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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: 8238841" data-attributes="member: 7016699"><p>Session 38: And Now We’re In the Icerasp Mountains</p><p></p><p></p><p>Dramatis Personae:</p><p>Orryk - Forest Gnome Monk (Way of the Four Elements, variant)/Wizard</p><p>Mo - Goliath Bard (College of Lore)</p><p>Fiona - Half-Elf Wizard (Evoker)/Cleric (Knowledge)</p><p>Taman - Human (variant) Rogue (Inquisitive)/Ranger (Horizon Walker)</p><p>Joybell - Forest Gnome Paladin (Oath of the Ancients)</p><p></p><p>Player Absent:</p><p>Thneed - Wood Elf Ranger (Hunter Conclave)</p><p></p><p>GM - Everyone Else</p><p></p><p>Note: Thneed's player was unable to attend this session, but she followed along with the party, cheerfully engaging in some minor mischief with the town guards while we were in Embernook and generally going where we went.</p><p></p><p></p><p>9 Harfastin 748 (Campaign day 100)</p><p></p><p>The next morning, Mo quickly drew a teleportation circle on the ground where the hut had been and began to play something on his pipe. Then he stopped, fixed the circle a bit, played some more. Stopped again, redrew a whole section of it, played some more. After about a minute of refining his circle, smoke began to pour out of his pipe as he played filling the circle. We all entered it and teleported back to the library in Stately Kang Manor.</p><p></p><p>We also found some frogs and squirrels in the library -- test subjects Mo had sent through while he was on perfecting the spell.</p><p></p><p>Work is happening around the house, which is good. We found Chulty, with some friends and former party members, camping in tents in the dining room. We inquired about why the tents and they said the bedrooms were still works in progress and this was a comfortable way for them to sleep but not be in an actively under repair part of the house.</p><p></p><p>Joybell: Okey doke. Welcome, Chulty’s friends!</p><p></p><p>He said that most of Kalmarn has been razed because the village was sort of...well, haunted and parts of it blood-soaked. When we start having citizens in town, they can re-build what they need.</p><p></p><p>Chulty, looking at the dragon head on the floor: You’re not going to have that in the house, are you?</p><p>Joybell: Do you know if there’s a taxidermist in Embernook? Maybe we can mount it once it’s taxidermied.</p><p>Mo: It seems that this town is going to need a place for people to get drunk.</p><p></p><p>He gave Chulty rather a lot of money to fund the construction and stocking of a tavern by the waterfront and said that the dragon head could decorate the tavern.</p><p></p><p>Taman: We could call it the Dragon’s Head.</p><p>Joybell: No, the Green Lord.</p><p>Mo: Those are great suggestions, but I was thinking...Mo’s.</p><p>Joybell: Mo’s Green Lord?</p><p>Mo: Mo’s.</p><p></p><p>Chulty said that he would take care of getting the dragon head taxidermied. Excellent!</p><p></p><p>Joybell gave him some additional money so that his friends and their work would be paid for as well.</p><p></p><p>Joybell: Is there any sign of the Cracked Shield orcs showing up yet?</p><p>Chulty: No orcs yet, no.</p><p>Joybell: Okey doke. Well, they have a ways to travel, I expect.</p><p></p><p>Orryk and Taman started talking about how we’d destroyed the kobold civilization, despite the fact that they had done nothing to harm anyone. Joybell and Mo weren’t buying it -- they served the Green Lord and made it possible for him to have agents in Auriqua and Embernook trying to subvert the governments of the two cities.</p><p></p><p>Eventually, Joybell got upset and went to talk to the squirrels and frogs that Mo had test-teleported into the manor, helping them find their way outside and telling them about the forest.</p><p></p><p>Orryk took some of the dragon pages we’d given Chulty and used a couple to send a message to Irlua asking about breaches of creatures from the fire plane or fire elementals in the world. Also generally whether the balance had changed since we last spoke. We also took some of them for the bag of holding so we’d be able to send message when we need to.</p><p></p><p>Orryk took a moment to talk with Suutha (the cap of water breathing) about if it has any goals other than going to the Elemental Plane of Water.</p><p></p><p>Suutha: If I hear about any incursions from under the sea, like in Pelsoreen or somewhere, I’ll want to stop those.</p><p></p><p>We agreed that we need to talk to the Keeper of Secrets about Taman’s family’s deal with the Tundra Queen, the Tundra Queen’s deal with Auriqua. Orryk and Taman also want to know about Alighieri’s deal with whoever he made a deal with.</p><p></p><p>Fiona used a sending spell to ask Tulmor if we could get a pickup to Embernook. Tulmor said she’d be right up and, indeed, just a couple of minutes later she and Barnett both appeared in the library.</p><p></p><p>We filled them in on the fight with the dragon.</p><p></p><p>Barnett: Did you get a name?</p><p>Joybell: Tallyxtillon</p><p>Tulmor: He must have grown up some. When I met him his name was Tallyxtlon. They add syllables as they get older.</p><p>Joybell: Oh, you met him? He was kind of a naughty word.</p><p>Tulmor and Barnett: ::nods::</p><p>Orryk: How are things in Embernook?</p><p>Tulmor: The same.</p><p>Taman: There’s something north of Auriqua. The Machine.</p><p>Joybell: The Epiphany Machine...</p><p>Taman: It’s associated with the outer chaos.</p><p></p><p>Tulmor seemed upset that it’s there.</p><p></p><p>Joybell: Where should it be?</p><p>Barnett: I think it disassembles itself and reassembles itself elsewhere if it’s not being used.