Consequences of the Quill (Restored 5/13/06)
LordVyreth
First Post
Well, what did you think of the plot twist? Did it sound like it made sense? Don't worry, a further explanation of why and how it happened is forthcoming in tonight's update. I thought the nearly irrational fear each one had of the other suggested that it wasn't just a matter of two arch-enemies. Sadly, the players missed a helpful clue earlier in the campaign. Shedell had a necklace that printed out "runes" which were actually the lower half of her full name. Kulstra had the upper half on her necklace, but it was hard to spot it on her since she never was near the party except when fighting them. Quercus had a few chances earlier at the fight with her at the dwarf town, but he missed some Spot checks by a wide margin.
LordVyreth
First Post
Time of Judgement
There was nothing but silence for a few minutes after that, but it felt much longer to the party, especially Quercus. “What have I done?” he thought. “I did all this to help my sister, and all I did was kill her!”
He was soon brought back into consciousness by Fnipper. “We have to get going,” he said. “The survivors will bring help quickly.” He seemed unfazed by the entire experience, but since he never met Shedell, that was to be expected. After looking at Quercus, not to mention the equally devastated Robin, and the rest of the group who were mourning Rudyard, he quickly said, “I’ll just take the lead, then?”
The journey to the surface was short, but filled with hazards. The unholy cloud they encountered earlier was not the only magical trap that protected this tunnel, and Fnipper and the others were in too much of a hurry to check every step for traps. The next trap summoned a pair of fire-wreathed monsters with snake tails, but they were quickly dealt with. The next separated the party with a wall of force, and then filled the front area with a corrosive gas. Tal used his staff to open a passageway through the wall, letting the party’s front ranks escape, and they fled down the corridor to wait for the gas to dissipate.
Next, there was a simple pit, and a locked door behind it. The door was easily destroyed using Dane’s open lock skill (aka, his sword,) and everyone just jumped the pit. The next trap wasn’t even noticed except for Fnipper, who briefly had a strong but fortunately resistible urge to turn into a herring. Finally, an especially nasty trap summoned a rain of ice blocks, then a bolt of electricity that fired down the corridor, and finally a ball of fire. All of this was painful to the party (except for Fnipper, who deftly avoided all of it but a few chunks of rock,) but Quercus had healed everyone before they left, so they survived it with ease.
Finally, the party found the exit, and for the first time in days, they saw the light of the sun. Granted, it was the light of the sun being almost entirely blotted out, but even that was a welcome improvement. The party quickly looked for their mounts, which was fairly easy since they were only a few miles from the temple in the first place. Once they gathered their mounts (and let Rudyard’s go, though he was eager to leave anyway, having sensed his companion’s death,) they began to flee to the southwest as quickly as possible. The first half-day of travel was easy enough, but night was a different story, for they had a visitor: one they never thought they’d see again.
It was during Robin and Fnipper’s watch. They took a quick look away from the fire to look for danger, and when they looked back, there was a familiar little girl. Seeing a drow and reacting on instinct, Fnipper was ready to attack her instantly, but Robin was able to intercede in time. The girl, meanwhile, didn’t even seem to notice. Robin quickly woke the others, who cautiously surrounded her. “Hello?” Tal asked?
The girl stood up, and suddenly there was an aura of power around her. “Hi,” she said back. “So, what are you going to do to her?”
The party was taken aback by her sudden ability to speak, and all of them didn’t understand the question, with the exception of Quercus. “I – we haven’t decided yet.”
The girl moved to sit down next to the fire again, and without showing any interest in the party, continued speaking. “It wasn’t her fault, you know. She didn’t ask to be that way.”
Quercus nodded, and Tsine asked, “What was she, exactly?”
“A half-fiend drow, and a half-celestial elf. When she was younger, she was both at once. Her father was a celestial, but her mother was a half-fiendish drow elf, who gained her traits by a favor from her goddess, and passed it to her daughter.”
“Her goddess? You mean Bas?”
The girl hesitated. “No, the drow was not from this plane. She fled here to be with the celestial, and start a family. But when her mother was killed and her father disappeared, it shattered Shedell/Kulstra’s, or should I say Shekuldellstra’s, mind. She was an easy target for Bas, who encouraged her mind to split into two forms, and turn the evil half into a loyal servant. She spent the years since that point literally in a constant battle with herself, causing her to manifest different parts of her personality at different times.”
“But how can we help her? Can she be helped?” Quercus asked, with a hint of desperation.
The girl thought for a while before replying. “Maybe. If you bring her back from the dead, she’ll have experienced both halves of her soul at once when she was dead, so she’ll know what her true nature is. However, the two opposing moral foci that she has will be in conflict. They will struggle for domination, and one could come out the winner, or they could merge into some chaotic new personality. When the time for the conflict comes, she will mentally seek out friends to help her make the decision. You might be one of those friends, Quercus. However, the choice will be yours to make.”
“Why are you so worried about her?”
“Well, various reasons, but also because of this girl here. Her parents were killed horribly just like Shekuldellstra’s mother was, and like her, it has disturbed her mentally. Without my help, she would never become mentally stable again, but I should be able to restore her with time. Oh, her name is Mazziden, if you were still interested.”
Tal suddenly realized who this was. “Wait, so that means you’re one of the avatars!”
“Exactly. Now, what my sister told you earlier is true. If you can guess who I am, I can give you some help, and an answer to one of your questions.”
Quercus shrugged. “That’s easy. You are Tsykie, the goddess of joy and children.”
“Tsykie” smiled. “Of course. Now, here is your boon. First, a memory of the past, just like what my sister gave you.”
Each party member again found himself remembering strange things. One found himself on a strange battlefield, while the other felt himself sitting in bed, while surrounded by relatives. These scenes were brief, however, and soon faded to nothingness, bringing the party back to reality.
“Now,” Tsykie continued. “What is your question for me?”
The party considered this for a while, but soon came to a consensus: this was Quercus’ mission, so he should ask the question that already was weighing him down. “What should I do with my sister, in your opinion?”
Tsykie thought long and hard about that. “If it was up to me, I would try to save her. Believe me, I know what it’s like to have a loved one that fell. And yes, I did love and even still love Bas as one of my own kin. But she is too far gone for us to save, after endless years of hatred and anger. Your sister is different. She was as much good as she was bad. Yes, she committed great evils, but she literally was fighting against those evils as she performed them. If you have any love for her, you would do what you can to save her. However, you must only do this if you can do it without endangering the city and kingdom of Methosilang. Do it outside of city limits, and use as powerful a magic as you can afford to raise her. If you try to raise her and fail to turn her soul to good, you must be prepared to destroy her again, for she cannot be allowed to return to Bas as a servant, and if she turns to evil again, it will be permanent and with all her heart. Now, if that is all, I must be going. This girl has to find some relatives that can help care for her until she grows up, or at least no longer needs me any more. Good luck, and I hope you can find the rest of my sisters.” With that, she was gone.
The party solemnly began their journey home. There was only one more interruption, but it was a doozy. A colossal zombie, which was as tall as some castles, was being led along with a skeletal dragon by a humanoid skeleton with a writhing intestine-like organ inside it. Attempts to engage the creatures in melee soon proved to be a mistake, as the zombie and dragon were both far stronger than typical undead of their kind. Fortunately, Tsine had time to rest and get his magic prepared again, and he was able to block them in with a pair of force walls. The skeleton and zombie were too stupid to climb over it (or even step over it in the zombie’s case,) so they were led around it by the strange skeleton (which the party later learned was a mohrg.) Meanwhile, the party was firing arrows at the zombie, arcing arrows over the wall at the dragon, and firing magic over the wall, so by the time the three got around the wall, they were nearly destroyed already, and were finished off before they could catch the party again. Their bodies were burned and a stake record was set, and the party continued their journey to the south.
Weeks later, they finally arrived home. “This is getting ridiculous!” Dane complained. “We’re powerful heroes by now. Can’t you just use magic to teleport us home next time, Tsine?”
Tsine pondered this for a moment. “Theoretically, yes, but I have to take some time to learn the magic involved. But it doesn’t really matter anyway, in this case. Fnipper isn’t an ally of the city officially yet, so he couldn’t have teleported back in anyway.”
“Well, we could have just teleported a few hours away from the city, but I see your point. We’ll get him registered as soon as we return.”
“Oh, and don’t forget to give them that statue we found,” Tal reminded them. “We could get some clues about Bas from it, or at least prove that our story is true.”
However, when they arrived, it turned out that they didn’t need to go to the guard to get registered. The guard was there, waiting for them. Apparently, they just had a few questions to ask them, but Tal and pretty much the whole party (except for Fnipper, who was busy absorbing the city and wasn’t that good at judging character anyway,) could tell that they had something on their mind, and it wasn’t necessarily a good thing for the party.
When they arrived, they were greeted by Prince Lancaster Stael himself, one of the three children of the king and queen of Methosilang. He sat them down, then took his usual seat (which, oddly enough, was the back of a giant elk that also served as his personal heraldic symbol.) He told them, “Look, I know you just got home, and you want to relax, so I want to make this nice and quick. Let’s start with the easy stuff. Who is your new friend here?”
Fnipper responded, “I’m Fnipper, the deep gnome! I helped these guys fight evil!”
Lancaster nodded, “I see. And what will you be doing now? What is your purpose in this city?”
“To kill all the drow.”
There was a long, long, silence, and the guards in the room tensed up (especially the ones who were drow.) Lancaster sighed. So much for this being a short night.
OOC Notes: Yes, he really said that. Fortunately, no one was killed as a result. Overall, I really liked this whole overall plotline. The Shedell/Kulstra and the drow child concepts both led to some interesting role-playing situations, and there was some nice foreshadowing to future events. There will be another couple updates before this plotline completely ends though, and we finish the second stage of this game’s progression, leading me to make some changes, including some unplanned and unfortunate ones.
There was nothing but silence for a few minutes after that, but it felt much longer to the party, especially Quercus. “What have I done?” he thought. “I did all this to help my sister, and all I did was kill her!”
He was soon brought back into consciousness by Fnipper. “We have to get going,” he said. “The survivors will bring help quickly.” He seemed unfazed by the entire experience, but since he never met Shedell, that was to be expected. After looking at Quercus, not to mention the equally devastated Robin, and the rest of the group who were mourning Rudyard, he quickly said, “I’ll just take the lead, then?”
The journey to the surface was short, but filled with hazards. The unholy cloud they encountered earlier was not the only magical trap that protected this tunnel, and Fnipper and the others were in too much of a hurry to check every step for traps. The next trap summoned a pair of fire-wreathed monsters with snake tails, but they were quickly dealt with. The next separated the party with a wall of force, and then filled the front area with a corrosive gas. Tal used his staff to open a passageway through the wall, letting the party’s front ranks escape, and they fled down the corridor to wait for the gas to dissipate.
Next, there was a simple pit, and a locked door behind it. The door was easily destroyed using Dane’s open lock skill (aka, his sword,) and everyone just jumped the pit. The next trap wasn’t even noticed except for Fnipper, who briefly had a strong but fortunately resistible urge to turn into a herring. Finally, an especially nasty trap summoned a rain of ice blocks, then a bolt of electricity that fired down the corridor, and finally a ball of fire. All of this was painful to the party (except for Fnipper, who deftly avoided all of it but a few chunks of rock,) but Quercus had healed everyone before they left, so they survived it with ease.
Finally, the party found the exit, and for the first time in days, they saw the light of the sun. Granted, it was the light of the sun being almost entirely blotted out, but even that was a welcome improvement. The party quickly looked for their mounts, which was fairly easy since they were only a few miles from the temple in the first place. Once they gathered their mounts (and let Rudyard’s go, though he was eager to leave anyway, having sensed his companion’s death,) they began to flee to the southwest as quickly as possible. The first half-day of travel was easy enough, but night was a different story, for they had a visitor: one they never thought they’d see again.
It was during Robin and Fnipper’s watch. They took a quick look away from the fire to look for danger, and when they looked back, there was a familiar little girl. Seeing a drow and reacting on instinct, Fnipper was ready to attack her instantly, but Robin was able to intercede in time. The girl, meanwhile, didn’t even seem to notice. Robin quickly woke the others, who cautiously surrounded her. “Hello?” Tal asked?
The girl stood up, and suddenly there was an aura of power around her. “Hi,” she said back. “So, what are you going to do to her?”
The party was taken aback by her sudden ability to speak, and all of them didn’t understand the question, with the exception of Quercus. “I – we haven’t decided yet.”
The girl moved to sit down next to the fire again, and without showing any interest in the party, continued speaking. “It wasn’t her fault, you know. She didn’t ask to be that way.”
Quercus nodded, and Tsine asked, “What was she, exactly?”
“A half-fiend drow, and a half-celestial elf. When she was younger, she was both at once. Her father was a celestial, but her mother was a half-fiendish drow elf, who gained her traits by a favor from her goddess, and passed it to her daughter.”
“Her goddess? You mean Bas?”
The girl hesitated. “No, the drow was not from this plane. She fled here to be with the celestial, and start a family. But when her mother was killed and her father disappeared, it shattered Shedell/Kulstra’s, or should I say Shekuldellstra’s, mind. She was an easy target for Bas, who encouraged her mind to split into two forms, and turn the evil half into a loyal servant. She spent the years since that point literally in a constant battle with herself, causing her to manifest different parts of her personality at different times.”
“But how can we help her? Can she be helped?” Quercus asked, with a hint of desperation.
The girl thought for a while before replying. “Maybe. If you bring her back from the dead, she’ll have experienced both halves of her soul at once when she was dead, so she’ll know what her true nature is. However, the two opposing moral foci that she has will be in conflict. They will struggle for domination, and one could come out the winner, or they could merge into some chaotic new personality. When the time for the conflict comes, she will mentally seek out friends to help her make the decision. You might be one of those friends, Quercus. However, the choice will be yours to make.”
