-
The VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX is LIVE! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Defenders of Daybreak, The Early Years.
- Thread starter Sialia
- Start date
KidCthulhu
First Post
Madriel,
The Cadrienne/Nolin thing was genuine enough in its way. They were and are good friends. She was a tender, sweet young thing, and Nolin has always had a weakness for those. Also, she was in quite a bit of distress over the Arcade thing, and Nolin's was the shoulder she cried on, and we all know where that leads. As a fling it was remarkably tame, and fizzeled quickly.
It did show Arcade that Cadrienne was worthy of attention, and he was quite jealous. But, goober that he is, he did nothing about it. Arcade may be a genius, but he can also be an incredible bonehead.
The Cadrienne/Nolin thing was genuine enough in its way. They were and are good friends. She was a tender, sweet young thing, and Nolin has always had a weakness for those. Also, she was in quite a bit of distress over the Arcade thing, and Nolin's was the shoulder she cried on, and we all know where that leads. As a fling it was remarkably tame, and fizzeled quickly.
It did show Arcade that Cadrienne was worthy of attention, and he was quite jealous. But, goober that he is, he did nothing about it. Arcade may be a genius, but he can also be an incredible bonehead.
Bandeeto
First Post
Not that the polishing the staff thing was my idea!
Let's bear in mind who was playing the NPC staff who wanted polishing all the time.
I won't dignify Sito's commentary. Humph. (Just wait 'til I get you here in Boston Thursday, funny man.
)
The Journal will continue for several more of the episodes, but it ends just as the Academy starts.
Things were getting very complicated a that point, and it was just getting to freaking hard to keep track and go to medical school. Poor excuse I know, but I'll try to reconstruct it with the party's help.
Let's bear in mind who was playing the NPC staff who wanted polishing all the time.
I won't dignify Sito's commentary. Humph. (Just wait 'til I get you here in Boston Thursday, funny man.
)The Journal will continue for several more of the episodes, but it ends just as the Academy starts.
Things were getting very complicated a that point, and it was just getting to freaking hard to keep track and go to medical school. Poor excuse I know, but I'll try to reconstruct it with the party's help.
Sialia
First Post
Ok, we're back. Spent the week scrambling to catch up, but we're getting there. More posts from Bandeeto soon, but I asked him to pause long enough to let me comment on the last post--I've been so busy with my own thread (see link below) I haven't had time to check in here!
Anyway, five things:
1. Cadrienne loved to cast "speak with animals" and Piratecat hated roleplaying them. He did everything possible to keep from encouraging me to try to speak with stupid things. The War Bulls were about the last time I tried it. As I recall, they had strikingly one track minds: "Wanna rut."
Since I am, of course, completely incorrigible, this only served to encourage me to go to great efforts to speak with more intelligent things, like monsters, villians . . . Piratecat might have had an easier life if he'd been more interested in roleplaying sheep and cows, eh?
2. The dress was magnificent. The really beautiful thing about it was that I drew a lovely picture of Cadrienne staring in awe at herself in a mirror, as if to say "Is that me?" and filed it away and more or less forgot about it.
Years later, when Tao had a similar need for a dress and Cadrienne loaned it to her, Tao got the exact same look on her face when she tried it on. Us tough chicks who spend a lot of time covered in the blood of our enemies don't get a lot of opportunities to do the Cinderella routine. It was nice.
3. Cadrienne was using Nolin to get up Arcade's nose. Make no mistake about it. She wanted Arcade to be jealous, and that's a fact.
Oddly enough, she knew Nolin was a safe date at this point, despite all the warnings to the contrary. Nolin knew she was still carrying a torch for Arcade, and while he may not have minded deliberately provoking Arcade, he certainly wasn't going to try to put the moves on somebody that he knew wasn't genuinely attracted to him.
Nolin did have some scruples.
Even if they did revolve around his vanity more than his good manners.
And Cadrienne was always pretty good at intuiting what makes people tick.
Except Arcade, of course.