</p><p>Tulmor: I just don’t really like it up there.</p><p>Joybell: We understand that it’s possibly turned a giant.</p><p>Tulmor: Exactly.</p><p>Barnett: It’s something you walk into or through…</p><p>Joybell: If it’s turned a frost giant it must be pretty big. How do we destroy it?</p><p>Barnett: Don’t know.</p><p>Mo: Does someone use it on someone else, or on themselves?</p><p>Barnett: When it shows up, one person goes through it and gets changed. Then they can persuade or convince others to go through. Some of the madnesses it creates are quasi-contagious, people can be affected even if they don’t go through the machine. Some people go through the machine more than once.</p><p>Mo: This is all a trap by the Outer Chaos.</p><p>Barnett: Except that the Chaos is not sentient, so there’s no planning involved.</p><p>Mo: Like a Venus Flytrap.</p><p>Barnett: Not a bad simile.</p><p>Taman: Is this like the process where the book turned a person inside out?</p><p>Tulmor: You could run into all sorts of things coming out of the Machine.</p><p>Taman: Would it work on a book? Could you put a book through and have it come out a crazy book? (Note: They didn’t seem to know the answer to that.)</p><p>Mo: Have people tried to destroy it?</p><p>Barnett: It’s not uncommon for people to go to it with the intent of destroying it, but then find it hard to actually summon the will to do so.</p><p></p><p>We then teleported back to Embernook. Barnett taught Mo the sigils for the circle in their library and said that we were free to use it. They just requested that we send a message to them so they’re awake and dressed when we arrive.</p><p></p><p>Before we left their place in Embernook, Orryk asked if they knew any young wizards we could hire to scribe spell scrolls for us. They said they could certainly find someone who would appreciate the work. We ordered two Longstrider scrolls and 4 Protection from Evil and Good scrolls.</p><p></p><p>They said that they could teleport us up to the former Mask circle in the Icerasp Mountains whenever we were ready to go.</p><p></p><p>In Embernook, Orryk went to Trannell’s magic shop looking for information about elemental related items, particularly rings. Once again, he gave Trannell some money to keep his ear to the ground.</p><p></p><p>Joybell went to talk to Chief Truehammer. As she was telling him about the dragon and about his agents subverting the city, she realized that she should really be telling the Administrator about all of that.</p><p></p><p>Joybell: Oh!! Anyway, we killed the dragon and I have to go now. Thank you!</p><p></p><p>Then she hurried over to the Administrator’s office. She signed in on the sheet right next to Thalith’s office but before she could even walk away he was there and he immediately took her in.</p><p></p><p>She told him about Tallyxtillon and the agents he said he had working in Embernook to try and get a toe-hold into the government. Also about the extortion scheme on the river. Thalith said that he didn’t know anything about it, but perhaps the Administrator did.</p><p></p><p>Joybell: Well, he does now.</p><p></p><p>By the time all of our errands in Embernook were done, it was late in the afternoon. We went to tell Tulmor that we’d like to be teleported in the morning, please.</p><p></p><p>Orryk: Would it be possible for Barnett to do his Arcane Eye trick so we know what’s on the other side?</p><p>Tulmor: That’s not necessary. I’ve been. It’s in an abandoned mine in the southwest part of the Icerasp Mountains. It’s probably snowing and cold.</p><p></p><p>We then went to our respective lodgings in town -- Joybell and Orryk to Queena’s and the rest of the party to the Pewter Oar.</p><p></p><p></p><p>10 Harfastin 748 (Campaign day 101)</p><p></p><p>We had breakfast at the Pewter Oar, then donned our winter clothes to teleport to the circle in the Icerasp Mountains. We were near the entrance of a clearly worked mine shaft and could see the light from outside. Going further into the mine, we didn’t have to travel far before we got to where the mine was collapsed.</p><p></p><p>This was one of the circles that Turnik Steeltear had as part of his network -- with the moveable tiles to dial out to different locations. We noticed that the tiles were gone -- not only was there no address set as the destination of the circle, the entire box of tiles was missing. One of the outstanding squads of Masks was active somewhere in the vicinity of this circle, though we didn’t know where, or what they would do when the orders they’d been under when we killed Steeltear were over.</p><p></p><p>Mo looked around for footprints -- it looked like there had been a lot of foot traffic around the cave, perhaps a squad of people, but we had no idea how long ago and didn’t have enough information about how tracks age in this cave for Taman and Thneed to make an educated guess about timing.</p><p></p><p>Orryk pulled out the Orrery -- it pointed to the north-northeast, so deeper into the mountain range. It looked like a strong signal and like we were significantly closer than we had been when we were just a few miles north of Auriqua.</p><p></p><p>Taman and Joybell looked outside the mine - it was not actively snowing at that moment, though there was snow on the ground. There were some footprints in the snow, but Taman couldn’t get much sense of them. It was possible that they were mostly Tulmor’s footprints as she went to investigate what was on the other side of that circle.</p><p></p><p>We headed out of the cave -- Orryk brought Omnath out as a magma mephit. Fortunately Tony the Tiger (from Mo’s Bag of Tricks) is an Amur tiger (formerly called Siberian Tigers) and was therefore fine. Mo kept everyone in the party warm by occasionally warming up their clothes with prestidigitation spells.