(Completed) Campaign Journal - Tethys: Fool's Gold (DnD 5ed)

Havoc · Nov 11, 2017

Hey, guys, it's ya boi! Coming at you with another campaign dairy. 'member the last one? I 'member. This time I hope the campaign doesn't die out, because the players want to do something else. I'm also STing a Vampire (oWoD) game set in Ancient Rome that will end in Modern Times, but since the game is full cutthroat, intrigue and stuff, I can't really make a campaign dairy. My friends could find it and spoil their fun.

The campaign is yet to have a real name. For now it will be named "Tethys" - the continent/world name of my world, created for the purposes of this campaign. Maybe it will be used after, but who knows. The system is Dungeons & Dragons 5 edition. I didn't want to use Pathfinder, since it's more work for me to use that one and I don't have that much time like with the previous campaign.

Setting description

It's a homemade world. Kinda high magic, high fantasy with some twists and turns. I will try to make it brief.

First, there were dragons (and other scaly folk) with their creator called Mother of All Dragons. They ruled over Tethys having many kingdoms and empires, ruling over lesser races. This was called the Dragon Kingdoms Era.

After a while, her first son Red Dragon King created the Dwarves, using a power granted by his mother called Life Spark. They worked hard to create Dragon Fortresses around the world. It was millennia until they finally rebelled against their creator. A clan of dwarves killed the Red Dragon King and suddenly one of them, probably their leader, changed into a giant. He bore the name All-Father and created the race of giants to fight the dragons, using the same Life Spark the dragon had.

The War of Ancients started. Gnomes were also created at this time to combat the dragon menace. They succeeded with All-Father fighting against the Mother of All Dragons. The victory wasn't on her side, so she fled (or died), but not without causing devastation - tsunamis, earthquakes etc. All ravaged the land. It took some time for the races to grow again and it was at this time the scholars speculate the All-Father was severely weakened, with his Life Spark.

Elves come crash landing on Tethys, but they sit on their island and do nothing. At that time also a new continent was founded - which would be later called Actuvius.

Now comes the Humans called Actuvians. They land on the new continent and befriend dwarves and gnomes that were living there. This is seen as treachery by the giants, which became tyrants - just like the dragons before them. They destroy gnome cities on Tethys and beat up the dwarves to pledge loyalty or death. This isn't seen positively by the races on Actuvius, so they launch an invasion. This era is called Human Invasion.

Also at that time Gods appear. Actuvians came with their pantheon called The Trinity, but with their appearance, other gods answer prayers, so suddenly the Elves can communicate with their patron Corellon (yeah) and dwarves with theirs called Urist Thunder. Gnomes didn't have their god but liked one of the Trinity called Eris, which they called Mother of Invention.

The war was going in favor of humans, so the All-Father in act of desperation created monster races, basing them on other creatures. So orcs are based on humans, hobgoblins on dwarves, goblins on gnomes and gnolls on elves. It was a failure because the monsters got enraged and attacked everybody, even allies. Also, the elves saw the creation of gnolls as an abomination and an upfront against their neutrality in the conflict, so they allied with the other races against the giants.

It all ended with the death of All-Father, but his death was devastating to the world. Again, tsunamis, earthquakes and other disasters ravaged the whole world. The continent Actuvius, however, was the most hit and was lost and with it, all the craftsmen, philosophers, artists and of course technology the human race had. The ones in Tethys were mainly warriors, so they lost a lot. Now it was an era of Migration, where the races find their new homes.

After two millennia the world wasn't at all peaceful. The monster races already calmed down and started to scheme, creating the Monster Empire. The other races were in constant conflict - the human kingdoms fought against each other, the elves went into seclusion again, gnomes didn't care about shit and dwarves quarreled. This is also the time when Actuvius was found again, so expeditions were launched. Many thought Tethys will be lost to the monsters, but suddenly one human came.

An adventurer went into Actuvius, but came back as an Avatar of Trinity. This man which called himself Actur server as the voice and sword of the Gods. With his Dragonborn paladins, he stopped the wars, made allies and finally destroyed the Monster Empire. He established Dominium of Trinity, which ruled all over Tethys. It was just in a span of fifty years, but those fifty years changed the world forever. A common language was set, a calendar and civilization prospered. This had to end badly.

(Also this is the time the Halfling race comes, but nobody knows their origin. They helped in the war.)

High King Actur also had friends that helped him in this quest - dwarf called Dain Thunderhammer, king of the most powerful and honorable clan of dwarves, Alaria Goldenleaf, the queen of the new Elven Kingdom and Orryn Raulgel, a gnome archwizard who was considered the most powerful gnome of them all. This three betrayed their friend. Some say they wanted to do this to all humans, so they started with the High King. Some say some strange power took control over them. Others point to changes in laws in Dominium by the High King that put humans over other races with draconic restrictions over them. Alaria was the lover to Actur, so she was the one that made him focus attention on her, while Dain plunged his sword into the heart of his old friend. Orryn just watched allowing the murder to happen.

Many things happened the moment High King Actur died. First, the Trinity cursed the dwarves, elves, and gnomes that helped in this plot - creating duergars, drows, and svirfneblins. Second, the whole humanity felt this and enraged - attacked other races and conquered their land. Third, old enemies have awoken - giants and dragons. Fourth, the world again was stricken with disasters, the continent of Actuvius was Twice Lost.

Now it's 300 years later. The races are more at peace than before. The dwarves fight against the duergar, seeing them as a blight on their honor. Drows had to retreat to their forest and wage war against other races. Svirfneblin weren't seen that much of threat. Humans were in constant conflict with each other until something changed - The Great Empire of Freedom appeared in the south. This empire untied with strength other races, kingdoms and city-states. Their leader - The Great Emperor has only one goal and that is to destroy all the gods. He wants to remove all religion from Tethys. The kingdoms in the north united, but not all of them. The coming war will be not only just for territory but also a religious and ideological one.

World maps

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Aegis Aurae
(Golden Shield)
Names based on groups/places/people:
Estel'Anoron - Aglar'nore "Brilliant Company"
Aramoor - Godly Shield
Logemakam - Måmgozôsustir "Dragon Tamers"
Orcs from Golden Mountain Range - Fha'Mausher "Great Butchers"
Sowers of Chaos - Eye of Many

The Party Roster

Here's the party roster as of now. Stuff might change, like alignment. Short summary (up-to-date stats are below, these are starting stuff):

- Balasar Faamtenargakexud (Thunderscale) - Dragonborn (Bronze), Warlock (Pact with Great One), Background Hermit, Alignment Lawful Neutral - Stats STR 12, DEX 13, CON 13, INT 15, WIS 12, CHA 16
- Finnean Quickstep - Halfling (Lightfoot), Bard (Lore), Background Entertainer, Alignment Chaotic Neutral - Stats STR 16, DEX 15, CON 14, INT 15, WIS 10, CHA 19
- Mario de Capodimonte - Human, Paladin (Oath of Ancients), Background Noble (Knight), Alignment True Neutral - Stats STR 16, DEX 14, CON 14, INT 14, WIS 13, CHA 17
- Elhaeltôr - Elf (High), Wizard (Lore Mastery), Background Archaeologist, Alignment Neutral Good - Stats STR 5, DEX 20, CON 15, INT 17, WIS 17, CHA 17 (yeah, he rolled those xd)
- Solange Sunseer - Aasimar (Sourge), Monk (Sun Soul), Background Hermit, Alignment Neutral Good - Stats STR 14, DEX 17, CON 16, INT 12, WIS 15, CHA 12
- Baâ - Human (Midlander), Druid (Circle of Moon), Background Outlander, Alignment Lawful Neutral - Stats STR 12, DEX 16, CON 13, INT 14, WIS 18, CHA 12
- Jafar az Zabri ibn Vazir ben Mahra al Tauzar - Half-elf (High Elf/Southerner), Bard (College of Swords), Background Far Traveler, Alignment Lawful Neutral - Stats STR 16, DEX 12, CON 11, INT 16, WIS 11, CHA 18
- Scarlett - Halfling (Lightfoot), Rogue (Scout), Background Urchin, Alignment True Neutral - Stats STR 8, DEX 19, CON 14, INT 16, WIS 11, CHA 8
- Aerendir Colorfulskies - Half-elf (Wood Elf/Valeman), Ranger (Horizon Walker), Background Far Traveller (Planeswalker), Alignment True Neutral - Stats STR 12, DEX 19, CON 16, INT 14, WIS 14, CHA 10

More in-depth (WARNING! SPOILERS!):

Aerendir Colorfulskies

Name: Aerendir Colorfulskies
Race: Half-elf (Wood Elf/Valeman)
Background: Far Traveler
Alignment: True Neutral
Classes: Ranger (Revised) (Horizon Walker) 15, Fighter (Champion) 3
Starting Stats:
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
12 19 16 14 14 10
Current Stats (without magical items):
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
12 22 16 14 14 10
Chosen Skills: Acrobatics, Insight, Perception, Religion, Sleight of Hand, Stealth, Survival
Tools: Calligraphy
Languages: Common, Elvish, Sylvan, Primordial
Feats: Elven Accuracy, Sharpshooter, Skulker
Interesting Tidbits:
- He grew up in Estel'Anoron. He was very much pro-elves, up to the point of werewolf attack
- Went on soulsearching journey, got lost in Evergreen (Feywild), where he met with the Traveler
- Traveled a lot with him, each time to a different place
- Returns to the Material Plane, after many years, feels out of place, rejoins with Estel'Anoron.
- Helps the kingdom with the undead and demon menace.

Mario de Capodimonte

Old portraits

Name: Mario de Capodimonte
Race: Human
Background: Noble (Knight)
Alignment: Lawful Good (Old: True Neutral)
Classes: Paladin (Oath of Ancients) 20
Starting Stats:
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
16 14 14 14 13 17
Current Stats (without magical items):
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
18 14 14 14 13 20
Chosen Skills: Athletics, History, Persuasion, Religion
Tools: Gaming Set
Languages: Common, Southerner (his people language), Draconic, Halfling, Midlandish (right next to Common, used by humans)
Feats: Shield Master, Diplomat (Tree of Life), Ability Increase, Ability Increase, Tough
Interesting Tidbits:
- The character was born in Oasis, the City State, where wine and decadence flows. This place is full of people that turned into partying after revolting against a tyrant red dragon.
- Because of current political climate, the Oasis is between two (soon) warring countries and rips them both on trade.
- The character is said to have roots in the Canyon of Fool's Gold, where the game will be set.
- His father died after adventuring into the newly found continent, but instead of him becoming the new head of the house, his uncle became the de facto head.
- The uncle sends Mario to become a paladin and take a vow, so he won't become the head of the family.
- The paladin order is called Knights of the Table, where they take care of inns, hospitality and roads.
- After taking the oath, he was set to move to the Canyon by the orders of his Order but also by his uncle. He was given the family shield.

Finnean Quickstep

Old Portraits

Name: Finnan Quickstep
Race: Halfling (Lightfoot)
Background: Entertainer
Alignment: Chaotic Good (Old: Chaotic Neutral)
Classes: Bard (Lore) 19
Starting Stats:
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
16 15 14 15 10 19
Current Stats (without magical items):
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
16 18 18 18 10 22
Chosen Skills: Acrobatics, Deception, Intimidation, Performance, Persuasion, Stealth (from Lore Bard), Investigation (from Lore Bard), Athletics (from Lore Bard), Arcana (Skilled), Religion (Skilled), History (Skilled)
Tools: Disguise Kit, Fiddle, Lute, Flute, Drums, Painting (Learnt)
Languages: Common, Halfling, Gnome (From Feat), Elven (From Feat), Sylvan (From Feat)
Feats: Ability Increase, Linguist (Tree of Life), Read Tome of Leadership and Influence (+2 Charisma), Skilled, Ability Increase, War Caster
Interesting Tidbits:
- Born in the halfling capital of Vineshade, he loved music and fun
- He went to the city of Quadropoli, which is a neutral gnome city-state, where he could enter the bard academy
- He found love, but also lost his prize possession - a family mandolin.
- He sets out to the canyon after hearing that his family heirloom might be in there
- The player wants to portray the halflings more along the lines of Irish people.

Elhaeltôr

Old Portrait

Name: Elhaeltôr
Race: Elf (High)
Background: Archaeologist
Alignment: Neutral Good
Classes: Wizard (Lore Mastery) 19, Monk (?) 1
Starting Stats:
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
5 20 15 17 17 17
Current Stats (without magical items):
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
10 20 17 22 17 18
Chosen Skills: Arcana, History, Investigation, Survival, Perception (Elf), Nature (from Naturalist), Persuasion (from Skilled), Stealth (from Skilled), Acrobatics (from Skilled)
Tools: Thieves Tools
Languages: Common, Elven, High Elven (which is very rare and used with very powerful High Magic), Actuvian (the language of the first humans, more akin to Roman Latin), Sylvan (from Feat), Primordial (from Feat), Infernal (from Feat), Abyssal (from Feat)
Feats: Fey Teleportation, Linguist (Tree of Life), Naturalist, Read Tome of Clear Thought (+2 Intelligence), Skilled, Resilient (Charisma)
Interesting Tidbits:
- History of this character is not yet made, but there is some info.
- The character was a very powerful elven wizard, who had a lot of students. During this time he was an opponent of elven isolationism, where he saw the elves as guides that would help other races to achieve greatness.
- His good nature took him on a quest with Balasar, where they wanted to know the nature of Balasar's vision.
- When the Elf tried to communicate or otherwise mess with the Great Old One, he was stricken with a powerful curse.
- His powers, strength was sapped. His memory was gone and is only now coming back.

Solange Sunseer

Old Portraits

Name: Solange Sunseer
Race: Aasimar (Scourge)
Background: Hermit
Alignment: Neutral Good
Classes: Monk (Way of Tranquility, ex-Sun Soul) 16, Rogue (Assassin) 4
Starting Stats:
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
14 17 16 12 15 12
Current Stats (without magical items):
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
14 20 16 12 16 14
Chosen Skills: Acrobatics, Athletics, Medicine, Religion, Stealth, Insight (from Skilled), Investigation (from Skilled), Perception (from Skilled), Sleight of Hand (Rogue Multi-class)
Tools: Lute, Herbalism Kit, Thieves' tools (Rogue Multi-class)
Languages: Common, Celestial, Orcish
Feats: Ability Increase, Ability Increase (Tree of Life), Skilled, Alert, Mage Slayer, Tough
Interesting Tidbits:
- History of this character is not yet made, but there is some info.
- He was raised up in a monstery in the Steppes of Memory. This place, with Steppes of Death, were once peninsulas and an island, but after the death of High King Actur, a giant tsunami swept these places, creating an isthmus. Everybody died there, so there are only ruins and undead roam the lands. The monastery was created there to fight the undead. They call it Monastery of The First Sun, where they worship the Sun Lord.
- The character, during his training, had a vision while being in near-death. He saw something to akin that the Sun Lord is the real god, while the rest are fakes. After that, he sets off to praise the sun and talk about his god. Now called Seer-Errant, but the polish translation maybe gives it a better vibe (Błędny Prorok, like Błędny Rycerz).
- Yeah, the character is based on Solaire - joyous cooperation, fun and adventure.
- Aasimar elements: Glowing eyes, Glowing Hands, Sacred Birthmark, Always Well Lit, Skin of Unusual Hue

Baâ

Old Portraits

Name: Baâ
Race: Human (Midlander)
Background: Outlander
Alignment: Lawful Neutral
Classes: Druid (Circle of Moon) 19
Starting Stats:
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
12 16 13 14 16 12
Current Stats (without magical items):
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
12 18 14 14 22 12
Chosen Skills: Animal Handling, Athletics, Nature, Stealth, Survival, Perception (from Prodigy)
Tools: Leatherworker's Tools, Herbalism Kit, Woodcarver's Tools (from Prodigy)
Languages: Common, Druidic, Middlelandish (this was once one of the biggest human languages before Actur came and Actuvian/Common became the language of the land), Dwarven, Draconic (Learned), Primordial (from Prodigy)
Feats: Ability Increase, Ability Increase (Tree of Life), Ability Increase, Prodigy, War Caster
Interesting Tidbits:
- History wasn't yet created, but here some interesting plot points.
- Baâ is a druid from Tajga Sijbir, a huge forest to the north just below the Crown Mountains. This is something like the forests of Canada - giant forests, full of animals.
- She doesn't worship any gods, except for the concept of nature and ancestors.

Scarlett

Name: Scarlett
Race: Halfling (Lightfoot)
Background: Urchin
Alignment: Chaotic Good (changed from True Neutral)
Classes: Rogue (Scout) 20
Starting Stats:
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
8 19 14 16 11 8
Current Stats (without magical items):
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
8 20 14 16 11 8
Chosen Skills: Acrobatics, Athletics, Insight, Investigation, Nature, Perception, Sleight of Hand, Stealth, Survival
Tools: Disguise Kit, Thieves' Tools, Tinkerer's Tools
Languages: Common, Halfling
Feats: Squat Nimbleness (Increase Dexterity), Perceptive, Sharpshooter, Alert, Skilled (History, Performance, Religion), Mobile
Interesting Tidbits:
- She's from a wandering circus. Unknown parents left her there.
- She grew up without knowing her past or real name. She does have strange eye(s) - red color.
- Apparently, she has nightmares that pushed her to find the truth.
- She also wears a necklace of the Eclipsed, the Lord Sun's agents. The only thing she has after her parents.

Balasar Faamtenargakexud

Old Portraits

Name: Balasar Faamtenargakexud
Race: Dragonborn (Blue)
Background: Hermit
Alignment: Lawful Good (Old: Lawful Neutral)
Classes: Warlock (Pact with Celestial [Old: Great Old One]) 13, Fighter (Battle Master) 3
Starting Stats:
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
12 13 13 15 12 16
Current Stats (without magical items):
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
12 13 14 15 12 20
Chosen Skills: Arcana, History, Intimidation, Investigation
Tools: Cartography, Masonry
Languages: Common, Draconic, Dwarven, Elven (Learned)
Feats: Lucky, Ability Increase (Tree of Life), Ability Increase, Dragon Fear (Constitution)
Interesting Tidbits:
- A member of the Faamtenargakexud (Thunderscale) clan of Dragonborn, that rule over the city of Farah in the Scorcher Continent.
- Was cast out by his own clan after the revelations and powers he got while exploring ruins
- He saw a vision of Humanity's real reason to come to Tethys.
- This character knows personally Elhaeltôr, before the curse got to him. Since then he takes care of the elf.
- He sets out to the canyon to explore more and know the truth behind the one that gave him powers

Jafar az Zabri ibn Vazir ben Mahra al Tauzar

Name: Jafar az Zabri ibn Vazir ben Mahra al Tauzar
Race: Half-elf (High Elf/Southerner)
Background: Far Traveler
Alignment: Lawful Neutral
Classes: Bard (College of Swords) 7
Starting Stats:
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
14 12 11 16 11 18
Current Stats (without magical items):
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
18 12 11 16 11 18
Chosen Skills: Acrobatics, Athletics, Insight, Intimidation, Perception, Performance, Stealth
Tools: Loot, Flute, Tamborine
Languages: Common, Elvish, Australis, Draconic
Feats: Ability Increase, Ability Increase (Tree of Life)
Interesting Tidbits:
- History wasn't yet created, but here some interesting plot points.
- Jafar is from Tauzar, the biggest Southerner city in the south of Continent of Scorch. You can think of it as a diamond of the desert full of flying carpets, genies, genasi and other fantastical things. Like Persia of legends.
- He is a son of a wealthy merchant in Tauzar. Something happened that made the character leave his family for now until stuff calms down.
- Since he is from College of Swords and a "Persian", he is a dervish, a dancer of the swords.
- I don't know how the player will go with his flaw "I consider the adherents of other gods to be deluded innocents at best or ignorant fools at worst." Tauzar is one of the biggest cities of Great Empire of Freedom, so it was "visited" by the Great Emperor with his armies of undead and demons. He killed half of the Pashas, the rest swore fealty and the only thing he required in return was finances for armies and no religion.

(WARNING! SPOILERS BELOW! ... and some data is not up to date...)

Cohorts:

Luigi de Capodimonte - Commoner, follower of Mario de Capodimonte. Became a true Capodimonte later.

Solasar - Warlock Familiar of Balasar. A fiend in disguise.

"Mule" - The party needed somebody to carry the weight.

"Dog" - The doberman that licked Balasar face the next morning after his fight with half-orcs. He followed the dragonborn and he took him in. He disappeared later.

Om Frenzybeard - Barbarian and brewer. A very unintelligent and charismatic dwarf, who creates very tasty and powerful alcohol. Joined the group after events in Estel'Anoron.

Hannah - Finnean bard student. He saved her parent's from dying.

Wyne - Once Dancer, a fighter in Arena of Orth. Paid by Mario to teach Luigi fighting.

Octavio - Solange's spymaster. Member of the Eclipsed.

Close Allies:

Magmos Reborn - After getting himself to the volcano, Magmos got healthy and truly became a Magma Dragon. Now a close friend of the group.

Important NPCs:

General Area:

Mozikth Jharthraxyn - Captain of Ascensore Outpost, Second Scale of the Knights of Divine Scale, paladin.

Sedyryn, Green Fury - Ancient green dragon.

Gianetta - Would be assassin.

Pog Bafflestone - Forest gnome. Druid of the Moon.

Hildegunn - Master of Silent Order in the canyon.

Orth:

Sigurd - Unknown warrior.

Edrathil Silver Blade - Bladesinger. Commander of Orth's army. Old friend of paladin Orth. Member of the Bone Coterie.

Havifgar - Cleric of Ilios. High Cleric of Church of Trinity in Orth.

Gwendolyn - Paladin of Actur. Knight of Order of Divine Scale, First Scale rank. Master of Great Guild of Adventurers in Orth.

Thulom Silverstone - Dwarf. Member of the Council of Orth. Leader of the Craftsmen's Guild.

Lorenza - Member of the Council of Orth. Leader of the Merchants' Guild.

Ellyjoybell Horcusporcus - Guildmaster of Mage's Guild in Orth. Very curious and ambitious gnome.

Jasper Elderberry - Cleric of Granny and the innkeeper of "At Grandma's". Happy and talkative halfling.

Enialis - Half-elf (Moon Elf). Leader of the South District and member of the Small Council in Orth.

Nevil Fastfoot - Halfling. Member of the Small Council and the leader of the halfling community in Orth.

Orleen - Owner and shopkeep of Magical Fair, a magic shop in Orth. Aasimar with ashen skin.

Odon Mighty Hands - Famous armorer and owner of Dragon's Scale (and Dragon's Helmets and Shields) in Orth. Half-orc, very friendly follower of Lord Sun.

Ahmed Behdad ibn Naser ibn Tahmasb ben Abbasi al Tauzar - Southerner. An intriguing merchant in Orth that had a unique item called Deck of Destiny.

Wolfgang Orthson - Owner of the inn "At Orth's", the first inn and building that was created before the town of Orth came to being. Also the descendant of the owner.

Hagel - Owner of the inn "No Bottom." Leader of the North District.

Palladio - Captain of the Guard in Orth.

Jaxi Ghaallixirn - Owner of Orth's Arena. Also a great fighter.

Pijjirik Kerrhylon - Also called Jirk. A shopkeep in the Orth's black market.

Belhadur - Oathbreaker Paladin of Actur. Leader of the Orth's underground.

Eldon Glittergem - Owner of the Suspended Theater.

Conrad Stenbaum - Rich man. Owner of the lumberyard and tanner workshops.

Alastor Corbora - Very rich man. Landowner. He has ties to the family in Corbara, the Dragon Fortress in Kingdom of Actur.

Cassius Bordeux - Nobility. Member of the current Royal Family of Kingdom of Actur. Owns many workshops in Orth.

Zook Fabblestabble - Artificer. Tinkerer and shopkeep in Orth. Has very "bad" reputation.

Dvorak "Hardhead" Thunukalathi - Goliath. Leader of a Goliath mercenary group.

Zutshosh Dragonsbane - A master weaponsmith. Owner of "Axes and 'nives" in Orth.

Solaire Solaire - Cleric of Lord Sun. Childhood friend of Solange.

Baltsar - Wizard in Orth, with his own tower! Apparently a necromancer.

Michelangelo d'Argento - Silver Dragonborn. New guild master to the Great Guild of Adventurers'.

Tulipe Gobblepock - Gnome. Arcane Trickster. Lost over 200 years ago. Nobody knew where he went. Apparently got stuck inside a cursed book.

Estel'Anoron:

Aredhel Woodstep - Leader of Estel'Anoron. Archdruid of Circle of the Moon. Wood Elf connected to the Renewed Green forest.

Faelyn Eaglesong - Leader of the soldiers in Estel'Anoron. Honorable Moon Elf.

Mahtan Woodstep - Cleric of Corellon. Called by others "Hand of Father." Leader of the clerics in Estel'Anoron. Wood Elf.

Nu'quern'gaur Wood Step - First Ranger of Estel'Anoron. Leader of the rangers and keeper of peace in the village. Killed by the group.

Quennar Wood Step - "Old Leaf." Druid in Estel'Anoron, a very old one.

Annael Silver Blade - Wizard and an artificer of Estel'Anoron. Creates magical items for sale.

Zhindia Despana - Drow in Estel'Anoron.

Logemakam:

Udir Ironfist - Son of Udor Ironfist, founder of Logemakam and one of the Bone Coterie. Leader of Logemakam.

Thosbut Ironfist - Cleric of Urist Thunder. Member of the Council.

Amkol Brightaxe - Emissary and ambassador of the Brightaxe clan in Logemakam. Member of the Council.

Avush Ironfist - Grandmaster of the Open Fist Order of monks. Prior to the Painted Road Monastery. First disciple to the founder of Logemakam. Member of the Council.

Emagash Ironfist - Dwarven monk of Open Hand from an Order in Logemakam. One of Orth's arena best fighters.

Golden Rafter

Letizia - Human. Agent of Alliance of Northern Kingdoms. Presides over the Golden Rafter's safety.

Oliver Krajinović - Human. Agent of Kingdom of the Vale. Member of Order of the Crimson Griffon. His country's representative in Golden Rafter.

Gordiano Cappelletti - Human. Agent of Kingdom of Actur. His country's representative in Golden Rafter.

Aramoor

Allura Vladimirovich - Human. The Baroness of Aramoor.

Lestan Vladimirovich - Vampire. The Baron of Aramoor. The true lord of the land.

Golden West

Rearlin - A human hermit, living nearby the Golden West Fortress.

Palarandusk, The Invisible Defender - Ancient Golden Dragon. He survived the fall and lives in Golden West.

Goldplated Keep

Hand of Midnight - Once High Lady of the Goldplated Keep, now a creature of great power. Controls the whole Garden Forest.

Golden Mountain Range

Duke Salvatore de Contegoaurum - Ancient leader of the Contegoaurum family. Ghost bound in the Golden Spring Castle.

Ragmaw - Leader of the Burning Goblins. A strange crossbreed dragon of black and red colors. He allowed the party to live and was thankful for their exchange of knowledge. He might come back at later date.

Lord Magmos - Old friend. Now changed.

Punn - Kobold scout. Helped the party get to Lord Magmos.

Cleig - Kobold leader. Once a servant of Shuggend, now turned enemy. Ally to the group.

Boghat Reborn - Former Chieftain of Guruhalu Tribe. He survived the encounter with the group and came back as a worshiper of Fha'Mal (All-Father).

Crommash - Killed the former Ur'Goth and became the new one. Chieftain of the Eghanhu. Paladin of Fha'Mal (All-Father).

Ulumpha - Chieftain of the Zuggrom Tribe.

Zugorim - His father was Ur'Goth, killed by Crommash who became the new Ur'Goth. Chieftain of the Umghar Tribe.

Nagrub - Chieftain of the Wagharu Tribe.

Shuggend - Leader of the Darastrix Urthalrei tribe. Dragon Kobold Prophet. Century-old kobold.

Frirdayn, Life-Taker - Shuggend's master.

Far away places
Sanctuary (Elven Island)

Maranis Mystic West - High Elf. Member of the High Wizards. Knows Elhaeltôr.

Syltas Gold Blade - High Elf. Member of the High Wizards. Knows Elhaeltôr.

Quadropolis (Gnome City-State)

Fablen Gummen - Magister of the Guild of Architects, Geography, Cartography and Technical Drawing of Quadropolis. His job is to check the canyon falling rate.

Balthier - Coastman. Airship Captain of Red Rose.

Basch - Midlander. Airship Captain of Dolphin.

Clan Brightaxe

Vathez Brightaxe - Dwarf. Rune Master.

Thalal Giantsbane - Dwarf. Captain of Brightaxe regiment sent to the Canyon.

Evergreen (Feywild)

Duke of Pain - One of the Archfey. Feeds on people's pains and sufferings. Lost of loved ones and such.

Satyr Simon (or Simon the Satyr) - Denizen of Evergreen. Travels around and guides people.

Longdeath Desert

Greseth Faamtenargakexud - Balasar's brother. Leader of the outcasted dragonborns.

Local Map (Starting Map is Spoiler Free)

Starting Map

Current Map

Sessions: 156
Links:
Chapter I: First Steps

Session 1: The first descent
Session 2: The goblin menace
Session 3: The true goblin leader
Session 4: A threat or an ally
Session 5: The town over abyss
Session 6: Mages and Halflings
Session 7: The missing apprentice
Session 8: Darkness, alcohol, and adventure
Session 9: Lovers and Musicians
Session 10: Until Death Do Us Part, also a sword
Session 11: A little intrigue, a little shopping
Session 11.5: Some more shopping and blacks
Session 12: Last bits of shopping

Chapter II: Elves, Elves and Parties

Session 13: Unwelcoming
Session 14: Neverending Green
Session 15: Fiery Hell
Session 16: Furry Twists and Demonic Turns
Session 17: Powers Beyond Grasp and Not
Session 18: Indignant Saviours
Session 19: When the Sun shines the most
Session 20: Elven speeches and Mysterious men
Downtime: Lamashan, 312 After Dominium
Session 21: Harvest Time Festival
Session 22: Races and Plans

Chapter III: War in the Mountains

Session 23: The Golden Mountain Range
Session 24: Theater Memory and Orc Murder
Session 25: Orc Murder? Orc Slaughter!
Session 26: Costly exploring
Session 27: Truth Behind Blood
Session 28: Regrets and Treks
Session 29: Little Lizard Rascals
Session 30: Caves and Critters
Session 31: Plans and Secrets
Session 32: Last of Its Kind
Session 33: Allies and Friends
Session 34: Truth Will Set You Free

Chapter IV: Turning Point

Session 35: When Decisions Must be Made
Session 36: Dare of Indepedence, also Sponsorship
Session 37: Clever Girl
Session 38: When things calm down
Session 39: Toughest Decision
Session 40: When Worlds Collide
Session 41: The Army Marches
Session 42-43: The Mountain Siege and Life Taker

Chapter V: The Start of a New Kingdom

Session 44-45: Dragon Secrets, Dwarf Landing and True Kings
Session 46: Work has Begun
Session 47-48: The Dead and The Restless
Session 49-50: The Kingdom and Party

Chapter VI: Undertethys

Session 51: Dark Folk
Session 52: Masters of Stone
Session 53: Glimmermagak
Session 54: Ignite a War
Session 55: A Good Way Out
Session 56: Spring Cometh

Chapter VII: Warm Welcome

Session 57: Sky the Limit
Session 58: Boarding? Siege?
Session 59: Old Man and the Fortress
Session 60: A Grim Tale
Session 61: Forthcoming Despair
Session 62: Tales of the Past and Truths
Session 63: Some missing stuff
Session 64: Risky Treasures

Chapter VIII: Do Not Open It

Session 65: The Dark Tower
Session 66-67: One Step Fowards, Two Steps Back
Session 68: When the Forest is Against You
Session 69: When Running is the Only Resort
Session 70: Of Pain and Gnomes

Chapter IX: The Call of Eye of Many

Session 71: Information Galore!
Session 72: Darkness Ahead
Session 73: He is Watching You
Session 74: He is Waiting
Session 75: The Truth Will Set You Free

Chapter X: Were You Real Heroes?

Session 76: The Ignored Prophecy
Session 77: The Last Of His Line
Session 78: Light in Darkness
Session 79: No Deal but Mansions
Session 80: One Half Down
Session 81: Little Political Problems
Session 82: Never Forget
Session 83: Decapitated Hand
Session 84: A Place Out of Time

Chapter XI: No More Heroes

Session 85: Consequences of Inaction
Session 86: Floating Knowledge
Session 87: Expensive Knowledge and Management
Session 88-89: Land of the Water
Session 90: Hero of Water

Chapter XII: Light at the End

Session 91: Odds Not in Favour
Session 92-93: Death and Poisons
Session 94: A Potential Ally
Session 95-96: A Giant Problem
Session 97: The Ice Shaman
Session 98: Bearded Secrets

Chapter XIII: Our Heritage

Session 99: A Pact of Convenience
Session 100: Words from Beyond
Session 101: Rousing Spirits
Session 102: It Smells
Session 103: Drow Tricks
Session 104: Soulless Immortal

Chapter XIV: Our Sins

Session 105: Reward for Betrayal
Session 106: Wrapping the Stones
Session 107: Just a Little Below
Session 108: Rotten to the Core
Session 109: Death Comes for the Overconfident
Session 110: Price of Time
Downtime: One Year, One Day
Session 111: The True Price of Life
Session 112: If You Fail Once
Downtime: Quick Three Day Trip
Session 113: One Step Closer to the Truth
Session 114: Their Heritage, Their Sins, Their Creation

Chapter XV: Everice

Session 115: The Great North
Session 116: Centuries Worth of Vengeance
Session 117: A Cursed Existence
Session 118-119: Ice for the Ages
Session 120: Preparing for Early Winter
Session 121: Day of Hope and Ice
Session 122: Neverending Ice
Session 123: A Piece of a Chance
Session 124: Forgotten Knowledge
Session 125: Fresh Ice Fortress
Session 126: Tidy North

Chapter XVI: Magical Hole

Session 127-128: A Quick Way Down
Session 129: Back from the Dead
Session 130: Automated Bid
Session 131: The Endless Machine
Session 132-134: Siege of Abyss
Session 134: Liche-dom
Session 134: Liche-doh

Chapter XVII: Royal Blood

Session 136: Magic Wrap Up
Session 137-138: Jungle Honeymoon
Session 139: Blood Sun
Session 140-141: Godly Truths and Betrayals
Session 142-143: Elves within Elves and Buried Temple

Chapter XVIII: Way of the Eye

Session 144: I Spy with My Eye
Session 145: Giant Mistake
Session 146: Forging a Way
Session 147: Nearing the End
Session 148: Sky the Limit
Session 149: Quick Plannar Trip

Chapter XIX: The End is Near

Session 150: The Time has Come
Session 151: The Green Fury
Session 152: Seeds of Green and Blood
Session 153: Gigantic Problem
Session 154: Truth About Fishes
Session 155: Played From the Start

Epilogue

Session 156: The End

---

Kingdom Building

Time - Round 31-33, Season Summer, Year 315

Kingdom Building Full Stats - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1FdgMRzQZO6Qd9xBBT0YqN68V3LkRQliva9ZFslM-G8o/edit?usp=sharing

Roles:

Ruler
Mario de Capodimonte

Consort
Vittoria de Albarate

Councilor
Finnean Quickstep

General
Gwendolyn

Grand Diplomat
Beniamino de Capodimonte

Heir
Luigi de Capodimonte

High Priest
Solaire Solaire

Magister
Elhaeltôr

Marshal
Baâ

Royal Enforcer
Boghat Reborn

Spymaster
Solange Sunseer

Treasurer
Lord Magmos

Viceroy
None

Warden
Johnathan

Kingdom Map

Undertethys Map

Settlements

Golden Spring Settlement
Buildings:
- Castle (Golden Spring)
- Houses x3
- Mansion (Orth Embassy)
- Mansion (Quadropolis Embassy)
- Mansion (Elementi Revivo Embassy)
- Mansion (Kingdom of the Vale Embassy)
- Brewery (Om's)
- Smithy (Odon's Armorsmith)
- Smithy (Zutshosh's Weaponsmith)
- Foundry
- Barracks
- Exotic Artisan (Maria Jeweler)
- Caster's Tower (Elhaeltôr's Laboratory)
- Market
- Noble Villa (Capodimonte Family Villa)
- Warehouse
- Mint
- Sacred Grove (Baa's Grove)
- Academy
- Guildhall (Guild of Architects, Geography, Cartography and Technical Drawing)
- Waterfront
- Skyport
- Palace
- Cathedral (Trinity)
- Temple (Lord Sun)
- Theater
- Bank
- Paved Streets
- Bardic College

Citadel of the Sun Settlement
Buildings:
- Castle (Citadel of the Sun)
- Military Academy (Paladins and Soldiers)
- Garrison
- Inn
- Houses x3
- Tenement x2
- Temple (Lord Sun)
- Stable
- Stockyard
- Orphanage
- City Walls x4

Ogrimmar Settlement
Buildings:
- Garrison
- Stable
- Houses x1
- Inn
- City Walls x4

Aramoor Settlement
Buildings:
- Inn
- Noble Villa
- Barracks
- Houses x3
- Stockyard
- Temple (Valena/Trinity)
- Brewery (Wine)
- City Walls x4

Estel'Anoron Settlement
Buildings:
- Houses x5
- Pier
- Barracks
- Sacred Grove
- Magic Shop (Annael's shop)
- Temple (Corellon)
- Inn
- Hanging Gardens (Actually, the Archdruid Sacred Grove)
- Park x2
- Lumberyard
- Bridge
- Alchemist
- Exotic Artisan
- Stable
- Mill
- City Walls x4

Shiny Darkness Settlement
Buildings:
- Jail
- Watchtower
- Inn
- Houses x1
- Barracks
- City Walls x4

Golden West Settlement
Buildings:
- Castle (Dragon Fortress)
- Houses x1
- Inn
- Foundry
- Warehouse
- Smithy
- City Walls x4

Claywall Settlement
Buildings:
- Brickyard
- Inn
- House
- City Walls x4

Moohill Settlement
Buildings:
- Stockyard
- City Walls x4

Aural Brewery Settlement
Buildings:
- Houses x1
- Barracks
- Stable
- Brewery

Golden Briny Settlement
Buildings:
- Houses x2
- Foundry
- Smithy

Orth Settlement
Buildings:
- Cathedral
- Noble Villa
- Mansion x2 (one of them is the embassy that the group had)
- Lumberyard
- Castle
- Bordello
- Arena
- City Wall x16
- Paved Streets x4
- Stable x3
- Stockyard
- Tavern x4
- Tannery
- Warehouse x2
- Watchtower x4
- Shrine x2
- Temple
- Hospital
- Trade Shop
- House
- Graveyard
- Garrison
- Inn
- Market
- Guildhall x2
- Granary

Armies

- Regular Army - 100 men, 2nd level Fighters, Equipped with Magic Weapon and Magic Armor
- Regular Army 2nd - 200 men, 2nd level Fighters, Equipped with Magic Weapon and Magic Armor
- Golden Guard - 50 men, 6th level Fighters, Equipped with Magic Weapon and Magic Armor
- Red Mercenaries (Orth) - 100 men, 1st level Fighters, Normal Equipment
- Gantholorank (Goliath Mercenaries) - 20 men, 4th level Barbarians, Normal Equipment
- Sunriders (Elite Hippogryph Riders) - 50 men, 6th level Fighers, Magic Weapons, Magic Armor, Flying Mounts
- Canyon Rangers - 1000 men, 2nd level Rangers, Normal Equipment, Healing Potions
- Ork Riders (Wolf Riders) - 500 men, 2nd level Barbarians, Normal Equipment, Heavy Mounts

Havoc · Nov 15, 2017

Here's the party roster as of now. Stuff might change, like alignment. Short summary:

- Balasar Thunderscale - Dragonborn (Bronze), Warlock (Pact with Great Old One), Background Hermit, Alignment not chosen yet - Stats STR 12, DEX 13, CON 15, INT 12, WIS 12, CHA 16
- Finnan Quickstep - Halfling (Lightfoot), Bard (Not chosen yet), Background Entertainer, Alignment Chaotic Neutral - Stats STR 16, DEX 15, CON 14, INT 15, WIS 10, CHA 19
- Mario de Capodimonte - Human, Paladin (for now Oath of Ancients), Background Noble (Knight), Alignment True Neutral - Stats STR 16, DEX 14, CON 14, INT 14, WIS 13, CHA 17
- Elhaeltôr - Elf (High), Wizard (Lore Mastery), Background Archaeologist, Alignment Neutral Good - Stats STR 5, DEX 20, CON 15, INT 17, WIS 17, CHA 17 (yeah, he rolled those xd)
- Solange Sunseer - Aasimar (Sourge), Monk (Sun Soul), Background Hermit, Alignment Neutral Good - Stats STR 14, DEX 17, CON 16, INT 12, WIS 15, CHA 12

More in depth:

Balasar Thunderscale

Name: Balasar Thunderscale
Race: Dragonborn (Blue)
Background: Hermit
Alignment: ?
Classes: Warlock (Pact with Great Old One) 1
Stats:
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
12 13 15 12 12 16
Chosen Skills: Arcana, History, Intimidation, Investigation
Tools: Catography
Languages: Common, Draconic, Dwarven
Interesting Tidbits:
- History of this character is not yet made, so no info here
- He saw a vision of Humanity's real reason to come to Tethys.
- This character knows personally Elhaeltôr, before the curse got to him. Since then he takes care of the elf.