4. I'm pretty sure the flirtation with Nolin did have some effect. I think it was at this point that the Big Blow Up occurred, which resulted in Nolin giving Arcade a major clue about Cadrienne, which resulted in Arcade at last proposing to Cadrienne.
Yes, indeed, he really did.
If it wasn't here, it was right around here, and of course, there's no mention of it in his journal whatsoever.
He managed to phrase the proposal so badly, she had to refuse him.
I can't remember how he put it, but the general jist was that he felt honor bound to propose to her since he had allowed her feelings to arrive at this state, and that he really could use someone to stay home and wash the labware for him.
Things cooled off considerably between them at this point, as you can imagine.
And I began looking around for something else interesting for Cadrienne to be ambitious about. Woe.
Much grief and woe before she finally got there. Hang in there kids, we'll get to it.
5. It was probably the distant memory of how Arcade had finally gotten Cadrienne off his back that prompted me to think that Dylrath ought to propose to Tao (much, much later, and I relaly do hope we get as far as that story someday).
Dylrath, of course, hadn't entered the party yet so there's no way he could have known about all this backstory and it was his own decision. No one advised him to do it. But Arcade was amazingly unsupportive when Tao accepted, and spent quite a while berating Dyrlath for trying this foolish stunt, which is kind of ironic, don'tcha think?
Sadly, Dylrath was apparently unconvincing when he tried to make Tao think he was only proposing out of a sense of duty to her honor . . . or perhaps that didn't matter to her?
Anyway, five things:
1. Cadrienne loved to cast "speak with animals" and Piratecat hated roleplaying them. He did everything possible to keep from encouraging me to try to speak with stupid things. The War Bulls were about the last time I tried it. As I recall, they had strikingly one track minds: "Wanna rut."
Since I am, of course, completely incorrigible, this only served to encourage me to go to great efforts to speak with more intelligent things, like monsters, villians . . . Piratecat might have had an easier life if he'd been more interested in roleplaying sheep and cows, eh?
2. The dress was magnificent. The really beautiful thing about it was that I drew a lovely picture of Cadrienne staring in awe at herself in a mirror, as if to say "Is that me?" and filed it away and more or less forgot about it.
Years later, when Tao had a similar need for a dress and Cadrienne loaned it to her, Tao got the exact same look on her face when she tried it on. Us tough chicks who spend a lot of time covered in the blood of our enemies don't get a lot of opportunities to do the Cinderella routine. It was nice.
3. Cadrienne was using Nolin to get up Arcade's nose. Make no mistake about it. She wanted Arcade to be jealous, and that's a fact.
Oddly enough, she knew Nolin was a safe date at this point, despite all the warnings to the contrary. Nolin knew she was still carrying a torch for Arcade, and while he may not have minded deliberately provoking Arcade, he certainly wasn't going to try to put the moves on somebody that he knew wasn't genuinely attracted to him.
Nolin did have some scruples.
Even if they did revolve around his vanity more than his good manners.
And Cadrienne was always pretty good at intuiting what makes people tick.
Except Arcade, of course.
4. I'm pretty sure the flirtation with Nolin did have some effect. I think it was at this point that the Big Blow Up occurred, which resulted in Nolin giving Arcade a major clue about Cadrienne, which resulted in Arcade at last proposing to Cadrienne.
Yes, indeed, he really did.
If it wasn't here, it was right around here, and of course, there's no mention of it in his journal whatsoever.
He managed to phrase the proposal so badly, she had to refuse him.
I can't remember how he put it, but the general jist was that he felt honor bound to propose to her since he had allowed her feelings to arrive at this state, and that he really could use someone to stay home and wash the labware for him.
Things cooled off considerably between them at this point, as you can imagine.
And I began looking around for something else interesting for Cadrienne to be ambitious about. Woe.
Much grief and woe before she finally got there. Hang in there kids, we'll get to it.
5. It was probably the distant memory of how Arcade had finally gotten Cadrienne off his back that prompted me to think that Dylrath ought to propose to Tao (much, much later, and I relaly do hope we get as far as that story someday).