“Why are you so worried about her?”
“Well, various reasons, but also because of this girl here. Her parents were killed horribly just like Shekuldellstra’s mother was, and like her, it has disturbed her mentally. Without my help, she would never become mentally stable again, but I should be able to restore her with time. Oh, her name is Mazziden, if you were still interested.”
Tal suddenly realized who this was. “Wait, so that means you’re one of the avatars!”
“Exactly. Now, what my sister told you earlier is true. If you can guess who I am, I can give you some help, and an answer to one of your questions.”
Quercus shrugged. “That’s easy. You are Tsykie, the goddess of joy and children.”
“Tsykie” smiled. “Of course. Now, here is your boon. First, a memory of the past, just like what my sister gave you.”
Each party member again found himself remembering strange things. One found himself on a strange battlefield, while the other felt himself sitting in bed, while surrounded by relatives. These scenes were brief, however, and soon faded to nothingness, bringing the party back to reality.
“Now,” Tsykie continued. “What is your question for me?”
The party considered this for a while, but soon came to a consensus: this was Quercus’ mission, so he should ask the question that already was weighing him down. “What should I do with my sister, in your opinion?”
Tsykie thought long and hard about that. “If it was up to me, I would try to save her. Believe me, I know what it’s like to have a loved one that fell. And yes, I did love and even still love Bas as one of my own kin. But she is too far gone for us to save, after endless years of hatred and anger. Your sister is different. She was as much good as she was bad. Yes, she committed great evils, but she literally was fighting against those evils as she performed them. If you have any love for her, you would do what you can to save her. However, you must only do this if you can do it without endangering the city and kingdom of Methosilang. Do it outside of city limits, and use as powerful a magic as you can afford to raise her. If you try to raise her and fail to turn her soul to good, you must be prepared to destroy her again, for she cannot be allowed to return to Bas as a servant, and if she turns to evil again, it will be permanent and with all her heart. Now, if that is all, I must be going. This girl has to find some relatives that can help care for her until she grows up, or at least no longer needs me any more. Good luck, and I hope you can find the rest of my sisters.” With that, she was gone.
The party solemnly began their journey home. There was only one more interruption, but it was a doozy. A colossal zombie, which was as tall as some castles, was being led along with a skeletal dragon by a humanoid skeleton with a writhing intestine-like organ inside it. Attempts to engage the creatures in melee soon proved to be a mistake, as the zombie and dragon were both far stronger than typical undead of their kind. Fortunately, Tsine had time to rest and get his magic prepared again, and he was able to block them in with a pair of force walls. The skeleton and zombie were too stupid to climb over it (or even step over it in the zombie’s case,) so they were led around it by the strange skeleton (which the party later learned was a mohrg.) Meanwhile, the party was firing arrows at the zombie, arcing arrows over the wall at the dragon, and firing magic over the wall, so by the time the three got around the wall, they were nearly destroyed already, and were finished off before they could catch the party again. Their bodies were burned and a stake record was set, and the party continued their journey to the south.
Weeks later, they finally arrived home. “This is getting ridiculous!” Dane complained. “We’re powerful heroes by now. Can’t you just use magic to teleport us home next time, Tsine?”
Tsine pondered this for a moment. “Theoretically, yes, but I have to take some time to learn the magic involved. But it doesn’t really matter anyway, in this case. Fnipper isn’t an ally of the city officially yet, so he couldn’t have teleported back in anyway.”
“Well, we could have just teleported a few hours away from the city, but I see your point. We’ll get him registered as soon as we return.”
“Oh, and don’t forget to give them that statue we found,” Tal reminded them. “We could get some clues about Bas from it, or at least prove that our story is true.”
However, when they arrived, it turned out that they didn’t need to go to the guard to get registered. The guard was there, waiting for them. Apparently, they just had a few questions to ask them, but Tal and pretty much the whole party (except for Fnipper, who was busy absorbing the city and wasn’t that good at judging character anyway,) could tell that they had something on their mind, and it wasn’t necessarily a good thing for the party.
When they arrived, they were greeted by Prince Lancaster Stael himself, one of the three children of the king and queen of Methosilang. He sat them down, then took his usual seat (which, oddly enough, was the back of a giant elk that also served as his personal heraldic symbol.) He told them, “Look, I know you just got home, and you want to relax, so I want to make this nice and quick. Let’s start with the easy stuff. Who is your new friend here?”
Fnipper responded, “I’m Fnipper, the deep gnome! I helped these guys fight evil!”
Lancaster nodded, “I see. And what will you be doing now? What is your purpose in this city?”
“To kill all the drow.”
There was a long, long, silence, and the guards in the room tensed up (especially the ones who were drow.) Lancaster sighed. So much for this being a short night.
OOC Notes: Yes, he really said that. Fortunately, no one was killed as a result. Overall, I really liked this whole overall plotline. The Shedell/Kulstra and the drow child concepts both led to some interesting role-playing situations, and there was some nice foreshadowing to future events. There will be another couple updates before this plotline completely ends though, and we finish the second stage of this game’s progression, leading me to make some changes, including some unplanned and unfortunate ones.
LordVyreth
First Post
Excerpt number 7
Just a few left to go. With luck, there will be a real update tomorrow.
The New Kingdom
(Excerpt from the Book of Tregfillia.)
With evil held at bay at least partially, the people were gathered. Much of the world was trapped in permanent night, freezing the plants, causing the starvation of animals, and rendering the natural order apart. Oh, and the people of those lands died, too. The goddesses chose to preserve the natural order of the last continent, with the ungrateful humans as its caretakers. They established a new kingdom, under the rule of the wise Gurdal Stael and his love, the half-drow Marian Styx. With much of the surface world spoiled by the greedy orcs and merciless undead, it was up to the drow, once the hated enemies of the surface races, to help establish this new civilization, for only they knew of the underground flora and fauna that the abstract races needed to live. They created new cities near the surface, for they knew that if any race was to survive the evil of the two fiends, they all had to work together. The other races saw their wisdom, and over the centuries, even the most hated enemies of the drow grew to respect them. The races were wiser in their new kingdoms, for not only did they learn at last to work together in peace, but they learned of the importance of obeying the forces of nature. The goddesses gave them knowledge which they used to create the first Collectors, who used their power to gather the sun’s rays, and use it to light the city when the sun was denied entry, and the wizards of the land found magic that would let the sun shine underground. Between them, they were able to form a thriving ecosystem within the earth of surface plants. At the same time, they guarded the surface from undead forces, to prevent them from destroying the surface life before it had a chance to adapt to their new existence. Thus, three independent ecosystems all thrived as one, with a peaceful alliance of abstract races to guard them: the underground ecology, the adapted surface ecology, and the old surface ecology that is being treated inside the cities, in the hopes that it will one day be returned to an again fertile surface.
Just a few left to go. With luck, there will be a real update tomorrow.
The New Kingdom
(Excerpt from the Book of Tregfillia.)
With evil held at bay at least partially, the people were gathered. Much of the world was trapped in permanent night, freezing the plants, causing the starvation of animals, and rendering the natural order apart. Oh, and the people of those lands died, too. The goddesses chose to preserve the natural order of the last continent, with the ungrateful humans as its caretakers. They established a new kingdom, under the rule of the wise Gurdal Stael and his love, the half-drow Marian Styx. With much of the surface world spoiled by the greedy orcs and merciless undead, it was up to the drow, once the hated enemies of the surface races, to help establish this new civilization, for only they knew of the underground flora and fauna that the abstract races needed to live. They created new cities near the surface, for they knew that if any race was to survive the evil of the two fiends, they all had to work together. The other races saw their wisdom, and over the centuries, even the most hated enemies of the drow grew to respect them. The races were wiser in their new kingdoms, for not only did they learn at last to work together in peace, but they learned of the importance of obeying the forces of nature. The goddesses gave them knowledge which they used to create the first Collectors, who used their power to gather the sun’s rays, and use it to light the city when the sun was denied entry, and the wizards of the land found magic that would let the sun shine underground. Between them, they were able to form a thriving ecosystem within the earth of surface plants. At the same time, they guarded the surface from undead forces, to prevent them from destroying the surface life before it had a chance to adapt to their new existence. Thus, three independent ecosystems all thrived as one, with a peaceful alliance of abstract races to guard them: the underground ecology, the adapted surface ecology, and the old surface ecology that is being treated inside the cities, in the hopes that it will one day be returned to an again fertile surface.
LordVyreth
First Post
Corruption at Home
It was going on into hour 6 of negotiations. The party was still trying to convince the guard that despite Fnipper’s slip of the tongue, he wasn’t really a threat to the entire kingdom, including the prince’s own mother and sisters. Not surprisingly, it wasn’t going well.
“Look, fine, I understand that he hasn’t been aware of the events going on in drow society for the last thousand years. We all thought deep gnomes were a myth as well. And yes, I can understand that he would be upset with drow after his entire village was wiped out by them. But we still can’t have him endangering lives because of this. Until this cult or whatever it is can be stopped, we are in a dangerous situation as it is.” Lancaster chose his words carefully. Negotiations have almost broken down repeatedly because he has refused to believe it really is a cult to a mythological fallen goddess without proof, and Tal and the others have been understandably upset about this. Even the statue that they pulled out and gave to the guards for examination wasn’t enough.
Finally, Tal had an idea, “What if we promised to watch him at all times, and kept the guard updated to his whereabouts? I understand you are worried about him, but I think you owe us a little trust at this point. Whether these Bas people are cultists or not, they are a real threat to the kingdom, and we have been risking our lives to fight them.”
Lancaster thought long and hard about this, and finally sighed. “Very well, I agree. I do trust you, you understand, but I have to think of the kingdom as a whole. I don’t want to start a riot or anything. We had enough trouble involving insurgents just a few months ago, remember.”
Finally, the party went home, and spent almost a month preparing to make their next move. The treasure that they earned fighting the Lady of Blood and her many allies and henchmen was split up, and the unneeded equipment was sold to pay for more useful items. Tal and Tsine also had to finish building their manor, which they started work on over the six months they mostly stayed in the city. At the same time, the party learned the local news that had passed since they left. The most important news was that Larissa had been placed under house arrest! Apparently, she had said something that the church or the royal family didn’t like, and using her previous claims about the existence of Bas against her, they made a case that she was a threat to the city. They also took Setish, the lizard woman defector that the church of Ordhari was keeping up to that point. Concerned, the party went to her to see if she was okay, and while she said she was fine for now, she warned them that they should be very careful about what they say from here on, especially about Bas or vocal denouncements of the government or church.
The other major rumor lately has been about the Malefactor drow. Only a few days ago, a defector from that group came to Methosilang, seeking asylum. Up until a week or so earlier, the drow attacks on border villages have intensified, but then they suddenly stopped, and the defector allegedly claimed that this was because of a battle for leadership among the drow, following the assassination of their old leader. However, the rumored drow defector was taken in by the government just recently, and there hasn’t been any word of or from, or even confirmation on the existence of, the drow since then.
Even on the streets, the party was starting to notice that the people were getting suspicious. The heroes, when recognized, were hailed as heroes by some, but others think they might be paranoid rabble-rousers who were escalating the threat and endangering the city. Some even said they were conspiring with the so-called cultists to fool the city into thinking there was a threat that didn’t really exist. Oddly enough, Fnipper was one of the few that they didn’t suspect, though that was because he so unassuming that he was practically invisible. Still, the party got worried and decided to keep him at home more often when he disappeared for a few minutes and came back with a spyglass that he apparently took off of a nearby noble’s house!
However, the danger to the party wasn’t always so hidden. One day, when the party was out eating at one of the finer restaurants in the noble district, there was a sudden noise just outside of their room. The party all sat up with a start, and heard the much more obvious sounds of someone running. Fnipper was the first to react, and he opened the window, and then climbed out of it. He saw a man clad in dark clothing, running away as quickly as he could. Quercus flew out the window and began to catch up to the man from the sky, while Robin crawled out and started firing at the fleeing man. However, it soon became obvious that he had friends, when a man on a nearby roof shot a ball of fire at Quercus. It exploded, but while Quercus was caught in the middle of the blast, he was able to concentrate on the problem before him and ignore the pain.
Dane, Tsine, and Tal each got out the window or out the door of the restaurant, and Tsine fired magic at the running man while Dane began to charge after him. Dane received a spell from Tal before he started, though, that sped up his motions until he was a blur. Though he didn’t catch up to the spy yet, it wouldn’t be long now.
The spy continued to run, as Quercus changed directly to attack the rooftop man, and Fnipper, Dane, and Robin continued to chase the spy. Twice during the race, first Fnipper and then Robin were distracted by two more apparent friends of the spy, who suddenly attacked them from the darkness. Fnipper easily evaded the attack of the first one, and stopped running to engage him. Robin had less luck dodging the second foe, but was able to respond with such a powerful blow to the man’s head with the flat of his blade that he turned and fled immediately. Robin moved to give chase, as Dane caught up to the runner. However, just as he was about to strike him with the blunt side of his own sword, the man suddenly turned, and tried to trip him, then pummel him with his fists. Fortunately, Dane was too strong and heavy to trip, though the two punches to his head left a ringing in his ears. Before he could recover, the man danced backwards a bit, and suddenly a wall of ice protected him from Dane. Dane looked for the source of the new obstacle, and saw the man Quercus was fighting grinning down at him. The spell-caster’s victory was short-lived, however, as Quercus pummeled him with his blade.