Finnan Quickstep

Name: Finnan Quickstep
Race: Halfling (Lightfoot)
Background: Entertainer
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
Classes: Bard (?) 1
Stats:
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
16 15 14 15 10 19
Chosen Skills: Acrobatics, Deception, Intimidation, Performance, Persuasion
Tools: Disguise Kit, Fiddle, Lute, Flute, Drums
Languages: Common, Halfling
Interesting Tidbits:
- History of this character is not yet made, so no info here
- The player wants to portray the halflings more along the lines of Irish people.

Mario de Capodimonte

Name: Mario de Capodimonte
Race: Human
Background: Noble (Knight)
Alignment: True Neutral
Classes: Paladin (Oath of Ancients) 1
Stats:
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
16 14 14 14 13 17
Chosen Skills: Athletics, History, Persuasion, Religion
Tools: Gaming Set
Languages: Common, Southener (his people language), Draconic, Halfling, Midlandish (right next to Common, used by humans)
Interesting Tidbits:
- History of this character is not yet made, but there is some info.
- The character was born in Oasis, the City State, where wine and decadence flows. This place is full of people that turned into partying after revolting against a tyrant red dragon.
- Because of current political climate, the Oasis is between two (soon) warring countries and rips them both on trade.
- The character is said to have roots in the Canyon of Fool's Gold, where the game will be set.
- The paladin order is called Knights of the Table, where they take care of inns, hospitality and roads.

Elhaeltôr

Name: Elhaeltôr
Race: Elf (High)
Background: Archaeologist
Alignment: Neutral Good
Classes: Wizard (Lore Mastery) 1
Stats:
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
5 20 15 17 17 17
Chosen Skills: Arcana, History, Investigation, Survival
Tools: Thieves Tools
Languages: Common, Elven, High Elven (which is very rare and used with very powerful High Magic), Actuvian (the language of the first humans, more akin to Roman Latin)
Interesting Tidbits:
- History of this character is not yet made, but there is some info.
- The character was a very powerful elven wizard, who had a lot of students. During this time his was a oponent of elven isolationism, where he saw the elves as guides that would help other races to achieve greatness.
- His good nature took him on a quest with Balasar, where they wanted to know the nature of Balasar's vision.
- When the Elf tried to communicate or otherwise mess with the Great Old One, he was stricken with a powerful curse.
- His powers, strength was sapped. His memory was gone and is only now coming back.

Solange Sunseer

Name: Solange Sunseer
Race: Aasimar (Scourge)
Background: Hermit
Alignment: Neutral Good
Classes: Monk (Sun Souls) 1
Stats:
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
14 17 16 12 15 12
Chosen Skills: Acrobatics, Athletics, Medicine, Religion, Stealth
Tools: Lute, Herbalism Kit
Languages: Common, Celestial, Orcish
Interesting Tidbits:
- History of this character is not yet made, but there is some info.
- He was raised up in a monstery in the Steppes of Memory. This place, with Steppes of Death, were once peninsulas and a island, but after the death of High King Actur, a giant tsunami swept these places, creating an isthmus. Everybody died there, so there are only ruins and undead roam the lands. The monastery was created there to fight the undead. They call it Monastery of The First Sun, where they worship the Sun Lord.
- The character, during his training, had a vision while being in near-death. He saw something to akin that the Sun Lord is the real god, while the rest are fakes. After that he sets off to praise the sun and talk about his god. Now called Seer-Errant, but the polish translation maybe gives it a better vibe (Błędny Prorok, like Błędny Rycerz).
- Yeah, the character is based on Solaire - joyous cooperation, fun and adventure.
- Aasimar elements: Glowing eyes, Glowing Hands, Sacred Birthmark, Always Well Lit, Skin of Unusual Hue

Havoc · Nov 15, 2017

The game will start (or be set, depending if the players will want to stay there) in a place called Fool's Gold Canyon. This place is between two seas - Twin Seas and Inner Sea, and two major countries - Kingdom of Actur and Kingdom of the Vale, while being next to the Forest of Traitors (drow lands). Long ago this place was the riches of them all. Kingdom of the Golden Brook had literally rivers with gold (ore) flowing. This made the place very rich, very quickly, so to avert enemies, they created giant walls around their country, but they weren't isolationists. The biggest city of whole Tethys - The Golden City was their capitol. It had over two million souls and it was said to be the most lavish place on the whole planet, where nobody was out of work - the country always had something to do for you, if you couldn't find work.

The place was so great, it was considered to be the capitol of Dominium of Trinity, when High King Actur came, but a lot of disagreements followed and a new city was formed not far from the country. This was the beginning of the fall. When Actur was struck, the whole world trembled and with it the mentioned country. It sunk, one kilometer down, killing (presumably) everybody in whole land. The Golden City was in ruins, no magic could have stopped this catastrophe. If that wasn't worse, this is also considered the moment Undead show up in this world and their biggest origin place? Yes, Kingdom of the Golden Brook was no more and the place was called Fool's Gold Canyon. Undead roamed the land and it was considered a lost cause, until many years later, when the first settlers began to come, turn back the undead horde (and make place for more monsters). Now the Golden City is a place where a lot of adventurers go to and many countries try to get into.

This is the place on the main map:

Each hex is 24 miles or 39 kilometers, so travel on road takes one day, while forest and hills two days and mountains and thick forests three days. This allowed be to work on hexographer and with Roll20 fog of war, I can create places yet to explore by the party. Here is how it looks:

Havoc · Nov 22, 2017

There were some updates and changes to the party, but nothing major - just updates on names, character history and such. Everything up-to-date will be in the first post of this thread.

---

Chapter I

Session 1: The first descent

The game starts in summer. The group sets out from city of Todi in Kingdom of Actur. Many in the kingdom get ready for the month of Actuviun, where the whole country is in mourning of the lost of High King Actur - which was over 300 years ago. The group has personal goals in the Canyon, so they band together and decide to become adventurers. They visit the Great Guild of Adventurers, where they get their first quest (and test) - the miller's daughter was abducted by goblins in the village of Greenleaf. Having now a job to do on the way there, they go to the border checkpoint called Ascensore. The canyon awaits - full of monsters, undead and many different agents. This was the summary for the start. What is important - they need the adventurer's license, since the whole canyon is "neutral ground," but more like there's no laws there, no central rulership and armies from different countries can do whatever they want. The license might stop most of them, before they decide to execute the group for being "foreign agents." There is also a different license, but that will happen in the city (more like town, around 5000 citizens) of Orth, that is the central place in canyon and the trade route.

Ascensore

The Kingdom of the Golden Brook was the richest place on Tethys. They were also a little paranoid (rightly so) of their neighbors, so they invested in walls around the border. These were no small China Wall walls. These were huge and thick walls that would withstand siege for decades. They bought the best dwarven craftsmen to create the most sturdy and everlasting walls. They bought the best elven craftsmen to decorate them, so to show the whole world - look at us and bask in our splendor. One of this great marvels were the gates. Bigger that even the biggest entrances to Dragon Fortresses, but also richly decorated with huge stone soldiers standing. These soldiers tend to have golden, as the legends say, helmets that would shine over kilometers, so everybody would see that the gate is there.

This was long ago. When the whole country fell down, the rift was next to the walls. It decimated the great walls and created horrid lands all over the canyon. Mainly in the canyon, the stuff high up was doing fine. One of these places was Ascensore. This had a small portion of the walls and gate. When civilization came back, they had to add palisades around it. This place over time became a border checkpoint, where people took the lift down to the canyon. Now it serves as a military outpost of the Alliance of Northern Kingdoms, an alliance between couple of countries in the north. One of which was Kingdom of Actur, which first proposed the alliance. It's goal is to fight against upcoming war with the Great Empire of Freedom.

Captain Mozikth Jharthraxyn
Commander of Ascensore Outpost
Second Scale of the Order of Divine Scale

The group entered the outpost without a hitch. Almost 300 people, mainly soldiers, reside here, but they do nothing. The group had to report to the captain of the outpost, who was called Mozikth Jharthraxyn, a dragonborn. This paladin greeted the group in his study. They learnt that he is of the Order of Divine Scale, a legendary paladin order which helped High King Actur unite Tethys. They are mostly Dragonborn, but they accept other races also. They all take the Oath of Devotion. He didn't check their stuff, but they did ask who will, so he told them about Sergeant Jaxlyn, a human ranger, that not only will do that, but also take them down to the canyon. They also talked about their assignment by the Great Guild and the dragonborn revealed that he cannot help the village, no matter how much he wants to. Before he wished them happy journey, he asked them about a small request - since they are traveling to Orth, they could take the letter to his friend. The paladin couldn't pay upfront, but said his friend will pay for it. They accepted and got the letter to Gwendolyn, the leader of Great Guild of Adventurers in Orth.

The letter was in the hands of the halfling. He was asked to give it to Luigi, the follower of Mario. He did that, but swapped the letters, so the boy has Finnean's letter, not the paladin's one. Everybody decided that they will leave Ascensore the next morning, so they can party in the local tavern. This place had some rooms to spare, almost nobody at this time visited the outpost, except a small group of gnomes. The adventurers talked to the innkeeper, only to find out that he was another soldier, an officer at that. Finnean decided to use his charming performance to get free drinks and lodgings, which worked marvelously, since the whole lot didn't have any fun in a long time. The group finally could relax and have some fun.

Magister Fablen Gummen
Guild of Architects, Geography, Cartography and Technical Drawing of Quadropolis

Even the gnomes were happy with the entertainment, stopping their gnomish discussion and allowing the group to talk to them. They learnt that they came here on the orders of the guild from Quadropolis called Guild of Architects, Geography, Cartography and Technical Drawing of Quadropolis. They leader, Magister Fablen Gummen, was happy to talk to them. Apparently the canyon is falling down. They had maps from decades before that marked the numbers. The fall is very slow and nobody knows if it will stop or it will speed up. The magister is here to find out. They also talked about his knowledge of the canyon, but didn't have any new map of the inner lands, mainly the outer perimeter and only from the north side. They did learn however that the rivers dried up. The Golden Brook was no more. Also after the fall, the seas started to "move" and a flood was going on, because the East Twin Sea was overflowing to the canyon. The dwarves, asked and paid, by the neighboring countries build a massive Dam to stop the flow, so only a river goes through the whole canyon. Called the River of the Golden Return. This river goes through couple of places. It forks in one place, to flow into the city of Orth, the other side flows straight through the mountains of the Golden Range, then through the ruins of the Golden City and finally through other ruins and into Canyon Sink. The last place is one of the most concern to the gnomes. They believe that water forming there will erode the land enough for the Inner Sea to flood the area and another dam will be needed.

The gnomes didn't have more useful information. They were merely geographers, not historians or adventurers. They did however say that they will be leaving Ascensore soon and maybe they will travel with the party together to Orth. The group then left to meet with Officer Jaxlyn, who was waiting for them next to the bar, after they went to talk to the gnomes. Jaxlyn was ready to transport them down, even right now, but they wanted to leave the next morning. They also revealed that he checks baggage on the border, which he was annoyed that the party learnt that. The officer wanted to make a "surprise" inspection, but now since the cat is out of the bag, they were searched on the spot. Everything that was considered illegal had to be confiscated, but the party had none of it. They also learn that goods from the Great Empire are considered illegal, even the alcohol. The soldiers also watch for narcotics and military marked equipment. Finnean did ask about his mandolin, but Jaxlyn didn't remember if he was the one the halfling was describing. He did however inform that couple of caravans passed and he saw those instruments with those people, but he didn't care enough to remember how they looked. This was also a moment that would resolve differently if they were on the lift. Jaxlyn would be more talkative there, but since they were talking in the tavern he couldn't.

The group then returned to have some fun. Finnean played some music. Mario and Balasar were gathering some rumors and legends about the canyon. While Solange was preaching about his god. The elf wasn't on this session. So when they went to bed, they shared their information. Solange successfully (with a natural 20) converted a couple of young people to the Lord Sun, which in future might grant him followers. Mario and Balasar learned that the legends say about the first group of adventurers called Bone Coterie (Kościana Koteria), which first set foot in the canyon and fought many undead. They were a lot of them back then, 300 years ago. Also, if the legends are true, the group defeated an undead dragon, made out of bones. After that their leader, Orth, a human decided to settle down in the canyon and built a inn, which after many generations became a town. This place was specifically chosen, because it was right next to a huge hole (sinkhole?) that was over a kilometer wide. Now the whole town is around it and calling the hole the Abyss. The group learned that many people ventured down, but it's not fully explored. Also, apparently the water from the river just flows to the hole and it's happening for over 200 years. They are yet to see the hole fill up.

Adventurers went to sleep and without problems (except for a hangover or two), woke up the next morning. They officers that were the innkeepers were long gone, morning it was only a recruit that made breakfast for the group. The gnomes were wide awake and finishing their food very quickly. Before the adventurers could even pick up their forks, the gnomes finished and left the tavern. They wanted to work as soon as possible, at least that's how they looked. The group finished their food, met with Jaxlyn and went the elevator down to the canyon. The whole mechanism was huge. Working on pulleys, wooden and stone construction, it allowed caravans to descend down. It took only from 10 to 15 minutes, so the group could relax and see the canyon. It was a marvelous and raw place, almost untouched by man. From that high they could see three things - two villages, one of Greenleaf, next to a huge forest and the other was the mountain range which they heard about. Apparently the countryside is full of goblins, orcs, kobolds and gnolls. The group will have their hands full. The "worst" sight was the lands just next to the cliffs. The land was ravaged by the land fall. Mountains broke. Hills split in half. The land opened up. Centuries ago this would look very devastating - stone, dirt, the broken walls and bodies. Now it's covered with grass, but the land is no good. It has to be terraformed. Nobody in their right mind would work on the fields and travel here would be especially hard. Good that the people of the canyon created a stone road going from one border checkpoint to the other. Travel is fine on the road, but not safe. These lands are not patrolled, so people need to watch out and travel in large groups. Jaxlyn informed the group that the goblins lately are leaving the forest in much greater numbers. He doesn't know why. He saw them once transporting a large chest, but couldn't do anything about it at that time.

At the bottom of the elevator, there was a small outpost with big wooden palisades. These people were prepared to repel monsters and small sieges, but since the elevator took 10-15 minutes, they only had to last that long to wait for reinforcements. The group set out and traveled to the nearest for that would lead the to Greenleaf.

Havoc · Nov 23, 2017

The elf came back and with session 1, we had a full session (about 5h long). The group didn't level up, since, for now, my rule is that you have to have a long rest in a "safe" environment to level up.

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Chapter I

Session 2: The goblin menace

The group began where they left off - leaving the lower outpost of Ascensore. The roads in this jagged hills are very well made and people take care of them, but the area is still dangerous. The party had their fair share of that. After couple of hours of travel, they find the crossroad sign. Four places were pointed. Greenleaf to southeast. Ascensore to north. Morqueto and Orth to the southwest. Of course, the party turned towards their goal. Their first problem arose, when during travel Elhaeltôr saw signs of blood. An old wall, not higher than three meters and only as a part of a corner. On that wall he saw traces of blood, fresh blood, but also a gnoll that hid himself behind it. He was wounded. The party decided to move towards the gnoll and just when they were just couple of meters near the wall, the monster jumped out and attacked them. They saw he was very seriously injured, he was hit with at least eight arrows. Also he had strange claws and his fangs leaked green slime. He hit Mario, very dangerously strong, but was taken down before he can do more damage. The gnoll was far from his "home", that was to the west. The party later learned that the Green Forest, where Greenleaf is, there are no gnolls there. This was a strange "scout" that was mutated with magic. In this world, the monster races were created using other intelligent races. So, gnolls were created out of elves, because of that, they are more inclined in magic. The group continued their journey.

Village of Greenleaf

The Green Forest just began and the group couldn't see it's beauty to the fullest. Until that will happen, they found the village of Greenleaf. These are very harsh and dangerous lands, so you have to be really hardy and strong to fight off monsters. The village was surrounded by wooden palisades, they had trained militia and they worked mostly as lumberjacks. The wood from Green Forest is very pricey, since it's very hard and great for big constructions. To work on those trees, you had to be skillful how to cut them, so it's something passed from father to son.

Inside the village their met a lot of people and visited some places. First was Old Silver, an half-elf that was the innkeeper of Silver Willow inn. They talked to him about their quest - finding the miller's daughter. Apparently she went with couple of lumberjacks to the forest and the goblins abducted her during an attack. Since then people can leave the village only with guards. He also said to them that the goblins are encroaching for a few months. They asked for any information, so he told the rumor he heard from the lumberjacks - they heard a huge roar in the forest. People started talking that the goblins have a dragon, but the innkeeper doesn't believe those words. The group then met with other people. Also, Elhaeltôr got himself a set of Thieves' Tools, since he is proficient with them. They learned there that Claire Garet, the miller's daughter, was liked by the triplet grandsons of the blacksmith, but the grandfather didn't like the miller, so they didn't get a discount, when they mentioned the miller. Then they went to the miller, that was in very bad shape - not sleeping for weeks, but still working. When he understood, the group came to help him find Claire, he was happy and almost hugged Mario to death. They asked him what happened, so with crying words he explained what happened - the sons, Ian and Banny, wanted to test their mantle as lumberjacks, so they went with five of them, when they went to the Green Forest. Miles wasn't happy about his sons going there, so he told his daughter to go with them to "keep them safe from their own stupidity." The miller thinks he killed his own daughter because of that. There wasn't a lot of information they could gather from him.

They then left to see couple of other people. First was the old seer (guślarz), which was an old, blind woman. She "foresaw" coming of a "sunny group", which made the group (except for Solange) to cringe - they already dislike Solange overbearing talking about his Lord Sun and how he is the only true god. She told them about the goblin menace, that they started to be more annoying and she saw that they could be staying in a cave that is a day to the east from here. She also told them to be quick, because they might not have enough time. After meeting with the crazy old woman, they went to meet with the militia leader, that also was the head ranger. From him they learned that not only the goblins seem more organized, but also "with goals in mind", since they started first scouting the villagers, then attacking when they were the most vulnerable - when the woman was with them. He told them that he cannot go with them, since he needs to defend the village, but told them how to get to the cave, but also about a ruined fort northeast from the caves. He was there a year ago and it was empty. It could have changed since then. He reminded the group that not only saving Claire was on the bounty, but also getting rid of the goblins was awarded extra. The group left to meet with the lumberjacks, but they gained nothing special out of them - they just told the group how it all went down. Also the group met with the miller's sons in the chapel of the Trinity. Their father ordered them to pray everyday for Claire safe return and maybe somebody will listen to their request. Of course, the kids wanted to go with the group, but they declined, since that would be suicide for the young millers. The party then rested up in the inn and went out.

The Green Forest

The Green Forest is truly a marvel. Huge trees. Brooks that go through it come from the mountain wall to the north. All of this, especially in the morning, gives a truly beautiful feeling of splendor in this forest. They also found out that the trees here stay green even in the winter. The group however didn't have time to spend time with the trees, so marched forward to the caves. During their travels, they almost fought a worg, but thanks to the elven survival skills, they walked around his lair. After many hours, the land started to become jagged, hills started to form. This is the place where the canyon started to "form" or more like this were the land ended breaking during the fall. It wasn't long before they found the cliff, so they followed it, until they found some effigy. This was clearly goblin made. It had humanoid "shape" with wooden legs and arms. The head of a goat, all in blood, but also something strange - couple of wooden planks that were behind the head making a "halo." At first they thought this was the symbol of Lord Sun, but it was just a joke towards Solange. They didn't put two and two together - this was a representation of the dragon that leads the goblins.

The Goblin Cave

After leaving the effigy, they found the cave entrance. There they saw three goblins inside, playing with fire and sticks. They didn't care what was happening outside or they didn't hear it. The group then decided to sneak up on them and attack. It was very quick - the goblins didn't have a moment to act. The group found that the goblins had a lot of burn marks. "They are playing with fire, of course they are burnt." That wasn't the case. The scars are on almost all of the goblins and it isn't self-inflicted. It was the dragon's breath. The group moved pass the door and found some junk. Searching through it, they found a healing potion and a set of manacles. In the next room they found a lot of goblins, playing with stones and pieces of wood. They were gambling, but they had no riches of their own - another sign that a dragon is ruling over them. The fight was hard, since the party was low level, so one hit can be pretty devastating. They dispatched the goblins and went to the next room, which was the place where the goblins slept, but there were a lot of beds here - it means that they are a lot more of goblins around the area.

The Old Goblin

Here they found an old goblin sitting next to the fire, but also with his pet spider. The group thought he could cast magic, but he was just old. Balasar casted a hex on the spider, so that alerted the pair. The goblin apparently knew Common pretty well and was called Haycrisp. They talked to him for a bit. The group learned that the dragon isn't here anymore - he was growing too big and had to change lairs. Haycrisp doesn't know where it went. They asked him about the woman, so he bluffed she went "south" (to the chief room), but that was a lie - the goblin hoped the group would just run into the corridor. He told them that the dragon hatched in the caves "north", so the group can go to that corridor to find parts of his egg. Apparently the eggs was bigger than the goblin and the dragon, when he last saw him, was a lot bigger. The group decided to intimidate the goblin to go with them to the egg cave, so he agreed, but is ready to betray them. This is where we ended the session.

Grunker · Nov 23, 2017

This LP is awesome <3

Havoc · Nov 24, 2017

We had some time, so we started another session. This took us three hours and after that the players are level 3.

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Chapter I

Session 3: The true goblin leader

The party decided to move "north" to check for the dragon's egg. They wanted to shackle the goblin, but saw that this would only lead to a fight, since he will resist them, so they just threatened him to move first. Unfortunately the corridor was too low and tight for a medium humanoid to pass without ease. Small creatures like goblins and halfling could walk through without much problem, but the rest party would have to crawl inside. The group decided that Finnean would go and check out what's there. He was given a torch, because halfling couldn't see in total darkness.

Finn saw a big cavern. Wet, water dripping down and a big pool of murky water. He was paranoid of what could lie there, so he ignored it and checked around. After taking a right turn, he saw a place that could have been the dragon's nest. Lots of old footprints - goblin and lizardlike. This was the first real evidence that the tribe has a dragon. After searching for a while, he found some strange broken eggshells. First off, they glowed in red, green and black. Second, the eggshell had strange coloring, it went from black as night to bloody crimson. Third, holding them made someone uneasy. Finnean didn't have a lot of information at ready, but knew this wasn't no ordinary egg. When he compared the elements he saw something even stranger - the egg was more of a polygon. It wasn't egglike, nothing natural it seems. He came back to the party with the information.

The group saw that the halfling returned unscathed, also the goblin was looking kinda shocked. Some of the party saw that and turned on the goblin, which revealed under intimidation that there was a monster in the cave, a giant worm in the waters, but Finnean returned unharmed. Under duress, they pried more information out of him, which revealed that there was a trap in the corridor leading to the goblin chief. Before the party could decide what to do, the more arcane focused part concluded that the egg wasn't natural, but it had to be from a dragon or some similar being. Now was the challenge. The party was split on what would be their next course of action. They needed information, but also needed to take care of the goblin chief. Elhaeltôr tried to reason with the goblin, hearing his dislike of the dragon's tyranny over the tribe. He successfully persuaded the old goblin, so he proposed that he would go to the chief, gather information where the dragon is and also the woman. The party argued what to do, because they didn't believe the goblins and some wanted to kill them outright, but after some arguing they decided that they would follow the elf's lead on this.

They waited some time, before the old goblin, Haycrisp returned to the party. He informed them, that the dragon left when the woman was still here, but since he was too big, he went to the old ruined fort. Apparently the goblins were scared of that place, because a terrible being that ate souls lived there. The dragon however defeated the creature and took over the fort. Haycrisp also informed that the tribe wanted to sacrifice the woman to the dragon, but if she isn't still dead, then something has happened. The party now knew that they will need to challenge a dragon. This would end badly, at least how the group saw it. The goblin revealed that the goblin chief, Rotnose, knows about them coming, so he is ready for them. The party told the old goblin to run away, so he did. Coming back would be suicide for him.

During the next fight, the two players - Finnean and Mario could show off their magic items. Granted them for writing their character backstories. Mario had the family's shield. It was magical, but it's real power was never revealed, since the family had roots in the Canyon, but never came back to it. For now it worked like an animated shield - it left the user's hand and guarded him like a real shield, allowing his other hand to be used. While Finn had a rusty bag. Called Rusty Bag of Fluffy Creatures, this allowed the halfling to conjure up creatures to aid them. He didn't have a lot of luck with it - he threw something out of it and twice a rat came out (he used it again later with roll 1, so that's three rats), but one of the three times he could do it per day it was a lion. The group had a lot of help to fight the goblins that were in total darkness. They knew the party needed to see, so they would have a torch or other kind of light. This allowed them to fire shots from the shadows. The archers stood on wooded platforms, high, so people needed to climb or chop it down to get to them. Fortunately, the fight went in the party's favor. First, Elhaeltôr threw magic fire on one of the platforms, so it would be not usable by the goblins. Second, Solange could show his magical sash that allowed him to jump longer distances doing unarmed attacks (imagine Liu Kang from MK with his Flying Dragon Kick or Bicycle Kick, also Lee Sin from LoL with his Q). Third, the lion was Large, so he posed a greater threat in the goblin's minds, so he tanked a lot of damage.

Rotnose
Chief of Burning Goblins tribe

The party also "met" with the leader of the tribe. While they entered the cavern, they saw two glowing, hellish eyes. It was the goblin chief - Rotnose. When the party attacked, he came to the them to fight. They saw that not only he was bigger (still not medium size), but also stronger looking. This wasn't no ordinary goblin. He boasted about their strength and that of the dragon's. They didn't talk to him nor wanted him to be alive, so they killed him quick. The combat also didn't last long. After killing almost all the goblins in the cavern, the rest started to run away, but were killed in the process. The lion was at death's door. The group however used their time to check around for treasure. Rotnose was the only goblin that had some hidden behind his throne. They had to give all of it to their dragon master. They found some gold and silver pieces, some arrows, two potions - heroism and healing, but also some strange "artifact." This was called an Actuvian Tetrahedron. An old "magic" item, which worked like a scroll that you didn't need to be a wizard to cast it. The Actuvians used these during their invasion. All you have to do is to hold this 2-3cm object, touching all it's sides and throwing it at your intendent target. Of course, you need to know what is that spell, because you don't want to throw a very useful spell at an enemy.

After that the group decided to rest in the "north" cavern, but not in the big one, just the smaller, so they could regain strength (and level up). They found that the goblin helmet was magical. When he died and his helmet flew off, his magical eyes turned normal. It was a Helm of Fear, granting the user an advantage on Intimidation if the target would be intimidated by something like this. During their rest, they heard the goblins, couple of groups, that entered the cavern, but after realizing that their chief is dead, they run away from this place. The party could rest peacefully and travel to their destination - the ruined fort. This journey was stopped after couple of hours. Their "survival expert" didn't find goblin tracks nor any other, but also with a nat 1 fell into a group of goblin riders. The goblins rode hogs and a fight ensued (the goblins were also surprised by the group). After the combat, they found out that this wasn't a patrol, but just hunters.

The group left the combat area and traveled further, this time they saw a lot of tracks from the goblins, hogs and pulled on the ground caught creatures. The keep however was in mixed state. Some of the old thick walls survived, some older ones were "repaired" or were a part of old buildings and the moat was the worst thing - it was used as a refuse for the goblins. It was full of decaying meat, bones and other fluids. It stank from afar, but this didn't phase the goblins. The group decided to split - Elhaeltôr and Solange would scout ahead and see what's going on. They found that there is a pen holding pigs and there are two goblins working on meat all the time. Solange went to the next entrance and heard somebody opening a wooden door, from it three goblin riders came out. They weren't in a hurry, this was clearly a patrol. It went south and then west... into the the rest of the party. They didn't see each other, so Solange ran to the group telling them about the enemies. Without Elhaeltôr, the group decided to make an ambush (with couple of minutes to prepare, so you know how this ended). They were sighted and a fight ensued. The goblins had bad rolls, so the party decimated them with ease. With their victory. The tired group decided to retreat with the elf, so they could rest up (and gain their 3rd level, finally becoming their class in 5e).

Havoc · Nov 25, 2017

Another session on Friday, we somehow got together again. This time we played 6-7 hours (we play mainly 8pm, so we ended the game about 2am), the longest session we had for a long time. The players almost reached 4 level (only 95xp short).

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Chapter I

Session 4: A threat or an ally?

The party woke up the next morning and found couple of things. First, the goblins didn't find their hidden camp. Second, the goblins they defeated weren't found. Third, there were a lot more goblins nearby than before. The goblins knew about two parties that were missing - one of the hunters and one patrol, so a group gathered (about nine goblins, three of which were riders) before the entrance to watch anybody coming. The party was still discussing the way to achieve their goal, but then two things happened that made them run to the keep with swords drawn. Firstly, a big party of goblins left the keep. Nearly fifty goblins. They scattered after leaving, these were hunting parties. Then, the whole group, could hear a dragon's roar and a faint woman's scream. They had to act. The group attacked the guarding goblins. Solange could show off his new powers of attacking with bolts of pure light. The goblins were more a nuisance now than before.

They ventured inside, jumping over the moat of sewage. Next to them was a pig pen, where they heard a lot of piglets and right next to them, behind the wall, they could still hear those two goblins. Now they were just making fire and sharpening their blades. When they entered the courtyard, they could see the cruelty of the dragon and why the goblins had burnt scar marks. He was roasting them. They didn't investigate how he was doing this - they could have found out he actually has two kinds of attack. They thought they were running out of time. Also, they found a temple next to the courtyard, that connected to a storage room. Here lied a dead goblin, that slipped and cracked his skull over a well. The group could decipher to whom the temple was consecrated to. They left this place and moved the next, where they found an empty, cleaned place, with spots to meditate. There two figures dressed in shaggy robes were sitting, the party couldn't see their faces nor their hands, but the creatures were humanoid in form. When the group entered the room, the creatures stood up.

These beings were creatures of pure magic. Spell constructs. Their bodies were made of magical symbols that flow through theem and formed their bodies and faces. They were created long time ago in the Golden City and their creation went all over the world. Mainly now can be seen in The University (a magical, floating city of wizards, you can't really translate the word we have in polish - Wszechnica, which just sounds cool). The group was discussing what to do next, since the creatures didn't attack them. They tried to communicate with them, only to find out that they could not only understand Common, but also speak in it. The constructs couldn't reveal their master, the dragon's plan, but they revealed where he is and his name - Ragmaw. They successfully persuaded the construct that the dragon will have no problems with the group, so he agreed to take them to their master. The group followed the creature to the next room, where apparently, they were conducting research for the dragon. Draconic was written all over the place - the walls, tables and a lot of notes. Also some old artifacts from these ruins. They saw a chest in here, closed, but since they were following the construct, they couldn't check what was inside. They entered the corridor next. Almost the whole group saw a door to their right (south), but not Mario for some reason. This wasn't revealed to him until later. To their left they saw two pairs of doors. One was a simple door, seemed unlocked. The other was massive with a gargoyle on it. This was a magical trap that the construct disarmed by uttering "Ixen vur Wiivai” or “Fire and Fury" in Draconic. This made the gargoyle's eyes close. The construct then allowed the group pass, but stayed in the corridor. This was the most important information for the group now. Not only the construct stayed in the corridor, but the group forgot to close the door behind them (not only talking about the research door, but also the dragon's door).

Ragmaw
The True Leader of Burning Goblins
The Crossbreed

They entered the big room. This had to be some kind of giant tower or something in that manner. Great statues of knights stood all over the room. It was cleaned up, but not fixed - some of the statues were destroyed beyond recognition. The floor sloped down, like something heavy was lying in the center. There, on beautiful carpets, was the dragon. His scales were black and crimson. Black smoke puffed out of his nostrils. The tail moved from one place to another, scratching the floor. His eyes were closed, like he was sleeping or meditating, but when the group entered, they opened with frightful speed. They glowed with burning curiosity. He didn't attack the group, only greeted them in his lair. Some of them wanted to attack him, but the halfling talked with respect towards the dragon. He was very curious about them, who and especially what they were (Balasar wasn't here at this time). The group however was interested in the woman. Not far from the dragon's hoard, there was the miller's daughter. Claire was scared for her life, but was only dirty. She was fed and still have strength. The dragon explained she is very useful for him, but too fearful. He learnt Common from her. The group however wasn't going to negotiate with a dragon. So when they told him to give the woman back, he told them only if the village would make monthly tribute. This was the tipping point and they attacked.

Before I go into details how the fight went. I want to explain what was the situation here. First, the group was not prepared to fight him - they didn't know what he could do. Second, I explained many times that these "buildings" do not have roofs, this is an disadvantage for people who are close quarters combatants. Third, remember what I told before about doors? Yeah, when the fight broke out the construct informed the others that they are attacking their master. So it was a fight against a CR 4 dragon and FOUR CR 2 constructs. Also, the elf wanted to cast sleep on the dragon before he could explain the deal what he wanted for the girl, but we scratched that, since he wrongly read the spell - it was per hit points, not per hit dice. Also, before I start telling how the fight went, remember that this dragon is curious about them. He wants information, knowledge from them, not their deaths or treasures, so he is going to be easy on them. Of course, there is a "hit point threshold." If the group will fell the dragon to 50% health, he will understand that these creatures want him dead, so he will kill them.

This is the music I used for the battle.

The fight starts very heavily. Halfling wanted to jump on the dragon, but failed. The dragon's breath (the first one, the second is a fire breath) is a... heatwave. It makes people exhausted if they fail their roll. Only the elf fails this roll and has a disadvantage to ability checks (pure ability checks and skills, not attacks nor saving throws). The dragon flies high, so they can't restrain him with magic. This allows Finn to make an attack of opportunity against the dragon. He hits, but suddenly sees that the dragon's blood is green - it's acid and hurts his hand. Solange runs to the woman, but can't persuade her to go with him - he will have to use his strength to take her. Mario with the elf attack the construct in the corridor. Then the construct goes, he can cast spells, so the party now understands that this might be a TPK if they will play their cards wrongly. Next round, Finn casts Silence at the corridor. The dragon regains his heatwave breath, so throws it against Solange, but only him (he makes sure he misses the woman). Solange succeeds on the roll, takes the woman and with monk speed dashes to the corridor. Elhaeltôr and Mario fight against construct, but fail to kill it. Suddenly they see that the construct not only block the passage to the laboratory, but also casted Grease before the door. Next round, the halfling tries to enter the room next to the dragon's lair. Ragmaw uses his magic, to shock of the players. This young dragon, that is only one your old is not only big like a warhorse, but also can cast magic? Something at foul was here. He casted... fog cloud, so the characters don't know what is going on around them nor where to run to. Solange with his monkish skills jumps over the wall, that was near him, lands on the chest, but doesn't fall prone. He tries to run "forwards", hits the table, jumps on it and makes it out of the fog, right before one of the constructs. Halfling is inside the other corridor and sees stairs down, but he feels this uncomfortable dread. An evil creature resides there. This was a bad plan. Mario kills the construct and runs to the corridor, while Elhaeltôr goes back to the dragon to cast spells against him. Balasar comes back at this time. The fight was nearly over. Why? The constructs' turn. They were immune to blind, so they saw Solange all the time. They ganged up on him and brought him to 0 HP and one of them shouted that "they have the girl" in Draconic. Fortunately Mario and Balasar knew this language and shouted that in Common for the rest of the party. Halfling went to Balasar by jumping over the walls. Mario fell flat on the grease, trying to get to Solange. The dragon went to the unconscious monk and woman. He flew with them high, very high. Ordered the rest to surrender. They agreed and went to the courtyard. There they waited for the dragon to land.

