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Lylandra's War of the Burning Sky continued
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<blockquote data-quote="Lylandra" data-source="post: 7007439" data-attributes="member: 6816692"><p>I'm starting this part of my recaps with some DM's musings about my take on the Lyceum school of magic. I was kind of surprised that the school actually predates the city of Seaquen and slowly but steadily attracted farmers, merchants and the like until the school was surrounded and supplied by an independant trade port city. For the school itself, I felt some intense Howarts-vibes (minus the houses) emanating from it, so I could easily imagine a place which is rather unconnected and isolated (in a positive, protective way) to the rest of the world, sheltering its students from the harsh reality. Until now, where the Ragesians and their scourge start targetting mages directly and the school's administrative force has to decide whether or not to do something about it. Lyceans, both students and a good part of the instructor squad, tend to have a more carefree, even naive stance on the outside world and are more or less focused on their academics. I also (again, influenced by Hogwarts and the like) thought that many of the Lyceum students were still quite young, so I could believeably bake in some lighthearted "Highschool drama" to offer my players a homely refuge and contrast from the harsh reality of war. I wanted to make sure that the Lyceum was a place they'd long to return to after kind of losing their home in Gate Pass. So maybe some of my Lyceum episodes seem a bit whimsical or comical, but my players (who play young adults and in some ways follow a classic coming-of-age character development) had lots of fun interacting with the colourful and diverse Lyceans. </p><p></p><p>[HR][/HR]</p><p></p><p>The next day the party heads for the Shipwreck Inn where Nelebekus told them that he'd rented a room and try to gather information on the half-elf. They are surprised to hear that he already paid for his room and left a day ago and that he didn't leave a note or similar for their supposed contacts. They decide that Nelebekus might be in the Royale, hiding from them for an unknown reason. So they use illusion magic and the new found hat of disguise from Jeszka to turn themselves into half-orcs and head for the notorious "fight club" tavern. They avoid duelling any of the combatants and unsuccessfully search for their missing contact. What they do find in the uppermost storey of the Royale is dwarf commander Xavious Foebane who musters their posture and decides to ask them whether or not they want to join the ranks of his growing "army". After a lot of talk, they decide that they deem the dwarf trustworthy enough to tell him that they are from Gate Pass and currently guests of the Lyceum school. They offer him greets from Lady Iz and see the old dwarf slightly moved and smiling all over his face. After realizing that they know Lady Iz, Xavious opens up a bit and offers to keep an eye open forthat "Nelebekus guy". He also tells them about strange cases of fire all over Seaquen which might or might not be cases of arson. As they are about to leave the Royale, they spot the half-orc who had been at Lee's home the day before, but they shrug it off for this time. </p><p><em></em></p><p><em>Note: Of course they wouldn't find Nelebekus as Brutus decided to not use his alter ego for a while. He doesn't know whether or not his fellow Ragesians are actually Ragesians (thanks, Torrent) so he wants to play it safe and have other Ragesian spys spy on them for a few days. </em></p><p></p><p>As the heroes decide that they could take a look at the suspected cases of arson, the city guard leads them to the damaged houses. Their superior perception makes it clear that something small and burning must have been the culprit, so they track down the swarm of rats and root them out with magic. All of them are relieved that no jealous refugee was the culprit (as Lorb Votberd and some Seaquenians suggested). They suggest that all houses and cellars should be searched for rat holes and sealed off. They alsoo learn about the steam tunnels and the Saquen heat supply system by the way and are deeply impressed. </p><p></p><p>In the evening, they want to spy on the odd half-orc who seemed a bit suspicious. They also hope to find clues about the connections between Lee Sidoneth and Paradim Dogwood. So the disguise themselves as half-orcs (again) and sneak up on Brutus as he leaves the Royale, seemingly drunk. They follow him to his home and manage to overhear parts of a conversation where another half-orc (the one that accompanied him and Dogwood) tells his "brother" to keep a low profile for a while and to not cause any ruckus. As they find this behavious slightly suspicious, they inform the Lyceans that maybe one should keep an eye on this half-orc brothers. They also inform Torrent on their suspicion that her mentor Lee might be part of something shady, but they ask her to not mention anything to him.