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Story Hour
Erkonin (Campaign #1) [Session 46: Making Deals with Devils is Stupid as well as Bad]
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<blockquote data-quote="prabe" data-source="post: 8101433" data-attributes="member: 7016699"><p>Session 13: The Aftermath and The Primal Atoll</p><p></p><p></p><p>Dramatis Personae:</p><p></p><p>Mo - Goliath Bard (College of Lore)</p><p>Orryk - Forest Gnome Monk (Way of the Four Elements, variant)</p><p>Fiona - Half-Elf Wizard (Evoker)</p><p>Taman - Human (variant) Rogue (Inquisitive)</p><p>Joybell - Forest Gnome Paladin (Oath of the Ancients)</p><p>Imaktis - Tortle Cleric (Nature)/Shadow Sorcerer</p><p></p><p>GM - Everyone Else</p><p></p><p></p><p>21 Sunnin 748 (Campaign day 22) (immediately after the previous)</p><p></p><p>After the combat with the Masks, we spent some time in the House of Masks.</p><p></p><p>Immediately after Mo took the masks of a couple of the Masks, Joybell closed and locked the front and back doors. Orryk collected vials of blood from five different Masks (in case we need to get into Carveen’s library at some point).</p><p></p><p>Mo argued strongly for burning the place down to send a message -- there would be something very satisfying if their house was burned as they had burned so many villages. And it would have delayed their return to Pelsoreen. He described in glorious detail how the masonry walls of the building would work as a chimney to let the flames leap through the house, without spreading to neighboring structures.</p><p></p><p>Mo gave Taman some inspiration for his investigation of the house. Joybell searched the front room with the desk and found nothing there. There were no papers on or in the desk. No papers anywhere.</p><p></p><p>How do they keep track of what has been ordered and who has ordered it without any records?</p><p></p><p>In the cabinets in the storeroom between the front room and the large back room where half the fighting took place, we found some treasure. While we were doing the searching, Fiona cast detect magic and swept the whole place. We found:</p><p></p><p>2 small boxes of jade animals (250gp each)</p><p>3 gold bracelets (250gp each)</p><p>1 magical shortsword</p><p>1 magical pair of bracers</p><p>1 magical pair of boots</p><p>1 magical staff</p><p></p><p>To our surprise the masks themselves were not magical. Neither were the Masks (the people).</p><p></p><p>Despite the masks not being magical, Joybell wrapped one carefully in a cloth without touching it and asked Orryk to put it in the bag of holding. WIthout touching it.</p><p></p><p>On the shelves in the storeroom (and in the back room) there were some bags of rations. Also money. To wit:</p><p></p><p>1000 cp</p><p>4000 sp</p><p>1700 gp</p><p>100 pp</p><p></p><p>We put one of the bodies in the cart along with the bags of rations (for the Cracked Shield) and looked around upstairs.</p><p></p><p>Upstairs was a barracks -- ten bunks, a washroom and a toilet. The whole thing was very spartan -- there was food (basically grains for making gruel), water, stark beds, etc. The Masks were not concerned about comfort.</p><p></p><p>The fact that there were ten beds and we’d only killed 8 Masks had us concerned until Taman confirmed that two of them hadn’t been slept in for a while.</p><p></p><p>We also found 8 longbows and 160 arrows upstairs.</p><p></p><p>We also looked around for any iconography or symbols or anything written at all and found nothing. There may have been some in the nook with the teleportation circle, but the Cracked Shield orcs who’d gone to work on that area did a Very Thorough Job and destroyed everything they saw that had a symbol on it.</p><p></p><p>As we were going through all of this, there was first a knock, and then a pounding, on the front door.</p><p></p><p>Mo answered, with Joybell and Taman in the room with him. Joybell stayed quiet, just there in case the person who had the actual vendetta was needed for this conversation, but happy to let Mo handle it.</p><p></p><p>Guys at door: Corbus & Coldin, let us in!!</p><p></p><p>Mo. playing the role of “The only sober guy at the frat party”, opened the door to see two men dressed as guards.</p><p></p><p>C&C Guards: You’re not who we were expecting.</p><p>Mo: Who were you expecting?</p><p>C&C Guards: Big folks in masks.</p><p>Mo: They don’t live here anymore.</p><p>C&C Guards: We heard there was fighting going on here.</p><p>Imaktis, listening from the back room: There was!</p><p></p><p>Joybell was biting her lip to stop herself from explaining that we’d been pursuing a vendetta. But she kept quiet and let Mo do the talking.</p><p></p><p>The C&C Guards made it clear that they were more concerned with protecting the building itself than with the Masks or their possessions.</p><p></p><p>Mo: Silently dies inside.</p><p>C&C Guards: Some people might be thinking about burning the building after looting it.</p><p>Mo: People do the wildest things. Incidentally, what about imploding it?</p><p>C&C Guards: That would be willful destruction of property.</p><p></p><p>As it turned out, the Masks didn’t own the property -- they had a mortgage or a lease or something.</p><p></p><p>Joybell: Can we write on the walls?</p><p>C&C Guards: You can redecorate as you see fit.</p><p></p><p>After a bit more conversation, the Guards left.</p><p></p><p>Mo, closing the door: Well, that was the fuzz. That went well.</p><p></p><p>Joybell looked around for ink or paint or anything to write on the walls with, but couldn’t find ANYTHING. So Mo used the Flute of Scribing to write:</p><p></p><p>CHILD SALES CANCELED. ALL INVOLVED DEAD. USE PSYCHIC OR NECROTIC DAMAGE. THANKS CRACKED SHIELD.</p><p></p><p>Then we hitched up their horse and took the cart to the back door of Black Irnod’s. After a few minutes of knocking, Black Irnod appeared. Joybell explained that we had a Mask body and wanted to know what made it a Mask instead of just a human, which is what it appears to be. We gave him the body in exchange for a report after he did his dissection and autopsy.</p><p></p><p>When Irnod agreed, Joybell picked up the body of the Mask (slinging it across her shoulders with hands and feet dragging on the ground) and said, “Where do you want him?”</p><p></p><p>Irnod led her into a very cold room with small doors or hatches all over the walls. He opened one high on a wall, pulling a long shelf out of the cupboard. He then looked at Joybell, closed that one, and opened one at floor level. Joybell dumped the Mask onto the shelf.</p><p></p><p>Joybell: Thanks so much. When you have information, you can get in touch with us at the Flaming Quill.</p><p></p><p>As we left Black Irnod’s the Cracked Shield Orcs, awesome to a one, went back to their compound with the horse-and-cart and the food and such of the armor as was not damaged beyond usefulness.</p><p></p><p>We went back to the Flaming Quill, and headed toward our room, asking Jorly to please bring us Second Breakfast, or Elevenses, or whatever morning meal would be appropriate.</p><p></p><p>While we waited, and then while we ate, Fiona identified the items that we found in the cabinet at the House of Masks.</p><p></p><p>1 Short Sword of Warning (Joybell)</p><p>1 Pair Bracers of Archery (Orryk)</p><p>1 Pair Boots of the Winterlands (Taman)</p><p>1 Staff of the Python (bag of holding to sell or trade or whatever).</p><p></p><p>After Fiona identified the Boots of the Winterlands, Imaktis speculated that Irnod might be working with the Masks -- drawing a connection between the cold room (the morgue) at Irnod’s and the Boots of the Winterlands. Also on the grounds of general suspicion of someone who takes in bodies.</p><p></p><p>As it was still fairly early in the morning (we’d attacked the House of Masks just after first light), we discussed what to do with the rest of the day. Fiona, Imaktis, Orryk and Mo (as their guest) planned to go to Thani-Breel library to do their research.