The dragon however flying waited for Solange to wake up. The aasimar regained consciousness and saw the woman was in the dragon's grasp also, but was strangely not fearful - magical suggestion. The monk wanted to fight against the dragon, but that would mean his death, so the Ragmaw persuaded him not to struggle or he could fall with the woman. The dragon was impressed with his resolve, courage and strength. He never saw something like this in his life. The goblins never were like this. They tortured him when he was little and learned that the only thing this little monsters understand is brute force. He told him that this fight made him understand one thing - there could many more creatures like Solange that would risk their lives for this woman. Ragmaw presented him with a deal. Solange with his group will defeat the evil that is beneath, that he couldn't do himself - it was confined space and the shadow doesn't want to leave. It feasts on souls. Also, he told him that he will leave the village and travel to another place with his goblins. Solange wanted to agree to the terms, but Ragmaw had to present the deal himself. The dragon agree. During this time, Solange was talking a lot about his god - Lord Sun. The curious dragon inquired about him. The aasimar spoke about his splendor, but also that to him, he is the only true god. Ragmaw told him to look down, because he taught he saw something like this. When Solange looked down, he saw that there was another big room, just like Ragmaw's. It was thought the door to the right, opposite of the dragon's lair. With no ceiling he saw inside the symbol of Lord Sun engraved in the mosaic floor. This place was special to his faith, but didn't know why. The dragon explained that he knows of that place, but cannot enter, because some unseen force forbids him.

The dragon swoop down to put Solange, that was in critical health, on the group not far from the group. The aasimar explained that the dragon has a deal for the group. Ragmaw shouted that he is willing to part with the woman on the condition that they defeat the evil creature that eats souls. The group debates for a while, but agree to his terms, wanting only one day to rest. The dragon agrees, but they cannot rest in the fort. The group sets out to rest, while the dragon goes back to his lair. They discuss what to do, but eventually agree they that are out of options and maybe they can change the dragon's nature. They think, wisely so, that the dragon is not only young, but also very curious and his evil "acts" with killing goblins and torturing them is just because they did that to him and the little monsters only understand strength. They rest up, while the goblins are shocked that this group is there. For a while the goblins try to mess with the adventurers and maybe even attack, but the dragon flies over the forest as a sign that they are not allowed to touch them. One goblin group did not understand the message, so the dragon flew over and scorched the goblins with his fiery breath. The adventurers after that could rest easily.

The next morning, when Elhaeltôr was waking up Balasar, he saw a cherub standing over the dragonborn's head. When he woke up, explanation time came. This "creature" once helped him espace a ruin. Now, the little child comes, because he heard Balasar's pleas for help, that he felt alone and scared in the night. In short, the Great Old One listened to his "prayers" and send him this monster. Yeah, it's a monster in disguise. We are talking Cthulhu levels of shitfuckery. They talk what to name him and during this talks, they inquire about Solange name, why it is that. Halfling makes a joke "so what, we should name you Solasar?" The familiar agreed to that name, to the shock of the group. Why? They were talking to themselves and halfling was talking to Balasar actually, because the conversation wasn't about naming the cherub, but about religion. Too late, the familiar has a name now. Balasar only knew that this little creature is an "angel", agent of the gods, but is nowhere to be seen in today's iconography. It was only in Actuvian ruins, mainly on the Acturus continent, but after thousands of years, the churches dropped the cherub in their art. The group however was ready to fight against the monster.

When they returned, fully rested, the dead construct, his stuff, was gone. While in the dragon's lair, one of the brought before the dragon a note and a strange stone tablet. It represented the Lord Sun symbol, but was missing the other half, it was broken. The dragon in draconic wasn't happy about a goblin and told the construct to return to work, he will deal with it later. The group, actually Solange, inquired about the symbol. He explained that the construct found it and it seems to be a key of sorts, but it was broken in half, while the other one was one day stolen by a goblin. Unfortunately, he hit his head during a fight with the constructs and the item in question fell into a well in the temple. The group remembered about it and Balasar told his new companion to try to retrieve the stone tablet. Then the group inquired about the Shadow. The dragon explained that the creature ruled over this keep, killing everything that came near, sucking their souls out. The goblins, rightly so, feared this place. The dragon used his fire breath to fight the shadow, because his claws were not that effective. The Shadow ran to the basement. He told them that the creature of made of pure shadow, but wasn't undead, for some reason. This meant he wasn't incorporeal.

The group had all the information it needed, but before that, Finn asked about the tablet and tried to persuade the dragon to give it to them - it might help them in the fight against the shadow somehow. Ragmaw flicked the stone tablet towards the halfling and wished them success. The party decided firstly visit the temple. There they saw the same dead goblin, nobody cared to clean it up. The other goblins do not care about each other. The party wanted to search the well, but saw the other part of the symbol already lying on the floor. Balasar's familiar was able to fish it out. They saw small, wet footprints of the cherub. He showed himself, since he could go invisible at anytime (NOT SUSPICIOUS AT ALL). This was also the moment Mario saw him, but didn't use Divine Sense, which would tell him about the true nature of the creature (which is good for a reveal later). The group then entered the corridor where Finn felt dread. Mario using his divine senses felt also a great evil lurking inside, a truly evil creature was there.

The Shadow
Old Leader of the Fort
Aberration created from Shadow

The group entered the basement. Here heads of goblins lied. Their skulls cracked open with bony smiles looked at the adventurers. When the group created light and Balasar threw magic at something that was "moving shadows" on the ground, another fight broke up. This creature was truly made out of shadows. A strange evil aberration ready to suck their souls out. It was very much hungry and group was an ideal feast to regain strength. Unfortunately for the creature it had shitty luck and the fight was a breeze for the party. After the fight, they could search around, but saw that this place was picked clean. They remembered what the dragon told them before, this creature wanted souls, but constructs have no souls. For some reason, these two creatures didn't see each other. This was also true for beasts, so Finn didn't use his bag. Here the constructs found all those strange artifacts. The group could safely return to the dragon.

When the group returned and told the dragon about their success, he was true to his part of the deal. He threw a spell at the girl, which of course made the group almost jump on the dragon. It was suggestion a spell the group heard cast before, when the dragon tried to take Solange and the woman during the fight. He ordered the woman to not be scared and go with the adventurers. She almost run to them, of course, making sure that she was as far as she could from the dragon. She wanted to go home. Balasar and Elhaeltôr stayed a little with the dragon. They wanted to talk to him about his nature, magic and dragons. Mario suggested that he will take the woman to Luigi and safety. Actually to bone her, but also start his "propaganda" where his is this great knight that saved her, but doesn't lie to her, just aggregate his acts. While taking her to safety, he sees that Solange and Finn enter a room. He never saw that door, until the pair were close to a "wall." This gave Ragmaw some time to talk with Balasar and Elhaeltôr. They learned that all he knows is from instinct. He was raised by the goblins, that tortured him when he was little, just a year ago. He repaid them and ruled over them, just like every dragon should. His instinct allowed him to gain magical powers and create those spell constructs. Also, he can cast spells. He doesn't know the extent of his powers, but maybe in time he will. Balasar tried to talk to him about his place in the world. He is very unique. It is impossible for two different color dragons to mate and create offspring. He didn't say he was unnatural, just special. This created a problem, since a lot of creatures could try to kill him, not only because he was a dragon. He successfully persuaded the dragon to the point, that he saw Balasar as somebody very knowledgeable - more than him. Like pupil to a mentor. The dragon agreed to his words and told them, he will move his goblin tribe somewhere else. Maybe even go the kobolds and try to find answers to his true nature. Balasar also told him about the Dragon's Word, a special, ancient oath that the dragon species see as sacred, that once he takes it, he will fulfill it. He also suggested that the dragon needs a more draconic name. Ragmaw pondered, agreed, but declined to change. The name was a part of his past. It's not a matter of pride, but a reminder of who he was. The dragon then wished them safe journey and they left. The pair saw that Solange and Finn just finished their work in the next room. The aasimar had a new, red cape.

Solange and Finn entered a strange round room with mosaic on the group. They started to search around, but it seems it was completely cleaned of everything. The mosaic showed the symbol of Lord Sun, but something was strange. There were concentric circles around it, like a symbol of an eclipse around the sun. They didn't know what it could been. There was also, in the center of the mosaic, a hole that the symbol they had could fit. Elhaeltôr fixed the two parts of the stone tablet with Mending, before the two left the dragon, so now the symbol fit right in. It slowly descendent down. When it was fully in place, the sides disappeared like it became a part of the mosaic. Suddenly a light beam hit the center of the mosaic. Brightness filled the whole room and almost blinded the two. They saw, like going down the heavens, a magical red cape. It fell in the hands of Solange. At first it looked normally - red with golden embroidery with sun symbols around it. Behind the two saw a strange symbol. The Lord Sun symbol was blocked by a black disk like it was an eclipse. The two suddenly realized what this place was and to whom this cape belonged to. An old, defunct order of Lord Sun, called by many as The Eclipsed existed long ago. Now it's nothing more than a legend or people think. The Eclipsed were the opposite of the other Lord Sun organizations. Where the others spread the word of Lord Sun openly, The Eclipsed did from the shadows. Where the others fought monsters that were in the open, The Eclipsed fought those that were hidden. Where the others spoke about themselves as agents of Lord Sun, The Eclipsed were a secular, secretive order that never disclosed who they were. They helped from the shadows, only giving hints that Lord Sun helped the needy. Solange thought this is a sign from his god, wore the cape and left. The group however tried to persuade him, without success that it might be sign that he shouldn't be so open about himself - that he servers the true god, the rest are false gods etc.

There was nothing more to check here. Besides one thing, the constructs' laboratory. Elhaeltôr stayed for an hour there, before joining with the group. He successfully gained knowledge - he wrote Rope Trick into his spellbook. The group was ready to leave this place and they did.

Unfortunately, these lands are still unknown to the group, so Elhaeltôr still has an disadvantage to survival rolls. During two days of their travel, they encounter two groups of monsters. First is a pair of ogres, that the group successfully takes care of and loots their bodies. Apparently the ogres had a hoard with them (one of the players rolled over 25 on his investigation, so I awarded them a hoard). They gained a lot of money, mainly copper and silver pieces. Also some magic ammunition (just 20 arrows +1), a silver statuette (50gp worth) and a magical potion of water breathing. The next encounter was a Gorgon that almost murdered Mario, when it ran at him. The monster had shitty luck on rolls, so not only he was knocked prone, but also restrained by vines. It was a slaughter. After that they took some metal from it, since a blacksmith could make something out of it.

When the group entered the village, everybody that could came to greet them. The miller almost tripped and fell over. He as finally reunited with his girl. The mayor questioned the group about their success and heard they took care of the dragon and goblins. It was party time. However they didn't want to lie to the village about the dragon, so in the inn they told the truth that the dragon is still alive (the girl would tell the mayor about it when they came to the village, but Mario successfully persuaded her before that it's not something she should be worried about). The villagers were furious, but the group calmed them down and they gave their word that the dragon will not bother them and later leave the nearby fort. The party continued. The villagers happy. A gorgon helmet was made, but Mario gave it to Claire (later he will have another bastard child). The party was rewarded with gold - 100 for saving the woman, 500 for taking care of the goblin menace. They now can get ready for Orth, where they agreed to give the letter to the paladin's friend, Gwendolyn and leader of the Great Adventurers Guild in Orth, so they will also inform here they succeeded in their quest. That however will happened in the next session, hopefully.

Havoc · Nov 26, 2017

The guys want me dead from overgamemaster methinks. Anyway, the group finally got to the town of Orth, which was done in Cityographer. Also, they gained their 4th level.

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Chapter I

Session 5: The town over abyss

The group woke up the next morning (for the whole session Elhaeltôr's player wasn't here, so keep that in mind). During their breakfast they talked about a lot of stuff, mainly about religion (why is Solange talking that his god is the only true god, why Balasar thinks that the Trinity is something else, but Mario wanted to stop this, before they become hostile), but also Mario talked about the door in the dragon's keep. Remember that? When the group entered a corridor, he didn't see a door to his right, just a wall, not like the rest - even Balasar who came later. This was not until Solange and Finnean went with the symbol, that the door appeared before Mario's eyes. They couldn't explain that. Then, after their little scuffle about religion, the miller came to bring them food for their journey. He offered also flour, but the group quickly declined. Couple of times. Before setting out, the group bought a donkey to hold all their heavy stuff. The party was visited by all of Greenleaf, wishing them happy journey.

It wasn't happy for long. After many hours of travel, it was going to be night soon. They left the village too late. So they needed a place to stay, especially that Balasar doesn't want to sleep under no roof. The group found an old ruin, but it felt ominous. Solange, Balasar and Finn went to the ruins to check and found out that it was an old chapel with a graveyard. Finn stepped on a skull, crushing it. It seems that this place is very old, before the fall, so a lot of graves are still not taken care of, after that much time. The group decide to leave and come here in the morning. They find a cave nearby and make camp there. There were of course they set watch during the night and it was Luigi, Mario's son, who had the "privilege" to see the enemy first.

Banshee

Mario was first to wake up, thanks to Luigi keen eyes. He shouted before the ghostly visage of an elf, that was coming closer to them. Finn and Solange woke up, but Balasar still was sleeping. Mario and Finn recognized the creature when it was coming closer - it was a Banshee. She had a white dress and a wreath over her head, she was ready for a wedding that never happened. Solange started to radiate sun energy (he was an Scourge Aasimar that allowed him to harm everybody in 10ft radius around him), while Finn woke up Balasar. When the Banshee was close, only the dragonborn failed his check to not be frightened. Finn remembered that the banshee has a horrible wail, so he casted Silence on her. The combat ensued and she was destroyed, before she could wail. This would be devastating for the group. If you fail DC 14, you fall to 0 hp instantly. I've asked them to check if they would succeed - only Balasar would survive that. It could have been a TPK, but Finn saved the group.

The party went out to the abandoned chapel. Mario however used his Divine Sense to check if there is a evil presence nearby. The area was desecrated. He didn't feel anything inside, but something over their head. A fiend was flying over them, just over couple of meters. The group didn't know what to do with it, since it was invisible. They decided to take care of the place and watch out. Every grave here was looted and destroyed. No skeletons, they didn't survive 300 years out in the open. The group however found one skeleton. It seems it was the banshee's, because she had the wreath, wedding dress, but also an elven amulet. They didn't want to disturb her, so Mario wanted to put the skeleton back to the sarcophagus - Finduilas Woodstep. This however didn't go as planned, since when he just touched the skeleton with the necklace, it turned to dust - the clothes also. Only the necklace stayed intact. They group knew that this place would be robbed again, so they wanted to bring this amulet to the elves or maybe some relatives. Mario wanted to sanctify this place, but a ritual was needed and he wasn't able to do it, unless he took the whole day praying over this place, which the group agreed to do. The place was cleaned up and sanctified again, this time to goddess of life, Valena.

They rested again, this time in the chapel, but when they woke up, Balasar was strange. His scales turned deep red. Something happened. He shouted into the sky, scared, "What have I done to anger you? I did nothing!" The group didn't know how to react. Balasar kindly, I repeat, kindly asked Solasar to come and explain. The little cherub showed up and told him that it's not his doing. The dragonborn looked weak, scared, not knowing what to do and what happened. Mario used his Divine Sense and felt the presence of a fiend. Yes, it was none other than Solasar. He wasn't a celestial. Mario wanted to kill it outright, but Balasar stopped him, pleaded him to not attack it. Solasar used that moment to turn invisible. The group got to a fight, mainly Balasar and Mario. Everybody wanted an explanation. Dragonborn explained that once, when he was exploring old dragon ruins with his clanmates, he almost died, but something helped him escape. He saw a vision truly strange, when he saw humans on strange "ships" in the stars. They were battling something, unexplained, unseen. During their battle a group of humans attacked the other, shouting "For Trinity." Mario didn't want any of it, but Balasar explained that since then he gained powers and feels connected to a strange, cosmic entity, which isn't a god. This Solasar is one of his minions. The group however heard that Solasar is hear only to listen to Balasars orders and will do anything he wishes. Finn however, during their discussion found out why Balasar changed color. It was the eggshell the dragonborn had with him all this time. He explained that this must be the cause, because not only his color changed to that of Ragmaw, but also this eggshell feels bad, uneasy. Solasar explained futher that he is just a loyal servant to Balasar and will do anything he wants. This was the moment that I laughed. The Warlock can dismiss his familiar at any moment and it will go to a pocket dimension, until he will want it again. "Balasar needs only to order me! I will do anything! If he wants me to vanish, I will. Also if he wants me to reap-" "BEGONE!" The cherub disappeared in a puff. Mario didn't feel the fiendish presence no more. This was the moment where the three - Solange, Balasar and Mario promised to themselves that they will find a way to help Balasar. Finn however jokingly said that he is here only to get his mandolin. The group laughed, while the sun was setting. They moved to Ascensore.

They stopped at the crossroads, leading to Ascensore and Morqueto. When suddenly they heard the machinery of the elevator. Somebody is going to them? Maybe. They decide to stay. It was none other than the gnomes. I actually rolled when they would leave Ascensore, they were right to stay one more day in the ruins. The group met again with old acquaintances. They talked about their travels and decided to journey together to Orth. The gnomes wanted to explore the Abyss, the giant hole in center of the town. While the group had their own goals. The magister was shown the eggshell, which was in hands of Mario at that time, they didn't want to make Balasar even more cursed, which was the first thing that the magister uttered. "This looks cursed. No wonder you changed colors." The gnomes were also asked about a lot of other things, like dragons, but the magister isn't a wizard, just a geographer. The party saw that the gnomes were loaded with guns. Black powder guns. Pistols and muskets. They were ready to fight at anytime. Fortunately, nothing happened during their journeys. All bad encounters were skipped thanks to good rolls on Survival - everybody had a disadvantage, so it was a "good day for rolls."

Morqueto

The group visited the second village called Morqueto and saw a lot of people not only preparing for the special day in Actuvian month, but also wearing black pins as a sign of mourning. Many of these people hail from Kingdom of Actur, the one in the north of the canyon. The party decided to rest here in the inn. With the skills of Finn and Mario's Order, they were granted free stay and food at the inn. Finnean started to ask about his mandolin and found out that two persons had mandolins in the last two months. One was a dwarf musician. The other was a black dragonborn merchant. Both went to Orth. While that was happening, Mario went to the local temple of Valena to talk about the eggshells. He persuaded the cleric to help him, so she said to him to come tomorrow. The rest just went to sleep. Mario, Solange and Finn went to the cleric to know what is going on. She demanded 100 gp for her service, because she had to visit a friend of hers, a wizard, to cast Identify. After they paid her, she said that the item was cursed. Those who handled the item without protection felt their lifeforce drained. While those who carried it for long periods of time on them, would be cursed over time. Balasar had his scales change color. This curse would later change his eye color to deep orange, then make him resistant to fire and grow a tail, then make him dragonlike (which kinda wouldn't work on him) and grow scales, while at the end it would turn the person evil. This was indeed a cursed object and the cleric said she would rather destroy it or keep it somewhere safe. She also told them that she is willing, for free, to cast remove curse upon one of them, if they are indeed cursed by this object. The group then rejoined Balasar who was more willing to just safeguard the item, because they want to find the person who is behind it. They argue about it, but decline to Balasar's wanting to experiment on himself with the object. The curse was removed from the warlock, then they persuaded the gnomes to give one of their chests for the eggshell. Since you need to carry the object on your person, then having it on the cart would mean it won't curse anybody. Content with their findings the group finally travels to Orth.

Orth

The party finally lay their eyes on the strange town. Over five thousands of souls. Many farms surround the walls. Very round, since the town is built around a giant hole, that they see now is about one kilometer in diameter. They also see the river that flows through the city and right into the hole. Apparently 200 years ago, this was a measure to stop some of the flow of the sea, to not drown the whole canyon. For some reason, after two centuries, the hole is still not filled, even in half, and nobody had ever ventured to the bottom. The group saw soldiers patrolling the area. Orth had their own army and they were dressed in white with a black circle on their capes, clothes. This was the symbol of the town. When they tried to enter the town, the guards, with similar clothes to the army, but less armored, had stopped them. They greeted them in Orth, but demanded "visitor tax." Ten gold pieces per person. Solange and Mario found out this was a lie instantly and threatened the guard to talk to his superior. The guard then told them that it's a good day and they don't look like troublemakers, so he allowed them entrance. When the group entered the town, they saw lot of people here. In this district, there was a lot of half-orcs and dragonborn. They also saw that this had to been the poorer neighborhood. Even with that in mind, they saw one of the biggest inns called "No Bottom" with sign of the abyss, hole going down and down that they had to staple two more wooden planks to "finish" the sign. The group split up. Mario wanted to talk to the guard's superior in nearby barracks. The rest told him they will wait for him at the Adventurer's Guild. The gnome Magister told his goodbye here. Told them that if they need him, they will stay in the nearby inn or in the craftsmen guild, if the latter will allow them stay. The gnomes hoped that one day they will meet again and left.

Sigurd

Mario in the meantime went into the barracks. The army and city guard where two different factions. Strange for a town so small. He didn't care about it and searched for a captain or another officer. He saw a sergeant talking to a warrior. In plate armor stood this big man, strapped to his back a greatsword. A beard and long hair, tied behind his head, but he didn't care enough for it, just to have it not fall on his face. Mario greeted the two. Learned the sergeant name, which greeted him with a soldier salute, since Mario was a paladin. While the man just said his name, Sigurd, and nodded to Mario. The paladin spoke about this grave injustice that befallen him, how dare this guard be so hospitable, which is antithetical to the teachings of his Order that is know throughout the lands. Greeted in many taverns and inns, they guard the roads and help wary travelers. When Mario spoke about the "tax", the sergeant looked to the warrior and the latter looked at the guard, then both at Mario. At first the officer didn't know what he spoke about, but then understood - the guard was swindling travelers. He told him that he will take care of it. Mario spoke more about his order, but the guard had no more of it. Told him to go away. Mario did so and saw that the warrior also left the barracks. While the officer went to the gate, the warrior went to the other district, opposite of where the party headed.

The group reunited not long after in the next district, the merchant district. Here a lot of shops were situated, a large marketplace and they saw a crossroad sign that said Suspended Theater. You can guess how the theater worked. Here was also the adventurer's guild. After walking past a lot of shops, be it a barber, jeweler, luxury shop, dwarven goods shop etc., they found the guild's building. One of the biggest buildings in the district. Something seemed off. It looked kinda empty. They saw no adventurers. Nobody around it. The building, before the entrance, had a small garden with fountains, but even there was nobody. They decided to enter the building and saw the same emptiness.

Great Guild of Adventurers (and the Quest Board)

The first room was a big meeting/tavern room. Lots of tables with chairs, so adventurers can sit, talk, plan and even eat and drink. They saw a notice board. This big board was swarmed with paper that you almost couldn't see that it had a frame. The only soul in this hall was a young blonde woman in glasses that was reading a book. This place was so deserted that she didn't even notice that somebody came through the door. Solange was the first to greet her with "Praise the Sun!" Of course, the woman shouted and fell of her chair. Being behind the counter, where the innkeeper would be. She stood up, took care of hair glasses and hair, asked who they were. When they said "adventurers", she went silent for couple of seconds, allowing them to explain further what they did, but she wasn't listening. She said "wait a minute here!" and jumped off to the stairs. "Master! Master! Adventurers!" she shouted.

Gwendolyn
Master of the Great Adventurers Guild in Orth
First Scale of Knights of the Divine Scale

Not long has passed when the master of the guild came down. She was a warrior woman, a paladin of the Order of Divine Scale. She was a follower of the god Actur. Yes, the High King Actur after three centuries started to be worshiped as a god. He is, for now, the only Lawful Good god. For some reason, he does answer his clerics and paladins, but the other clergy of Trinity is very sceptical of this. Gwendolyn greeted the group. First order of business, they told her that they found the miller's daughter. She didn't check nor try to see if they were lying. She just thanked them, went to the notice board, took the quest from it and gave it to Alice, the blonde woman. Second was the letter. Luigi with a smile took out his letter and gave it to Mario, who saw that the letter had no wax stamp. He was ready to hit his son for it, but saw that the boy was smiling with glee. Something was off. He gave the letter to the woman and wanted to take Luigi for a beating, but Finn stopped him telling that he actually has the letter and the one Gwendolyn has is his. They changed letter, while Mario told Finn they will need to talk outside later. The paladin opened the letter, checked it and asked if her friend told them there is going to be a reward. The party couldn't remember, but said that they think so. She gave them fifty gold pieces for it and hid the letter behind her golden armor.

Then the party inquired about their status in the guild. They sat down and talked about couple of stuff. They could get rooms here if they so choose, but they need to clean up after themselves and pay for food and drink. They were also greeted into the guild as full members - they only had to do a simple quest, which was the saving of the miller's daughter. Their names were written in a magical book, that was said to be magically copied to other books around the world, so every guild will know about them. They were granted adventurer's licenses, which was very handy in many countries that did not allow adventurering without it. Also, they were told if they broke too many laws, were murderers or conspired with fiendish beings, they were cast out of the guild and a bounty would be set on their heads. Other adventurers would then be allowed to hunt them down, in many countries this vigilantism is allowed, since the guild has many deals with them. There was no responsibilities, no membership fee. Anybody that wanted the help of the guild, payed 10% of the bounty up front. When the quest was completed, the deposit was taken out. The money the adventurer's got was theirs. The quests were first come, first served, but anybody could go to the employer.

The party then talked about the status of the guild in Orth. This saddened the woman and she explained what was going on. The Golden City is the most visited place by adventurers and many times the last. When she took care of the guild many years ago, not many adventurers stayed in the town. A lot of them just went to Orth to stay for some time, then to south to Golden Rafter, a village-port, then took the river to the Golden City. In time the quests started to pile on, but this crisis is her own fault. She explained that she wanted the adventurers to stay some time, take some quests, but didn't want to make "you can't go unless you take these quests," so she had a plan that was accepted by other guild masters - the Gold License. This was also negotiated with the armies and agents of other countries that are near and in the Golden City. Only holders of this Golden Licence were allowed entrance, the other could be subjected to suspicion of spying on behalf of enemy powers. This had a worse effect. At first there were some groups that stayed, but in time many of them just payed the 5000 gold pieces fee upfront and went to Golden City. The others resigned on the spot or even never came, wanting to work in other places. This meant that the quests started to swarm in, but nobody was willing to take them. Gwendolyn had to sometimes alone take care of the more urgent ones that she would be able, the rest had to stay. In short, the party was the first group of adventurers she had in months and the first "newbies" she had in years.

The group decided to stay in the town for a while. They discussed their state next to the board. When they saw one of the quests talk about Woodstep, they took it from the board, but Gwendolyn said those are copies and they will get their copy from Alice, so Solange stapled it back to the board. She even showed the group that there was so much paper on it, that it hid the words "please do not take the notices down." They were given a full case of the copies for their travels. She advised them to buy a map of the town, to help them move around. They also told her about the cursed eggshell. The paladin wanted to destroy it, but they argue it could help them find the creator, so she told them to go the mage's guild that is in the South District, next to the Elven Garden. Asked why not the temple, she said that the mages are specialized in this. At first they were interested in three jobs. Finding two lovebirds that ran away for the Small Council (elves, half-elves and halflings in the South District), finding a missing adept for the Mage's Guild and also going to Quennar Woodstep in Estel'Anoron to help with the Gnolls. Their next course of action was to visit the Mage's Guild and talk to their leader about the eggshell. The paladin asked them about a small favor. She gave them another case with a bag of gold. These were the copies of their licences that needed to be sent to the guild.

The Notice Board

- GOLD LICENSE! - Buy now for 5000 gold pieces a license that allows you safe adventeruring in the Golden City (more like the armies and agents won't consider you a spy). Wait time is one month.
- Needed Help with Kobolds - Udir Ironfist from Logemakam pays 500 gold pieces for taking care of nearby tribe of kobolds, which make the farmers' life harder.
- Suspicious Gnolls - Quennar Woodstep from Estel'Anoron pays 1000 gold pieces for taking care of gnoll threat, which harass the village.
- Possible Descent - The Craftsmen Guild from Orth pays 500 gold pieces for investigating lands to the west of Aramoor and finding out if there are possible passages up for the caravans. Clearing out these places from monsters is pay bonus.
- Missing Adept - The Mage's Guild from Orth pays 200 gold pieces for finding a missing adept, who ventured to the abyss and didn't return yet.
- Fugitive Lovebirds - The Small Council in Orth pays 200 gold pieces for checking if a pair of lovers is still alive. Persuading them to come back safe and sound is pay bonus.
- Guard the City! - Join the army of Orth. Great work and pay. Talk to Captain Edrahil Silverblade.
- Show Your Might! - The Arena pays every volunteer, who shows his mighty strength in combat!
- A Group Needed for Ruins - Alastor Corbora in Orth is looking for a group of adventurers, who will explore ruins of a fortress in the west called Shinning West. Pays 500 gold pieces for full investigation of threats in the fortress and 2000 gold pieces for clearing the place from these monsters.
- Need a place to sleep? Come to Orth! - Wolfgang Orthson invites you to his inn! Delicious dinner and breakfast in the cost of bed!
- Not Payed Debts - Cathouse "Caresses" pays 50% of recovered debts from debtors. Minimal pay is 100 gold pieces. Inquire the owner for details.
- Explore Lands for Village - Cassius Bordeux in Orth looks for a group, which will explore lands for a new village in the Canyon. The pay is 200 gold pieces for investigation. Additional pay for clearing it out is to be negotiated.
- Escort Needed - Temple of Trinity in Orth pays 200 gold pieces for escorting acolytes safely to Brodzany.
- Problems with Wood - Conrad Stenbaum in Orth pays 500 gold pieces for taking care of problems, which plague the sawmill from continuing with deforestation west from Orth.
- Why are this many Goblins? - The Merchant's Guild in Orth pays 500 gold pieces for investigation the Green Forest on how the goblins coming from up, from Kingdom of Actur. Taking care of the problem by collapsing the passage or clearing them out is bonus pay of 500 gold pieces.

Spoilerino, how the town looks without the fog.

The city has over 100 places on the map. It took some time, about three days, but it was fun to do.

Havoc · Nov 26, 2017

Just a side note for those that read the previous campaign journal. The party bought a donkey, so of course, their old friend is back! Three of the five players were in the last campaign. Finnan Quickstep was playing Alton. Both are bards. Both are halflings. Elhaeltôr was Havifgar the Little the Human Barbarian/Fighter. And Solange Sunseer was playing Crommash the Half-orc, Fighter.

Havoc · Nov 28, 2017

A shorter session that I wanted to make with the whole group. Since they are now in town and the "prologue" is over, we can start making sessions with less people, so we don't have to be all (didn't stop us before, but I always did it with regret). After this the group can do quests and explore the world.

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Chapter I

Session 6: Mages and Halflings?

When the group leaves the Guild, Mario started to talk to Finn about the letter. He wasn't happy about what happened, so he tried to "help" the halfling with his letter. Apparently it was from a secret admirer, but he never met her. Mario asked for the letter to check. He sniffed it and ate a little piece. He told the rest he can sense if it was a woman based on details - what kind of paper she bought, if she used perfume. Mario in this case said it was a man, not a woman. That made the halfling sad, because he thought he finally got a woman admirer, but it was some guy. Of course, it was a lie, but the halfling was capable to pierce through Mario's deception-joke.

Elhaeltôr finally came back to the group. He had to stay in Greenleaf to ponder his memory returning, where he saw some stuff about dragons, magic, etherite (all-use magic stone), but also his youngest years. He wanted to be alone for a while, so the group left him there. Not long after, the next morning, he heard that a courier is leaving town, so he hoped on the horse with him and got to Orth one day before the group. The next day he heard from somebody in an inn that they saw "a strange fellow", an aasimar with metalic parts on his head and shoulders with glowing eyes and hands. Knowing that this must be Solange, he went straight to the adventurers guild.

The group explained what happened since they last split up, but they didn't discuss about Solasar, just about undead, gnomes and the eggshell. They told Elhaeltôr he needs to get inside and get his license to be fully an adventurer. The party went back, but Gwendolyn wasn't there and Alice was writing something. Elhaeltôr startled her. There were no problems. She gave him the license to fill up and the magical book to write his name, which the whole group saw that already somebody was writting in at this moment - these books were connected in almost all guilds all over Tethys. Alice went with the license to her boss to give her signature, then went back to the group. They left the building and went to the mage's guild. They heard it was in the next district, the South District. They moved past a magic shop and other ones too. Saw a tower on a hill, not far in the merchant district. In the next one, they all saw that this place was full with halflings, elves and half-elves. While in the North District, there were dragonborns and half-orcs, there wasn't that many of them like in the South District races. Also, the races here had their own council called Small Council. The group passed this building and saw a mixture of halfling and elven architecture. The halflings had their own commune and elves had their as well. The council building was a mixture of the two, with two notice boards. Letters written in elvish and in halfling. They moved pass this building, since they saw a sign pointing to the mage's guild. They found a tavern called "At Grandma's." It was an enlarged halfling tavern, so bigger races can easily eat and drink. Also a hatter and a library. The more they went into the elven part of the town, the more nature was overflowing. Big trees, bushes, beautiful grass. They saw a big garden not far from the mage's guild called the Elf Garden, where, of course, there were mainly elves and half-elves. The group however stepped in to the guild. It wasn't a big building, but it had two floors.

Inside they saw a lot more people walking around than in the adventurer's guild. A lot of apprentices walked these halls. Talked with each other. Read books. They didn't see any mages around here, but a lot of arcane stuff. This felt like the common room, which allowed outsiders to enter and talk to the members. Suddenly they heard a slow, serious voice asking them what they wanted. There was a counter to their left, but didn't see it, since they didn't move further into the building just yet. There there was a man in his late 30s to early 40s. Black hair to his sides. He wore the guild's robes, but clearly they were more distinguished. He was a full mage and worked in the guild. Elhaeltôr quickly wanted to buy identification pearls, but the man told them that they have, but are for the use of the guild and it's members. "Why didn't you visit the magic shop in the merchant district?" Which they just ignored on their way here. It was fucking there! Elhaeltôr went quiet and the rest started talking. First they wanted to give him what Gwendolyn asked, but he refused. He slowly closed the book he was reading and stood up, told them to wait, he will bring the guildmaster.

Ellyjoybell Horcusporcus
Guildmaster of Mage's Guild

Not long after a small gnome come by with the mage. This woman presents herself as Ellyojoybell Horcusporcus, guildmaster of the Mage's Guild. She greets the group and asks what they want. Of course, first they give her the package, which she in turn gives to the serious mage, who goes away, not happy about the exchange. She reveals that Gwendolyn is in debt - the adventurer's guild is not doing well. She fears they might close it, since not many adventurers complete quests there - not much money stays in the hand of the paladin. She was surprised that this time Gwendolyn had money, but of course, it was because the group finished their quest, so some money flowed into the coffers.

Next was the cursed object. Just went the group explained they had a "cursed object they want to safeguard," the gnome's eyes light up. She was more than happy to safeguard it in mage's guild. Tried to convince the group, that taking it with them would be easy prey for thieves. Balasar found out that she was "too much" happy to help them, the rest however saw that the other acolytes moved back and some even "retreated" from the common room. But it was when Elhaeltôr said "what is it for us?" That was the game changer. She was found out. She told them the truth that hearing they have a cursed object, she wanted to research it. The group discussed and negotiated with the gnome. Even without her knowing what it was, they knew she was too keen on getting it, just because it was cursed. The conclusion was that the group will get two identification pearls, only they can approve who will research it and they get "honorific" membership, that will allow them to use the guild's shop and laboratories. In turn she gets the object for a week and they can't take it back from her. Also, Finnean was to come later in that week, to her bedchamber for a "private music session." The group agreed and Finn signed the document the party was forming with the eager gnome. She took the object, hearing only some information about from them.

Later she came back with a young apprentice, who was holding a document and two small bags. Elhaeltôr was the one who got the membership, but the gnome knew and explained to the angry group, that no matter who gets the membership - they are a party of adventurers, giving one of them the membership is like giving all of them, also the same is said about the contract. Happy with the exchange, she told them the young man was Percival and knows about Odo, to the shock of the apprentice. Nothing was explained to him. Before their exchange about the cursed eggshell, they inquired about the missing acolyte, which the gnome said that if they want information, then she will send the last person who saw him. This was Percival. They calmed him down and asked questions. Percival and Odo were roommates. Five days ago Odo explained that he wanted to get mushrooms to experiment for his laboratory class. Long ago, the whole guild went down to the tunnels and about 100 meters down, these mushrooms started to show up. The group was stopped by the army from venturing forth, so they returned to the surface. Percival went with Odo to the entrance to the tunnels in the First District, that is also the West District. He told the group that there a lot of caverns and corridors under the town, because of the abyss, the giant hole. Many people venture forth and since it is very dangerous, the army patrols just about to the 100 meter. Many tunnels not only lead to the surface, but also to the sewers under the city. The guild started to be scared that something might have happened to him. The Guildmaster tried her luck adventurers, also wanting to give Gwendolyn some money, but if push comes to shove, she would go with other mages to look for him. He told them that 2-3 days is normal for this, but 4-5 is stretching and some think something happened to the novice. They also found out that Odo actually went there without the guild's approval, so he will have a lot of explaining to do. Armed with this knowledge, the group thanks the acolyte and leaves the guild. They argue were to go to rest and drink, but finally decide that the nearest tavern - the halfling one, would be the best.

Tavern "At Granny's"

The tavern was very lively. A lot of people, mainly halflings, but the group saw humans, dwarves and half-elves. A halfling maid asked what they wanted and Solange's player jokingly said "justice!" So I went "that would be that table." Every table here was engraved with symbols - elven and halfling. This one had symbols for honor, justice and respect. She asked what they wanted to eat and drink. First was drink, again they asked about Southerner drinks, but this establishment also didn't want to serve any of that, but the group saw that mainly it was that the group was nobody. They didn't want to risk and sell Southerner alcohol and be found as sympathizers to the Great Empire. So they ordered some dwarven ale from the south - Thunderhammer. This also made the maid say no. The clan also was disliked by many dwarves for their involvement 300 years ago. They decided that they will drink whatever, so they got some ale from Brightaxe clan. The group then wanted to order some food, but heard that there is something called "Halfling Table" that was only 1 gold piece! For everybody! This made Finn hide his face, since he knew what it was - you get food every 15 minutes, you need to eat your food. It stops after an hour or so. The rest, except Elhaeltôr, accepted the challenge. The food came, came and came. Even Luigi could try his stomach, but gave up after 30 minutes. Solange couldn't eat after an hour, he was full. Balasar and Mario could go for one more dish, but once it came, they only chewed food and couldn't swallow. Finn however was in great shape and was able to eat all of it. The trick was simple - chew, eat slowly at steady pace, drink water.

