Adventure Log - Part 6 - The Spark

Notes from 9/13/2014 to 7/8/2015. [Sep 998 - May 999]

The Spark

Wrapping Up Business

The Exterminators

Ninety-Nine Zombies to Clear from the Hall

Undeadly Force

Wizard's Aid Society

Out of the Frying Pan into the Brimfire

A Night at the Ball

Lord Grundar

Packing Our Bags

---

The Spark

Notes from 9/13/2014

[September 998]

[9/1/998]

As Jin sleeps that night she gets a vision. She first sees a generic human being, then an elf, then an old elf. “Hello Jin. I am Primary Interface. I have been sent to contact you. We live outside of time, and we need your help.” Primary Interface then goes on to describe its colleagues: Blue Triangle – a reflection expert, and Seed Growing Fruit – a sequence expert. Primary Interface then goes on to discuss the spell cast by the three circles of mages and the result. Partly as a result of our activities, we have separated the created energy from its creators. Primary Interface describes it as a spark – one that is nascent and vulnerable. What the spark will become is unknown, for it has many potentialities. Jin asks how to contact the spark and Seed Growing Fruit (apparently the closest entity to an expert on these matters) replies that it doesn’t know. The Spark is like a child and has not developed its capabilities. For now it lives by feeding off the energy that supports its principle – in this case it would appear to be our adventuring. They would like to make further contact, and Jin gets the understanding that this could be accomplished at the pillars.

Afterwards we all share a dream. We see a pentagon. At each vertex is a symbol – some of them vary based on the dreamer. Some of these symbols are lit to various degrees, but the same for each of us. At the top is a star-shaped pentagon (dark). The upper left symbol is blank and dark. The upper right symbol is domino mask that is faintly lit. The bottom left is a dimly lit combat related symbol that varies with the person. The bottom right is a brightly lit symbol related to our recent puzzle-solving dream. We have a choice between the combat and domino mask symbol – we choose combat. As we do so we fall into a familiar looking arena. Opposed to us are five figures, four of which are familiar from our previous dream combat. “Ah crap, these guys again…”

We organize attack. Facing us are a mage, rogue, cleric, fighter, and paladin. Grinuë throws Resist Fire on most of us, as well as See Invisible and Invisibility on Tylden. Lauriel throws Grace 4 on herself. The fight is long and arduous, but we are better prepared this time to face them. Resist Fire negates many of the mage’s power combat spells, and our armor negates much of the effect of his Magic Missiles. The fighters prove fairly ineffective against us, but the rogue is able to backstab Grundar and Lauriel at various times with fairly devastating attacks. Grinuë herself is felled by Fire Strike having dropped her Fire Resistance by then, but does not die so her spells remain effective. Grundar and Lauriel are putting what seems to be an infinite amount of damage on the fighters who take their licking and keep on ticking. Grundar is able to discern that the cleric is throwing Area Heal every turn, and then Lauriel changes target, steps toward the cleric and with that nice 2 hex reach impales the cleric on her longsword and takes him out.

The fight grinds on and at one point all four remaining party members are rolling for consciousness every turn. Jin is able to quaff enough potions to get out of the red zone, but is unable to heal Grinuë. Grundar is just about to take out the rogue, but falls unconscious. Tylden is trying to plink various opponents at time, but the mook penalty (-7 or -8) makes it incredibly hard for him to hit anyone at range. The turning point seems to be when the paladin throws area heal – which heals the various fighters but Tylden and Lauriel as well. (Unlike the cleric, the paladin doesn’t have the enemy hex exclusion clause written into his Area Heal contract.) Tylden is later taken out combat, but refreshed Lauriel charges on, and is able to take out the remaining fighters one by one until only the mage is left. By this time the mage has run out spells effective against us. He had been flying for most of the combat, but comes down and attacks Lauriel with his staff out of desperation. Lauriel whacks him. Combat Over. In the end, only Lauriel and Jin are standing.

Back in Vonmek, thieves steal the silver shipment the night of 8/30. Shawchee is very apologetic to Grundar when he wakes up that morning – but he was simply overpowered (and has the wounds to show for it). Grinuë is able to re-establish communication with the party still in the tunnels. Tylden immediately heads back to Vonmek while the remainder go to the Pillars. In Vonmek, Grinuë throws Seeker and determines that the silver is somewhere in a forest. Grundar hires all available hunters/trackers and those in Vonmek set off to recover the silver, and the trail generally leads to the southwest from Vonmek. Tylden takes 2 ½ days to return to Vonmek, then starts to follow the trail left by the thieves. It takes some time, but he is finally able to pick it up. Both Tylden and the Grundar/Grinuë group are able to follow the trail to the west, but then encounter the swamp. It is much harder to follow the trail in the swamp and Tylden soon looses it. Afraid that the thieves are headed to the coast to dispose of the silver, Tylden presses on, eventually reaching the sea. Grinuë, using her magical Seeker abilities, is able to get a read on the thieves, and eventually the party makes its way to the thieves' camp – a few ramshackle buildings in a relatively dry hollow. Grundar leads the charge and the thieves are quickly overpowered. Miraculously none are killed. Still, they are given a 2nd chance: death or working in the coal mines. They choose the coal mines.

Among the booty:

• a dozen cut glass goblets
• a silver buckle (magical)
• a bag of spice
• a child’s doll – new and well-made

Interrogating the bandits, they declare that they got the doll and spice from a woman wandering about the swamp. The woman ran into a bear cave – this all happened a couple of weeks ago.

In the morning Grundar sets fire to the bandit’s camp and Tylden starts making his way back from the coast. Grinuë has a bandit take her and Grundar back to the bear cave. Inside they find the body of the woman and a pouch containing a few coins and a letter: Here is some money to make a doll for Janice – you do such a good job. Bring it next time you’re by.

Grinuë takes some time to fly about the swamp with the doll making inquiries, and eventually is able to find the town where Janice and her mother live. Grinuë returns the doll and letter and informs them of the fate of the woman – Janice’s aunt.

[9/8/998]

The party with Grundar and Tylden returns to Vonmek. There they find that a young ruffian and a band of disreputable fellows has shown up asking for Grinuë. There follows a tense conversation between Grundar and Arychi – who is Grinuë’s brother. Arychi seems to be a combination of Grinuë’s bluntness and acerbity but without any of her common sense. (Perhaps a bit overstated. At one point he looked ready to fight Grundar, but decided to stand down after looking over the odds.)

[9/9/998]

Both Grinuë and Jin’s part arrive in Vonmek. Grinuë goes to talk to Arychi in the bar with the rest of the Growlers hanging about outside. Arychi informs Grinuë that she must go home – it’s high time she settled down and found a husband. This has the success one would expect. (Unless your name is Arychi.)

Jin discusses The Spark with Fencallad and Rithban. They are very excited about the Spark. They also have no clue at all about it. Grinuë starts researching auras.

• 4 CP + 1 CP for success in the Dream Combat.
• +2 CP to Grundar for miserliness above and beyond the call of role-playing.

Wrapping Up Business

Notes from 9/27/2014

[September 998]

(We explore the joys of Mumble and Maptool)

Belt buckle of command. 4 syllable command – roll vs Will – if they fail then they must obey the command. Must occur immediately. Example: “Drop it!” “Wait!” “Drop!” Only lasts for 1 sec. Costs 2 FP. Blocking.

The chew boots are just regular boots.

Grinue fixes the spindle of freeze water and hide trails.

Jin goes over the books and notices a discrepancy: Pol’unty has given himself a 30% raise without telling us. Grundar has a talk with him…

Tylden, after consulting the Growlers, sends Onskel & Onther to Caithness to determine if indeed Castor has been drawn westward. Grundar & Grinuë give them additional money to “keep their eyes and ears out for additional business opportunities”.

Tylden and Lauriel visit the various villages to see if they need anything killed. It rains the entire time. They tell them that they don’t need any help. Go away.

Arychi continues to try to convince his sister to go home, but between Grinuë and Jin, they talk him down. He demands that the Growlers keep her safe! He and his party stalks off.

2 CPs

The Exterminators

_Notes from 10/1 and 10/5/2014 _

[September – October 998]

[9/21/998]

We head off into the tunnels for the room of Pillars.

[9/28/998]

We are in the room of the pillars. The party consists of the core group, including Trel, Burl, Fimble and Grimble. We get to the room of the pillars and find the passageway leading to the spiders. Jin throws a couple of fireballs at the web blocking the tunnel entrance, opening up a hole. Beyond: more web. Jin flames this as well, we enter a larger cavern area. We see a spider beyond – it skitters away. The group enters the cavern and sees more webs where the spider disappeared. More flame from Jin burns it away. We continue to follow, find another webbed over passageway, which Jin burns a hole in with a very nice fireball. However, this passageway is blocked with rock on the bottom – the spiders can move through a hole near the top. Grinuë throws Wizard Eye, then Dark Vision on herself, and looks inside. We continue to explore the caverns, fireballing cobwebs. We continue exploring – Grundar bravely explores ahead of all of us – and is attacked by a giant spider! The spider manages to grapple Grundar while other smaller spiders swarm around him. The rest of the party rushes forward to his aid. The large spider is stronger then Grundar and starts pulling him into the web. Lauriel, who already dropped her first sword, drops her other sword and grabs Grundar. Grinuë throws Create Fire on the region where the spiders (and Grundar who has Resist Fire on him) are, but not where the party is. With Lauriel’s help, Grundar extracts himself from its grasp. We fight of this spider, but more come, including a giant spider. Grinuë stuns it and it falls to the ground. More spiders swarm overhead and Grinuë goes to ground- literally – sinking into the floor but taking a spider with her. A furious fight continues. Lauriel flips up her sword from the ground and continues attacking the large spider who is starting to recover. Tylden and the goblins shoot as many as they can, although at one point an arrow (goblin, mind you) plinks off Jin’s brigandine to no effect.

The spiders vanquished (eventually) the party starts to rest, but Jin and Grinuë are both affected by the spider bites. Jin manages to recover with healing aid from Grinuë, but Grinuë herself is in worse shape. The problem was that the spider that was grappled to her when she sunk down into the floor was able to continue to bite her. The spider did so much damage to her leg that it is now crippled. The intial prognosis looked quite grim (6 months), but a successful Restoration spell by Grinuë and her leg is looking much better – although we will all have to refrain from calling here Gimpy for the next month.

We burn the webs and investigate the cavern. There is the desiccated body of an adventurer within – and from his journal he turns out to be the wizard from the Birds of Prey. As it turns out, the journal is also a spell book of Protection & Warning.

After resting we return to the pillars. Jin inspects them, then tries to contact the extra-temporal beings without luck. Then she takes a nap during which she has a strange dream. She thinks Blue Triangle attempts to contact – but she can’t understand what he is saying. Something like: “Interface Destruction Probability (image of Jeffar) Sequence Destruction Primary Subject (image of the graveyard) Sequence Execute”.

[10/1/998]

The next month arrives. We still have to make Will rolls, but only at -2, and nobody is affected.

1 CP

Ninety-Nine Zombies to Clear from the Hall

_Notes from 10/8/2014 to 10/21/2014 _

[October 998]

[10/1/998]

We spend a couple of days at the pillar with Jin power-napping, waiting for dream sequences from Blue Triangle, but is unsuccessful. She doesn’t get the sense that being close to the pillars is helping communication at all. After a day of fruitless endeavor, we head back to Pembrose.