</p><p></p><p>The next morning, the elves practise their fencing and spellcasting skills in one of the Lyceum's training rooms. As they specifically train stances and posture (and because they are pretty shirtless - again!), they start attracting quite a crowd of spectators, including many young women. They also educat a bypassing Katrina on the importance of discipline and stance, being Gabal's students after all, and give her tips on how to throw fireballs more elegantly. Kat doesn't care that much as long as she gets stuff burned, but she still congratulates them on their newfound fame. After they finished training, they are accompanied by a cloud of "fangirls" who seem all too eager to win over one of the guys for herself. Cuin quickly excuses himself, leaving his "brother" with the bunch of hormonal teens and twens. Who go off with him to have some fun in Lyceum's "legendary steam spa". </p><p></p><p>A bit later they meet up again with Katrina, who is having tea with an elderly elf called Ivellios. The elf greets the two and is instantly fascinated by the fact that Cuin is a Taranesti elf and still friends with a Shahalesti. He introduces himself as an elf who was originally from the Innotendar forest and is now part of the evoker's branch of Lyceum. He tells Cuin that he's sorry for what happened to their people and that the Shahalesti should face consequences for their crimes, now that Diashan can shed some light on the burning forest incident. Katrina tells them that she has not seen Torrent since they parted ways last evening, should they've been looking for her. Tinu is pretty worried about her disappearance and immediately starts looking for her. (I guess Tinu is worried about *everything*)</p><p>He asks people who should know her well and learns a bit about her usual habits of swimming at the beach, including the dangerous ruin area, for sport. Lee and Urdal seem a bit worried about the thought of swimming right now due to the unruly weather, but Tinu goes off nonetheless to search for his missing companion. </p><p></p><p>After a good day of searching, Tinu still hasn't found Torrent so Cuin suggests that maybe Simeonne, being a diviner, could help them find her. She performs some "standard procedure divinations" and reveals that she has seen Torrent chained up somewhere underground next to a flaming woman. She also offers to give them a special "find the path" spell that she has invented on her own in case some of her students would go missing.</p><p></p><p><em>Note: How convenient. I thought that, as a school's headmastress, Simeonne would have to deal with all sorts of problems you'd typically encounter in any school, including infights, jealousy, teacher-student problems and runaways/disappearing students. So yep, she is prepared and used to petty troubles. Also, enter bonus adventure #1: More spies in the steam tunnels. Which I modified a bit and which I hoped would work as a red herring for my players who were 100% convinced that some disaster was about to strike Seaquen. As the villain in this module was on the brink of destroying all of Seaquen, it seemed like a plan...</em></p><p></p><p>The elves are shocked to hear that their friend might be in serious distress and quickly assemble a rescue team, consisting of themselves, Tiljann and Katrina. Together they follow Torrent's trails to the old entrance of the dwarven steam tunnel system and enter silently (now that they are without Ms. "Clonk clonk", stealth is not too much of a deal. Seriously, Torrent is/was rightfully one of the worst stealthers I've ever seen). The hobgoblin guards and partols don't offer much of a threat to a well-performing stealth team and so they find the dungeon where Torrent is chained up with little more than a scratch. Kattrina is pretty upset that she wasn't able to fireball anyone without roasting her friends, though. They are happy to see Torrent relatively unharmed and surprised to see that the elemental woman, Jibrand, is actually on their side. </p><p></p><p>Torrent explains that, while she was heading home yesterday, she heared a voice suggesting her to go to the steam tunnels (which she didn't really know before) and manipulate some strange steam device. Afterwards, she wasn't able to defend herself against Hobgoblins, who chained her next to Jibrand. The latter tells the surprised party that she stems from a place called Vule and that she disobeyed the new master of her home plane and was thus imprisoned here by his minion. </p><p></p><p>Note: Tinu's player was visibly shocked when I mentioned Vule, as he thought it might have some connection to the Seela Vuhl/Deception. I guess he