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My campaign journal was previously posted on another forum, but since that forum's been down for over a month I think it's time to port it over here. Unfortunately, the Web Archive did not have the latest version of the thread, so some posts are missing. I pasted in the backups I had, but it's clearly incomplete :(
WARNING TO PLAYERS: Don't read any other threads in this section! They're pretty much guaranteed to have spoilers.
I figure this is a little outside this forum's normal purview, but four of my friends are playing a Pathfinder game online and we've decided to start up a campaign journal (basically, summaries of each session). We all have accounts on MSPAF so this seemed like the best place to put the journal for everyone to post on easily.
The adventure path I'm running is Serpent's Skull. Players/characters are Loather/Chester A. Arthur, a cleric of Keltheald who stowed aboard in Magnimar, Morhek/Athelstan Twice-Dropped, a bard from the Five Kings Mountains who boarded in Cheliax, genteelGunslinger/Notmerlen Wyvernmane, a fighter also from the Five Kings Mountains contracted as Athelstan's bodyguard, and goblinDroll/Thornton Poer, a sorcerer from Thuvia who's been on the ship's crew for several years now. Sessions are weekly, and the first one was on Saturday!
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In the year 4710 AR, on 19 Arodus, an Oathday, the passengers and crew (minus First Mate Alton Devers, Captain Alizandru Kovack, and a passenger named Ieana) of the Jenivere sat down to eat in the spacious messdeck. As usual, Cook Bergen had made a simple, blandish stew of salt pork, onions, and potatoes, but something about it must have been off, for everyone's memories shortly thereafter jumbled into sensations of nausea, panic, and drowning.
Some time later, Notmerlen Wyvernmane awoke in an oppressive darkness, feeling wet sand beneath him and hearing the rushing sound of waves close-by. He gradually noticed a heavy weight pressing down on his legs, and then suddenly a sharp pain in his foot jolted him fully awake. Above were low-hanging, swirling grey clouds, and from the light it seemed to be another warm tropical morning (20 Arodus). An ochre, crustacean-like creature with a long stinger at the end of its tail was at his feet, and had its pincers around his ankle. Shouting in confusion, the warrior tucked his feet away from the monster and slammed his gauntleted fist down towards its mandibles. As he swung, however, he was overcome with a sensation of sickness, and the dog-sized crustacean managed to skitter out of the way.
Looking around, Notmerlen saw two more of the lobster-like monsters coming out of the surf. About ten feet away from where Notmerlen lay on the sand was a haphhazard pile of weapons, backpacks, and other gear, and up and down the beach on both sides were Athelstan Twice-Dropped (his charge) and most of the other passengers - Thornton Poer, Chester A. Arthur, Ishirou, Gelik Aberwhinge, Sasha Nevah, Aerys Mavato, and the manacled prisoner, Jask Derindi. Notmerlen saw one of the lobsters moving toward Chester, then, and before he could stop it it had pinched painfully into her leg, jolting her awake as well. The monster further down the shore nipped Athelstan awake, too.
Both dwarves seemed just as nauseous as Notmerlen, if not worse, but they managed to get to their feet and scramble away from the unusual lobsters. Athelstan moved back very carefully, fearing to open himself to attacks. Chester ran up the beach and shook Thornton (who had been muttering something about second breakfast) awake, and the halfling was then able to get up and run down towards the melee with Notmerlen. Notmerlen swung his spiked, gauntleted fist again, this time bashing open the lobster's shell and nearly dropping it, then stood up and stepped back towards the pile of weapons, catching the glint of his four-foot greatsword at the bottom.
The lobster Notmerlen just struck reared back and stung him with its stinger, piercing a soft spot in his armor. It pumped a painful toxin into his blood, but with his hearty dwarven constitution he was able to shake it off. Then, seeming to wobble, it fell into the surf, unconscious. Somehow sensing that its ally was wounded, the other lobster went into a frenzy on Notmerlen, grabbing for him with its claws and trying to stab him with its tail, as well. However, he was growing used to the sensation of oily unease in his stomach, and easily dodged each strike.
Down the beach, the last lobster skittered up to the insensate Ishirou and gave him a tentative nip with its claws. He seemed not to wake, immediately, so Chester went to grab her halberd from the gear pile with the intent of protecting him. Thornton, meanwhile, stepped into the waves near the other still-standing lobster and grasped its shell briefly, pulling some of its life force into himself. The monster wobbled, but jabbed Thornton with its pincers and stinger. As the stinger pierced his flesh, the halfling felt a burning pain, and his limbs began to feel slightly heavier and slower.