Dane was pondering how he could remove the wall when magic orbs and a sphere of flame appeared in front of him. Tal and Tsine had managed to catch up, and while their previous attempts to hit the agile spy failed due to his speed, they were able to almost shatter the wall. Dane chuckled as he reduced it to fragments, and then simply stepped through the cold air that was left behind, and tore into the surprised spy. He soon crumpled to the ground, ready to be arrested by the authorities.
Quercus then took off to help Robin find the thief that had fled earlier. It took a few minutes, but between Robin’s sharp eyes and his aerial perspective, they were able to corner him in an alley, and then beat him unconscious when he still resisted.
A few minutes later, the guards came, and took away the spies. Tal asked if they could be there for the questioning, but the guards declined. “These are just thief guild members. They were probably looking for an easy mark among the nobles, and obviously picked the wrong group to look for. I doubt we can hold them for long, however, since they didn’t really do anything to you except bother your meal. Unless we can connect them to some other crimes, and we certainly will look into that possibility, we can’t really charge them with much. But we will be in touch with what we learn.” They soon took off with the prisoners, leaving a suspicious Tal behind.
Finally, the house was finished, and it was time to plan their next move. But it was up to Quercus to make that decision. He had been pondering what to do with his sister for a month now. Finally, he has made a decision. “My friends, I think that Tsykie was right. She is my sister, and I owe her a chance to redeem herself. If you will help me, I will try to revive her. My plan is to leave the city, consecrate the land around us, and then revive her myself. I could use your help, though, in case, she, well, you know, converts the wrong way…”
Everyone was supportive, except for Fnipper, who agreed to go on the condition that he gets to kill her if she turns evil. Quercus was happy to have them help, but there was something he didn’t tell them. If she does turn out good, he would have fulfilled the main purpose of his adventuring for almost a year. If he finally has a chance to have that part of his family with him again, he wants a chance to be there for her, and maybe find their father with her help. Either way, after this adventure, he will have to tell someone he cares about goodbye.
OOC Notes: Any comparisons to real-life politics are, for the most part, coincidence. The Fnipper/spyglass thing was real. I was starting to enjoy the character myself.
Sadly, the Quercus thing is real. Basically, at the end of this game session, the player of Quercus had a few issues with the game, and quit the campaign. The details will not be gotten into, but let’s just say they were unpleasant and leave it at that.
It was going on into hour 6 of negotiations. The party was still trying to convince the guard that despite Fnipper’s slip of the tongue, he wasn’t really a threat to the entire kingdom, including the prince’s own mother and sisters. Not surprisingly, it wasn’t going well.
“Look, fine, I understand that he hasn’t been aware of the events going on in drow society for the last thousand years. We all thought deep gnomes were a myth as well. And yes, I can understand that he would be upset with drow after his entire village was wiped out by them. But we still can’t have him endangering lives because of this. Until this cult or whatever it is can be stopped, we are in a dangerous situation as it is.” Lancaster chose his words carefully. Negotiations have almost broken down repeatedly because he has refused to believe it really is a cult to a mythological fallen goddess without proof, and Tal and the others have been understandably upset about this. Even the statue that they pulled out and gave to the guards for examination wasn’t enough.
Finally, Tal had an idea, “What if we promised to watch him at all times, and kept the guard updated to his whereabouts? I understand you are worried about him, but I think you owe us a little trust at this point. Whether these Bas people are cultists or not, they are a real threat to the kingdom, and we have been risking our lives to fight them.”
Lancaster thought long and hard about this, and finally sighed. “Very well, I agree. I do trust you, you understand, but I have to think of the kingdom as a whole. I don’t want to start a riot or anything. We had enough trouble involving insurgents just a few months ago, remember.”
Finally, the party went home, and spent almost a month preparing to make their next move. The treasure that they earned fighting the Lady of Blood and her many allies and henchmen was split up, and the unneeded equipment was sold to pay for more useful items. Tal and Tsine also had to finish building their manor, which they started work on over the six months they mostly stayed in the city. At the same time, the party learned the local news that had passed since they left. The most important news was that Larissa had been placed under house arrest! Apparently, she had said something that the church or the royal family didn’t like, and using her previous claims about the existence of Bas against her, they made a case that she was a threat to the city. They also took Setish, the lizard woman defector that the church of Ordhari was keeping up to that point. Concerned, the party went to her to see if she was okay, and while she said she was fine for now, she warned them that they should be very careful about what they say from here on, especially about Bas or vocal denouncements of the government or church.
The other major rumor lately has been about the Malefactor drow. Only a few days ago, a defector from that group came to Methosilang, seeking asylum. Up until a week or so earlier, the drow attacks on border villages have intensified, but then they suddenly stopped, and the defector allegedly claimed that this was because of a battle for leadership among the drow, following the assassination of their old leader. However, the rumored drow defector was taken in by the government just recently, and there hasn’t been any word of or from, or even confirmation on the existence of, the drow since then.
Even on the streets, the party was starting to notice that the people were getting suspicious. The heroes, when recognized, were hailed as heroes by some, but others think they might be paranoid rabble-rousers who were escalating the threat and endangering the city. Some even said they were conspiring with the so-called cultists to fool the city into thinking there was a threat that didn’t really exist. Oddly enough, Fnipper was one of the few that they didn’t suspect, though that was because he so unassuming that he was practically invisible. Still, the party got worried and decided to keep him at home more often when he disappeared for a few minutes and came back with a spyglass that he apparently took off of a nearby noble’s house!
However, the danger to the party wasn’t always so hidden. One day, when the party was out eating at one of the finer restaurants in the noble district, there was a sudden noise just outside of their room. The party all sat up with a start, and heard the much more obvious sounds of someone running. Fnipper was the first to react, and he opened the window, and then climbed out of it. He saw a man clad in dark clothing, running away as quickly as he could. Quercus flew out the window and began to catch up to the man from the sky, while Robin crawled out and started firing at the fleeing man. However, it soon became obvious that he had friends, when a man on a nearby roof shot a ball of fire at Quercus. It exploded, but while Quercus was caught in the middle of the blast, he was able to concentrate on the problem before him and ignore the pain.
Dane, Tsine, and Tal each got out the window or out the door of the restaurant, and Tsine fired magic at the running man while Dane began to charge after him. Dane received a spell from Tal before he started, though, that sped up his motions until he was a blur. Though he didn’t catch up to the spy yet, it wouldn’t be long now.
The spy continued to run, as Quercus changed directly to attack the rooftop man, and Fnipper, Dane, and Robin continued to chase the spy. Twice during the race, first Fnipper and then Robin were distracted by two more apparent friends of the spy, who suddenly attacked them from the darkness. Fnipper easily evaded the attack of the first one, and stopped running to engage him. Robin had less luck dodging the second foe, but was able to respond with such a powerful blow to the man’s head with the flat of his blade that he turned and fled immediately. Robin moved to give chase, as Dane caught up to the runner. However, just as he was about to strike him with the blunt side of his own sword, the man suddenly turned, and tried to trip him, then pummel him with his fists. Fortunately, Dane was too strong and heavy to trip, though the two punches to his head left a ringing in his ears. Before he could recover, the man danced backwards a bit, and suddenly a wall of ice protected him from Dane. Dane looked for the source of the new obstacle, and saw the man Quercus was fighting grinning down at him. The spell-caster’s victory was short-lived, however, as Quercus pummeled him with his blade.
Dane was pondering how he could remove the wall when magic orbs and a sphere of flame appeared in front of him. Tal and Tsine had managed to catch up, and while their previous attempts to hit the agile spy failed due to his speed, they were able to almost shatter the wall. Dane chuckled as he reduced it to fragments, and then simply stepped through the cold air that was left behind, and tore into the surprised spy. He soon crumpled to the ground, ready to be arrested by the authorities.
Quercus then took off to help Robin find the thief that had fled earlier. It took a few minutes, but between Robin’s sharp eyes and his aerial perspective, they were able to corner him in an alley, and then beat him unconscious when he still resisted.
A few minutes later, the guards came, and took away the spies. Tal asked if they could be there for the questioning, but the guards declined. “These are just thief guild members. They were probably looking for an easy mark among the nobles, and obviously picked the wrong group to look for. I doubt we can hold them for long, however, since they didn’t really do anything to you except bother your meal. Unless we can connect them to some other crimes, and we certainly will look into that possibility, we can’t really charge them with much. But we will be in touch with what we learn.” They soon took off with the prisoners, leaving a suspicious Tal behind.
Finally, the house was finished, and it was time to plan their next move. But it was up to Quercus to make that decision. He had been pondering what to do with his sister for a month now. Finally, he has made a decision. “My friends, I think that Tsykie was right. She is my sister, and I owe her a chance to redeem herself. If you will help me, I will try to revive her. My plan is to leave the city, consecrate the land around us, and then revive her myself. I could use your help, though, in case, she, well, you know, converts the wrong way…”
Everyone was supportive, except for Fnipper, who agreed to go on the condition that he gets to kill her if she turns evil. Quercus was happy to have them help, but there was something he didn’t tell them. If she does turn out good, he would have fulfilled the main purpose of his adventuring for almost a year. If he finally has a chance to have that part of his family with him again, he wants a chance to be there for her, and maybe find their father with her help. Either way, after this adventure, he will have to tell someone he cares about goodbye.
OOC Notes: Any comparisons to real-life politics are, for the most part, coincidence. The Fnipper/spyglass thing was real. I was starting to enjoy the character myself.
Sadly, the Quercus thing is real. Basically, at the end of this game session, the player of Quercus had a few issues with the game, and quit the campaign. The details will not be gotten into, but let’s just say they were unpleasant and leave it at that.
LordVyreth
First Post
Hello and Goodbyes
The next day, a few dozen miles from the city in a small cave near the surface, the party prepared to cast the spell. To be extra careful, they consecrated the ground beforehand. Finally, Quercus performed the deed. The ashes of Shekuldellstra slowly began to throb, and then they suddenly joined together, and then grew to form a perfect replica of her body. She appeared to be alive, but she was still in a coma, as if her soul wasn’t totally in the body yet. Quercus looked exhausted as well. “It was a rough resurrection,” he panted. “I think I caused her to move a little too far towards the lawful outer planes on our journey back, but she seemed stable when we returned. I think it’s just a matter of time now.”
They chose to wait there for that night, and instead of his normal meditations, Quercus fell completely unconscious. He woke to find himself in a strange realm. There appeared to be only one solid piece of land in the entire plane, and his sister was currently lying on it, and slowly regaining her consciousness. Quercus was floating, in spiritual form, over the rock, and there was another figure near him. She was a dark woman with a pair of scimitars, and as soon as he saw her, Quercus was relieved that this was only a spiritual realm, and that he wouldn’t be able to accidentally relieve himself here.
Bas saw his fear, and smiled with triumph. “Don’t worry,” she said condescendingly, “My true power is not here. This is just my personality. Your utter helplessness before me won’t be an issue, yet.”
Quercus slowly concentrated, and began to understand how this would work. Shekuldellstra would re-live a particularly traumatic and influential moment of her past. After witnessing it, Quercus and Bas were able to speak to each other for a few moments if they wish, to settle on a mutually beneficial course of action, plan strategies, or just trade accusations and insults. Then, Quercus and Bas would each choose one of five ways he can influence her. The choices are Love, Justice, Victory, Horror, and Dedication. Successful efforts by the influencers will create avatars of the good and evil halves of Shekuldellstra, and further choices will make their moral avatars grow. When Shekuldellstra finished her mental examination, the stronger of the two avatars will gain control, and she will use that avatar to make a decision on how to live her life. However, this battle for her mind could potentially have a damaging effect on her psyche. If the battle creates too much conflict, or if the two avatars are of equal strength in the end, she may well go mad from the strain!
Aware of how this contest will go, Quercus and Bas prepared to start watching the events. As they were about to start, Quercus went through the tactics he would have to use in his head. Trying to influence her with a totally opposite response to her current mind frame would be useless and often counterproductive. Instead, he would try to cultivate strong convictions even when her mind was warped to evil, and strong positive responses when it leaned to good.
The first scene was of Shekuldellstra as a young girl. She was living with her fiendish mother and celestial father, though to Quercus’ frustration she didn’t give her father a good look during the entire flashback. Of course, it was only a few minutes into the flashback that the horror began. There was a loud whooshing sound, and suddenly the entire house was engulfed in flames. Her father couldn’t even be heard after a few moments, but she could still hear her mother, buried and slowly dying in the rubble of their home, screaming at her daughter to run away as fast as she could. After a few moments of hesitation, she did, and was able to escape the house with only a few cuts and bruises. She slowly watched her house burn down, now orphaned or at least she might as well have been. Quercus chose to enhance her emotions of love, and to remember her parents as best as she could. Bas made her feel hatred for whatever caused this, but while both avatars grew as a result of this, Quercus’ avatar was larger.
The second flashback occurred many years later. Shekuldellstra had been wandering the wilderness as she grew up, and scavenged or stole whatever she could to survive. Her inherent powers and resistances to nearly all of the elements made her far more powerful than even most trained warriors, but the years were very hard, and were already damaging her sanity. It was in this state of mind that she was discovered by Bas. Slowly, Bas corrupted her, and when she was unable to destroy the good part of her mind, she split it in half, and slowly developed the evil half into her first Strife Master. Quercus chose to make her feel horror at this change in her mind, and (present) Bas made her feel a sense of victory, as she had a clear mind for the first time in her life. Both were excellent choices, and both the good and evil avatars grew equally.
