Nola 5th - Nola 10th (15 campaign days)
Vivianna left in the dead of night, acquiring a fast horse and making for destinations unknown (though Donatella had her suspicions). She promised to rejoin the group in a week's time.
Aleksi, Maia, Donatella, Theros, Senator DeWitt, and the cloaked gnoll Seddar boarded The Dancing Hut and left early on the fifth, beginning a five-day journey across the Saindoron Plains to Hawkmoon. Situated in the middle of the grasslands and flint hills, Hawkmoon lacked in obvious importance. Yet the elves had marked it as the site of the second Trouble, so the party made haste. If they could catch Overseer Nulfur in the act, they would neutralize the systematic undermining of the nation.
Along the way, the hungering curses of both Theros and Aleksi demanded attention or the two would die of starvation and transform into horrible monsters before they reached Hawkmoon. Horrible monsters were unavoidable, however, as on the plain twin exorcisms led to the creations of hideous squirrel-demons. They were put down, but not without a lot more effort, magic, and luck than anyone expected.
The wendigo was finally defeated.
On the fifth day, around high noon, Hawkmoon came into sight. Strangely, among the hill, the mine, the academy, the eclectic bunching of shacks, houses, and shoppes, not a single soul was in sight. It looked like a ghost town... until something, or someone, caught Donatella's eye in the high, yellow grass.
Unbeknownst to the others, Maia saw someone too.
Wednesday, October 15, 2014
Friday, October 10, 2014
Thursday, October 2, 2014
Chapter 14: Decisive Actions
Evening, Nola 4 (10 campaign days)
Notable NPCs
Senator Jasmin DeWitt: A late arrival to Godswon, this thirty-something senator from Wesburg is intent on mobilizing Avencia, but at the same time preserving constitutional law; Before she is willing to commit to the idea of Corellion involvement, Jasmin demands proof. She'll be accompanying the party nearer Ambros, intent on joining her fellow senators and substantiating the party's claims along the way.
Mayor Abernathy Teak: Portly, toothy, possessed of an impressive mustache, his mayoral virtues consisted of relaying Benjim's message and provisioning the group. At least he wasn't any sort of hurtle. In fact, he wasn't even a speed bump. If you had to guess, real authority in town likely rests with the Eradicator and Dare.
Eradicator Benedict Hollowin: Tall, grim, glaring, the leader of Godswon's heavenly order of Firebrands was ready to mobilize against the elves without any substantial proof. While he could be considered hasty by some, in Benedict's mind this is war and decisions must be made quickly and decisively.
Toril Kostus: Cured, recovering, and a de facto leader of the Scarlet Blades, Toril has devoted the eastern Blades toward either protecting Congress or scouting Edmark in hopes of eventually rescuing Anita and the other senators. Though hesitant to do so, he's also given Maia the okay to pursue her longshot mission with the gnolls.
Kinn: Theros' rival appeared in Godswon with troubling news. The entire tabari caravan had been captured and thrown into a Norslandian interment camp somewhere between Hawkmoon and Taldare. Consisting entirely of nonhumans, the prison uncomfortably echoes the imperial past and leaves the fate of Old Nen and the others in question. Kinn urged Theros to come with him, but the paladin wanted to enlist the party's help first.
Sweet Lips: One-Armed Bill's slutty sister, she enlisted Aleksi's aid in deterring many of Godswon's warhawks, veterans, and conscripts from abandoning the town and rushing off to join the Brotherhood of Man's "Free March". Seems as if this swelling crusade of Avencians is intent on circling the country gathering troops and supplies, then launching an attack on Edmark, regardless of how that might hinder General Warrish, Congress, or any other legitimate attempt to win back the nation. Aleksi wisely called in Avencia Dare.
Avencia Dare: Back home in Godswon, down an arm but up in spirits, the party couldn't help but marvel at how her return boosted the general morale. Beaver's Hall was rattling with song and merriment in celebration on the night of her return, and good thing, as her influence halted a majority of much-needed conscripts from abandoning their posts to join the Free March.
Notable Organizations
Church of Aventine (as glimpsed in Godswon's Chapel of the Liberator): More civic than any other religion in Othyr, Aventine's faith is ingrained in national politics. Churches are often used as meeting houses and town halls, and vice versa. In the minds of most Avencians, living free, earning and keeping what's theirs, and speaking one's mind are as much religious tenants as they are the responsibilities of every citizen.. It's miraculous how the church of Aventine manages to preserve the rustic nature of true, hard-earned democracy and avoid the corruptions that have turned so many other religions into leeching institutions and corpulent bureaucracies. Perhaps its Providence, or the collective virtues of keen minds, passionate hearts, and stalwart muscle which serves the church and state, be it as a parson or a senator.
Notable NPCs
Senator Jasmin DeWitt: A late arrival to Godswon, this thirty-something senator from Wesburg is intent on mobilizing Avencia, but at the same time preserving constitutional law; Before she is willing to commit to the idea of Corellion involvement, Jasmin demands proof. She'll be accompanying the party nearer Ambros, intent on joining her fellow senators and substantiating the party's claims along the way.
Mayor Abernathy Teak: Portly, toothy, possessed of an impressive mustache, his mayoral virtues consisted of relaying Benjim's message and provisioning the group. At least he wasn't any sort of hurtle. In fact, he wasn't even a speed bump. If you had to guess, real authority in town likely rests with the Eradicator and Dare.
Eradicator Benedict Hollowin: Tall, grim, glaring, the leader of Godswon's heavenly order of Firebrands was ready to mobilize against the elves without any substantial proof. While he could be considered hasty by some, in Benedict's mind this is war and decisions must be made quickly and decisively.
Toril Kostus: Cured, recovering, and a de facto leader of the Scarlet Blades, Toril has devoted the eastern Blades toward either protecting Congress or scouting Edmark in hopes of eventually rescuing Anita and the other senators. Though hesitant to do so, he's also given Maia the okay to pursue her longshot mission with the gnolls.
Kinn: Theros' rival appeared in Godswon with troubling news. The entire tabari caravan had been captured and thrown into a Norslandian interment camp somewhere between Hawkmoon and Taldare. Consisting entirely of nonhumans, the prison uncomfortably echoes the imperial past and leaves the fate of Old Nen and the others in question. Kinn urged Theros to come with him, but the paladin wanted to enlist the party's help first.
Sweet Lips: One-Armed Bill's slutty sister, she enlisted Aleksi's aid in deterring many of Godswon's warhawks, veterans, and conscripts from abandoning the town and rushing off to join the Brotherhood of Man's "Free March". Seems as if this swelling crusade of Avencians is intent on circling the country gathering troops and supplies, then launching an attack on Edmark, regardless of how that might hinder General Warrish, Congress, or any other legitimate attempt to win back the nation. Aleksi wisely called in Avencia Dare.
Avencia Dare: Back home in Godswon, down an arm but up in spirits, the party couldn't help but marvel at how her return boosted the general morale. Beaver's Hall was rattling with song and merriment in celebration on the night of her return, and good thing, as her influence halted a majority of much-needed conscripts from abandoning their posts to join the Free March.
Notable Organizations
Church of Aventine (as glimpsed in Godswon's Chapel of the Liberator): More civic than any other religion in Othyr, Aventine's faith is ingrained in national politics. Churches are often used as meeting houses and town halls, and vice versa. In the minds of most Avencians, living free, earning and keeping what's theirs, and speaking one's mind are as much religious tenants as they are the responsibilities of every citizen.. It's miraculous how the church of Aventine manages to preserve the rustic nature of true, hard-earned democracy and avoid the corruptions that have turned so many other religions into leeching institutions and corpulent bureaucracies. Perhaps its Providence, or the collective virtues of keen minds, passionate hearts, and stalwart muscle which serves the church and state, be it as a parson or a senator.
Wednesday, September 24, 2014
Chapter 13: The Trouble with Elves
Nola 4th (10 campaign days)
After camping, discussing possible cannibalistic curses, picking at a roast heron, and somehow managing to sleep in the wake of the burrow, the party boarded Aleksi's Dancing Hut with designs of returning to Godswon.
In that time, Vivianna and Avencia Dare ruined whatever chance at coexistence their factions might have had. Unfortunate how often personalities get in the way of peace. However, the folk hero couldn't completely condemn Vivianna (the inquisitor did help rescue her, after all), thus the uneasiness between Godswon and The Dawn Knights will likely continue...
Maia also took her leave, having emerged from the dungeons with a collection of innocent gnoll pups and their den mothers. The train headed south on the floodplain, the Blade intent on reaching an old friend with valuable experience in these matters. Her intent was to meet back up with the party in Godswon in the next day or two.
On the ride back, the interrogation of the captured elf was of the utmost importance. First known as Elmer and ultimately Falarune Uldaru, he was arrogant and chiding due to a blanket of powerful protective enchantments. Vivianna, with the aid, of all things, of Theros' reciting poetry, located the weak points in his wards and eventually dismantled them.
The magic hinged, cleverly enough, on being tortured. One wound would send the elf phasing back to his compatriots. All the elf had to do was keep quiet and be patient, but he was an opiniated one, quick to correct and argue the inferiority of Othyrians. This led Falarune into revealing more than he'd ever intended. When he'd had enough, Falarune attempted to bite his tongue and trigger the arcane fail-safe. Instead, the force of his bite actually severed his tongue! The shocked elf proceeded to scream, bleed, and flail about.
Once healed, Falarune was much more cooperative, though not quite as overly forthcoming. He looked about as if a bolt of lighting or elven arrow would find him at any moment. But it did not, much to the party's benefit, and the designs which troubled Avencia since that morning in the senate building were revealed...
Notable NPCs
Falarune Uldaru: Elven agent of Phoenix captured by the party and interrogated for a vast amount of information. His arrogance was quickly dismantled when Vivianna pierced his protective enchantments. Before he could be freed or killed, Donatella magically cast him back to his people with a festering plague-in-a-jar. Vivianna is in possession of his robes and staff.
Overseer Nulfur Carrandin (mentioned): Commanding Phoenix agent in charge with collapsing Avencia. Up until recently, his plan was going perfectly. Edmark is occupied. A combination of Norsland and Belarion have been marked the culprits. Congress is divided, while The War of the Crown continues to expand. Due to his overwhelming need for precision, however, Nulfur is personally moving across the country activating the sleepers and agents enacting The Ten Troubles. It may be the party's only chance at halting the alarming fall of the young republic. To their credit, the party has already foiled the first Trouble, though no telling what affect that might have on the entirety of Nulfur's design (it certainly doesn't help).
Empress Bel Norson (mentioned): Opposed to the Highking's designs for Othyr, she feigned the formation of Belarion to get the attention of continental leaders and warn them of the impending attacks. Before Bel and her trusted guardian Relic could inform Othyr's Icons, her own daughter, the teenage Jubilee, betrayed her in favor of the grandfather she had come to idolize. With Bel and Relic captured, the rest of their loyal cadre was forced to cooperate for the empress's continued well being, Gloriandel decided to follow through with the formation of Belarion, if for nothing else than a feint and scapegoat. As for where Bel and Relic might be held, Falarune suggested only the overseer or someone very high up on the Phoenix totem pole would know for sure.
Heurra: A gnoll shaman who turned away from the dark spirits and fled her tribe, aided five years ago by a then-initiate of the Blades, Maia. She is a wise, old gnoll who's made a life for herself in the woods south of the floodplain. While ill, she's agreed to take on the gnoll refugees of the burrow. She was also able to interpret Maia's dreams of Satayel, and agreed to offer one of her sons as Maia's gnollish tutor, but which should she choose...
Oran, The Spirittalker:
Kerr, The Hunter:
Seddar, The Cunning:
Notable Organizations
The Corellion Empire: Four decades ago, the star-elves descended onto Loranna to help win the war against the Yth. In doing so, they unfurled their massive world-ship onto the eastern ocean and created a new continent: Corellon. The resurrected Highking Gloriandel called all elvendom across the planes and planets of existence to it, founding a shining beacon of the eldar race. A new empire was formed, with five provinces according to the migrated peoples: Seldarine (star elves), Drow, Gloriandeline (former slaves and vagabonds formerly a part of Othyr's ancient elven empire), Sylvan (elves of the Wyld), and Feladrin (last of the ice elves). Through the use of Gloriandel's god-like magic and the Seldarine's curious blending of magic and technology known as Incarnum, a world power unlike any before it has risen. And how unfortunate it's aim now seems to be the conquering of Othyr, though with Highking Gloriandel as absolute sovereign was it really so surprising...
Phoenix: Corellon's intelligence and espionage initiative meant to undermine Othyrian nations through the use of ten-step missions called The Ten Troubles. Similar initiatives, according to Falarune, have already conquered Liscar, Tolerna, Clannash, and most surprisingly the mighty city-states of desert Azerbad, While active in Avencia, it's uncertain if the free nations (Saspien, Norsland, Citadel, Izolda, The Lands of the Bastard Kings, and Thrakkis) are combating their own Ten Troubles or unwittingly falling under elven dominance.
As it stands, the party has foiled the first Trouble for Avencia in rescuing Dare, eliminating the gnoll threat to the eastern river-lands, and freeing Godswon to act more immediately in Edmark's best interests.
After camping, discussing possible cannibalistic curses, picking at a roast heron, and somehow managing to sleep in the wake of the burrow, the party boarded Aleksi's Dancing Hut with designs of returning to Godswon.
In that time, Vivianna and Avencia Dare ruined whatever chance at coexistence their factions might have had. Unfortunate how often personalities get in the way of peace. However, the folk hero couldn't completely condemn Vivianna (the inquisitor did help rescue her, after all), thus the uneasiness between Godswon and The Dawn Knights will likely continue...
Maia also took her leave, having emerged from the dungeons with a collection of innocent gnoll pups and their den mothers. The train headed south on the floodplain, the Blade intent on reaching an old friend with valuable experience in these matters. Her intent was to meet back up with the party in Godswon in the next day or two.
On the ride back, the interrogation of the captured elf was of the utmost importance. First known as Elmer and ultimately Falarune Uldaru, he was arrogant and chiding due to a blanket of powerful protective enchantments. Vivianna, with the aid, of all things, of Theros' reciting poetry, located the weak points in his wards and eventually dismantled them.
The magic hinged, cleverly enough, on being tortured. One wound would send the elf phasing back to his compatriots. All the elf had to do was keep quiet and be patient, but he was an opiniated one, quick to correct and argue the inferiority of Othyrians. This led Falarune into revealing more than he'd ever intended. When he'd had enough, Falarune attempted to bite his tongue and trigger the arcane fail-safe. Instead, the force of his bite actually severed his tongue! The shocked elf proceeded to scream, bleed, and flail about.
Once healed, Falarune was much more cooperative, though not quite as overly forthcoming. He looked about as if a bolt of lighting or elven arrow would find him at any moment. But it did not, much to the party's benefit, and the designs which troubled Avencia since that morning in the senate building were revealed...
Notable NPCs
Falarune Uldaru: Elven agent of Phoenix captured by the party and interrogated for a vast amount of information. His arrogance was quickly dismantled when Vivianna pierced his protective enchantments. Before he could be freed or killed, Donatella magically cast him back to his people with a festering plague-in-a-jar. Vivianna is in possession of his robes and staff.
Overseer Nulfur Carrandin (mentioned): Commanding Phoenix agent in charge with collapsing Avencia. Up until recently, his plan was going perfectly. Edmark is occupied. A combination of Norsland and Belarion have been marked the culprits. Congress is divided, while The War of the Crown continues to expand. Due to his overwhelming need for precision, however, Nulfur is personally moving across the country activating the sleepers and agents enacting The Ten Troubles. It may be the party's only chance at halting the alarming fall of the young republic. To their credit, the party has already foiled the first Trouble, though no telling what affect that might have on the entirety of Nulfur's design (it certainly doesn't help).
Empress Bel Norson (mentioned): Opposed to the Highking's designs for Othyr, she feigned the formation of Belarion to get the attention of continental leaders and warn them of the impending attacks. Before Bel and her trusted guardian Relic could inform Othyr's Icons, her own daughter, the teenage Jubilee, betrayed her in favor of the grandfather she had come to idolize. With Bel and Relic captured, the rest of their loyal cadre was forced to cooperate for the empress's continued well being, Gloriandel decided to follow through with the formation of Belarion, if for nothing else than a feint and scapegoat. As for where Bel and Relic might be held, Falarune suggested only the overseer or someone very high up on the Phoenix totem pole would know for sure.
Heurra: A gnoll shaman who turned away from the dark spirits and fled her tribe, aided five years ago by a then-initiate of the Blades, Maia. She is a wise, old gnoll who's made a life for herself in the woods south of the floodplain. While ill, she's agreed to take on the gnoll refugees of the burrow. She was also able to interpret Maia's dreams of Satayel, and agreed to offer one of her sons as Maia's gnollish tutor, but which should she choose...
Oran, The Spirittalker:
Kerr, The Hunter:
Seddar, The Cunning:
Notable Organizations
The Corellion Empire: Four decades ago, the star-elves descended onto Loranna to help win the war against the Yth. In doing so, they unfurled their massive world-ship onto the eastern ocean and created a new continent: Corellon. The resurrected Highking Gloriandel called all elvendom across the planes and planets of existence to it, founding a shining beacon of the eldar race. A new empire was formed, with five provinces according to the migrated peoples: Seldarine (star elves), Drow, Gloriandeline (former slaves and vagabonds formerly a part of Othyr's ancient elven empire), Sylvan (elves of the Wyld), and Feladrin (last of the ice elves). Through the use of Gloriandel's god-like magic and the Seldarine's curious blending of magic and technology known as Incarnum, a world power unlike any before it has risen. And how unfortunate it's aim now seems to be the conquering of Othyr, though with Highking Gloriandel as absolute sovereign was it really so surprising...
Phoenix: Corellon's intelligence and espionage initiative meant to undermine Othyrian nations through the use of ten-step missions called The Ten Troubles. Similar initiatives, according to Falarune, have already conquered Liscar, Tolerna, Clannash, and most surprisingly the mighty city-states of desert Azerbad, While active in Avencia, it's uncertain if the free nations (Saspien, Norsland, Citadel, Izolda, The Lands of the Bastard Kings, and Thrakkis) are combating their own Ten Troubles or unwittingly falling under elven dominance.
As it stands, the party has foiled the first Trouble for Avencia in rescuing Dare, eliminating the gnoll threat to the eastern river-lands, and freeing Godswon to act more immediately in Edmark's best interests.
