Ormazd's Campaign Log

Fiona takes over the journal writing responsibilities ...

looks like we inspired the ereshians (ereshanoids?) to drive out the remaining soldiers, so next we turned to helping Lumi find her missing (other) party. asked around and the innkeeper recognized her and said he hadn't seen her or her (other) 5 friends in a long time. Lumi was found in the bakery so we headed there. i was also hoping for donuts, but of course the place was a mess, so no luck there, but i think i'll have a chance to check again later. Bechus the baker also remembered Lumi and said he hid her because she showed up in some distress -- she mentioned some danger and that her (other) companions had vanished. so we've determined that Lumi's (other) party was here before the Ragesians, but the Ragesians were here when our (present) party arrived. had a look around the rooms Lumi stayed in back at the inn, but didn't find anything good. a commotion in the main room of the inn drew us back downstairs and it turned out that other people have also been disappearing for the past 1 1/2 weeks. went to Ragesian camp to see if maybe they'd been taking prisoners, but all we found was a ton of treasure. one good thing we found there was an orb with swirly red mist in it which is super cool because well, it's an orb with swirly red mist in it, but also because it can be used to control red dragons and they're hard to find (the orbs, not the dragons, because i know where one is). also found orders to "scour the land" but we didn't find anything to tell us what they were looking for. next we noticed that Alain and Van were missing, and while it's possible that they scampered off for a bit, they usually try to tell us when they're doing that. they were definitely with us at the inn so we checked back there, and also checked for anything magical around the inn, but didn't find them or anyone else who'd gone missing. after a thorough search of the town, we hopped over to the Monastery where there was some hesitation letting us in past the gate, though the chick who's usually at the door wasn't around (sounds like this was a good thing). they took us to some old guy named Longinus, but he was totally clueless about the disappearances, and directed us to a couple of monks (jamira/east and belloc/west) who actually go into town and deal with the real world. turned out they didn't know anything either. i hope Karuna is a little more aware of what's going on around him than these guys. we did ask whether the door lady (Caela) was missing, but she just asked Blane to take over for her until she got back. so with the forbidden valley as our last unturned stone, we headed off hoping to find van and alain (and anyone else who was missing). it's also known as the valley of storms. as we moved down the road, monks appeared in the trees and attacked -- flying, using whips and shuriken that glowed when they struck, and lightning bolts with stunning force. those stunning bolts really wreaked havoc on our ability to defend ourselves, but merrick fought lightning with lightning! one of the monks called to the "lord of the 2 winds" and a strange draconic/manticore creature, which could fire spikes from its tail and roar thunderous shock waves, flew in and landed in front of lumi (much to its dismay). karuna did try to tell the monks we were peaceful but i guess they didn't care. maybe we'd better not head back to that monastery any time soon...

Debated whether to go on or rest - lumi and i were sorta okay, but merrick was running a little low on juice. decided to press on anyway and trust to our luck (avandra help us). scouted ahead a bit and heard some rumbly voices and a hissing voice, but couldn't understand what they were talking about so went back to get merrick. found ourselves facing 4 ettins guarding a couple of hopefully-not-dead bodies in the middle of a circle of stones and saw that one of the bodies was in the process of being dragged away, but not by what. merrick ran back to get lumi and karuna while i tried to sneak around to get a closer look at the remaining body... that maybe wasn't the best plan cuz i got spotted, so i tried to regroup but that didn't work out really well either. oh well! an ettin armed with a lightning club really got on my nerves and kept stunning me while i made him and his friend chase me around a tree, hitting them when i could. van turned out to be one of the luckily-not-dead bodies but there were smoky grabby arms that choked and bound us up. we were getting knocked down and knocked out left and right, but merrick managed to kill everyone for us and saved the day (according to merrick). so we probably lost alain (for the moment), and apparently karuna, too, but picked up some cool gear that will help us to get them back! funny how these things work out, huh?