Athelstan picked up a bit of sand and blew it towards the monster that'd engaged Thornton and Notmerlen, beginning to weave a bit of dwarven magic. The monster nipped Thornton again, but before it could do any more harm, Notmerlen and Chester picked up their weapons and swung down at it, quickly knocking it unconscious. Chester then ran down the shore towards Ishirou and his carapaced assailant, holding her halberd in front of her. Ishirou was crawling away from the lobster, which decided to abandon him and instead charged to meet Chester, who it failed to hit when she dodged out of its way. Athelstan's sleep spell went off without effect, so he picked up his bow and fired an arrow at the lobster. Notmerlen ran after Chester and cleaved through the lobster before she could strike, defeating the last of the strange creatures.
In the aftermath, Athelstan realized that the strange creatures were "ochre eurypterids," a sort of scorpion of the sea with a nasty venom in their stingers. Looking to the faint brightness in the clouds that signified where the sun was, and remembering the route the Jenivere had been sailing before the group's sickening meal, Chester was able to determine that the group was shipwrecked on Smuggler's Shiv, an island about 30 miles northwest of Eleder that is renowned for its shipwrecks. The island's coastline is rocky and its interior is choked with thick rainforest, but there are reports that the island has been host to a number of failed colonisation efforts. Unfortunately, there are also numerous rumors of ghosts and ghouls haunting the waters around the island, clinging to undeath after they perished on the jagged rocks and reefs surrounding the island. The dwarves exchanged this information with the others, who had just spotted the wreck of the Jenivere about fifteen minutes up the coast, below a steep cliff. Thornton hoped to check the wreck for supplies, but it seemed the tide was too high to safely walk out to it, so the group stayed on the beach with the other groggy castaways.
After a minute or so, Gelik, Aerys, Jask, and Sasha began to groggily stir. The last four, along with Ishirou, seemed very disoriented, but Gelik hopped up and came over to talk to the party. He asked what happened - but the group was just as mystified as he. Thornton's stomach was growling, so he sent Notmerlen into the jungle behind the beach to find firewood, and began the task of hauling the eurypterids out of the surf and cleaning out their edible parts. Chester considered using the hollow shells for a raft, but didn't know a lot about crustaceans, and thought the creatures could be naturally buoyant. She tried floating a few of them to no success.
Twenty minutes later, Notmerlen returned from the forest's edge with a heavy armful of dead, mostly dry wood. Athelstan lit a fire with his flint and steel, and lent Thornton his cooking pot to boil the eurypterids in. The halfling made an unremarkable breakfast - about as good as Cook Bergen's, but with considerably less salt. Smelling the food, the other castaways came over to eat, and it seemed everyone had overcome their nausea. Aerys, Ishirou, Jask, and Sasha still seemed numb, however - they ate quietly, huddling around the fire for warmth. Gelik had a bright shine in his eyes, however, and Athelstan went over to ask him to help set up a camp.
After a brief exchange, which mostly revolved assuring Gelik would be kept safe from any more monsters like the eurypterids, Athelstan won the gnome over, and Gelik agreed. Unfortunately, he was really quite terrible at camp-building, despite his time as a Pathfinder, and Thornton, Notmerlen, and Chester took over. Thanks in part to Chester's wealth of experience travelling and surviving in the wilds, and Notmerlen's wealth of camp-making tools, the group finished the three wooden lean-tos in about six hours. The noonday heat beat down through the clouds, making the air sticky and warm, but in the time since the group began their labor, the tide had slowly receded, exposing a rocky causeway out to the Jenivere that they could see even from camp.
Shouldering their packs and leaving the other castaways on the beach, Athelstan, Chester, Notmerlen, and Thornton walked down the shore towards the Jenivere. As they approached, they heard a relentless clattering noise coming from inside the ship, which looked to have lost both its bow and much of its lower decks. Seeing as the lower decks were where the crew slept, it was unlikely that any of them still survived in the wreck.
Tied to a timber protruding from the shattered ship's ruin, the group saw a piece of wood tumbling around in the surf just below - this piece of wood, Thornton realized, was the bow of the Jenivere's only lifeboat. It must have washed up between the ship and the cliff and was crushed by the action of the waves.
Cautiously climbing through a hole in the hull, the party found themselves in the brig. The single cell was empty, with its door hanging ajar - this was where Jask had been held since he was ushered aboard in Corentyn. Seeing nothing else of note in the room, the group opened the door. Athelstan and Notmerlen wanted to go to the captain's cabin, but Thornton had other ideas - he made a beeline for the larder, and the others followed.
Unfortunately, just outside the larder was another carapaced crustacean creature. About twice as large as the dog-shaped ochre eurypterids, and with a bluish shell instead of brown, the common eurypterid was much deadlier. It abandoned the larder door - which, Thornton noticed, had been gouged significantly by the monster's claws - and raised its stinger. Chester charged forward, swinging her halberd, but the creature skittered away from the blow, and she struck only wood. Notmerlen, however, was able to run around her and split open the top of the monster's carapace, dropping it instantly. Looking down at the creature, Chester remarked, "Looks like we've got our next meal!"
