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Story Hour
Erkonin (Campaign #2) [Session 45: Rajalmin's Agent]
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<blockquote data-quote="prabe" data-source="post: 8089255" data-attributes="member: 7016699"><p><span style="font-size: 15px"> Session 10: Sleepy Cow Town</span></p><p></p><p>Dramatis Personae:</p><p>Aldalómiel - Wood Elf Ranger (Hunter Conclave)</p><p>Elama “Lamie” Galanodel- Wood Elf Cleric (Tempest)</p><p>Vinya Anar - Wood Elf Monk (Way of the Sun Soul)</p><p>Elderon - High Elf Wizard (Loremaster)</p><p>Marxine Deepfoot - Dwarf Fighter (Champion)</p><p>Mia - Firbolg Druid (Circle of the Land (Forest))</p><p></p><p>GM - Everyone Else</p><p></p><p></p><p>22 Marroin 749 (Campaign day 23)</p><p></p><p>We headed out on the road after a nice night’s sleep in the inn in Traddons. We were told when we left that we were two days from Erlin, so we were excited to be heading out despite they grey cold skies and flurries of snow. We were also told that there wouldn’t be another settlement or town. The terrain was open and rolling -- sagebrush and prairie. The kind of landscape people raise cattle in, which is why people raise cattle here.</p><p></p><p>Shortly before dinner the sky cleared and it got a bit warmer. Mia activated the Staff of Bird Calls to brighten our walk.</p><p></p><p>We had been informed in Traddons that we were about two days from Erlin and that there wouldn’t be another town on the way.</p><p></p><p>Our first day’s travel was uneventful and we made camp alongside the road (though not at a crossroads). We were in open terrain, having just come out of some rocky hills. So there weren’t many trees, but there were some rock piles and small outcroppings.</p><p></p><p>During first watch (Vinya, Elama, and Marxine), Vinya saw three lizard-looking things with six legs (each) coming out of the rocks. They looked like burly iguanas with extra legs -- big heads and strong muscles.</p><p></p><p>Vinya, very loud: What the hell are those?</p><p>Lamie: What? I don’t see anything.</p><p></p><p>Vinyas shout was, deliberately, loud enough to rouse everyone who was resting.</p><p></p><p>Aldalómiel, despite having been in trance, stood up first. She put her hunter’s mark on one of them and hit one solidly with an arrow. Elderron followed and cast magic missile on the same one.</p><p></p><p>Elderron and Marxine recognized these things as basilisks.</p><p></p><p>Vinya: Are these things we don’t want to look at?</p><p>Elderron: Yeah.</p><p></p><p>They warned everyone about them having a gaze attack. It’s important to avert your gaze when close to them in order to avoid that attack.</p><p></p><p>Vinya moved closer to it and fired off some radiant sun bolts from her hands, taking advantage of being at too great a distance for its gaze to affect her. After the basilisks moved closer, but not close enough to attack, Elama backed up and missed with a guiding bolt.</p><p></p><p>Mia stood up and, keeping her eyes on their feet, placed a flaming sphere between two of them. Then she hit one of them with the flaming sphere. Elderron fired magic missiles at the same one he’d hit before. It dropped. Unfortunately, Aldalómiel and Marxine both missed. Vinya, with her eyes averted, made her way gingerly around the flaming sphere to attack a different one. She missed with her quarterstaff (as usual) but hit with her kick.</p><p></p><p>The basilisks, being of animal intelligence, moved away from the hurty fire -- one toward Marxine and one toward Vinya. The one that attacked Vinya hit her and poisoned her. She warned people that they hit hard.</p><p></p><p>Elama cast a spiritual weapon, but the lightning bolt missed one. Her sacred flame hit, however. Mia hit one with the flaming sphere. Aldalómiel moved off to the side to get a better shot, then used her ability as a sharpshooter to hit one of them for a whole lot of damage. Awesome!! Elderron kept his gaze down and, following Mia’s lead to watch their feet, found a good line to cast Aganazzar’s Scorcher on two of them, dropping one. Unfortunately, he had to get right up on the other one to do so.</p><p></p><p>Vinya, moving carefully watching their feet and avoiding the flaming sphere, found herself in a position to take advantage of the distraction that Elderron was causing and hit it twice. It tried to move away from the flaming sphere, but doing so allowed Vinya to take an opportunity attack -- she dropped it with that.</p><p></p><p>Marxine: What a naughty word show!</p><p></p><p>Elama started butchering the three basilisks for their venom glands. The first two went just fine. Marxine noticed what she was doing with the third one.</p><p></p><p>Marxine: Maybe I should do that.</p><p></p><p>As she said that, Elama punctured the venom gland on the third one and got sprayed in the face with poison, taking some damage.</p><p></p><p>After that, the rest of the night passed without incident.</p><p></p><p></p><p>23 Marroin 749 (Campaign day 24)</p><p></p><p>We woke the next morning to Mia’s staff of bird calls used as an alarm. The day was gray and unseasonably warm.</p><p></p><p>Marxine: Good morning, poisoned friends!</p><p></p><p>Fortunately, Vinya and Elama felt much better in the morning.</p><p></p><p>Around midday, after an uneventful morning of travel, the road took a little hitch to the left just before the bank of a small stream. The bridge was about 20 feet from the normal line of the road. We could see the remains of the old bridge (in line with the road) that had been washed out. On the other side of the river, the road over the new bridge connected up with the regular road.</p><p></p><p>As we were looking at all of this, Mia saw crystals in the opposite river bank -- they emerged when one of us took a step, then faded back into the earth of the river bank. Every time we put a foot down, a crystal (or a few) surfaced, then as we stood still they sank back away. They were clear and about the size of a hand. Marxine looked down to check the bank on our side of the river and saw nothing.