alain and karuna were being taken further into the valley, so i followed and saw the invisible-ish stalkers, with our friends slung over their shoulders, moving toward a tower in the distance. typical regroup, attack, and rescue mission but we were REALLY tapped out then and had to make camp in a cold wet cave. not the best rest ever, but alain, van, and merrick worked out a magicky alarm so we could all sleep. karuna kept his eye out, too. guess he doesn't need to sleep, seems like he just thinks about sleeping and that's good enough. in the morning there was some snow on the ground and crazy strong winds. the tower had a balcony on the top floor with an opening so van summoned...something that he said told him there's "darkness" inside the tower. probably too much to ask that it would be filled with chocolate. snuck up to the tower, which unfortunately didn't really exist and everyone but van fell into a pit. also too much to ask for the pit to be filled with chocolate, so we hit the rocky ground hard (except for alain who flashed back up to the top). on the up-side, we found a door down there and stairs that would have been nice had we seen them just a tiny bit earlier. then lots of creatures pulled themselves from the ground and of course, they weren't friendly. they looked like they were made of stone and ice, with claws and freezing blast attacks. karuna and merrick were surrounded but held them off, and alain blasted them with colors (i've got to learn magic, seriously. there was a cloud of daggers later, too) which killed some instantly and dazed others (and karuna, but alain didn't seem to mind). up close, the creatures looked like they were wearing adventuring gear under all the ice and stone and poor lumi cried out when she recognized them as her (other) party. i found some loose change and an adorable fanged skull carved with runes, i'll ask alain if he knows what the runes mean. or wouldn't it be cool if the skull could say what the runes say? anyway the creatures look like they've been altered - some more of that biomancy stuff (yuck, that is not the kind of magic i want to learn), but at least we found lumi's (other) party and the missing villagers. the door was decorated with a scene of ancient spirits of wind and storm being turned into humans, which alain checked for magic. turned out it needed a secret password - i tricked it with, "donuts sez me" and in we went! we stepped into a HUGE laboratory with catwalks around the perimeter and across the center of the room above us. the lab was filled with lots and lots of glass tanks fixed with gross hoses and bubbling green goo (also gross). the biomancy tanks were different sizes, some with creatures inside, some empty, and some super big -- Van had some ideas about who's behind all this (some guys named Haddin and Lee Sidoneth) and we all have to wonder how the monks are connected to it, since they're the ones making this valley Forbidden. as van was taking a closer look at one of the larger tanks, a creature that looked like an ice minotaur with a smoky body (did someone say djinnotaur?) flew at him swinging a giant hammer, smashing the tank and splashing slippery goo everywhere. soon other creatures (nasty, flippered, sucker-clawed thingies) were busting out of their tanks, surrounding us and getting more of that slippery glop around, making it really hard to move and fight. i fell on my ass a couple of times but karuna managed to do his spinning kicks and punches that even burned our enemies with fire. alain used his giant fist to grab the djinnotaur and turned one of the others into a FROG! (really gotta get started on that. i wonder if i could still sneak if he turned me into a frog...) van sucked the life out of some creatures while merrick flew up to the catwalk to shoot lightning from above, and when he killed the djinnotaur, it faded away but left its hammer behind. sweet.

(in which connections are revealed and merrick receives an offer he can't refuse)

...when we finally got a chance to take a look around, we noticed that the tanks had little cards -- most with the top line filled in but we couldn’t figure out what they said so we moved on. Van checked out my little skull and it’s magical, but it won’t talk. maybe next time. karuna noticed some rumbling and that outside the clouds are gathering and it’s raining. went to the door on far side of lab and checked for Badness, but it was only locked. briefly. inside, we found ourselves in a two-story library with a glass dome, couches and bookshelves, pillars, a curved stairway leading up to a balcony, and above the door there was a chained statue of eagle and dragon circling each other. as Karuna stepped onto the rug, it tried to snap up around him! but he’s wily and got out of the way in time. then Caela appeared in the air above us and shot lightning at him and also conjured a fist that would have squashed me like a bug. Van made a cloud of black rain and Merrick called up a zone of swirling wind, while i got dazed and stunned AGAIN, but not as badly this time. during the fight, Caela yelled a bunch of interesting things at us (note: i’ll fill this in later) and smashed the dome, which brought glass and rain pouring down on us. i picked up a pouch of coins off her, Lumi saved Karuna and Van from dying, and we finally killed Caela on the stairs of the library. the storm was going crazy - screaming winds, thunder booming, while we searched the room. found some papers with Pilus’s name on them, a quill and chest in a desk, but the storm was starting to knock bookshelves over as Van looked for secret rooms or passages. finally the doors burst open and we could see that the storm had become a swirling tornado. then hippogryphs swooped in through the broken dome - once we were astride, the storm calmed around us, and the tornado destroyed the lab. during a brief break in the storm, i saw what looked like a CRAZY BIG shark, seriously like the size of a CITY, floating above us in the sky, with a glowing disc on its underbelly -- and even just that was bigger than a dragon! the disc-eye-thingie was watching us, too, which can’t be good... and i can’t believe no one else saw something that friggin big. really guys? without directing the hippogryphs, they carried us further into the valley til up ahead we could see red lightning in a massive block of storm. approached a (mostly) invisible castle -- we could make out the outline by the clouds and storm around it, held up by little storm people chained to the castle (Merrick definitely needs to get some of those). zipped through tunnels into a massive hall with a throne and several guards, some wrapped in white linen, some lightning elementals. a man stood at the throne - weathered, long white hair, not quite touching the ground, white robes, lightning in his eyes, a magical wind swooshing his robes around deep thunderous voice. pretty impressive. Yan-C-Bin - turns out he’s the elemental prince of Air, infinite wisdom and balance, exiled by Kord and other gods, his palace is called the Pillar of Wind. only wanted to talk to Merrick, though he said he noticed the trouble we were in and decided to help us (yeah, right). “invited” Merrick to a mutually beneficial task (but of course he wouldn’t say what he gets out of it) -- find the Hammer of Thunderbolts. says Merrick can’t defeat the Ragesians without the Hammer. told us a rumor that the path to the Hammer is etched on a halberd of a Knight of the Aquiline Cross, who rides an eagle. and it’s the only way to defeat Leska. Merrick agrees to do this and Yan-C-Bin makes him kneel and put some kind of mark on his head, though we couldn’t see it. i hope Kord doesn’t see it, either. rode the hippogryphs back to the bakery in Eresh (we’re going to have to buy this place) and they all flew away except Merrick’s. who he named Stinky. plan to rest and then head back to the monastery tomorrow. now i seriously needed a cookie.

