saw Marxine’s movements and that she had her weapon readied, which was the first thing that put her on alert, but she was at the far end of the boat.

As she and Elama were watching, three things -- looking like dark, thick, reddish, viscous goo came up over the side of the ship. One of them headed toward the undefended helmsman, one moved toward Elama and one moved close to Marxine. She attacked the one going for the helmsman with her readied attack, but it was so liquid that it didn’t offer much resistance to her axe.

It turned away from the helmsman and toward attacking her, stopping in its movement (yay!) and shaping its gooey puddle shape into a humanoid thing that tried to embrace Marxine.

Marxine: I do not like the Goo Man!

The other one on Marxine hit her -- damaging her and grappling and restraining her. But at least it stayed in goo form.

Elama watched the ooze in front of her form itself into a humanoid and had a similar reaction. It also attempted to embrace her, but it missed.

Elama then cast a spiritual weapon on the one that was grappling Marxine, hitting it with her spiritual lightning cloud. She then used her sword to attack the one in front of her -- even with a magical sword, the goo offered little resistance to her weapon.

Vinya ran from the back of the boat past Elama, yelling for Elderron and Aldalomiel and for the helmsman to get belowdecks. Then she punched the one grappling Marxine twice, hitting one time. Then she did a flurry of blows and hit again. Fortunately her punches did normal damage.

Elderron, hearing that the commotion was on deck near the bow, came up through a hatch at the rear of the ship and cast blight (making it do fire damage and have an intelligence save because loremasters are awesome that way). It did a lot of fiery damage to the one on Marxine.

Marxine ignored the grapple and attacked with her maul, hitting twice on the one on her. Then she surged and attacked again, hitting one more time and dropping it into an explosion of nasty goo. With her final attack from the action surge, she turned and attacked the other one, but missed because of the residue of the goo man.

(John: They die like a melon in a Gallagher show.)

That one then attacked Marxine and embraced her -- grappling her and restraining her once again.

The one on Elama did the same thing -- embracing her with goo arms, grappling and restraining her and doing a fair amount of damage. Elama did her retributive strike on it, hitting it with lightning damage. She then followed up with a spiritual weapon hit on the new one grappling Marxine and a sacred flame on the one grappling herself.

Aldalomiel, like Elderron, came up from below at the rear hatch. She put her hunter’s mark on the one on Elama and shot at it with her sling, doing a lot of damage and killing it. It also exploded in a gooey nasty mess.

Vinya moved between the one on Marxine and the helmsman, who’d been trying to secure the helm so he could go below, and attacked it with punches and another flurry of blows, once again getting two hits out of it. Elderron cast a lightning bolt on the one that was left, making it have an intelligence save again (because how smart can goo men really be) but it did succeed at its save.

Marxine attacked it from within the embrace, hitting only once but hard enough to explode the goo.

We asked Elderron (as the smartest among us) if he had any idea what those things were, but he doesn’t think he’s heard of them. We could smell the coppery metallic smell of blood around where the goo was spattered (and on our gooey selves). Ew.

Vinya, to the helmsman: Have you seen these things before? Does this happen often?
Helmsman: Weird stuff happens on this river. But I’ve never seen THAT weird thing before in all my years.
Marxine: What’s normal weird?
Helmsman: Floating boulders. Strange weather.

Aldalomiel and Elderron returned to their rest. Vinya spent the rest of the watch staying close to the helmsman, so he wouldn’t be so unprotected in case of another attack.

Elama cast control water and gave everyone who had gotten mucked by the exploding goo men a shower to clean the bloody gunk off.

The rest of the night passed without incident.


4 Plantarin 749 (Campaign day 96)

Before breakfast the next morning, we saw a ship a little bit smaller than the Emerson that appeared to have run aground. There were people scurrying around on it. The Emerson drew up alongside and before we really knew what was happening, they dropped a gang plank across, then things went weird.

We learned that a bandit captain and a group of bandits had attacked this boat, killed all of the crew, and were ransacking the boat. They crossed over the gangplank to the Emerson and we dispatched them summarily.

(Note: The GM didn’t make us play out this fight because he said we’d just mop the floor with them.)

We fought them off the Emerson and the ship that had run around, Akonel’s GIft. Then we investigated the ship -- there was quite a bit of cargo on it. Captain Siltrene claimed the cargo and said that he thought it would cover our fare to New Arvai. Akonel’s Gift was also going to New Arvai and probably had come through (if not from) Lonoj. Shortly before nightfall, we saw a ship heading in that direction, we sent word back to the harbormaster there about the ship’s fate (and that it was on that sandbar as a potential salvage) in hopes that word would get to the families of the people aboard.

At dinner that night, Captain Siltrene told us he was happy to have us on the ship.

The night passed without incident.


5 Plantarin 749 (Campaign day 97)

The next morning after breakfast we saw another wreck on the other side of the river -- but this one is old and very familiar. Vinya remembers seeing it on both of her previous trips on the river. We sailed past it.

Later in the day we maneuvered around a ferry crossing the river.

But otherwise the day passed without incident. As did the night.


6 Plantarin 749 (Campaign day 98)

Mid-morning, we sailed past a cliff-face with a dragon skull visible, like it was embedded in the cliff and was eroding out of it. Vinya made a drawing of it as we went by.

That evening, after dinner, we started sailing toward a small port village on the river -- we saw smoke rising and things didn’t look okay at all. We asked if Captain Siltrene could drop us off there and then maybe have the Emerson wait in the middle of the river so that whatever was going on in the city couldn't get to the ship. The captain agreed to that and we were left on the dock.

Marxine: It looks like it might be gnolls.

We entered the village and saw three standing buildings near the dock and the burned out remains of other buildings beyond them. There were some corpses among the buildings and Elama went to check on those with Vinya and Elderron accompanying her.

Marxine used her new paladin sense for undead, fiends, and celestials and ran around the village as fast as she could trying to cover as much of it as possible while she was still detecting those things. Aldalomiel stayed back by the dock with her bow ready, keeping an eye on all of us.

Elama found that the bodies had been chewed on by something with a human sized mouth. About the time that she figured that out Marxine sensed something undead in one of the houses, but moving in our direction. She realized that the undead thing was underground and moving under the ground.

It stopped about ten feet in front of her -- not deep underground. She shouted to get our attention.

Marxine: Things are not good here. There’s something right there.

She had the sense that it wasn’t far underground and close enough to her that it was planning to emerge and try to grab her.

Aldalomiel moved up so she was near to the spot Marxine was pointing at and held a bowshot. Elama cautiously moved to about 15 feet away and readied a sacred flame spell for something that emerged. Elderron moved away from the corpses and the buildings, into something like a square or courtyard in the village and readied a scorching ray. Vinya moved closed and dodged

Marxine hit the ground a couple of times with her axe, trying to hit it under the ground, but she didn’t hit it.

At that moment, a corpse-looking thing with dripping pustules emerged from the ground and attacked Vinya. Aldalomiel’s held shot missed. Elama’s sacred flame burned across its skin with a holy fire while two beams from Elderron’s scorching ray burned it with more fiery fire.

It hit Vinya with one fist, but missed with the other fist and with a bite.

Aldalomiel then shot at it again. She used her new magical bow’s special ability to put a faerie fire on it and shot it twice. Vinya attacked with her quarterstaff and hit it once, then she did a flurry of blow to elbow it and kick it in the knee. Both of those hit, and one was a critical hit. Elama cast a spiritual weapon and attacked it, hitting nicely, then she did another sacred flame. Elderron cast another scorching ray and hit with all three of the rays, thanks to the faerie fire.

Marxine realized that this thing had an aura that weakened her. It weakened all of us but she was the only one of us who was really affected by it (because she’s the only one who fights based on strength).

Marxine: My buddy, you gotta die.

And with that she hit it with her axe and dropped it.

Elama started building a pyre, under Aldalomiel’s protective watch, while Elderron, Marxine and Vinya looked at the corpses of the villagers. Some of the corpses appeared to have been diseased. We thought that perhaps a plague had come through. We found a graveyard -- it was clear that something had dug its way out of one of the graves. It seemed that some of the dead had passed from the plague, others had fatal wounds. And it’s quite possible that this one undead had been the source of both. We also noticed holes around the village -- like rat holes but large enough for that undead to have come up through them.

There were no survivors in the village. We guessed that the buildings had been burned by someone trying to clear the house, or maybe trying to burn a house with the monster in it.

Marxine lays hands on Elama, who then goes to talk to Captain Siltrine. She tells him that we’ve encountered some sort of undead related plague. We were planning to stay on shore overnight, until Elama could cast detect poison and disease on us all. The captain agreed that he didn’t want us on the Emerson until we’d been cured. He agreed to wait in the middle of the river for us until morning.

We camped in the middle of the village square in a tiny hut and the night passed without incident.


7 Plantarin 749 (Campaign day 99)

The next morning, Elama’s spell said that we were all disease free. We went back to the Emerson. Captain Siltrene was happy to have our un-diseased selves back on board.

Once we were back on the boat, Elama ritually cast the spell again -- she was curious about whether alcohol would show up as a poison (it does) and which of the sailors had which kind of pox (there were none). Also, none of the sailors were so drunk as to show up as poisoned.

Around lunchtime, we passed a flattened hilltop with a temple on top. We added it to our list of interesting places to come back and visit. Captain Siltrene, who’s sailed by it many many times, understands that it was a temple to a deity of the hunt or woodlands, but he doesn’t know that for sure. Obviously it’s pre-Severance and from well before the Fiend Wars.

But it was too far away for the ship to stop and us to investigate, so we’ll just have to come back. Which Vinya definitely doesn’t want to do.

The rest of the day and the night passed.


8 Plantarin 749 (Campaign day 100)

About the middle of the day, we passed a very large, giant-scale, very old structure. We could only see a part of it from the river, because it was on a hill. It was shaped like a star-shaped bastion fort, but the hill below the fort had been shaped to match the shape of the fort.

We asked a crewperson about it.

Crew: We know it’s there. I’ve talked to a passenger who had gotten close to the ruin. He said that it looked like the hill had been deliberately shaped to the shape of the fort.
Marxine: It’s not dwarf construction. If it’s a giant structure it might have a gate or portals in it, like the fomorian place we were in before.

We sailed on and the rest of the day and the night passed quietly.


9 Plantarin 749 (Campaign day 101)

The day passed quietly. During the second watch, though, Elderron, Aldalomiel and Elama were on watch on deck. The night was stormy and thundery, which made Lamie happy.

Elderron and Aldalomiel were surprised when something attacked Lamie, though Lamie herself wasn’t surprised. She was attacked by a female-looking thing with a big mouth and a whirlwind for legs. The monster missed with its scary looking bite and one of its claws. It did hit with the other claw, though, which gave Elama an opportunity to do her retributive strike. The lightning danced around the whirlwind thing but did no damage at all. It laughed.

Elama: No! No! This is the part where you fall down.

She then cast thunderwave and the monster continued to laugh.

Vinya, woken by the thunderwave, came up the forward hatch and fired off two radiant sunbolts, then summoned her ki and fired off a couple more. Unfortunately they all missed. Aldalomiel shot with her bow to do a ferie fire - she was only able to hit once but that was enough to get her faerie fired.

Marxine came up the aft hatch and threw two hand axes at the thing -- hitting her twice. Despite her axes not being magical they appeared to hit with full strength.

Elderron backed off a ways and cast blight on the monster, changing the safe to dexterity rather than constitution. It had some effect for sure.

In response the monster cast SOMETHING on Elderron -- she blew a kiss in his direction and he was hit by a lightning bolt for a huge amount of damage. Then she flew through the forward hatch and into the interior of the boat.

Elama ran and dove down the hatch and quickly cast banishment on the monster. The monster briefly looked confused then she disappeared.

Elama: Get down here. She’ll be back in a minute.

We all went below decks. We got the sailors out of the way and Elderron created a minor illusion of a wooden crate to hide behind, then we waited for her to return. Except she didn’t.

While we were waiting Elderron realized that she was a kind of fey called an Ala -- they are storm fey and they eat people.

And she wasn’t going to be coming back, because she’d been banished back to her home plane, the Feywild.

The rest of the night passed.

We will begin next time after a long rest.


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## prabe (Jan 6, 2021)

Session 26: Library and Lobster

Dramatis Personae:

Aldalómiel - Wood Elf Ranger (Hunter Conclave)/Druid
Elama “Lamie” Galanodel- Wood Elf Cleric (Tempest)
Vinya Anar - Wood Elf Monk (Way of the Sun Soul)
Elderon - High Elf Wizard (Loremaster)
Marxine Deepfoot - Dwarf Fighter (Champion)/Paladin

GM - Everyone Else

(Note: This session was held on Discord.)


9 Plantarin 749 (Campaign day 101)

The day dawned warmer and clear after the stormy night and stormy fight with the ala the night before. The boat sailed down the river toward New Arvai uneventfully all day and all night.


10 Plantarin 749 (Campaign day 102)

The day passed uneventfully until just after sunset. At that point, we saw not far from the river an old abandoned tower that was broken at the top and about fifty feet deep in rubble all around There was a cliff on the other side of the tower that had let go and slid down and engulfed the tower, but not knocked it over, in the landslide.

The tower was clearly not occupied and was human-scale.

Vinya asked someone on the crew and they said that a wizard had set up the tower there. About a hundred and fifty or so years ago, boats traveling the river saw this -- they didn’t know if some magical experiment had gone badly and caused the landslide, if there was an earthquake, or what might have happened.

Vinya added it to her map of interesting places.

The night passed without incident.


11 Plantarin 749 (Campaign day 103)

Around noon on this day the Emerson had to maneuver around a new wreck in the river that was partly impinging on the ability of boats to travel safely. (The wrecked boat had run aground on a sandbar in an awkward position.)

We talked about working to try and shift it to make passage down the river smoother, but Captain Siltrene said we could just tell the harbormaster in New Arvai about it and they’d send someone out to deal with it. Possibly a class of wizarding students from one of the college could use the destruction of the boat as a class project.

And in fact, later in the day just about sunset, we saw a boat heading up the river. Vinya asked if they were heading toward the wreck and was told that they were -- some of the more senior students were going to practice their skills moving the boat around then the underclass students were going to destroy it. We wished them luck and a good time.

The night passed.


12 Plantarin 749 (Campaign day 104)

Around midday we arrived in New Arvai and pondered where to stay. Vinya wondered if maybe we could get put up at the Chiaroscuro Temple, where she’d trained as a monk, but we decided instead to go with Elama to the temple of the Seafarers and Wayfarers order of clerics. Elama isn’t a member, but they are religiously kindred spirits and she was able to arrange for a discounted rate at the large inn connected to the temple. They run the inn as part of their mission to provide assistance to travelers.

Having arranged for lodgings, we headed toward the School of the World -- taking a slight detour to stop by the Chiaroscuro Temple. The building appeared to be undergoing significant renovations, part of the roof was obviously new and the top of a corner of the building had scaffolding with some monks on it applying plaster to part of the wall.

Vinya asked for Belia and a violet-skinned tiefling woman came to the door shortly after. Vinya was greeted warmly and there was a short conversation.

Belia: How are you doing? You appear to be progressing in your studies. You chose the radiant path, I see. I am not surprised.
Vinya: I contemplated the question long and hard. Probably longer and harder than I needed to because I knew what my heart wanted. How go the repairs?
Belia: They’re going. We got the roof mostly fixed before the winter came.
Vinya: Has there been any more sign of Aerellor or the Zariel cultists?
Belia: None here. Have you any news?
Vinya: Not of that. We fought a lot of cultists of the Hunger Between Worlds but nothing of Zariel.

They spoke for a few more minutes then Vinya told Belia where the party was staying and said we’d be in town for a while and she’d come around to visit for longer, perhaps do some training to make sure she was staying on the proper path.

As we walked away, she explained to the rest of the party that toward the end of her training at the Temple, a cabal of Zariel cultists working within the Chiaroscuro Temple had been rooted out and many had escaped and fled out of the city.

At the front desk of the Library of the School of the World, just as one of the attendants was about to ask us to pay to enter the library, Vinya pulled out the package we’d been carrying since we left Erlin.

Attendant: Admittance is 300 gold pieces per person per day or...
Vinya, setting the package on the counter: We have a delivery for the head librarian. It’s from Jamil, the sage in Erlin.
Attendant, slightly flustered: I’ll go talk to Elledrian. He’s the head librarian.

He then disappeared down a corridor and around a corner. A few minutes later we saw an elf stick his head around the corner. When he saw us, he ducked back. The attendant returned to us.

Attendant, looking confused: I’ll take your package to Elledrian. He doesn’t wish to interact with so many elves.
Elderron: I don’t blame him.
Marxine: Me neither.

He took the package and went back down the corridor and around the corner. He returned several minutes later.

Attendant: Elledrian thanks you for bringing the book and indulging his eccentricities regarding meeting you personally. In thanks, he will grant you two free person-days in the library. You can take those as one day for two people or two days for one person. As it is late in the afternoon, I recommend you return in the morning rather than wasting a day on the few remaining hours we’ll be open.
Vinya: As a group, we have wide ranging interests and questions. Can you help us with how to most strategically approach our research, so we can make the most of our time when we return tomorrow?
Attendant: What are you interested in researching?
Vinya, consulting with the others as she spoke: Rakshasas in general, one named Rajalmin in specific, dragons in general, the dragon called the Blue Death, Sossonosssomething, and the Gleaming Dame in specific, and anything about Castle Dante in the Feywild and how it’s laid out or how one would get into it.

They said that research librarians would be available to assist with finding both the general and specific information that we were looking for, but that was definitely going to be at least two full days of research.

We then left. Elama wanted to find theater and food and some fun and excitement and we all agreed that sounded like a nice way to spend the evening.

On the way to finding that, Vinya let the group get ahead a bit and stopped at the Chiaroscuro Temple again.

Vinya: Have you heard anything from Thorin?
Belia: I have not and it concerns me.
Vinya: I’ve been told that he might be somewhere far away. Not even on this plane, perhaps. He has to go where he’s assigned. I was just...hoping.

Then she caught up with her friends and we had a nice evening. We returned to the Seafarers and Wayfarers Temple early so that Elderron could get a good night’s sleep and be up at the crack of dawn to go to the library.


13 Plantarin 749 (Campaign day 105)

The next morning, we were all up very early and we all went to the library together. We decided that our two free days would be used by Elderron and Aldalomiel. Aldalomiel could do the research into dragons and Castle Dante. Elderron would be looking into the rakshasa and the hells and devils.

Elderron: I’ll pay to get in again tomorrow.
Vinya: I’ll happily pay for you -- you need to spend your money on learning spells and suchlike. I just need to buy a new quarterstaff and a spare gi or two once in a while.

This was not totally settled, though Vinya has no intention of letting Elderron pay for himself to get into the library.

We walked with them from the reception desk to the entrance to the library proper.

Some librarians were available to assist each of them. The ones assigned to assist Elderron seemed a bit more senior and a bit more serious -- because the library, indeed the city, indeed all of Erkonin, have learned to be a bit paranoid about people doing research into devils and the hells. Team Library, led by Elderron who looked like he never wanted to leave, went through the doors into the library to do their research.

The rest of the party, Marxine, Vinya, and Elama, headed out into the city to see if they could drum up some work or an adventure or something exciting we could do or help with, becoming Team Finding Trouble.

Elderron learned about rakshasa in general. They are hedonists, which can be helpful when trying to find them, and they like to eat people. They can disguise themselves so they can be hard to spot when living among humanoids. Spells of less than sixth level simply don’t work against them. Neither do non-magical weapons.

He also got a line on more specific information about Rajalmin, but it will take another day of research to nail that down.

Aldalomiel started out by looking into how to get into and out of the Feywild. She learned that traveling in the Feywild is challenging because it shifts and changes -- the path from one place to another may vary from day to day, or even not go to those places when travelled at another time. (So perhaps going straight into Castle Dante might be the best choice.) She also looked into why the fey nobles might take someone from Erkonin into the Feywild -- if they do that it is to gain power or to make a move in some complicated plot or counterplot against some other fey noble. Regarding the Dante family of fey nobles -- the Dantes include some very viciously mean nobles and some kind ones. The Walking Man, Falaggo, is a Dante.

Castle Dante is big and crazy and basically a castle version of the Winchester House.

Aldalomiel looked into whether deals with the fey nobles could result in someone being taken to the Feywild, either deals gone well or poorly. The answer to that seemed to be that it was possible for that to happen. She tried to see if there was any mention of Lothiriel’s family making such a deal, but found nothing.

She also learned that fey nobles of the younger generation -- such as the Academician or the Keeper of Secrets or the Peaceful Conqueror (these names don’t really mean anything to her, except someone mentioned the Keeper of Secrets as possibly the source of the true information at the well) who aren’t Dantes detest the Dantes. Which is potentially interesting, though the only fey noble we’ve met has been Falaggo, the Walking Man.

While Elderron and Aldalomiel were learning all of these things, Team Finding Trouble headed toward the guardhouse. Marxine was a little skeptical of this approach, but Vinya figured there might be a job board there of things that the guard was seeking outside assistance in dealing with. Or that there might be some work that the captain of the guard would be willing to give us.

We did find a board where people could post requests for help, when help could not be gotten from the guard themselves. Marxine and Lamie noticed that there were a large numbers of postings looking for missing people in the Stormyside area of town. In fact there were more of these postings than there was room on the board for -- some of them were pinned up over older notices about people who were missing.

Elama grabbed a passing guard.

Lamie: How come there are 50 bazillion missing person reports here?
Guard, hurrying along without stopping: Ask at the guardhouse.

We headed in that direction, looking for someone to talk to. Inside, we saw a young halfling woman at a counter. She did not in any way look like a guard.

Lamie: Why are there so many missing person reports on the board outside.
Halfling: We can’t handle everything. Not even close. If we can’t help, sometimes people post on the board out of desperation. We’re understaffed and underfunded -- that’s why the gangs and the cabals have free rein.

We turned to leave, planning to gather up some of the notices.

Hafling: Do you want to talk to Chief Longroot?
Vinya: Sure! Let’s do that.
Marxine: ::eyeroll::

Chief Longroot was a sturdy halfling woman in armor with a short sword on her belt.

Chief: How can I help you?
Vinya: We’re here in town for a bit -- some of our friends are doing research at the library. We’re looking for something we can do, or something we can help out with. Do you know anything about the many disappearances that are on the board outside?
Chief: A little bit. It seems like most of the people have disappeared after doing some business with the Green Hand.
Vinya: The gang, the Green Hand?
Chief: Yeah, they specialize in vice. The disappearances don’t seem to be centered around any specific place -- beyond mostly being in Stormyside. Most of the people involved are financially sort of on the margins, but that’s true of most everyone in that part of town. Most of the people had jobs, but maybe weren’t making much more than just barely enough to live on.
Vinya: Is it okay with you if we look into this?
Chief: We appreciate the help from outside. We get so little from inside.
Marxine: Are rich people getting abducted and ransomed and the poor people just can’t afford the ransoms?
Chief: I haven’t heard anything about abductions in the wealthier parts of town. And I probably would have.
Vinya: Can you think of a better approach than grabbing some of the recent notices and going and talking to people?
Chief: It’s what I’d do if I had the manpower.

Chief Longroot gave us a little bit of information about the gangs that had a lot of power in town and their particular areas of influence: Darkeye's (information); The Green Hand (vices); Stonetongues' (magic); The Silent (transport); New Power (property crimes); Copperfeet (money and bribery); The Soft Touch (violence).

So we grabbed five of the most recent (least weathered) notes and headed to Stormyside, in the southern part of the city, where the river flows into the ocean.

The first note we looked at had as a contact a person named Tordray Embranch, so we found our way to the place listed on the note and spoke to him. He told us that his sister, Ardvay, had gone missing.

Elama: We’re going to be looking into that. When was she last seen?
Tordray: She had been working at Tilla’s and she didn’t come back from her shift.
Elama: What does she do?
Tordray, emphatic: She works behind the bar. Not upstairs.
Elama: What kind of business is it?
Tordray: The first floor is a bar. Upstairs is a brothel. She worked on the first floor.
Vinya: When was she last seen?
Tordray: Three days ago. She left Tilla’s and didn’t get home.
Vinya: Where’s Tilla’s?
Tordray: A fifteen minute walk from here. On the edge of Woodyard.

We thanked him and headed to the contact person listed on the next notice in the stack we had. We found a young, pregnant tiefling named Sunrise Clear. She told us that her husband, Brightwater, was a sailor on a ship that had just returned from Dhaqi, on the southern continent. He should have been home three days ago. He got off the ship and was coming home but never arrived.

Vinya: Could he have stopped at a bar or something on the way after such a long sail?
Sunrise Clear: Maybe -- but I asked his shipmates and they said he was coming straight home. Hurrying. Because he’d been afraid he wouldn’t make it to New Arvai before our baby did.
Vinya: I can see he would rush home to you.

We thanked her, trying to be reassuring without promising anything.

Vinya, as we walked away: The docks are nowhere near the bar and her house is nowhere on the route that Ardvay would have taken from Tilla’s to her house.
Marxine: Yeah.

We decided to go talk to the captain of the ship that Brightwater had sailed on -- since the ship was still docked in the Shallows nearby. On our way there, we heard screaming and saw people running away from the docks looking scared.

Elama, to one of the fleeing people: What happened?
Person, in a panicked shriek: The lobsters are having their revenge!

With that intriguing comment, we ran toward where people were running from and saw a giant lobster-esque thing with an unmoving person in its claw.

Marxine got in there first, hitting the lobster-esque monster twice with her hammer. Elama moved to a position where she could see it and cast a sacred flame on it, which it was unable to dodge, giant lobster-esque monsters not being too nimble, apparently. Vinya ran in and attacked with her quarterstaff, hitting it twice in critical spots, then summoned her ki and did a flurry of blows, landing one more hit.

The lobster-esque monster dropped the civilian it was holding and attacked Marxine and Vinya, each with a claw. Marxine was hit and grappled by it. Vinya was missed.

The other civilians on the docks scattered out of the way of the monster.

Marxine hit it twice then surged with energy and attacked it again, getting another hit.

Elama moved closer and cast another sacred flame on it. From her closer vantage point, she was able to see that the civilian the lobster-esque monster had been holding didn’t appear to be dead. She managed to grab him from where he was laying on the ground and drag him a few yards away from the monster. Then she cast healing word on him -- his bruises healed up, but he still didn’t move, though he was clearly alive.

Vinya hit the monster with her quarterstaff again, another mighty critical hit that shattered its shell and dropped it.

Ten seconds after that the civilian drew a ragged breath then shrieked at the top of his lungs. As he was scrambling to get up and run away Vinya put what she hoped was a calming hand on him.

Vinya: It’s okay. It’s okay. You’re safe now.

Elama calmed him down even more.

Guy: What was that thing?
Elama: It was a giant lobster?
Vinya: Where did it come from?
Guy: The water.

We let him go then and took a closer look at the monster. It had four legs, gills, big snapping claws, tentacles, and a lobster-like tail. Lobster-esque but not really an enormous lobster. Vinya lived in New Arvai for a while, but has never heard of anything like this in the city. The three of us managed to pull together a bit of knowledge about the monster -- these things are connected to ancient, aquatic evil entities. They’re servitors, not masters. It clearly didn’t have any problem living or moving on land, so it is not dependent on an aquatic environment.

All of the missing people went missing at night -- the lobster-esque monster was active in the daytime.

We decided that this was the time to circle Aldalomiel and Elderron into this situation.

Elama sent a message to Elderron, using a sending spell.

Lamie: Lots of missing people down by the docks. We’re looking into it.
Elderron: Where can we meet?

Lamie cast the spell again.

Lamie: We’ll meet up back at the temple.
Marxine, listening to Elama’s side: We’ll meet up with the nerds at dinner.

We went back to the Seafarers and Wayfarers to wait. Elderron and Aldalomiel showed up just in time for dinner. Over dinner we filled them in on what we’d learned and the lobster-thing we’d fought.

Vinya suggested that we go out looking around in Stormyside to see if we could hear screaming or otherwise learn anything. We spent an hour on the docks, but they were quiet aside from what seemed to be normal stevedore-ing and longshoreman-ing activities. We decided to head to Tilla’s bar.

Tilla’s is not a high class bar/brothel, but they had drinks and we ordered beverages. We asked about Ardvay and were told that she was friendly with patrons, but worked strictly downstairs.

Vinya: Have the upstairs girls been going missing?
Dude: No. Fair question though.
Vinya: Have you seen anything like a lobster-esque monster?
Dude: Nothing like that around here. Maybe at other brothels.

We started to walk out then decided that maybe we needed to try to get in touch with the Green Hand, since Captain Longroot had the sense that the victims had been having dealings with them shortly before their disappearances. We turned around and went back and asked to talk to the person in charge of the upstairs activities.

We were introduced to Tilla, the madam.

Elama: Hello. We’re looking to get in touch with someone from the Green Hand about these people who have gone missing.
Tilla: I don’t know nothing about people who’ve gone missing or the Green Hand. But I can put you in touch with the person I pay rent to, Tomud Grennett.

Armed with that name and where we could contact him, we headed back to the Seafarers and Wayfarers to rest.

The night passed without incident.


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## prabe (Jan 14, 2021)

Session 27: Those Poor Unfortunate Souls

Dramatis Personae:

Aldalómiel - Wood Elf Ranger (Hunter Conclave)/Druid
Elama “Lamie” Galanodel- Wood Elf Cleric (Tempest)
Vinya Anar - Wood Elf Monk (Way of the Sun Soul)
Elderon - High Elf Wizard (Loremaster)
Marxine Deepfoot - Dwarf Fighter (Champion)/Paladin

GM - Everyone Else

(Note: This session was held on Discord.)

We ended the previous session taking a long rest -- we had been pointed to Tomud Grennett, the person with the Green Hand the madam at Tilla’s paid rent to and planned to go see that person.


14 Plantarin 749 (Campaign day 106)

The next morning we put that plan into action. On the way we talked about how best to approach him -- Marxine suggested that we approach the conversation from the angle that we wanted to help them deal with a problem they might be facing.

We found Tomud at an establishment called the Simmering Poppy. There was an imposing goliath at the door.

Vinya, to Marxine: You want to handle this?
Marxine: Uh, yeah.

The doorman stopped us and we paid the door charge of 1gp per person.

Doorman: What’s your pleasure? I can direct you.
Vinya: What are our choices?
Doorman, confused: What are you here for?
Marxine: Where here to talk to someone.
Doorman: Who are you looking for?
Marxine: Tomud Grennett.
Doorman, raises eyebrow: Does he know you’re coming?
Marxine: Maybe. We were talking to Tilla last night.
Doorman: I’ll go see if he’s receiving visitors.

He was gone for several minutes.

Doorman: Mr. Grennett is in an observation room attached to his office.

He gave us directions to Mr. Grennett’s office and let us into the Simmering Poppy. Inside the place was an interesting warren -- the entrance went into a sort of mezzanine level -- there was a walkway looking over a large lower level that had all sorts of gambling. The wall around the walkway had many small rooms -- most of the doors were closed, the ones that were open were open to empty rooms. This had all the signs, including the smell, of an opium den, though we were pretty sure some of those small rooms also had prostitutes in them.

We followed the directions and found ourselves in an office that overlooks the gambling floor below. Tormud is very tall for a human, with very red hair. His office smelled of smoke and spice and as we got closer to it, he smelled even more strongly of it.

Tomud: Tilla hasn’t had trouble paying the rent. Why did she send you to me?
Marxine: Have you heard about the missing people associated with her?
Vinya: Well, missing all over Stormyside. We heard that many of them had connections to the Green Hand.
Tomud: It would be hard to find a person in Stormyside who wasn’t connected with us as employees or customers.
Vinya: That’s why we wanted to talk to you -- we figure these disappearances have got to be impacting your business. Maybe you’ve looked into it yourselves even. You might have some information for us. We’re trying to find the missing people and bring them home.
Tomud: Some people who report to me have mentioned it. The gentlewoman I report to hasn’t said anything. But I worry about her.
Vinya: In what way? If you don’t mind me asking.
Tomud: She’s young to be in her dotage, but she’s stopped caring about business and her usual interests.
Vinya: That seems unfortunate for someone in a leadership position in a major organization.
Tomud: Until someone steps up or into her place.

(Note: Aldalomiel noticed that he was totally sober despite all the opium being smoked elsewhere in the establishment. She also got the sense that he’s ambitious and capable of being ruthless -- but he’s being pretty straight with us right now.)

Vinya: You mentioned that some of your direct reports have said things. Did they have any useful information to point us in a direction?
Tomud: Near water. Yesterday was the first lobstrosity that’s come up -- but it seems like whatever is taking things is connected to the water.
Elderron: Maybe someone is controlling the monsters that are taking people.
Tomud: That’s probable. Something else is being controlled. Tilla’s is still okay, but some other places with missing people have changed the way they run things in weird ways.
Elderron: Due to the disappearances?
Tomud: As if someone had developed other priorities.
Vinya: Do you mind telling me when your gentlewoman stopped caring about things?
Tomud: Within the last 10 to 12 days -- it has been both a recent and sudden change. She’s been trying to see if the people upstairs at Tilla’s or some employees in the small rooms here could get information out of our patrons. That’s not really our line. I guess I’m a purist -- we’re good at giving people their vices.
Vinya: Could it be another gang trying to destabilize you?
Tomud: It doesn’t feel like another gang. That lobstrosity just isn’t something any of them would do. Not their style.
Vinya: Does it feel like a cabal or cult instead, perhaps? I’ve lived in New Arvai and know that’s a persistent thing.
Tomud: If that lobstrosity had been a demon or a devil, I’d say definitely.
Vinya: There are other things to make deals with and/or worship. Those lobstrosities are, we think, minion creatures of a powerful aquatic something.
Tomud, after a moment’s thought: We get powerful tropical storms, some years worse than others. The city has extensive storm drains. You might look at how the locations of the storm drains and the waterfront relate to the locations of the disappearances.
Vinya: Thank you. You’ve been helpful. Hopefully we can help you.
Marxine: Don’t take that too literally. We want to help the missing people.
Tomud: I’m glad to help. Your pleasure is our business.
Vinya: If our researches lead us to want to talk to the gentlewoman you report to, would you be able to make an introduction?
Tomud: I’d be happy to.

We left. A few blocks away we stopped to talk about our next steps. We decided to head to Seneschal to find a map of the storm sewers -- which involved figuring out where to go to get one. It took Elderron a bit, but after an hour of talking to people and getting directed around, he located an office related to the storm drains. (Part of the problem was some confusion regarding whether we were looking for the sewers or the storm drains.)

We went into the office to see if we could get a sense of the storm drain layout. Anything to give us a hint as to where to go. The office had a lot of maps and some hugely oversized pipes and valves running through -- some of them big enough for a human to walk through. On one side of the room was a gnome sitting at a gnome-sized desk.

Gnome: Hi! What can I do to help you?
Elderron: We’re looking for a map of the sewers.
Vinya: Storm drains.
Gnome: What part of the city?
Vinya: Stormyside.
Gnome: That’s where the storms hit worse. Got a lot of storm drains there.

He got a suspicious look on his face.

Gnome: Are you looking for a cabal?
Vinya: Yeah. We think so.

We told him about the missing people and the lobstrosity and explained that we wanted to correlate the drains with where the people have gone missing. We showed him the information that we’d taken from the job board (and that we’d gathered talking to people) and he pulled out a map. He was able to find that there are a couple of major drains in specific areas where the people have disappeared -- where something could have come up through a manhole (though we knew the lobstrosity didn’t, but we never considered the lobstrosity to be the only monsters involved).

He started drawing us a map of the storm drain tunnels and where the entrances and exits are.

Gnome: If you get off this map, come back to where you’re on it. You can get lost down there. Particularly if there’s a cabal at work -- they change things, block tunnels, open passage-ways.

Elama: You’re making me feel real good about going down there.
Gnome, missing the sarcasm: I’m happy to help!

Vinya suggested going back to the job board to get more missing person reports to correlate to the map -- to see if we could find any hot spots.

Aldalomiel: I was thinking that.
Elama: Let’s just dive in and stir the pot!
Elderron: Let’s do both -- find a hot spot, then dive in.

We went by the job board and took all the missing person notices we could find and plotted the locations as best we could onto the map the gnome gave us. From that, we could see that there was one line of storm drains that was definitely a hot spot of problems.

We talked briefly about going into the storm drain system through the outflow, before deciding that was a bad idea and that we’d just go in through a manhole instead. In order to reduce some stress of walking around in water, Elderron took ten minutes to cast water breathing on the party.

Then we found a manole and proceeded to dive in and stir the naughty word.

The storm drain is a big pipe, like a large culvert with a channel in the middle that was a couple of feet wide and a foot deep. That channel had water in it, but the pipe wasn’t otherwise flooded. (It is not the rainy season or tropical storm season.) It’s a big storm drain made to handle a lot of water -- the gnome had told us that there was magic on the outflows, so that the water actually appeared in the ocean well out to sea, to avoid erosion and backflow.

Once we got in through the manhole, Aldalomiel, Vinya and Elderron noticed that there was a smear of dried snot-like stuff on the wall and on the ladder. We decided to follow the slimy stuff, but had barely come to that conclusion when it went into the stream of water in the middle of the channel. Fortunately, the water was not enough to hide, or even swim, in and we were able to spot occasional flecks of the snot going upstream but not down.

We went upstream.

As we moved up the storm drain the entire floor was slimy and slick, even where it was not wet. Ew. Aldalomiel and Elderron heard some sort of noises up ahead -- checking the map it looked like we were coming up to some sort of junction.

Aldalomiel cast pass without trace and she and Vinya snuck up and took a peek. Aldalomiel basically disappeared into the darkness. Vinya basically did not. But we were still able to sneak up to the junction - we saw two humanoids -- but they were slimy and looked sort of amphibious. One of them looked like a human with the Innsmouth look. The other one had horns and a tail -- a tiefling with the Innsmouth look, maybe. Like they’d been altered somehow.

There were just the two of them in there, armed with crossbows pointed in the direction we’d be coming from.

We went back and told the others. Elderron went back with Aldalomiel to see if he could get additional information looking at them, but he wasn’t able to.

We all headed back in their direction with Vinya and Marxine in the front and Aldalomiel and Elama on the sides and Elderron behind us. With Aldalomiel’s pass without trace still up, we managed to sneak in that direction and got to a place where we could see them before they noticed us.

Elama, crouching behind her shield said: Hello!! Is anybody up there? I did not expect to see people in the storm drain?

Elama then saw them “aim” their crossbows and fire wildly in our direction, missing wildly.

Elama: How rude!

Aldalomiel took a shot at the tiefling-looking one and dropped it with one arrow. Vinya fired a sunbolt at the human-looking one and dropped him with one shot.

Marxine: Weren’t we looking for a tiefling?
Vinya: Oh, god! Yes!! Can we stabilize them?

Elama bound their wounds to stabilize them -- their skin was slimy and clearly needed to stay wet, so we set them into the channel of water in the drain. We carried them downstream a ways and took them into one of the feeder pipes, setting them in the water. As we set them down a large tentacled fish-like thing appeared in the water in front of us -- though it was clearly too large to have been in the water.

We all heard a voice in our heads.

Voice: Who dares to trespass on the realm of Dlublul?
Elama: Hi!! We’re looking for some people who’ve gone missing.
Vinya, thinking the words as she says them: Are you Dlublul
Marxine: What makes you think this is your realm?
Elderron: Why are you taking people?
Dlublul: I am, indeed, Dlublul, for sufficiently broad definitions of am. It is my realm and the people are mine to do with as I please. Before the gods were, I was. After the gods were, I am. What I have chosen as my realm is my realm.
Vinya: Your realm is a sewer and the people are not yours.

Aldalomiel fired an arrow at the fish thing -- the moment the arrow hit it, the monster shimmered and a thin sheet of water collapsed back into the stream.

All of us: Holy naughty word. An aboleth.

We collectively knew that they can project illusions within a mile of their lair.

Elama: We need to go further.
Vinya: How can we save these people?

Elderron told us that it will take a high level cure disease spell to cure them, and they need to be in water. They take damage if they’re out of water for too long. They’re telepathically enslaved by the aboleth too.

Vinya, as the fastest in the party, went back to the Temple of the Seafarers and Wayfarers, where we were staying. Vinya found a cleric that Elama had talked to when we arrived in New Arvai -- a halfling named Jarvil Honeyhand. She arranged with Honeyhand that we could bring unfortunate souls to them. The temple will have tubs that they can rest in to stay wet and will coordinate with other temples for the necessary healing.

Then she ran back to where the rest of the party was waiting. She was gone probably 20 minutes.

While she was gone, the party was attacked by two of the lobstrosities.

Elderron: Finally! I get to fight one.

Aldalomiel took a shot at the one slightly further away, hitting it and using the faerie fire bow to light it up. She then shot it again to even greater effect. Marxine moved up as far as she could and readied an attack with her waraxe. Elderron moved a bit closer and hit the faerie fired one with two scorching rays. Elama moved so she was close to the rest of the party and blessed Aldalomiel, Marxine and Elderron.