Thornton turned the knob and stepped inside, and was shocked to see the body of Cook Bergen lying on the floor of the small storeroom. He was elated, however, to see barrels of salted meat, jars of pickled fish and vegetables, several wheels of farmer's cheese from Corentyn, and a small sack of pepper from Senghor. Thornton set to organizing the food for transport while Chester examined the cook's body.
Chester determined the cause of death almost on first glance. A pair of large fang marks in Cook Bergen's pallid neck could only have come from a venemous snake - but a venemous snake larger than any she had ever before seen. Cook Bergen's body was very stiff, as if he'd been killed before sunset last night - but as far as Chester could remember, supper had been served several hours after darkness. She stood up and faced the others. "There's snakes on this boat. Time-travelling snakes."
Name: Notmerlen Wyvernmane
Race: Dwarf
Age: 64
Appearance: Long, dark brown hair and beard tied carefully to prevent snagging on his armour. A number of small facial scars line his cheeks and one larger scar runs up the bridge of his nose. Clothes are practical and comfortable for wear in warm climates, and for wearing under the burden of mail, though he might switch out to lighter armour if the jungle climate proves too difficult for heavier armour.
Class: Slayer
Notmerlen has spent much of his life doing one thing. Protecting wealthy people. Protecting powerful people. Protecting the people in general. Where he found his skill with a blade and with an axe in need, he served diligently and without fault. If there was one thing that could describe Notmerlen's professional life, it was that he was loyal to a fault. Even when he joined the great merchant drives of Highhelm, he faced every danger with a cold indifference, something which even among dwarves is considered...unusual. But such talent made him quite popular among merchants and councillors needing personal protectors and guards. Particularly a guard who had a reputation for unbending loyalty.
But such a unbending loyalty and will had a purpose. A plan years in formulation. Garnering such a considerable reputation and recommendations from many of the most notable merchant groups would bring him closer to revenge. For years, he had resented the owner of the Half-beard Mining Company for forcing his father out of business and leaving his family to fall into poverty. It was only through years of dedicated work that Notmerlen was able to scrape his way out of poverty through training with militia and mercenary groups. Even then, he was not able to prevent his parent's deaths before sickness overcame them, and his sister died trying to follow in his path, being crushed to death by an Ogre's club on a caravan drive. Alone, angry and without any other purpose, Notmerlen saw his opportunity when he was approached by a Half-beard recruiter. Apparently, Halfbeard's nephew and apprentice was travelling to a Sargarvan mine, where he would negotiate and organize a merger that would see both parties profit heavily. 6 months in Sargarva. Enough time to get revenge. However that might come about. He'd find a way. But Notmerlen could not find it in himself to extend that same hatred towards his charge. Athelstan Twice-Dropped, though expressing all the attitudes that come with a life of privilege, had the strange effect of making people around him like him. He hated Half-Beard, but he could get used to Twice-Dropped. Even if what he intends to do will certainly ruin him as well. But maybe he would be a valuable asset in his revenge. Time will tell how useful he will be.
1 Sarenith 4715 AR:
Mother, Father, dear sister Kelma. I swore on our family, our ancestors and all the stone of the Five Kings that I will see my duty fulfilled. I swore that I would ruin Half-Beard and leave him as destitute as he left us. Today is the first day on that journey. I will avenge you.
A contract organized by one of Half-Beards cronies got me in as the bodyguard of his adoptive son, Athelstan Twice-Dropped. Athelstan is...well, if it not for his adoptive father, he certainly would make for interesting company. Unfortunately, he reminds me too much of that beard-stunted bastard for me to get all that attached to him. Too pompous and clearly hasn't seen a day of action in his life. Things are going to become a lot more exciting for him soon enough. He suspects nothing. Believing me to be nothing more than another hired muscle, guiding him to his important business deal.
Poor bastard. He seems to mean well enough, and I hear he's a genuinely good businessman. Unlike his father. But things have a price, and Half-Beard cared not when he threw my father and all of our family into the streets to die like rabid dogs. He gets no special treatment.
The ocean...the ocean is vast. I had not seen the ocean from more than a great distance away, atop the outer ridge of the mountains. Now, I stand at the waters edge, looking out toward the moving sea. I'm not sure how I'll feel on the boat.
3 Sarenith 4715 AR
It's rocking. All the time. I am rather glad I have a strong stomach, because I'm handling it better than Athelstan. Two days in, and he has had a bucket with him wherever he goes. This will be a long journey. Dwarves aren't meant to be on boats.
19 Arodus 4715 AR:
Blast everything, and particularly, blast that damn cook. I am as groggy on the details as I am physically, but seemingly, the entire crew of the Jenivere had been drugged. Apparently, it was potent enough to have rendered all of us unconscious, and strong enough to keep us in that state as the ship dashed itself against the rocks. Unless someone threw us all overboard, I think being alive at all is a miracle. I can see the boat from here, impaled on the sharp, wet stones. It's lower deck and bow torn from the rest of the ship. The water lashing at her remains. How did we survive...
