This is based on notes taken by a player in a 5E campaign I've been DMing for just over a year, as I start this thread. We game every two weeks; I'll be posting every week until I catch up with the campaign. I'll be attaching documents to the entries where they become relevant. You'll be finding out about Erkonin (the world) and Urnod (the continent) about the same pace as the players--it'll be cool, I promise.
EDIT: I have caught up to the campaign. We game every-other Wednesday. I'll post notes as I get them.
Session 1: The Feast of Stars
Dramatis Personae:
Aldalómiel - Wood Elf Ranger
Elama - Wood Elf Cleric (Tempest)
Vinya Anar - Wood Elf Monk
Elderon - High Elf Wizard
GM: - Everyone Else
Feast of Stars, 749 (Campaign day 1)
We arrived at Tashimeet, the caravanserai in the Knot on the road to Tash, either individually (Vinya Anar and Elderon) or together (Aldalómiel and Elama) in time for dinner at the Tashimeet inn and dining room.
The courtyard of the caravanserai had many carts in it -- indicating that there were several groups of traders and travelers in the inn.
In honor of the feasting and generosity of the season, the innkeeper Urlocka had laid out a huge spread, with a buffet serving all manner of meats and several non-meat dishes. The cost of the all-you can eat meal was low, the beer, wine and mead were freely on tap, and the tables were packed.
There was a long L-shaped table with humans sitting together. A small table had a few dwarves who looked like smiths. Another table was seated with halflings and rock gnomes. There were some free seats at the bar at the back of the room and one small table near the entrance (and the cold blast of air that washed in every time someone entered or left).
When they entered, Aldalómiel and Elama sat there and waited to be served. Elderon went to the bar when he entered the inn, passing the buffet and the tables with feasting people. Vinya Anar, the last to arrive, was heading back toward the bar when she heard Urlocka mention something about a letter to the two elves sitting at the table nearest the entrance (Aldalómiel and Elama).
She turned around and walked back to the table.
Vinya: A letter? Sorry to intrude, but I got a letter as well.
We compared the letters we had received and they were all the same.
Vinya: Are you in charge of the whole caravanserai?
Urlocka: No. Saeno runs the place. You can usually find him at the inn.
Before Vinya could head over to the inn (on the other side of the Tashimeet courtyard) Urlocka went on.
Urlocka: A gentleman back at the bar, another elf, was asking if I knew anything about the letters.
Vinya, to Aldalómiel and Elama: I’ll see if he wants to join us.
Vinya headed back to the bar to talk to the elf back there and ask him. His letter was, indeed, the same as the ones that the others had received. Vinya pointed out to him that at the far end of the bar were two more people who had received them and maybe we had something to talk about. Or maybe we should be together. We started heading back toward the table where the others sat.
As we were walking back, a dwarf in studded leather, accompanied by five humans with shortbows out (and arrows on the bowstrings, but the strings not drawn) and a thing that looked like a sphere or globe with teeth and long skinny legs, entered the inn. The sphere thing was gibbering and making a lot of chaotic and distracting noise.
Dwarf, addressing the whole room: We know things. It came to us that in this season of sharing, we should share the things we know with you.
He began to speak with the cadence and timbre of a pulpit-pounding sermon. Initially he switched between common and dwarvish, sentence by sentence. As he got into his speech, the language changes became more chaotic, phrase by phrase, word by word. More languages, unfamiliar ones, were introduced. He began changing languages even within words.
Vinya didn’t recognize most of the languages, but she did notice that she never heard anything in Celestial, a language she had learned recently but well, in his gibberish diatribe.
Elama, to the bowman immediately behind her: Could you put your bow down, please? I’m feeling threatened.
The bowman didn’t move.
Urlocka stepped forward: Let the people eat in peace. If you want food, we have food.
In response to her words and her offer, one of the archers took a shot at her, burying an arrow into her upper chest. She was hurt, but did not get knocked down or out.
At that, Vinya jumped onto the table the halflings and gnomes were eating at, ran across with a shouted apology to the diners she’d disrupted, and leapt at one of the archers, swinging with her staff and punching. Two of the bowmen dropped their bows and drew swords to attack her while the rest of them stepped to put their backs against the wall. Elama was able to attack the one that had been standing right behind her as he moved away and he slumped back against the wall.
The gibbering sound from the sphere-on-stilts (a Starspawn Grue, and I shall call it that from now on) was distracting and it wore at our nerves. It appeared to be wearing at the nerves of the archers and distracting them as well.