has found his nemesis. </p><p></p><p>As they still don't understand what's going on, the rescue party frees Torrent and she leads them towards the room with the steam device. They are very surprised to see Ivellios standing there, overseeing a staple of paperwork. He tells them that he's really sorry that things turned out as they did, but that in order to stop the Ragesians sacrifices have to be made. As they really didn't buy that sort of logic back then when Lee told them of a similar approach, they decide to overwhelm Ivellios. Which is not much of a big deal, as he is an elderly wizard and they are two agile melee combatants. At swordpoint, the elf explains that he and his master have to do a demonstration of their power, so the Ragesians will fear them and abandon their plans of conquering the world. He also mentions a big elemental army and starts philosophing about the nature of sacrifices.</p><p></p><p><em>Note: This is the part that I changed. Originally, Ivellios was allied with the Ragesians, but I wanted to show them what happens when good intentions go too far. Also, having only Ragesians as the "Bad guys" would have been quite boring. I was playing with the idea of having Lee order Ivellios to kidnap Torrent so she might be safe from the oncoming storm. But that would have meant too many complicated connections and too less morale drama.</em></p><p></p><p>Cuin goes on to debate with Ivellios, but Tinuviel realizes that the old elf is simply buying time and KOs him with his pommel. Cuin is furious about Tinu's rash action, but he then understands that time might be pressing and that a manipulated steam device can be quite fatal for all of them.</p><p></p><p><em>Note: A manipulated engine that's about to blow up. We didn't play Zeitgeist back then, but right now I kind of feel a connection between the two scenarios <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite2" alt=";)" title="Wink ;)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=";)" /></em></p><p></p><p>Just as Tinu finished his exposition, he is stabbed in the back by a poisoned blade as the previously invisible assassin Rexis tries to rescue his master. Lucky Tinu succeeds on his death saving throw but succumbs to the paralyzing poison. This turns Cuin'halar quite berserk as he is not sure whether or not his brother is alive or dead. Without concern for his own safety, he, Torrent and Katrina kill Rexis in a single round. The team is more then happy to see that Tinu is simply poisoned and they decide to let Tiljann care for him while the rest of the team seeks to disable the steam machine. Cuin is quite intimidated by the ten death traps in the engine room, but Torrent assures him that it was safe for her to enter. Together they manage to re-open the vents to prevent a fatal explosion which would have endangered all of Seaquen. </p><p></p><p>They tie up Ivellios and, after Tinuviel recovers minutes later, they are led into Vule by Jibrand. As this is their first time on another (demi)plane, the group is thoroughly impressed by the strange surroundings. Jibrand explains them that once two elemental lords resided in Vule and that this plane was a meeting place for all fire and water elementals. When they abandoned the place, a new master, a druid called Toma, claimed the place as his own. He started building an army of elementals only recently and she was banished because she didn't want to be part of a war. </p><p></p><p>They manage to avoid the whirlpool with the elder water elemental by chance and stumble over into the reverse gravity room. As Tinuviel has a "personal gravity" skill, being an elocator, he scouts ahead and spans a rope from one end to the other end of the room. Cuin follows and, being the slightly stronger of the two, keeps his hand on the rope. Tiljann glides down towards them. Katrina nearly falls off when suddenly a large fire elemental emerges from below. In a sudden burst of gallantry, Tinu jumps into the coals and tells Katrina to let go, as he would catch her (what he does). He carries the magic missile hurling sorceress to the safe zone and Torrent simply jumps at the elemental from above and gives him everything she's got. </p><p></p><p><em>Note: The elementals are one of the biggest pains for my precision damage dealing PCs. They hate them. But this way, Torrent was able to really shine. Also, there were no rules for catching someone who is falling from above. I called for an easy reflex save, as I didn't want to ruin Tinu's moment of "swashbuckling romance". </em></p><p></p><p>They open the door to the elemental forge and are relieved that the elder fire elemental doesn't seem to be hostile. They ask him what he's doing in there and he explains that he's an elemental smith, doing elemental forgework. And that he wants to continue doing his work and not be bothered by fleshlings. The party