The Mercenary's Moral Morass - 2/24/2010 session recap

The party collected and divvied up the dragon's loot, then headed back to the dragonborn village.  Everyone was in good spirits, and there was a celebration of sorts.  These people were born and raised as elite soldiers, and were accustomed to strict military discipline.  Unrestrained celebration does not come naturally to them.  But the mood was light, and everyone seemed happy.

Ander suggested to Djim that he set up diplomatic negotiations between Maazuni and this village, and Djim said that he was one step ahead of him.  He had already hired four dragonborn to replace his slain crew as a step towards permanent future relations with this village.  He hopes to employ them not only as guards for the trade barges, but also establish them as another stop on the trade route.

Boreas reduced the lesser magic items to residuum, and then enchanted his clothing.  He offered his bloodcut leather armor to Vrisana, who seemed initially hesitant, but then was seen wearing it the next morning.

Thoric carved a rose into a tree on the outskirts of the village, and tidied up a place for a simple shrine to Linitheriva.  Ander then carved a plank with the word "latrine" and drove it into the ground near the shrine.

The crew, both new and old, constructed a new cabin for the barge, and then the party was off again down the river.

About five days later, Thoric noticed that Djim was looking a bit disturbed by something.  When questioned, Djim told him that even though the stated mission - to deliver Kiosi and the cargo to Ngabulu - was still valid, there was a second mission that was essentially a trap.  He said that swamp pirates had been tipped off about the itinerary, and would be attacking when the barges beached at a standard location about a day away from the city.  He said that that it was expected that the party would be able to inflict serious losses on the pirates, but that the party's well-being was not critical to the plan.  As long as losses were inflicted on the pirates, the mission would be a success.  The real goal was to allow Jemboko's cousin, Kzambo, to attack the weakened pirate force and succeed in removing them as a threat to Ngabulu.  Apparently Kzambo aided the Empire during the rebellion, and fell from grace as a merchant prince when the rebellion succeeded.  Clearing out the pirates would restore his reputation - if he could claim the victory as his own.

This sparked some intense discussions amongst the party.  Here are some of the key points of various characters:

Thoric : Going into the mission forewarned would make it easier to prevail, the party could get some extra money for keeping silent on their involvement, and meeting Jemboko's unstated goals would make Jemboko indebted to the party for their discretion.  He also stated that he would give his life to protect Kiosi, regardless of which course of action the party took.

Xakoraki : She was unwilling to do anything to help Kzambo, who is a known collaborator of the late Empire.  Helping him, even for money, would be wrong.

Ander : He would not knowingly murder a group of sentients, even if they were pirates, and even if they attacked first.  He also had serious qualms about capturing any of them, knowing that they would merely face the death penalty under the existing laws of Ngabulu.  He also raised the fear that if Jemboko or Kzambo were willing to pay them for their silence, there would also be a risk of them being willing to kill the party instead.

Orvalion : People in power are used to using other people as tools, and are not known to tell such tools the entirety of their plans.  He pointed out that mercenary work, such as their current job, is inherently dangerous, and that unknown mortal peril were part and parcel with such employment.  As such, he didn't feel that a fight with the pirates would be outside of their contract as guards.  He also opined that people in power didn't tend to break their tools intentionally.

Vrisana : Jemboko is a wizard, and as such is interested in power.  Wizards aren't known for giving away all of their secrets, so she was not surprised there was a hidden agenda.  She thinks that Jemboko is crafty, but that he probably doesn't have anything against the party.  However, she wouldn't trust him implicitly, except to keep up his end of the bargain - i.e. paying them for delivering his cargo safely.  And she thinks he is more trustworthy than Caelebhan.

Boreas : He would like to get extra cash for the setup.  He didn't want to piss off *every* magister the party has ever met by intentionally cheating them.  But he was okay with the idea of skipping the pirates entirely, fulfilling the stated mission, and leaving Kzambo to his fate.

Mike the GM : The party cannot reasonably claim ignorance of the setup while also negotiating for extra cash.  Extra cash will only come through going beyond the stated contract and being discrete about it, by blackmailing Jemboko and Kzambo (asking for hush money), or by outright stealing.  The latter two options make Ander's fears more likely to come true.

A Dragon, Vanquished - 2/10 and 2/3 session recaps

The party set out with nine dragonborn hunters to find one of the dragons that had attacked their barge. They came across an island that was formed around the arching roots of a gigantic tree. Smoke was detected coming from one side of the island, and upon investigation they found a camp of humans. The human sentries gave warning: "It's the ones he was telling us about! Get 'em!"

After a brief skirmish with barbarians and rogues, all but one of them were slain. The one remaining offered up some information under threat of torture. He said that the dragon had found his band a few weeks ago and offered them each a gold piece a day to protect his lair. Searching the corpses only turned up about seven gold pieces per person, and when questioned the survivor said that they hadn't been paid in full yet. He said that there was another entrance on the other side of the island, somewhere underwater. Thoric and Xakoraki confirmed, each with their own impeccable knowledge of dragons, that black dragons were aquatic, and could breathe underwater.