Jasper Elderberry
Innkeeper of "At Grandma's"
The Cook
Cleric of Granny

After the group finished, the cook came to clean up the table. He saw that the group was adventurers and wanted to meet them. He heard about Quicksteps, Finnean's family. He gave some more food to Solange, but the aasimar gave up just after the halfling left. The man was a cleric of Granny. This whole tavern was a mix of a tavern and temple. The group could stay here to sleep, but there was only a common room, where everybody slept. This is also the moment to say - the Granny (Babuszka) is the ancestor of the Halflings, at least that's what they say. The mother that had one thousand children. A chaotic neutral diety that orders her followers to take care of their lands and fields, to defend the cycle planting and harvest, but also be generous with the product of your labor. After the meeting with the cleric, they could finally rest and get to know what they actually had in their disposal.

Elhaeltôr during two hours of work examined the cloak from the dragon's keep and the amulet from the elven banshee. The first one was a very specific item called Cloak of Eclipse (it was called cloak of mists in the adventure, but I changed a lot of fluff there). This powerful item allowed the user to teleport to the Astral Plane, the plane of thought and dreams. He couldn't move there, but could perform actions, so drinking potions, casting spells, etc. worked there. Then he could decide, at any moment, to return to the material world. He would show up where he left, if he couldn't - the next place that could hold him. This would allow the user to safely escape a near-death situation, drink a potion or heal himself, then come back to the fight. It is tricky otherwise, because you don't know what is happening in the material world and going back could endanger him even more - like if you were stealthing around, you pop to the astral plance seeing a guard go by, you don't know when the guard leaves, so when you come back, he could be standing, staring at the spot you disappeared. The amulet however had fingerprints of human magic, not elven. Strange it looked like elf work. Apparently this was a health amulet, in mechanical terms it boosted the users Constitution to 19. The group however, being good guys, decided is best to give it to the family of the lost one. The group then talked about Solasar with Elhaeltôr, since he wasn't there when the paladin felt that it was actually a fiend. During the discussion Balasar even suggested that he could try to get another familiar. The party decided that since it follows Balasar's orders, then they should order him to reveal how he really looks. That however would be a tale for tomorrow, since they came to the tavern for second dinner and it was late. They group went to the adventurers' guild to rest, except for Finnean who went to the gnome to fulfill his end of the bargain.

Finn learned that the woman actually wanted knowledge for him. Yes, he performed a song for her, but mostly was bombarded with questions about the dragon, their adventures, but also his bardic powers and the group. Finn tried to leave private stuff out. Asked about finding his mandolin, but it boiled down to buying a scroll himself and using it to try to locate it in the town. Around 250gp was the price of the scroll. He however got some information about the town from her. First off, the political situation in town got worse. Fronts became cleared between ruling groups, but also races. The underworld started to gain real momentum and nobody really is capable of stopping them. Two years ago undead attacked the city - they came from their own graveyard, but also from the tunnels under the city. A lot of people died then. A person lead the counterattack and saved a lot of people. The whole town is grateful, so he became the unofficial Lord of Orth. Many in the City Council ask him for advice. On the Council there are five people. Four leaders of the districts and one honorific spot for the cleric of the local Temple of Trinity. There also exist a Small Council, that the group made past. This was created to take care of minority race problems and mainly is staffed by halflings and elves. The leader of the South District and a member of the Small Council is a half-elf called Enialis. Also, one of the halflings, Nevil Fastfoot is not only the member, but also the leader of the biggest halfling family in town - Fastfeet. After the undead attack, people stopped digging graves and just burnt bodies. Urns now stand in houses or the ashes/bodies are sent into the abyss. She mentioned that the army tries to patrol the area around town and in the underground, but also patrol the roads, alas those are only escort missions - for those that repair the road or for someone very important. Finally, yes, he did bone the woman and with a great persuasion check, he also got told that if they bring a bag full of those mushrooms, she will give him a scroll.

Havoc · Nov 28, 2017

Havoc · Dec 2, 2017

This session Elhaeltôr is "missing."

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Chapter I

Session 7: The missing apprientice

The group woke up to one of the hottest days in the Canyon. It was fine for Balasar and Mario, but Finnean and Solange had to improvise. Balasar and Solange woke up first and when they came down, they saw Gwendolyn and Alice in the lobby. All sweaty, "wanting to die." Guildmaster didn't have her iconic armor, going now very much so light. She wanted to talk to the group about their decisions, since she will be taking on other quests - she didn't want to take them from under their nose. The paladin explained that she must work, even as a guildmaster, but it takes her harder. Everybody looked again at the guild's notice board. They got to ask Gwendolyn about her past and she told them about the Steppes of Memory, from which Solange hails. She worked there couple of years ago, when she wasn't yet an adventurer, fighting undead. These steppes were once an island, where big cities thrived, but once the tsunami came, it wiped them all from the planet. Now it's a land of undead, where undead riders can be seen (think of the mongol horde, but undead). After that, she came to the canyon, was granted the title of master in the Adventurer's Guild. From then on, she tries to do quests that she is able to do alone like escorts, investigations etc. Gwendolyn told them that since they are taking three jobs, this allows her to take one from the notice board and she will go escort novices for the Temple of Trinity. This means she will be gone for couple of days. Balasar and Solange didn't know why the halfling didn't return, so they went to the Mage's Guild to ask where he went. They only jokingly said he is going for some sexual intercourse, but it seems he went with it. During that, Finnean woke up the gnome's room. Everything was nicely organized here. Finn remembered how she even threw her clothes and they folded in midair. He stood up from the bed and saw that he is completely naked, so he started to search the room for his clothes. It didn't take a lot of time. Near the desk, where he saw a lot of books and papers, his clothes were folded on a chair. He quickly got dressed and left the gnome a letter that he needs to run, he had fun and maybe they will do it again. He jumps out of the guild's window and the both parties meet not soon after. The group then decides that the best course of action would be to go to the cartographer and see if he got any maps of the underground tunnels. They start to ask around, since they not only forgot directions (they were given by Percival, the apprentice from the last session) and they didn't have a map. It wasn't long, since they were in the Merchant District and that was where the shop was located. They saw a sign "Omould's Cartography and Books."

Inside they saw a shop filled with books, paper and writing material and tools. These books and paper however were mostly empty. This wasn't a library or a book store. He took care of books, renew them, sometimes using magic. The group then saw the half-orc. He was sitting behind the counter. Small, round glasses, white shirt and slick black hair. He told them to not close the door, since it created a nice breeze. The group saw that he was working on a book, not reading one. He was marking places to fix - torn paper, pages falling out, all the problems. The group then explained they are adventurers, so the half-orc decided to stop working and greet them. They asked first about maps of the underground tunnels. He explains to them, since they are new, that maps up to 100 meters down are pretty accurate, little changes happen there. Below that maps can be untrustworthy. "Oh, right, because the canyon is falling down" Balasar just blundered. Omould made wide eyes. Halfling tried to save the situation, but the damage was done. The gnomes knew about this, but didn't tell anybody. Omould after a while, got himself together and explained that it was due to creatures lurking down there. Many of them can burrow and create tunnels, so sometimes some of these corridors collapse or new form. The group started to talk about prices. He told them that he has a pretty accurate map, since the army patrols the tunnels up to 100 meters and this map is worth 40gp. Asked about the other maps, he told him that they are merely eccentric, not for venturing forth as reliable information. He even tells them that he has two maps, from two explorers and both these maps have discrepancies between them. Finn however offers to fill in the blanks, when they will go into the tunnels. He tells them that they don't need to buy these ones, just rent them for 10gp. Since he doesn't trust these maps, he won't sell them at full price to the adventurers. Balasar then ask about a map of the town. He is creating his own, but having one to fill in the blanks faster would much appreciated. Omould told them he has three different types of Orth's maps. One isn't detailed at all, just is more of a tourist map showing were the most important places are - temples, inns, taverns, marketplace. No streets, no other buildings. This one is for 20 gold pieces. The more detailed one, where the city is fully shown, costs about 50gp, but it has marked only the most important sites. The fully detailed map costs 100gp and Omould marked every shop and workshop in town on that map. The group decides to not buy right now, but come later and buy the most detailed one. So for now, the group will buy the underground maps. The half-orc stood up and they saw that this man was nearly two meters tall and very muscular. He went for the maps and this allowed Balasar to look around.

He saw two interesting objects. One was a couple of antique maps behind a glass casing. These map were dated to over 300 years ago and showed the Golden Brook Kingdom. They were worth couple of hundred of gold pieces, but these were mostly collector's items, since they would be kinda not up-to-date, especially when the land could have changed. The other interesting object was a sealed book near the counter. This book had hundreds of pages, thick binding, a lock and bigger than typical A4 book. There was a note however. "Sealed Magical Book. 500gp. Tried to open it, but to no avail. No magic was able to unlock it." This was very interesting for them, but also very expensive. The half-orc returned, so Balasar started asking more questions. First about the antique maps, so the half-orc explained that he did his best, with magical help, to renew the maps. He fears that they are very out-of-date in the geography department. He ask if he has any maps of the mountain range that is east of Orth. He tells them that nobody really has that region mapped, since it's very dangerous - full of orcs, kobolds and even drow. He thinks that the only people who would have such a thing are the army, but they aren't here. He was, of course, talking about armies of other countries that are camping nearby the Golden City. Many, many groups, organizations and countries are interested in that place, so they sent their agents and armies. Balasar then asks about the book, but Omould is perplexed like he was year ago. He explains that he won it during a market festival that happened a year ago, when many merchants came from different places. One of them had this book for sale for 500gp or you could win it in a arm wrestling competition for 50gp entry fee. Omould agreed to arm wrestling and won. Since then he tried his best, meeting with many mages and clerics to try to open this book, but nobody was able to. So he is selling it for 500gp. Balasar asked if he tried to identify the binding's date, but the half-orc shrugged telling him that it was a magical book and could be ancient as far as he knows. The group thanked the half-orc and went their way.

The group then decides to eat some breakfast, so they return to the guild to the displeasure of Alice. Gwendolyn was already gone. Alice wasn't happy, because it was very hot and the group wanted to eat some food - this meant going to cook, using even more heat. She however did what she was here for and went to make some eggs, salad, beef jerky, bread and gave them a beer each. The group then could rest a little and plan what they would do and need, since they were going underground, they needed tools, but much of it they already had. Rations were already in their inventory, so they only needed beer, so they bought two gallons of beer (why the fuck does the book list gallons instead of flagons? wtf?). Mario also decides to send his son, Luigi, for a small scouting mission. Just to check around town, where is what, etc. (He rolled one, so you gonna need to wait for the next session to know what happpened) While that was happening, Finn and Balasar checked the maps. First off, the way was pretty clear. There was the sewer entrance that they needed to go to, since it was the way Odo went. They could however go there through other tunnels, but it would take longer, much longer. Balasar created a map that combined both of those below the 100 meters, but with blanks where they differed. Having all this ready, the party left the guild building.

The group decided to move north, through the North District. Moving pass the many shops and the marketplace of the Merchant District, they enter the district they first entered in Orth. Again, this place had a lot of half-orcs and dragonborn, but not that many compared to half-elves and halflings of the South District. Also, it was very early and still very hot, so not many people roamed the streets. Moving pass the inn, they encountered a armorer shop, but they didn't have time to check inside. Then they entered the First District, named that because it was the first part of town build. Lot of these walls were older than the other ones and here a lot of buildings actually were workshops. Bakers, weaponsmith, smithies, builders, masons, and many more. One of the loudest districts. Also there was a small marketplace here, but they saw that they only sell raw materials - iron, wood, silver, brass, stone and many other things. They saw no shops outside, because almost all these shops do not sell their wares inside, but send them into the marketplace in the Merchant District. After that, they went over the bridge. The river was pretty wide with watermills and fishermen around it. Many of them had a very easy job, just throw nets to catch the fish or just put metal cage-traps. They saw where the water finally went and it was a big waterfall, but they didn't go to see it up close. They also saw to the north the other gate, this one also was very old, one of the first built. After that, they were in the "center" of town. Here they saw the City Council building, where they saw a lot of richer people around. Before it an old inn that they remember reading about called "At Orth's." This was the legendary inn that Orth built. They passed those buildings and saw even more workshops and the city guard's headquarters. Not interested what was what, they went pass them and into alleyways.

Here they saw the entrance to the sewers. Stone stairs leading down to metal bars. The thing seemed closed. Next to it they saw a sign with the words "Unauthorized people not allowed." Which the group thought they were, since they are adventurers and all that. Before they went down, they looked around and saw this fat man sitting on his chair. He was shirtless, his shirt was used for a turban, because of the heat. Fat belly, big beard and the look of a drunkard. He looked at them curious what they were and doing here, but didn't budge. That was until they started to move closer to the stairs. The guy stood up and asked what is going on. They explained that they were adventurer's from the guild and wanted to go to the underground tunnels. The guy decided, after a simple persuasion test to show them where it was. With his big key chain, he opened the locked bars and ventured forth, taking one of the lanterns.

The group followed. These sewers were big and water flowed rapidly. The sound was almost deafening. The smell wasn't that bad as they thought it will be. The water doesn't stay long here and is jettisoned into the abyss pretty quickly, so most of the water is actually from the river. The man told them to follow him, since it wasn't here. Through corridors next to the sewers, the group traveled around couple of minutes. They saw big, round stone pipes that went from the ceiling to the floor. It seemed that the water didn't all flow into one sewer, but was distributed around other, lower ones as well. This was to not over flow the sewers, but also allow maintenance, if you close one of them. Soon they started to hear a waterfall and indeed it was. Light from the abyss came into this sewer entrance and they saw that they are actually in a different part of the system. Here it was mostly rock, no chiseled stone. The guy explained that this was part of the sewers was used to let some of the water from the river to leave into the abyss, since a lot of it flowed underground. The group asked how to enter the tunnels, so the guy explained - go through the water, next to a small waterfall in the cave, take a right and jump unto a ledge (there should be a ladder there, he said), next just go straight with the water, do not enter any other caves (he explicitly said no to enter the first cave they see) and after a while you will see where the water flows into the cave. Then he explains to not take their left, but move to the right corridor. Asked what is that about, he explains that there is something scary and dangerous there. He tells them about this one time, and he almost slips up and tells that he was drinking with pals here, he was alone drinking and saw strange darkness coming towards him. Suddenly this darkness snuffed out his torch, so he ran for his life back. He told the guards about it, but nothing came of this - it happened two days ago. The group inquired about the missing apprentice. "From the guild, yea? Two of them were here." Two? Apparently five to six days ago a ginger one entered, but never came back. Then yesterday another one came by here on "guild business." When he told the group how he looked, the group immediately thought about Percival, the friend of the missing one, Odo. The group thanked the man and ventured forth into the caverns.

The water came up to the waist. Finn had to swim here, but the water wasn't that treacherous. First they encountered the waterfall, but he ladder was missing. However Solange found it, by stepping on it in the water. They put it back and were on "dry" land. They saw a cave with a burnt out campfire and many bottles. This had to be the place the fat guy was drinking with pals. The group decided to ignore the cave and moved again into the water. There were couple more entrances at their height or above their heads, but they decided to ignore them as well. The group entered a cave where the water flew into in through the ceiling and walls. They didn't want to check the dangerous place and decided to move right. It was a long descent down. Many minutes passed. Then they came to a cavern with a high wall and some tunnel to their right. Checking the tunnel, they found that this place was used, just briefly. Somebody wanted to make a camp here, but after a while decided that this was a bad place - it was pretty wet, you could get sick very easily resting here. The party then decided to clime the rock wall and being on higher ground they saw three tunnels. Two on their sides and one before them. Consulting the map informed them to move forwards, so they did. Another long descent down. After many minutes, nearly an hour of travel, they heard noises. Somebody was jerking around, mumbling to himself. They immediately thought that somebody is caught. Solange moved silently forwards, the party stayed behind. Somebody just saw the light that came from tunnel. This was a cavern with a human "trapped" in the corner. Why "trapped"? Solange didn't see what was actually holding the apprentice in place. White and blue robes with short black hair, it was Percival. He saw Solange and tried to warn him, but the aasimar didn't listen and told the group to follow. This movement made a creature hear them and combat started.

Angler Worm

Suddenly from the corner of the cavern a worm appeared. It was moving on the ceiling, but the group didn't see what was holding it to it. Another clue that I gave to the party, but they ignored it. Almost everybody got lucky on their movements, except for Mario, who came rushing at the monster and go caught in his invisible webbing. This creature created invisible webbing and everybody caught in it, could be constricted even more. The monster however wasn't that much of a challenge, because of the rolls, so they killed him very quickly. Balasar however had a moment to test out his new powers. Firstly, his strange rod that he found long ago changed. The gem that was at the end of it started to move and expand, changing into three tentacles. These tentacles were very slimy and pretty poisoned. Using this rod, allowed to user to make three attacks (only 1d6 each, no bonus from STR/DEX), but if all 3 hit, the creature needs to roll a Constitution saving throw. On failure, it's slowed, has harder time to act etc. Balasar however after that opted into lightning. If the did nothing each subsequent round, he could automatically hit the creature with his lightning, just like force lightning. Unlimited power and all that. The monster tried his best against the group. He had a power that created a nice blue light, he could set it up were he could and this would charm the observer to move towards it - so into his invisible webs. Everybody succeeded on those rolls, twice.

After the combat, they could save Percival who explained that after hearing the group - how they talked about going around shopping in town, he thought that they will not go into the caves to safe his friend. Not liking being called a liar, Balasar hit the kid in the face. By the way, Balasar rolled 6 back then, when he wanted to ensure the kid that they will find his friend, this is why Percival was here. The group discussed what to do with the boy. Mario healed him up with his lay of hands. Solange wanted to send him back, alone. The party forgot about one thing, so I told them to roll, but it wasn't that super, so I just told them "when you hear Solange tell the boy to go back alone, you suddenly had this strange feeling that you are forgetting something." This was my hint that there was this strange dangerous thing lurking in the caves. The group decide to take Percival with them, but he had to stay in the back holding a torch. First the group checked the caves in the monster's lair, but those were actually tunnels. There was no sign of this monster making home here. It meant that this guy was pretty hungry and Percival was only kept alive to maybe catch more prey. This place didn't also seem like his home turf, it was clearly too small for him. The monster was about five meters long. The group did find some mushrooms that the apprentice came for, so Finn started to take them into his bag. After seeing that the tunnels go upwards, they decide to check the map and it showed that they had to make a right, not a left in the monster cave. Solange didn't want to waste time on side tunnels and went back, so the group followed him. It was another long journey down, but after a while they found more mushrooms and another cave. This one was filled with spiderwebs. Not thinking this through, Mario just went inside the cave, so the group was jumped by the spiders.

Deathjump Spider

Big spiders, bigger than Finn jumped from the shadows at Mario. He was the only person that entered the room and was almost killed. The spider leaped at him, colliding their bodies and biting him at the same time. The whole group was surprised and it was thanks to Mario's good Constitution saves that allowed him to still stand on his feet. Combat was tough, since the spiders were only attacking Mario, while the rest of the group attacked with ranged attacks. Finn tried his best to heal the paladin. There was also a strong combo that I saw used, that I forgot it's there. When Balasar uses his Warlock's hex, each time he damages the hexed creature, he gains another 1d6 on the damage roll. So when he uses the tentacle rod to bash someone's head in, he has three attacks that 2d6 damage, so if he hits all three, it's 6d6 damage. Pretty strong on 4th level. The group won over the spiders. They had to rest a little.

The party found tracks in the spiders' cave. Someone was running here, humanoid, and fell down. They didn't know from what he was running, but they thought it meant from the spiders. It seemed like Odo was lucky, but it wasn't quite so, when you hear what they found next. The group decided to rest for a short while. During this time, they asked Finn why he is collecting mushrooms, so he explained that the gnome wants them, so maybe she will reward him, or the party. He hid the fact that if he brings enough, she will give him one of the scrolls of Locate Object. They joked about his time with the gnome, but also he didn't explain or reveal anything to them. The group ate and drank, they also gave Percival some. After that, they moved further down. Now they started to see what happened here. There was a collapse, a quake somewhere. Cracked walls were evidence of that. The group stepped further to the tunnels and saw many footprints of the floor. With a good survival roll, they deduced that creatures left the lower caves - the worm and spiders also. This had to happen couple of days ago, so after Odo came here. The party also saw footprints of a humanoid that was limping. They hurried to the next cave, deciding not to see from where the monsters came. Here they saw a cave full of steam, it wasn't going anywhere. It did disperse not far from the group, due to the temperature. The group however didn't have anything to move the steam. No bursts of wind. Prestidigitation allowed only to move steam from around the person, not 5 feet from him. Thanks to Balasar's thinking, the group was saved misfortune. Using his tentacle rod, he hit the ground before them, to check for holes and other things. The group formed pairs, left Percival behind and went through the steam. When they entered the tunnel to another cave, the group was stunned. Mario, having a magical light over his head, so something horrible next to him. Another combat started.

Scurver

Mario tried to use Divine Senses before entering the steam, but the monster was behind the wall, so he didn't sense him. The fight with this creature was very hard for the party. First off it was an undead with strange rotten, mushroom spikes, filled with his blood. This spikes pierced anything they touched and also poisoned them. Also he was very strong with poison dripping from his claws and teeth. Finn almost died. Twice. First time, when the group was surprised only he and Mario could act, but Mario had a bad roll on initiative, while Finn was before the monster, so he moved between them and attacked with his sword. The monster did his full combo and Finn fell to 2 HP. He later retreated and healed up. He almost died the second time, when the monster died - it threw his spikes around and that also made Finn almost die - 2 HP. The group tried their best to kill it. Balasar used his tentacle rod to hit the monster and he succeeded, this made the monster lose his reactions, so he could hit Solange, who moved past him. The monk felt the pain after hitting the monster twice and could die hitting him some more. He used his radiant bolts to kill it. Before that Mario tried to reposition the monster into the hole, that the group was next to, but he saw somebody lying there. It wasn't an option. After the fight, the party was heavily wounded. They felt a slight breeze from another corridor, air. This meant there was an "exit" nearby. There were also mushrooms for Finn, but the group found what they were looking for. In the hole, almost 10 meters down, they saw a human in white and blue robes, tattered. He was shaking, covered in earth, like something wanted to bury him - the monster only ate dead bodies. Something was wrong with Odo.

Havoc · Dec 3, 2017

This session Elhaeltôr and Mario is "missing." Mario for the dungeon was an npc.

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Chapter I

Session 8: Darkness, alcohol and adventure

The group is very wounded and tired. They see the man on the group below them, so they start to descent down into the pit. They see that there was water here long ago, which came from up above the ceiling. There were some strange mushrooms here, but their minds are now set on Odo. When they come to him, they see his pitiful state. The young ginger boy is shaking, his whole body is, arms, legs and even his face. They think he is trying to talk to them, but it's just this shaking movement that makes his jaw move. He looks very pale and dried out. They barely see his freckles. His ginger hair is also mostly unrecognizable, because of the dirt and mud. He does have the guild's robes, white and blue, but they are also in very bad shape. The only thing that is remotely conscious in him are his eyes. He looks at them, but can't discern, if he wants to say something. Balasar assures him with telepathy that they will help him and he hears his reply - a weak call for help. They look at him, but only Mario is able to deduce that the boy is not only sick, but also poisoned by something. He tells them that he will need to rest to regain his lay of hands ability to remove these conditions. Solange and Finn find out that the boy has muddy hands and some fungus on them. Finn finds more mushrooms in his pocket. This was keeping the boy alive, he was eating his spoils. The group decide to make camp here. Solange takes care of the boy. He digs out his legs that the monster buried. The Scurver only ate dead bodies and wanted to eat Odo, when he died. His screams could bring more bounty for him, that's why he didn't kill him outright. Monsters here were very smart. Solange had to fix the boy's legs and also he pulled out his herbalist kit to fix the boy right up. Finn started to gather mushrooms and checked a little the tunnel from which air came from, but didn't descent down. Balasar checked his maps and apparently this should just be filled with water and there shouldn't be any other way out. The maps were couple of months old. It just showed that these tunnels could change drastically over the course of years. Balasar went for Percival to show him Odo. The boy cried kneeling before his friend. In his cries the group heard him saying sorry that he told the guild about his departure so late, that he kept it secret. The group now knew that the gnome lied about the bounty, that the guild didn't know about Odo's departure and that's why she presented the group with Percival. Balasar also started to think that these mushrooms could be used as drugs, so that's why the boys wanted them. He however didn't see any reaction from Percival, when he discussed it out loud, the boy looked confused. The group then went to sleep with watches set every two hours. The night was quiet and nothing disturbed them. When they woke up, Mario healed Odo's disease and poison, but he was still weak. His broken leg was pretty much healed, but needed time to recuperate. He could walk, but only with a walking stick in hand, so Percival helped him walk. He regained his senses, so he could speak, but the group decided not to interrogate the guy and just escort him out.

The group decided to check the tunnel nearby. It went down and was pretty uneven. The ceiling and floor matched. It seemed like this tunnel was actually a breach, the walls cracked open here and made a tunnel. When the group emerged down, they were about 300 meters below the surface. They were standing in a kind of recess in the abyss' wall. Small plants grew on the edge, barely getting any sunlight. This place was on the maps and it lead to other places. The group saw at least six more corridors, this wasn't a good idea to explore. Finn just checked how far they are and saw the light at the top. Barely getting any of it down here. They needed torches and other sources of light. Down? Nothing but blackness, it didn't seem to end. The group retraced their steps back, not checking any side tunnels. Only stopping next to the angler worm's corpse. Balasar wanted to check if he can get something valuable out of it. The dragonborn studied the monster and thought that he could sell whatever the monster used to create his invisible webs, so after half an hour, he cut out the monster's web glands that were actually on his body, not in his mouth. Having almost 20 of them, the group decided to go back, but stopped again in the next cave. Solange heard how the weak Odo spoke about his camp, where he had his backpack, notes and stuff. The aasimar didn't ignore the man's plea and stopped. The group moved to the nearby chamber, found more mushrooms and in a small cave the boy's camp. Ruined by moisture paper with his notes. His backpack with his things. Also a small stone that created some light for reading and writing. There were also some mushrooms here, but they were ruined. Percival took the backpack back, but his spellbook wasn't there. He explained that he lost it during his run from the monster. One night he heard something burrowing underground, so he started to run and the sound didn't stop, it followed him. It was the Scurver. The group decided to move.

This time Balasar and Finn fucked up. When the group finally was nearby the sewers, where the water flowed from the ceiling and walls, they moved to the water and saw that the rest of the group didn't follow. Solange was standing before a black wall, it was darkness. While Mario told him, that there was something evil lurking there. Solange created light by casting it on a stone and tossing it into the wall of darkness. The stone lost it's light just went it hit the darkness, but Solange heard it bounce on the ground. Then he used his radiant lightning bolt and threw that into the darkness ahead of him. He not only hit with disadvantage, but also succeeded on a 50% roll, so he hit a monster that was creating this darkness. How did Balasar and Finn not see this? Well, roll 4 on Perception with Advantage will do that to you. Combat ensued. The darkness moved on Solange and he saw these monstrous fangs sprout out from the darkness. It bit him, hard. The group didn't see the aasimar, but they heard his painful scream.

Grue

Balasar then summoned his companion, knowing that Mario will not like it. However the paladin was preoccupied with something else - defending the boys. His little fiend allowed him to see into the unnatural darkness and he saw these floating in air pair of teeth. Very sharp fangs that were reading to eat anything before them. He deduced it was a Grue, an aberration that ate everything living on it's path and if you were eaten by it, it created more Grue after couple of days. His very resilient. Now a small rant. It was a homebrew monster I found. It was CR2, but the stats for it were just impossible for a 2 level party. It casted darkness 15feet around it. It was IMMUNE to damage from non magical attacks and he was IMMUNE to spells that didn't do radiant damage. He did have only 13 AC and 36 HP, but the rest were horrendous, like very serious bite that could down any 2 level character with one solid bite. I had to change at least his immunity to resistance with the non magical attacks, because the group wouldn't be able to harm it. Whoever recreated this old monster, doesn't fucking know what CR means or something. Continuing. Balasar before gave Finn his crossbow, so the halfling could at least try to hit. With a natural 20 on hearing where the monster is, he was able to hit with his crossbow. I think he should be able anyway since darkness is heavily obscured, but whatever, I didn't have time to check the rules on the spot. Solange started to shine with his aasimar powers, not only damaging the monster, but also making him have a disadvantage on attacks. This meant he only had a normal attack. Mario tried to run to help Solange, but fell into the water, since nobody could see it, because of the darkness. The monster rolled his attack, but suddenly I remembered that he didn't have an advantage here, so rolled again. If I accepted the first roll, it would be a crit and Solange would be down, the second roll was a miss. Balasar used his tentacle whip to hit the monster and since the whip was a magical item, I decided that these were magical attacks. However, Balasar hexed the creature in the previous round, but since his spell caused necrotic damage and not radiant, the monster was immune to additional damage. Finn tried to shoot again and inspired people. Solange retreated and with his bonus action he threw a radiant lightning bolt, damaging the monster even more. It was however Mario that stood up from the water, moved just enough to be close to the monster, rolled with disadvantage and hit. Using his divine smite he destroyed the creature. In a flash of light, the darkness was dispelled and the monster screamed. Everybody no saw the Grue how it started to "eat itself" into nonexistence. There was nothing left of it in this world. Solange cheered that his god, Lord Sun, allowed for this victory and his impassioned speech touched the hearts of the two novices. The group decided to check it's lair, but found nothing. Actually, I allowed a roll and only someone rolling over 20 will find something. Balasar rolled 28, so they found a silver ring with waves on the inside. It was magical. The group then decided to leave this place, not checking other tunnels.

Outside the bars were closed, so they shouted for the man. He came to the stairs, different clothing and with a hat. It wasn't hot anymore, but was raining just a little. He saw the adventurers coming back with the two acolytes. He quickly understood that they went to rescue them, so he started calling them heroes. He asked how it went, so they explained a little and even told him about the monster that he talked about. It quickly became apparent for the man, the he almost died. He told the boys to go, that he needs to talk to the heroes alone. The man explained that he wanted to go down with his friends to drink, but upon hearing that there was a flesh eating monster down there, so close to them, they would die because of it. He was grateful, since the guard didn't do shit for the last three days. He explained that he has stashed stuff inside the cave he asked the group not to enter, the one where they saw a campfire and bottles. It was expensive alcohol, but they need to go there themselves, since he will only go there later at night with friends. Solange and Balasar didn't care, but Finn asked to wait and went for it. After many minutes, he came back with a heavy casket. Two bottles of Southerner Nalewka. This isn't illegal per se, just people don't flaunt this stuff to not enrage their neighborhood kingdoms that are going to war with the Great Empire and the Southerner cities are part of it. It was however expensive alcohol, about 50gp per bottle, so it was 100gp for the casket, but since it isn't readily available, then they could sell it for twice as much. The group saw how Odo was crying over Percival, happy that he is alive and back in Orth. Together they journeyed to the Mages' Guild. This time going south. They walked pasy many workshops and the entrance to the rich subdistrict of the First District. Lot of wealthy people were walking here. Also they saw a big temple, almost like a cathedral. It was the Temple of Trinity (three major gods of this setting are called The Trinity and came with humans to "save" this world from the giants). The group moved past that and into the South District. Along the way they saw a small bazar, this one was filled with Halflings, Half-elves and other races. This was a place for the minority races to put their own market stands and sell their goods. Moving past that, they saw even more shops and were in the elven part of town, so they ventured forth into the Elven Garden. This was a beautiful place. Peaceful. Quiet. Ideal place to rest, think and converse. The group however went past the garden and straight into the guild building.

Inside people were shocked seeing Percival and Odo. The guildmaster, Ellyjoybell Horcusporcus, greeted the party. She was happy that they came, but hearing that Percival was also in need of rescue - she was angry. The group saw a twitch in her eye, but she remained calm and told them that Percival will need to work hard to repay the reward for his rescue. The group discussed the payment, but Finn asked about the ring. So they agreed to the 200 gold pieces for saving Odo and she will for free identify the ring for saving Percival. She told them to return in an hour and the pair of novices to go to their room, she will talk to them later. Odo thanked the group and left, so did Percival, but before that he stood before Balasar, said he was sorry and ran off with Odo. The group went to the park and rested for an hour. A needed break. When they returned to the guild, the gnome wasn't there to greet them, but familiar face of the first mage they saw was. He told them that the guildmaster is busy doing a lecture, but she wanted the group to have this. He gave them the 200gp reward and the ring back, telling them it was a Ring of Water Walking, this allowed them to move on any liquid like it was solid. The group agreed to meet later for dinner in the adventurers' guild, so they could do their own thing until then.

Balasar just went back to finish copying maps. That took some time from him. He only wanted to copy them, so he can return the borrowed ones to the cartographer. He also gave him the copy of their map, to show what was wrong, but it was just 10% of what was blank in his map. Not much, but the half-orc thanked for everything and the party didn't need to bring back the maps at a later date.

Solange went around asking about Lord Sun. He heard that there is a chapel called The Chapel of Gods, where there are many chapels of various deities. He went there to check and it was kinda empty at this hour. The main hall was very neutral, having only couple of statues, while there were rooms to the sides. This oval in shape rooms were small chapel for about ten to twenty followers. Each was modeled so it was appropriate for the particular religion. Since my setting doesn't have all the gods mapped out - they will come to being if they are needed. The chapel only had couple of gods at this moment - Lord Sun, Urist Thunder (Dwarven deity), Corellon (Elven deity) and Actur (the new god of Lawful Good people). Solange went to visit the chapel of his patron and saw a figure in armor that had his god's symbol on his chest. The ceiling was remodeled to allow more sunlight to get in. He started his prayer and when he was about to finish, he heard footsteps behind him. When he turned around, he saw, before the entrance to this chapel, a dwarf woman in priest clothing. She was a cleric of Urist Thunder. She asked Solange if he was new, he explained that he is an adventurer from the guild. She told him, that she knows Gwendolyn, since she works "next door" in the hospital, but also takes care of this chapel. She asked him if he was in any order, since she saw symbols on him. Solange was wearing the Eclipsed cape, so yeah. He told her from what part of the world he came and that, yes, he is a member of the Brotherhood of Sun. However, he explained that his cape was from a different group of his religion. To even my shock, the woman rolled a natural 20, so she knew who the Eclipsed where, so she asked why he is wearing it openly. Solange just gave his usual mumbo-religious-jumbo. Hearing that she went and outright asked him if he wanted to take care of this chapel, of Lord Sun. She explained that she takes care of the chapel of Urist Thunder, that there is a cleric of Corellon in town taking care of that chapel and there is even a paladin of Actur, which the group knows, it's Gwendolyn. Solange thought about it for a while and didn't need a night to think about it further. Seeing this a sign from his god, he accepted to work here. So she gave him a key to the backrooms, where he can rest or make it into some religious room, like a confessional. He told him that it will be his turn to clean up the whole chapel in twenty days, so he has to be ready. He told that he will ask the followers for that, but he doesn't know any. The woman agreed to ask any of those followers to meet with Solange, send them to the chapel or to the adventurers' guild.

Finn in the meantime met with the gnome guildmaster and was given the scroll of Locate Object and 100 gold pieces for the mushrooms he came with. After that he started asking about his mandolin, but didn't find anything special. He heard that there is a luthier workshop in town, but also two shops - a luxury shop that imports good and a magic shop. There was also a theater and a marketplace, but nothing concrete where to look for this specific mandolin. So interested in the theater, he visited that place. In the Merchant District, next to the abyss, there was a theater called Suspended Theater. It was what it was called. When Finn entered the two story building, he was that there were doors leading to the outside, back of the building straight away. When he checked them, he saw that half of this building was the auditorium with two floors of lounges for richer folk. About 200 to 300 people could sit here and watch the suspended scene. Finn saw that the scene was held by two large bars that were set in stone, while big metal chains suspended them over the abyss. It was, of course, closed off by the curtain and you had to jump nearly 10 meters to land on the scene. However there was a different entrance for the actors from the first floor, he would just have to sneak around, and he did. Finn exited the room, back tot he main hall and sneaked to the first floor. He heard a lot of voices here, but seeing a corridor straight to his target, he went to it. This special corridor was a mechanical one. Metal and wood combined to allow the corridor to move with the scene, if it moved with the wind. He went down and it "nothing special." It was clearly a very good scene and he didn't feel like he was suspended over a giant, endless hole. He looked outside, to see the auditorium and saw that people started to gather, so there was going to be a play around this time. Hidden behind the curtain he started to play and sign, until he was interrupted by one of the actors, he didn't hear her come. She shouted asking what he was doing here, but he only told her that he is a musician. He saw that she was dressed as a cloud and two other people came to see, both also dressed - one was dressed as a lighting and the other as a tree. Seeing this humorous scene, he joked that "black clouds gather around him." This made the whole cast burst out laughing and they told him, to leave, but they will not tell their boss he was snooping around. He learnt that the boss is called Eldon Glittergem, a gnome. He heard the surname before and recalled that this man is a from a family of bards from the college of Glamour, it's said that these bards have connection to the Fey. Finn thanked the group and left, also sneaked around and was not seen by anybody.

The group gathered to eat some dinner.

What did the group missed in the caves?

- There was more mushrooms to gather. Finn only found 7/10. He needed 5 to make the gnome happy, so he could get 150gp more if they searched.
- There was also a special mushroom hidden that costed around 300gp.
- A stash from the thieves' guild with narcotics and a note that they will await the next drop of money in a month.
- A hidden box from a gnomish assassin-thief with 1000gp in platinum (so only 100 coins) and a magical dagger (Dagger of Venom).
- There was a hidden body of an explorer that had almost all his possession eroded over time except for one thing, a magical ring. This was a Ring of Free Action (you can't be grappled or slowed).
- Also hidden in one of the tunnels, somebody buried a casket. Stolen from the Craftsmen Guild. It was almost empty except for a signet of a important person in the city.
So in short not only they missed loot, but also plot stuff. No worries. It's their decision/loss.

This is the whole map of the dungeon.

Havoc · Dec 4, 2017

Everybody was this session. The group "gained" their 5th level, but they need a long rest in a safe place to advance their characters. Also a kinda sad session.