</p><p></p><p>Taman took a moment to check for active planar portals in the area and found none of them. Then he and Thneed both checked for their favored enemies. Thneed didn’t find any of hers (soldiers, hobgoblins and Fiends). Taman’s check detected scores of Fey clustered together about 4 miles to the north-northeast, though not directly on the line that the Orrery was pointing to. Those could be unrelated to Ildna and his Outer Chaos fey group. Or it could be a cluster of the cultists.</p><p></p><p>Scores of them.</p><p></p><p>We went in the direction the Orrery was pointing -- within the limits of what travel is possible and feasible through a mountain range. (Straight line travel is very difficult unless the line happens to be pointing up a valley or over a saddle between peaks. Going up and over mountains, even over passes, involves a lot of switchbacks. That sort of thing).</p><p></p><p>We proceeded along through the mountains, with lots of mountains around us. We made camp when it started to get dark (and even colder). Because of the relief, we hadn’t made as much progress as we would have expected along the way toward the cluster of fey. We also assumed we hadn’t made a ton of progress toward the machine.</p><p></p><p>Fiona’s tiny hut is colored to match the surrounding terrain, but can’t match exactly (and always looks like a perfectly hemispherical dome). Inside it’s always climate controlled for our comfort, so we were able to relax in the warmth of the hut.</p><p></p><p>During second watch (Mo and Thneed) a bunch of tiny, winged, blue-white flying things that looked like heads with torsos trailing off into long tails flew into view. They began to throw themselves against the hut, repeatedly. Nothing bad happened, except a sound like gravel pounding on the hut.</p><p></p><p>The tiny winged things flew away after a few minutes.</p><p></p><p>Mo didn’t wake anyone up, but when Taman and Fiona took over for third watch he told them about it.</p><p></p><p>He and Fiona had both heard of these creatures -- they’re called Sluaghs and travel in swarms. Each of those tiny things is a fey creature. There appeared to be five of the swarms of the tiny creatures. Mo and Fiona also knew that they don’t like fire or daylight. Fiona thought that they probably would follow the orders of the Tundra Queen if she gave them any, but they’re not very bright at all so she’s undoubtedly got better servants.</p><p></p><p>The rest of the night passed without incident.</p><p></p><p></p><p>11 Harfastin 748 (Campaign day 102)</p><p></p><p>Orryk pulled out the Orrery again to make sure we hadn’t gone off in a wrong direction at any point as we were following to some extent the lay of the landscape. It was still pointing in the same north-northeast direction.</p><p></p><p>We couldn’t see anything in that direction except mountains and snow.</p><p></p><p>Taman checked for favored enemies again and detected a lot of them less than a mile away -- consistent with the Sluagh swarms we’d seen overnight. They were sort of in the direction we were heading in.</p><p></p><p>We continued on our way, following the Orrery.</p><p></p><p>About an hour after we headed out, the track (possibly a game trail) we were following went through a deep and steep-sided valley. Almost a canyon. There were deep shadows at the bottom because the sun was still below the peaks of the mountains to the east.</p><p></p><p>Almost immediately when we entered the valley, Taman, Orryk, Mo and Tony the Tiger spotted the swarms of Sluagh approaching fast. The five swarms surrounded us looking like five swirling clouds of winged...things. Taman dashed to attack one of them getting in some good damage because the swarm wasn’t expecting him to approach and was surprised. In response to his attack, it swarmed over him, attacking him for a considerable amount of damage, some of which he was able to dodge, despite the swarm attacking from all sides.</p><p></p><p>Fiona and Tony the Tiger both got hit for a great deal of damage, but survived. Orryk was missed and Mo would have been hit but used his cutting words to stop the hit.</p><p></p><p>Mo: Get out of my face….</p><p></p><p>Orryk moved out of the swarm and threw two daggers into it, hitting some of the tiny creatures, then swung at it with his fists. Omnath did a fire breath -- they didn’t like the fire at all, but they dodged out of the way pretty well.</p><p></p><p>Taman disengaged from the swarm on him then moved to help Mo -- his sword swung through them, but it was hard to make solid contact with the swarm of tiny bodies.</p><p></p><p>Then all five swarms attacking people they had swarmed over and were surrounding missed with their attacks.</p><p></p><p>Joybell went to help Fiona, attacking and critting with her sword. She called down the divine energy in a second level smite, which helped a lot.</p><p></p><p>The fight continued with people hitting and trying to move away from them. Fiona misty stepped out of the swarm that surrounded her and firebolted it -- there was a chorus of tiny shrieks as the tiny winged bodies fell, smoking, to the ground.</p><p></p><p>Mo inspired Taman: Could you give me a hand?</p><p></p><p>Taman immediately used the inspiration to hit the one on Mo really solidly.</p><p></p><p>Then Mo tried to use cutting words to protect Tony the tiger, but the swarm wasn’t affected and Tony was killed.</p><p></p><p>Mo: NOoo!</p><p></p><p>Joybell, never a fan of people attacking animals, rode on Scooby over the swarm that had just killed Tony and attacked, but not very effectively.