Wednesday, September 17, 2014
Chapter 12: Sunlight and Fresh Air
Nola 3rd (9 campaign days)
Notable NPCs
Canglraeth (dead)
Sekare (presumed dead)
Darkpaw Gnoll Clan (defeated)
Mage-Gnoll/Elven Mage (in Theros' custody)
Ithaqua/Howler-in-the-Winds (banished)
Gnoll Refugees (in Maia's care)
Six Sacrifices (dead)
Treasure
Cannibalism (you know who you are)
The Scroll of Eternal Slumber [Vivianna, claimed from the elven ruins during the escape] (consumable): Copied from the golden grimoire of the Highking himself, first and greatest of all wizards, the true Archmage, comes a spell that has become immortal legend in the fairytales and bedtime stories of Othyr: sleep, far-reaching and everlasting, the kind that casts whole castles or cities into hibernation.
With an eloquent reciting of the scroll, an area no smaller than 1 x 1 miles and no greater than 10 x 10 miles is immediately and irrevocably cast into deep, dreaming sleep. Animate and inanimate things enter their versions of unconsciousness, during which they are impervious to the ravages of aging (though everything gets a somber coloring and dusting of cobwebs via the magic).
At the time of casting, the caster must designate the stipulation for waking using only three words, for example "true love's kiss", "the king returns", "the sword pulled". Fate will take care of the rest, understanding that even with the word "eternal" in the spell name, nothing truly lasts forever...
And no, you simply lack the skill (and level) to copy this spell into your spell book.
The Cauldron of Dead Men [Donatella, rolled out of Canglraeth's nest]: Centuries of soot and congealed meat juices have blacked the exterior of this large iron pot, and made the magical runes on it almost impossible to read. The power of the cauldron, though, is well known from story and song as a legacy creation from The Lich Queen Victoria Il'spana. You couldn't just leave it...
Put a dead body in the cauldron, add water, and boil it up. Soon, the dead body will come to life and climb out of the cauldron. The stories are mostly accurate. You may use the cauldron during a full heal-up to restore life to one recently-killed corpse. The resurrected individual looks ghastly – it’s a walking corpse that’s been scalded all over by boiling water – but is otherwise unaffected. This restoration is only temporary, though – the person you resurrected dies again at the start of the next full heal-up, unless you stick them back in the cauldron for another hot bath.
So, you can use the cauldron to keep one slain player character semi-alive, as long as you keep resurrecting them with each full healup. It may still be worthwhile seeking out a more permanent source of resurrection, but the cauldron’s a gory stop-gap. You can also use it to bring back other characters on a temporary basis, as a source of information or to perform one last task.
Quirk: Loves to cook.
Your Most Humble Servant, Wilhelm Scream [Donatella, received the next night on the surface via giant centipede]: You receive a curious letter sealed in red wax with the symbol of a hunchback with a shovel pressed firmly in the paper. Inside, the following:
Dearest Mistress-Reaper,
I am not fit to lick the night soils from your boots! And yet I dare to write, hoping that in my meager existence I might somehow serve you. I am Wilhelm Scream, a worthless performer of odd-jobs who has, in the past, been employed by the likes of both your Great Sire and Void-tossed grandmother.
I write with immeasurable shame that, for the last seventy odd years, your mother has not seen fit to make use of my services, now forcing me to look to the next generation of the imperial Il'spana line. Please, mistress, I beg you make use of me. I am the ears behind the gravestones, the eyes in the alleys, the bloodhound, the arson, the fixer of problems (and should you demand it the creator!), the spider, the worm, and the mule!
I am forever and ever at your disposal. In you, I sense a kindred spirit I have not felt in near a century. You need only scrawl your directions to me in black dirt where bugs do crawl and I will receive them in good time. Word travels faster than you'd believe between the creepy-crawlies!
My payment is your satisfaction. And the respect of my great shyness, which prevents ever looking upon your macabre glory with my own eyes.
Your Most Humble Servant,
Wilhelm Scream
The Ebon Staff of Orlanc the Apprentice [Vivianna, stolen from the elf captive](recharge 16+): One of the only known half-orc/half-elves to survive beyond infancy, Orlanc was abandoned early and survived childhood through theft, lies, sabotage, and the use of his innate sorcery. He grew into adulthood in the time of elven dominance more devious than a drow and more formidable than a mountain giant.
Combining the greatest aspects of elf and orc, a paragon of magical and physical prowess, his insidious cunning was his most fearsome trait. Seven times he avoided extermination by the Highking Gloriandel, a series of infamous tales set across centuries in Othyr that no elf would suffer hearing titled The Seven Offenses of the Ebon Prince.
Orlanc was eventually cornered by the Highking by design, in the center of a spell-sapping dungeon of the half-breeds own making, one so heinous the elves have all but erased lore of it from history. Gloriandel narrowly won, but it was said Orlanc stole something very precious to the Highking.
This is a +3 staff belonging to Orlanc during his tutelage underneath the great wizards, witches, demons, and necromancers of his day. It allows its wielder to memorize 2 extra spells, reflecting the voracious appetite for power Orlanc himself possessed.
It's rumored reuniting the seven staves will create a beacon to the spell-sapping dungeon, inside of which are hidden Gloriandel's seven most powerful spells.
Quirk: Prone to evil mastermind monologues.
Faralune's Tropic Robes [Vivianna, stolen from the elf captive] (recharge 11+): These deep purple robes with fiery, citrus colors at the hems suggest a tropical shore far from Othyr where the sun burns fiercely in the skies and passions run magically deep. Your blood is purple, thick as treacle, and hot as boiling oil. As a free action when you are staggered, you may inflict an amount of fire damage equal to your level or your current ongoing damage (whichever is greater) on all foes engaged with you.
Quirk: Passionate in the extreme.
Wendigo Fang (Aleksi, taken from the charred wendigo-made-flesh): This yellow canine acts as a +3 dagger and inflicts 20 ongoing damage on a critical hit (save 11+). If a target makes the save, you make take 20 damage by biting into your own flesh (as a free action) and negate it.
Quirk: You pocket bits of fallen enemies for reasons you dread contemplating...
Pestle and Mortar [Aleksi, found waiting in the Dancing Hut's broom-closet]: Like the mighty Baba Yaga of old, you now possess a large pestle and mortar. It seems the Hut has grown strong enough to produce one of these magical flyers or, through some unseen force which judges witches, druids, and warlocks, you have been deemed worthy.
Riding the pestle and mortar allows you, Aleksi, limitless flight at a speed comparable to a horse at full charge. While in the mortar, you are impervious to environmental hazards (you cannot drown, be melted or burned by lava, electrocuted, etc.) You can still be attacked and hit, though.
1/day, you may use the pestle and mortar to plane shift into any of the known planes (or maybe unknown, if the circumstances are right).
1/day you can shrink the pestle and mortar down to the size of a dormouse with you inside (providing +5 to AC, but permanently weakening you; a free action to return to normal). 1/day you can enlarge the pestle and mortar to the size of a full-grown oak with you inside (doubling all melee damage, but reducing AC to 10; free action to return to normal size).
Belt of Illusions [Maia, noticed strangely entangled onto your own mundane belt like a python](recharge 16+): This belt works like the wizard spell Disguise Self, altering your appearance by cloaking you in a magical disguise. Unlike the spell, though, you can disguise yourself as a specific person without penalty. There’s a trick to it, though – there’s a leather pouch attached to the belt, and the illusion’s based on whatever you put into the pouch. The more personal the item, the better.
The illusion lasts for ten minutes, and whatever item you place in the pouch is consumed when the duration expires.
Quirk: Paranoid that people aren't really who they say they are.
Symbiosis of Satayel [Maia, realized in a dream]: Before the demon lord Yeenoghu preyed on the gnoll's fear of civilization in order to conquer their souls and the dark spirits of the Eald seduced the hyena-men into erecting grisly totems in their honor, they were a tribal people harmonized with Nature. They worshiped the grass spirit Satayel then, embodiment of the sweeping oceans of green, gold, and ivory that stretched from horizon to horizon and constituted the plains, savannas, and meadows of a wide, youthful planet.
Your rescue of the helpless gnolls of the burrow awakened the last glimmer that remains of the forgotten spirit. If you accept Satayel, she will grow inside of you like a seed, fed by the good works you perform for the plains and those who live upon them. Perhaps, with your help, she might reclaim the hearts and minds of the destructive monsters of the grasslands.
At the beginning of each session, you may roll an additional Relationship Die for Satayel.
Iron-hide Shield [Theros, lifted from a black gnoll corpse] (recharge 6+): It may be nothing more than a dire weasel hide stretched over a crude wooden frame, but the primitive shamanistic markings daubed onto the face of this shield make it indestructible. When an enemy attacks you in melee combat, use the shield to inflict damage equal to the natural attack roll on the attacker as their blow smashes into the surprisingly immovable surface of this unyielding armament.
Quirk: Loves to crush things, be it bugs or walnuts or someone's dreams.
Leopard Knighthood [Theros, felt rather suddenly] (2/day): Your good works have not gone unnoticed. Tavishan, celestial lord of your kind and son of the great goddess Eilessa, has seen fit to reward you for your bravery and steadfastness. As a quick action, you may transform into a leopard twice a day (and quick action back into a tabari). All your possessions shift with you and are not lost. You retain bonuses from worn magic items. And besides obvious improvements to speed, stealth, and climbing (+2 bonuses to related background checks), you also receive an attack and aspect:
Leopard Attack (counting as +2 magical items)
Melee attack - At-Will
Attack: Strength or Dexterity + Level +2 vs. AC
Natural Even Hit: 1d10 damage per level + Strength or Dexterity damage + 2.
Natural Odd Hit: 1d6 damage per level + Strength or Dexterity damage + 2.
Miss: Repeat the attack against the same or a different target.
This second attack has no miss effect.
Leopard Aspect - Quick action - Daily
Until the end of the battle, when an enemy misses you with a melee attack and rolls a natural 1–4, you gain an additional standard action during your next turn. You can only gain one additional standard action a turn this way. Powers like elven grace or a command won’t stack with this effect.
And everyone may magically upgrade their armor to +2 if it isn't already.
Notable NPCs
Canglraeth (dead)
Sekare (presumed dead)
Darkpaw Gnoll Clan (defeated)
Mage-Gnoll/Elven Mage (in Theros' custody)
Ithaqua/Howler-in-the-Winds (banished)
Gnoll Refugees (in Maia's care)
Six Sacrifices (dead)
Treasure
Cannibalism (you know who you are)
The Scroll of Eternal Slumber [Vivianna, claimed from the elven ruins during the escape] (consumable): Copied from the golden grimoire of the Highking himself, first and greatest of all wizards, the true Archmage, comes a spell that has become immortal legend in the fairytales and bedtime stories of Othyr: sleep, far-reaching and everlasting, the kind that casts whole castles or cities into hibernation.
With an eloquent reciting of the scroll, an area no smaller than 1 x 1 miles and no greater than 10 x 10 miles is immediately and irrevocably cast into deep, dreaming sleep. Animate and inanimate things enter their versions of unconsciousness, during which they are impervious to the ravages of aging (though everything gets a somber coloring and dusting of cobwebs via the magic).
At the time of casting, the caster must designate the stipulation for waking using only three words, for example "true love's kiss", "the king returns", "the sword pulled". Fate will take care of the rest, understanding that even with the word "eternal" in the spell name, nothing truly lasts forever...
And no, you simply lack the skill (and level) to copy this spell into your spell book.
The Cauldron of Dead Men [Donatella, rolled out of Canglraeth's nest]: Centuries of soot and congealed meat juices have blacked the exterior of this large iron pot, and made the magical runes on it almost impossible to read. The power of the cauldron, though, is well known from story and song as a legacy creation from The Lich Queen Victoria Il'spana. You couldn't just leave it...
Put a dead body in the cauldron, add water, and boil it up. Soon, the dead body will come to life and climb out of the cauldron. The stories are mostly accurate. You may use the cauldron during a full heal-up to restore life to one recently-killed corpse. The resurrected individual looks ghastly – it’s a walking corpse that’s been scalded all over by boiling water – but is otherwise unaffected. This restoration is only temporary, though – the person you resurrected dies again at the start of the next full heal-up, unless you stick them back in the cauldron for another hot bath.
So, you can use the cauldron to keep one slain player character semi-alive, as long as you keep resurrecting them with each full healup. It may still be worthwhile seeking out a more permanent source of resurrection, but the cauldron’s a gory stop-gap. You can also use it to bring back other characters on a temporary basis, as a source of information or to perform one last task.
Quirk: Loves to cook.
Your Most Humble Servant, Wilhelm Scream [Donatella, received the next night on the surface via giant centipede]: You receive a curious letter sealed in red wax with the symbol of a hunchback with a shovel pressed firmly in the paper. Inside, the following:
Dearest Mistress-Reaper,
I am not fit to lick the night soils from your boots! And yet I dare to write, hoping that in my meager existence I might somehow serve you. I am Wilhelm Scream, a worthless performer of odd-jobs who has, in the past, been employed by the likes of both your Great Sire and Void-tossed grandmother.
I write with immeasurable shame that, for the last seventy odd years, your mother has not seen fit to make use of my services, now forcing me to look to the next generation of the imperial Il'spana line. Please, mistress, I beg you make use of me. I am the ears behind the gravestones, the eyes in the alleys, the bloodhound, the arson, the fixer of problems (and should you demand it the creator!), the spider, the worm, and the mule!
I am forever and ever at your disposal. In you, I sense a kindred spirit I have not felt in near a century. You need only scrawl your directions to me in black dirt where bugs do crawl and I will receive them in good time. Word travels faster than you'd believe between the creepy-crawlies!
My payment is your satisfaction. And the respect of my great shyness, which prevents ever looking upon your macabre glory with my own eyes.
Your Most Humble Servant,
Wilhelm Scream
The Ebon Staff of Orlanc the Apprentice [Vivianna, stolen from the elf captive](recharge 16+): One of the only known half-orc/half-elves to survive beyond infancy, Orlanc was abandoned early and survived childhood through theft, lies, sabotage, and the use of his innate sorcery. He grew into adulthood in the time of elven dominance more devious than a drow and more formidable than a mountain giant.
Combining the greatest aspects of elf and orc, a paragon of magical and physical prowess, his insidious cunning was his most fearsome trait. Seven times he avoided extermination by the Highking Gloriandel, a series of infamous tales set across centuries in Othyr that no elf would suffer hearing titled The Seven Offenses of the Ebon Prince.
Orlanc was eventually cornered by the Highking by design, in the center of a spell-sapping dungeon of the half-breeds own making, one so heinous the elves have all but erased lore of it from history. Gloriandel narrowly won, but it was said Orlanc stole something very precious to the Highking.
This is a +3 staff belonging to Orlanc during his tutelage underneath the great wizards, witches, demons, and necromancers of his day. It allows its wielder to memorize 2 extra spells, reflecting the voracious appetite for power Orlanc himself possessed.
It's rumored reuniting the seven staves will create a beacon to the spell-sapping dungeon, inside of which are hidden Gloriandel's seven most powerful spells.
Quirk: Prone to evil mastermind monologues.
Faralune's Tropic Robes [Vivianna, stolen from the elf captive] (recharge 11+): These deep purple robes with fiery, citrus colors at the hems suggest a tropical shore far from Othyr where the sun burns fiercely in the skies and passions run magically deep. Your blood is purple, thick as treacle, and hot as boiling oil. As a free action when you are staggered, you may inflict an amount of fire damage equal to your level or your current ongoing damage (whichever is greater) on all foes engaged with you.
Quirk: Passionate in the extreme.
Wendigo Fang (Aleksi, taken from the charred wendigo-made-flesh): This yellow canine acts as a +3 dagger and inflicts 20 ongoing damage on a critical hit (save 11+). If a target makes the save, you make take 20 damage by biting into your own flesh (as a free action) and negate it.
Quirk: You pocket bits of fallen enemies for reasons you dread contemplating...
Pestle and Mortar [Aleksi, found waiting in the Dancing Hut's broom-closet]: Like the mighty Baba Yaga of old, you now possess a large pestle and mortar. It seems the Hut has grown strong enough to produce one of these magical flyers or, through some unseen force which judges witches, druids, and warlocks, you have been deemed worthy.
Riding the pestle and mortar allows you, Aleksi, limitless flight at a speed comparable to a horse at full charge. While in the mortar, you are impervious to environmental hazards (you cannot drown, be melted or burned by lava, electrocuted, etc.) You can still be attacked and hit, though.
1/day, you may use the pestle and mortar to plane shift into any of the known planes (or maybe unknown, if the circumstances are right).
1/day you can shrink the pestle and mortar down to the size of a dormouse with you inside (providing +5 to AC, but permanently weakening you; a free action to return to normal). 1/day you can enlarge the pestle and mortar to the size of a full-grown oak with you inside (doubling all melee damage, but reducing AC to 10; free action to return to normal size).
Belt of Illusions [Maia, noticed strangely entangled onto your own mundane belt like a python](recharge 16+): This belt works like the wizard spell Disguise Self, altering your appearance by cloaking you in a magical disguise. Unlike the spell, though, you can disguise yourself as a specific person without penalty. There’s a trick to it, though – there’s a leather pouch attached to the belt, and the illusion’s based on whatever you put into the pouch. The more personal the item, the better.
The illusion lasts for ten minutes, and whatever item you place in the pouch is consumed when the duration expires.
Quirk: Paranoid that people aren't really who they say they are.
Symbiosis of Satayel [Maia, realized in a dream]: Before the demon lord Yeenoghu preyed on the gnoll's fear of civilization in order to conquer their souls and the dark spirits of the Eald seduced the hyena-men into erecting grisly totems in their honor, they were a tribal people harmonized with Nature. They worshiped the grass spirit Satayel then, embodiment of the sweeping oceans of green, gold, and ivory that stretched from horizon to horizon and constituted the plains, savannas, and meadows of a wide, youthful planet.
Your rescue of the helpless gnolls of the burrow awakened the last glimmer that remains of the forgotten spirit. If you accept Satayel, she will grow inside of you like a seed, fed by the good works you perform for the plains and those who live upon them. Perhaps, with your help, she might reclaim the hearts and minds of the destructive monsters of the grasslands.
At the beginning of each session, you may roll an additional Relationship Die for Satayel.
Iron-hide Shield [Theros, lifted from a black gnoll corpse] (recharge 6+): It may be nothing more than a dire weasel hide stretched over a crude wooden frame, but the primitive shamanistic markings daubed onto the face of this shield make it indestructible. When an enemy attacks you in melee combat, use the shield to inflict damage equal to the natural attack roll on the attacker as their blow smashes into the surprisingly immovable surface of this unyielding armament.
Quirk: Loves to crush things, be it bugs or walnuts or someone's dreams.
Leopard Knighthood [Theros, felt rather suddenly] (2/day): Your good works have not gone unnoticed. Tavishan, celestial lord of your kind and son of the great goddess Eilessa, has seen fit to reward you for your bravery and steadfastness. As a quick action, you may transform into a leopard twice a day (and quick action back into a tabari). All your possessions shift with you and are not lost. You retain bonuses from worn magic items. And besides obvious improvements to speed, stealth, and climbing (+2 bonuses to related background checks), you also receive an attack and aspect:
Leopard Attack (counting as +2 magical items)
Melee attack - At-Will
Attack: Strength or Dexterity + Level +2 vs. AC
Natural Even Hit: 1d10 damage per level + Strength or Dexterity damage + 2.