</p><p></p><p>Vinya, to Elderron: Could you use your mage hand to try and grab one?</p><p></p><p>Elderron cast mage hand and Vinya stomped on the ground to bring one to the surface. When the spectral, magic hand grabbed the crystal, it began to sink back into the earth, dragging the hand with it. The hand let go.</p><p></p><p>Both the currently functional bridge and the washout of the old bridge look new, but we can’t tell if the washout had anything to do with the crystals in the riverbank.</p><p></p><p>Vinya and Elama crossed the new bridge. From the other side of the creek, they couldn’t see any crystals near where the rest of the party was standing, even when they stomped their feet.</p><p></p><p>Elama cast an augury spell to ask what would be the result of picking up one of the crystals and holding onto it. The answer she received was “weal AND woe”.</p><p></p><p>Elama: Both good and bad. So we’ll leave it alone.</p><p></p><p>We continued on the way.</p><p></p><p>The rest of the day passed without anything of note happening until, toward the end of the day, we began to see a city with a wall around it. We could see a high place, like a promontory of rock, rising up in the middle of the city, like a bluff. The walls were made of stone and wood -- different sections in different materials. There was a bridge, Gate Bridge, that went over the Tulnod River -- we could see that the bridge was made to be readily collapsible, turning the river into a moat, if the city was attacked. The other end of the bridge was at the wall and a gate into the city.</p><p></p><p>There were some guards on the bridge -- they came to greet us as we crossed the bridge. But we noted that they didn’t close the gate behind them.</p><p></p><p>Vinya Hello. Do we need to do anything to enter your city, except enter?</p><p>Guard: Are you adventurers?</p><p>Vinya: Well, we like to help people and take care of problems. So yeah, I guess.</p><p>Elama: We want a room, and beds, and some ruckus.</p><p>Vinya: No. No ruckus. We help people. We’ve been on the road a long time.</p><p>Guard: Okay. Don’t cause any problems.</p><p>Elderron: We heard about some adventurers. What did they do?</p><p>Guard: The less said about them the better. Just don’t cause any problems.</p><p>Vinya: We’ve never been here before -- can you recommend an inn for us?</p><p>Guard: Maybe Garlin’s in the Het’s Ell neighborhood.</p><p>Vinya: Is there anything like a job board -- where people put up requests for assistance. Maybe the guard has something?</p><p>Guard: If you ask at the guard house, they sometimes have work for people.</p><p></p><p>We entered the city.</p><p></p><p>Mia: Did we come here for a reason, or just because it was here?</p><p>Lamie: We couldn’t go back.</p><p></p><p>As we walked through the streets of Erlin, right after sunset, we noticed that some of the businesses were still open, but many of them were already closing down. It appeared that to a great extent Erlin rolls up the sidewalks at sundown.</p><p></p><p>We decided we’d stay for at least a few days, shopping and resting.</p><p></p><p>We made our way to Garlin’s, where we met Garlin, the proprietor -- a short, skinny, 60ish year old human male. Vinya asked for three rooms, kinda together. We paid for two nights. We asked after an open air market -- he told us that there wasn’t anything like that. However he recommended Therri’s as a shop that sells magic items -- she opens early. Very early.</p><p></p><p>Elderron: Have there been problems with Hobgoblins in town?</p><p>Garlin: No. There are some that live up the Tulnod.</p><p>Vinya: Do you need any help with anything? What about elsewhere in town -- where to people who need help go to find people who can help them?</p><p>Garlin: I don’t know.</p><p>Elderron: Is there a local militia?</p><p>Garlin: There’s the guard. Captain Althorn has occasionally hired people from outside, but he may not be inclined to do so right now.</p><p>Vinya: Do you know anything about those crystals in the river bank a few miles up the Tulnod?</p><p>Garlin: There’s a sage in Sunlit, named Jamil, who might be able to help you with this. If he can’t help, maybe some of the merchants who trade in that direction might know something.</p><p>Mia: Is there an armorer in town who’s good with leather?</p><p>Garlin: There are some leather workers in the neighborhood or maybe in Orlitton.</p><p></p><p>There wasn’t a restaurant attached to the inn, so Garliin referred us to a nearby restaurant for dinner. We rested and relaxed there. There was a bard playing, but he wasn’t very good.</p><p></p><p>Aldalómiel left on her own after dinner to find a green space -- in the Sunlit neighborhood -- to do her private musings and meditations.</p><p></p><p>The rest of us at the restaurant did not get raucous.</p><p></p><p>After dinner, we went for a walk, with Mia in the form of a dog with floppy ears, so she wouldn’t attract attention. The evening was warm and getting warmer, but nothing about the weather seemed unnatural -- just a warm fall evening.</p><p></p><p>We made our way wending through the city to get back to Garlin’s, where we met up with Aldalómiel. There we rested for the night.</p><p></p><p></p><p>24 Marroin 749 (Campaign day 25)</p><p></p><p>The next morning we got up for an early breakfast, then we headed out.</p><p></p><p>Our first stop was Therri’s -- the magic items shop. It was a little shop, not much bigger than a closet. Therri herself was a really small gnome.</p><p></p><p>Mia (in her natural form): Hi.</p><p></p><p>Therri pulled out a ladder and climbed up so she was at eye level with Mia.</p><p></p><p>Therri: Hi! How can I help you?</p><p></p><p>Mia asked after armor, but there was nothing like that in the shop.</p><p></p><p>Mia: Some of the people in my party want a bag of holding.