Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is coming! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
Playing the Game
Story Hour
The Tol Vehara Story Hour
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Pacio49" data-source="post: 2496423" data-attributes="member: 28472"><p><strong>Finally! Up to date!</strong></p><p></p><p>The party spent some much-earned R&R in the Tower, allowing their Minotaur Ak-Rashkinna to heal up from his near starvation. Marshaya suggested a picnic in the Vale 'like we used to do with Karral', so the party consented and was out picnicking when Hank, the injured Dust Rider, was surprised by a Dust Rider jumping out of a bush and shouting 'Boo!' at him (which caused him to trip and roll down a hillside). The new person was a half-elven Bard/Dust Rider female named Seirithé Flarnil, and she had been sent into the Blasted Lands by Mad Madge, Hank's Dust Rider agent. She also carried a set of scrolls summoning Inge Truelute back to her clanhalls. Seirithé didn't know why, but she did know that all dwarves everywhere had been summoned back to their halls in recent times.</p><p></p><p>Hank was teleported back to Madge's to make good on back credit debts with his Agent, and Inge accepted the summons which teleported her back to her clan hall. First she severed her connection to the group via the rings with Laeka's consent, and also she asked Seirithé as a fellow Bard to fulfill her duty to the party and accompany them to Pain Mountain. Seirithé agreed.</p><p></p><p>That night, Marcus was studying and found a hidden set of documents with magical script that moved and swirled under his eyes, even with a Read Magic up and running. The little he did recognize led him to make contact with the mind of Mystra, Goddess of Magic. He decided then to become a Cleric, and found more writings of hers on how to be a Mystic Theurge, joining a special order of Mystra's which was set for her own agenda, which would become clear in time. As he studies the documents new prayers and spells come with the appropriate experience levels (allowing him to multiclass to Mystra's cleric and eventually become a Mystic Theurge of Mystra's). </p><p></p><p>In prayer, he asked for guidance from her and rolled extremely well. Mystra showed herself to him in a vision (he had made a godcall and succeeded with a 00 on the percentile roll, made in plain sight. Gotta love players sometimes, since it sped up some background plotting they had missed when they didn't explore Teeb's place fully). She explained that the Blasted Lands was being caused by the collision of two material planes, and that the Taint was the result of the fabric of reality trying to resolve the colossal impact that was still ripping through the world at the point of contact. She revealed little more on that, but she did reveal that the Gods were tied to the structure of the planes, and so it was within the realm of the divine that a cure could be found for the Taint. It required treating each individual being as though they were a temple, and casting HALLOW on them. One casting of Hallow allowed for the removal of any Taint or Bane in a given individual. Each casting of Hallow requires 2,000gp in materials, so it's a cure that comes at a price.</p><p></p><p>Mystra also revealed that this cure was, in fact, already known. The Elvish Queen had come down with the Bane years before, and had been cured with the Hallow spell. The Clergy of the Temple of Iöla themselves knew the cure, at least at some level, but in some weird bid for power withheld that information from the public at large. Mystra told Marcus to make certain that whenever he revealed the source of the cure of the Taint, that Mystra be the one whose name was praised for revealing the information. </p><p></p><p>Marcus and the party discussed this, and realized they had two scrolls with Hallow on them. There were several rescued folks from Teeb's who could use it, including two children, but the party used one on one of the children and the other on Marshaya, the Elven Cleric of Iöla (after some discussion, they reasoned that she wouldn't be part of the conspiracy since she had the Bane in an advanced stage). When the spell was cast, her holy symbol flickered for a moment, and revealed to the party that she wasn't actually a cleric of Iöla, but instead a cleric of Jastour, God of Secrets and Knowledge. </p><p></p><p>Marshaya was sufficiently advanced in level to be able to cast Hallow herself, as was Arien, so over the course of time and several thousands of gp later, the group had managed to cleanse the Taint on the humans, the halfling squire, and all the rest of the refugees. They were set free of the Blasted Lands when the party teleported to Tol Vehara, coming into Brindella's agency (Marcus finally got the spell). They told the healed ones to go free and keep quiet for now, thanking Mystra for helping them. The halfling squire ran off to find her people and help spread the word among the halflings, thanking Marcus and Mystra for their help, and promising to keep it hush-hush and only among halflings for now until Mystra sent a further signal.