Aldalómiel drew a pair of short swords and moved into battle with one of the archers, dropping him.
The civilians in the room took cover in various ways. The halflings and gnomes threw their table onto its side and took cover behind it. The humans and dwarves cowered under their tables. Elderon discreetly cast a spell on one of the archers. Urlocka ran toward the doorway that led to the back room (which had a door to the bar).
The dwarf preacher said something in Gibberish and a strange radiance flickered around Elama.
The gibbering Starspawn Grue attacked Elama and when it hit her she shouted in Elvish and lightning sparked out of the wound, coruscating around the spherical body.
Vinya, swinging with her quarterstaff and landing a well-placed kick to the throat, dropped the two that were attacking her.
Things were looking good, then the one remaining archer went to the door.
Archer, shouting into the cold night: Drocklin! We need you!
We didn’t know who Drocklin was or what his arrival would mean, except that it would probably not be good. Aldalómiel took advantage of the moment of quiet to draw her bow and shoot the Grue. When her arrow hit, it gave out an ear-piercing gibbery shriek before imploding on itself. With the Grue’s gibbering ended, and the preacher no longer expounding in many languages all at once, it seemed like a moment of quiet had settled.
The dwarf preacher was not thrilled about the situation, but wasn’t giving up either. He said something in gibberish again and we could see the wounds on the one remaining archer knit up a bit. Then the strange radiance flickered around Elderon but didn’t seem to really touch him.
The moment was shattered when Drocklin, a brawny human male with a club in his right hand, along with three more cultists entered the room. Drocklin’s left forearm and hand were replaced by a long, writhing tentacle. We could also see another gibbering Grue back there and the noise took up wearing the skin off our nerves where the other one had left off.
Vinya moved right up to Drocklin.
Vinya: You don’t want to bother these people.
He just gibbered at her in many languages and it was clear to her that he was too far gone to listen to reason. So she hit him with her quarterstaff and a punch to the solar plexus.
Aldalómiel backed away so she could fight more effectively with her longbow and tried to take out the preacher, in the hopes that without him the others would be at a bit of a loss as to how to proceed.
Elama cast a spell with a crack of thunder and a rolling shockwave that dropped the preacher and one of the cultists and pushed the rest of them out the door and into the courtyard. She then moved to the door and looked outside. She could see the three cultists in the courtyard, along with the second Grue. She could also hear a voice from the inn across the courtyard -- a sermon in many languages.
Great.
She shut the door of the inn.
With the door closed, the Grue’s gibbering was mercifully silenced for a while. Unfortunately, Drocklin’s gibbering was not silenced and his babbling was tearing at Vinya’s concentration and mental health.
The fight continued, with all of us getting in some good hits. Elderon’s frostbite spell didn’t do a lot of damage, but it froze the opponents and made it harder for them to hit through their shivering. That was golden.
Elama tried to keep the cultists, and the Grue, in the courtyard out but they shoved open the door despite her efforts. As the new combatants arrived, Aldalómiel shot Drocklin through the eye, dropping him and ending one source of the gibbering distraction.
Vinya took a swing at one of the wounded cultists and dropped him and then whirled around and kicked the grue and hit him. The other two cultists, also distracted and bothered by the incessant noise from the Grue, missed her
Vinya, to the cultists: Your little friend is hurting you as much as it’s hurting us. You need to reconsider your choice of companions.
The battle continued with everyone getting in hits. Ultimately the Grue attacked Vinya and dropped her. One of the cultists stepped over her body to attack Elama but didn’t hit her. Aldalómiel immediately shot the one that stepped forward to attack and he never had a chance to regret his poor tactical choice.
After some more chaos and battle, the only remaining opponent was the Grue, gibbering at us.
Elderon, still back behind where the halflings were hiding behind their table, heard Urlocka running through the room toward the front, then shot a firebolt at the Grue, but missed in all the chaos.
The Grue, still with Vinya’s blood on its teeth, attacked Elama and almost dropped her as well, but, though the teeth pierced her flesh, she wasn’t dropped.
Elderon’s firebolt a moment or two later hit the Grue -- which caught fire and then imploded in a puff of flame and smoke.
Urlocka ran to Vinya and poured a healing potion down her throat.
As Vinya stood up, thanking Urlocka, we all took a moment to catch our breath. Then Elama listened outside and heard the gibberish preaching at the inn still going on. When she told us about it, Urlocka went pale.