The party decided on the dry approach. They encountered some deathspore fungus in a small chamber, but failing to detect any treasure they continued onward. They found a couple of elfinoid skeletons and noticed a rotted bag of coins among the remains. A little further down the passage, and an otyugh attacked them, focusing its efforts on dragging Xakoraki into its lair. It was dispatched fairly quickly, and no treasure was found among the moldering remains.

The party came to the dragon's lair, which was partially submerged. They approached cautiously, but did not see anything until Ander started peering at the pile of treasure that was at the edge of the water. The dragon burst forth, and stunned a few party members with its initial roar, but soon Ander had tricked it into a bad position. Surrounded by the party and a couple of dragonborn allies, it clouded itself with magical darkness and sprayed acid everywhere. Boreas had taken the precaution of warding his allies from acid, however, and the dragon breath had little effect on anyone. Boreas also summoned an icy, disembodied hand, which kept grabbing the dragon by the tail and holding it in place. Xakoraki was able to keep it from fleeing as well during the few times it broke free from the conjuration. Thoric's summoned rose battered the creature about the head, disorienting it, and making it easier to hit the dragon in the blinding darkness.

After a long (very long) fight, the dragon seemed to realize it could not win. It offered to parley, and asked what the party wanted. Xakoraki replied, "All of your treasure and your scaly hide!"** The party then ended the dragon's life with a few more stabs, slashed, and spells.

All of the treasure that the party was seeking to recover seemed to be heaped into a huge pile along with more treasure and items to be split among themselves and their allies.

The campaign will now continue into the paragon tier, and the players can now choose their character's paragon paths. Treasure distribution and leveling up will be the first orders of business for the next session.

** quote may be misattributed

Rolling down the river - session recaps through 1/27/2010

The first encounter on the river was with giant crocodiles. The monstrous beasts tried to climb on board the barges and eat crewmembers, and they succeeded in eating one of the regular crew on the other craft. Thoric was nearly devoured, but Xakoraki pulled him free, risking her own life to do so. Eventually, the crocs were repelled. There was some sort of crocodile orgy going on across the river, and the barges rolled over them without further incident.

On the morning of the second day, they entered the relatively still waters of a swampy lake. The sun had not yet burned off the mist when two black dragons ambushed the barges from below the surface. They savaged the crew of the other barge, and did some serious damage to the party. But Ander was able to jump onto the dragon and stab it repeatedly while hanging under its wing, and the other characters also landed some pretty serious blows. Xakoraki was able to keep the dragon from fleeing, and well-timed spell from Boreas kept the dragon from absconding with Kiosi.

The other dragon joined the fight, and landed on the roof of the cabin where Boreas was standing. Two more characters jumped up to join the fight, and then Boreas let loose with a thunderwave that collapsed the cabin beneath them. Djim was trapped in the wreckage, and cargo started sliding off the side. The dragon smelled the platinum, and started digging in the debris for it. Then both of the dragons consipired to tip the boat and dump the platinum overboard so that they could collect it. The party got off a parting shot before the barge drifted away from the site of sunken treasure, but the dragons managed to take wing with a small chest of platinum apiece.

The collapsing cabin disrupted the binding for the elemental that drove the barge. It took everyone working the poles, but they were able to steer the barge into the other one and lash them together. They revived three crew members, but were unable to save the rest. They steered towards the bank and started salvaging what they could.

While they were working, three canoes with black dragonborn approached. They halted at a polite distance and hailed the dragonborn in the party as brothers, asking if they could provide assistance. The party accepted, and the dragonborn drew alongside the barge. The leader introduced himself as Kojex, and said that his hunting party was on it's way to slay the dragons that attacked the party. He said that two days ago the dragons had killed a foraging party and taken some crates of gold.

The party entered into an agreement with the dragonborn - They would hunt the dragons together and retrieve their treasure, and anything else that the dragons had would be split evenly among all members of the combined hunting party. Djim, Kiosi, Orvalion, Vrisana, and the three crew members would stay at the dragonborn village while the rest of the party went with Kojex and his eight hunters. Kojex also extended an invitation to Orvalion and Xakoraki, telling them they were welcome to join the village whenever they were ready to settle down.

Precious Cargo - 12/2 session recap

The high priestess Rillani came to speak to Thoric, and told him of a way that might bring back Kendrini. Back in the days when Maazuni was first built, Linitheriva's avatar walked in the flesh. When she departed for the astral plane once again, her mortal remains became a beautiful statue of marble with a heart of ruby. The statue itself was known to produce miracles. The ruby, known now as the Heart of Linitheriva, was stolen by the Yuan-Ti when they sacked the city about 1500 years ago, and has not been seen since. If the players were to recover it, Kendrini might be raised by the power of love during the re-consectration ceremony. Sadly, Rillani had no firm leads on the heart's whereabouts, and could only say that it would probably be in a temple belonging to the Yuan-Ti, out in the mountainous jungles to the southeast.

A half-elven man came calling at the inn, and introduced himself as Djim. He said that his master was looking for someone to guard a shipment heading downriver to Ngabulu. It turned out that his master was Jemboko Pzwani, one of the two magisters in Maazuni. After some preliminary negotiations with Ander, Jemboko offered 40 platinum pieces per person for the job, a two and half week trip downriver with a valuable cargo to protect. Not only were there rare herbal ingredients and a shipment of platinum, but also a wealthy merchant's daughter, heading downriver to be married in Ngabulu.