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Chapter I

Session 9: Lovers and Musicians

The group met during dinner time. They could plan and discuss plans. Unfortunately, the "discussions" were short. Even telling Elhaeltôr how the mission went was shortened to "we succeeded." I don't know what is going with my players. Are they not engaged in the session? Do they not care about anything that happens? Maybe it's the issue with online sessions, where the players do not see each other like in real life, so when someone speaks, the others do not feel the need or be obliged to answer, even with the simplest one. I will give another example later with buying horses. Continuing, the group decided to talk to the Small Council, sell those monster parts they found to the mages' guild, try to buy a horse and a wagon and finally move out to find those lovers. In the mean time, Luigi was missing. Remember that roll before? Luigi went missing and wasn't around, even in his room. They asked Alice if she seen him. The little blunderer hit her head, while standing up to answer their question, but she did see him. She says he came last night, all bruised and dirty. Asked to not tell his 'father' about it and asked for a different room. To this moment, in game, nobody in the party knew that Luigi was actually Mario's son. This made Mario stand up and find Luigi upstairs. He didn't answer any questions, but Solange went with him to make sure that the paladin will not beat his son. This was one of the rare moments the players roleplayed some, too bad it was mostly player-DM. They went to room 8, which was empty before, now closed. Luigi was there, so Mario ordered him to open the door. Inside they saw that the boy was all beaten up, his armor was missing, so was his sword. Through tearful explanations Luigi told Mario, his "master," that he did what he was asked to, but during his exploring in the North District when it was pretty late, he was ambushed by three people. Half-orcs and Dragonborn. He wasn't able to defend himself nor he had any money on him, since Mario has all the money, so they beat him up and stole all his stuff - sword and armor that was given to him by his mother for the journey. Mario told the boy that he needs to grow up, be a man and stand up for himself or he will never become a paladin. He gave the boy a gold piece and healed his wounds with his Lay of Hands. Luigi was very grateful for this. After that, the group discussed what happened. Again they heard about a gang of thugs in the North District. They also discussed that they will need to take care of this, but it will come later. Now they moved to the Small Council.

The Small Council is a council for minority races. Mainly for Halflings, Elves and Half-elves. Two notice boards that are standing before the building just confirm this. There is no notice board with Common or any other languages notifications. The group came after dinner, so the place was packed with people. The main hall was filled with many races and they saw that not only poorer people come here, but also richer. A rare sight when the poor talk to the rich and there is no problems of etiquette, at least that is what happens with halflings, but not with humans. Finn asked one of the receptionists that work on the Small Council. He explained that they are adventurers and they came here about the bounty. She instructed them to go to the main council chamber, down the corridor, maybe one of the councilmen is still there. The party moved inside and saw two people. One was a human woman, who was taking notes. Young woman with hair clipped high up, glasses and very dignified clothing. The other was a half-elf man. Long black hair, a small beard. He was wearing very expensive clothing for a councilman of this place. When he saw the group enter, he stopped the woman and told her that they will continue later.

Enialis
Member of the Small Council
Leader of the South District

The man introduced himself as Enialis, the member of the small council. He talked like it was his council, which wasn't far from the truth. The group explained what they came for and Enialis started answering questions about the quest. The lovers were called Aerendyl and Cellica, both half-elves. Their families didn't like each other, but when their love went public, the family arranged the marriage for them. Both wanted more time, stay lovers for longer. Using their time, before the wedding, they sneaked out from the town from time to time and moved to an old Corellon chapel south of the city, one day march. A place for lovers and peace as Enialis called it. This wouldn't be a problem if they didn't came back for three weeks. They were gone sometimes couple of days, but this time it's very long and the families are getting anxious, so the Small Council decided to set a bounty for information about them. Nobody from the town is yet ready to move there, since the surrounding area is still dangerous and they missed the army's patrol time. Fortunately, the reason little to nobody wants to go find them is that the pair was given a magical item. This was a small, silver sheep that allowed the creator to find it. It was created by Jasper Elderberry, the innkeeper of "At Grandma's" and a cleric of Granny, the halfling cook the group met couple of days ago. He told Enialis, just two days ago, that the sheep is still at the chapel. Everybody thinks that they are still safe, because the chapel area is magical and considered a sanctuary. However better to check on them. He also notified them that he heard a rumor that the pair went out with backpacks. The group asked how to get to them, so Enialis told the group to come later. He will bring a painting of the pair and also will tell them how to get there. The group agreed. When the man left them, Finn told them that he doesn't seem to trust the half-elf, him believing like this is his council makes him untrustworthy. The group ignored those concerns and decided to sell those monster parts.

The group then moved to the mages' guild. The guildmaster was nowhere to be seen, but there was a lot of mages and the slick mage the group met before. He was very cold towards them, like before. Even a question of his name by Finn, was dismissed and he asked what the group wanted. They told him about the glands. I rolled for Kenway's Arcane, but he failed that, so he was interested in them. He asked the group to wait and he returned later with four more mages. While Kenway had a black robe with some white and blue symbols of the guild, the other mages had whiter robes with blue symbols. The four were asked to look at the glands, then the five moved away from the group, but the party could overhear their talks. The other mages called the black mage "Master Kenway," so they got a name now and apparently now even they know what the glands are or the monster the group speaks of. They were very much interested in getting those items, so Kenway returned and wanted to give 100gp for ten out of twenty of the glands. Elhaeltôr intervened and told them that they surely need more, since not only these are fresh, but also during experiments most of them will get used. I was ready to tell him to roll, but Balasar blundered in. How? "Especially when you don't know what they are." Kenway didn't like that. Oh, he didn't, so I gave Elhaeltôr a disadvantage to the persuasion roll. He however succeeded on it and Kewnay agreed to buy all of them for 200gp. The group however were much more greedy and told him, they will go to other places, since these glands are capable of creating invisible strands. Finn rolled quite high and now Balasar's new arguments were helping the roll, so an advantage. Kenway told them that he will give them 200gp and 5 healing potions. The group discussed the offer, but in the end agreed to it. After that exchange, the group decided to return to the Small Council to meet with Enialis. However the half-elf wasn't there, but a strange halfling with a picture a of pair was talking to one of the receptionists.

Nevil Fastfoot
Member of the Small Council
Leader of the Halfling Community

Finn inquired about the painting and it was indeed the pair that they were looking for. Nevil recognized the group as adventurers and introduced himself as Nevil Fastfoot, member of the Small Council and the leader of the halfling community. The talks weren't long. He explained that he already talked to Jasper today and the cleric confirmed that the object is still on the site. He showed the group the painting and saw that the pair was happy there. Both were smiling, with closed eyes. The man had long black hair, while the woman had slightly blueish tint to hers. Both had Moon Elf blood in them. The pair were wearing ceremonial clothing, so the painting would not tell them how they are dressed or how they dress. Also Nevil explained how to get to the place - travel with the road couple of hours and then south towards the river. After those talks, the group went out. This time they wanted to buy a horse and wagon.

Remember how I talked that the group is kinda not immersed in playing? The group went "so we go buy a horse" and I ask them "ok, where do you go?" And now they don't know shit. The party is new to town, they don't know what is where. The group decide to move to the nearest stable, since they saw one next to each gate. Lucky and unlucky at the same time. Unlucky since when they moved to the south gate, they saw a castle and a gate, no stable (it was behind the gate, but they didn't go there). However nearby was a saddler's shop called Small Horse, Big Heart, where he sold ponies but also all the needed stuff. There they met a halfling called Franklin Tricksweet. He didn't have a cart, wagon or a big horse for sale, but told them where they can buy it. The army sells some horses, but their prices are higher. Stables near the other gates could have some animals for sale. Also there is another saddler in the North District that should have horses for the group. While also the main marketplace is big enough that they do sell wagons, carriages and animals. The group however started discussing about buying them. And when I mean discussing, I mean one of the players says something, the other four stay silent and do not continue the conversation in any way. To the point that I tried to intervene and maybe get some roleplaying out of them. When someone asked out loud, how much would a horse and wagon cost, the halfling spoke up "The cost? *You see the halfling speak up, not wanting to intervene in you conversation too much.*" One of the players joked, "yea, the cost, like what you want for a service." So I made the halfling shut up. The only thing they needed to do is ask the halfling for the costs "how would this or that cost?" But none of them said anything, until Finn finally asked himself. What do they do after that? They decide that they do not need a horse and wagon right now, so they leave. So we wasted about 30 minutes of game time on barely roleplaying. Sad day. The next move was to just go south. Forgetting about Luigi. Fortunately, Mario didn't forget about him. The group returned to the guild and Luigi was ready. He hadn't enough cash to buy armor, but at least he bought some clothing, washed up and had a greatclub. The boy was able to handle it, but it would take time until he will be able to use it properly. The group decided to leave Orth.

The group traveled south. This time the weather changed to a colder one. After many hours of travel, they founded the small forests the halfling spoke about that are near Golder Rafter, a village that is known for helping travelers move down the river to the Golden City. The group saw the elven ruins in one of the groves and it was like the elf said, a magical place. They felt at ease here. It was very peaceful, the same feeling they felt when they went into the Elven Garden in Orth. They saw animals roaming around, but they didn't come near the group. It was a wonderful place and Elhaeltôr saw that this was, of course, a chapel of Corellon from at least 300 years ago, but it was mainly used by the Moon Elves as a place for romance and night parties. The group saw the camp nearby the ruins. The pair was here and the encampment didn't look like they were attacked or any such sorts. However they saw that the cooking pot on the campfire and an opened box of tools were full of water, a sign that the pair wasn't here for a long time. The group found the small silver sheep, which of course was magical per Balasar's detect magic (also the place was magical). Elhaeltôr found a bag full of moonstones and couple of golden pieces. They didn't went shopping or anything like that, so the group started to look for tracks. They found some and even more. The pair was very active two weeks ago, but suddenly it stopped. Finn found the latest tracks, so they moved south and never returned to the camp. The group moved. The tracks stopped next to the river, but were seen past it. The river called the Golden River Return was quite deep and wide, so the group had to swim. Elhaeltôr borrowed the ring of water walking and moved to the other side, while the rest swam. Balasar had problems and almost drowned - on DC 5, he failed by 1 (with using a Hero point to add +1d6, so he rolled and add 1 to his 3). The group tired decided to rest here and the next day continued their journey. It was raining, heavily, but fortunately they found the tracks and went south. The forests here were in bad shape, nobody was taking care of them. Lots of dead tree trunks, big shrubs and weeds everywhere. The group however found a ruin not far from here.

Not a lot was there to see. Most the ruins was underground. They found some stones that still had some part of it on the surface and Elhaeltôr deduced that it wasn't an elven ruin, even when there was some elven craftsmanship here. Looking at a submerged cross, he told the party that this ruin wasn't a grave, but a commemoration, a monument site of some sort. Finn also saw a entrance, stairs down. Now, before I continue, this was again a moment when I saw the group like not caring for the session. The group saw the ruins from afar and Mario's player said "Oh, when we will be close I will use my divine sense." Well, they were about 20 meters from it. I asked the whole group, each one of them what they wanted to do and even Mario's player two times. "No, Mario is doing nothing." and "No, nothing. Oh, I know, Mario will be drinking wine." Well, time to get surprised. When the group approached the ruins, they heard a ghostly voice of a halfling.

Alton
The Undead Metal Bard

It was an undead bard. He had an expensive shirt on him and a strange guitar in his hands (an electronic guitar). He laughed at the party, while they did nothing but stare at him. So I asked to roll for initiative. The bard started his turn, summoned five undead skeleton warriors. While all this happened, of course, I played some metal music (this and this). The whole fight, the group focused on... the minions. The bard did what he wanted. It was a harder encounter that it needed to be, but it felt balanced, kinda. After that show, he teleported and summoned shadow tentacles. These moved every time after his turn each square, making a wall around the place he created them (so it was at first a 3x3 square, then a 5x5 square etc). The wall would stop after 30ft. The group successfully identified his weaknesses and one of them was "he doesn't like when somebody is a better performer than him." I had some nice rules for Charisma (Perform) rolls. When you win, you damage the bard for 1d4 for each point (max. 5d4) plus your charisma mod. If you lose, you get 1 point of damage (max. 10) plus Atlon's charisma mod. Well, Finn never used his perfom like this. After three rounds, he was on healing duty, because two skeletons attacked Balasar and downed him. He was healed back up, but until long rest he is with 1 failed death saving throw. Later Alton again went invisible and jumped to create more shadow tentacles, the party almost got surrounded. What was Solange doing? DPSing minions. What was Mario doing? DPSing minions. What was Balasar doing? DPSing minions. Elhaeltôr was the only one that after two-three rounds decided to DPS the bard. He brought him to half health and during the last round he and Balasar defeated him. Balasar used his tentacle whip, it went hit the bard three times and broke his guitar. He looked at the him with a sad face and said "not cool bro", he vanished into thin air. His skeletons and tentacles also. I told the group during the fight that they saw one of the defeated skeleton to change into a shadow figure and disappear. Another hint to KILL THE FUCKING BARD. Well, it almost went bad for them. Half of the party almost died. The group after that stepped closer to the entrance. Divine sense didn't feel anything. Everybody saw that the entrance to the underground is much older than the surrounding ruins. The ruins could be over 300 years old, the stairs had to be over 1,000 years old. The group decided to rest a little and go down to investigate.

Havoc · Dec 5, 2017

Mario was "missing" this session, but he came just after we ended, so we did a small retrospection and changed couple of details during the sword part.

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Chapter I

Session 10: Until Death Do Us Part, also a sword

The group took a quick rest, just one hour to regain their strength. The rain didn't stop, but they had tents and blankets, so creating a drier place was easy. The water flowed into the stairs nearby. The group recognized that they stood in two different places at the same time. One the surface, the ruins were a from a monument to someone, someplace or an event. An excavation would be needed to figure it out. They were older than 300 years, about the same time that those elven ruins to the north. Give or take 50 years, but it was a guess by Elhaeltôr. The stairs, the underground part was even older than any stone from the ruins. Dating nearly 1000 years or maybe even more. The group prepared to enter the dark place. Finn got Light from Solange, so the group could see in the dark that is going to be below. When they descended a couple of steps, they saw that the walls a line and below it the stones were different colour. This was a sign that the whole underground was actually flooded.

Inside they met with their first obstacle. A room filled with holes. The water from the stairs flowed down into them. They saw old skeletons that survived only because of cold water, no air or something else. These skeletons lied on the floor with the holes. Also, mounds of dirt in the room. The ceiling had broken stones and the group could see earth. Even if this room was over 1000 years old, the mechanism could be still working. The group saw a metal lever in the corner of the room. Elhaeltôr tried to use his Mage's Hand, but it was too weak to move it. They did however hear some movement beneath their feet, metallic sounds of mechanisms moved around, when the hand moved the lever. They stopped and returned to "primed" position, when the magic hand gave up. Solange asked Finn for some inspiration and then run, matrix style, on the wall to jump to the lever. Parts of the wall fell down and the party suddenly saw these metal spikes raise up, almost instantly from the group, higher than Finn. They didn't raise on all of the holes, but the fact they were still in this working order and dangerous was evidence of master craftsmanship and great materials. Solange landed next to the lever and when he looked back, he saw those spikes. Almost piercing his own nipples with them. He used all his strength, but the rustic, metallic lever was barely budging, but the monk didn't give up and little by little the lever moved. When it was half way, it fell almost instantly to the other side, making Solange trip, but not fall to the ground. The working spike traps started to move. In asynchronous motions they moved up and down, until about twenty seconds later all of them stayed up. The spikes then slowly descended down, until the group heard a loud clank. Not wanting to tempt fate, the group moved through the places that the spikes didn't work. They moved to the next room, where they saw a series of sarcophagi and statues. The places looked picked clean. Some of the slabs were destroyed, other laid on the ground, while the rest still closed the sarcophagi. They now knew that this place was a tomb to someone important and these people here were his "personal guard." However all of this was in very bad shape. Even some skeletons started to dissolve, when the sarcophagus couldn't dry the water out. The statues were also in unrecognizable form, the group barely could see that these were knights. They did however recognize that they wore late Actuvian armor, that was thousand years after the Human Invasion, during the age of Migration of Races. The main attraction however were two fresh bodies in the corner of the room. They recognized the pair - Aerendyl and Cellica. Laid on the ground, the man held his girl on his lap, while the girl hugged him back. The hair were a dead giveaway, since their faces and bodies started to rot pretty badly. Their clothing was also in bad shape. The group moved to them and suddenly the eyes of the pair opened and both of them jumped onto the group.

Aerendyl and Cellica
Zombie Lovers

When they stood up, the pair was actually connected to each other in their stomach area. The woman held her lover and couldn't move except for her upper body - she could bite and claw. While the man could move around and claw people, but couldn't grapple anything - he needed some help with that. First off, it was very fun to create this monster, it seems quite easy to create them in 5e compared to other versions. Just like with Alton, I just used some monster as base, added some cool powers and combos that would make the encounter feel new and refreshing. Second, it gave the party a stark contrast between what happened before with the bard and what they saw now. "Oh, look, a bard ghost halfling that plays metal music, summons skeletons and tentacles. Kinda funny" to "What the living shit happened here?! Why is the woman spitting acid at us?! Dear god!" Yes, the woman could spit bile at the group. It wasn't an easy encounter, but this time the group could focus one thing, instead of going on minions. The pair jumped onto Finn and Mario, the man clawed them, while the woman tried to grapple the halfling, but failed. I had a special move that the man could use Devour (with high damage) on the target, if the woman was grappling someone. That failed and the group started to DPS the monsters. Balasar this whole battle had shit luck on his rolls. Next the man still clawed someone, this was the only thing he could do. While the woman tried to spit onto Solange. Thanks to his Deflect Missiles, he threw to the side most of the bile that had some human tissue in it, while his Aasimar heritage blocked some of the necrotic damage, so from a 18 damage hit, it went to 1 damage. Finn also tried one of his spells saying "You forgot that the phrase is "Until Death Do Us Part", right?" The monster rolled a natural 20, so I made the zombies smile to the halfling and hug even more. Even in undeath, they were happy together. Later the woman tried also to bite someone and after that it was the comic routine. The zombie had Undead Fortitude, so every time there is a hit with damage that would put it to 0 or lower (and isn't radiant damage or a critical hit), it rolled DC 5 + damage. If it succeeds, it goes to 1 hp. Mario, Finn and Balasar all tried to hit the monster. They stabbed and stabbed, but the pair always succeeded on the roll. It was not until Elhaeltôr threw his Firebolt, that he changed the damage to radiant. The pair was hit straight into the place they were connected. Their unlife finally faded away and they both fell into a sarcophagus, which had the slab cracked by combat. The group inside finally looked like they were at rest.

The party regrouped, Mario healed Solange a little and started to think what to do next. The dead pair had nothing on them, nor there was anything to take in the sarcophagi. Finn in the mean time, tried his luck with his magical bag and rolled an 8, the highest one, so a big brown bear appeared, ever so wanting to be helpful. He stayed in the room, while the rest saw a corridor, that could lead to the next room. It was long and the group had to move in single file. It wasn't until they saw a gargoyle at the end of the tunnel that they stopped. A black statue propounded out of the wall, looking straight at them. Elhaeltôr told the group not to move from their places and start to look around for mechanisms. There were none here, but Finn thought that there must be something before the entrance to the corridor. Since Elhaeltôr was the only one in the back, he moved there and it was a good decisions, since the whole party stood on the trigger mechanisms, so if they moved out, the gargoyle would fire. Elhaeltôr checked around and saw a mound of earth right next to the wall of the corridor. He was very weak (5 Strength), so he had to ask the bear for help. Finn screamed to the bear an order to do what the elf wants. So the helpful cuddly bear started to dig in the earth, like the elf wanted. Suddenly he hit with his claws a stone and it fell right off, with it strength it was easy. Elhaeltôr saw a hole inside, stopped the bear and moved the rest of the stones. Inside there were six chains going from a wall and into holes below. This small compartment, which was pretty dry compared to the whole tomb, had to be for the gargoyle. He tried his luck, so he took out the thieves' tools and started to check around it. After a while, he found out that one of the chains is very light, just the couple of first rings were heavy like the rest. If this was a mechanism to disarm the gargoyle, it had to be a long chain/rope, so he pulled this chain (with the bear's help) and the group heard something metallic move next to them in the wall and under their feet. A metal gear started to snap, one by one and the gargoyle's mouth started to close at the same time. When it was fully closed, the group heard another clank. The trap was disarmed. The group were finally allowed to move past the corner and walk wasn't far, just two to three meters they saw another obstacle. A giant slab, different than the walls, blocked their path. They barely recognized that there is a man engraved on the slab with a sword above his hands (like in a He-Man pose). There were no levers, but there were holes for fingers. Two people could try to lift the slab. Each time the slab moved up, they heard something break, like shattering stone, but the slab was fine. Solange and Finn used their whole strength to lift and suddenly they heard one last stone shatter and the slab was light. Apparently it was just three to five centimeters deep, while only the handles on the hands were build differently. It was something above that was holding it's weight onto this slab. They lift it up as hard and far as they could and then they let it go. The slab moved couple of centimeters then stopped, hitting some kind of break. Inside they saw a strange room.

This was the main tomb. Compared to the rest of the tomb, this wasn't in anyway flooded, water never got into this room. Here someone had a beautiful marble sarcophagus. Around it were stone pillars with reliefs showing different scenes and braziers that had big green fires. The group started to look around what is here. Elhaeltôr saw an inscription on the sarcophagus in Actuvian, the oldest human language, the one that was used by the first humans on Tethys (think of Latin). Since Elhaeltôr knew that language, he read it out loud, after he cursed out loud when he read it in his head.

Last of the Kings
Wielder of the Sword
Bringer of Light to Darkness
Poisoned by Friends

The group thought that this was the grave of Actur, king of the late Dominium of Trinity, but the grave was much older than him. Actur lived over 300 years ago, while this man lived over 1000 years ago. While Actur died to betrayal like this king, he was stabbed through the heart, while the man lying before them was poisoned. Solange and Balasar were the only ones that heard stories about the man in the sarcophagus, also Finn saw his name, since he started to look around the grave (he read it, but with very broken words). This was the grave of Tiberion Courvelux. He wielded a legendary sword called Rexgladio, Ruler of Lands. He came to the lands that later were known as the Golden Brook Kingdom. He defeated a powerful Green Dragon, ruled over the lands, but during his rule he was poisoned by his closest friends. They had a grave of an ancient king before them and what could be the final resting place of a legendary sword, an artifact. The group started to look at the pillars. They saw all the historical moments Tiberion had. They saw him with a flowing came, with the sward drawn. On one the pillars they saw three figures looking down at Tiberion with agreement - a dwarf, an elf and a tall man with a crown of deer horns. Other showed different challenges Tiberion had to endure. He defeated armies, giants and finally a giant green dragon. They saw him build a kingdom on the dragon's bones. Everybody was happy and rich, because the mountains flowed with gold. The treachery happened during the height of his rule. Six figures that weren't named, their faces hidden, also their features. These traitors were to be forgotten by time. The group saw two moments. When everybody makes a toast, happy. The other, Tiberion's chest was on the table, his goblet no more in the air, while rest of the figures smiled the raised their goblets to themselves. This was the end of the king. History didn't record who the traitors were or at least the group couldn't remember this.

Tiberion Courvelux
Last of the Kings
Wielder of the Sword
Bringer of Light to Darkness
Poisoned by Friends

The party debated what to do next. They had in their hands, possibly a powerful artifacts, but they were good guys, not grave robbers. Especially when Mario felt that this whole place was still sacred. There was an exception to "graverobbing." This was a powerful magic item that could save a lot of lives and this land which was once the deadman's kingdom. If the group has their heart in the right place and decide to use the sword for the same reason that the dead wants, then they will not disturb his rest - they will do what the deadman wishes. The group decided that this would be the best course of action, so they move the slab. It was pretty heavy and it needed the strength of almost everybody. Finn almost got squished by the slab, when Solange moved it with ease. Inside they saw Tiberion in expensive, but now very much destroyed clothes. No jewelry adorned his head or hands. There was nothing of value inside. Only a dead man's skeleton. However Finn saw some similar symbols behind the skull. Elhaeltôr with graceful movements moved the skull to the side to read them. Just a reminded, this rhymed in Polish, so in English it makes little sense.

I don't have eyes, but I guard.
I deceive every passerby.
They come at me.
I can't tell them otherwise.
They die to the firemaster.
When they move past to the corridor.
Please someone give me something to drink.
Because it's unbecoming for me.

The group started to think what was going on and what they needed to do. They tried to mess with the green flames in the room and saw that there were magical bows inside them, when you filled them with a special liquid they created green fire, that was weaker than a torch, but didn't hurt anyone nor it was warm to the touch. They poured water into them, but it only made the green fire disappear. They did that with 3 of the 4 bowls, but thought that this wasn't it. It mentioned drinking, maybe water, but they knew two things. First, the room they were inside wasn't flooded. Second, the rest of the tomb was flooded nearly at two meters height, so everything was underwater. Elhaeltôr asked the group to stay, while he explored the rest. He checked the statues, but nothing there could take water nor the sarcophagi had anything that could take water. Suddenly, he realized that there was a dry compartment in the chamber with the knights, the gargoyle chains. He saw that there were holes there in the group, so he started to pour water down each one. The rest of the group heard metallic sounds, like gears moving and some water pouring down. They marched to Elhaeltôr and the whole group, with the brown bear also, saw as one of the walls opened. Another dry room, but this one was filled with treasure chests, statues of Tiberion and a big pedestal with the sword. Light as strong as sunlight was around it.

Rexgladio
Ruler of Lands

Rexgladio, Ruler of Lands laid before them. A greatsword with golden runes from the tip to the handle. The handle was made of strange wood that had branches, that bounded around the place where the greatswords were dull (to hold them with a hand). It clearly was a magical sword. The group felt this great joy and pride, but Finn, Balasar and Solange told Mario to take the sword. Since he is a paladin and these were once his lands or at least that what the de Capodimonte family says. He was convinced by the group. Stood next to the pedestal, took out his sword and made a pray to Valena, his goddess, thanking him for this. He put away his sword and touched the handle of Rexgladio. The whole group saw as a bolt of radiant energy hit Mario and he flew back. He took some damage, but since he was "a hero", he survived it. He stood up saying that they had to miss something in the riddle or something. This was the moment we recreated later, so that Mario's player could roleplay his character correctly. I've roleplayed Mario as this proud man that knows that he deserves this sword, he also flew back, but went red and silent. The rest of the group debated what to do. Elhaeltôr tried to check for magical traps, but there were none. The pedestal however was also magical, it made the room light up in bright light. Next Balasar tried. They met a dragon, next this legend. He thought it maybe destined for him, but the sword reacted the same. Solange tried his luck, but Lord Sun wasn't on his side this time. Elhaeltôr also and almost died, because of it. Finn "healed" him with a pat on the cheek saying "there, there," but the elf knew that the halfling was fucking with him. They convinced him to try his luck, but the situation was the same. They laughed that maybe Luigi is the one, but they all felt the power that hit them and he might not survive the hit. Nor the mule, yes, they also thought about the mule. The group discussed what to do next, because some weren't convinced that they should take the sword, just lock this place up. Finn started to look into chest, all were filled with gold coins, gold topazes and couple of objects (three potions and a necklace). While they discussed their course of action, they saw the bear looking at a nearby wall. The group didn't hear it, but there was a hole there. A crack started to form and was getting wider every second. They didn't have time to debate. Elhaeltôr wrapped the sword in some cloth and used his Mage's Hand to lift it by the blade, it was incredibly light. The rest took the chests. While leaving, they saw the other corridor, to the main tomb, to move down, tilted. The whole place is falling. The group ran out of the place and it seconds before the whole place started to collapse. Outside the group felt like the surface ruins fell couple of centimeters and then they heard stones hitting. Gust of earth and dirt flew out of the stairs. When it fell down, they looked inside and saw that the room with the mechanical trap is two meters lower than the stairs and you need to squeeze inside.

The heavy rain stopped. The land around the group looked lovely. The bear survived the adventure and stood next to Finn, while a white rat got out of his pocket and stood on his head. This small rat one day got out of the magical bag and stays on Finn all the time. The group finally could rest (and advance to 5th level). They started to count what they got in the chests. It was about 5,000 thousand gold coins and 100 gold topazes, worth about 50gp a piece, so another 5000gp in value. Three potions - Heroism, Mind Reading and Diminution. They didn't have the identification pearls, so they couldn't check what the necklace that had couple of fire onyxes did. You can easily guess what the beads are fore. The group after that journey back.

Dire Wolves

The party had a problem on the travel back, when they were still in the forest. Elhaeltôr saw signs of Dire Wolves near the area, so they decided to sneak past the place. Solange rolled a 1. So he showed the group the way, moved a shrub with his hand and felt with his fingers that he skimmed past something wet and toothy. Instincticly he started hitting the beast, doing enough damage in one combo to make the big wolf go to "sleep." Finn threw faerie fire at the four remaining Dire Wolves, but nobody actually used the advantage it gives (if the enemy fails the saving throw, he lights up, so he can't go invisible and everybody has an advantage on attacks). It was Elhaeltôr new spell. He gained access to the 3rd level spells. So he threw a fireball, but used his class power that he can change the saving throw into a different one. Fireball needs Dexterity, so he changed it into Intelligence. Suddenly a meteor hit the unintelligent creatures, who didn't know what was happening. They all failed their saves and almost died to it, so the beasts, like normal animals, ran away from the group. The party finally could go the rest of the journey unmolested. When the group finally were back, it was already seven days that the Mages' Guild had their eggshell. They could go and retrieve it. The way to the elves will take a long time and the group might be at least a month out of town, so they needed to prepare and finish whatever they started.

The map of the ruins

This is not mine, but was in my Roll20 library, so I used it. Wasn't that great, but allowed me to set the scene.

Havoc · Dec 6, 2017

The group went shopping this session, but I'm not going to make all shopping go RP, so some of the stuff they will buy between sessions (like horses or whatnot). Later a new player might join the game. We shall see what a character she will create or if she will play more than a couple of sessions.

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Chapter I

Session 11: A little intrigue, a little shopping

The group finally were back. Tired, they went to the guildhall. Gwendolyn wasn't there yet, so they asked for dinner. The sword was hidden in one of their rooms. Having time for themselves, the group split up. Mario, Finn and Solange went to the Mages' Guild. Everybody had something to do there. Inside they again met with Kenway and Mario explained his problem with his family's shield. It is an old magic heirloom that was in the family for generations, but it's secrets still unknown. This is something I will do from time to time, some magic items aren't possible to identify, unless you use higher magic powers. Identification only showed that the family shield behaved like an animated shield (flew around the user for a minute, defending him like a normal shield, allowing him to use both hands) and it cleaned itself (or more like it didn't allowed to be painted, restored, because it always looked worn and battered). Kenway told them that their item is ready for pickup and the guildmaster might be willing to meet with them. She is in hers laboratory and there Mario can ask his question. The group agreed to go there, but Kenway ordered a novice to come. He told him to bring the party before the door of the laboratory, but do not let them in, unless the guildmaster allows them. The half-elf nodded and told the rest to follow him. On the way they had a small conversation. Mario talked about the guild's male and female dorms, if there are any, but the novice just told him that there are no problems. Mario failed an insight check, so he believed that these people just like to study, no sex. Then the half-elf talked about Percival and Odo. The latter is looking good and healthy. Both are happy to be alive and are very thankful of the group. They are however locked in the guild and can't leave their room, unless it's for study, food or toilet. He heard that Odo started looking around for religious books and was murmuring something about Lord Sun and Valena. Mario and Solange woke up and started telling the half-elf that Odo should go to a tavern/chapel for prayer, but again, the young man told the group that Percival and Odo can't leave the building. They also learnt that the novice had his apprenticeship sponsored by his parents. Asked about freedom in the guild, he told them that you must go for lessons, unless you want to be thrown out, so you could live with your parents, if they live nearby, so you can get in time for study. During their conversation, the group moved around the building. The laboratory was upstairs, so there they saw two big corridors, one lead to the dorm rooms of the novices, while the other had laboratories. They saw a lot of arcane workshops with people still working there. At the end of the corridor they saw three doors, all labeled. Guildmaster's Laboratory, Guildmaster's Office and Guildmaster's Chamber. Of course, Finn was in the last one, so he knows his way around here. The novice knocked on the door to the laboratory and the group heard voice of Ellyjoybell. The novice explained that couple of people wanted to visit, but he didn't know their names, so the half-elf looked at the group. "Praise the Sun!" screamed Solange, so the gnome knew who came. She allowed them entrance. The novice didn't open the door and backed away, walking backwards slowly, like retreating. Mario just went and opened the door.

Suddenly a gust of black powder went out from the inside. Making almost all of Mario black. The group saw that the gust was so big, that Mario left an outline of himself on the back wall. He coughed up some black powder. Inside they saw that a lot of the laboratory was now in black powder, even the gnome. With prestidigitation Finn cleaned up Mario, while the gnome did the same thing on herself. However, they saw that Ellyjoybell had black and red skin, it clearly meant she had too long exposure to the eggshell. Asked about it, she said she will need to visit the temple, but could start to talk to the group about what she found. This eggshell was man-made, so the dragon was also. Very powerful magic was used to create this dragon in a laboratory long ago. The group asked who might have done this, but the gnome just smiled. "Anybody in Golden Brook really. Money, my friend." She explained that the kingdom was so rich, it could easily fund such a powerful experiment. Ellyjoybell even told them a little anecdote about the wealth of the destroyed kingdom. Once, during Actur's return, the Acturus continent was full of explorer's. One such party found a giant, golden sphere, big as the building they are standing in. This sphere was able to create magical power out of thin air. Every country and organization wanted to buy this thing. Many feared it could lead to a war and there were right, but no war ever came. The explorer's decided to open an auction for the item. Only the Golden Brook Kingdom came, bought the object for hundreds of millions of gold pieces, if not one billion. Huge amounts of money. Where were the other countries and organizations? They were bought by the kingdom, even the thieves' guilds. This giant object traveled through the whole northern Tethys, unmolested. Nobody dared to steal it or attack the escort. It safely came to the Golden City, where the mages there experimented on it. Before the fall, the only known way that they were able to harness the power was Light. They gave Light to over 2 million people living in Golden City. You wanted a small light to read? No problem. Maybe light up your house or mansion? Here you go. Whole streets light up. Now even in the darkest night, the Golden City shined the brightest and never went out. This was not only the power of the kingdom, but how it was influential and wealthy. She says that the kingdom had to finance something like this and Ragmaw might be the only one of it's kind, since his egg would be over 300 years old. He was bred to grow fast and his powers are connected to the Golden Brook, since he is able, instinctively to create Spell Constructs, which were the invention of that kingdom. Whatever the kobolds found must be the laboratory, where Ragmaw's egg was created. However it's nothing that the gnome can go to, so the group can take the eggshell if they want or let it stay with her. Maybe she will find more information, but for now, it's nothing worth her time. They agreed for it stay with her indefinitely, until they decide what to do with it. Then they talked about Mario's shield. She said that if the family already tried to identify the object, then it might hide something, until the right time, moment or person comes. Higher magic is needed to know for sure if the shield has something more to it. However she did say that she saw somehwere the crest that is on the shield. The shield crest is the very old one and is just a golden key, while the de Capodimonte crest has a crown over the golden key. Ellyjoybell told Mario that she will look into it in her spare time and return later with a price and information. Solange wanted to send a letter to his Order in Steppes of Memory, so the gnome started calculating. She could send the missive to Sassari, the capital of Kingdom of Silvercoast, there it can take a land route to the Order. She calculated that it will take 15gp for the magical message to be sent and 30gp for the courier, so only 45gp. Also, it will take about ten to twelve days, since a land route is also in the equation, while the magical message would just take minutes to hours. However, this is something for Kenway. She asked the group if the group met him. "You mean Mister What Do You Want? Yeah, we know him." Group laughed, even the gnome. She excused Kenway saying he is not so keen on outsiders and only cares about the guild and it's matters. Solange had to go to him to send the message. So they left, leaving Finn behind, because he had some things to ask also. They closed the door behind them, so now they were alone again.

Solange went downstairs and exchange was brief with Kenway. The mage took out a small map with magical routes for messages, calculated how much money it would take to send where Solange wanted, then just asked for the same amount of money Ellyjoybell asked, put the letter in a case and told him that it will be done. Solange not having what else to do, when out and met with Balasar and they had an exchange. I didn't listen to it, since I was roleplaying with Finn. You will have to excuse missing conversations between players, it will happen from time to time. Ellyjoybell talked with Finn about... the sword. The gnome sighed, telling the young halfling that he could have made a grave mistake telling her that he looks for information about Rexgladio. If they found the sword or it's location, then it's better for them to not talk about it with anybody. Finn agreed, but the gnome said she didn't have much information about such topics and he had to search for it in the library right next door. It had a huge book repository and it might have information about what they are looking for. The conversation was brief, since the gnome wanted to go to the temple. She said that they could visit her again tomorrow, if need be. Upon leaving, she kissed the halfling on the cheek. Outside Finn saw Balasar and Solange. After a brief talk, they decided to visit the library to search for information and Solange would talk to Finn about Lord Sun and the vision he had.

The building was big, two floors filled with bookshelves. Named "Itzak's Books." People entered and exited, borrowing books to read. Receptionists' desks were busy, so the party moved inside. They also found, at the back of the building, an old wizard, at least looking at his robe they could tell that. He had grey hair and glasses, he was busy writing something on his desk. The place around him didn't look like it was a part of public space in the library and the man had to work here, it seemed. The group started to search for books. Finn found some about history and Tiberion Courvelux, but took three more just to hide what he was actually interested in. Balasar found a book about history of architecture. He was interested why Cherubs stopped being on temple walls, what could have happened. He also found a strange tome. He was searching for some information about other planes of existence. This leather bound book was hidden between books, like somebody left it here for later. Inside he saw many strange pictures, like this book should be in the horror section of the library, but he saw... a Grue, the one they fought. This book of aberrations could be truthful in some way, however, the text was scrambled and hard to read. While Balasar was trying to decipher the mad writings, Solange told Finn about his vision. When he was meditating, he was attacked by undead and almost killed. During that moment he felt his soul leave the body and shoot up to the stars. There he saw a strange platform, filled with statues of paladins, clerics and other religious persons. They were holding another platform above their head, also filled with such stonework. Above that, another one. The construction felt gigantic and when Solange looked up, he saw never ending darkness, a void of powerful proportions. Suddenly he felt something touch his shoulder and when he looked behind, he saw a figure, clad in glowing, golden armor. "Go back and spread the good word, my friend." He knew instinctively that this was Lord Sun, his god and when he looked at the statues, he felt that this was the true and only god, while the rest were serving lies. Finn discussed religion with Solange, but was very skeptical of what he spoke of. During this, they heard someone tapping on the table. The group looked up and the old man sneaked up on them and standing over Balasar looking at him. He demanded the book back, saying that this book shouldn't be in the public space. Balasar tried to reason with the man, saying he is an adventurer, seeker of knowledge and an archaeologist. However the man wanted the book badly, saying it was his. Asked about his name, he said he is Itzak and this whole building with all the books is his. They tried to buy the book, but the man wasn't interested in coin either. He had a giant library, he wouldn't be interested in measly coin. They tried to reason with him. Itzak said that he understands his thirst of knowledge, but will exchange the book only if the group brings a book to him, that he doesn't have in his private collection. The book of aberrations however, the man threw into inside of his robes and it disappeared. They asked what about the book Omould has, but the man knew it was locked and also tried to open it to no avail. He told them that he is willing to trade books for books and if they bring big, ancient books, then he will surely trade for something of equal value. However, he wasn't going to rent or sell his private books to anybody. He told them that they can rent the books in the public domain for ten days for 1gp each. If they need more time, they need to come after 10 days to renew the time, however they only need to pay 1gp only after every 30 days of rent. Some books were not available to travelers, only to citizens of Orth, because the amount of copies is low. He wished them good luck, safe travel and treasure, hoping that they will meet again when they bring him something interesting. After that the group went out and payed for the books.