And so many of us. Only one member of the actual crew is among us, but almost all passengers save for one, Ieana I believe her name was, has washed ashore. The captain is absent. Most likely rolling at the bottom of the ocean right now, or wedge between those razor sharp rocks. Whatever the case, we have been stranded on a island known as Smuggler's Shiv. Notorious for being used by smuggler ships in throwing off pursuit by making dangerously close voyages to the island. Any boat unlucky in navigating it's surrounding waters winds up much like the Jenivere.
Among the passengers, only a few catch my eye. My charge is alive. Shaken by the event and combat, but alive. His great business deal will have to be put on hold. Actually, considering this will most certainly
disrupt the merger between Half-Beard Mining Company and the Sargavan mining company, maybe this is a boon after all. If I wasn't stuck here as well. I guess I'll take my blessings as they are. I just have to bide my time.
The halfling, Thorton, apparently cares for little more than when he's next eating. He was a part of the crew, but he has an airs about him that reminds me far too much of the gentry of the Five Kings. Always nose first up their arse. And frankly, he smells like it too. Probably putting it on and has forgotten about the 'shower twice a week' habit of the rich. He does, however, have magical powers. I saw him try and...do something to one of the oversized lobsters that attempted to eat us during our sleep. The air around his hand seemed to...condense. Like breath high up in the mountain. Did he try to freeze the monster? Is he a hedge wizard? What is he doing living as a sailor?
He also has a chicken that somehow survived the event. For what purpose, I cannot ascertain. He is certainly an odd duck.
But an even odder duck is the third dwarf in our company. Chester something. Sounds lowland dwarf for sure. She is just weird. Seemingly, she is a cleric. Her trappings give away her devotion to presumably one of the deities of the sun. Most sun-worshippers tend to act like as though they've spent too long standing under it, but this one is just beyond me. And a dwarf at that! She wears a featureless bronze mask on her face, and refuses to take it off. I'm not even sure I remember her wandering the ship much on our journey. This is possibly the first good look I've had since I first spotted her aboard the Jenivere. She seems capable with her halberd, I'll give her that, but a dwarf worshipping the sun? Not right....clearly she has lost her stonesense, along with any other sense with it.
We will set off to the wreck of the Jenivere soon. Hopefully, we don't run into any more of those large lobster creatures. As much as they were tasty, I wouldn't like to meet any more. And maybe, I'll be able to retrieve some gear to construct a raft. The cleric apparently does have a few bright ideas after all. We might also be able to retrieve something from the captains belongings. He's sure to have gold or treasure lying around, and I wouldn't imagine a dead man minding too much if we take some for ourselves. To the living go the spoils, as they say.
19 Arodus 4715 AR:
We located quite a number of supplies and useful tools within the wreck of the Jenivere
I'll list an entire itinerary here:
From the Storage Room:
block and tackle, three large canvas sheets, two fishing nets, a grappling hook, two bullseye lanterns, 12 flasks of lantern oil, 150 feet of hemp rope, and five shovels
Alton Devers' equipment: Masterwork studded leather armor and masterwork short sword
From the kitchen:
Dried beans from Magnimar
jars of honey from Magnimar
1 cask of wine from Pezzack
2 casks of water from Senghor
Oranges, limes, and lemons from Senghor
Crates of hardtack from Magnimar
2 casks of rum from Quent
Millet flour from Senghor
Jars of sauerkraut from Nisroch
Olive oil from Corentyn
Wheels of farmer's cheese from Corentyn
Barrels of salt pork from Corentyn
Barrels of salt fish from Port Peril
Black pepper from Senghor
From the Captain's drawers:
Several keys
Several sea charts and maps
Alizandru Kovack's captain's log
Bottle of fine brandy
Darkwood model of ship in a bottle
Small coffer
From the Coffer:
350 gold pieces
From the Footlocker in the Captain's Room:
Leather satchel with 12 potions (10 conjuration, 2 transmutation)
Masterwork dagger, suit of leather armor, two potions with conjuration auras, a holy symbol, and a spell component pouch
All above belong to Jask. We have returned his armour and his holy symbol along with his component pouch, but have withheld his weapons for now.
Misc.:
1 bed
1 eurypterid body
The supplies withheld, we have made other discoveries since our journey to the Jenivere. Namely, we discovered the body of Alton Dever. The First Mate aboard the Jenivere. I was able to determine that the man was killed by repeated stab wounds from a slim weapon, too large and too deep to be a knife, and most likely a rapier given the locations of the wounds being consistent with the rapier techniques I know myself. The man has also seemingly been attacked by one of the Eurypterids, if not the one we ourselves dealth with. He had on him a number of useful tools, so I relieved him of his belongings. Dead men have not much use for armour or weapons, particularly if they did him no good in life either.