Wershaw reports that all is calm, although reports of unusual Undead activity around Bostwick. Jeffar says she is looking into it. We pay a visit to Lord Kyle who also has nothing to report. We pass by the farm which is doing surprisingly well. We decide to leave Fagan there, who seems to continue to be pacifying influence on the Hatfield and McCoys.

We head to Bostwick and meet with Jeffar. She is looking harried, but is surprisingly happy to see us. “Thank Freia! Finally, someone who might be able to help with this mess!” There have been reports of undead behavior – Jeffar thinks there must be a necromancer behind it. Townspeople think that dead from the graveyard have been rising up and attacking people. In several instances, the alleged attackers dragged off their victims after killing them.

Jeffar brings back a couple of villagers who had been attacked. They were attacked in separate instances – at night during moonlit nights – by several dozen undead. The man recognized one as someone who had died a month ago.

We all troop off to see the scene of where the woman was attacked – across the river to the west of town, just past the Goat’s Beard Inn. The man was attacked a couple of hundred yards away. Grundar talks the man into showing us the grave of the dead man that attacked him. The graveyard is surrounded by a wrought-iron fence. There are signs that the ground was disturbed around the grave site. Tylden looks around – quite a few graves seem to be disturbed in the particular area. It seems confined to one area only, as far as he can tell.

That night we camp out in the graveyard. Tylden notes a group emerging out of the mausoleum. Some skeletons, some zombies, all gathered in a clump. They emerge – about 16 in all come out. Then – all at the same time – they try to go back inside. This doesn’t work out too well, but eventually they sort themselves out and go back inside. Tylden goes back to the party and reports. We all gather up and head to the mausoleum which is empty when we arrive. We open the secret passageway again and head down. Tylden notes that the floor shows evidence of creatures moving back and forth along it. We follow the passageway – about halfway there is a double door to the north. The trail leads to and through this door.

We head back to the inn, get a couple of rooms and get some rest. Jeffar comes by for a progress report. We get her up to date and ask her to join, but she declines. We go back out that night and camp out near the mausoleum. Grinuë was hanging out on the top of the mausoleum when spirits emerge. Jin throws Strengthen Will on Grundar. One of the spirits accompanies Grinuë back to the party, swoops around, then heads back inside. We are able to all see the spirits which Grinuë points out to us. We head in, down the passageway, back to the double doors. Grundar attempts to open up the doors – but they are quite solid. Grundar, Trel and Burl start to hack at the door. It takes about 15 minutes for them to break down the door, which was iron-bound wood. (The dwarves also manage to avoid damaging their axes.) Grundar reaches in to unlock the door, but as he reaches into the mist beyond he feels something grab his arm. He is able to pull it back from whatever grabbed it.

Grundar, Trel, Burl, and Lauriel form up and put their weight against the door. Despite being hacked up, the door seems to have lost none of its resistance to being opened. Grundar directs some concentrated bashing against where he thinks the hinges may be. A spirit comes out and attacks Lauriel a couple of times before Grundar whacks it with the Morningstar of Doom and it heads back inside. Grundar continues to hack at the door, but gets nowhere. Grinuë starts to analyze the door. After about 40 minutes, a skull spirit peeks out from the wall. Then four come out and attack Tylden, all four hitting. Grundar whacks one into nothingness, the other three going down the hall. We attempt to beat a strategic retreat, but Grinuë throws Affect Spirits on Lauriel, and Lauriel and Grundar are able to destroy three of the four spirits.

We take a brief respite as the door burns from the application of an Essential Fire spell by Jin. In the meantime the party goes upstairs to recover, bandage some wounds, recover fatigue, then head back down.

After resting, we head back down. Lauriel throw Grace(4), then Grundar and Lauriel hit the door and manage to send burning timbers everywhere. We burst in – and see roiling blackness in the room. It has several zombies inside. Behind them a gnomish voice commands them to attack. Grundar parries one attack – the zombie explodes in a mass of black goo that spatters on Grundar and Lauriel. Lauriel begins vomiting, but is aided by Grinuë.

The black fog only allows us to see a few yards. (2 hexes). Jin sends forth a Wizard Eye, and sends it forward enough to see a small gnomish figure holding a staff and chanting. She sends the Wizard Eye down the gnome’s mouth. There are an incredible number of zombies. Grundar and Lauriel valiantly chew through a large number of them, but Trel is felled at one point and falls beneath the onslaught.

The zombies just keep coming along with orc zombies. The mage throws a couple of Death Visions, but Grundar, Burl and Lauriel recover in good stead. Grinuë throws fire on the room, and eventually the zombies start burning up. We have chewed through most of the zombies, but then the mage steps up at touches Grundar with his staff, affecting him with Rotting Death.

Now Burl, Grundar (Rotting Death) and Lauriel (x2!) are all grappled, but all manage to throw off the zombies. The remaining zombies advance, but the mage advances into view. Tylden’s field of vision, and he looses a shot at him that hits home, while Grinuë stuns him. Lauriel clears off the zombie on Grundar, then Grundar steps up and whacks the mage (who is a gnome.) With another whack the mage is dispatch, while Lauriel clears the remaining three zombies in the hallway. In all, 99 zombies were killed. We rush in to Trel who is barely conscious. Grinuë heals him up out of danger, and we all breath a sigh of relief.

Loot:

• 2 potions
• chainmail shirt
• small pouch ($12)
• mage’s staff

3 CP

Undeadly Force

Notes from 10/26/14 to 1/1/2015

10/26/2014

[October 998]

Jin reads the gnome mage’s journal. He follows the god Gornagul – apparently not a nice guy. He has been trying to find the Finger of Death, which enables the user to raise armies of undead. He found it across the hall from the temple. Now he’s raising an army to use against the stupid humans.

We head across the hallway. There were two statues - one of them has its arms raised, another has its arms lowered. Waaaait a minute. We remember them as having both their arms raised. In the one with its arms lowered there is a key in a keyhole. Dust is disturbed behind this statue, and there is a secret door leading to a passageway which leads to a compartment.

The gnome’s staff was the forearm and hand of some strange humanoid with all of its fingers missing but one. Grinuë wraps her cloak around the staff and apportates it as a method of transportation. We head upstairs out of the temple and over to Jeffar’s. We pound on the door and get the attention of an acolyte who fetches Jeffar. When Grinuë describes it a staff of Gornagul, Jeffar demands it be removed from the premises immediately! We take it away from the temple, with Jeffar accompanying us. She examines it, and confirms that it is indeed an artifact of great evilness. We are wondering how to destroy it. Tylden somewhat off the cuff suggests chucking it into a pool of hot lava. Short story short: we chuck it in, some evil smoke comes out, we think it’s toast.

We head back up, visit the farm, then head back to Bostwick where Jeffar performs a blessing on the party (just to be safe).

[10/9/998]

We head back to Vonmek, arriving mid-month. Grinuë does quite a bit of aura reading to try to discern how the party is connected to Clark the Spark. She gathers some information about those who are and are not connected, but nothing to report yet. Jin examines the books – everyone seems to be toeing the line. Grundar makes a good deal of crucible steel, finishing 10/23/998. Grinuë makes a cubic yard of orichalcum. Where there, we hear reports of a pair of mountain tigers in the area.

Jin goes off to Burle to try to research making fluffy creatures to do her business, but is having difficulty figuring things out. She finds a curmudgeon assistant willing to hire himself out to her for $66/day. She doesn’t care and pays for it. He is actually helpful in finding books for her. Unfortunately, they don’t really have any useful information. After she leave, Jin sends in a Wizard Eye into the library. She manages to evade a patrol (with wizard) that seem to have been sent out in response, but they don’t see the eye. She sends it in, looks around, and seems to find where the oldest scrolls are kept – some are in a locked section. Some are even under glass. Jin returns the next day and ask Old Curmudgeon for some more interesting scrolls this time. After a morning of looking at scrolls, she “goes to lunch” and ditches her escort, returning to the stacks. In the end she copies a couple of useful spells. Afterwards, she tries to break into the library. The guards seem fairly relaxed, but in the end decides against it.

Elsewhere, Tylden and Lauriel and a couple of Growlers find some tiger tracks. After following them for several days they lose the tracks and can’t find them again. Lauriel finds the tracks, and she is also fairly sure they are a mating pair. They don’t seem to be doing anything out of the ordinary, and decide it's not worth following up.

[11/1/998]

Back in Vonmek, time for Will rolls. Tylden and Lauriel are fine. Grundar has some nasty stomach pains. Grinuë is out for the count, taking a week to recover. Jin is fine. Grundar finishes up the breastplate for Tylden, but it is of only average quality.

(1 CP)

11/4/2014

After Grinuë reawakens, she takes another aura reading. It seems to have changed significantly with the new month. It seems to be moving more rapidly to the condition associated with the end of the month. It is now raining very hard in Vonmek. Onskel and Onther return. They report that they traveled to Caithness where they met with Tylden’s relatives. The relatives say that Castor has been missing for quite some time and that they had been investigating his whereabouts. It is confirmed that Castor was seen boarding one of the ships that headed west.

Grundar and Jin notice one potential hole in the Vonmek operation: maintenance. However, a new concern quickly arises when the mine is attacked by zombies. There were no casualties as a result of the attack, but the area is immediately evacuated. They seem to be humanoid, and their clothing seems to indicate that perhaps they came from Quail Valley? Tylden and Lauriel track them back to a corridor which we search, but find nothing. Grinuë sets up six Watchdogs and we huddle in the processing areas. Six hours after we first enter the mines, one of them goes off. We head out to where the watchdog has been triggered – and see a mob of undead There are a couple of dozen of them this time – but we manage to dispatch them. We follow their trail back. They came from a different corridor, and this time Tylden notices some flickering, shadowy shapes. Continuing forward, we come into view of a disk of energy – and immediately there is a burst of energy below it. Several of the shadowy figures rush into the disk and disappear. Grinuë is able to discern that some sort of Making/Breaking spell was thrown. The energy disk is still there. Grinuë attempts to read its aura, but it doesn’t have one. After about 10 seconds, the disk winks out of existence. Based on how fast the zombies were moving, Tylden estimates it took the zombies 3-5 minutes to move from where the appeared to where we encountered them. We attempt to gather up the shards left behind by the exploding disk, which was made of gold and some stone material.We go back to where the zombies first appeared and find similar shards. Grinuë attempts to rejoin the shards, but many parts are missing.

(1 CP)

11/14/2014

Grinuë’s attempt to put together the shards does not succeed. She sets up her traps and we wait through the night, but nothing happens. We wait through the next night, but again there is no attack. The Growlers set up a series of three roaming patrols.

Tylden is on patrol with Skelgar and Rhount when he sees a light coming from a side corridor. He investigates. He comes upon a glowing disk and a group of zombies – there seems to be someone in armor with them that appears to be leading them. Tylden sends first Skelgar (when he sees light) and Rhount (when he sees the zombies) to go back and alert the others. He himself stays back in the tunnels. Jin alerts the other two patrols, Grundar, Trel, Burl, Skelgar, Rhount, and Grinuë form up, and they head out to where the zombies were reported to appear. They get there and meet Tylden. As we form up, Tylden notices a zombie come out of the disc. Tylden shoots at the leader but there are too many zombies in the way – then they start to come forward. Grinuë helps by putting up a partial wall.

There is a long attack – Tylden attempts to rush the armored leader, but he has a very nasty attack with some sort of soul-sucking sword. Grundar is able to land a mighty hit, but he does not fall. We are able to defeat this wave of zombies, and the leader is able to retreat through the vortex. Grinuë attempts to gather up the shards of the disc and casts Schematic on the biggest disc shard. She determines that the stone disk has a very deep inlay of gold in an intricate pattern of interlocking circles. We manage to collect about 2/3 of the disc.