</p><p></p><p>The group did some trading, saw some folks, checked up on Ymanoura and the Sapphire family but heard nothing. They found out that there had been more rioting in the streets because a full regiment of the Knights of the New Order were reported at the hostels crossing the White Mountains to the west, all the dwarves were gone or leaving to respond to a Kingdom-wide Clan Summons, and life continued more or less as usual. They returned to the Tower then, and made ready their assault on Pain Mountain to secure the gem, feeling even more urgency now that they thought the Knights were coming in, and wanting to establish themselves securely before that happened and Tol Vehara was subject to a crackdown.</p><p></p><p>The party made their preparations, loaded up and took off, follow Ak-Rashkinna toward Gatetown.</p><p></p><p>Along the way they were ambushed by a Young Adult green dragon who nearly got wiped out, met Dexter, a kobold sorcerer (14th level!) refugee from Pain Mountain who was guarded because of Ak-Rashkinna and lived in a haven, and they got attacked by a Wyvern along the way. Finally they made it to Gatetown, where before crossing the Lake of Tears to get to the actual town at the foot of Pain Mountain, the minotaur they had rescued (the Chaotic Evil minotaur who had successfully used sleight of hand to NOT drink from the cup of Lawful Goodness) turned to the party in front of the guards and demanded 1,000 gp apiece from them to not claim they were his slaves for sale in the Gatetown market. The party grumbled, but facing the option of being taken as slaves or a massive fight on the ferry docks, they paid up and learned their lesson about trusting Minotaur.</p><p></p><p>The party helped buy a human out of slavery and met some lizardfolk and psionicists. They found their welcome at Gatetown to be extremely unpleasant, and were a bit unnerved by the number of openly evil folks there were present. Even Tybok realized they were outgunned and outmatched.</p><p></p><p>The one major problem they encountered was during some shenanigans at the slave auction, which were broken up by a contingent of Black Shield orcs and their Lieutenant, a humanoid in full plate with visor down who had curiously been able to organize the orc hierarchy in town to support Gruntguts, the Mayor, and who seemed to be able to hold on to a vestige of order despite the chaotic surroundings. Marcus (again with the nasty roll of natural 20 on a Listen check) recognized the voice of the lieutenant as belonging to none other than Tanin, the ex-party member who had drunk from the Lawful Evil cup. Upon realizing that and realizing why the orcs were suddenly obedient to their Mayor (the cup), the party decided wisdom was the better part of valor and high-tailed it out of dodge, half fearing an ambush on the way back. (No ambush.)</p><p></p><p>Tybok had gone invisible, however, and managed to successfully spy on Tanin for a moment, overhearing him talking to Gruntguts the Mayor.</p><p></p><p>MAYOR: Did you dispatch them?</p><p>TANIN: Am I still here to serve you? Then they remain. I will return to my own time and my own Master once I finally thwart them. Their plans must not be allowed to continue or else all is lost.</p><p></p><p>The group discussed what this meant as they travelled, and they pushed on that night (with Londrigan, the slave they rescued) until they made it to the Haven where Dexter waited. Dexter, seeing them without Ak-Rashkinna, was much more open and friendly, and told the party more about Pain Mountain, that there were many ways into and out of it. The party asked him if he knew of the gem called the Heart of the Mountain. He had heard of it, but didn't know where it lay. Dexter mentioned that his scrying abilities would be much stronger if the group could bring him to a place of power in the nearby mountains. They agreed and the next day set out to gain the Place of Power for Dexter and scry to find out where the Heart of the Mountain lay.</p><p></p><p>The Place was up high along a narrow and steep track, and when they made it up to the ledge they found a cave entrance and, unfortunately, the green dragon they had chased off earlier. They fought the dragon, and Dexter succeeded in a lucky spell (Baleful Polymorph) to turn it into a toad. A very tough toad, but soon a very dead dragon/toad. Inside the cavern was a small pool welling up from below, which was the place of power that Dexter had spoken of. He said he needed a night to prepare, and they waited.