Dylrath, of course, hadn't entered the party yet so there's no way he could have known about all this backstory and it was his own decision. No one advised him to do it. But Arcade was amazingly unsupportive when Tao accepted, and spent quite a while berating Dyrlath for trying this foolish stunt, which is kind of ironic, don'tcha think?
Sadly, Dylrath was apparently unconvincing when he tried to make Tao think he was only proposing out of a sense of duty to her honor . . . or perhaps that didn't matter to her?
Bandeeto
First Post
OK, kiddies.
I'm back from Boston, and nearly ready to put up a new post. (Watch this space tomorrow night!)
The reunion was a lot of fun. Not a great deal of action, but plenty of role playin' hijinks. I presume that P'Cat will post some of the details on his board when he gets a free moment.
I got to play Agar for the first half of the evening, and found him to be a lot of fun. (Getting to be Agar when Claris' player was doing Proty was a major high point. ) Just remember, Limited Wish can be your friend, especially when you are surrounded by...
teaser...
Trillith Spawn! (dum da dummmmmmm....)
TMOSAT was his usual self, we all got to make fun of Nolin, and the party had a brief encounter with our old friends, the Dochselfar (or Doxelfar). A great time was had by all.
I'm back from Boston, and nearly ready to put up a new post. (Watch this space tomorrow night!)
The reunion was a lot of fun. Not a great deal of action, but plenty of role playin' hijinks. I presume that P'Cat will post some of the details on his board when he gets a free moment.
I got to play Agar for the first half of the evening, and found him to be a lot of fun. (Getting to be Agar when Claris' player was doing Proty was a major high point. ) Just remember, Limited Wish can be your friend, especially when you are surrounded by...
teaser...
Trillith Spawn! (dum da dummmmmmm....)
TMOSAT was his usual self, we all got to make fun of Nolin, and the party had a brief encounter with our old friends, the Dochselfar (or Doxelfar). A great time was had by all.
Bandeeto
First Post
Arcade’s Journal – Legerdemain, Part 1
...finally on the road to Kindric. Crellar’s Inn has been rebuilt since the incident with the fire and the doppelgangers. It was purchased from Crellar’s widow Gertrude by Beldrass Keycutter, and he has renamed it “The Tooth and Nail”.
Strange portents have continued to plague this sad place, but none of the locals are able to say exactly what is so disturbing about them. Gertrude died shortly after giving birth. The newborn baby, Kemic, and his brother Kelsey, are staying with their aunt Ella. Kelsey has apparently become a real troublemaker. I must consider whether it might not be wiser to take him on as an apprentice. Perhaps the adventuring life might straighten him out.
Kemic shows no signs yet of his probable doppelganger heritage. Cambion did not register him as a shapechanger. We will keep an occasional eye on the lad, just in case....
...arrived in Kindric to a magnificent welcome from the Loial household. We met Pembroke, the butler, and were introduced to Eloise, Alix’s sister. Alix was most displeased to hear that the family intends to hire a mage named Skiltor Rune to Clone Alix’s dead brother back to life, using the finger remnant retained from the battle with the Citadel.
Lord Tarim-Loial has summoned us to help with a very curious matter. The problem involves a theater, the Legerdemain Theater. It’s owner, Kurin Eantur, explained the siutation over dinner at his inn, the Horn and Trumpet.
A new play, “Knight of Gold”, is scheduled to open soon at the theater, but disaster has overtaken the production. The director and writer, Prim Glamour, has been changing the script nearly daily. The leading lady, Tivity Eantur (the theater owner’s daughter), has fallen in love with the leading man, Thesper Mermestin. He, unfortunately, appears to have gone completely insane, and has been spurning her with horrendous consequences. Further, horrible accidents have been happening all over the theater.
It also turns out that opening night was chosen, accidentally, to take place on a night of very ill-omen, the “Night of the Twixt”, which occurs every 80 years. The director has been heard to say that he plans personally to kill Skiltor Rune. (The mage is a fervent supporter of the theater, and sits in his own luxury box.) To top things off, the King is coming to the first performance.