</p><p>Therri: Everyone wants a bag of holding.</p><p>Mia: What do you have?</p><p>Therri, looking Mia over: You don’t seem like the sort to think a good offense is the best defense.</p><p>Vinya, perking up at that: Oh?</p><p>Therri, looking Vinya over: You don’t seem like the sort to use an axe.</p><p>Marxine, perking up: What’s that?</p><p></p><p>Therri pulled out a battle axe -- smaller than Marxine’s usual greataxe, but magical, on sale for 200 gold. Marxine said she’d think about it.</p><p></p><p>Marxine: How do you get these things?</p><p>Therri: People want to sell things, sometimes.</p><p></p><p>Mia asked how much Therri would pay for the Staff of Bird Calls. She said she’d pay 75 gold for it. Mia declined the offer.</p><p></p><p>We asked Therri about the crystals in the river bank.</p><p></p><p>Therri: You didn’t try to grab one?</p><p>Vinya: Elderron tried with a mage hand…</p><p>Therri: That’s the safest way to do it.</p><p>Vinay: Do people get sucked in?</p><p>Therri: If they don’t let go in time, yes.</p><p></p><p>Vinya then asked about interesting things to see and do in Erlin.</p><p></p><p>Therri: This really isn’t an interesting town.</p><p></p><p>Marxine asked when she’d be open, if she decided to get that axe after all. Therri said she opened before most people had breakfast and closed before dinner.</p><p></p><p>We left and walked around until Mia found a leatherworker. She was looking for studded leather armor in her size. Or possibly getting her own leather armor studded up. She found a shop with a set in her size, so she sold her old armor and got the new. While we were there, Elderron went to a nearby gem shop. He met us at the armor shop before we left.</p><p></p><p>After that we went to Sunlit to find the sage Jamil. We had to ask around a bit to find him, but eventually we did.</p><p></p><p>Jamil was a 40ish year old human male with frizzy hair going out in all directions. At that we realized that most of the people in the city were human. (Which is true of most cities on Urnod.)</p><p></p><p>Elderron talked to him about being a student of wizardry in Pelsoreen, then we offered to take him out to lunch at a place of his choice. He led us to a restaurant advertising Mahassari cuisine. Elderron and Vinya had both had Mahassari food in the past, and knew it was both delicious and fiery.</p><p></p><p>Vinya: I’ve had this. It’s fantastic.</p><p></p><p>Jamil ordered his dish “as the chef makes it for himself”.</p><p></p><p>Vinya, to the others: Don’t do that. Get mild.</p><p></p><p>Most of them followed her advice, except Elama, who also ordered it as the chef makes it for himself.</p><p></p><p>When the food was delivered to our table, Lamie took a bite and broke into a cold sweat.</p><p></p><p>Vinya pushed the plain rice in her direction and advised against trying to wash it down with water or ale.</p><p></p><p>Elama: I’m experiencing something new! It tastes like burning!</p><p></p><p>Elderron asked Jamil if he’d heard of any trouble with cultists of the Hunger Between Worlds.</p><p></p><p>Jamil: The Servants of the Hunger. Not around here.</p><p>Mia: Have you heard about this Machine thing? We’re concerned about how it disappeared.</p><p>Jamil: It’s done this before. It appears and disappears.</p><p>Mia: Is it possible to get rid of it permanently?</p><p>Jamil: It is probable that it can be destroyed, but I don’t know how.</p><p>Mia: How can we find it?</p><p>Jamil: I don’t know.</p><p>Mia: Is it being controlled? Is it sentient?</p><p>Jamil: Some people think the Hunger is not sentient or aware. Other people think it is but on a scale so big it doesn’t even notice us.</p><p>Mia: It may not know it’s hurting us, then.</p><p>Jamil: Some people are able to get power from it and not go insane. But they always have that voice whispering.</p><p></p><p>Jamil knew about the Fomori cave in the mountains, but he didn’t know that the teleportation circle still worked.</p><p></p><p>Vinya: What about that big face on the cliff? And the fog in the valley?</p><p>Jamil: The face is called Annam’s Face. Annam was the chief god of the Giants, well before the Severance. The fog...well, all I can say is that the world remembers.</p><p>Vinya: What about the collapsed stone arch over the path on the way into that valley.</p><p>Jamil: I’m not familiar with that.</p><p>Vinya: It had elven carvings on it.</p><p>Jamil: It might have been a portal to the Feywild, but I’m really not familiar with it.</p><p></p><p>When asked about the crystals in the riverbank, he told us that the boundaries between the planes are really thin on Erkonin. That spot in the riverbank is a place where the boundary to the elemental plane of Earth is very thin. Not a portal, exactly, though he believes that if you hold onto one of the crystals as it drags you into the riverbank you’ll get dragged into the plane of Earth.</p><p></p><p>Mia: We’ve been trying to help people, since we have talents and skills other people don’t. Is there any way we can help the people of Erlin?</p><p>Jamil: I haven’t heard of anything, but I wouldn’t know. Maybe to talk to Captain Althorn at the guard. He sometimes gives jobs to outsiders if there’s anything that seems appropriate for them.</p><p>Elderron: Are there any ruins nearby that would be worth studying?</p><p>Vinya: Yeah, I’d like that.</p><p>Jamil: Not in the city, except in Promontory.</p><p>Marxine: Why are they so exclusive? Why keep people out?</p><p>Jamil: It’s small and hard to build in these days.</p><p>Marxine: Yeah. But why keep people out?</p><p>Elderron: What’s the structure here, politically and socially?</p><p>Jamil: …</p><p>Marxine: There’s a pretty stark class system.</p><p>Jamil: There’s a mayor, elected every four years.</p><p>Marxine: But if the mayor is in Promontory, where people can’t go…</p><p>Vinya: If a regular person wanted to talk to the mayor, how would they do that?