decides that is is for the best of all to leave him be and continue their exploration of Vule. They enter the brass room of the azers next and are told to leave immediately as they shall let no one pass. Quick diplomancer Cuin'halar assures them that he is a guest of their master and that he has brought them gifts as signs of friendship. He then hands them some copper and silver coins to melt which they accept. </p><p></p><p>After that, they - again by chance - avoid the whole water-ocean-trophy room section and head straight towards the planar portals. They are amazed by the stunning sight, but remember to continue as the druid might be increasing his elemental army at this very moment. They encounter Toma, a really old Taranesti elf in his chamber room where he gives off his speech about not being a villain and simply doing what is right and is about to attack when... Cuin calls him out on his self-righteousness and his seeming "sacrifice" which is nothing more than a simple way to solve things. He asks him why he actually is doing all this and Toma halts his attack for a moment to explain that without his help, the world will spiral more and more into chaos - a process that started long ago by an imbalance and a disturbance in the elements. He insists that he, as a servant of the elements, has to root out the source of this imbalance and that he and his elemental armies will destroy the Ragesian threat and anyone who dares to threaten the balance of the forces. Cuin then explains that they might be actually on the same side as they are no fans of the Ragesians either and that they too seek a (albeit less destructive) way to stop them. He also doesn't want to fight one of the few remaining Taranesti and reminds him of the gentle nature of Syana who protected without the need of destruction. Toma laughs at the name of the golden wyrm and tells a surprised Cuin that he has watched her from afar in the planes as she dragged his people into the light, whether it was the right thing to do or not and that he shouldn't dare think that all of the Taranesti were angels. He also states that Syana wielded unnatural magic and dared to create life without going the natural way. He then talks about the nature of conflict and that conflict was the beginning of the imbalance when the dragon tore out the eagle's heart and that four reckless mortals drank from its blood to gain unnatural, sinful immortality and then again reckless mortals caused a wound in the elemental plane of fire which causes it to bleed into the mortal realm and that this fiery wound might consume all of the world in time anyway. </p><p></p><p><em>Note: I really didn't think about the possibility that Cuin would start a dialogue with obviously insane Toma. I simply wanted to show them a Taranesti villain (see "Not all Shalalesti are evil" - "Not all Taranesti are victims"). I altered both his age (old elves are so much older and original human Toma was already 153) and his reasons to do what he did (I don't like villains without an agenda), so I modeled him after Pilus. He hates powerful mortals who screw up the elemental balance and as the Ragesians screwed up most, he wants to lead his army to them first. But after Cuin started talking to him, I had to improvise very quickly and gave out more information than I wanted, including the fact that the eagle's heart is very real and that it can cause immortality. I just deemed it fitting that a master of an elemental plane who had all the power to observe the mortal realms would definitely know a lot about the relationships of elements and mortals. </em></p><p></p><p>The party seems quite overwhelmed by Toma's agenda, but then boldly (foolishly?) state that they will try to fix the imbalances for him and that he doesn't have to utilize such drastic measures. Toma agrees on the condition that he will only halt his plans and will continue them should they not succeed in their tiny mortal life spans. They ask him whether they may contact him should they find anything element-related and he agrees as they have now basically agreed to be his agents. Oh and they may totally use the elemental forge as long as they use it to further his cause. He also hands them a gem which can be used to cast protection from energy (fire) every few days as a measure of protecting them from the "fiery imbalance".