Kurin begged us to investigate, and to save the show....
...disguised ourselves as stage hands, and scouted out the theater. We found the place to be working its way steadily towards a catastrophe. Thesper mumbles to himself, and is completely incomprehensible. Tivity may be beautiful, but she is nasty and unpleasant as only a truly spoiled daughter can be. The director works constantly on plot changes for the last scene, and several stage workers in another room were wounded by falling scenery....
...we stayed late after the actors and crew had departed. Prim, the director discovered us in the costume room, but Nolin forestalled his outrage by Charming him. Pointed questions brought a few clear answers.
Apparently, Skiltor Rune intends to murder someone on opening night. The director is prone to nightmare visions of demons, and other planes of existence. For years he has been protected from these dreams by a certain talisman. Rune stole the talisman, and has insisted that the plot be changed to make it simpler to kill someone during the final scene. The mage has refused to name his target, and also has refused to specify how he wants the finale changed. This, plus the return of the visions, has had the director tearing his hair out. Prim is to meet tonight with the mage’s underlings to finalize the terms of their deal. We decided to look around a bit, and to try to intercept the mage’s minions....
...horrible battle unleashed on the theater’s upper floor. A large mixed group attacked us, made up of two halflings, a tall man in armor, a female half-elf assassin, a hobgoblin shamaness, a mongrelman cleric, a dwarf with psionic powers, an imp, and a trained hawk with poisoned claws. Our losses were heavy, for Nyquil lost an eye to the hawk before he recovered and tore the foul thing to ribbons.
Cadrienne saw the half-elf come in the window, and the two of them fumbled at each other with their weapons for several minutes. The assassin actually managed to trip herself back out the window, but she managed to survive the fall and escape.
With a great deal of effort we killed the shaman, the mongrelman and the dwarf. I and several other Defenders were wounded, and the rest of our foes fled into the city before we could finish them....
...the gods be praised! When placed over Nyquil’s missing eye, the magic eyepatch (taken from Kronk the giant) seems to restore his vision. We have also recovered the director’s “talisman”: a small cat in a cage....
...still do not know who Rune’s target is, and now he will be warned that a group of adventurers will be trying to stop him. To head off a national incident I posted an urgent message to the King, warning him of Rune’s intentions. Alix sent a similar letter to his father....
...finally on the road to Kindric. Crellar’s Inn has been rebuilt since the incident with the fire and the doppelgangers. It was purchased from Crellar’s widow Gertrude by Beldrass Keycutter, and he has renamed it “The Tooth and Nail”.
Strange portents have continued to plague this sad place, but none of the locals are able to say exactly what is so disturbing about them. Gertrude died shortly after giving birth. The newborn baby, Kemic, and his brother Kelsey, are staying with their aunt Ella. Kelsey has apparently become a real troublemaker. I must consider whether it might not be wiser to take him on as an apprentice. Perhaps the adventuring life might straighten him out.
Kemic shows no signs yet of his probable doppelganger heritage. Cambion did not register him as a shapechanger. We will keep an occasional eye on the lad, just in case....
...arrived in Kindric to a magnificent welcome from the Loial household. We met Pembroke, the butler, and were introduced to Eloise, Alix’s sister. Alix was most displeased to hear that the family intends to hire a mage named Skiltor Rune to Clone Alix’s dead brother back to life, using the finger remnant retained from the battle with the Citadel.
Lord Tarim-Loial has summoned us to help with a very curious matter. The problem involves a theater, the Legerdemain Theater. It’s owner, Kurin Eantur, explained the siutation over dinner at his inn, the Horn and Trumpet.
A new play, “Knight of Gold”, is scheduled to open soon at the theater, but disaster has overtaken the production. The director and writer, Prim Glamour, has been changing the script nearly daily. The leading lady, Tivity Eantur (the theater owner’s daughter), has fallen in love with the leading man, Thesper Mermestin. He, unfortunately, appears to have gone completely insane, and has been spurning her with horrendous consequences. Further, horrible accidents have been happening all over the theater.