</p><p></p><p>Orryk and Omnath attacked the same one and dropped it -- Omnath’s fiery magma mephit claws doing the final blow.</p><p></p><p>At that point, Fiona decided it was time to just end this and cast fireball on the three remaining swarms, sculpting the fire around Mo, Taman, Joybell and Scooby. There was a piercing wail of cacophonous shrieking from the dying fey, leaving only one surviving. Joybell’s attack of opportunity dropped it when it went to attack Taman.</p><p></p><p>We continued on our way until we were out of the shadowy valley and into a more normally sunlit area, then we stopped for lunch. Fiona made a hut for us to rest in.</p><p></p><p>While we were resting, Mo pulled another animal out of the bag of tricks -- a baboon he named Clyde.</p><p></p><p>After lunch and a short rest, we resumed proceeding, encountering no further problems the rest of the day. At a break later in the day, Orryk pulled out the orrery and it snapped more quickly to point to the north-northeast, which we took to mean we were making progress.</p><p></p><p>When we stopped for the night, Taman sensed for fey and picked up one single fey about a mile away. It was not in the same direction that the orrery was pointing. Fiona made a hut and we made our usual preparations to rest.</p><p></p><p>While we were doing so, a dragon page arrived bearing a response from Irlua to Orryk’s question regarding incursions of fire planar beings. She said she didn’t know where there is an active breach of fire elementals, but there’s something related to fire brewing near Erlin-- perhaps something forming or an instability.</p><p></p><p>We settled into the tiny hut and began to rest. About an hour into first watch, Joybell and Orryk noticed that the weather started turning for the worse -- over about an hour it went from cold and windy with a ground fog to white-out blizzard with horizontally blowing snow. It seemed to us to be awfully early in the year for this kind of snow. All we could see outside the hut was white-out conditions.</p><p></p><p>At the end of their watch, they woke up Mo and Thneed. Mo cast clairvoyance, sending the sensor 1000 feet straight up above the hut. All the sensor could see was more blizzard. Mo, thinking that the blizzard might be providing cover for someone coming to attack us, cast plant growth, so anyone trying to come close would find their way slowed by the difficult terrain.</p><p></p><p>Mo and Thneed woke Taman and Fiona for third watch. Taman checked for fey and detected one maybe half a mile away. When we made camp it was a mile away.</p><p></p><p>The rest of the night passed with the blizzard raging around our snug, climate controlled hut.</p><p></p><p></p><p>12 Harfastin 748 (Campaign day 103)</p><p></p><p>When the rest of the party woke, the blizzard was still raging outside.</p><p></p><p>We all held a rope between us so that no one could get lost or separated from the rest of the party, and continued on our way. Fiona cast some dancing lights to help provide beacons to keep us together. Clyde the baboon rode on Scooby to stay warm in his thick fur. Taman lead us in the direction the orrery is pointing, avoiding a couple of short falls that would have really sucked for us. Taman had the sense that this weather was not entirely natural -- at the very least Fiona knew that this weather was nuts. There hadn’t been enough moisture in the air the day before to make for this much snow. Her opinion was that there was almost certainly magic involved.</p><p></p><p>After a couple of hours of slow and difficult going through the blizzard, the weather started to abate and over the course of about an hour, the weather went back to the normal cold wind and small snow flurries we’d experienced the day before.</p><p></p><p>When we were out of the blizzard, Taman sensed for fey again -- there was one, still half a mile away, but now behind us.</p><p></p><p>None of us liked that at all.</p><p></p><p>Mo flew up on the broom to get a bird’s eye view. He could see a hard line making a large circle where the snow had been. It was definitely the radius (if a large one) of a spell effect. It was centered maybe a half mile from our camp last night. We apparently got to the edge of the effect about the same time the duration ended.</p><p></p><p>We turned and headed straight back toward the fey that Taman was picking up. We were none of us okay with having something that could make a blizzard in a few mile radius behind us and following us.</p><p></p><p>About a quarter mile on our walk toward the mystery fey, we got to the base of a sheer cliff a few hundred feet high.</p><p></p><p>Taman: If you’re out there, come talk to us. I hate all this sneaking around.</p><p></p><p>(GM: An odd perspective for a rogue…)</p><p></p><p>There was no response.</p><p></p><p>Taman touched the cliff to make sure it was real. Mo flew up the cliff -- when he crested the top of it he saw rock and broken ground. But he didn’t see anyone or anything alive or moving around.</p><p></p><p>We all got up to the top of the cliff using the broom -- Scooby had to put up with the indignity of riding in the hammock while Joybell rode. Up at the top we looked around.</p><p></p><p>Taman spotted a figure moving at an angle away from us -- it was pacing us, keeping up but not approaching. We cast some spells on Taman (Joybell cast Aid and Fiona cast Bless) and Mo gave him some inspiration, then he jumped on the broom and took off like a shot to talk to the thing following us, with the sending stone in his pocket.