</p><p>Jamil: There’s an office in Het’s Ell. The mayor is there every other day. Also, people can vouch someone into Promontory if they have business there.</p><p>Elama: So it’s mostly just getting through red tape to get in there.</p><p>Vinya: Have you heard anything about cultists of Zariel?</p><p>Jamil: I heard about a problem in New Arvai.</p><p>Vinya: Yeah. They scattered to make new cultists.</p><p>Jamil: Or die.</p><p>Vinya: That’s the optimistic view.</p><p>Aldalómiel: What about followers of Sonatis?</p><p>Jamil: The Blue Death sticks to the Scoured Hills.</p><p>Vinya: The Blue Death?</p><p>Aldalómiel: He’s an adult blue dragon.</p><p>Jamil: I know him as an ancient dragon. I need to do research. He was up in the expanding badlands up to the east -- north of Mahassar.</p><p>Elderron: Are there magic shops in town?</p><p>Jamil: Therri is the most likely to have stuff people are willing to sell. Anything else will have more of a black market element.</p><p></p><p>As we talked it became clear that Erlin is not a place where people typically come looking for adventure.</p><p></p><p>Elama: It’s more of a passing through place?</p><p>Jamil: Even the cattle pass through.</p><p>Vinya: Do you know of any Elven ruins from before the Severance?</p><p>Jamil: Not on Urnod.</p><p></p><p>After lunch with Jamil, we headed to the guard house in River Gate, looking for Captain Althorn.</p><p></p><p>Captain Tarlin Althorn is about 30, athletic-looking, and human. He was in an office in the guardhouse. We made it clear that we wanted to talk to him and he took us to a conference room. We offered our services to help the city. Mia particularly offered her help with healing people who might need it. He gave more vague rumblings about the previous group in town -- something about them showing up looking for fire elementals and finding them.</p><p></p><p>Vinya: We’re not like that. We just want to help.</p><p>Elderron: Is there someone in charge of the stockyards and the granaries?</p><p>Captain Althorn: Sure. There are ostlers in the stockyards and people running the granaries.</p><p></p><p>Captain Althorn didn’t have any work for us at that time.</p><p></p><p>Vinya: Well, damn, y’all.</p><p>Captain: We’ve been sacked, but it’s been a while. The Hobgoblins in the hills haven’t always been so civilized. They used to be warlike.</p><p>Vinya: What changed?</p><p>Captain: One group suffered a violent decapitation. Maybe a group of elves found them and backtracked them.</p><p></p><p>We told the Captain where we were staying and told him he could reach us there.</p><p></p><p>As we walked back to Garlin’s we talked about our next moves.</p><p></p><p>Mia: How long until spring?</p><p></p><p>We talked about planting ourselves and staying in Erlin for the winter. We also talked about taking a boat down the river to New Arvai, which might be more interesting to overwinter in. Mia asked Garlin and he confirmed that boats are going down river all winter. The river up in Embernook is probably frozen though, so it would be more difficult to get there.</p><p></p><p>We decided that we would probably go to Lonoj or maybe New Arvai, but decided to wait for a couple of days, since we’d just offered our services to Captain Althorn.</p><p></p><p>Elderron: We could go to the stockyard and ask if any of the ranchers around are having problems.</p><p></p><p>Since it was getting on toward sunset, we decided that all of that could wait until morning.</p><p></p><p>We went back to the restaurant that Garland had recommended, then found a bar that was a little livelier. There was a good bar with a good bard. Vinya and Mia danced.</p><p></p><p>After some drinking and dancing, we went back to the inn and the night passed.</p><p></p><p></p><p>25 Marroin 749 (Campaign day 26)</p><p></p><p>The morning passed with no word from the guard. After breakfast, waffles and danishes, we went down to the docks to book passage for the 10 to 12 day journey to Lonoj.</p><p></p><p>We had a choice between two boats -- a passenger boat would cost us 4 gold per person per day. So 40 to 48 gold per person. Working as crew on a cargo boat would only cost each of us five gold for the whole trip.</p><p></p><p>Elderron asked if there was a boat with a passenger cabin that would accept some of the party as workers and him as a passenger. We found one that met that criterion.</p><p></p><p>Marxine: Paying for the privilege of working for the merchant class…</p><p></p><p>We decided to stay in town for two more days and booked our passage to Lonoj, the next city down the river. We figured we could see if Lonoj was livelier than Erlin.</p><p></p><p>Elderron went to the market. Mia found a very small druidic circle to hang out with. Vinya went to tell Captain Althorn that we were leaving in two days. Then she found a dojo and spent time training and sparring.</p><p></p><p>The day passed and we met up at Garlin’s in the evening.</p><p></p><p>In the middle of the night there was a loud cop-knock on the on door of one of our rooms. It was loud enough that it carried to the other rooms and we were all woken up.</p><p></p><p>Vinya: Helllo.</p><p>Mia: Who is it?</p><p>Captain: The city is not on fire. But get dressed and come down to the guard house. We have something for you.</p><p></p><p>We got geared up and headed to the guardhouse. (Marxine was not in her armor, because Althorn made it clear we shouldn’t take that much time to get down there.)</p><p></p><p>At the guardhouse, Althorn was there in the meeting room with two teenage boys who looked like they’d been traveling and running for a while. Which was accurate -- it turns out that they’d been running for at least six or seven days. There are gnolls coming from the south -- they raided the boys’ village and the boys got away.</p><p></p><p>He wanted us to scout the situation -- find out how many there are and how far away they are. He gave us a sheet of dragon paper, which Elderron recognized, to get a message back when we had information.