Natural Odd Hit: 1d6 damage per level + Strength or Dexterity damage + 2.
Miss: Repeat the attack against the same or a different target.
This second attack has no miss effect.
Leopard Aspect - Quick action - Daily
Until the end of the battle, when an enemy misses you with a melee attack and rolls a natural 1–4, you gain an additional standard action during your next turn. You can only gain one additional standard action a turn this way. Powers like elven grace or a command won’t stack with this effect.
And everyone may magically upgrade their armor to +2 if it isn't already.
Thursday, September 11, 2014
Monday, September 8, 2014
Wednesday, August 27, 2014
Chapter 9: A Cold, Dark, Watery Grave
Nola 2 (evening; 8 days of campaign)
With the virulent rats and festering bodies cleared, the party took a moment to catch its breath in the sterilized exsanguinary chamber. Too long, as the alarm bells, barking, and hurried gongs throughout the first level summoned forth a quartet of guards from below. With pack-like ferocity, they came at Vivianna. The witch managed to ensorcell one, but suffered multiple hatchet bites and clawed blows. Though the Dawn Knight took some scrapes and bruises, the collected party finished the gnolls swiftly enough.
Pushing deeper into the burrow, toward darker and decidedly less-traveled passages, the group came to the consensus vampires were the masters of the clan. Bite marks on many of the gnolls, bleeding chambers, ancient ruins, it all made sense. Donatella apologized for some of her race, noting when they weren't ruled by an iron fist they tended to suffer delusions of grandeur. Unchecked vampires would just love to dominate a burrow such as this, instilling themselves as kings and living gods. Terrorizing the local populace would be a bonus for them. And torturing such an icon as Avencia Dare, well...
Growing commotion behind them signaled a pursuit. Maia held at the top of the stairwell long enough to conjure a lingering red mist. Those that passed through it would be reduced to their most base animal selves, turning on whoever and whatever was nearest in order to tear out their throats. It was a good spell, and a better idea, unfortunately as the group descended they came to realize they'd found a prison... with no exit. They were trapped.
The ivory prison was constructed of ancient elephant bones lashed and bound with sinew and hemp. Despite nearly twenty starved corpses, half-eaten and spoiling within, a harrowed, bone-thin man survived huddling in a corner. Theros, Aleksi, and Vivianna unbarred the corral, and a cantrip from Maia flung to door wide. There was a stink, even in this filthy dungeon, that made them all cringe.
Aleksi approached the prisoner and tried appealing to what humanity the man had left, which slowly returned as he remembered his voice and rediscovered his senses. Living like a hungry animal had a way of wiping that all clean, and with no surprise. By the looks of the dead, the gnolls had treated these people savagely.
Among the dead, Donatella and Maia recognized a mutual acquaintance, a mage by the name of Ira Cantum. She wasn't particularly gifted as far as wizards went, nor very resourceful, but she was a thief and rather stubborn. Donatella purloined a trinket from Ira's corpse, which she had likely pocketed from a gnoll of authority. It's minor enchantment was similar to Maia's knock spell, but keyed to the burrow. It might prove useful...
Sweeping about for traps, Vivianna uncovered the means of their escape: a trapdoor in the center of the prison floor! It'd been masked by straw and filth. However, it was clearly trapped, ancient runes the Dawn Knight discerned necromantic in nature. Donatella had a closer look, admiring the skill and time it must have taken to imbue. The prisoner had quite another reaction, stark terror, and he wailed and scurried into a corner. What intelligible words came out were "Death's door", "Drown", and "Drircaul". He also mumbled something about three brothers.
The prisoner's racket was quickly eclipsed by the howls, snaps, and snarls of gnolls at the top of the stair, ensnared in Maia's red mist. There was no telling how long the cloud would last, or how many others would be drawn to the sounds of vicious fighting. The reaper went to work diffusing the spell-trap, which would have animated the dead around them into ghouls. Meanwhile, Theros took position at the prison door, bracing himself to hold off the horde.
*Zzzzt* The trapdoor's runic power was broken and none of the corpses rose. The magic rushed into Donatella's skeletal hand instead. It jerked to life and clamped around Donatella's neck. Its vice grip made audible crushing noises as she gasped and struggled. Vivianna and Maia leapt to their friend's aid, while Aleksi kept the mortified prisoner from fleeing to his certain death at the top of the stairs.
Quick intervention allowed Donatella to regain some semblance of control. The hand would always remain willful, though, an idle and mischievous appendage. She put its strength to good use prying open the trapdoor, revealing still, black water and a ladder plunging down. It had a strong, metallic odor to it.
The prisoner absolutely refused to go near the opening, recalling in his wide eyes horrendous instances where decent Avencians had been dragged through kicking and screaming. The druid decided it best the man escape now, handing him a magical crystal infused with weather magic. Mists billowed around whoever held it and their skin took on a gray and unassuming pigment. Aleksi instructed the prisoner to be patient and silent on his way up. Goddess willing, the man would again see the sky, the stars, and his family.
After copious thank yous and a strong embrace, the prisoner, whose name was Alman Shallyr, said firmly, "I will forever consider you like a brother to me. If you ever find yourself in my city, Hawkmoon, you will be treated as a king."
Aleksi thanked him and urged Alman into position beside the doorway. Just in time, too, as the red mists dissipated and the blood-crazed dog-men barreled down the steps. Theros met them, sword raised. A clang of flesh on steel resounded, barely audible over the snarls and barks. The tabari pitted his considerable feline strength against his lesser foes but, given their numbers, he would not hold out long.
One by one, the party leaped into the cold, black, metallic waters. Theros went lastly, both relieved and troubled by the fact the gnolls would not approach within arm's reach of the portal. They slammed shut the trapdoor once the cat-man was under. Theros' heart sank when he forced his eyes open in the stinging water only to find the rest of the party feeling blindly for the next tunnel, the next cavern, for pockets of air, for a lever to drain the space, anything. Soon their lungs were burning, and panic hammered in their chests as powerfully as the thrum of the Darkpaw. Was this the trap all along? Had they all just killed themselves?
Just as it looked as if the group would have to force their way back up or drown, Theros discovered a fissure. Maia swam through, uncovering a kind of chimney shoot. She swam furiously upward, her head eventually breaking a surface. She took a deep, desperate breath of putrid air, but air none the less.
The others followed, finding themselves in a cauldron-like pool clogged with the corpses of those who hadn't found the fissure. The bodies bobbed in various states of decay, stirred by a long, wooden rod. A blubbery woman riddled with bite-marks danced along a narrow ledge circling the pool, chanting lowly to herself. Her nimbleness betrayed her tremendous weight.
When she realized the party was upon her, most had managed onto the ledge. At first she was amazed at the sight of living specimens, as she put it, but when she took careful stock of their armor, weapons, and overall demeanor, she attempted to ward the group away. She seemed to take a wicked glee bopping the wolf-girl whenever she attempted to cast a spell or manage on the ledge, and kept everyone else at rod's distance, but the situation didn't escalate into a full-scale battle until Aleksi caught her rod and ripped it away. Vivianna had tried to confound the dimwit into revealing what lurked beyond the cauldron, but she hadn't been particularly pleasant or cooperative. The only real fact offered was her name, Giberia.
Without the rod to balance, Giberia fell head-first into the waters. As she slowly rose again, all the makeup, balms, and powders washed away, revealing a gray, undead monstrosity in utter denial of her state of being and whipped into a rage at the perception of being laughed at. The black waters churned and rose, now under her sway. The bloated dead woke and clashed with the living party.
Vivianna called upon the power of the radiant bow, one of her most powerful spells, and launched three dazzling bolts into the corpulent creature. She promptly exploded, leaving the others to contend with the zombies. They managed to dispatch with many, but not all, which clawed and bit into their soft spots. And with a sudden shock, one of the zombies battering the Dawn Knight transformed into Giberia reborn! Aleksi was the first to turn sights on the surviving zombies, understanding so long as even one remained that Giberia could plague them again. It was a mighty and hurried effort, but the group destroyed every last corpse, and Giberia was destroyed a second time.
Just as her gooey bits were sinking to the bottom of the cauldron beside the tossed-aside rod, Vivianna shivered and slumped. Long, shadowy claws had impaled her midsection. She was swiftly dragged half-way up the wall before the darkness coalesced into a crooked, gnoll with great bat wings, a snaking tail, and curled horns. Drircaul, one of the vampiric brothers Alman babbled about earlier, had appeared. And to Donatella's shock he was both gnoll and vampire, afflicted like the curse of old. He read her stare and ridiculed her "weak bloodline". He was what vampire was always meant to be, undead and possessed of powers beyond reason... powers the party was very soon to witness.
Notable NPCs
Alman Shallyr- An Avencian prisoner and lone survivor in the gnoll's prison of ivory. Aleksi's kindness to the man earned him a special place in Alman's eyes, once his senses returned, and the druid helped him escape using an enchanted crystal. Alman mentioned if ever Aleksi was in Hawkmoon, "his" city, the Izoldan would be treated as a king.
Ira Cantum (dead)- An acquaintance of both Donatella and Maia through different circumstances, neither seemed surprised to find her dead in a gnollish prison. She had a magical trinket that might prove useful in bypassing several wards or locks set in the burrow.
Giberia of the Corpse Waters (deader)- A corpulent undead woman caked in balms, simple-minded in her reanimation and in denial about her condition. She possessed a curious, wooden Rod of Reaching and proved capable of raising zombies, controling the "Corpse Waters", and perpetuating herself in nearby undead.
Drircaul, Death of Day- A powerful gnollish necromancer, one of three ruling brothers who seem to have contracted vampirism... something long thought impossible since Gabriel's Culling reshaped the vampiric race into living, breathing, child-bearing creatures over seventy years ago. If vampirism is again a curse, this could prove detrimental on so, so many levels...
Treasure
The Idle Hand (Donatella)- Your skeletal hand is no longer your own, not entirely. If left to its own devices, it will cause mischief and mayhem! You can bet a lot of your 5's consequences will involve it. That said, if you're ever helpless (unconscious, dying, etc.), it will try to protect you (because it's attached to you) and can even cast spells on your behalf! Those spells are probably the kind meant to kill enemies or protect you, to the Hells with the others, but still.
Rod of Reaching (wood, +2 attacks and damage)- The bending of spaces allows this bargeman's rod to poke, bop, and batter from all distances. It allows for melee attacks on engaged and nearby enemies. You can also make a melee attack on a far away enemy, but must then roll a hard save (16+) to regain the usage.
Pendant of Passage (Donatella)- A pendant enchanted with a specific knock spell keyed to the burrow.
With the virulent rats and festering bodies cleared, the party took a moment to catch its breath in the sterilized exsanguinary chamber. Too long, as the alarm bells, barking, and hurried gongs throughout the first level summoned forth a quartet of guards from below. With pack-like ferocity, they came at Vivianna. The witch managed to ensorcell one, but suffered multiple hatchet bites and clawed blows. Though the Dawn Knight took some scrapes and bruises, the collected party finished the gnolls swiftly enough.
Pushing deeper into the burrow, toward darker and decidedly less-traveled passages, the group came to the consensus vampires were the masters of the clan. Bite marks on many of the gnolls, bleeding chambers, ancient ruins, it all made sense. Donatella apologized for some of her race, noting when they weren't ruled by an iron fist they tended to suffer delusions of grandeur. Unchecked vampires would just love to dominate a burrow such as this, instilling themselves as kings and living gods. Terrorizing the local populace would be a bonus for them. And torturing such an icon as Avencia Dare, well...
Growing commotion behind them signaled a pursuit. Maia held at the top of the stairwell long enough to conjure a lingering red mist. Those that passed through it would be reduced to their most base animal selves, turning on whoever and whatever was nearest in order to tear out their throats. It was a good spell, and a better idea, unfortunately as the group descended they came to realize they'd found a prison... with no exit. They were trapped.
The ivory prison was constructed of ancient elephant bones lashed and bound with sinew and hemp. Despite nearly twenty starved corpses, half-eaten and spoiling within, a harrowed, bone-thin man survived huddling in a corner. Theros, Aleksi, and Vivianna unbarred the corral, and a cantrip from Maia flung to door wide. There was a stink, even in this filthy dungeon, that made them all cringe.
Aleksi approached the prisoner and tried appealing to what humanity the man had left, which slowly returned as he remembered his voice and rediscovered his senses. Living like a hungry animal had a way of wiping that all clean, and with no surprise. By the looks of the dead, the gnolls had treated these people savagely.
Among the dead, Donatella and Maia recognized a mutual acquaintance, a mage by the name of Ira Cantum. She wasn't particularly gifted as far as wizards went, nor very resourceful, but she was a thief and rather stubborn. Donatella purloined a trinket from Ira's corpse, which she had likely pocketed from a gnoll of authority. It's minor enchantment was similar to Maia's knock spell, but keyed to the burrow. It might prove useful...
Sweeping about for traps, Vivianna uncovered the means of their escape: a trapdoor in the center of the prison floor! It'd been masked by straw and filth. However, it was clearly trapped, ancient runes the Dawn Knight discerned necromantic in nature. Donatella had a closer look, admiring the skill and time it must have taken to imbue. The prisoner had quite another reaction, stark terror, and he wailed and scurried into a corner. What intelligible words came out were "Death's door", "Drown", and "Drircaul". He also mumbled something about three brothers.
The prisoner's racket was quickly eclipsed by the howls, snaps, and snarls of gnolls at the top of the stair, ensnared in Maia's red mist. There was no telling how long the cloud would last, or how many others would be drawn to the sounds of vicious fighting. The reaper went to work diffusing the spell-trap, which would have animated the dead around them into ghouls. Meanwhile, Theros took position at the prison door, bracing himself to hold off the horde.
*Zzzzt* The trapdoor's runic power was broken and none of the corpses rose. The magic rushed into Donatella's skeletal hand instead. It jerked to life and clamped around Donatella's neck. Its vice grip made audible crushing noises as she gasped and struggled. Vivianna and Maia leapt to their friend's aid, while Aleksi kept the mortified prisoner from fleeing to his certain death at the top of the stairs.
Quick intervention allowed Donatella to regain some semblance of control. The hand would always remain willful, though, an idle and mischievous appendage. She put its strength to good use prying open the trapdoor, revealing still, black water and a ladder plunging down. It had a strong, metallic odor to it.
The prisoner absolutely refused to go near the opening, recalling in his wide eyes horrendous instances where decent Avencians had been dragged through kicking and screaming. The druid decided it best the man escape now, handing him a magical crystal infused with weather magic. Mists billowed around whoever held it and their skin took on a gray and unassuming pigment. Aleksi instructed the prisoner to be patient and silent on his way up. Goddess willing, the man would again see the sky, the stars, and his family.
After copious thank yous and a strong embrace, the prisoner, whose name was Alman Shallyr, said firmly, "I will forever consider you like a brother to me. If you ever find yourself in my city, Hawkmoon, you will be treated as a king."
Aleksi thanked him and urged Alman into position beside the doorway. Just in time, too, as the red mists dissipated and the blood-crazed dog-men barreled down the steps. Theros met them, sword raised. A clang of flesh on steel resounded, barely audible over the snarls and barks. The tabari pitted his considerable feline strength against his lesser foes but, given their numbers, he would not hold out long.
One by one, the party leaped into the cold, black, metallic waters. Theros went lastly, both relieved and troubled by the fact the gnolls would not approach within arm's reach of the portal. They slammed shut the trapdoor once the cat-man was under. Theros' heart sank when he forced his eyes open in the stinging water only to find the rest of the party feeling blindly for the next tunnel, the next cavern, for pockets of air, for a lever to drain the space, anything. Soon their lungs were burning, and panic hammered in their chests as powerfully as the thrum of the Darkpaw. Was this the trap all along? Had they all just killed themselves?
Just as it looked as if the group would have to force their way back up or drown, Theros discovered a fissure. Maia swam through, uncovering a kind of chimney shoot. She swam furiously upward, her head eventually breaking a surface. She took a deep, desperate breath of putrid air, but air none the less.
The others followed, finding themselves in a cauldron-like pool clogged with the corpses of those who hadn't found the fissure. The bodies bobbed in various states of decay, stirred by a long, wooden rod. A blubbery woman riddled with bite-marks danced along a narrow ledge circling the pool, chanting lowly to herself. Her nimbleness betrayed her tremendous weight.
When she realized the party was upon her, most had managed onto the ledge. At first she was amazed at the sight of living specimens, as she put it, but when she took careful stock of their armor, weapons, and overall demeanor, she attempted to ward the group away. She seemed to take a wicked glee bopping the wolf-girl whenever she attempted to cast a spell or manage on the ledge, and kept everyone else at rod's distance, but the situation didn't escalate into a full-scale battle until Aleksi caught her rod and ripped it away. Vivianna had tried to confound the dimwit into revealing what lurked beyond the cauldron, but she hadn't been particularly pleasant or cooperative. The only real fact offered was her name, Giberia.Without the rod to balance, Giberia fell head-first into the waters. As she slowly rose again, all the makeup, balms, and powders washed away, revealing a gray, undead monstrosity in utter denial of her state of being and whipped into a rage at the perception of being laughed at. The black waters churned and rose, now under her sway. The bloated dead woke and clashed with the living party.
Vivianna called upon the power of the radiant bow, one of her most powerful spells, and launched three dazzling bolts into the corpulent creature. She promptly exploded, leaving the others to contend with the zombies. They managed to dispatch with many, but not all, which clawed and bit into their soft spots. And with a sudden shock, one of the zombies battering the Dawn Knight transformed into Giberia reborn! Aleksi was the first to turn sights on the surviving zombies, understanding so long as even one remained that Giberia could plague them again. It was a mighty and hurried effort, but the group destroyed every last corpse, and Giberia was destroyed a second time.
Just as her gooey bits were sinking to the bottom of the cauldron beside the tossed-aside rod, Vivianna shivered and slumped. Long, shadowy claws had impaled her midsection. She was swiftly dragged half-way up the wall before the darkness coalesced into a crooked, gnoll with great bat wings, a snaking tail, and curled horns. Drircaul, one of the vampiric brothers Alman babbled about earlier, had appeared. And to Donatella's shock he was both gnoll and vampire, afflicted like the curse of old. He read her stare and ridiculed her "weak bloodline". He was what vampire was always meant to be, undead and possessed of powers beyond reason... powers the party was very soon to witness.