</p><p></p><p>As Taman approached the thing flew from one mountain peak to another one, sipping straight across. Taman flew after it, he saw a humanoid about the size of Mo with blue/white skin.</p><p></p><p>He recognized it as a Bheur Hag -- a hag of the cold and frozen places. They are big on making it difficult for travelers in cold places and love watching them flail and not be able to get through. They like to watch people starve and freeze to death.</p><p></p><p>Taman: Stay away from my group or you’ll be dead.</p><p></p><p>Then he used the cape of the mountebank to get back to the group.</p><p></p><p>Orryk: If it keeps following us, Rule 1.</p><p></p><p>We agreed to that.</p><p></p><p>We ferried back down to the base of the cliff on the broom, then took a short rest (it being lunch time).</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="prabe, post: 8238841, member: 7016699"] Session 38: And Now We’re In the Icerasp Mountains Dramatis Personae: Orryk - Forest Gnome Monk (Way of the Four Elements, variant)/Wizard Mo - Goliath Bard (College of Lore) Fiona - Half-Elf Wizard (Evoker)/Cleric (Knowledge) Taman - Human (variant) Rogue (Inquisitive)/Ranger (Horizon Walker) Joybell - Forest Gnome Paladin (Oath of the Ancients) Player Absent: Thneed - Wood Elf Ranger (Hunter Conclave) GM - Everyone Else Note: Thneed's player was unable to attend this session, but she followed along with the party, cheerfully engaging in some minor mischief with the town guards while we were in Embernook and generally going where we went. 9 Harfastin 748 (Campaign day 100) The next morning, Mo quickly drew a teleportation circle on the ground where the hut had been and began to play something on his pipe. Then he stopped, fixed the circle a bit, played some more. Stopped again, redrew a whole section of it, played some more. After about a minute of refining his circle, smoke began to pour out of his pipe as he played filling the circle. We all entered it and teleported back to the library in Stately Kang Manor. We also found some frogs and squirrels in the library -- test subjects Mo had sent through while he was on perfecting the spell. Work is happening around the house, which is good. We found Chulty, with some friends and former party members, camping in tents in the dining room. We inquired about why the tents and they said the bedrooms were still works in progress and this was a comfortable way for them to sleep but not be in an actively under repair part of the house. Joybell: Okey doke. Welcome, Chulty’s friends! He said that most of Kalmarn has been razed because the village was sort of...well, haunted and parts of it blood-soaked. When we start having citizens in town, they can re-build what they need. Chulty, looking at the dragon head on the floor: You’re not going to have that in the house, are you? Joybell: Do you know if there’s a taxidermist in Embernook? Maybe we can mount it once it’s taxidermied. Mo: It seems that this town is going to need a place for people to get drunk. He gave Chulty rather a lot of money to fund the construction and stocking of a tavern by the waterfront and said that the dragon head could decorate the tavern. Taman: We could call it the Dragon’s Head. Joybell: No, the Green Lord. Mo: Those are great suggestions, but I was thinking...Mo’s. Joybell: Mo’s Green Lord? Mo: Mo’s. Chulty said that he would take care of getting the dragon head taxidermied. Excellent! Joybell gave him some additional money so that his friends and their work would be paid for as well. Joybell: Is there any sign of the Cracked Shield orcs showing up yet? Chulty: No orcs yet, no. Joybell: Okey doke. Well, they have a ways to travel, I expect. Orryk and Taman started talking about how we’d destroyed the kobold civilization, despite the fact that they had done nothing to harm anyone. Joybell and Mo weren’t buying it -- they served the Green Lord and made it possible for him to have agents in Auriqua and Embernook trying to subvert the governments of the two cities. Eventually, Joybell got upset and went to talk to the squirrels and frogs that Mo had test-teleported into the manor, helping them find their way outside and telling them about the forest. Orryk took some of the dragon pages we’d given Chulty and used a couple to send a message to Irlua asking about breaches of creatures from the fire plane or fire elementals in the world. Also generally whether the balance had changed since we last spoke. We also took some of them for the bag of holding so we’d be able to send message when we need to. Orryk took a moment to talk with Suutha (the cap of water breathing) about if it has any goals other than going to the Elemental Plane of Water. Suutha: If I hear about any incursions from under the sea, like in Pelsoreen or somewhere, I’ll want to stop those. We agreed that we need to talk to the Keeper of Secrets about Taman’s family’s deal with the Tundra Queen, the Tundra Queen’s deal with Auriqua. Orryk and Taman also want to know about Alighieri’s deal with whoever he made a deal with. Fiona used a sending spell to ask Tulmor if we could get a pickup to Embernook. Tulmor said she’d be right up and, indeed, just a couple of minutes later she and Barnett both appeared in the library. We filled them in on the fight with the dragon. Barnett: Did you get a name? Joybell: Tallyxtillon Tulmor: He must have grown up some. When I met him his name was Tallyxtlon. They add syllables as they get older. Joybell: Oh, you met him? He was kind of a naughty word. Tulmor and Barnett: ::nods:: Orryk: How are things in Embernook? Tulmor: The same. Taman: There’s something north of Auriqua. The Machine. Joybell: The Epiphany