The lobstrosities moved and dashed to get closer.

Aldalomiel shot the faerie fire’d one again and did a lot of damage to it. Then she moved back 35 feet. Marxine attacked that same one with her axe -- getting two critical hits and dropping it. She then did an action surge and attacked the other one -- hitting it twice, once critically, doing a lot of damage. Elderron backed up some and fired off some magic missiles at it. Elama cast sacred flame on it.

The lobstrosity flailed and clawed but didn’t land a blow on anyone.

Aldalomiel shot at it twice, hitting it once and doing a lot of damage. Then Marxine attacked with her axe, getting another critical hit, and dropping it.

Just a few minutes later, Vinya arrived and told them what she’d set up with the temple. We put sacks over the heads of the unconscious people and took them to the Seafarers and Wayfarers getting them into a tub before their skin started drying out and hurting them.

Jarvil Honeyhand was waiting for us. He immediately covered the heads of the unfortunates with sacks, then showed us where to take them. Once we’d gotten them settled, we asked if there was anyone who could give us useful information. He recommended going to one of the libraries, or maybe the Lightbringers Temple.

Looking at the missing person notices we’d collected from the job board, it appeared that people were being taken at a rate of a couple of people every couple of days, but that it was accelerating.

Jarvil wrote us a letter of introduction to the head of the Lightbringers and we headed there. It was afternoon, heading toward evening, so we didn’t want to have to pay to get into the Library of the World, because it would be a hundred gold for just a few hours of research time -- though we figure out that we’ll wind out there.

We wanted information about aboleths in general and this one in particular. At the temple of the Lightbringers, we talked to Androth Terminger, a male human. We handed him the letter and he read it then leaned back to look at us.

Androth: What exactly do you want to know?
Marxine: Everything. We can’t have him stealing people.
Elama: How to fight them.
Androth: The species has racial memories going back before the gods were born.
Vinya: He said something to that effect. Is he that old?
Androth: No, but the species is. If they hit you with their tentacles, there’s a chance that you’ll get turned into a slimy humanoid thing. If you fight them underwater, they can emit a cloud of mucous into the water that will render you capable of breathing only underwater.
Marxine: We want to avoid that.
Androth: They can drain vitality from their minions into themselves. And they can see through their minions’ eyes. That’s why they’ve covered their heads with sacks over at the Seafarers and Wayfarers.
Elama: Is there any way to stop people from becoming minions?
Vinya: Why is he claiming the storm drains as his realm?
Androth: They’re amphibious. He might also be interested in blocking the drains before the next big storm and flooding part of the city.
Marxine: If we kill the aboleth are all the minions freed from the telepathic control? Will they still need healing to get rid of the slime?
Androth: When someone is hit by one of the tentacles, you have about a minute to cast a regular cure disease spell to stop the transformation. Once the slimy transformation is complete, it takes much more powerful magic to save them.

Marxine, as a paladin, can cure disease one time a day. Elama can do it three times.

We thanked Androth and went and had dinner back at the temple we were staying at. We decided to have Elderron put up a tiny hut down in the hot zone in Stormyside -- keeping watches and having a long rest while we tried to keep an eye on things and prevent anyone else from being taken.


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## prabe (Jan 27, 2021)

Session 28: Dlublul, The Aboleth; aka Boss Fight!

Dramatis Personae:
Aldalómiel - Wood Elf Ranger (Hunter Conclave)/Druid
Elama “Lamie” Galanodel- Wood Elf Cleric (Tempest)
Vinya Anar - Wood Elf Monk (Way of the Sun Soul)
Elderon - High Elf Wizard (Loremaster)
Marxine Deepfoot - Dwarf Fighter (Champion)/Paladin

Note: Marxine's player couldn’t be with us, so the other players played Marxine by committee (trying to keep her in character).

GM - Everyone Else

(Note: This session was held on Discord.)


15 Plantarin 749 (Campaign day 106)

We ended with Elderron casting a tiny hut in an alley in Stormyside and us planning to spend the night resting and watching there, so we could intervene if we caught any sign of anyone being abducted.

But the night passed without incident.


16 Plantarin 749 (Campaign day 107)

When we woke up, before we did anything else, Elderron did the ritual to cast water breathing on the party.

Vinya suggested that we should go check on the abductees that had been transformed by the aboleth that we’d taken to the Temple of the Seafarers and Wayfarers. But we decided that the temple clerics were taking good care of them and we’d do best to just get to hunting down Dlublul.

Then we headed down into the sewers to try to backtrack the unfortunate abductees to see if we could find our way back toward Dlublul’s lair.

Elama considered casting locate creature -- but remembered that the spell could be blocked by a sufficient amount of running water, so she decided against.

We went back through the same manhole we’d used the day before, so we’d know where we were on the map of the sewers the gnome had given us. A little bit past the place where we’d encountered the first set of unfortunates, we got to a junction with a ladder going down -- there was water well above where the water ended -- so we were going to be walk-swimming underneath the water.

We coaxed Marxine down into the water and decided to head upstream. The water was deep and the tunnels were dark and the water wasn’t super clear. Elama cast a light spell so we could have about 30’ of vision. We were in a lower level tunnel and walking or swimming, depending on what kind of armor each of us was wearing.

Marxine was grumbling but Elama was giddy with the new experience of not drowning and talking under water.

We talked about how spells would work underwater as we walked along -- or at least the magical types did. The main thing we needed to remember was that everything in the water was going to have resistance to fire damage. We also talked about weapons -- everything but spears and crossbows (which none of us have) is harder to hit with.

About ten minutes after we got to the bottom of the ladder we got to a T-junction and saw three humanoid figures -- two of them had that fishy look like the ones we rescued. The other two did not -- the two fishy ones had crossbows and the other one had a spear.

Elama: Hi!
Elderron: Let us pass?

They did not let us pass, so Elderron shot a firebolt at the not-fishy one. It didn’t have the full effect -- we’d just been talking about the fire resistance underwater.

The spear-guy (not-fishy) looked at us and then he shrugged and his form shifted into an octopoidal thing with chitinous bits. Then he swam toward us, dropping his spear along the way, ending right in front of Vinya, but didn’t attack.

Vinya stepped back 5’ and got hit pretty hard by an opportunity attack -- then she fired her radiant sunbolts at it, despite not typically hitting with them very well, because at least they wouldn’t be harder to hit with. The second one hit. Given new confidence by this, she summoned her ki and fired off two more bolts. One of those hit as well.

Aldalomiel cast hunter’s mark then took a shot with her longbow -- getting a hit despite the awkwardness of being under water. And did an absolute ton of damage. The second did a good amount of damage, but not as much.

The octopoidal thing was still standing, but looked pretty ragged.

Elama dropped one of the fishy ones with a basic sacred flame.

Elama: The other two are just peasants.

Marxine attacked the octopoidal guy - hitting it with her first attack and dropping it.

It started floating and turning back into a human, but he was dead-dead and it was not possible to stabilize him. He was gone.

The remaining fishy peasant fired its crossbow and missed _someone_ wildly.

Elderron fired a firebolt at the fishy peasant and dropped it.

Vinya and Elama immediately worked to stabilize the peasants that could be saved -- Vinya helping Elama bandage them. Then we drove a piton into the wall and lashed them to it, so they wouldn’t float away and we could rescue them. Marxine claimed the spear left by the octopoidal guy.

We continued on our way.

After a few minutes we got to another T-junction, still on the gnome’s map. Marxine and Elderron looked at the map and suggested that we go right. Marxine made the suggestion based on her mining background and Elderron because of his general intelligence -- it looked like there was an open-space and better defense points.

We proceeded from there. The swimming was hard and Marxine, Elderron and Aldalomiel found themselves getting exhausted. Vinya, with no armor, and Elama, riding the giddiness of breathing underwater, were fine.

Ahead of us we heard some chittering and clattering of chitinous shells -- like lobstrosities ahead of us. Elderron had told us that these things were called Chuuls, servitors of the Ancient Aboleths. We talked about sneaking up on them, but he said that they can sense magic to quite a distance.

So we just proceeded up the hall until we saw two of the lobstrosities. Aldalomiel put her hunter’s mark on the closest one and took two shots at it, but missed twice. Vinya moved a little bit and then fired off two of her sunbolts at the same one and also missed twice (badly). Elama cast a guiding bolt on it, doing a great deal of damage, and making it glow so that the next attack would have advantage.

Marxine moved up to the middle of the tunnel, so they’d have to go by her to get to Elderron and Aldalomiel, but the movement took up her entire action (because moving underwater is slow). Elderron cast a toll the dead on the same one that Elama had guiding bolted -- it didn’t save against the toll the dead, but didn’t take much damage either.

The chuuls both attacked Marxine -- and both of them missed.

Aldalomiel took a shot at the one that was still glowing from Elama’s guiding bolt -- hitting for a lot of magical piercing damage. Marxine hit with her first attack, using the spear, on the hurt one but missed with the second.

The unhurt one was on Vinya -- she whacked it twice with the quarterstaff, despite the disadvantage of fighting underwater -- she hit twice with it. She took a punch at it after hitting with the quarterstaff and hit with that as well. Elama cast a sacred flame on the one on Marxine, the more hurt one, but it fizzled. Elderron’s toll the dead didn’t fizzle this time.

The chuuls attacked -- only hitting once. Marxine took some damage and was grappled. Vinya missed three times, because fighting underwater sucks. Elama cast sacred flame on the one on Marxine again and dropped it! Woot!

Elderron tolled the dead on the one on Vinya.

It turned from Vinya to Marxine, for some reason, then missed. Aldalomiel moved her hunter’s mark and shot at it twice, missing it both times. Marxine attacked it and missed twice. Vinya missed twice with the staff and again with the punch. Because fighting underwater sucks.

Elama: Sacred flame to the face!!

It didn’t dodge away from the radiance and took some damage. Then Elderron cast toll the dead, which it also was unable to resist, and did a lot of damage.

The chuul flailed its claws around and missed everyone.

Aldalomiel took two shots at it and hit with one of them, breaking the streak of futility for the non-spell people, and dropped it!

Marxine got her second wind, which healed her some, and Elama cast cure wounds on Vinya, getting her most of the way back up.

We pressed on, eventually coming to a Y-intersection. Marxine and Elderron looked at the map again and decided that we should go left. We’re still on the gnome’s map -- getting close to where they thought they’d spotted a place where Dlublul’s lair could be.

As we got closer to that room, the water somehow got clearer but also more nasty. It was still over our heads in the passage.

We got to a large five-sided room with a raised area in the middle -- the floor went up by five feet for every five feet of travel until one got to the dry area in the middle of the room (that’s the diamond in the middle of the room).

Elama cast bless on the whole party.

The aboleth Dlublul was at the back of the room on the far side of the raised area. There were two chuuls at the front of the room. Elama and Vinya noticed a weird sinuous thing with tentacles in the water back near the aboleth.

As we got to the entrance of the room, we all heard something in our heads in our native languages.

Dlublul: YOU DARE TO INTRUDE UPON THE PERSON OF DLUBLUL? IT WILL GIVE ME GREAT SATISFACTION TO WATCH YOU HELP ME TAKE THE CITY ABOVE AS MY OWN.

Then he moved toward the party and Elama’s blessing got its first workout -- we all had to make a Wisdom save. Only Marxine failed it -- and took 8 points of psychic damage.

The damage sucked but she wasn’t brain-snarfed and she wasn’t turned fishy. So Vinya at least considered it a win.

Alda took two shots at the aboleth and missed twice.

Vinya, seeing dry land ahead and remembering what we’d learned about the aboleth’s mucous cloud that could make it impossible to breathe air, ran and summoned her ki for a step of the wind, ending up right next to where it had moved to and attacked it with her quarterstaff from on the land, but missed twice.

Marxine moved toward getting out of the water with a move and a dash, but she ended up just five feet from the shore, still in five feet of water (and therefore under it).

The tentacle-serpent thing slithered out of the water and across the dry land to attack Marxine, ignoring Vinya as it went by. It missed her with both a tentacle and its tail.

Elderron cast a fireball, modifying the damage to lightning, that hit the Aboleth and one of the Chuuls, damaging them all.

The Chuuls moved to Marxine and attacked her -- the first one hit twice, once a crit that she nullified with the bulette shield. So she took the damage and she was grappled. The other one hit her once.

Dlublul attempted to mentally enslave Vinya, but she summoned her will and wisdom (and took advantage of Elama’s blessing) and was not enslaved. Then it moved away from her and she hit it with her quarterstaff as it moved away.

Elama grabbed Elderron by the back of his robes and pulled him back ten feet so that she could cast an ice storm that got Dlublul and both of the chuuls but didn’t hit Marxine or any other party member. They were frozen and bludgeoned.

Then we were all, except Elama, attacked by spiked tentacles that coalesced out of the water or from the earth -- holding us tight. They didn’t do immediate damage. We were all grappled, except Aldalomiel. (Note: Everyone but Aldalomiel failed an Intelligence save.)

Aldalomiel moved and threw an Ice Knife (a new druid spell for her) at Dlublul -- the knife missed the aboleth, but it shattered and the shards still did damage to it.

Vinya ignored the tentacles that were holding her and fired off sunbolts at the tentacle-serpent thing that was blocking Marxine from getting out of the water. They actually hit.

Marxine also ignored the tentacles and attacked the chuull grappling her with the spear and got a crit -- but didn’t do much damage with it. Her second attack also hit and did the exact same amount of damage.

The tentacle-snake guy attacked Marxine twice, but missed twice.

Elderron misty-stepped out of the grapple and to the wall on the right side of the passage, then cast toll the dead on a very wounded chuul. It failed its save and took a lot of damage. There was a dark implosion in the water as its shell, suddenly emptied, collapsed under the water pressure.

The other chuul attacked Marxine, hitting her once.

Something, something from the aboleth, began to intrude on Marxine’s mind or her will and she resisted it. Then Dlublul moved back closer to Marxine.

Elama dropped a shatter spell on Dlublul and the tentacle-snake that missed Marxine and Vinya. Both of them failed to save against it and Elama channeled the energy of the tempest into it, doing a lot of damage to them. Then she struggled weakly against the tentacles.

The tentacles tightened and wrapped around Vinya, Marxine and Elama doing them damage with the “barbs”.

Aldalomiel moved forward, taking a bit of a wide swing to get around one of the chuuls so she could get to the dry land, then she threw an ice knife at Dlublul. The ice knife missed, but again it shattered and the shards did damage.

In response to the damage, the aboleth flailed its tail at Vinya but missed.

Vinya shot four sunbolts at Dlublul and hit with three of them. Then it hit her with its tail in response to that damage.

Marxine attacked the tentacle-snake with the spear -- hitting twice.

The tentacle-snake attacked Marxine twice and missed.

Despite not having taken any damage, Dlublul’s tail attacked Vinya again. Fortunately it missed.

Elderron moved a little and shot a lightning bolt, changing the damage to cold, through the chuul and the tentacle-snake. The tentacle-snake flash froze and shattered on the ground. The chuul was still standing.

Dlublul attacked Vinya with its tentacles -- it hit her twice and she was not able to resist the diseasing influence of it. She was on the way to the fishy look and badly hurt (single digit HP).

Elama cast a powerful healing word on Vinya, who was at that time more badly hurt than Marxine. Then she got a good look at the tentacles that were grappling her and got herself free when she realized they were nothing but an illusion. Then she swam forward through toward the passage as far as she could.

Aldalomiel cast healing word on Vinya as well (she was still more badly damaged than Marxine) then moved and dashed to get onto the dry land, avoiding the chuul as she went.

The aboleth’s lashing tail missed Vinya again.

Vinya, without an opponent she could reach unless she went into the water, drank a healing potion and did her patient defense. Marxine hit the chuul next to her with one of her attacks.

The aboleth’s tail again missed Vinya, thanks to her dodging.

Elderron cast blight on Dlublul, changing the save to dexterity -- it wasn’t powerful but it was enough. There was a brief, choked scream in our minds, then the aboleth’s body crumpled inwards.

The illusory tentacles that had been holding Marxine and Vinya disappeared as the aboleth’s body crumpled.

But we still had one chuul remaining to fight and it attacked Marxine twice, missing her twice.

Elama did something we’d never seen her do before -- she cradled her arms around her chest and fired a lightning bolt from her chest at Marxine. The lightning healed Marxine, a lot, but it clearly took a lot out of Elama (though not as much). Then she swam toward the dry land avoiding the lobstrosity.

Aldalomiel moved a little bit, staying on the land then shot two arrows at the lobstrosity, hitting once and using the faerie fire effect from her bow to light it up for us. Vinya moved so she could shoot sunbolts at it, hitting twice because of the faerie fire. Marxine hit it with the spear twice -- leaving it wobbling but still standing.

Elderron shot a powerful magic missile at it and killed it!!

Vinya: I got hit in the face with a tentacle.

Elama cast lesser restoration on her to cure the aboleth’s disease before it really took hold in her.

(And there we ended.)


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## prabe (Feb 3, 2021)

Session 29: Shopping and Research (The Shopping Went Better)

Dramatis Personae:

Aldalómiel - Wood Elf Ranger (Hunter Conclave)/Druid
Elama “Lamie” Galanodel- Wood Elf Cleric (Tempest)
Vinya Anar - Wood Elf Monk (Way of the Sun Soul)
Elderon - High Elf Wizard (Loremaster)
Marxine - Mountain Dwarf Fighter (Champion)/Paladin

GM - Everyone Else

(Note: This session was held on Discord.)


16 Plantarin 749 (Campaign day 107)

We began immediately after the combat with Dlublul the Abloleth ended. We still had a water breathing spell up, which was good because there was no sign of the water receding with Dlublul’s death.

We searched around in the water, except Marxine who dried out on the island in the room, and found a great deal of money:

13,612 gp (about 10% of which were pre-Severance coins from the city of Arvai)
1507 pp (about 10% of which were also pre-Severance coins from Arvai)
4 1000gp fire opals
6 1000gp star rubies
2 1000gp blue sapphires

With the gems included that came to 5122 gp per person (with two left over) and 301 pp per person (with 2 left over). Vinya asked if her cut could come from the fire opals because they’re pretty and no one objected to that. She set her share of the pre-Severance coins aside in the bag of holding, so they wouldn’t get accidentally spent.

We also found some interesting items, which we identified over the course of a short rest.

Potion of Vitality (into the bag of holding, because it will be useful someday we’re sure)
Eyes of Charming (for sale or trade)
Slippers of Spider Climb (Vinya)
Cloak of Elvenkind (Aldalomiel)

After the short rest, we decided to go and recover the two unfortunates we’d fought earlier and get them to the temple of the Seafarers and Wayfarers for curing. And then we needed to go looking for more -- because we hadn’t even come close to finding all the people who had been missing.

The two we’d lashed to a piton in the wall a ways back had woken up by the time we got to them, and were fully restored to themselves mentally. Physically they were still water-breathing, water dependent fishy-skinned folk. They were very apologetic and also very anxious to get cured so they could go back to their normal lives.

Elama: Then come with us.

We led them back to the storm drain where we entered. At the entrance, we found that a lot of people had been coming out of the storm drains all over Stormyside, needing assistance. They’d been getting sent to various temples (not all to the Seafarers and Wayfarers).

We dropped them off, but didn’t linger, feeling something of a sense of urgency about getting everything sorted out. It was early afternoon and we’d been in the sewers since the break of dawn.

Vinya, as we left: It seems like some people outside the sewers were mind-controlled. We need to look into that.
Elama: I want to clean up. And to eat.
Vinya: Yeah. In that order.

After food and some bathing, we went to talk to Tomud Grennett at the Simmering Poppy. In the mid-afternoon they were quieter than they had been when we went in the evening a couple of days ago.

Tomud: How can I help you?
Vinya: We talked to you the other day about a possible cabal dealing with something that affected people’s minds. Not fiends but something aquatic.
Tomud: I recall. There was a suggestion that perhaps my … boss was so affected.

Vinya looked at Marxine to see if she had the “don’t talk” expression or the “it’s okay” expression. Marxine looked okay so Vinya went on.

Vinya: We killed an aboleth in the storm drains under Stormyside and freed a lot of mind-controlled people who had been down there. But we don’t know if that liberation extended to people outside the sewers.
Tomud: I can check in with the lady I report to and let you know.
Vinya: We’d appreciate that. We’re staying at the Seafarers and Wayfarers. You can leave a message there.

We went back to the temple, thinking to check on how they were doing with things there. They were very happy that we’d killed the aboleth, because that meant that these unfortunate fishy-skinned people were not a danger to the temple -- they didn’t need to be kept in dark rooms so they could see as little as possible.

As Vinya had discussed with them the day before, they were coordinating with other temples for healing and bathtub space for people who needed it.

Elama: While we were down there we encountered something that was a lot more tentacle-y and more fully transformed. Do you think you could save them as well.
Priest: I think any transformation that has gone that far is going to be beyond curing.
Elama: So the best we can do for them is the sweet embrace of death?
Priest: Basically.
Vinya: How are people doing after you’ve cured them?
Priest: Once they’re cured, they’re fine. They’ve all been going home right away.
Vinya: Excellent. And the tiefling gentleman we brought in yesterday …?
Priest: Brightwater has gone home to his wife. As I understand it she has still not given birth to their child, so he will be there to welcome the baby.
Vinya: Fantastic news!

We decided to go back to the storm drains to look for tentacly monstrosities or chuuls. We ran into a few groups of people down there looking for people to save.

Vinya: If you see anything with tentacles, holler. Some of them can be kind of tough.

That gave Elama a thought and she cast thaumaturgy to project her voice widely through the Stormyside storm drains.

Elama: If you need help and have been affected by the aboleth, please let us know by tapping on the wall -- three short taps, three long taps, three short taps. We’ll come find you.

We heard no tapping at all. After an hour or so walking around in the storm drains, we’d found no one who needed help. We decided our efforts would be better spent helping unfortunates get to healing, and helping to keep them wet, so we spent a few hours on that.

We got back to the Seafarers and Wayfarers temple/inn after dark and found a note waiting for us. Apparently from Tomud’s boss.

Tomud tells me that you are responsible for freeing the Green Hand from that which was turning us against ourselves. We repay debts; if we can be of service in New Arvai, do let us know. Turlonin Goriel

We also found someone from the Lightbringers Temple outside the Seafarers -- they were making a list of people who were missing and a list of those who’d been saved.

Lightbringer: This is harder than we expected -- most of the notices from the board at the guardhouse are missing.
Vinya: Oh! We have those. We were using them to figure out what was going on.

She handed them over to the priest.

Lightbringer: Thank you. Now we can correlate who’s been saved against a list of who was missing. There are probably going to be some people unaccounted for, but we can help people find their loved ones or know that they’re not going to.
Vinya: Good. That will be very helpful!
Lightbringer: There are also reports of people who had not been acting themselves suddenly being back to normal.
Vinya: Yeah. Is all of that in Stormyside too?
Lightbringer: Yes.

With the situation with the missing people being found apparently in hand, we decided to have dinner and find a show and kick back. We did find a show, quite a fun one, with a person smashing watermelons on the stage.

We rested and the night passed.


17 Plantarin 749 (Campaign day 108)

The next morning the party walked together to the Library of the School of the World. We planned to leave Elderron and Aldalomiel there to continue their research. Team Finding Trouble, having knocked it out of the park a few days ago finding the aboleth and his activities in town, were prepared to hit the streets of New Arvai once again.

We also were going to be looking for some magical shops -- trade in the eyes of charming and see if we could find other useful things.

At the library, while Elderron and Aldalomiel were getting checked in, Vinya casually asked one of the desk clerks if he could recommend any magic shops.

Clerk: Yeah, we can recommend a few. Give us a moment.

He then grabbed one of his colleagues and they disappeared into a back room. He returned several minutes later with a piece of paper with an annotated list of shops, organized by city neighborhood. It included what their specialties were as well as any other information they found interesting.

In Shelfward:

Dark Jom’s: Specalizing in books and scrolls; buys and sells anything. As many things as he’s sold to the various cabals over the years, he must have something on someone…

EON: Specializing in the weird and the expensive, even as magical items go.

In Gateside:

The Golden Flame: A bar and inn with a smallish magic shop attached. Most of the items are bought or sold either on the way into or out of New Arvai, by the desperate or the naive.
(Note: Think theme park or welcome area gift shop.)

In Seneschal:

Lost Gifts: Specializing in items from before the Severance, or which have heritage connecting them to items from before the Severance.

Vinya, reading that: OoooO! I want to go there.

The Sunrise: Specializing in items for defeating fiends and their minions and allies

Marxine: We’ll want to visit them.

In Coinscale:

The Day of the Hand: Specializing in stuff non-magicians might not recognize as magical

Krakom’s: Selling weapons and armor, run by a half-orc, Krakom, who really knows his stuff

Gladness’: Specializing in items that fool the senses and alter the mind

In Stormyside:

Tralots: Selling “affordable” items to those who can barely afford them. Known for being fair and for keeping their selling prices lower than others.

In the library, Elderron found that his brain had trouble getting back onto his research into Rakshasa in general and Rajalmin in specific after two days fighting mind-controlled civilians, chuuls, Dlublul and other aquatic monsters.

He did learn that there was a human wizard in New Arvai, in the same party as Tylrok Hammerhammer’s father’s aunt, who had made notes when his party took on Rajalmin, but he was unable to find the notes before it was time to leave for the day. However, he’d gotten a really good line on where that journal/notebook was and thought he’d be able to find it the next day pretty readily.

Aldalomiel, also found it hard to get her brain back on track with her research. She was looking for more information about Sossonotissis, the Blue Death, and his motivations. Also any locations where he was known to be found.

Unfortunately, most of what she found, she already knew -- he lives in the Scoured Hills in the big desert sort of between Mahassar and Usi Kotima. That desert is expanding in the middle of the continent on the other side of the mountains. He was ancient during the Fiend Wars and fought to drive the fiends out of the Scoured Hills and off Urnod and Mahassar on the grounds that those places were _his_.

It occurred to her that perhaps he knew the Gleaming Dame, who had also been ancient during the Fiend Wars and fought hard and successfully against the fiends, but she didn’t find any connection between them.

The new piece of information is that he has a standing, mutual grudge with the Lingering Silence, one of the Dante family of noble fey. Tantalizing.

Team Library had a rough day.

Team Trouble Plus Window Shopping decided to go first to Gladness’ to talk about selling the eyes of charming.

Gladness was a male tiefling with deep purple skin and red hair. He greeted us heartily.

Vinya: We have an item that might interest you and we would like to learn more about it.

We showed him the goggles from Dlublul’s lair.

Gladness: You found Eyes of Charming. Old ones from the look of them.
Vinya: Does that increase the value?
Gladness: For collectors it does.
Vinya: People collect magic items … not because they’re useful but because they’re collecting them?
Gladness: Of course. People will collect anything and everything. For these you should be able to get between 400 and 500 gp. I’m prepared to offer you 500gp right now.

We consulted quietly and thought maybe we’d try to shop them around elsewhere in town.

Vinya: We’ll hang onto them for now. But we may very well be back.
Gladness: If you get a better offer elsewhere, please give me a chance to match it.
Vinya: Sure.

We then started to look at his wares. He had a helm of telepathy, like Elama’s, and a helm of comprehend languages. The helm of comprehend languages, which doesn’t require attunement and would allow us to communicate with people without waiting 10 minutes for Elderron to ritually cast the spell, he offered as an even trade for the eyes of charming.

We decided to make that trade.

He also had potions of invisibility and mind reading and some Nolzur’s Marvellous Pigments. Vinya was very interested in the pigments, but they were way out of our league price-wise.

We put the helm in the bag of holding, thanked Gladness and headed off to Lost Gifts and its pre-Severance treasures.

We found Lost Gifts without any problems -- it was a small place square footage-wise, but still not crowded. It seemed that most of the inventory was not immediately visible. We were greeted by a male goliath.

Vinya: We asked for recommendations of shops dealing in magical items at the Library of the School of the World and your shop was on the list. I have a particular interest in elven items from before the Severance, religious and otherwise.
Goliath: We have something that might interest you.

Then he slipped into the back room. He came back out with a stained glass butterfly. The leading around the glass pieces looked really old.

Goliath: It will carry a message within ten miles and then come back to you. It costs 85 gp.
Vinya: May I look at it?
Goliath: Of course.

Vinya bent down and examined it closely -- it was definitely elven work and looked very old. She looked at Marxine to see if she was getting a good or bad vibe off this guy (her own vibe check was pretty good). Marxine seemed comfortable with this guy.

Vinya pulled out five of the pre-Severance pieces we’d just gotten from Dlublul’s hoard.

Vinya: We found these. Do they have any value beyond that of the gold?
Goliath: We are not allowed, by one of the few laws of this sort that is enforced in this city, to treat Arvaian currency any different from New Arvaian.
Vinya: Would that apply to Ambernock coinage versus Embernook coinage?

With that she pulled the two coins from Ambernock (that we found in the shadowpool in the sewers of Erlin) out of the bag of holding.

He looked at them, with her permission and with a loupe.

Goliath: Those would be valued as a platinum coin.
Vinya: I don’t want to spend both of them. But I’ll give you one, plus 75 gold.

He studied the coins some more and chose one for himself and handed the other one back.

Vinya: May I see which one you chose and which you didn’t?
Goliath: Of course.

He handed her the loupe. The coin he’d selected had less crisp edges and carvings than the one he’d returned. Vinya, without much knowledge of coin collecting, figured that he was either leaving her the one in better condition or taking the one that was older (and therefore in worse condition) and she was fine with that.

The butterfly is a magical messenger, but not a fast one.

Messenger Butterfly: This stained glass butterfly was originally made by the elves to pass messages back and forth between widely-scattered cottages. You can use an action to speak its command word and the butterfly carries a message on a piece of paper to a creature you specify within 10 miles. You must provide a general description for the recipient, such as “a man or woman dressed in the uniform of the town guard” or “a red-haired dwarf wearing a pointed hat. The butterfly takes 4d6 hours to reach the location or creature. The butterfly then makes its way back to you, returning 2d6 hours after delivering its message. If the butterfly is destroyed (AC 10, 1 hp) you are alerted and the recipient gets the feeling that you were trying to contact them but no contents of the message are conveyed.

(Vinya started thinking about how she could use it to send a message to someone in the party, so we’d always have the butterfly flitting around us. Like send a message to Aldalomiel and have it take up to a whole day for it to go twenty feet, then another half day to go the 20 feet back.)

After Vinya paid for, and finished ogling, her purchase, the shopkeeper said that he had something special in the back, not in his known specialty (pre-Severance items) but too good to pass up.

Goliath: It’s a greatsword called Fiendwrack.
Vinya: Ooo!
Marxine: I love me a weapon with a name.
Vinya: I’m sure it’s out of our league, but how much?
Goliath: 50,000 gold
Vinya: Yeah. Out of our league. But can we see it?

He smiled then went into the back of the store. He returned with a gleaming white greatsword that was on the longish side even for him. He set it down on the counter.

Marxine: May I?

He gestured for her to pick it up. When she did, it shifted and became a little oversized for her.

Goliath: It does extra damage against fiends and their relatives. Unfortunately it’s not a choosy weapon -- it does that extra damage against perfectly normal tieflings as well.
Vinya: That just means one needs to be careful when wielding it.
Marxine, handing the sword back: Thanks for letting me hold it.

We then thanked him and left. Having just handled the fiend-fighting greatsword, we decided to go to The Sunrise, because they specialize in things for fighting fiends and we’re going to need that sort of thing.

The clerk at the Sunrise was a tall, slender albino gentleman with a small, neatly-trimmed afro, an aasimar. Vinya explained that we are interested in his wares.

Vinya: Weapons and armor, especially weapons I can use -- you’ve probably encountered some of the people from the Chiaroscuro Temple a few blocks from here.
Aasimar: Yes, certainly. Unfortunately, I don’t have anything like that right now.
Vinya: What do you have?

He pulled out a few cloaks. The first one was basic grey fabric, quite plain. He told us that it would give us an advantage against effects created by undead.

The second was soft and white, cottony and almost weightless. He called it a cloak of the clouds and said that it could predict the weather -- the clouds would become grey and stormy with bad weather approaching, little flashes of light would even appear if lightning was expected. It also gives resistance to lightning damage and is advantageous when dealing with natural weather effects. Elama thought about that for a few minutes, but bought it before we left. It’s a cool item.

The third cloak was made of fine silk fabric, pure and unstained. He told us that it made one immune to being charmed and frightened and gave advantage on saves. It was entirely out of our price range though, being even more expensive than the sword Fiendwrack.

He also had a pair of goggles that looked a little like the eyes of charming we’d traded for the helmet of comprehend languages, but he said they were goggles of true sight. They were also out of our price range (about the same price as Fiendwrack).

Marxine: Do those see through fiend disguises?
Aasimar: Yes. As long as they’re magical disguises. They won’t see through a physical disguise, like if someone was using a disguise kit, though.

He then gave Marxine a good look and pulled out a maul. He told her that it gave bonuses to attacks for people standing on the ground. He called it Earthblest. It was a hella cool weapon, though not so flashy as Fiendwrack, at about the same price.

There was a lot of cool stuff there at The Sunrise, most of it out of our price range, but we’ll definitely remember to check in there when it’s time to actually start fighting Rajalmin.

We decided to go to the library to check in on Elderron and Aldalomiel before going to Dark Jom’s, the specialists in magical scrolls and books, and Krakom’s, the magical weapon and armor dealer. We figured Elderron would know best what he wants to get from Dark Jom’s and Aldalomiel might also be interested in weapons and armor.

Both of them having had frustrating days in the library, they were ready to go when we got there, so we all went together to Dark Jom’s. The shop was lined with books floor to ceiling with rolling ladders on rails mounted at the top of the walls and rolling stools and step-ladders scattered around. It looked almost like a library in there.

Vinya cast detect magic from the rod of alertness before we went inside -- she’d been meaning to do this all day and finally remembered. There was, unsurprisingly, a lot of magic radiating from the books and scrolls.

Jom was a thick halfling, standing, clearly on a riser of some sort, at a human height desk.

Jom: Hi there!
Elderron: Do you have books or scrolls with the identify spell?
Jom, after a pause: Yes! Yes I do! What form do you need it in?
Elderron: Something so I can copy it over into my spellbook.

Jom pulled out a scroll of identify and Elderron purchased it for 35 gold.

Elderron: How about polymorph and greater invisibility?
Jom: Those are more powerful spells and a lot more expensive. Ten thousand gold each.
Elderron: Ah. How about Magic Weapon?
Jom: More reasonable -- I can sell that to you for 300.

Elderron wound out getting that and also Fly, Haste, and Enlarge/Reduce on scrolls.

We ended there, planning on going to Krakom’s at the start of the next session.

(Note: We all also leveled up to 8th level at the end of the session!)

NOTE: When we split up the treasure from the Shadowpool, we valued those two Ambernock coins as gold not Platinum. So Vinya owes everyone 4gp. 

Treasure:

13,612 gp (about 10% of which were pre-Severance coins from the city Arvai)
1507 pp (about 10% of which were also pre-Severance coins from Arvai)
4 1000gp fire opals
6 1000gp star rubies
2 1000gp blue sapphires

With the gems included that came to 5122 gp per person (with two left over) and 301 pp per person (with 2 left over). Vinya asked if her cut could come from the fire opals because they’re pretty and no one objected to that. She set her share of the pre-Severance coins aside in the bag of holding, so they wouldn’t get accidentally spent. (If anyone else doesn’t want their share of the pre-Severance coins, Vinya will happily take them as part of her share of the treasure

We also found some interesting items, which we identified over the course of a short rest.

Potion of Vitality (into the bag of holding, because it will be useful someday we’re sure)
Eyes of Charming (for sale or trade)
Slippers of Spider Climb (Vinya)
Cloak of Elvenkind (Aldalomiel)


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## prabe (Feb 10, 2021)

Session 30: Team Research Comes Through In Spades

Dramatis Personae:

ldalómiel - Wood Elf Ranger (Hunter Conclave)/Druid
Elama “Lamie” Galanodel- Wood Elf Cleric (Tempest)
Vinya Anar - Wood Elf Monk (Way of the Sun Soul)
Elderon - High Elf Wizard (Loremaster)
Marxine - Mountain Dwarf Fighter (Champion)/Paladin

GM - Everyone Else

(Note: This session was held on Discord.)


17 Plantarin 749 (Campaign day 108)

We decided to hold off on going to Krakom’s because it was getting well into the evening after all of our shopping and the frustrating day Elderron and Aldalomiel had in the library.

The evening passed with dinner and a show somewhere and the night was uneventful.


18 Plantarin 749 (Campaign day 109)

The next morning, we all went with Aldalomiel and Elderron to the library. Vinya asked at the desk if there were research librarians or assistants who could be hired to help -- since our friends seem to be having some difficulty navigating the library.

Librarian at Desk: I think we can find a couple of people willing to be sidelined from their own research for a day or two.

Wonderful -- the price was 100gp for Aldalomiel and Elderron to each have a research assistant. Vinya paid for both of them and for Elderron’s day in the library.

Vinya: I’d rather you had the money to buy more spells.

Elderron got help narrowing stuff down about Rajalmin and the party that killed him a hundred or more years ago. There were four people in the party: A human wizard from New Arvai named Danrom Orth; a human monk from Kiranamakir (the capital of Mahassar) named Adlawan Gavlura; a dwarven paladin from Torm Brinnom named Etta Blackgranite (this is Tylrok Hammerhammer’s aunt); a halfling cleric from Dhaqi named Sarik Whitesand.

Apparently this party stumbled onto one of Rajalmin’s plans in Dhaqi, pursued him across multiple continents, and finally ran him to ground in New Arvai where they broke up a cabal he was trying to start. This cabal was trying to get information about the higher levels of government and society in order to gain behind-the-scenes control of the city through blackmail and extortion. They were getting their information from Rajalmin, but appeared to have regular meetings where they interacted with him, even when they didn’t have pressing needs or desires. Despite the consistently hedonistic ways of Rakshasa in general, this cabal’s hedonism didn’t run in sexy directions -- they were more interested in extravagant foods and extravagant intoxicants.

When we talked over this information Elderron got later, it occurred to us that Rajalmin might genuinely be targeting New Arvai -- he played a 30 year game to get revenge on Torm Brinnom, where Etta Blackgranite was from, tearing at one of the things that is central to dwarven life and experience -- the strongly interwoven social fabric of their strongholds. He might well be targeting New Arvai and Danrom Orth’s family.

Danrom’s journal said that most of the people Rajalmin were working for were killed. They believed he initially came to Erkonin through a portal. Or perhaps someone screwed up a summoning spell and got him instead of whatever devil they were going for.

Elderron looked into how someone on another plane get someone where to summon them -- sending spells work across planes. Also, if that other-planar entity could get to the Ethereal Plane they could hang out there (or in the Astral) and spy on what’s going on on the Prime (specifically Erkonin). Thereby giving themselves the required knowledge to be able to cast sending and send a message to someone. From there it’s a matter of offering promises and inducements and grooming that person, perhaps initially chosen because they seemed susceptible to this, to perform the summoning ritual.

It certainly seems that if there’s a way that Rajalmin can hurt those who hurt him -- or their descendants -- he’ll be working on that.

We decide that we need to find out if Danrom Orth has any family in town still.

Elderron, with one last bit of investigation, found a granddaughter, Ronma Orth, still living in the city.

Aldalomiel, doing research on Sossonatissis, the Blue Death, also had a really productive day.

One thing she learned is that The Blue Death and a noble Fey called the Lingering Silence have a long running feud and _dislike_ for each other.

She learned about his primary motivation, about which he seems to be a bit monomaniacal: He wants there to be at least one god on Erkonin and he wants that god to be him.

(When Aldalomiel told the party this, Vinya quietly thought “I want there to be gods on Erkonin again, but I don’t want to be on the side of the evil dragon.”)

Aldalomiel looked for information about what has driven him back to the Scoured Hills when he’s made forays across the mountains and ravaged the land. What she found is that he hasn’t so much been driven back, as that he was looking for something and either found it or decided that what he was looking for wasn’t where he was looking. The ravaging of towns and cities and settlements was because that’s what evil dragons do.

The main things he’s looking for are how to re-enable the god setting on Erkonin, information about what is necessary to do it, etc. He’s pretty single-minded.

Aldalomiel: That’s all beyond my pay grade. I’d rather just stop him doing it.

He’s a very powerful, very old dragon who has wrought havoc on adventuring groups who thought they were well prepared to deal with an ancient blue dragon.

She did remember something we’d been told in the past -- that the Noble Fey are starting to fill some of that “god role” here on Erkonin.

Aldalomiel, when she told the rest of us about this: It sounds like he might be jealous of the Noble Fey.

Aldalomiel went from looking into the Blue Death to trying to get more information about the Lingering Silence -- the Fey he has a beef with.

Her name is Tormanna. She’s the sister of the Walking Man, Falaggo, who we met and really liked. She doesn’t interact with mortals much -- though if you talk to her in a place where people are talking a lot and making noise, she can be pretty communicative. She tends to hang out where people are quiet -- for example a monastery where the monks take a vow of silence.