Urlocka: Saeno…
We started heading in that direction, making sure to arrive at the inn as a group.
We got to the doorway and saw a dwarf standing with his back to the inn’s counter preaching in gibberish and really holding forth. Against the wall near the counter was a human male who looked stunned or charmed or transfixed. He wasn’t moving he was just staring glassily at the preacher. Scattered around the room were three cultists, listening to the crazy sermon, two Grues doing beachball things and one burly guy with an arm-tentacle lashing around his legs listening as well.
Aldalómiel positioned herself by the door so she could shoot arrows. Vinya ran straight to the preacher to try and stop the gibberish sermon as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, that put her in range for the preacher to cast something on her -- her muscles locked up and she was held. Elderon took that as a cue to target the preacher, trying to break his concentration on the spell.
The cultists and one of the Grues attacked Aldalómiel and Elama. The other Grue went to Vinya, who had enough problems dealing with the preacher -- particularly when she shook off the paralysis from the first spell only to be immediately caught in another hold person spell.
Vinya, thinking to herself because she couldn’t speak: At least he’s not doing anything worse. And he’s stopped preaching.
The tentacle-armed guy ran up to Elderon but fortunately the Grues’ distracting gibber affected him as well and he missed with his attacks against the wizard.
After some missed attacks and minor damage, Elderon saw an opportunity and cast burning hands -- getting the tentacle-armed guy and two of the cultists in a spray of fire without catching either Elama or Aldalómiel. The two cultists dropped, smoking slightly. The tentacle guy turned to Elderon and attacked but, still distracted by the incessant nerve jangling gibbering from the Grues, missed.
The gibbering abated some when Aldalómiel killed one of the Grues -- which was a double-edged blade, helping us and our opponents concentrate better. Vinya finally shook off the preacher’s hold person and turned to stare at him with a cold look. The preacher ignored her and cast sacred flame on Aldalómiel.
Elama, still badly injured from the fight in the tavern, stayed near the wall and drew down holy fire on the cultists, doing some damage and staying out of the line of fire, until the preacher brought his own sacred flame to her -- fortunately she was able to dodge out of the way.
In doing so, one of the cultists found an opening and stabbed her with his short sword. Again lightning crackled out from her wound and up the sword and the arm of the attacker. Elama was left reeling, almost collapsed from her injuries, but so was the cultist that attacked her.
The guy with the tentacle arm focused his attacks on Aldalómiel, leaving her badly injured and barely on her feet. Fortunately her two attacks dropped him.
The remaining cultist and Grue were dispatched with Elama’s sacred flames and Elderon’s firebolt spells and Vinya’s quarterstaff. Leaving the preacher still standing his ground and intermittently preaching in gibberish.
Aldalómiel, really pissed, ran to the preacher and attacked him ferociously with her two swords, skewering him through multiple vital organs and dropping him to the ground.
In the quiet that settled as the last foe fell, the person who had been standing looking stunned or something by the wall shook his head. That turned out to be Saeno, the owner (or perhaps manager) of Tashimeet caravanserai, unharmed except for some lost time and perhaps some odd dreams and strange ideas in unfamiliar languages lingering in his head for a while.
In the aftermath, we took a moment to introduce ourselves to each other. Elama (“Lamie”) Galanodel from up north of The Knot had met Aldalómiel, from somewhere in the mountains to the east, while traveling. When they learned that they both had received the same letter they began to travel together and became friends. Vinya Anar travelled to The Knot from New Arvai, arriving a few days before the Feast of Stars and staying at Turlnorra’s caravanserai until the date the letter said to be at Tashimeet. Elderon travelled up from the wizard colleges in Pelsoreen.
We were given two rooms in the inn on the house, but before we went to bed we had some stuff to do.
Vinya asked Saeno if he knew any of the people. He said that he might have seen the preacher come around once before. They arrived by cart just at sunset -- the gates were open to all travellers during the day and closed shortly after they arrived. No one was able to report whether they’d been acting crazy when they arrived.
They did have a cart, and we asked Saeno to have someone keep an eye on it during the night in case there were further surprises. And to prevent anyone from looting it before we could.