Outside they met with Mario and Elhaeltôr. They talked a little and decided to go and sell the jewels, but before that Mario sent Luigi to the library to search for information about de Capodimonte family. However they found out that Luigi actually doesn't know how to read. Elhaeltôr said he can teach the boy how to read and write and Mario said that they can teach Luigi whatever they want. The group asked a nearby passerby and hit the jackpot, the man was able to answer some questions about the town. They got to know where to buy magical items - he told them that most of the shops in the Merchant District have magical items in them, also two shops could sell those. One was a armorer called "Dragon's Scale", owner Odon Mighty Hands, in the North District. The other was an weaponsmith called "Axes and 'nifes", owner Zutshosh Dragonsbane. They however didn't ask where they could sell jewels, so they didn't get the information that this man is from the merchants' guild - now they needed to walk around and find out who will buy it from them. They said goodbye and moved west, past the Small Council. Yes, they still didn't give the quest back, but they remembered being outside their next stop. While travelling to the gate to the Merchant District, they saw a jeweler's shop, which had small jewelry for halflings, gnomes and sometimes dwarves. Finn was given the bag of gold topazes and when inside, while the rest talked to each other. Again, I don't know what they talked about. Inside he met with Myria Fastfoot. She had long ginger hair, quite beautiful face, that Finn couldn't stop his libido. Apparently this woman is part of a big family in Orth called Fastfoot. Nevil Fastfoot, the halfling they met in the Small Council, which he is a member of, is one the oldest halflings. For Myria, Nevil is her 4th Uncle. Not that she has four uncles, but one of her uncles has a cousin, who has a cousin, who has a cousin which is Nevil Fastfoot. Halflings are big and happy families. During their talks it became apparent for the woman, that he is actually here to sell his jewels. Those gold ones, I mean. She was shocked twice. First that he had a big gold topaz that was worth around 50gp, so her jeweler's loupe fell to her hands. Second time, when he showed he has a whole bag (100 jewels). This time she didn't catch it, but Finn did and gave it back with a smile. She however couldn't buy all the jewels, so she tried to buy 10 from him for 450gp, but he convinced the woman to buy more, so he sold 20 for 1000gp, but in small coinage. He got 82pp, 117gp, 558ss and 20cp, which is 1000gp worh of coins. He came back to the group with four heavy bags. The group then decided to return to the Small Council. They were untrustworthy of Enialis and other members of the council, believing that there was something they were not telling them.

Inside however they saw Enialis talking to a group of half-elves. Elhaeltôr heard that they talked about the North District, that one of them was attacked and what is Enialis going to do about it. Seeing the group enter, he told the half-elves to wait for a bit, he has guests. The group came to Enialis telling him that they found the pair, dead. He couldn't believe his ears, he thought that the group only failed in persuading the pair to come back. Enialis thought long about what to say, but finally decided to pay the group, but they declined the money. Which he looked puzzled at them, not knowing what to say. The party wished to talk with him about the specifics of the job, if he knows more or something. He told the half-elves, in elven, that he will return to them later, he has a serious matter to attend to. They went to the council chamber and the door was locked, leaving them with Enialis. He asked for explanation, fully what happened. The man had a serious look on his face and was puzzled when he heard they were changed to undead. Questions about what or who might do that to the pair, he didn't know. Elhaeltôr saw that the man was seriously touched by the situation and wanted to resolve it personally. He asked for the silver sheep, but Finn didn't want to give it to the man, believing that he can bring it himself to Jasper Elderberry, the innkeeper cleric who created the object. However Enialis tired of the charade, told him that this isn't their city, they aren't from this city and Jasper is his friend, who for three weeks believed that the pair was safe and sound, because they he felt the sheep at the elven chapel. Elhaeltôr persuaded Finn to give the sheep to Enialis, who pocketed it. Then he said he wants to bribe the group, which Balasar and Finn laughed, while Solange and Elhaeltôr looked at the man as like he said something strange. He explained that this information, that they were turned to undead must never leave their mouths. If the families will know about this, it would be a catastrophe and it's better for the pair to die, because of stupid, childish reasons. They went to the chapel, decided to explore around, found a crypt, but it was full of deadly traps and died inside. No other explanation needed. However the group not only declined the offer, but were insulted by it, some would do it for free, but other would never tell a lie. If asked, they would tell the truth. Enialis wasn't happy with their answer. Asked about the undead, Enialis spoke that he can't do anything about it, since it isn't an issue for the Small Council, they had other issues to deal with it. They would have to bring the problem to the City Council. The group argued, Finn accusing the man that he isn't telling the whole truth, which he denies, he spoke only truth. Elhaeltôr tried to find common ground, but Balasar blundered again and said - "You just don't care about this issue. You only care about yourself and your race problems". Enialis wasn't happy with this statement. He told the group that he has enough of them. He is the leader of the South District and the Small Council. He told them to leave HIS building, which the group did. Being outside Finn asked Elhaeltôr why he was so trustworthy of the half-elf and he said that he was just like him - he wanted to take care of this situation by himself, he was truly touched be their deaths. The group however were very distrustful of Enialis and decided to relieve some tension by going shopping. In the Merchant District, they stopped by two buildings. One was clearly a building full of inventions, gnomish work. "Inventions and Problems" it was called, but the building next to it was far more interesting at this moment. Called the "Magical Fair." The group went inside.

There they saw a lot of clients, perusing many of strange items. Scrolls, potions, armors, weapons, staves, wands, rods, rings, capes, bracelets, gloves and many, many different types of magical items. The collection was pretty big. However most of it was in the bigger hall to their left, the place they were at the moment was a long, kinda empty hall with a long desk on the end. There sat a woman. Before they moved, the rest saw something move. Some of the armors in this building actually have people inside, giant people. Nearly two and a half meters in height. Strange bald with tattoos men. Their swords were drawn and looked at the group, just waiting for them to make a bad move. Balasar however was able to recognize what this giant creatures were. They were Goliaths. In this world, this race existed since the Human Invasion. It is said that they have giant's blood in them. They live in tribes, mainly in mountains. Tribe's traditions differ between them, but most of them are honorable and seek battles, and with it a great death. Balasar however didn't tell anybody, since talking about Goliaths near them could anger the giantkin. The group decided to visit the woman.

Orleen

At first the group thought she was an elf, but the more they looked (and heard) they stopped thinking that was the case. Her skin was ashen, her ears were long and she had white irises. Not quite elven. Her silvery hair had a strange texture of marble. When she greeted the group, they thought they were in theater, her melodic voice boomed around them. She greeted the adventurers saying she is Orleen and this is her shop. Finn asked how she got all this items and she just smiled at him saying "I have many contacts." The group started to look around for items. Here how I've managed it. I've made a percentage. If the player is looking for a specific item, he rolls a d100 and if it rolls the number or less, he finds it. So Common magic items were 40% here, while Uncommon 20%, Rare were 5%, Very Rare 2% and Legendary 1%. The woman had a lot of items in stock at the moment that the group could check and buy. Two of them were of interest to the players - Adamantine Half Plate for Mario and a Magical Shield +1. The rest rolled for some items. Solange found Bracers of Defense, they were Rare, so when he came to the woman and heard the price - 3700gp, he laughed and walk away. He didn't find anything else for himself. Finn found only Eyes of the Eagle. So Mario was the first to buy, since he didn't find anything else for himself. The woman wanted to sell the Half Plate for 950gp, but Mario talked her down to 800gp, which is actually below the correct asking price (she rolled a 1, so he got more than a simple discount). What is the correct asking price? The Dungeon Master Guide tells that Uncommon magic items, which the Adamantine Armor actually is, costs around 101gp to 500gp, while the half-plate itself costs 750gp. How the exchange goes for each item is like this. When you want something, you go to it, take a small card that is there (with no price given) and take it to the woman. After that, if the client pays the gold, she drops the paper into water and it dissolves creating a blue smoke that travels to the item. It is a simple Invisible Servant whose job is to bring the item, then it disappears. The armor was brought before Mario, it was black and inside he saw magical glyphs. He took the armor into a back room, where he could try it out. Finn bought the Eyes of the Eagle for 200gp. While Balasar bought Shield of Paladin Merey Folcey (+1 Shield), which once belonged to a halfling paladin of Granny, who was killed by Byzu the Archmage, an orc, 200 years ago. This only costed him 120gp. Elhaeltôr found a pearl of power, which cost him 370gp. After that, the group left the building.

Elhaeltôr left the party to check on the sword and study his new item, while the rest decided to sell the rest of the jewels and find an armorer. They visited a jewelry shop in the Merchant District called Diadem of Orth. This was a expensive shop, with people dressed in suits and mercenaries as guards. Inside a man greeted them, but a greet is a big word, he flat out said to them that this is an expensive shop. The group didn't look like nobles. This man who was thin, balding with black slick hair and small mustache, wore a tail-coat and white gloves. When Finn said they have jewels for sale, he leaned in and asked "You have? Jewels?" Not believing a word of the halfling. Until he showed one of them. The man changed his gloves for this and took out the loupe. Finn placed the jewel on the man's extended and flat hand, which he just retracted to his eye, never touching the jewel. However when he heard that the group had 80 of them, he was very skeptical and looked at one of his guards. Finn quickly explained that they were adventurer's and found them in ruins. He tried to persuade the man to buying them, since he is a very famous bard. He rolled 30 on persuasion. The man was very interested in hearing Finnean Quickstep, so he asked if he will play in the theater, which Finn said that one day he will. The man offered, outright, 4000gp for the whole bag, which the group agreed to. He changed his gloves again, put his hand out for the bag and when he was given, he took the bag with his other hand, holding it by two fingers. He moved to the back of the building and returned in a minute or so with a small casket filled with platinum coins. It was heavy for him, since it was about 4kg and he had to bend down to Finn. The group thanked for his time and left. Mario decided to visit the nearby hairdresser, while Balasar, Finn and Solange went to the armorer. It was in the North District. They saw these two buildings, connected to each other. One was called "Dragon's Scale", while the other "Dragon Helmets and Shields." The group went inside and saw a lot of armor, shields and helmets on racks and walls in this big, long hall. They didn't need to wait long to be visited by one of the service here.

Odon Mighty Hands

It was none other than Odon, the owner. He greeted the group by saying "Praise the Sun." Yes, he was a follower of Lord Sun, but also very muscular and always smiling, while his muscles moved on their own. The group started to look around for magical armor. However most of the armor was very pricey. Finn didn't find himself a studded leather +1, so he bought a normal one. Balasar wanted to ask about a breastplate +1, but when he heard 5100gp, he almost fainted. When I mean almost fainted, I mean the player started talking, talking and talking... to himself. He disconnected not knowing he DC, but we didn't even hear him start talking, so Odon went to talk to Finn, who asked if he wants his old armor back. "I'll give you two gold coins." the half-orc said taking out the coins out of his back pocket. "How about if I sign it personally?" Finn said with a smile. Then the half-orc bend down to be on his level. With a big toothy grin he said "If you smile." The party erupted in laughter, since the scene looked like Odon was some kind of pedophile that is going to bumfuck Finn in a moment. He was just very friendly! Finn agreed, smiled and signed the armor. The half-orc gave him 5gp. When Balasar returned, he just bought a normal breastplate. The group didn't have enough money to buy rare magical items. Solange however during all this talked to Odon. He saw in him something very similar he saw in the Order, this overfriendly attitude of helpfulness. Odon revealed that he is a follower of Lord Sun and Solange revealed that he is a monk of the Order, so the half-orc shook his hand with a powerful squeeze. Solange barely could stand his shake, but only smiled. They talked about Lord Sun in Orth. Odon revealed that he has barely anytime to visit the chapel, so he pays some people to clean it from time to time, since he doesn't want the dwarven lady there to be overburdened. Odon also said that he and couple of his friends are followers of Lord Sun, so Solange told him to visit him sometime, since he has taken care of the chapel. Now you can these muscular JoJo half-orcs that come inside with "Praise the Sun" repeated on their lips, but that will happen later. The only thing they would need is some oil to glisten. Odon told Solange that they will visit him in the chapel and will tell his friends to come. While all this was happening, Mario met with Zanna of "Delicate Hair." This little gnome had one of the biggest hairstyle that he saw. Almost making her twice as wide. She greeted him, he asked for the works and after paying 10gp he came out a new man. It was ages since he had so much care taken. He was happy.

When the group reunited for a beer in the guild, they talked about the Goliaths and their day. Until the talk went about Luigi, who came through the door, sad. He failed to find anything. Mario brushed that aside, gave the boy his old armor (chain mail) and told him he will from this day learn to write and read from Elhaeltôr, while Balasar will teach him to fight. Also, Mario will teach about god Valena. The boy listened, but wasn't very religious, not yet at least. The party decided to try their luck one last time and visit the main marketplace. Shop were closing, stands were left empty. Until they found, at least that's what they thought, what they were looking for - a bag of holding. A strange Southerner was closing his stand, taking care of his magical items. Balasar detected that the bag he had was magical. A big, velvet bag. They asked the man if he is closing, he turned around with a smile. He was wearing some strange, Southerner clothes.

Ahmed Behdad ibn Naser ibn Tahmasb ben Abbasi al Tauzar

He was very loud, persuasive and more of a performer than a seller. Showing the mentioned bag, like the man before him never knew what a bag of holding is. He showed that it swallows items, but when turned up side down, it doesn't throw them out. The bag stays the same shape and even weight. He told Finn it only costed 300gp. While that was happening, Mario saw a strange box on the table, which looked like card deck. He asked about that and the man's demeanor changed imminently. From a overfriendly, touchy person, to a very serious merchant. The group wanted to talk about both of the objects, but Ahmed wanted to first sell the bag, since the deck was special. Balasar speaking about the Southerner way of life, told that first, every transaction must be met with haggling. The man laughed, because he thought only Abdul is the only man from the South beside himself (Abdul is a carpet seller, they saw his workshop when they wanted to enter the sewers). They haggled the price to 255gp. Now, he told the group that this deck of cards is special, one of many different decks. This one is called the Deck of Destiny. It allows to pull one card a day, after that it closes itself and the card teleports back and reshuffles the deck. The cards are half and half, so half of the deck is good, the other bad. However, he tells them that there are two cards that will make the deck disappear from their hands after they pull the card out. The man, which always when was referencing to himself spoke his full name, told them that he isn't willing to sell it, since it's a unique item. He however would be willing to trade for any "interesting magical item." The group didn't have anything that would be interesting as the deck, except maybe for the cursed eggshell, but they weren't going to give it to anyone. They thanked the man and left to finally sleep.

Havoc · Dec 7, 2017

More of a half-session here, so it will be more of an info dump. Only Finnean, Balasar and Elhaeltôr were during this. The rest will have their time to spend it on their stuff in the next one.

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Chapter I

Session 11.5: Some more shopping and blacks

Elhaeltôr went shopping for some scrolls, so he met with Itzak, in the library opposite of Mages' Guild. The elf doesn't have that mage look on him. He looks like a traveler with a big, worn-out book. Itzak recognized it as a spellbook, even with all that damage it had. Told him he has spellbooks for sale, but the elf was only interested in scrolls. Here, the players, can buy any 1st level spellscroll for 20gp. For the other levels they needed to roll. So Elhaeltôr bought himself these 1st level ones: alarm, cause fear, charm person, comprehend languages, false life, guiding hand, illusory script, jump, shield, unseen servant. Also, a Fly (3rd level) scroll for 200gp. Then he started talking to the man about a place he heard other people speak, called The University (Wszechnica). The man was shocked that not only Elhaeltôr wasn't from there, but he never heard of it. He started to tell the elf about the place, since Itzak came from The University and studied there half of his life. Long ago, there was a village at the bottom of a mountain called Gales Mountain. This place was full of strange magical anomalies. Soon three mages (a gnome, a human and en elf) came to the village to start their studies, they made deals with the villagers and not long after that more people came to examine the surrounding area, the village turned into a town, then into a city. Thanks to the finding of Ætherite, a special stone that could be used as a replacement component and was a base for many magic items and inventions. In time the University came to being and many people came to study and learn magic there. During this Golden Era, before the death of Actur, this place was brimming with students and tourists. The founders and the deans were in constant struggle over influence, so to stop corruption and chaos, they enlisted a race of Gremlins (Chochlik), which were native to a Lawful Neutral plane and were massive bureaucrats. Since they couldn't use magic themselves, they were offered knowledge and the ability to manage the huge amounts of paperwork needed to run the University. These creatures were not interested in bribes, so were thought of as incorruptible. During that time the University grew even larger, having more dorms for the students and more specialized buildings. A Enrollment Process came to being, which was said to be the most difficult process to become a wizard's student. Many smaller guilds around Tethys joined the University becoming branches of it's influence. Everything changed when Actur died. Huge tsunami and earthquakes hit the world. The University was based near the West Twin Sea. While people debated, argued and experimented in the University, the city below was destroyed. They didn't feel anything happening. When they looked down, they saw that their buildings were levitating. Since the complex was built on the Gales Mountain, where Ætherite deposits were found, it became apparent that it saved the University. Now this place is on a large island, surrounded by the West Twin Sea and is one of the neutral, politically, places in the world. Travel to the University is limited by a single airship and teleportation from the branches. Many archmasters, leaders of their specialized school of magic in the University, died and left their positions opens. A Great Squabble is still happening and stops once a year when there is a Magic Fair, where other branches come to the University to receive more money for their experiments and projects. The University is in open conflict with the Great Empire of Freedom, since the news of killing clerics and kidnapping wizards came to their ears.

Elhaeltôr returned to the guild with knowledge and scrolls. He wanted to visit the University some day to find information about the curse that afflicts him and what is going on with Balasar's powers. The group also discussed what to do next, but were wary of deciding without the rest. So, the three went to the Mages' Guild, since Elhaeltôr wanted to buy some Pearls of Identification and Balasar wanted to meet with Odo and Percival. There they met with Kenway again. He didn't allow them to visit the pair, since they had a strict rule set upon them, where they can't leave their room and only family can visit. The group wasn't happy with this treatment, but the man didn't relent with his opposition, however he did describe that Odo is feeling fine, again healthy and energetic. Kenway thanked the group for the help and that was it for him. Balasar then took out a bottle of alcohol for the boys, but Kenway ignored it saying that they were forbidden from drinking any. Balasar was done here, but the rest wanted to gain information. Elhaeltôr spoke that he needs the pearls, while Finn spoke that he heard about a gnome that can do it for them cheaper, but he had to visit the guildmaster, since he didn't ask questions there. Kenway however opposed annoying Ellyjoybell and asked what they spoke of. During a short conversation, he understood whom they were talking about. He explained to them, that there is a tinkerer's shop in the Merchant District and the group should have moved past it couple of times. "It's that place that looks like it will blow up any minute." He tells them the gnome inside is called Zook Fabblestabble and he is an Artificer, he can identify items by just touching them. Finn thanked for the information, but Elhaeltôr went and bought some pearls. Asked about what the guild has to offer, he said that they do not have magic items for sale, but they do create some upon request. Their guild shop only has items for the guildmembers - magic components for potions, item creation, scrolls and spells. The group left and went back to the adventurers' guild.

During three days, Finn and Balasar could read some books. Balasar tried to find information about the Cherub, why it's depiction was discontinued, but the book he had didn't have any relevant information, just speculations and opinions that were worthless for a researcher as himself. Finn had three books. One spoke of King Tiberion's kingdom, what happened to it after his death. The country fractured. Barones went to war, neighbors stepped in. Over two hundred years, this place was a country of war. It was not until the Golden City united the other baronies and cities, creating the Golden Brook Kingdom. It stayed strong for nearly 500 years. The second book spoke of the Tiberion's kingdom rise to power, after the defeat of Green Dragon Nyrydes, Champion of the Green, how the mountains flowed with gold, mines were created daily and his kingdom in short amount of time became very powerful and rich. The last book told about his ascend to power. Tiberion came to the lands with the Rexgladio. He gained the acknowledgement of three people - a king of dwarves of Thunderhammer, a queen of the wood elves of Woodstep and a figure, that in the book was only mentioned once with the name Prince of Endless Branches. Nobody in the group knew who it was or what even. During his travels he also fell in love with a woman, that died to the green dragon, however her name isn't recorded. These things were written like they needed to happen for the Rexgladio to gain full power. The group had the information, now they needed to find somebody ready to wield it.

While this was happening Elhaeltôr and Balasar could take care of Luigi's tutelage. Balasar with Mario watching over, became the boy's sparing partner. However Luigi had a long way to become a fighter, he did learn quick, but was unable to hit the dragonborn, to the point that Balasar gave him one, so that they boy will be happy that he hit him. Elhaeltôr while he was transcribing his scrolls, was visited by the kid. The elf started to teach the boy reading and writing, but in Elven, so it was harder for Luigi to learn, but he saw that the kid was smart. All in all, the training will take time.

Finn also visited a cosmetics shop in town called "Beautiful Lady", which the owner was a gnome woman called Tenena. He found there an ideal present for a halfling he met not long ago. He felt guilty that he "used" the woman to sell those gold topazes, so he wanted to bring her a present and come by a pony to give it. He payed about 16gp for the perfume and gift wrapping. Balasar however went shopping for a set called Diplomat's Kit, which was a chest with a set of clothes, map cases, paper, some writing material, perfume, soap and other stuff. He visited the general store called "Everything You Need", which the owner was a human male called Wilson. Since the needed new measurements, the shopkeep instructed the dragonborn to go to the First District and find a workshop called "Dresses and Outfits", where he had to find the owner Isabella and tell her "Wilson send you". Balasar found the workshop, it wasn't really a shop, almost none of the workshop in this district were. However here people could get measurements, request changes and new clothes. The women working there were skeptical of the dragonborn, but hearing he comes from Wilson, they cheered up. He was given new measurements and got his fine, new, blue and white outfit the next day. During their talk, he heard about a dragonborn gang that roamed the streets during the night, that before only were in the North District, but soon started "visiting" others. Balasar heard about a street there that is close to the abyss, that begins at one district gate and ends at another one. There he could find an arena and a brothel.

Of course, the dragonborn got wasted and went there. Drunk as fuck. During the night. He went past the arena, locksmith (that was strangely open at this hour) and other shops. However, he never got to the brothel, since he saw three half-orcs looking at him from an alley. Instead of walking past to get ambushed, he decided to just walk to them to get his ass kicked. He started talking to them, asking them if they recognized a man, Luigi's description. The half-orcs however were very aggressive and told the "scale fucker to go fuck himself and try to fly to the abyss." A combat ensued. Balasar tried his best to win, but he barely defeated one of them. There were three of them. Furious half-orcs beat him almost to death and tried to rob him. However, when Balasar's consciousness was fading, he heard a strange boom, like firing a rifle and one of the robbers fell down with a giant hole in his leg - there was no bleeding, just a black, burnt hole. Then the half-orcs ran away with their injured friend. The last thing he saw was a black dragonborn with a strange weapon in his hand, glowing stuff on him. The next day he woke up in an alley, all wet and with a doberman licking his face. All beat up, he returned to the guild.

He looks "dragonbornish", but actually it's a cat-like race from Guild Wars 2. I didn't notice until one of the players told me.

Havoc · Dec 8, 2017

Solange and Mario could do some stuff during those three days. Last errands and scenes before the journey to the elves, so this is the last session in this chapter.

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Chapter I

Session 12: Last bits of shopping

Solange used his time to search for a specific item called Insignia of Claws. In 5e, this is a magical item in an adventure connected to Tiamat. No matter how I told the players "You can find whatever you want, even a weapon +1 that will help you with your unarmed attacks." They do not listen and like with blindfolds, they look at the list of items and those are the only ones that exist in the game. Whatever. The player searched for this item to no success, so he decided to ask Orleen, the owner of the big magic shop in town. The aasimar explained to the other aasimar that he needs this item and if she could help him - craft or import it. Orleen told him to check tomorrow, but she will have a request. She will give him the item under the condition that he brings something from his journey. Hearing they are going to the elves to help with the gnolls, Orleen tasked Solange to bring her five hearts of gnoll abominations. Gnolls are very proficient with magic, so no wonder they use it to gain strength. Solange agreed and Orleen said that no paper is needed, since she believes the aasimar will keep his word. The next day she had the item, which were fingerless silk gloves that were attached to silver bracelets. These bracelets had red opals, one each, in them and were engraved with dragons.

Solange also took care of his religious duties. Started to put notices that he will be having a mass. Couple of people came and learnt that the only followers here are leftovers - their families believed in Lord Sun and passed it on, no more fresh believers joined the church. They also told Solange that the chapel was always here, but no priest came since long ago. During that he heard a commotion outside his inner chapel, when he looked to the other ones, he saw two dwarves that retreated back to their, Urist chapel, because they saw something come in. When Solange went to look, he saw a group of half-orcs. Shirtless, except for the women, all buff and muscular, leaded by Odon. All shouted in sync "Praise the Sun." This wasn't a normal group of followers. Odon greeted Solange, explaining he brought "his boys" as he told him, but also in whisper that he has high hopes for Solange to not fuck up the mass. It was because Odon and the other half-orcs tried to become the "priest" and failed miserably. The other believers just hid their faces, since their coming was too out of the ordinary for normal behavior. Solange took he several people into his inner chapel and started the mass... telling about his vision. Yes. The first thing Solange does is talk sacrilege and heresy. How he almost died, went into the sky, saw statues priests, paladins and other believers holding stone plates, on that stone plate another huge amount of statues and it went on and on. When he tried to look up, what they were holding, he was scared of this endless evil and void. Suddenly he was touched on the shoulder by Lord Sun, who told him to go back and spread the world. He felt at that moment that other gods are nothing more than false ones. This sacrilege. This heresy is what Solange opens with. People try to believe him, but are confused. Odon looked serious, his friendly smile was gone, he hoped for something else. He coughed and other people went quiet, looked at him. He asked Solange to continue with the normal mass, asked what was bothering him, he told Solange that he will tell him after. The mass went good, even for a monk such as Solange. He grew up in the monastery, so he saw many priests do this on daily basis. After it, the believers thanked Solange and left, except for Odon. He explained that he isn't happy. He thought that Solange would bring a new era to the chapel and he feels it will make it worse. He tells him that his words will not only hurt him, but other believers also. Odon explained that if he continues this preaching, that other gods are false, this chapel will be closed, because of him, no matter if what he says is true. Odon left, not wanting the talks to turn to worse, saying only that sometimes the truth might kill someone. Solange later cleaned up the whole chapel building and told the dwarf, that he did his duty sooner, since he didn't have time to spare and stay in the city for another ten days.

Mario during this time went to the library to find information about his family. Not wanting to do the legwork, he went to the receptionists and persuaded her to help him. They went to the history section and the woman took out about five books about history of the Golden Brook Kingdom. However, Mario didn't have time to read all of them and asked again for help, so they both page through the books, until the woman found the symbol that Mario had on his shield. The paladin was ever thankful and told her that he will take care of the rest himself. He stopped being interested in her just after she left, never even seeing that the woman stopped and looked back. Mario found in this books that his family was named differently back then - Contegoaurum. This surname stayed with the family for generations in Golden Brook. However, after the fall it was changed, but the historian doesn't tell anything about that. He also saw something below in Actuvian (I will spare you the bad latin):

We are prepared to defend.
We are prepared to die.
Let the gold flow, let the good rise.

This however was unreadable for the paladin, so later he asked the elf to translate. Mario also found information that the family's castle was called Gold Spring, which was in the mountain range to the east. This meant the family over 300 years ago took care of the springs of the rich rivers that flowed through the kingdom. He rented one of the books and read it in the guild. Apparently the family was quite rich and were the gatekeepers of the kingdom's gold rivers. They had a lot of smaller keeps around in the mountains and their oath was to guard it. The historian speculated that the whole family died in the collapse, since the oath would not allow them to leave the country or at least that is what he speculates. There was no mention of Mario's current family - de Capodimonte. There were names of the heads of Contegoaurum, but none of them ringed a bell for Mario. The family's symbol however - golden key, was simple. They guarded the gold springs, so they were the key to the country's riches.

Mario also started to visit other taverns in the city with the goal to spread the words of his order and sow the legend of Mario the Knight. Three of them were of any interest to us here, the rest were outside the walls and only peasants went there or townspeople if they wanted to get wasted. First on his list was "At Granny's." He went there and the halflings were kinda interested in his stories. He saw Jasper Elderberry, the cleric and owner of the tavern, but he was in the kitchen. He didn't see that the man was very sad, nor he was interested enough to talk to him. Later Nevil Fastfoot entered the building. Saw that Mario wasn't that affected by what he saw couple of days ago and was somewhat relieved. Mario did see that he was absent minded, offered some alcohol, but he declined. Went to the cook, but stopped caring. These details are very important, if you take into account what the group has in their possession. After that tavern he went to the inn called "At Orth's."

Wolfgang Orthson
Descendant of Orth the Hero
Owner of the inn "At Orth's"

Since the inn was in the First District, a lot of the patrons were workers that came here to drink and relax. Mario went to the counter and saw this mustached gentleman, who was pouring beer for the clients. He also saw Sigurd, the man he met briefly in the guards' barracks. They talked a little and even asked Sigurd if he drinks, but the warrior declined. Prying into his business, he said that he could explain it as "he took an oath to not drink." After getting some strong alcohol, Mario stood up to the crowd in the building and started telling about this building. It was very old, but renovated. Most of the architecture and furniture were of old design. This place felt like history. He told that everybody creates his own history by deeds, so he told the crowd that everybody knows the deeds of Orth, but what about the rest. He asked Sigurd to tell his, but the man declined with a smile. Mario didn't see the faces of the patrons when he did that. This will be important later. After that, he decided to continue with his speech about his order and deeds. Since this was an inn, many travelers stayed here, so he started to talk to them, until he found Ahmed, the salesman who sold him and his friend the bag of holding. The two talked a little. Ahmed asked if he wants to drink and poured him a drink from a dark bottle, unmarked. This was Southerner Nalewka and Mario started praising it. Until Ahmed touched his hand and asked him to not speak so loudly, he doesn't have to. Mario quickly understood that he could have brought problems to this man, since he is a Southerner and having "kinda illegal" items could lead to problems. During their conversation, Mario learnt some things about the man. First, he came from Tauzar to sell magic items here in Orth, since it was an obvious choice for adventurers, but these types never stayed long, so he doesn't sell that much as he wants. Second, that there is this Abdul, another Southerner, who sells magic carpets. Third, that Tauzar was full of fucked up people before the Great Empire came. The emperor took care of things, using black magic of summoning undead and fiends, he killed all of the undesirables and brought order. People were more free and less scared to move around the city. However their religious needs were taken away from them. Ahmed didn't stay long in Tauzar, so he only heard that some druids took the place of clerics and paladins. Foruth was the Order of Black Rose, which is said that has some paladins there, but Ahmed doesn't know. What he does know is that a lot of those knights are soldiers that are from different races. He says he saw hobgoblins, but also fire giants there. After that talk, Mario moved to the other inn called "No Bottom."

Hagel
Owner of the inn "No Bottom"
Leader of the North District

This was the biggest inn Mario saw. Two stories high. Many rooms to rent, even very expensive suites. This place however wasn't a quiet one. It was bustling with people talking, nearly two hundred people sat in the long hall. Tables were full. Lounges were full. Many travelers stayed here, more than in "At Orth's." This was the inn you wanted to come, if you wanted to search for information. However Mario didn't see the innkeeper, so he stopped the nearest barmaid and asked her for a drink. Also, told her that he wanted to do some oratory, so she immediately thought he is a bard and pointed him to the scene, where a single bard was playing on his mandolin. He thanked the woman and went there. Waited for the musician to stop his song and asked him for a minute. He explained that he wanted to make some speeches, do some storytelling and asked him to play some notes, which he agreed to do. Then Mario went on the scene, saw that very few people watched it. The inn was too big for performance, but he successfully grasped their attention and talked about his order and deeds. It was until he saw Enialis, the half-elf.

Palladio
Captain of the City Guard

Enialis was sitting in a lounge with two other people. Two guards were keeping distance and not allowing nobody to come close nor enter the neighboring lounges. There Enialis spoke with two men. One looked like an innkeeper, while the other like a guard, but his insignia would actually make him the captain. Mario didn't fluster seeing that and continued his storytelling. After that, he went to the barmaid and asked about the people Enialis was talking to. She explained that it was Captain Palladio, the leader of the City Guard. The other was Hagel, her boss, owner of the inn and also the leader of the North District. She told Mario that Palladio came with Enialis and told him that they needed to talk about something serious. No details. He asked the woman for a small favor - to spy for a moment and see what they are talking about. She agreed and came back telling Mario what she heard. She went there to refill their drinks and heard that they were talking about some dead half-elves, but she couldn't hear more details. After that Mario got laid. Later Mario trained with Luigi. Mainly thought him how to ride a horse.

The next day the group met during breakfast. Balasar was nowhere to be seen. During this the party talked about their goal, what to do next. They were thinking about buying a magical Folding Boat, which they could use to travel to the elves. Mario also asked about his family's motto. After they finished eating, Balasar came through the door with a doberman next to him. He wasn't in the mood to explain, but after some healing from Finn and a short rest, he told them he went to the North District. Drunk, he started a fight with three half-orcs that looked like they wanted to attack him anyway. He lost the fight and saw a black dragonborn with a strange weapon that almost cleaved off one of the half-orc's legs. They ran away and he lost consciousness. Finn was ready to go there and show them what happens if they mess with them, but the rest wasn't so keen on doing that, since they had a goal before them. The group split up Elhaeltôr went to the elves in the city to get some information about the elven town, while the rest started to look around. Elhaeltôr found out that the village of Estel'Anoron is in the woods of Renewed Green, which long ago was a undead hotbed, until the elves returned and reclaimed the lands. On foot, you would travel about eight days on the road. However, the elves did visit the Gold Rafter, the port on the river, so they could get transport there with them. He did also get some information about the situation with the village - the gnolls are stronger in number and the roads became more dangerous, that means less merchants travelling to that village. Also, the elves became more isolationists, they do not trust anybody outside their home. He did gain information about a special sign (put your hand up, with two fingers shown) that will at least show them they come peacefully. While that was happening, the rest went to find the folding boat magic item. They found it in Ahmed's stand. He wasn't going to make a flashing presentation, since the group didn't care last time. He showed them how it worked, it fitted in a small box and there were three command words. One made the boat unfold to a small rowboat for four people, the second created a big boat for fifteen, while the third made the boat fold back. However the asking price was 4800gp. They tried to convince the man that they will come back with more gold or that the boat looked too Southerner and it could lead to some problems, but he didn't believe the group will come back anyway, however agreed on the latter. They discussed the issue and he went to 4500gp for the item, but the group decided they will come back if they will really need it. Elhaeltôr wasn't back, so they visited the cartographer. Omould, the half-orc, didn't change much and was ready to trade, but the group asked about maps of the northwest part of the canyon and if he had any maps of it. He told the group to wait, but returned empty handed - he made a mistake and sold his last copy. They talked to him if he knows anything about the way to the elves and he told them that it would take eight days of travel on foot or about 3 to 4 on horses. The group now were decided what to buy. Solange also bought the city map, the fully detailed one. When the half-orc returned with the map in question, they saw very fine craftmanship and he even gave the group a leather case. He rolled out the map on the table and they could finally see the town in it's full glory. Over 100 sites were marked and noted. All the work of Omould. There were no secret alleys or none of that, since the half-orc wasn't going to such places. Now, here another issue came that the group "struggles" with or just doesn't care. They know about a Lord in town, that he gained this title after leading the charge against undead two years ago. They do not know who he is, but they see a mansion with walls nearby the town, so they think it's his, however the half-orc tells them no - it belongs to a landowner called Alastor Corbora, who is very rich but isn't a part of the City Council, only the district leaders are and the cleric of Trinity. The discussion ends. They don't ask anything else. They don't ask about the Lord, nor they discuss it between them. Every discussion lately is two sentences deep and that's it. Sad, very sad.

Later they met with Elhaeltôr and together decided that it will be wise to just buy horses. They would buy five, while Finn would ride with someone else, so they won't have to buy a slow pony (ponies are 40ft, while riding horses 60ft). Also, Solange during this time thought some stuff to Luigi, but it would take time for the boy to learn anything. Balasar rented another book, this time he was interested in undead. He found some information about lovers, pairs that become connected zombies. However these things are rare and most of the time it happens because foul magic, necromancy was used. While the only moment it happens by itself is because the place was desecrated or unholy in some way. He tells the group that, but it wasn't apparent how the necromancer created them, since the land there was sacred or at least felt like it, because of Mario's Divine Sense. They didn't debate this further, they just needed to search for information. Finn used this time to borrow a pony, go to the shopkeep woman that he sold the jewels to and take her a on date. She was happy to accept and Finn even saw five brothers of her looking through the window, trying to embarrass her. The date went well without a hitch, nothing major happened.

The group later decided to try and wait for Gwendolyn. She came on time (good rolls) and was tired, wanting just a bath. She talked to the group about their travels. They didn't go into details, but told her they succeeded in finding the apprentice and the couple was dead. She was shocked to hear that they turned to undead. During the conversation, they heard that the person who put the notice was Enialis. He came during the night, when nobody was around and asked, almost begged her to go and check on them, since nobody is brave enough. She was going to, but the next day the group came to town. Also, she mentioned Jasper Elderberry, that he would be devastated by it. The group discussed some more stuff with her and later went on their journey. This would be the end of the chapter and the next session we would try to get the new player into the group.

So, the group finally bought a map. Here's the full one (you could already see it couple of posts above):

And this is with marked sites, no legend since I'm lazy to translate over 100 entries:

Havoc · Dec 12, 2017

Ye, boiz, time to continue with another chapter! I've recruited two new players, since these session won't need all players at once, only those that are seriously needed, so that makes 7 players in this campaign. We shall see how long that will hold up. The druid player that I spoke of before won't be during this session, but another one joins the fray. Also, Mario and Balasar aren't on this session, so keep that in mind.