Tormanna and Falaggo are in House Dante, which is interesting to us as well.

We talked about hanging out at a crossroads at the next new or full moon and hoping to see the Walking Man again. Maybe he can help us get in touch with his sister. He also might have some insight into what’s up with Lothiriel being in Castle Dante -- is she a guest or a prisoner, and in either case why?

The next new moon is in ten days (28 Plantarin, Day 119).

Team Research hit it out of the park!

When Elderron and Aldalomiel were done for the day, we headed en masse to Krakom’s, the magical weapon store. We were greeted by a large half-orc, Krakom himself. He was the oldest half-orc any of us had ever seen and he was missing some fingers on his left hand.

Krakom: Howdy! How can I help you?
Elama: I don’t think we’re as dangerous as we could be. What can you do to fix that?
Krakom, with a twinkle in his eyes: I have many things. Unfortunately, whatever I have will still leave you an elf.

Marxine asked after one-handed weapons, like a battleaxe maybe.

Krakom: We can probably find something like that.

He went into the back of his store and returned with a warhammer.

Krakom: I’ve been waiting for the right person for this. It’s an Unmaking Hammer. If you hit someone’s armor hard enough with it, it weakens and ultimately breaks the armor. It can break a lot of other things as well, but that’s the good one.
Marxine: Nice. How much?
Krakom: 15,000

Oof.

Krakom: I have more in the back.
Vinya: While you’re back there, if you see anything I can use, please bring it with you.

He nodded and went into the back room again.

He returned this time with a quarterstaff made of ironwood. It had stylized fists carved on each end.

Krakom: When wielded by a monk, this weapon counts as an unarmed strike.
Vinya: Interesting…

Elama asked about Gauntlets of Ogre Power and he said he’d bring them out in a moment -- he had one more thing for Marxine to consider.

He came back with the gauntlets and a battleaxe -- the handle looked like it was made from well-aged wood and the blade itself was matte, as though it had been sand-blasted.

Krakom: It’s called Sandstorm. You can use it to kick up a dust cloud for concealment. It also does a little damage to anyone in the storm. The dust cloud lasts for as long as you are attacking and it stays centered on you. It gives you total cover from ranged attacks.
Marxine: How much for that one?
Krakom: 7500 gold.

Elama bought the gauntlets of ogre power as soon as Krakom had finished talking about Sandstorm.

Marxine asked how much he’d give her for her +1 maul and other magical weapon. He said he’d give 800 gold for those. Vinya asked if he’d buy the Pipes of the Sewers -- he said that was not in his line, and he didn’t feel comfortable that any offer he made would be fair to both sides..

Vinya nodded and ran to The Golden Flame in Gateside, because the pipes of the sewers seemed like the sort of marginally useful item that would sell at their shop catering to tourists. She was right about that and they paid her 400gp for them. Nice!

She got back to Krakom’s as Marxine was telling Krakom that she’d think about it and might be back later.

Back at the inn, Vinya rummaged around in the bottom of the bag of holding to pull out money, including the 400 she’d gotten for the pipes and some of the money from Dlublul. Elama chipped some money in as well, and we were able to get to 15,000 for Marxine to buy the Unmaking Hammer.

We went back to Krakom’s and Marxine and Elama talked him down from 15,000 for it to 14,000 for it. Marxine, with Elama’s permission, gave the 1000 left from what we’d gotten together to Vinya.

Elama: Now that we’re done shopping and are all broke, how do we find this Rajalmin cabal?

Elderron told us that Danrom Orth has a granddaughter, Ronma, who is an instructor at the School of the Mind. The School of the Mind focuses on magics and other means of controlling the minds of others and breaking such control -- illusion and enchantment, but also abjuration. She teaches optics, because understanding optics helps to make illusions more believable. She was not, according to what Elderron had learned, an adventuring wizard.

We decided to go talk to her, even though the day was getting fairly late, because she might actually be in danger.

Vinya: Though a slow-moving and subtle sort of danger. He was working in Torm Brinnom for over 30 years and it took that long for things to come to a head there. And he didn’t really have that much money invested in Torm Brinnom -- 25,000 gp for each of seven oni, plus magicking up their weapons. But that’s less than 1000 gp per year each. He could afford to multi-task and work on revenge on multiple fronts at the same time.

We found her in her office at the School of the Mind, having late office hours.

Ronma: How can I help y…. You’re not my students.
Vinya: No.
Elama: We’re here for you!
Elderron: We want to talk to you about an encounter your grandfather had.
Ronma: I don’t know anything about that.
Marxine: Your grandfather was an adventurer. He helped banish a powerful fiend.
Ronma: Good on him. I gather he was an ass to Grandma sometimes, but good on him.
Marxine: The fiend had a 30-year plan that almost tore apart the entire social fabric of a dwarf stronghold.
Vinya: This fiend plays a really long, really insidious game.
Ronma: That sounds awful. My grandfather left some papers that didn’t get into the School of the World. I can bring them here in the morning, if you’d like.
Vinya: That would be perfect. Thanks so much!

At this point it was fairly late in the day -- time for a late dinner. So we went back to the inn and ate and rested and the night passed.


19 Plantarin 749 (Campaign day 110)

In the morning after breakfast, we went back to the School of the Mind to look at the papers Ronma had. When we got there, she looked relieved.

Ronma: I looked through these last night. I’ve asked the school and asked them to increase the protections against fiends on the school, more particularly on this building, and even more particularly on my office.

She said that Danroth and his party had first crossed paths with Rajalmin in Kiranamakir, the capital of Mahassar. He would disguise himself as various people in the upper echelons and instigate duels between various nobles. They tracked him through Mahassar and Dhaqi and finally brought him to ground here.

The cabal here appeared to be his backup plan -- they summoned him every couple of weeks to talk to him and learn secrets about the wealthy in New Arvai. This was a brilliant way to get around the limitation that if he was killed on Erkonin he wouldn't be able to return until summoned personally by name. (Once summoned by name, he could return by any means.) So he had this cabal summoning him frequently.

They had the sense that his main activity was actually in Kiranamakir and Dhaqi and that the cabal in New Arvai was really mainly a backup plan.

Vinya: What was his plan in Kiranamakir and Dhaqi?
Ronma, handing over the notes: He was working to dismantle the government in Kiranamakir with all of the feuds and duels he was starting there. Though their duels aren’t typically to the death there -- with so many being started he was also effectively reducing the number of skilled duellists. The plan in Dhaqi was more difficult to discern -- they just busted it up.
Vinya: I don’t know if you would know this, but are you aware of anything over the last twenty or thirty years that would destabilize the city? Perhaps a subtle uptick or downtick in activity.
Ronma: I don’t know of anything, but really I wouldn’t.
Vinya: Can we borrow these papers?
Ronma: Yes. I hope they help.

We then took our leave of her, with the papers in hand, and decided to go talk to Tomud at the Simmering Poppy, on the grounds that Rakshasa are hedonists and the Green Hand deals in vices and pleasures. Whatever Rajalmin is up to in New Arvai might well have its first ripples in Tomud’s world.

Tomud: What can I do for you?
Vinya: We may be on to something, but we’re not nearly so certain about it as we were about the aboleth.
Tomud: You’re not reclaiming your marker then? You couldn’t with me, as I’m not the one who issued it.
Marxine: We’re giving a warning and hoping for some information perhaps.

We gave him the backstory about Rajalmin and Danrom Orth and Torm Brinnom and all of that.

Vinya: Because this is a particularly hedonistic devil, it seemed like whatever he’s doing might be rippling your world. But in very subtle ways acting over a very long period of time.
Tomud: Oddly, there has been a slight reduction in the level of hedonism in New Arvai over the last while.
Vinya: Interesting. There’s less interest?
Tomud: Not in Stormyside - the level of interest there has remained about the same. But among the upper classes there’s less. Either they’re getting their needs met elsewhere or by means we don’t provide.
Vinya: Interesting.
Tomud: There’s always a difference in style between the poor and the rich. The rich will pay much for one very intense or extreme experience. The poorer people will pay the same amount over time to have smaller experiences on a regular basis.
Vinya: Are any specific individuals not coming around anymore?
Tomud: There’s always turnover -- we’ll have someone who’s an excellent customer who stops coming around, perhaps they die, but at about the same time a new young buck will start coming and become a very regular customer. We’re having more attrition than just death among the older customers and not so many young people beginning to become customers.
Vinya: That sounds like just the subtle sort of thing we’re looking for.
Elama: So do we get ourselves invited to a bigwig shindig?
Vinya: Do you have any ideas on how to do that?
Tomud: I don’t have that kind of pull, but someone in the higher echelons in my organization might.
Vinya: Is this the sort of thing we could, theoretically, cash in our chit for?
Tomud: Potentially.
Vinya: Good to know.

We thanked him and headed over to the guardhouse to talk to Captain Longroot about this, thinking that she might also have an idea about subtle instabilities in the city’s government or governance and maybe strains on the social fabric.

Vinya again gave the backstory about Danrom Orth and Rajalmin and the very subtle, slow-moving attack on Torm Brinnom.

Vinya: Do you know if there’s something going on with the richer people in the city that might be some subtle effect of that sort?
Captain Longroot: Why are you asking about the wealthy?
Vinya: Because he’s not going to destabilize the government of New Arvai by disrupting Stormyside.
Longroot: There’s actually an anti-hedonist movement among the rich right now, led by The Enthroned preaching a sort of enhanced form of noblesse oblige -- taking responsibility for themselves so they can have authority over others.
Vinya: If we wanted to see this preaching, where would we go? And when?
Longroot: The temple of The Enthroned in Seneschal on Tagashir in five days.
Vinya: There are no mid-week groups for the faithful?
Longroot: Those would be less open to the public.
Vinya: Is this a homegrown movement or did it come from outside New Arvai?
Longroot: It coincided with a couple of new clerics coming in. It’s not an official new tenet of the faith, as far as I know, but the higher ups in the order tolerate it. If nothing else, the people who follow these new teachings have more money to donate to the temples.
Vinya: Do you have names of these clerics?
Longroot: There’s a human woman named Tirla Jimorn and an elf woman named Galinaori Thianthe. They came from Erlin or Lonoj. Somewhere upriver.

Elama used the helmet of detect thoughts to read Captain Longroot’s surface thoughts while Vinya was talking to her -- she later reported that they were all consistent with what she was saying.

From the background information on clerical orders: The Enthroned order believe that nobles and others of high ranks deserve to be served, and to be treated with more respect. They respect those who take noblesse oblige seriously, but it’s not universally expected. They have little-to-no interest in run-of-the-mill sorts, except that they serve their “betters.” Their most typical domains are Command, Life, and Light.

Vinya: They’re sort of the anti-Marxine.

We headed over to the Temple of The Enthroned so that Elama could talk to the religious people there. It was located in Seneschal, the most up-scale part of the city. The temple is very fancy and lavishly appointed.

Elama walked in and started looking around, noticing that it smelled like...breakfast in the temple. She followed the smell, and the sound of people talking, down a hallway off the main sanctuary to an open door. The rest of us sort of skulked around in the background.

There were a couple of priestesses and other noble types being served breakfast by some people who were waiting on them.

Elama talked with them about their anti-hedonism preaching.

Priestesses: If you are in a position of controlling other people, you need to first control yourself. We have privileges and responsibilities -- and shouldn’t be blowing money on momentary pleasures that we don’t remember late because we over-indulged. There’s not a lot in common with worshipping the storm.
Elama: We also heard this line of thinking didn’t start until two women came from out of town. Can we talk to them?
Priestess: You are.
Elama: Oh! You’ve been traveling. We have too.
Priestess: We spent most of our time in Tash. Then we went to Auriqua, but that city is very screwed up -- it’s all working class. From there we went to Embernook, which was even worse. There are wealthy people but no nobles. We didn’t stay there long.
Elama: What made you want to come all this way from Tash?
Priestess: Our superiors, after seeing how we improved how the temple in Tash is run, wanted us to come here and run this place better.
Vinya: Run better how?
Priestess: Oh, they thought the message wasn’t being well received.

(Elama’s detect thoughts got “More offerings.”)

Marxine used her paladin divine sense and detected nothing unusual -- no celestials, fiends, or undead. And the place had been hallowed.

Vinya: Do you know if the message is still being well received in Tash in your absence?
Priestess: As far as I know. We’ve been here a couple of years.

We thanked them and left.

As we walked down the street, we discussed the fact that they appeared to be improving the nobility, in some ways at least.

Vinya: Concentrating wealth in the temple might be part of a long plan.
Elama: I have a spell that might help. Divination. I’ve never used it before.

We got back to the inn and spent some time in our room discussing what the question for the divination should be. We settled on:

Question: Is Rajalmin connected to The Enthroned priests in New Arvai and the sermon they will give in five days?
Answer: The Enthroned in New Arvai are preaching what they believe, not what Rajalmin would want them to.

Huh.

And there we ended.


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## prabe (Feb 17, 2021)

Session 31: What’s Going on in Dhaqi?

Players:

Aldalómiel - Wood Elf Ranger (Hunter Conclave)/Druid
Elama “Lamie” Galanodel- Wood Elf Cleric (Tempest)
Vinya Anar - Wood Elf Monk (Way of the Sun Soul)
Elderon - High Elf Wizard (Loremaster)

Note: Marxine's player could not be with us for this session

GM - Everyone Else

(Note: This session was held on Discord.)


19 Plantarin 749 (Campaign day 110)

After the inquiries and explorations of the day before, it was getting late so we went back to the Inn to read Danrom Orth’s papers.

We learned that Danrom met up with the dwarf paladin, Etta Blackgranite (Tylrok Hammerhammer’s aunt), on a ship to Dhaqi. In the course of some adventures on the ship they started working with the halfling cleric from that city, Sarik Whitesand, and with the human monk from Kiranamakir, Adlawan Gavlura. They had adventures around and in Dhaqi -- which is where they started learning about Rajalmin and his plans.

His cabals there were doing horrific summoning rituals -- with several different cabals working in a coordinated way (though they may not have realized it) to do a bigger summoning than any of the cabals would have been capable of independently. While fighting those cabals, they found clues about Rajalmin having activities in Kiranamakir and they went there.

That’s where they found out about Rajalmin’s thing with sparking duels and creating unrest and worked to put a stop to that. They also learned about the cabal in New Arvai that were summoning him repeatedly so that he was regularly being invited back to Erkonin.

They came to New Arvai and busted up that cabal -- they killed most of the cabalists, but Danrom was convinced that there were some that weren’t at the ritual site when he and his party got there and were therefore not among those who fought and were killed. Danrom believed that the ones that weren’t there perhaps didn’t know what they were doing or that they were summoning a Rakshasa.

Evidence for that fact is that he then lived a long life and died a natural death in New Arvai.

Vinya: So how do you find a cabal?
Elderron: I think they’re near or in the libraries.

Vinya had an idea to try and talk to the researchers who had assisted Elderron and Aldalomiel the day before, to see if they could give a bit of additional information. We went to the Library of School the World.

Vinya, to the desk clerk: Are the researchers who helped my friends yesterday still here?
Desk clerk: One just left for dinner. The one who helped your friend look into that blue dragon is about to leave, I believe.
Vinya: Excellent. We’ll wait.

The research assistant who had helped Aldalomiel was a very young rock gnome, barely an adult, named Trummim. She told us that, like other gnomes, his eyes are two different colors -- one very blue and one very grey. She also told us that he was extremely careful and very willing to tell her when he didn’t know something.

He came out of the library and we all noticed that he was dressed as though he was intentionally trying to look average or non-descript. He was wrapped up in his own thinking and walked right past us without even seeming to notice us.

Aldalomiel: Trummim.
Trummim, startled: Oh! Good evening! Ummm….hi!

Aldalomiel introduced us all around.

Aldalomiel: We’d like to talk for a bit.
Vinya: We’ll buy you dinner. You pick the place.

He led us to a restaurant and bar that he was clearly very familiar with. He pointed out the best items on the menu and on the drinks menu. We ordered food and drinks and sat down with him. He was having some very sturdy barleywine-type beer with his dinner.

Vinya, quietly: How does one find a cabal? Whether to fight it or to join it?
Trummim: Usually when people are fighting them, the cabal has made a move and revealed themselves and then they were backtracked and exterminated. As far as joining, I think they start with people who know and trust each other. Like you guys know and trust each other. So if you started wanting to get extra power from, say, a demon, the others might be willing to assist because they know you and trust you not to be doing anything bad. And then they get sucked in. If you need more people, you’d branch out to other folks that each of you know and trust.
Vinya: If one of my friends wanted to start summoning fiends, that would probably break my trust.
Trummim: Well, criminal conspiracies are a thing, as we know all too well here in New Arvai. This isn’t entirely dissimilar. I’ve known some people who’ve had to abruptly leave the city because they stumbled onto something -- it can be hard to know the full reach of the cabal, who’s in it, who isn’t, who you can and can’t trust. Easier just to leave the city.
Vinya: What’s the point of it -- summoning a fiend can’t be an end game, right? There has to be a point to it.
Trummim: Oh, yes -- they’re summoning a fiend to fight their battles or do things they can’t do to get them money or power or information. Then they hope that they can put the fiend back. If they summon a strong enough fiend, they hope perhaps that they’ll be treated by the fiend as a favored pet or servant. Though that doesn’t typically fit with the personality of a cabal leader. A willingness to be humiliated as a pet or servant doesn’t typically go with the power to summon a demon prince or prince of Hell.
Elama: Aren’t there spells that let you control whatever it is that you summon?
Trummim: They’re not as perfect as people think they are.
Elama: Within my own skill set I have knowledge of spells that will keep something like that contained.
Trummim: Those circles are definitely an important thing. I can’t understand why anyone would summon a fiend without having prepared a circle first. Unless you want it to get out and cause problems.
Vinya: It still seems really stupid…
Trummim: I don’t think it’s intelligent or sensible. People do it because they’re desperate or greedy and think it’s a short cut.
Elderron: Who might be desperate and greedy here?
Trummim: That’s a fair question. The wizarding schools are magnets for greedy and lazy people looking for a shortcut. There are almost always people who need or want something badly around them. People who are desperate for something. If a cabal can find them and dangle that thing they’re desperate for in front of them like a carrot…
Elama: Like those priestesses with The Enthroned.
Trummim: They are the best thing that’s ever happened to their congregation.
Vinya: I agree with you there.
Trummim: I believe that they believe in what they are preaching. I believe that the higher ups in The Enthroned believe in the extra money they’re getting in donations and tithes.
Vinya: I agree with you on that as well.
Trummim: I’ve been dragged to a few of those sermons. Once by my boss after a long night spent drinking very excellent beer here -- I went into work and the most expensive thing I owned was my hangover and he dragged me off to a sermon on moderation and controlling yourself.
Vinya: I’ve had days like that. Who benefits from this change in habits from a whole swathe of society?
Trummim: It’s better for the church, for the nobles themselves, for their underlings. Everyone but the Green Hand.
Vinya: Okay. Who benefits from the Green Hand losing power?
Trummim: The other gangs benefit from the Green Hand having less of a hold over the elites. Maybe if you backtrack these priestesses up the river to Auriqua and then to Tash you could make sure they followed the path they said they followed.
Vinya: Good idea. They’ve been here two years. They said they spent a little while in Auriqua and came down the river from there. From Tash to Auriqua is months and then from Auriqua here is also months. So you’re probably looking at three or three and a half years ago. But we don’t know how long they stayed in any of those places.
Trummim: That sounds about right.
Vinya: We could Send to people we met in Tashimeet, Urlocka at the caravanserai. And to the Captains of the Guard in both Erlin and Lonoj.
Elama: I can do that. Tomorrow.
Vinya, to Trummim: Thank you so much for taking your dinner to help us understand. I’m one of those people who have stumbled over a cabal, and even I can’t understand it. Why were they meeting and how did they meet and what the hell were they trying to do? I can’t even really explain how I stumbled over them.
Trummim: If it makes that little sense to you, you might never understand it.

Vinya asked about the other schools of magic in New Arvai. The School of the Mind mostly focuses on illusion and enchantment. The School of the Body has a lot of transmuters and healers. Even some druids among the students and teachers.

We thanked him for the information and left him to his dinner.

After we left the bar, we walked and talked.

Vinya: We don’t even know that anything’s happening here at all. We think there is, because Rajalmin is vindictive and plays a long game. But we don’t know anything at all.

We strolled around the town, listening for screaming or chanting or strange noises.

Elama: I think that any cabal worth its salt would do their summoning in a protected room or a cellar. Not where they can be heard, but it doesn’t hurt to be listening.

Elderron brought out his owl, Oda, and had him fly around with his keen hearing.

But even with Oda listening as well we heard nothing unusual. Sigh!

We went back to the Inn and rested for the night, which passed without incident.


20 Plantarin 749 (Campaign day 111)

In the morning, Elama prepared Sending and used it to talk to Urlocka from Tashimeet.

Elama: We were there on Feast of Stars. Did two priestesses from The Enthroned come through from Tash three to five years ago?
Urlocka: They came through almost 4 years ago.
Vinya: Maybe they are just a coincidence and a dead end. I’ve got nothing else there -- at least not until their sermon in a few days.

We talked about what we wanted to do next. We wanted to be on a crossroads outside of town in eight days (28 Plantarin, Day 119) to try to talk to the Walking Man about his cousin The Lingering Silence, who has an ongoing beef with Sossonatissis, the Blue Death, the dragon that Aldalomiel has been researching.

Elama: Do we know where a crossroads is?
Vinya: Good question.

She went to the person who was taking breakfast orders from the inn patrons and asked about roads out of New Arvai. She was told that the road north from the city becomes a road that parallels the river all the way up to Lonoj and beyond.

Bartender: What are you looking for?
Vinya: A village. We’re thinking it would be nice to take a break somewhere small and quiet.
Bartender: Well, it’s a couple of days to get to the road paralleling the river. There should be a branch road that leads to some villages pretty shortly after that.
Vinya: Perfect! Thanks so much!

She went back to the party. It’s four days to the priestesses’ sermon at The Enthroned and nine days to the full moon. So we have plenty of time to listen to the sermon and then leave and get to a crossroads by the full moon.


19 Plantarin 749 (Campaign day 110) - 23 Plantarin 749 (Campaign day 114)

DOWNTIME MONTAGE

At some point during the next four days, Vinya had the thought that maybe Rajalmin was doing something in Dhaqi right now. So she, along with Elama and Elderron went to talk to the tiefling, Brightwater, we’d rescued from the Aboleth’s domination, the one with the heavily pregnant wife, Sunrise Clear.

He was surprised to see us. Sunrise Clear was also there, still heavily pregnant.

Vinya: You just arrived on a ship from Dhaqi, I believe. Is that correct?
Brightwater: Yes.
Vinya: I don’t know if you got off the ship or away from the docks much. I’d really like to talk to someone from there. Was there someone from Dhaqi traveling on the ship perhaps? I’d really like to ask someone about what is going on there.
Brightwater: I don’t know anything about the city -- I was gone for months, but I just sailed there, helped with loading and unloading, then sailed back. I was on the Ocean’s Blessing. It goes between here and Dhaqi and sometimes between Dhaqi and one city or another in Mahassar. I could introduce you to Captain Tarim Bultar. I don’t think the baby will come in the next half-hour.

Brightwater took us to the Ocean’s Blessing. He got some earthy greetings from other sailors, who knew he’d been worried about getting home in time for Sunrise Clear to have her baby. He joked back with the other sailors and introduced us to the Captain.

Captain Tarim Bultar was a human male with long curly hair tied back and a beard. He was in his mid-30s but his skin was weathered and tanned.

Captain Bultar: What can I do for you?
Vinya: Are you from Dhaqi? Or was someone on the ship from there?
Captain Bultar: The Ocean’s Blessing is my home, but I was born and raised in the Queen of Cities.

Vinya explained a bit about the long term, subtle type of vindictive revenge that Rajalmin might be looking for there. And a bit about what he’d been up to in Dhaqi a hundred years ago.

Captain Bultar: My grandfather told me about that bunch of cabals doing stuff at the same time. The word at the time was that they were trying to pull Dhaqi into the Hells. Or maybe bring part of the Hells into Dhaqi in a permanent way. A bunch of cults and cabals were coordinating efforts.
Vinya: Can you think of anything weird going on now?
Captain: We weren’t there long, but the city was definitely tense. Something weird was going on. We left quickly. I have not often been there where the hair on the back of my neck was on end for a week. Not anywhere. There’s certainly something amiss there. Extra tension. There were some people at the docks who wanted to get out of the city and didn’t care where they were going. It took us a little while to get a cargo so those people all left on other ships.
Vinya: If we obtained a couple of dragon pages, could you help us send a message to someone you know there. You’d be giving us an introduction, so to speak.
Captain: Definitely. I’ll also ask around other people who might be in town that I know are here from Dhaqi.

Vinya, to Aldalomiel and Elama: We might be going to Dhaqi, y’all.

Also during this downtime montage, Vinya tried having her messenger butterfly take a message from her to Aldalomiel, in hopes that it would flitter around the party for hours and hours. Unfortunately, it took the message very quickly, just a few minutes.

Elama suggested that the butterfly could be used to find someone -- it has a 10 mile radius and if you set it off with the message and began to follow it you could find someone. It’s like a very slow, long-range find person item.

Vinya sent the butterfly off looking for a cultist like the Zariel cabalists she’d encountered at the monastery. It was carrying a message that said “I know what you did.” The butterfly flittered all over town aimlessly for fourteen hours and never found anyone. The next day she did a better test -- she went to a distant part of town and tried to describe Elama in general terms (as the item requires) that were nonetheless specific enough to describe Elama and no one else. She sent off the butterfly and followed it. 14 hours later it found Elama. So it does work as a find person item -- just a slow moving, and very pretty one.

Any remaining time during the downtime montage, Vinya spent at the Chiaroscuro Temple practicing with her radiant sunbolts. Elderron spent the downtime copying spells.


24 Plantarin 749 (Campaign day 115)

All of us went to the temple of The Enthroned to listen to the sermon. Marxine opted to remain at the inn, because she knew that the sermon was just doing to piss her off.

We stayed at the back of the temple and listened to the sermon, The elf woman named Galinaori Thianthe was the one of the priestesses who gave the sermon. It was not a fiery sermon, but it was a convincing one. Given the premises of The Enthroned the message that if one is to have authority over others one must have control over oneself was very powerful. She spoke about being in control of your pleasures and not the other way around.

Vinya tried to get a sense of whether people were being mind controlled or if something weird or creepy was going on. Elama used the helm of telepathy on the priestesses and random people in the congregation, just skimming their surface thoughts.

Among the random people there were: A well-dressed man sitting with his whole family was thinking about the sermon and what it meant for his kids; another man was sleeping and trying to fake being attentive; an older woman was looking around thinking about what people were wearing. A couple of people wondered why someone was wearing a helmet in church.

It seemed that the older people were less interested in the sermon and more interested in the other people in the church.

While we were listening to the sermon, Vinya realized that there was another group of people being hurt by this new message from The Enthroned -- the suppliers and distributors of the drugs and other physical elements of the various vices provided by the Green Hand.

After the sermon was over, Vinya got into the receiving line so that she could talk to Galinaori Thianthe, the priestess who gave the sermon.

Vinya: That was an excellent sermon. Thanks.
Galinaori: Thank you.
Vinya: Do you and Tirla have any plans to go elsewhere? This message could do great good all over Erkonin.
Galinaori: If the Church hierarchy thinks I or we should, I have not heard of it.
Vinya: If you can make suggestions up the hierarchy, this would be a good message to spread far and wide.

We left and walked back toward the Inn to get ready to leave the next morning to get to a crossroads by the full moon.

Vinya: Where’s the central hierarchy of The Enthroned? Like their mother-ship?
Elama: Their headquarters on Urnod is about three days travel from Tash in the direction of Anestri. They are also in Mahassar -- but the different orders work differently there so that’s not exactly relevant. There’s a big temple of The Enthroned in Dhaqi, but it doesn’t have the reach to have control over the order on Urnod or in Mahassar.

After the sermon, we went to Tralot’s, the magic shop in Stormyside that we were told was known for having very moderate prices, in order to make their goods more likely to be affordable. Vinya wanted to buy a few dragon pages.

With four dragon pages in hand (two for immediate use and two for the future), we went to the Ocean’s Blessing, still in port, to talk to Captain Bultar and to send a dragon page letter to someone in Dhaqi.

Captain Bultar: Top o’ the morning!
Vinya: How’s finding a cargo going?
Captain: We expect to have something in a week or ten days.
Vinya: We have some dragon pages. Is there anyone in Dhaqi we can send a letter to?
Captain: I talked to the Kotimanovs over there (he pointed to a large ship docked nearby) and haven’t heard back about whether they know of anything. It’s best not to push Kotimanovs too hard, they can be touchy.
Vinya: Should we talk to them? Or are they a last resort?
Captain: If you’re going to be fighting fiends, they might be a valuable resource. There are a number of aasimar among them.

We all wrote the letter with the Captain giving us a written introduction. We asked about strange things that might be going on in Dhaqi and what seemed like was going on in the city. We enclosed a blank dragon page with our names on it, so that if there’s a reply it will come to us.

We spent the rest of the day hanging out.

We’ll commence the next day ready to head out by road to get to a crossroads by the full moon.

Unless we decide we want to book passage on the Ocean’s Blessing and head to Dhaqi.


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## prabe (Feb 26, 2021)

Session 32: Fiendish Business and the Walking Man

Dramatis Personae:
Aldalómiel - Wood Elf Ranger (Hunter Conclave)/Druid
Elama “Lamie” Galanodel- Wood Elf Cleric (Tempest)
Vinya Anar - Wood Elf Monk (Way of the Sun Soul)
Elderon - High Elf Wizard (Loremaster)
Marxine - Mountain Dwarf Fighter (Champion)/Paladin

GM - Everyone Else

(Note: This session was held on Discord.)


25 Plantarin 749 (Campaign day 116)

We woke up with three days to get to a crossroads before the full moon on 28 Plantarin and the information that it was a little more than two day’s travel to get to one. We felt pretty good about this situation.

We decided to get horses and ride, because horses are nice. (Vinya paid for Marxine’s without even asking about it, because Marxine spent a lot of money on her Unmaking hammer.)

We rode along the road, which followed the coast for a while. It was all pretty normal looking and there was normal traffic. We’d been told that there were waysides and small villages about every half day along the way. It would take us about two and a quarter days to get to the river road.

We ate lunch at a wayside called Omruth and then continued on our way in the afternoon. About when it was time to stop traveling we got to a village called Tisp. Tisp had a couple of inns -- we chose to stay at The Sterling Harp where we were welcomed by the innkeeper, a halfling lady named Adda Tallbranch.

We spent the evening in the bar, listening to the bard, who gave a good performance.

The night passed without incident.


26 Plantarin 749 (Campaign day 117)

Our travels were again perfectly normal. We ate lunch in a village called Anvern and then got to a village called Karnish at dinner time. Once again there had been normal traffic all day. Sometimes the terrain let us see the water and the vessels that had come down the river and were traveling to New Arvai, staying close to the coast.

We spent the night at an inn called Bramit’s.

We talked with the innkeeper, Bramit, when he brought us our dinner.

Bramit: Why are you traveling by road rather than by boat?
Vinya, indicating Marxine: She doesn’t love the water.
Bramit: I can understand that.

The night passed without incident.


27 Plantarin 749 (Campaign day 118)

Over breakfast we talked with Bramit about where we’re going. Vinya gave the same story she had at the Seafarers’ and Wayfarers’ Inn about wanting to find a small village to take a quiet rest. Bramit saw right through that.

Bramit: You’re looking for a crossroads, aren’t you?
Vinya: Umm…
Bramit: It’s almost the full moon. You have no idea how many people come this way looking for a full moon because they’re desperate enough to turn to the Fey for assistance.
Vinya: We’re not desperate, we just have some questions.
Bramit: Whatever. The next crossroads is about 2 hours away and it’s cursed. You won’t find what you’re looking for there. Everyone who spends the night there at the full moon winds out horribly dead and poison stinking mists come into town…
Vinya: This far away??
Bramit: Yeah. And the poison mists hurt people here.

We decided to look into the curse at the crossroads and see if we could do anything about that situation -- if people in Karnish were being hurt by whatever the curse was up there, it needed to be dealt with. If, for whatever, reason, we couldn’t get to a crossroads to see the Walking Man because of dealing with this, we’d be able to on the New Moon.

Poison stinking mists and a curse sounded fiendish to both Elderron and Aldalomiel.

At the crossroads, two hours away, Marxine did a paladinly vibe-check and the answer was BAD. We looked around at the crossroads and right in one of the corners where the roads, covered in brush and shrubs, we found a foot-tall black marble pyramid. It had writing on it in Abyssal.

Elderron put on the helmet of comprehend languages and read the inscription to us.

Elderron, reading: Those looking for a way find instead their end.

Marxine and Elama (newly strengthened by her gauntlets of ogre power) started to try and dig the pyramid out. What they found was that it kept going down and down -- it was the tip of an obelisk. They gave up after a foot or so, when it became clear it was going to keep going down and down. There were no further inscriptions on it but there were carvings heavily influenced by spider and spider-web motifs.

Elderron cast detect magic and found that it is very magical. He had the feeling that there would be other pyramids/obelisks around the crossroads. We started looking for those. With Elderron’s detect magic guiding the way, we found another pyramid at every corner of the crossroads. They all had the same inscription and the same spidery and webby artistic design.

Elderron also had the sense that just dispelling the magic on the obelists/pyramids might trigger the summons.

Elama cast divination, asking: “How should we get rid of whatever this is?”
ANSWER: Carefully dispel and brace for impact.

Well, alrighty then.

Elderron helped Elama with the dispel magic, giving her some advice before moving away. Aldalomiel cast guidance on her, then moved away. Vinya stayed near her, in case whatever impact there was happened right next to her.

Instead it happened right next to Marxine -- a 10-foot tall column of yellow slime with tentacles manifested right next to her. (Elama recognized it as a yochlol.)

Marxine immediately attacked it and did a divine smite -- doing a lot of damage because she was fighting fiends. She then attacked again and did another divine smite. Between the two blows she did it 50 points of damage, which was very impressive.

Aldalomiel started glowing with the starry form of an archer forming over her, then she attacked with her bow, hitting it twice, hard. Vinya shot it with two sunbolts, hitting with both of them, then ran up to it and spent a ki-point for a flurry of blows, both of which landed.

The second punch of the flurry dropped it and the body began to deliquesce.

The magic on the column was not dispelled, so we tried again, taking up basically the same positions.

Elama’s second dispel attempt seemed to be a little better, but we couldn’t be sure of that. Because two of the yochlols appeared, right in the middle of the intersection, near Marxine.

Aldalomiel did another starry archer form and shot at the one further from Marxine and again hit it very hard. Vinya fired two sunbolts at the same one Aldalomiel had just hit, hitting twice. Then she ran over and took a position where she could give Marxine flanking on the one next to her and then turned and spent a ki point for a flurry of blows and attacked the one we were focusing fire on, hitting it twice. Elderron cast blight on that same one, but didn’t get it off for a lot of damage.

Marxine attacked the one right in front of her, hitting it once. Elama moved closer and cast bless on herself, Marxine, Aldalomiel, and Vinya.

The yochlols moved so that both of them had flanking on Vinya, then proceeded to attack her. The first one hit with a tentacle, doing a little bludgeoning damage and a lot of poison damage, leaving her reeling a bit.

Aldalomiel moved and took two bowh shots at the same one, hitting but not dropping it. Vinya spent a ki-point to take a step of the wind to disengage from them. She moved 30 feet away and shot two sun-bolts at the same one we’d been attacking.

Elderron moved to a position to cast lightning bolt on both of them. He remembered that they were resistant to lightning damage, so he made it do force damage. The force blast absolutely exploded the one we’d been attacking. Marxine attacked the other one -- getting a crit that was okay and another hit that barely landed but did the same damage as the critical hit.

It attacked Marxine with both tentacles, missing twice. She was the best target for it, because dwarves are resistant to poison damage.

Aldalomiel attacked twice, with her starry form, hitting once. Then her starry archer form let her fire a radiant arrow at it as well. Vinya fired four sunbolts at it and hit with all four of them.

Vinya: That time I spent at the monastery practicing with the sunbolts has totally paid off.

Elderron did another lightning bolt with force damage that hit it. It was finally dropped by Elama’s thunderwave.

We decided to take a short rest after that before trying again. Aladalomiel cast a cure spell on Vinya which, along with the short rest, got her feeling most of the way better.

Then we took up positions for Elama to try again.

Elama: I can try one more time. If it doesn’t work, we’ll have to try again tomorrow.
Elderron: We could get three of them this time.
Elama: Make me nervous why don’t you?

Elama cast the dispel magic spell and she saw the obelisks crack as the spell took hold. She felt confident that the curse had been dispelled. However, three of the yochlolls did in fact appear -- one right next to Elama and Vinya, one next to Elderron, and one alone at the one corner of the crossroads where there wasn’t a party member.

Elama, seeing the three of them: I’m sorry about that. But It worked!
Aldalomiel: Yay?

Aldalomiel again took her starry form and shot twice at the one all by itself alone with regular arrows, then her starry form shot a radiant arrow at it.

Vinya punched the one in front of her and Lamie, hitting and did a stunning strike. Which worked. She then punched it again. Elderron cast misty step to get away from the one on him then shot it with a firebolt. Elama tried to banish the one, but it didn’t get banished. Marxine charged the one Aldalomiel shot and hit it twice, wielding the unmaking hammer two handed.

The yochlol on Marxine attacked her twice and missed twice. The one that had been on Elderron turned into a sickly yellow mist and moved into the middle of the street. The one that Vinya had stunned shook off the stun effect.

Aldalomiel took two shots at the one on Marxine, the one that she’d shot at before, hitting once. Vinya punched the one in front of her and tried to stun it. That didn’t work and she punched it again with another stunning strike -- that one worked. She then did another punch on it. Elderron cast blight on the one Vinya had stunned and made the save a dexterity save -- this blight did lots of damage.

Elama banished the misty fog.

Marxine attacked the one in front of her and got a crit. Unfortunately, she didn’t have any more spell slots, so she was unable to smite it.

The one on Marxine attacked her and got a critical hit -- because she was attacking two handed, with her bulette hide shield on her back, she was not able to negate the critical hit. Fortunately, she’s resistant to poison damage so it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. The stunned one once again shook off the stun.

Aldalomiel dropped that one with two arrows, then she moved to get closer to theone on Vinya and Elama.

Vinya attacked the one she’d been stunning, hitting twice, then spending a ki point for a flurry of blows. She forgot to do a stunning blow on it though so it was going to be free to act on its turn.

If it lived that long.

It didn’t. Elderron cast a magic missile on it and dropped it.

We protected Elama for the remaining duration of the banishment spell, so that the third yochlol would stay banished.

And then we made camp, even though it was early in the day. We hung out and relaxed and took it easy for the bulk of the day.

During the night we had a fire and a pot of stew cooking over it. The moon was indistinguishable from full (though technically the full moon was the next day, we knew there was a bit of leeway on either side of the actual day). In the middle of the night, we heard a voice from the darkness.

Falaggo: Hello, the camp!
Vinya: Hello! Welcome.
Falaggo: You’ve come a long way.
Vinya: Not as far as you, I’m sure. We’re here because we wanted to talk to you.

Aldalomiel asked about Sossonatissis and the Lingering Silence and the beef between them.

Falaggo: I believe my cousin is carrying the grudge far more than the Blue Death.
Aldalomiel: I have a missing friend who is, apparently, in Castle Dante.
Falaggo: You asked about her before and I told you that I hadn’t seen her on the roads or ways. She may be in Castle Dante. I don’t go there very often and it’s very very large.
Vinya: Why would someone in your family want her?
Falaggo: My cousin is not cruel. Your friend will be taken care of and not treated badly.
Vinya: We don’t know for sure that she’s there because of the Lingering Silence.
Falaggo: She’s a good guess. She might have her to provide extra motivation for you to go after the Blue Death. Or as a reward for having done so.
Elama: How bad can a dragon be?
Vinya: Oh. Umm… How long have these obelisks been here?
Falaggo: Since just after the Fiend Wars. They were placed by Lolth herself.
Aldalomiel: Why here? Why at this crossroads?
Falaggo: She hates us and will mess with us whenever she can.
Elama: Can she get here?
Falaggo: Yes, if she’s summoned as a demon princess. She can’t have divine power here, but she can have all of her demonic powers.
Vinya: So she’s messing with y’all by interfering with your realm?
Falaggo: Yes, this is a crossroad near a major city and part of my realm where people will be likely to want to get in touch with me.
Elama: Does she also mess with others of your family?
Falaggo: Yes.
Elama: We’re looking for a rakshasa named Rajalmin, do you know anything about him?
Falaggo: They tend to be city creatures and therefore they rarely come into my realm at all. I’m afraid I can’t help you.
Vinya: The Enthroned’s main temple is outside of Tash. Have you picked up on anything odd going on there?
Falaggo: I know nothing of the inner workings of the church. But they have definitely been expanding and renovating the temple.
Vinya: Is your realm crossroads or roads in general?
Falaggo: I like all roads, but crossroads are special to me.
Aldalomiel: Your cousin...how can we find her? We’d like to talk to her. We hope she might be able to give us an in on how to work against the Blue Death.
Falaggo: I will see what I can do. It’s possible that if she does have your lover, I can arrange a conversation in Castle Dante. That’s not her realm, so she is more communicative there.
Elama: How will we get there?
Vinya: Oh, we can get to Castle Dante, through the fomori cave we were back in the winter.
Elama: That’s on the other side of the continent. And doesn’t it go straight into the prison?
Vinya: Yes, but we’re not fomorians so we should be okay.
Falaggo: There are easier ways. Let me see what I can do. Keeping someone against their will seems cruel.
Vinya: Should we come to a crossroads again to find you or will you be in touch?
Falaggo: I’ll be in touch.