We checked over the bodies before helping take them to the smithy (where there was a very hot fire that could be used to burn them) and found that the two preachers had symbols, worn like a cleric’s holy symbol, in the form of eleven rings nested together that pivoted and gimballed around in different, seemingly random, orientations. Vinya took one of those in case it might be useful later. The burly guys with tentacle arms had tattoos with a similar vibe -- nested concentric circles with opposed pairs of breaks at random points, like the gimbals on the clerics’ symbols -- around their tentacle arms. There was nothing of interest on the cultists. None of them had any papers or anything to indicate what they were doing.
The holy symbol and the tattoos sparked something in Elderon’s memory and he pulled up something about the Hunger Between Worlds or the Outer Chaos, but beyond the name he didn’t have much immediately in memory.
Because of some recent rain and the cold, we did figure out that we’d be able to backtrail the wagon, at least until traffic on the road muddied up the tracks.
With the wagon secure and the bodies in the smithy to be burned in turn, we went to the tavern. Vinya finally had bean soup. We talked to the other people there -- none of them had received a strange letter directing them to be at Tashimeet. We four were the only ones.
After eating something, we went to the rooms we’d been given and crashed. We slept until the next morning without any problems.
1 Marroin 749 (Campaign day 2)
The next morning, we got up and searched the wagon the group of cultists had arrived in, hoping to find further information about where they came from and what they were doing. The wagon was a fairly typical merchant wagon for the area. Saeno confirmed that there was nothing obviously unusual about it.
The first thing we found was a chest containing some coinage and some magical items.
In the wagon we also found a journal. It started as a normal merchant journal or log, recording trades made, routes taken, occasionally troubles encountered on the road. The book was fairly new and didn’t show a lot of trading history but we could learn that the traders were on the way from Tash to Auriqua.
Partway into the journal several pages were ripped out. The next page read (in Common):
It was apparent that writing this was a struggle -- many words had been initially written in different languages and were crossed out and written in Common. Sometimes this took several tries. The handwriting was the same, though more forced and deliberate, as the trading log part of the book.
Elama questioned the wisdom of going to Auriqua, up in the north, in the middle of winter, then we noticed that there were runners on the undercarriage of the wagon and the wheels were removable -- they would be able to convert it to a sledge when they encountered snowy ground.
The last lucid entries in the journal referenced towns along the road to Tash, which headed to the North-East out of the Knot.
We ended with Lamie (Elama), pack on her back, at the gates of Tashimeet, bouncing on her toes waiting impatiently for us to go backtrack these guys toward Tash.
EDIT: I have caught up to the campaign. We game every-other Wednesday. I'll post notes as I get them.
Session 1: The Feast of Stars
Dramatis Personae:
Aldalómiel - Wood Elf Ranger
Elama - Wood Elf Cleric (Tempest)
Vinya Anar - Wood Elf Monk
Elderon - High Elf Wizard
GM: - Everyone Else
Feast of Stars, 749 (Campaign day 1)
We arrived at Tashimeet, the caravanserai in the Knot on the road to Tash, either individually (Vinya Anar and Elderon) or together (Aldalómiel and Elama) in time for dinner at the Tashimeet inn and dining room.
The courtyard of the caravanserai had many carts in it -- indicating that there were several groups of traders and travelers in the inn.
In honor of the feasting and generosity of the season, the innkeeper Urlocka had laid out a huge spread, with a buffet serving all manner of meats and several non-meat dishes. The cost of the all-you can eat meal was low, the beer, wine and mead were freely on tap, and the tables were packed.
There was a long L-shaped table with humans sitting together. A small table had a few dwarves who looked like smiths. Another table was seated with halflings and rock gnomes. There were some free seats at the bar at the back of the room and one small table near the entrance (and the cold blast of air that washed in every time someone entered or left).
When they entered, Aldalómiel and Elama sat there and waited to be served. Elderon went to the bar when he entered the inn, passing the buffet and the tables with feasting people. Vinya Anar, the last to arrive, was heading back toward the bar when she heard Urlocka mention something about a letter to the two elves sitting at the table nearest the entrance (Aldalómiel and Elama).
She turned around and walked back to the table.
Vinya: A letter? Sorry to intrude, but I got a letter as well.
We compared the letters we had received and they were all the same.
Vinya: Are you in charge of the whole caravanserai?
Urlocka: No. Saeno runs the place. You can usually find him at the inn.
Before Vinya could head over to the inn (on the other side of the Tashimeet courtyard) Urlocka went on.
Urlocka: A gentleman back at the bar, another elf, was asking if I knew anything about the letters.
Vinya, to Aldalómiel and Elama: I’ll see if he wants to join us.