The third flashback was her first fight as a Strife master general. She was tearing through a nearly defenseless village with the other three Strife masters. There was their dark-haired spotted man, who was now half-leopard. He was fighting anyone who got near with impunity, and he was trying to so with in as calm and deliberate manner as possible. However, he often would look at those he was killed hungrily, as if the animal inside was trying to get out. There was also a warrior woman with crystal equipment. She was fighting impassively, but was focusing on only the village’s defenders, and ignoring the helpless residents. The same couldn’t be said of the third Strife Master, a human with metal wings and various other mechanical parts. He was raining magical destruction on everyone he saw, and laughing the entire time, as if he found all this destruction to be a joke.
As for Shekuldellstra, she was the Lady of Blood by now, and her fighting style lived up to her name. She would attack anyone that got near her with a blind ferocity, regardless of who it was. Quercus could barely stand to even watch this scene, and he tried to impose the horror of this situation on her despite her then-evil nature, and Bas tried to focus her on the dedication to her new mission and loyalties. Quercus’ choice wasn’t as good as his first two, but it was a positive one for him, while Bas failed entirely on altering Shekuldellstra’s mind to evil. Quercus’ lead grew.
The fourth scene was of Shedell first meeting Quercus almost a year ago. It was just as Quercus first remembered it, but it was strange seeing himself through her eyes. He chose to focus again on love, while Bas tried to distract her by encouraging her to focus on her dedication to her greater mission, especially since that mission technically was to destroy her own self. These had equal and profound effects, and both avatars grew equally. Meanwhile, the real Shekuldellstra’s mind was being torn apart by the conflict, but with only one scene left, it should hopefully hold until she could make a decision.
The final scene was of Kulstra’s loss at the dwarven town to Quercus and the others. Again, Quercus saw himself, but this time it was a picture of himself at his most violent, as he was trying to stalk and kill his hated enemy, while unaware that it was really his sister. Quercus tried to focus on the horror of that situation, while Bas emphasized the hatred she would feel to her enemy. Bas was able to influence her slightly, but Quercus couldn’t get her to recognize the horror. However, Quercus’ lead from earlier still held, and the good avatar was able to drive out the evil avatar.
Quercus and Shekuldellstra both awoke. The party surrounded her, looking worried and prepared (and eager in Fnipper’s case,) but Quercus quickly spoke. “Don’t worry. I have succeeded. I will even test it to make sure.” He cast first detect evil and then good, and confirmed that there was nothing but goodness left in her heart.
Shekuldellstra looked as much like Kulstra as she did like Shedell, and was a drow elf in appearance. She still had two pairs of wings: a pair of bat-like wings, and a pair of black-feathered wings. She then began to speak. She looked to the party and said, “I thank you all for your help. While you were trying to just kill me, you helped me from escaping the trap that has held me for years now. Even if I had to stay dead, it would have been preferable to that. But this is far better! I have a chance to make amends for my actions, and to live my life free of that constant fear of my own dark half!”
She then went on to help the party in their fight with Bas by explaining everyone she could about her and her organization. Unfortunately, she already had forgotten her physical location (as a result of the magical protections her divine nature gives her,) but she was able to mark the location of several temples. She warned that Bas already must know that she had been converted to good, so the temples will probably be abandoned quickly.
She also described the other three Strife masters. The black-haired spotted man is named Fellis Mune, and is a were-dire leopard. He rules the law-themed tyrant sect of the Bas cult, and uses her power to prevent him from giving into the chaotic nature of his alternate form. The one with the metal wings is Khaspar, also known as the Nightmare Prince, who the party had already dealt with earlier through his minions. He was pure chaos, and he also was in charge of the groups machine-based servants, which Bas discovered buried near her own crater. He himself is half-machine, and he releases swarms of mechanical insects that transformed others into beings like him. This was the cause of the disease the orcs that the party discovered earlier had. He also is a powerful wizard, and lately had been using a spell to capture creatures and force them to fight his enemies for him. This reminded the group of the dragons they fought earlier. They may have to deal with this Nightmare Prince fairly soon. If nothing else, Shekuldellstra said he was the most depraved of the group, and his evil sickened her even when she was Kulstra.
The last one, Tesserill Requien, is known as the Blade of Minds. She is a half-elven psychic warrior, using a strange magic-like power called psionics, which Bas also discovered buried. She is the only non-evil Strife Master, and led the neutral sect. She worships Bas not only because Bas gave her the power of psionics, but also because she is convinced that Bas has to rise to preserve the balance. Without the twelfth sister, she believes, the goddesses are not complete, and they can’t possibly defeat the Puppet and the Head that Rules the Claw without being complete.
After giving the party all the information she could, Shekuldellstra asked if she could leave to find the rest of her former friends and allies, and try to determine what they should do now. She asked Robin if he wanted to come back with her, but he declined. “This is my group now,” he said. “I believe I was meant to be with them from here on, especially since we share that strange dream and the strange effects it had on us.”
Quercus, however, surprised everyone by asking if he could come with. Though the rest of the group protested, he stood by his plan. “I’m sorry, but for now at least, my first task is to help my sister. It’s not just for me. She has spent her whole life clinging to this hatred, and now she has to accept the being she hated is part of her. I helped her through the worst of it, but it could take months or even years for her to recover. She needs me, and I need to help her, to be the last part of that family she lost so many years ago.”
After hearing Quercus’ decision, Shekuldellstra offered to help the party, by seeing if Fenthrip, the cleric of her old party, would be willing to help them until they could find someone else to help heal their wounds and serve as a connection to the goddesses. They agreed, and she said she would send him as soon as she could. With that, she and Quercus flew off, and the party returned to Methosilang.
As they were planning their next move, they received a letter from Raz! Tal quickly scanned it, and then read it to the others:
You fools! While you played hero, I sought the truth. And I found it! I know it all now! You poor, blind creatures! We saw so many before our eyes, yet we could not see them! But I saw them! I know almost all of them now! I found eight, and only four remain, and they taught me the ways of the truth! How little we knew! How little YOU know! But there is still time. I seek the ninth here. Find me, if you can, and I shall share what I learned, before it is too late….
Raz
Tsine sighed after reading it. “Well, he’s as arrogant as always, isn’t he. So now what do we do?”
Tal looked at the directions in the litter, and gasped when he finished. “He wants us to go to the southern end of the continent, and then continue going south-east! He wants to meet us off the continent, somewhere in the sunless realm!”
OOC Notes: This marks the slow transition from phase two to phase three of the game. The absence of Quercus’ player is just the first of three people that end up leaving the game, though the other two did it for the more traditional lack of time reason and we remain on good terms. In addition, to prevent DM burnout (I was understandably bummed at the sudden and hostile loss of a player,) we moved to a bi-weekly schedule, which slowed the game down a bit. Fortunately for me at least, it means I’ll finally be able to catch up a bit faster with these updates! Also, it was helpful that Quercus ended up leaving the group at the exact time his main storyline was wrapped up. I half-expected Shekuldellstra to become a major enemy up until the end of the campaign, with her possibly going insane and leaving Bas to form a more chaotic new player in the campaign after learning of her dual nature. But you know how the best-laid plans of DMs go sometimes.
The next day, a few dozen miles from the city in a small cave near the surface, the party prepared to cast the spell. To be extra careful, they consecrated the ground beforehand. Finally, Quercus performed the deed. The ashes of Shekuldellstra slowly began to throb, and then they suddenly joined together, and then grew to form a perfect replica of her body. She appeared to be alive, but she was still in a coma, as if her soul wasn’t totally in the body yet. Quercus looked exhausted as well. “It was a rough resurrection,” he panted. “I think I caused her to move a little too far towards the lawful outer planes on our journey back, but she seemed stable when we returned. I think it’s just a matter of time now.”
They chose to wait there for that night, and instead of his normal meditations, Quercus fell completely unconscious. He woke to find himself in a strange realm. There appeared to be only one solid piece of land in the entire plane, and his sister was currently lying on it, and slowly regaining her consciousness. Quercus was floating, in spiritual form, over the rock, and there was another figure near him. She was a dark woman with a pair of scimitars, and as soon as he saw her, Quercus was relieved that this was only a spiritual realm, and that he wouldn’t be able to accidentally relieve himself here.
Bas saw his fear, and smiled with triumph. “Don’t worry,” she said condescendingly, “My true power is not here. This is just my personality. Your utter helplessness before me won’t be an issue, yet.”
Quercus slowly concentrated, and began to understand how this would work. Shekuldellstra would re-live a particularly traumatic and influential moment of her past. After witnessing it, Quercus and Bas were able to speak to each other for a few moments if they wish, to settle on a mutually beneficial course of action, plan strategies, or just trade accusations and insults. Then, Quercus and Bas would each choose one of five ways he can influence her. The choices are Love, Justice, Victory, Horror, and Dedication. Successful efforts by the influencers will create avatars of the good and evil halves of Shekuldellstra, and further choices will make their moral avatars grow. When Shekuldellstra finished her mental examination, the stronger of the two avatars will gain control, and she will use that avatar to make a decision on how to live her life. However, this battle for her mind could potentially have a damaging effect on her psyche. If the battle creates too much conflict, or if the two avatars are of equal strength in the end, she may well go mad from the strain!
Aware of how this contest will go, Quercus and Bas prepared to start watching the events. As they were about to start, Quercus went through the tactics he would have to use in his head. Trying to influence her with a totally opposite response to her current mind frame would be useless and often counterproductive. Instead, he would try to cultivate strong convictions even when her mind was warped to evil, and strong positive responses when it leaned to good.
The first scene was of Shekuldellstra as a young girl. She was living with her fiendish mother and celestial father, though to Quercus’ frustration she didn’t give her father a good look during the entire flashback. Of course, it was only a few minutes into the flashback that the horror began. There was a loud whooshing sound, and suddenly the entire house was engulfed in flames. Her father couldn’t even be heard after a few moments, but she could still hear her mother, buried and slowly dying in the rubble of their home, screaming at her daughter to run away as fast as she could. After a few moments of hesitation, she did, and was able to escape the house with only a few cuts and bruises. She slowly watched her house burn down, now orphaned or at least she might as well have been. Quercus chose to enhance her emotions of love, and to remember her parents as best as she could. Bas made her feel hatred for whatever caused this, but while both avatars grew as a result of this, Quercus’ avatar was larger.
The second flashback occurred many years later. Shekuldellstra had been wandering the wilderness as she grew up, and scavenged or stole whatever she could to survive. Her inherent powers and resistances to nearly all of the elements made her far more powerful than even most trained warriors, but the years were very hard, and were already damaging her sanity. It was in this state of mind that she was discovered by Bas. Slowly, Bas corrupted her, and when she was unable to destroy the good part of her mind, she split it in half, and slowly developed the evil half into her first Strife Master. Quercus chose to make her feel horror at this change in her mind, and (present) Bas made her feel a sense of victory, as she had a clear mind for the first time in her life. Both were excellent choices, and both the good and evil avatars grew equally.
The third flashback was her first fight as a Strife master general. She was tearing through a nearly defenseless village with the other three Strife masters. There was their dark-haired spotted man, who was now half-leopard. He was fighting anyone who got near with impunity, and he was trying to so with in as calm and deliberate manner as possible. However, he often would look at those he was killed hungrily, as if the animal inside was trying to get out. There was also a warrior woman with crystal equipment. She was fighting impassively, but was focusing on only the village’s defenders, and ignoring the helpless residents. The same couldn’t be said of the third Strife Master, a human with metal wings and various other mechanical parts. He was raining magical destruction on everyone he saw, and laughing the entire time, as if he found all this destruction to be a joke.
As for Shekuldellstra, she was the Lady of Blood by now, and her fighting style lived up to her name. She would attack anyone that got near her with a blind ferocity, regardless of who it was. Quercus could barely stand to even watch this scene, and he tried to impose the horror of this situation on her despite her then-evil nature, and Bas tried to focus her on the dedication to her new mission and loyalties. Quercus’ choice wasn’t as good as his first two, but it was a positive one for him, while Bas failed entirely on altering Shekuldellstra’s mind to evil. Quercus’ lead grew.
The fourth scene was of Shedell first meeting Quercus almost a year ago. It was just as Quercus first remembered it, but it was strange seeing himself through her eyes. He chose to focus again on love, while Bas tried to distract her by encouraging her to focus on her dedication to her greater mission, especially since that mission technically was to destroy her own self. These had equal and profound effects, and both avatars grew equally. Meanwhile, the real Shekuldellstra’s mind was being torn apart by the conflict, but with only one scene left, it should hopefully hold until she could make a decision.
The final scene was of Kulstra’s loss at the dwarven town to Quercus and the others. Again, Quercus saw himself, but this time it was a picture of himself at his most violent, as he was trying to stalk and kill his hated enemy, while unaware that it was really his sister. Quercus tried to focus on the horror of that situation, while Bas emphasized the hatred she would feel to her enemy. Bas was able to influence her slightly, but Quercus couldn’t get her to recognize the horror. However, Quercus’ lead from earlier still held, and the good avatar was able to drive out the evil avatar.
Quercus and Shekuldellstra both awoke. The party surrounded her, looking worried and prepared (and eager in Fnipper’s case,) but Quercus quickly spoke. “Don’t worry. I have succeeded. I will even test it to make sure.” He cast first detect evil and then good, and confirmed that there was nothing but goodness left in her heart.
Shekuldellstra looked as much like Kulstra as she did like Shedell, and was a drow elf in appearance. She still had two pairs of wings: a pair of bat-like wings, and a pair of black-feathered wings. She then began to speak. She looked to the party and said, “I thank you all for your help. While you were trying to just kill me, you helped me from escaping the trap that has held me for years now. Even if I had to stay dead, it would have been preferable to that. But this is far better! I have a chance to make amends for my actions, and to live my life free of that constant fear of my own dark half!”
