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<blockquote data-quote="PHDungeon" data-source="post: 5357113" data-attributes="member: 86320"><p>This journal picks up where his last one left off. The heroes have returned to Grimmsburg after defeating Skalmed the Troll King. They have discovered tensions high between Victor Starke and Jarl Surtur. In the last session “Starke” (there is some debate among the Pcs as to whether the man even was Starke) had a meeting in the Jarl’s hall and gave him an ultimatum. When the Jarl didn’t readily accept, Starke tried to kill him with a devastating, exploding, clockwork bird, and then used magic to make an escape. Bella foiled the attempt, by shooting the bird down before it reached the jarl, though it still caused great injury to him and many of his men. It seems that the fight is not yet over…</p><p></p><p>Melek’s Journal:</p><p></p><p>After having defeated the immediate threat, we only had a very small respite before the sounds of combat came from the courtyard.</p><p></p><p>Rushing outside, we found a large number of warforged fighting the troops of the Jarl. Alongside the warforged were a number of clockwork hounds as well.</p><p></p><p>We rapidly joined the battle and were fairly instrumental in ending it reasonably quickly and efficiently. One average warforged is superior to a viking warrior, even one who is a member of the Jarl's personal guard, but is no match for my new companions or for myself.</p><p></p><p>I was relatively ineffective in this fight since the warforged and my viking allies were too interspersed and since the Warforged are likely immune to my most damaging magics. Still, "relatively ineffective" hardly means useless. Fortunately the monstrosities were foolish enough to attack my flaming aura in an attempt to kill me, and do much harm themselves in the process.</p><p></p><p>Bella was her usual killing machine, sending in bolts of death from a distance, an effective (if rather cowardly) approach. Turak stayed inside to make sure that it wasn't all a distraction (or, at least, to make sure that the distraction would fail). Vesna spent the entire fight in the midst of the great melee, hacking and slashing at Starke’s warforged with her enchanted blade. Bjorn ended up coming into the fight before we did, having arrived from the Temple of Thor. He had been absent from the negotiations with Starke on other business, and his arrival was quite timely to say the least. Say what you want about Thor, but his priests can certainly fight, and do a fine job of inspiring and aiding their allies. Despite taking a couple of significant blows, I ended up the fight less injured than I was when I started thanks to Bjorn’s divine healing powers. He truly is in Thor’s favor.</p><p></p><p>The warforged were coming in from a teleportation circle inscribed on the floor of Starke's coach, an interesting (if rather expensive) way of getting troops into the castle. I'm still wondering to what end, though. Surely Stark couldn’t have expected such paltry numbers to win? Even if we had not been present the Jarl would have been able to easily flee. Of course, had we not been there, he would surely have been obliterated by the exploding bird and the majority of his personal guard would likely have been cut down, so perhaps I don’t give Starke enough credit.</p><p></p><p>Although I didn't hear it myself, Bjorn later revealed that he saw one of the Warforged collapse and whimper for his mommy in a child like voice. It seems highly likely that the souls of youths are being used in the construction of the monstrosities. Starke is a naughty man, deserving of punishment.</p><p></p><p>After the battle we did the usual stuff. I put out fires that had just happened to start in the jarl’s hall (amazing how often that happens near me), Bjorn and Vesna tended to the wounded, Turak took a piss and Bella disappeared.</p><p></p><p>Then came the discussion as to what we should do next. Apparently the teleport circle at Thunderhome Abbey is no longer functional. Unfortunately, that indicates that the Abbey has fallen. It certainly means that getting there will take longer and be considerably more dangerous.</p><p></p><p>Vesna seems obsessed with the idea of building her own Warforged. This makes me pretty nervous. Even if we can find the ritual and even if it is learnable by a non-artificer (both of which seem fairly unlikely) we'd be presented with the problem of getting the jewels and forging the bodies. Oh, yes, not to mention getting the souls into the bodies; I should consider that as well. And all that ignores the possibility that there is some ritual known only to Starke that can take control of Warforged.</p><p></p><p>Warforged helping to defend the city was a reasonable idea had some kind of accommodation could have been made between Stark and the Jarl, but it is too late for that.</p><p></p><p>I'll give Vesna credit though, she convinced the Jarl to train all the peasants and to get the local militias into some form of order. I'm not sure if she sees that as useful against Starke, but it will definitely help against the giants should they come at Grimmsburg. </p><p></p><p>After some discussion of alternatives that could not possibly work (eg, keeping Stark besieged), we decided that the only reasonable course was to try and go into Starke’s fortress and kill him. Bella knows a fair bit about the layout, so we have at least a small chance of success. </p><p></p><p>The Scarlet Academy is willing to give us some material aid, as is the temple of Odin. We're the only ones willing to risk our lives, though. Typical.</p><p></p><p>We have a cunning plan involving a passwall ritual, invisibility potions and the like. I bet they won't even survive our making it to his lair, which occupies the entirety of a man made island in the filthy district of the city that is known as the Styes. </p><p></p><p>We all seem to be going for different reasons. Bella seems to have been personally insulted by Starke attacking the Jarl the way that he did. Vesna, of course, wants to avenge an attack on her father. I’m not really sure why Turak and Bjorn are going along, I'd have expected them both to be off for Thunderhome, but I suppose they have some loyalty to Bella and Vesna. As for me, well I need to cement my relationship with my new allies. More importantly, sacrificing the souls of innocents to create warforged is just WRONG and has to be stopped, and the odds of Thunderhome not already having been destroyed seem low.