We then offered him food and drink. He partook of our stew and something to drink and we talked in a friendly way for a while. Then he left.

Vinya, after he was gone: For the record, Aldalomiel, I’m 100% in on this dragon thing.
Elama: Me too.
Elderron: All of us.
Marxine: [nodding]

The rest of the night passed without incident.


28 Plantarin 749 (Campaign day 119)

In the morning, we checked the obelisks. They were now made of pinkish stone, not black, and deeply cracked and partly crumbling. Marxine recognized the stone as the same within the portal to Castle Dante that we found in the fomorian complex between the Knot and Tash.

The abyssal writing had been replaced with writing in sylvan: "Not all riddles have literal answers. Sometimes the answer is in your pocket.”

We all took some of the pieces of the pink stone.

Before we broke camp to head back to Karnish and Bramit’s inn, we received a dragon page. It flew to Vinya. It was the return letter from the person we’d contacted in Dhaqi.

Greetings from the Queen of Cities!

Things here have been less serene than the norm, without question. The peace of the city has been disturbed by several disappearances and at least one violent apparition. There are rumors of diabolists and cabals, but this is not New Arvai and such things are not normal here. If the guard have any information, they are not sharing it, so we residents are limited to what we hear from others, who may not know any better than we do.

Hurakil Assir

As we walked back to Karnish, we talked about sailing to Dhaqi to see if whatever is going on there had anything to do with Rajalmin. It’s a long trip -- 30+ days by sea.

We got back to Karnish and told Bramit that we’d fixed the crossroads.

And there we ended.


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## prabe (Mar 3, 2021)

Session 33: Sailing to Dhaqi

Dramatis Personae:
Heath - Aldalómiel - Wood Elf Ranger (Hunter Conclave)/Druid
John - Elama “Lamie” Galanodel- Wood Elf Cleric (Tempest)
Sara - Vinya Anar - Wood Elf Monk (Way of the Sun Soul)
Rich - Elderon - High Elf Wizard (Loremaster)
Emily - Marxine - Mountain Dwarf Fighter (Champion)/Paladin

GM - Everyone Else

(Note: This session was held on Discord.)


29 Plantarin 749 (Campaign day 120)

We got back to Bramit’s midmorning. We decided to press on to the village a full day’s travel hence, Tisp, even though it would be a long day. Because it would get us back to New Arvai sooner.

Bramit hooked us up with the provisions we needed for that and we rode hard and long.

We stayed at the Sterling Harp again in Tisp and had no difficulties all day or night.


30 Plantarin 749 (Campaign day 121)

The next day we travelled uneventfully and got to New Arvai just about dinner time. We went straight to talk to Captain Tarim Bultar of the Ocean’s Blessing, a ship we knew was going to be sailing to Dhaqi soon. We asked Captain Bultar about booking passage to Dhaqi.

He said that he has two rooms, with six bunks between them, connected by a door. He gave us a break on the cost of passage with the expectation that we’ll help with defense of the ship on the way, which we agreed to.

He said that he’d be sailing with the earliest tide day after tomorrow. We told him where to find us (the Seafarers and Wayfarers’ Inn) if he turned out to be leaving earlier than expected, and went to get rooms at the inns.

We spent the evening dining and watching whatever entertainments were at the Inn. The evening and the night passed without incident.


1 Kalavin 749 (Campaign day 122)

The day before we left on the Ocean Breeze passed more or less uneventfully. Elama spent the day sight-seeing like she’d never been in a city before. Vinya and Marxine went to the Chiaroscuro Temple to do some sparring with the monks there. Some folks spent time walking around hoping to stumble over cultists of one sort or another.

On the whole, the day passed without incident.


2 Kalavin 749 (Campaign day 123)

We boarded the ship very early with the expectation that we’d be arriving on 8 Bluzzimin 749 (Campaign day 159) or so -- it’s a 36 day trip on average. The Ocean’s Blessing is 150’ long and 50’ across at the beam.

We sailed uneventfully -- watching the dolphins and flying fish and distant whales and very distant ships. The weather was nice -- calm but not too calm and with comfortable temperatures.

Elderron made a daily ritual of casting waterbreathing on us every morning during breakfast. We kept watches at night, and generally kept someone on deck at all times, because we were charged with helping to defend the ship.


10 Kalavin 749 (Campaign day 131)

The day passed quietly. During the night’s first watch (Elama, Vinya, Marxine), Elama and Vinya were standing by the rail in the middle of the ship on one side. Marxine was in the middle of the ship, away from the railing about 40 feet away.

Marxine wasn’t surprised, because of the flail of warning, but everyone else was absolutely stunned when three trolls, dripping with seawater and with tattered kelp leaves for hair, clambered over the rails of the ship.

Vinya: How are there freaking trolls at sea!!???
Elama: What the naughty word?!

Two trolls were about equally far away on either side of Vinya and Elama and the other was on the other side of the ship between them -- so roughly speaking the trolls formed an equilateral triangle about 50’ on a side, with Marxine in the middle of them.

The guy in the crow’s nest on lookout started screaming like a siren -- being an air genasi, he didn’t need to stop to inhale at all.

Marxine, the only one among us who was not surprised, ran to attack the one by itself away from Vinya and Elama. She attacked it twice, hitting both times. She could see the wounds closing up immediately after her attack.

The one Marxine attacked immediately attacked her with its bite and two massive clawed hands, but it missed with all three attacks. One of them attacked Vinya attacked her -- it hit her with both claws and did rather a lot of damage. Elama was bitten as well as clawed and took even more damage.

Below decks, Elderrron and Aldalomiel heard the siren yell of the air genasi lookout. Elderron ran out onto the deck through a hatch that put him relatively near to Vinya and Elama and the trolls on them. He looked around and saw that Marxine was fighting one and Vinya and Elama were looking simultaneously shocked and fairly badly hurt. He cast confusion on the troll on Vinya, changing the save from wisdom to intelligence -- the troll succumbed to the confusion spell.

Marxine attacked again on the troll on her -- getting one hit.

She was hit in return with the two clawed hands. Vinya was bitten and clawed, but not dropped. Elama was missed all three times.

Vinya, finally shook off her surprise at sea trolls attacking in the middle of the ocean and attacked. She punched hers, hitting once and succeeding in landing a stunning strike. She followed that up with a flurry of blows, both of which hit.

Aldalomiel came up from downstairs just behind Elderron. She saw that the one on Elama was neither stunned nor hurt, so she put her hunter’s mark on it and shot it with two sling bullets.

Elama: What what oh my gads!! Where’d they come from!?

Thus she cast a high level healing word on herself, then attacked with her sword, doing both physical and thunder damage to it.

The air genasi seaman in the crow’s nest continued to wail his siren alarm.

Elderron thought for a second and realized that though he was aware that sea trolls existed, he didn’t actually know anything more about them. So he took a guess that, as sea creatures, their regeneration might be shut down by fire damage. He cast magic missile, doing fire rather than force damage, sending one missile to each of them. The fire-missiles hit with a cloud of stinking hissing steam.

Marxine got her second wind, then attacked, hitting twice.

All of us who were near one of the trolls noticed that their wounds weren’t healing.

Vinya: Elderron, keep up with the fire!

The troll on Marxine hit her with a bite and a claw. Elama was hit by only one claw -- she did her retaliatory shock to it, dealing it damage and pushing it away, but it just walked right back to her. Vinya’s was stunned and just stood there.

Vinya punched hers, hitting twice and succeeding with her second attempt to stun it again. She then decided to save her ki for stunning strikes, so she just did a regular unarmed strike. Aldalomiel shot Lamie’s again with her sling for 35 points of damage with her first shot. Her second shot missed. Then she assumed a starry form, one we hadn’t seen before, a form of a chalice constellation overlaid her.

Elama cast spiritual weapon and attacked with her thunder-cloud’s lightning bolt, then attacked separately with her sword. Elderron upcast magic missile sending one missile each to Marxine’s and Vinya’s, which looked about equally damaged, and two to Elama’s, which was very wobbly looking. The fire-missiles again hit with a hiss and puff of noxious steam -- they clearly didn’t do their full measure of damage, but did succeed in shutting down the trolls’ regeneration.

Marxine missed twice with her attacks, then was bitten and clawed by the troll she was fighting in return. Vinya’s troll was stunned and didn’t nothing. Elama’s troll bit her and she retaliated with her lightning energy -- which dropped it!

Vinya punched hers twice and tried to stun it twice. Unfortunately, it saved versus both attempts so she spent some of her ki-energy to do her patient defense.

Aldalomiel moved her hunter’s mark to the one on Marxine and shot it twice, hitting twice. Then she moved to within 30 feet of both Marxine and Vinya and cast healing word on Marxine. The starry constellation form flared and some healing was reflected over to Vinya as well. Elama also cast healing word on Marxine, then tried to sacred flame the troll on Vinya, but it saved.

Elderron cast another high-level magic missile sending one bolt to the troll Elama dropped, to make sure it would stay dead, one on Vinya’s, which was still under the effect of the confusion spell, and two on Marxine’s. There was a bit of damage done all around.

Marxine had the thought to rally some of the sailors to try and help us, but didn’t see any when she looked around. So she attacked, getting one hit.

The one on her hit her with both of it’s claws, but it didn’t do great damage. Vinya’s troll was still confused by Elderron’s spell and just stood there doing nothing.

VInya hit hers twice then used her last ki point for patient defense, because she couldn’t count on the confusion keeping it from attacking her.

Aldalomiel took another couple of shots at Marxine’s, hitting once -- which was enough to drop it. Then she did another healing word on Marxine and reflected some healing on to Vinya again.

Elama moved her spiritual weapon over to the one on Vinya and attacked with it, but it missed, then she again sacred flamed it. This time it didn’t save. Elderron cast another magic missile spell -- sending one missile to the one that Aldalomiel dropped and three to the one on Vinya. Marxine came over to help Vinya -- getting a critical hit and drawing down a divine smite into the hit. That was enough to drop the last one!

Elderron shot a firebolt into it to make sure it would stay dead.

After the trolls were dropped and we could look around, we noticed that there were sailors in the rigging with crossbows. They told us later that because of our close fighting with the trolls, they hadn’t been able to get a clear shot.

Elama: I’m going to bed now.

Vinya took her second watch and let Elama cover Vinya’s spot on third watch.

Vinya, to a sailor: Do these things come up often? Those were nasty.
Sailor: I’ve never seen that many at once. Or ones that big. But weird things happen when there are adventurers aboard.

The rest of the night, and the next 16 days, passed without incident.


25 Kalavin 749 (Campaign day 146)

Toward nightfall, Elama’s cloak of the weather turned very dark gray and felt almost damp to the touch.


26 Kalavin 749 (Campaign day 147)

Near dawn on this day, we spotted a distinct storm in the distance -- like a powerful but constrained typhoon about two miles wide. Vinya’d heard of storm giants and knew that they lived under the sea and on islands. The sailors didn’t know of any islands around where they thought we were, so if it was a storm giant it was living under the sea.

Whatever it was, Captain Bultar and the sailors wanted nothing at all to do with it, so they sailed wide around. As we sailed around, we watched the violent storm -- lightning flashed within the clouds and down to the ocean surface and thunder could be heard even miles away.

Vinya kept an eye on the storm to make sure it didn’t move in our direction. Elama just appreciated and enjoyed watching it.

Navigating around the storm added a little time to our journey, the rest of which passed without incident.


8 Bluzzimin 749 (Campaign day 159)

The coastline of Za’akkesh became visible in the afternoon and the barrier islands around the Dhaqin Lagoon distinct from the main coastline just around dark. We encountered some outgoing traffic as we approached the barrier islands. The Captain warned those outgoing ships about the storm giant on the sea-way to New Arvai. He also asked about what was going on in Dhaqi. He was told that there have been disappearances and also that there appeared to be some semi-contagious thing going on. One of the ship captains told him about something that, when it was defeated, turned to worms that then disappeared into the ground. Another ship mentioned rumors of an incident at a crematorium where the corpses rose up.

We anchored outside the barrier islands at night, because the navigator was skilled but not crazy enough to try and navigate the ever-shifting barrier islands in the dark.


9 Bluzzimin 749 (Campaign day 160)

The next morning at dawn, the ship weighed anchor and we navigated through the barrier islands and into the Dhaqin Lagoon. We sailed past a few of the city’s islands, noting the piers stretching out into the lagoon and canals running between and into the islands. The buildings were mostly low, though one of the islands furthest from the ocean had some taller buildings. The captain told us that was the izirate (island/city district) of Bakar, where the city government buildings are.

He told us we were going to be tying up in Tiras, the most outward looking and cosmopolitan of izirates in this very most cosmopolitan city. He told us that there was a part of the izirate called the Society of Guests that was a cluster of separate inns all within a few blocks. He specifically recommended an inn within the Society of Guests called Bultir’s.

He also told us about some other sights in the city that we should check out. He mentioned specifically Windows of the Past, which he said was something between an art gallery and a store.

Captain Bultar: It is amazing! Also the Feet of Marduk in Oldest Dhaqi are impressive and you might find them interesting since you seem to have an interest in things that predate the Severance.

We asked where we should go to see if we can help with the situation with the undead and worms and cultists. He said that we should go to the izirate Bakar and go to the Kul-Izir’s palace, which is also the main government complex: the Dojh. The guard are headquartered there and that’s a good place to offer our services to the city.

He said the best places to find food and entertainment are in Dhur, a central izirate a bridge away from Tiras and from Bakar. He recommended a place called Istin’s.

Elderron asked about where we could go to look for items for sale. He told us we could find stores on the Ledge -- part of Dhur where it faces Alhim and Bakar.

After a bit of sailing through the lagoon and Captain Bultar pointing out sights to us and telling us things we should be sure to see, he put in at a long pier where he’d been contracted to deliver his cargo. As we prepared to debark just after breakfast, he gave us directions to Bultir’s, the inn he recommended in the Society of Guests.

Vinya: Thank you, Captain Bultar. Please let us know if there’s anything we can do to help you. Also, if you hear of anything that we might be interested in, please let us know.
Bultar: I will. And good luck to you. May the Queen of Cities open her arms to you.

We went to Bultir’s, where we immediately took a large suite with multiple bedrooms and a couple of sitting rooms for six nights. Then we walked around the city, getting lunch at a restaurant along the way. Lunch was dark beer and something like mole negro street tacos and it was delicious.

The city is substantially larger than New Arvai -- there’s a park/green space in Bakar that’s several square miles. The city is not really gaudy -- it’s fanciest in Bakar because that’s where the Kul-Izir lives. She shows off her wealth much more than is typical for even the other powerful and wealthy people in the city. There is little vehicle traffic in the city -- it is mostly designed for foot traffic and a few riding animals or hand-carts. We walked across the bridge to the part of the city on the mainland, Oldest Dhaqi, where we saw Marduk’s Feet -- the feet of what was clearly a colossal statue straddling a canal that came across the flatlands from the mountains.

Vinya looked around and didn’t see any signs or inscriptions or explanation, so she asked someone nearby what they could tell us about the statue. We were told that it’s a statue of the city’s patron God, Marduk. Dhaqi’s first sign of the Severance was the collapse of the statue. All that remains of it now is the feet.

We decided to go to Windows of the Past, the gallery that Captain Bultar recommended to us. The building has no windows visible from the outside, but when you walk inside there are windows hung like paintings on the wall. Each one looked on a different view from somewhere on Erkonin. One of them looked out on a view of the Blackfield of Embernook, which Vinya recognized from her trip from New Arvai to the Knot. One of them looked out on Kiranamakir, the sign said (the architecture looks like Ankgor Wat). One of them was a place we recognized -- a scenic view of Promontory in Erlin.

We ended at the end of a day of sightseeing, preparing to head back to Bultir’s to have dinner and rest for the night.

We will start looking for worm things and dead people next session.


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## prabe (Mar 10, 2021)

Session 34: Worms Upon Worms Upon Worms

Dramatis Personae:
Aldalómiel - Wood Elf Ranger (Hunter Conclave)/Druid
Elama “Lamie” Galanodel- Wood Elf Cleric (Tempest)
Vinya Anar - Wood Elf Monk (Way of the Sun Soul)
Elderon - High Elf Wizard (Loremaster)
Marxine - Mountain Dwarf Fighter (Champion)/Paladin

GM - Everyone Else

(Note: This session was held on Discord.)

We ended the previous session with a long rest after a lovely day sight-seeing and getting oriented to Dhaqi.


10 Bluzzimin 749 (Campaign day 161)

We had very unsettling dreams -- even the elves found it hard to trance properly -- and the whole party gave up on resting around 6 am. Aldalomiel mentioned that all she could see in her trance-visions were worms upon worms upon worms.

Ew.

We shuffled down to breakfast and found that a lot of the other guests at Bultir’s inn were also looking for breakfast and wearing that “I can’t get back to sleep” look.

Bultir himself was bustling around as best he could -- we could see a brace on his leg that we hadn’t noticed when we took our rooms because he was behind the counter. He was limping and moving around serving coffee and food. He didn’t look like he’d slept at all either.

Vinya asked if she could help with getting breakfast out to people.

Bultir: I’ve got it. I feel responsibility for this.
Vinya: Why?
Bultir: It’s my inn.

Vinya noticed that after a few minutes there were some servers coming in to help Bultir.

We talked a little bit about how to get a start on figuring out what’s up with the people breaking up into 
worms.

Vinya: I’d just go to the guard, because they’ll know what’s happened. But I’m sure Marxine has a better idea and I’m cool with that.

We remembered that we’d heard of an incident at a crematorium where the bodies had objected to being burned.

Marxine: Let’s go talk to the people at the crematorium.
Vinya (to a server): Where are the crematoria in town?
Server: The biggest ones are on Dhur. If you go to Anakim’s Ladder, the Temple of the Last Doorway has the largest crematorium. They’re something of a tourist attraction.

We decided to go there after we finished our breakfast. While we were eating Elama heard a voice in her head and shared it with us.

Elama: I just heard a voice saying to go to the Ladder. It sounded like Bultir, but his mouth wasn’t moving. He also said “Worms are rising.”

We asked the server how to get to Anakim’s Ladder and headed out that way after we finished our breakfast. As we walked we noticed that the other people on the street looked pretty normal -- apparently only the people at Bultir’s slept poorly. We considered going back to talk to him, but decided that we’d wait on that until we’d spoken to the people at the crematorium.

Anakim’s Ladder is a very narrow and steeply sloped road, almost an alley, with temples on either side of it. It’s not much more than two people wide -- so we were proceeding with Aldalomiel and Marxine in the front and Elama and Vinya in the back, with Elderron in the middle of the pack.

Because of the flail of warning, no one in the party was _surprised_ but only Vinya and Elama saw gaunt figures with crawling, seething skin approaching from the alleys making a dim gurgling noise. With the warning from the flail, Aldalomiel looked down a side alley and saw some of them.

Aldalomiel: There’s something nightmare inducing down this alley.

Then she put her hunter’s mark on it and shot it twice.

Vinya: There’s more back here.

Vinya shot two sunbolts at the one she could see down a side alley, then moved between one behind us and Elama and took a defensive stance. Elderron moved to where Vinya had been and fired scorching rays at the one down the side alley. All three of them hit, it’s not hard to hit them, but the damage wasn’t great. Marxine moved to attack the same one that Vinya and Elderron had attacked, throwing hand axes at it.

One of them attacked Vinya, attacking with clawed hands and missing with both. A wormy-leechy thing was flung off it toward her, but she dodged that. Aldalomiel was hit by a claw -- it did both slashing and necrotic damage -- and dodged the worm. Marxine was completely missed by hers and also dodged the worm.

Elama cast sacred flame on the one that attacked Marxine -- it did not manage to save and it clearly didn’t like the radiant energy. Aldalomiel, with one right in front of her, dropped her bow, assumed her starry archer form, and drew her sword. She fired one of her radiant bolts at the one in front of her, hitting it. Vinya, unwilling to touch these things with her bare fists, shot sunbolts at the one right in front of her. Then she did patient defense again. Elderron shot three scorching rays at the one on Marxine -- it writhed and burst into flames and then smoldered with soft pops as the worms burst, but they didn’t burrow into the ground.

Marxine, now free, went down to fight the same one as Vinya, moving into a flanking position and hitting it.

The worm-zombie they were fighting attacked Vinya and missed her, but unfortunately Marxine didn’t dodge the flung worm/leech -- it started latching onto her neck. Ew!

Aldalomiel was hit once by hers but she did dodge the worm.

Elama dropped a spiritual weapon on the one on Aldalomiel, hitting with that, then she went and attacked with her sword, hitting and doing thunder damage in addition to the weapon damage. Aldalomiel missed with her sword, but the radiant arrow bolt did hit. Vinya shot two sunbolts at the one she and Marxine were fighting. It was still there so she summoned her ki energy for two more. The first one dropped it so she fired her last sunbolt at the one on Aldalomiel. Then she watched to see if the worms were burrowing into the ground -- they were not. The radiant energy appeared to have killed the worms. Good.

Elderron shot a firebolt at the one on Aldalomiel, dropping it with flame. Marxine, seeing no more opponents, scraped the nasty worm-leech thing off her neck.

Elderron recognized these things as undead of Orcus called the Spawn of Kyuss. The worms burrow into you and head for your brain, necrotizing parts of your brain. If you die with the worms inside you, you come back as a Spawn yourself. They exist because Orcus willed them into being -- he doesn’t have a direct connection to them as far as controlling their behavior or activities. There might be an Orcus cabal behind them, though.

We continued on our way up the very narrow Ladder.

Elama: This town is a maze of narrow streets. Someone could get lost in here.

We found our way, without getting lost or encountering further nastiness, to the temple of The Last Doorway. The temple was open, the doors wide and welcoming to those who needed them, but empty.

Marxine did her divine sense to see if the place had been desecrated and get a general vibe check. She sensed that something BAD had happened here -- the place has been desecrated indeed.

Oh dear.

We looked all around this floor -- the main hall was in the back with smaller chambers around the halls, private rooms that the grieving could retreat to. The crematoria themselves were doors in the walls of the hall. There were stairs down from the main ritual space. There was no one alive on this floor.

We noticed blood, still not entirely dry, on the floor near the stairs down.

We realized that this must have just happened -- because if it had happened even the day before word would have gotten out about it and the waitress wouldn’t have sent us to an abattoir. We heard about worms and problems at a crematorium two days ago when we were sailing into the lagoon, but this must have been more recent than that.

We headed down the stairs, the warning from the flail sounding in our heads as we went down the five foot wide stairs single file (Marxine, Aldalomiel, Elderron, Elama, Vinya). At the bottom of the stairs was a large room with big columns and some piles of stuff -- wooden crates and barrels, old pews, some plain lumber, etc.

There were also 10 of the Spawn of Kyuss -- shuffling around in the dim light. There were also two more normal looking humanoids -- though they looked a little puffy and squirmy under the skin. The two more normal puffy-looking ones were wearing priestly garb, though it didn’t look quite right, like it wasn’t cut for the bodies they now had. The robes were torn up, stained, defaced, and weren’t the robes of priests of the Last Doorway. We recognized one as from the Hearthkeepers and the other as from the Last Laugh. Some of the Spawn were wearing what we figured were stained and damaged guard uniforms, some were wearing the tattered remains of regular clothes

Aldalomiel pushed past Marxine and very slightly into the room (against the wall just to the left of the stairs). She was still glowing with her starry form, so she took two arrow shots at one of the two puffy people, hitting twice. One of the arrows did a lot of damage and went right through the figure, and greenish worms leaked out of the hole. Her radiant arrow bolt also hit.

Elderron cast fireball on the two puffy people without moving, also getting two of the Spawn in it. One of the puffy people got out of the way. It was clear that the Spawn don’t like fire any more than they like radiant energy. Good.

Vinya used her slippers of spider climb to run on the walls and ceiling and get past the rest of the party. She moved just into the room to the right of the doorway, mirroring Aldalomiel’s position. She fired two sunbolts at the Spawn nearest to her, hitting once, then did patient defense, because she could see a bunch that were going to be heading her direction.

One of the puffy ones moved slightly and shot a coruscating black bolt at Aldalomiel that did nasty necrotizing damage. It then moved into cover behind a pillar. The other one shot a similar bolt at Marxine, missing wildly, and also moved into cover.

Elama came down the stairs and got against the wall next to Vinya. She cast spiritual weapon on the one Vinya shot at, then she cast a sacred flame on it, which it utterly failed to dodge. Marxine stepped out of the stairway into the room and attacked one of the Spawn with her hammer. She hit well and did a lot of damage, but in the next second, she could see the wound healing.

Three of the Spawn attacked and mauled Marxine, who was hit once; she dodged the worms they cast at her. Two hit Elama, flinging worms that Vinya dodged. Elama did her retaliatory lightning strike, which it didn’t dodge.

Aldalomiel cast cure wounds on herself then did a radiant bolt shot at one of the ones on Marxine. Elderron got five of the Spawn, including three of the ones on Marxine, in a fireball. It wasn’t a huge fireball, but none of them saved and the fire damage kept them from regenerating. Vinya, still not wanting to touch these things, fired two sunbolts at the Spawn in front of her, then did a searing arc strike (burning hands) that hit both of the ones on herself and Elama.

The two puffy ones shot black bolts at Elderron -- one missed wildly. The other one hit him.

Elama hit with her spiritual weapon and with her sword. Marxine attacked one of the ones that had been in a fireball, hitting it and getting a critical hit, which she drew divine energy down into. Then she did her action surge. She dropped that one and moved to the next one in line.

One of the Spawn attacked Elama, hitting her but getting dropped by her retaliatory lightning strike, though it needed to take fire or radiant energy damage to keep from regenerating. One attacked Marxine, and she was unable to dodge the worm that it flung. One attacked Vinya, hitting her twice. Only two of the Spawn, which had been way at the far side of the room, were still undamaged at this point.

Aldalomiel shot two arrows at one that had broken away toward her location in the corner of the room. Then she shot it with a radiant bolt.

Elderron found himself in a complicated situation -- he had one heading straight toward him, but it wasn’t quite there yet. He shot a lightning bolt, changing the damage to fire damage, that was able to catch three of them. Vinya fired a sunbolt at the one that was heading toward Elderron and Elama, dropping it. She shot her other sun bolt at the one on her. Then she did a searing arc strike on the one on her, the one that Elama had dropped (that just needed some radiant or fire damage to stay down) and a free-floating one that was heading toward Elderron.

The two puffy ones shot their necrotic bolts at Elderron -- one missed and he was able to use his shield spell to block the other one. Then they both moved toward where Aldalomiel was in the corner -- they had also been moving up from the back of the room slowly.

Elama cast bane on the three surrounding Marxine, affecting all of them, then her spiritual weapon hit the last one on herself and Vinya, dropping it. Then she moved into the corner opposite the one Aldalomiel was in.

Marxine got her second wind and scraped the worm off of her neck before it started burrowing toward her brain.

Unfortunately, the three spawn on her immediately regenerated some of the damage they’d taken and attacked her. She dodged two of the worms but in doing so dodged into another one. One moved up on Vinya, hitting her twice. Vinya was badly hurt at that point, but did dodge the worm. One attacked Aldalomiel -- but it missed her and she missed the worm.

She did find herself with a Spawn right in front of her, so she dropped her bow and drew her sword, hitting twice. Then she shot her radiant bolt at it, hitting. Elderron cast a fireball that caught both of the puffy people and two of the Spawn of Kyuss. The two Spawn burned completely up.

Vinya dropped the Spawn right in front of Elderron with a sunbolt, then shot one that had not yet been touched that had made its way to right in front of her. Then she did patient defense, because she really didn’t want to take another hit.

One of the puffy ones then finally got to Aldalomiel. It stuck an arm down its throat to the elbow and pulled out a writhing handful of greenish worms and tried to hit her with it. Missing twice. The other one did the same with Marxine and also missed twice.

Gah!!

Elama’s spiritual weapon hit the one on Vinya very solidly. Then she cast a big guiding bolt on the puffy guy on Aldalomiel, blowing it away with the radiant energy (to which they are apparently vulnerable). Elama raised her sword in triumph, then ducked behind a pillar into cover.

Marxine hit the puffy guy in front of her, then hit it a second time, doing a divine smite that dropped it. The worms came out of it, but with the radiant energy dancing over them they just evaporated.

One of the remaining Spawn attacked Marxine, missing with its attack, but she did catch another worm from it. The one on Vinya missed her and she dodged the worm.

Aldalomiel hit the Spawn in front of her twice with her sword and then fired a radiant bolt at it. The radiant bolt dropped it. Elderron cast scorching ray, sending one bolt to the Spawn on Vinya and two to the Spawn on Marxine. Vinya missed twice with sunbolts, then did patient defense. Elama cast healing word on Vinya, bringing her back from the brink, then she cast sacred flame on the one on Vinya, but it saved against it. Marxine attacked the one in front of her, hitting once, though she took damage from the worms penetrating her body and heading toward her brain.

The Spawn attacked Marxine -- again it missed but she didn’t dodge the worm it flung at her. So she now had three worms. Egads. Vinya was hit by the Spawn on her -- but she wasn’t dropped. Not quite.

Aldalomiel cast a guiding bolt on the one on Vinya then fired her radiant bolt at the one on Marxine. Elderron did a magic missile, modified to do radiant damage, at the one on Vinya. Vinya finally dropped it with her first sunbolt. She fired the second sunbolt at Marxine’s. Elama moved her spiritual weapon to Marxine’s and hit it - but it saved against the sacred flame. Fortunately, Marxine was able to drop it, after taking more damage from the worms.

Elama immediately cast lesser restoration on Marxine to heal all the worms before they could kill her and cause her to come back as a Spawn of Kyuss.

We glanced around the room and saw no other exits.

And there we ended.


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## prabe (Mar 17, 2021)

Session 35: Deputized and Doing Research

Dramatis Personae:
Aldalómiel - Wood Elf Ranger (Hunter Conclave)/Druid
Elama “Lamie” Galanodel- Wood Elf Cleric (Tempest)
Vinya Anar - Wood Elf Monk (Way of the Sun Soul)
Elderon - High Elf Wizard (Loremaster)
Marxine - Mountain Dwarf Fighter (Champion)/Paladin

GM - Everyone Else

(Note: This session was held on Discord.)


10 Bluzzimin 749 (Campaign day 161)(immediately after)

After the last of the Sons of Kyuss dropped, we searched the room in the basement of the temple of the Last Doorway. Toward the far end of the room, where the two puffy worm guys had been when we arrived, we saw an incomplete summoning circle made of blood, viscera, and grey matter. We also saw a couple of corpses, one wearing the robes of a priest of the Last Doorway, that had been partially torn apart and turned into the foul raw materials for that summoning circle. (The other partially disassembled corpse was wearing ordinary street clothes.)

Elderron looked at the circle and realized that the puffy worm guys were attempting to summon Orcus himself.

We looked back over at the remains of the puffy guys -- with the worms destroyed by the radiant and fire damage they’d taken, what was left was a skeleton inside (basically) a skin sack. With the worms killed, there was nothing like muscle or meat or inside-stuff between the bones and the skin.

The temple was completely empty and obviously desecrated -- the circle to summon Orcus being a large part of the desecration. Also the puffy guys appear to have an inherent ability to unhallow places.

Elama did a sending to our innkeeper Bultir asking if he knew of anything else that might be going on.

Bultir (through the sending): I knew the worms were rising and where, and that they were a threat to Erkonin. Further information I do not have. Sincerest apologies.

After making sure that the temple was clear, we left, talking about where we should go and what we should do next. As we walked out of the temple, there was a group of guards arriving at the temple. They were being led by a dragonborn woman in a breastplate. She introduced herself as Sgt. Khalixi.

We explained that we’d heard about problems with corpses breaking into worms and something happening at one of the crematoria when we were sailing into the, so we came to the Last Doorway looking to talk to people about that incident and found the temple empty and desecrated -- and wormy undead in the basement.

We led her down to the basement, Aldalomiel keeping some distance from the dragonborn, while we showed her the remains of the Spawn of Kyuss and the puffy worm people -- including that one of the puffy people had been wearing the robes of the Hearthkeepers and the other was wearing tattered robes from the Last Laugh. Elderron showed her the summoning circle and pointed out the elements that made it clear it was a circle to summon Orcus.

Marxine: When we first arrived, I could sense that something had desecrated the temple. Then we came downstairs and found all of this.

While we were talking to her, we mentioned that we’d come to Dhaqi because we’d heard that there was some trouble with cabals and that the city wasn’t as peaceful as usual.

We went back upstairs.

Khalixi: I’d like to take you back to the guard house so you can explain what you fought and why you were in the temple.

We agreed to that.

Khalixi (to Aldalomiel): It’s clear that you are uncomfortable with my presence. Have I given offense?
Aldalomiel: It is not you. I have a history with one of your kind.
Khalixi: Would you prefer my corporal accompany you?
Aldalomiel: I need to work through these issues. It is fine.

Khalixi then gestured the gnome, her corporal, over and gave him some instructions about checking the neighboring temples.

She then started leading us on a walk through Dhur. During the 10 minute walk Vinya spoke to her.

Vinya: We’re concerned about other temples with crematoria.
Khalixi: My corporal is checking them out and will report.
Vinya: Good. Good.

We arrived at the guard house after about a 10 minute walk and were taken to a nice and quiet anteroom. Khalixi pointed us to a table with tea and other beverages and to a wash room in the back.

Khalixi: Please feel free to refresh yourselves and wash up. Someone will be back for you shortly but you will have time to get your breath back.

Vinya washed her face and hands and got a cup of tea.

After a few minutes, Khalixi came back with a large, heavily built albino man with what we would think of as African features.

Khalixi: This is Lieutenant Linnolim.
Linnolim: Good morning. My sergeant tells me that we owe you thanks and that you have information we need. Please come with me.

We followed him into his office -- it was clear that extra chairs had been brought in for us, including one that was distinctly dwarven-sized for Marxine.

Linnolim: So you found some Spawn of Kyuss around and under the temple of the Last Doorway.
Vinya: Yes, those. Also some others.
Elderron: Puffy-looking humanoids. Undead. With worms inside. They reached into their throats and pulled out handfuls of worms and tried to hit Aldalomiel.
Linnolim: Oh. You found a couple of Suffragans. Some people who are killed by the Spawn come back as Suffragans. Others come back as Spawn. I have come across both in my younger adventuring days. You used light on the Suffragans, yes?
Vinya: Yes.
Linnolim, to Marxine: My sergeant said that you could feel something was wrong there. Unholy. That is a gift that I’m well familiar with.
Marxine: I’m worried about the other priests and people who should have been there?
Linnolim: We believe that there was one priest and perhaps one other person there. Fortunately, it was early in the morning so they wouldn’t have been busy. The parsonage for the Last Doorway is a couple of blocks a way -- the off-duty priests would have been at the parsonage and not at the temple.
Vinya: We’re also worried about the other temples. The suffragans were wearing robes from the Last Laugh and the Hearthkeepers. So something bad must have happened in those temples as well.
Linnolim: Sgt. Khalixi had her corporal check that out.
Vinya: We arrived in Dhaqi yesterday morning. While we were approaching the city, we heard from some of the outgoing ships that some undead had attacked and then broken into worms. We came to Dhaqi because we heard about things being less peaceful here than they had been.
Linnolim: That is true. Where were you before?
Vinya: New Arvai.

Elama got the sense that Linnolim was sincere and dedicated to protecting the people of this izirate, Dhur (and more broadly Dhaqi). The community is his priority. He was very curious and trying to determine how far he could trust us and if he could turn to us to help him.

Elama gave Vinya a nod and Vinya then explained about Rajalmin and that we were trying to find and stop him. We’d gotten concerned about Rajalmin being active in Dhaqi, because he’d been active here in the past. And because one member of the party that had stopped him was from Dhaqi and he seemed to hold grudges. We mentioned that we’d used a dragon page to make an inquiry about how things were in Dhaqi, sent to a colleague of the captain of the Ocean’s Blessing. We’d been told that there was unrest in the city and some trouble with cabals and fiendish business.

Linnolim: I believe that you might find information about this at the Well of Screams. It’s not as bad as it sounds. During the Fiend Wars it was a portal to both the Abyss and the Hells. Now it is a library.
Aldalomiel: It’s a weird place for a library.
Linnolim: It holds the seal in place and anyone chanting will stand out. Also it is mostly only open to members. Here is how I think we can help each other. I can get you temporary guard badges. I can also give you a letter of introduction to the Well of Screams. You can talk to the people there. (To Elderron) Perhaps you can do some research. The people there will probably be helpful as far as providing information.

He pulled some folding wallets out of his desk. He opened one and showed us the bronze badge inside.

Linnolim: If these badges are out of this building for more than 36 hours, they’ll corrode and turn green. People will know that they have expired, so to speak. I suggest that you come in every morning and let me know what you’ve done the previous day and what you’re planning. That way I’ll stay abreast of what’s going on. And if you don’t check in, I’ll know where to look for you.
Marxine: That all sounds reasonable.
Vinya: Have you heard about other cabal problems in the city?
Linnolim: Not on Dhur. Maybe in the other izirates, though. The badges are technically city-wide, but they won’t have much pull outside of Dhur.
Marxine: I trust you, so far, but not everyone is so responsible in a position of power. Is there anyone we should avoid or seek out?
Linnolim: I believe that our Izir would have a better sense of what’s going on in the city overall, She has far better connections with other Izirs and other parts of the city. She is a far more political being than I am. I could arrange a meeting for you. That may take a few days. Where did you say you were staying?
Vinya: Bultir’s.
Linnolim: Ah, the Society of Guests. Bultir is a good guy. Pity about his leg.

He then handed each of us a wallet with a badge inside.

Elama: I can pull it out and say ‘I’m Elama. FBI.’
Linnolim: You could do that.

We asked if he had any place he could recommend that we go to check out or people to talk to other than the Well of Screams.

Linnolim: In Kalam there is the Truthteller’s Downfall. If anywhere has information others don’t want spread, it is there. Also Feloz. The entire izirate. Except for the Hall of Whispered Blades, that is not a place that has information you need.
Vinya: What do they do there?
Linnolim: People there practice using words to kill.

He then wrote us a letter of introduction to the Well of Screams. He let us read it before we left -- it asked them to talk to us and then make a decision about whether we should be allowed access to the library.

Vinya: Can we hang out in that room for a while and rest before we head out into the city again?
Linnolim: Certainly. Clean up. Rest. Enjoy the tea.

After a short rest, we headed to the Well of Screams, after deciding that talking to Bultir about how he knew things were going on in the Ladder could wait until we were back in the inn.

At the Well of Screams we were greeted by a gnome at the door. We explained that we were looking for information about rakshasa in general and Rajalmin in specific, and then handed her the letter from Lt. Linnolim.

The gnome went and came back with an albino woman, also with African features like Lt. Linnolim. She had a wad of burn scars on her face and arms. She looked over the letter.

Woman: I see my brother sent you to me. I am Jorcha Linnolim. Come in. I have heard of Rajalmin.

She invited us into the library and led us to a quiet room where we could speak.