The daughter's name was Kiosi, and Jemboko said that she was only 16 and full of energy. She was looking for adventure, and Jemboko was trying to make sure that she didn't find it. He said he was hiring outsiders because Kiosi might try to use her political status to sway the regular guards. The party's job was to see that she got there safely, along with the other cargo.

When asked why they didn't simply teleport her there, he said that the official teleport circle was in the middle of the river delta swamp to the south of Ngabulu, and represented a danger. But more importantly, he was trying to placate Kiosi, who wanted a final adventure before settling down as a wife of a merchant.

Jemboko also asked the party to pass his regards to Vrisana. He had been informed of the situation by Caelebhan, but did not really see eye to eye with him, and refused to be coerced. He also said that this played a part in his wanting to hire the party, as he knew that anyone who could kick sand in Caelebhan's eye would be quite competent indeed.

Thoric meditated for a day, and found that he could sense the heart of Linitheriva, or at least its general direction.

In the middle of the night on the second day, Djim collected the party and they set out on their river adventure.

Why are we here? 11/18 session recap

The party waited all day for Vrisana and Boreas to regain consciousness. They remained next to the teleportation circle until close to nightfall, when their companions began to stir. Ander climbed a tree and was able to see down slope about 20 miles to the city. There was a footpath down the mountain that they could follow, but they decided to wait until morning, rather than traipse through the jungle in the dark. Someone wondered aloud why they were even here, and Orvalion said that they sounded like an amateur philosopher.

Vrisana said that she knew of two magisters in the city, and that it probably wouldn't be a good idea for her to go about openly as herself. Thoric gave her a short but stylish haircut, Xakoraki lent her some clothes, and after some magical resizing, Ander gave her his magic leather armor. She looked very little like a powerful mage afterwards.

The properties of Thorium were once again discussed in detail. Some items from that discussion:
- Thorium absorbs all magic, including deific magic. Thus, a cleric could call down a spell from their deity, but if they were wielding or infected by thorium, the spell would not affect them. It would affect another target, however.
- Dwarves are immune only to the poisoning effects of thorium, but are still affected by the anti-magic properties.
- A blood transfusion from a dwarf would not help a human or an elf with thorium poisoning.
- Polymorph was said to work, but the DM has since recanted (polymorph is magic, and thus wouldn't work as soon as the character came into contact with thorium)
- The permanent damage from thorium poisoning is slow and cumulative. The dose that Vrisana and Boreas received will not reduce their stats at all.
- Thorium in the body will eventually process out.

The next day, the party traveled to the city. They encountered nothing unusual, though Thoric picked a lovely flower and pressed it in his ritual book. As they reached the broader trail about a mile from the city, they saw a couple of farmers pulling a cart into town. Ander, Thoric, and Vrisana went to help them and to gather some information as well. The farmers were wary at first, but soon warmed to the conversation.

The farmers said that the city was starting to get a bit crowded because lizardfolk and yuan-ti had become more aggressive lately. Some farmers had been slain, but many bodies were never recovered. This has started a rumor that the one or both groups of attackers were taking slaves or eating people. But the farmers were quick to say that the city Guard sent frequent patrols to the nearby farming communities, and praised Magister Colvin for his leadership in this protection.

Ander suggested that with the increased demand and decreased supply of food, that business must be pretty good for the remaining farmers. The farmers shrugged and said that it did, a little, but that there were laws limiting the maximum price on critical goods, including food. One said that if things got dangerous enough out in the fields, then they'd just pack up and move to the city until they could re-settle their land.

At the city gate, the farmers each produced a brass token, which they showed to the guards in order to be let through. When the party did not show such a token, the guards asked politely for 5 silver per person. The guards said that if they found permanent residence in the city, then they could purchase a token themselves for one gold piece per person. The tokens would be good for the rest of the year.

Ander asked about employment opportunities as a mercenary, but the guard could only suggest joining the city Guard. The standard length of service was two years, and pay would be distributed to family members even when a guardsman was out on extended patrol. Death benefits were also pretty good, with five gold being paid to the family plus two weeks extra pay. Food and board, plus money for family. He said it was a good deal.

Boreas, Xakoraki, and Orvalion had little trouble getting through the gate too, and they all met up outside of a guard station, where Ander inquired about obtaining a gate token. He was told that he needed permanent residence in the area. The party started looking for an inn to stay in until they could find long-term lodgings in the city. It took seven tries before they found an inn with any rooms available. They got two rooms for 14 silver a night, and Ander and Thoric immediately set out into the city to look for real estate and the temple district.

They stopped at another guard post and inquired about neighborhoods with houses for sale. The guard said that there was a housing shortage, and that they'd be better off trying to rent an apartment. He also suggested that if they could find employment, then their employer might be able to provide lodgings. Ander said he was looking for mercenary work, and asked where he might find some. The guard said that the Acid Barrel was a bar that often catered to honorable armsmen. Thoric inquired about temples, and the guard said that the proper temples were on the second tier, as well as a small dwarven enclave.