---

Chapter II

Session 13: Unwelcoming

The party gets ready to move. They past through the Orth's Gate or First Gate. Long ago, when the inn was built, there was a small palisade. This grew and grew. So the Orth's Gate is the first stone gatehouse that was built. Passing through it, the party moves next to the river. There are still some fishermen and mills around here, but less so than in the city, where the water flows more rapidly into the abyss. Nearing the bridge, a foul smell reaches the group. They look over and see the tannery. A big building, which for obvious reasons wasn't built inside the city. However, when the move forwards, the smell subsides. They are on the elven road, obviously named after the fact it's the road to the elven village. But they were standing next to a tavern and a lumber mill. The group saw a wall, wooden screen that was set up behind the tavern. This blocked most of the smells and the place had the appropriate name - "Fresh Air." The group moved past this place, again the foul smell hit their nostrils. However, travelling on horseback, they moved past this place quite quickly. Being far enough from the city, the group could finally talk, but they heard somebody ridding, pretty fast towards them. They looked back and saw a Southerner.

Jafar az Zabri ibn Vazir ben Mahra al Tauzar

He started with level 3, but after the session gained a level. He will get another one (to balance the party) after the next one he will be in. So here's his level 4. Also, this isn't the player I was talking about before. That player is creating a druid.

- Jafar az Zabri ibn Vazir ben Mahra al Tauzar - Half-elf (High Elf/Southerner), Bard (College of Swords), Background Far Traveler, Alignment Lawful Neutral - Stats STR 16, DEX 12, CON 11, INT 16, WIS 11, CHA 18

More in depth:

Jafar az Zabri ibn Vazir ben Mahra al Tauzar

Name: Jafar az Zabri ibn Vazir ben Mahra al Tauzar
Race: Half-elf (High Elf/Southerner)
Background: Far Traveler
Alignment: Lawful Neutral
Classes: Bard (College of Swords) 4
Starting Stats:
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
14 12 11 16 11 18
Current Stats:
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
16 12 11 16 11 18
Chosen Skills: Acrobatics, Athletics, Insight, Intimidation, Perception, Performance, Stealth
Tools: Loot, Flute, Tamborine
Languages: Common, Elvish, Australis, Draconic
Feats: Ability Increase
Interesting Tidbits:
- History wasn't yet created, but here some interesting plot points.
- Jafar is from Tauzar, the biggest Southerner city in the south of Continent of Scorch. You can think of it as a diamond of the desert full of flying carpets, genies, genasi and other fantastical things. Like Persia of legends.
- He is a son of a wealthy merchant in Tauzar. Something happened that made the character leave his family for now, until stuff calms down.
- Since he is from College of Swords and a "Persian", he is a dervish, a dancer of the swords.
- I don't know how the player will go with his flaw "I consider the adherents of other gods to be deluded innocents at best, or ignorant fools at worst." Tauzar is one of the biggest cities of Great Empire of Freedom, so it was "visited" by the Great Emperor with his armies of undead and demons. He killed half of the Pashas, the rest swore fealty and the only thing he required in return was finances for armies and no religion.

This man was recognized by Solange and Finn. Both met him before on their separate journeys. While Solange helped him, when Jafar was about to be attacked by thugs, Finn had the opposite encounter. When the man was near, he greeted the group. His name was Jafar az Zabri ibn Vazir ben Mahra al Tauzar. He came from Tauzar, seeking riches and adventure. He heard about the party from his friend Ahmed Behdad ibn Naser ibn Tahmasb ben Abbasi al Tauzar. When he spoke about an Aasimar, Jafar immediately remembered the fond moment they had together. Hearing that they became adventurers and are going to the Elves, he decided it would be best for him to travel with the group. Find new friends, explore the elven woods, but also become an official adventurer. This was a moment of confusion for the group, they thought it would be wise to go back and talk to the guildmaster. However, Elhaeltôr remembered (after hitting a branch while on horseback) that he read some books about the guild and there was no need for him to return. You can become a member if you do a simple quest for the guild, but also if one the guildmasters accepts you or you finish a quest with an adventurering group - help them in their endeavor. So it was decided, Jafar joined the group. During their travel, they talked some about elven sleep or lack thereof. Elhaeltôr as an amnesiac couldn't recall why other races needed sleep, so his talk was full of questions how it looks like. The group also talked a little about gods and Tauzar, but nothing major.

Renewed Green

The Renewed Green is a vast forest. Giant trees, high treetops, big bushes and beautiful grass and flowers. This forest once was the most dangerous place in the Canyon. It was full of undead. It wasn't until the elves came back and reclaimed the land, that the place started to heal. Now from a dark, dead place, it became a lavish, full of life forest. The roads to the elven village however weren't in good shape. Months or years have passed since anybody took care of them. Grass started to grow between the stone bricks. However, being not deep in the forest, they saw ruins around them. Nothing big. Stones that were part of some building. Maybe a monument or two. A ruined chapel. These places weren't overgrown, the elves did travel here, almost a day from Orth, to clean up here. This wasn't the case when the group went even deeper into the forest. Elves knew better not to venture that far, since a lot of dangerous creatures still roam this place, especially those gnolls.

It didn't take long for the group to meet with their first "obstacle." On the road, they saw an ancient archway. Not very big, but it was once a part of a bigger structure. The road went under it. The stones on the archway had many different words written in elvish. Elhaeltôr and Jafar could read welcoming and greeting words. However there was something mystical about this place. When the ruins before were unkept, this stone archway had nothing growing on it. Trees and bushes shied away from it. Elhaeltôr asked the rest to prepare camp, while he looked around the archway. The group wasn't that successful with their part of the work, so when they looked back, they saw Elhaeltôr walking under the arch. Suddenly magic light appeared over the head of the elf, on the archway interior. It started to grow to the sides, coming out of the stones, like there were invisible runes there. Solange and Finn shouted to Elhaeltôr to look out. The elf took one glance above and showed the rest it's okay. When the magic grew enough, covering the interior of the arch right to the group, it shined brighter for a moment. A small, magical and pleasant sound was heard around the area. Elhaeltôr eyes glowed for a moment and the shiny runes disappeared. The group regrouped and started to talk what is going on. Jafar also tried and same thing happened. Both Elhaeltôr and Jafar saw that there other writings on the other side, saying goodbye and safe travels. This was a welcoming archway, Elhaeltôr explained. It granted good luck and safe travels to everybody who passed through it, so they wouldn't have problems during their travels to the village or out of the woods. The group went to sleep, thanks to Finn's Tiny Hut spell and Elhaeltôr taking care of the wood for campfire problem. The next day, they moved pass the archway, allowing the magic to fully form and pass it to them. However, the magic didn't help them, since they did not needed it. It was only a 24h enchantment, that gave them an advantage to their next Wisdom ability/skill check (so Survival or Perception). By the hex map, this was a thick forest, so a party traveling 30 ft. only moved 1/3 each day, so you needed 3 days to travel one hex. There was a road, so the amount of days needed was dropped by 1 (minimum to 1), and since the group was travelling by horses (60 ft.), they could travel through these hexes one day each. Pretty fast, so they got near they destination.

Gnolls

The group was "ambushed," and when I say ambushed I mean that the group went to sleep in Finn's Tiny Hut, while Solange was on guard duty (keep in mind that the horses can't enter the Tiny Hut, it's a "force field"), he was gnolls. The group tried to stealth they went near the group, but they failed - the more clumsy ones started to make noise, so the more stealthy started to growl at them. It went into a growling scuffle pretty quick. Solange woke up the rest of the group and combat started. It was a breeze. A single fireball took out five of them without problem, while the rest were killed by Finn's arrows, Jafar's scimitars and Solange's fists. They took one for "questioning." This seemed like a scouting party or something to the like, a very small group. The group slept the rest of the night and in the morning they tried to talk to the gnoll, but he was one of the stupider ones. In this world, gnolls were created from elves long ago. The intelligent ones are very, very intelligent gaining many arcane and divine powers that could match even archmages. The rest? Meat-fodder, nothing more. They couldn't understand what the gnoll was saying and he couldn't understand them, so they decide to knock him unconscious and discuss what to do to him. However, at that moment the whole group heard the leaves move. A group of elves, were around them. Elhaeltôr remembering what the learned in Orth, put his hand up with two fingers as a sign of coming in peace. The movement stopped and a single wood elf emerged. He looked like someone important, maybe one of the leading rangers. He was very wary of the group, to the point of distrust and only spoke in Elven. The group explained that they come to Quennar Wood Step. The elf didn't like what he heard. He asked what of the gnoll and the party said they wanted to bring him to the village for questioning, but the ranger said that his fate was sealed anyway and ordered one of his men to kill him with one, precise arrow to the eye. The elf told the group that it didn't matter if he believed the group or not, it was for the First Ranger to decide this and they were ordered to follow the elves. The party not having a word here, went with them.

Estel'Anoron

They traveled a couple of hours, before finally getting into the village. Behind very thick layer of trees and bushes, the elven village of Estel'Anoron laid. Mainly wooden buildings, many were shaped from one piece of wood - done by magic or other means. The homes were sometimes higher than the treetops, to see far into the forest. Most of them were built right next to the river, that actually, here, had two waterfalls. One small, that was near the entrance to the village if you travel by road. This was a place where a lot of outsiders could stay and rest. However the group had to follow the elves and were in the main part of town right from the get go. There they saw the bigger waterfall and the river that flowed around an island. There they saw the biggest building in the village, all green, surrounded by verdant plant life. You could only enter the island from four hanging bridges. This wasn't the destination of the party. They were guided to a nearby ranger headquarters. Many wood elves that saw the group enter, stopped in their tracks and watched them very carefully. Jafar had a strange feeling some of them were looking straight at him, very suspicious of him. He had his elvish ears hidden under his turban, so he didn't know what it was exactly. He was quite exotic for this parts. Some of the elves continued on their way, while the younger ones stayed and watched the group go to a party of rangers. One of them stood out. While the rangers here wore green, their cloaks rarely were from animals. Almost all of them wore warpaint on their faces. Their First Ranger was no different.

Map

Kinda liked this map and it worked for me, since it wasn't a big elven town and it was on the river.

Nu'quern'gaur Wood Step
First Ranger

At first they only saw his back, while he talked to the other rangers. Big, wolf fur was his cloak. Maybe it was from a dire wolf or some kind of warg. They couldn't guess, especially when he looked back. Three red, now dead, eyes were on this strange wolf head. The wood elf however looked with caution and patience at the group. His skin, like all wood elves, was the color of the tree bark. His however was more ash, dark in color. He wore very different armor, sword and bow from the rest. Very distinctive, elven and magical. Their "guide" told the man, in Elven, about the group. That they have dealings in Estel'Anoron and that they were ambushed by gnolls and defeated them. The man asked for proof, since the group didn't look like merchants or normal explorers. Since he was speaking in Common to them, Finn took out the paper Quennar left in the Guild. The man checked it and it was indeed "the Old Leaf's writing" as he said. He didn't like what was written there, but they really did have evidence that they are here on business. He told one of the wood elves, Galathil, to guide them through the village. Reluctant, the young elf agreed. However that wasn't the end of the conversation, so Finn asked about a certain elf called Finduilas Wood Step. When he heard about Quennar, he didn't like it a bit. Now, it seemed more aggressive. He asked the group where they heard this name, so they explained everything. They spoke about the undead, the place that they consecrated again and also the necklace they found. He wanted to see the necklace, so Finn showed him. The halfling saw that he didn't like it very much and only said "It is made by human hands. Throw it into the river, nobody here will want it." He didn't explain who Finduilas was nor he was going to, he told Galathil to finish his task.

The group followed the young elf, who told about the village. He explained that lately they have problems with gnolls and many of citizens are more distrustful because of it. They hear about three places in the village called - Templa'ilfirin (Immortal Magic), Ten'oio'esta (Eternal Rest) and Merende'vanya (Festival Fair). First was a shop, in which the owner would be willing to talk to outsiders. She is called Annael Silver Blade, a moon elf. Second is a inn, next to the south waterfall, where outsiders can rest. The owner who was a wood elf called Indis Wood Step would gladly take more clients. The last place the group saw while traveling to Quennar, it was a marketplace, where even outsiders could shop and put their own stands. They saw humans and dwarves there, not happy nor receiving any clientele. Also, they asked about the island and Galathil told them that they would get killed on the spot, without first being allowed to go there. He says that it's the place where their leader is - Aredhel Wood Step. The group continued their journey. Quennar lived on the outskirts of the village, in a old oak tree, very wide, hollow inside. His garden didn't look like anybody was taking care of it, but they quickly saw the high grass move, while there is no wind around them. Some small animals were jumping the grass also. It was a peaceful look. Galathil told them that Old Leaf is there and while they will be there, he will stay nearby and wait for them. Now, finally, the group could talk. They weren't very happy how they were greeted in here, but it wasn't something very out of the ordinary. They had a lot of questions and someone had to answer couple of them.

Quennar Wood Step
Old Leaf

When the group was near the old door, they saw it was slightly opened, so Finn knocked on it. He wanted to push it open, but the door was so light, it opened by itself because of his single knock. Inside they saw a small home, full of leaves, herbs and other plants. They saw a staff, resting on one of the chairs. It looked like a simple stick with a leaf on the end. However, an old hand reached for it and when he was grasping the staff, the leaf plucked itself out and levitated with green glow. The wood elf was very old, his skin an evidence of years upon years of sunlight damage. Elhaeltôr first commented how old he was, but Quennar answered "it's like pot calling the kettle black." They both smiled. These old elves didn't have long time left for them and there was no need to be so proud, "live a little, smile, joke and be happy." He recognized Elhaeltôr face as one of the High Elves, but he didn't remember if he seen him, maybe not. There was also some jokes where Quennar telling Elhaeltôr to "sit down, young man." But most of the conversation with the group was about information. First off, Quennar used an bird to send money and the request to Orth. Second, he isn't in good relationship with the rangers nor with the citizens - he did something(s) he can't even forgive himself. Third, the gnoll problem continues for years now, but only in the last year patrols started to disappear. This made the First Ranger forbid any outsider to leave the village, out of fear that one of them was feeding information to the gnolls. However Quennar thinks that he underestimated the monsters, especially that he doesn't ask the druids nor tell their leader about the problem he is having. He explains to the group that there are two types of gnolls - intelligent and animalistic. The latter ones are hard to even talk to, while the former can be very powerful mages. Quennar spoke of them with some respect that you give a to formidable foe. He tells the group that the ones he found are different that the one the group met - the one that poison poured out of it's mouth. He says that those are further to the northeast, while the ones that harass the village are more mutated, animal like. He even knows where their lair might be and tells the group the location, where he found the most of the abominations. Then he explains to them what he wants - for the gnolls to stop attacking. This means killing their intelligent master, the one that creates the abominations. He tells them that they do not need to wipe their whole camp, clan or tribe, only the most inteligent ones, since the rest will become easy prey. He doesn't however know who it might be, but fears he is a powerful mage. The group also asked about the necklace. He told them that Aredhel and Finduilas were sisters, but didn't go into details about them. Only that Aredhel is a very powerful druid, connected to the forest around them. The group thanked him and left, without Elhaeltôr who wanted to stay a little and talk to the druid. Quennar rushed the rest outside telling them that their friend will meet them in the inn.

Inside the pair could talk a little. Quennar was interested in Elhaeltôr's lack of memory and asked question about that. Poured even some tea that smelled like blueberries and raspberries. While he explained his situation, the druid went to his shelves and took out a wrap of leaves. Inside he had diamond dust, worth about 100gp and Elhaeltôr instantly knew what the druid was going to do - cast Greater Restoration. Elhaeltôr wanted to say that there was no need and that it was expensive, but the druid didn't want to hear another word about it. The diamond dust started to levitate, form leaves before Quennar and when he pushed them, touching Elhaeltôr the magic touched the elf. He felt for a moment like he was in a forest, however when he opened his eyes, Quennar looked shocked. He hoped for something to happen, but nothing did. He asked if at least some memory returned, Elhaeltôr said that no. Quennar explained that this must have been some strong magic, a powerful curse and told him that the only person that could, that he knows of, remove it is Aredhel, their leader. He told him that Aredhel was the first one that came to the canyon after it's fall. She like many of Estel'Anoron is very distrustful of others. She was a part of the Bone Coterie that defeated the undead dragon, but she left to the woods to restore them. She used powerful magic and a lot of her blood, but she accomplished what she wanted and became one with the forest. She is said to be the most powerful druid in the canyon. He thanked Quennar for the advice. Later he told him about their travels, while the druid told him about the surrounding woods.

Outside Galathil waited for the group, watching the sky. He didn't ask about Elhaeltôr and guided the group to the inn. While travelling, Jafar saw something strange in the village. While the surrounding area has no palisade, no walls, it is assumed that the forest is a natural barrier, strong enough. However, there was a small place surrounded by wooden walls and a closed gate, guarded by four elf soldiers. He saw buildings over the walls, but no windows. He asked Galathil about the place and he told him it was Korin'talant (Garden of Fallen). He warned Jafar to not ask anymore questions about it. He guided the group to the inn, which was a two stories building that was built differently than the rest. While the wood elf homes were very open, so they can see the sky, their neighbors and the forest, this one was more closed up and private. There were other buildings around, a stable and warehouse as two of them that the group recognized. Their guide was also asked about leaving the village, but he couldn't answer it with a straight answer. He was pretty young, but deduced that they at least need to inform one of the rangers that they are leaving. Galathil said his goodbye and only explained where to look for the magic shop.

The inn was very empty inside. Four dwarves were sitting and eating food in the corner, while a single wood elf was behind the counter. They saw other elves in this part of the village, but it was full of soldiers and rangers. The First Ranger really doesn't want anyone leaving the village. The dwarves stopped eating for a moment, but continued afterward. The group went to Indis Wood Step and explained that they wanted to stay the night or more. She said to them 5gp each. It was pretty pricey for the group, so Finn asked if they play here. She said that in the theater, but he won't like it, since the plays go on days. One of the dwarves even shouted that he fucking listened for three days and still couldn't understand what was going on. Finn asked about bards in the inn, to which she told him that not many elves want to come here. So the halfling came with a proposal to play for cheaper stay. He got onto the stage and started playing, with Jafar dancing right next to him. Even the dwarves were happy and singing along, the woman was very awake and smiling at the performance. She told Finn that the group could stay for just 5gp for the whole group, but he and Jafar had to play this evening in the inn. They agreed. The group will need to stay at least to the next morning. There will be a lot to discuss.

Havoc · Dec 14, 2017

This time Jafar couldn't attend, we would have had everybody. Also, the seventh (actually sixth, since she was invited before Jafar's player) player join with her druid.

---

Chapter II

Session 14: Neverending Green

The group just finished dancing and singing, when Mario and Balasar came down. They split up after meeting with the First Ranger. They talked about their journey and what they know, but wanted to wait for Elhaeltôr. During this time, the dwarves left very excited about the upcoming night, while the elf innkeeper prepared food for the group and went to the village. They party talked a bit, before a woman came into the inn. Wearing more natural clothing, she looked kinda out of place, being a human druid. She saw that the dwarves didn't clean after themselves and sat down to their table. Waiting for them to come back.

Baâ

This is the character I spoke of before.

- Baâ - Human (Midlander), Druid (Circle of Moon), Background Outlander, Alignment Lawful Neutral - Stats STR 12, DEX 16, CON 13, INT 14, WIS 18, CHA 12

More in depth:

Baâ

Name: Baâ
Race: Human (Midlander)
Background: Outlander
Alignment: Lawful Neutral
Classes: Druid (Circle of Moon) 4
Starting Stats:
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
12 16 13 14 16 12
Current Stats:
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
12 16 13 14 18 12
Chosen Skills: Animal Handling, Athletics, Nature, Stealth, Survival
Tools: Leatherworker's Tools, Herbalism Kit
Languages: Common, Druidic, Middlelandish (this was once one of the biggest human language, before Actur came and Actuvian/Common became the language of the land), Dwarven
Feats: Ability Increase
Interesting Tidbits:
- History wasn't yet created, but here some interesting plot points.
- Baâ is a druid from Tajga Sijbir, a huge forest to the north just below the Crown Mountains. This is something like the forests of Canada - giant forests, full of animals.
- She doesn't worship any gods, except for the concept of nature and ancestors.

This was Baâ. She came to Estel'Anoron with a dwarven caravan from Logemakam, the dwarven village in the canyon. Their leader Urnut Ironfist was a merchant, who came with five other dwarves to sell marble and/or contracts for the resource. Baâ joined with them, wanting to see the elven village for herself. It wasn't long before another elf patrol went missing. This was the last one for the First Ranger to not react to, so he decided to forbid any outsiders that were in the village now to leave. This meant that the dwarves and Baâ were stuck here for about two months. The druid quickly found out that the elves here do not like humans, so she has even more problems with connecting to other druids. Especially when one of her circle (Circle of the Moon) is actually Aredhel Wood Step, who doesn't even answer missives sent by animal couriers nor comes to gatherings during full moon. She doesn't stay in the inn and sleeps outside, today she decided to check on the dwarves. While sitting, she sees a familiar face of Finnean Quickstep, who decides to move to her. The two talk about how Finn had to be saved from a bear and what they are doing. Finn tried to convince the woman to join their group on a quest, while the rest talked and drank alcohol. The party wanted to check on Quennar and show him the amulet (I wrote before that they already did, but I misremembered). Then Elhaeltôr entered the inn with eyes wide open. He apparently drank something very "special" with the druid. The party decided to journey to the gnolls the next morning, but today they will visit the druid and check the marketplace. Baâ said she will need to talk to the dwarves, before she fully decides to join with the group. However, before they left, Solange went to Jafar, since he had the amulet and was in his room. He didn't however knew which room was Jafar's so he knocked on every door. When he knocked on one of them, he heard a strange, animalistic shout, but ignored it and went to another door. When he was on the stairs, he saw a blonde, small creature jump out, look around and go back to his room. This was a dwarf, a small one. His giant beard was so big that when he swung it during his looking around, he actually didn't see Solange. Jafar was trying on the amulet, but had to give it back. Later, when Solange again walked past the dwarf room, he heard something boiling. He ignored that also. The group finally left the inn.

First, they visited Quennar, who was lying on his magical grass, where the animals jumped and walked on him. He was hard to talk to, since he was high, a very hard to achieve state for elves. They showed him the amulet and asked about Finduilas. She told them the story of two sisters - Aredhel and Finduilas Wood Step. Both of them loved each other very deeply, but one day Finduilas found a human in Golden Brook and fell in love with him. The family tried to convince her to come back. Nothing worked and it got worse, she got dangerously sick. She died from a incurable disease or at least they couldn't cure her in the human lands. Aredhel since then was devastated, returned to the Golden Brook after the fall to restore the lands. Quennar said that this necklace is made by human hands and she wouldn't like it, because it might remind her of her mistake - allowing her sister to just die in human lands. Not having anything else to talk about, the group left Quennar. Baâ stayed for a moment and asked Quennar couple of questions, but nothing she really did not know.

Second, they tried the market. There some stands from the elves and they were the only visited shops, while three other were not. Two of them were from humans, both from Orth. While the third was the dwarven one. Baâ visited Urnut Ironfist and talked to him about her situation. He almost hit his head with his own axe, when he woke up. The dwarf was more than happy to hear from her and pleaded for her to join with the group and "take him from this mad place, before he kills an elf." However, when asked where Om Frenzybeard, she said she heard he was in the inn alone. Urnut opened his eyes and just ran to the inn, leaving his stand without care. Remember that blonde dwarf? Yeah, he was one of the dwarves that came to the village. During this, Finn bought himself a nice, silver necklace with small emeralds in it. Elhaeltôr talked to a silver (moon) elf, who was a sculptor. They talked about the situation in the city and the man said he is afraid of the future of the village. He believed that if it worsen, the village will completely cut off from the other races. He said that the gnolls became ever more dangerous in the last year and when the first patrol disappeared, many people started pointing fingers at outsiders. Also, he revealed that some rangers accuse Quennar of this. Apparently he was the one who gave the patrols information and this, in their words, lead to their demise. Since then no ranger wants to go to Old Leaf. Elhaeltôr also bought a little figurine of a high elf. This statuette represented some archmage, holding a strange staff and a sword. It looked eerily familiar, like he knew this figure. The shopkeep however couldn't remember who it was, since it was long ago that he crafted it. Mario and Balasar looked for maps, since Mario wanted to know about the Golden Spring, his family's old keep. However nobody here sold maps of the mountain region, only the Renewed Green, but they heard that Annael Silver Blade is a pretty old elf that wanders around looking for magical components. So they decided to go there, while Solange waited for the rest to finish their things.

Annael Silver Blade
Wizard and Artificer of Estel'Anoron

The silver elf had, of course, a different house than the other citizens of Estel'Anoron. His looked the most "normal" for outsiders, a big house that from above looked like a cross. The main door was opened and there was a board outside, but there was nothing written on it. Mario and Balasar were first to enter, so they saw this big shop with elven magical items all around them. Boots and cloaks of Elvenkind, but also mithral armor and blades. The elf was sitting with his right leg on his left, a big tome on the thighs, sipping tea with his other hand, while the left was paging through the book. He had long silver hair and very blueish skin, while wearing a silver-blue robe. When the pair stood next to the counter, he asked them to wait a second. He closed the book, inserting a bookmark inside and stood up to greet them. He was nearly two meters high with a serious, but patient demeanor. Mario asked about Golden Spring and he got to know that you can take the river, downstream, into the mountain range. There there is a bay, where there was a big city, Castra Vetera, which was at the base of the mountain where the Golden Spring was. However, since the fall, most of the city was destroyed, people died and it must be swarming with monsters. He speaks that orcs might be also nearby. He didn't know about Mario's family nor anything else, since he only travels looking for magical components, he isn't that interested in history of the canyon. Then the rest joined in the shop. They bought three boots of Elvenkind for Solange, Finn and Elhaeltôr. They sold the magical arrows, 25gp per one and they had a full quiver, so it was 500gp. Annael said he made those and hoped they would save the one who bought them, but alas that didn't happen. They also asked about the Necklace of Fireballs and he said he would buy it for 10,000gp, but the group, after loud discussions, decided to not sell it yet. The amount was 10x more than it should have been, because I fucked up and looked at Very Rare, instead of Rare magical item prices. Oops! Oh well, next time. The group also received a simple quest from the elf, since they offered their services. The party was going to the gnolls, so Annael wanted one of the abominations, it's corpse. He offered 1000gp for it. He explained that he needs it to see what kind of magic was used and maybe find out a way to counteract it. He told them to come back tomorrow, he will try to find something that will make the body not decay during their travel back.

Om Frenzybeard
One of the last of the Frenzybeards

Now, when everybody was in the inn. Baâ even went for her stuff and horse. They could see the damage that Om, the dwarf did. They saw outside, on his window soot marks. He overcooked something and his whole room was black. Entering the inn, they saw Om with four other dwarves laughing and telling his story how he created this wonderful alcohol, holding four bottles and a black pot. While Urnut Ironfist stood before Indis Wood Step and was apologizing to her what has happened. The group wanted to drink, so they went to sit down, while Baâ went to check on Om, who was ecstatic, barely understandable. This a character I created, when I saw Jafar roll 17, 15, 16, 12, 6 and 6 on one of two of his stat rolls. He didn't want to play a stupid character, so he took the second roll. I just wanted to have a character that would be like that, so I created Om Frenzybeard, a barbarian brewer. It was fun to roleplay him. Anyway, returning to the plot. Baâ doesn't drink alcohol so she only smiled at him, when Om offered a bottle to her. She went to Urnut and Indis to hear that Om's room is all covered in soot and maybe there is some damage. This was very hard to clean, but Finn hearing this, jumped to help and went to clean the room with a cantrip. While this was happening, Baâ talked with Urnut about his situation and pleaded again to her. Om can't stay in the village for too long, since he likes to move a lot, is itching for a fight and needs to look for stuff to brew. He asked her to take Om with her or convince the other members of the party to take him, since they travel a lot, him being with them won't cause so much trouble. Balasar stopped the conversation, since he understood dwarven and told Urnut that they will consider it, but now it was a time to drink and have fun. The group joined the tables, just in time for Finn to return. The group talked a little with the alcohol in their hands, except for Baâ of course. They also saw how Om was ignored by his dwarven friends for a moment, nobody wanting to drink what he made. They saw how he uncorks his bottle and pours it into his mug. Drinks from the mug, then from the bottle. Finn and Balasar feel this, very strong, almost like spirits smell, that has a taste of burnt wood and roasted meat. The group decides to take a small taste and asks Om for a bottle. He just yells "Sure!" and slams the bottle next to Balasar, the whole table shakes and the bottle uncorks itself. Now everybody feels it. Almost the whole party take a sip from the bottle. The taste is similar to the smell, but it almost immediately swells their throats. To a point that Elhaeltôr can't breathe for a second. This is a very strong and dangerous alcohol. When the group started pouring it, Finn tried to fake it, but failed miserably and everybody saw that. However, with his cunning deception, everybody believed it was actually a tradition in his homeland to throw the alcohol over the shoulder as a "drink for those that are under the table." This was also the moment the guest started to arrive, so Finn didn't have time to drink anymore. The humans returned to the inn, but also elves walked inn. Many were silver elves, but also one gold elf and couple of wood elves. Finn started to sign his song (the player read it), but I won't translate it here, since it will lose a lot of it's meaning, but it was a song about their journey to safe the miller's daughter. Jafar also was here (as a npc) and tried to dance to the performance, but he didn't roll that good. After that the group just partied. During which Balasar, drunk, told the group he had another nightmare and saw "the strange entity" that granted him powers. He said he was happy where the group was and he sees them as very useful creatures. The group didn't know what to do with that information and almost everybody remembered the conversation later. Almost everybody got wasted. Solange on DISADVANTAGE rolled two natural 20's on his Constitution Saving Throw. The powerful alcohol didn't affect him in the least and was up and ready the next morning. Mario rolled a natural 1, so he was paralyzed in his bed. You know the feeling that you can't feel your foot and if you touch it or step on it, you feel this electricity all around it? Now image all over your body. The group had to help him get up and use his Lay on Hands to neutralize the poison. Solange was at time outside with Om training. Jafar was hit pretty badly with the alcohol, so he said he will join them later. The group visited Annael Silver Blade on the way and he gave the group a scroll of Gentle Repose to use on the body. Then they went north.

The party passed the rangers, telling them they are going to fulfill a quest from Annael Silver Blade and Quennar Wood Step. The rangers didn't like what they heard, but "it checks out", so they had to let them through. A single person - Baâ was able to sneak out with them, since not all rangers know every outsider that needs to stay put and since they had official business, then they didn't think twice. The forest outside the village is very well kept, especially the ruins that litter the whole place. The wood elves travel a long way to keep the place clean, since it's their heritage. It was about two days, before the group had to stop. They took a detour and saw strange plant life. This whole forest was brimming with nature, but the grass and plants they saw were "too much." It seemed like they were about to step in into a magical place. However they saw something very strange - no large creatures. Only small prey like rats and birds were around. No bigger game like bunny nor deer, especially there were no predators. Something was off, but they couldn't guess what it was. Solange however saw that the wood is thins out in couple of kilometers - there should be a glade nearby. Instead of going north, the group decided to investigate. Indeed, there was a glade with a big tree on a hill. The whole place felt magical, even Balasar with his detect magic knew it. The group decided to walk to the tree to check it out.

Suddenly, the ground moved around the tree. They saw how most of the grass at the bottom of the hill did not move, while the other shifted into one direction simultaneously. The hill moved and a big head showed itself behind the tree. It was a green dragon. A big one. Several meters long or even more. It was full of grass, plants and vines, like it was a construct of forest life. However, when he breathed out, a green smoke appeared. Deadly poison. This same poison was dripping from his sharp fangs that were seen when he spoke or smiled at the group. He moved to get closer to them, but he didn't attack. Finn quickly acted and said "Hey, did you see any gnolls around here?" The dragon laughed. "You are a funny creature."

Sedyryn
Ancient Green Dragon
Green Fury

Asked who he was, the dragon told the group he is Sedyryn, Green Fury. This however isn't his lair, he just wanted to rest here. The group tried to get information out of him, but the dragon was more willing to play with them. Especially when Solange saw that a wall of vines appeared behind them, just couple of meters. They were trapped in this glade. Finn tried to talk their way out, but the dragon wanted to check if they are as intelligent as funny. Since he doesn't want to the elves to know about his whereabouts, he tells the group they will just need to answer a riddle. He steps closer to them, being just four to five meters before them. The creature is big and his glowing, emerald eyes looked at them with a smile.

A party has ended, everybody goes home in pairs. During their goodbyes, they exchange one hundred twelve handshakes. The party went and ended in nice mood, the pairs went home together, so they didn't shake their hands.

How many people were at the party?

The group thought about it for a moment and said sixteen, which was the correct answer. The dragon neared his great head next to the group. They saw that he could at any moment just bite and eat one of them, since his head was just as tall as one of them. However the dragon laughed and said "None, they were all dead!" and after went serious "Yes, that is the correct answer. The gnolls you are looking for are in the north. Now leave me." The wall of vines sank into the ground and the group quickly ran away from the dragon. They moved to the north and after a day they heard growling. Something was moving towards them.

Btw. I rolled for an encounter. On d100 it went 100, so... here is a dragon with a riddle?

Havoc · Dec 16, 2017

Jafar and Elhaeltôr weren't on this session, also Solange and Mario came after the first fight. People made a lot of mistakes (me included) during this, since we started playing 10 PM and finished 4 AM.

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Chapter II

Session 15: Fiery Hell

The group heard something coming their way. Baâ knew that these weren't animals. A pack of creatures was approaching. The group decided to hide. It wasn't long before they heard the growls of gnolls. However some of them didn't look normal. The ones in the front were recognizable by the group. Typical gnoll warriors that they already had to fight not long before. Armed with spears and longbows. Behind them were two strange types of gnolls. The first looked mutated. Their muscles were bigger, so were their teeth and claws. They had no weapons nor armor. They looked very primeval, but still looked intelligent enough to be threat. The second type was the worst looking. These were hulking monstrosities, gnoll abominations. Not big enough to count them as large creatures, but big enough in sheer strength to be a very dangerous opponent. However, compared to the others, these looked too animalistic. They followed their gnoll brethren and listened to their orders. The party could see, that the moment one of them tried to move in a different direction, he was growled at and came back. The pack split in two and a fight broke out.

Gnoll Mutant and Gnoll Abomination

While Finn, Balasar and Baâ were hiding, the others were found by the gnolls and the fight already started. However, they were close to the other part of the pack, so they decided to surprise attack them. It was the first time they saw a druid wild shape into an animal. Finn threw a lot of shatters, while Balasar tried his best with the tentacle rod. The battle was challenging, but not hard. They defeated the group. Balasar tried to save one of the gnolls for questioning, but the Baâbear jumped onto the grappled gnoll and ripped him in half. Nothing was left from it. Balasar was angry, because he wanted to question it. Baâ not wanting to argue, especially in bear form, moved to the other part of the forest. Also, this was a moment for Finn to lie to his friend that Baâ in her animal form is very animalistic and it will be hard to communicate with her. Well, Balasar rolled a 5, while Finn rolled a 20-something with a natural 20. Of course the warlock believed his friend.

On the other side, the group took care of the gnolls (this was also the moment Solange and Mario came to the session). Solange could start his cutting into the hearts and took about 6 hearts. He wanted five, but one of the abominations had two inside him, like a strange mutation. Balasar however saw that this was the work of dark powers - demonologists. They will have a difficult way ahead of them. Elhaeltôr already wrote the Gentle Repose spell into his spellbook and could use it as a ritual, so the group waited for the elf to finish preserving the hearts for Solange and put them into the bag of holding. They would otherwise rot there. The party ventured further into the forest and after two hours of travel, they heard the encampment nearby. They decided to send Solange and Finn on a recon mission, while the rest waited and talked. I wasn't on this conversation.

Solange and Finn saw that the camp was on a hill, next to a brook. The stone wall was very high, about 8 meters average. It went down, until it was just dirt walls and ramps. When that started to show up, the gnolls set up spikes and a pallisade. It looked like a good defensive position. Whoever did this was very intelligent for a typical gnoll. There were also two gates in the lowest point of the hill, but Finn found something interesting. There was a rock shelf next to the palisade, where they could stand and see into the base. Solange stayed behind for this, while Finn used his invisibility to sneak to the camp. Being invisible and having boots of elvenkind, this was a breeze. The wall to climb was just about 4 meters and it wasn't that hard to climb if you aren't in a hurry. There wasn't enough space on the shelf, but three people could get on it. Inside he saw the whole camp. One giant campfire with about 8 gnolls near it. To his left he saw tents, inside there were tables with belts. The mutants were chained onto the tables. There were some empty tables. To his right he saw a lot of tents and the two gates. Near them he saw two groups of gnolls - four warriors and one abominations. While near the gate, there were two abominations fighting, shoving each other. He went deeper into the camp and encountered two interesting gnolls. One was their chief. A big gnoll with a magical greataxe. He stood before a table inside his giant tent. There Finn saw maps, but he didn't get near to see what was on them. Behind the great tent, where the boss not only a had a good bed, but also chests, the halfling saw a strange looking gnoll. He was sitting like he was meditating, like Solange. He had long spiked gloves and a tattoo of a turtle in his chest. Finn didn't know what it was, so he looked further. He found two tents where he saw chains, rags and ropes, all wet. He deduced that these were for the abominations, not to hold them, but to transport them into the camp. He didn't see anything else interesting in the camp, so he returned to Solange to tell about what he saw. The aasimar instinctively knew what the strange looking gnoll was. A monk. The tattoo was a symbol that he was The Master of Turtle Road. Later he recounted the story to the group - long ago, a traveler came to Tethys and began teaching other people his way of fighting. This man, female or whatever was the first monk in Tethys and was a very powerful warrior. However, he disappeared or got killed, but his powers stayed in Tethys in forms of monk tattoos. The only way you can get one is by defeating the Master.

Coming back, the group could start to plan their next move. Finn also wanted to try a joke on Baâ, but Solange stopped him with a radiant spear, hitting the ground before his invisible self. Finn tried to fake his injuries, but wasn't convincing enough. They talked about what they found and Baâ even told her that animals here are very scared of the camp. She told them that the beasts leave the camp early in the morning and come back before nightfall. During the night, it is very loud there. The group recalled the stories about gnolls being created from elves, so it seemed that they did not need that much time to sleep/meditate. The party decided to take a long rest in a nearby hole, cave, that was once a wolf den, but the wolves were gone. There Finn used his Tiny Hut and they could safely rest. When they woke up, it was in the middle of the night. It was very dark and they heard how the camp was louder than before. And this was the moment the group forgot the information Baâ gave them, even Baâ herself. It was 2 AM, so it was excusable, but it could have led to TPK. They decided to move to the camp. Baâ would use her Pass Without Trace, so everybody 30ft from her would get +10 to Stealth. Finn would cast Silence onto the rock wall, so they could climb without making noise. During halfling's casting, since it was used as a ritual so 10min of singing, the group saw a gnoll walk to the rock shelf, but fortunately he didn't see anything and went back. The plan would be to use the Necklace of Fireballs to take care of the most of the gnolls.