</p><p></p><p>There was some discussion of Joybell and Taman heading out to the druidic circle she’d heard about, but that idea was rejected. Orryk and the others wanted to go to the druid circle as well. So Joybell and Taman planned to go to the Cracked Shield -- Joybell felt very strongly that they’d earned a share of the treasure. We could not have done it without them and they deserved to reap the reward for their labors as well. No one else agreed with her about that, so she planned to give them her share of the coinage (which came to 166 cp, 666 sp, 283 gp, and 16 pp).</p><p></p><p>Mo: Now that we’ve attacked a bunch of assassins with a hive mind, maybe we shouldn’t let party members get too far.</p><p></p><p>We also agreed that maybe we shouldn’t talk too much about having killed the Masks. We’d let the Cracked Shield decide if they wanted to talk about it, but we weren’t going to do so.</p><p></p><p>At the entrance to Thani-Breel, on discovering that in addition to passing the entrance exam, there was a charge of 100gp per day to research there, Imaktis decided not to go into the library and to instead spend the day with Joybell and Taman.</p><p></p><p>Before Orryk, Fiona and Mo went into the library, Imaktis asked them to look for publications by Black Irnod, to get a sense if he’s a legitimate researcher or not.</p><p></p><p>Team Library (Fiona, Orryk and Mo) had a very productive day.</p><p></p><p>With regard to Imaktis’ question about Black Irnod, the library did have some works that Irnod had written on biology. And some other works that cited his research. He appeared to be part of an intellectual community doing a scientific classification of beasts and living things (a la Linnaeus, only in a world where the biology is complicated by magic and extra-planar entities and so on).</p><p></p><p>Orryk was looking for information about places with portals to the various planes, information about infusing elemental energy into items. Mo was looking for information about the genies and their relationship with and history in Pelsoreen. Also the best way to kill them. Fiona was doing general research of the “find a book and read it” variety.</p><p></p><p>Orryk learned that there aren’t any permanent portals around Pelsoreen. There are intermittent ones -- when the river floods, when one of the volcanic mountains (or volcanic islands) to the east or south erupts, or when there’s a large and powerful tropical storm there will be portals in those places. Extreme events bring about temporary portals.</p><p></p><p>He did find information about some permanent portals to the Plane of Earth in the Dunnimar Mountains (the older, more Appalachian-like mountains to the west of Pelsoreen, known informally as the Green Quilt). He even found some hints to the location of one of those -- not an x-marks the spot treasure map, but information that can be pursued further to get more detail.</p><p></p><p>When Orryk looked into infusing elemental magic into spells and items, he was told about another small library in town -- The Amber Flame. The price for entry there is a magical item. And reminded of The Steel Crucible, which we’d heard about before, where the price for entry is making a magical item (though they don’t want the item itself). It seems like the Crucible, which has information about making magical items, might be the more immediate interest.</p><p></p><p>Looking into Mo’s questions about the Genies, they learned that Genies are Elementals, but they have more in common with each other, culturally, than they do with other elementals from their own planes. All have slaves, all have solid egos that they love to massage -- the Genie Nobles are powerful creatures that can re-write reality with their Wish spells. The Genies may have originally come through those intermittent portals to the Elemental Planes, but they have been known to be here since Pelsoreen was founded. They only started dominating the city’s culture after the Severance, however, and that’s when slaving became a strong part of the city’s economy.</p><p></p><p>The Genies in Pelsoreen are not interested in governance or ruling the city. There aren’t many of them -- not much more than a dozen at any given time. And those are generally not the Genie Nobles -- they’re just ordinary Genies.</p><p></p><p>There are four kinds of Genies -- Marids, from the plane of water, Djinni from the plane of air, Dao from the plane of earth, and Efreeti from the plane of fire. Pelsoreen mostly has Marids and Efreeti -- because of the proximity of the volcanic islands and the sea. The Dao are the biggest slavers -- they need a lot of workers in their mines in the Great Dismal Delve.</p><p></p><p>There are no genie-specific vulnerabilities. Each kind has immunities or resistances that are appropriate to their elements -- Dao are immune to the petrified condition. Djinn are immune to lightning and thunder damage, Efreeti are immune to fire damage, Marids are resistant to acid, cold and lightning damage. None are resistant or immune to poison.</p><p></p><p>Fiona, on entering the library, found a book and started pursuing a research chain that led her to learning about High Ritual Magic. At its most basic, this is conducting hours-long, or longer, rituals as a way of casting spells that otherwise would not be able to be cast as a ritual. For example, instead of casting teleportation circle in the same location every day for a year to make a permanent circle, one could perform a high ritual that lasts 8 hours to make one. There are ritual materials and high costs involved, in addition to the time. (Fiona remembered that Black Irnod told Joybell that people might order children from the Masks to use them in ritual magic. Presumably by sacrificing them.)</p><p></p><p>The librarians told Fiona about another small library -- The Quiet Room, which focuses on this high ritual magic and wants 300gp a day as an entry fee.</p><p></p><p>She also learned about a library called Urlott’s that wants a service as an entry fee. And she learned that Carveen’s (the one that wants a unique vial of blood) focuses on information regarding summonings - so that one may not be of much interest to us.</p><p></p><p>While Team Library did their research, Joybell, Taman and Imaktis went to the Cracked Shield. When we knocked at the door, they let us through the waiting room and into their compound. Inside the compound, we could see several houses and children, including the Orcphans, playing. Their play consisted of hitting each other with sticks and throwing rocks, at least in part, but they weren’t being drilled or trained in war -- they were just running and playing in a big, fenced yard.</p><p></p><p>Joybell gave Rask her share of the treasure, because they earned it and deserved it. He was somewhat overwhelmed.</p><p></p><p>Joybell: It’ll help y’all support the children. Or relocate to the Jagged Swords’ territory if you decide you want to leave Pelsoreen and do that. Or just to give y’all a bit of extra if you need it.</p><p></p><p>Joybell didn’t ask if she could be a Cracked Shield, please. She wanted to. But she didn’t.</p><p></p><p>They then left the orcs and went to find a bar in Old Lament, near the House of Masks, just to have a beer and listen to see if there was any buzz about the Masks being wiped out. As we walked into a bar frequented, we believed, by employees of the city, Taman noticed that there was a moment of quiet as we walked in, then a buzz of conversation. He got an “Oh, naughty word, it’s Those Guys” vibe from it.</p><p></p><p>Joybell ordered beer for all of us and we took a table. We drank in the weird quiet, waiting for normal bar-buzz to resume.</p><p></p><p>Over in a far corner, we heard a game of rock-paper-scissors. Then a nebbishy guy, who looked like one of the City’s administrative workers, a paper-pusher of some sort, walked timidly up to us, occasionally shoved in the back by his peers to keep him moving.</p><p></p><p>Nebbish: So...you killed the Masks?</p><p>Joybell: Yes, with some friends and some of the Cracked Shie...Oops, I wasn’t supposed to say that.</p><p>Nebbish: Ummm...Wow.</p><p>Joybell: The trick is necrotic and psychic damage. Tell everyone. Got it?</p><p>Nebbish: Ummm...yes?</p><p>Joybell: Necrotic and psychic.</p><p></p><p>The nebbish then walked away and went back to his table. Imaktis followed him back.</p><p></p><p>Imaktis: How do you feel about us doing this? Is this a big deal for the town?