Grinuë checks auras – the negative energy hasn’t changed much.

Visselfish comes around, asking Grundar if he knows what is causing the incursions. He is quite worried about the situation. We tell him that we’re working on it. We get him to agree to send out goblin patrols in the areas where the zombies appear.

(1 CP)

12/3/2104

[11/11/998]

Grinuë rolls History on zombie’s stuff A sturdier zombie (human) appears to have been kept in storage for about 3 years. After that it jumped around somewhat. One of the other zombies also detected that it has jumped around as well. Earlier in a warmer climate, later in contact with stone until recently before moved to its current location.

Grinuë also tracks the aura related to the gesh. It progressed very quickly at the beginning of the month, but now has come to a standstill around mid-month.

Visselfish brings up the fact that the contract with Ronabel is coming due in a month.

As the month progresses, Grinuë sees that the aura is getting stronger.

The days continue, the pressure mounts. Then the alarm is sounded! We collect ourselves and head out. A disc has appeared in the main tunnel, close to the entrance. Heavily armored people are spewing forth.

(1 CP)

12/10/2014

Grinuë throws Great Haste on Lauriel. She is able to carve a hole in the line, just as their leader turns to run away. She sprints towards him and fells him with a mighty blow, turns his skull into pulp, then sprints through the portal. Tylden runs around the flank and joints her a few seconds later, followed closely by Grundar. There they find 3 mages and 5 zombies. One of the mages screams in pain as Lauriel, then the others come through, and then is silenced forever as Lauriel cuts him down. The five zombies advance – Lauriel kills one and sprints through the door, catching up with the mage and killing him as Grundar kills the final mage in the other room.

Back in the mines, the remainder are facing over a dozen zombies. Burl manages to hit himself, crippling his leg - those AD2 axes are murder when they hit you!. The remainder are hard-pressed to hold back the zombies. Grinuë throws a defensive glue spell, then gets through the portal just before it closes down. Jin churns out bears to hold the end of the line. The party remaining consists of Rhount, Shawchee, Skelgar, Onskel, Onther, Fagan, Trel, Burl, Jin, and various bears It is touch and go, but eventually they turn the tide and roll up the line of zombies.

(2 CP)

12/16/2014

The 'main' party of Grundar, Grinuë, Tylden and Lauriel investigate the area. There is a central pentagonal shaped chamber with rooms off each. To the south was a room with an inscription on the floor which contained the magical feature we came through. To the upper left was a similar room that the mage was running towards which had also contained a portal. This portal disappears shortly after Lauriel cuts his life short. The patterns are inlaid in the room apparently using gold. All the patterns seem to be identical, and all five rooms appear to have the same pattern. There is a short corridor. As Tylden investigates there appears to be a figure carved into the wall that starts coming to life. Tylden quickly steps back and it fades away.

The party fully rests and Grinuë heals up most of the damage. We then form up and approach the end on the corridor. It consists of circles and design, and they start moving as we approach. Grinuë approaches and the pattern speeds up. She goes back and analyzes the pattern on the floor where we entered. The pattern is not magical, but seems to be some sort of magical catalyst. Grinuë casts Reconstruct Spell, and discerns that some sort of transportation spell that she has never heard about was thrown. She attempts to analyze the magic on the wall. This fails, but it seems to be somehow different – perhaps something from so outside of her experience that it simply is shrugging off her attempts to analyze it. She approaches it and as she attempts to touch it, it disappears revealing a corridor beyond. The other party members see the wall disappear, her body transported ahead, then the wall disappears. The remaining members look at each other, then follow their compatriot.

We continue down the corridor that has been revealed to enter a semi-circular room. There are large rooms off to each side that are walled off with what appears to be thick glass. Behind a glass ‘room’ is a smaller pattern similar to what we saw previously, and beyond the rooms contain many undead. One of which starts stirring and approaches from beyond the glass and croaks out something. Tylden, in horror, recognizes one of them as Lunderbag, the actor. He declares that he is nearly dead, but not completely dead – the rest actually are dead. Lunderbag says the other actors are fine, and says that it is very important not to forget the scroll. He shows his had which has a scar on it. ‘The scroll has this on it.’ Grinuë opens up a hole in the wall to allow him to escape, but he refuses. ‘Just put me out of my misery and I’ll thank you later, I promise.’ The scroll is “down near the bottom and to the right”. He doesn’t know what it does, “I just do what I’m told.”

Grinuë fills the room with fire. As Lunderbag gasps his last breath he says “Beware the guards behind….” but dies before he can complete the sentence. The fire destroys everything in the room.

Tylden investigates. He pokes through a curtain, sees three zombies, two men, and a large creature - these must be the guards Lunderbag was talking about. Tylden skitters back, and we form up before the door. The first armored figure comes through and is whacked by Grundar and Lauriel. The creature in the back looks like a flesh golem. Grundar and Lauriel fight off the zombies, but are forced back as they attempt to grapple them. Grinuë fills the doorway with glue.

[Back in Vonmek] Jin is helping clear things up in Vonmek when time comes to a stop. Things turn bluish, and Blue Triangle appears and talks to her. She has an image of tall towers on a stormy coast. Then chambers made of fine and finely worked stone. Then a doorway closed by a curtain, a glowing blue sigil on the wall. “Reflection. Execute.” This is repeated several times. Jin asks for additional explanation, but none is forthcoming before Blue Triangle disappears. The blue tinge lasts for about 12 seconds during which Jin seems to move faster, but then that disappears.

[Back at the party] Reality stutters a moment. It seems that each of the zombies have two images, and we seem to have to kill them twice! The armored figure is able to hit Grundar with a Death Touch, doing massive damage to Grundar. Grinuë is able to heal him a bit. The two regular zombies still up grapple Grundar, but he shakes them off. Fortunately, the copies of the originals go down easier. Lauriel and Grundar manage to clear out the regular zombies, then take on the (double) copies of the armored zombie and golem. Grundar and Lauriel shields are reduced to near-tatters and Grinuë is kept busy throwing heals. The zombie reduces Grundar’s shield to matchsticks, but Lauriel takes out the armored magic-throwing zombie, then kills the golem. Grinuë determines that these are armored wraiths, and one is still unconscious in the glue area.

(1 CP)

1/1/2015

The party forms up, decides on a plan to deal with the remaining undead. We must kill them, then kill them again. The first that we take on, when it returns in its blue-tinged form (version 2) manages to get in a lucky hit with the armor-bypassing magical hit. However, Grinuë’s heals seems to be twice as effective as this damage.

In the series of rooms where we found the guards, one has a ‘window’ showing snow-covered mountains. Another shows a couple of mountains that appears to be on an island or peninsula. On the path on the mountain we also see the symbol that we saw in the other chambers. Also in the 2nd chamber, there is a blue symbol on the floor near the wall – this symbol is the same that we saw in the chamber of pillars, and was adjacent to a secret door at there. Searching here, he finds another secret door! It reveals a passageway into a small chamber that appears to be a storage room. While looking about, Tylden notices some shadows moving along the wall. They start moving towards us. They are able to move from the wall to the floor, then up the legs of the creature and, while doing so, drains the strength from the creature they attack. Most attacks have little impact, although Grundar’s mace seems to have some affect. Grinuë throws Affect Spirits on Lauriel which appears to have an effect. There are three of them, and they manage to drain Grundar, Grinuë, and Lauriel of 3-5 points of strength each before they are subdued. Their attack seems to be supernatural in nature and not the result of magic, and there doesn’t seem to be any physical damage to any of the victims. Grinuë throws Stop Paralysis on Grundar. This seems to have some effect. Similar results on Lauriel, but is completely effective on Tylden (crit success). Attempts to Dispel Magic are easily rebuffed, but as Grinuë rests, Grundar feels his strength slowly returning. (About 1 pt/hour). While he recovers, Tylden thoroughly searches the rooms in the meantime, eventually finding the small, heavy box that reveals a bar of gold. (6 lbs) In another box is a sword hilt. Grinuë analyzes it. When activated, a ghostly blade appears! She is fairly certain that it would affect spirits, but there are other spells associated with it that she is not familiar with. Lauriel, trying to figure if it affects normal creatures, whacks Tylden on the hand with the flat of her blade, and Tylden’s hand spasms for a second.

After resting, the party moves down the short corridor on the opposite side. It exhibits similar behavior to what we saw earlier, then we move through. The new room seems to be a single chamber, smaller than the previous chambers. There is a bridge to the other side over the floor of the room which is set below. To the left and right are ramps curving down to the floor. Along the walls are bookshelves with books and scrolls. The room itself seems to be a crafting chamber with a forge and anvil. On the other side there are some leather-working tools. We go down and search around, finding as disk. Next to it is a book, and the remnant of a small gold bar ( 3 lbs). The book is in an unknown language, but there are copious notes in Latin. There seem to be instructions about the device being constructed. Grundar looks through the books – they mostly seem to be about zombies and undead. Tylden eventually finds the scroll mentioned by Lunderbag which he immediately turns over to Grinuë. She looks at it – it is completely indecipherable. Tylden also determines that at the end of the bridge is another of those strange walls. After Grundar repairs the shields we go through the next wall.

The new corridor is short. There are two glowing lines that come out of the wall and meet in front of us, and we can’t pass beyond it. Grinuë investigates it for some time, but it seems to be above our pay grade. Grinuë goes back and reads about the transportation device. You can only go between two anchors. The symbols on the ground are one type. The stones are another. With great difficulty and exceptional skill you can teleport these devices elsewhere and thus establish the anchor point. The difficulty of activating the portals is based on distance, and the link can be activated from either side. There is also some information on how to create the anchors.

Grinuë tries to activate the portals. Failures are fatiguing, costing 2 FP per attempt. It takes her about a day for her to finally succeed. When she finally succeeds, it costs 5 FP to complete. Each person costs 5 FP. We find ourselves on an island. It’s a little chilly and breezy. From here we can see another island a couple miles off in the distance. Tylden sees a bit of smoke off on one side of the island. We make our way over to where the smoke is coming from and discover a significant fishing village. Grinuë throws Lend Language on Grundar. We are in Ray’ine. Grundar asks about wizard problems. No, the fishermen reply, they are off on the other island. He asks to go there, but the fishermen say that that’s a bad idea. There’s a sickness over there. We discover that Salt Marsh is down to the south. Grundar haggles over the price for passage. We head out that night and arrive in Salt Marsh a week later.

(1 CP)

8 CP total

Wizard's Aid Society

Notes from 1/28 to 2/16/2015

1/28/2015

The beginning of the month finds the party in Salt Marsh. Most of the party survives the monthly dream session in good shape except for Tylden, who finds himself completely exhausted for a couple of days. The party rests in Salt Marsh until Tylden recovers (mostly), and then heads out into the marsh to hunt down the dragon previously encountered in order to get it some start of the month adventuring. After the 1st day, Grinuë is concerned after looking at the auras about how much the ‘noose’ has tightened around the party. However as we head in a hired ship, the noose seems to stop tightening, and after a couple days journey Tylden has recovered. We continue on and meet with the lizard folk. The previous shaman – who seemed to provide inaccurate translations – has been replaced. We ask if there is anything we can do, and he suggests testing some candidates for lizard champion. After relaxing a bit, we are shown into a chamber, where we are shown three lizard fighters. We are introduced to the fighters. Grundar is asked if he would like to take them all on one at a time or all at once? But in the end he takes them on one at a time. He breaks the arm of one of them, but is more impressed by the other two. He gives his opinion to the chief, and based on that the chief chooses his champion and his lieutenant. After a long, six-day journey we reach the site of the old lizard hideout. From there, Tylden is able to navigate back to where we saw the dragon. We find evidence that the dragon has left the building, being of the smart variety of animal. By this time it is the 10th of the month and Grinuë sees that the Gesh-O-Meter has not budged form the first of the month. We start heading back the Burle and Grinuë notices the aura changing, albeit very slowly. After arriving in Burle [12/15/998], we briefly check on the Sea Ghost which seems to be in good shape. It has periodically been used to transport goods up and down the coast. We head out and to see Lord Burle, but end up meeting with Lord Westin. We put in a request that the Sea Ghost be made available May 1st. Lord Westin and Grundar with fangs bared and smiles firmly pasted on their face discuss economic issues – trading profits from the Sea Ghost, and the possibility of putting arms up for sale in Vonmek and such. Grundar gives them an open invitation to visit the mines in Vonmek. On the way out, the steward hands him a bag that contains 100 SP ($1000) which is his share of the trading profits.