Araundil
Master of Turtle Road

It was a slaughter. Finn, Mario and Solange got on the rock shelf, while Baâ and Balasar had to stay behind. There wasn't more space for them. I won't recount the whole battle, since it was pretty long, but I will try what was important. It all started with Solange getting around the palisade and throwing the first fireball into the biggest group of gnolls. Out of about 12, he killed 9. Even two tents got on fire. The surprise was over and initiative was rolled. The monk-gnoll rushed with four abominations to the explosion. He was using them as sparing partners. The whole camp swarmed onto them. The mutants had to get out from their bonds. Their boss just looked at the fight, since he couldn't get near and didn't want to get hit with one of those fireballs. I forgot he had a special bonus action - he could order one gnoll to use his reaction to make an attack, but I forgot about it. Oh well, the fight would be more deadly. However, this all was because the party went during the night. A morning battle would so much easier and I don't think they would need to lose any Necklace charges. Going back from the rant. The monk gnoll was very deadly. Using his flurry of blows, he almost killed Solange. Baâ had her problems with being swarmed by mutants and abominations. She didn't even have a moment to attack, before she was hit badly and went back into humanoid form. Finn, Mario and Balasar tried their best, with the warlock using ULIMITED POWER on the monk. They all saw the power of the tattoo starting to work - he was immune to non-magical attacks, while getting only half damage (resistant) of magical attacks. So if you had a non-magical sword, like Mario, you did nothing to him. The group used four out of seven charges from the necklace to bring hellish fire onto the camp. They killed a lot of gnolls. The monk finally was defeated and ninja killed by Solange, next time he will need to fight 1v1 to gain the tattoo, this time I gave him it, since he last hit him.

Legaur
Gnoll Boss

When most of the gnolls were dead. One even died due to the fire, since he couldn't get out of his chains in time. The boss came with his giant greataxe, wearing an elvish mithril chain shirt. He didn't care that he stood in Moonbeam, a druid AoE. He gripped his axe, one of three fiery runes light up and he slammed the ground. Fire erupted onto the group and one of the gnolls. He was very strong, but once the group defeated the rest of the stragglers, they could get near him and even restrain him with Entagle spell. However, they felt the other rune on them. Two of three fiery runes disappeared and he swept around him, doing a spin. Fire erupted again and hit half of the team. He shouted something about the group regretting this, that three-eyed will kill them for this. He was almost dead and suddenly killed by a lucky shot from Baâ's bow. He fell to the ground, the last gnoll. The group was victorious. They killed all the gnolls from the camp. The fire that was on the tents subsided, since it was lightly raining and it didn't go to the other tents.

One of the battle screenshots. Sorry that I didn't make more.

Those transparent things are GM only stuff, info for me where what is and the dead gnolls. It all looked neat before the battle.

Tried also to recreate how the camp was before the players came.

The most important part is that it went down during the night, so about 10 more gnolls were in the camp.

Havoc · Dec 17, 2017

This time we played from 9 PM to 4 AM again. Players came and went. Jafar got to the game during the search but had to go after the first fight. Elhaeltôr came after the fight, was only 50/50 during the session and went offline before the group entered the lair. Solange and Baâ got to the game after the first fight but stayed to the last moment. Mario, Finn, and Balasar were from the start to finish. Baâ got her 5 lvl last game, so everybody was up to level.

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Chapter II

Session 16: Furry Twists and Demonic Turns

The group stood atop of bodies and bodies of gnolls. The monk gnoll had burned skin from those fireballs, like most of the dead gnolls, but also hits from electricity and Solange's fists. The boss lied with his head pierced by a single arrow. He spoke about some revenge and three-eyed, but now everything was silent. The fires subsided, it was still raining enough to snuff all of them. The group lost their source of light but could see how the blood and mud mixed under their feet. Finn went to the big tent, while Mario and Balasar looked for a light source. Having all that, they went to the halfling. There they saw a map on a table. A single big map. It showed the nearby region of Estel'Anoron. Then Mario, knowing Elvish, saw and explained that there are patrols dotted on the map, not only their routes but also dates and numbers. This wasn't the work of the gnolls, this is information to the nearest future. Also on the map, they saw a strange leaf on the upper left side of the leather map and that the gnolls actually searched elven ruins. Almost everything was ticked off, except from one ruin to the northeast, three days of travel.

The party then decided to search for loot. Jafar also got to the place in time. In the base, they found a lot of coins. Nearly twenty thousand coins. Large and heavy chests filled with coins, mainly silver ones. This, however, meant that putting it into the bag of holding was out of the question - it weighted too much, and the group still needed a gnoll body. Elhaeltôr used Gentle Repose on one of the more whole looking gnoll abomination and they put it in the bag. They couldn't explore with those heavy chests and travel will be hard, if they get ambushed. For now, they decided to check what magical items they got, they could only identify 6 (they had 3 pearls from Orth and found 3 more), but they had 7 items, not counting scrolls and potions. The group found:
- Elven Chain Shirt from the gnoll boss, this was given to Jafar. This was a magical mithral chain shirt that was finely done and anybody could wear it like clothes.
- Greataxe of Fiery Sweeping from the gnoll boss, this was given to Mario. This weapon had three fire runes that the user could use to make two special attacks (a 15ft. cone or 5ft. around the user). Also on crits, the greataxe did fire damage.
- Gloves of Thievery found in the base, this was given to Elhaeltôr. This made the user's hands invisible, helping in sleight of hand and picklocking.
- Boots of Elvenkind found in the base, this was given to Baâ. Party already has 3 pairs.
- Cloak of Displacement found in the boss stash, this was given to Balasar. It makes you look like you are actually to the side, so gives a disadvantage to attack you, until somebody hits.
- Belt of Dwarvenkind found in the boss stash, this was given to Mario. Quite the item, first it increases the user's constitution, gives you an advantage to talk to dwarves, can make you grow a beard, but also if you aren't a dwarf - gives you darkvision, advantage on poisons and Dwarven language.
- Instrument of Scribing found in the base, this was given to Finn. This allowed a bard to write special missives.
- Unknown magical instrument, a bandora.
- Potions of: Mind Reading, Fire Giant Strength, Frost Giant Strength, Superior Healing
- Scrolls of: Fabricate (4th Level), Planar Binding (5th Level)
However, they divided the loot after the upcoming fight. The potions weren't divided, but scrolls were taken by Elhaeltôr. After taking a long rest, it was finally the day. Solange, Baâ, and Elhaeltôr went on a scouting mission, while Jafar, Finn, Balasar and Mario stayed behind. The group gathered the bodies of gnolls to burn them. They also discussed and argued about what to do next. During this conversation, Balasar had an idea for Solasar, his familiar to check if he recognizes anything in this demonologist's work. Mario didn't want to even hear about the foul creature, but they decided to make it show it's true nature. The group told Jafar about it also, so Balasar started. The cherub showed up on his command and was ready to serve. It immediately was ordered to show his true face.

Solasar
True Form

Its beautiful skin changed to green. He gained weight, but not size. His feathery wings changed into more bat-like, leather. His mouth enlarged, then broke into tentacles. Eyes went dark like obsidian. He still was flying, but his words were gutterlike. The group couldn't believe what they saw. He only answered questions by Balasar. He told that he only exists to serve. He came to being when Balasar wanted company when he needed help. He didn't exist before. Asked about the gnolls, he didn't know anything. Any questions who created him or was his master, he pointed to Balasar. For this "cherub" Balasar was his word. Mario was untrustworthy and didn't want to use this fiend, however, nobody knew what it actually was since he didn't look like any fiend they saw or read in books. Finn said he didn't care about it, Jafar also. In Tauzar you had bigger problems than fiends. Balasar told the cherub to disappear. The group argued until they heard somebody move. Those weren't the movements of their friends. The group saw three elves, rangers, show up. Their leader was instantly recognized by the party - he was the first wood elf they saw in the woods. He spoke in Common since Elhaeltôr wasn't here. He told them that the druid, Baâ, was forbidden to leave the town and they wanted to ask where she went. They saw Jafar leave Estel'Anoron, so they followed them. Found the bodies of the gnolls and the base, now they are here. The group told them, after a heavy handed inquiry by the elf, that they found a map of patrols. The elf wanted to see the map. After being shown the map by Mario, he looked at the patrols, but also at the symbol of the leaf in the corner. Mario and Balasar saw that the elf wasn't surprised by what he saw. He told the group that this map will need to be taken to First Ranger and everybody will be questioned, by force if necessary, about this. Mario wanted to take the map since they wanted to take it to Quennar, but the elf wasn't willing. He holds his hand on the map. After asking certain questions, combat began. Only Mario saw that something is wrong. He heard that something fell on the ground, he saw in the corner of his eye the clothes of the elves that were standing behind the rest of the group and saw that the hand of the elf before him started to grow with hair. Werewolves.

Werewolves

Mario was able to act. He used his sword to hit the monster before him, while the werewolf lost his armor and weapons. However, his non-magical sword made no damage to him. He used his divine smite and it was the only thing that hurt the monster. Jafar and Finn were next. The fight took some rounds. Jafar and Finn were bitten. Jafar was able to almost defeat his enemy with his magical scimitars. The werewolf tried to escape, but he was stopped by Dissonant Whispers from Finn. Their leader was killed by the onslaught of radiant damage from Mario. The last one was hit from many sides, even Luigi tried his luck, but his weapon did nothing. Finally, they hit the monster into unconsciousness to interrogate later. Baâ joined the group after the fight. They explained has happened, since she only saw dead, naked elves and one werewolf. She told them she can make him change back into an elf, but he can't be too wounded. They manacled and tied the werewolf. Finn used Cure Wounds to heal it. After it woke up, Baâ used her Moonbeam to hit him. However, when he was changing back, he writhes in pain. He didn't survive. Again Balasar wasn't happy with the druid's actions. The group argued about what to do next. Solange and Elhaeltôr returned. Together they decided to burn the elf bodies, take their ashes in separate pouches and give to their families in Estel'Anoron. They knew that nothing on the bodies indicated that they were werewolves. They also looked for belladonna and found the plant nearby. Used it for Finn and Jafar, hoping that nothing bad will come from the fact they were bitten. Baâ used Animal Messenger to send a message to her dwarf companions, that they could be in danger. Elhaeltôr was scouting and found a place where something heavy and wet was dragged nearby, the tracks pointed north. The group knew that coming back to Estel'Anoron would bring more problems. They decided to check the tracks. Jafar and Luigi would go back to the wolf den with the chests and stay there, while the rest went to scout out.

It took them about two hours and it was again going dark. During this, they found more evidence - ripped cloth and rope. The gnoll abominations were transported using this route. When the tracks stopped, they found a gorge and heard a waterfall. This terrain was the most touched by the fall. The land was rough, but plants and trees regrew. The land broke open and the gorge was created. Water from unknown spring started to pour from one of the walls. The river down, about 10-15 meters, flowed west. They thought that it had to flow to the main river. The other wall was about 10 meters far, so a jump was out of the question. However, Solange saw something more. There was a rope, just about 30 meters from where they were standing, it was tied to a tree and dingling in the gorge, just about 6 meters down. The dingling would mean that there was some wind that moved the rope, but there was none. They saw ruins. Had to be elven ruins. It was the source of the waterfall. Solange and Finn decided to check the place out using invisibility. When they got near, they saw that the rope was fat and strong, something very heavy had to be pulled or dropped into the ruin. The tree showed signs of use, many months of use actually. Below they saw four entrances. One hole, they didn't know if it was from the ruins. Three other that had stones and pillars, elf work. One of those entrances was dry, while the other two were the waterfalls. Solange also found tracks near the rope. Gnolls and only gnolls were here, working on the rope and transporting something heavy. However, he found new tracks that showed that somebody an half hour ago went down, a gnoll. Before they returned to the group, Solange asked Finn for a favor. He had a vision and needed guidance. He needed somebody to teach him some... questionable things. In short, he needed a Rogue to teach him some stuff. Finn told him that he will try his best and was asked to not tell the others, not yet. They went back to the group and told them what they found. Baâ had a great memory for maps and told the group that this place wasn't on the map. Balasar checked to be sure since he was completing their own maps. Indeed it was, but not only that, the surrounding area wasn't on the map, like the gnolls never came here or were never given information about this place. The group argued what to do next, but in the end decided to check the ruins, since the demonologist might be still there.

To remind everybody, Jafar stayed behind. Elhaeltôr stopped playing at this moment (he fell asleep at his laptop). However, when the group descended, they saw that you could use the rope to jump to other entrances if you just try. They didn't do that and slowly went inside into one of the waterfalls, with Finn helping Elhaeltôr descend with another rope - the big one wasn't created for this. There the elf could tell the group that this place was once a mansion to some elf, long ago before the fall. The group didn't have time to admire the scenery. The first thing they saw in this room was one of the strange tied and wrapped "bodies" of the gnoll abominations, leaning on the wall. Mario decided to hit it with his greataxe. Blood flowed. He took off the wraps on the head and everybody saw the abomination. It was unconscious, not dead, so he hit it again over the head, killing it. Cleared the first room, they went further.

Solange cast light on Baâ because Balasar and Finn couldn't see, however, Mario had the Belt of Dwarvenkind attuned so he saw in darkness like Solange. They also attuned to other magical items, since they had a short rest before leaving the gnoll base. Inside they saw the main hall, that had three other doorways. One lead to the corridor next, where the water flowed into the biggest waterfall and had a staircase. The second lead to a big hole, the room collapsed there and it was the source of the water - it poured from the ceiling. The third was an even bigger room, where once a statue resided. On the pedestal, there was another body wrapped, but this one was bigger, a large creature was wrapped there. There was also a pair of stairs to their right that went up, so it was dry there. While being almost to the knees in water, Mario went near the wrappings. The thing moved. In tore apart almost instantly and threw itself onto the paladin.

Corrupting Ooze

It was a greenish ooze that had a lot of body parts inside it - gnolls and elves, but also small, young gnolls. A hulking monstrosity that was very corrosive. The fight was hard. The group couldn't move a lot in the water, so they had to use their powers to stop it in their tracks. While they were poking the monster with their arrows, bolts, radiant bolts, swords and eldritch blasts, the group heard something moving behind them. Another such creature emerged from the room where they saw a hole. However, they were able to almost kill the first monster. He tried his best to make at least one attack on the heavily armored knight, but he fell down and dissolved in water (it had only 1 HP and rolled 1 on his attack, I had enough of this shit). The second was a more deadly foe because it hit once... Baâ then broke out of the grapple the next round, so I couldn't dissolve any of her equipment. Sad state of affairs. The monster finally killed. The parts of the gnolls and elves flowed with the water and out of the waterfall. Solange found one elven hand with strange demonic signs, he decided to cut it out for later. Balasar checked what this place was and told the group, that they were standing in the... waste room. Here the demonologists threw out his failed experiments. Due to corrupting nature of this, they combined in the water, so he had a "natural" defender here for intruders. Mario also quickly checked the stairs that were to their right in the ooze room, but nothing was there. Nor there were any torches on the walls. Solange tried his luck with the hole. This once was a room, but after the fall, when the building "joined" with the earth, the floor broke and fell down, while the room filled with water. He threw a stone with Light on it and luckily it fell down next to a strange item. It was pretty deep. He gave Finn rope and told him to hold it, while he jumped into the hole. Without problems, he swam down to the item. He saw that it wasn't a wooden object like he thought. It was white-blue, with elven runes and a blue stone on top. He took it out since it was stuck between two slabs. Now they had a strange staff that they didn't know what it was. Players knew - Staff of Healing, but they couldn't use it.

The group decided to move forwards. To their left, they saw the other, bigger waterfall, while to their right they saw a light on top of the staircase. Solange went to sneak and saw a corridor with four branches to check. To his left and right there was something. To his right, he saw the source of light, a brazier with lamp oil, and next to it one of the gnoll abominations wrapped, at least that's what he thought. To his left, he saw a room that ended with two other wrapped creatures, but these were smaller than the abomination. The group decided to sneak to the other side, not get near the wrappings. When they got to the other side, the corridor went branching. To their right, they could see the corridor go again right and disappear into darkness. While on their left they had two choices. One led to the outside, it was the part of the dry ruins that could be seen from above. The other led to more of a cave. Then Solange heard something behind a wall that was before him. Something moved and a stone fell. He sneaked up and others followed, but it was too late. Monsters came. Suddenly, a weak looking gnoll jumped out from the dark tunnels and attacked Solange. He was quick, but not very strong.

Weak Gnoll Mutant

The monsters swarmed the party. They kept coming and coming. They could see that these frail, but fast gnolls had many growths, there were kinda degenerated gnolls. There were about ten that came out of the darkness and jumped onto the group. The party held their ground and killed all of them. Balasar checked the corpses that it was indeed gnolls, but it seemed that the demonologist was keeping them for later. These were fine specimens to experiment on, if you want to test something out on stranger ones. Cancerous tissues, unknown growths. All of these were ailments that the gnolls had since birth. The party checked the tunnels behind the monsters. One lead outside, to the hole that they saw on the wall. The other lead the group to the lair. Elf bodies, eaten, littered the ground. It smelled pretty badly. The group however found one thing worth something. It shined with light that was brought by Baâ. It was a signet ring with leafs engravings. Not magical, but could be a significance to someone in the village. They pocketed it and went to the other corridor.

Again, options presented themselves. The corridor was long with many branches. First to their left was an empty room. Second to their left lead to another source of light and another room with three, but small, wrapped bodies. They didn't investigate this room. Next, on their right, they had a single, iron box, but nobody here wanted to check for traps, so they left it for later. The group decided to move forward. They saw three rooms that they had to pass through to enter a bigger room at the end, where there was some light. Solange went ahead and a trap was sprung. In the first room, they saw four vases. One of them exploded and acid poured onto Solange. He ducked back pretty quickly but was burnt. They then started to discuss what to do, so they broke the vases with arrows. More acid spilled out, but there was nobody there to be hurt by it. They moved to the next room, where there were also vases, but this time they were empty when the group destroyed them. The last one had four statues and a pile of burnt skeletons of gnolls and elves. Solange, with luck, found the pressure plate. This was also the moment the group heard muffled sounds and something metallic going over stone. They didn't have time. Solange jumped over the plate and sneaked up into the big room. He didn't, however, see a magical ward that was put in the room, so it was roll for initiative.

Gorelathion
Gnoll Demonologist

Solange saw the gnoll demonologist with an elven child on a sacrificial slab. He was already soaking in blood and the boy was opened. The aasimar jumped onto the monster. Using his healing hand, he touched the boy. Gorelathion was a sorcerer and used a metamagic feat to cast two spells - Conjure Lesser Demons and Wall of Stone (I fucked up reading the second spell, it shouldn't be like that, but let's say he was the only one who could have done it). Solange was blocked and alone with the demonologist. He saw elven children in cages to his left and the body of maybe a still alive child. While the other party saw Solange disappear and in the main room eight Dretches showed up. A rift in reality opened and these monster came out. The group was separated. However, in a Watchmen, Rorschach moment, this wasn't Solange was trapped with the gnoll, but the gnoll trapped with Solange. He kicked his ass, the Dretches disappeared. The group could see the wall and after summoning a bear, they started to dig through, which was tedious. The gnoll summoned a Shadow Demon and used Misty Step to "disappear" from Solange, who rolled 5 on Perception to see that the gnoll just teleported behind him to run away. The battle inside the room was pretty easy. Solange used his power to radiate holy power (forgot that the kid he saved is too close), to damage everybody around him. The shadow demon couldn't be in the shadows anymore, so Solange had an easier job. The monster failed to hit even once. The gnoll used his Burning Hands to scorch the aasimar a little, but that didn't do the job. He was seen, so the monk jumped and with radiant powered fists made the gnoll explode in gore. Meanwhile, the group destroyed one wall panel... to see that there is another behind it. Solange then took care of the shadow demon, who strangely stayed after the demonologist died. After the fight, Solange looked at the body of the kid. It was burned. He didn't, at first, know if it was his radiant power or the gnoll's spells.

ColCol · Dec 19, 2017

Nice read so far!

Havoc · Dec 19, 2017

Jafar couldn't be on this session but almost was, so his role is more of guard duty. Balasar wasn't at the beginning until the group found the chimney tunnel. Also, this session, the leader of the werewolves is revealed. Can you guess who it is? Yeah, it wasn't that hard.

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Chapter II

Session 17: Powers Beyond Grasp and Not

Our heroes break the last wall to the gnoll, but they see that he already is dead. His body exploded in many parts. Solange was standing in the sacrificial chamber, over the slab where the elf child body was. The group saw that the boy died due to his injuries. Behind that, they saw two cages with two more children. They couldn't be older than 3 or 4 years, which is a long way for an elf. The group checked the gnoll's body for stuff, but it had only a couple of things - keys, demonologist components and the sacrificial knife. Balasar took the knife, while the keys were taken by Solange to open the cages. During this time Elhaeltôr joined the group. Being warned by Mario about a trap, he searches for its source, finds a wand and disarms the trap. The wand still looks usable but must be fixed, unless somebody wants to test out if it works. Elhaeltôr saw the body of the gnoll and decided to burn it later with his spells, but the children were the top priority for now. It seemed like the kids couldn't speak in any language, be it gnoll, elven or common. This meant that their communication was mainly emotion and instinct based. It would take years to reverse this damage. Elhaeltôr checked their shackles, that they had on their necks, wrists, and ankles. He found out that they were inlaced with silver. It became quite obvious - the kids were werewolves. Elhaeltôr was the only one who succeeded in rolling for information about the lycans. However, he only told them that "its a sad story for his people." As a quick side note - the werewolves in elven lore were created from rape, gnolls that were created from elves by the giants could inseminate elf females. When the first one birthed, Corellon killed the mother during birth, so she doesn't need to see her child and the gnoll father also, but in an agonizing death. However, the child survived this ordeal and was cursed with the first case of lycanthropy.

Solange, Baâ, and Balasar took care of the children. The druid had to treat them like animals to make them understand that they don't mean harm. Finn also helped with a soothing song, so the kids weren't afraid of them. They didn't take the manacles off, just the chains that connected them to allow the kids to move more freely. They went back through the tunnels and using their rope, tied the kids so they could safely transport them up since making them climb alone or climbing together with them would just spell disaster. Solange and Balasar would be on top, while Baâ would tie the ropes. Also, Solange took the body of the sacrificed kid to be burned later.

While that was happening, the group finally could check what was where. Mario, Elhaeltôr, and Finn started to look around. The sacrificial chamber had nothing of value, not even the space of the demonologist experiments. They, however, found a hidden passage. This was added by the gnoll later. It was one of the walls of this mansion, now working as a door like those stereotypical bookcases, where there was a mechanism in the middle, so you could open the door from the left or right by pushing it. Behind it, they found a chimney. On the bottom of it, which was actually where they were standing, they saw three chests and five big, leather books. Also, somebody made a ladder in the stone chimney. Finn decided to check the light that he saw at the top, but Elhaeltôr stopped him saying he sees traps along the way. These traps were made to be a nuisance or deadly for people going down the chimney, but not the other way around. Finn and Elhaeltôr could easily disarm the blade traps. When he got to the top, the entrance was held by a single boulder, but it was actually flat and not that heavy. When Finn got out, he saw Solange and Balasar with the ropes. He helped them get the kids on the ground level and returned with Balasar down, while Baâ and Solange stayed outside, looking around and keeping an eye on the kids.

In the underground, Mario and Elhaeltôr already took care of the boxes and books. The latter was stashed into the bag of holding, it still had some space left. While the former were opened one by one. First one was filled with gold, about 5000 gold pieces. The second had velvet inlaid on the inside because there was something very delicate scattered. Mario sat down and started to piece it together. After many minutes it looked like it was a sword, still with magical properties. While that was happening, Balasar took care of the third chest which was filled with a couple of magical items. They couldn't identify them at this moment. A leather armor, elven, looked brand new. A transparent orb with a gold arrow inside, pointing somewhere. A wooden staff with a small bowl at the top, empty. A squishy, spongelike bead. A silver circlet with a reddish jewel on the front. A golden ring with an amethyst that looked cracked, on closer inspection it looked like a brain. The last was a silk rope, about 60 feet long, very light. All these items were magical. The group decided to leave the chests here for now and check the other places.

First, they found a tunnel behind another wall in the main room. Once it lead to another room or a corridor, but long ago it broke off and the room was buried below. Now it's just a cave tunnel. They followed it to an intersection. One lead them to a small cave, part of a room that survived. Here they saw a dead body of an elf, ranger. Its been here about three months. The ranger died to being cut, starvation and fatigue. On his body, they found three gold pieces and a magical ring. Elhaeltôr decided to burn the body to ash and take it with them. The rest tried the other corridor and got to another wall. Finn moved it since Balasar couldn't get a grip to push it. They heard something metallic fall to the ground behind the wall. They decided not to stop and check what was inside. They got to the room with three wrapped bodies that they didn't check. However, these weren't gnoll mutants. What was on the ground was a body cage, a medieval device that the prisoner needs to be always standing in. The one that fell was empty, the wraps were tight and the cage wasn't locked. The other two had bodies still in them. Two other rangers died in this room, tortured by the demonologist. While the first one died of cuts, the second had his gut filled with something vile and the third had pieces of meat and skin cut out. This was his torture chamber. Elhaeltôr took care of the bodies, so the guys checked two other rooms they didn't really investigate. In one there was a metal box. Old. Dusty. Nobody touched it. It smelled like a trap. Finn saw that there was indeed a deadly trap... under their feet. The whole room might have exploded if they touched the box. The second room had nothing in it or at least that was what it seemed. Elhaeltôr and Balasar soon joined Mario and Finn. They decided to not check the chest and see what's in the empty room. Elhaeltôr's keen eyes saw elven signs of beware, do not touch on one of the walls. What do they do? Of course, they start to touch. Elhaeltôr sees that there are no traps outside the wall that he can move, so he will need to quickly put his hands inside while the wall moves. The group decides to stay in the room. This is what happened. Elhaeltôr cast Mage Hand to check for traps or disarm it, it was a bad move, since it isn't his hand(s). Second, the party stayed in the room. Finn at least tried to stay outside, behind a wall. Third, Elhaeltôr rolled a 1 on his disarming. The whole room exploded. Mario barely passed and with his special feat, he was unharmed by the explosion while leaning on the nearby wall. Elhaeltôr jumped behind the nearest column and Finn back into the corridor, just barely making out of there alive. Balasar, however, got the brunt of the explosion. He fell unconscious. When the smoke dissipated, Finn saw Solange running towards them. He heard with Baâ the noise, so he got down to check, while the druid took care of the scared children. Mario quickly used his Lay of Hands to heal Balasar and bring him back. Now everybody was tired of this ordeal.

However, they did get something out of it. Behind the secret door, the group saw a room, that was never checked before. On a marble pedestal, laid a single book. A big tome with golden engravings and jewels all around it. Elven symbols and pictures were seen on it. Elhaeltôr checked the book out, while the rest looked what was going on. Solange didn't care and went back. Inside they saw guidelines for influencing and charming others. The words were readable by anyone, even if you didn't know Elvish. This was a magical tome, which everybody now reading this knows. It is a Tome of Leadership and Influence that can be used once every 100 years, so the time is due. The group took the tome back outside. They made camp and started discussing what to do next. Their options were limited due to having the kids with them. They feared that they could be killed on the spot, because of the rangers they killed before and if the rangers are on the intrigue, then maybe they will get killed when they will see the kids. Elhaeltôr convinced the group that the only elf in the village they can trust right now is Quennar Wood Step, the one who gave them the job in the first place. Baâ was wary of the druid but obliged to send him a message. She sent another message, this time to Quennar telling him that they have elven children that are werewolves, that he should look out, because there are lupines in the village also. The group decided that they will sneak into Estel'Anoron, maybe even with the kids. For now, they will need to regroup and take their stuff.

Pieces of Lasse'hyanda
The Leafblade

These talks, however, were stopped when Finn, Baâ, and Elhaeltôr had a chance to look at the blade they found. Finn remembered that he has seen this kind of blade somewhere in books about the elves, but couldn't piece it together. Baâ remembered that she has seen one elf, when she was young, in her homeland with the exact looking blade. Apparently, that elf was revered about other wood elves. Elhaeltôr suddenly had a vision and he understood the significance. This was the Lasse'hyanda, a Leafblade, an elven hereditary longsword that is similar to the Moonblade of Moon Elves. This one belonged to a family called Oakblossom. Elhaeltôr didn't know what happened to them or why the blade is here. This would be a thing to talk about in the village. The group took a long rest. They took the ropes, even the old heavy one and also closed the entrance to the ruins. They didn't rearm the traps or nothing. The place was still desecrated and Mario wasn't able to change this since he wasn't powerful enough of a paladin to cleanse a demonologist lair. Reminding about Jafar, he is an NPC here, so he got back to the group, before their long rest, talked about what they will do next and returned to Luigi to rest with him until the rest will be ready to travel.

It took three days of travel through the heavy woods. Especially with all that loot. Being just a couple of hours before Estel'Anoron and also making sure they don't get caught in any patrol, the group hears something nearby. Finn, Solange, and Elhaeltôr sneak up on somebody who they hear is actually crying and boiling something. Quickly they recognize him as Om Frenzybeard, the blonde short dwarf they met in Estel'Anoron. Solange walked carefully and heavy so that the dwarf will hear him, while Finn just went up to him to greet him. That was a bad move. Upon hearing someone nearby, the dwarf quickly grabbed his two-handed axe and jumped at Finn. Luckily he dodged it and the dwarf didn't frenzy yet. He recognizes them, gets sad and sits. He explains what happened as good as he can since he isn't very bright. The group, however, got the gist of it. After Jafar left and three rangers followed him, the other rangers started to be more suspicious and aggressive to the outsiders. Asking questions every day. Suddenly one day, while Urnut was in the marketplace talking to the rangers, or more like they interrogated him, a small bird showed up and started to talk in Dwarven. They took Urnut and the other dwarves. Om tells that this is something Zato told him, one of the dwarves. He told him to run away, to find the druid. So he did. Om is pretty quick and he lost his pursuers. Balasar checked the map because the dwarf is here about three days and sees that he is standing in a blind spot, where the rangers do not patrol near. Got lucky or knows too much? No matter. The dwarf now believes that his friends got killed, because "what else would happen?" Baâ couldn't believe that something like a talking, in dwarven, a bird would be enough evidence to arrest them or even kill them. She was pretty antisocial, so that was understandable. However, they needed a new plan. They decided to rest until morning, leave their stuff here and travel light to the village as to be ready for a fight. They would also take the kids with them as evidence. Jafar and Luigi decided to stay behind and guard their belongings, while the rest with Om would travel to Estel'Anoron. During this night, Mario got wasted on alcohol from Om and the next day his Belt of Dwarvenkind popped up - he grew a beard. This, however, wasn't the time to discuss this, the group knew that this is the belt and journeyed forth.

Mario's new portrait

Being just half an hour before the village, the group heard somebody coming. They split up and hide. It was the elves. Rangers. Soldiers. And Quennar. Solange and Finn saw that they were searching for somebody and that Quennar was leading the soldiers, not the rangers. Elhaeltôr decided to pop up and talk to the elf. He was asked where his friends were. He told him that he got their message and will escort them to a safe place. Elhaeltôr felt that he could trust Quennar on this. The soldiers would do anything he would ask, while the rangers weren't "on this," so when Quennar said "this isn't a safe place to talk about this" the rangers were confused and aggressive to Elhaeltôr. Finally, the group popped up. Baâ communicated with the druid in their common language, but he didn't say anything more than they need to trust him on this and go with him, making no problems along the way. She didn't trust this elf one bit. Then the kids were shown and rangers were ready to attack. For them, this was enough, but Quennar stood between them. In Elvish, he said that everything is alright, that he will escort them to a safe place. He ordered the soldiers to help the adventurers get safely to Estel'Anoron. In sync, the soldiers nodded, went up to the group, scattered around them and stood as their escort. When the group moved, the elves moved also. The rangers didn't want to move away, but when the soldiers took out their swords as a sign of intimidation, they backed off.

In the village, everything was fine, but the group needed to discuss. He explained the group that he heard that they are coming from his animal friends. Told the group that the soldiers are following the orders of their leader - Faelyn Eaglesong, a moon elf. He is a friend of Quennar and is trustworthy, he will do the right thing if they bring evidence. This also meant that they needed to confront Nu'quern'gaur, the First Ranger. Quennar didn't want to believe, but he said that he saw, about three to four years ago where the First Ranger was taking wrapped things from the village and disappearing for a couple of days. It was peculiar, but nothing strange, until now. Now he sees what he was taking from the village. Quennar also says that they need to provoke Nu'quern'gaur because he is the most trustworthy in the eyes of Aredhel, so going to the archdruid would yield nothing of value and maybe even more problem. He also said to the group, that the dwarves and humans were taken custody to the First Ranger. Quennar told them that one of the soldiers can take the children to Faelyn for safekeeping, but Baâ wasn't going to let him, so he said she can go with him, that it's going to be safe there. She was very naive about the whole thing. She didn't believe that there was going to be a fight or something like a talking bird is enough of evidence that somebody can be thrown into the dungeon for this. The group decided to split up. Baâ went with the children and one of the soldiers to Faelyn, while the rest of the group to the First Ranger, stopping by Annael Silverblade, the magic shopkeep. Baâ's side of the story will be continued later since it was late enough that I wanted the last fight to finish as soon as possible.

They visited the wizard. He looked at the group like they were ready for war or something similar. He was confused when he heard that they only came here to bring the body. Annael took Solange with him to the back room, where a table was ready, but not ready enough like it seemed. When the body was taken out, the table collapsed due to the weight. Annael gave the group their promised gold. In return they asked about healing potions, so he brought them six greater healing potions and told them that they will talk price after they return. He wished them luck and getting back to him with the money, but also closed his shop and went north. During this, Elhaeltôr asked Quennar about Oakblossom. The druid told him that they all died when the fall happened. Most of them turned into the undead. He believes that no living member of that family exists.

The group went to the First Ranger, the main camp of the rangers. There were about 20 to 30 rangers around, but also couple of soldiers. They looked like they were resting, but the group knew that this is might go ugly. Nu'quern'gaur saw that the group came here with the dwarf and demanded explanations. For him, their goal was done. Like they said, they defeated the gnolls, so they can get the money from Quennar and leave this village. However, they told him that there was something more. A ring. Finn came close, like they previously planned, and flipped, by "accident" at the face of the First Ranger. The elf failed his check and the ring hit is skin, which was only visible on his face - he wore gloves and full body clothes/armor. Part of the group saw that it left a mark, while Solange and Finn heard a sizzling sound and little puff of steam came out - it did burn him. Now they knew he was a werewolf. The man didn't care about the ring and demanded an explanation. Soon the talks devolved, when Quennar spoke about Elianna, the First Ranger's wife. "How did she die, Nu'quern'gaur?" Was the question that tipped over, especially when the druid asked about the wrappings he saw - "The wraps you took one night, came back to us, they are older now." Once calm and serious wood elf now looked enraged. He shouted to his men, that these outsiders need to be taken care of, now. This could have been maybe avoided, but once Mario casted Magic Weapon on the dwarf, it was over. The fight broke out. The soldiers and Quennar tried to stop the rangers, while they tried to attack the heroes. Nu'quern'gaur was alone and while nobody on the party side attack, the dwarf did. He frenzied and jumped onto the elf, shouting that he is a murderer. Blood spilled out because the blade was now magical. Nu'quern'gaur fought with the group with his sword, but went the situation became dire, he changed.

Legendary Werewolf

Barely 180cm in height wood elf grew into a 2,5 meter monstrosity. His clothes, like being made for this, were dropped. He had white tattoos and long black hair, but all of this changed into white fur. A big werewolf stood before the group and he howled so loudly, that the group had to hold their ears to not go deaf. This made half of the nearby rangers turn into werewolves and group heard that this howl was heard all over Estel'Anoron. This wasn't just their fight anymore. The real fight broke out. Finn tried his Dissonant Whispers to make the monster retreat and get Attacks of Opportunity, but the elf used his Reaction to change into the beast, so his plan failed. Real combat started. This was a Legendary creature. This means he had Legendary Actions and (sometimes not) Legendary Resistances. Legendary Actions are actions that the creature can do at the end of a player's turn, but only one. He has 3 charges (so he can do 3 actions) and they regenerate when it's his turn. Legendary Resistances are just "I succeed" on a saving throw, but he can do it only 3 times a day. So the party was stunned when after an attack, the werewolf jumped into the air and landed behind them. He had very deadly attacks, so the party lucked out a little during the fight. The other legendary action was that he could Bite, so the moment Solange made his combo (during this fight he only rolled once below 21, he was extremely lucky) got bitten and... rolled two natural 20 since he had an advantage on saving throws. The dwarf tried his best and was actually hitting a lot and damaging the monster. Then the werewolf used his third legendary action. Elhaeltôr saw that the world is going dark, his friends disappear and he only sees the werewolf that jumps at him - a fear effect. He succeeded on it. Then it was Elhaeltôr turn and finally, he had a moment to use his staff. His magical item finally awakened a little, so he could use Thunder Step with his staff. He jumped and the werewolf got hit with thunder damage - like sonic. This loud explosion would hurt him, but he used his Legendary Resistance to succeed on the roll. The fight continued. Balasar used his tentacle rod this entire time to dps the creature. When it was the werewolf turn, he full combo'ed the dragonborn and it was Finn's Cutting Words bard power that allowed Balasar to live another day - he made his attack roll lower, so he missed. The monster was at death's door. Solange used his combo and then they saw his "last special power," he could regenerate at the brink of death. He only needed to roll a DC of 10 + Damage, with his Constitution Save (+6). This was also the moment he started to make his "villain speech."

Fools! Servants of the daughter of the deceiver! She turned her back to us! She condemned us to death in this damned forest!
I watched as my brothers and sisters die by monster hands, she has the gall to come and now rebuild her home?!
I do not regret my decisions, may curse fall upon this village!

He used his last two Legendary Resistances to succeed on these rolls. First was when Solange did his last attack. Then Om did his two. The first one was autosuccess, while the other needed to be rolled. He damaged him for 14, so the werewolf needed to roll 18 at least (since he had +6 and the DC was 24). He rolled a 19 and succeeded. The group saw how blood spilled all over the place. The monster closing his eyes over and over but opening them every second with ferocity that they didn't see in their life. It was Mario's Divine Smite that took down the beast. He needed to roll a natural 20 to live - he didn't. Nu'quern'gaur had his head smashed into pieces by Mario's new greataxe. It was over. He fell down, changing to his original form on the way. The fight around them was at the end, but the forest wasn't quiet. Not just yet.

BTW. The speech was retconned in, since I completly forgot that he had a speech. I was too much into the game, combat that I didn't remember.

(Completed) Campaign Journal - Tethys: Fool's Gold (DnD 5ed)

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