</p><p>Nebbish: Most of the people who’ve seen them fighting think they’re really tough and didn’t think they could be defeated.</p><p>Imaktis: You can stand up to them. Anyone can. You just need to know the trick.</p><p>Taman, from our table: Don’t let them surround you.</p><p>Joybell: Nobody’s mad?</p><p>Nebbish: Someone’s going to have a vendetta if you kill enough people and leave survivors.</p><p></p><p>Joybell wasn’t sure if he was talking about her having a vendetta against the Masks or about some surviving Masks having a vendetta against the party. It was a bit unsettling.</p><p></p><p>Imaktis came back to the table and we continued to drink our beers. Eventually the bar-buzz began to build back up again and we could hear some people talking about “Psychotic damage” and “necromantic something” and “what’s that?”.</p><p></p><p>Joybell sighed and we headed back to the Flaming Quill and commenced to drinking with more intent. Imaktis cast lesser restoration on Taman so he’d be able to drink more and avoid alcohol poisoning. Eventually Team Library joined us there.</p><p></p><p>Over dinner we discussed which of the smaller libraries might be useful to get someone into. The Quiet Room (high ritual magic) could be interesting, but is expensive enough that we probably only want to get one person in. Joybell pointed out that she can make healing potions and those are magical, so she might be able to get into the Steel Crucible. We’d have to ask to know if that would count for them.</p><p></p><p>After dinner, Black Irnod showed up and told us that the body we’d taken him was thoroughly disposed of and had been thoroughly examined.</p><p></p><p>The body was of a human female (we’d noticed absolutely no secondary sexual characteristics on any of the Masks) with gigantism. Despite the oversized body mass, the individual had never gone through puberty. He detected signs that there had been extensive exposure to necromantic magic along with scarring on the bodies. He said it wasn’t exactly this, but it was not unlike someone had tried to make a flesh golem out of a living child.</p><p></p><p>He found some tumors in the brain that were in similar locations to where structures exist in telepathic species. The species with those telepathic brain structures were those with short-range telepathy -- mental powers that didn’t extend much beyond a mile, perhaps. From that he figured that it was unlikely that Masks elsewhere on the continent would know us or our faces.</p><p></p><p>We asked who could do this sort of thing? Would it take a necromancer or some other sort of spell-caster?</p><p></p><p>He said it would definitely need magic, but he was not aware of a necromantic spell or process that would do that specific thing. He thought that high ritual magic might possibly be involved. Otherwise it was some sort of weird magical effect outside the normally known magics.</p><p></p><p>He said he would write us letters of referral for two of the smaller libraries - The Quiet Room and Urlott’s, which specializes in literature about weird magic. We might be able to find information about the process to create the Masks in those libraries.</p><p></p><p>Remembering that Urlott’s wants a service as its entry fee, we asked what kinds of services they ask for. Irnod said that the services vary, but he’d never known them to ask for something beyond the capabilities of the person who seeks entry. He also said that one always has the option to decline to perform the service if it is not something that one wishes to do.</p><p></p><p>He said he would have letters recommending Fiona to the librarians ready for us in the morning.</p><p></p><p>He also said he was going to get the other bodies out of the House of Masks, in order to examine those as well. Joybell offered to help with that, since he didn’t have an assistant anymore, but he declined the offer. We asked that if he learned anything different from those, please let us know.</p><p></p><p>He agreed to that and then departed.</p><p></p><p>Eventually, we retired to our rooms. Fiona cast alarm on the room, but we also decided to keep watches overnight, just in case there was some sort of fallout from fighting the Masks. The first, second and third watches (Fiona, Joybell and Orryk, respectively) passed without incident. The fourth saw Mo and Imaktis standing watch.</p><p></p><p>Imaktis heard some unusual activity and voices from the tavern downstairs than we’d come to expect as usual. Mo heard nothing. So Imaktis headed down the stairs to see what was going on while Mo woke the rest of us up.</p><p></p><p>He caught sight of Jorly talking to a couple of well-dressed looking individuals -- two of them, a man and a woman, who looked very much alike. They were both larger than average humans, though not goliath sized, and a little thick of build. They had earthy brown skin and brick red hair. Both were dressed very expensively and well. Imaktis got the sense that they were potentially very dangerous individuals, but that they were not there to do violence at that time.</p><p></p><p>Imaktis listened to the conversation as best he could and heard them asking Jorly about six people who match our descriptions. Jorly said that we’d been eating breakfast at the inn and they could wait for us in the tavern. Jorly wasn’t exactly subservient to them, but he was clearly talking to someone several stations above him.</p><p></p><p>Imaktis passed all of this information on to Mo using message spells. Fortunately the two earth genasi were busy talking to Jorly and didn’t notice Imaktis on the stairs.</p><p></p><p>They were not expecting a giant turtle to sneak up on them.</p><p></p><p>Fiona: Few do.</p><p></p><p>We took the time to get dressed and armored up, then went down en masse (Scooby as well). In the tavern we went to them and asked if they were looking for us.</p><p></p><p>They introduced themselves as Ixal (the man) and Lixa (the woman). Ixal did most of the talking.</p><p></p><p>Ixal: We represent the Brass Giant. We would like to have you work for us.</p><p>Orryk: We weren’t looking for permanent employment.</p><p>Ixal: We would pay 50 gold pieces a day to each of you. Any items you found would be yours, but the Brass Giant would expect to be given all coins recovered.</p><p>Mo: That’s a terrible deal. Anyway, we’re not looking for a patron.</p><p>Ixal: Very well.</p><p>Joybell: If you have an individual job, we’d consider it.</p><p>Ixal: We’re looking for long-term loyalty.</p><p>Joybell: We don’t plan to be here long-term.</p><p>Imaktis: The Cracked Shield were great and very helpful in the fight. You might consider them.</p><p>Ixal: We will think about that.</p><p></p><p>Ixal and Lixa then left and we ordered breakfast.</p><p></p><p>After breakfast, Jorly came to us and told us that we couldn’t stay at the Flaming Quill any longer. The Brass Giant corporation is the Flaming Quill’s protector -- Jorly wasn’t in any trouble because we said no to the offer to work for them, but he would be in trouble if he continued to let us stay there.</p><p></p><p>Well, naughty word.</p><p></p><p>So we gathered up our things after breakfast and headed out. Our plan for the day was to go visit the druid circle on the island, stopping by Black Irnod’s to get the letters of recommendation. We also decided to take a detour by the Steel Crucible to see if making healing potions would be sufficient to get admission to the library.</p><p></p><p>Joybell to Black Irnod: Did you recover the other bodies?</p><p>Irnod: I got enough. There was one that was very well burnt.</p><p></p><p>(In the background Fiona and Orryk began discussing whose fireball had done that.)</p><p></p><p>Irnod: I didn’t do as thorough an autopsy on the others. I can tell you that two were female and the rest were male. They had the same combination of gigantism and prepubsecence as the first one I looked at.</p><p>Joybell: Can the process be undone? Can we save the children that this has been done to?</p><p>Irnod: This appears to be a one-way process.</p><p>Joybell: If you have further information for us, we won’t be at the Flaming Quill any longer.</p><p>Irnod: Ah. They came and talked to you?</p><p>Joybell: Yes. We said no. Can you recommend another inn, perhaps, in this neighborhood? One that’s not affiliated with the Brass Giant?