From there Grundar investigates the cost of supplies to lacquer armor. We purchase enough for a suit of plate mail for Tylden and then head back to Vonmek. Once there Grundar starts investigating hiring some apprentices, eventually finding two goblin and two human candidates, and discusses with Visselfish about renegotiating the contract with Ronabel. Given our anticipated absence this summer, he’s not interested (yet) in forming our own transportation company. Visselfish is a bit disappointed, but is willing to accept Grundar’s caution. When Ronabel is next in time, Visselfish and Ronabel meet and discuss future arrangements. Grundar attends the negotiations. Visselfish is not quite as amazing as he was before, but with Grundar’s help they are able to negotiate a six-month extension with Ronabel being paid 7 cp/lb instead of 9 cp/lb. Visselfish afterwards lets Grundar know that the arrangement was actually better than he expected. Grundar makes some final arrangements with Pol’unty to go to Burle with Visselfish and some Growlers to arrange for the chemicals necessary to process the gold ore, and then we head off on 12/23 to Burle. As we head out, Grinuë’s checks the auras and they do not seem to be increasing. We arrive in Burle, however the Sea Ghost is not in port, but is expected back shortly. After a day she returns. During that day, Grinuë and Jin go the mage’s college…

1 CP

2/6/2015

Grinuë and Jin go to the mage’s college, pay the $50 access fee at the entrance, and find a librarian. They are looking to access the Restricted Section. The librarian says that although they might be granted access to the section, only members are granted permission to the Restricted Volumes in the Restricted Section. To look at those, being a non-member, they would probably have to put in a request to view a specific volume for a specific reason. No, they don’t have an index of those restricted volumes. Grinuë puts in that they have a very interesting research project, and that an archive master might very well be interested in helping us with the research. The librarian asks for details, and Grinuë lets on that it has to do with the migration of adventurers to the West, and the librarian seems intrigued. He will pass along the information and hopes the party will check in when they are next in time. They spend the rest of the day in the library – Grinuë finds an interesting book – something of a travelogue – and spends the afternoon reading it.

The next morning the Sea Ghost comes into port. Grundar hires some longshoremen ($200) to help unload the cargo so that we can be off as quickly as possible. Grundar negotiates with the captain who asks $7000/mo for himself and the crew, settling on $6350/mo. Grinuë notes that the aura is mostly quiescent during this time, and we set off with next morning’s tide.

The weather is fairly good as we head north. The first of the month rolls around – the party weathers the monthly dreams – and we arrive at Ray’ine. The island to the north contains the Ship’s Tower – previously described by Wonar as being inhabited by enchanters that create items which, somehow, grow in power over time.

The next day we board the Sea Ghost and head over to the island of the Ship’s Tower. The approach to the hamlet is quite dramatic – there is a small jetty coming out of a cliff, but the captain thinks he can make it. The captain makes good his work and ties up in port. The party disembarks. The path leads straight into the cliff, and we find several empty buildings nestled into an indentation in the cliff. The hamlet seems to be deserted. Tylden starts heading over to the inn when a robed figure bursts out from one of the buildings and rushes towards the party. Grinuë hails the figure, and he skids to a halt before the party. He is a young man, but we are unable to understand him. He gestures wildly at us, and then runs off in another direction, closely followed by the party. We follow a path behind the buildings, up a steep incline, then into another building set behind the main collection. This building has been boarded up – he knocks on it furiously. Heavy objects are moved and the door opened. We all go in. Inside the building is quite crowded with people – about a dozen that we can see. The door is then barred and barricaded. An older man comes up and berates the younger man. Finally the old man says: “Can you understand me? Why are you here?” Jin acknowledges that she can. The man leaves and comes back with the village elder – a woman. Through Jin, Grundar says that they are here to visit the mages of the legendary Ship’s Tower. The elder says that they have been beset by a great plague where causes one to lose their mind. Those affected become highly aggressive and avoid light. She becomes quite agitated when she hears that the ship is still docked – those infected could be attacking it even now!

We organize a party to go back to the ship. We make it back without incident, and the Sea Ghost casts off with a bit a difficulty. From there we return to the house, but before reaching it, a group of six rushes towards us. They are lightly armed and exhibit berserker behavior. As they reach the party, Jin manages to re-engage Gift of Tongues and hears one of our villagers say: “please don’t kill them!” Grinuë is able to Flash the entire mob, as well as most of the villagers. Grinuë is able to Mass Sleep three of them. The party manages to herd the remaining attackers together between shield pushes and merciless taunting (the latter from Tylden). Grinuë sleeps a fourth, Lauriel knocks out a fifth, and Grundar knocks back the remaining one several feet. We head back to the building, leaving the last remaining conscious attacker completely disoriented.

Back inside, we talk to the village elder. The problem seems to have been going on for several months. It has been getting worse despite all their precautions. They don’t know of any cure – you seem to be able to be infected only at close proximity to them. The infection runs quickly – maybe three to six hours after being exposed. The disease seems to have originated from the tower. As far as she knows, you don’t actually die of the disease, and the infected don’t fight each other. Grundar opines that it sounds like some sort of ensorcellment, and the woman agrees. Tylden goes out and reports that there are a couple of them out there sleeping. After Grinuë recovers her energy after a half-hour, the party goes out for field experimentation. She reads the aura of one – it definitely seems to the affected by magic – and not the “regular” kind of magic at that! Tylden finds some rope and ties up a subject – with the help of Lauriel and Grundar when he starts waking up. We drag him off to one of the other buildings - a small one-room house with a single door. Inside, Grinuë throws Dispel Curse on the subject. Unfortunately, after about half an hour the villager manages to get free. He runs around a bit before Lauriel and Grundar subdue him, but not before he pretty much spits/drools on everyone in the room.

An attempt at Dispel Curse fails. Grinuë then investigates everyone’s aura – only Rhount seems to be infected. Grinuë throws Dispel Curse on Rhount and is able to cure the infection with some difficulty, and she feels she was helped by the fact that it was not a full-blown infection. We start discussing our options Grinuë inspects the villagers, and unfortunately discovers that two of them are now infected as well. Grinuë was in favor of giving the villagers a month’s worth of food and come back then, but is out-voted to evacuate the remaining villagers. Despite not wanting to leave their homes, they agree to go. At Grinuë’s advice, we cover our mouths and head out to the ships. Grinuë goes to work on the infected eventually curing them both. Grinuë gets the impression that it will be very difficult to cure the fully infected villagers using this technique.

1 CP

2/11/2015

(Dave is absent…)

We sail off to Ray’ine with the villagers, Grinuë checking the auras and speaking to the village elder. The villagers had primarily served the mages in the Ship’s Tower. The villagers think the disease originated from the Ship’s Tower which came quickly. The party purchases basic supplies for the villagers. Unfortunately, they don’t possess any significant agricultural skills, although some of them do know how to fish. The villagers from Ray’ine, when they find out that we’re bringing villagers over from the island, are quite upset. Jin manages to allay their fears. After a day of setting up the survivors in the camp we start sailing back to Burle. Grinuë sets up some wind assistance, and works with the captain to speed our journey home, taking only about 4 ½ days to Burle, arriving the afternoon of the 12th. They spend half a day talking to archivists in the library. There is one mage willing to talk to us – Keteroc – and a meeting is arranged between him, Grinuë, and Jin. Grinuë fills in Keteroc with the basics of the gesh and its effect on the party. He is interested in helping us – in return for us running dangerous errands for him. Grinuë remarks that this sounds like a typical arrangement with a wizard! Keteroc describes himself. He is in the middle of some other research which has hit a snag until he is able to acquire some very difficult to obtain materials. If we could obtain them, he would be more than happy to assist us. He also assures us that, in the course of obtaining these items, we will doubtlessly come across other items of value. He would like us to acquire a scroll from an ancient tomb. He isn’t sure where it is – other than somewhere in the Great Desert. The tomb is of a company of Dark Elves when the Great Desert used to be a forest. He thinks it may have some connection to the Banestorm. He would like all the notes we can get about this elf’s research, and can give a description of the crypt, but only a general location and some ancient landmarks. Grinuë says she looks forward to meeting with him again, but lets him know that we are currently working on previous engagement. From there we get on our turbo-charged steeds (thanks to Grinuë) and head back to Vonmek, arriving late on the 15th.

2/16/2015

[1/15/999]

Visselfish was able to go to town and obtain some of the reagents for processing the gold ore, but his opinion is that it would be worth it to hire an alchemist in the long run. Grundar checks into the State of the Town – it seems to be pretty good. Jin checks up on the farm using her communication skills. The harvest is in, the farm hasn’t burned down, all is normal. Jin arranges for a weekly check-in. Regarding the smithy apprentice circle – it turns out that teaching is a lot harder than they thought! (Merely learning at self-study rate.) The goblins are decent. One of the humans is quite good – the other not so much. Grundar has a talk with him about the need to improve – which he promises to do. The mage’s circle is still studying various spells. Jin tries to do some research into the disease, but doesn’t come up with anything useful. Grundar and Grinuë put another 8 days into Tylden’s breastplate – it needs about another 8 days. The mages are able to enchant Grundar’s armor to +2. These done, we head out: Grundar, Lauriel, Grinuë, Tylden, Jin, Fagan, Skelgar, and Rhount, quick-marching to Salt Marsh in a day and a half, then meeting up with the Sea Ghost, then sail off to Ray’ine. As the new month arrives we survive the latest round of dreams without difficulty.

Jin talks to the village elder – Lyr’an. The tower was the original feature – and purportedly was moved somehow to its current location. The rest of the local compound was built later. After this consultation we return to the Island of the Ship’s Tower, disembarking at the docks with a bit of difficulty. Tylden scouts ahead as we head towards the tower. We climb up the trail, and the tower certainly does seem as if it had been placed here from somewhere else. Coming around another bend we see a wall with a door in the middle. The wall seems to be of local rock – the tower of some foreign material. Tylden climbs up the wall and unbars the gate from the inside. We start searching the buildings in the courtyard. Inside one of the buildings is a bed with someone lying down. Jin – who has created a dog – has the dog lick the man’s face who stirs weakly. He is not in good shape, malnourished, but doesn’t seem to be infected. His name is Anggar, and he asks if we have found the other mages. There are more buildings with single rooms – they contain other people in similar shape. Grinuë creates food for them to eat. Those that are coherent confirm that they are all mages – there are about a dozen of them. We re-bar the gate and stay the night, feeding the mages. Jin finds a diary written in Sahudese and starts reading it. Skimming through it seems that they were trying to find the source of the disease which seems to have originated with the tower.