</p><p></p><p>I just hope that my new associates know when to fight and when to run. Because running early, quickly and often might be the only way that we survive this, that or actually succeeding in killing Starke.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="PHDungeon, post: 5357113, member: 86320"] This journal picks up where his last one left off. The heroes have returned to Grimmsburg after defeating Skalmed the Troll King. They have discovered tensions high between Victor Starke and Jarl Surtur. In the last session “Starke” (there is some debate among the Pcs as to whether the man even was Starke) had a meeting in the Jarl’s hall and gave him an ultimatum. When the Jarl didn’t readily accept, Starke tried to kill him with a devastating, exploding, clockwork bird, and then used magic to make an escape. Bella foiled the attempt, by shooting the bird down before it reached the jarl, though it still caused great injury to him and many of his men. It seems that the fight is not yet over… Melek’s Journal: After having defeated the immediate threat, we only had a very small respite before the sounds of combat came from the courtyard. Rushing outside, we found a large number of warforged fighting the troops of the Jarl. Alongside the warforged were a number of clockwork hounds as well. We rapidly joined the battle and were fairly instrumental in ending it reasonably quickly and efficiently. One average warforged is superior to a viking warrior, even one who is a member of the Jarl's personal guard, but is no match for my new companions or for myself. I was relatively ineffective in this fight since the warforged and my viking allies were too interspersed and since the Warforged are likely immune to my most damaging magics. Still, "relatively ineffective" hardly means useless. Fortunately the monstrosities were foolish enough to attack my flaming aura in an attempt to kill me, and do much harm themselves in the process. Bella was her usual killing machine, sending in bolts of death from a distance, an effective (if rather cowardly) approach. Turak stayed inside to make sure that it wasn't all a distraction (or, at least, to make sure that the distraction would fail). Vesna spent the entire fight in the midst of the great melee, hacking and slashing at Starke’s warforged with her enchanted blade. Bjorn ended up coming into the fight before we did, having arrived from the Temple of Thor. He had been absent from the negotiations with Starke on other business, and his arrival was quite timely to say the least. Say what you want about Thor, but his priests can certainly fight, and do a fine job of inspiring and aiding their allies. Despite taking a couple of significant blows, I ended up the fight less injured than I was when I started thanks to Bjorn’s divine healing powers. He truly is in Thor’s favor. The warforged were coming in from a teleportation circle inscribed on the floor of Starke's coach, an interesting (if rather expensive) way of getting troops into the castle. I'm still wondering to what end, though. Surely Stark couldn’t have expected such paltry numbers to win? Even if we had not been present the Jarl would have been able to easily flee. Of course, had we not been there, he would surely have been obliterated by the exploding bird and the majority of his personal guard would likely have been cut down, so perhaps I don’t give Starke enough credit. Although I didn't hear it myself, Bjorn later revealed that he saw one of the Warforged collapse and whimper for his mommy in a child like voice. It seems highly likely that the souls of youths are being used in the construction of the monstrosities. Starke is a naughty man, deserving of punishment. After the battle we did the usual stuff. I put out fires that had just happened to start in the jarl’s hall (amazing how often that happens near me), Bjorn and Vesna tended to the wounded, Turak took a piss and Bella disappeared. Then came the discussion as to what we should do next. Apparently the teleport circle at Thunderhome Abbey is no longer functional. Unfortunately, that indicates that the Abbey has fallen. It certainly means that getting there will take longer and be considerably more dangerous. Vesna seems obsessed with the idea of building her own Warforged. This makes me pretty nervous. Even if we can find the ritual and even if it is learnable by a non-artificer (both of which seem fairly unlikely) we'd be presented with the problem of getting the jewels and forging the bodies. Oh, yes, not to mention getting the souls into the bodies; I should consider that as well. And all that ignores the possibility that there is some ritual known only to Starke that can take control of Warforged. Warforged helping to defend the city was a reasonable idea had some kind of accommodation could have been made between Stark and the Jarl, but it is too late for that. I'll give Vesna credit though, she convinced the Jarl to train all the peasants and to get the local militias into some form of order. I'm not sure if she sees that as useful against Starke, but it will definitely help against the giants should they come at Grimmsburg. After some discussion of alternatives that could not possibly work (eg, keeping Stark besieged), we decided that the only reasonable course was to try and go into Starke’s fortress and kill him. Bella knows a fair bit about the layout, so we have at least a small chance of success. The Scarlet Academy is willing to give us some material aid, as is the temple of Odin. We're the only ones willing to risk our lives, though. Typical. We have a cunning plan involving a passwall ritual, invisibility potions and the like. I bet they won't even survive our making it to his lair, which occupies the entirety of a man made island in the filthy district of the city that is known as the Styes. We all seem to be going for different reasons. Bella seems to have been personally insulted by Starke attacking the Jarl the way that he did. Vesna, of course, wants to avenge an attack on her father. I’m not really sure why Turak and Bjorn are going along, I'd have expected them both to be off for Thunderhome, but I suppose they have some loyalty to Bella and Vesna. As for me, well I need to cement my relationship with my new allies. More importantly, sacrificing the souls of innocents to create warforged is just WRONG and has to be stopped, and the odds of Thunderhome not already having been destroyed seem low. I just hope that my new associates know when to fight and when to run. Because running early, quickly and often might be the only way that we survive this, that or actually succeeding in killing Starke. [/QUOTE]
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