</p><p>Irnod: I have heard good things about the Iron Steed.</p><p></p><p>He then gave us the letters of introduction to the Quiet Room and Urlott’s. As we walked away, Imaktis, concerned that Irnod was sending us into an ambush or some other setup, read the letters. They were standard-looking, boilerplate letters of introduction addressed to the librarians at the other libraries recommending that “a half-elf female named Fiona” be allowed to do research in their libraries. They were both signed and sealed under his name.</p><p></p><p>At the Steel Crucible, Joybell spent some time talking with the librarians and convinced them that she actually understood the process and the theory of making healing potions and did not merely follow instructions by rote. She was given a card that would allow her and one other admittance to the library.</p><p></p><p>Then we headed down to Waveside to look for Captain Doyard and the Elephant, the captain and ship recommended by the priest at the Order of Purveyors And Wrights when we first arrived in Pelsoreen. We found the slip where the Elephant would tie up, but the ship was not there, so we went to the office for the docks.</p><p></p><p>The clerk, a water genasi, said that Captain Doyard would be available the next day. We told him we wanted to get to the druid circle on the island. He said that it is called the Primal Atoll and that it's more than half a day’s sail away, so going there is not a day trip. When asked if they’re amenable to visitors, he said that they do get them from time to time.</p><p></p><p>Apparently part of the island is an active volcano. Which is cool.</p><p></p><p>We asked if he could recommend anyone as honest as Captain Doyard. He recommended Captain Whit of The Lilac a couple of slips down. He said he hadn’t seen The Lilac set sail yet today. (We got a reasonable sense that this guy was being straight with us and wasn’t sending us to some crooked friend of his or anything.)</p><p></p><p>Captain Whit agreed to take us to the Primal Atoll. It would be an overnight trip -- the crew and he would stay on the ship overnight. That arrangement had been okay with the druids in the past. Some of The Lilac’s crew were human, most were water or air genasi.</p><p></p><p>Joybell checked for the corporation logo on the ship -- C&C, which we thought would be fine.</p><p></p><p>Joybell wanted to take Scooby along, but the captain looked a bit non-plussed at that. And said that the charge for the trip would be 10gp per pair of legs. So Joybell had a little chat with Scooby and said she was going to temporarily dismiss him, but she’d bring him back as soon as possible. Then she scritched him behind the ears and sent him to wherever celestial wolf-mounts go when they’re not in the prime material.</p><p></p><p>Then we boarded the ship. Joybell found an out of the way place to sit on deck and watch. Taman sat up there with her. The crew strongly suggested that she remove her armor for her own safety. Joybell wasn’t entirely comfortable with that, so they agreed to tie a lifeline to her so if she went over she could be pulled back on board.</p><p></p><p>Joybell spent a lot of the trip trying to talk to the various flying fish and dolphins she could see as they went by. She got some hellos from various animals, but wasn’t able to have a good conversation.</p><p></p><p>After a few hours of sailing, the ship approached an island that sloped gradually up from the sea. After another little while, the ship pulled into a pier on the island. We could see a cloud of white smoke billowing from the far side of it. Lots of smoke.</p><p></p><p>Orryk and Taman both immediately thought that the druids’ village was burning. Joybell figured it was the volcano.</p><p></p><p>We followed the path from the pier inland. The path went gently up for about a mile before arriving at a small settlement, which was not on fire. This island, though a volcanic lava shield, had been here long enough that it was forested so the village was made of nicely chinked log huts, irregularly distributed.</p><p></p><p>In the middle of the village was a clear circle defined by four carved logs placed at the four cardinal directions. Each was carved in the shape of a stylized representation of one of the elements -- a flame in the south, a wave in the north, a cluster of crystals in the east, and a cloud in the west.</p><p></p><p>There were people about, fairly casually dressed. When they saw us, one, a female water genasi, stepped forward and introduced herself as Irlua.</p><p></p><p>Irlua: What can we do for you?</p><p>Joybell, after seeing if Mo wanted to talk: I grew up in the Wold and trained at the Basalt Henge. I just wanted to visit your circle. My friend, Orryk, is interested in all things elemental and it seems this is a place for him to learn.</p><p>Irlua: Here we are far more interested in keeping the balance between the planes stable.</p><p>Joybell: Is it unstable?</p><p>Irlua: The planes always want to move. We try to keep any one elemental plane from becoming dominant over the others.</p><p>Orryk: At the Basalt Henge, they’re trying to reduce the elemental influences in the area.</p><p>Irlua: We understand why they’re doing what they’re doing. Keeping Dao and Efreeti away from the city makes sense. We maintain balance.</p><p>Joybell: How?</p><p>Irlua: We keep track of how many portals there are and how...influential those portals are. How hard are the portals pulling our world in any direction. We’ve been maintaining a stable balance for about a century, but recently there has been a lot of pull from fire. Water is not as strong at the moment.</p><p>Mo: Do you do rituals to bring about balance?</p><p>Irlua: We sometimes set up temporary portals, to increase the pull from a plane. We occasionally use similar rituals as they perform at the Basalt Henge to weaken or destroy gates.</p><p>Joybell (or maybe Orryk): Do you have any idea why fire is getting stronger?</p><p>Irlua: We think that there’s a big volcano going to erupt, perhaps pretty far away. It might be under the ocean or on the continent.</p><p></p><p>Taman and Joybell went to meditate in the circle.</p><p></p><p>Orryk cast mold earth near the earth log on the east side of the circle. Unlike at the Basalt Henge, the spell worked like normal.</p><p></p><p>Mo: Are there any open portals on the island?</p><p>Irlua: Deep in the caldera of the volcano there is a portal to fire. Getting there is fraught.</p><p>Orryk: Do you have interactions with entities from other planes, like the Wind Dukes?</p><p>Irlua: Not the Wind Dukes. We have occasionally dealt with genies. Of course, every single genie is, in its own mind, the most important being in the Universe.</p><p></p><p>Irlua then mentioned that 100 years ago, water had gotten too strong and they’d had to bolster fire for a while to maintain the balance.</p><p></p><p>Joybell, distracted from her meditation: Are you interfering with someone’s plans with the work you do?</p><p>Irlua: Sometimes we are. They don’t always like us much.</p><p></p><p>Then Joybell, Taman and Orryk did all meditate in the circle.</p><p></p><p>To Joybell, it felt like a druidic circle much like the ones she’d known in the Wold and at the Henge. With, of course a more elemental feel to it.</p><p></p><p>Orryk, on the other hand, could feel the threads of the elements woven through, like an open weave. It had the sort of elasticity of cheese cloth -- stretchable and malleable.</p><p></p><p>After meditating for a while we had an early dinner and then asked if we could go to the volcano. Irlua said that they usually require visitors to walk to the volcano, but she was going to make an exception in our case.</p><p></p><p>Irlua: Today is beautiful. Tomorrow won’t be. And the view is worth it.</p><p></p><p>She cast transport via plants and took us to the top of the volcano looking over the caldera. It was just after dusk, so we could see the volcano at night.</p><p></p><p>Joybell asked Taman to hold onto her belt and leaned way over the edge to try and see the portal deep in the caldera, but couldn’t. She asked what it would look like and Orryk told her that a standing portal would look almost like a whirlpool with the lava moving and churning around it.