It also turns out that opening night was chosen, accidentally, to take place on a night of very ill-omen, the “Night of the Twixt”, which occurs every 80 years. The director has been heard to say that he plans personally to kill Skiltor Rune. (The mage is a fervent supporter of the theater, and sits in his own luxury box.) To top things off, the King is coming to the first performance.
Kurin begged us to investigate, and to save the show....
...disguised ourselves as stage hands, and scouted out the theater. We found the place to be working its way steadily towards a catastrophe. Thesper mumbles to himself, and is completely incomprehensible. Tivity may be beautiful, but she is nasty and unpleasant as only a truly spoiled daughter can be. The director works constantly on plot changes for the last scene, and several stage workers in another room were wounded by falling scenery....
...we stayed late after the actors and crew had departed. Prim, the director discovered us in the costume room, but Nolin forestalled his outrage by Charming him. Pointed questions brought a few clear answers.
Apparently, Skiltor Rune intends to murder someone on opening night. The director is prone to nightmare visions of demons, and other planes of existence. For years he has been protected from these dreams by a certain talisman. Rune stole the talisman, and has insisted that the plot be changed to make it simpler to kill someone during the final scene. The mage has refused to name his target, and also has refused to specify how he wants the finale changed. This, plus the return of the visions, has had the director tearing his hair out. Prim is to meet tonight with the mage’s underlings to finalize the terms of their deal. We decided to look around a bit, and to try to intercept the mage’s minions....
...horrible battle unleashed on the theater’s upper floor. A large mixed group attacked us, made up of two halflings, a tall man in armor, a female half-elf assassin, a hobgoblin shamaness, a mongrelman cleric, a dwarf with psionic powers, an imp, and a trained hawk with poisoned claws. Our losses were heavy, for Nyquil lost an eye to the hawk before he recovered and tore the foul thing to ribbons.
Cadrienne saw the half-elf come in the window, and the two of them fumbled at each other with their weapons for several minutes. The assassin actually managed to trip herself back out the window, but she managed to survive the fall and escape.
With a great deal of effort we killed the shaman, the mongrelman and the dwarf. I and several other Defenders were wounded, and the rest of our foes fled into the city before we could finish them....
...the gods be praised! When placed over Nyquil’s missing eye, the magic eyepatch (taken from Kronk the giant) seems to restore his vision. We have also recovered the director’s “talisman”: a small cat in a cage....
...still do not know who Rune’s target is, and now he will be warned that a group of adventurers will be trying to stop him. To head off a national incident I posted an urgent message to the King, warning him of Rune’s intentions. Alix sent a similar letter to his father....
Bandeeto
First Post
Arcade’s Journal – Legerdemain, Part 2
...while on guard at the theater we had a visit from Cinda, Nolin’s former lover and mother of his baby daughter. She had been looking for him for some time, and discovered that he was visiting Kindric. To say that she was insane with rage is perhaps putting it mildly. She tried, somewhat ineffectually, to kill Nolin with a frying pan. Cadrienne, who seemed to sympathize with Cinda’s plight, loaned the crazed woman her magical mace. This was a bit of a mistake, as Cinda nearly did manage to kill Nolin with that weapon.
We were forced to restrain Cinda, and brought her to a temple where she was kept on a suicide watch. As we were trying to get control of the situation, Rune’s pet imp showed up and tried to carry off Nolin’s daughter. Nolin and I impaled the imp with Magic Missiles, causing it to drop the child from near the ceiling. Nyquil used his dust of Feather Fall to float the girl gently into my arms, while the rest of the group finished the horrid thing. It’s body turned out to contain a Luckstone....
...opening night at last. A workman had heard strange groans from the basement, so we decided to do a final sweep below. With some searching we located the groans and tore open the wall to find… Thesper Mermestin! He was plainly the genuine article, tired and weak from lack of food and completely unaware of what was going on. We realized that the apparently insane actor rebuffing Tivity was an imposter, and decided that he was probably going to be used as a tool to commit the murder.