She then went on to help the party in their fight with Bas by explaining everyone she could about her and her organization. Unfortunately, she already had forgotten her physical location (as a result of the magical protections her divine nature gives her,) but she was able to mark the location of several temples. She warned that Bas already must know that she had been converted to good, so the temples will probably be abandoned quickly.
She also described the other three Strife masters. The black-haired spotted man is named Fellis Mune, and is a were-dire leopard. He rules the law-themed tyrant sect of the Bas cult, and uses her power to prevent him from giving into the chaotic nature of his alternate form. The one with the metal wings is Khaspar, also known as the Nightmare Prince, who the party had already dealt with earlier through his minions. He was pure chaos, and he also was in charge of the groups machine-based servants, which Bas discovered buried near her own crater. He himself is half-machine, and he releases swarms of mechanical insects that transformed others into beings like him. This was the cause of the disease the orcs that the party discovered earlier had. He also is a powerful wizard, and lately had been using a spell to capture creatures and force them to fight his enemies for him. This reminded the group of the dragons they fought earlier. They may have to deal with this Nightmare Prince fairly soon. If nothing else, Shekuldellstra said he was the most depraved of the group, and his evil sickened her even when she was Kulstra.
The last one, Tesserill Requien, is known as the Blade of Minds. She is a half-elven psychic warrior, using a strange magic-like power called psionics, which Bas also discovered buried. She is the only non-evil Strife Master, and led the neutral sect. She worships Bas not only because Bas gave her the power of psionics, but also because she is convinced that Bas has to rise to preserve the balance. Without the twelfth sister, she believes, the goddesses are not complete, and they can’t possibly defeat the Puppet and the Head that Rules the Claw without being complete.
After giving the party all the information she could, Shekuldellstra asked if she could leave to find the rest of her former friends and allies, and try to determine what they should do now. She asked Robin if he wanted to come back with her, but he declined. “This is my group now,” he said. “I believe I was meant to be with them from here on, especially since we share that strange dream and the strange effects it had on us.”
Quercus, however, surprised everyone by asking if he could come with. Though the rest of the group protested, he stood by his plan. “I’m sorry, but for now at least, my first task is to help my sister. It’s not just for me. She has spent her whole life clinging to this hatred, and now she has to accept the being she hated is part of her. I helped her through the worst of it, but it could take months or even years for her to recover. She needs me, and I need to help her, to be the last part of that family she lost so many years ago.”
After hearing Quercus’ decision, Shekuldellstra offered to help the party, by seeing if Fenthrip, the cleric of her old party, would be willing to help them until they could find someone else to help heal their wounds and serve as a connection to the goddesses. They agreed, and she said she would send him as soon as she could. With that, she and Quercus flew off, and the party returned to Methosilang.
As they were planning their next move, they received a letter from Raz! Tal quickly scanned it, and then read it to the others:
You fools! While you played hero, I sought the truth. And I found it! I know it all now! You poor, blind creatures! We saw so many before our eyes, yet we could not see them! But I saw them! I know almost all of them now! I found eight, and only four remain, and they taught me the ways of the truth! How little we knew! How little YOU know! But there is still time. I seek the ninth here. Find me, if you can, and I shall share what I learned, before it is too late….
Raz
Tsine sighed after reading it. “Well, he’s as arrogant as always, isn’t he. So now what do we do?”
Tal looked at the directions in the litter, and gasped when he finished. “He wants us to go to the southern end of the continent, and then continue going south-east! He wants to meet us off the continent, somewhere in the sunless realm!”
OOC Notes: This marks the slow transition from phase two to phase three of the game. The absence of Quercus’ player is just the first of three people that end up leaving the game, though the other two did it for the more traditional lack of time reason and we remain on good terms. In addition, to prevent DM burnout (I was understandably bummed at the sudden and hostile loss of a player,) we moved to a bi-weekly schedule, which slowed the game down a bit. Fortunately for me at least, it means I’ll finally be able to catch up a bit faster with these updates! Also, it was helpful that Quercus ended up leaving the group at the exact time his main storyline was wrapped up. I half-expected Shekuldellstra to become a major enemy up until the end of the campaign, with her possibly going insane and leaving Bas to form a more chaotic new player in the campaign after learning of her dual nature. But you know how the best-laid plans of DMs go sometimes.
LordVyreth
First Post
The Sunless Sea
“The Sunless realm? He must be even crazier than that letter makes him sound. No one leaves the continent. Those that try never return!” Tsine angrily shouted.
“Well, if we want to know what Raz is talking about, we don’t really have a choice,” Tal pointed out. He looked fairly despondent himself, though. He and Tsine were the only ones left from the original party, and the only other party members they still had were Dane, Robin, and Fnipper. Well, Fenthrip might join, but that wasn’t guaranteed. Still, that was even more reason to find Raz. Not only was he an old friend, but it sounded like he had answers to the mutual mystery most of them share.
“It’s not like we have anything better to do right now, anyway. Bas’ forces will be in chaos for months after our raid. They won’t do anything until we get back. And if you do some magical research before we leave, you can just take us home magically if things get too difficult.”
Dane, however, had other ideas. “What about the temples Shekuldellstra told us about? We can try to raid them.”
Tal shook his head. “It would be pointless by now. We’ve been busy for an entire month since the raid. Bas must have prepared for the possibility that Shekuldellstra would turn to our side. Either she has the temples ready to be abandoned at a moment’s notice, or she’ll use them for traps. We can’t go near her forces for a while until her defenses calm down, so we might as well help Raz. After all, if it’s as hostile as you say it is, then he might need us to rescue him, and he is still a former comrade in arms. And if he really knows the truth about Lady Memory, it’s worth the risk to find out.”
Tsine still looked reluctant. “The wizard’s guild still remembers the last time an expedition was sent to this continent. It was led by Joddark, a dwarf arch-mage decades ago. They were never heard from again, and he easily had the same means to travel instantly that I will have. But if you want to go on this fool’s errand, I might as well tag along. If nothing else, it should be good for our reputations. But you better survive long enough to write about it, Tal.”
Once they had a plan, the party wanted to make sure they were prepared for the ordeal. Tsine learned teleport, in case they needed a quick trip home. Everyone in the group who could afford one bought a ring of warmth or a similar item if they couldn’t use any more magic rings. They then spent a few days traveling to Majestic, the southernmost city of the continent. It was built inside a hollowed-out volcano, which had been inactive for centuries. As a result, the city is the only one of the major metropolises of the nation that had natural sunlight at times. It was also the patron city of Jolia, the goddess of love, and was known for its great culture and nobility. This often tends to manifests in noble houses out-doing each other for prestige, which doesn’t really correspond to the overt intentions of the city. It also has the only port of the major cities, which was the main reason the party went there.
After taking a few days deciding on what kind of boat to make, they basically decided it wasn’t worth the risk and hassle, and just bought a magical Folding Boat instead. They also had to find someone to pilot it, of course, since none of them had any experience piloting a boat that wasn’t undermanned, surrounded by darkness, and floating on a very still lake. They eventually chose Rothaire, an expert who had completed his initiation a few years ago, and thus could travel on the surface. Of course, traveling the Sunless Sea was another story, but Tal was a highly trained speaker and motivator by this point, and they had enough spare money to let it make a convincing argument as well. The final agreement was that Rothaire would pilot the boat for them until they reached the continent, and then they’ll provide him with all the supplies they needed to stay safe, full, and warm and leave him there until they returned to pick him up. He decided this was a much better plan than actually crossing the frozen, hostile wasteland with them, and agreed for a sum of money that was larger than any he’s seen before in his life.
After just a few more days of basic training and gathering supplies, Fenthrip arrived, having been directed to Majestic by Tal and Tsine’s house servants from Methosilang. Though he admitted he wasn’t nearly as well trained and experienced as the rest of the group, he was happy to help the group for at least a while. Finally, after everyone was ready to go, they went out to port, magically enlarged their boat, and then set off for unknown lands!
The journey was a long one, however, before they would even reach the continent. The first few days were fairly easy, but after five days of travel, the weather got steadily colder. Worse, as their position under the moons began to change, the days began to change. First, the daylight hours that were free from the moons got later and later, and soon intersected with normal nighttime hours. Meanwhile, a new dark moon was coming up over the horizon to make up for the one they were leaving behind. By the time they reached the continent, they would have three moons in the sky above them, and absolutely no sunlight!
Another problem occurred eight days into the journey. As the group was continuing to sail south, the sharp-eyed Robin noticed something heading at them from underwater on all sides! Quickly the group moved to the edges of the boat, ready to attack any potential danger, as their enemy arrived.
They looked like turtles, but their head was closer to the top of the shell, and had a strange vertical mouth. They also had a pair of strange claws in addition to the normal flippers. There were four “turtles” the size of a human, and an especially large one that was twice that size!
Fnipper was the first to react, but since they didn’t reach the boat yet, he could only fire at one with his crossbow. Tsine also was quick to react, and fired a lightning bolt at the largest. It singed the creature slightly, but it seemed to partially absorb the damage, suggesting that it had some resistance to electricity. The four small ones then closed in a bit more on the boat, but instead of attacking the boat or its passengers, they squirted jets of ink at the heroes. Fnipper deftly evaded two of the jets, but while Tsine was lucky enough to block one with his hand, the other got into his eyes. Cursing, he began to stumble around blindly, while complaining that he just has no luck in boats.
Dane, Robin, and Tal still couldn’t get close to their enemy, so they fired at them with arrows and magic missiles. Meanwhile, Rothaire and Fenthrip panicked and hid inside the boat. Finally, the largest of the turtle-creatures got next to the boat, and tried to bite the appetizing-looking Fnipper. However, the nimble gnome was able to carefully sidestep the bite at the last minute, and then retreated to the middle of the boat to activate one of his new magic items, a ring that made him rapidly blink into and out of the material plane.
While Tsine continued to thrash about uselessly, the smaller four turtles decided that the threat above was too great for a direct assault, and began to bite chunks out of the hull of the boat. Dane and Robin busied themselves by attacking the largest turtle, and while they did some decent damage, unless they could get at the turtles that were destroying their boat, the situation looked dire. It was then that Tal had an idea, and he dashed below deck. Back when he was building his manor, he spent some money to purchase a Lyre of Building. The item helped him build the manor quickly and inexpensively, since they didn’t have to pay for much labor. However, the Lyre had another use that suddenly became very useful.
Tal quickly came to his stored equipment, and with strum of the lyre, all inanimate objects around him, including the boat, were immune to attacks! As Tal’s friends cheered, the largest turtle noticed that the attacks of its allies were doing nothing, and then retreated to try temporarily disabling one of the heroes with another blinding jet of ink. However, Robin, the unfortunate target, was able to shut his eyes in time.
Fnipper was able to get close enough to the largest turtle for one last set of attacks. His constant appearing and disappearing made it hard for the turtle to concentrate on him, giving Fnipper a chance to make a perfect attack at the neck of the confused turtle, and then his perfectly honed tactical skills gave him another opportunity. The two attacks easily killed the monster.
Seeing what happened to their leader, the four smaller turtles quickly began to retreat, while being shot at with arrows and blasted with a fireball by an angry Tsine. At first, it looked like this was the end of the encounter, but a minute later, the four surviving turtles appeared again about thirty feet away. The party prepared for another defense, but this time, they didn’t attack. Instead, one of them said something in a strange, hissing and dripping language.
“Does anyone know what that means?” Tal asked. Everyone shook their heads.
Suddenly, Fenthrip raised his hand cautiously. “I can use a spell to understand them, but it won’t let me talk back.”
After a few moments of whispered debate, Fenthrip cast the spell, and then looked at the creatures. “They said they were just looking for food. There aren’t enough fish in these waters for them to be happy with normal hunting. They want to know if we can spare any.”
The group soon decided to give up a bit of their rations to the monsters, in the hope that they’ll go away. However, while the monsters greedily slurped up the prepared food, they continued following the group, though they didn’t make any more hostile actions. In fact, they looked almost tamed and happy to be with the group. Since they could make decent bodyguards, the group continued to feed them regularly for the rest of their trip.
OOC Notes: The monsters were Tojanda, and for once the group didn’t know what they were despite being in the core book. This was not a common occurrence, so I enjoyed it, even if they were thoroughly trounced. I especially liked Tal’s Lyre of Building plan.
Fnipper officially started his awesome stage around here. He slows down a bit when fighting constructs later, but against living things, he was getting at least two sneak attacks almost every round.
“The Sunless realm? He must be even crazier than that letter makes him sound. No one leaves the continent. Those that try never return!” Tsine angrily shouted.
“Well, if we want to know what Raz is talking about, we don’t really have a choice,” Tal pointed out. He looked fairly despondent himself, though. He and Tsine were the only ones left from the original party, and the only other party members they still had were Dane, Robin, and Fnipper. Well, Fenthrip might join, but that wasn’t guaranteed. Still, that was even more reason to find Raz. Not only was he an old friend, but it sounded like he had answers to the mutual mystery most of them share.
“It’s not like we have anything better to do right now, anyway. Bas’ forces will be in chaos for months after our raid. They won’t do anything until we get back. And if you do some magical research before we leave, you can just take us home magically if things get too difficult.”
Dane, however, had other ideas. “What about the temples Shekuldellstra told us about? We can try to raid them.”
Tal shook his head. “It would be pointless by now. We’ve been busy for an entire month since the raid. Bas must have prepared for the possibility that Shekuldellstra would turn to our side. Either she has the temples ready to be abandoned at a moment’s notice, or she’ll use them for traps. We can’t go near her forces for a while until her defenses calm down, so we might as well help Raz. After all, if it’s as hostile as you say it is, then he might need us to rescue him, and he is still a former comrade in arms. And if he really knows the truth about Lady Memory, it’s worth the risk to find out.”