Talking more to Anggar, he thinks that the source of the disease is demonic in nature. If the cause is from the tower, he thinks that the spell’s effectiveness is in part due to whatever is maintaining it. We ask how big the tower is – the mage implies that it is larger on the inside than the outside! The mages didn’t actually live in the tower – and their specialty was in the enchanting of weapons. They have only explored certain parts of the tower – and there appears to be a demon (maybe – very speculative) in their part of the tower that arrived several months ago. Chatting with them some more – their weapons are unique in that they grow in strength over time. Each weapon, however, requires a soul of some sort.

Anggar describes the layout of the tower – it turns out that some areas they describe we are familiar with. We arrange terms for helping them – driving a somewhat hard bargain since they are, as Anggar describes, “over a barrel”. To enchant these weapons requires a soul repository that is equivalent to a 50 point powerstone. Anggar agrees that we can keep any repositories we find in the tower, and that they will otherwise enchant any weapons for which we can acquire the necessary materials. After a firm handshake – we head into the tower.

After opening the entrance to the tower we see inside a great deal of debris that is fire damaged. Inside appear to be children along with some living flame creatures. One of these small creatures immediately zips to the door where we are standing, others following behind. A combat ensues around the door – these creatures as it turns out explode when they die. Jin is desperately trying to throw Fire Resistance on as many people as she can. The two flaming creatures in the room throw fireballs at Grundar and Lauriel who deftly blocks them. As we dispatch the last of the small creatures, the fire creatures rush forward. Grundar and Lauriel stand their ground and hack away. Grundar and Lauriel slice up the first that falls into a pile of glowing embers, the second one quickly falling to the same fate.

Going back into the room – we see that it is simply filled with burnt embers. We search the room but find nothing useful. There is a landing at the far end of the room and we go down some stairs which leads to a corridor sloping down with doors on both sides. We start investigating the rooms. One is empty, another looks ransacked and burnt. The other rooms we come across are similar. A quick search reveals a box that has fallen behind some debris. Opening it reveals a very large gem. The corridor ends and, after our quick search, we head up the corridor, then head up the stairs. The stairs continue up past the main room for quite some time. Turning around and heading down, we quickly reach the landing of the main room. Returning to the mages, they were unaware of any illusion on the stairs going up. With some more analysis, Grinuë gets the sense that there is some barrier and/or protection magic going on in this section of the tower.

We leave for the night. When we return the next day, we see two more fire children rush towards us. Fire Resistance is cast on Grundar and Lauriel, and they chop them to bits. Grinuë throws Scry Guard on us and we head up the stairs, and up and up It is the hardest climb we’ve ever made, but eventually we make it up to a small landing. This landing is not on the map. Grinuë is able to Quick March everyone and we continue to press on. After another length of time we reach a second landing. March, march, march, march Some of us are starting to get tired. We reach the top of the stairs. There is a corridor, and the walls are covered with reddish, leathery, organic material. As Grundar examines it, it seems to move. Grinuë looks at its aura. It seems to have one, but much weaker than what an animal does – perhaps consistent with something that is half plant, half animal. And definitely evil. At least in the corridor we no longer feel like we are walking through molasses, but we do not recover any fatigue lost in the march up to the top. The corridor feels like it is twisting through space. We reach a dead end, and the growth is completely over the end of the corridor. It is definitely pulsing. Grinuë puts Vigor on Grundar and he takes a mighty swing – unfortunately the end of the corridor is still stone. Grundar examines his axe which doesn’t seem to have been permanently damaged. The growth is oozing a red, toxic liquid. Tylden walks up and down the corridor, examining the growth. As he gets near the end, it seems that the pulsing of the covering is similar to the pulsing on the teleportation walls we encountered earlier. Grinuë tries to walk through the wall but is stopped by the covering. Grinuë targets the end of the corridor with Essential Flame. The corridor starts filling with a thick, black smoke. We beat a hasty retreat, Grinuë suffering a bit from simply taking a quick breath of the smoke. It takes about ten minutes to return back to the main room. Grinuë checks herself when down there but seems clear of any disease. She then sets herself up with a Resting Slumber and we all get a good night’s sleep.

The next morning we form up again – this time the party consists of Grundar, Grinuë, Lauriel, Tylden, Jin, and Fagan. Grinuë Quick Marches us and we head up. This time it’s Tylden who is the most fatigued – which everything considered is for the best. The smell is quite bad at the top. Where the Essential Fire was thrown there seems to be only charred bits remaining. Grinuë throws Purify Air to take care of the lingering smoke. Grinuë attempts to walk through the wall – and succeeds! The first things she sees are eight Demon children. She immediately retreats, Lauriel and Grundar stepping to the front. It turns out that the exploding babies are really more dangerous to themselves than to us, and at one point a chain reaction takes out their line and a few behind as well, then Grundar steps up kills the penultimate foe which ends up setting off the last remaining fire child. Boom!

We head back through the teleporting wall and find ourselves in an ante-chamber. We see stone on the side of where we enter – otherwise the floors, walls, and ceilings are covered in organic material. Three organic passageways lead out. Grinuë throws a Wizard Eye and sends it down the left passageway. This leads to an oblong chamber. Around the edges of the chamber are mound-like formations. Doubtlessly alien egg-sacs. There are more passageways and more chambers. We press forward, passing through the first room. We go into the next room – still OK – and reach a room where we can see a stone wall with a sigil on it. We are able to go through this portal – finding ourselves in a small chamber this is almost completely covered in organic growth. Directly in front there seems to be a translucent membrane. We take this time to review our equipment list, reminding ourselves of the silver hammer, 5 potions of fire resistance (to all but the mages); Fagan gets the ring of defense.

Tylden fires an arrow through the membrane. There is a small hole, a small trickle of ooze, then from beyond a bellow of rage and surprise. Grundar and Lauriel cut through the membrane as Fire Resistance is thrown on them. In the back of the room is a daemon whose bottom half is buried in an oozing pustule. It has a feline look – the head looking something like a lynx – and turns out to be an as-Sharak. Tylden quaffs a potion of Fire Resistance, Lauriel prepares a 1pt grace, and Grundar starts preparing the hammer. We step through the membrane – there are six children, three fire creatures, and the Boss daemon. Grundar and Lauriel rush out, Grundar reaching the daemon, but Lauriel goes back to help the rest of the party that has been rushed by most of the children. Meanwhile one of the mounds is set on fire by the children, starting to fill the room with noxious fumes. The fire creatures start to grapple Grundar. Fagan and Lauriel take out two more children – this front seems to be stabilizing for the good guys, Grundar and the hammer take on the evil as-Sharak. The hits seem to be connecting, but the demon just laughs. The fire creatures again try to grapple Grundar, but he again successfully defends. Grundar works his way around the Boss and takes a chunk out of his skull while Lauriel and Tylden take out the last two children. Jin is able to put out the fire, although the smoke remains, then Grinuë throws Purify Air, clearing the room, but Grundar is finally grappled. Lauriel, Tylden, and Fagan rush forward, Lauriel starting to attack the daemon. Eventually the fire creatures are destroyed and we start in on the as-Sharak that takes forever to kill – we eventually discern that the only damage affecting it was the ice damage.

After the battle, we go through a portal and discover a glowing gem. It is one of the wizard’s gems, but they aren’t sure what soul might be in the stone.

(4 CPs)

Out of the Frying Pan into the Brimfire

Notes from 2/22 to 3/25/2015

2/22/2015

[2/4/999]

We set up the villagers and enchanters with supplies for the coming month, Grundar setting up an excellent deal with a merchant ship that just happened to be stopping by. Grinuë instructs the villagers in how to take care of the wizards – the rest of the party rounding up infected villagers which Grinuë starts experimenting on. By 2/9, the village has pretty much been cleared up, and the enchanters are responding well to treatment.

Grundar talks to the enchanters about their work. The initial abilities of a weapon are similar are similar to those of the weapons the party currently has. The abilities that a weapon eventually exhibits are tied very closely to the soul associated with the weapon. The weapon gains power the more it is used – in other words the more creatures that it kills. As an example, a regular ogre would not be particularly powerful, but a magic-casting ogre would be. Heroes would be good. Almost all either have explicitly magical abilities or otherwise have supernatural abilities. As the soul reaches its full powers, it gains the ability to communicate with its wielder. The enchanters say that the soul in general do not exhibit ill-will toward the weapon’s wielder, even if the wielder was the one who killed the creature who had the soul. As to if the weapon’s soul can influence the wielder – that’s an existential question that is subject to much debate. They take an unenchanted weapon and merge it with a soul gem. Grinuë casts Aura on the soul gem: very aggressive, probably not human, and probably not evil.

We sail back to Burle. There, Grundar arranges for the delivery of a couple of gems suitable for containing a soul. The base price is $27,000, and negotiates the jewelers down to a 12% surcharge – since he isn’t asking for a fancy setting. He puts down a 15% down payment for the two gems. We liquidate extra stuff in Burle (to be adjudicated later…) However, as we are attempting to sell the silver armband from the Charcharix – Grundar discovers that it’s really made out of platinum(!) which is much more expensive. So, instead of $1500, it’s worth more like $50k. We head back to Vonmek. There, the group spends three days working on finishing up the armor for Tylden. It turns out to be Very Fine (30% lighter). We then wish to add Lighten (4 days) and Fortify 2 (11 days). After that is the shellacking (30 days) to make it quiet.

Grundar reviews the state of the Growlers. He discerns that Skelgar and Rhount are very loyal to the group. Onther is very loyal, whereas his brother and Shawche are pretty much just in it for the money. Grundar reviews the accounts for the last couple of months. He senses that something is wrong, but is not sure quite what. He asks some help from Jin, and she discovers some areas that could use improvement. Silver ore is piling up faster than it is being processed. Facility maintenance is also falling behind. Finally, the gold mine is not progressing sufficiently. Some things just have not been happening because there’s no one really in charge. Grundar gets Ostrovon and Pol’unty together to try to determine if we need a manager – and the consensus is that we need one. Ostrovon and Pol’unty really aren’t interested. Ostrovon gives you a name of someone who fled when the mines failed. Tylden is authorized to (eventually) offer the position at $1800-$2500/month, with the caveat that they will be expected to work with goblins.

(1 CP)

3/4/2015

[2/12/999]

Tylden buys the rapier for $800, and the whetstone of jumping for $1000.

The full party gets permissions from the goblins to go through their area, since this is the easiest way to the passageway leading to where we saw the demons. Tylden leads, reaching the chamber where he previously saw the demons. Creeping forward, he sees a path leading around the edge of a pit, about 40 to 45 yards across. The path is about 5 yards across most of the way. He does see a large demon about the size of an ogre, complete with horns, wings, and a long tail. And it is moving towards Tylden. He scoots back, warns the party with a pre-arranged signal using his light to stop and be quiet, then creeps forward again. The party moves forward cautiously, while Tylden creeps forward. This time, Tylden sees a purple, centaur-like looking creature with several limbs: five legs and several appendages on top. On top is a blobby done with several arachnid-like eyes, and some moth-like antennas. After a few seconds, the previous demon is seen walking towards the pseudo-centaur. Tylden lines up the first demon in his sights, aims, and then looses a shot towards, hitting the demon in the skull! (AD/2 bodkin-point) The demon screams, and then starts jogging forward as he unwinds a long chain he had wrapped around his arm. Tylden shoots him again as he comes around the corner, at which point the demon lets out an unearthly scream. Grimbel is rooted to the ground. Skelgar drops his shield. Shawche, Onther are shaken up. The party forms up, and the demon comes around the corner and roars again, shaking up more of the party. (-1: Grundar, Fagan; -2: Onther; -3: Skelgar, Rhount, Shawche). Grundar gives another inspiring speed, boosting the morale. The demon charges, Lauriel dekes the demon, and Grundar strikes at the legs of the demon, cutting through most of both its legs. The demon drops to the ground, continuing to fight from its knees. He whips his chain around, catching Trel. The combined efforts of Burl, Trel, Lauriel, and Grundar take their toll, Lauriel getting credit for the coup de grace. Tylden rushes forward, spots the purple demon coming towards him, and then heads back to the relative safety of the front line. The purple demon charges, closely followed by the other red demon. It is clear that the purple demon is protected by a deep layer of gelatinous material. Onther and Onskel face off against the 2nd red demon. Tylden decides to get cute and runs around the 2nd red demon, only to find a 3rd red demon coming down the hallway – however it rushes past him. The purple demon final collapses under the blows, erupting into purple flames, consuming its body, leaving a black rift in space that closes after its body is consumed.