</p><p></p><p>If we don’t find them in 10 days, we are to use the dragon paper to let him know and then return to Erlin.</p><p></p><p>The boys reported seeing more than 40 of the gnolls, along with a whole lot of hyenas and some walking mouths, but we don’t know the full strength of the force or where they are. Or what those walking mouths are.</p><p></p><p>We’ll be paid 2 gold pieces each per day and were given 20 gold each as an advance.</p><p></p><p>We talked to the kids -- they said they’d been running for at least six days. Part of that was overland, part of it on roads. Mostly at first they were just running away. They looked terrified. And also clearly suspected that their families were dead and their town razed.</p><p></p><p>Marxine: Can we get some horses to ride to get us there faster? As equipment?</p><p>Althorn: Yes, but we need them back.</p><p></p><p>When we spot the gnolls, we are to put the location and numbers and any information that might be useful to the guard on the dragon paper and send it back to Captain Althorn.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="prabe, post: 8089255, member: 7016699"] [SIZE=4] Session 10: Sleepy Cow Town[/SIZE] Dramatis Personae: Aldalómiel - Wood Elf Ranger (Hunter Conclave) Elama “Lamie” Galanodel- Wood Elf Cleric (Tempest) Vinya Anar - Wood Elf Monk (Way of the Sun Soul) Elderon - High Elf Wizard (Loremaster) Marxine Deepfoot - Dwarf Fighter (Champion) Mia - Firbolg Druid (Circle of the Land (Forest)) GM - Everyone Else 22 Marroin 749 (Campaign day 23) We headed out on the road after a nice night’s sleep in the inn in Traddons. We were told when we left that we were two days from Erlin, so we were excited to be heading out despite they grey cold skies and flurries of snow. We were also told that there wouldn’t be another settlement or town. The terrain was open and rolling -- sagebrush and prairie. The kind of landscape people raise cattle in, which is why people raise cattle here. Shortly before dinner the sky cleared and it got a bit warmer. Mia activated the Staff of Bird Calls to brighten our walk. We had been informed in Traddons that we were about two days from Erlin and that there wouldn’t be another town on the way. Our first day’s travel was uneventful and we made camp alongside the road (though not at a crossroads). We were in open terrain, having just come out of some rocky hills. So there weren’t many trees, but there were some rock piles and small outcroppings. During first watch (Vinya, Elama, and Marxine), Vinya saw three lizard-looking things with six legs (each) coming out of the rocks. They looked like burly iguanas with extra legs -- big heads and strong muscles. Vinya, very loud: What the hell are those? Lamie: What? I don’t see anything. Vinyas shout was, deliberately, loud enough to rouse everyone who was resting. Aldalómiel, despite having been in trance, stood up first. She put her hunter’s mark on one of them and hit one solidly with an arrow. Elderron followed and cast magic missile on the same one. Elderron and Marxine recognized these things as basilisks. Vinya: Are these things we don’t want to look at? Elderron: Yeah. They warned everyone about them having a gaze attack. It’s important to avert your gaze when close to them in order to avoid that attack. Vinya moved closer to it and fired off some radiant sun bolts from her hands, taking advantage of being at too great a distance for its gaze to affect her. After the basilisks moved closer, but not close enough to attack, Elama backed up and missed with a guiding bolt. Mia stood up and, keeping her eyes on their feet, placed a flaming sphere between two of them. Then she hit one of them with the flaming sphere. Elderron fired magic missiles at the same one he’d hit before. It dropped. Unfortunately, Aldalómiel and Marxine both missed. Vinya, with her eyes averted, made her way gingerly around the flaming sphere to attack a different one. She missed with her quarterstaff (as usual) but hit with her kick. The basilisks, being of animal intelligence, moved away from the hurty fire -- one toward Marxine and one toward Vinya. The one that attacked Vinya hit her and poisoned her. She warned people that they hit hard. Elama cast a spiritual weapon, but the lightning bolt missed one. Her sacred flame hit, however. Mia hit one with the flaming sphere. Aldalómiel moved off to the side to get a better shot, then used her ability as a sharpshooter to hit one of them for a whole lot of damage. Awesome!! Elderron kept his gaze down and, following Mia’s lead to watch their feet, found a good line to cast Aganazzar’s Scorcher on two of them, dropping one. Unfortunately, he had to get right up on the other one to do so. Vinya, moving carefully watching their feet and avoiding the flaming sphere, found herself in a position to take advantage of the distraction that Elderron was causing and hit it twice. It tried to move away from the flaming sphere, but doing so allowed Vinya to take an opportunity attack -- she dropped it with that. Marxine: What a naughty word show! Elama started butchering the three basilisks for their venom glands. The first two went just fine. Marxine noticed what she was doing with the third one. Marxine: Maybe I should do that. As she said that, Elama punctured the venom gland on the third one and got sprayed in the face with poison, taking some damage. After that, the rest of the night passed without incident. 