Tsine still looked reluctant. “The wizard’s guild still remembers the last time an expedition was sent to this continent. It was led by Joddark, a dwarf arch-mage decades ago. They were never heard from again, and he easily had the same means to travel instantly that I will have. But if you want to go on this fool’s errand, I might as well tag along. If nothing else, it should be good for our reputations. But you better survive long enough to write about it, Tal.”
Once they had a plan, the party wanted to make sure they were prepared for the ordeal. Tsine learned teleport, in case they needed a quick trip home. Everyone in the group who could afford one bought a ring of warmth or a similar item if they couldn’t use any more magic rings. They then spent a few days traveling to Majestic, the southernmost city of the continent. It was built inside a hollowed-out volcano, which had been inactive for centuries. As a result, the city is the only one of the major metropolises of the nation that had natural sunlight at times. It was also the patron city of Jolia, the goddess of love, and was known for its great culture and nobility. This often tends to manifests in noble houses out-doing each other for prestige, which doesn’t really correspond to the overt intentions of the city. It also has the only port of the major cities, which was the main reason the party went there.
After taking a few days deciding on what kind of boat to make, they basically decided it wasn’t worth the risk and hassle, and just bought a magical Folding Boat instead. They also had to find someone to pilot it, of course, since none of them had any experience piloting a boat that wasn’t undermanned, surrounded by darkness, and floating on a very still lake. They eventually chose Rothaire, an expert who had completed his initiation a few years ago, and thus could travel on the surface. Of course, traveling the Sunless Sea was another story, but Tal was a highly trained speaker and motivator by this point, and they had enough spare money to let it make a convincing argument as well. The final agreement was that Rothaire would pilot the boat for them until they reached the continent, and then they’ll provide him with all the supplies they needed to stay safe, full, and warm and leave him there until they returned to pick him up. He decided this was a much better plan than actually crossing the frozen, hostile wasteland with them, and agreed for a sum of money that was larger than any he’s seen before in his life.
After just a few more days of basic training and gathering supplies, Fenthrip arrived, having been directed to Majestic by Tal and Tsine’s house servants from Methosilang. Though he admitted he wasn’t nearly as well trained and experienced as the rest of the group, he was happy to help the group for at least a while. Finally, after everyone was ready to go, they went out to port, magically enlarged their boat, and then set off for unknown lands!
The journey was a long one, however, before they would even reach the continent. The first few days were fairly easy, but after five days of travel, the weather got steadily colder. Worse, as their position under the moons began to change, the days began to change. First, the daylight hours that were free from the moons got later and later, and soon intersected with normal nighttime hours. Meanwhile, a new dark moon was coming up over the horizon to make up for the one they were leaving behind. By the time they reached the continent, they would have three moons in the sky above them, and absolutely no sunlight!
Another problem occurred eight days into the journey. As the group was continuing to sail south, the sharp-eyed Robin noticed something heading at them from underwater on all sides! Quickly the group moved to the edges of the boat, ready to attack any potential danger, as their enemy arrived.
They looked like turtles, but their head was closer to the top of the shell, and had a strange vertical mouth. They also had a pair of strange claws in addition to the normal flippers. There were four “turtles” the size of a human, and an especially large one that was twice that size!
Fnipper was the first to react, but since they didn’t reach the boat yet, he could only fire at one with his crossbow. Tsine also was quick to react, and fired a lightning bolt at the largest. It singed the creature slightly, but it seemed to partially absorb the damage, suggesting that it had some resistance to electricity. The four small ones then closed in a bit more on the boat, but instead of attacking the boat or its passengers, they squirted jets of ink at the heroes. Fnipper deftly evaded two of the jets, but while Tsine was lucky enough to block one with his hand, the other got into his eyes. Cursing, he began to stumble around blindly, while complaining that he just has no luck in boats.
Dane, Robin, and Tal still couldn’t get close to their enemy, so they fired at them with arrows and magic missiles. Meanwhile, Rothaire and Fenthrip panicked and hid inside the boat. Finally, the largest of the turtle-creatures got next to the boat, and tried to bite the appetizing-looking Fnipper. However, the nimble gnome was able to carefully sidestep the bite at the last minute, and then retreated to the middle of the boat to activate one of his new magic items, a ring that made him rapidly blink into and out of the material plane.
While Tsine continued to thrash about uselessly, the smaller four turtles decided that the threat above was too great for a direct assault, and began to bite chunks out of the hull of the boat. Dane and Robin busied themselves by attacking the largest turtle, and while they did some decent damage, unless they could get at the turtles that were destroying their boat, the situation looked dire. It was then that Tal had an idea, and he dashed below deck. Back when he was building his manor, he spent some money to purchase a Lyre of Building. The item helped him build the manor quickly and inexpensively, since they didn’t have to pay for much labor. However, the Lyre had another use that suddenly became very useful.
Tal quickly came to his stored equipment, and with strum of the lyre, all inanimate objects around him, including the boat, were immune to attacks! As Tal’s friends cheered, the largest turtle noticed that the attacks of its allies were doing nothing, and then retreated to try temporarily disabling one of the heroes with another blinding jet of ink. However, Robin, the unfortunate target, was able to shut his eyes in time.
Fnipper was able to get close enough to the largest turtle for one last set of attacks. His constant appearing and disappearing made it hard for the turtle to concentrate on him, giving Fnipper a chance to make a perfect attack at the neck of the confused turtle, and then his perfectly honed tactical skills gave him another opportunity. The two attacks easily killed the monster.
Seeing what happened to their leader, the four smaller turtles quickly began to retreat, while being shot at with arrows and blasted with a fireball by an angry Tsine. At first, it looked like this was the end of the encounter, but a minute later, the four surviving turtles appeared again about thirty feet away. The party prepared for another defense, but this time, they didn’t attack. Instead, one of them said something in a strange, hissing and dripping language.
“Does anyone know what that means?” Tal asked. Everyone shook their heads.
Suddenly, Fenthrip raised his hand cautiously. “I can use a spell to understand them, but it won’t let me talk back.”
After a few moments of whispered debate, Fenthrip cast the spell, and then looked at the creatures. “They said they were just looking for food. There aren’t enough fish in these waters for them to be happy with normal hunting. They want to know if we can spare any.”
The group soon decided to give up a bit of their rations to the monsters, in the hope that they’ll go away. However, while the monsters greedily slurped up the prepared food, they continued following the group, though they didn’t make any more hostile actions. In fact, they looked almost tamed and happy to be with the group. Since they could make decent bodyguards, the group continued to feed them regularly for the rest of their trip.
OOC Notes: The monsters were Tojanda, and for once the group didn’t know what they were despite being in the core book. This was not a common occurrence, so I enjoyed it, even if they were thoroughly trounced. I especially liked Tal’s Lyre of Building plan.
Fnipper officially started his awesome stage around here. He slows down a bit when fighting constructs later, but against living things, he was getting at least two sneak attacks almost every round.
LordVyreth
First Post
Mechanical Attack
The hours stretched on and became days. With the sun appearing at different hours each day, it was getting increasingly difficult to determine just what time it is, and only the regular replenishing of the spellcaster’s energy and the pangs of hunger in their stomachs was telling them how much time had passed. Finally, the boat reached the shore. It was just as cold as expected here, and with the snow and the lack of a sea to block the cold, it would probably get even worse on their journey. They set up a small camp here, and then left Rothaire behind as agreed upon before. They even gave him quite a bit of extra food, and suggested that he feed the turtle monsters regularly with it. After all, they could help protect him from any enemies that might stumble upon him. Of course, if he was running low on food, they recommended that he move the camp a bit closer inland, so the monsters don’t attack him!
The party began the long, slow journey. Even with their warm clothing and magic protections, the cold was slowly sapping their strength. Once the night fell (as best as night could fall in this sunless land,) they had another predicament: how to set up camp at night? Fortunately, Tal’s spree of clever planning continued. He recommended that they find an area that was blocked by hills or cliffs, and thus had less snow than the area around it. He and Tsine would then magically melt the snow to the ground, and then Tal would use his staff to carve a hole in the ground. To protect them from the elements during the night, the folding boat would be activated in its smaller form, and then used to cover the hole, blocking out the snow. This trick seemed to work pretty well on the first night, though it was a cold and uncomfortable night for all involved.
The second day began much like the last one, but it was noteworthy for two discoveries. First of all, shortly after they began the day’s journey, they noticed a very faint light far off in the distance. It was impossible to tell how far away it was, but it was at least one clear target for their path, and it looked like it was on the path that Raz told them to go. Granted, it also could be a trap, but with nothing but blinding snow and endless tundra in every direction, none of them really seemed to care.
The second discovery was far less helpful. Midway through the journey, the party suddenly heard a strange whirring noise in the sky above them, and strange clanking and rolling sounds all around. Fnipper whispered, “Should I try to scout ahead?”
Tsine shook his head. “Nah, they’re already all around us. And no offense, little one, but you haven’t been able to move very quickly in snow this deep so far. No, I have a better idea.” He prepared an illusionary spell, and had it conceal the party and their footprints within the area. It didn’t do anything for the prints they already made, but the snow as already filling them, and hopefully their attackers wouldn’t be smart enough to figure it out.
A few moments later, a metal creature waddled up right next to them. It looked just like the creatures the party encountered under the Library of Delaspie, except they were slightly larger, and had a strange white sheen to their metal skin that seemed to block the cold all around them. It stopped near the party, and started making confused beeping noises, as its “eye” light changed to a curious yellow color. The others froze, daring to not even breathe, but Tsine was too busy concentrating on the illusion. He didn’t count on the fact that all the snow falling around them would fall different without them there, and was trying to adjust the entire snowfall’s appearance to correct for their absence. However, it was a night-impossible task, and soon the walking machine noticed this and the footprints behind them, and uttered a much lower, warning beep as his eye light turned red.
Realizing the jig was up, Dane and Robin charged the machine, and reduced it to scrap metal almost instantly. But this alerted the rest of the monsters friends, and soon the area was filled with more of the metal monsters. There were five more walking monsters, four rolling machines with shovels for hands, and eight flying machines.
The group quickly moved into a defensive position, with Tsine and Fenthrip in the middle and Dane, Robin, Fnipper, and Tal near the outside. The monsters began to surround them, though Robin and Tal were firing at them as they approached. Tsine, however, didn’t look worried. With a few words and a gesture, he created a ball of fire that was hotter and stronger than any they had seen before. He casually fired it into one side of the advancing monsters, and it easily decimated a third of the monsters. He noticed with some satisfaction that these creatures not only lacked any resistance to fire, but they seemed confused by magic. Their attempts to evade the fireball were slow and clumsy, as if they were wasting precious time trying to understand how the fire should be there in the first place.
The survivors, however, showed no fear. The fliers focused on distracting the front ranks fighters, trapping them for the more powerful attacks of the walkers and rollers. However, even with this advantage, the heroes were just to well armored and experienced for the machines to regularly hit them. Dane and Tal took a few hits, but even those were mere scratches to our heroes. However, they took a little damage when they swung at the walking and flying robots, as the electricity in their bodies ran through their metal weapons. Luckily, the rolling machines didn’t have the same effect when attacked.
It less than a minute, there was nothing left but broken parts and pools of oil. Tal scavenged a few bits of the machines for future testing and a trophy of their victory, and they then set out before the snow that melted from the fight could freeze over ahead, freezing them there.
The next day, they had yet another strange group of interested natives, though possibly a more welcome one. At first, it looked like they were being attacked by hideous, furry monsters, but it was soon obvious that they were just humanoids who were dressed in piles of fur and other warm clothing. They seemed more curious than hostile, but one, who was obviously the leader, was still keeping his group at bay. He was shouting something at the group, but the language wasn’t one anyone in the group recognized. Despite that, the group was willing to listen to him carefully for now, especially when Robin pointed out that while the two leaders were people in furs, the rest actually were giant apes!
OOC Notes: This marks the second appearance of the sheens, from a pair of old Dragon articles. The Walker and flying (called Flitter) sheens were adapted from the version in the Creature Catalog, but I had to convert the Roller sheens myself. Considering it was the first 2nd ed monster I had to adapt, they weren’t so bad, but they were only CR 6 even after a bit of HD advancement. Since the party members were in the 10th-11th level range around now, they were still not much of a threat.
The hours stretched on and became days. With the sun appearing at different hours each day, it was getting increasingly difficult to determine just what time it is, and only the regular replenishing of the spellcaster’s energy and the pangs of hunger in their stomachs was telling them how much time had passed. Finally, the boat reached the shore. It was just as cold as expected here, and with the snow and the lack of a sea to block the cold, it would probably get even worse on their journey. They set up a small camp here, and then left Rothaire behind as agreed upon before. They even gave him quite a bit of extra food, and suggested that he feed the turtle monsters regularly with it. After all, they could help protect him from any enemies that might stumble upon him. Of course, if he was running low on food, they recommended that he move the camp a bit closer inland, so the monsters don’t attack him!
The party began the long, slow journey. Even with their warm clothing and magic protections, the cold was slowly sapping their strength. Once the night fell (as best as night could fall in this sunless land,) they had another predicament: how to set up camp at night? Fortunately, Tal’s spree of clever planning continued. He recommended that they find an area that was blocked by hills or cliffs, and thus had less snow than the area around it. He and Tsine would then magically melt the snow to the ground, and then Tal would use his staff to carve a hole in the ground. To protect them from the elements during the night, the folding boat would be activated in its smaller form, and then used to cover the hole, blocking out the snow. This trick seemed to work pretty well on the first night, though it was a cold and uncomfortable night for all involved.