We confronted Prim with this story, but he insisted on hard evidence. I summoned the power of my Faerie Sight, and the golden beams revealed the false Thesper to be a pile of shaped snow, in fact a Simulacrum.
Prim wanted the false Thesper to go on stage anyway, as he was the only one who knew the leading man’s part! We decided to switch the two actors for the final scene, and rapidly rehearsed the real Thesper in the dressing room....
...the show began, on schedule. We were stationed backstage and beneath the stage in case of trouble. Trouble came, in the form of Rune’s minions. It was plainly the same party of the night before, but the members that we had dispatched had been Reincarnated and faced us once more!
The psionic dwarf was now a psionic raven, and he battled Tom-Tom to a standstill. The shamaness had returned as a troll, and she gave Glimmer a great deal of trouble. The female assassin had come back as a kobold, and she was easily dispatched. The halflings and cleric were also quite difficult to handle, but finally all of Rune’s party were slain.
As the last scene approached, TMOSAT and I transported Thesper, myself, Nolin and Cadrienne onto the stage in a gout of green flame. We found the false Thesper and Tivity facing a mechanical troglodyte. The trog appeared to be threatening both of them, and spouting real flames. I dispatched it with a Darkening Bolt, but as I did so the false Thesper turned on Tivity. Finally Rune’s true target was revealed. Nolin stepped in and slew the Simulacrum, which melted in moments into a pile of snow.
Down from his private box flew the enraged Skiltor Rune, spouting curses upon us and upon Tivity. It seems that Rune had become completely infatuated with Tivity, but she had spurned the wizard’s advances in favor of Thesper, who in turn had known nothing of her interest.
“What better revenge,” shouted the mage, “than to have the man you love kill you on stage!”
Rune spoke, and a Power Word, Stun rolled from his lips, paralyzing us all. He swooped to strike! But Rune had not reckoned on us giving advance warning to the authorities. From their boxes came the High Mage of Gaunt (a mage at the personal service of the king), the mage of House Loial, and other spell casters brought by the royal retinues. As we sought to protect the crowd from any stray spells, a mage battle ensued. Finally, Rune was subdued and carried off to the royal dungeon....
...an unpleasant surprise befell me after the dust had settled. Tivity had been tremendously impressed with me during her moment of peril, and had now fallen for me! I was forced to deny her, and a sad and angry scene ensued. She has pledged to carry a torch for me, but I do not believe she realizes what that would actually entail in my line of work....
...we received great rewards for our assistance in the Legerdemain incident. The King gifted me with Triokk’s Falicardium, a mighty magical tome full of spells designed to enhance and protect one’s familiar. After training for the next level of mastery, I Enhanced Nyquil. He now has the speed of an arrow in flight, and can hover! We received a large sum of money from Zemitch Alock of Pelag’s Spellpit to copy the Falicardium.
I then put the book on semi-permanent loan to Kinxanthrias, our favorite Kindric sage. In exchange, the sage gave us some very useful information on many topics.
We learned that doppelgangers are thought to be immoral and opportunistic by nature, and that in every known case their horrid heritage has won out over even the best human upbringing. Kemic must be watched with great care.
We also learned that Snadek Bearsfroth was court mage for the Helmsford’s for over a decade. He is blind, but can see with the aid of a magical silver mask. Snadek is a bitter and sarcastic fellow, known for his expertise with conjuration magic (as we discovered first-hand). He had been seen in the company of one Nostradis Ghend. Further, he seems to use stored psychic energy to power his Summonings. It is thought that he obtains this energy using special suits of immobile armor to drain power from those with psionic abilities, like Tom-Tom and his uncle. His current whereabouts are unknown.