Machine... Taman: It’s associated with the outer chaos. Tulmor seemed upset that it’s there. Joybell: Where should it be? Barnett: I think it disassembles itself and reassembles itself elsewhere if it’s not being used. Tulmor: I just don’t really like it up there. Joybell: We understand that it’s possibly turned a giant. Tulmor: Exactly. Barnett: It’s something you walk into or through… Joybell: If it’s turned a frost giant it must be pretty big. How do we destroy it? Barnett: Don’t know. Mo: Does someone use it on someone else, or on themselves? Barnett: When it shows up, one person goes through it and gets changed. Then they can persuade or convince others to go through. Some of the madnesses it creates are quasi-contagious, people can be affected even if they don’t go through the machine. Some people go through the machine more than once. Mo: This is all a trap by the Outer Chaos. Barnett: Except that the Chaos is not sentient, so there’s no planning involved. Mo: Like a Venus Flytrap. Barnett: Not a bad simile. Taman: Is this like the process where the book turned a person inside out? Tulmor: You could run into all sorts of things coming out of the Machine. Taman: Would it work on a book? Could you put a book through and have it come out a crazy book? (Note: They didn’t seem to know the answer to that.) Mo: Have people tried to destroy it? Barnett: It’s not uncommon for people to go to it with the intent of destroying it, but then find it hard to actually summon the will to do so. We then teleported back to Embernook. Barnett taught Mo the sigils for the circle in their library and said that we were free to use it. They just requested that we send a message to them so they’re awake and dressed when we arrive. Before we left their place in Embernook, Orryk asked if they knew any young wizards we could hire to scribe spell scrolls for us. They said they could certainly find someone who would appreciate the work. We ordered two Longstrider scrolls and 4 Protection from Evil and Good scrolls. They said that they could teleport us up to the former Mask circle in the Icerasp Mountains whenever we were ready to go. In Embernook, Orryk went to Trannell’s magic shop looking for information about elemental related items, particularly rings. Once again, he gave Trannell some money to keep his ear to the ground. Joybell went to talk to Chief Truehammer. As she was telling him about the dragon and about his agents subverting the city, she realized that she should really be telling the Administrator about all of that. Joybell: Oh!! Anyway, we killed the dragon and I have to go now. Thank you! Then she hurried over to the Administrator’s office. She signed in on the sheet right next to Thalith’s office but before she could even walk away he was there and he immediately took her in. She told him about Tallyxtillon and the agents he said he had working in Embernook to try and get a toe-hold into the government. Also about the extortion scheme on the river. Thalith said that he didn’t know anything about it, but perhaps the Administrator did. Joybell: Well, he does now. By the time all of our errands in Embernook were done, it was late in the afternoon. We went to tell Tulmor that we’d like to be teleported in the morning, please. Orryk: Would it be possible for Barnett to do his Arcane Eye trick so we know what’s on the other side? Tulmor: That’s not necessary. I’ve been. It’s in an abandoned mine in the southwest part of the Icerasp Mountains. It’s probably snowing and cold. We then went to our respective lodgings in town -- Joybell and Orryk to Queena’s and the rest of the party to the Pewter Oar. 10 Harfastin 748 (Campaign day 101) We had breakfast at the Pewter Oar, then donned our winter clothes to teleport to the circle in the Icerasp Mountains. We were near the entrance of a clearly worked mine shaft and could see the light from outside. Going further into the mine, we didn’t have to travel far before we got to where the mine was collapsed. This was one of the circles that Turnik Steeltear had as part of his network -- with the moveable tiles to dial out to different locations. We noticed that the tiles were gone -- not only was there no address set as the destination of the circle, the entire box of tiles was missing. One of the outstanding squads of Masks was active somewhere in the vicinity of this circle, though we didn’t know where, or what they would do when the orders they’d been under when we killed Steeltear were over. Mo looked around for footprints -- it looked like there had been a lot of foot traffic around the cave, perhaps a squad of people, but we had no idea how long ago and didn’t have enough information about how tracks age in this cave for Taman and Thneed to make an educated guess about timing. Orryk pulled out the Orrery -- it pointed to the north-northeast, so deeper into the mountain range. It looked like a strong signal and like we were significantly closer than we had been when we were just a few miles north of Auriqua. Taman and Joybell looked outside the mine - it was not actively snowing at that moment, though there was snow on the ground. There were some footprints in the snow, but Taman couldn’t get much sense of them. It was possible that they were mostly Tulmor’s footprints as she went to investigate what was on the other side of that circle. We headed out of the cave -- Orryk brought Omnath out as a magma mephit. Fortunately Tony the Tiger (from Mo’s Bag of Tricks) is an Amur tiger (formerly called Siberian Tigers) and was therefore fine. Mo kept everyone in the party warm by occasionally warming up their clothes with prestidigitation