</p><p></p><p>The next day, Dexter cast the scrying on the pool, and the party saw a strange scene. A paladin and a Crystal Dragon in the darkness amid the dragon's hoard. The dragon was an ancient wyrm, and he was dying. The paladin assisted him in his Rites of Ascension, and the Wyrm (Excelsior) completed the rites the place was flooded in light, light that turned into crystal and affected the mountain itself as the Ascension Wyrm magic flooded through all of the caverns, crevices, etc. Marcus thought that might have been the source of the adamantium which the Minotaurs were known to be mining. </p><p></p><p>They watched and saw that the paladin had died in the rite, as had the Wyrm, but the bedrocks in the center of the mountain had been converted to crystal.... rose quartz, the 'heartstone', which warded away the Taint but slowly degraded to Blue quartz. (Each 10gp worth of rose quartz carried on a person 'prevents' the Taint from affecting the carrier for one day/night.) The dragon's actual body had turned into a series of crystal caverns, on an island amid the sunless sea, and where the dragon's heart had been was now a giant crystal aglow with power, the fabled Heart of the Mountain. The party saw the shade of the paladin, suffused with light, guarding the gem, and then the vision went dark.</p><p></p><p>The party decided, with Dexter's counsel, to seek entry to the mountain's depths through the abandoned dwarven city, beneath the shadow of the Broken Tower and the Bone Lord, a Death Knight who ruled from his complex of the Broken Tower atop the mountain. Dexter bound himself as guardian of the node of power on which he sat, accepting the fact that he would no longer be able to leave that mountain but also that he could use his sorcery to aid in the freeing of his friends and clans of kobolds in Pain Mountain. While the party wasn't too keen on running into the Bone Lord, Dexter thought there had to be a way into the caverns below without climbing up to the heights where the Broken Tower lay.</p><p></p><p>The party rests now at the haven, awaiting the next stage of their adventure, as they assault the Dwarven City to gain entrance to the Sunless Sea, and there to find the Crystal Caverns, overcome the Guardian Shade, and claim the Heart of the Mountain for their own.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Pacio49, post: 2496423, member: 28472"] [b]Finally! Up to date![/b] The party spent some much-earned R&R in the Tower, allowing their Minotaur Ak-Rashkinna to heal up from his near starvation. Marshaya suggested a picnic in the Vale 'like we used to do with Karral', so the party consented and was out picnicking when Hank, the injured Dust Rider, was surprised by a Dust Rider jumping out of a bush and shouting 'Boo!' at him (which caused him to trip and roll down a hillside). The new person was a half-elven Bard/Dust Rider female named Seirithé Flarnil, and she had been sent into the Blasted Lands by Mad Madge, Hank's Dust Rider agent. She also carried a set of scrolls summoning Inge Truelute back to her clanhalls. Seirithé didn't know why, but she did know that all dwarves everywhere had been summoned back to their halls in recent times. Hank was teleported back to Madge's to make good on back credit debts with his Agent, and Inge accepted the summons which teleported her back to her clan hall. First she severed her connection to the group via the rings with Laeka's consent, and also she asked Seirithé as a fellow Bard to fulfill her duty to the party and accompany them to Pain Mountain. Seirithé agreed. That night, Marcus was studying and found a hidden set of documents with magical script that moved and swirled under his eyes, even with a Read Magic up and running. The little he did recognize led him to make contact with the mind of Mystra, Goddess of Magic. He decided then to become a Cleric, and found more writings of hers on how to be a Mystic Theurge, joining a special order of Mystra's which was set for her own agenda, which would become clear in time. As he studies the documents new prayers and spells come with the appropriate experience levels (allowing him to multiclass to Mystra's cleric and eventually become a Mystic Theurge of Mystra's). In prayer, he asked for guidance from her and rolled extremely well. Mystra showed herself to him in a vision (he had made a godcall and succeeded with a 00 on the percentile roll, made in plain sight. Gotta love players sometimes, since it sped