Jorcha: When Rajalmin was working in Dhaqi before, creating smaller portals around the city that collectively formed a pattern that was a larger gate. Here, in fact. He was trying to re-open the gate under the Well of Screams.
Vinya: Could he have anything to do with the Orcus cabal and the Spawn of Kyuss?
Jorcha: I find the idea of Rajalmin working with demon cabalists is very unlikely, because demons and devils do not get along at all.
Vinya: I was concerned about that as well. It just seemed weird for him to be involved in a cabal that was summoning demons.
Marxine: We want to follow through with this demon problem here in Dhaqi, as well as staying on the trail of Rajalmin.
Jorcha: Well, certainly the Suffragans and Spawn of Kyuss indicate that something related to Orcus is going on. That’s not a good thing. It would be worth finding out if crematoria in other izirates have had a similar problem. It seems as though there might be something there.
Vinya: In New Arvai we couldn’t figure out how to encounter cabals or cultists. All we had was the sense that people who turn to making deals with fiends are often desperate, or feel they are. Where would be the best places to find people who would fit that description here?
Jorcha: Well, Alhim and Oldest Dhaqi are the more down-at-the-heels part of town. Maybe people are more desperate there.
Vinya: Is there an izirate that might appeal to an entity with hedonism on his top two list?
Jorcha: Alhim, perhaps. That is the izirate where vices are most given in to. It has the weakest vice laws.
Vinya: You mentioned that there are crematoria in other izirates. How might we find those?
Jorcha: Every izirate has at least one crematorium. In Alhim and Oldest Dhaqi there are public crematoria for those who can’t pay even the modest rates at the Last Doorway. Every izirate has civil or secular ones, for those who don’t feel a need for a religious gloss on the disposal of their remains. There is a private crematory in the Dojh, the Kul-Izir’s residence and the seat of government, but that is strictly for the Kul-Izir and others in her family. That is probably not going to be of interest to you.
Vinya: Not now, in any case.
Jorcha: Bakar has a lot of old/abandoned temples from before the Severance. The neighborhood is called Broken God Lane. Most of the temples are now used for other things, mostly not religious activities, but there might be some religious energy, and that can sometimes linger and go weird.
Vinya: Can you give us a map or something -- showing where the circles Rajalmin created were when he was active here 200 years ago?

Jorcha went to a shelf and pulled out some maps, one for each izirate.

Jorcha: No. I do not want to start to create the sigil that he was creating, even on paper. I do have a map of each izirate and will write down for you a description of where they were.
Vinya: That makes sense.
Jorcha: There were two in each izirate except Kalam.
Vinya: Why not there?
Jorcha: At that time, Kalam was still under construction. One of the ones in Dhur was at the Well of Screams and it was aiming the gate in the Well at the Hells, not the Abyss.
Vinya: Are there books here that might be useful for our research people?
Jorcha: Of course. I am happy to assist whoever would like to be here with research.

Elderron stayed to be Team Research in the library.

He found a good deal of information about Rajalmin specifically. He’s a good deal more scary than the average Rakshasa as far as being vengeful and unpleasant, and being somewhat more powerful than the norm. He found that Rajalmin has only a few, like five, plans that he’s done. He repurposes plans, or recasts the basic idea into new forms, He hasn’t done any of the ones that are known and showing up in the library’s materials about him less than twice. (For example: He used shape-shifters in Kiranamakir 200 years ago, creating discord and dramatically increasing the number of duels. And the duellists didn’t follow the normal “rules” -- so people were hurt and the professional class of duellists were substantially reduced. The details were different but the general idea of using shape-shifters to copy people and break down a social fabric was re-used in Torm Brinnom.)

DM’s NOTE: It turns out there are seven tactics that Rajalmin has used repeatedly, in varied combinations:

Using shapeshifters to sow social discord.
Running one or more cabals
Opening one or more gates to the Hells.
Pitting potential opponents and law enforcement against each other.
Blackmailing people in positions of power.
Impersonating one or more authority figures.
Defaming organizations that might interfere.

Team Walking Around decided to head toward Oldest Dhaqi, to go to the secular crematory there (as it is the largest one in the city) by way of Broken God Lane in Bakar, because Vinya really wanted to see that.

Bakar is the most opulent part of Dhaqi -- the buildings openly display some luxury and glamorous touches, though it’s still pretty restrained. In Broken God Lane we could see that the pre-Severance temples were mostly still in pretty good shape -- at least the architecture was still there. Though the things that were specific to individual gods have been removed or altered.

We did see a big temple near the Dojh. The building was clearly one of the ancient temples, but it had been turned into a temple of the Enthroned because it was the temple closest to the Dojh. The temple statues had been modified to suit the iconography of the Enthroned.

We decided to go in and talk to them a little bit. We were greeted by one of the priests. Vinya asked about the new teachings of the Enthroned in New Arvai. The priest said that those teachings sounded interesting, but didn’t seem as necessary in Dhaqi because the powerful had a different sort of relationship to those with less power, and less of an inclination to self-indulgence.

Marxine asked about undead. We could see that the priest was upset by that -- her teeth were clenched and she seemed completely scandalized by the idea of undead.

Marxine: Have you heard about anything like that elsewhere in the city?
Priestess: Not in Bakar. Or in any of the other izirates with Enthroned temples. Or at least the word hasn’t gotten to other Enthroned temples. It’s extremely disturbing that this could happen in the temple of The Last Doorway -- they have extensive wards to protect against undead, as I’m sure you can imagine.
Vinya: Do you know what god this temple was dedicated to before the Severance?
Priestess: Marduk, the city’s patron. Many of the temples on Broken God Lane were to Marduk -- though other, less majestic aspects of him. I know there’s at least one to him in his role as god of water and agriculture. One for him in his role as god of judges. There are undoubtedly others to gods related to him.
Marxine: Do you know about Orcus?
Priestess: People who deal with demons seem completely deranged. People who want to be undead are deranged. People who deal with a demon whose main promise is undeath...I’m not sure if that’s deranged times two or deranged squared.

We agreed with that, then thanked her and took our leave.

We walked along Broken God Lane. Vinya was looking for any Elven architecture among the ancient temples. Marxine, who was much more focused and on point, was looking for former gods that might have had anything to do with death, Perhaps funerary gods or gods particularly in opposition to undeath.

We didn’t see anything that fit either of those. So we got to The Shining Avenue in Oldest Dhaqi, where we’d been told there was a large public crematorium. There were also cafes and restaurants. The cafes had people brewing coffee over the hot sand (as they do it in Turkey and other places).

We went to the large public/secular crematorium and were met by a couple of civil servants.

Civil Servant: Hello. Forgive me but none of you people look dead.
Marxine: For better or worse. We did run into problems with undead in this town.
Civil Servant: Ack! That sounds bad and unfortunate! You killed them, right?
Marxine: Yeah. Have you heard of anything like that here?
Civil Servant: No.
Vinya: We heard about something a couple of days ago -- about corpses objecting to being burned at one of the crematoria. That was a separate incident from the one we dealt with this morning.

The two of them looked at each other, then one spoke.

Civil Servant 2: Perhaps Alhim? The Street of Shades. The crematory there is troubled.
Vinya (flashing her badge): If you hear of problems, please contact the guard in Dhur. We’re working with them.

We decided to go collect Elderron at the library before heading to the Street of Shades.

And there we ended.


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## prabe (Mar 24, 2021)

Session 36: More Undead. Lots More. So Many.

Dramatis Personae:
Aldalómiel - Wood Elf Ranger (Hunter Conclave)/Druid
Elama “Lamie” Galanodel- Wood Elf Cleric (Tempest)
Vinya Anar - Wood Elf Monk (Way of the Sun Soul)
Elderon - High Elf Wizard (Loremaster)
Marxine - Mountain Dwarf Fighter (Champion)/Paladin

GM - Everyone Else

(Note: This session was held on Discord.)


10 Bluzzimin 749 (Campaign day 161)(immediately after)

After talking to the people at the public crematory in Oldest Dhaqi, we went to the Well of Screams to collect Elderron.

Marxine: We have a lead on something.
Elderron: Let’s go.

We then headed toward Alhim and the Street of Shades. It was getting toward dinnertime and dusk was well advanced. There was some light still on the tops of the buildings, but down at the level of Alhim’s twisty narrow streets it was all shadows. Along the way, Aldalomiel took on her starry chalice form and healed Vinya some, because she was still in pretty rough shape after fighting the wormy guys in the Last Doorway temple.

Vinya cast detect evil and good from the rod of alertness, since we were looking for undead.

Well before we got to the Street of Shades, we heard screaming ahead of us. We saw angry-looking incorporeal humanoids, some of which were partially in the walls or passing through them, menacing some civilians on the street. These were not at all similar to the Sons of Kyuss, which are disgustingly corporeal.

Aldalomiel changed her starry form to her archer form, then she shot two arrows and the radiant bolt at the nearest one to us. Vinya, still not in great shape despite Aldalomiel’s very welcome healing while walking, planted the Rod of Alertness in the ground (giving all of us an advantage to AC and saves), moved into the road (to clear the way for people to move into the intersection) and did patient defense.

The spectres on one side (to the right of the picture) attacked the civilians they were menacing. One of them actually missed but the other civilians were instantly killed.

Marxine moved between the one surviving civilian on that side and the spectre menacing it. She attacked the menacing spectre and got a critical hit, which dropped it. She then moved to the next nearest and and attacked. She spared a glance for the dropped civilian up in that corner and saw that it was really absolutely dead, not merely dropped.

The spectres on the other side attacked and killed the civilians they could reach, dropping all of them. From further away down both the right and left sides of the little block we could hear more screaming.

Elama went the other direction from Marxine (who went to the right of the picture) and attacked one with her sword, doing thunder damage as well as the sword damage.

The one surviving civilian ran past Marxine and Vinya and down the hallway to near Aldalomiel.

Elderron moved to the corner of the alley and shot a firebolt at the same one Elama attacked, then he moved back into the alley in a position protecting the fleeing civilian. Aldalomiel moved to the doorway across from our alley, next to Elama, and shot the spectre Elama hit with her radiant bolt, dropping it. Then she moved around the corner toward where there were two more spectres. She shot one of them twice and dropped it. Vinya dropped the one Marxine hit then fired a sunbolt at one down in the corner of the alley. It hit, but the spectre wasn’t dropped. She thought about summoning her ki for some more sunbolts, but the civilian it was menacing was already dead and so she saved her energy.

A spectre came out of the wall and attacked Vinya and another one came up out the alley and attacked Marxine. Both missed. We could still hear screams coming from both directions.

Marxine attacked the one that attacked her, hitting it twice but not dropping it. Dang it.

Vinya: It’s because they’re incorporeal. It throws off the balance of the swing. And the rhythm.

Two came out of the walls near Aldalomiel -- one of them hit her. She took some damage but didn’t suffer the life-drain. One came out of the wall and took a swing at her in passing, then went into the central building in the middle of the block.

Elama, seeing that, kicked the door of the building open so hard that it flew off its hinges, then ran to the spectre inside and attacked. And missed.

The surviving civilian fled down the alley the way we’d come in through and got away to safety.

Elderron stepped to the corner of the alley again and saw two of the spectres, one to his left and one to his right. He firebolted the one he could see on Vinya and Marxine and dropped it, despite the fact that it didn’t take as much damage from the fire as he would have expected. Aldalomiel cast thunderwave, with a cracking blast of thunder, on the one in front of her, then she shot it with a radiant bolt, but it was still standing.

Vinya dropped the one left on her and Marxine with a couple of punches, then she ran down to the corner that led off to the right of the picture above, sparing a glance down the cross alley. As she ran, she yelled to Elderron.

Vinya: Elderron, please grab my rod before you go!

She didn’t see anything interesting in the cross alley but around the corner she saw another spectre.

Vinya: Hey! There’s another down here.

It moved up and attacked her, fortunately missing.

Marxine moved up and dropped it with two big hits. She stopped and listened and didn’t hear screaming in this direction any more. Good.

Spectres attacked Elama and Aldalomiel but missed.

Lamie attacked the one in the building and missed it. Elderron grabbed the rod of alertness then went into the doorway Elama had kicked open. He saw her fighting an injured spectre so he threw a firebolt at it, which dropped it despite the resistance to fire damage. Then he moved to the corner where he could see Aldalomiel.

Aldalomiel cast zephyr strike and moved to the corner to look down the road, then she shot an arrow at the one that came out of the wall at her, dropping it. She doesn’t hear screaming down this alley either. Then she headed along the cross alley. Vinya examined the body next to her and listened for screams. She ascertained that the body wasn’t going to rise as undead -- she had a bit of a recollection that she spectres don’t do that.

Vinya: We should head to the crematory. This bodes, and not well.

She’d barely finished getting the words out when one came out of the wall to attack Marxine, missing her. She attacked it and got a hit but didn’t drop it.

Aldalomiel turned back and saw one go past the end of the alley toward where she knew Elderron was. Two more came out of the wall at him and attacked. He cast shield to block the hits and was fine.

Elama: Elderron, I’ll save you!

Elama went out of the central building and cast a high-level shatter, putting all of her tempest energy into the spell, to catch the three on Elderron. In order not to also hit him, she did some damage to the buildings nearby -- all the windows shattered, adding to the huge noise from the spell, and there was a fall of dust. When the dust settled, the spectres were all still there.

Elama: Crap, they’re still here.
Elderron: I have dust in my eye.

Elderron then disengaged from the three spectres and ran backwards away from them. Aldalomel went back down the cross-alley and, when she go to the entrance to the alley, she shot one arrow each on two of them and fired a radiant bolt at the third one. She dropped two of them.

Vinya dropped the one on Marxine with a radiant bolt, then ran up the alley and across, past Elderron, and dropped the one that was still standing.

Vinya: We also serve who pick off the badly wounded.

We knocked on the doors around the area -- we found some people hiding in the buildings. We also, sadly, found some corpses both in the buildings and in the streets. We followed the “line” of bodies back from this fight toward the crematory we’d heard was troubled.

To our surprise, the bodies weren’t radiating or spreading out from the crematory. The crematory wasn’t even the end of the “line” of bodies we’d been following, it continued on beyond it. We continued to follow the trail of dead breadcrumbs past the crematorium and shortly found ourselves in the Abandoned Warehouse district. We were moving semi-sneakily along --stealth-ish.

Elama: Why didn’t we just come here in the first place?

We eventually got to where we could see a building with a lot of spectres and wraiths. Really a lot of them. We counted 21 spectres, to the extent we could individually identify them, and five wraiths, floating in and out of the walls of the building.

We backed away from the building to decide on a course of action. We decided that the area needed to be evacuated and sealed off and we needed help dealing with this situation, even though Elama thought she had a chance of being able to destroy them when she channeled divine energy.

We checked the map of Alhim we’d gotten from Jorcha Linnolim in the Well of Screams to find the nearest guard house. Vinya, as the fastest runner, ran to the precinct house, leaving the rest of the party to keep an eye on the situation.

Vinya, at the guard house: My friends and I here looking into a possible undead problem. We’re working with Lt. Linnolim in Dhur [flash badge]. There’s a big spectre problem in an abandoned warehouse. Like 20 of them. Would you like to have someone come look?
Sergeant: Yeah. Hey, Corporal, why don’t you go check this out?

A large dragonborn, Azzaorhan, stepped forward and walked with Vinya back toward the warehouse. When we got close, we started moving up stealthily, so as not to draw them all in our direction. He spotted the spectres going in and out of the walls and his eyes went wide. They went back and away from the building.

Vinya: We counted at least 20 of the spectres and maybe 5 wraiths.

We then headed back to the guard precinct.

Azzaorhan: Yeah, it’s a problem. A big problem.
Sergeant: What do you want?
Vinya: Priests with adventuring experience to help clear the building. And you need to clear the area -- evacuating people in a several block area and creating a perimeter.
Sergeant: We can make a perimeter and keep people safe. I’m not so sure about the clerics. Would you like a place to rest for the night?
Vinya: Oh, gods, yes!
Sergeant: We can do that.

Vinya went back to find the party and get them the message that we had a place to stay the night. We waited until the perimeter was set then went to the barracks. The guard had set aside an area for us with beds and a washroom for our use.

Vinya, to Sergeant: Have you had any luck lining up clerics?
Sergeant: No, ma’am.

Elderron thought about it for a bit and while we were getting ready to rest told us that spectres and wraiths are sensitive to sunlight. When we go back to fight them in the morning, we can break in the roof of the abandoned warehouse to let the sunshine in. That should help us control the battlefield a bit. Safely ensconced in the guard house, the night passed without incident.


11 Bluzzimin 749 (Campaign day 162)(immediately after)

First thing in the morning we checked in with the Sergeant before doing anything else. He confirmed that nothing bad, or worse, happened overnight

Vinya: We need to go check in with Lt. Linnolim in Dhur. Can you keep up the perimeter?
Sergeant: Yes. No problem.

Once at the guardhouse in Dhur, we talked to Linnolim. We explained what we’d found in Alhim and what we were planning to do.

Vinya: Any word from the Hearthkeepers and the Last Laugh? Did they have any problems?
Linnolim: No.
Vinya: Really??
Marxine: Huh!
Linnolim: Yeah. It’s not what I would have expected either.
Vinya: Can they check with their their temples in other izirates?
Linnolim: We’ve asked them to do so.
Vinya: We may stop back by later today after we’ve dealt with this situation in Alhim.

We then left and headed back to Alhim and the warehouse. We were stopped by a cluster of guards a few blocks from the warehouse. We showed them our badges and they waved us through.

We stopped a bit away from the warehouse and looked at the situation in order to come up with a plan of attack. Elderron sent Oda flying around to look at the situation -- the roof of the building was completely intact and the windows were boarded over. There was a large door for loading wagons and a couple of smaller, humanoid-sized doors. We developed a plan of attack for our first round involving a shatter spell and the rod of alertness and a storm sphere.

(Note: Since the plan pretty much worked perfectly (bizarrely), I’m not going to describe it here.)

We decided to enter through the human-sized door that was most in the shadows, so that creating a hole in the roof at a distance would let in more sun. We snuck up to the doorway with a pass without trace spell up.

Elderron picked the lock so quickly and efficiently we were all amazed at his heretofore unknown skill.

Once we opened the door, all the sunlight-averse monsters inside were aware of us, and we headed in.

There was a chest-height L-shaped wall right in front of us (about 4 feet tall) and 19 spectres and 5 wraiths in the room. Off in the corner there was something on the floor (the red circle), but we couldn’t get any impression of what was going on over there as it was all just marks on the floor.

Elderron started things off with a storm sphere that covered a large section of the room, catching two wraiths and some of the spectres closest to us, while still leaving us room to get past. Then he shot a lightning bolt at the closest wraith to us, doing it radiant damage.

Elama moved into the room, along the wall and cast shatter on the roof over some of the spectres. A section of the roof collapsed, creating a circle of sunlight on the floor. Marxine dashed through the storm sphere and attacked a wraith that was inside the storm from outside it. She used her action surge and with a couple of hits and a crit (on which she did a divine smite) she dropped it.

Vinya jumped over the wall and used her ki to step of the wind to get to a good point to plant the rod of alertness to give herself and Marxine a bonus to AC and saves, and light up that side of the room.

These area effects were all distinct and not overlapping and made three different parts of the room differently unpleasant for the undead.

Aldalomiel moved and dashed to get close (but not into) the circle of daylight, then she took on her starry archer form and fired a radiant bolt and one of the wraiths.

Then all of the spectres and wraiths went. All of them. Elama wound out surrounded by four of them. One of them hit her and faced a retaliatory thunder strike that pushed it away a few feet. Three of them attacked Aldalomiel - two of those missed, but one got a crit. Another group of spectres clustered around Vinya and Marxine -- all of them missed everyone. The final group of spectres moved, several of them clustering around Aldalomiel, who got hit once. One went to Vinya. Two were heading in Elderron’s direction, but were stuck in the storm sphere.

Elderron cast misty step, then moved and dashed and made his way into the circle of sunlight. Elama took some opportunity attacks to move into a good position near Adalomiel to turn as many of the undead as she possibly could.

Which turned out to be like 10 spectres. Unfortunately, the wraiths all saved.

Then she cast spiritual weapon and attacked one of the spectres near Vinya.

Marxine took a couple of opportunity attacks to get up to one of the wraiths and attacked it, hitting twice, but unfortunately that didn’t drop it. Vinya dropped a spectre with a couple of punches then, seeing that she was well and truly surrounded, decided to spend her ki-energy on patient defense. Aldalomiel cast Zephyr strike and moved into the middle of the daylight circle, then she fired an arrow at one of the wraiths, hitting very nicely.

After spending a bit of time moving up on us, the wraiths finally attacked. Two of them attacked Marxine -- one hit her but she managed to avoid the life-drain. Vinya and Elama were both missed. The spectres on Vinya and Marxine missed for the most part (Vinya got hit once). Elderron, who was at the very edge of the circle of daylight, found himself facing three spectres lined up along the edge of the bright sunlight attacking him. He would have been hit, but he used a shield spell.

Elderron then moved a bit more deeply into the sunlight, risking some opportunity attacks while his shield spell was still active. (It was a good risk -- they all missed.) Then he cast a lightning bolt that caught three of the spectres and two of the wraiths, changing the damage to radiant and the save to strength. The three spectres all died, but the wraiths were still standing. Then he moved back into the sunlight and pulled a lightning bolt out of the storm sphere and shot the wraith on Elama. It hit, but didn’t drop, the wraith. Elama’s spiritual weapon attacked one of the ones on Vinya, hitting it solidly, then she cast spiritual guardians. Marxine attacked, but didn’t drop, the more damaged of her two wraiths. Vinya punched the wraith on her, hitting once, then did patient defense, since she was still well surrounded. Aldalomiel cast guiding bolt on one of the wraiths on Marxine, missing, and fired a radiant bolt at the wraith on Vinya. That also missed.

The wraith on Elama got beaten up, but not dropped, by the spiritual guardians, then it missed her with its attack. The wraith on Vinya missed her because of the patient defense. Marxine got hit, but again saved against the life-drain. The spectres attacked Vinya and missed.

Marxine got hit by a spectre and she failed to save against the life-drain, but fortunately the HP loss wasn’t too bad. The three spectres that Elderron had run away from moved to Elama, running into the spiritual guardians.

Elderron shot a radiant lightning bolt at the line of spectres and wraiths on the other side of vinya, dropping a couple of spectres, then he moved back into the light and called a lightning bolt out of the storm sphere that hit the wraith on Elama. Elama then dropped one of the spectres on Vinya with her spiritual weapon. Her attack on the wraith on herself hit, but didn’t drop it. Marxine got her second wind then attacked the most beaten up looking wraith on her, dropping it.

Thanks to Elderron’s efforts, Vinya had one remaining spectre on her. She dropped it with some punches, then she went to help Marxine, hitting one of her opponents with the second punch of her flurry of blows. Aldalomiel missed with a guiding bolt on Marxine’s wraith, but then dropped Lamie’s wraith with a radiant bolt.

The wraith on Marxine turned its attention to Vinya, but missed. Two of the spectres on Lamie dropped to the spiritual guardians, but one hit her and drained some of her life. The two spectres on Marxine both missed.

(Note: At this point in the session it was after 11:30 and your deponent was falling asleep. The notes hereafter are utter gibberish.)

Elderron cast lightning bolt on two of the spectres. Elama did illegible things. Marxine dropped something.

And all of them were gone.

We looked around a bit -- checking out the circle drawn on the ground. There were five rapidly decaying bodies on the ground around the circle. It looked as though the circle was part of a ritual that drew the power of Orcus and caused the people to become wraiths.

Marxine used the hammer of unmaking to smash up the circle.

Since it was nigh midnight in the real world, we saved searching the place for next session. And there we ended.


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## prabe (Mar 31, 2021)

Session 37: Library Research and Dinner With the Izir

Dramatis Personae:
Aldalómiel - Wood Elf Ranger (Hunter Conclave)/Druid
Elama “Lamie” Galanodel- Wood Elf Cleric (Tempest)
Vinya Anar - Wood Elf Monk (Way of the Sun Soul)
Elderon - High Elf Wizard (Loremaster)
Marxine - Mountain Dwarf Fighter (Champion)/Paladin

GM - Everyone Else

(Note: This session was held on Discord.)


11 Bluzzimin 749 (Campaign day 162)(immediately after)

Immediately after the huge fight with All The Spectres, we started searching the abandoned warehouse. Other than the broken summoning circle, with five bodies around it, there’s nothing here. The circle was similar to but not the same as the one in the basement of the Last Doorway. This circle seemed to be trying to summon some of the power of Orcus, to get the power to do something -- that power involved being turned into undead (whether the people using that knew it or not). The one in the Last Doorway was to summon Orcus himself, or at least a powerful avatar.

We went to the guard house. On the way, we talked about the fact that there were bound to be lots of dead people around -- those spectres left bodies behind.

At the guard house we found the same sergeant on duty.

Sergeant: You survived.
Vinya: Yes. There are five bodies in the warehouse. When you find out who they are, we’d love to know. They were doing a ritual that involved Orcus.
Sergeant: Oh. We’ll contact some artists to make sketches or molds of their faces so we can ask around and find out who they were.
Vinya: There are also going to be a lot of bodies around - there were approximately twenty spectres that have left bodies behind somewhere. They were just victims.
Sergeant: It might be easier to get the victims identified, once we find them. Families might be a bit reluctant to identify a family member who tried to call upon the power of Orcus.
Vinya: Maybe don’t lead with that -- you know, get the identification then give that information.
Sergeant: Yeah. We won’t. I’ll get my people working on making the death masks, finding the bodies, and getting people identified.

We told him we’d swing back at some point to see what they’d found. We also suggested that if they found anything urgent to get a message to the guards in Dhur.

We headed back to our inn, Bultir’s. We all wanted to talk to Bultir because he’d communicated with Elama (in her brain directly) about the worms rising in Anakim’s Ladder. When we got to the inn, Bultir greeted us effusively.

Bultir: I am so relieved to see you alive and back here.
Vinya: I’m sorry -- we wound out staying in a guard house in Alhim last night.
Bultir: I was concerned when you went to face the worms and didn’t return.

Vinya turned to look at Elama pointedly.

Elama: Huh?
Vinya: [nudged Elama toward Bultir]
Elama: Oh! You sent me that message.
Bultir: Alas, all I knew was in my dreams. Unfortunately, the whole inn shared them.
Elama: Pity. We are out of leads.
Bultir: I am sorry. In my dreams the worms were rising and that is all I know.

Vinya and Elama got a sense that he was holding something back about himself.

Marxine: What’s up with that? How do your dreams affect others.
Bultir, in her mind directly: The same way I do this. But sometimes when I dream I can’t control it.

Elama got a sense of great age or old memories about Bultir -- but he looks human. She used the helm of detect thoughts to read his surface thoughts.

Bultir, surface thoughts: I am glad they survived. The worms in the dream looked dangerous and that kind of dream is usually about something that is a threat to the whole world. Sometimes I wish the world would leave me alone. At least my previous death was quick.

Marxine: We can’t help if we don’t know what’s going on.
Bultir: All I saw in my dreams was the rising of the worms.
Marxine: You must know about the city.
Bultir: I grew up here. I have never known of worms in the city.
Vinya: Is there any record of worms like this in the city’s history. Has this happened here before?
Bultir: I’ve never heard of it. I know of the gate pointed to the Abyss and the Hells.
Vinya: Yes, we went to the Well of Screams. We met Jorcha in the Library. I believe y’all adventured together.
Bultir: Yes, we did.
Aldalomiel: How often do you share your dreams? How far does the sharing go?
Bultir: Usually it just goes a few rooms on either side of mine. This is the first time the whole inn was affected.
Vinya: Where do the dreams come from?
Bultir: Erkonin.
Aldalomiel: ??
Vinya: The world? Fascinating.

Bultir then brought us lunch, since food was included in the price of our rooms, and we took a short rest.

Over lunch, we decided to head to the library -- it seemed like Elderron could usefully do some research on the Sons of Kyuss and on the rituals and ritual circles that we found.

We all went there together and talked to Jorcha before Elderron settled down to his research.

Jorcha: How are you doing?
Vinya: Pretty okay. We had an exciting morning fighting spectres and wraiths in Alhim. People were trying to get power from Orcus.
Jorcha: That never works out well. No one gets what they want. Not even Orcus.
Vinya: That’s an interesting way to think of it.

Vinya then got lost in the weeds of pondering what it could possibly mean that Orcus wasn’t getting what he wants out of these deals.

Marxine stayed on point.

Marxine: How do we find these cabals and cults and stop them? We don’t want to play whackamole.
Elama: It makes me feel bad when we go around listening for and chasing screams, because it means someone is being hurt.
Jorcha: That’s an admirable attitude. So you’ve found two circles to Orcus. The last time someone tried to turn this gate to the Abyss, they were trying to summon or contact Juiblex.
Vinya: Okay. Not Orcus. How do we find these people? We tried in New Arvai and had no luck at all. We keep thinking about people being desperate and maybe people being more desperate in the poor part of town. But I’m not comfortable with the idea that poor people are more likely to be diabolists or demonists. That just seems like an unlikely assumption.
Jorcha: You’re looking for someone who’s looking for power. Or revenge. Those are the two most common reasons someone turns to fiends for power. In this case you’re looking for someone for whom being turned into an undead is less of a turn-off. And they’re not looking for political power -- this is ‘I can kill you’ power.
Marixine: Undead don’t have much political sway.
Jorcha: Someone may be looking for revenge. Or they’re an utter nihilist.
Vinya: So do we go around looking for a Revenge Seekers’ Club? Restaurants with drinks called Salty Tears of My Enemies?
Jorcha: Well, you’re looking for a group of people -- either several people who want the same revenge or one very persuasive person.
Vinya: Where do we find persuasive people? Temples? Actors?
Jorcha: Yes. Also politicians. My brother knows far more of political circles than I do.

Vinya spread out the map sections on the table to lay out the city schematically. She indicated the Last Doorway with the worms and the abandoned warehouse in Alhim. Even with the Library to form a third point, there just isn’t much to see. Even if there’s going to be some larger picture, it isn’t a very good connect the dots.

Elderron stayed to do research in the library while the rest of the party headed out to Do Things. We talked about exploring Alhim’s abandoned warehouse district to see if we could find some of the bodies, or find any more information about who the five who were doing the ritual were.

We walked around for a bit, without finding anything useful -- then we decided to go talk to Lt. Linnolim.

Elderron in the library did some research into those circles -- looking for a common calling card between them, beyond that they were pointed to Orcus. Any sort of lead that might be useful.

(Player: Any type of lead that you want to make up off the top of your head.)

He learned that Orcus takes some pleasure in seeing the living suffer, but mostly he likes to see things die. He wants to see the entire multiverse as a necropolis with all entities undead under his control. People who kill in his name get a little power -- becoming zombies or ghouls. People who make undead in his name get more power -- becoming wraiths, perhaps.

Elderron, in doing his research and remembering what the circles looked like, got the sense that whoever did the circle in the warehouse either did it by rote or had been given detailed instructions and followed them carefully. But they didn’t seem to know what the end result would be. It was like a paint-by-numbers. The one in the temple was not entirely finished, but he didn’t get the same sense -- he felt that the people there knew what the goal was. For one thing, they were already undead (the suffragans). They were spellcasters who had been turned into something other than Spawn of Kyuss by the worms.

He also found information that implied that there is a ritual to make the worms of Kyuss -- he couldn’t find all the details but it appeared that it turned either a corpse or a person (that was not clear) into a Spawn of Kyuss, which would then go around creating more Spawn, because that’s a contagious form of undead. Sometimes knowledge of that ritual is directly imparted by Orcus in a deal where he trades magical power, and becoming a potent undead, in exchange for that person going out and creating undead havoc.

He then looked into whether there are potent undead who could either pass in a city or live in a city and not get immediately killed. He found that it might be possible, but not for long -- because these agents of Orcus look more and more _dead_ over time until they become a Herald of Undeath. As they grow in power they grow in stature as well. The Herald always eventually becomes an undead about the size of an ogre, about 10 feet tall, and very very dangerous. They almost invariably wind out with a big scythe that they wield to great effect - killing things with the scythe and some sort of nasty quick kill effect. They tend to collect armies of undead.

Heralds of Undeath have appeared in cities twice since the Severance, so this is a rare occurrence.

Elderron did a fantastic job at the library.

The rest of the party went to the guard house in Dhur to talk to Lt. Linnolim.

Linnolim: I’m glad that you aren’t all dead. Where’s your wizard?
Vinya: Elderron’s in the library.
Marxine: We’re trying to get a sense of the city.
Linnolim: I think I can help with that. You asked me the other day to try to arrange a meeting with the Izir of Dhur. I’ve made an appointment for you to meet with her over dinner, if that’s okay.
Vinya: Yeah. That would be great. We can collect Elderron on the way.
Lieutenant: That would be good. She’s expecting five. It’s always best if she gets what she expects.

The Lieutenant went with us back to the library to collect Elderron. On the way there, we told him about what we’d found in the warehouse in Alhim. We found Elderron at the library, explaining to him that we were having dinner with the Izir. One our way, with the Lieutenant again, Elderron told us what he’d learned about the Herald of Undeath.

The Izir’s palace is not called the Dojh, but it is clearly styled to look like a scaled down version of the Dojh af Kul-Izir in Bakar. At the Izir’s palace, Lt. Linnolim talked to the guards at the gate, telling them that we had an appointment for dinner with the Izir. The guards insisted that we leave all of our weapons behind, including Elderron’s staff. We did so.

While we were disarming ourselves, the Lieutenant went ahead to talk to the Izir and make sure she was ready for us. He came back for us a few minutes later. He took us to a room with low cushions and lap desks to put our plates on. Lt. Linnolim introduced us to the Izir, a halfling woman.

Izir: I am Imada Palmroot. You can call me Imada. Or Ms. Palmroot.

She invited us to sit on the cushions. Because we were all sitting on cushions, the height differences between various members of the party and the Izir were minimized. Lt. Linnolim then left. After he left, food began to arrive -- small plates and tapas-style food.

Imada: The Lieutenant informs me that you stumbled on undead, a number of undead, under the Last Doorway. And other different undead in Alhim. In both cases, you found circles to draw the attention of the Prince of Undead. It appears these are part of a series of bad events.
Marxine: You clearly know the problem we’re having. We are hitting them as they come -- which means we’re behind. Who would want this? This isn’t new -- we came here because we heard rumors of weird unrest and strange disquiet in the city. We’re from outside.
Imada: You’re from New Arvai. You should find the fiendishness familiar.
Vinya: Honestly, we were trying really hard to find cabals there and couldn’t find any for looking. Looking for people who are dissatisfied or desperate, or both, just isn’t a good search strategy. But we think we’re looking for someone who wants revenge or power. Someone who feels that this is the only way for them to redress some grievance.
Imada: There was dissatisfaction among the Kul-Izir’s courtiers a couple-three months ago. The Kul-Izir announced her heir and at least one courtier was unpleasantly surprised that he wasn’t chosen.
Vinya: That might be someone who could cause some undead mayhem.
Imada: It’s a sign that she chose well.
Vinya: What’s this person’s name?
Imada: Intororum. He’s a rock gnome. I believe she was doing him a favor by not choosing him. He is young and his exile after 100 years of service to the city would have been long.
Vinya: Exile. Always? For the rest of your life?
Imada: Yes. After one has been Izir or Kul-Izir for 100 years, your ashes are welcome back after you have died, but when you leave you leave. It’s mostly there to make sure that longer lived races wouldn’t have too great an advantage over the humans and other shorter lived races. Especially since humans founded Dhaqi.
Marxine: It prevents an accumulation of power and wealth in one person’s hands.
Imada: Yes. In practice, most Izirs don’t choose individuals who will live long enough to be exiled as heirs.
Vinya: Given that, why did Intororum expect to be chosen?
Imada: He may have believed that he was obviously the most qualified. I am...dubious.
Vinya: Why?
Imada: Because every time I talked to him, I got a solid sense of how intelligent and capable he thought he was.

We all got the sense that she was being pretty straight with us.

Vinya: Does he have family? I assume he lives in Bakar if he’s in the Kul-Izir’s court.
Imada: He and his family actually live in Kalam, in a neighborhood called Alliq’s Arch. I haven’t seen or heard anything from him in at least a month.
Vinya: Would you describe him as persuasive?
Marxine: Were there people on his team rooting for him?
Imada: The people in his immediate circle were probably rooting for him, yes. Outside his immediate circle, maybe not. I believe the general sense was that he’d be heir to the next Kul-Izir or the one after that. As to talking people into acting against their better interests -- no doubt he could talk some people into doing exactly that. It would help if those people hadn’t interacted with him in a professional capacity. Those of us who have interacted with him in government have a different view of him than those in a social setting.

We ate a bit and absorbed that information, then the conversation went in a different way.

Vinya: What about the temples? The suffragans in the Last Doorway were wearing robes from the Hearthkeepers and Last Laugh. Was everything okay at those temples?
Imada: The temples of those orders in Kalam are missing officiants and Kalam is only one bridge away from Dhur. We believe those became the suffragans.
Vinya: What, the wormy dead guys just shuffled across the bridge and no one noticed?
Imada: Maybe they crossed at night. Those orders are tied for the second most cremations in Dhaqi after the Last Doorway.
Vinya: Okay. Do you know of any resentments among the people who work in the temples? It seems that a priest might be persuasive in the right way to get people to act against their interests.
Imada: There are some temples in Alliq’s Arch as well. Including the Last Laugh. The Last Laugh occasionally do get a little nihilistic, because everything is a joke to them.
Vinya: Seems like an order to keep on the edge of town.
Imada: Generally it’s a light-hearted nihilism. Sometimes not so much.
Vinya: Another area we thought might have people with the right sort of persuasiveness was the theater. But that might be outside your area of expertise.
Imada: I like the theater and do attend, but I don’t know the people involved or their interpersonal relationships and resentments.
Vinya: It looks like we do have some things to look into. Thank you. Have you heard anything about the new teachings in the Enthroned?
Imada: I have heard in some cities of Urnod that there has been a change in the messages they teach. I haven’t noticed that here. But they are not my preferred order.

We spent the rest of the dinner sharing news of Urnod with her -- she had questions about various things, which we answered to the best of our abilities, and we told her some about our adventures. She was an excellent conversationalist and the evening passed very pleasantly.

After we had recovered our weapons and left the Izir’s palace, we walked around more or less aimlessly as we talked about what to do. It was around sunset.

Vinya, to Elderron: How long does the process of becoming a giant zombie-ghoul-herald thing take?
Elderron: A few weeks, I think.
Vinya: Oh, boy. So he’s right on schedule.
Marxine: And no one has seen him in weeks.

We decided to head to Alliq’s Arch in Kalam -- just to try and get a sense of the area where Intororum lives. We were still a bit depleted from our big fight in the morning -- but we figured that we were just scouting and checking things out. Not really looking for a fight. We got there fairly quickly -- as Imada Palmroot had pointed out, it’s only one bridge between Dhur and Kalam.

Alliq’s Arch is a spiffy, upscale neighborhood -- there’s an actual arch, large and dramatic, over the streets at the entrance to the neighborhood. From what Imada Palmroot said, Intororum was from there and his family, presumably his natal family, still lived there. There were businesses, restaurants, and homes -- many of the shops were closed or closing up. Some of the stores had a few customers that were making their final purchases. There were also some bars and restaurants that were still open. We didn’t see a lot of people on the streets.

We walked around looking at the homes, trying to see if there was any sign of a gnome enclave within the community of Alliq’s Arch. We didn’t see any gnomes on the street, but we did see a few homes that looked to be mostly scaled to the gnomes, though they all seemed to have visitor spaces that would accommodate larger visitors. The gnome homes seemed to be in a few clusters, with a few scattered around that weren’t in the clusters. We didn’t see any homes that looked abandoned or unkempt.

So we went into a bar to listen to people. We found our way to Metorilen’s, a gnome bar, though they had a place where we could sit and be comfortable.

Vinya was sitting and listening. Elama went to talk to the bartender.

Elama: We’re looking for a guy named Intororum. He’s a gnome. We haven’t seen him in a while.
Bartender: No one’s seen him in a month or more. His place is still taken care of, but he might have a gardener taking care of it. If you see him, tell him to stop by. It would be nice not to have to worry about him.

Elama returned to the table where the rest of us were sitting.

Vinya: Is anyone else missing?

Elama got up and went back to the bartender.

Elama, to bartender: Is anyone else missing?
Bartender: Uh??
Elama: I’m not a cop.
Bartender: Not that I’ve heard of. Why? Do you think people are missing?
Elama: We’ve heard of nasty undead stuff and we’re hoping that everyone knows where everyone is and no one is missing.
Bartender: I haven’t heard of anyone else missing. Especially not any of the gnomes on the Arch.
Elama: If you hear of anyone else being missing, tell the guard.
Bartender: I’ll tell the guard and they’ll tell the weird elves...sure.
Elama: [shows her badge to him]
Bartender: So you’re a temporary cop.
Elama: We’re adventurers. We just got here and weird stuff is happening. It’s totally a coincidence.
Bartender: Seems legit.

We finished our drinks and left the bar, talking as we went. We decided that, if Intororum is the potential Herald, he’s probably keeping a low profile until he feels like he’ll be unstoppable. He still has to do his undead mayhem, but he may decide to do it away from his home.

As we were talking, Aldalomiel’s jaw dropped when she saw a huge bird that appeared to be rotten. She smacked the person next to her and pointed. We all started to run to follow the huge undead bird.

Elama, as she was running, holding up her badge: Stop in the name of the law!

The huge, undead bird did not stop.

It continued flying, heading toward a lighthouse/tower that appeared to be in Kalam, though not in Alliq’s Arch.

Other people on the street were looking at it with an expression of horrified awe, which was pretty much what we were feeling.

We continued to run to follow it. Elderron had Oda fly up over the roofs, where it could watch more effectively. Vinya ran up the walls (with the slippers of spider climb) and continued along jumping from roof to roof, but keeping pace with the party, not running ahead.