Notable NPCs
Alman Shallyr- An Avencian prisoner and lone survivor in the gnoll's prison of ivory. Aleksi's kindness to the man earned him a special place in Alman's eyes, once his senses returned, and the druid helped him escape using an enchanted crystal. Alman mentioned if ever Aleksi was in Hawkmoon, "his" city, the Izoldan would be treated as a king.
Ira Cantum (dead)- An acquaintance of both Donatella and Maia through different circumstances, neither seemed surprised to find her dead in a gnollish prison. She had a magical trinket that might prove useful in bypassing several wards or locks set in the burrow.
Giberia of the Corpse Waters (deader)- A corpulent undead woman caked in balms, simple-minded in her reanimation and in denial about her condition. She possessed a curious, wooden Rod of Reaching and proved capable of raising zombies, controling the "Corpse Waters", and perpetuating herself in nearby undead.
Drircaul, Death of Day- A powerful gnollish necromancer, one of three ruling brothers who seem to have contracted vampirism... something long thought impossible since Gabriel's Culling reshaped the vampiric race into living, breathing, child-bearing creatures over seventy years ago. If vampirism is again a curse, this could prove detrimental on so, so many levels...
Treasure
The Idle Hand (Donatella)- Your skeletal hand is no longer your own, not entirely. If left to its own devices, it will cause mischief and mayhem! You can bet a lot of your 5's consequences will involve it. That said, if you're ever helpless (unconscious, dying, etc.), it will try to protect you (because it's attached to you) and can even cast spells on your behalf! Those spells are probably the kind meant to kill enemies or protect you, to the Hells with the others, but still.
Rod of Reaching (wood, +2 attacks and damage)- The bending of spaces allows this bargeman's rod to poke, bop, and batter from all distances. It allows for melee attacks on engaged and nearby enemies. You can also make a melee attack on a far away enemy, but must then roll a hard save (16+) to regain the usage.
Pendant of Passage (Donatella)- A pendant enchanted with a specific knock spell keyed to the burrow.
Wednesday, August 20, 2014
Wednesday, August 13, 2014
Chapter 6 & 7: Descent
Nola 1-2 (8 days total)
Through the sweeping, silver rains, the group traversed the floodplain half the day in pursuit of the gnolls. While their tracks has been washed away, evidence of their passing was clear in the vandalism and destruction of every man-made measure to control the waters of the region. Broken levees, a sabotaged dam, and various primal shrines meant to drive local water spirits into frenzies painted a clear picture: the gnolls wanted to supersaturate the region, perhaps flood local farmland or even drown Godswon as rainy season continued.
Their course changed slightly when they noticed a large, indigo creature Theros' spyglass confirmed was, most likely, a manticore circling over a wide lay of the plain. Strange creatures not storied for their kindness, the group made sure to keep a wide berth. Unfortunately, its eye was drawn to their position given the stretch's great openness.
About this time, Vivianna attempted to send a message to her nearest forces, however an embarrassing grab of the wrong ritual component (medusa scales) left the Dawn Knight a living statue. Donatella (laughing hard enough for tears) and a far more sheepish Maia began their attempts at reversing the condition.
The manticore descended on Theros and Aleksi like a sudden storm, while the girls were busy inside. Unlike the gnolls, this creature seemed capable of shrugging off spells and blows alike, tearing through magically-manipulated mud and clawing under paladin steel. After a solid slash by Theros, it launched the tabari forty feet and into the Hut's side hard enough to rock the shelter. Maia ran onto the porch, sounding a spectacular roar borrowing from the strength of the primal spirits aligned with her house. It was enough to frighten the manticore, which ballooned twice its girth and forced its spiny mane on edges.
Its will broken, the monster was quickly defeated. Donatella used one of her soul gems to extract its spirit, surprised to find there were actually two souls in the body. She'd taken the darker of the two, a primal spirit, though it wasn't a perfect fit in the casing of the gem. Intent on questioning the entity and learning more of the gnolls' plans before it leaked out, Aleksi warned against it. The spirit was mad, he explained, for having been ripped from its home and forced into a cage of flesh. It was incomplete, only half its being present in the crystal, while the other half still remained tethered to the spirit world. He vowed to restore the spirit should a way present itself. Given the gnoll shamans' extensive manipulation of spirits, it seemed likely they had some sort of access point.
Theros discovered the entrance to the gnoll burrow soon after, a wide well stabbed into the depths of the flood plain. It looked very old, and several in the party soon recognized it was trapped. Aleksi decided to send the Hut to the safety of a previous camp site, then. For one, it couldn't fit down the well. And just the night before, gnolls had tried to burn it to the ground. If left on the surface, no telling what might happen. He sent Valerik along with it as protector. With any luck, Vivianna would recover in the meantime.
At the rim of the well, a wisp of a magical voice asked, "Who is master?" and the general consensus (or perhaps just the first name uttered) was The Howler in the Winds. A mighty gust blasted upward, spraying the party and seeming to deactivate whatever might have followed. Or had it...
There were no ropes, steps, or other obvious ways down, so the party managed as small birds thanks to a druidic ritual. Maia opted for a simple feather fall cantrip. In the black waters around ninety feet down, deep enough the group was forced to wade, they awkwardly positioned themselves beneath two elevated gates twelve feet tall a piece- amalgams of stolen fences, broken doors, metal wire and battlefield scrap. Through feline brawn and the necromancer's touch of decrepitude, the group managed to breach the portals and reconvene on slick limestone of one of the crudely-dug tunnels. The dripping darkness awaited, stinking now of wet fur, filth, and spoiled meats.
Maia multiplied a magical coin spell in order to provide light for the party, though they couldn't shine far enough to reveal the terminus of the extending passage. Each of them managed the horrid odors in their own way (a little balm under the nose, perhaps, or a clothespin). Then the four braved the Burrow of the Nightcackler, with two hours remaining until sunset. Unfortunately, only one among them knew the urgency tied to the setting of the sun...
NPCs
Manticore (nameless; dead)- possessed by a mad spirit, suffering half in the material world and half in the spirit world, known to the druids as the Eald
Through the sweeping, silver rains, the group traversed the floodplain half the day in pursuit of the gnolls. While their tracks has been washed away, evidence of their passing was clear in the vandalism and destruction of every man-made measure to control the waters of the region. Broken levees, a sabotaged dam, and various primal shrines meant to drive local water spirits into frenzies painted a clear picture: the gnolls wanted to supersaturate the region, perhaps flood local farmland or even drown Godswon as rainy season continued.
Their course changed slightly when they noticed a large, indigo creature Theros' spyglass confirmed was, most likely, a manticore circling over a wide lay of the plain. Strange creatures not storied for their kindness, the group made sure to keep a wide berth. Unfortunately, its eye was drawn to their position given the stretch's great openness.
About this time, Vivianna attempted to send a message to her nearest forces, however an embarrassing grab of the wrong ritual component (medusa scales) left the Dawn Knight a living statue. Donatella (laughing hard enough for tears) and a far more sheepish Maia began their attempts at reversing the condition.
The manticore descended on Theros and Aleksi like a sudden storm, while the girls were busy inside. Unlike the gnolls, this creature seemed capable of shrugging off spells and blows alike, tearing through magically-manipulated mud and clawing under paladin steel. After a solid slash by Theros, it launched the tabari forty feet and into the Hut's side hard enough to rock the shelter. Maia ran onto the porch, sounding a spectacular roar borrowing from the strength of the primal spirits aligned with her house. It was enough to frighten the manticore, which ballooned twice its girth and forced its spiny mane on edges.
Its will broken, the monster was quickly defeated. Donatella used one of her soul gems to extract its spirit, surprised to find there were actually two souls in the body. She'd taken the darker of the two, a primal spirit, though it wasn't a perfect fit in the casing of the gem. Intent on questioning the entity and learning more of the gnolls' plans before it leaked out, Aleksi warned against it. The spirit was mad, he explained, for having been ripped from its home and forced into a cage of flesh. It was incomplete, only half its being present in the crystal, while the other half still remained tethered to the spirit world. He vowed to restore the spirit should a way present itself. Given the gnoll shamans' extensive manipulation of spirits, it seemed likely they had some sort of access point.
Theros discovered the entrance to the gnoll burrow soon after, a wide well stabbed into the depths of the flood plain. It looked very old, and several in the party soon recognized it was trapped. Aleksi decided to send the Hut to the safety of a previous camp site, then. For one, it couldn't fit down the well. And just the night before, gnolls had tried to burn it to the ground. If left on the surface, no telling what might happen. He sent Valerik along with it as protector. With any luck, Vivianna would recover in the meantime.
At the rim of the well, a wisp of a magical voice asked, "Who is master?" and the general consensus (or perhaps just the first name uttered) was The Howler in the Winds. A mighty gust blasted upward, spraying the party and seeming to deactivate whatever might have followed. Or had it...
There were no ropes, steps, or other obvious ways down, so the party managed as small birds thanks to a druidic ritual. Maia opted for a simple feather fall cantrip. In the black waters around ninety feet down, deep enough the group was forced to wade, they awkwardly positioned themselves beneath two elevated gates twelve feet tall a piece- amalgams of stolen fences, broken doors, metal wire and battlefield scrap. Through feline brawn and the necromancer's touch of decrepitude, the group managed to breach the portals and reconvene on slick limestone of one of the crudely-dug tunnels. The dripping darkness awaited, stinking now of wet fur, filth, and spoiled meats.
Maia multiplied a magical coin spell in order to provide light for the party, though they couldn't shine far enough to reveal the terminus of the extending passage. Each of them managed the horrid odors in their own way (a little balm under the nose, perhaps, or a clothespin). Then the four braved the Burrow of the Nightcackler, with two hours remaining until sunset. Unfortunately, only one among them knew the urgency tied to the setting of the sun...
NPCs
Manticore (nameless; dead)- possessed by a mad spirit, suffering half in the material world and half in the spirit world, known to the druids as the Eald
Tuesday, July 29, 2014
Chapter 5: A Bloody Trail North
Delempar 29th - Nola (May) 1st
[7 days total in campaign]
Vivianna, Maia, and Aleksi, managed to purge Toril Kostus of his hideous affliction by carrying through the half-finished hex. They ended up with an incapacitated councilman and the shamans' jumbled spirits-made-flesh in the form of a huge canine paragon, what the Izoldan dubbed a curse-dog. Though incredibly imposing, he seemed to lack the mindless ferocity implied when fused with Kostus. After sniffing the party, the curse-dog adopted Aleksi as his bipedal companion. The druid dubbed him Valerik, "Brave" in the Izoldan tongue.
Maia disappeared into the night, seeking a hero-worshiping seamstress named Sella to care for Toril in the coming days. The wolf-girl hoped Sella wasn't still the jealous type, having the completely wrong impression of Maia's relationship with the councilman (professional, honest). Unfortunately, stealing about at such a late hour during times of invaded capitals and massing gnolls drew the attention of the night watch. The lead watchman was a stubborn, but thorough, sort, the kind a town wanted leading a patrol, but he made it impossible for Maia to shake him, even when she name-dropped the notable councilman. Sella, for her part, backed Maia, proving her concern for Kostus outweighed her pettiness, but in the end a watchman was sent ahead to the councilman's house, and the rest of the troop followed soon after.
Meantime, Vivianna was handling two late-night callers. The first claimed to be sent by town hall, a young clerk from the mayor's office with a belly of worry over Toril's absence at the emergency meeting. Viv sent him off with little trouble, but when a nightwatchman appeared next her dealings left him highly suspicious and poised to call the whole town upon them. The Dawn Knight openly suggested the man was an assassin, but Theros and Aleksi suspected such unlikeliness had more to do with Vivianna trying to save face after botching the ordeal. As the rest of the guard arrived, Maia and Sella in tow, Aleksi made an executive decision and opened the door before things escalated any further. He received quite a scathing look from the Dawn Knight, against which he proved impervious.
The party filed out one at a time, Valerik causing the guardsmen to startle, but Donatella and her dear, decrepit hubby Leonarto scared them into drawing swords. And he'd such a convincing disguise, too! Sella pressed inside, screaming upon seeing Kostus so weak. It was quite clear the party was headed to jail, that is until Maia gave the speech of her life, one pulled from the Anita book if ever there was one. At the same time chastizing the guard for harassing those doing good, while glorifying their intentions, the wolf-girl seemed to turn inevitability on its heels. The guards left, worried at news of gnolls and the confirmation Avencia Dare was more-than-likely in danger (if not dead already).
The party had a relatively quiet remainder of the night, what scant hours of dark were left. A summoned Doctor Job and the seamstress Sella cared for Kostus, while everyone else enjoyed much-needed shuteye. The group even slept in. Donatella made a fabulous breakfast around ten, thanks mostly to Leonarto's coaching, and news and thoughts were shared. Aleksi spent most of his time acclimating Valerik to the Hut, then chatting with Sella (noticing she was not comfortable or sympathetic to demihumans or witches).
Two more escaped senators had arrived, so the doctor told, and Benjim was giving the mayor and the eradicator hell for dragging their feet sending aid east. Since there was no official declaration to supply The Midnight Rider, it was decided they would follow the map Kostus had drawn and see if they couldn't locate Avencia Dare, or at least find the root of the gnoll trouble. There was certainly a very convenient coincidence between Belarion's invasion and the gnolls massing- something to keep Godswon occupied during Edmark's hour of need.
Boarding the Dancing Hut, Aleksi and Valerik, Vivianna, Donatella and Leonarto, Maia, and Theros made their way through the farmsteads outlying Godswon, headed northwest to the last-known location of the fiery folk hero. Taking a dusty road called the Nag's Trail, the Hut passed more and more remote tracts until, on the border of the true wilderness, they came upon a gruesome massacre. Farmers and their families had been gutted and savaged, as if by things worse than animals, things with fell purpose. The sight struck home for several in the group, and none could bear to look on the scene long without acting. There wasn't very much to bury, but there was a trail, a trail the heavy sky threatened to wash away if they weren't quick. Vivianna muttered a soft prayer and Theros took the lead, employing his considerable tracking skills in the pursuit of the soulless dogs that did this.
The trail was winding and difficult, backtracking and sometimes leading nowhere, but Theros managed to follow to the edges of a gloomy wetland by the coming of dark. They located the highest point and plopped the Hut down. It wasn't long after when the Brotherhood showed up...
A mixture of able hunters and trappers native to the region, coupled with angry townsfolk, all of them masked in the crude burlap as was the fashion of the Brotherhood to protect their identities, surrounded and attacked. The death of the Henrys and Allans (farmer families) had not gone unnoticed, and the unusual group were the perfect outlets of their rage and disgust. The Brotherhood was quick work, in truth, no match for the magics and might of the party, especially when Donatella summoned up the skeletons of the dead to harry their old companions and drag them to the Gate, but the trickling of laughter from the shadows of the hills made it plain, at least to Aleksi, that these gnolls were clever. They had led the angry group to the party.
Vivianna felt way as a claw raked her back, the gnolls masked in shadow magic and using hit-and-run tactics during the mopping of the Brotherhood to take on the capable party. For a time it worked, until the druid and the necromancer whittled the men down to nothing, and Vivianna with her moonbow managed to reveal the lot of gnolls: dark gray hyena-men and their bitch of a chieftainess. She charged Theros, a hulking, six-teated fury, swinging a fence post wrapped in razor wire linked to rusty, jagged scraps from old battlefields. She bore a darkpaw pendant, its intense drumming causing the gnolls (and Maia, Valerik, and Theros) to grimace.
Theros fought two snipers and the chieftainess for a time, a pillar of feral might, but when it seemed the she-gnoll had him dead to rights, Maia surged and caught the blow mid-swing. Back to back, cat and wolf fended off the gnolls, including a wiry team of gnollish juveniles crazy to protect their mother. And through careful teamwork, they managed to down them all.
Aleksi, meanwhile, slew a shadow gnoll advancing on Vivianna, and the Dawn Knight, her vengeance unsatisfied, turned her sights to the storm-gray gnoll shaman with the grisly fetish of leathery eyes watching from the opposite hillock. Unleashing the remainder of her elements, she slew the creature outright without even the sound of a yelp or howl. However, as the battle finished, unseen claws dragged him back into the darkness. Aleksi and Valerik pursued to a point, but following further in the night promised ambushes, unseen sinkholes, and most likely death. He did recover the fetish, which he kept for further study.
Vivianna rifled through the corpses of gnolls and Brotherhood, retrieving the darkpaw pendant and covering it to alleviate the thrumming. Aleksi led the efforts to bury the men, once angry, hateful, but ultimately misguided. He did not afford the gnolls such graces.
They spent the rest of the night on doubled watch, spotting the shadows of gnolls more than once. At one point near dawn, the group was forced to fight an angry blaze on the Hut's roof caused by incendiary jars launched from the darkness. They killed a few more gnollish juveniles in the process, however they made it to morning.
And then it began to rain in the sodden meadows...
[7 days total in campaign]
Vivianna, Maia, and Aleksi, managed to purge Toril Kostus of his hideous affliction by carrying through the half-finished hex. They ended up with an incapacitated councilman and the shamans' jumbled spirits-made-flesh in the form of a huge canine paragon, what the Izoldan dubbed a curse-dog. Though incredibly imposing, he seemed to lack the mindless ferocity implied when fused with Kostus. After sniffing the party, the curse-dog adopted Aleksi as his bipedal companion. The druid dubbed him Valerik, "Brave" in the Izoldan tongue.
Maia disappeared into the night, seeking a hero-worshiping seamstress named Sella to care for Toril in the coming days. The wolf-girl hoped Sella wasn't still the jealous type, having the completely wrong impression of Maia's relationship with the councilman (professional, honest). Unfortunately, stealing about at such a late hour during times of invaded capitals and massing gnolls drew the attention of the night watch. The lead watchman was a stubborn, but thorough, sort, the kind a town wanted leading a patrol, but he made it impossible for Maia to shake him, even when she name-dropped the notable councilman. Sella, for her part, backed Maia, proving her concern for Kostus outweighed her pettiness, but in the end a watchman was sent ahead to the councilman's house, and the rest of the troop followed soon after.
Meantime, Vivianna was handling two late-night callers. The first claimed to be sent by town hall, a young clerk from the mayor's office with a belly of worry over Toril's absence at the emergency meeting. Viv sent him off with little trouble, but when a nightwatchman appeared next her dealings left him highly suspicious and poised to call the whole town upon them. The Dawn Knight openly suggested the man was an assassin, but Theros and Aleksi suspected such unlikeliness had more to do with Vivianna trying to save face after botching the ordeal. As the rest of the guard arrived, Maia and Sella in tow, Aleksi made an executive decision and opened the door before things escalated any further. He received quite a scathing look from the Dawn Knight, against which he proved impervious.