We also came across the journal of the Captain of the ship, and my charge, Athelstan, has discovered a number of very concerning things within. Apparently, as the ship reached near the end of it's journey, the Captain's sanity began to clearly deteriorate. He became infatuated with Ieana, the scholar who was missing from the other passengers. He wrote numerous and very sloppy love poems to the woman, and began to grow suspicious of the intentions of the other crew members and passengers, believing them to be scheming to steal her away from him. Namely, he believed his First Mate most responsible for such a scheme. The captain was one of the only people wielding a rapier.
What troubles me more is the fact that it was apparently on Ieana's request that the ship be steered closer to this forsaken island. The crew began to grow suspicious about our course, and so the captain orchestrated a means to make sure they would not get in the way. He poisoned us. All of us. And so now we are here.
This does answer a number of questions, but raises new ones. Who is this Ieana. She was supposedly a scholar of ancient ruins, but no. I do not believe that. She is something more than what she first seemed, and even though Athelstan believes the cause of our shipwreck to be circumstantial, I think it holds the answer this situation. This woman is clearly something unusual. The death of the cook, the oversized bite marks, the strange behaviour of the captain. This is something...supernatural. It has to be. But I cannot possibly think of what would be the cause of this. What is this woman?
Regardless....she must be somewhere on this island. We must find her and bring her down. And take whatever she aimed to use to get off the island for ourselves.
What's more, we have other problems. Apparently there once was a Chelixian army force that attempted to invade Sargava at some point in time. Whatever the case, they wound up shipwrecked upon this very island. Rumors abound that they have since degenerated into a group of savage cannibals that prey upon those stranded upon the island and on each other. This will more than likely hinder our progress should we discover them to be real.
We have delegated tasks to the passengers. Sasha is tasked with hunting. Gelik has taken to sharing stories and trying to maintain the others spirits. Clearly, these people are more accustomed to an easier life than this. They've never had to live without a bed for more than 24 hours. Jask we have discovered is a cleric of Nethyrs. I know of these lot. They are as unpredictable as their god. He is not getting his knife back until we are certain he is going to work with us. Ishirou, the silent one with the katana, has not said anything or done anything. Useless git. The half-elf, Aerys, has agreed to help guard the camp so long as she's boozed up. I like her style. Furthermore, inspecting the way she moves about and her stance on guard indicates probably a background in martial techniques. I expect her to be a capable warrior much like myself. If she isn't drunk that is. We'll see what happens in the morning.
20 Arodus 4715 AR:
Trying to get that idiot Ishirou to do something failed miserably. Athelstan and Thorton attempted to reason with the man, but apparently a screw came loose up stairs and he began to shout about dueling Athelstan to the death. I immediately stepped in and reminded him that a challenge upon my charge's life is a challenge I will step in to take. This has always been the Dwarven way.
A dwarf is sworn to protect their charge and to put their life on the line to fulfill that duty. It was what my father repeated to me and my sister every day of our early training. It was what the world demanded of me. Back home, weaker dwarves could vie for power by force. Such things result in a duel between the challenger and a champion. Those who choose this route believe themselves to be able to overcome any obstacle so long as they have the will to achieve it. What they fail to account for is that martial skill surpasses any ridiculous notion of dwarven spirit and strength. The dwarves have long since had that indomitable will crushed out of them, but I still have the might of my skill. That is all the force of will I need.
I asked him the terms of our duel. I stated that he must choose whether this was to first blood, or to death. As dwarven custom, the challenger must choose the terms, and those terms must be respected by both parties. A duel in dwarven culture is one of extreme seriousness. There are no loopholes. Your word is your word. He chose to the death.
I allowed him first blow. His footwork was sloppy. This man might be used to his weapon, but he was no trained warrior. I could see it in the way he shifted his feet that he had no proper martial training, and was not taught on how to defend yourself against a much larger weapon. The untrained are usually oblivious to the fact that a great weapon is not, in fact, a slow weapon in the hands of a trained warrior. I have spent my life handling blades twice my size. I was able to bring my blade around faster than he could even adjust his body to avoid the blow. My sword cleaved straight through his neck, decapitating him and ending our fight faster than it started. His head fell to the ground. Etched with shock, marking his last thoughts.
I have taken his weapon. A final sign of respect to the dead, and a trophy of honour for myself. At the end of my service, typically, I must relinquish such a trophy over to my charge, as it was in his name that I accomplished this task. Athelstan might not get the chance to see that happen.
This day has started poorly. The rest of the passengers now look at me with fear. They should know better now. They should understand how dwarves do.
Name: Athelstan Twice-Dropped
Race: Dwarf
Age: 49
Appearance: Light red hair and beard trimmed to a respectable length, braided and looped to keep out of the way. Red cheeks and nose, from a naturally ruddy complexion or perhaps the Sargavan heat. Wears respectable, though not obtrusive, travellers clothes on top of a chain shirt for protection, though the chain shirt is more often kept in his luggage in the tropical heat unless trouble is expected.