----------



## prabe (Apr 6, 2021)

Session 38: Big Undead Problems Loom

Dramatis Personae:
Aldalómiel - Wood Elf Ranger (Hunter Conclave)/Druid
Elama “Lamie” Galanodel- Wood Elf Cleric (Tempest)
Vinya Anar - Wood Elf Monk (Way of the Sun Soul)
Elderon - High Elf Wizard (Loremaster)
Marxine - Mountain Dwarf Fighter (Champion)/Paladin

GM - Everyone Else

(Note: This session was held on Discord.)


11 Bluzzimin 749 (Campaign day 162)(immediately after)

We ended the last session running through the streets of Kalam following a huge undead bird. It was flying in the direction of The Lighthouse.

Oda was flying over the buildings and Vinya was running across the rooftops, keeping pace with the rest of the party. They were keeping watch on the bird while the rest of the party was running in the right direction down in the twisty little streets.

Vinya saw it land, not at the tower, but in a small-ish park or square. When Vinya saw it land she started trying to sneak across the roofs somewhat, so that it wouldn’t spot her. She was able to get close enough to see that it had a corpse in its talons, which it dropped as it landed. Oda saw the corpse crawl toward a huge pile of other moving corpses -- not individually moving corpses, but sort of a seething mass of them.

The bird stayed on the ground and began preening, removing feathers and bits of rotting flesh..

Vinya ran down the wall to consult with the rest of the party -- what should she do if the bird took off. We decided that if it took to the air she should shoot it with her shortbow to try and draw its attention, but otherwise she was not to engage it until everyone was in position.

She also described the park to the party -- a square surrounded by buildings with some trees in it. From what she could see, the buildings were all shops and businesses and were empty at this time of the evening. Marxine and Lamie went to one side of the square, as near as possible to the seething pile of corpses. Vinya and Aldalomiel went to the side of the square nearest the bird, to try and keep it on the ground. Elderron stayed at the southern edge of the park so he could assist on either side, in cover behind one of the buildings.

As Marxine and Elama were getting into position, the bird noticed Marxine, but didn’t move to attack.

Aldalomiel, on the ground in the alley next to where Vinya was on the roof, put her hunter’s mark on the bird, then fired two shots at it. One of those shots hit.

That was the go signal for Elama on the other side of the park. She cast spiritual weapon and placed it next to the writhing mass of bodies. The weapon attacked and got a nice hit. Then she walked to the edge of the square and cast sacred flame on the writhing mass, but it avoided the flames. Marxine ran up to the corner of the building and threw a couple of hand axes at the writhing mass -- getting a critical hit. Elderron stepped out from behind the building and cast a scorching ray, altered to do radiant damage, on the bird. He missed with one of the rays but hit with two of them. Vinya fired 2 sunbolts at it -- hitting once -- then she did patient defense.

The bird, having been hit most recently by Vinya’s sunbolt, took to the air and attacked her from the air. It hit with a claw, but missed with the other claw and the bite.

We had surprised the writhing mass of corpses, so it didn’t get to attack.

Aldalomiel shot two arrows at the bird then turned into her starry archer form and fired a radiant bolt at it. Out of all of that she got one hit, but did a whopping amount of damage. Elama missed the writhing mass with the spiritual weapon, then she cast call lightning and dropped a lightning bolt on the mass of corpses. She moved a bit away from Marxine, into the park, to try and spread out some. Marxine ran in and attacked the mass, wielding her hammer and a shield. She got two hard hits in -- both of them for maximum damage. Elderron cast another radiant-damage scorching ray -- hitting the bird with all three bolts. Vinya, with the bird right in front of her, punched twice (because she figured it would take magical weapons to hit it). She hit one time, doing very little damage. Then once again she did her patient defense.

The giant bird in front of her _reeked_. It also attacked her with both claws and its beak again, but again only hit one time.

A corpse sort of fell out of the writing mass of bodies, then stood up. The main mass attacked and missed Marxine. The zombie that came out shuffled to Elama and attacked her. She did her retributive strike, doing it lightning damage in response.

Aldalomiel fired two arrows and a radiant bolt at the undead bird, hitting only with one of her arrows, but once again doing a lot of damage. Elama dropped a lightning bolt from the call lightning between the zombie and the writhing mass, hitting both. She channeled divinity to maximize the damage. That basically evaporated the zombie. Then she hit the writhing mass with the spiritual weapon. Then she moved deeper into the park, to stay out of the range of the seething mass and any zombies it might drop out. Marxine attacked the writhing mass, hitting once. Elderron, noticing that the bird was looking worse for the wear so he fired a radiant damage lightning bolt at it (changing the save to an intelligence save) -- hitting it hard. It noticed that. Vinya punched at it twice, only hitting one time (for decent damage for a change) and dropped it, thanks to Elderron’s radiant lightning bolt. She then ran down the wall and stopped about 30 feet from the writhing mound of bodies.

Another corpse tumbled out of the mass and started to shuffle toward Vinya, but it wasn’t able to get close to her. The mound shifted and seethed and moved to a position where it could attack both Marxine and Elama. It missed Lamie but hit Marxine. Marxine wound out being grappled and restrained by the arms of the corpses in the mound.

Aldalomiel moved up a bit toward the seething mound, moved her hunter’s mark to it, and shot two arrows at it, hitting once. Elama, now in melee with the seething mound of bodies, moved her spiritual weapon and hit it with her tiny lightning cloud. Then she fired a wave of lightning at Vinya, who was pretty chewed up looking -- she healed Vinya for a lot, and hurt herself some. Elama was also poisoned by the stinking cloud surrounding the mass.

Vinya: Wow! Thanks!

Marxine, grappled and restrained by the grasping arms and clinging hands of the seething mound, got her second wind, then she broke herself free from the clinging arms. She then surged with energy and attacked the mound -- getting a critical hit. Elderron moved 30 feet closer and cast a radiant-damage blight spell (with an intelligence save) doing a great deal of damage to the seething mound.

Vinya shot two sunbolts at the pile of bodies, getting a critical hit and a hit. Then she closed on the zombie near her, doing a flurry of blows and hitting it twice.

The seething mass spat another zombie out. It stood up and started shuffling toward Marxine. The mass of corpses attacked Marxine and Elama. Marxine wound out grappled and restrained again. Elama was hit -- it would have been a critical hit but she was able to use the bulette shield to negate that. She was also grappled and restrained. The zombie that had been spit out got into a position where it could attack Marine with flanking, but even with that, it missed. Vinya, on the other hand, suffered a critical hit, but not a huge one.

Aldalomiel shot two arrows at the writing mass of corpses, then fired a radiant bolt at the zombie on Vinya, dropping it.

Lamie pulled another lightning bolt out of the writhing mass, hitting it and channeling her divinity for maximum damage. That dropped it. Marxine then dropped the zombie on her.

With all the opposition apparently dead again, Vinya and Aldalomiel went around firing radiant bolts and Elderron fired firebolts at the dead things to make sure they stayed dead.

Elama used Vinya’s quarterstaff to poke around in the pile of corpses, but there was no recognizable stuff on any of the corpses. There was a distinct vibe that the things in the pile had been speed-rotted. They all had a distinct vibe of having been bathed in necrotic energy for a while -- the bodies are all beyond any possibility of identification by looking at them.

The party was talking about burning the bodies, and if we should do it right here. As we were having this discussion, some of the local Kalam guards showed up. The corporal in charge of the unit was a goliath and very tall.

Vinya, with enthusiasm: Oh, hi! It’s good to see you! There was a huge undead bird and it carried corpses here -- a lot of corpses. They all need to get to a crematory.
Goliath: You said there were undead.
Vinya: Yeah. We killed them.

Aldalomiel and Elama pointed to the pile of bodies and the corpse of the bird.

Goliath: Egad. I’m glad you survived contact with that. We can arrange to get carts to take them to a crematory. It sounded like you were going to burn them here.
Elderron: We just don’t want to have them get up again.
Goliath: There have been reports of people seeing that giant bird flying over Kalam for a few days.
Vinya: Is this part of Kalam abandoned or something? If this bird has been bringing corpses here for days, surely someone would have seen something.
Goliath: I expect this park gets a fair amount of use during the day. I can’t account for why the bird, and the pile of corpses, hasn’t been seen for days. Maybe it wasn’t always here.
Marxine: What about body theft? Have any bodies gone missing from the crematories?
Goliath: There have been some rumblings about it, but friend of friend stuff. Third hand information.
Vinya: What about people disappearing or being killed?
Goliath: I mean this is a big city -- there are always going to be murders and people going missing. But there hasn’t been an untoward number of those. At least not in Kalam. Maybe some of those bodies came from a different izirate. Or people who, well, nobody is noticing they aren’t there.
Vinya: The bird came from that direction. Maybe more people saw it.
Goliath: I’ll ask around and see if I can get more reports of the bird.
Vinya, flashing her badge: Please let us know if you hear of anything.
Goliath, looking at the badge: Dhur. I assume you’re working with Lt. Linnolim?
Vinya: Yes. You can get messages to us through him.

Aldalomiel tried to see if the writhing mass had moved into the park from somewhere else, backtracking it, but was unable to detect anything.

We thanked the Goliath for taking care of the corpses for us then headed out. We stopped by the Well of Screams, with the thought that we could talk to Jorcha about whether that giant undead bird was something that had been seen in the city before, perhaps historically. But the library was closed.

We went from there to the Dhur guard house to talk to Lt. Linnolim. We described the huge undead bird to him and the flight path we saw for it.

Linnolim: There have been frantic, incoherent reports of something like that flying low over the Ledge. Some people have been grabbed off of it. It’s one of the few places in Daqhi where a bird that huge could actually get to a person on the streets. From there it could get to either Alim or Bakhar easily.
Vinya: Where might it be going to or coming from in those izirates?
Linnolim: The Green in Bakhar is vast. Maybe there. But I’m not sure from the reports we’ve gotten that’s where it was going.
Vinya: Please let us know if you hear anything else.

We then went back to Bultir’s and rested for the night. Which passed without incident.


12 Bluzzimin 749 (Campaign day 163)(immediately after)

We went downstairs for breakfast. Bultir was serving and acting as host, as he generally did.

Vinya, to Bultir: When you have a moment, we have some questions.

When we were finishing our meals and sipping our coffee (or other beverage of choice) he came over to our table to see what we wanted. We described the giant undead bird to him with the thought that it was possibly an undead phoenix.

Vinya: Have people reported or seen a phoenix around?
Bultir: I’ve heard about a phoenix. But that’s not always a good thing to have around.
Vinya: Why?
Bultir: They’re creatures of fiery destruction -- they rise from their own ashes, coming back if you kill them.
Elama: So how does one kill them permanently?
Bultir: Kill them, then throw the egg and ashes through a portal and onto another plane.
Elama: Are they malevolent?
Bultir: No. They’re creatures of elemental fire and just want to see everything burn.
Vinya: Where has one been seen? And when was that?
Bultir: It was a long time ago, elsewhere in Za’akkesh.
Vinya: So not here in the city Okay.

We thanked him and left. We decided to go to the Ledge to see if we could find anyone to talk to about the huge undead bird and people who have been taken by it.

The Ledge is a number of stacked buildings, built on top of each other and cantilevered out over the side of the island. Some of those layers of buildings have walkways out over the water. The top layer of buildings has a public walkway with an open garden nearby.

We walked around on the top layer of the walk -- the day was bright and clear. We passed some cafes with indoor and outdoor seating. We decided to perambulate around looking for someone who might be there a lot -- like a gardener perhaps. We found a weathered looking human man, who was taking care of the plants on the upper level of the ledge.

Vinya: Hello! How are you doing?
Gardener: Uhhh. Fine. Busy. What can I do for you?
Vinya: We’ve heard reports of a veryveryvery large bird around here. Have you seen it?
Gardener: I’ve heard about people getting taken from the top.
Elderron: Do you know if that’s happened more at night or during the day?
Gardener: Generally people have been taken when it was getting on toward fully dark. When it was hard to see.
Vinya: Can you point us to some of the people who saw it? [she flashed her badge]
Gardener: It was all friend of a friend type stuff. I don’t know of anyone who saw anything with this or her own eyes.
Vinya: Do you know of anyone missing?
Gardener: I’ve heard of people missing from the top of the Ledge.
Elderron: Do you know what time of day they were taken?
Gardener: On toward dark, as I understand it.
Viya: Can you point us to some of the people who saw it?
Gardener: All the reports I’ve heard are distinctly third, or more, hand. A friend of a friend heard about it.
Vinya: Do you know of anyone missing?
Gardener: The waitress in one of the cafes is missing. I haven’t seen her in a while.
Vinya: Do you have her name?
Gardener: Intara. I think. Something like that.

We talked to someone at the restaurant about Intara being missing, but all we learned is that she hadn’t been around for a while.

Before we really dove into that, Marxine pointed out that this was maybe not our best choice. We weren’t likely to learn anything about the bird or where it was coming from, based on the actions the gardener had discover. So we decided instead to go talk to the Goliath, instead.

Vinya: Is there anything we can call you?
Goliath: My name is Tulwark.
Vinya: We’ve asked around and discovered that the gnome Intororum is missing.
Tulwark: He’s missing?! Isn’t he a courtier at the Kul-Izir’s court? If he was really missing, I’d expect someone on high would be calling for a welfare check.
Vinya: Hmm. The people in Alliq’s Arch are missing him.
Tulwark: Well, maybe that’s not the same as missing missing. He might be somewhere away from his home.
Vinya: Fair enough. He might just not be in his usual neighborhood.
Tulwark: Would you like to go check on his house?
Vinya: That would be fantastic.

Tulwark went to his superiors to get the mission approved. And to get directions to Intororum’s house. That approval was given.

We headed out, with him escorting us into Alliq’s Arch. We eventually ended up at a nicely sized gnome home. Like many gnome houses, it had a front room scaled to human sized guests. Tulwark was going to have to stoop a bit to go inside. The house is in good shape and well-kept and the plants and shrubs are all being cared for -- nothing is growing or going wild.

We went to the front door and Tulwark knocked with a cop-knock -- loud and insistent. There was no response, so he knocked again. When he tried the door, it was unlocked. The air inside smelled stale but not foul.

Elderron looked at the door to see if there were any signs of forced entry. The door didn’t look like it had been forced. But he did notice that it looked like someone had turned the knob so hard from the inside that the latch will no longer engage. That’s why the door is unlocked.

Tulwark pulled the door closed before any of us entered the house. He looked really unhappy about the door being unlocked and the knob being broken. We walked around the house -- the curtains were all tightly pulled and we were unable to look inside the building and see anything at all.

We went back to the front door. Marxine went just inside and did her divine sense -- it picks up whether things or places have been hallowed or unhallowed. She picked up _bad stuff_. Vinya stood at the door and cast detect evil and good through the rod of alertness -- that didn’t pick anything up (but it has a shorter range).

Marxine went another step inside.

Vinya explained to Tulwark that Marxine can detect the presence of badness and corruption.

Tulwark: There are a number of people in the guard with that ability. I thought she looked like she might be able to do so -- something in the way she carries herself. I’m not pleased that she’s detecting bad things.

We agreed that the party would clear the house of enemies, because he didn’t feel like he’d be an asset in a combat with any possible monsters we might find. Once we were sure the house was clear, we’d come back to Tulwark and he’d look into anything we found that was especially bad.

With an apparently mostly abandoned (at best) house in front of us and unknown amounts of combat ahead, we ended there.


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## prabe (Apr 21, 2021)

Session 39: Found the Herald of Undeath!

Dramatis Personae:
Aldalómiel - Wood Elf Ranger (Hunter Conclave)/Druid
Elama “Lamie” Galanodel- Wood Elf Cleric (Tempest)
Vinya Anar - Wood Elf Monk (Way of the Sun Soul)
Elderon - High Elf Wizard (Loremaster)
Marxine - Mountain Dwarf Fighter (Champion)/Paladin

GM - Everyone Else

(Note: This session was held on Discord.)


12 Bluzzimin 749 (Campaign day 163)(immediately after)

Elderron cast _mage armor_ on himself and then we went into Intororum’s house. The first room we came to was a nice parlor -- the room as a whole was sized for humanoids of all sizes. There was furniture of all sizes. Off the parlor was a dining room -- like Imada Palmroot, the Izir of Dhur’s dining room, there were cushions and pillows on the floor with low tables for people to use.

The house has one floor above ground, but we anticipated that there would be one or more underground levels. Most of the above-ground floor is accessible to non-gnomes. We passed through a number of rooms -- a kitchen, an office.

Vinya used the Rod of Alertness to cast detect evil and good and detected nothing. Marxine’s divine sense got a sense of the unhallowed things being below us.

Between the kitchen and the office we saw a set of five-foot wide stairs. The risers were spaced for gnomish legs and feet -- narrow and low and small. We went down the narrow stairs. (Our marching order was: Marxine, Elama, Elderron, Aldalomiel, and Vinya. Elama cast light on her shield to light the way.

We went down to a lower level where we found a smaller, comfortable living space. Or it would have been comfortable in better times -- it was not in great shape. Down the hall in one direction was a bedroom -- it looked like something had rotten in the bed. There was a background scent of funky smoke and decay.

Vinya cast detect magic with the Rod again. And again she found nothing.

Down the hallway in the other direction was a gnome-sized dining room. The table was thrown against a wall -- apparently with some force because there were cracks in the wood. The chairs were thrown about.

We continued further down the hallway. There was a door next to the dining room that lead to a kitchen. There were some foods in the kitchen -- though everything in it had nasty looking green-shading-to-chartreuse worms. That looked sort of undead-ish or Spawn of Kyuss-ish.

Vinya: Elderron, would you please firebolt these?

Elderron looked around for any reason why he shouldn’t do that - especially for flammables. Not seeing one he _firebolted_ all around, taking care of all the worms he could see.

We went back into the hallway and continued on down. We noticed that the hallway was sloping down. We also noticed that the smell of fire and decay was getting stronger.

After a bit, Vinya’s detect evil and good lit up just as Marxine, leading the way down the hallway, got to a large open space. The hallway we were in split to left and right into a five foot wide mezzanine with a large open space below us. The ceiling height had been six feet throughout this gnome residence and that’s how far down the floor was below the mezzanine. The room was a large library -- with shelves lined with books -- and there were several sets of gnome-sized stairs that went down from the mezzanine to the floor of the library. The room was sort of L-shaped, with part of it turning away out of our sight to the left.

Marxine stopped at the point where the hallway separated in the mezzanine to the left and the right. Aldalomiel shaped into her starry archer form. Vinya stood ready to move forward if a way opened up for her.

A suffragan on the mezzanine went to Marxine, pulled a wad of worms out of its chest and attacked her with it. Another suffragan, further away around the mezzanine, fired a black necrotic bolt at Marxine.

Aldalomiel shot two arrows and a radiant bolt at the suffragan on Marxine, hitting with all of them. Marxine shoved the suffragan back onto the stairs in front of her, but it didn’t fall down. Then she moved forward onto the top of the stairs and attacked it. She did some damage to the suffragan but, more importantly, cleared a way for other people to come out of the hallway onto the mezzanine.

Four spawn of Kyuss, some from the mezzanine and some from the level below, attacked Marxine. She dodged two of their worms, but caught two of them. And took two hits.

Elama turned undead -- getting four spawn of Kyuss and the suffragan clustered around Marxine as well as another spawn that was on the mezzanine. Then she cast shield of faith on Marxine. Elderron cast _slow_ on the cluster of spawn and the suffragan on Marxine. Then he moved down the hallway toward the mezzanine.

About that time, a large creature came lurching around the corner -- it looked like a gnome that had actually been stretched on a rack and skeletonized. It held a rod in one hand and a scimitar in the other. It gestured with the rod and a thick black beam blasted out, nearly missing Elama.

Vinya moved up to between Elderron and Elama and fired two sunbolts at the suffragan on Marxine. The radiant damage chewed it up good. Seeing the effect she was having on it, she did a flurry of blows in the form of more sunbolts. The first one dropped it, so she fired the second bolt at the spawn of Kyuss that was on the mezzanine between Elama and Marxine.

The other suffragan, on the mezzanine at the corner where the room turned away from us, shot a necrotic bolt at Lamie and missed.

Aldalomiel moved up in the hallway and fired two arrows and a radiant bolt at the gnome skeleton, what we believed to be the Herald of Undeath. The two arrows hit but the radiant bolt didn’t.

The spawn of Kyuss healed up some -- one of them began to run away at half speed -- affected by both Elderron’s _slow_ spell and Elama’s turning. Three others attacked Marxine from the mezzanine and another one stepped up from the lower level to attack her. The three from the mezzanine, all affected by Elderron’s slow spell, missed. The one that was not slowed hit her for the absolute maximum damage they can do.

Elama cast _spirit guardians_, surrounding herself with small lightning-filled clouds. This caused the shield of faith on Marxine to go down. Elderron cast _fireball_ on the lower level, getting three of the spawn of Kyuss and the Herald. He altered the spell so that it did radiant damage and had an intelligence save.

Following the radiant fireball, the Herald moved in our direction. It stopped just outside the spirit guardians, behind a line of spawn. He then reached over the spawn to attack Marxine with his scimitar, moving frighteningly quickly. One of the scimitar attacks hit.

Vinya moved over and around the party-members in the hallway and got out of the hallway onto a clear part of the ledge. Then she fired sun bolts at the one on the ledge between Marxine (on the ledge) and Elama in the hallway. Then she moved to a corner where she could carefully angle a _burning hands_ on five of the spawn of Kyuss, including the one between Marxine and Elama. Then she moved to a position on the ledge where she was not engaged with any of the spawn.

Aldalomiel did a _guiding bolt_ on the Herald, which hit and left it glowing, then she cast a powerful _healing word_ on Marxine. Marxine resisted some effect from the Herald’s aura. Then she attacked the spawn on the mezzanine between her and Elama, trying to clear the entrance to the halfway. Then she did an action surge so she could get rid of the worms she’d picked up so far by laying on hands.

The spawn of Kyuss near us on the mezzanine and near Marxine took damage from the spirit guardians.

Elama: Radiant damage to the FACE!

One of them hit Marxine twice, dropping her with its first attack then causing her to fail two death saves with its second attack.

A couple of the spawn couldn’t get to anyone -- the one that had been turned and slowed was blocking the suffragan from getting to us.

Elama did her emergency healing/life transference thing to heal Marxine. Elderron cast another _fireball_ with radiant damage and an intelligence save on three of the spawn and the Herald.

The Herald apparently didn’t like that because he fired two black, necrotic beams at Elderron. Fortunately, both missed. Then he made a dismissive flick with his scimitar in Marxine’s direction, but missed with that too.

Vinya fired two sunbolts at the Herald, one of which hit, then she did another searing arc strike (_burning hands_) that finally took out the one on the mezzanine between Marxine and Elama.

The suffragan around on the ledge, blocked from getting close enough to do its disgusting blobby handful of worms attack by the turned spawn of Kyuss, fired black necrotic bolts at Elama. Both of them hit, but she was able to protect herself from a critical hit with the bulette shield. Unfortunately, the second hit caused her to lose her concentration on the spirit guardians.

Aldalomiel did another _guiding bolt_ on the Herald. The bolt of radiant energy shot straight through it and it began to sublimate from the inside out, the radiance destroying its necrotic evil core. The rod and scimitar clattered to the ground. She then turned and shot a radiant bolt from her starry archer form at one of the spawn in the lower level of the library, but missed. Marxine attacked dropping one of the spawn with her first attack, hit another with her second, and then, since she was on a roll, did an action surge and got two more hits against it, one of them a crit.

Spawn of Kyuss attacked both Marxine and Elama -- Elama caught two of the flying worms and was hit.

Elama, to Elderron: Maybe a _dimension door_ down into the library?

Then she cast cure wounds on herself.

Elderron took Elama’s suggestion and used dimension door to take both of them down to the floor of the library in a corner on the far wall. Vinya jumped the six feet down to the library floor, dropped one of the spawn on Marxine with a punch, moved back up to the ledge to attack a spawn up there, then jumped back down to wind out next to Marxine.

Vinya: naughty word! That was a punch. I think that one’s coming back.

The suffragan on the ledge, still bottled up by the turned spawn, fired two necrotic bolts at Elama. Fortunately only one hit.

Aldalomiel dropped a spawn of Kyuss with two arrows. Marxine hit the spawn next to her -- which she’d already hit twice before -- but it still didn’t drop.

The two spawn on Marxine and Vinya ignored Vinya to attack Marxine. Marxine dodged one of the worms, but in doing so dodged into the other one. Aldalomiel was attacked by a spawn and missed.

Elama, now on the lower level, moved up to right behind Marxine and cured her. Elderon cast a high level _magic missile_, doing radiant damage, on five of the six remaining undead (excluding the one that was still turned by Elama). After that, Vinya dropped the same one she’d dropped the previous round again, but this time it was going to stay down. She then went back up to the top of the ledge and dropped one of the ones up there. Then she jumped back down to the floor level and punched one of the ones on Marxine.

The suffragan shot black bolts at Elama again -- once again she used her shield to turn a critical hit into a regular hit and was hit twice. She didn’t drop, but she was very badly hurt.

Aldalomiel cast thunderwave on the spawn next to her but unfortunately it saved and wasn’t knocked prone. Then she shot a radiant bolt from her starry form at another spawn. Marxine went up the stairs and attacked the one Aldalomiel was fighting -- she smote it with her first attack then dropped it with her second.

Aldalomiel: Thank you.

The turned spawn, still trying to run farther from Elama, couldn’t get past the suffragan, who wasn’t letting it go anywhere. The spawn at the bottom of the stairs hit Vinya once, but it was a critical hit. Fortunately she was able to dodge the worms.

Marxine, able to feel worms crawling under her skin, laid hands on herself again and killed them. Elama cast cure wounds on herself and moved back to be nearer to Elderron -- then she took damage from the worms under her skin. Elderron cast magic missile -- spreading the radiant darts among the various undead (except the turned one). Vinya attacked the two remaining spawn on the lower level, dropping both of them.

That left just the turned spawn and the entirely untouched suffragan on the ledge. The suffragan, seeing that Elama was badly injured, fired at her again. (If she dies with the worms in her, she’ll come back as a spawn of Kyuss a few minutes later.) Fortunately it missed both times.

Aldalomiel moved along the ledge to a point where she could get a clear aim at the suffragan -- she fired two arrows and a radiant bolt at it, hitting with all three. Marxine went along the ledge toward the suffragan and the remaining spawn. Elama hid under a table in the library, to give herself cover from the suffragan’s necrotic beams, and cured herself again. Elderron cast _scorching ray_, changing the damage to radiant, and fired it at the suffragan. He hit with all three rays, leaving it looking bad. Vinya followed that up with a radiant sunbolt that dropped the suffragan. Her second sunbolt hit the turned spawn with a crit, breaking the turning. Aldalomiel shot at the last remaining spawn and hit with her radiant bolt (but not her arrows).

Marxine stomped down the mezzanine and smashed at the last spawn with her hammer, hitting it twice and dropping it.

There were no further opponents to fight -- except the danger of Elama turning into a spawn of Kyuss if we can’t get her to a temple and get the right kind of magic (which no one in the party has right now).

Fortunately, Tulwark, of the Kalam guard, was there to help. We haven’t looked around the room at all. There’s a hint of a circle on the floor, but we don’t know much more than that.


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## prabe (Apr 27, 2021)

Session 40: ERROR

Dramatis Personae:
Aldalómiel - Wood Elf Ranger (Hunter Conclave)/Druid (Circle of Stars)
Elama “Lamie” Galanodel- Wood Elf Cleric (Tempest)
Vinya Anar - Wood Elf Monk (Way of the Sun Soul)
Elderon - High Elf Wizard (Loremaster)
Marxine - Mountain Dwarf Fighter (Champion)/Paladin

GM - Everyone Else

(Note: This session was held on Discord.)


12 Bluzzimin 749 (Campaign day 163)(immediately after)

We ended when the last of the spawn of Kyuss in the library of the Herald of Galactus Undeath (formerly known as the gnome Intororum) dropped. Elama had a situation -- because she had 2 of the worms of Kyuss in her and about 40 remaining hit points.

Aldalomiel shifted into her starry chalice form because that increases her healing potential. Elama cast cure wounds on herself to buy some time. Vinya ran ahead out of the house to get to Tulwark and ask for directions to a temple.

Vinya blasted out of the front door and almost into Tulwark, who was right outside the door of the house, a goliath surrounded by 20 or so gnomes, each of whom wanted to know what was going on inside. Vinya, seeing the situation, gestured for him to lean over so she could talk to him quietly.

Vinya, whispering in Tulwark’s ear: We think the house is clear, but we need a temple. One of my friends has been harmed by undead.
Little Invisible Voice: What kind of undead?
Vinya, out loud: Spawn of Kyuss. Also suffragans. She got some worms. The house needs to stay secure but we need to get her to a temple.

A gnome appeared where the invisible voice had come from, wearing the robes of a cleric of the Random & Certain.

Gnome: Well, I sure followed the crowd to the right place.

Vinya led that gnome into the house, leaving Tulwark to deal with the rest of the crowd.

Gnome: Wow. He let this place go.
Vinya: He had other stuff going on.

Vinya, loudly: Elama! Help is here!
Elama, coming up the stairs: Whew!

The gnome then proceeded to cast the appropriate spell on Elama, killing the disgusting worms inside her.

Elama: How did you get here?
Gnome: By following someone who looked like they knew where they were going, I wound up where I needed to be.
Vinya: What’s up with that crowd?
Gnome: People around here know Tulwark and saw him outside the house and other people going in. We gnomes are a curious folk.
Vinya, flashing badge: We’re guard as well. We need to talk to Tulwark now. Thank you.
Elama: Thank you muchly!

We went back to the entrance, where Tulwark was still surrounded by gnomes, though they seemed to be asking fewer questions.

Gnome: Tulwark, your colleague isn’t dying now.
Tulwark: Thank you, Alnoroto.

We then started to talk to Tulwark about going back into the house with him to look at the circle there and make sure the place was clear. The gnomes were part of this conversation, though Alnoroto seemed to emerge as their spokesperson. We told Tulwark (and the gnomes) that we thought it was clear of major dangers, but there might still be some worms of Kyuss lurking around. The gnomes wanted to come in with us to make sure that Intororum hadn’t stolen anything from anyone else in the community. Or maybe that he didn’t have undead stealing from the community. Or because they wanted to see what was up.

The gnomes finally settled on two of their number to come with us, Alnoroto and one named Ixloxit, a former adventurer, as being the most psychologically and physically equipped to deal with the remains in the library and whatever else we might find in the house.

Speaker for the Gnomes: You guys are with Dhur’s guard. Tulwark will represent Kalam’s. And we’ll have some of our eyes in there as well.

Tulwark sighed and acquiesced with this plan.

The rest of the gnomes stayed outside blocking the doorway.

Vinya, to Alnoroto and Ixloxit: Do y’all routinely steal from one another?
Alnoroto: Well, I don’t see how Spawn of Kyuss could be here without him being involved with bad things somehow. If he’s gone that kind of bad, maybe he’s also stealing from us.
Marxine: Honestly, I’d prefer to live next to a guy raising zombies to steal from people than what we actually found.

When we got to the library, Alnoroto, Ixloxit and Tulwark seemed bothered but not ill or overwhelmed by what we found there.

The circle was another summoning (or contacting) circle to Orcus. Elderron figured out that the more undead there were around, the more powerful the signal or contact would be. Which explained all the spawn of Kyuss -- and possibly the worms, because those are also technically undead. The circle was made with unwholesome smears on the ground and powered by undead -- which it sucked the unlife out of. It looked similar to the circle in the warehouse -- but looked like it was made with more knowledge and less rote following of instructions.

In the papers in the library, we found some about how to summon Orcus. And a journal in which he talked about having gotten pissed off because the Kul-Izir hadn’t chosen him as her heir. Because of that anger and disaffection, he used the knowledge that he already had.

The gnomes recognized the Herald as Intororum.

Vinya: I don’t see how the timing works -- he hasn’t been seen for six weeks but it’s more like 10 weeks since the captain of the Ocean’s Blessing had a sense that weird things were afoot here and that he didn’t want to stay.
Marxine, looking over the journals: It looks like he was doing some things as far as undead mayhem and Orcus cabals before he started to actually become the Herald.

We speculated for a bit about how Intororum as the Herald intended to get out of the basement of this house, then found a trap door in the door in the floor in the middle of the circle that was definitely big enough for the Herald to squeeze through. Vinya followed the tunnel and found an exit into Kalam out beyond the gnomish neighborhood.

While she was doing that, Marxine was looking through Intororum’s notes to see if she could find any accomplices. Alnoroto, Ixloxit and Tulwark were looking around the library and the rest of the house. They found some stuff that they didn’t know where it came from.

Vinya: Did anyone else live here with him? Family or anything?
Ixloxit: His parents are gone and his sister moved out a few years ago.

We collected the papers and books on how to summon Orcus to take those to the Well of Screams.

In addition to those we found a nice lot of treasure:

10,773 gp (2154 gp each, with 3 left for the party kitty)
1575 pp (315 pp each)
7 x 750gp value art items
1 silver and gold brooch
2 painted gold war masks from a culture on the far side of Za’akesh (Vinya took one of these)
3 decorative silver-plated longswords with jets in the hilts
1 ceremonial electrum dagger with a black pearl pommel -- Elderron recognized this as something used in high ritual magic.
Set of +1 breastplate (Elama)
Scimitar of Speed (this was left by the Herald of Undeath and was identified by the gnomes as having been in his family) (Elama)
2 potions of flying (in the handy haversack as a party item)
Spell Scroll -- Scatter (Elderron)
Mirror of Life Trapping (umm, eww)
A rod (this was held by the Herald as well)

Tulwark made an inventory of what we found while Elderron was casting identify on the Rod.

Tulwark: I need to report this. I don’t understand all of the magic that’s here. Or where it came from.

About that time, Elderron’s spell went off and he started telling us about the rod.

Rod of Litrices:

While carrying this rod, you are immune to spells and magic effects that would alter your form. In addition, when a creature misses you with a melee attack while you are carrying this rod, that creature must succeed on a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw or be magically slowed. Until the end of its next turn it suffers the following drawbacks:

It can't use reactions.
Its speed is halved.
It can't make more than one attack on its turn.
It can take either an action or a bonus action on its turn, not both.
Also, when you make a saving throw against a spell that targets only you while carrying this item, you can choose to make the saving throw with advantage. If the saving throw succeeds and the spell is 7th level or lower, the spell has no effect on you and instead targets the caster, using the slot level, spell save DC, attack bonus, and spellcasting ability of the caster. If the spell requires concentration, it lasts until the end of the caster's next turn, even if they choose not to maintain their concentration on it. Once used, this property can't be used again until the next noon.

Anoroto: Holy crap!

Anoroto’s take on the Rod of Litrices was shared by pretty much everyone in the room.

Vinya, to Tulwark: Add to your inventory the books and papers about how to summon Orcus. Those need to be taken somewhere safer.

While Tulwark was struggling to write with writing implements not sized for his goliath hands, the party looked through the rest of the library. Many of the books were normal, fine books -- histories of Dhaqi and Za’akesh, etc.

Vinya: Maybe Intororum’s sister would like those.
Tulwark: There may be other interested people as well.

Before we left the house, we looked around for worms like the ones we’d found in the kitchen. We zapped a few more worms with radiant damage before deciding that the house was clear of any active Bad Stuff.

When we got out of the house, Tulwark told us that he was going to take the inventory to his Lieutenant. His lieutenant would talk to Lt. Linnolim and they’d work out what needed to come back and be restored to someone. Until then, we could keep it.

Aldalomiel, looking at the 5’ tall mirror of life trapping: It seems like it would be awkward to use.
Vinya: Yeah.
Tulwark: I’ll get a cart over here to help you shift this stuff.

While we were waiting for the cart, the assembled gnomes apparently realized that all the interesting activity was done and drifted away, wishing us good luck and good day. When Alnoroto wished us good luck, it sounded a bit more like a blessing. Once we had the cart, we talked as we walked to Dhur and the guard house.

Elama: That went too well. I don’t think this is over.
Vinya: I’m not sure Intororum was the start of this. How did he just happen to stumble over information about how to summon Orcus?

When we got to the guard house, Lt. Linnolim was there. He seemed surprised to see us coming in with all that stuff.

Vinya: We may have found the origin point of the undead in the city. But maybe not.
Linnolim: You seem unsure.
Vinya: I’m not sure I’m convinced about the timeline.
Marxine: The timeline is fine. The guy thought he was a genius. He thought he was due to be next in line to be Kul-Izir. He probably thought he could get away with dealing with Orcus. He may have even thought he’d come out on top of the deals.
Vinya: Well, that’s all true. There may still be more undead -- he was seeding little Orcus cabals around and they might do something even with him gone. We can keep our ear to the ground about that sort of thing. Anyway, we found this stuff and Tulwark took an inventory. Said you’d work with his lieutenant to figure out what needs to go back.
Linnolim, looking at the cart: Interesting. A mirror of life trapping?
Vinya: I guess it’s maybe something y’all could use here…
Marxine: I’m not okay with its use as a prison. But it might be something that could hang at the Well of Screams.
Linnolim: My sister would like it, I’m sure. I’ll talk with the lieutenant in Kalam. I can definitely take the mirror off your hands and find a way to make you whole from the loss of that.
Vinya: We got this spiffy rod and we have this other stuff.
Linnolim: I’ll let you know in the next few days if any of it needs to go back. And if I hear of any further undead problems, I’ll let you know.

We left the mirror in Linnolim’s office and took ourselves and the rest of the stuff to Bultir’s for a rest. We figured that if nothing bad happened all day, the short rest would turn into a long rest and we’d have an afternoon to relax. Bultir’s has baths and we availed ourselves of those as well as having lunch and just relaxing. Elderron took Elama’s ring of warmth, because she needed to take that off to attune to the scimitar. We decided that Marxine was the best person to carry the rod, because she gets missed a lot in combat.

Vinya pulled out her painting set and painted in Lamie’s book, letting her drawings disappear as she flipped the pages.

Marxine: Monk naughty word.

The rest of the day and the night passed in relaxation, soaking, dining and rest.


16 Bluzzimin 749 (Campaign day 164)(immediately after)

At breakfast, Vinya asked Bultir if there was a place in Dhaqi where you could find out about current events elsewhere on Erkonin. Like what’s going on today in Kiranamakir or something.

Bultir: In Feloz, there’s a place called Lugux’s Wall. Information about elsewhere can be found there.
Vinya: Thank you.
Elama: I can also send to people.

Before heading to Feloz, we went to talk to Lieutenant Linnolim. We needed to check in at the guard station to keep our badges active and Marxine wanted to talk to him about how to get an audience with Imada Palmroot, the Izir of Dhur.

The lieutenant was happy to see us and told us that we could come back every day or two to check in. We just needed to remember to return our badges before we leave the city for good. We told Linnolim a little about Rajalmin -- because with the Herald of Undeath stopped, we were back on that scent. Or back trying to FIND that scent.

Marxine: He might have been egging Intororum on -- leaving him to find his own methods of doing bad things, but egging him on. Maybe Imada would know if there were new people in Intororum’s life. She might have some details of that nature that didn’t seem important to her to mention. We just need a few minutes of her time.
Linnolim: I will see what I can arrange.

We went then to Lugux’s Wall. It looked a little like a library study room -- with carrels and tables and chairs around and people reading broadsides. There were no stacks, just a booth that looked a bit like a box office with a young thin dragonborn woman sitting in the box office.

Woman: How can I help you?
Vinya: We’re looking for information about current events around Erkonin, but I don’t really know a specific city to ask for.
Woman: We can look for a person, a place, or a type of event.
Vinya, after consulting with the party: How about New Arvai?
Woman: Is there anything specific you’re looking for?
Vinya: An uptick in cabal activity and anything to do with the descendants of the wizard Danrom Orth.
Woman, taking notes: Okay. That will be 100gp.

Vinya paid the 100gp.

The woman gave us a wooden flag with a number on it and gestured us into the room to wait for our report.

We waited around a table for about 15 or 20 minutes then a runner came out with our report printed on a broadsheet.

Romza Orth--Danrom Orth's granddaughter--is working as an instructor of applied optics and illusions in The School of the Mind. She's been behaving in a slightly paranoid fashion, something that is not her normal way. She's been asking for increasing levels of security in her home, office, and classrooms, as though she's expecting to be assaulted from off-plane at any moment.
New Arvai itself is not experiencing more cabal activity than normal. In the past month-and-change, there was an aboleth that thought it was going to take over the city, but the guard settled that (with some help from some adventurers).
A Kotimanov ship rammed the docks in The Deeps, after a dispute over fees and tariffs. The damage slowed cargo transit for a couple weeks. The dispute was settled amicably over drinks.
There was a fire in Coinscale. No merchant shops were damaged, but the city's Office of Weights and Trade was leveled. No trade bars were reported missing.
Some warehouses in Woodyard have been robbed. Many planks of very rare woods were stolen. The buildings were heavily secured, and locks were broken by main force. There were larger-than-human footprints on the floor.
Marxine suggested, and we all agreed, that that all sounded pretty normal. Except that we’ve left Romna Orth with budding mental health issues.