</p><p></p><p>And there we ended -- shortly after dark with us on the edge of the caldera.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Treasure:</p><p></p><p>1 Short Sword of Warning (Joybell)</p><p>1 Pair Bracers of Archery (Orryk)</p><p>1 Pair Boots of the Winterlands (Taman)</p><p>1 Staff of the Python (bag of holding to sell or trade or whatever).</p><p></p><p>2 small boxes of jade animals (250gp each)</p><p>3 gold bracelets (250gp each)</p><p></p><p>1000 cp</p><p>4000 sp</p><p>1700 gp</p><p>100 pp</p><p></p><p>I don’t believe we’re planning on selling the jade animals or gold bracelets here in Pelsoreen, so I’m not including those in the coinage distribution -- those were put intact into the Bag of Holding.</p><p></p><p>The coinage divides up thus:</p><p></p><p>166 cp (with 4 left)</p><p>666 sp (with 4 left)</p><p>283 gp (with 2 left)</p><p>16 pp (with 4 left)</p><p></p><p>Note: We’ve paid for two more nights of rooms at the Flaming Quill since the last Party Kitty Update. So taking out 12 gp for lodging there and adding the leftovers from the coins as above, the party kitty currently has: 5 pp, 2gp, 10sp, and 12 cp.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="prabe, post: 8101433, member: 7016699"] Session 13: The Aftermath and The Primal Atoll Dramatis Personae: Mo - Goliath Bard (College of Lore) Orryk - Forest Gnome Monk (Way of the Four Elements, variant) Fiona - Half-Elf Wizard (Evoker) Taman - Human (variant) Rogue (Inquisitive) Joybell - Forest Gnome Paladin (Oath of the Ancients) Imaktis - Tortle Cleric (Nature)/Shadow Sorcerer GM - Everyone Else 21 Sunnin 748 (Campaign day 22) (immediately after the previous) After the combat with the Masks, we spent some time in the House of Masks. Immediately after Mo took the masks of a couple of the Masks, Joybell closed and locked the front and back doors. Orryk collected vials of blood from five different Masks (in case we need to get into Carveen’s library at some point). Mo argued strongly for burning the place down to send a message -- there would be something very satisfying if their house was burned as they had burned so many villages. And it would have delayed their return to Pelsoreen. He described in glorious detail how the masonry walls of the building would work as a chimney to let the flames leap through the house, without spreading to neighboring structures. Mo gave Taman some inspiration for his investigation of the house. Joybell searched the front room with the desk and found nothing there. There were no papers on or in the desk. No papers anywhere. How do they keep track of what has been ordered and who has ordered it without any records? In the cabinets in the storeroom between the front room and the large back room where half the fighting took place, we found some treasure. While we were doing the searching, Fiona cast detect magic and swept the whole place. We found: 2 small boxes of jade animals (250gp each) 3 gold bracelets (250gp each) 1 magical shortsword 1 magical pair of bracers 1 magical pair of boots 1 magical staff To our surprise the masks themselves were not magical. Neither were the Masks (the people). Despite the masks not being magical, Joybell wrapped one carefully in a cloth without touching it and asked Orryk to put it in the bag of holding. WIthout touching it. On the shelves in the storeroom (and in the back room) there were some bags of rations. Also money. To wit: 1000 cp 4000 sp 1700 gp 100 pp We put one of the bodies in the cart along with the bags of rations (for the Cracked Shield) and looked around upstairs. Upstairs was a barracks -- ten bunks, a washroom and a toilet. The whole thing was very spartan -- there was food (basically grains for making gruel), water, stark beds, etc. The Masks were not concerned about comfort. The fact that there were ten beds and we’d only killed 8 Masks had us concerned until Taman confirmed that two of them hadn’t been slept in for a while. We also found 8 longbows and 160 arrows upstairs. We also looked around for any iconography or symbols or anything written at all and found nothing. There may have been some in the nook with the teleportation circle, but the Cracked Shield orcs who’d gone to work on that area did a Very Thorough Job and destroyed everything they saw that had a symbol on it. As we were going through all of this, there was first a knock, and then a pounding, on the front door. Mo answered, with Joybell and Taman in the room with him. Joybell stayed quiet, just there in case the person who had the actual vendetta was needed for this conversation, but happy to let Mo handle it. Guys at door: Corbus & Coldin, let us in!! Mo. playing the role of “The only sober guy at the frat party”, opened the door to see two men dressed as guards. C&C Guards: You’re not who we were expecting. Mo: Who were you expecting? C&C Guards: Big folks in masks. Mo: They don’t live here anymore. C&C Guards: We heard there was fighting going on here. Imaktis, listening from the back room: There was! Joybell was biting her lip to stop herself from explaining that we’d been pursuing a vendetta. But she kept quiet and let Mo do the talking. The C&C Guards made it clear that they were more concerned with protecting the building itself than with the Masks or their possessions. Mo: Silently dies inside. C&C Guards: Some people might be thinking about burning the building after looting it. Mo: People do the wildest things. Incidentally, what about imploding it? C&C Guards: That would be willful destruction of property. As it turned out, the Masks didn’t own the property -- they had a mortgage or a lease or something. Joybell: Can we write on the walls? C&C Guards: You can redecorate as you see fit. After a bit more conversation, the Guards left. Mo, closing the door: Well, that was the fuzz. That went well. Joybell looked around for ink or paint or anything to write on the walls with, but couldn’t find ANYTHING. So Mo used the Flute of Scribing to write: CHILD SALES CANCELED. ALL INVOLVED DEAD. USE PSYCHIC OR NECROTIC DAMAGE. THANKS CRACKED SHIELD. Then we hitched up their horse and took the cart to the back door of Black Irnod’s. After a few minutes of knocking, Black Irnod appeared. Joybell explained that we had a Mask body and wanted to know what made it a Mask instead of just a human, which is what it appears to be. We gave him the body in exchange for a report after he did his dissection and autopsy. When Irnod agreed, Joybell picked up the body of the Mask (slinging it across her shoulders with hands and feet dragging on the ground) and said, “Where do you want him?” Irnod led her into a very cold room with small doors or hatches all over the walls. He opened one high on a wall, pulling a long shelf out of the cupboard. He then looked at Joybell, closed that one, and opened one at floor level. Joybell dumped the Mask onto the shelf. Joybell: Thanks so much. When you have information, you can get in touch with us at the Flaming Quill. As we left Black Irnod’s the Cracked Shield Orcs, awesome to a one, went back to their compound with the horse-and-cart and the food and such of the armor as was not damaged beyond usefulness. We went back to the Flaming Quill, and headed toward our room, asking Jorly to please bring us Second Breakfast, or Elevenses, or whatever morning meal would be appropriate. While we waited, and then while we ate, Fiona identified the items that we found in the cabinet at the House of Masks. 