Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="CPaladin" data-source="post: 8347799" data-attributes="member: 7030144">Session 16 (December 20, 2020)10 GhastThey all awaken and have a war breakfast with the Na-Vad. There’s no sign that there will be a shortage of food, but the noble houses are being careful anyway because there’s a war on.They rise early, travel to the Church of Paranswarm, observe the last ritual of the night. The Na-Vad speaks to the priest.“You have survived a serious attempt at an assassination, then?”“I guess that’s right.”“Well, there have been so many assassinations of late, and kidnappings—among the nobles, among the youth--, and then the chivalry departing suddenly. I understand you want to make a sending to your family.”“Yes.”“Prepare it and I will send it.” The priest turns to the rest of them. “I see no holy symbols of Paranswarm among you. Be careful throughout the city. And be even more careful if you enter Inquisition held territory. You flew in?”Noah presents the sending text: “This is Noah, I have survived the kidnapping. Currently in the capital with the na-Vad Zitrian, Attempting to better understand the civil warfare. Hopefully soon enough reunion can occur. Was found in the Spice Lands.”The priest goes to attend his business; he will make the sending in the evening.The na-Vad Zitrian continues to mention how troubled he is as they go to meet with the prisoners. He cannot free the prisoners, but he can allow Noah to meet with him. He doesn’t understand why the chivalry have departed in the time of the Empire’s greatest need, the Inquisition has landed 25,000 troops even though Hanal has always been a loyal Paranswarmian country.The na-Vad leads them all into the depths of the manor, into the modest dungeons underneath. There are cells for a dozen prisoners here, including one occupied by the wolf-eyed man and the woman. “Ten minutes, no more. This will be reported to my mother any way, and I do not wish it to be too long.” The guards withdraw with the na-Vad.“I am surprised to see you again, but pleased to see you in control of yourself and with companions.”“Things have been weird. We started off as mercenaries, dealing with remnants of the Hanalian army. Trying to help them return here.”“So, they were defeated in the south?”“Good.”“Why do you ally with the Red? It seems the main thing driving everything apart is that conflict—the House of Red and the House of Green?”“That was the traditional divide. But the two largest covates that have defied the enchantment are of the Red.”“Defied the enchantment?”“I know that you cannot retain this, but I know that the woman who sits on the throne is not Thyastis’s daughter. Thyastis’s daughter is in exile, and the Queen-Empress is an imposter. I can only hold that in my mind at some times, and I know you may think me mad.”“Is there any chance that this will end without one group destroying the other? I’d prefer if this could end with some sort of uneasy peace? And if she isn’t who she claims that she is, who is Princess Anastasia?”“Nature tells me—you know my connection to nature—that she is not a natural creature that sits on the throne. And Anastasia is a natural creature. There is no connection between the two.”“There is not much I can do for you.”“There is nothing you can do for me. The Vadess intends to turn me over to the Inquisition, assuming that eventually the Inquisition will side with the Queen-Empress.”“What does the Inquisition want?”“I assume the same thing I do, to stop the imposter, but I do not know for sure. You could try to speak with them. They are encamped east of here.”“And what of your companion?”“I am Amelia, I was Thyastis’s Archamaga. I do not have his vision—it is as if I vaguely remember the new Empress when she was in court, a quiet girl. She has no use for Thyastis’s people. She drove us away from court, I came to my old friend, and we were arrested.”They leave the dungeon and the na-Vad tells them that they are welcome to remain here as long as they like, and their rooms will be kept open for them.Noah says that he’s thinking of going to speak with the Inquisition, to find out what they know and why. The na-Vad encourages him, and asks Noah to tell him if he finds out anything.They decide to wait until the evening, when they can get the results of the sending, and then head east to the Inquisition.Within an hour, Noah cannot remember that the Queen-Empress is an imposter. (Elyn writes down in Elvish that the Queen-Empress is an imposter.) By the end of the second hour, everyone has forgotten.They go to the temple that evening. “I reached your parents’ priest and he spoke with them and they responded:  'Thank the gods. Do not attempt to reach us. Bandits, rebels, and monsters between you and us. Remember: you are the na-Strom. Stay safe. Love, Mother and Dad.'”They spend the night at the Vadess’s manor.11 GhastThey set out towards the Inquisition army—east and slightly south. The area is so heavily militarized, that other than getting stopped a couple of times and checked, they can make it through the day without any difficulty.12 GhastTowards evening of the second day, they come across a burned thorp—burned to the ground.Elyn says, “Looting anybody?”