Vinya went back and asked for a report on the Enthroned and their new teachings. Elama’s divination on this had said that the priestesses were sincere in their beliefs.

Vinya, when she got back to the party: They’re sincere, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t bad actors behind their sincere beliefs.

The priestesses have settled and taught for a time in several places. They have had better success in places where there were actual nobles. Where they have had success, the behavior of the nobles has changed--mostly for the better.
The Enthroned on Urnod--the Order, its hierarchy--seem mostly interested in the fact that the improved behavior comes with more-common attendance at services, and greater donations to the church's treasury.
There is some thought the nobles whose behavior is changing are replacing one set of compulsive behaviors--gambling, drunkenness, and other vices--with another.
Vinya read that but it didn’t ease her suspicions about the Enthroned and the new teachings. Particularly that last line about replacing one set of compulsive behaviors with another.

(GM: Will you leave the straight-edge nobles alone?)

We got one final report, on Torm Brinnom, to see if there was any further activity there now that the Oni plot had been thwarted.

Torm Brinnom is thriving. There was some tension among the clans a couple of months ago, but that seems to have settled down. The deaths of a number of oni seem likely to be connected both to the tension and to its recent relaxation.
There have been some fumbling steps toward relaxing the pressures on the young dwarves in the direction of arranged marriages. Permissions among the clans will probably still be required, but in many instances are likely to be pro forma.
The miners have reported several rich strikes. The smiths and craftsmen are waiting anxiously to see what comes out of the mines.
Vinya: Well, that’s happy news to end on.

We left Lugux’s Wall and went to the Well of Screams to ask Jorcha about Sarik Whitesand, the halfling cleric from Dhaqi who had been part of the party that took down Rajalmin two hundred years ago.

Vinya, while we walked: I could really see getting into that place. It’s so cool just to see what’s going on in different places.
Elama: Or you could go to those places and see them for yourself. That’s a lot more fun.
Vinya: I’m just thinking, like sitting in there over coffee reading up on the world.

Jorcha was happy, but a little surprised, to see us. Once we told her what we wanted and why, she did have information for us.

Jorcha: She was a Hearthkeeper. Not a surprising choice for a halfling. She was really dedicated to getting fiends off of Erkonin. It became her primary concern when they stumbled over Rajalmin’s plans. She and Adlawan, the monk from Kiranamakir, were the strongest voices keeping the party on his trail.
Vinya: Does she have family in town?
Jorcha: She wasn’t from Dhaqi. She was of Dhaqi. She adopted the Queen of Cities as her home, as so many do. She was actually from a village some way down the Ewiv Canal, called Brush Bend.
Vinya: That’s the stream between the Feet of Marduk?
Jorcha: Exactly. The village is on the far side of the flats around where the canal takes a bend.
Vinya: Since you’ve done some research on this party, what do you know about Adlawan from Kiranamakir?
Jorcha: Adlawan was … kinda strange. From what I can tell, she seemed to know at least that Rajalmin was working on something before anyone else really had any idea. I don’t know what that was or how she knew anything so early. The records I’ve found indicate she had some sort of divinatory abilities as a monk, but those don’t seem to have been how she knew about Rajalmin.
Vinya: How long would it take to go down the canal to that village--Brush Bend?
Jorcha: No more than half a month.
Elama: Maybe we can save some time and ask at Zugzug’s Wall?
Vinya: Weren’t you just extolling the virtues of going and seeing?
Elama: We’re on the clock.
Vinya: Sort of. But in Torm Brinnom the plot took 30 years. (To Jorcha) Did your brother talk to you about a mirror?
Jorcha: Yes. We’d love it here of course, but I think it’s going to the Izir or the Kul-Izir.

We thanked her for the information and went back to Luxug’s Wall to get a report on Brush Bend.

The halflings of Brush Bend are taking advantage of their position on the Ewiv Canal, slowly building a trade hub. The Tallpalms and the Whitesands are celebrating a pair of marriages they hope will make for a long and profitable alliance
ERROR
ERROR
FIRE AND SMOKE AND SULPHUR AND WHAT IS THAT
ERROR
END
Vinya: Hoo boy! There we go! Who do we go to for a teleport?
Elderron: Maybe Bultir or Linnolim can recommend someone.

Bultir’s was closer, so we went there as fast as we could, bursting in at mid-day as he was setting up lunch. Vinya, as the fastest and most concerned, was the first one into the room.

Bultir: What has gone wrong?
Vinya: Where would we go to get teleported somewhere?
Bultir: Where do you need to go?
Vinya: Brush Bend
Bultir: I know of it. Why?

Vinya showed him the broadsheet from Luxug’s Wall.

Bultir: To get somewhere fast, go to the Shining Silver Tetrahedron in Kalam. (He gave some directions.)
Vinya: Thank you.
Bultir: Good luck.

We proceeded quickly to Kalam and followed Bultir’s directions to the Shining Silver Tetrahedron. What we found is that it is basically none of those things -- it’s a non-descript building that looks somewhat like a warehouse. There was a small sign in front that was, in fact, a shining silver tetrahedron.

Inside we found a male dwarf, older than Marxine.

Dwarf, in Dwarvish: How can I help you?
Marxine, in Dwarvish: We have somewhere to be. Fast.
Dwarf: That is a large part of what we do here. Where?
Marxine: Brush Bend.
Elderron: You can get us there fast?
Dwarf: We can put you in a circle no more than a day’s travel overland. You’ll be at Elthir, the next village upstream from Brush Bend. 2000 gold each.
Us, almost in unison: Done.

We paid him then he took us into a back room. We waited for a minute while he cast teleportation circle then stepped through the circle. We stepped out into a circle under and awning in a semi-public square in a small village. The village looked pretty peaceful but there was a hint of sulfur and smoke in the air.

We asked after horses and whether there were any to rent or buy. The livery owner looked at us, recognized us as adventurers, and offered to sell us horses, tack, saddlebags and some food. For 100 gold apiece, we each got a horse and the necessary equipment.

Elama, to her horse: I’m going to call you Nibbles.
Vinya, to her horse, in Elvish: I’m going to call you Horse.

Once we were horsed up, the villagers pointed us to the road toward Brush Bend. We could see some smoke lingering in the air in that direction.

And there we ended -- in the golden afternoon.


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## prabe (May 6, 2021)

Session 41: Lots of Devils. That Poor Town.

Dramatis Personae:
Aldalómiel - Wood Elf Ranger (Hunter Conclave)/Druid (Circle of Stars)
Elama “Lamie” Galanodel- Wood Elf Cleric (Tempest)
Vinya Anar - Wood Elf Monk (Way of the Sun Soul)
Elderon - High Elf Wizard (Loremaster)
Marxine - Mountain Dwarf Fighter (Champion)/Paladin

GM - Everyone Else

(Note: This session was held on Discord. Also note that deponent was having extreme internet trouble on account of a power outage and having to use a hot-spot created by her phone, with very dodgy signal, to be online at all.)


13 Bluzzimin 749 (Campaign day 164)(immediately after)

As we started leaving Elthir, the town a day’s travel upstream from Brush Bend, Marxine named her horse Comrade 2.

We rode as fast as we could on the road to Brush Bend. It was still daytime, though afternoon, when we left Elthir. There was a cloud of smoke in the distance that we could see. We could also smell the smoke and the sulfur. As the light faded and the dark (nearly new moon) night settled in, we continued going, though we had to slow down some, to keep the horses on the road and safe. We could see a glow in the sky over the town -- nothing as extreme as a pillar of fire, but definitely lit up in an unnatural way -- that kept us going in the right direction.

Despite slowing down, we were moving fast and with every intention of just blasting into town and dealing with whatever we found there. Then Vinya heard in her head a familiar voice -- that of Thorin, the deva she has a romantic relationship with, though he’s off on assignment in other places, possibly other planes.

Thorin: Devils like ambushes, you know.

Vinya thought about that for a second then slowed up a bit.

Vinya, to the party: Guys, we might want to consider scouting a bit and seeing what the situation is. Whatever is doing this might well be prepared for whoever would be coming to save the town.
Marxine: I’m not as worried about our lives as about saving the town.
Vinya: I’m okay with that. But we can’t save them if we’re dead.
Marxine: I don’t want to spend a day scouting and wasting time.
Vinya: Me either. But maybe Oda can do a flyover and Aldalomiel and I can sneak close and see what the situation is.
Marxine: Okay.

When we got about a half mile away from the town, Elderron sent Oda to scout and report back. Oda flew over the town then came back and communicated to Elderron that parts of the city are demolished and smoldering, but some buildings still stand. There was a well of laval that was 30’ across. All he could see moving around were devils. There were a lot of devils with tails and beards and purple skin carrying glaives. A smaller lot of devils with barbs on their skin. He saw a couple going in and out of two intact buildings that looked like they were wrapped in chains. He didn’t see any corpses on the ground.

Vinya: I’ve gotten a warning from a deva, umm, friend of mine that this might be an ambush.
Elama: How do you know a deva? What’s a deva?
Vinya: Ummm...Devas are celestials. We were at the Chiaroscuro Temple together.
Elama: What was a deva doing at the monastery?
Vinya: I’m not totally sure. But I think I told you about the Zariel cabal there. He brought some planetars, big green guys, and they busted it up. He had to leave after that.

After some thought, Elderron recognized the devils involved from Oda’s impressions. The devils wrapped in chains are Chain Devils -- they are jailers and torturers. The ones with purple skin, beards and glaives are Beard Devils -- they’re infantry. The ones with barbs on their skin are Barbed Devils -- they’re guards and notoriously alert with darkvision that goes way further than anyone in the party’s (120’). He passed this information along to the party.

Elderron: Don’t attack them with fire or poison. It won’t do anything. Cold’s not great either. And it’s tough to get spells to work on them at all, so keep that in mind when choosing what to cast on them.
Marxine: The intact buildings are probably where they’re holding the villagers.
Vinya: I’m sorry, Marxine. We need a strategy or plan here. Something to draw the Barbeds and Beards away from those buildings so we can get the villagers out.
Elderron: Oda also saw a 30’ wide well-like structure that looked like a pool of cooling lava. I think that’s a portal to the hells.
Aldalomiel: We could find a spot around the edge of the town and pick off the Barbeds with ranged attacks without drawing too much attention.
Marxine: Drawing attention away from the building is good. Some of us could get the villagers out while the rest of us do that. Maybe Elderron, Elama, and I could make a fuss while Vinya and Aldalomiel get the villagers out of danger. If we can get them out of the city, they can find their way to someplace safe.

We decided on that as something of a plan. Once the villagers were safe we could work on closing that gate -- both Elama and Elderron had dispel magic available. If that failed, Marxine and the hammer of unmaking could have a go at it.

The road led into the village, past a few destroyed buildings to the heart of the village -- some ruins and rubble and five standing buildings. We stopped outside of that Oda did another flyover, with Elderron watching through his eyes. He was able to identify the two buildings that the Chain Devils were moving between, which let Aldalomiel and Vinya know where to go. He also saw that the Beard Devils were widely spaced out, but loosely in a line facing the road from Elthir (the direction we were coming). The Barbed Devils were also widely spaced out behind them (from our point of view). The two “prison buildings” were further beyond them.

Vinya: Give us a couple of minutes to get into position before you start making a fuss.
Marxine: I’m more concerned about the villagers survival than ours.
Vinya: Understood. But we can’t save them if we’re dead.
Marxine: Right.

During those minutes, Elderron cast mage armor and mirror image on himself.

Aldalomiel cast pass without trace and she and Vinya headed around the village to a position as close as feasible to the two buildings we suspected were being used as prisons. We went around so that we were near the building closest to the portal (the well of lava) -- about fifty feet from the building and sixty from the portal.

Aldalomiel moved toward the building -- but stayed within thirty feet of Vinya so she’d stay in the pass without trace. That left her still a few feet from the corner of the building. She could see some windows in the walls -- they were low, because halfling buildings are typically at least partly dug into the ground. Unfortunately she couldn’t see inside from her position. She pulled her bow.

When they figured Aldalomiel and Vinya were in a good position, Elderron cast haste on Marxine. Marxine, about 120 feet away from some of the Beard Devils, moved up seventy feet and tried to get their attention on her. Then she cast shield of faith. (Note: The two parts of the party were unable to see each other. At this juncture it is plausible that Aldalomiel and Vinya could hear the fuss Marxine was making.)

Elama moved forward as well -- she hoped to cast call lightning, but the night was too dark for her to see well enough to do that, so instead she just ran as fast as she could and ended up about ten feet from Marxine.

Vinya, in the other part of the town with Aldalomiel, moved past Aldalomiel to the wall of the building and peeked in through one of the windows. She could see some halflings cowering against one of the walls and a couple of chains loose on the floor moving in a serpent-like manner apparently independently. She opened the window as far as she could without it making noise -- which was about 6 inches and not enough to really work with, alas. She then readied her short bow and held a shot for any devil she could get a shot at.

Over on the other side of town, six wads of fire came shooting out of the darkness at Marxine from beyond the Bearded Devils she could just see in the darkness. All of them missed.

Marxine: Shoot better! I thought devils had night vision.

Elderron moved and dashed to get closer to, but still behind, Elama and Marxine.

The Bearded Devils moved up, clustering around Marxine and Elama. Most of them chose to dodge rather than attacking, but one attacked Marxine with its glaive from 10 feet away. Fortunately it missed.

Over at the prison building, Aldalomiel went around the corner of the building to where we expected a door to be, based on what Elderron had seen through Oda. The door wasn’t locked. She cracked it open and saw a chain devil inside. She snuck through the open door as best she could. Once inside she dropped the pass without trace and cast hunter’s mark on the chain devil and shot it twice, hitting it once.

Outside with the mass of Bearded Devils, Elama cast call lightning and threw a lightning bolt at a couple of devils. One of them wasn’t dodging, but as Elderron had told us, it’s hard to get magic to affect them. Marxine moved right up to and attacked one of the bearded devils, attacking three times because of the haste on her.

In the prison, the Chain Devil turned to Aldalomiel. Chains unwrapped from its torso and swung toward her. Two of them wrapped around her, leaving her not only injured but also grappled and restrained.

Vinya looked in the window and saw the devil there. She fired four sunbolts at it, hitting three times, then moved back to where she couldn’t be seen through the window.

Outside, one of the Barbed Devils finally moved close enough that the party could see it. It attacked Elama but missed with both of its attacks. The rest of the Barbed Devils, still in the darkness and out of sight, threw wads of fire at Elama. Only two of the fire-wads hit, but they both hit her solidly.

Lamie: Ow!

The damage disrupted her concentration on the call lightning spell.

Elderron cast a fireball, which he modified to do radiant damage and have an intelligence save, on most of the Beard Devils and the one Barbed Devil that had moved close. One of the Beard Devils dropped and it appeared that many of them took damage from that. Then he moved just a bit, so he was a little less bunched up with Elama and Marxine.

Two of the Beard Devils were on Lamie. One of them hit her. She dropped it with her retaliatory lightning strike. Another of the Beard Devils attacked her -- both with its glaive and with its beard, but they didn’t hit. One of them attacked Elderron, but all it managed to do was break one of his mirror images. Another one missed Elderron because of the mage armor. The rest all attacked Marxine and all missed. The slow effect from the Rod of Litrices worked on a couple of them, who were suddenly moving like they’d walked into a wall of molasses.

In the prison, Aldalomiel was restrained and grappled by the Chain Devil, and the barbed chains cut into her, causing her to lose the hunter’s mark she’d placed on the devil. She turned into her starry archer form. She was able to shoot at it with her bow, hitting once, and to fire a radiant bolt at it, which also hit.

Outside, Marxine found herself in a target-rich environment. Two of the Beard Devils were under a slow effect from the Rod of Litrices. Marxine stepped away from the two slowed ones and attacked the ones on Elama. She dropped one of them with her first hit and another with her next two hits.

Elama could see a Barbed Devil coming toward her fast, so she cast shield of faith on herself. Then she went to one of the Beard Devils on Elderron and slashed it with her sword.

The Chain Devil in the prison attacked Aldalomiel again, doing a considerable amount of damage. The other Chain Devil surprised Vinya by coming around the corner of the building and attacking her--she was lightly damaged but also grappled and restrained.

Vinya shot four sunbolts at the Chain Devil holding her. Two of them hit, one very solidly. But it didn’t do anything to get her free of the devil’s chains.

Outside, Elama was in melee with a Barbed Devil. It missed her with its claws but hit with its tail that pierced her through her armor. Fortunately, she was able to keep the shield of faith active. The other three threw wads of fire, to unknown effect.

Elderron cast blight on the undamaged Beard Devil next to him -- it managed to avoid some of the effects but was still badly damaged.

The Beard Devil on Elderron responded with an attack -- but not a successful one. It badly missed one of the mirror images. The other two remaining Beard Devils advanced on Marxine -- both of them missed their attacks on her, but they didn’t get slowed by the Rod of Litrices.

Aldalomiel, in the prison on the other side of the village, was slashed and torn by the cruel chains that held her. She cast cure wounds on herself, because she was getting pretty badly hurt. Then she fired a radiant bolt from her starry form at the Chain Devil, but missed.

Marxine moved away from the two Beard Devils on her, risking the opportunity attacks (both of which missed anyway, though the Devils didn’t get slowed by the Rod), and went to the one on Elderron. She hit it three times and dropped it.

Elderron: Thank you!

Elama attacked twice on the Barbed Devil she was fighting, hitting once.

In the prison, the Chain Devil holding Aldalomiel hit her again. Vinya, despite being restrained and grappled, was missed. Emboldened by this, Vinya tried to wriggle out of the chains, but was unable to do so.

The Barbed Devil on Elama would have gotten a crit on her, but she was able to use the bulette shield to negate that, though she still took a normal hit. The other three threw wads of fire and missed.

Elderron fired a scorching ray, modified to do radiant damage, at the Barbed Devil on Elama and got two hits.

The two remaining Bearded Devils attacked Marxine. Once again, both of them missed. One of them got slowed again.

And there we ended. The next session will begin with Aldalomiel at the top of the round. There are five rounds remaining on Marxine’s haste spell.


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## prabe (May 12, 2021)

Session 42: Brush Bend Saved! Barely!

Dramatis Personae:
Aldalómiel - Wood Elf Ranger (Hunter Conclave)/Druid (Circle of Stars)
Elama “Lamie” Galanodel- Wood Elf Cleric (Tempest)
Vinya Anar - Wood Elf Monk (Way of the Sun Soul)
Elderon - High Elf Wizard (Loremaster)
Marxine - Mountain Dwarf Fighter (Champion)/Paladin

GM - Everyone Else


13 Bluzzimin 749 (Campaign day 164)(immediately after)

We began this session in the same pickle that we’d ended the previous session. Vinya and Aldalomiel were both grappled and restrained by Chain Devils and pretty badly hurt. The villagers of Brush Bend were held prisoner -- the last Aldalomiel and Vinya had seen them, they were chained and cowering in a couple of buildings near where they were restrained by the Chain Devils. Elama was in melee with a Barbed Devil and badly hurt. Three other Barbed Devils were throwing globs of fire at Elama, Elderron, and Marxine from the darkness, where they couldn’t be targeted with return fire. The lowest stress part of the combat was Marxine standing between two Bearded Devils, one of which had been slowed by the Rod of Litrices, and Elderron.

Aldalomiel took some damage from the spiked chains that were restraining her. She cast cure wounds on herself, getting herself back up to half hit points, then fired a radiant bolt at the chain devil restraining her.

At the other side of town, Marxine stood between Elderron and two Bearded Devils.

Marxine: If I stop being your cover, you’ll be okay?
Elderron: Yeah. I want to get you moving into the town.

Marxine then took advantage of being hasted and ran to attack the Barbed Devil on Elama three times. She hit twice -- including a crit that didn’t do as much damage as one would hope. Elama cast cure wounds on herself. Then she made an attack with the scimitar of speed and got a hit.

The Chain Devils up near the prison buildings, tightened their grips on Aldalomiel and Vinya and swung additional barbed chains at them. Each of them was hit once, Aldalomiel worse than Vinya.

Vinya managed to wriggle out of the grappling chains, taking damage on the way. She circled around the devil so she could get closer to where Aldalomiel was dealing with her own devil with the thought that they were stronger together. Then she did patient defense, in hopes of not immediately getting grappled and restrained again.

The Barbed Devil in melee attacked Marxine, which was good news for the good guys, and attempted to commit mayhem on her. It totally failed at that, but unfortunately it was not slowed by the Rod of Litrices. The other three Barbed Devils threw fire wads at Elderron -- two of them broke the last two mirror images. Elderron cast shield to protect himself from the attacks of the last one. The shield blocked one shot but one got through and did a small amount of damage.

Elderron attacked the Bearded Devils that Marxine had left him with -- casting a radiant damage scorching ray with two of the rays going to the devil that wasn’t slowed, one of which hit, and one on the devil that was slowed, which was a critical hit that did a nice amount of damage.

In response, the Bearded Devils attacked Elderron, in the absence of other targets. Both of them missed him entirely.

Aldalomiel was injured by the sharp chains wrapped around her as she tried to wriggle her way free. Unfortunately, she was not able to get herself free. She was able to cast healing word on herself and get back some of the strength she’d lost.

Marxine down at the other side of town was facing a Barbed Devil that was barely hanging on. Unfortunately it took her two hits to drop it. She then ran toward the cluster of Barbed Devils that had been throwing fire and got an attack, because of the haste spell, on one of those. That was going to stop them shooting out of the darkness.

Elama upcast shatter, increasing the power and damage to the absolute max so that it caught the three Barbed Devils, but not Marxine. Then she moved up next to Marxine and took a swing with her scimitar, which missed.

The Chain Devil outside the prison building swung chains and Vinya but she was able to dodge out of the way of them. Unfortunately, inside the building, the chains wrapped around Aldalomiel tightened and slashed at her and she was dropped.

Vinya, shouting in hopes the rest of the party could hear her: naughty word!! Aldalomiel’s down!

Vinya then fired two sunbolts at the Chain Devil on her, hitting once. She then moved closer to it, so she was right up in its face, and punched it in hopes of stunning it. Unfortunately, the attempt to stun didn’t succeed.

Two of the Barbed Devils tried to hit Marxine -- both of them missed but were not slowed by the Rod. One took three swings at Lamie -- she kept one of them from being a crit with the bulette shield but the collective total was a lot of damage. She was able to maintain her concentration on the Shield of Faith spell.

Elderron cast magic missile on the two Bearded Devils -- one of them was left barely standing at all, hanging on by a thread. The other one was also hurt, but not as badly.

Elderron: I’m almost out of spells

(Note: He was down to two third level spell slots.)

One of the Bearded Devils attacking Elderron missed both times. The other one missed with its glaive, but hit with its beard, which does piercing damage. (That’s a really rough beard.) Fortunately, Elderron managed to resist the effects of the poison the Bearded Devil had injected him with.

Aldalomiel bled and choked (and failed a death save).

Marxine noted with some dismay that none of the Barbed Devils looked especially hurt, and certainly none looked more hurt than the others. So she attacked the same one she’d attacked with her previous attack. She got two hits then she surged with energy and made three more attacks, all three of which hit. That was five hits on six attacks, two for minimum damage and three for maximum damage. After Marxine’s impressive display, that one was looking much worse for the wear.

Elama, standing near Marxine, cast cure wounds on herself, then she attacked with the scimitar of speed, though not at the same one Marxine had attacked. She did a nice lot of damage to it.

The Chain Devil that Vinya had been fighting outside the building missed her twice. The one that dropped Aldalomiel stepped outside the door and attacked Vinya. Unfortunately, it hit twice and damaged her badly.

Fortunately, it was also badly damaged, so Vinya fired four sunbolts at it. That dropped it. She moved a little closer to where Aldalomiel was on the ground, though she didn’t have a lot of options on how to help her.

Two of the Barbed Devils attacked Marxine -- they both missed. The other one attacked Elama and got one hit. Fortunately it didn’t hit hard and she was able to keep her shield of faith up.

Elderron, running low on spell power and wanting to save his last two spells for attempts to dispel the portal in the lava well, drew his short sword and attacked the very badly hurt beard devil. However, he hadn’t used his sword in quite a while and his strike wasn’t true at all.

In response, the Bearded Devils attacked Elderron. One of them hit with its glaive and they both hit with their beards. He resisted the poison again and wasn’t dropped by the attacks.

Out of the corner of her eye, Vinya saw someone approaching Aldalomiel, who was bleeding heavily on the ground. One of the halflings had wriggled out of her chains, which were loosening a bit with the chain devil’s attention on Vinya and Aldalomiel. She had a bottle in her hands, which she poured into Aldalomiel’s mouth. Before Vinya could react or say anything, Aldalomiel took a deep breath and coughed and looked around wildly.

Aldalomiel: Thank you.
Halfling: [made shooing motions toward her without saying a word]

Aldalomiel looked around and saw the Chain Devil that held Vinya outside the window that Vinya had opened slightly. She took advantage of the fact that it didn’t know she was there and shot two arrows through the window, missing once then hitting She changed to her starry archer form and shot a radiant bolt at it but that missed because it had figured out from the first two shots that there was a threat inside the window.

Marxine attacked one of the remaining Barbed Devils, missing twice but getting a critical hit with the attack granted her by the haste spell. Unfortunately, though she did quite a bit of damage, she didn’t quite drop it. Then she ran between them and past them toward where she could hear Vinya fighting. And where she believed Aldalomiel to be bleeding out. All of the Barbed Devils missed with their opportunity attacks and one of them was left slowed by the Rod of Litrices. She ran up the village street to get as close as she possibly could to Vinya and the door of the building.

Elama cast a shatter spell on all of the Barbed Devils and channeled divinity again to do maximum damage. That dropped the one that Marxine had pounding on. Then she attacked with her scimitar on another one, getting a hit.

The Chain Devil that held Vinya hit her with one of its swinging chains, dropping her.

Fortunately, when she hit the ground she was jolted back awake (immediately rolled a Nat20 on a death save). She spent a ki point and did a step of the wind, disengaging from the Chain Devil and running next to Marxine. Then she pulled a healing potion out of her bag of holding and drank it.

One of the two remaining Barbed Devils was slowed by the Rod -- it attacked Elama with its tail and missed. The other one missed with all of its attacks.

Elderron cast a magic missile with one of his two remaining spell slots to drop the two Bearded Devils that were both in really bad shape. Having dropped them both, he then moved toward where he’d seen Marxine and Elama disappear into the darkness. He got to a point where he could see Lamie fighting two Barbed Devils.

Aldalomiel moved away from the window and out of the building to a position of some cover from a building across the way (and at a good distance). She took two shots with her bow. One missed wildly but the other one got it in the eye and dropped it.

The haste spell on Marxine ended and she leaned forward with her hands on her knees and breathed deeply for several seconds.

Marxine, to Vinya: Go help Elama.
Vinya (with 8 hp): Yeah. On it.

Elama attacked the one that hadn’t been slowed by the rod with her scimitar. Then she struck the ground with her scimitar and cast Thunderwave. There was a loud crack of thunder and a shockwave that hit both of the Barbed Devils. Neither of them were pushed away from her, but they did appear to have taken damage.

Vinya ran down in that direction then shooting four sunbolts at the more damaged of the two remaining Barbed Devils. Three of them hit and did a fair amount of damage. Then she took some cover around the corner of one of the buildings.

The Barbed Devils focused their attacks on Elama, but they missed entirely.

Elderron moved up and cast Toll the Dead on the more badly hurt of the Barbed Devils, but it saved.

Aldalomiel moved down the street to a position where she could see Elama and the two Barbed Devils, then she fired a radiant bolt at one of them. It missed. Her two arrows hit more true -- one of them dropped the one that Vinya had fired radiant bolts at. The other one was a critical hit on the remaining one.

Once Marxine got her breath back, she looked around and saw that one barbed devil was all that remained of the danger.

Marxine went into the building that Aldalomiel had been in. There were ten or twelve halflings in there. Some of them had worked their way free of the chains, once the Chain Devils were no longer paying attention. They noticed that Marxine is a dwarf (not that that’s hard to spot) and the holy symbol painted on her shield.

Marxine: Are there more of you?
Halfling: I think there are more. Most of us ran when this happened. They rounded up some of us, but there weren’t enough of them to get all of us. So some are out in the desert, probably somewhere safe.
Marxine: Were there any other devils?
Halfling: There were only two with chains.
Marxine: I’m going to go back outside and wait for a signal from my friends that it’s all clear. I’ll let you know when it’s safe to come out.

She then went back out to the street.

Elama attacked the last one with her sword, hitting once, but didn’t drop it. Vinya stepped out from around the corner of the building, and used her last ki energy to fire four sunbolts at it, dropping it with the last one. She ran back up the road to Marxine.

Vinya: The last one is down.
Marxine: I think there were only the two Chain Devils.
Vinya: Oh good.

Vinya immediately sat down on the ground in the middle of the road.

Elama and Elderron walked together toward the lava well portal to make sure nothing else would be coming through. When they walked past Vinya, she stood up and began to follow them. When Vinya stood up, Marxine patted her on the back, laying hands on her and healing some of her damage.

Marxine: Good job.

Marxine went with the halflings to open doors and explore the intact buildings remaining in the town, making sure there weren’t more devils around. Elama, Elderron and Vinya checked out the lava portal, with Aldalomiel watching our backs with her bow at the ready. On the way there, Vinya used the geode of living energy to give herself some ki back.

At the portal, we saw writing, scribed in glowing red lava, in Infernal. Vinya pulled the helmet of comprehend languages out of the bag of holding and offered it to the others, but no one took it, so she put it on herself. The writing was a series of threats and grandiose claims, including some mentions of Rajalmin and his works. There was a passage that said that with the gate he claimed ownership of the town of Brush Bend. There was also language that placed him in a Hellish hierarchy. It was even a pretty plausible one -- not entirely grandiose. It said that he was in the service of Kaztrioch, a paeliryon (a type of greater devil that specializes in the gathering of information) in the service of Lovitosud, a pit fiend, in the service of Dispater, Lord of the Second.

Elama: Do we have to dispel this with magic or can we smash it?

Elderron was still intent on attempting to understand both the writing and the magic on the lava portal. He knew that Dispater is the lord of the second layer of Hell, known as Dis. It looked to him as though a targeted dispel magic would disable the portal. It also seemed plausible to him that it could just be smashed physically.

Vinya: Will breaking the portal break Rajalmin’s claim on the town? Or was the portal placing the initial flag in the ground, but his claim persists after the flag was planted.

Elderron believed that Rajalmin’s claim was to some extent grandiosity. He also felt that creating the gate had probably taken a lot of energy and resources on his part. He was pretty comfortable with the idea that the claim on the town would not survive disabling the portal.

We talked about having Marxine just smash it with her hammer of unmaking, but Elderron really wanted to try to dispel it and had saved a spell slot just for that purpose. When he cast the spell, there was a moment of pause, then the red glow in the infernal letters faded. But the physical structure remained. The gate was disabled.

Elderron continued to study it, while the rest of us waited for the right moment to smash it, but that moment didn’t come while it was still dark, because he wanted to look at it in the daylight.

So he made a tiny hut while the rest of us checked in on the halflings. Marxine asked them if they wanted to have a celebration that night -- but they weren’t in a celebratory mood yet. They were able to find a place for our horses.

We took a long and uneventful rest in the tiny hut.


14 Bluzzimin 749 (Campaign day 165)

In the morning, Elderron and Vinya together studied the portal. After a bit, Vinya gave Elderron the helmet of comprehend languages to wear to help him understand what he was seeing, and went to talk to the villagers.

Vinya: What exactly happened here?
The halfling who’d saved Aldalomiel: This caught us by surprise. We were having a wedding.
Vinya: Was one of the people involved in the wedding a descendant of Sarik Whitesand who lived a couple of hundred years ago?
Halfling: Not directly. A grand-niece maybe. Sarik left to go adventuring and never returned. I really don’t know much about her.

Later, Vinya found Elama.

Vinya: You might want to send a message to Lt. Linnolim to let him know that we’re out of town but will be returning as soon as we possibly can.

Elama did so.

Elama, to Linnolim through the spell: We’re in Brush Bend. We’ll be heading back to Dhaqi presently.
Linnolim, through the spell: Well, stop by when you come back if you want to keep working as temp guards.

Vinya asked one of the villagers, the one who’d poured the potion into Aldalomiel, if there was anyone in Brush Bend or Elthir who could teleport us back to Dhaqi.

Halfling: Maybe the Shining Silver Tetrahedron can have someone come get you. They don’t like to do that because it takes two spells from that person. So it’s very, very expensive. Your best bet is to go by boat.
Vinya: Is there a road that parallels the canal we could travel along?
Halfling: There are some roads. But there isn’t a contiguous road from here to Dhaqi. Your better bet is catching a canal boat.
Elama: Will a boat be able to take our horses? I’ve gotten attached to Nibbles.
Halfling: Maybe not the first one that comes by, but certainly some of them do.
Vinya: So we just wait here and catch a boat?
Halfling: Yeah. That’s about what happens. Usually there’s one every few days.
Vinya: Perfect.
Halfling: There’s an inn with beds that will fit you. You’re welcome to stay there.
Vinya: Thank you!
Halfling: You saved our town. It’s the least we can do.
Vinya: We couldn’t not. Once we knew you needed help.
Elama: And we can help with whatever you need as far as rebuilding.
Vinya: We can also help find the people from the village who scattered out into the desert.
Halfling: Once the smoke and the glow from that [wave in direction of where the cold remains of the portal still stood] stop, they’ll come back.

Elderron, still studying the portal, took down the names of those who Rajalmin answers to, up to Dispater. He also got an idea of how the creation of this gate was pulled off -- though that creation is way beyond Elderron’s power. He also learned that Rajalmin is not a normal rakshasa -- he’s more powerful in some way, but it’s not clear how. He isn’t exactly fully invested in the hierarchy of the Hells--which is a feudal-ish conglomeration of debts and promises and responsibilities--and is apparently working as something of a free agent for Kastrioch (and eventually for Dispater).

Elderron: The rock of this portal is not of this world. And it’s not elemental fire or elemental earth. This is stuff that broke through from the Hells.
Vinya: So it’s Hell rock? It’s got to go!

Once Elderron had all the information he felt he could get from the portal, Marxine encouraged the people of Brush Bend to help smash the portal, so it wasn’t just us coming in from outside as rescuers and smashing it.

Marxine explained to us that she wanted to leave the villagers feeling empowered and capable of taking care of each other and their town.

The villagers got on board with Marxine’s plan and helped with the destruction of the gate.

Aldalomiel talked to the halfling who’d saved her.

Aldalomiel: I insist on repaying you for the potion you gave me. That was a major item for the village.
Halfling, the Mayor of the village, walking with her around the village: That building still stands. And that one. And that one. Our village is worth far more than a potion.
Aldalomiel: [nodding]
Mayor, ending their walk at the rubble of the gate: A couple of our people have died. If you want to repay us, find the one who built that and kill it. But take your time. We don’t want you to die trying.


15-17 Bluzzimin 749 (Campaign day 166-168)

We spent the next few days while we were waiting for the boat following Marxine’s lead as far as helping to provide opportunities for the villagers to build their sense of being able to care for and support each other. It was important to Marxine, and all of us, that we left the town feeling empowered rather than victimized.

We also did some martial training -- Vinya doing some very basic martial arts training, Aldalomiel doing some archery practice and lessons, etc. Our lessons worked pretty well -- some of the younger people of the village said they might want to go out adventuring like us, and then return to the village with more ability to defend it.

The villagers turned out to be pretty good at fending off native threats -- wild animals and bandits -- but a lot of devils was out of their league.

These days passed as a community-building montage.


18 Bluzzimin 749 (Campaign day 169)(immediately after)

In the morning, a barge arrived on the canal with enough room for us and our horses. The captain agreed that we could let the horses walk alongside the oxen that towed the barge to get exercise.

The captain explained to us that the canal is largely at sea-level. There are drawbridges across it along the way, so we’ll have to be aware of that sort of thing.

We ended as we loaded up our horses and stuff and prepared to leave Brush Bend on a barge called The iv-Nulis.


----------



## prabe (May 21, 2021)

Session 43: Into the Ancient Wizard Tower

Dramatis Personae:
Aldalómiel - Wood Elf Ranger (Hunter Conclave)/Druid (Circle of Stars)
Elama “Lamie” Galanodel- Wood Elf Cleric (Tempest)
Vinya Anar - Wood Elf Monk (Way of the Sun Soul)
Elderon - High Elf Wizard (Loremaster)
Marxine - Mountain Dwarf Fighter (Champion)/Paladin

GM - Everyone Else


18 Bluzzimin 749 (Campaign day 169)

We left in the morning aboard the barge the iv-Nulis being towed by oxen along the Ewiv Canal from Brush Bend to Dhaqi. It was expected to be a 15 day trip.

The iv-Nulis was mostly a cargo barge. We were the only passengers.

Vinya and Lamie, as usual, sat on the front of the boat and watched the world go by. For the first few days most of the excitement was taking our horses out to get some exercise walking alongside the oxen towing the boat.

We went past a couple of villages in those days, but not many.


21 Bluzzimin 749 (Campaign day 172)

In the afternoon, we could see an expanse of water on the horizon. On the water, small and distant, we could see one or two other barges like the iv-Nulis being towed across by smaller vessels with windsails. One of the barge workers told us that when the canal was built, way before the Severance, there were springs and lakes in the plains, so the builders of the Ewiv Canal used those as part of the water system in the canal. We were told that it would take two days to cross this lake.

As we were approaching the village, the barge worker pointed to a hill-sized (and shaped) block of basalt at the edge of town and exclaimed in surprise. A number of other barge-men and -women came and expressed surprise as well. They agreed that this huge boulder was new since the last time they’d sailed by.

As we got closer, we could see that there was an intact tower, lying on the ground with the top lying on the ground and the base of it on the basalt.

Vinya: Can we stop?
Barge-man: We were going to anyway. The captain needs to arrange for a tow-boat across the lake.
Vinya: It looks like one of those floating tower-islands crashed.

The iv-Nulis tied up at a pier along the edge of the canal. We were told that we’d be stopped for about 2 hours while the captain made arrangements.

We walked along the tow-path at the edge of town toward the basalt hill.

Villager: It fell out of the sky about eight days ago.
Vinya: Good it fell on the edge of town rather than in the middle of it.

As we got closer to it, we could see that the tower was square, about twenty feet on each side, and almost entirely intact. However, a couple of blocks lay on the ground near what would have been the top of the tower, leaving an opening where we could enter the tower.

Elama cast augury and asked about exploring the tower. The response she got was both weal and woe.

Vinya: Shall we go in where the blocks came out?
Elama: Are you sure that’s a good idea?
Vinya: No -- but it seems like it’ll be fun. We’ve seen a few of these floating islands. They’re pre-Severance, right? Like by a lot. This is the first one we could go through.
Marxine: Better to explore it on the ground than in the air

As we got closer, there were some villagers in a loose circle around the fallen tower and basalt boulder. They were keeping people away from the tower, though they didn’t seem to be at all inclined to stop a group of obvious adventurers.

Vinya: Why keep people out?
Villager: There are noises. Sometimes buzzy, sometimes screechy.

Before we went in, Marxine did her divine sense -- she got neither good nor bad vibes. Vinya cast see invisible from the Rod of Alertness. Elama cast freedom of movement on Marxine.

After all of that, we went in through where one of the blocks came out. We entered into a chamber that was much larger than the exterior dimensions of the tower (80 feet on a side). There were some continual flame torches on what had been the walls (now floor, ceiling, and side walls), so there was light inside. Vinya grabbed one to take with us just in case.

This chamber was mostly empty, with some broken pieces of what looked like it had been bedroom furniture on the floor. We could see a railing and the opening of a spiral staircase in the middle of the wall that had been the floor when the tower was upright, about 35’ above us.

Vinya, looking at the broken furniture: This stuff is all over a thousand years old. And it hasn’t crumbled away or deteriorated -- it’s just broken.

Vinya took a rope and walked up the wall with the slippers of spiderclimb. At the top she secured the rope to the metal railing mounted into the stone “side” of the spiral staircase, then threw the rope down for the others.

Vinya: Maybe the lighter folks should come up first. I think we have a potion of climbing that could be left with Marxine just in case the rope doesn’t hold.

Elderron, who we figured was the lightest, got halfway up the wall when we all started to hear a bad creaking grinding noise from where the metal railing was attached to the stone. Vinya grabbed the rope and found herself with the entire weight of Elderron hanging off of her, with grunts and aargh-ing noises.

Marxine: I’ll take that potion.

Elderron continued up, with Vinya bracing herself and holding the rope across her shoulders.

Vinya, once Elderron had gotten to the staircase: It’s a good thing you’re slender.

We tied the rope around the central pillar of the spiral staircase. While Elderron and Vinya were doing that, Marxine used the potion of climbing to climb the wall and place pitons to properly secure and attach the rope.

Once the rope was secured, Aldalomiel and Elama climbed up. We left the rope and pitons in place so that we’d have a secure exit if we needed it.