Class: Bard
(Courtesy of Fish)
Tolskeinn always loved Athelstan best. The youngest son, he was only a few decades older than the child of Thormar and Scinna, and treated the boy like a younger brother. When Athelstan was still toddling around the mine-keep, scarcely past ten years, Tolskeinn showed him how to use a dagger, and showed him how to find veins of ore with only a few taps of the knife.
Unfortunately, this love did not extend to Tolskeinn's brothers. Thormar the Many-Horned, brash and violent, was gone from the keep every few years, joining crusades into the Darklands below Highhelm. Thormar and Scinna were warriors, and had little time for Athelstan once he was weaned. Vendel Glitterfinger, the eldest, left Tolskeinn to manage the mine's expenses while he spent away its profits, casting gaudy, amateurish works of gold and silver to decorate his tower enclave and his unusually long fingers. Vendel was softened first by the death of his father, then of his husband, and as the years wore on he became a blubbering mess. Tolskeinn begrudged their free lifestyles, which would surely doom his family to poverty, but the resolution to their slow-brewing conflict seemed far more grisly than he ever could have wanted.
When Athelstan was about fifteen, Thormar returned home in a great rage. The funding for his Angradd-blessed fight against the orcs had been suddenly cut short by what purported to be Vendel's order. Yes, the border dispute would go on without him, and yes, his warriors could last a while with the stores of rations already purchased, but Thormar himself left as soon as he heard, intent on getting answers. He left Scinna, Athelstan's thick-armed and quick-witted mother, in command of the platoon.
All Athelstan remembers is a great argument up at the top of Vendel's tower, and the sound of crying. Uncle Tolskeinn took him into the mines, then, further than he had ever been before. Uncle Tolskeinn told him the story of the first dwarves and the Quest for Sky. Long ago, the dwarves lived in darkness, very, very far below the surface. They were beset on all sides - by orcs, and creatures worse, and even by their own kin. It was only by the strength of one leader, a general who united the race towards one purpose, that dwarves could ever make it to the surface. The general used diplomacy, trickery, and even violence to force disparate clans and subcultures together, and fulfill the Quest. It was unfortunate, but some clans were too vicious and evil to make it to the surface, and the general expunged them without hesitation.
---
Before Uncle Tolskeinn could complete his tale, a mineguard came running down the tunnel. Athelstan remembers Uncle Tolskeinn's hands on his beard going white as the messenger said that Glitterfinger and the Many-Horned were dead - apparently, Vendel ordered everyone out of the tower so the brothers could speak alone, but Thormar took it as a cue to try to kill his brother and assume control of the family holdings. There was a brief struggle, but a retired jewelrist is no match for a seasoned delver, and Thormar's cold-forged battleaxe was found in Vendel's head. Then, in what must have been a fit of guilt, Thormar smashed through a window and jumped from the top of the tower, landing on his head in the dried-up fountain Grandfather Orgrim built when he founded the mine three centuries earlier. The mineguards rushed upstairs, but only found Vendel and his blood slowly sinking into the cracks in the slate-tiled floors. So, the messenger said, she had come to proclaim Tolskeinn the new owner of the Orgrim Mining Company.
Uncle Tolskeinn's knuckles only grew whiter. "Do you think I care? Gods, I just lost half my family!" In a flash, he whipped out a small blade of mithral and sliced his beard in two. "It is no longer the Orgrim Mining Company. It is Halfbeard, for my father's sons - my kin, my older brothers - have perished, and the Company can never be the same." He heaved Athelstan onto his shoulders, saying, "Stay close, nephew. Only you, Scinna, and I remain."
The aftermath of those two deaths is a blur in Athelstan's memory. Tolskeinn gave the child his father's battleaxe in a slight break of tradition - normally, such weapons are interred when the bearer dies, but Tolskeinn reasoned that Athelstan had little else of Thormar to remember by, and anyways Thormar had died in disgrace. Scinna brought the platoon to the surface for the funerals, but seemed to have contracted some sort of disease in Nar-Voth, and was bedridden soon after. "Uncle Halfbeard," as Athelstan took to calling him, contracted an expert chirurgeon from Thuvia, but even her ministrations proved unable to break Scinna's deadly fever. The warrior held on longer than a normal dwarf, but she seemed to burn up from the inside-out. Athelstan visited her three times before the end, but at each she was unconscious, and Uncle Halfbeard dared not let him into the tower more for fear of contagion. After some weeks of sickness, Scinna passed, and was quietly laid out in the mausoleum where Grandfather Orgrim and all the rest had been taken.