The Horrus Arkandanian, also known as the Horrus Incabulin, was created in a joint project using clerical and Alteration magics. I have studied the history of one of its creators, Arkadine Ancantris Surillion, Arcade “Hightome” to his friends and the Arcane One to his rivals. It was from this famous Transmuter that I derived my adventuring name. Arkadine founded the Mage’s Academy in Oursk, and three Guilds of the Arcane, one in Caegill, one in Eversink, and one here in Gaunt! It has been nearly 300 years since he brought down the Gauntean priesthood of Yorrine, demigod of Disease and Famine.
The Incabulin has been described as a “runetome”, and is thought to grant spell abilities. The last known location of the Incabulin was the Academy of Flamecraft.
The Academy was first established many hundreds of years ago, and was a first-rate center of learning for generations of mages. After a time it declined and was disbanded, but was then re-founded. It soon became a corrupt and evil institution, but was then supposed to have been destroyed by the ancient red dragon Tagachark, also called “Fireforge”. The dragon’s mate was also involved in the destruction. Many priceless treasures disappeared with the fall of the Academy, including the Horrus Incabulin, the Spellgems of Tamth, Elestil’s Hammer Mace, the Song of Volcanoes, and the Ruby of Cascara the Founder.
It is rumored, however, that much of the Academy had already been moved to a different location when the dragons came. After some thought, I remembered a map that we recovered during one of our quests. It was drawn by one Felzik Wyrmscar, an adventurer who had sought the Academy and Fireforge’s treasure over two hundred years ago. Perhaps it is
time that we put the rumors to rest, and seek out the remains of the Academy of Flamecraft.
...while on guard at the theater we had a visit from Cinda, Nolin’s former lover and mother of his baby daughter. She had been looking for him for some time, and discovered that he was visiting Kindric. To say that she was insane with rage is perhaps putting it mildly. She tried, somewhat ineffectually, to kill Nolin with a frying pan. Cadrienne, who seemed to sympathize with Cinda’s plight, loaned the crazed woman her magical mace. This was a bit of a mistake, as Cinda nearly did manage to kill Nolin with that weapon.
We were forced to restrain Cinda, and brought her to a temple where she was kept on a suicide watch. As we were trying to get control of the situation, Rune’s pet imp showed up and tried to carry off Nolin’s daughter. Nolin and I impaled the imp with Magic Missiles, causing it to drop the child from near the ceiling. Nyquil used his dust of Feather Fall to float the girl gently into my arms, while the rest of the group finished the horrid thing. It’s body turned out to contain a Luckstone....
...opening night at last. A workman had heard strange groans from the basement, so we decided to do a final sweep below. With some searching we located the groans and tore open the wall to find… Thesper Mermestin! He was plainly the genuine article, tired and weak from lack of food and completely unaware of what was going on. We realized that the apparently insane actor rebuffing Tivity was an imposter, and decided that he was probably going to be used as a tool to commit the murder.
We confronted Prim with this story, but he insisted on hard evidence. I summoned the power of my Faerie Sight, and the golden beams revealed the false Thesper to be a pile of shaped snow, in fact a Simulacrum.
Prim wanted the false Thesper to go on stage anyway, as he was the only one who knew the leading man’s part! We decided to switch the two actors for the final scene, and rapidly rehearsed the real Thesper in the dressing room....
...the show began, on schedule. We were stationed backstage and beneath the stage in case of trouble. Trouble came, in the form of Rune’s minions. It was plainly the same party of the night before, but the members that we had dispatched had been Reincarnated and faced us once more!
The psionic dwarf was now a psionic raven, and he battled Tom-Tom to a standstill. The shamaness had returned as a troll, and she gave Glimmer a great deal of trouble. The female assassin had come back as a kobold, and she was easily dispatched. The halflings and cleric were also quite difficult to handle, but finally all of Rune’s party were slain.
As the last scene approached, TMOSAT and I transported Thesper, myself, Nolin and Cadrienne onto the stage in a gout of green flame. We found the false Thesper and Tivity facing a mechanical troglodyte. The trog appeared to be threatening both of them, and spouting real flames. I dispatched it with a Darkening Bolt, but as I did so the false Thesper turned on Tivity. Finally Rune’s true target was revealed. Nolin stepped in and slew the Simulacrum, which melted in moments into a pile of snow.