The party filed out one at a time, Valerik causing the guardsmen to startle, but Donatella and her dear, decrepit hubby Leonarto scared them into drawing swords. And he'd such a convincing disguise, too! Sella pressed inside, screaming upon seeing Kostus so weak. It was quite clear the party was headed to jail, that is until Maia gave the speech of her life, one pulled from the Anita book if ever there was one. At the same time chastizing the guard for harassing those doing good, while glorifying their intentions, the wolf-girl seemed to turn inevitability on its heels. The guards left, worried at news of gnolls and the confirmation Avencia Dare was more-than-likely in danger (if not dead already).
The party had a relatively quiet remainder of the night, what scant hours of dark were left. A summoned Doctor Job and the seamstress Sella cared for Kostus, while everyone else enjoyed much-needed shuteye. The group even slept in. Donatella made a fabulous breakfast around ten, thanks mostly to Leonarto's coaching, and news and thoughts were shared. Aleksi spent most of his time acclimating Valerik to the Hut, then chatting with Sella (noticing she was not comfortable or sympathetic to demihumans or witches).
Two more escaped senators had arrived, so the doctor told, and Benjim was giving the mayor and the eradicator hell for dragging their feet sending aid east. Since there was no official declaration to supply The Midnight Rider, it was decided they would follow the map Kostus had drawn and see if they couldn't locate Avencia Dare, or at least find the root of the gnoll trouble. There was certainly a very convenient coincidence between Belarion's invasion and the gnolls massing- something to keep Godswon occupied during Edmark's hour of need.
Boarding the Dancing Hut, Aleksi and Valerik, Vivianna, Donatella and Leonarto, Maia, and Theros made their way through the farmsteads outlying Godswon, headed northwest to the last-known location of the fiery folk hero. Taking a dusty road called the Nag's Trail, the Hut passed more and more remote tracts until, on the border of the true wilderness, they came upon a gruesome massacre. Farmers and their families had been gutted and savaged, as if by things worse than animals, things with fell purpose. The sight struck home for several in the group, and none could bear to look on the scene long without acting. There wasn't very much to bury, but there was a trail, a trail the heavy sky threatened to wash away if they weren't quick. Vivianna muttered a soft prayer and Theros took the lead, employing his considerable tracking skills in the pursuit of the soulless dogs that did this.
The trail was winding and difficult, backtracking and sometimes leading nowhere, but Theros managed to follow to the edges of a gloomy wetland by the coming of dark. They located the highest point and plopped the Hut down. It wasn't long after when the Brotherhood showed up...
A mixture of able hunters and trappers native to the region, coupled with angry townsfolk, all of them masked in the crude burlap as was the fashion of the Brotherhood to protect their identities, surrounded and attacked. The death of the Henrys and Allans (farmer families) had not gone unnoticed, and the unusual group were the perfect outlets of their rage and disgust. The Brotherhood was quick work, in truth, no match for the magics and might of the party, especially when Donatella summoned up the skeletons of the dead to harry their old companions and drag them to the Gate, but the trickling of laughter from the shadows of the hills made it plain, at least to Aleksi, that these gnolls were clever. They had led the angry group to the party.
Vivianna felt way as a claw raked her back, the gnolls masked in shadow magic and using hit-and-run tactics during the mopping of the Brotherhood to take on the capable party. For a time it worked, until the druid and the necromancer whittled the men down to nothing, and Vivianna with her moonbow managed to reveal the lot of gnolls: dark gray hyena-men and their bitch of a chieftainess. She charged Theros, a hulking, six-teated fury, swinging a fence post wrapped in razor wire linked to rusty, jagged scraps from old battlefields. She bore a darkpaw pendant, its intense drumming causing the gnolls (and Maia, Valerik, and Theros) to grimace.
Theros fought two snipers and the chieftainess for a time, a pillar of feral might, but when it seemed the she-gnoll had him dead to rights, Maia surged and caught the blow mid-swing. Back to back, cat and wolf fended off the gnolls, including a wiry team of gnollish juveniles crazy to protect their mother. And through careful teamwork, they managed to down them all.
Aleksi, meanwhile, slew a shadow gnoll advancing on Vivianna, and the Dawn Knight, her vengeance unsatisfied, turned her sights to the storm-gray gnoll shaman with the grisly fetish of leathery eyes watching from the opposite hillock. Unleashing the remainder of her elements, she slew the creature outright without even the sound of a yelp or howl. However, as the battle finished, unseen claws dragged him back into the darkness. Aleksi and Valerik pursued to a point, but following further in the night promised ambushes, unseen sinkholes, and most likely death. He did recover the fetish, which he kept for further study.
Vivianna rifled through the corpses of gnolls and Brotherhood, retrieving the darkpaw pendant and covering it to alleviate the thrumming. Aleksi led the efforts to bury the men, once angry, hateful, but ultimately misguided. He did not afford the gnolls such graces.
They spent the rest of the night on doubled watch, spotting the shadows of gnolls more than once. At one point near dawn, the group was forced to fight an angry blaze on the Hut's roof caused by incendiary jars launched from the darkness. They killed a few more gnollish juveniles in the process, however they made it to morning.
And then it began to rain in the sodden meadows...
Notable NPCs
Valerik the Curse-Dog
Sella Dorston
Luther Pendrost (lead watchman)
Doctor Job McAllister
Dead farmers on Nag's Trail
Brotherhood hunters and followers
Darkpaw Gnolls, including snipers, ambushers, wiry get, a hulking bitch-chieftain, and a fetish-hugging shaman (dragged off into the night)
Spoils
Fetish of Stolen Visions (Aleksi), looking like a thin, onyx doll with a messy tangle of hooked cords for hair. Each hook skewers a pale, leathery eyeball (though they vary in freshness, see below): +2 spell attacks and damage; those struck by a spell using this fetish must make a moderate save (11+) or be stricken blind until your next turn. If you crit with a spell using this fetish, the target is blinded permanently. Quirk: In order to sustain the fell magic of this fetish, you must replenish the eyes on its eight hooks after each battle.
Darkpaw Pendant (Vivianna)- see Chapter 4 treasure
Gnoll Flail (unclaimed, +3 melee attack and damage): These flails are surprisingly effective weapons despite their crude construction. Unless you’ve played with one since you were a cub, however, you won’t be able to use it correctly. While using this weapon, you can’t make opportunity attacks. Quirk: Growls when angry.
Gnoll Flail (unclaimed, +3 melee attack and damage): These flails are surprisingly effective weapons despite their crude construction. Unless you’ve played with one since you were a cub, however, you won’t be able to use it correctly. While using this weapon, you can’t make opportunity attacks. Quirk: Growls when angry.
Friday, July 25, 2014
Chapter 4: Approaching Midnight
Delempar 28th-29th
Maia diffused a growing riot (or three, angry bumpkins yelling outside Councilman Toril's fence). They criticized the famed swordman for not following local icon, Avencia Dare, into the plains a week ago. With no sign of her, and all kinds of rumors circulating around the capital, Godswonians are beginning to panic.
After a reluctant councilman let her in, she discovered he was afflicted by a horrible curse. He'd killed the gnoll shaman who'd placed it upon him while following Avencia Dare into the plains, for she suspected the packs had repopulated in the decade of peace and again wished to destroy Godswon. That was a week ago, during which time Toril hid.
After hearing the grave news out of Edmark, he urged Maia to light the old beacon on the high banks north of town and alert The Midnight Rider. Man or something more,
Notable NPCs
Young Master Flagg, a young bricklayer distraught over the fate of his fiance Annabelle in the capital
The Old Laborer (unnamed), an old bricklayer concerned with the goings on in Edmark
One-Arm Bill, veteran of the gnoll skirmishes during Godswon's founding (with one arm and the ugly scars to prove it); barkeep of The Elephant Room
Sweet Lips, One-Arm Bill's slightly over the hill, plain, whorish sister
Farmer Applecurly, halfling landowner in the business of growing and selling... you guess it, apples!
Baldy, a bumpkin angry at Councilman Toril for his perceived inaction in the face of the gnoll crisis, which very few believe a real crisis at all; He was the only one in town who heard the drumming of the Darkpaw Pendant, suggesting he is more than human
Councilman Toril Kostus, an acquaintence of Maia afflicted by a terrible curse by a slain gnoll shaman, one that has left him a hideous half-man beast; instructed that messages be delivered and the town secured before his own wellbeing, though the party endeavors to cure him after midnight
The Midnight Rider, a tall, dark, ominous figure on horseback who arrived at the beacon at mightnight precisely to receive an official message; He supposedly can reach any destination within a night, and was instructed to spread word of Belarion's ruse and the moves on the capital
Darkpaw Gnolls, including a war chief, rangers, and a warrior (one escaped), who were in possession of a magic item shaped like a paw made of some ancient, primal wood; the pendant seems to call to those with beast blood like a deep drum or thrumming heartbeat
Treasure (Aleksi)
Darkpaw Pendant- +2 to saves when you have 25 hp or under. In addition, you recognize those with the blood of beasts no matter their disguises (and, indeed, the pulse of the item can be overwhelming to them when exposed). By virtue of carrying this item you are Marked by The Howler-in-the-Winds, some sort of obscure, primordial spirit or demon associated with the gnolls of the region. Quirk: You grow patches of course, feral hair in unusual places...
Maia diffused a growing riot (or three, angry bumpkins yelling outside Councilman Toril's fence). They criticized the famed swordman for not following local icon, Avencia Dare, into the plains a week ago. With no sign of her, and all kinds of rumors circulating around the capital, Godswonians are beginning to panic.
After a reluctant councilman let her in, she discovered he was afflicted by a horrible curse. He'd killed the gnoll shaman who'd placed it upon him while following Avencia Dare into the plains, for she suspected the packs had repopulated in the decade of peace and again wished to destroy Godswon. That was a week ago, during which time Toril hid.
After hearing the grave news out of Edmark, he urged Maia to light the old beacon on the high banks north of town and alert The Midnight Rider. Man or something more,
Notable NPCs
Young Master Flagg, a young bricklayer distraught over the fate of his fiance Annabelle in the capital
The Old Laborer (unnamed), an old bricklayer concerned with the goings on in Edmark
One-Arm Bill, veteran of the gnoll skirmishes during Godswon's founding (with one arm and the ugly scars to prove it); barkeep of The Elephant Room
Sweet Lips, One-Arm Bill's slightly over the hill, plain, whorish sister
Farmer Applecurly, halfling landowner in the business of growing and selling... you guess it, apples!
Baldy, a bumpkin angry at Councilman Toril for his perceived inaction in the face of the gnoll crisis, which very few believe a real crisis at all; He was the only one in town who heard the drumming of the Darkpaw Pendant, suggesting he is more than human
Councilman Toril Kostus, an acquaintence of Maia afflicted by a terrible curse by a slain gnoll shaman, one that has left him a hideous half-man beast; instructed that messages be delivered and the town secured before his own wellbeing, though the party endeavors to cure him after midnight
The Midnight Rider, a tall, dark, ominous figure on horseback who arrived at the beacon at mightnight precisely to receive an official message; He supposedly can reach any destination within a night, and was instructed to spread word of Belarion's ruse and the moves on the capital
Darkpaw Gnolls, including a war chief, rangers, and a warrior (one escaped), who were in possession of a magic item shaped like a paw made of some ancient, primal wood; the pendant seems to call to those with beast blood like a deep drum or thrumming heartbeat
Treasure (Aleksi)
Darkpaw Pendant- +2 to saves when you have 25 hp or under. In addition, you recognize those with the blood of beasts no matter their disguises (and, indeed, the pulse of the item can be overwhelming to them when exposed). By virtue of carrying this item you are Marked by The Howler-in-the-Winds, some sort of obscure, primordial spirit or demon associated with the gnolls of the region. Quirk: You grow patches of course, feral hair in unusual places...
Friday, July 18, 2014
Chapter 3: On the Road to Godswon
Delempar 26 - 28
On the road to Godswon, the party spent its time getting to better know one another. Senator Lambert shared a strained theory involving Princess Jubilee with Aleksi on the porch, betraying an unwillingness or inability to properly accept the worst-case realities facing Avencia. Aleksi's noncommittal replies only served to further worry the delegate, though both finally agreed their lack of information was hardly constructive and they should share a good drink instead.
Senator Katrina proved a faithful daughter of means, a pleasant hostess who thanked Maia and Vivianna for their efforts with a little wine and refreshment. During their talks of Avencia's future and the future protection of the free Congress, and especially after Lambert and Aleksi arrived, the topic of folk hero Avencia Dare came into the conversation. Katrina named her trouble, but Lambert admired her tenacity for freedom (and mentioned she and Benjim were quite close). There was also some concern about the Dawn Knights Vivianna had contacted, given the town's history with them, but she assured the young wolf that both parties were far too civilized for a repeat of last time.
All the while, Benjim and Donatella were questioning the corpse of Selm Ekkian through use of the latter's necromancy. Benjim resigned himself to approach the grisly work as a scientist, but couldn't discredit the results it bore: vital information on the Belarion zeppelins and a rumor that an airship refueling station might have been built in Thrakkis to ease further incursions. Donatella learned a secret passcode used by the elves which might get them through the ship doors, at least.
Returning to the party with Theros, awakened from a cat nap in the attic, Donatella and Benjim shared their information and plans were drawn to A. Write and release a declaration to the Avencian people with regards to the suspicious nature of Edmark's invasion B. Protect the delegates during that time C. Pursue solving the crisis by helping solve the parties responsible and their intentions, all the while preserving the republic as the war intensifies...
On the outskirts of Godswon, a large town near the shore surrounded by farms and sparse woods, the Dancing Hut was intercepted by riders on patrol. A halfling of the native Order of the Firebrands, on seeing the famous Benjim, escorted the group into town.
While Benjim, Lambert, and Katrina headed into town hall for an emergency meeting of Godswon's leadership, Maia slipped off to find one Councilman Toril Kostus, and the rest of the party headed for the suggested tavern known as The Elephant Room...
Notable NPCs
Avencia Dare (mentioned) is a folk hero and purported immortal Chosen of Aventine, the first baby born in free Avencia who grew into a passionate activist and capable fighter. She is devoted to the spirit of the nation, but doesn't always follow the will of Congress, making her a polarizing and chaotic element in national politics. She makes her home in Godswon.
Emblem Rannik Proudmarch of the Firebrands was met on horseback in the greens, golds, and crimsons of his order, leading a patrol of town guard, militiamen, and conscripts. He was terribly serious for a halfling and escorted the group quite business-like into town.
Councilman Toril Kostus (mentioned) is a local hero for his victory over The Dawn Knights after the foreign order refused to relinquish control of town in the wake of demonic activity. Toril won in a first-blood duel against the knight-commander to settle things and earned himself a beloved status ever since. He went on to become a town councilman, though has not yet won the bid for mayor because of a vocal, hard-lined segment of voters with more militant views.
Mayor Abernathy Teak of Godswon (mentioned)
Eradicator Benedict Hollowin of the Firebrands (mentioned)
Treasure (Donatella)
Rare Tome x 3 (Change a spell miss into a hit, or a spell hit into a critical hit; the magic of the tome is then expended)
On the road to Godswon, the party spent its time getting to better know one another. Senator Lambert shared a strained theory involving Princess Jubilee with Aleksi on the porch, betraying an unwillingness or inability to properly accept the worst-case realities facing Avencia. Aleksi's noncommittal replies only served to further worry the delegate, though both finally agreed their lack of information was hardly constructive and they should share a good drink instead.
Senator Katrina proved a faithful daughter of means, a pleasant hostess who thanked Maia and Vivianna for their efforts with a little wine and refreshment. During their talks of Avencia's future and the future protection of the free Congress, and especially after Lambert and Aleksi arrived, the topic of folk hero Avencia Dare came into the conversation. Katrina named her trouble, but Lambert admired her tenacity for freedom (and mentioned she and Benjim were quite close). There was also some concern about the Dawn Knights Vivianna had contacted, given the town's history with them, but she assured the young wolf that both parties were far too civilized for a repeat of last time.
All the while, Benjim and Donatella were questioning the corpse of Selm Ekkian through use of the latter's necromancy. Benjim resigned himself to approach the grisly work as a scientist, but couldn't discredit the results it bore: vital information on the Belarion zeppelins and a rumor that an airship refueling station might have been built in Thrakkis to ease further incursions. Donatella learned a secret passcode used by the elves which might get them through the ship doors, at least.
Returning to the party with Theros, awakened from a cat nap in the attic, Donatella and Benjim shared their information and plans were drawn to A. Write and release a declaration to the Avencian people with regards to the suspicious nature of Edmark's invasion B. Protect the delegates during that time C. Pursue solving the crisis by helping solve the parties responsible and their intentions, all the while preserving the republic as the war intensifies...
On the outskirts of Godswon, a large town near the shore surrounded by farms and sparse woods, the Dancing Hut was intercepted by riders on patrol. A halfling of the native Order of the Firebrands, on seeing the famous Benjim, escorted the group into town.
While Benjim, Lambert, and Katrina headed into town hall for an emergency meeting of Godswon's leadership, Maia slipped off to find one Councilman Toril Kostus, and the rest of the party headed for the suggested tavern known as The Elephant Room...
Notable NPCs
Avencia Dare (mentioned) is a folk hero and purported immortal Chosen of Aventine, the first baby born in free Avencia who grew into a passionate activist and capable fighter. She is devoted to the spirit of the nation, but doesn't always follow the will of Congress, making her a polarizing and chaotic element in national politics. She makes her home in Godswon.
Emblem Rannik Proudmarch of the Firebrands was met on horseback in the greens, golds, and crimsons of his order, leading a patrol of town guard, militiamen, and conscripts. He was terribly serious for a halfling and escorted the group quite business-like into town.
Councilman Toril Kostus (mentioned) is a local hero for his victory over The Dawn Knights after the foreign order refused to relinquish control of town in the wake of demonic activity. Toril won in a first-blood duel against the knight-commander to settle things and earned himself a beloved status ever since. He went on to become a town councilman, though has not yet won the bid for mayor because of a vocal, hard-lined segment of voters with more militant views.
Mayor Abernathy Teak of Godswon (mentioned)
Eradicator Benedict Hollowin of the Firebrands (mentioned)
Treasure (Donatella)
Rare Tome x 3 (Change a spell miss into a hit, or a spell hit into a critical hit; the magic of the tome is then expended)
Sunday, July 13, 2014
Working on internet situation for Tuesday
Hey guys,
I closed on my house Thursday and have been moving in these last few days. I'm calling Comcast as soon as possible Monday, but I'm not sure internet will be available by Tuesday night. I'm hopeful, but if not I'll see if I can work running the game at my parents' house. Pretty sure one way or the other we play, but letting you all know the situation as of now.
- Rob
I closed on my house Thursday and have been moving in these last few days. I'm calling Comcast as soon as possible Monday, but I'm not sure internet will be available by Tuesday night. I'm hopeful, but if not I'll see if I can work running the game at my parents' house. Pretty sure one way or the other we play, but letting you all know the situation as of now.