The least personally momentous event, but certainly a topic of relentless economic gossip in Highhelm, was the rapid expansion of the new Halfbeard Mining Company. In just three years, Halfbeard's assets doubled. Dozens of smaller mines, smelters, and smithies around Orgrim's were soon bought out by a man some described as Torag-blessed (though Uncle Halfbeard would explain to Athelstan, there were no gods involved - you simply had to cut out frivolous expenses and focus on efficiency). Athelstan, meanwhile, learned letters and axe-fighting and proper management ettiquette. In his thirtieth year, he began handling some minor contracts for his uncle. Slowly, over decades, he built up a considerable reputation among his adopted father's advisors - his legal writings were ironclad, and his instincts for investment were akin to those of the young Tolskeinn.
All was not golden for the adolescent Athelstan, however. His curiosity and excitement to learn the family traditions waned as he grew, and he grew cold, emotionless in all but the direst of circumstances. Part of him always wondered if Uncle Halfbeard hadn't arranged for Thormar to return home, hadn't intended for him to kill Vendel - and part of him wondered why he didn't seem to care. But he kept quiet, and fulfilled his obligation to the only family he had left. Besides, Uncle Halfbeard was a better parent than Thormar and Scinna combined, and Athelstan could not bear to disappoint such a great man.
---
In his late 40s, Athelstan figured himself an adult, and went to Uncle Halfbeard's home, a three-room building with high ceilings and comfortable chairs but little else to connote the man's success and power. Athelstan found his uncle talking with a Chelish human who was curiously devoid of hair, garbed in flowing purple robes. The two seemed to be arguing heatedly, but broke off immediately when they noticed Athelstan.
Quelling his irrational nervousness, Athelstan explained to Uncle Halfbeard that he felt ready to become a real partner in the Company. Uncle Halfbeard paused a moment, then looked over at his human houseguest. "I think, friend, I will be needing you no longer." Turning his head back to his nephew, he said, "How would you like to go to Sargava? I've had the maps ready for Gihellent here for nearly a week, but he keeps trying to squeeze me out of a little more comission." He straightened a sheaf of papers and motioned for Athelstan to sit down. "If you accept, you'll go down to Farsouth Mine and oversee a merger between our companies. I know a few of the managers down there - they're looking to retire about now, so you'll have to act as head management for six months before I send down some of our own overseers. It's dangerous country, with demon-worshippers and worse in every little valley, so I'll send a bodyguard along with you."
Athelstan was surprised by how readily his uncle agreed, but never one to lose his wits when an opportunity presented itself. Before Gihellent could cut in, Athelstan nodded once, and the deal was done. The spurned Chelaxian rose. "Halfbeard, you'll regret not sending a native. I know that country as well as anyone, and the Farsouthers don't take kindly to other dwarves." He whisked out of Uncle Halfbeard's home, leaving the dwarves to plan.
---
In another week, Athelstan was ready. His companion was one Notmerlun Wyvernmane, a veteran of the Darkmoon Vale caravans and a warrior of some skill (so Uncle Halfbeard said, at least). After a cursory evaluation of this particularly taciturn dwarf, Athelstan decided he liked him, and the two set off for Highhelm.
19th of Arodus, 4170
Entry One
Dear Reader:
I have never put stock into the concept of diaries. Repositories of secret knowledge are to be distrusted, unless intended for scholastic distribution. A mage who keeps a log of his work uncoded is as much an idiot as a merchant who records all his transactions without obscuring names, dates and figures.
Nevertheless, I fear that I am not long for this world. My companions consist of a dwarf woman who appears to worship the sun to a garish, possibly grotesque extent, and seems mildly insane; my dwarf escort who, while certainly competent, his only loyalty to me is financial; and a Halfling sailor around whom hangs the stench of death and poultry. That isn’t to mention the human woman who hasn’t said a word to anyone since one of the sailors tried to get lucky with her to his injury; the self-important gnome who loves to hear the sound of his own voice, but cannot even set up a camp; the assorted other survivors who washed ashore with us; and the giant eurypterids that have harassed us this morn. If you find this, I hope that you are kind enough to have it delivered to my uncle, Tolskeinn Halfbeard of the Halfbeard Mining Company, offices in Highhelm, Five Kings Mountains. With luck, my family will learn of my fate, instead of endlessly waiting for news. I promise that you will be well rewarded for your efforts, if not in wealth then
in some other debt. If you find this and decide NOT to return it, may you be forever cursed by Abadar.
Today has been…eventful.
I had been travelling to Sargova. I have business to attend to, business that is vital to the interests of myself and my family. Again, I tell the hypothetical reader that he will be well rewarded if he returns this to my uncle. I set sail from Cheliax with my bodyguard, where I spent my time learning of my destination. I had hoped to conduct my business negotiations with a variety of people – the natives tribes of the Mwangi Expanse, and whatever humans, elves and dwarves I could find of interest. I cannot say that I approve of Cheliax, or its patron deity, though they did not seem quite as repressive or miserable as tales had led me to believe. That isn’t to say that I approve, but I suspect exaggeration. From Cheliax I learned enough of the Mwangi trade language, and my elvish is serviceable. I doubt my skald will come into play this far south. I stocked up with rations for the journey once we disembark. I also purchased a map of Sargava, which I expected would be useful.