up some background plotting they had missed when they didn't explore Teeb's place fully). She explained that the Blasted Lands was being caused by the collision of two material planes, and that the Taint was the result of the fabric of reality trying to resolve the colossal impact that was still ripping through the world at the point of contact. She revealed little more on that, but she did reveal that the Gods were tied to the structure of the planes, and so it was within the realm of the divine that a cure could be found for the Taint. It required treating each individual being as though they were a temple, and casting HALLOW on them. One casting of Hallow allowed for the removal of any Taint or Bane in a given individual. Each casting of Hallow requires 2,000gp in materials, so it's a cure that comes at a price. Mystra also revealed that this cure was, in fact, already known. The Elvish Queen had come down with the Bane years before, and had been cured with the Hallow spell. The Clergy of the Temple of Iöla themselves knew the cure, at least at some level, but in some weird bid for power withheld that information from the public at large. Mystra told Marcus to make certain that whenever he revealed the source of the cure of the Taint, that Mystra be the one whose name was praised for revealing the information. Marcus and the party discussed this, and realized they had two scrolls with Hallow on them. There were several rescued folks from Teeb's who could use it, including two children, but the party used one on one of the children and the other on Marshaya, the Elven Cleric of Iöla (after some discussion, they reasoned that she wouldn't be part of the conspiracy since she had the Bane in an advanced stage). When the spell was cast, her holy symbol flickered for a moment, and revealed to the party that she wasn't actually a cleric of Iöla, but instead a cleric of Jastour, God of Secrets and Knowledge. Marshaya was sufficiently advanced in level to be able to cast Hallow herself, as was Arien, so over the course of time and several thousands of gp later, the group had managed to cleanse the Taint on the humans, the halfling squire, and all the rest of the refugees. They were set free of the Blasted Lands when the party teleported to Tol Vehara, coming into Brindella's agency (Marcus finally got the spell). They told the healed ones to go free and keep quiet for now, thanking Mystra for helping them. The halfling squire ran off to find her people and help spread the word among the halflings, thanking Marcus and Mystra for their help, and promising to keep it hush-hush and only among halflings for now until Mystra sent a further signal. The group did some trading, saw some folks, checked up on Ymanoura and the Sapphire family but heard nothing. They found out that there had been more rioting in the streets because a full regiment of the Knights of the New Order were reported at the hostels crossing the White Mountains to the west, all the dwarves were gone or leaving to respond to a Kingdom-wide Clan Summons, and life continued more or less as usual. They returned to the Tower then, and made ready their assault on Pain Mountain to secure the gem, feeling even more urgency now that they thought the Knights were coming in, and wanting to establish themselves securely before that happened and Tol Vehara was subject to a crackdown. The party made their preparations, loaded up and took off, follow Ak-Rashkinna toward Gatetown. Along the way they were ambushed by a Young Adult green dragon who nearly got wiped out, met Dexter, a kobold sorcerer (14th level!) refugee from Pain Mountain who was guarded because of Ak-Rashkinna and lived in a haven, and they got attacked by a Wyvern along the way. Finally they made it to Gatetown, where before crossing the Lake of Tears to get to the actual town at the foot of Pain Mountain, the minotaur they had rescued (the Chaotic Evil minotaur who had successfully used sleight of hand to NOT drink from the cup of Lawful Goodness) turned to the party in front of the guards and demanded 1,000 gp apiece from them to not claim they were his slaves for sale in the Gatetown market. The party grumbled, but facing the option of being taken as slaves or a massive fight on the ferry docks, they paid up and learned their lesson about trusting Minotaur. The party helped buy a human out of slavery and met some lizardfolk and psionicists. They found their welcome at Gatetown to be extremely unpleasant, and were a bit unnerved by the number of openly evil folks there were present. Even Tybok realized they were outgunned and outmatched. The one major problem they encountered was during some shenanigans at the slave auction, which were