i can't think of anyplace better to rest than a bakery -- the smell of vanilla and donuts surrounding you, and all that deliciousness at your fingertips! those extra arms would definitely come in handy... anyway, we went to the monastery to confront Longinus and Pilus and the monks were lined up all along the path -- red & white on the right, blue & white on the left. some important-looking monk at the gate (turns out his name was Woren) dressed in red and blue lead us through the monastery to the tower room where we met Longinus before. Longinus had a white mask with blue marks, a white robe and gloves with gold and black feathers (stormchaser eagle). Pilus's robes have 2 entwined storm dragons, he has short hair and beard - not bad looking for a human, though kinda smirky. Woren introduced us as the "heroes of Eresh" and there was some talk about how grateful they were, etc. Longinus asked us to present our request, so Merrick told him we want passage to Castle Korstull, where the Torch of the Burning Sky is. Van tried to interrupt him for some reason, but it was too late, and then they offered to help, so that worked out. Longinus says it will take a week to craft a storm orb that will get us through the firestorm, but will only work for a few days. Pilus said Ragesia needs to be brought down, but can't explain why they haven't sent any monks after the Torch (which they want to destroy). We sealed the deal with some hot alcoholic drink but me and Alain were the only ones who actually drank it. Karuna didn't even try to fake it, so i drank his, too. Van asked Pilus what he thinks about biomancy, but he didn't confess to the lab or anything. Maybe Caela just went nuts? Van didn't want to go on without any real answers, so he used a magic scroll for getting information from a demon, or someone, and we got a RED DRAGON, which was amazing, though i would have liked to have seen a demon, too. first thing it said was "Who has summoned me?!" and we all pointed to Van. turned out to be The Flamebringer Dragon (the one we saw chasing the Stormchaser Eagle) and the elemental aspect of fire. didn't seem to want to help us out of the goodness of its heart -- van tried to argue that our quest could change the balance of power and it might be sorry after that, and Alain tried to compel it with the dragon orb though it looked like it hurt him to try. he did get the dragon to say that Pilus wants to end the conflict by any means. and that alain'd better not try that on it again. ever. we had to agree to get him one of Tiamat's eggs from the Wyrmsmoke Mountains to the west, but what the hell, right? add it to our To Do list.

Van: what are trillith? Trilla has powers of the mind, trillith are dreams of a psionic dragon made flesh
Lumi: where is Dreth? Being held in (X) mountins by the Scourge
Karuna: What happened to Coaltongue? dead, golden stake driven through his heart and beheaded by assassins in his sleep
Merrick: is getting the Torch the only way to defeat Ragesia? no
Van: what is the nature of the Burning Sky? when the torch was damaged, it brought Plane of elemental chaos in touch with the material plane and caused overlap interference. about when coaltongue died, can be repaired. damage cause by Ruarch (half elf agent of Taranesti - Syana is the protector of that land). firestorm related to damaged Torch.
Fiona: what is the super gigantic shark thingie? pilus crafted it to further his plans.