- Rob
Tuesday, July 8, 2014
Wednesday, July 2, 2014
Chapter 2: The Spirit Endures
Delempar 24th - 26th
Previously...
Theros returned to the caravan he'd been traveling with to collect his belongings and gather information. Yaral saw something strange in the water, but other than that little new information was learned. The tabari conferred Norslandian caravels started firing from the harbor, and then all Hell broke loose as several forces invaded. The caravan elder, Nen, rued the humans' craving for war and ultimately gave Theros a magic ring as he left to find his new allies. Tabari were survivors, she assured him. Kinn was the only one not to say goodbye, still offended over some perceived slight during a hunt...
Meanwhile, Aleksi and Benjim had a thoughtful conversation on the party's next move while overlooking the contested capital. Despite the fall of Edmark transpiring below, Benjim was resolute. A city did not constitute a nation, and a nation did not constitute an idea. The Spirit of Avencia would endure, so long as those who believed it endured. They examined a crude map of the republic scrawled in the dirt, eventually picking Godswon as a place to reconvene what was left of the free Congress and summon forth General Warrish and the continental army.
On that note, Aleksi had his doubts Belarion would push any deeper into Avencia. It would be a complete strategic blunder, forcing Belarion to defend against two countries on two fronts. Congress had likely been their aim all along. Control Congress, and with a little misinformation control Avencia. And to the general public and the world stage, it still appeared as if Norsland invaded. Maia had all but confirmed otherwise, noting elves crewing the caravels. If Benjim and the other free delegates couldn't assemble and set forth a declaration against elven interference, Avencia could be falsely drawn into the war within days. The fires of purpose lit, they loaded up and went to collect the others.
Seeking further insight into the elven involvement, Vivianna, Maia, and Donatella assembled a nearby hilltop to perform a ritual of clairvoyance. The power of the three was more than any single woman expected and created an aura that could be felt and even seen on high. The hill became a beacon which drew Aleksi's scolding for its obviousness firstly, then a wing of one-man flying machines known as ornithopters. Truly the wonders of the artificing Empress Bela never ceased...
They fired using pedal-powered crossbows, swooping in and out among the gathering party. Theros managed to scale a tree in only a few bounds, leap from a high bough, and tackle one of the ornithopterists. While he crashed the unfortunate, Vivianna's magic turned one on the other. Aleksi conjured a bolt of lightning so sudden and forceful it killed the woman pilot before she even hit the ground. Delegates Benjim, Karina, and Lambert cheered from within the safety of the hut, but celebration was short-lived as yet another wing of ornithopters approached.
As an undead dire boar and a druidic storm-in-an-acorn provided interference for the second wave (courtesy of Donatella and Aleksi), the Dancing Hut with Viv's wagon in tow raced down the hillsides for the western shore. Deceivingly large, the journey across the island took several hours into night. During that time, Aleksi and Maia, with Theros as go-for, prepared a considerable ritual harnessing the wolf-girl's Ray of Frost spell. The idea was to create an iceberg large enough to sit the hut and wagon, then use a collection of bed sheets as a sail which the tabari, strongest among them, could steer from the roof.
Vivianna and Donatella spent the meanwhile interrogating Theros's downed pilot, Selm Ekkian, though for all the tools at their disposal he was rather compliant, if impassioned. Even specialized Belarion soldiers like the ornithopterists believed themselves in the right and had no knowledge of the elves or Belarion's possible deception. Secondly, Selm had been dispatched from one of two zeppelins hovering in artificial cloud banks over the Edema river, suggesting Belarion had been poised for such an invasion (or anticipating an attack). There was also the timing. Selm mentioned receiving orders to descend on the city just -before- the caravels fired, so that the ornithopters arrived in the same moment as the attack. Selm imagined the information came from some skilled Belarion agent in the nick of time, but it could have just as easily been a coordinated strike. A plan of this scope required time, precision, and strong leader like Princess Jubilee, perhaps, or that elven commander with the silvery lattice. The hows or whys aside, the most damning piece of evidence against Belarion lied in the simple fact the elves joined and were cooperating with their forces in the city.
It should be noted, the Norslandian caravels themselves showed signs of battle and wear, and had been repaired, suggesting these elves might have claimed them in a prior battle. It was still something of a mystery how they just appeared in the harbor without warning.
Maia made a startling transformation into something born of the deepest fey winters, channeling the Winter Court to unleash the ritual alongside Aleksi. The iceberg formed beautifully and, with Theros at the 'helm', the Dancing Hut, wagon, and crew made their way across the Valent River. Under the cover of darkness, without a ship in sight (who would approach the capital in such a state), they nearly made it to the opposite shore. Unfortunately, Yaral's words were heeded only after something rammed them from below, accidentally misfiring Vivianna's pistol and blowing Selm's brains out.
Then it surfaced, a giant, mechanical apparatus like an iron fish. Inside, two Belarion sailors controlled the device with a series of pedals and levers. Aiming torpedoes toward the iceberg, threatening to blow them up or sink them (it was understood the hut could not swim), Maia reacted. A Fireball spell flew from her claws, but in such a state it became an ice-ball, breached the hull, and froze it solid. Water flooded the interior and sank the apparatus like a gravestone.
On the Avencian mainland around dawn, the hut plopped down on the relatively secluded shore to rest. The party did likewise, although Theros gave Vivianna grief over Selm's senseless death. Godswon was another day or two, then the great task of saving the republic.
Notable NPCs
Nen, Iben and Abesos, Kinn, Yaral, and Libra
Unnamed Male Elf with the Silvery Lattice
Ornithopterist Selm Ekkian (dead)
Opposing the Ornithopters
Battle 2
Against the Apparatus
Treasure (Theros, gift from Nen)
Skin of Your Teeth (recharge 6+): When an enemy attacks you while wearing this ring, subtract 1 from the natural attack roll after seeing it.
Quirk: Regularly finds copper pieces and other minor valuables on the ground.
Previously...
Theros returned to the caravan he'd been traveling with to collect his belongings and gather information. Yaral saw something strange in the water, but other than that little new information was learned. The tabari conferred Norslandian caravels started firing from the harbor, and then all Hell broke loose as several forces invaded. The caravan elder, Nen, rued the humans' craving for war and ultimately gave Theros a magic ring as he left to find his new allies. Tabari were survivors, she assured him. Kinn was the only one not to say goodbye, still offended over some perceived slight during a hunt...
Meanwhile, Aleksi and Benjim had a thoughtful conversation on the party's next move while overlooking the contested capital. Despite the fall of Edmark transpiring below, Benjim was resolute. A city did not constitute a nation, and a nation did not constitute an idea. The Spirit of Avencia would endure, so long as those who believed it endured. They examined a crude map of the republic scrawled in the dirt, eventually picking Godswon as a place to reconvene what was left of the free Congress and summon forth General Warrish and the continental army.
On that note, Aleksi had his doubts Belarion would push any deeper into Avencia. It would be a complete strategic blunder, forcing Belarion to defend against two countries on two fronts. Congress had likely been their aim all along. Control Congress, and with a little misinformation control Avencia. And to the general public and the world stage, it still appeared as if Norsland invaded. Maia had all but confirmed otherwise, noting elves crewing the caravels. If Benjim and the other free delegates couldn't assemble and set forth a declaration against elven interference, Avencia could be falsely drawn into the war within days. The fires of purpose lit, they loaded up and went to collect the others.
Seeking further insight into the elven involvement, Vivianna, Maia, and Donatella assembled a nearby hilltop to perform a ritual of clairvoyance. The power of the three was more than any single woman expected and created an aura that could be felt and even seen on high. The hill became a beacon which drew Aleksi's scolding for its obviousness firstly, then a wing of one-man flying machines known as ornithopters. Truly the wonders of the artificing Empress Bela never ceased...
They fired using pedal-powered crossbows, swooping in and out among the gathering party. Theros managed to scale a tree in only a few bounds, leap from a high bough, and tackle one of the ornithopterists. While he crashed the unfortunate, Vivianna's magic turned one on the other. Aleksi conjured a bolt of lightning so sudden and forceful it killed the woman pilot before she even hit the ground. Delegates Benjim, Karina, and Lambert cheered from within the safety of the hut, but celebration was short-lived as yet another wing of ornithopters approached.
As an undead dire boar and a druidic storm-in-an-acorn provided interference for the second wave (courtesy of Donatella and Aleksi), the Dancing Hut with Viv's wagon in tow raced down the hillsides for the western shore. Deceivingly large, the journey across the island took several hours into night. During that time, Aleksi and Maia, with Theros as go-for, prepared a considerable ritual harnessing the wolf-girl's Ray of Frost spell. The idea was to create an iceberg large enough to sit the hut and wagon, then use a collection of bed sheets as a sail which the tabari, strongest among them, could steer from the roof.
Vivianna and Donatella spent the meanwhile interrogating Theros's downed pilot, Selm Ekkian, though for all the tools at their disposal he was rather compliant, if impassioned. Even specialized Belarion soldiers like the ornithopterists believed themselves in the right and had no knowledge of the elves or Belarion's possible deception. Secondly, Selm had been dispatched from one of two zeppelins hovering in artificial cloud banks over the Edema river, suggesting Belarion had been poised for such an invasion (or anticipating an attack). There was also the timing. Selm mentioned receiving orders to descend on the city just -before- the caravels fired, so that the ornithopters arrived in the same moment as the attack. Selm imagined the information came from some skilled Belarion agent in the nick of time, but it could have just as easily been a coordinated strike. A plan of this scope required time, precision, and strong leader like Princess Jubilee, perhaps, or that elven commander with the silvery lattice. The hows or whys aside, the most damning piece of evidence against Belarion lied in the simple fact the elves joined and were cooperating with their forces in the city.
It should be noted, the Norslandian caravels themselves showed signs of battle and wear, and had been repaired, suggesting these elves might have claimed them in a prior battle. It was still something of a mystery how they just appeared in the harbor without warning.
Maia made a startling transformation into something born of the deepest fey winters, channeling the Winter Court to unleash the ritual alongside Aleksi. The iceberg formed beautifully and, with Theros at the 'helm', the Dancing Hut, wagon, and crew made their way across the Valent River. Under the cover of darkness, without a ship in sight (who would approach the capital in such a state), they nearly made it to the opposite shore. Unfortunately, Yaral's words were heeded only after something rammed them from below, accidentally misfiring Vivianna's pistol and blowing Selm's brains out.
Then it surfaced, a giant, mechanical apparatus like an iron fish. Inside, two Belarion sailors controlled the device with a series of pedals and levers. Aiming torpedoes toward the iceberg, threatening to blow them up or sink them (it was understood the hut could not swim), Maia reacted. A Fireball spell flew from her claws, but in such a state it became an ice-ball, breached the hull, and froze it solid. Water flooded the interior and sank the apparatus like a gravestone.
On the Avencian mainland around dawn, the hut plopped down on the relatively secluded shore to rest. The party did likewise, although Theros gave Vivianna grief over Selm's senseless death. Godswon was another day or two, then the great task of saving the republic.
Notable NPCs
Nen, Iben and Abesos, Kinn, Yaral, and Libra
Unnamed Male Elf with the Silvery Lattice
Ornithopterist Selm Ekkian (dead)
Opposing the Ornithopters
Battle 2
Against the Apparatus
Treasure (Theros, gift from Nen)
Skin of Your Teeth (recharge 6+): When an enemy attacks you while wearing this ring, subtract 1 from the natural attack roll after seeing it.
Quirk: Regularly finds copper pieces and other minor valuables on the ground.
Friday, June 27, 2014
Chapter 1: The Free City
Delempar (April) 24th
Previously…
Previously…
The Free City of Edmark hosted representatives from Norsland and Belarion, hoping to remain neutral in the expanding War of the Crown north. Unfortunately, Congress’s lack of commitment toward one side or the other inspired a sneak attack from one or even both visiting nations. Each claiming the moral high ground, ‘protecting’ Congress from the other side, the result was the fall of hallowed Aventium and a mad grab for senators. Among those taken were Anita D’Artigo (with a considerable fight) and Emiss Madson, notable Founders.
In the chaos, the party of Theros, Donatella, Aleksi, Maia, and Vivianna- previously relegated to clerical work with the slim chances of being called to the senate floor for testimonials- braved the carnage and escaped with several congresspeople, including the famed Founder Benjim Stover. Belarion’s crown princess Jubilee Norson, after having just delivered a warning to Congress, absconded with ten times as many.
As Norslandian and Belarion forces flooded the streets for control of the city and unprepared Avencians struggled to establish some counter, the group and their charges stole away into the hills overlooking the city via a famed Izoldan Dancing Hut. There they found a fled tabari caravan, a surprised collection of dwarven surveyors, and a few straggling Edmarkians taking refuge.
Currently, Theros is about to retrieve his gear from his feline fellows, while a few of the women ponder a ritual to shed light on the confusion below. Three had seen Norslandian caravels fire on the city from the harbor, however Maia’s further investigating revealed those on board were not human at all, rather elves with passing guises (convincing from afar). It is possible Belarion shot first, though the implications of faraway Corellon lending assistance loom as a frightening alternative...
Notable NPCs
Princess Jubilee Norson
Empress Bela Norson (mentioned)
Benjim Stover
Emiss Madson
Anita D'Artigo
Notable NPCs
Princess Jubilee Norson
Empress Bela Norson (mentioned)
Benjim Stover
Emiss Madson
Anita D'Artigo
Tuesday, June 3, 2014
Thursday, May 1, 2014
13 Icons of the Second Generation
The Third Avencian Congress- Avencia's ruling body is a congregation of democratically-elected officials ranging modest farmers and shopkeepers to some of the wealthiest landowners and merchants in the country. In Edmark's most hallowed meeting hall of Aventium, they guide and shape the nation according to the demands of the people and the principles of justice and fairness epitomized by the goddess Aventine, a nationalized aspect of the Spirit of Harmony. Working in harmony with Avencia's military under the command of Gregory Warrish, a decorated general with the soul of a humble farmer and the quiet gravitas of a mountain, Congress has managed to lay the groundwork for a remarkable new nation, a democratic nation, championed by the people and for the people, what many dub "The Great Experiment".
Most influential in Congress are "The Founders" who, over the last forty years, exemplified the spirit of the nation. These heroes and heroines will forever be remembered in the history books and include: the affable printer, diplomat, and inventor Benjim Stover, the wealthy lawyer and son of shipbuilders Godsward Wright, the fiery freedom fighter turned equally fiery representative Anita D'Artigo, the passionate mayor and lord-lawyer of Taldare Johan Maddox, the philosopher and political theorist Emiss Madson, keen businessman and investor Axel-Lanx Milton, the former half-elven slave turned liberator Harriet Canton, spy and mistress of disguise Sonia Lambert, and poet and political orator Phyllis D. Chaff.
Aventine (Spirit of Liberty)- Chiefest of the deities in Avencia by a wide margin, the Spirit of Liberty was a profound and ever-present companion to Avencians in their struggles to find independence in the days following Edmark's cessation. She stood beside them against the corrupt officials, enlisted street thugs, and Consortium pressures which sought to overwhelm and undermine the Free City during its infancy. She trekked beside the frontiersman and explorers as they settled the lands forfeited by the Emperor following the Yellow Accord. She inspires Avencia's leaders, keeps their lawmakers honest, and provides both solace and conviction to the soldiers and decision-makers when hate groups, raiders, loyalists, monsters, and dissenters attempt their killing blows. Her likeness is found in every Avencian church and civic hall, a symbol of justice, order, integrity, and protection. Her tenants inspire numerous Avencian groups and a large number of questing knights, hunters, justicars, and lawmen. Her sacred animals are the griffin, eagle, and lion. She is most often depicted as a strong, female figure, sometimes winged, other times blindfolded.
The Archangels of Heaven- Most Avencians pay tribute and homage to the planar paragons of good, the archangels of Heaven. Angel worship has always been present in the region, especially in the late days of the Holy Nors Empire, yet with the founding of Avencia such devotion ingrained itself into the nation's identity and became much more wide spread. Each town and city in Avencia adopted an angel as its patron and protector as follows:
Taldare: Barastis, Angel of Courage
Lionhold: Sophiel, Angel of Empathy
Savara: Samartan, Angel of Strength
Godswon: Raziel, Angel of Righteous Fury
Hawkmoon: Eperiel, Angel of Patience
Ambros: Lathiel, Angel of Knowledge
Griffin's Hold: Ziphek, Angel of Oaths
Forlane: Kistiel, Angel of Unselfish Love
Wesburg: Metaton, Angel of Just Authority
Erinos: Eroel, Angel of Truth
These archangels are celebrated, revered, and invoked during important dealings related to their spheres of influence. Various militia and soldiers have adopted something from their angelic patrons in their names and likenesses. The Razielian Order of Firebrands, for instance, borrow the angel's zealous tenacity in pursuit of gnolls, spies, cults, and the Brotherhood. The Eroelian Quarrelers act as warrior-legates and lawyers-errant in defense of the innocent and underrepresented in the Avencian courts.
Despite the people's endearment, archangels are truly secondary figures under Aventine. In the celestial order, they do not directly serve her, rather the ambiguous King of Eternity (King of Heaven and Hell). However, Aventine still sees fit to exalt them as models of Avencian ideals.
The Scarlet Blades- The semi-secretive order of the Scarlet Blades was originally a single mantle passed down through generations of freedom fighters left with no other recourse than to dawn a crimson mask, take up a sword, and defend the freedoms of the common people by way of roguish exploits. The folk hero plagued Nors authorities for a century, though the days of a single Scarlet Blade ended with Anita D'Artigo. After the Yellow Accord surrendered vast swaths of land to the empire's colonies and satellites, Anita saw an opportunity to use the Scarlet Blade as a way to keep the country honest and its people protected if the law should ever fail them. Yet getting on in age, with an entire nation to cover, she opted to found the organization as it is known today. Scarlet Blades occupy nearly every town and city, still more scattered across the countryside, and while they're by no means an army (couldn't be more than a few dozen, if that), they're a powerful presence in the public consciousness and in national politics. Most see the blades as servants of the people, but some feel their vigilante exploits undermine due process and Congressional law. Thus far, the blades have been tolerable and their actions inherently good and just. Having their leader as a popular member of Congress certainly helps, as well. All know Anita more or less controls the blades, but specific agents are complete mysteries. And you'd sooner get Orcus reciting love poems than Anita D'Artigo betraying even one of her proteges.