</p><p></p><p>They thank Toma for his patience and wisdom and, after leaving Vule, are pretty intimidated by the fact that they might just have been given the task to find and restore the eagle spirit's heart. For a moment Tinuviel and Cuin'halar think that they have finally averted Torrent's vision of doom when... they realize that Toma's plan wouldn't have caused a tidal wave or a storm and that the threat might still exist somewhere out there. </p><p></p><p><em>Note: And so ends the bonus adventure. So much for my red herring plan. They *do* have to take prophecies all too literally, don't they? As a sidenote, I've returned the boomerang to them right now via a nightmare Trillith's nightmares. Which Tinu definitely thinks to be prophecies and which might just ruin their diplomatic endeavour with Shalosha</em></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Lylandra, post: 7007439, member: 6816692"] I'm starting this part of my recaps with some DM's musings about my take on the Lyceum school of magic. I was kind of surprised that the school actually predates the city of Seaquen and slowly but steadily attracted farmers, merchants and the like until the school was surrounded and supplied by an independant trade port city. For the school itself, I felt some intense Howarts-vibes (minus the houses) emanating from it, so I could easily imagine a place which is rather unconnected and isolated (in a positive, protective way) to the rest of the world, sheltering its students from the harsh reality. Until now, where the Ragesians and their scourge start targetting mages directly and the school's administrative force has to decide whether or not to do something about it. Lyceans, both students and a good part of the instructor squad, tend to have a more carefree, even naive stance on the outside world and are more or less focused on their academics. I also (again, influenced by Hogwarts and the like) thought that many of the Lyceum students were still quite young, so I could believeably bake in some lighthearted "Highschool drama" to offer my players a homely refuge and contrast from the harsh reality of war. I wanted to make sure that the Lyceum was a place they'd long to return to after kind of losing their home in Gate Pass. So maybe some of my Lyceum episodes seem a bit whimsical or comical, but my players (who play young adults and in some ways follow a classic coming-of-age character development) had lots of fun interacting with the colourful and diverse Lyceans. [HR][/HR] The next day the party heads for the Shipwreck Inn where Nelebekus told them that he'd rented a room and try to gather information on the half-elf. They are surprised to hear that he already paid for his room and left a day ago and that he didn't leave a note or similar for their supposed contacts. They decide that Nelebekus might be in the Royale, hiding from them for an unknown reason. So they use illusion magic and the new found hat of disguise from Jeszka to turn themselves into half-orcs and head for the notorious "fight club" tavern. They avoid duelling any of the combatants and unsuccessfully search for their missing contact. What they do find in the uppermost storey of the Royale is dwarf commander Xavious Foebane who musters their posture and decides to ask them whether or not they want to join the ranks of his growing "army". After a lot of talk, they decide that they deem the dwarf trustworthy enough to tell him that they are from Gate Pass and currently guests of the Lyceum school. They offer him greets from Lady Iz and see the old dwarf slightly moved and smiling all over his face. After realizing that they know Lady Iz, Xavious opens up a bit and offers to keep an eye open forthat "Nelebekus guy". He also tells them about strange cases of fire all over Seaquen which might or might not be cases of arson. As they are about to leave the Royale, they spot the half-orc who had been at Lee's home the day before, but they shrug it off for this time. [I] Note: Of course they wouldn't find Nelebekus as Brutus decided to not use his alter ego for a while. He doesn't know whether or not his fellow Ragesians are actually Ragesians (thanks, Torrent) so he wants to play it safe and have other Ragesian spys spy on them for a few days. [/I] As the heroes decide that they could take a look at the suspected cases of arson, the city guard leads them to the damaged houses. Their superior perception makes it clear that something small and burning must have been the culprit, so they track down the swarm of rats and root them out with magic. All of them are relieved that no jealous refugee was the culprit (as Lorb Votberd and some Seaquenians suggested). They suggest that all houses and cellars should be searched for rat holes and sealed off. They alsoo learn about the steam tunnels and the Saquen heat supply system by the way and are deeply impressed. In the evening, they want to spy on the odd half-orc who seemed a bit suspicious. They also hope to find clues about the connections between Lee Sidoneth and Paradim Dogwood. So the disguise themselves as half-orcs (again) and sneak up on Brutus as he leaves the Royale, seemingly drunk. They follow him to his home and manage to overhear parts of a conversation where another half-orc (the one that accompanied him and Dogwood) tells his "brother" to keep a low profile for a while and to not cause