At the Acid Barrel, Ander tipped the bartender a couple of gold and asked about mercenary work. The bartender didn't know of anything immediately, but that he would send a message around to wherever Ander was staying if he heard anything.

One the way to the second tier, Thoric noticed that all of the storm gutters drained towards the center of the city. This was peculiar, as most cities didn't want to drown in their own sewage. Ander said that he'd discover the answer, and went looking for the dwarven enclave. He asked the first dwarf he met about the drains. The dwarf said that in ancient times, when the city was first hewn from the living rock, they went down so far that they broke into a cavern system. The sewers were designed to drain into these massive caverns, which acted essentially as a bottomless pit. He said there were rumors of a deep underground river, but he couldn't personally verify that.

They then headed to the temple of Linitheriva just before dusk. They gained an audience with a priestess, who listened politely to their request. Thoric said that he wished to raise someone from the dead. She said that this was not usually the mission of Linitheriva. Ander showed her his dagger, with the markings of Yama on it, and said that perhaps this god was more appropriate for the task. She looked slightly disturbed that he had such an item, but said that Yama did not raise people from the dead. Instead, Yama made sure that everyone is buried. She suggested that Enara, as the goddess of the life force, might be a better source of information on the matter. Thoric persisted, however, and explained that the person who died was deeply in love with someone still alive, and that this person was likewise in love with the departed. He mentioned the sacrifices and torments of the surviving lover, and hoped that Linitheriva would be able to find a way to reunite them. This piqued the priestess' interest, and she said that there might be some precedence for such a thing. She offered him a cell to live in while she researched, since he was a cleric of her goddess as well. She assured Ander that should he come calling for his friend, he could be fetched by one of the acolytes.

Turnabout's Fair Play - 11/11 session recap

Thoric had a crisis of conscience, and suggested that instead of double-billing Caelebhan, the party ought to come clean and return his book instead. He also suggested offering to find a cure for his thorium poisoning. Xakoraki countered by saying that they should find such a cure before trying this ploy. In the end, the party's plan remained the same - to teleport in the morning to Maazuni in search of information and riches.

In the morning, however, as the party was stirring, they heard the sound of humans barking orders, and the jingling of armored men outside. Vrisana headed for the top of the tower, and Thoric took a peek through the slot in the door. He saw a group of nine armored men about 30 feet away.

Boreas followed Vrisana up into the tower, and set off an alarm as soon as he entered her bedroom. She asked him what the heck he was doing up in her private room, and he said he was heading up top to help defend the tower. She argued with him briefly, not wanting her private room or laboratory to be invaded, but she relented, and he went up top with her and Xakoraki. They saw that they were surrounded by five groups of nine men.

One of the men down below called out to Vrisana, and told her that by Caelebhan's order, and by the will of the council of magisters, she was to turn herself over to his custody. If she had not agreed to this within two minutes, he said they would take the tower by force. Vrisana did not respond to him, but made it clear to the party that she was not going to be taken without a fight. On the ground floor, Orvalion started the ritual to open a linked portal to Maazuni, and said that it would be ready in ten minutes.

True to his word, after two minutes, the tower was attacked. Earth elementals rose from the ground and started pounding on the tower. Vrisana responded with lightning bolts.

Boreas summoned his dancing sword and a poisonous cloud, and eliminated one of the groups over the course of less than half a minute. The other groups, seeing this, backed off quickly and were able to avoid the same fate. Thoric rained holy power down upon the elementals as well.

After five minutes of this, the tower was starting to come apart at the seams. Sandstone bricks worked loose and the floor rocked beneath their feet. There was a flash, and Vrisana cursed. She said that the wards had been breached. At that moment, she was struck by a crossbow bolt. Floating in the air to the side of the tower was Caelebhan. In his hand was a smal crossbow, and he didn't look happy.

Thoric and he exchanged words, and Caelebhan said that he had suspected that Vrisana was involved in their conspiracy. When Thoric asked what his grievances were, he listed them:
- The party lied to him about knowing Orvalion's whereabouts
- They made his city think it was under attack
- They stole his book
- They played with his emotions by using Vrisana to distract him
- And to top it off, they destroyed the dragonstone as well

Caelebhan's demands were that they turn Vrisana over to him and return his book. In reparations, he also demanded a service from the party. Vrisana had stopped casting spells as soon as she was hit with the crossbow bolt, and during the conversation she started to look pale. She finally fainted, and Thoric picked her up and carried her downstairs.

Xakoraki told Orvalion that no matter what happened, that he was to save himself once the portal was open. Then the party went outside to parley. Three of the groups of soldiers approached the tower, and two men handed their weapons over to their comrades before approaching Thoric. Their intent seemed to be to take Vrisana from him. He refused, and the men backed off and reclaimed their weapons. Caelebhan was nowhere to be seen. Thoric demanded that he show himself so that they could talk. Calebhan's voice responded that the party was in no position to make demands. He asked for Vrisana again, and when he was refused he said, "Take them!"