“Normally I just don’t participate in looting sessions, but this is not…” says Noah.Elyn is stopped by the fact that in the midst of the destroyed houses—they were destroyed from above, and there’s an odd rune burned into the ground in the middle of the village. Elyn recognizes the rune as elven. She calls for Ravokris to come over, and he approaches cautiously.Ravokris recognizes that rune. It stands for “Forbidden!”Elyn and Ravokris insist that Noah investigate first. Ravokris can feel a strange pulse of magic-maybe divine—coming out of the rune. Ravokris casts detect magic. Immediately, an about foot tall etheric figure appears—an elven figure in the outfit of an officer from Singing Leaves. It appears and begins to speak clearly in ringing tones, “Abomination has been committed in this place and has been scourged by order of the Queen of Singing Leaves. This area is forbidden until time has passed for clerics to cleanse this area.”They all rapidly withdraw from the village.This is particularly weird, because there is almost nobody of elven blood in Hanal. They felt the need to bombard it from the air. As they leave, Elyn says, “If the elven people burnt it, it probably deserved it.” At the same time, she’s troubled.Noah looks through the village, looking for corpses. A first pulse of energy passes over Noah, and then the second propels him out of the village and there’s a loud announcement in elven, “Forbidden!”At that point, Elyn and Ravokris decide to come in, wondering if it’s only elves that can approach. An unseen force picks Elyn up and carries her out. A voice whispers, “Forbidden.” As Ravokris approaches, he hears a voice say, “Are you certain?” He says “yes,” and the energy pulses cease to affect him.As he approaches, he sees that the blast center is some sort of strange altar, the strangest he’s ever seen. It is not Morgrothian, but is extraplanar. There’s conjuration magic here, mostly broken but not entirely. Ravokris touches it with his hand and begins casting Identify. He can feel horrible energies passing over him as he touches it. When he finishes casting the spell, a vista opens in front of him—an entirely featureless gray plane, with no life at all, and a hunger clawing at him. He then hears a woman’s voice, breathless. “Restore me, bring me into your plane, I will bring you up to levels of power unheard of.” He can feel the evil pouring out. “Restore my places of power. I am She of the Bone. Restore my places of power. I will make you my consort. Come to me, serve me.” He senses a strange force strengthening his will, and rainbows appear in front of him. He thinks his Goddess is protecting him. He cannot withdraw his hand however. “Serve me!”Ravokris says “no.” He is thrown 190 feet back and everyone else is knocked back and to the ground. Ravokris lands well in a roll and is not struck dead but does take 24 points of blunt damage, leaving him barely conscious.Noah tries to rush the symbol, but it continues to push him out.Ravokris takes a short rest and mostly heals up.They send the party animals to try to disrupt the rune so they can get to the smashed altar. A crab, a dire ferret, and a mouse approach.Meanwhile, Iados is watching all of this. As Ravokris is thrown screaming through the air, Iados makes a spot check and fails miserably. He’s taken completely by surprise as all of a sudden two knives come over his shoulder missing terribly. Iados disengages and runs forward. As he turns around, he sees a crazed looking human, in ragged clothes, emaciated with hunger, with two daggers out.Iados drew his rapier, missed, and then got stabbed. The poison on the dagger causes him to collapse.Ravokris sees this happen and shouts, “Knife guy!”The knife guy starts dragging Iados into the woods.Noah rages and charges. He swings his axe at the enemy’s leg, trying to avoid Iados with his axe. He snakes the axe around, hitting the peasant for 16 points of damage. The villager stabs back at Noah, who barely makes his save against the poison.Ravokris sends a firebolt sailing past the villager.Elyn shoots the villager with her bow. She does 12 points of damage, dropping the villager.Noah leaps forward and tries to save the villager, but he’s already dead. And then Noah yells at the corpse, “you were our best lead.”Elyn makes sure they don’t abandon Iados.Noah drags both the corpse and Iados back towards the group. He then hurls the corpse towards the altar. The body dissolves into mist which is sucked into the altar.Ravokris’s familiar, a crab, is able to approach and starts scraping the edge of the rune. They remove the elven rune that’s blocking the village. It takes about 40 minutes.[End session 16]</blockquote>

Verification