Vinya headed back to the bar to talk to the elf back there and ask him. His letter was, indeed, the same as the ones that the others had received. Vinya pointed out to him that at the far end of the bar were two more people who had received them and maybe we had something to talk about. Or maybe we should be together. We started heading back toward the table where the others sat.
As we were walking back, a dwarf in studded leather, accompanied by five humans with shortbows out (and arrows on the bowstrings, but the strings not drawn) and a thing that looked like a sphere or globe with teeth and long skinny legs, entered the inn. The sphere thing was gibbering and making a lot of chaotic and distracting noise.
Dwarf, addressing the whole room: We know things. It came to us that in this season of sharing, we should share the things we know with you.
He began to speak with the cadence and timbre of a pulpit-pounding sermon. Initially he switched between common and dwarvish, sentence by sentence. As he got into his speech, the language changes became more chaotic, phrase by phrase, word by word. More languages, unfamiliar ones, were introduced. He began changing languages even within words.
Vinya didn’t recognize most of the languages, but she did notice that she never heard anything in Celestial, a language she had learned recently but well, in his gibberish diatribe.
Elama, to the bowman immediately behind her: Could you put your bow down, please? I’m feeling threatened.
The bowman didn’t move.
Urlocka stepped forward: Let the people eat in peace. If you want food, we have food.
In response to her words and her offer, one of the archers took a shot at her, burying an arrow into her upper chest. She was hurt, but did not get knocked down or out.
At that, Vinya jumped onto the table the halflings and gnomes were eating at, ran across with a shouted apology to the diners she’d disrupted, and leapt at one of the archers, swinging with her staff and punching. Two of the bowmen dropped their bows and drew swords to attack her while the rest of them stepped to put their backs against the wall. Elama was able to attack the one that had been standing right behind her as he moved away and he slumped back against the wall.
The gibbering sound from the sphere-on-stilts (a Starspawn Grue, and I shall call it that from now on) was distracting and it wore at our nerves. It appeared to be wearing at the nerves of the archers and distracting them as well.
Aldalómiel drew a pair of short swords and moved into battle with one of the archers, dropping him.
The civilians in the room took cover in various ways. The halflings and gnomes threw their table onto its side and took cover behind it. The humans and dwarves cowered under their tables. Elderon discreetly cast a spell on one of the archers. Urlocka ran toward the doorway that led to the back room (which had a door to the bar).
The dwarf preacher said something in Gibberish and a strange radiance flickered around Elama.
The gibbering Starspawn Grue attacked Elama and when it hit her she shouted in Elvish and lightning sparked out of the wound, coruscating around the spherical body.
Vinya, swinging with her quarterstaff and landing a well-placed kick to the throat, dropped the two that were attacking her.
Things were looking good, then the one remaining archer went to the door.
Archer, shouting into the cold night: Drocklin! We need you!
We didn’t know who Drocklin was or what his arrival would mean, except that it would probably not be good. Aldalómiel took advantage of the moment of quiet to draw her bow and shoot the Grue. When her arrow hit, it gave out an ear-piercing gibbery shriek before imploding on itself. With the Grue’s gibbering ended, and the preacher no longer expounding in many languages all at once, it seemed like a moment of quiet had settled.
The dwarf preacher was not thrilled about the situation, but wasn’t giving up either. He said something in gibberish again and we could see the wounds on the one remaining archer knit up a bit. Then the strange radiance flickered around Elderon but didn’t seem to really touch him.
The moment was shattered when Drocklin, a brawny human male with a club in his right hand, along with three more cultists entered the room. Drocklin’s left forearm and hand were replaced by a long, writhing tentacle. We could also see another gibbering Grue back there and the noise took up wearing the skin off our nerves where the other one had left off.
Vinya moved right up to Drocklin.
Vinya: You don’t want to bother these people.
He just gibbered at her in many languages and it was clear to her that he was too far gone to listen to reason. So she hit him with her quarterstaff and a punch to the solar plexus.
Aldalómiel backed away so she could fight more effectively with her longbow and tried to take out the preacher, in the hopes that without him the others would be at a bit of a loss as to how to proceed.
Elama cast a spell with a crack of thunder and a rolling shockwave that dropped the preacher and one of the cultists and pushed the rest of them out the door and into the courtyard. She then moved to the door and looked outside. She could see the three cultists in the courtyard, along with the second Grue. She could also hear a voice from the inn across the courtyard -- a sermon in many languages.