The Brotherhood of Man- Hatred is difficult to cure. It lingers, an infection that is passed from parent to child. It festers within new hearts and minds left scarred by the strife, pain, and unfortunate circumstances. The Brotherhood of Man endures into modern day as a clan-based hate group, operating in cells across the region. They are your neighbors, businessmen, merchants, and could be as powerful as landowners and government officials. Perpetrators of murder, arson, and general terror as part of a fanatical pro-human agenda, they are hunted tirelessly by the Scarlet Blades. They meet in secret, backwater places, finding the countryside far more conducive than urban areas. Though very few yet live, the highest echelons of the Brotherhood are said to be populated with the last of the Holy Nors Inquisition, powerful psychics and immoral pseudo-doctors and scientists.
Norsland, or The Old Empire- Forty years ago, the Emperor shocked the world by surrendering the majority of the Holy Nors Empire's holdings back to their native peoples. Known as the Yellow Accord after the shrouded ythlord that crashed the summit, it changed the face of Othyr forever. Tolerna, Liscar, and Citadel were freed from the yoke of the empire. Thrakkis, Avencia, and Izolda were allowed to form in the wake. Imperials retained their ancestral heartland, as well as the eastern stretches of the Soveros Forest reaching to the sea. While greatly reducing the empire's political, military, and economic power, the accord did manage to galvanize the continent against an annihilating foe and produce four decades of relative peace. Some would say it was worth it. Others would not...
Surviving as Norsland, also referred to as The Old Empire, imperials owe their allegiance to a supreme monarch with a blood tie to the ancient God-King, currently Emperor Deucalion Norson. Even in his youth, Deucalion proved to be his father's son, possessing a startling intellect and presence that demanded attention. Through the tutelage of his cloistered 'sisters' and their psionic Order of the Gilded Cage, he tapped into his latent psychic power and developed into a formidable psion. On the battlefield, he cut his teeth fighting greenskins in the Ultus as part of a joint effort between Citadel and Norsland, in the process earning the affection of both dwarven princesses and a healthy respect from the dwarven people. At 38, Deucalion was poised to assume leadership of the heartland, strong of mind and body, experienced, well-liked, intent on fortifying Norsland and strengthening the alliances with its neighbors. And then the empire split...
Deucalion's rule is entirely dependent on finances of the oligarchic, multinational Consortium, whom some worry are the true lords of Norsland. The Consortium is headed by a masked council of tycoons named the Golden Lord, the Iron Lord, the Harvest Lord, and Lord of Jacks. Their pull inside and outside of the country is immense, and they monopolize trade throughout much of Othyr. Only Avencia, Saspien, and Azerbad remain independent of the Consortium's direct contracts, but no economy is entirely free of its hooks. They employ all manner of political and economic pressures to see their ends met and use their extensive finances to exact violence and destruction when their will is tested. While accommodating the imperial bloodline, their one true loyalty is to themselves and their joint enterprise which is doubtless the largest and most powerful corporation in Loranna.
Norsland, though smaller and leaner than its previous incarnations, is still arguably the most powerful nation in Othyr- though the Kingdom of Belarion would challenge that assumption. It possesses a powerful army drawn from the loyal houses of the west, psychic allies in the canaries of the Gilded Cage, an accomplished navy split between river and ocean armadas, practically unlimited funds out of the Consortium which employ various bastard kings and mercenary companies for the cause, and of course the last of the dragonriders by way of the Redcliffe dragoons. They are close allies with the dwarves of Citadel and the Etherians north. The Nors people are strongly in support of their leadership, as well, feeling wronged by the betrayal east and eager to prove the empire viable in the modern day. Enlistment is up, nation pride has never been higher, and Emperor Deucalion stands armed and ready on the edges of history. It remains to be seen if they will call him Deucalion the Lesser, Deucalion the Compromiser, or Deucalion the Conqueror...
The Corellon Dynasty- Far across the eastern oceans, the continent of Corellon exists as a mysterious realm swirling with mists, magic, and rumors. The majority of elves across the various worlds and planes have migrated to its pristine face over the last several decades, raising new kingdoms within this resplendent Empire of Elvendom.
Only a handful of non-elves have visited the continent since its miraculous inception some forty years ago, but all know it is ruled by Highking Gloriandel, first of the elves, legend of the ancient past who fought the dark gods and demons of prehistory, enslaved mankind at the height of the Gloriandeline Empire, and fell to the might of the God-King Nor at the dawning of the age of mankind. He was reborn near the end of the Legacy Event, his god-like power helping turn the tides through numerous acts of impossibility. Seldarine, star elf demigods who managed to fuse magic and technology into something living and wondrous, also frequent the continent, as do many elven legends and heroes resurrected from days of old. There has never been nor ever will be such a union of elven powers, a fact which reassures some and terrifies others.
The Eastern Kingdom of Belarion- Three years ago, the half-elf Bela Norson shocked the continent with her arrival on the far eastern shores of the Soveros by way of what can only be described as a semi-sentient underwater apparatus (what she called Kwalish). Great granddaughter of Highking Gloriandel, she was already a princess, but Bela had come to Othyr to be empress.
Forty-six years ago, the Crown Prince Frederick Norson and Prophetess Kaylan Gloriandel conceived a daughter. She was to be the heir of destiny, the union of Nors and elven royalty who would one day unify them into one glorious kingdom. Under the tutelage of heroes and legends the likes of her mother, Relic the Warforged, and Celinduil the Gold, Bela grew into a living zenith of knowledge, wisdom, and power. Her mastery of the Seldarine fusion of magic and technology known as Incarnum enables her to construct nearly anything she desires from any material available to her.
Motives aside, Bela's move has split the empire and started a war. And if the War of the Crown should go well for Bela, will Corellonian forces follow? Will they arrive as reinforcements if their elf-blooded scion should falter? Though it's been a thousand years since the elves enslaved the continent, few have forgotten or forgiven the old crimes. Most Othyrian nations would be up in arms at any direct intervention on the elves' part, but thus far The Corellon Dynasty has not officially backed or repudiated Empress Bela.
However Bela did not come alone, nor did she remain without allies for very long. Her life-long protector Relic traveled with her, as did her elven half-brother Criss Serenor and her adopted older sister Tina Belmont. Together, they managed to win over the allegiance of the eastern noble houses and the peoples of the Soveros and The Emerald Coast. They split the empire in two and ignited a war to erase the last marks of the old empire for once and for all.
Most recently, Prophetess Kaylan Serenor has joined her children in the midst of Belarion's lines, inspiring great controversy. The Etherian leader and devote Kalian High Priest Oranar does not condone the war or recognize Bela's claim, placing the two great religious leaders on opposite sides of the growing conflict. As the war carries on and expands, it becomes more and more likely Kalian will be forced to battle Kalian, as Norsmen now battle Norsmen.
The Circle of Ten- Led by the venerable archdruid Tyvis Weylan, the order of druids spans multiple worlds and draws from native Primal practitioners ranging a staggering number of races and species.
The Dawn Knights- Over the last thirty years, tensions between Etheria and Izolda have spiked. Conflict is inevitable. As it stands, bad blood already boils over on both sides and has for more than a generation. Such longstanding aggression is counter to everything Etheria stands for. And when Etheria's disillusioned souls convene for anger's sake, nothing good can come of it...
When a militant order of dissenters and warhawks under the leadership of Rava, daughter of the fiery archangel Raziel, came into being on Etherias' fifth peak of Mertion, the High Priest's condemnation was understandable. Calling themselves Dawn Knights, their official mission is the recover the lost fragment of Kalia, what they glorify as The Solar Grail, in order to add the former sun goddess Kalinda's greatness to the resplendent Radiant Mother. A presumptuous, if fictitious, mission, the High Priest would argue, however his forceful disbanding of the knights never came, not even after all his political and theocratic enemies consolidated themselves into this one order over fifteen years of existence. A pious Etherian would condemn the lack of action. A zealous Etherian might applaud it. An observant Etherian might see the wisdom in allowing such an order to exist as one entity, to be monitored and manipulated as necessary.
That said, most political analysts would agree the main reason Dawn Knights endure is the need for agents in the contested foothills of the Holy Mountain. The Izoldans have been rabble-rousing with designs of annexation for years, moving ever closer to subsuming pieces of Etheria into the Motherland. Necessity perhaps outweighs the ideological or moral compromises that come with the knights, who are not known for their compassion or patience, rather their exactness, unerring devotion, and the very black-and-white morality which allows them to complete their objectives quickly and effectively. Kalia is mute on her favor or disapproval, but Etherians are generally in favor of the knightly work. Their questing for the grail comes with the destruction of evil, after all, as well as good works such as the building of hospitals, orphanages, and churches.
While having operated exclusively in Etheria since their inception, recently the knights have been making experimental forays into neighboring nations (though never officially in Izolda) in pursuit of evil and The Solar Grail. The larger implications of this militant Etherian organization taking an active part in the lives, politics, and religions of other nations remains to be seen.
It has not escaped either Giers or Rava that in the tumult of the War of the Crown, with Norsland occupied, Izolda could make a play to conquer the Holy Mountain once and for all. Against that threat, high priest and half-angel are the staunchest of allies.
The Mysterious Stranger- The Mysterious Traveler is the allure of the unknown, the promise beyond the horizon, the wisdom and celerity to overcome the trials of a journey, and the luck which often saves travelers if their courage holds. She is Quest-Giver, Rumor-Starter, The Lady of Legends and Lore, and chiefest matron of adventurers, explorers, seekers, wanderers, couriers, scouts, bards and storytellers. She keeps safe the roads and trade routes, and brings tidings good and ill. She values quickness of body and wit, raising cats and horses sacred. In the Othyrian Heartland, she is most often named Gwenth, Lyonesse, Selen, and Theya by men of Norsland and Avencia, Rheath or Sudz by dwarves, and Cerriwen by the Belarions.
She considers inns, taverns, and festhalls her churches. Thus she is also the goddess of beer and wine, music and song, celebration and victory (particularly to the dwarves, who've developed a long list of affectionate titles for her including Ole' Lay Barrelbelly, Her Unsoberness, and Lady of the White Froth Beard). Conversely, in the lands of Izolda she is a much grimmer persona (and in fact a male persona, at that), The Gray Man of a Thousand Names whose appearance is often thought the forebear of great turmoil. In the tropical jungles of Tir'buk, the tabari consider her the supreme mother over all other goddesses, as do most centaur tribes.
With a very active hand in the mortal worlds, she initiates change in the most unlikely places. Tugging at the unpleasant knots of fate's skein is the surest way of undoing them, her brand of destiny... though it's never quite sure how the tapestry of creation will look afterward. She spends much of her time journeying across the known (and unknown) worlds. It is said everyone will meet The Mysterious Traveler at least once in their life, under one guise or another. Be careful how you treat a stranger.
Citadel- Forty years after the Yellow Accord, Queen Tasha Thorleif has firmly established her rule in the Ultus Mountains. The mountain dwarves have exterminated the greenskin filth soiling their ancestral holdings and reopened the ancient halls of Klangin and Grimkey, restoring a healthy national mining operation in partnership with the Consortium.
Even more noteworthy, the dwarves have expanded their subterranean metropolis of Citadel to include The Western Pass, a forty-year endeavor which has produced a massive tunnel through the mountains. It provides easier, safer, and quicker passage between Othyr's western coast and the heartland. The dwarves are already leveraging tolls and trade contracts into a very real economic advantage. It has not escaped national leaders that troops could just as easily pass through the tunnel, giving armies direct lines to several nations previously shielded by the mountain range. Tolerna, Saspien, and Norsland keep a very close eye on these developments, especially with future plans to extend the tunnel underground and link it with several major routes in the Underdark. Tasha has appointed her twin daughters Shem and Hilda as Wardens of the West and East respectively, two savvy, calculating young princesses controlling either end of the causeway. Their handling of the tunnel over the next several decades will decide which daughter Tasha names her heir. After all, there can only be one queen of Citadel.
As with Avencia, Citadel is being heavily courted by both the emperor and empress, though like the republic it insists on remaining neutral for as long as it can. If push came to shove, the dwarves would most likely side with Norsland. The princesses and the emperor grew up together, and Citadel holds numerous trade contracts and Consortium connections. However, should Empress Bela somehow manage to forge a more lucrative trade agreement between Citadel and the elves of Corellon, tides might turn...
Thrakkis- The Black Dragonate is a swampy, river-lashed nation of gnat-infested marshes along its northern borders gradating into healthier wetlands near its heart and dense jungles to the south. It proves an enigmatic and ominous neighbor of Avencia, an unknown factor in all international affairs. Ruled by the Wyrm Queen, Daithrakk the Black, one of only a handful of elder wyrms left in Creation, she is an immensely powerful and cunning creature that micromanages every little facet of her pet nation through spells and proxies. Her concern is power and treasure, fed a steady diet of goods and gold through her cities of Port Chauvin and Marakand, though she's content to play a patient game spanning generations for more potential wealth. The War of the Crown amuses her and she watches closely to see how it might prove beneficial.
The Wyrm Queen is served fanatically by her brood, black dregoi that worship her as a goddess and make up a caste of zealously loyal governors and generals lording over the lizardman, bullywug, and human populations. Though her lair is a closely-guarded secret, her viceroys and pureblood dragon children, Spittingdeath and Misery, make their palaces in the famed dungeons of the Shrine of Tamoachan and Temple of the Frog. Thrakkis' borders are unguarded, her hordes dispersed, and currently seems disinterested in expansion, however moving against the country would be about as wise as rousing a sleeping dragon.
Most influential in Congress are "The Founders" who, over the last forty years, exemplified the spirit of the nation. These heroes and heroines will forever be remembered in the history books and include: the affable printer, diplomat, and inventor Benjim Stover, the wealthy lawyer and son of shipbuilders Godsward Wright, the fiery freedom fighter turned equally fiery representative Anita D'Artigo, the passionate mayor and lord-lawyer of Taldare Johan Maddox, the philosopher and political theorist Emiss Madson, keen businessman and investor Axel-Lanx Milton, the former half-elven slave turned liberator Harriet Canton, spy and mistress of disguise Sonia Lambert, and poet and political orator Phyllis D. Chaff.
Aventine (Spirit of Liberty)- Chiefest of the deities in Avencia by a wide margin, the Spirit of Liberty was a profound and ever-present companion to Avencians in their struggles to find independence in the days following Edmark's cessation. She stood beside them against the corrupt officials, enlisted street thugs, and Consortium pressures which sought to overwhelm and undermine the Free City during its infancy. She trekked beside the frontiersman and explorers as they settled the lands forfeited by the Emperor following the Yellow Accord. She inspires Avencia's leaders, keeps their lawmakers honest, and provides both solace and conviction to the soldiers and decision-makers when hate groups, raiders, loyalists, monsters, and dissenters attempt their killing blows. Her likeness is found in every Avencian church and civic hall, a symbol of justice, order, integrity, and protection. Her tenants inspire numerous Avencian groups and a large number of questing knights, hunters, justicars, and lawmen. Her sacred animals are the griffin, eagle, and lion. She is most often depicted as a strong, female figure, sometimes winged, other times blindfolded.
The Archangels of Heaven- Most Avencians pay tribute and homage to the planar paragons of good, the archangels of Heaven. Angel worship has always been present in the region, especially in the late days of the Holy Nors Empire, yet with the founding of Avencia such devotion ingrained itself into the nation's identity and became much more wide spread. Each town and city in Avencia adopted an angel as its patron and protector as follows:
Taldare: Barastis, Angel of Courage
Lionhold: Sophiel, Angel of Empathy
Savara: Samartan, Angel of Strength
Godswon: Raziel, Angel of Righteous Fury
Hawkmoon: Eperiel, Angel of Patience
Ambros: Lathiel, Angel of Knowledge
Griffin's Hold: Ziphek, Angel of Oaths
Forlane: Kistiel, Angel of Unselfish Love
Wesburg: Metaton, Angel of Just Authority
Erinos: Eroel, Angel of Truth
These archangels are celebrated, revered, and invoked during important dealings related to their spheres of influence. Various militia and soldiers have adopted something from their angelic patrons in their names and likenesses. The Razielian Order of Firebrands, for instance, borrow the angel's zealous tenacity in pursuit of gnolls, spies, cults, and the Brotherhood. The Eroelian Quarrelers act as warrior-legates and lawyers-errant in defense of the innocent and underrepresented in the Avencian courts.
Despite the people's endearment, archangels are truly secondary figures under Aventine. In the celestial order, they do not directly serve her, rather the ambiguous King of Eternity (King of Heaven and Hell). However, Aventine still sees fit to exalt them as models of Avencian ideals.
The Scarlet Blades- The semi-secretive order of the Scarlet Blades was originally a single mantle passed down through generations of freedom fighters left with no other recourse than to dawn a crimson mask, take up a sword, and defend the freedoms of the common people by way of roguish exploits. The folk hero plagued Nors authorities for a century, though the days of a single Scarlet Blade ended with Anita D'Artigo. After the Yellow Accord surrendered vast swaths of land to the empire's colonies and satellites, Anita saw an opportunity to use the Scarlet Blade as a way to keep the country honest and its people protected if the law should ever fail them. Yet getting on in age, with an entire nation to cover, she opted to found the organization as it is known today. Scarlet Blades occupy nearly every town and city, still more scattered across the countryside, and while they're by no means an army (couldn't be more than a few dozen, if that), they're a powerful presence in the public consciousness and in national politics. Most see the blades as servants of the people, but some feel their vigilante exploits undermine due process and Congressional law. Thus far, the blades have been tolerable and their actions inherently good and just. Having their leader as a popular member of Congress certainly helps, as well. All know Anita more or less controls the blades, but specific agents are complete mysteries. And you'd sooner get Orcus reciting love poems than Anita D'Artigo betraying even one of her proteges.
The Brotherhood of Man- Hatred is difficult to cure. It lingers, an infection that is passed from parent to child. It festers within new hearts and minds left scarred by the strife, pain, and unfortunate circumstances. The Brotherhood of Man endures into modern day as a clan-based hate group, operating in cells across the region. They are your neighbors, businessmen, merchants, and could be as powerful as landowners and government officials. Perpetrators of murder, arson, and general terror as part of a fanatical pro-human agenda, they are hunted tirelessly by the Scarlet Blades. They meet in secret, backwater places, finding the countryside far more conducive than urban areas. Though very few yet live, the highest echelons of the Brotherhood are said to be populated with the last of the Holy Nors Inquisition, powerful psychics and immoral pseudo-doctors and scientists.
Norsland, or The Old Empire- Forty years ago, the Emperor shocked the world by surrendering the majority of the Holy Nors Empire's holdings back to their native peoples. Known as the Yellow Accord after the shrouded ythlord that crashed the summit, it changed the face of Othyr forever. Tolerna, Liscar, and Citadel were freed from the yoke of the empire. Thrakkis, Avencia, and Izolda were allowed to form in the wake. Imperials retained their ancestral heartland, as well as the eastern stretches of the Soveros Forest reaching to the sea. While greatly reducing the empire's political, military, and economic power, the accord did manage to galvanize the continent against an annihilating foe and produce four decades of relative peace. Some would say it was worth it. Others would not...