any ruckus. As they find this behavious slightly suspicious, they inform the Lyceans that maybe one should keep an eye on this half-orc brothers. They also inform Torrent on their suspicion that her mentor Lee might be part of something shady, but they ask her to not mention anything to him. The next morning, the elves practise their fencing and spellcasting skills in one of the Lyceum's training rooms. As they specifically train stances and posture (and because they are pretty shirtless - again!), they start attracting quite a crowd of spectators, including many young women. They also educat a bypassing Katrina on the importance of discipline and stance, being Gabal's students after all, and give her tips on how to throw fireballs more elegantly. Kat doesn't care that much as long as she gets stuff burned, but she still congratulates them on their newfound fame. After they finished training, they are accompanied by a cloud of "fangirls" who seem all too eager to win over one of the guys for herself. Cuin quickly excuses himself, leaving his "brother" with the bunch of hormonal teens and twens. Who go off with him to have some fun in Lyceum's "legendary steam spa". A bit later they meet up again with Katrina, who is having tea with an elderly elf called Ivellios. The elf greets the two and is instantly fascinated by the fact that Cuin is a Taranesti elf and still friends with a Shahalesti. He introduces himself as an elf who was originally from the Innotendar forest and is now part of the evoker's branch of Lyceum. He tells Cuin that he's sorry for what happened to their people and that the Shahalesti should face consequences for their crimes, now that Diashan can shed some light on the burning forest incident. Katrina tells them that she has not seen Torrent since they parted ways last evening, should they've been looking for her. Tinu is pretty worried about her disappearance and immediately starts looking for her. (I guess Tinu is worried about *everything*) He asks people who should know her well and learns a bit about her usual habits of swimming at the beach, including the dangerous ruin area, for sport. Lee and Urdal seem a bit worried about the thought of swimming right now due to the unruly weather, but Tinu goes off nonetheless to search for his missing companion. After a good day of searching, Tinu still hasn't found Torrent so Cuin suggests that maybe Simeonne, being a diviner, could help them find her. She performs some "standard procedure divinations" and reveals that she has seen Torrent chained up somewhere underground next to a flaming woman. She also offers to give them a special "find the path" spell that she has invented on her own in case some of her students would go missing. [I]Note: How convenient. I thought that, as a school's headmastress, Simeonne would have to deal with all sorts of problems you'd typically encounter in any school, including infights, jealousy, teacher-student problems and runaways/disappearing students. So yep, she is prepared and used to petty troubles. Also, enter bonus adventure #1: More spies in the steam tunnels. Which I modified a bit and which I hoped would work as a red herring for my players who were 100% convinced that some disaster was about to strike Seaquen. As the villain in this module was on the brink of destroying all of Seaquen, it seemed like a plan...[/I] The elves are shocked to hear that their friend might be in serious distress and quickly assemble a rescue team, consisting of themselves, Tiljann and Katrina. Together they follow Torrent's trails to the old entrance of the dwarven steam tunnel system and enter silently (now that they are without Ms. "Clonk clonk", stealth is not too much of a deal. Seriously, Torrent is/was rightfully one of the worst stealthers I've ever seen). The hobgoblin guards and partols don't offer much of a threat to a well-performing stealth team and so they find the dungeon where Torrent is chained up with little more than a scratch. Kattrina is pretty upset that she wasn't able to fireball anyone without roasting her friends, though. They are happy to see Torrent relatively unharmed and surprised to see that the elemental woman, Jibrand, is actually on their side. Torrent explains that, while she was heading home yesterday, she heared a voice suggesting her to go to the steam tunnels (which she didn't really know before) and manipulate some strange steam device. Afterwards, she wasn't able to defend herself against Hobgoblins, who chained her next to Jibrand. The latter tells the surprised party that she stems from a place called Vule and that she disobeyed the new master of her home plane and was thus imprisoned here by his minion. Note: Tinu's player was visibly shocked when I mentioned Vule, as he thought it might have some connection to the Seela Vuhl/Deception. I guess he has found his nemesis. As