spells. Taman took a moment to check for active planar portals in the area and found none of them. Then he and Thneed both checked for their favored enemies. Thneed didn’t find any of hers (soldiers, hobgoblins and Fiends). Taman’s check detected scores of Fey clustered together about 4 miles to the north-northeast, though not directly on the line that the Orrery was pointing to. Those could be unrelated to Ildna and his Outer Chaos fey group. Or it could be a cluster of the cultists. Scores of them. We went in the direction the Orrery was pointing -- within the limits of what travel is possible and feasible through a mountain range. (Straight line travel is very difficult unless the line happens to be pointing up a valley or over a saddle between peaks. Going up and over mountains, even over passes, involves a lot of switchbacks. That sort of thing). We proceeded along through the mountains, with lots of mountains around us. We made camp when it started to get dark (and even colder). Because of the relief, we hadn’t made as much progress as we would have expected along the way toward the cluster of fey. We also assumed we hadn’t made a ton of progress toward the machine. Fiona’s tiny hut is colored to match the surrounding terrain, but can’t match exactly (and always looks like a perfectly hemispherical dome). Inside it’s always climate controlled for our comfort, so we were able to relax in the warmth of the hut. During second watch (Mo and Thneed) a bunch of tiny, winged, blue-white flying things that looked like heads with torsos trailing off into long tails flew into view. They began to throw themselves against the hut, repeatedly. Nothing bad happened, except a sound like gravel pounding on the hut. The tiny winged things flew away after a few minutes. Mo didn’t wake anyone up, but when Taman and Fiona took over for third watch he told them about it. He and Fiona had both heard of these creatures -- they’re called Sluaghs and travel in swarms. Each of those tiny things is a fey creature. There appeared to be five of the swarms of the tiny creatures. Mo and Fiona also knew that they don’t like fire or daylight. Fiona thought that they probably would follow the orders of the Tundra Queen if she gave them any, but they’re not very bright at all so she’s undoubtedly got better servants. The rest of the night passed without incident. 11 Harfastin 748 (Campaign day 102) Orryk pulled out the Orrery again to make sure we hadn’t gone off in a wrong direction at any point as we were following to some extent the lay of the landscape. It was still pointing in the same north-northeast direction. We couldn’t see anything in that direction except mountains and snow. Taman checked for favored enemies again and detected a lot of them less than a mile away -- consistent with the Sluagh swarms we’d seen overnight. They were sort of in the direction we were heading in. We continued on our way, following the Orrery. About an hour after we headed out, the track (possibly a game trail) we were following went through a deep and steep-sided valley. Almost a canyon. There were deep shadows at the bottom because the sun was still below the peaks of the mountains to the east. Almost immediately when we entered the valley, Taman, Orryk, Mo and Tony the Tiger spotted the swarms of Sluagh approaching fast. The five swarms surrounded us looking like five swirling clouds of winged...things. Taman dashed to attack one of them getting in some good damage because the swarm wasn’t expecting him to approach and was surprised. In response to his attack, it swarmed over him, attacking him for a considerable amount of damage, some of which he was able to dodge, despite the swarm attacking from all sides. Fiona and Tony the Tiger both got hit for a great deal of damage, but survived. Orryk was missed and Mo would have been hit but used his cutting words to stop the hit. Mo: Get out of my face…. Orryk moved out of the swarm and threw two daggers into it, hitting some of the tiny creatures, then swung at it with his fists. Omnath did a fire breath -- they didn’t like the fire at all, but they dodged out of the way pretty well. Taman disengaged from the swarm on him then moved to help Mo -- his sword swung through them, but it was hard to make solid contact with the swarm of tiny bodies. Then all five swarms attacking people they had swarmed over and were surrounding missed with their attacks. Joybell went to help Fiona, attacking and critting with her sword. She called down the divine energy in a second level smite, which helped a lot. The fight continued with people hitting and trying to move away from them. Fiona misty stepped out of the swarm that surrounded her and firebolted it -- there was a chorus of tiny shrieks as the tiny winged bodies fell, smoking, to the ground. Mo inspired Taman: Could you give me a hand? Taman immediately used the inspiration to hit the one on Mo really solidly. Then Mo tried to use cutting words to protect Tony the tiger, but the swarm wasn’t affected and Tony was killed. Mo: NOoo! Joybell, never a fan of people attacking animals, rode on Scooby over the swarm that had just killed Tony and attacked, but not very effectively. Orryk and Omnath attacked the same one and dropped it -- Omnath’s fiery magma mephit claws doing the final blow. At that point, Fiona decided it was time to just end this and cast fireball on the three remaining swarms, sculpting the fire around Mo, Taman, Joybell and Scooby. There was a piercing wail of cacophonous shrieking from the dying fey, leaving only one surviving. Joybell’s attack of opportunity dropped it when it went to attack Taman. We continued