23 Marroin 749 (Campaign day 24) We woke the next morning to Mia’s staff of bird calls used as an alarm. The day was gray and unseasonably warm. Marxine: Good morning, poisoned friends! Fortunately, Vinya and Elama felt much better in the morning. Around midday, after an uneventful morning of travel, the road took a little hitch to the left just before the bank of a small stream. The bridge was about 20 feet from the normal line of the road. We could see the remains of the old bridge (in line with the road) that had been washed out. On the other side of the river, the road over the new bridge connected up with the regular road. As we were looking at all of this, Mia saw crystals in the opposite river bank -- they emerged when one of us took a step, then faded back into the earth of the river bank. Every time we put a foot down, a crystal (or a few) surfaced, then as we stood still they sank back away. They were clear and about the size of a hand. Marxine looked down to check the bank on our side of the river and saw nothing. Vinya, to Elderron: Could you use your mage hand to try and grab one? Elderron cast mage hand and Vinya stomped on the ground to bring one to the surface. When the spectral, magic hand grabbed the crystal, it began to sink back into the earth, dragging the hand with it. The hand let go. Both the currently functional bridge and the washout of the old bridge look new, but we can’t tell if the washout had anything to do with the crystals in the riverbank. Vinya and Elama crossed the new bridge. From the other side of the creek, they couldn’t see any crystals near where the rest of the party was standing, even when they stomped their feet. Elama cast an augury spell to ask what would be the result of picking up one of the crystals and holding onto it. The answer she received was “weal AND woe”. Elama: Both good and bad. So we’ll leave it alone. We continued on the way. The rest of the day passed without anything of note happening until, toward the end of the day, we began to see a city with a wall around it. We could see a high place, like a promontory of rock, rising up in the middle of the city, like a bluff. The walls were made of stone and wood -- different sections in different materials. There was a bridge, Gate Bridge, that went over the Tulnod River -- we could see that the bridge was made to be readily collapsible, turning the river into a moat, if the city was attacked. The other end of the bridge was at the wall and a gate into the city. There were some guards on the bridge -- they came to greet us as we crossed the bridge. But we noted that they didn’t close the gate behind them. Vinya Hello. Do we need to do anything to enter your city, except enter? Guard: Are you adventurers? Vinya: Well, we like to help people and take care of problems. So yeah, I guess. Elama: We want a room, and beds, and some ruckus. Vinya: No. No ruckus. We help people. We’ve been on the road a long time. Guard: Okay. Don’t cause any problems. Elderron: We heard about some adventurers. What did they do? Guard: The less said about them the better. Just don’t cause any problems. Vinya: We’ve never been here before -- can you recommend an inn for us? Guard: Maybe Garlin’s in the Het’s Ell neighborhood. Vinya: Is there anything like a job board -- where people put up requests for assistance. Maybe the guard has something? Guard: If you ask at the guard house, they sometimes have work for people. We entered the city. Mia: Did we come here for a reason, or just because it was here? Lamie: We couldn’t go back. As we walked through the streets of Erlin, right after sunset, we noticed that some of the businesses were still open, but many of them were already closing down. It appeared that to a great extent Erlin rolls up the sidewalks at sundown. We decided we’d stay for at least a few days, shopping and resting. We made our way to Garlin’s, where we met Garlin, the proprietor -- a short, skinny, 60ish year old human male. Vinya asked for three rooms, kinda together. We paid for two nights. We asked after an open air market -- he told us that there wasn’t anything like that. However he recommended Therri’s as a shop that sells magic items -- she opens early. Very early. Elderron: Have there been problems with Hobgoblins in town? Garlin: No. There are some that live up the Tulnod. Vinya: Do you need any help with anything? What about elsewhere in town -- where to people who need help go to find people who can help them? Garlin: I don’t know. Elderron: Is there a local militia? Garlin: There’s the guard. Captain Althorn has occasionally hired people from outside, but he may not be inclined to do so right now. Vinya: Do you know anything about those crystals in the river bank a few miles up the Tulnod? Garlin: There’s a sage in Sunlit, named Jamil, who might be able to help you with this. If he can’t help, maybe some of the merchants who trade in that direction might know something. Mia: Is there an armorer in town who’s good with leather? Garlin: There are some leather workers in the neighborhood or maybe in Orlitton. There wasn’t a restaurant attached to the inn, so Garliin referred us to a nearby restaurant for dinner. We rested and relaxed there. There was a bard playing, but he wasn’t very good. Aldalómiel left on her own after dinner to find a green space -- in the Sunlit neighborhood -- to do her private musings and meditations. The rest of us at the restaurant did not get raucous. After dinner, we went for a walk, with Mia in the form of a dog with floppy ears, so she wouldn’t attract attention. The evening was warm and getting warmer, but nothing about the weather seemed unnatural -- just a warm fall evening. We made our way wending through the city to get back to Garlin’s, where we met up with Aldalómiel. There we rested for the night. 