they still don't understand what's going on, the rescue party frees Torrent and she leads them towards the room with the steam device. They are very surprised to see Ivellios standing there, overseeing a staple of paperwork. He tells them that he's really sorry that things turned out as they did, but that in order to stop the Ragesians sacrifices have to be made. As they really didn't buy that sort of logic back then when Lee told them of a similar approach, they decide to overwhelm Ivellios. Which is not much of a big deal, as he is an elderly wizard and they are two agile melee combatants. At swordpoint, the elf explains that he and his master have to do a demonstration of their power, so the Ragesians will fear them and abandon their plans of conquering the world. He also mentions a big elemental army and starts philosophing about the nature of sacrifices. [I]Note: This is the part that I changed. Originally, Ivellios was allied with the Ragesians, but I wanted to show them what happens when good intentions go too far. Also, having only Ragesians as the "Bad guys" would have been quite boring. I was playing with the idea of having Lee order Ivellios to kidnap Torrent so she might be safe from the oncoming storm. But that would have meant too many complicated connections and too less morale drama.[/I] Cuin goes on to debate with Ivellios, but Tinuviel realizes that the old elf is simply buying time and KOs him with his pommel. Cuin is furious about Tinu's rash action, but he then understands that time might be pressing and that a manipulated steam device can be quite fatal for all of them. [I]Note: A manipulated engine that's about to blow up. We didn't play Zeitgeist back then, but right now I kind of feel a connection between the two scenarios ;)[/I] Just as Tinu finished his exposition, he is stabbed in the back by a poisoned blade as the previously invisible assassin Rexis tries to rescue his master. Lucky Tinu succeeds on his death saving throw but succumbs to the paralyzing poison. This turns Cuin'halar quite berserk as he is not sure whether or not his brother is alive or dead. Without concern for his own safety, he, Torrent and Katrina kill Rexis in a single round. The team is more then happy to see that Tinu is simply poisoned and they decide to let Tiljann care for him while the rest of the team seeks to disable the steam machine. Cuin is quite intimidated by the ten death traps in the engine room, but Torrent assures him that it was safe for her to enter. Together they manage to re-open the vents to prevent a fatal explosion which would have endangered all of Seaquen. They tie up Ivellios and, after Tinuviel recovers minutes later, they are led into Vule by Jibrand. As this is their first time on another (demi)plane, the group is thoroughly impressed by the strange surroundings. Jibrand explains them that once two elemental lords resided in Vule and that this plane was a meeting place for all fire and water elementals. When they abandoned the place, a new master, a druid called Toma, claimed the place as his own. He started building an army of elementals only recently and she was banished because she didn't want to be part of a war. They manage to avoid the whirlpool with the elder water elemental by chance and stumble over into the reverse gravity room. As Tinuviel has a "personal gravity" skill, being an elocator, he scouts ahead and spans a rope from one end to the other end of the room. Cuin follows and, being the slightly stronger of the two, keeps his hand on the rope. Tiljann glides down towards them. Katrina nearly falls off when suddenly a large fire elemental emerges from below. In a sudden burst of gallantry, Tinu jumps into the coals and tells Katrina to let go, as he would catch her (what he does). He carries the magic missile hurling sorceress to the safe zone and Torrent simply jumps at the elemental from above and gives him everything she's got. [I]Note: The elementals are one of the biggest pains for my precision damage dealing PCs. They hate them. But this way, Torrent was able to really shine. Also, there were no rules for catching someone who is falling from above. I called for an easy reflex save, as I didn't want to ruin Tinu's moment of "swashbuckling romance". [/I] They open the door to the elemental forge and are relieved that the elder fire elemental doesn't seem to be hostile. They ask him what he's doing in there and he explains that he's an elemental smith, doing elemental forgework. And that he wants to continue doing his work and not be bothered by fleshlings. The party decides that is is for the best of all to leave him be and continue their exploration of Vule. They enter the brass room of the azers next and are told to leave immediately as they shall let no one pass. Quick diplomancer Cuin'halar assures them that he is a guest of their master and that he