(1 CP)

Jin conjures a bear that tackles the 2nd demon, taking it to the ground. Grinuë throws Great Hast on Grundar. Grundar, Trel, Fagan, and the bear start attacking, overwhelming the demon while Lauriel and Trel take on the last red demon. The 2nd demon bursts in flames and disappears. The party takes on the final demon. Tylden sticks a couple of arrows into the back of the demon’s skull, but it doesn’t seem to notice. The demon puts in some good hits on Trel and Fagan, but Lauriel, Grundar, and the bear follow up. After a few more rounds of combat, the final demon disappears in a puff of smoke.

The party rests awhile while Tylden scouts ahead. The body of the 1st demon remains, so we have its head cut off. It is very odd – the body of the demon seems to consist of nothing but muscle. Grinuë investigates some more – they don’t seem to be creations or golems. They’re just sort of piles of meat. Tylden sees a giant smoke-filled pit with a ridiculously narrow path down it. Tylden thinks that he could set at least one foot on it. In the center of the pit is a cylinder whose top is down from the level of the rim around the pit. As we peer down into the pit, Tylden sees some movement. Something is flying up! Many creatures in fact, all bat-sized. There are actually clouds of these creatures, each cloud containing many creatures, all with humanoid faces with large mouths filled with sharp teeth. They swarm upon the party, but not before Grinuë is able to flash them. This confuses them a bit, but they recover and come back at us. The party slashes about at them, taking out one here and there – then Grinuë throws a (very) minor Fire Store. We all take a point of damage – but it destroys all of the remaining creatures.

Those that have been attacked are bleeding from several places on their faces. Grinuë applies a Major Heal to Lauriel – this seems to fully restore her. However, Tylden keeps looking at Lauriel, and something seems definitely odd about her. She is somehow blending in, becoming harder to notice. The same thing is happening with Onther. They seem completely physically present. Grinuë Analyzes Magic on Lauriel, at which point the effect seems to have worn off. Grundar suggests that we tie up Tylden and have him go down the pit. Tylden is dubious. He throws a rock down the pit, and estimates it’s at least 50 yards deep, maybe more.

Of the two passageways off of the pit, we take the one to the right from where we originally entered. We travel for ½ hour but don’t reach anything, then return to the pit. Grinuë casts Air Vision, and Tylden looks down into the pit He scrambles back, filled with fear, and then berates Grundar strongly for leading us to this demon-filled pit. It is at least 150 yards deep. On the pillar is a massive semi-organic creature. At the bottom is a swarm of dozens of creatures, including some red-skinned demons. Tylden seems especially spooked by the smoke-filled pit, and clings to the side of the wall after this. We return back to the original passageway. About a couple hours down the passageway Tylden hears the sounds of water. Continuing on, we eventually reach a small chamber with a pit (about 2 yds wide) – fortunately not smoke-filled – with water rushing about a dozen yards down. We continue, break for a day’s rest, then continue on.

[2/25/999]

The next ‘day’, after about 20 minutes, we reach the end. (It should be noted that this passageway looked mostly natural, although up to where the water was found there were signs of widening.) We take most of the day to get back to That Place, and head down the as yet unexplored passageway. It is a very straight passageway, obviously worked, two yards wide, and heads slightly upwards. After about 5 miles we reach the end which opens up into a large rectangular chamber with one exit on the opposite side. The chamber is mostly bare and put together with stone blocks. Tylden notices that standing in the opposite side of the passageway are two creatures – probably undead – wearing armor that seems elvish in nature. The see him and yell out! (Jin understands – it is ancient elvish and they cry: Demon attack!)

(2 CPs)

3/20/2015

The party faces a very well-disciplined line of 4 fighters with a leader behind them. We form up, and a very organized attack and counter-attack follows. We battle briefly, and then they retreat in good order. Tylden follows up – they have retreated around a corner and have several arches in ambush and fighters waiting. Grinuë argues against a pursuit into a prepared position. She does send a wizard eye down the corridor. In the first room are five fighters, three archers, and a leader. In the next room is a mummified elven wizard. Going beyond is a very large room with a temple with three fighters and two mages. There are a few more corridors, obvious places where there should be secret doors. We return from whence we came. The smoke-filled pit is empty. We set up a stakeout. During this entire time the undead elves did not pursue us. After 1 ½ days of the stakeout, Fimbel and Grimbel notice a few dog demons crawl out of the pit. One crawls down the corridor toward the party. Tylden shoots a few arrows at it, but it does an excellent job of dodging them and scurries back down the corridor. After another ½ day, we see the other dog demons return from their corridors and jump down into the pit. Then, another two demon dogs come up followed by several of the red demons…

(1 CP)

3/25/2015

The attack is brief and furious, but the party is well-prepared. Skelgar and Rhount take some heavy hits, and Fagan goes berserk. Grinuë hastes Lauriel and Grundar, who is able to kneecap a couple of demons. Tylden manages to blind one of the demons. The rest of the Growlers fight bravely and get their hits in as well. Jin throws up a couple of bears that garner the attention of the demons for several rounds. After some hot action, all the demons disappear one after the other in puffs of purple smoke. After this we set up watches on the battle site to see if the demons scout and it and, if so, how aggressively. Nothing is seen after the first day, but early the second day there is movement there – a demon dog is moving about the piles. A 2nd demon dog is in the back. After sniffing about, they move back to the main pit, and the rest of the 2nd day passes uneventfully, as does the third day.

[3/1/999]

(1 CP)

A Night at the Ball

Notes from 4/10 to 4/22/2015

4/10/2015

[3/1/999]

Another dream sequence…

Reminder: the five symbol: star on top (dark), domino mask to the right (partially lit), the third has a separate symbol for each party member (fully lit), symbols of combat for each party member (full lit), and a picture of a stick figure fighting a stick dragon (dark).

We are drawn to the partially lit symbol of a domino mask.

We fall, fall, fall, landing on a lawn outside of a huge mansion. A footman comes towards us, and says “Greetings Lord Grundar. I am glad to see that you have arrived for the ball. Lady Evelyn is waiting for you.” We are all dressed for action, so this seems a bit odd. He leads us to the entrance and enter into a very large hall. A beautiful woman appears in an unusual dress comprised of wool and silk. The other attendees are in ostentatious attire – this seems to be a costume ball, dressed as animals or other characters. Lady Evelyn greets Grundar, and requests that he not use his “props”. And try to have some fun. Also that Lord Burle is waiting to greet the party. Lord Burle nods to us as we approach – he does not seem to be in any costume. We all step into an alcove for a private conversation. He has a task: pirates are preying on Burle commerce, and seem to be backed by a nobleman from Burle itself! He believes a meeting is occurring between this nobleman and someone associated with the pirates during the ball. Whoever is involved has intimate knowledge of the commerce that passed through Burle. We go off to see Lord Westin, but first go over to see our troupe of actors who are here entertaining. We strike up a conversation with Awitawa. She passes us off to Lunderbag, who talks to Tylden. He mentions Lord Erlingson, reputed to have been a pirate earlier, a ferocious Viking, but is now a ruthless businessman. He reportedly plundered a treasure ship, using the proceeds to buy his way into the noble class.

We sidle over to Lord Westin. He mentions the following nobles: Lord Er’tai. He is rumored to be seeking vengeance on Lord Erlingson, who has quite a vested interest in the sea trade. Several of his ships have been hit. Lady Annis Stallworth has quite the reputation as a cut-throat businesswoman, but prefers to be referred to as a businessman. There is a mercenary captain, Tenn, as well as a certain member of the Growlers. The pirates seem to know exactly when and where to capture the ships. Only one ship was sunk (a minor merchant.) Some crews suffered casualties – two or three ships. There have been about seven or eight attacks. Lord Westin also notes that several of the nobles are staying Lady Evelyn’s estate – in the back of the hall.

Tylden stops by the cloakroom around divests himself of his armor, then exits outside.

Back at the ball the rest of the party meets with Lord Erlingson. He expresses anger over the losses he has incurred. He plans to add guards to his shipping.

Outside Tylden takes stock of the situation. There is a servant’s entrance on one side that probably leads to the kitchen and then to the ballroom. There are a pair of guards that comes round which Tylden avoids. Continuing around he comes to a wing with windows on both the ground and second floor. There is a door with a single guard, meanwhile all the windows seem to be closed.

At the ball, the party talks to Lady she mentions Lord Erlingson ,and that he seems to be taking in as much coin as ever, and that the is hiring himself out for protection to other merchants at quite a pretty sum. She also implies that Lord Westin might possibly be driven to do things that he might not otherwise consider, toiling as he is under the shadow of Lord Burle.

Outside, Tylden checks the ground floor windows – no luck. He climbs to the 2nd story, checks the window and is in luck! The window is open, and he enters the room. The clothes seem to be for a large man. There is a note from an underling, relaying the losses for the current month, which seem to be substantial. He rifles through the desk. There is a locked draw which Tylden picks. Inside he finds an accounting book. He can’t figure it out, so he pilfers it and brings it back to the party. Jin takes it away for a while and studies it. It indicates that he is suffering large losses, although he is making up some of his losses by selling his services for protection. Tylden takes the book, returns to Lord Erlingson’s room and places the book back in the drawer.

(0 CPs)

4/22/2015

Tylden starts going through the rooms. He’s at one end of the hall – there is a guard at this end. There are ten in all. He starts working his way down:

• Lord Erlingson
• Older couple
• Occupied: inside is a woman complaining about her lady: “she’s not married and nearly 22! All she cares about is her jewelry, blah, blah…” Not Lady Stallworth.
• Empty
• Two men, probably a servant/nobleman combination, looks to be of eastern sort of Arabian (not Suhadese). Of the sort worn by a minority in Burle. Inside the desk is a sealed note, which Tylden takes. He continues to search, and finds a ledger, but it is written in an unknown language. There is a symbol that he recognizes, but can’t remember where. He pockets the ledger as well.
• Empty
• Before opening this room, he is nearly overtaken by two servants coming around the corner from the other end of the hall. They go to the next room, talk a bit to someone, then return from whence they came. Looking at this room it seems to be inhabited by a noblewoman and two manservants. The desk is locked. It takes quite some time but he finds documents regarding shipping routes.
• He skips this room which is occupied.
• Empty
• Occupied by a noble couple. Nothing jumps out. The desk is empty.