The second day began much like the last one, but it was noteworthy for two discoveries. First of all, shortly after they began the day’s journey, they noticed a very faint light far off in the distance. It was impossible to tell how far away it was, but it was at least one clear target for their path, and it looked like it was on the path that Raz told them to go. Granted, it also could be a trap, but with nothing but blinding snow and endless tundra in every direction, none of them really seemed to care.
The second discovery was far less helpful. Midway through the journey, the party suddenly heard a strange whirring noise in the sky above them, and strange clanking and rolling sounds all around. Fnipper whispered, “Should I try to scout ahead?”
Tsine shook his head. “Nah, they’re already all around us. And no offense, little one, but you haven’t been able to move very quickly in snow this deep so far. No, I have a better idea.” He prepared an illusionary spell, and had it conceal the party and their footprints within the area. It didn’t do anything for the prints they already made, but the snow as already filling them, and hopefully their attackers wouldn’t be smart enough to figure it out.
A few moments later, a metal creature waddled up right next to them. It looked just like the creatures the party encountered under the Library of Delaspie, except they were slightly larger, and had a strange white sheen to their metal skin that seemed to block the cold all around them. It stopped near the party, and started making confused beeping noises, as its “eye” light changed to a curious yellow color. The others froze, daring to not even breathe, but Tsine was too busy concentrating on the illusion. He didn’t count on the fact that all the snow falling around them would fall different without them there, and was trying to adjust the entire snowfall’s appearance to correct for their absence. However, it was a night-impossible task, and soon the walking machine noticed this and the footprints behind them, and uttered a much lower, warning beep as his eye light turned red.
Realizing the jig was up, Dane and Robin charged the machine, and reduced it to scrap metal almost instantly. But this alerted the rest of the monsters friends, and soon the area was filled with more of the metal monsters. There were five more walking monsters, four rolling machines with shovels for hands, and eight flying machines.
The group quickly moved into a defensive position, with Tsine and Fenthrip in the middle and Dane, Robin, Fnipper, and Tal near the outside. The monsters began to surround them, though Robin and Tal were firing at them as they approached. Tsine, however, didn’t look worried. With a few words and a gesture, he created a ball of fire that was hotter and stronger than any they had seen before. He casually fired it into one side of the advancing monsters, and it easily decimated a third of the monsters. He noticed with some satisfaction that these creatures not only lacked any resistance to fire, but they seemed confused by magic. Their attempts to evade the fireball were slow and clumsy, as if they were wasting precious time trying to understand how the fire should be there in the first place.
The survivors, however, showed no fear. The fliers focused on distracting the front ranks fighters, trapping them for the more powerful attacks of the walkers and rollers. However, even with this advantage, the heroes were just to well armored and experienced for the machines to regularly hit them. Dane and Tal took a few hits, but even those were mere scratches to our heroes. However, they took a little damage when they swung at the walking and flying robots, as the electricity in their bodies ran through their metal weapons. Luckily, the rolling machines didn’t have the same effect when attacked.
It less than a minute, there was nothing left but broken parts and pools of oil. Tal scavenged a few bits of the machines for future testing and a trophy of their victory, and they then set out before the snow that melted from the fight could freeze over ahead, freezing them there.
The next day, they had yet another strange group of interested natives, though possibly a more welcome one. At first, it looked like they were being attacked by hideous, furry monsters, but it was soon obvious that they were just humanoids who were dressed in piles of fur and other warm clothing. They seemed more curious than hostile, but one, who was obviously the leader, was still keeping his group at bay. He was shouting something at the group, but the language wasn’t one anyone in the group recognized. Despite that, the group was willing to listen to him carefully for now, especially when Robin pointed out that while the two leaders were people in furs, the rest actually were giant apes!
OOC Notes: This marks the second appearance of the sheens, from a pair of old Dragon articles. The Walker and flying (called Flitter) sheens were adapted from the version in the Creature Catalog, but I had to convert the Roller sheens myself. Considering it was the first 2nd ed monster I had to adapt, they weren’t so bad, but they were only CR 6 even after a bit of HD advancement. Since the party members were in the 10th-11th level range around now, they were still not much of a threat.
LordVyreth
First Post
Excerpt Number 8
Okay, expect a real update tomorrow, but here's another excerpt for now. This is another one that I liked a bit. Here we have the Excerpt from the goddess of music, appropriately enough.
The Great Betrayal
(Excerpt from the Book of Merida. To the tune of American Pie.)
Once our patron goddess sang
In the city of Methosilang
Our home for a good many years.
And I thought we would stay there for
Centuries, or even more,
But our joy would soon be turning into tears.
One leader, who we did hail
Did bring us ruin with betrayal.
He sold us to the evil.
And our lord, he did kill.
My eyes, they opened wide
When I heard them say that our hero lied.
Our great land was ripped aside
When our rulers died.
Oh why, why, did you fall to your pride.
Once warrior, once a savior
Now we scream for you hide.
The temptation was great, an opportunity you spied.
But what made you decide?
What made you decide?
(continues for 48 more pages.)
(editors note: We don’t know, but it certainly was not an evil goddess, that’s for sure!)
Okay, expect a real update tomorrow, but here's another excerpt for now. This is another one that I liked a bit. Here we have the Excerpt from the goddess of music, appropriately enough.
The Great Betrayal
(Excerpt from the Book of Merida. To the tune of American Pie.)
Once our patron goddess sang
In the city of Methosilang
Our home for a good many years.
And I thought we would stay there for
Centuries, or even more,
But our joy would soon be turning into tears.
One leader, who we did hail
Did bring us ruin with betrayal.
He sold us to the evil.
And our lord, he did kill.
My eyes, they opened wide
When I heard them say that our hero lied.
Our great land was ripped aside
When our rulers died.
Oh why, why, did you fall to your pride.
Once warrior, once a savior
Now we scream for you hide.
The temptation was great, an opportunity you spied.
But what made you decide?
What made you decide?
(continues for 48 more pages.)
(editors note: We don’t know, but it certainly was not an evil goddess, that’s for sure!)
LordVyreth
First Post
Lost Creatures, Lost Age
“Fenthrip, cast your spell so we can understand him!” Tal whispered.
“Errr…,” Fenthrip hesitantly replied.
“Wait a minute, you don’t have it prepared?”
“Well, I was using my magic to make the rest of you resist the cold around you. How was I supposed to know that there were actual inhabitants here?”
The leader of the primitives shouted at the party, putting a quick end to their little discussion. He then began to yell at them in some unknown language, and while Tal still didn’t understand a word he said, he was able to infer that the leader wanted them to follow him. Since he doubted they would just have the party killed if they didn’t attack already, Tal advised the group to follow. However, as they prepared to leave, the leader turned and in an intimidating voice, he apparently warned them that they shouldn’t try to attack or escape, or they would suffer dire consequences. To emphasize his apparent point, the second human figure fired a warning shot in the form of an explosion of flames at a nearby snow bank. The group followed them, but Tal couldn’t resist a warning shot of his own in the form of a ball of sonic energy, which he shot at another snow bank. Their barbaric friends were apparently impressed.
They soon arrived at a small village, which at first appeared to be nothing more than a few small stone huts surrounded by a wall. Once they were led into the village, they were soon surrounded by far more creatures, from warriors similar to the ones that surrounded them earlier to curious children. A woman walked up to them. She appeared to be only middle-aged, but years of difficult living has made her older than her chronological age would suggest, making her appear to be an old woman. After speaking a few words to the party and getting only confused looked in response, she sighed and cast a spell. “Can you understand me now?” she asked.
The group collectively sighed in relief, and Tal responded, “Yes, thank you. Would you please explain where we are, and what you intend to do with us?”
“My name is Erica, and I am the village shaman here. We call this town Grath. Don’t worry, we have no hostile intentions for you. In fact, we had found another traveler a few months ago, and we thought that others would come looking for him. He said as much when we found him. Do you know a Raz?”
Tal looked exuberant. “Yes, we are friends of his. Can you take us to him? Can we speak with him?”
“Well, I can lead you to him, but I don’t think you can speak to him. He died shortly after we found him.”
Erica led the devastated party through the village to the resting place of their friend. She led them to a hill in the middle of the village, and then through a tunnel in the hill to a series of tunnels below the village. They passed small hot springs, which suggested how this village came to settle here. Small caves full of vegetation and ponds filled with fish branched off from their tunnel. Finally, they took him to a larger, frozen lake. Embedded in a large ice block was the body of Raz.
They group was shocked at seeing this. Dane asked, “Why would you do that to his body?”
Erica shrugged. “It was his request. He wanted us to do what we could to make sure his body wouldn’t deteriorate.”
Fenthrip said, “We should try to raise him, right?”
Tal shook his head. “Not yet. We need to speak to him, first. We don’t even know if he wants to be raised. Do you have the means to speak with the dead?”
“Not yet, but I can tomorrow.”
At Erica’s permission, the group was allowed to spend the day here. In fact, the village was happy to provide them with shelter for longer than that if they want, for they were eager to hear of the world outside of their land. The party spent the rest of the day and a few after it trading stories and cultures with them. Robin and Dane trained with the barbarians, and Fnipper looked for some fellow gnomes. He found a few surface gnomes, but no deep gnomes like him. Tsine and Tal spoke with Erica and the village’s other spell casters, which included druids and sorcerers but no clerics or wizards. Fenthrip discussed religion with the druids, and learned that these people never learned of the Sisters, and had an inherent mistrust in gods as a whole after they disappeared ages ago. He tried to spread the word of the goddesses, but had little luck. They also learned much of the “metal ones” which apparently roam across the plane quite often, destroying all living beings that they see. They often travel in groups far larger than the ones the group encountered, and sometimes much bigger ones can be found as well.
Finally, after a few days of resting and making new friends with the villages, they were ready to speak with Raz. Fenthrip cast the spell, but warned that Raz might not be willing to speak to the party and will have to be compelled, and this wasn’t always successful. Nonetheless, they got some important information out of him. For one thing, he didn’t want to be raised, but would appreciate being buried in Methosilang territory and at Necropolis when the party was done speaking to it. He had apparently spent his time searching out the avatars of the various gods while the party was helping Methosilang and fighting the Lady Blood. In addition, he managed to find all of them except the Avatar of Bha-Ael (the creator god that birthed the others,) Bas (for obvious reasons,) Tsykie (who the party had themselves already met,) and Lore (the magic goddess, who Raz believed was Joddark, the dwarf mage that led the last expedition here. However, he couldn’t tell them what he learned, as they had to meet the avatars themselves to ask them questions. He could provide them with some information about where the avatars are, but Fenthrip’s questions ended before they could learn about them. The party decided to use magic to preserve the body for now, until more questions could be asked of him, and then have him entombed at Necropolis when they were finished.
It was time for the party to plan their next mission. Their business with Raz was finished, after all, but if Raz was right, the avatar for Lore was still on this continent. Even better, the light the party had been following was apparently first set up years ago, and about the same time that Joddark had made his expedition. The villages haven’t traveled there yet, as they believed it marks a new “forbidden” area that the “greater ones” restricted them from, so none of them really know what’s there. With that information, the party set out to finish their journey to the light, though they were understandably apprehensive after hearing about the “greater ones,” especially since none of the villages had ever seen one, and no longer can describe what they look like.
A few cold, miserable days later, the party finally found the light, which disappointingly turned out to be just a very powerful magical beacon which permanently emanated the daylight spell, and was placed upon an adamantine pole. On the plus side, such a powerful magic item was likely created by Joddark himself. “Well, let’s try to dig up the area,” Tsine suggested. “This area has had years of snow, and if there was a camp or other signs of the expedition here, it’s probably buried.”
Hours of backbreaking later, the ground had been reached, and it only took a little exploration to find what looks like the remains of a camp. There was little but tatters of the mundane tents and other equipment, but the could find a few crudely dug graves, an iron chest, and a journal that looked magically preserved. The chest was easily broken into, and contained various treasures, including magical items!
The journal was far more interesting, however. It was Joddark’s personal diary, describing his experiences since he arrived on the continent. He explained of his harrowing journey across the Sunless Sea, the fights against the metal “demons” that killed many of his fellow travelers, and a final, sorrowful entry. In this entry, he explained that he was the last survivor of the expedition, and that he built the graves here and the light tower, in the hope that future travelers would find this camp and possibly recover the bodies. He then explained that though his situation was almost hopeless, he would still continue onward, to the mountains, which were a short trip from the camp. He explained that the only reason he went on this journey in the first place was because he sensed an incredible source of magic somewhere on this continent, and that he felt it was very close. With luck, he would find this source of magic. If he failed to do so, or if the source of magic ends up killing him, the reader should consider this his last words.
“So, now what?” Dane asked.
“Let’s go home. I’m sick of being cold,” said Fnipper, whose voice was muffled by the fact he was up to his face in snow still.
Tsine, Fenthrip, and Tal looked at each other. A source of incredible magic? Sure, the danger was great, but the party hasn’t had any real problems so far on their journey, at least not when compared to Joddark. “Let’s go on,” they said as one.
And so the party traveled forward from here, into the mountains. As they didn’t have an exact idea what they were looking for, Tsine would sometimes send his familiar, a raven, out to scout for them. The days wore on, as the flat plains they were traveling on turned into hills, and then mountains. Finally, one time, Tsine’s bird didn’t return. The party was ready to charge forward to investigate, but Tsine stopped them. “No, let me sneak in invisibly. I can sense my familiar’s location, so I should have an easier time finding him. I’ll come back if I need help.”
He left, while the party stayed back to plan their next move. “So, what should we do until he gets back?” Robin asked.
Fnipper responded, “What else? Hide, in case whatever got his bird comes back for us.”