Great.
She shut the door of the inn.
With the door closed, the Grue’s gibbering was mercifully silenced for a while. Unfortunately, Drocklin’s gibbering was not silenced and his babbling was tearing at Vinya’s concentration and mental health.
The fight continued, with all of us getting in some good hits. Elderon’s frostbite spell didn’t do a lot of damage, but it froze the opponents and made it harder for them to hit through their shivering. That was golden.
Elama tried to keep the cultists, and the Grue, in the courtyard out but they shoved open the door despite her efforts. As the new combatants arrived, Aldalómiel shot Drocklin through the eye, dropping him and ending one source of the gibbering distraction.
Vinya took a swing at one of the wounded cultists and dropped him and then whirled around and kicked the grue and hit him. The other two cultists, also distracted and bothered by the incessant noise from the Grue, missed her
Vinya, to the cultists: Your little friend is hurting you as much as it’s hurting us. You need to reconsider your choice of companions.
The battle continued with everyone getting in hits. Ultimately the Grue attacked Vinya and dropped her. One of the cultists stepped over her body to attack Elama but didn’t hit her. Aldalómiel immediately shot the one that stepped forward to attack and he never had a chance to regret his poor tactical choice.
After some more chaos and battle, the only remaining opponent was the Grue, gibbering at us.
Elderon, still back behind where the halflings were hiding behind their table, heard Urlocka running through the room toward the front, then shot a firebolt at the Grue, but missed in all the chaos.
The Grue, still with Vinya’s blood on its teeth, attacked Elama and almost dropped her as well, but, though the teeth pierced her flesh, she wasn’t dropped.
Elderon’s firebolt a moment or two later hit the Grue -- which caught fire and then imploded in a puff of flame and smoke.
Urlocka ran to Vinya and poured a healing potion down her throat.
As Vinya stood up, thanking Urlocka, we all took a moment to catch our breath. Then Elama listened outside and heard the gibberish preaching at the inn still going on. When she told us about it, Urlocka went pale.
Urlocka: Saeno…
We started heading in that direction, making sure to arrive at the inn as a group.
We got to the doorway and saw a dwarf standing with his back to the inn’s counter preaching in gibberish and really holding forth. Against the wall near the counter was a human male who looked stunned or charmed or transfixed. He wasn’t moving he was just staring glassily at the preacher. Scattered around the room were three cultists, listening to the crazy sermon, two Grues doing beachball things and one burly guy with an arm-tentacle lashing around his legs listening as well.
Aldalómiel positioned herself by the door so she could shoot arrows. Vinya ran straight to the preacher to try and stop the gibberish sermon as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, that put her in range for the preacher to cast something on her -- her muscles locked up and she was held. Elderon took that as a cue to target the preacher, trying to break his concentration on the spell.
The cultists and one of the Grues attacked Aldalómiel and Elama. The other Grue went to Vinya, who had enough problems dealing with the preacher -- particularly when she shook off the paralysis from the first spell only to be immediately caught in another hold person spell.
Vinya, thinking to herself because she couldn’t speak: At least he’s not doing anything worse. And he’s stopped preaching.
The tentacle-armed guy ran up to Elderon but fortunately the Grues’ distracting gibber affected him as well and he missed with his attacks against the wizard.
After some missed attacks and minor damage, Elderon saw an opportunity and cast burning hands -- getting the tentacle-armed guy and two of the cultists in a spray of fire without catching either Elama or Aldalómiel. The two cultists dropped, smoking slightly. The tentacle guy turned to Elderon and attacked but, still distracted by the incessant nerve jangling gibbering from the Grues, missed.
The gibbering abated some when Aldalómiel killed one of the Grues -- which was a double-edged blade, helping us and our opponents concentrate better. Vinya finally shook off the preacher’s hold person and turned to stare at him with a cold look. The preacher ignored her and cast sacred flame on Aldalómiel.
Elama, still badly injured from the fight in the tavern, stayed near the wall and drew down holy fire on the cultists, doing some damage and staying out of the line of fire, until the preacher brought his own sacred flame to her -- fortunately she was able to dodge out of the way.
In doing so, one of the cultists found an opening and stabbed her with his short sword. Again lightning crackled out from her wound and up the sword and the arm of the attacker. Elama was left reeling, almost collapsed from her injuries, but so was the cultist that attacked her.