24 Marroin 749 (Campaign day 25) The next morning we got up for an early breakfast, then we headed out. Our first stop was Therri’s -- the magic items shop. It was a little shop, not much bigger than a closet. Therri herself was a really small gnome. Mia (in her natural form): Hi. Therri pulled out a ladder and climbed up so she was at eye level with Mia. Therri: Hi! How can I help you? Mia asked after armor, but there was nothing like that in the shop. Mia: Some of the people in my party want a bag of holding. Therri: Everyone wants a bag of holding. Mia: What do you have? Therri, looking Mia over: You don’t seem like the sort to think a good offense is the best defense. Vinya, perking up at that: Oh? Therri, looking Vinya over: You don’t seem like the sort to use an axe. Marxine, perking up: What’s that? Therri pulled out a battle axe -- smaller than Marxine’s usual greataxe, but magical, on sale for 200 gold. Marxine said she’d think about it. Marxine: How do you get these things? Therri: People want to sell things, sometimes. Mia asked how much Therri would pay for the Staff of Bird Calls. She said she’d pay 75 gold for it. Mia declined the offer. We asked Therri about the crystals in the river bank. Therri: You didn’t try to grab one? Vinya: Elderron tried with a mage hand… Therri: That’s the safest way to do it. Vinay: Do people get sucked in? Therri: If they don’t let go in time, yes. Vinya then asked about interesting things to see and do in Erlin. Therri: This really isn’t an interesting town. Marxine asked when she’d be open, if she decided to get that axe after all. Therri said she opened before most people had breakfast and closed before dinner. We left and walked around until Mia found a leatherworker. She was looking for studded leather armor in her size. Or possibly getting her own leather armor studded up. She found a shop with a set in her size, so she sold her old armor and got the new. While we were there, Elderron went to a nearby gem shop. He met us at the armor shop before we left. After that we went to Sunlit to find the sage Jamil. We had to ask around a bit to find him, but eventually we did. Jamil was a 40ish year old human male with frizzy hair going out in all directions. At that we realized that most of the people in the city were human. (Which is true of most cities on Urnod.) Elderron talked to him about being a student of wizardry in Pelsoreen, then we offered to take him out to lunch at a place of his choice. He led us to a restaurant advertising Mahassari cuisine. Elderron and Vinya had both had Mahassari food in the past, and knew it was both delicious and fiery. Vinya: I’ve had this. It’s fantastic. Jamil ordered his dish “as the chef makes it for himself”. Vinya, to the others: Don’t do that. Get mild. Most of them followed her advice, except Elama, who also ordered it as the chef makes it for himself. When the food was delivered to our table, Lamie took a bite and broke into a cold sweat. Vinya pushed the plain rice in her direction and advised against trying to wash it down with water or ale. Elama: I’m experiencing something new! It tastes like burning! Elderron asked Jamil if he’d heard of any trouble with cultists of the Hunger Between Worlds. Jamil: The Servants of the Hunger. Not around here. Mia: Have you heard about this Machine thing? We’re concerned about how it disappeared. Jamil: It’s done this before. It appears and disappears. Mia: Is it possible to get rid of it permanently? Jamil: It is probable that it can be destroyed, but I don’t know how. Mia: How can we find it? Jamil: I don’t know. Mia: Is it being controlled? Is it sentient? Jamil: Some people think the Hunger is not sentient or aware. Other people think it is but on a scale so big it doesn’t even notice us. Mia: It may not know it’s hurting us, then. Jamil: Some people are able to get power from it and not go insane. But they always have that voice whispering. Jamil knew about the Fomori cave in the mountains, but he didn’t know that the teleportation circle still worked. Vinya: What about that big face on the cliff? And the fog in the valley? Jamil: The face is called Annam’s Face. Annam was the chief god of the Giants, well before the Severance. The fog...well, all I can say is that the world remembers. Vinya: What about the collapsed stone arch over the path on the way into that valley. Jamil: I’m not familiar with that. Vinya: It had elven carvings on it. Jamil: It might have been a portal to the Feywild, but I’m really not familiar with it. When asked about the crystals in the riverbank, he told us that the boundaries between the planes are really thin on Erkonin. That spot in the riverbank is a place where the boundary to the elemental plane of Earth is very thin. Not a portal, exactly, though he believes that if you hold onto one of the crystals as it drags you into the riverbank you’ll get dragged into the plane of Earth. Mia: We’ve been trying to help people, since we have talents and skills other people don’t. Is there any way we can help the people of Erlin? Jamil: I haven’t heard of anything, but I wouldn’t know. Maybe to talk to Captain Althorn at the guard. He sometimes gives jobs to outsiders if there’s anything that seems appropriate for them. Elderron: Are there any ruins nearby that would be worth studying? Vinya: Yeah, I’d like that. Jamil: Not in the city, except in Promontory. Marxine: Why are they so exclusive? Why keep people out? Jamil: It’s small and hard to build in these days. Marxine: Yeah. But why keep people out? Elderron: What’s the structure here, politically and socially? Jamil: … Marxine: There’s a pretty stark class system. Jamil: There’s a mayor, elected every four years. Marxine: But if the mayor is in Promontory, where people can’t go… Vinya: If a regular person wanted to talk to the mayor, how would they do that? Jamil: There’s an office in Het’s Ell. The mayor is there every other day. Also, people can vouch someone into Promontory if they have business there. Elama: So it’s mostly just getting through red tape to get in there. Vinya: Have you heard anything about cultists of Zariel? Jamil: I heard about a problem in New Arvai. Vinya: Yeah. They scattered to make new cultists. Jamil: Or die. Vinya: That’s the optimistic view. Aldalómiel: What about followers of Sonatis? Jamil: The Blue Death sticks to the Scoured Hills. Vinya: The Blue Death? Aldalómiel: He’s an adult blue dragon. Jamil: I know him as an ancient dragon. I need to do research. He was up in the expanding