broken up by a contingent of Black Shield orcs and their Lieutenant, a humanoid in full plate with visor down who had curiously been able to organize the orc hierarchy in town to support Gruntguts, the Mayor, and who seemed to be able to hold on to a vestige of order despite the chaotic surroundings. Marcus (again with the nasty roll of natural 20 on a Listen check) recognized the voice of the lieutenant as belonging to none other than Tanin, the ex-party member who had drunk from the Lawful Evil cup. Upon realizing that and realizing why the orcs were suddenly obedient to their Mayor (the cup), the party decided wisdom was the better part of valor and high-tailed it out of dodge, half fearing an ambush on the way back. (No ambush.) Tybok had gone invisible, however, and managed to successfully spy on Tanin for a moment, overhearing him talking to Gruntguts the Mayor. MAYOR: Did you dispatch them? TANIN: Am I still here to serve you? Then they remain. I will return to my own time and my own Master once I finally thwart them. Their plans must not be allowed to continue or else all is lost. The group discussed what this meant as they travelled, and they pushed on that night (with Londrigan, the slave they rescued) until they made it to the Haven where Dexter waited. Dexter, seeing them without Ak-Rashkinna, was much more open and friendly, and told the party more about Pain Mountain, that there were many ways into and out of it. The party asked him if he knew of the gem called the Heart of the Mountain. He had heard of it, but didn't know where it lay. Dexter mentioned that his scrying abilities would be much stronger if the group could bring him to a place of power in the nearby mountains. They agreed and the next day set out to gain the Place of Power for Dexter and scry to find out where the Heart of the Mountain lay. The Place was up high along a narrow and steep track, and when they made it up to the ledge they found a cave entrance and, unfortunately, the green dragon they had chased off earlier. They fought the dragon, and Dexter succeeded in a lucky spell (Baleful Polymorph) to turn it into a toad. A very tough toad, but soon a very dead dragon/toad. Inside the cavern was a small pool welling up from below, which was the place of power that Dexter had spoken of. He said he needed a night to prepare, and they waited. The next day, Dexter cast the scrying on the pool, and the party saw a strange scene. A paladin and a Crystal Dragon in the darkness amid the dragon's hoard. The dragon was an ancient wyrm, and he was dying. The paladin assisted him in his Rites of Ascension, and the Wyrm (Excelsior) completed the rites the place was flooded in light, light that turned into crystal and affected the mountain itself as the Ascension Wyrm magic flooded through all of the caverns, crevices, etc. Marcus thought that might have been the source of the adamantium which the Minotaurs were known to be mining. They watched and saw that the paladin had died in the rite, as had the Wyrm, but the bedrocks in the center of the mountain had been converted to crystal.... rose quartz, the 'heartstone', which warded away the Taint but slowly degraded to Blue quartz. (Each 10gp worth of rose quartz carried on a person 'prevents' the Taint from affecting the carrier for one day/night.) The dragon's actual body had turned into a series of crystal caverns, on an island amid the sunless sea, and where the dragon's heart had been was now a giant crystal aglow with power, the fabled Heart of the Mountain. The party saw the shade of the paladin, suffused with light, guarding the gem, and then the vision went dark. The party decided, with Dexter's counsel, to seek entry to the mountain's depths through the abandoned dwarven city, beneath the shadow of the Broken Tower and the Bone Lord, a Death Knight who ruled from his complex of the Broken Tower atop the mountain. Dexter bound himself as guardian of the node of power on which he sat, accepting the fact that he would no longer be able to leave that mountain but also that he could use his sorcery to aid in the freeing of his friends and clans of kobolds in Pain Mountain. While the party wasn't too keen on running into the Bone Lord, Dexter thought there had to be a way into the caverns below without climbing up to the heights where the Broken Tower lay. The party rests now at the haven, awaiting the next stage of their adventure, as they assault the Dwarven City to gain entrance to the Sunless Sea, and there to find the Crystal Caverns, overcome the Guardian Shade, and claim the Heart of the Mountain for their own. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
Playing the Game
Story Hour
The Tol Vehara Story Hour
Top