1 Short Sword of Warning (Joybell) 1 Pair Bracers of Archery (Orryk) 1 Pair Boots of the Winterlands (Taman) 1 Staff of the Python (bag of holding to sell or trade or whatever). After Fiona identified the Boots of the Winterlands, Imaktis speculated that Irnod might be working with the Masks -- drawing a connection between the cold room (the morgue) at Irnod’s and the Boots of the Winterlands. Also on the grounds of general suspicion of someone who takes in bodies. As it was still fairly early in the morning (we’d attacked the House of Masks just after first light), we discussed what to do with the rest of the day. Fiona, Imaktis, Orryk and Mo (as their guest) planned to go to Thani-Breel library to do their research. There was some discussion of Joybell and Taman heading out to the druidic circle she’d heard about, but that idea was rejected. Orryk and the others wanted to go to the druid circle as well. So Joybell and Taman planned to go to the Cracked Shield -- Joybell felt very strongly that they’d earned a share of the treasure. We could not have done it without them and they deserved to reap the reward for their labors as well. No one else agreed with her about that, so she planned to give them her share of the coinage (which came to 166 cp, 666 sp, 283 gp, and 16 pp). Mo: Now that we’ve attacked a bunch of assassins with a hive mind, maybe we shouldn’t let party members get too far. We also agreed that maybe we shouldn’t talk too much about having killed the Masks. We’d let the Cracked Shield decide if they wanted to talk about it, but we weren’t going to do so. At the entrance to Thani-Breel, on discovering that in addition to passing the entrance exam, there was a charge of 100gp per day to research there, Imaktis decided not to go into the library and to instead spend the day with Joybell and Taman. Before Orryk, Fiona and Mo went into the library, Imaktis asked them to look for publications by Black Irnod, to get a sense if he’s a legitimate researcher or not. Team Library (Fiona, Orryk and Mo) had a very productive day. With regard to Imaktis’ question about Black Irnod, the library did have some works that Irnod had written on biology. And some other works that cited his research. He appeared to be part of an intellectual community doing a scientific classification of beasts and living things (a la Linnaeus, only in a world where the biology is complicated by magic and extra-planar entities and so on). Orryk was looking for information about places with portals to the various planes, information about infusing elemental energy into items. Mo was looking for information about the genies and their relationship with and history in Pelsoreen. Also the best way to kill them. Fiona was doing general research of the “find a book and read it” variety. Orryk learned that there aren’t any permanent portals around Pelsoreen. There are intermittent ones -- when the river floods, when one of the volcanic mountains (or volcanic islands) to the east or south erupts, or when there’s a large and powerful tropical storm there will be portals in those places. Extreme events bring about temporary portals. He did find information about some permanent portals to the Plane of Earth in the Dunnimar Mountains (the older, more Appalachian-like mountains to the west of Pelsoreen, known informally as the Green Quilt). He even found some hints to the location of one of those -- not an x-marks the spot treasure map, but information that can be pursued further to get more detail. When Orryk looked into infusing elemental magic into spells and items, he was told about another small library in town -- The Amber Flame. The price for entry there is a magical item. And reminded of The Steel Crucible, which we’d heard about before, where the price for entry is making a magical item (though they don’t want the item itself). It seems like the Crucible, which has information about making magical items, might be the more immediate interest. Looking into Mo’s questions about the Genies, they learned that Genies are Elementals, but they have more in common with each other, culturally, than they do with other elementals from their own planes. All have slaves, all have solid egos that they love to massage -- the Genie Nobles are powerful creatures that can re-write reality with their Wish spells. The Genies may have originally come through those intermittent portals to the Elemental Planes, but they have been known to be here since Pelsoreen was founded. They only started dominating the city’s culture after the Severance, however, and that’s when slaving became a strong part of the city’s economy. The Genies in Pelsoreen are not interested in governance or ruling the city. There aren’t many of them -- not much more than a dozen at any given time. And those are generally not the Genie Nobles -- they’re just ordinary Genies. There are four kinds of Genies -- Marids, from the plane of water, Djinni from the plane of air, Dao from the plane of earth, and Efreeti from the plane of fire. Pelsoreen mostly has Marids and Efreeti -- because of the proximity of the volcanic islands and the sea. The Dao are the biggest slavers -- they need a lot of workers in their mines in the Great Dismal Delve. There are no genie-specific vulnerabilities. Each kind has immunities or resistances that are appropriate to their elements -- Dao are immune to the petrified condition. Djinn are immune to lightning and thunder damage, Efreeti are immune to fire damage, Marids are resistant to acid, cold and lightning damage. None are resistant or immune to poison. Fiona, on entering the library, found a book and started pursuing a research chain that led her to learning about High Ritual Magic. At its most basic, this is conducting hours-long, or longer, rituals as a way of casting spells that otherwise would not be able to be cast as a ritual. For example, instead of casting teleportation circle in the same location every day for a year to make a permanent circle, one could perform a high ritual that lasts 8 hours to make one. There are ritual materials and high costs involved, in addition to the time. (Fiona remembered that Black Irnod told Joybell that people might order children from the Masks to use them in ritual magic. Presumably by sacrificing them.) The librarians told Fiona about another small library -- The Quiet Room, which focuses on this high ritual magic and wants 300gp a day as an entry fee. She also learned about a library called Urlott’s that wants a service as an entry fee. And she learned that Carveen’s (the one that wants a unique vial of blood) focuses on information regarding summonings - so that one may not be of much interest to us. While Team Library did their research, Joybell, Taman and Imaktis went to the Cracked Shield. When we knocked at the door, they let us through the waiting room and into their compound. Inside the compound, we could see several houses and children, including the Orcphans, playing. Their play consisted of hitting each other with sticks and throwing rocks, at least in part, but they weren’t being drilled or trained in war -- they were just running and playing in a big, fenced yard. Joybell gave Rask her share of the treasure, because they earned it and deserved it. He was somewhat overwhelmed. Joybell: It’ll help y’all support the children. Or relocate to the Jagged Swords’ territory if you decide you want to leave Pelsoreen and do that. Or just to give y’all a bit of extra if you need it. Joybell didn’t ask if she could be a Cracked Shield, please. She wanted to. But she didn’t. They then left the orcs and went to find a bar in Old Lament, near the House of Masks, just to have a beer and listen to see if there was any buzz about the Masks being wiped out. As we walked into a bar frequented, we believed, by employees of the city, Taman noticed that there was a moment of quiet as we walked in, then a buzz of conversation. He got an “Oh, naughty word, it’s Those Guys” vibe from it. Joybell ordered beer for all of us and we took a table. We drank in the weird quiet, waiting for normal bar-buzz to resume. Over in a far corner, we heard a game of rock-paper-scissors. Then a nebbishy guy, who looked like one of the City’s administrative workers, a paper-pusher of some sort, walked timidly up to us, occasionally shoved in the back by his peers to keep him moving. Nebbish: So...you killed the Masks? Joybell: Yes, with some friends and some of the Cracked Shie...Oops, I wasn’t supposed to say that. Nebbish: Ummm...Wow. Joybell: The trick is necrotic and psychic damage. Tell everyone. Got it? Nebbish: Ummm...yes? Joybell: Necrotic and psychic. The nebbish then walked away and went back to his table. Imaktis followed him back. Imaktis: How do you feel about us doing this? Is this a big deal for the town? Nebbish: Most of the people who’ve seen them fighting think they’re really tough and didn’t think they could be defeated. Imaktis: You can stand up to them. Anyone can. You just need to know the trick. Taman, from our table: Don’t let them surround you. Joybell: Nobody’s mad? Nebbish: Someone’s going to have a vendetta if you kill enough people and leave survivors. Joybell wasn’t sure if he was talking about her having a vendetta against the Masks or about some surviving Masks having a vendetta against the party. It was a bit unsettling. Imaktis came back to the table and we continued to drink our beers. Eventually the bar-buzz began to build back up again and we could hear some people talking about “Psychotic damage” and “necromantic something” and “what’s that?”