Down from his private box flew the enraged Skiltor Rune, spouting curses upon us and upon Tivity. It seems that Rune had become completely infatuated with Tivity, but she had spurned the wizard’s advances in favor of Thesper, who in turn had known nothing of her interest.
“What better revenge,” shouted the mage, “than to have the man you love kill you on stage!”
Rune spoke, and a Power Word, Stun rolled from his lips, paralyzing us all. He swooped to strike! But Rune had not reckoned on us giving advance warning to the authorities. From their boxes came the High Mage of Gaunt (a mage at the personal service of the king), the mage of House Loial, and other spell casters brought by the royal retinues. As we sought to protect the crowd from any stray spells, a mage battle ensued. Finally, Rune was subdued and carried off to the royal dungeon....
...an unpleasant surprise befell me after the dust had settled. Tivity had been tremendously impressed with me during her moment of peril, and had now fallen for me! I was forced to deny her, and a sad and angry scene ensued. She has pledged to carry a torch for me, but I do not believe she realizes what that would actually entail in my line of work....
...we received great rewards for our assistance in the Legerdemain incident. The King gifted me with Triokk’s Falicardium, a mighty magical tome full of spells designed to enhance and protect one’s familiar. After training for the next level of mastery, I Enhanced Nyquil. He now has the speed of an arrow in flight, and can hover! We received a large sum of money from Zemitch Alock of Pelag’s Spellpit to copy the Falicardium.
I then put the book on semi-permanent loan to Kinxanthrias, our favorite Kindric sage. In exchange, the sage gave us some very useful information on many topics.
We learned that doppelgangers are thought to be immoral and opportunistic by nature, and that in every known case their horrid heritage has won out over even the best human upbringing. Kemic must be watched with great care.
We also learned that Snadek Bearsfroth was court mage for the Helmsford’s for over a decade. He is blind, but can see with the aid of a magical silver mask. Snadek is a bitter and sarcastic fellow, known for his expertise with conjuration magic (as we discovered first-hand). He had been seen in the company of one Nostradis Ghend. Further, he seems to use stored psychic energy to power his Summonings. It is thought that he obtains this energy using special suits of immobile armor to drain power from those with psionic abilities, like Tom-Tom and his uncle. His current whereabouts are unknown.
The Horrus Arkandanian, also known as the Horrus Incabulin, was created in a joint project using clerical and Alteration magics. I have studied the history of one of its creators, Arkadine Ancantris Surillion, Arcade “Hightome” to his friends and the Arcane One to his rivals. It was from this famous Transmuter that I derived my adventuring name. Arkadine founded the Mage’s Academy in Oursk, and three Guilds of the Arcane, one in Caegill, one in Eversink, and one here in Gaunt! It has been nearly 300 years since he brought down the Gauntean priesthood of Yorrine, demigod of Disease and Famine.
The Incabulin has been described as a “runetome”, and is thought to grant spell abilities. The last known location of the Incabulin was the Academy of Flamecraft.
The Academy was first established many hundreds of years ago, and was a first-rate center of learning for generations of mages. After a time it declined and was disbanded, but was then re-founded. It soon became a corrupt and evil institution, but was then supposed to have been destroyed by the ancient red dragon Tagachark, also called “Fireforge”. The dragon’s mate was also involved in the destruction. Many priceless treasures disappeared with the fall of the Academy, including the Horrus Incabulin, the Spellgems of Tamth, Elestil’s Hammer Mace, the Song of Volcanoes, and the Ruby of Cascara the Founder.
It is rumored, however, that much of the Academy had already been moved to a different location when the dragons came. After some thought, I remembered a map that we recovered during one of our quests. It was drawn by one Felzik Wyrmscar, an adventurer who had sought the Academy and Fireforge’s treasure over two hundred years ago. Perhaps it is
time that we put the rumors to rest, and seek out the remains of the Academy of Flamecraft.
Attachments
Last edited:
Similar Threads