Spent the week shopping, crafting, praying. karuna and i spent some time sparring with the monks. one day when i was training, Pilus came up to me and said how great we were (blah blah) and how he wanted to give me something to help us with our quest. pretty silver and copper braided earring that he says will enhance my perception. i wonder if he can use it to spy on us... well maybe not, he does have a giant shark already. Merrick and Van had the same dream one night where they saw Khadral, smiling and not dead "as long as there are dreams" and when Merrick woke up, he had a note in his hand that said "a perilous climb. revelation. deception. horses fly from fire." how come i never wake up with like, the Aquiline Heart or the Torch in my hand?

Holy infodump Batman.

How up to date are these sessions? It sounds like this is the first time the PCs got a big chunk of information about the scope of the high end of the campaign.

This does not include last Wednesday's session, which basically was just travel to Castle Korstull and first contact with the Dark Pyre warriors.

Yeah, my players have a tendency to just stumble from one thing to next without trying to make many connections and/or search hard for information. They finally decided it was time to get out of the dark, hence Van's casting of the Loremaster's Bargain ritual. The visit from the Flamebringer Dragon was entirely improvised, as I was expecting the warlock to try to summon a devil to chat with. Of course that didn't work out. Anyway, the party finally has gotten a great deal of the information they needed to get a sense of what's going on and where they are ultimately going to end up. No combat for an entire session, but one of the most fun sessions in a while (for me).

e could’ve made it to Castle Korstull in a couple of days by horseback, but van wanted to take us through the shadow world – a little weird, but VERY cool. Might’ve been creepier if it weren’t for that time I ate that bad batch of brownies… Every time we blinked into the real world, the places we passed through all had these patches of scorched earth and some places looked like they’d had the life sucked out of them. Finally we came out in the small village of Gathin – burnt and sucked dry like everyplace else, though they still had some livestock walking around. Following the sounds of raised voices we found a dozen Ragesian soldiers harassing the villagers, but when the commander cut one of them down, we rushed in. They had a couple of tricks – a sword that shot fire and a lance that blinked out of sight, but we did for the commander and his men until the last one finally surrendered. Told us they were patrolling for the 1st Ragesian army, their commander’s name was Rohat, the storms rolling out form the castle are unpredictable and General Magdus is waiting for a break to get to Korstull with several thousand soldiers of the 1st army camped a day away. After he told us everything he knew, van whispered something in his ear and strangled him. We gave the villagers some money to help get them through this, and I tossed them a little extra so maybe they can just get the hell out of there and help others in the area do the same. Have to remember to ask van what he said to that guy. Alain summoned eagles (yay!) and we flew on into the red sky. The army was spread out all over, camped a couple of miles from the farthest edge of the storm. Dark red clouds covered the sky, with glowing rain falling from them, and Alain pulled out the storm orb. I could just barely see swirling inside the orb and a wind came up from behind and blew the clouds away in a path ahead of us. Super. Friggin. Amazing! [note to Taranesti: If you elves ever come out here, you could see these kinds of things for yourselves, you know. I mean, I don’t know what you’ve got going but seriously? Shadow walking, brownies, magic lances, burning rain?! And that was just today! And I haven’t even gotten to the skeletons that attacked us! Come on!] So the center of the storm turned out to be a giant pillar of fire jutting up from the ground and into the clouds, about 20 miles from the edge. The path the storm orb made was also left open behind us, which was a little troublesome, but I was sure we’d quickly have other things to worry about. Like what was with all the skeletons lying all over the place, the battered cages, the giant bear skull at the base of the pillar, the wagons by the entrance (wait, wagons?)… everything was pretty crazy and loud already when the pillar of flames parted by the eye of the bear skull and a figure stepped out to shoot black lightning down (?) and all around us skeletons with burning eyes rose up to attack. As we wore the enemy numbers down, the wagons by the entrance started moving toward us and the people inside started shooting crossbows at the skeletal warriors and helped us to finish the rest of them off. And they were Halflings! [note: Elves could’ve been good, too. Just saying.]

Ah, I love the halfling/gnome treasure hunters! Honestly my favorite part of that adventure.

The ragtag group we encountered was a mix of halflings and gnomes. They had made their way through the firestorm inside shuttered armored wagons, intent on searching the dangerous ruin for treasure. The troupe was loosely organized under the apparent charge of Grellfin Flintflindercandle, a gnome paladin of Bahamut, who was devoted to slaying undead, and Jorinna Waryeye, a halfling spellcaster of some type, who seemed to be profiteering like the others. Also there was a third guy who seemed to be important but didn't introduce himself.