Boreas attacked one of the elementals with his dancing sword, and moved the poison cloud towards one of the groups. He was answered with two crossbow bolts. One skimmed his arm, and the other embedded itself in his leg. He immediately felt a burning sensation. Xakoraki waited for the soldiers to advance, then melted the faces off of several with her acid breath. Ander incapacitated another half-dozen with shuriken, and Kylian held his ground against the elemental. Thoric blasted away at the other elemental, and eventually brought it down.

Boreas, however, found that his spells were failing, and he was unable to cast anything new. He started to feel woozy, and retreated into the tower. He pulled the bolt out of his leg, and saw that it was designed to deliver an injection upon impact.

The party held out for another round or two, and then Orvalion completed the portal. He jumped through immediately, and Boreas followed. Xakoraki saw the edges of the portal waver a bit as Boreas stepped through, and then she went through carrying Vrisana. Thoric noticed the same wavering as Vrisana passed through, then he, Ander, and finally Kylian jumped in.

The air on the other side was humid and oppressive, but the portal closed behind them, and they found themselves alone in mountainous jungle. Boreas passed out, and Thoric used his healing skill to examine him. He determined that Vrisana and Boreas had been injected with a poison mixed with thorium. It was sapping their magical abilities quite effectively, and he realized that healing magic would simply increase the amount of damage. He reasoned that the poison would run it's course, and that they would both be okay in about a week. He also speculated that if enough healing magic were poured into them, then the thorium would dissipate faster, but in so doing would do more permanent radiation damage.

Decisions, Decisions... two-mini-session recap

After John Oldhamshire, the automaton, took his leave of the party, they had to figure out what to do next. As always, this turned into a two session discussion for some reason.

After a torturous conversation, the party decided to visit Vrisana Pajul and use her tower to stage a meeting between Orvalion and Caelebhan, the magister of Shandrapur. Orvalion said he would go along with the plan only because he needed the money, and only if they could ensure that Caelebhan didn't have time to prepare for the meeting.

While performing the ritual to teleport to Vrisana's tower, a pair of humans burst into the clearing, bloodied and out of breath. They said they were being pursued, and at that point an elf shaman entered the clearing. The shaman said that Boreas and Kylian could leave, and not be part of what was to come. Boreas balked at that, and the elf said, "So be it."

A quick fight erupted. Ander and Kylian defended Orvalion while he continued to perform the ritual, and the rest engaged the elves. The opposition consisted of a shaman with a spirit wolf and spirit warrior, a mage with an arcane wolf, archers hidden up in the trees, and a pack of about a dozen feral wolves. The archers did the most damage to the party, and Boreas was surrounded by wolves at one point, but eventually the elves were driven away.

The humans said that they had ventured into the forest in search of a tome of knowledge, supposedly written by Khadra himself. They had no further information about it, and turned down the offer of further help from the party. Once the teleportation ritual was complete, the party said farewell and stepped through.

Vrisana had moved her teleportation circle out of her tower, which was initially a bit disorienting for the party. An image of Vrisana appeared behind them and asked them to tell her something only they would know. They gave her a vague answer, and she asked to know the name of the dragon they had dealt with. This resulted in a ten minute search by the players for the name. Eventually they found it online, mispronounced it as usual, and Vrisana allowed them to enter her tower.

Upon hearing their plans, Vrisana told them that she would not consent to host a meeting with Caelebhan at her place of residence. Not only was he a little upset when she told him to go home two weeks ago, but she thought it was likely that he had already noticed his missing journal. Bringing him to her place for a meeting with the party would probably confirm not only his suspicions about the party, but also confirm her association with them as well. She reminded the party that she was still part of the network of magisters trying to restore order to the land, and if she were seen openly helping them, word would get around to him pretty soon.

Boreas and Xakoraki both chided Thoric for his attempt to press on with the double-crossing of Caelebhan (despite their prior acquiescence), and this caused him to change tack dramatically. He asked Orvalion if he was sure Kendrini was dead, and if so, how?

Orvalion finally relented, and told of how Kendrini had been an agent of another royal house that had been reporting on his master's movements. There was a lot of maneuvering and intrigue within the courts of the empire, and such things were common. When Orvalion's master discovered this fact, he ordered Orvalion to kill her and tear out her heart. He was compelled by the dragonstone to do so against his will. Because of her love for him, she did not resist.

Even knowing that he was not in control of himself, Orvalion still felt sullied by the act, and in need of atonement. After the rebellion freed him, he vowed that he would not attempt to raise her until he had made sure that neither of them would ever be enslaved again by the power of the dragonstones. Now that the last dragonstone has been destroyed, he seeks to find a temple that will resurrect her after all of these years. He knows of no ritual that will return her, but he knows that it will be costly should he find a priest capable of doing so.

After telling this tale, Thoric pledged himself to the quest with all of his heart. As a follower of love and beauty, attempting to reunite the lovers appealed greatly to him. Boreas and Xakoraki, however, focused on the need for more treasure in order to follow through with this goal. After more discussion, they decided to try their luck in the jungles of the southeast. They figured that they could find employment or adventure, and the means for reviving Kendrini, all in the same place. Once decided on that course of action, they settled in for their first comfortable night in at least a week.