Back at the party Grundar talks to Lord Erlingson, and succeeds in getting him drunk Jin also takes up the conversation. At one point Lord Erlingson boldly proclaims that he will do terrible things to any of the pirates that he may catch. Jin suggests that perhaps a captain such as himself might be tempted to sell out some of his ships to the pirates if there was profit to be had, and he reacts strongly and coldly towards him. Meanwhile Lady Stallworth claims that Lord Erlingson is a fool and a buffoon. An older gentleman, Er’tai, talks to Jin – he has a low opinion of Master Grundar who was unable to aid his son who is now in exile. Although he was able to save his son from death, there was great damage done to his household. Jin asks if his household was able to recover from their reversal of fortunes, and he says that they are, but very slowly. He thinks that Lord Erlingson is a knave, and says that Erlingson was the one to put his son in such dire straits. Tylden returns to the party, delivering them the sealed note and the ledger. Jin, unfortunately, is not able to read it naturally, but casts Gift of Letters. She reviews the ledger, which seems to indicate that Lord Er’tai is in poor financial shape. He has been spending a great deal of money on his son who is residing outside of Burle. His sources of income are sparse, and has been spending much money on seeing his son. Jin deftly opens the sealed note. It is written in the same language, and contains instructions from Lord Er’tai to a mage to continue his campaign of magical harassment of Lord Erlingson. However, nothing ties him to the pirates.

Jin re-seals the letter, and Tylden endeavors to return it to Lord Er’tai’s room and re-enters the room of the noblewoman while carrying along Grinuë as a ferret. He then opens the desk (with great difficulty) and hands the ledger to Grinuë. It is a record of many ships and the ports they sail between, and would seem to require someone with a good knowledge of merchanting. Together they review the material, and it seems that the documents include detailed information about all the ships that were hit, as well as all the major ships that trade in Burle. Tylden looks about the room some more – he suspects that this is indeed Lady Stallworth’s room, as well as a small jewelry box with a stylized “S” on it. Grinuë examines the ledgers, it seems to have info on everyone. We head out the window and back to the party. Grinuë asks Lady Evelyn who the top merchants are. She lists Lord Erlingson, Lady Stallworth, and Lord Er’tai (though not as much as previously), and other minor merchants. Also, Lady Stallworth wishes to talk to Grinuë later for their mutual profit. Grinuë casts Seeker and Trace on the sheaf of papers we found in her room. She wants to know if they move. Her theory is that she is going to hand those papers to someone else. The party winds down and Lord Burle comes over to ask what we’ve found so far. We tell him we’re really pretty sure it’s not Lord Erlingson, and we’re really pretty sure that it’s not Lord Er’tai, whereas Lady Stallworth seems to have extremely detailed information on the details of Burle shipping. Lord Burle, although we did uncover the actual meeting, seem to have gathered sufficient information to implicate Lady Stallworth. With his attention directed to her, he thinks he’ll be able to limit further pirate damage. With that the party wakes up, and with a definite feeling they have learned something about the inner workings of Burle society.

(equivalent of 3 CPs in goodies…)

Lord Grundar

Notes from 5/5/2015 to 6/9/2015

5/5/2015

[3/1/999]

The party wakes up in the tunnels – we note that this month there are no will rolls, and Grinuë notices something different about the auras. During the day a messenger comes: Lord Westin and his retinue have arrived and wish to talk to Grundar. In the meantime we inform Visselfish about our adventures with the demons, and he is not pleased to know that we have riled them up. Grinuë questions Visselfish about their experience with the goblins, and he fills her in with some information about the terrible time they experienced while under their thumb.

We go and meet with Lord Westin, who says he wishes to speak to Grundar, and relays the summons from Lord Burle. Grundar would become a member of the court, be granted lands, and swear an oath to Lord Burle. The lands might include Riverton, which are currently not under any particular lord. Grundar tells Westin a bit about the demon situation, but says that he will make arrangements for them to be watched, and agrees to leave in the morning. We leave instructions for a temporary barrier to me made in the tunnel leading to the demons. Meanwhile, Grundar announces that he is disbanding the Growlers. The existing Growlers can either stay on in relatively cushy jobs at 1500/mo (normal pay is 500/mo, but they’ve been getting about 3000/mo.) Shawchee & Onskel take the money, but Onther stays. Shawchee is going to settle in the region, but Onskel is going to travel. Rhount and Skelgar are staying. Fencallad is offered 2000/mo (from 1000/mo) or the buyout. He counters at 2500/mo, which Grundar agrees to.

The party goes off to see Lord Burle, who offers him a position in his court as a nobleman, officially as mayor of Riverton (which includes Vonmek) and a baronette. The position of mayor is normally that of a higher lord, but given its delapidated condition, Grundar is being offered it in a lesser position. However the implication is that as the star of Riverton rises, so will that of Grundar.

Later that day a ceremony is held at which the party recognizes several people that are oddly familiar (from their dream), and Lord Burle grants Grundar his new position. Afterwards he introduces Grundar to Daliev, a clerk. It seems we have acquired a steward! After taking our leave of Lord Burle we travel thence to Riverton to announce Lord Grundar’s new position and take a tour of the town, which really has fallen on hard times. That evening he holds a dinner for the town at the local tavern. Grundar gives a rousing speech giving his vision of the city which goes over extremely well. Grudar wishes Daliev to find a suitable building in Riverton to refurbish as his residence.

5/13/15

The group spends some time taking care of business in Vonmek. Grinue’s investigation seems to indicated that the Gesh was feeding on the party’s energy, but the recent dream sequence gave the Gesh a boost of energy such that, at least temporarily, it doesn’t need to feed on us. She presumes that this is not permanent. We are still interested in getting a mine manager, but no one locally comes to mind. Tylden’s armor is done near the end of the month, after that we head off to Reme to look for a mine manager, after which we head out into the deep desert…

5/26/2015

We head out of Reme and on down to Castle Defiant. From there we head off into the deep desert. After a couple of days we see something off in the distance. It seems like a large edifice, but curiously it does not appear to get any closer. After another day’s travel, the image continues to stay the same size. After the third day, we cross into a no-mana zone and the image disappears. Grinue goes off into the no-mana zone along with Lauriel and Grundar, while Tylden takes a few hours to simply travel around the area, but don’t find anything yet. As we travel to the southwest we skirt the boundary between the no-mana and low-mana zone. At one point Grinue throws Hawk Vision 10 on Tylden. He gazes at the smudge – and sees a giant stone tree. We spend the night, then head out into the no-mana zone towards where we saw the vision. In the late afternoon, Tylden spots a smudge on the horizon. The next evening when we camp, the smudge has grown slightly larger. The next morning we continue towards the stone tree. About noon we crest a dune and see a large, fossilized tree looming over some ruins and other fossilized trees. The ruins are in quite poor condition. There are many pillars which have trees that grew out of them.

We have Jin read the inscriptions. They seem to be in more modern elvish rather than ancient elvish, and they memorialize an elven knight that was laid to rest next to this tree. On top of one of these pedestals is a sheaf of very old papers. Lauriel goes up to investigate – and a ghostly presence hovers up and blows into the petrified trunk of the main tree. A glow spreads throughout the tree, reaching the tips of the branches, and then a blast throws us all away from the tree, destroying the papers. Grinue feels the slightest touch of magic returning to the area. (Functionally: -7) The glow from the main tree extends to the adjacent trees while ghostly figures rise from the various pedestals. As we leave the trees we feel that we are back in the no-mana zone, but the ghostly apparitions start to gain a physical presence, as well as shields and weapons. But the blue glow that emenated from the scroll and spread to the tree seems to generate a hot, fierce wind that dispels some of the elven guardians. Left in their stead is a ghostly forms, screeching in rage and pain. One of the elven guardians advances, attacking Grundar. There are elven guards that are fairly corporeal, and shadow guardians that are less coordinated, but seem invulnerable to our weapons, although they seem to be slowly disintegrating from the blue light. Two of the shadows chase after Grimble, while Lauriel and Burl face off the other two. Grundar, Fagan, and Trel form a line against the four warriors with Tylden plinking in arrows from behind. The warriors are concentrating on Fagan.

When the last spirit falls, the large stone tree collapses, taking all the other trees with it. In the center, however, there is a very bright blue glowing shard where the center of the tree was, but then slowly fades. Grinue and Lauriel investigate, noting that the area near the shard is now a low-mana zone. The blue shard appears to be a powerful mana pool because it affects a three hex radius, as well as the fact that it works in a no-mana zone. We search around the area – some of the artifacts seem to have survived, although many of them appear to be very delicate. None of the artifacts seem magical, although Grinue thinks that is because they have been in a no-mana zone for so long. Grundar thinks that many of the items would be of great value to a collector:

• Small cage make of metal wires (repaired)
• Bowl of two contrasting colors of wood (broken)
• Wooden staff. Cracked, but in OK shape (repaired)
• Stone carving of an elf seated on a rock (repaired)

Grinue is able to repair the rock with a repair spell. Attempts to repair the bowl fail, but without ill-effect, so we decide to apportate these items and put them into a saddle bag. We travel back to the low mana zone, but unfortunately by this time the bowl has fallen apart. The staff is still in good condition, and is repaired to like new condition, as is the wire cage.

1 CP

6/3/2015

We head back towards Burle when on the road west of Reme heading towards Fairhill when the party is accosted by Ruffians. The are roughed up by the party. Among them we find:

• 2 small gems of good quality
• A matched pair of fine short swords

Grundar gets Grinue to creep out the eight survivors and asks them where their hideout is. One of the prisoners tells us where it is. We head out and find the lair, but a couple of survivors manage to beat us there. We start trying to track one of them, but eventually give up and head back to Vonmek after announcing to the survivors that they are now being signed up as miners. In Vonmek we hand the prisoners over to Visselfish and Pol’unty.

Grundar and the company start setting up running his baronette, which is a bit rocky, but he figures that our abilities in this regard will only improve. Grundar keeps the tax rate at 17%.

Currently 4/8/999.

1 CP

6/9/2015

In Vonmek the company is busily organizing who is in charge of what and hiring various armsmen and forresters. Grundar sets up a montly law court, alternating between Vonmek and Riverton. We then head off to Burle to talk to the wizard while Tylden and Lauriel try to hire forresters, armsmen, and a drill master.

Grundar had an idea for Emik: travel to the dwarf kingdom to recruit warriors, an arms master, (and find a suitable wife – but don’t tell anyone). However he is reluctant to do so given his history – he feels he may not be welcomed, but he’ll think about it.

We first stop by and talk to Ciath. He seems interested in helping with the forresters, and promises to stop by in a couple of weeks. From there we head to Riverton where Tylden and Lauriel take a look over the local talent. Tylden finds three potential candidates with some basic stealth and ranged weapons skill. Grinue looks for someone to teach her the Teaching skill and finds an out of work teacher. Lauriel is able to find a moderate size of potential candidates – no one of experience but some potentially trainable candidates. She promises to contact them on the way back from Burle.

In Burle Lauriel spends some time trying to find candidates. (Apparently there was an annual hiring fair a few weeks ago.) The average quality of the candidates is somewhat low, but she succeeds in finding some. Grinue with Jin goes to see the mages and hunts down Ketteroc. He responds fairly quickly, and Grinue fairly quickly informs him of what transpired at the cairn. Ketteroc is of course disappointed about the destruction of the papers, but is very excited about Grinuë finding the mana well. He thinks that he can perhaps extract some information from the well with the right spells. He also expresses some interest in the items we found and would like to see them, although they probably would not be useful to him. Ketteroc feels as though he has some claim on the mana well, although being an article of such value it makes it awkward for all parties to receive fair value from it. Grinuë suggests that both parties recognize what each bring to the bargain. If Ketteroc wanted to retain the mana well for the time being for his research, and the party could from time to time perform necessary tasks for him, in return she and Jin could have access to the library as well as Ketteroc’s help in researching Clark. Ketteroc thinks that, with the increased prestige he’d gain from acquiring the mana well, he’d be able to fund a small circle of mages to help with Grinuë’s research. Opening up a branch of the mage’s circle in Vonmek would be a longer term project, and at the very least would require a suitable building. Ketteroc declares that, as far as he’s concerned, Grinuë is a provisional member of the mage’s circle. Grinuë spends the next couple of days researching after gaining access to the restricted section – under the disapproving glare of the librarian. Meanwhile Lauriel and Tylden continue their recruiting work.