After some discussion we agreed to cooperate without interference, with the condition that whichever party found the vault would split the treasure. Since we were interested in obtaining the Torch of the Burning Sky, we agreed that their share could be greater than ours even if we found the vault first.

After the details were hammered out, we headed in. Before the great bear-skull gate was a chamber lined with arrow slits, with two angelic statues gazing down on either side of the massive door.

When we touched the door the light in the room reddened as a massive gem, set in the stonework above the door, started to glow. Two beams of crimson light emanated from the jewel, and when they fell upon the statues they sprung to life and attacked. Soon after, the bodies of a dozen ancient warriors pulled themselves up off the ground and stumbled toward us.

Alain's magic subdued the golems in a nether shroud, which prevented the use of their nastiest tricks, while Merrick lay waste to a number of skeletons with blasts of lightning. The gem was shooting lightning as well and eventually Van destroyed it with an arcane bolt of his own, to the treasure hunters' chagrin (damn that thing was big).

The fight was soon over and the heroes were victorious. They moved into the next room, a vast hall with exits in four directions, and said adieu to the tomb raiders, who went right, while the party went left.

We made our way into a dark barracks. As we picked our way through the dusty bunks, the dark energies pervading the area coalesced once again, and we were beset by flaming skeletons and a spooky wraith. Karuna battled one of the fearsome warriors as the rest whittled down the others in turn, keeping the wraith at bay until it fled silently through the wall.

After the battle, we inspected the rest of the area. In one corner was a rubble-choked passage we weren't able to penetrate. In the other direction, we found a door leading to a chamber sporting the arrow-slits we had looked up at earlier. Finally, we found a trapdoor in the ceiling, untrapped it, popped the lock, and made our way into an old armory. Besides enough good steel for a few dozen soldiers, there was a display case containing a fine mace and a magical Horn of Blasting.

Pleased with the recovery of a nice magic item, but out of passages to explore, we returned to the center atrium and made plans to try another path: A large central door on the bottom level, tucked beneath a golden arch.

Narrated by Fiona, halfling rogue:

back at the original set of doors, we chose the one with golden arches next. we could hear mechanical noises as Lumi muscled it open, though it wasn't trapped, and propped it open with a mace we found earlier. nice room with a plush rug, statues lining the walls, and 2 curved staircases leading up to a balcony that had a set of double doors in the center and another door on the end. on the main level the room had doors to the right and left. tried the one on the left, though checking for traps almost got me cut in half! Merrick and Karuna had to help me get the damn thing open and after always going left we ended up in a storage room with charred crates, sacks, etc. there was a staircase, but also a metal plate in the floor with a matching hole in the room's ceiling. staying away from the plate for the moment, we went up the stairs to find another storage room, but not another hole in the ceiling. more left turn passages to a door that Lumi kicked open, which turned out the be the door at the end of the balcony! another passage, then the first door on the left brought us to a kitchen -- bit of a disappointment though there was some food that survived the fire, and evidence of it being recently opened and dishes in the sink. moved on to a conference room where the earring i got from Pilus gave a little quiver and i could hear the sounds of a party and people eating, but couldn't make out where it was coming from. Karuna found footprints that led to a solid wall, but we never figured out how to get though. Lumi pushed open the double doors at the balcony level with some difficulty, since there was a bunch of junk piled up against it, and we looked into a well-lit banquet hall filled with undead nobles eating... themselves. they were all gross and dripping and really stunk up the room, with a minstrel playing a lute and a gelatinous ooze sitting on the throne. which was even yuckier than the other mushy guys -- you could even see human remains floating around inside him (it?). The minstrel said, "ah, another meal for us!" and Van answered, "no no, it will be another 10 minutes, they're having trouble in the scullery." they didn't seem to buy it, though it was a nice try! Merrick naturally met their threats with lightning and enemies quickly surrounded Lumi and Van, but when their numbers were reduced to only 2 the ooze finally decided he'd rather talk than eat, but Van wouldn't stop until everyone was dead. turned out the ooze was Lord Gorquith, who used to rule Korstull until Coaltongue turned him and his nobles into these undead monsters. said he wanted to help us in return for a scroll of Resurrection that's sitting in the hall of healing. as far as possible dangers we might meet along the way, Gorquith told us that he can help with trap disarming sequences and that the inquisitor who killed him is gathering other undead and moving around the castle, while devils guard the chapel. sounded like we'd better take a breather before moving on, but can't wait to see what's next!