The Light at the End of the Tunnel - 9/2 session recap

The party found themselves in a ten-foot wide circular tunnel. The floor was flat, and the passage ran perfectly straight in opposite directions. Thoric was unable to see a teleportation circle etched in the surface of the floor, which was somewhat curious. Ander was able to remeber which way they had come out of the portal, and suggested that direction for travel.

For five days, they marched along the tunnel with only Boreas' staff to light the way. The tunnel remained straight the entire time, and Thoric was able to determine that dwarves had made it. They dropped refuse along the way to make sure that they were not in some sort of moebius loop, but they never encountered their own leavings.

One the sixth day, they saw a light up ahead. After another half-hour, they came to the end of the tunnel. Before them stretched a flat plain of stone. Perhaps ten miles away, a city stretched to the horizon on both their right and left. The tunnel emerged from a vertical wall that appeared to have been carved from the base of mountains, and the wall ran enevenly for as far as they could see to either side. The city was lit by occasional twinkling lights, and dark forms flitted through the air like crows.

As they took all of this in, Boreas noticed a dark shape moving towards them from one side, partially along the wall, and partly on the ground. As it got closer, it became apparent that it was a large swarm of fist-sized metallic insects. The spell casters unleashed destructive energies as the bugs approached, and the swarm split up to attack separate party members. When a bug managed to crawl onto someone successfully, they ground through clothes and armor with circular three-part mouths. Eventually, the party thinned out the swarm, and it retreated to just outside of spell range. The bugs formed a perimeter that moved with the party, and expanded to accomodate lone party members venturing away from the group.

A light from the city seemed to be approaching through the air, but was many miles away when John Oldhamshire suddenly appeared amongst them. He said that they must grab ahold of him, and that he would be able to keep them from being detained. Confused, but trusting him, everyone did so. Immediately they were somewhere else.

They found themselves in a small stone chamber with strange metal ornamentation on the walls that contained glowing and glittering gems. Six glass cylinders stretched from floor to ceiling, three on each side of the room. There was no discernable door. The party tried to ask John questions, but he seemed distracted. He stood in concentration, unmoving, for about a minute. He then asked them to take hold of him again, that he was going to take them to safety. Boreas grabbed his ear, and was politely chided. Again, the party found themselves standing somewhere else.

This time they were standing on top of a teleportation circle at the center of a small clearing in a forest. The air was cool and refreshing. John made the party take a magically binding vow not to reveal anything he was about to tell them. Then he started answering questions.

The party asked about the city they had seen, and John seemed confused for a moment before he realized what they were talking about. He said that it wasn't a city, but an apparatus that covered the remaining suface area of their world. When asked what the purpose of that apparatus was, he said that it was designed to kill what they might call a god. Who created the apparatus? Angels and other astral beings.

He explained that a bit over twenty-six thousand solar cycles ago, seed stock of elves, dwarves, men, and halflings had been transported to this world. Their memories had been modified, and they settled naturally from there. An area of about five thousand miles in diameter is the known world for all of the races. Any intrepid adventurers who seek to cross the border are detained, and have their memories modified before being turned back. Stronger adventurers who make it past the mindwipe barrier are usually destroyed.

The rest of the world has been shaped by golems into an apparatus for killing Qualghma, the World Eater. Countless worlds have been devoured by the World Eater. It apparently derives sustenance from psychic energy, and is attracted to worlds with certain profiles of sentience. The golems are not sentient, and therefore will not alert Qualghma to the trap.

Qualghma needs to be summoned, however, once the trap is set. And this summoning requires a vast sacrifice of many people by the agents of Qualghma. These agents are active in the world today, subverting or working with other evil cults towards this end. John said that it is of utmost importance that the agents of Qualghma never learn of the trap. They must be allowed to continue their work, though they must be delayed until the trap is finished. He said that the apparatus will not be completed for another twelve and a half years.

The reason that John saved the party from being detained and mindwiped was that he had been given a mission by a faction among the architects of the plan. This faction does not condone the sacrifice of thousands of innocent sentients for the sake of this trap. Thus John was created and instructed to recruit agents to further this faction's agenda. He called himself an advanced automaton.

The party asked where they were at the moment, and he replied that they were in an ancient druid's grove, somewhere near the city of J'harsuguda.

Circle of Mirrors - 8/12 session recap

Boreas and Orvalion repaired and adjusted the mirrors that would be used in the ritual. This took about a week. Ander scouted the surrounding mountainside, and Thoric mastered several rituals from Boreas' spellbook.

Finally, all of the mirrors were positioned properly and activated. Orvalion produced the dragonstone from his satchel, and placed it in the center of the chamber floor, under the open sky. Everyone except for Thoric gathered around inside the ring of mirrors. Thoric remained outside, in case something happened. During the ritual, everyone within the circle of mirrors started to become blurry, and afterimages trailed behind them. Ander tried to move quickly enough to catch his own afterimage, but was not able to do so. The dragonstone started to glow. After an hour of chanting, the time had come.