. Joybell sighed and we headed back to the Flaming Quill and commenced to drinking with more intent. Imaktis cast lesser restoration on Taman so he’d be able to drink more and avoid alcohol poisoning. Eventually Team Library joined us there. Over dinner we discussed which of the smaller libraries might be useful to get someone into. The Quiet Room (high ritual magic) could be interesting, but is expensive enough that we probably only want to get one person in. Joybell pointed out that she can make healing potions and those are magical, so she might be able to get into the Steel Crucible. We’d have to ask to know if that would count for them. After dinner, Black Irnod showed up and told us that the body we’d taken him was thoroughly disposed of and had been thoroughly examined. The body was of a human female (we’d noticed absolutely no secondary sexual characteristics on any of the Masks) with gigantism. Despite the oversized body mass, the individual had never gone through puberty. He detected signs that there had been extensive exposure to necromantic magic along with scarring on the bodies. He said it wasn’t exactly this, but it was not unlike someone had tried to make a flesh golem out of a living child. He found some tumors in the brain that were in similar locations to where structures exist in telepathic species. The species with those telepathic brain structures were those with short-range telepathy -- mental powers that didn’t extend much beyond a mile, perhaps. From that he figured that it was unlikely that Masks elsewhere on the continent would know us or our faces. We asked who could do this sort of thing? Would it take a necromancer or some other sort of spell-caster? He said it would definitely need magic, but he was not aware of a necromantic spell or process that would do that specific thing. He thought that high ritual magic might possibly be involved. Otherwise it was some sort of weird magical effect outside the normally known magics. He said he would write us letters of referral for two of the smaller libraries - The Quiet Room and Urlott’s, which specializes in literature about weird magic. We might be able to find information about the process to create the Masks in those libraries. Remembering that Urlott’s wants a service as its entry fee, we asked what kinds of services they ask for. Irnod said that the services vary, but he’d never known them to ask for something beyond the capabilities of the person who seeks entry. He also said that one always has the option to decline to perform the service if it is not something that one wishes to do. He said he would have letters recommending Fiona to the librarians ready for us in the morning. He also said he was going to get the other bodies out of the House of Masks, in order to examine those as well. Joybell offered to help with that, since he didn’t have an assistant anymore, but he declined the offer. We asked that if he learned anything different from those, please let us know. He agreed to that and then departed. Eventually, we retired to our rooms. Fiona cast alarm on the room, but we also decided to keep watches overnight, just in case there was some sort of fallout from fighting the Masks. The first, second and third watches (Fiona, Joybell and Orryk, respectively) passed without incident. The fourth saw Mo and Imaktis standing watch. Imaktis heard some unusual activity and voices from the tavern downstairs than we’d come to expect as usual. Mo heard nothing. So Imaktis headed down the stairs to see what was going on while Mo woke the rest of us up. He caught sight of Jorly talking to a couple of well-dressed looking individuals -- two of them, a man and a woman, who looked very much alike. They were both larger than average humans, though not goliath sized, and a little thick of build. They had earthy brown skin and brick red hair. Both were dressed very expensively and well. Imaktis got the sense that they were potentially very dangerous individuals, but that they were not there to do violence at that time. Imaktis listened to the conversation as best he could and heard them asking Jorly about six people who match our descriptions. Jorly said that we’d been eating breakfast at the inn and they could wait for us in the tavern. Jorly wasn’t exactly subservient to them, but he was clearly talking to someone several stations above him. Imaktis passed all of this information on to Mo using message spells. Fortunately the two earth genasi were busy talking to Jorly and didn’t notice Imaktis on the stairs. They were not expecting a giant turtle to sneak up on them. Fiona: Few do. We took the time to get dressed and armored up, then went down en masse (Scooby as well). In the tavern we went to them and asked if they were looking for us. They introduced themselves as Ixal (the man) and Lixa (the woman). Ixal did most of the talking. Ixal: We represent the Brass Giant. We would like to have you work for us. Orryk: We weren’t looking for permanent employment. Ixal: We would pay 50 gold pieces a day to each of you. Any items you found would be yours, but the Brass Giant would expect to be given all coins recovered. Mo: That’s a terrible deal. Anyway, we’re not looking for a patron. Ixal: Very well. Joybell: If you have an individual job, we’d consider it. Ixal: We’re looking for long-term loyalty. Joybell: We don’t plan to be here long-term. Imaktis: The Cracked Shield were great and very helpful in the fight. You might consider them. Ixal: We will think about that. Ixal and Lixa then left and we ordered breakfast. After breakfast, Jorly came to us and told us that we couldn’t stay at the Flaming Quill any longer. The Brass Giant corporation is the Flaming Quill’s protector -- Jorly wasn’t in any trouble because we said no to the offer to work for them, but he would be in trouble if he continued to let us stay there. Well, naughty word. So we gathered up our things after breakfast and headed out. Our plan for the day was to go visit the druid circle on the island, stopping by Black Irnod’s to get the letters of recommendation. We also decided to take a detour by the Steel Crucible to see if making healing potions would be sufficient to get admission to the library. Joybell to Black Irnod: Did you recover the other bodies? Irnod: I got enough. There was one that was very well burnt. (In the background Fiona and Orryk began discussing whose fireball had done that.) Irnod: I didn’t do as thorough an autopsy on the others. I can tell you that two were female and the rest were male. They had the same combination of gigantism and prepubsecence as the first one I looked at. Joybell: Can the process be undone? Can we save the children that this has been done to? Irnod: This appears to be a one-way process. Joybell: If you have further information for us, we won’t be at the Flaming Quill any longer. Irnod: Ah. They came and talked to you? Joybell: Yes. We said no. Can you recommend another inn, perhaps, in this neighborhood? One that’s not affiliated with the Brass Giant? Irnod: I have heard good things about the Iron Steed. He then gave us the letters of introduction to the Quiet Room and Urlott’s. As we walked away, Imaktis, concerned that Irnod was sending us into an ambush or some other setup, read the letters. They were standard-looking, boilerplate letters of introduction addressed to the librarians at the other libraries recommending that “a half-elf female named Fiona” be allowed to do research in their libraries. They were both signed and sealed under his name. At the Steel Crucible, Joybell spent some time talking with the librarians and convinced them that she actually understood the process and the theory