Crawling along the sideways spiral staircase was a weird process of going up and over the central pillar and then dropping down a few feet to the bottom end of the spiral. It was awkward going but we made our way through what had been the floor to the next level in the tower. Vinya looked out into the room -- it looked like a fairly conventional study, though turned on its side. What had been the walls were covered with bookshelves, though all the books on what was now the ceiling were on the floor beneath us, which was itself a bookcase crammed with books.

Marxine tied another rope around the central pillar of the stairs and dropped it down into the study. We couldn’t see anything in the room, but we could hear a buzzing noise. Vinya cast see invisibility from the rod of alertness again. That didn’t help, because she still couldn’t see anything moving.

Armed with that knowledge, Vinya climbed down to the floor-bookcases and waited for the others to come down on the rope.

It suddenly occurred to her that she was standing on pre-Severance books and she started waiting far less patiently for the rest of the party to get down to this floor. Once everyone was safely down, Vinya and Elderron started putting books in Vinya’s handy haversack. Vinya mostly let Elderron choose which books to take, but did remind him (and the rest of the party) that we didn’t have anything to put them in other than the handy haversack.

Vinya, to Elderron: This was clearly a wizard’s tower.
Elderron: Yeah. There should be good stuff here.
Vinya: I don’t think we should take the time for you to cast a ritual. I can cast it through the rod.
Elderron: Great idea.

Vinya did so and started to walk around. As she was walking around, she spotted something that we’d missed wedged into a corner where the spiral staircase extended down into the room and the (former) ceiling it went into. She grabbed that and continued walking around on all the walls and through as many of the books as possible. She picked up any books that showed up as magical, of course, and anything written in Elvish or obviously about Elves as well.

When she made her way back around to Elderron, she handed him the staff, finally getting a good look at it. It was made of purpleheart wood and topped with a perfect cube of transparent calcite (otherwise known in the real world as Icelandic spar).

Vinya, handing the staff to Elderron: This looks like a wizard thing.

Elderron immediately sat down and began preparing to ritually cast identify on it. Vinya continued her walk, trying to cover as much ground as possible picking up books that looked interesting or magical.

Everyone in the party other than Elderron, who was very preoccupied, noticed that the buzzing sound we’d been hearing was getting louder and louder. Then four horrifically human-sized praying mantis-looking things with scythes on their arms came out of what had been the staircases leading through the walls to the “floor below” (now the next chamber over). Vinya was a bit away from everyone else in the party, because of her walking around to look for magic and books. (Vinya had totally filled up her handy haversack and was now just using rope to make a bundle of books to wear on her back and tying them on the outsides of people’s backpacks.) Marxine was standing over Elderron to make sure he stayed safe and Elama and Aldalomiel were near them.

Elderron was saved from being surprised by the flail of warning alerting him to danger.

Three of them came out of the former stairway on the left side of the room and one on the right side of the room. The one on the right flew to Vinya, who was closest to it, then landed and slashed with its scythe-like talons at the ends of its arms. It made three attacks, which all missed. The other three spread out -- one each on Elama, Marxine, and Aldalomiel (ignoring the unarmored guy sitting on the floor). The one on Aldalomiel only got one hit, but it was a big one for 21 points of damage.

Marxine: Yikes!

The ones on Elama and Marxine missed all around. Unfortunately the one on Marxine didn’t succumb to the slow from the Rod of Litrices.

Vinya attacked the mantis in front of her with her quarter-staff (guessing that these wouldn’t need magical weapons to hit them), hitting both times, then followed up with a punch and a stunning strike (that worked). Aldalomiel cast zephyr strike, then ran to the “wall” (formerly the floor) on the other side of the room and fired two arrows at the one that had attacked her. Both of those hit, doing a lot of damage. Elama cast thunderwave on the mantis in front of her -- pushing it so that it was next to the one that Aldalomiel had just skewered and doing a lot of damage. Then she moved to be adjacent to both of them and attacked one with her scimitar of speed. Marxine attacked the one in front of her, hitting twice (one of them a crit). That was so successful, she did an action surge and attacked again, hitting twice again. The total damage from Marxine’s turn was 60 points. NICE!

Of all of them, Marxine’s mantis was definitely looking the most ragged at this point.

Elderron moved to line up a lightning bolt on the three of them over there. It took a bit of doing and the bolt went perilously close to Elama. He made the bolt have a wisdom save (but left the damage unchanged) and she was able to entirely avoid damage from it. The bolt was somewhat anemic but still did 26 points of damage.

The three non-stunned mantises made a noise like a cough and from their joints emitted a cloud of what looked like shards of glass-dust. Everyone managed to avoid the dust, but it looked like it would be incredibly hazardous to breathe. Vinya’s, because it had been stunned, was unable to do that.

Vinya, seeing the crystal shard-dust: I want to keep mine stunned, I see.

She then proceeded to pound on hers, doing two attacks with the quarter staff and a flurry of blows with a knee and fist, all of which hit. She stunned it for the next round with a knee to the thorax.

Aldalomiel missed twice with her arrows then took her starry archer form and got a critical hit with the radiant bolt. Elama cast spiritual guardians then stepped a bit to the side so that all three of them on that side of the room were within the radius of little floating, zapping thunderclouds. Then she made an attack on one with the scimitar of speed and got another hit. Marxine attacked her bug, already starting to look frayed. She missed with one hit but did maximum damage with the other, leaving it looking pretty bad indeed. Elderron cast another lightning bolt, this time without having to worry about hitting Lamie as she’d moved out of range so he made it an intelligence save and had it do cold damage. Once again it wasn’t the most powerful spell, but it did hurt them.

The three mantises on that side of the room all took damage from the spiritual guardians, then attacked. Two of them were attacking Elama, each with three attacks. One of them hit twice. The other one only got one hit, but it was a critical hit. Fortunately the spiritual guardians stayed up. Marxine actually took a hit, which rarely happens.

Vinya hit once with the quarterstaff and once with an elbow, but it wasn’t affected by her stunning strike. Aldalomiel dropped one of the two on Elama with her arrows then fired a radiant bolt at the other one. Elama, having been hit pretty hard the previous round, started dodging. Marxine absolutely splattered the one that had been on her, then turned to the one remaining on Elama and hit it hard as well. Elderron finished that one off with a fire-damage blight spell that caused it to burn from the inside -- the exoskeleton glowing as its insides flamed before the exoskeleton itself burned and crumbled to ash.

The only mantis remaining, the one on Vinya, flew up into the air and its wings made a harmonic noise that charmed her entirely. Then it broke and flew toward the nearest staircase (the one it had come from), which was only a few feet away. Then it disappeared into the darkness.

Vinya ran after it, calling for the others.

Vinya: It’s hurt! We need to help it.
Aldalomiel, following: Sure, these are healing arrows.

Aldalomiel followed with a move and a dash to get to the entrance to the next room, where Vinya was waiting at the doorway. Then she fired a “healing” radiant bolt at it that hit. Elama kept up her concentration on the spiritual guardians and ran as fast as she could to get to the entrance to the other staircase, but didn’t go through. Marxine, who was closer to that staircase than Lamie, moved and dashed and got part-way through. Elderron, closer still, was able to get into the next room.

Where he saw Vinya chasing the bright elusive butterfly of love -- or at least the flying mantis-like creature that had charmed her -- calling for it to come down so she could help it. We were in what looked like a former magical work room, though all the furniture (and alchemical glassware) had crashed to the floor when the tower tilted and/or crashed.

The Butterfly of Love turned around and attacked Vinya, hitting her twice for a painful lot of damage.

That brought Vinya back to a bit more of a rational place and she was able to still her mind and end the charm on herself, then she used a ki point to step like the wind and move behind the broken remains of a bench.

Aldalomiel, to Vinya: Are you no longer seeing the pretty butterfly?
Vinya: Yeah. Sorry about that.

Aldalomiel then proceeded to shoot it -- hitting it with an arrow and a radiant bolt. Elama ran into the room and cast sacred flame on it (to no effect) then cast a powerful healing word on herself. Marxine ran in, but wasn’t able to close. She wasn’t able to get closer than the very edge of range for throwing hand axes at it. She tried that anyway, throwing two of them, but they both missed. Elderron cast a basic magic missile which did enough damage to drop it.

As soon as the last mantis dropped, Elderron sat down and started the ritual to identify the staff again. Vinya cast detect magic from the Rod of Alertness again and went back to walking around in this new room, the former workshop of the wizard who’d owned this tower. Vinya found a big, ornate book that could be a wizard’s spell book. She put that next to Elderron so he could put it into his bag when he was done with his ritual.

She got the impression, which Elderron confirmed later, that this wizard had been mostly focused on light, radiant energy, and illusions. We found some notes he’d made about research he’d been doing and slipped those into someone’s backpack.

While Vinya was walking around checking out the room, Aldalomiel cast cure wounds on her.

Vinya: Thanks.

Elderron finished his identify spell on the purpleheart staff with an impressed whistle.

Staff of Triltum (requires attunement by a spellcaster)

This staff is made of purpleheart, topped with a block of clearest calcite. While holding the staff, you gain a +1 bonus on spell attack rolls. Whenever you score a critical hit with a spell attack, the target takes an extra 3d6 radiant damage. Also, while holding this staff you can cast the Wall of Light spell once; you regain this ability at dawn.

Vinya: I think we’ve gotten both your weal and your woe here, Elama.
Lamie: That explosion thing they did was annoying.

Lamie then cast protection from poison on Vinya.

We moved on, taking the staircases in the walls from one room (floor) to another. We went through a kitchen and a formal dining room, getting ever closer to the basalt rock itself. While we were in a parlor there was a low-pitched rumbling and shaking, in the mind as much as in the walls. It seemed like it was coming from inside the rock.

We figured we had to be getting close to where the tower sat on/came out of the rock, in part because this appeared to be a room for receiving visitors. There were stairs on either side of the room that went on into, most likely, the basalt itself.

Elderron sent Oda in, watching through his eyes. Oda saw three beings in the room -- one figure was an extremely obese humanoid, medium size. His hands were so fat or swollen they were almost flippers and he was holding an object that looked like a staff. The other two were ogre-sized and grotesque. The skin and subcutaneous layers were transparent, so he could see the muscles twitching as they moved around. They were humanoid in shape and ogre-sized (and looked a bit like if you’d skinned an atypically lean ogre) with lots of teeth. Their eyes didn’t seem to have eyelids.

There was a lot of stuff in the room -- a glowing and flickering crystal that was hard for Oda to look at but the rumblings we could still here seemed to be in time with the flickering in the crystal.

All three of them turned to look at Oda. Elderron immediately popped Oda back into his owl-pocket.

Before we could consider too deeply what to do, the two large skinned-looking figures started climbing through the stairway into the parlor we were in. The blobby figure walked through the wall (phasing through not bursting through like Kool-Aid man).

Vinya: Maybe we found the wizard.

And there we ended.


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## prabe (Jun 10, 2021)

Session 44: The Wizard And His Skinned Assistants

Dramatis Personae:

Heath - Aldalómiel - Wood Elf Ranger (Hunter Conclave)/Druid (Circle of Stars)
John - Elama “Lamie” Galanodel- Wood Elf Cleric (Tempest)
Sara - Vinya Anar - Wood Elf Monk (Way of the Sun Soul)
Emily - Marxine - Mountain Dwarf Fighter (Champion)/Paladin

Note: Elderon's player couldn’t be with us this evening. Elderon apparently got enraptured by some book in the library in the tower and was reading.)

GM - Everyone Else


21 Bluzzimin 749 (Campaign day 172)

We ended Session 43 in the ancient wizard tower that had been on a floating island that crashed to the ground. We’d made our way through the tower, fighting our way through it from the top of along (since it was lying on its side) down to about where the tower was built into the basalt rock it had been floating on. We’d been pretty badly damaged, and depleted, by a fight with some insectoid creatures and hadn’t had time to take even a short rest. We ended the session with Oda having scouted the last room in the tower and found an extremely obese human, holding a quarterstaff accompanied by two ogre-sized humanoids with transparent skin -- their muscles and ligaments were all visible and twitching.

They spotted Oda and came toward us -- the two transparent-skinned ogres through what would have been the staircases down to the lowest level and the obese humanoid with the staff phasing through what is now the wall (and was originally the floor).

Before they arrived, Elama cast bless on Vinya, Marxine, and Aldalomiel. Vinya moved a few feet and planted the Rod of Alertness in the floor, to give us all the benefit of the bonus to AC that it gives.

Vinya ran to the wall, fired two sunbolts at the transparent-skinned ogre on the right, then ran about ten feet up the wall with her slippers of spider climb and did patient defense. Aldalomiel shot two arrows at the obese humanoid (who we presumed was the wizard to whom this tower once belonged) then took her starry archer form and fired a radiant bolt at it. She got two hits.

The transparent-skinned ogre on the left moved up until it was about ten feet from Aldalomiel and attacked her with reach, slamming her with big meaty fists, one of which hit. The other ogre-like entity moved toward Marxine, but wasn’t able to get to her.

Marxine moved so she was between that ogre-entity and Aldalomiel and attacked with her hammer. Elama, who was running low on spells after the fight with the insectoid creatures, moved up to stand next to Aldalomiel and cast Thunderwave, hoping to move the ogre away from her (and avoiding Marxine in the area of effect). The ogre-entity took some damage but it was not pushed away.

The wizard made a gesture and a weird, color-clashing, bad-smelling blob of stuff hit the ogre on the left (the one that had attacked Aldalomiel) and Marxine, Aldalomiel, and Elama all took psychic damage without any opportunity to avoid or resist it.

Vinya ran down the wall and over to the wizard, hitting him once with her quarterstaff (and failing the attempt to stun him) then missed with a bonus action punch. Frustrated with that, she ran around behind the wizard, between him and the wall he’d just phased through to try and draw his attention away from the rest of the party.

Aldalomiel, with a transparent-skinned ogre right in front of her, cast Zephyr Strike, which allowed her to get away from the ogre-thing.She ran to a corner and shot two arrows at the wizard -- hitting him once pretty solidly.

Both of the ogre-things attacked Marxine and both of them missed her entirely. The ogre that had attacked Aldalomiel got slowed by the Rod of Litrices.

Marxine attacked that ogre-thing, hitting it once and whittling it down some. Elama backed away from the ogre-thing that had attacked Aldalomiel, getting out of threat range, and cast sacred flame on it, but unfortunately it saved.

The wizard found himself with a monk right behind him and made an arguably bad decision -- because he attacked Vinya with the staff in his hands rather than casting a spell. He missed.

In return, Vinya attacked him with her staff and didn’t miss. She was also able to stun him with one of her hits. She followed that up with an elbow to his throat.

Aldalomiel cured herself with a spell then fired a radiant bolt at the ogre-thing on the left, the one that everyone was focusing fire on.

The ogre-things once again tried to attack Marxine. And once again both missed entirely and one was slowed by the Rod of Litrices.

Marxine attacked the one we’d been focusing fire on, hitting it twice. Elama followed Aldalomiel’s lead and cured herself, then moved around the ogre-thing on the left until she was directly opposite Marxine, in order to provide flanking. She attacked with the scimitar of speed (which gives a bonus-action attack) and got a hit.

The stunned wizard just stood then while Vinya hit him with her quarterstaff across the temple, stunning him again. Then she hit him again with the quarterstaff and with an elbow to the solar plexus. Aldalomiel fired two arrows at the stunned wizard -- hitting both times, one of which was a crit. Then she fired a radiant bolt at the ogre-thing everyone was attacking, hitting it as well.

The two ogre-things attacking Marxine each actually got a hit, against all odds. Even though both of them missed with one attack, neither was slowed by the Rod of Litrices.

Marxine got her second wind and she attacked the same ogre-thing we were focusing fire on, the one on the left. She hit once and did a nice amount of damage. Elama edged around through the ogre-thing’s threatened area and cast cure wounds on her, then she started moving back carefully, but didn’t make it all the way. Then she attacked with her scimitar of speed getting a nice hit.

The wizard, stunned again, just stood once again while Vinya hit him with her quarterstaff and attempted a stunning strike. He saved against the stunning strike. She hit him again and he saved against the stunning strike. That was the last of Vinya’s ki points.

Vinya: Bugger.

Her unarmed kick to the back of his knee did hit, at least. Aldalomiel shot two arrows at the wizard, dropping him. Then she fired a radiant bolt at the ogre-thing we were focusing fire on, getting a critical hit and doing a lot of damage.

The other ogre missed its attacks on Marxine, getting slowed by the Rod of Litrices. The one we were focusing fire on actually turned away from nigh-unhittable Marxine and attacked Elama instead, hitting her only once. It dodged Elama’s lightning damage in retaliation but was still dropped by the residual damage.

Marxine only had one target remaining -- it was slowed, but largely unhurt. She hit it twice. Elama stayed away from it and cast sacred flame -- it failed the save, but the damage was minimal. Vinya shot two sunbolts at the remaining ogre-thing, then moved up to give Marxine flanking and to punch him with an unarmed strike, which hit.

Elama: I only have one revivify available.

Aldalomiel shot it twice her arrows, hitting solidly both times, but missed with the radiant bolt.

The ogre-thing appeared to freak out somewhat at the loss of the wizard and its compatriot, and it did a huge flailing thing, attacking at both Marxine and Vinya at the same time. It missed Marxine, but hit Vinya, knocking her prone but not out.

Marxine, now without flanking, hit with both of her attacks and dropped it.

Whew!!

The room we were in was the remains of a parlor, the furniture all broken and shattered where it fell when the tower crashed to the ground. Vinya retrieved the rod of alertness, then she and Vinya scouted through what were the stairwells to the last/lowest room in the tower.

We saw a flickering crystal about the size of a wine barrel about 40 feet (half-way) up the far wall, which was originally the floor. We saw some art around and some other things. Vinya went to get the rest of the party, casting detect magic from the rod of alertness when she was in the parlor getting the rest of the party. She spotted a magical ring on the wizard, which we collected before we returned to the final room. The staff he was holding was not magical--in fact, it started to sublimate when he died. In that room, with the flickering crystal on the wall, we found a cloak and a brass horn that were also magical. We put those in Vinya’s bag of holding.

We also found a broken abacus -- some of the arms were broken and a few of the beads were missing. This appeared to be for doing some weird kind of non-decimal mathematics, though it was difficult to tell. There was a pocket with notes attached to the abacus, which is not, itself, magical. Elderron looked at the notes and found that it was the wizard’s spellbook. The one we found in the laboratory had mostly notes and a few basic low-level spells -- this was the one he had clearly developed as he grew in power.

The crystal was in some sort of housing or setting on what had been the floor. VInya walked up the wall and looked at the housing around the crystal. It had some discoloration to it and the crystal had cracks or flaws. She couldn’t tell if they were on the surface or deep into the crystal. There was no writing around it, but there did appear to be some marks like orientation marks or compass marks. They looked like indicators so the wizard could steer, at least somewhat, the floating island. The rumbling we’d noticed in the tower appeared to be coming from the gem and the light it was giving off flickered regularly.

The rest of the party looked around this last room for anything like writing or papers, but didn’t find any. We had found some in the notebooks we found in the laboratory -- including mentions of places we’d never even heard of, such as Sigil, Draalaath, and Nirama.

There were no further exits from this room.

As we were going back through the parlor, we noticed that the wizard’s body was decaying incredibly quickly and had already mostly decomposed away, as did the staff in his hands. , Vinya finally figured out that the wizard’s name was probably Triltum -- as the staff we found in the stairway to the library was called “Triltum’s Staff”. It’s a reasonable hypothesis at least.

When we got back to the library, everyone got loaded up with interesting looking books -- Vinya grabbed anything in Elvish that she saw. Elderron grabbed interesting books as well. We filled up all the backpacks and satchels in the party, including Vinya’s Handy Haversack, then tied books on the outsides of the backpacks and satchels as well. Elama suggested using the magical cloak we’d found to carry more books, and we did that.

Vinya pointed out to the others that we’d heard these floating towers were at least pre-Severance. Maybe older than that. Elderron agreed that the magic to float islands and towers had been lost with the Severance, and the existing implementations had gotten less stable and predictable over the centuries.

We got out of the tower without too much trouble, thanks to having left the rope hanging and waiting for us in order to have an exit. We emerged looking beaten up, pretty badly beaten up, but victorious. The tower was still making occasional rumbling/thrumming noises.

One of the villagers guarding the perimeter: What’s with that noise it’s making?
Vinya: I’m kind of worried about that noise, to be honest. There’s a cracked power crystal in there. You might want to enlarge the cordon around the tower, just in case.
Marxine: Can we talk to your mayor about calling in outside help?
Vinya: And a librarian.

Elderron said that he believed that the crystal was unstable in the long term, but would probably not catastrophically explode in the next week or so. Probably.

Elderron: Help can probably get here in time. And if it explodes, it’s probably going to be psychic damage, so the buildings will be okay.
Vinya: Yeah. If we can talk to the mayor, we’d like to contact some people who might be able to help. But we don’t want to impose that on you.

We were taken to see the Mayor, a human man named Torin.

Vinya explained that there was a library full of knowledge from before the Severance in the tower and that it should be collected and conserved and made available to researchers. She also mentioned that there was an unstable power crystal in there and that it might explode any week now, maybe any day now. Torin was a little skeptical about the whole thing, but agreed to let us notify someone from Dhaqi to come in and assist with both of those situations.

At his agreement, Lamie cast sending to Jorcha Linnolim at the Well of Screams.

Elama, through the spell to Jorcha: Hi! We found a crashed wizard's tower in Dortil, with a broken unstable power crystal. Wanna help?
Vinya: Remember the library.
Elama, still through the spell: And an intact-ish library.
Jorcha: That sounds dangerous, and important. We'll get someone there soon-ish. Make sure the people know to keep out.

Elama, to the Mayor: Tell people to keep out of the tower. We’ve cleared out the monsters but it’s still dangerous.
Mayor: Thank you.

We headed back to the iv-Nulis, getting back in plenty of time before it left Dortil to cross the lake under tow. We retired to our room, taking a short rest. Vinya started identifying the books we found while Elderron identified the things we’d found. (See treasure list at end of session notes.)

Vinya found a book on pre-Severance Elvish religion among the ones we’d found and sat down and began puzzling her way through that.

The day passed with reading and discussing the magic items, followed by the night passing. And thereby we had a long rest as we crossed the lake under tow.

We ended the session there and will begin again on 22 Bluzzimin 749 (Campaign day 173).

Treasure from Triltum’s Tower (Sessions 43 and 44)

All of the items we found are in the DMG.

Brass Horn of Valhalla (this does not require attunement and can be passed around among the party)

Ring of Free Action -- requires attunement. It allows the wearer to ignore difficult terrain, magic can’t reduce their speed and they can’t be paralyzed or restrained.

Cloak of the Bat -- requires attunement. It allows the wearer to fly as long as their hands are free and they are in shadow or darkness. It also gives advantage on stealth checks in shadow or darkness.

Hat of Disguise

Triltum’s Abacus Spellbook -- non-magical but very nice.

Triltum's spellbook is in the form of something like an abacus, in some sort of non-base-ten, with a tattered bundle of notes tucked into a leather pocket sewn into the bottom. Arms are broken and beads are missing, and there are pages missing from the notes; but it's clear Triltum was working on magic from a more purely mathematical direction than most current theories.

The following spells can be reconstructed from the notes present, using the abacus in its current condition. Someone dedicated enough can plausibly reconstruct the arms and beads, and Triltum's theories.

1st: Flash, Gift of Alacrity, Voidslime, Triltum's Forced Learning, Senses of Tindalos, Tasha's Caustic Brew (T), Catapult (X), Illusory Script, False Life, Fog Cloud, Silent Image, Unseen Servant, Alarm

2nd: Aegis, Adroit Escape, Acid Serpents, Mind Spike, Dust Devil, Warding Wind, Blur, Locate Object, Magic Mouth, Rope Trick

3rd: Triltum's Timeskip, Intellect Fortress (T), Thunder Step (X), Wall of Sand (X), Bestow Curse, Blink, Gaseous Form, Glyph of Warding, Haste, Magic Circle, Nondetection, Remove Curse, Slow, Tongues

4th: Wall of Darkness, Sickening Radiance (X), Elemental Bane (X), Evard's Black Tentacles, Confusion

5th: Gravitic Crush, Far Step (X), Synaptic Static (X), Scrying, Dream, Contact Other Plane

Triltum’s Normal Apprentice Spellbook -- non-magical as well. Mostly theory, but has a few minor spells in it: 1st: Expeditious Retreat, Protection from Evil and Good; Tenser’s Floating Disk; 2nd: Arcane Lock, Detect Thoughts, Phantasmal Force

Staff of Triltum -- (requires attunement by a spellcaster) -- This staff is made of purpleheart, topped with a block of clearest feldspar. While holding the staff, you gain a +1 bonus on spell attack rolls. Whenever you score a critical hit with a spell attack, the target takes an extra 3d6 radiant damage. Also, while holding this staff you can cast the Wall of Light spell once; you regain this ability at dawn.

Lots and lots of books -- GM NOTE: Information on this to come later.

Art Objects -- Worth 750 gp each: silver chalice with moonstones around the base; silver-plated longsword with jet in the pommel; gold comb in the shape of a dragon, with garnets as the eyes; obsidian statuette with gold fittings and inlays, in the shape of a dancing six-armed woman; painted gold war mask, molded and painted to look like an angry storm giant. (This is one art object (or 750 gp) for each of us. Vinya would like the gold comb in the shape of a dragon, if no one minds.)


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## prabe (Jun 23, 2021)

Session 45: Rajalmin’s Agent

Dramatis Personae:

Aldalómiel - Wood Elf Ranger (Hunter Conclave)/Druid (Circle of Stars)
Elama “Lamie” Galanodel- Wood Elf Cleric (Tempest)
Vinya Anar - Wood Elf Monk (Way of the Sun Soul)
Marxine - Mountain Dwarf Fighter (Champion)/Paladin
Elderon - High Elf Wizard (Loremaster)

GM - Everyone Else


22 Bluzzimin 749 (Campaign day 173)

We successfully crossed the lake during this day. In the evening we arrived at Terozzi on the other side of the lake and docked there for the night.

During the day we talked about the stuff that we found in the fallen tower. Elderron was interested in the Cloak of the Bat, so he got that. We decided that Marxine should get the Ring of Free Action, though that could be useful for anyone. We decided to keep the Hat of Disguise in the Handy Haversack, because it might be useful sort of situationally.

We overnighted on the iv-Nulis in Terozzi and the night passed without incident.


23 Bluzzimin 749 (Campaign day 174)

Before we left town the next morning, the iv-Nulis took on another passenger -- an earth genasi merchant. We didn’t see any large quantity of goods being loaded as the genasi came on board.

He was introduced to us as Irahi Tulq and one of the crew told us that he’d paid well to be another passenger on the barge. (The iv-Nulis is much more a cargo barge than a passenger vessel.)

Irahi Tulq was very interested in talking about the things we’d seen and done. Over the course of the next couple of days we talked with him several times. Elama mentioned the fallen tower, which got him very interested. We told him about the things we’d fought and the furniture that had fallen. We mentioned that there had been some sort of time-stopping effect protecting things until the wizard died -- then the furniture started to decay. Vinya was careful not to mention anything about the library that we found.

Irahi Tulq: Why are you on the river?
Vinya: We were at Brush Bend. We were at Luxug’s Wall in Daqi, I don’t know if you know it, and saw that some naughty word was going down in Brush Bend. So we hurried over to help.
Irahi Tulq: That behavior just baffles me. You ran toward the danger.

Elama read his surface thoughts with her Helm of Mind Reading. He didn’t seem to be baffled at all.

Irahi Tulq, thoughts: (sarcastic) Of course they went to help.

Vinya kept back anything to do with demons, devils, fiends, and most especially Rajalmin. But she was willing to talk about anything else we’d seen -- including other floating towers and things we’d fought in various places.

In another conversation, we asked him what he traded in.

Tulq: It is best described as small but expensive items.
Vinya: You must have some significant powers to be able to defend yourself and your goods.
Tulq: They are not obvious. I found a bag of holding and use it to transport my items.
Vinya: Oh, man, we’d love one of those.
Tulq: It is not for sale.
Vinya: No, of course not. But we’d appreciate you letting us know if you see one for sale. If you have a way to do so.
Marxine: Why are you alone?
Tulq: I have found that one person on publicly maintained roads generally can avoid the notice of those that might be inclined to rob him. Security by obscurity.
Vinya: Have you been anywhere interesting? Can you recommend places for us to go?
Tulq: In Oldest Dhaqi there is the House of the Wind and Sand. They are all about flying and rapid overland travel, especially around Za’akesh. Their prices are, however, exorbitant.
Vinya: We traveled by the Shining Silver Tetrahedron. They were likewise not cheap.
Tulq: Teleportation rarely is. As I’m sure you know, the Tetrahedron also does planar travel.

It became clear to us that Irahi was only going as far as Rhe’ez -- a village a few days travel from Terozzi.

We traveled without incident (other than walking the horses along with the mules on the towpath and talking to Irahi Tulq) for a couple of days until we arrived at the next village.


25 Bluzzimin 749 (Campaign day 176)

We arrived at the next village, Onitri, on this day. Aldalomiel left the iv-Nulis to go look for ammunition. Elderron went to find fine paper and inks so he could start transcribing the spells he could readily figure out from the broken abacus spellbook.

Irahi Tulq disembarked and Vinya sort of generally followed him, going in the same direction without trying to be obvious about following him. He went to a market and went through some merchant stalls. He appeared to be looking for deals on small items that he could carry in his bag of holding. Vinya followed him for a little while, until he proved to be absolutely boring, then she returned to the boat.

We stayed on the boat, docked in Onitri overnight. And the night passed without incident.


26-27 Bluzzimin 749 (Campaign day 177-178)

A couple of days passed quietly as we sailed from Onitri to Rhe’ez.


28 Bluzzimin 749 (Campaign day 179)

We arrived in Rhe’ez late in the day and we’re told we’d be staying there overnight. Irahi Tulq disembarked as soon as the boat docked and was gone out of sight almost as soon as the boat tied up.

We asked one of the crew for a restaurant recommendation and were sent to the Sterling Dolphin for dinner. The food there was clearly inspired by or related to Dhaqin street food -- smoky, peppery foods, some moles, tapas-style small plates. We ordered a feast of small plates and tried lots of different things. All very good.

Vinya kept an eye out, but we didn’t see Irah Tulq.

After dinner, we returned to the boat and the night passed without incident.


29 Bluzzimin 749 (Campaign day 180)

We left Rhe’ez in the morning on the iv-Nulis. We were informed by the crew that we were going to be traveling for a while between towns and were going to be traveling overnight.

In the evening after dinner, Aldalomiel was up on deck walking around, Vinya and Elama were sitting up in the bow watching things go by. Elderron was studying in our cabin down below. Marxine was down below trying to ignore the fact that we were traveling by boat. Still.

Around sunset, as we were going along, one of the crewmembers, who had been swabbing the deck, suddenly just fell over, drooling. Elama ran to him -- he didn’t appear to be breathing, so she gave him some healing. He sat up.

Elama: What happened?
Crewmember: (drools)

He was now breathing, but appeared to have suffered some sort of severe, traumatic mental injury.

Elama: Can you get Elderron, Vinya?

Vinya ran down to our quarters and told Elderron and Marxine what was going on and where Elama was with the crewman. Then she went to get Captain Luzin.

Elderron, to Elama: What’s going on?
Elama: He just fell over and was dying. I cured him but he’s still not right.
Elderron: There are some spells that leave no wounds but leave the victim stupid.
Vinya: Permanently?
Elderron: For a very long time.

Vinya and the captain looked around the deck and around the ship, but didn’t see anyone but us and the crew there. We got back to Elama and the stricken crewmember.

Elama: How far are we from Dhaqi?
Captain: About four days.
Elama: Maybe someone in the next town can help him.

Vinya cast see invisibility from the Rod of Alertness and looked around very carefully, walking around the perimeter of the deck and looking around. About 60’ off the stern of the boat, she saw a giant frog-like thing swimming along and keeping pace with the iv-Nulis. It was human-sized but frog-esque.

Vinya went and passed the word to Aldalomiel, asking her to tell the rest of the party, then tried to hide and watch it without letting it know it had been made. Unfortunately, when she got back to keep an eye on it, it had dropped back. It had apparently spotted her spotting it.

Aldalomiel spread the word amongst the party that there was a froggy, aquatic, invisible thing tailing us. She talked to the captain about whether he’d be willing to stop the boat. He said he would be, though his own inclination was to get to Dhaqi as quickly as possible. Elderron started ritual casting water breathing.

Vinya noticed that it was falling back -- not getting out-paced, but deliberately hanging back. Vinya passed that word to the others. Vinya started the crew making a hue and cry about the stricken crewman, Jorni, hoping that might make the frog-thing curious. .

The Captain pulled over to the side of the canal and tied up at one of the cleats left at regular intervals for the canalboats to use. When the boat stopped, the frog thing stopped and backed off some -- to about 100 feet away behind us. We noticed another barge approaching, from the other direction (from Dhaqi) -- it was about 100 feet in the other direction.

Captain Luzin: I’ll make sure they stop.

We decided we couldn’t wait, because that other boat was going to be in danger. Elderron stopped casting the water breathing and ran to the back of the boat to cast dispel magic. Elama was waiting there, ready to cast control water as soon as she could see it. Aldalomiel held an arrow shot, likewise waiting until she could see it.

Once Elderron cast dispel magic, he recognized the thing as a hydroloth, a type of yugoloth that steals memories. That memory-theft effect can be reversed with either greater restoration or remove curse. They often work as mercenaries for demons or devils. He relayed this information to the rest of us.

Marxine jumped off the boat onto the towpath and ran as fast as she could back in its direction.

Elama cast control water, moving the water away from the hydroloth and leaving dead center in a 100’ area without water. It had 50’ of dry canal bottom in every direction around it. Then she jumped onto the towpath and ran toward it again.

Aldalomiel fired her held shot, hitting it nicely.

Vinya jumped off the boat and ran as fast as she could, using some of her ki to run with the step of the wind. Then she fired two radiant sunbolts at it, hitting with one.

The hydroloth waved its froggy hands and tried to do some weird magical stuff, but nothing happened. Elderron got the sense that it had tried to dispel the control water and failed. Then it moved to Vinya and tried to grab her, but missed.

Elderron cast lightning bolt on it, upcharge, but altered the damage to radiant and the save to wisdom. It was a solid hit that did a lot of damage. Marxine jumped into the dry canal and moved and dashed so that she was right up in its face. Aldalomiel fired two arrows at it, hitting twice and doing a lot of damage. Elama ran and jumped into the dry canal, running and dashing to get as close as possible. Then she cast spiritual weapon, placing the little floating lightning cloud right next to it, but missed with that. Vinya shot it with sunbolts again, hitting twice (once a crit). She spent some of her ki to fire two more sunbolts at it, getting another crit. That dropped it.

The body began to deliquesce into a foul-smelling puddle.

Elderron: There are no more, are there?
Vinya, still seeing invisible things: Don’t see any.

Vinya walked up the side of the canal and tied a rope to a cleat, throwing it down to help the others up out of the canal.

Once Elama and Marxine were out of the canal, Elama released the hold water. We walked the hundred or so feet back to the iv-Nulis together.

Elama: We all think Rajalmin sent this, right?
Vinya: I sure do. He hired those oni, so we know he’s not above hiring mercenaries.
Marxine: And we just pissed him off.
Elama: He might have informants.
Vinya: I’m back to suspecting Irahi Tulq.

We got back on the ship and give the Captain the all clear, which he relayed to the boat going in the other direction.

Vinya: I believe that Elama can help Jorni.
Elama: Yep. Tomorrow.

When we’d resumed proceeding, Vinya went to talk to the captain.

Vinya: Have you encountered anything in the water that attacked people before?
Captain Luzin: No. Trade is too important. Dhaqi and Illhon, its trading partner, go to some lengths to keep the canal clear.
Vinya: Okay. So that really was weird.

The rest of the day and night passed without incident.


30 Bluzzimin 749 (Campaign day 181)

First thing in the morning, Elama cast remove curse and undid the sailor Jorni’s memory theft.

Elderron explained to us that if it had gotten memories from someone in the party, it could have taken that memory to Rajalmin, so that he would have our memories. Elderron thought it could examine the memories it collects. So it knew that it had gotten a sailor and missed any of us.

Elama: I’m getting pissed. Rajalmin doing things to usis one thing -- but taking down random people and mind-snarfing them is not cool. I wonder if that thing was in brush Bend and followed us the whole way.
Vinya: I’m still suspecting Irahi Tulq.

The rest of the day and the night, indeed the entire rest of the trip, passed, though we had some fun celebration of the Feast of Sky, the midsummer festival, on the ship (on Day 182). Lots of drinking, though less than there would have been ashore and/or further north--there’s a tradition of drinking from sundown to sunup, trading off standing the rounds..


2 Sunnin 749 (Campaign day 184)

We arrived in Dhaqi right around dinner time.The first thing we did on our arrival was to go check in with Lt. Linnolim to get our guard badges fixed. He was happy to see us and that we had survived our adventure intact. We filled him in on what happened -- both what had taken us so suddenly out of Dhaqi to Brush Bend and what happened on the way home.

Vinya:We talked with your sister about the fallen tower.
Linnolim: Yes. They decided to travel more quickly to get there, because it seemed like a dangerous situation.
Vinya: Oh, they didn’t go by boat?
Linnolim: She and one of her librarians traveled by flying carpet there. They made arrangements to have a barge meet them there. There are going to be some librarians and laborers on the boat.
Marxine: Could it be the barge we accidentally stopped?
Linnolim: (confused look)
Vinya: We were attacked by a hydroloth we think was sent by Rajalmin. He was definitely involved in the situation in Brush Bend. Do you know an earth genasi named Irahi Turq?
Linnolim: No. I don’t think so, why?
Vinya: Random, free-floating paranoia. But he got on our boat, asked a lot of questions about what we’d been up to, then got off. Then we were attacked by the hydroloth.

Linnolim took our guard badges, which had gotten thoroughly marked with verdigris during our time away from the city, and gave us new ones.

Vinya: Is there anything we can help with?
Linnolim: Not right now, but I’ll keep an eye out.

We left the guard house and went back to our inn, Bultir’s. Bultir was apologetic, because he’d had to let our rooms in our absence. However, he did have new rooms for us.

Elama: Can you keep horses?
Bultir: There are stables in the Society of Guests.

We took our horses (Nibbles, Horse, Comrade II, and the unnamed horses belonging to Aldalomiel and Elderron) to the stables and made arrangements for them to be stabled there. Then we went back to Bultir’s and took rooms. Elderron considered whether he needed to rent a room for a workshop, but didn’t make the decision to do that right away.

We ate in the restaurant, then went to our rooms to rest. We had two rooms with a connecting door between them. Elderron spent a couple of hours learning the spell Alarm from the abacus. Then he ritual cast it on the doors and the windows.

The night passed without incident.


3 Sunnin 749 (Campaign day 185)

We ate breakfast in the restaurant at Bultir’s.

Vinya, as she finished hers: I’d like to go to Luxug’s Wall and see if we can learn more about this Irahi Turq person.

The others agreed and we went there after we finished eating. At Luxug’s we paid our money and took our numbered flag. Then we got coffee and sat down to wait for our report.

When it arrived, the report was short.

Irahi Tulq lost his soul to a succubus some 70 years ago. Since then, the succubus has been intermittently using him as a persona to assume.

Vinya: So it was the succubitch that reported our location. Then Rajalmin sent something big to deal with us. (an unpleasant realization dawns) Rajalmin knows how long it takes for a cargo barge to get to Dhaqi.

Vinya (to the desk clerk at Luxug’s Wall): Do you do extra-planar readings?
Clerk: It is more expensive and less reliable. And less complete.

Vinya and Elama paid for a report on Rajalmin.

Vinya, as we went to sit down again: I wonder if we get a refund if it turns out he’s on this plane after all…

A little while, and some very good coffee, later, we got our report.

Ughu Rajalmin Ard is a mighty rakshasa in the indirect service of Dispater. His lord is most interested in information, and Rajalmin mostly serves that need. On Erknonin, Rajalmin sates his lust for pleasure and undying revenge. His castle on Dis is full of fiends who serve him directly rather than taking part themselves in the Blood War.

Rajalmin has access to slightly more magic than most rakshasas, and is completely unafraid to step into combat himself with his greatsword.

The gate in the Well of Screams has on occasion led directly to his small castle on Dis, as has one of the portals in the Prince's Palace in Kiranamakir.

We left Luxug’s Wall and walked and talked about this. We already knew from Elderron’s research that Rajalmin goes after the families of the people who thwart him. And that he has all kinds of devils and yugoloths and fiends (non-specific) working for him. But no one has ever seen him working with demons.

Elama had a bit of shopping to do -- she wanted to get some additional diamonds so she’d have enough for four castings of Revivify. She also acquired a crystal ball for scrying.

We also went up to level 9.

And there we ended.


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