Orvalion raised the mallet, infused with destructive energies from the four elemental planes, and brought it down in a smashing blow. On impact, the dragonstone exploded, hurling everyone back. Ander instinctively sidestepped a large piece of shrapnel, but he heard his own voice scream as one of his afterimages was slain by it. Then the afterimages ceased, and there was silence. Orvalion stood dazed, and said, "I don't know what to do now."

Slowly, our heroes became aware of a rushing noise from above that was growing louder. A shadow covered the room, and everyone looked up to see a massive blue dragon descending. Ander cried out that they had destroyed the dragonstone, and the dragon responded that he would grant them mercy in the form of a quick death. It breathed a blast of lightning that struck several party members. Two smaller blue dragons descended to either side of the larger one.

Thoric rushed forward to heal his companions with blessings from Linitheriva, and Kylian stood his ground to allow everyone time to retreat. As quickly as possible, everyone fled the chamber for the sheltered cave to one side. This was the room with the partially activated teleportaion circle. As the dragons roared and belched electricity, Orvalion and Xakoraki did some frantic thinking. On a hunch, Orvalion sliced open his palm, and dribbled blood upon the circle. It started to glow, but was not fully activated until Xakoraki added her blood as well. Kylian followed the last party member into the room just as the portal snapped open. Beyond was a dark stone tunnel, and everyone quickly dashed inside.

The portal snapped shut a moment later, shutting off the heavy sound of dragons smashing rock.

There and Back Again - session recaps for three weeks

This is a sketch of events:

Orvalion gave two choices of teleport destination, and the players chose the small, seedy port town.

They fought a troll spider and got some animal-transformation-themed magic items.

In town, they were mistaken for another group of adventurers, and told to stay indoors. The other group of adventurers swapped stories with them, and taught them a teleportation trick. They claimed that they were going to explore the edges of the map, from which no one had returned before.

The party secured passage on The Suffering Bastard, with Captain Barnabus. The other party left port with a Jack Sparrow look-alike on the same day as our heroes. The other party were pursued by someone who was very angry with them. Jen asked why our group wasn't in their campaign. The two boats set sail at right angles to each other.

On the fourth day out, the party noticed a vertical shaft of light out beyond the horizon, roughly in the direction the other party went. Hours later, rough waves slapped at their ship.

One of the Suffering Bastard's crewmembers stabbed another sailor, and was sentenced to keel-hauling. The party healed the stabbed man, but left his scars so that he would not be dishonored. After the keel-hauling, they healed the other man, but erased his scars.

In the deep ocean, Orvalion deployed the submersible ritual platform and spent a few hours performing the ritual. When he was finished, the mallet head had been compressed a bit (it was solid adamantium to begin with!) and the party teleported off of the ship back to his hideout.

From there, they teleported to the ancient lair of Casmet Parthanak's first dragon domination. It was guarded by basilisks, and Xakoraki and Ander were turned to stone. The party made a fighting retreat up to the secret lair, where they were able to find ritual scrolls that removed the affliction from the stoned party members.

The party now needs to help Orvalion activate and calibrate the special mirrors so that he can finally destroy the dragonstone.

This Might Not Be Our Dragon - 6/24 session recap

Thoric started a theological discussion with Kylian, and the party relocated to a tavern called O'Connors on the south side of town. Instead of burgers and grits, Xakoraki was able to get lamb schwerma and some sort of rice cous-cous. Boreas performed a Sending to Vrisana to tell her that they were ready for this evening.

As twilight approached, Ander changed clothes and slipped out of town. He was the first to see the distraction. A red dragon flying low from the south swooped upon some wagons straggling into town before sundown. They were about a half mile away, but Ander could see the wagons engulfed, and running human figures on fire. The dragon picked one up and bit it in half as it was fleeing. Ander ran up close to the wall and made his way to the side of town opposite the spectacle.

After a couple of close calls, Ander snuck into the keep and found Caelebhan's quarters. He uttered the magic password, and stepped into the room. Minutes passed as he scanned for the journal, and he was starting to get worried when he finally spotted it on a low shelf. It looked as if it hadn't been touched in weeks, so he carefully lifted it and substituted the fake without disturbing the dust too much. He then made it out on the heels of two guards who stepped outside briefly to catch a glimpse of the dragon attack. Soon he was over the wall and making his way to the rendezvous at the teleportation circle.

In town, the rest of the party heard the roar of a dragon overhead and the screams of people on the street. Figuring that they'd be able to slip outside with the fleeing crowds, they began to move down the road towards the south gate. They were somewhat surprised, then, to find that the gates had been shut, and that no one was trying to get out of town. After a few minutes of discussion, Kylian rode up to the gates with the rest of the party behind him, and he demanded that they let him out to fight the dragon. The guards asked if he was suicidal, but eventually relented. The gates were open just long enough to let them out, and then it was barred behind them.

As they moved away from the wall, the party was able to see the dragon in the field of boulders to their north. A couple of guardsmen were running out from the walls of the town, apparently attacking the dragon head on. This definitely seemed curious and suicidal. The dragon blasted them with flame, and devoured one.