Surviving as Norsland, also referred to as The Old Empire, imperials owe their allegiance to a supreme monarch with a blood tie to the ancient God-King, currently Emperor Deucalion Norson. Even in his youth, Deucalion proved to be his father's son, possessing a startling intellect and presence that demanded attention. Through the tutelage of his cloistered 'sisters' and their psionic Order of the Gilded Cage, he tapped into his latent psychic power and developed into a formidable psion. On the battlefield, he cut his teeth fighting greenskins in the Ultus as part of a joint effort between Citadel and Norsland, in the process earning the affection of both dwarven princesses and a healthy respect from the dwarven people. At 38, Deucalion was poised to assume leadership of the heartland, strong of mind and body, experienced, well-liked, intent on fortifying Norsland and strengthening the alliances with its neighbors. And then the empire split...
Deucalion's rule is entirely dependent on finances of the oligarchic, multinational Consortium, whom some worry are the true lords of Norsland. The Consortium is headed by a masked council of tycoons named the Golden Lord, the Iron Lord, the Harvest Lord, and Lord of Jacks. Their pull inside and outside of the country is immense, and they monopolize trade throughout much of Othyr. Only Avencia, Saspien, and Azerbad remain independent of the Consortium's direct contracts, but no economy is entirely free of its hooks. They employ all manner of political and economic pressures to see their ends met and use their extensive finances to exact violence and destruction when their will is tested. While accommodating the imperial bloodline, their one true loyalty is to themselves and their joint enterprise which is doubtless the largest and most powerful corporation in Loranna.
Norsland, though smaller and leaner than its previous incarnations, is still arguably the most powerful nation in Othyr- though the Kingdom of Belarion would challenge that assumption. It possesses a powerful army drawn from the loyal houses of the west, psychic allies in the canaries of the Gilded Cage, an accomplished navy split between river and ocean armadas, practically unlimited funds out of the Consortium which employ various bastard kings and mercenary companies for the cause, and of course the last of the dragonriders by way of the Redcliffe dragoons. They are close allies with the dwarves of Citadel and the Etherians north. The Nors people are strongly in support of their leadership, as well, feeling wronged by the betrayal east and eager to prove the empire viable in the modern day. Enlistment is up, nation pride has never been higher, and Emperor Deucalion stands armed and ready on the edges of history. It remains to be seen if they will call him Deucalion the Lesser, Deucalion the Compromiser, or Deucalion the Conqueror...
The Corellon Dynasty- Far across the eastern oceans, the continent of Corellon exists as a mysterious realm swirling with mists, magic, and rumors. The majority of elves across the various worlds and planes have migrated to its pristine face over the last several decades, raising new kingdoms within this resplendent Empire of Elvendom.
Only a handful of non-elves have visited the continent since its miraculous inception some forty years ago, but all know it is ruled by Highking Gloriandel, first of the elves, legend of the ancient past who fought the dark gods and demons of prehistory, enslaved mankind at the height of the Gloriandeline Empire, and fell to the might of the God-King Nor at the dawning of the age of mankind. He was reborn near the end of the Legacy Event, his god-like power helping turn the tides through numerous acts of impossibility. Seldarine, star elf demigods who managed to fuse magic and technology into something living and wondrous, also frequent the continent, as do many elven legends and heroes resurrected from days of old. There has never been nor ever will be such a union of elven powers, a fact which reassures some and terrifies others.
The Eastern Kingdom of Belarion- Three years ago, the half-elf Bela Norson shocked the continent with her arrival on the far eastern shores of the Soveros by way of what can only be described as a semi-sentient underwater apparatus (what she called Kwalish). Great granddaughter of Highking Gloriandel, she was already a princess, but Bela had come to Othyr to be empress.
Forty-six years ago, the Crown Prince Frederick Norson and Prophetess Kaylan Gloriandel conceived a daughter. She was to be the heir of destiny, the union of Nors and elven royalty who would one day unify them into one glorious kingdom. Under the tutelage of heroes and legends the likes of her mother, Relic the Warforged, and Celinduil the Gold, Bela grew into a living zenith of knowledge, wisdom, and power. Her mastery of the Seldarine fusion of magic and technology known as Incarnum enables her to construct nearly anything she desires from any material available to her.
Motives aside, Bela's move has split the empire and started a war. And if the War of the Crown should go well for Bela, will Corellonian forces follow? Will they arrive as reinforcements if their elf-blooded scion should falter? Though it's been a thousand years since the elves enslaved the continent, few have forgotten or forgiven the old crimes. Most Othyrian nations would be up in arms at any direct intervention on the elves' part, but thus far The Corellon Dynasty has not officially backed or repudiated Empress Bela.
However Bela did not come alone, nor did she remain without allies for very long. Her life-long protector Relic traveled with her, as did her elven half-brother Criss Serenor and her adopted older sister Tina Belmont. Together, they managed to win over the allegiance of the eastern noble houses and the peoples of the Soveros and The Emerald Coast. They split the empire in two and ignited a war to erase the last marks of the old empire for once and for all.
Most recently, Prophetess Kaylan Serenor has joined her children in the midst of Belarion's lines, inspiring great controversy. The Etherian leader and devote Kalian High Priest Oranar does not condone the war or recognize Bela's claim, placing the two great religious leaders on opposite sides of the growing conflict. As the war carries on and expands, it becomes more and more likely Kalian will be forced to battle Kalian, as Norsmen now battle Norsmen.
The Circle of Ten- Led by the venerable archdruid Tyvis Weylan, the order of druids spans multiple worlds and draws from native Primal practitioners ranging a staggering number of races and species.
The Dawn Knights- Over the last thirty years, tensions between Etheria and Izolda have spiked. Conflict is inevitable. As it stands, bad blood already boils over on both sides and has for more than a generation. Such longstanding aggression is counter to everything Etheria stands for. And when Etheria's disillusioned souls convene for anger's sake, nothing good can come of it...
When a militant order of dissenters and warhawks under the leadership of Rava, daughter of the fiery archangel Raziel, came into being on Etherias' fifth peak of Mertion, the High Priest's condemnation was understandable. Calling themselves Dawn Knights, their official mission is the recover the lost fragment of Kalia, what they glorify as The Solar Grail, in order to add the former sun goddess Kalinda's greatness to the resplendent Radiant Mother. A presumptuous, if fictitious, mission, the High Priest would argue, however his forceful disbanding of the knights never came, not even after all his political and theocratic enemies consolidated themselves into this one order over fifteen years of existence. A pious Etherian would condemn the lack of action. A zealous Etherian might applaud it. An observant Etherian might see the wisdom in allowing such an order to exist as one entity, to be monitored and manipulated as necessary.
That said, most political analysts would agree the main reason Dawn Knights endure is the need for agents in the contested foothills of the Holy Mountain. The Izoldans have been rabble-rousing with designs of annexation for years, moving ever closer to subsuming pieces of Etheria into the Motherland. Necessity perhaps outweighs the ideological or moral compromises that come with the knights, who are not known for their compassion or patience, rather their exactness, unerring devotion, and the very black-and-white morality which allows them to complete their objectives quickly and effectively. Kalia is mute on her favor or disapproval, but Etherians are generally in favor of the knightly work. Their questing for the grail comes with the destruction of evil, after all, as well as good works such as the building of hospitals, orphanages, and churches.
While having operated exclusively in Etheria since their inception, recently the knights have been making experimental forays into neighboring nations (though never officially in Izolda) in pursuit of evil and The Solar Grail. The larger implications of this militant Etherian organization taking an active part in the lives, politics, and religions of other nations remains to be seen.
It has not escaped either Giers or Rava that in the tumult of the War of the Crown, with Norsland occupied, Izolda could make a play to conquer the Holy Mountain once and for all. Against that threat, high priest and half-angel are the staunchest of allies.
The Mysterious Stranger- The Mysterious Traveler is the allure of the unknown, the promise beyond the horizon, the wisdom and celerity to overcome the trials of a journey, and the luck which often saves travelers if their courage holds. She is Quest-Giver, Rumor-Starter, The Lady of Legends and Lore, and chiefest matron of adventurers, explorers, seekers, wanderers, couriers, scouts, bards and storytellers. She keeps safe the roads and trade routes, and brings tidings good and ill. She values quickness of body and wit, raising cats and horses sacred. In the Othyrian Heartland, she is most often named Gwenth, Lyonesse, Selen, and Theya by men of Norsland and Avencia, Rheath or Sudz by dwarves, and Cerriwen by the Belarions.
She considers inns, taverns, and festhalls her churches. Thus she is also the goddess of beer and wine, music and song, celebration and victory (particularly to the dwarves, who've developed a long list of affectionate titles for her including Ole' Lay Barrelbelly, Her Unsoberness, and Lady of the White Froth Beard). Conversely, in the lands of Izolda she is a much grimmer persona (and in fact a male persona, at that), The Gray Man of a Thousand Names whose appearance is often thought the forebear of great turmoil. In the tropical jungles of Tir'buk, the tabari consider her the supreme mother over all other goddesses, as do most centaur tribes.
With a very active hand in the mortal worlds, she initiates change in the most unlikely places. Tugging at the unpleasant knots of fate's skein is the surest way of undoing them, her brand of destiny... though it's never quite sure how the tapestry of creation will look afterward. She spends much of her time journeying across the known (and unknown) worlds. It is said everyone will meet The Mysterious Traveler at least once in their life, under one guise or another. Be careful how you treat a stranger.
Citadel- Forty years after the Yellow Accord, Queen Tasha Thorleif has firmly established her rule in the Ultus Mountains. The mountain dwarves have exterminated the greenskin filth soiling their ancestral holdings and reopened the ancient halls of Klangin and Grimkey, restoring a healthy national mining operation in partnership with the Consortium.
Even more noteworthy, the dwarves have expanded their subterranean metropolis of Citadel to include The Western Pass, a forty-year endeavor which has produced a massive tunnel through the mountains. It provides easier, safer, and quicker passage between Othyr's western coast and the heartland. The dwarves are already leveraging tolls and trade contracts into a very real economic advantage. It has not escaped national leaders that troops could just as easily pass through the tunnel, giving armies direct lines to several nations previously shielded by the mountain range. Tolerna, Saspien, and Norsland keep a very close eye on these developments, especially with future plans to extend the tunnel underground and link it with several major routes in the Underdark. Tasha has appointed her twin daughters Shem and Hilda as Wardens of the West and East respectively, two savvy, calculating young princesses controlling either end of the causeway. Their handling of the tunnel over the next several decades will decide which daughter Tasha names her heir. After all, there can only be one queen of Citadel.
As with Avencia, Citadel is being heavily courted by both the emperor and empress, though like the republic it insists on remaining neutral for as long as it can. If push came to shove, the dwarves would most likely side with Norsland. The princesses and the emperor grew up together, and Citadel holds numerous trade contracts and Consortium connections. However, should Empress Bela somehow manage to forge a more lucrative trade agreement between Citadel and the elves of Corellon, tides might turn...
Thrakkis- The Black Dragonate is a swampy, river-lashed nation of gnat-infested marshes along its northern borders gradating into healthier wetlands near its heart and dense jungles to the south. It proves an enigmatic and ominous neighbor of Avencia, an unknown factor in all international affairs. Ruled by the Wyrm Queen, Daithrakk the Black, one of only a handful of elder wyrms left in Creation, she is an immensely powerful and cunning creature that micromanages every little facet of her pet nation through spells and proxies. Her concern is power and treasure, fed a steady diet of goods and gold through her cities of Port Chauvin and Marakand, though she's content to play a patient game spanning generations for more potential wealth. The War of the Crown amuses her and she watches closely to see how it might prove beneficial.
The Wyrm Queen is served fanatically by her brood, black dregoi that worship her as a goddess and make up a caste of zealously loyal governors and generals lording over the lizardman, bullywug, and human populations. Though her lair is a closely-guarded secret, her viceroys and pureblood dragon children, Spittingdeath and Misery, make their palaces in the famed dungeons of the Shrine of Tamoachan and Temple of the Frog. Thrakkis' borders are unguarded, her hordes dispersed, and currently seems disinterested in expansion, however moving against the country would be about as wise as rousing a sleeping dragon.
Sunday, April 27, 2014
You Are Champions
Beginning the generation, characters will be level 5. You are already considered accomplished heroes, champions, agents, or whatever you like. I do require that each of your characters have at least one defining moment in the region to start, something you are known for or very good at- maybe you defeated some slaver's ring and freed a string of towns, or you are the only survivor ever to have emerged from some deathtrap dungeon, or you've negotiated impossible terms with giant clans and orc hordes and they now serve as mercenary allies instead of perennial invaders. Whatever it might be, it's one of the driving reasons why you're presence was requested or required in Edmark at the start of the game. Even if your defining moment made you more celebrity than functional diplomat, the more important people in Edmark the better as far as Avencia is concerned. It deters extremes.
Prologue II: Twenty-One Years Later...
In the Year 70 After Shalraza
The Emperor is dead. At the age of 96, Endymion Norson perished of natural causes after refusing to seek and employ the potentially life-extending technologies once at his disposal. It remains to be seen how history will remember him, as if Endymion were two drastically different people in one life time: a merciless despot in his youth and a wise patriarch in his twilight years. Whatever might be said of the Emperor, the world endured beyond the Emperor's War and the Legacy Event in part through his efforts. Sadly, the fate of his empire is less assured.
It was intended Prince Deucalion Norson, biological son of the Emperor, would succeed him, however in Norsland's eastern empire of Soveros a contender rose. Bela Norson, daughter of the crown prince of the Nors Kingdom which predated the empire, appealed to the families that once served the line of kings ending with her late father Frederick Norson. The elf-touched empress succeeded in rallying the east and splitting the empire. Unofficially supported by the elves of The Corellon Dynasty across the sea and the venerable Kaylan Gloriandel, Prophet of Kalia and Bela's own mother, armies were raised and The War of the Crown began.
Considered a civil war by the rest of Othyr, the other nations have worked tirelessly to remain neutral in the affair, but with the self-destruction of any super power, the political whirlpool inevitably pulled neighbors into the conflict. The young nation of Avencia, Loranna's first and only democratic republic, has shouldered increasing pressures to choose a side. Despite its independence, Avencians still share many blood and cultural ties with Norsland's halves. However, the Third Avencian Congress and the majority of Avencia are adamant about staying out of the ordeal.
With battles raging along the eastern borders of Norsland and the emergent Eastern Kingdom of Belarion, envoys of the emperor and empress have descended upon Avencia's capital of Edmark to secure, or perhaps force, alliance. And on the third day of their visits, the generation begins...
The Emperor is dead. At the age of 96, Endymion Norson perished of natural causes after refusing to seek and employ the potentially life-extending technologies once at his disposal. It remains to be seen how history will remember him, as if Endymion were two drastically different people in one life time: a merciless despot in his youth and a wise patriarch in his twilight years. Whatever might be said of the Emperor, the world endured beyond the Emperor's War and the Legacy Event in part through his efforts. Sadly, the fate of his empire is less assured.
It was intended Prince Deucalion Norson, biological son of the Emperor, would succeed him, however in Norsland's eastern empire of Soveros a contender rose. Bela Norson, daughter of the crown prince of the Nors Kingdom which predated the empire, appealed to the families that once served the line of kings ending with her late father Frederick Norson. The elf-touched empress succeeded in rallying the east and splitting the empire. Unofficially supported by the elves of The Corellon Dynasty across the sea and the venerable Kaylan Gloriandel, Prophet of Kalia and Bela's own mother, armies were raised and The War of the Crown began.
Considered a civil war by the rest of Othyr, the other nations have worked tirelessly to remain neutral in the affair, but with the self-destruction of any super power, the political whirlpool inevitably pulled neighbors into the conflict. The young nation of Avencia, Loranna's first and only democratic republic, has shouldered increasing pressures to choose a side. Despite its independence, Avencians still share many blood and cultural ties with Norsland's halves. However, the Third Avencian Congress and the majority of Avencia are adamant about staying out of the ordeal.
With battles raging along the eastern borders of Norsland and the emergent Eastern Kingdom of Belarion, envoys of the emperor and empress have descended upon Avencia's capital of Edmark to secure, or perhaps force, alliance. And on the third day of their visits, the generation begins...
Sunday, April 20, 2014
Wednesday, April 16, 2014
Chapter 13: The Radiant Revenge of the Sun Hag!
Gent 21st (evening), 49 AS
Synopsis
You win!
Epilogue
Notable Locations
Skyfire Shrine
Notable NPCs
Finduilas Oranar, the Sun Hag and Benefactor whose most ardent wish was to reunite with her divine daughter or be utterly destroyed (in custody)
The Emissary, perhaps the REAL Benefactor
Camlyn, a young phoenix descendant of Sinida the Flamebearer and protector of Skyfire Shrine
Kar'kkul, Frenzy Demon (banished)
Syphio and Chlamy, Despoiler Demons (banished)
Uduvok, Fir-Annuk, and Ralut, Apprentices of the Sun Hag (dead)
Zago, Yol, and Bruun, Half-Bugbear Thugs (dead)
Gathus, Temmel, and Hergin, Roosters (mercenaries, 1 dead)
Koro-Hail, ice genasi and agent of Haven
Lemin Vincze, mind-controlled ex-adventurer used for her bond with the Speaker and her fighting abilities
Gunther Weiss (dead), powder guild master with issues
Agent Velekova, Izoldan spy and operative working to maintain the peace during the summit
Kari-Ula, air genasi 'wind witch' and former member of the Tower of the Peryton
Xymoxx, Nel's shadow demon nanny
Treasures
A number of oils, potions, and runes...
Synopsis
You win!
Epilogue
Notable Locations
Skyfire Shrine
Notable NPCs
Finduilas Oranar, the Sun Hag and Benefactor whose most ardent wish was to reunite with her divine daughter or be utterly destroyed (in custody)
The Emissary, perhaps the REAL Benefactor
Camlyn, a young phoenix descendant of Sinida the Flamebearer and protector of Skyfire Shrine
Kar'kkul, Frenzy Demon (banished)
Syphio and Chlamy, Despoiler Demons (banished)
Uduvok, Fir-Annuk, and Ralut, Apprentices of the Sun Hag (dead)
Zago, Yol, and Bruun, Half-Bugbear Thugs (dead)
Gathus, Temmel, and Hergin, Roosters (mercenaries, 1 dead)
Koro-Hail, ice genasi and agent of Haven
Lemin Vincze, mind-controlled ex-adventurer used for her bond with the Speaker and her fighting abilities
Gunther Weiss (dead), powder guild master with issues
Agent Velekova, Izoldan spy and operative working to maintain the peace during the summit
Kari-Ula, air genasi 'wind witch' and former member of the Tower of the Peryton
Xymoxx, Nel's shadow demon nanny
Treasures
A number of oils, potions, and runes...
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