We go to Westin about finding a treasurer, who pawns us off on an underling. He grumbles a bit, but admits that he could. He mentions a certain Frail. We go to speak to him, and unfortunately he has recently fallen ill. However, his son is in town and has taken up the trade as well. After some negotiations – he will reside in Riverton along with his family and be paid FOUR gold a month – much to Grundar’s chagrin when he eventually finds out. Lauriel finds ten good candidates – a mix of experience and trainability.

Grinuë works in the restricted section on her research, noting which tomes may be of interest to research further. (She also takes some time to fly to the swamp and see her mom.) Tylden attempts to find a drill master and finds a candidate. He’s from the south, and has looks down on those that wield axes, so Tylden passes on him. While the wizards stay in Burle for Grinuë’s induction, Lauriel and Tylden head to Reme. Lauriel is able to find some armsmen, while Tylden finds a couple of good candidates for drill master, eventually hiring one human, Ecael, although he goes by ‘X’. Everyone all heads back to Vonmek after their shopping trips just before the turn of the month.

Grinuë meanwhile has a good visit with mom and the rest of her family – although sadly (not!) her brother is away. She returns to Burle and is inducted into the mage’s college along with Jin. It involves a brief test of sorts – and Grinuë surprises some there by performing well. Keteroc is looking for candidates for researching.

Back in Vonmek the mine manager was hard at work, improving the mine efficiency. The gold mine is close to getting into operation, the main bottleneck being getting the machinery operating to process the ore. Mining could begin in the meantime and the ore stockpiled. The manager thinks that getting more metalurgists would be useful – and in fact he might steal some from the silver operation.

Monthly leadership roles by all:

• Grundar (15)
• Seneschal: Jin (6)
• Treasurer: Frail Jr (13)
• Magister: Grinuë (8)
• Marshal: Tylden (11)

1 CP

Packing Our Bags

Notes from 6/17/2015 to 7/8/2015

6/17/2015

[5/1/999]

At the beginning of the month Grinuë notices that the psychic drain has recommenced, albeit at a very slightly lessened rate. She surmises that the spark had been able to feed off the boost of previous adventuring, but now is back to feeding off the party.

Grundar heads off to Burle with a bunch of recruits in tow, whom he force marches mercilessly. He’s looking or metallurgists, mechanics, alchemists, and a suitable dwarf. He is able to find a mechanic, an alchemist, and two metallurgists, but is unable to find a suitable dwarf.

Grundar meets with Lord Burle who resists Grundar’s suggestion that the taxes be reduced, and counter-offers with a simple delay in payment, to which Grundar agrees. He then leads the recruits back to Vonmek at a blistering/sluggish pace depending on your point of view.

Meanwhile, Lauriel and Tylden quick-march to Pembrose, then head south. They manage to sight some large creatures flying off in the distance, but also come across some large wolf-like tracks. It appears to be a set of three, but if they are wolf-like there are probably more. They are quite recent, within the last 24 hours. Tylden convinces Lauriel that they have enough information and they head back, Lauriel sighing heavily, returning after a week away. When they get back, Grinuë sees that Tylden and Lauriel have no psychic load whereas the others do have a load of sorts, but definitely less than would normally be expected – the adventuring of Lauriel and Tylden having had a beneficial effect.

Grundar returns on the 21st of the month (May 999), the mine manager definitely happy with the new recruits. The core party (including Fagan) then forms up and goes on a wyvern hunt. We arrive in Pembrose, then head south. By this time the wolf tracks are old and difficult to follow. Lauriel spots the wyverns in the distance and follows them. After more hiking we spot a wyvern off in the distance, perhaps just a mile off. Tylden observes it for some time, then spots it heading back down to ground and has a good indication of where its lair may be. He head around the base of the hill. Scouting, Tylden reports the location of a cave in the distance. Tylden scouts out the cavern. The entrance goes in about 30 or 40 ft, opening into a cavern about 100 ft across. There are three wyverns in the cavern and they appear to be busy eating.

1 CP

6/24/2015

[5/25/999]

The party forms up and heads towards the cavern. Tylden slinks silently ahead, but the wyverns are alerted by the clanking of the heavily armored main party despite their best efforts at minimizing the noise. Tylden manages to put an arrow into the large wyvern that is starting towards the entrance with the two smaller wyverns following behind. He retreats behind the main battle line of Fagan, Grundar, and Lauriel. Fagan takes a hit, but they are able to take down the large wyvern and move on to the smaller two. Unfortunately for one, it runs into the cave entrance and falls to the ground. Grundar takes on this one, taking off its tail, next a leg, and finally its head which is sufficient to finish it off. Lauriel and Tylden – well, mostly Lauriel – subdue the other one. Grinuë successfully puts the soul of the large wyvern into the empty soul gem.

Searching the room we find a large gem, $2500 in miscellaneous coin, and a silver belt buckle. We also notice an oddity in the wall, and discover a passageway leading out the cavern. This leads into a room with an altar covered in dark brown stains. Paintings are on the wall in black and red depicting grim scenes of human sacrifice. Further on there is a stairway leading down. As we enter the room we feel a cold, soul-sucking feeling chill our bones. We skirt the altar and head down the stairs. They open up into a natural cavern, although it seems to be another evil temple. The walls are also painted – there are some stylized depictions of human sacrifice – also done in a tasteful combination of red and black. On the opposite side from the stairs there is a raised area that is partly natural, partly of brick, on which is another altar flanked by large pillars. Exits are on both sides of the room. Tylden searches the room, but doesn’t find any other passageways, secret or otherwise. As we exit to the right we feel the evil feeling fade away. After an hour we head back the other way, and that passageway seems to keep going as well. We are in a secondary tunnel, and only make about 15 miles the first direction the first day. The next day after 5 miles we find an intersection. Branches head back to the northeast (narrow), and continues west (wider). We progress much more quickly and hit another intersection – which is the one we hit as we come into Quail Valley. There seems to be something wrong in our maps as they don’t quite match up. We spend the next several days investigating the tunnels. By now Tylden thinks that we are beyond the eastern edge of Quail valley. It is the 30th, so we take one more day exploring. In the afternoon we come across a cavern. There is a flat path through the cavern. On the sides there appear to be stalagmites, but they seem somewhat toothy, getting sharper as they approach the edge of the cavern. Grinuë cautions Tylden – it seems to her that this may be something akin to a massive Venus fly trap. Grinuë casts Sense Life – and she does sense some other creatures in the cavern, similar to elves. Then – a figure rises from the back of the camera, a glowing orb in its hand, and it begins to speak in ancient elvish: “Intruders: you have one chance to leave this place or you will all be destroyed. You seem cautious – take this opportunity to leave!”

1 CP

7/1/2015

Jin is able to understand their ancient elvish is somewhat broken, as if he learned it from a book. Jin suspects that he speaks elvish just fine – these are dark elves. He is holding a glowing orb in his hand. Tylden suggests we move out of fireball formation. Lauriel asks Jin to ask him about Larin Karr. Jin does so, but in standard elvish. The elf replies: “So be it” and launches the sphere at us. It doesn’t quite reach the party before activating. It doesn’t quite reach the party (read: Tylden), and upon ‘exploding’ sucks all the light out of the cavern. The elf then cries out “Engage!” Tylden races back in the darkness shouting “Follow my voice!” brushing past Lauriel, bouncing off of Jin before running into Fagan. Grinuë throws Infravision on Lauriel and Dark Vision on Grundar. Dark elves appear (to those with vision enhancement) from behind the columns and loose a volley of arrows before retreating back behind cover while the party cautiously retreats. Another volley of arrows is defended, then six fighters appear and start to charge. The archers all target Lauriel, who manages to block and dodge them all. The warriors advance – they are attacking with rapiers from a range of two yards. Attempts to cast light on the combat, such as from fire, the delver’s headlamp, or the pendants of light, are all for naught. The warriors attack and Lauriel is able to one-shot one of them. The warriors back off while Grundar and Lauriel form up. Lauriel asks “forward or back?” Grundar sighs and we slowly head back. The elves do not pursue. Later as the new month rolls around we all have a similar dream: we are looking out over the ocean, but we see in the distance a small island with a small ball of flame on top of it. The ball of flame grows enormously, much larger than the island, and topples into the ocean. It disappears into the water, and then the sea itself catches fire and explodes. The wave of fire rushes towards us until it crashes over Burle and spreads across the land. Afterwards we all wake up – except of course that wimp Lauriel who remains unconscious. Grinuë sighs and levitates her, and we Quick March back to Vonmek in 5 days. During our travel, our auras are advancing at slightly lower speed than expected. (Read: travelling through difficult tunnels count somewhat as adventuring, but not a lot.)

1 CP

7/8/2015

Grundar gets various reports from the mine manager. The silver mine is about to increase production in response to the addition of metallurgists. Unfortunately, the gold mine requires that the third (of four) furnaces to be repaired, which will take about three months. Grundar is give the silver mine priority for production, meanwhile Seggy is to continue to work on repairing the furnace.

Torbin and Corbin arrive. They are working inside the dwarven complex. Note that the smithies there are of good quality (effective +1 to skill.) They could be upgraded to fine quality for the low, low cost of 56,000cp each. They also want Grundar to teach a smith how to make crucible steel, and set that smith to producing nothing but crucible steel.

The mage’s circle is done with Grundar’s and Trel’s axes. Next they will work on Burl’s axe, then finally Lauriel’s sword. Grinuë receives a message from Keteroc that he has received funding for three mages to pursue research. When there is a suitable annex for them in Riverton they will relocate there. They are currently reviewing the documents in the library, looking for material related to spells to Clark and the gesh.

As a result of focusing on the gesh, Fencallad and Grinuë think they may have a handle on how to impact the strength of the connection between a person and the gesh for a given time period – perhaps a day or more. This would impact the strength of the connection for the other days of the month. For example, if they increased the strength of the connection, the overall strength would be decrease by a similar amount for the other days. (Mechanistically, they can tweak the shape of the sinusoidal strength curve, but the overall area under the curve would remain the same.)

Midway through month Grinuë gets some sketchy information from the researchers that indicates that what the party is doing when it is adventuring impacts what the spark will become. In the meantime, Grundar creates some crucible steel, and Trel and Burl work on axes. They create one regular, fine, and very fine axe. Burle’s weapon is completed. Lauriel’s weapon is completed as well (+1 accuracy) – it’s a power 20, so it will apply even in low-mana.

At the end of the month, income is up and expenses are slightly down. Net income (before party expenses) was 80 gold, up from 4 from last month. We head off to Burle and reach the ship by the end of the month. The new moon comes as we set sail and Tylden feels bad for a couple of days, but Jin goes unconscious for two weeks. We drop off the soul gems and weapons with the mages – the wyvern soul gem goes with the very fine axe while the unknown soul goes with the fine axe. The mages also prepare two more soul gems. From there we sail off into the sunset…

1 CP