of making healing potions and did not merely follow instructions by rote. She was given a card that would allow her and one other admittance to the library. Then we headed down to Waveside to look for Captain Doyard and the Elephant, the captain and ship recommended by the priest at the Order of Purveyors And Wrights when we first arrived in Pelsoreen. We found the slip where the Elephant would tie up, but the ship was not there, so we went to the office for the docks. The clerk, a water genasi, said that Captain Doyard would be available the next day. We told him we wanted to get to the druid circle on the island. He said that it is called the Primal Atoll and that it's more than half a day’s sail away, so going there is not a day trip. When asked if they’re amenable to visitors, he said that they do get them from time to time. Apparently part of the island is an active volcano. Which is cool. We asked if he could recommend anyone as honest as Captain Doyard. He recommended Captain Whit of The Lilac a couple of slips down. He said he hadn’t seen The Lilac set sail yet today. (We got a reasonable sense that this guy was being straight with us and wasn’t sending us to some crooked friend of his or anything.) Captain Whit agreed to take us to the Primal Atoll. It would be an overnight trip -- the crew and he would stay on the ship overnight. That arrangement had been okay with the druids in the past. Some of The Lilac’s crew were human, most were water or air genasi. Joybell checked for the corporation logo on the ship -- C&C, which we thought would be fine. Joybell wanted to take Scooby along, but the captain looked a bit non-plussed at that. And said that the charge for the trip would be 10gp per pair of legs. So Joybell had a little chat with Scooby and said she was going to temporarily dismiss him, but she’d bring him back as soon as possible. Then she scritched him behind the ears and sent him to wherever celestial wolf-mounts go when they’re not in the prime material. Then we boarded the ship. Joybell found an out of the way place to sit on deck and watch. Taman sat up there with her. The crew strongly suggested that she remove her armor for her own safety. Joybell wasn’t entirely comfortable with that, so they agreed to tie a lifeline to her so if she went over she could be pulled back on board. Joybell spent a lot of the trip trying to talk to the various flying fish and dolphins she could see as they went by. She got some hellos from various animals, but wasn’t able to have a good conversation. After a few hours of sailing, the ship approached an island that sloped gradually up from the sea. After another little while, the ship pulled into a pier on the island. We could see a cloud of white smoke billowing from the far side of it. Lots of smoke. Orryk and Taman both immediately thought that the druids’ village was burning. Joybell figured it was the volcano. We followed the path from the pier inland. The path went gently up for about a mile before arriving at a small settlement, which was not on fire. This island, though a volcanic lava shield, had been here long enough that it was forested so the village was made of nicely chinked log huts, irregularly distributed. In the middle of the village was a clear circle defined by four carved logs placed at the four cardinal directions. Each was carved in the shape of a stylized representation of one of the elements -- a flame in the south, a wave in the north, a cluster of crystals in the east, and a cloud in the west. There were people about, fairly casually dressed. When they saw us, one, a female water genasi, stepped forward and introduced herself as Irlua. Irlua: What can we do for you? Joybell, after seeing if Mo wanted to talk: I grew up in the Wold and trained at the Basalt Henge. I just wanted to visit your circle. My friend, Orryk, is interested in all things elemental and it seems this is a place for him to learn. Irlua: Here we are far more interested in keeping the balance between the planes stable. Joybell: Is it unstable? Irlua: The planes always want to move. We try to keep any one elemental plane from becoming dominant over the others. Orryk: At the Basalt Henge, they’re trying to reduce the elemental influences in the area. Irlua: We understand why they’re doing what they’re doing. Keeping Dao and Efreeti away from the city makes sense. We maintain balance. Joybell: How? Irlua: We keep track of how many portals there are and how...influential those portals are. How hard are the portals pulling our world in any direction. We’ve been maintaining a stable balance for about a century, but recently there has been a lot of pull from fire. Water is not as strong at the moment. Mo: Do you do rituals to bring about balance? Irlua: We sometimes set up temporary portals, to increase the pull from a plane. We occasionally use similar rituals as they perform at the Basalt Henge to weaken or destroy gates. Joybell (or maybe Orryk): Do you have any idea why fire is getting stronger? Irlua: We think that there’s a big volcano going to erupt, perhaps pretty far away. It might be under the ocean or on the continent. Taman and Joybell went to meditate in the circle. Orryk cast mold earth near the earth log on the east side of the circle. Unlike at the Basalt Henge, the spell worked like normal. Mo: Are there any open portals on the island? Irlua: Deep in the caldera of the volcano there is a portal to fire. Getting there is fraught. Orryk: Do you have interactions with entities from other planes, like the Wind Dukes? Irlua: Not the Wind Dukes. We have occasionally dealt with genies. Of course, every single genie is, in its own mind, the most important being in the Universe. Irlua then mentioned that 100 years ago, water had gotten too strong and they’d had to bolster fire for a while to maintain the balance. Joybell, distracted from her meditation: Are you interfering with someone’s plans with the work you do? Irlua: Sometimes we are. They don’t always like us much. Then Joybell, Taman and Orryk did all meditate in the circle. To Joybell, it felt like a druidic circle much like the ones she’d known in the Wold and at the Henge. With, of course a more elemental feel to it. Orryk, on the other hand, could feel the threads of the elements woven through, like an open weave. It had the sort of elasticity of cheese cloth -- stretchable and malleable. After meditating for a while we had an early dinner and then asked if we could go to the volcano. Irlua said that they usually require visitors to walk to the volcano, but she was going to make an exception in our case. Irlua: Today is beautiful. Tomorrow won’t be. And the view is worth it. She cast transport via plants and took us to the top of the volcano looking over the caldera. It was just after dusk, so we could see the volcano at night. Joybell asked Taman to hold onto her belt and leaned way over the edge to try and see the portal deep in the caldera, but couldn’t. She asked what it would look like and Orryk told her that a standing portal would look almost like a whirlpool with the lava moving and churning around it. And there we ended -- shortly after dark with us on the edge of the caldera. Treasure: 1 Short Sword of Warning (Joybell) 1 Pair Bracers of Archery (Orryk) 1 Pair Boots of the Winterlands (Taman) 1 Staff of the Python (bag of holding to sell or trade or whatever). 2 small boxes of jade animals (250gp each) 3 gold bracelets (250gp each) 1000 cp 4000 sp 1700 gp 100 pp I don’t believe we’re planning on selling the jade animals or gold bracelets here in Pelsoreen, so I’m not including those in the coinage distribution -- those were put intact into the Bag of Holding. The coinage divides up thus: 166 cp (with 4 left) 666 sp (with 4 left) 283 gp (with 2 left) 16 pp (with 4 left) Note: We’ve paid for two more nights of rooms at the Flaming Quill since the last Party Kitty Update. So taking out 12 gp for lodging there and adding the leftovers from the coins as above, the party kitty currently has: 5 pp, 2gp, 10sp, and 12 cp. [/QUOTE]
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Erkonin (Campaign #1) [Session 46: Making Deals with Devils is Stupid as well as Bad]
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