The party quickly concurred.
Tsine carefully continued forward, but it was hard to see with the snow, and he was half-frozen after his long trek through the snow. In fact, after he crested the next mountain peak, he initially thought he was hallucinating!
The entire other half of the mountain was gone! So were the connected halves of surrounding mountains, creating a shaft out of the entire valley in the middle of them. The entire area was made out of metal. Huge metal spires rose out of the bottom of the shaft, which was obscured by a thick cloud of steam or smoke. These spires climbed as high as the mountains, and Tsine wondered why he couldn’t see them before, in spite of the snow. Metal ropes were connected all the spires and the mountain walls, and huge globes were attached at various intervals. Also rising up out of the steam was a huge metal dragon statue, which was a tall as the mountains and spires. It was standing on its hind legs, and had its head pointed downward, as if it was going to breath on the floor of the shaft, assuming it had one. The dragon statue’s reason soon became obvious, for the entire shaft was filled with dragons! Tsine was terrified at first, until he noticed that all of them were gem and metallic dragons, and he remembered those were neutral and good. But he thought they were almost extinct.
Carefully, he began to descend into the shaft, while still looking for his bird. As he descended (using a convenient system of ledges and ladders,) it was getting both warmer and brighter, as there were many strange lights shining throughout the bottom of the shaft. He soon had to shed his winter clothing as he climbed down, to avoid getting exhausted from the sudden temperature change. Finally, he discovered his bird, which was hiding, terrified, at the back of one of the ledges. Apparently, his bird didn’t study dragon classifications, and only saw a huge flock of gigantic flying lizards that could eat it in a matter of seconds.
As Tsine was beginning to climb out of the valley, he suddenly saw a dragon with amethyst scales flying directly towards him. He briefly pondering fleeing, but decided it would be pointless, and let the dragon arrive.
“Who are you, and what are you doing here?” it boomed at Tsine.
Meekly, Tsine responded, “I was just looking for my familiar…sir.”
The dragon didn’t look pleased with that response. “Then why are you on this continent? You’re obviously not from one of the primitive tribes, and they would never come here anyway!”
“We-we were looking for someone, sir. A dwarf that was lost here years ago, and also a friend that disappeared from this land recently.”
“We? Did you say we? Did you come with others?”
“Yes, my party and I. They should be right back there, on the other side of this mountain.”
Without another word, the dragon left to investigate.
Hiding in an underground cavern that Tal carved out of the cliff with his staff, the party saw a shadow pass by them and heard a great booming sound. It passed by a few times, but then left.
“Whew,” Fnipper whispered. “I’m glad we hid when we did. That thing almost got us!
OOC Notes: This re-cap, and the one following it, were all one session that didn’t feature any combat whatsoever. This was, I believer, a first at this point in the game, though there were a few sessions with little combat, usually because they also were the sessions with the most loot to divvy up and items to sell and buy. Fortunately, everyone enjoyed it, largely because there was a lot of interesting role-playing and new story hooks coming up. The dragon city mentioned here will be described more thoroughly in the next update, which will hopefully get finished up for tomorrow.
“Fenthrip, cast your spell so we can understand him!” Tal whispered.
“Errr…,” Fenthrip hesitantly replied.
“Wait a minute, you don’t have it prepared?”
“Well, I was using my magic to make the rest of you resist the cold around you. How was I supposed to know that there were actual inhabitants here?”
The leader of the primitives shouted at the party, putting a quick end to their little discussion. He then began to yell at them in some unknown language, and while Tal still didn’t understand a word he said, he was able to infer that the leader wanted them to follow him. Since he doubted they would just have the party killed if they didn’t attack already, Tal advised the group to follow. However, as they prepared to leave, the leader turned and in an intimidating voice, he apparently warned them that they shouldn’t try to attack or escape, or they would suffer dire consequences. To emphasize his apparent point, the second human figure fired a warning shot in the form of an explosion of flames at a nearby snow bank. The group followed them, but Tal couldn’t resist a warning shot of his own in the form of a ball of sonic energy, which he shot at another snow bank. Their barbaric friends were apparently impressed.
They soon arrived at a small village, which at first appeared to be nothing more than a few small stone huts surrounded by a wall. Once they were led into the village, they were soon surrounded by far more creatures, from warriors similar to the ones that surrounded them earlier to curious children. A woman walked up to them. She appeared to be only middle-aged, but years of difficult living has made her older than her chronological age would suggest, making her appear to be an old woman. After speaking a few words to the party and getting only confused looked in response, she sighed and cast a spell. “Can you understand me now?” she asked.
The group collectively sighed in relief, and Tal responded, “Yes, thank you. Would you please explain where we are, and what you intend to do with us?”
“My name is Erica, and I am the village shaman here. We call this town Grath. Don’t worry, we have no hostile intentions for you. In fact, we had found another traveler a few months ago, and we thought that others would come looking for him. He said as much when we found him. Do you know a Raz?”
Tal looked exuberant. “Yes, we are friends of his. Can you take us to him? Can we speak with him?”
“Well, I can lead you to him, but I don’t think you can speak to him. He died shortly after we found him.”
Erica led the devastated party through the village to the resting place of their friend. She led them to a hill in the middle of the village, and then through a tunnel in the hill to a series of tunnels below the village. They passed small hot springs, which suggested how this village came to settle here. Small caves full of vegetation and ponds filled with fish branched off from their tunnel. Finally, they took him to a larger, frozen lake. Embedded in a large ice block was the body of Raz.
They group was shocked at seeing this. Dane asked, “Why would you do that to his body?”
Erica shrugged. “It was his request. He wanted us to do what we could to make sure his body wouldn’t deteriorate.”
Fenthrip said, “We should try to raise him, right?”
Tal shook his head. “Not yet. We need to speak to him, first. We don’t even know if he wants to be raised. Do you have the means to speak with the dead?”
“Not yet, but I can tomorrow.”
At Erica’s permission, the group was allowed to spend the day here. In fact, the village was happy to provide them with shelter for longer than that if they want, for they were eager to hear of the world outside of their land. The party spent the rest of the day and a few after it trading stories and cultures with them. Robin and Dane trained with the barbarians, and Fnipper looked for some fellow gnomes. He found a few surface gnomes, but no deep gnomes like him. Tsine and Tal spoke with Erica and the village’s other spell casters, which included druids and sorcerers but no clerics or wizards. Fenthrip discussed religion with the druids, and learned that these people never learned of the Sisters, and had an inherent mistrust in gods as a whole after they disappeared ages ago. He tried to spread the word of the goddesses, but had little luck. They also learned much of the “metal ones” which apparently roam across the plane quite often, destroying all living beings that they see. They often travel in groups far larger than the ones the group encountered, and sometimes much bigger ones can be found as well.
Finally, after a few days of resting and making new friends with the villages, they were ready to speak with Raz. Fenthrip cast the spell, but warned that Raz might not be willing to speak to the party and will have to be compelled, and this wasn’t always successful. Nonetheless, they got some important information out of him. For one thing, he didn’t want to be raised, but would appreciate being buried in Methosilang territory and at Necropolis when the party was done speaking to it. He had apparently spent his time searching out the avatars of the various gods while the party was helping Methosilang and fighting the Lady Blood. In addition, he managed to find all of them except the Avatar of Bha-Ael (the creator god that birthed the others,) Bas (for obvious reasons,) Tsykie (who the party had themselves already met,) and Lore (the magic goddess, who Raz believed was Joddark, the dwarf mage that led the last expedition here. However, he couldn’t tell them what he learned, as they had to meet the avatars themselves to ask them questions. He could provide them with some information about where the avatars are, but Fenthrip’s questions ended before they could learn about them. The party decided to use magic to preserve the body for now, until more questions could be asked of him, and then have him entombed at Necropolis when they were finished.
It was time for the party to plan their next mission. Their business with Raz was finished, after all, but if Raz was right, the avatar for Lore was still on this continent. Even better, the light the party had been following was apparently first set up years ago, and about the same time that Joddark had made his expedition. The villages haven’t traveled there yet, as they believed it marks a new “forbidden” area that the “greater ones” restricted them from, so none of them really know what’s there. With that information, the party set out to finish their journey to the light, though they were understandably apprehensive after hearing about the “greater ones,” especially since none of the villages had ever seen one, and no longer can describe what they look like.
A few cold, miserable days later, the party finally found the light, which disappointingly turned out to be just a very powerful magical beacon which permanently emanated the daylight spell, and was placed upon an adamantine pole. On the plus side, such a powerful magic item was likely created by Joddark himself. “Well, let’s try to dig up the area,” Tsine suggested. “This area has had years of snow, and if there was a camp or other signs of the expedition here, it’s probably buried.”
Hours of backbreaking later, the ground had been reached, and it only took a little exploration to find what looks like the remains of a camp. There was little but tatters of the mundane tents and other equipment, but the could find a few crudely dug graves, an iron chest, and a journal that looked magically preserved. The chest was easily broken into, and contained various treasures, including magical items!
The journal was far more interesting, however. It was Joddark’s personal diary, describing his experiences since he arrived on the continent. He explained of his harrowing journey across the Sunless Sea, the fights against the metal “demons” that killed many of his fellow travelers, and a final, sorrowful entry. In this entry, he explained that he was the last survivor of the expedition, and that he built the graves here and the light tower, in the hope that future travelers would find this camp and possibly recover the bodies. He then explained that though his situation was almost hopeless, he would still continue onward, to the mountains, which were a short trip from the camp. He explained that the only reason he went on this journey in the first place was because he sensed an incredible source of magic somewhere on this continent, and that he felt it was very close. With luck, he would find this source of magic. If he failed to do so, or if the source of magic ends up killing him, the reader should consider this his last words.
“So, now what?” Dane asked.
“Let’s go home. I’m sick of being cold,” said Fnipper, whose voice was muffled by the fact he was up to his face in snow still.
Tsine, Fenthrip, and Tal looked at each other. A source of incredible magic? Sure, the danger was great, but the party hasn’t had any real problems so far on their journey, at least not when compared to Joddark. “Let’s go on,” they said as one.
And so the party traveled forward from here, into the mountains. As they didn’t have an exact idea what they were looking for, Tsine would sometimes send his familiar, a raven, out to scout for them. The days wore on, as the flat plains they were traveling on turned into hills, and then mountains. Finally, one time, Tsine’s bird didn’t return. The party was ready to charge forward to investigate, but Tsine stopped them. “No, let me sneak in invisibly. I can sense my familiar’s location, so I should have an easier time finding him. I’ll come back if I need help.”
He left, while the party stayed back to plan their next move. “So, what should we do until he gets back?” Robin asked.
Fnipper responded, “What else? Hide, in case whatever got his bird comes back for us.”
The party quickly concurred.
Tsine carefully continued forward, but it was hard to see with the snow, and he was half-frozen after his long trek through the snow. In fact, after he crested the next mountain peak, he initially thought he was hallucinating!
The entire other half of the mountain was gone! So were the connected halves of surrounding mountains, creating a shaft out of the entire valley in the middle of them. The entire area was made out of metal. Huge metal spires rose out of the bottom of the shaft, which was obscured by a thick cloud of steam or smoke. These spires climbed as high as the mountains, and Tsine wondered why he couldn’t see them before, in spite of the snow. Metal ropes were connected all the spires and the mountain walls, and huge globes were attached at various intervals. Also rising up out of the steam was a huge metal dragon statue, which was a tall as the mountains and spires. It was standing on its hind legs, and had its head pointed downward, as if it was going to breath on the floor of the shaft, assuming it had one. The dragon statue’s reason soon became obvious, for the entire shaft was filled with dragons! Tsine was terrified at first, until he noticed that all of them were gem and metallic dragons, and he remembered those were neutral and good. But he thought they were almost extinct.
Carefully, he began to descend into the shaft, while still looking for his bird. As he descended (using a convenient system of ledges and ladders,) it was getting both warmer and brighter, as there were many strange lights shining throughout the bottom of the shaft. He soon had to shed his winter clothing as he climbed down, to avoid getting exhausted from the sudden temperature change. Finally, he discovered his bird, which was hiding, terrified, at the back of one of the ledges. Apparently, his bird didn’t study dragon classifications, and only saw a huge flock of gigantic flying lizards that could eat it in a matter of seconds.
As Tsine was beginning to climb out of the valley, he suddenly saw a dragon with amethyst scales flying directly towards him. He briefly pondering fleeing, but decided it would be pointless, and let the dragon arrive.
“Who are you, and what are you doing here?” it boomed at Tsine.
Meekly, Tsine responded, “I was just looking for my familiar…sir.”
The dragon didn’t look pleased with that response. “Then why are you on this continent? You’re obviously not from one of the primitive tribes, and they would never come here anyway!”
“We-we were looking for someone, sir. A dwarf that was lost here years ago, and also a friend that disappeared from this land recently.”
“We? Did you say we? Did you come with others?”
“Yes, my party and I. They should be right back there, on the other side of this mountain.”
Without another word, the dragon left to investigate.
Hiding in an underground cavern that Tal carved out of the cliff with his staff, the party saw a shadow pass by them and heard a great booming sound. It passed by a few times, but then left.
“Whew,” Fnipper whispered. “I’m glad we hid when we did. That thing almost got us!
OOC Notes: This re-cap, and the one following it, were all one session that didn’t feature any combat whatsoever. This was, I believer, a first at this point in the game, though there were a few sessions with little combat, usually because they also were the sessions with the most loot to divvy up and items to sell and buy. Fortunately, everyone enjoyed it, largely because there was a lot of interesting role-playing and new story hooks coming up. The dragon city mentioned here will be described more thoroughly in the next update, which will hopefully get finished up for tomorrow.