on our way until we were out of the shadowy valley and into a more normally sunlit area, then we stopped for lunch. Fiona made a hut for us to rest in. While we were resting, Mo pulled another animal out of the bag of tricks -- a baboon he named Clyde. After lunch and a short rest, we resumed proceeding, encountering no further problems the rest of the day. At a break later in the day, Orryk pulled out the orrery and it snapped more quickly to point to the north-northeast, which we took to mean we were making progress. When we stopped for the night, Taman sensed for fey and picked up one single fey about a mile away. It was not in the same direction that the orrery was pointing. Fiona made a hut and we made our usual preparations to rest. While we were doing so, a dragon page arrived bearing a response from Irlua to Orryk’s question regarding incursions of fire planar beings. She said she didn’t know where there is an active breach of fire elementals, but there’s something related to fire brewing near Erlin-- perhaps something forming or an instability. We settled into the tiny hut and began to rest. About an hour into first watch, Joybell and Orryk noticed that the weather started turning for the worse -- over about an hour it went from cold and windy with a ground fog to white-out blizzard with horizontally blowing snow. It seemed to us to be awfully early in the year for this kind of snow. All we could see outside the hut was white-out conditions. At the end of their watch, they woke up Mo and Thneed. Mo cast clairvoyance, sending the sensor 1000 feet straight up above the hut. All the sensor could see was more blizzard. Mo, thinking that the blizzard might be providing cover for someone coming to attack us, cast plant growth, so anyone trying to come close would find their way slowed by the difficult terrain. Mo and Thneed woke Taman and Fiona for third watch. Taman checked for fey and detected one maybe half a mile away. When we made camp it was a mile away. The rest of the night passed with the blizzard raging around our snug, climate controlled hut. 12 Harfastin 748 (Campaign day 103) When the rest of the party woke, the blizzard was still raging outside. We all held a rope between us so that no one could get lost or separated from the rest of the party, and continued on our way. Fiona cast some dancing lights to help provide beacons to keep us together. Clyde the baboon rode on Scooby to stay warm in his thick fur. Taman lead us in the direction the orrery is pointing, avoiding a couple of short falls that would have really sucked for us. Taman had the sense that this weather was not entirely natural -- at the very least Fiona knew that this weather was nuts. There hadn’t been enough moisture in the air the day before to make for this much snow. Her opinion was that there was almost certainly magic involved. After a couple of hours of slow and difficult going through the blizzard, the weather started to abate and over the course of about an hour, the weather went back to the normal cold wind and small snow flurries we’d experienced the day before. When we were out of the blizzard, Taman sensed for fey again -- there was one, still half a mile away, but now behind us. None of us liked that at all. Mo flew up on the broom to get a bird’s eye view. He could see a hard line making a large circle where the snow had been. It was definitely the radius (if a large one) of a spell effect. It was centered maybe a half mile from our camp last night. We apparently got to the edge of the effect about the same time the duration ended. We turned and headed straight back toward the fey that Taman was picking up. We were none of us okay with having something that could make a blizzard in a few mile radius behind us and following us. About a quarter mile on our walk toward the mystery fey, we got to the base of a sheer cliff a few hundred feet high. Taman: If you’re out there, come talk to us. I hate all this sneaking around. (GM: An odd perspective for a rogue…) There was no response. Taman touched the cliff to make sure it was real. Mo flew up the cliff -- when he crested the top of it he saw rock and broken ground. But he didn’t see anyone or anything alive or moving around. We all got up to the top of the cliff using the broom -- Scooby had to put up with the indignity of riding in the hammock while Joybell rode. Up at the top we looked around. Taman spotted a figure moving at an angle away from us -- it was pacing us, keeping up but not approaching. We cast some spells on Taman (Joybell cast Aid and Fiona cast Bless) and Mo gave him some inspiration, then he jumped on the broom and took off like a shot to talk to the thing following us, with the sending stone in his pocket. As Taman approached the thing flew from one mountain peak to another one, sipping straight across. Taman flew after it, he saw a humanoid about the size of Mo with blue/white skin. He recognized it as a Bheur Hag -- a hag of the cold and frozen places. They are big on making it difficult for travelers in cold places and love watching them flail and not be able to get through. They like to watch people starve and freeze to death. Taman: Stay away from my group or you’ll be dead. Then he used the cape of the mountebank to get back to the group. Orryk: If it keeps following us, Rule 1. We agreed to that. We ferried back down to the base of the cliff on the broom, then took a short rest (it being lunch time). [/QUOTE]
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Erkonin (Campaign #1) [Session 46: Making Deals with Devils is Stupid as well as Bad]
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