badlands up to the east -- north of Mahassar. Elderron: Are there magic shops in town? Jamil: Therri is the most likely to have stuff people are willing to sell. Anything else will have more of a black market element. As we talked it became clear that Erlin is not a place where people typically come looking for adventure. Elama: It’s more of a passing through place? Jamil: Even the cattle pass through. Vinya: Do you know of any Elven ruins from before the Severance? Jamil: Not on Urnod. After lunch with Jamil, we headed to the guard house in River Gate, looking for Captain Althorn. Captain Tarlin Althorn is about 30, athletic-looking, and human. He was in an office in the guardhouse. We made it clear that we wanted to talk to him and he took us to a conference room. We offered our services to help the city. Mia particularly offered her help with healing people who might need it. He gave more vague rumblings about the previous group in town -- something about them showing up looking for fire elementals and finding them. Vinya: We’re not like that. We just want to help. Elderron: Is there someone in charge of the stockyards and the granaries? Captain Althorn: Sure. There are ostlers in the stockyards and people running the granaries. Captain Althorn didn’t have any work for us at that time. Vinya: Well, damn, y’all. Captain: We’ve been sacked, but it’s been a while. The Hobgoblins in the hills haven’t always been so civilized. They used to be warlike. Vinya: What changed? Captain: One group suffered a violent decapitation. Maybe a group of elves found them and backtracked them. We told the Captain where we were staying and told him he could reach us there. As we walked back to Garlin’s we talked about our next moves. Mia: How long until spring? We talked about planting ourselves and staying in Erlin for the winter. We also talked about taking a boat down the river to New Arvai, which might be more interesting to overwinter in. Mia asked Garlin and he confirmed that boats are going down river all winter. The river up in Embernook is probably frozen though, so it would be more difficult to get there. We decided that we would probably go to Lonoj or maybe New Arvai, but decided to wait for a couple of days, since we’d just offered our services to Captain Althorn. Elderron: We could go to the stockyard and ask if any of the ranchers around are having problems. Since it was getting on toward sunset, we decided that all of that could wait until morning. We went back to the restaurant that Garland had recommended, then found a bar that was a little livelier. There was a good bar with a good bard. Vinya and Mia danced. After some drinking and dancing, we went back to the inn and the night passed. 25 Marroin 749 (Campaign day 26) The morning passed with no word from the guard. After breakfast, waffles and danishes, we went down to the docks to book passage for the 10 to 12 day journey to Lonoj. We had a choice between two boats -- a passenger boat would cost us 4 gold per person per day. So 40 to 48 gold per person. Working as crew on a cargo boat would only cost each of us five gold for the whole trip. Elderron asked if there was a boat with a passenger cabin that would accept some of the party as workers and him as a passenger. We found one that met that criterion. Marxine: Paying for the privilege of working for the merchant class… We decided to stay in town for two more days and booked our passage to Lonoj, the next city down the river. We figured we could see if Lonoj was livelier than Erlin. Elderron went to the market. Mia found a very small druidic circle to hang out with. Vinya went to tell Captain Althorn that we were leaving in two days. Then she found a dojo and spent time training and sparring. The day passed and we met up at Garlin’s in the evening. In the middle of the night there was a loud cop-knock on the on door of one of our rooms. It was loud enough that it carried to the other rooms and we were all woken up. Vinya: Helllo. Mia: Who is it? Captain: The city is not on fire. But get dressed and come down to the guard house. We have something for you. We got geared up and headed to the guardhouse. (Marxine was not in her armor, because Althorn made it clear we shouldn’t take that much time to get down there.) At the guardhouse, Althorn was there in the meeting room with two teenage boys who looked like they’d been traveling and running for a while. Which was accurate -- it turns out that they’d been running for at least six or seven days. There are gnolls coming from the south -- they raided the boys’ village and the boys got away. He wanted us to scout the situation -- find out how many there are and how far away they are. He gave us a sheet of dragon paper, which Elderron recognized, to get a message back when we had information. If we don’t find them in 10 days, we are to use the dragon paper to let him know and then return to Erlin. The boys reported seeing more than 40 of the gnolls, along with a whole lot of hyenas and some walking mouths, but we don’t know the full strength of the force or where they are. Or what those walking mouths are. We’ll be paid 2 gold pieces each per day and were given 20 gold each as an advance. We talked to the kids -- they said they’d been running for at least six days. Part of that was overland, part of it on roads. Mostly at first they were just running away. They looked terrified. And also clearly suspected that their families were dead and their town razed. Marxine: Can we get some horses to ride to get us there faster? As equipment? Althorn: Yes, but we need them back. When we spot the gnolls, we are to put the location and numbers and any information that might be useful to the guard on the dragon paper and send it back to Captain Althorn. [/QUOTE]
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Erkonin (Campaign #2) [Session 45: Rajalmin's Agent]
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