Xakoraki said, "Oh, shit. This might not be our dragon." The dragon turned and noticed them, whereupon it beat it's massive wings and started to circle for altitude. "Run for the river!" Thoric took up the cry as well, and Kylian followed through with it. He lifted Thoric by the scruff of his neck and deposited him on his horse before spurring it towards the river. Xakoraki was left to run behind. Boreas, seeing the futility of running at this point, stood his ground and prepared to teleport to one side if the dragon attacked him. Sure enough, the dragon dropped, gained speed, and then leveled out on a direct course for Boreas.

As it drew alarmingly close, Boreas saw it wink at him. The blast of air almost knocked him over as the dragon passed overhead, and flames erupted all around him. He was not harmed however, and he held his staff up high in a warding gesture. He then used prestidigitation to simulate minor charring of his clothes, and he mimed patting out small flames on his sleeves and shoulders. The dragon rose out of it's low pass and flew steadily off to the southeast.

After reaching the river, Kylian looked back, and seeing the dragon flying away, turned his horse and headed for the teleportation circle south of town. Boreas and Xakoraki joined up a little way down the road and followed after them. The sun set, and a little while later everyone regrouped at the circle.

Ander pretended that he had forgotten to get the journal, but then showed them that he had been successful. The party almost decided to teleport to Vrisana's tower or the cursed mesa before someone realized that her distraction would be taking place in one or both of those locations. Rather than make things more complicated, they opted to teleport back to Orvalion's den. He met them with sword drawn, but after seeing who it was, he sheathed his blade.

Orvalion took a couple of hours to read the journal, and he eventually found what he had been looking for. To harness the destructive power of water, he would have to construct a combination warding and teleportation circle that would be powered by crushing pressure. Casmet mentioned the construction of such a device in his journal. Orvalion said that he would start creating one, and that afterwards, the party was welcome to join him in his trip to the southwest. He planned to teleport close to the coastline, then hire a ship to take them out into deep water. The party said that they were prepared to accompany him.

The Inn's on Fire - 6/17 session recap

Thoric and Boreas made it down to their Inn (Molly's Bed and Banquet) without being attacked. They did get a few interested looks, however. When they went to get rooms from Ian the innkeeper, he asked them if they had coin. Thoric said they definitely did. Ian eyed the chest meaningfully, and Thoric said no, that was just linens and things. Then he winked conspiratorially. Thoric paid for five rooms, and described his other three companions :
- A halfling, harmless fellow
- A beautiful woman
- A man of the road, an elf

Naturally, Ian was only slightly confused when Ander, Xakoraki, and Kylian came in from their shopping trip. Once reunited, the party decided to go ahead and divvy up the gold. Ander went to scout the walls and defenses while everyone else counted coins. A few hours later, each player had an extra 40 lbs of loot in their backpacks. They went down to a nice dinner while Ander remained out scouting.

After dinner, Thoric excused himself and went to the temple of Linitheriva to pay his respects and meditate over a sculpture of a rose. Boreas, Kylian, and Xakoraki lingered in the dining room over a few mugs of an excellent stout from down south.

Perhaps an hour later, someone came running into the inn yelling, "Fire! Fire next door!" Most of the patrons leaped to their feet and ran out to look, including the innkeeper. A few stayed, including Boreas and Xakoraki. Kylian left his backpack with Xak and went to go help put out the fire. He joined the bucket brigade as it slowly formed, and started tossing water on the flames.

Boreas and Xak decided to check on their rooms, and as they were heading up the stairs a man from the common room said, "Excuse me, but I think you dropped something." He was holding a gold coin. Boreas stopped for a moment to interact with the man, and Xakoraki continued up the stairs. As she rounded the corner, she saw a man fiddling with her door. He was wearing mostly black, and had a dark bandana over the lower part of his face. His eyes went wide, and he immediately dashed to the end of the hallway and smashed through the window to escape.

Meanwhile, Boreas was looking as the man pointed to a spot on the floor where he supposedly found the coin. Boreas knew something was not right, and sure enough, Xakoraki came bounding down the stairs yelling about thieves. She grabbed the guy, and Boreas incapacitated him with a well-placed blast of cold. Xak started to tie up the frozen man.

Boreas then went back upstairs to check the rooms, and found all of the doors locked. He came back downstairs, and Xakoraki told him to check all of the rooms to make sure no one was inside, or that anything was missing. He went to do this, all while the building next door was burning. Kylian was helping as much as possible, but the flames were still spreading. Thoric returned from his visit to the temple to find chaos in the streets. He then immediately went to check on the rooms and treasure with Boreas and Xakoraki. A few minutes later they were finally satisfied that nothing had been stolen, and they wandered back downstairs and outside. Thoric tried to get a guardsman in the bucket brigade to attend to the attempted theft, but was turned away in the face of the immediate danger.

By this time, the fire had spread to the roof of their inn. Boreas, with a bored sigh, unleashed a freezing fog which dampened the flames considerably, and kept the inn from burning down too. After another 15-20 minutes, the flames were finally extinguished by the bucket brigade.

The guardsman was then willing to listen to the party's story about the attempted theft, and took the restrained man into custody.

While all of this was going on, Ander was completing his survey of the defenses. He determined a couple of likely spots to scale the walls, and got a feel for the habits of the guardsmen on top.