The guy with the tentacle arm focused his attacks on Aldalómiel, leaving her badly injured and barely on her feet. Fortunately her two attacks dropped him.
The remaining cultist and Grue were dispatched with Elama’s sacred flames and Elderon’s firebolt spells and Vinya’s quarterstaff. Leaving the preacher still standing his ground and intermittently preaching in gibberish.
Aldalómiel, really pissed, ran to the preacher and attacked him ferociously with her two swords, skewering him through multiple vital organs and dropping him to the ground.
In the quiet that settled as the last foe fell, the person who had been standing looking stunned or something by the wall shook his head. That turned out to be Saeno, the owner (or perhaps manager) of Tashimeet caravanserai, unharmed except for some lost time and perhaps some odd dreams and strange ideas in unfamiliar languages lingering in his head for a while.
In the aftermath, we took a moment to introduce ourselves to each other. Elama (“Lamie”) Galanodel from up north of The Knot had met Aldalómiel, from somewhere in the mountains to the east, while traveling. When they learned that they both had received the same letter they began to travel together and became friends. Vinya Anar travelled to The Knot from New Arvai, arriving a few days before the Feast of Stars and staying at Turlnorra’s caravanserai until the date the letter said to be at Tashimeet. Elderon travelled up from the wizard colleges in Pelsoreen.
We were given two rooms in the inn on the house, but before we went to bed we had some stuff to do.
Vinya asked Saeno if he knew any of the people. He said that he might have seen the preacher come around once before. They arrived by cart just at sunset -- the gates were open to all travellers during the day and closed shortly after they arrived. No one was able to report whether they’d been acting crazy when they arrived.
They did have a cart, and we asked Saeno to have someone keep an eye on it during the night in case there were further surprises. And to prevent anyone from looting it before we could.
We checked over the bodies before helping take them to the smithy (where there was a very hot fire that could be used to burn them) and found that the two preachers had symbols, worn like a cleric’s holy symbol, in the form of eleven rings nested together that pivoted and gimballed around in different, seemingly random, orientations. Vinya took one of those in case it might be useful later. The burly guys with tentacle arms had tattoos with a similar vibe -- nested concentric circles with opposed pairs of breaks at random points, like the gimbals on the clerics’ symbols -- around their tentacle arms. There was nothing of interest on the cultists. None of them had any papers or anything to indicate what they were doing.
The holy symbol and the tattoos sparked something in Elderon’s memory and he pulled up something about the Hunger Between Worlds or the Outer Chaos, but beyond the name he didn’t have much immediately in memory.
Because of some recent rain and the cold, we did figure out that we’d be able to backtrail the wagon, at least until traffic on the road muddied up the tracks.
With the wagon secure and the bodies in the smithy to be burned in turn, we went to the tavern. Vinya finally had bean soup. We talked to the other people there -- none of them had received a strange letter directing them to be at Tashimeet. We four were the only ones.
After eating something, we went to the rooms we’d been given and crashed. We slept until the next morning without any problems.
1 Marroin 749 (Campaign day 2)
The next morning, we got up and searched the wagon the group of cultists had arrived in, hoping to find further information about where they came from and what they were doing. The wagon was a fairly typical merchant wagon for the area. Saeno confirmed that there was nothing obviously unusual about it.
The first thing we found was a chest containing some coinage and some magical items.
In the wagon we also found a journal. It started as a normal merchant journal or log, recording trades made, routes taken, occasionally troubles encountered on the road. The book was fairly new and didn’t show a lot of trading history but we could learn that the traders were on the way from Tash to Auriqua.
Partway into the journal several pages were ripped out. The next page read (in Common):
I stepped into the machine and
after I stopped screaming
I saw things more clearly
after I stopped screaming
I saw things more clearly
It was apparent that writing this was a struggle -- many words had been initially written in different languages and were crossed out and written in Common. Sometimes this took several tries. The handwriting was the same, though more forced and deliberate, as the trading log part of the book.
Elama questioned the wisdom of going to Auriqua, up in the north, in the middle of winter, then we noticed that there were runners on the undercarriage of the wagon and the wheels were removable -- they would be able to convert it to a sledge when they encountered snowy ground.
The last lucid entries in the journal referenced towns along the road to Tash, which headed to the North-East out of the Knot.
We ended with Lamie (Elama), pack on her back, at the gates of Tashimeet, bouncing on her toes waiting impatiently for us to go backtrack these guys toward Tash.
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