has brought them gifts as signs of friendship. He then hands them some copper and silver coins to melt which they accept. After that, they - again by chance - avoid the whole water-ocean-trophy room section and head straight towards the planar portals. They are amazed by the stunning sight, but remember to continue as the druid might be increasing his elemental army at this very moment. They encounter Toma, a really old Taranesti elf in his chamber room where he gives off his speech about not being a villain and simply doing what is right and is about to attack when... Cuin calls him out on his self-righteousness and his seeming "sacrifice" which is nothing more than a simple way to solve things. He asks him why he actually is doing all this and Toma halts his attack for a moment to explain that without his help, the world will spiral more and more into chaos - a process that started long ago by an imbalance and a disturbance in the elements. He insists that he, as a servant of the elements, has to root out the source of this imbalance and that he and his elemental armies will destroy the Ragesian threat and anyone who dares to threaten the balance of the forces. Cuin then explains that they might be actually on the same side as they are no fans of the Ragesians either and that they too seek a (albeit less destructive) way to stop them. He also doesn't want to fight one of the few remaining Taranesti and reminds him of the gentle nature of Syana who protected without the need of destruction. Toma laughs at the name of the golden wyrm and tells a surprised Cuin that he has watched her from afar in the planes as she dragged his people into the light, whether it was the right thing to do or not and that he shouldn't dare think that all of the Taranesti were angels. He also states that Syana wielded unnatural magic and dared to create life without going the natural way. He then talks about the nature of conflict and that conflict was the beginning of the imbalance when the dragon tore out the eagle's heart and that four reckless mortals drank from its blood to gain unnatural, sinful immortality and then again reckless mortals caused a wound in the elemental plane of fire which causes it to bleed into the mortal realm and that this fiery wound might consume all of the world in time anyway. [I]Note: I really didn't think about the possibility that Cuin would start a dialogue with obviously insane Toma. I simply wanted to show them a Taranesti villain (see "Not all Shalalesti are evil" - "Not all Taranesti are victims"). I altered both his age (old elves are so much older and original human Toma was already 153) and his reasons to do what he did (I don't like villains without an agenda), so I modeled him after Pilus. He hates powerful mortals who screw up the elemental balance and as the Ragesians screwed up most, he wants to lead his army to them first. But after Cuin started talking to him, I had to improvise very quickly and gave out more information than I wanted, including the fact that the eagle's heart is very real and that it can cause immortality. I just deemed it fitting that a master of an elemental plane who had all the power to observe the mortal realms would definitely know a lot about the relationships of elements and mortals. [/I] The party seems quite overwhelmed by Toma's agenda, but then boldly (foolishly?) state that they will try to fix the imbalances for him and that he doesn't have to utilize such drastic measures. Toma agrees on the condition that he will only halt his plans and will continue them should they not succeed in their tiny mortal life spans. They ask him whether they may contact him should they find anything element-related and he agrees as they have now basically agreed to be his agents. Oh and they may totally use the elemental forge as long as they use it to further his cause. He also hands them a gem which can be used to cast protection from energy (fire) every few days as a measure of protecting them from the "fiery imbalance". They thank Toma for his patience and wisdom and, after leaving Vule, are pretty intimidated by the fact that they might just have been given the task to find and restore the eagle spirit's heart. For a moment Tinuviel and Cuin'halar think that they have finally averted Torrent's vision of doom when... they realize that Toma's plan wouldn't have caused a tidal wave or a storm and that the threat might still exist somewhere out there. [I]Note: And so ends the bonus adventure. So much for my red herring plan. They *do* have to take prophecies all too literally, don't they? As a sidenote, I've returned the boomerang to them right now via a nightmare Trillith's nightmares. Which Tinu definitely thinks to be prophecies and which might just ruin their diplomatic endeavour with Shalosha[/I] [/QUOTE]
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