The ship wrecked. I know not why or how yet, only that it has since washed up, and we awoke upon the beach. My last memory is of the worst meal I have ever suffered through in my life. I suspect food poisoning, though if deliberate or through ineptitude I cannot say. I roused to find a sea scorpion nipping at my toes, and soon joined the fray. Knowing that rations were scarce, I suggested that we supplement them with sea scorpion meat to make them last. I then convinced the gnome – Gelik Aberwhinge, as much a whinger as his name suggests – to help organise the camp, while my party set out to scavenge what we could from the wreck, despite my better judgement. As I told uncle Halfbeard, it’s not right for a dwarf not to have solid earth under him, even if it’s through a few layers of wood or stone. We have have not set out yet.
Given the calibre of my companions, I feel obliged to go. None of them possess what could be called leadership material, so it is up to me to organise this band of assorted characters and see that we make it back to civilisation, or at the very least shelter. I heard tales of this island during my time in Cheliax. Smuggler’s Shiv they called it. Supposedly haunted. I wish I could dismiss their tales as fantasies, but one hears tales. I know little of the wildlife beyond the fact that I expect them to differ from what I am familiar with. I only remembered the sea scorpions by chance from the books I read as a child, of the fossils occasionally dug up from a time soon after Torag forged the world. I cannot expect this luck to hold out, no matter how well read I am. I must learn more of this place, of its secret places and its hidden threats, if I am to make it home.
Athelstan
Entry Two
We made it aboard the ship, lowering ourselves from the cliff to the deck of the wreck. My suggestion that we scrounge the captain’s quarters, where no doubt he stored anything we could navigate with, was summarily ignored by the Halfling nitwit who made a beeline to the galleys and ran into another of the wretched sea scorpions which was summarily dispatched, as well as the body of the ship’s cook, who seems to have been bitten by some sort of snake and perished long before our eventful meal. Chester thinks it was time travelling snakes. She’s quite mad of course, but something odd clearly did happen. By this time, though, the heat had begun to set in. Chester, the mad one, was looking in a bad way.
We continued our search, managing to find a few potions, some maps, the captain’s journal, and a footlocker containing a significant amount of gold, as well as the body of Alton Devers, the first mate, and a few members of the crew. Devers had been run through with a rapier. The crew had been on the unfortunate end of a eurypterid stinger. We reclaimed some rations from the ship’s supplies, some fishing nets, a length of rope and a grappling hook, and the sea scorpion. Meanwhile, we appropriated the captain’s keys and his bed, dumping our haul upon it and dragging it all back with us to the camp. Notmerlen ran off into the underbrush screaming on the way back, and attacked a snake that seemed to be minding its own business. I drew my axe and aided in dispatching it, though not without a bite. I still feel woozy as I write, but I have since had some healing and should be fine.
Upon return to the camp, I read through the captain’s journal. It started out well enough – mundane facts and events, such as buying the ship, paying the crew, and passenger manifests and transactions. Over time, though, the entries became less legible and more erratic. The captain had become obsessed with out of our fellow passengers, a Varisian woman who said she was a scholar, interested in ancient ruins. It was for her he diverted the ship from its set course. He believed the first mate was seeing her in secret. There was more – something about a sea serpent myth. Snakes. Why did it have to be snakes? At any rate, he believed the crew was getting suspicious of his actions, and plotted to be rid of them. Which explains the poison.
I realise that I have yet to meet a sane person on this entire venture. I worry over this fact.
We also confirmed the identity of one of our fellow survivors, Jask Derindi – a former employee of the Sargavan government, who began pocketing money from the Free Captains of the Shackles before eloping. Evidently, he was recaptured many years later, and was being returned to Sargava to be brought to justice. He's also a devotee of Nethys, which makes me apprehensive. I don’t approve of giving him free reign, but he’s a competent healer and hunter, so we agreed to free him from his shackles. Under such desperate circumstances, we cannot afford not to. We're sorting out night watch shifts.
I hope we don't run into more snakes.
20th of Arodus, 4170
Entry Three
We agreed to split shifts for night watch. The half-elf, Aerys Mavato, agreed to take a watch. Thornton, Notmerlen and I took shifts too. Seeing the sea stretch out in the glimmering light of my dancing lights in the dark was a haunting sight. I will be glad never to see it again. I took the last shift, so I was already awake when dawn came.
As if being stranded on this island is not bad enough, we’re turning on each other. The night was peaceful enough, but Ishirou took exception to being asked to help the rest of us survive, and challenged me to a duel – at which point Notmerlen stepped up, and declared that no one lays a hand upon his master. Under normal circumstances, I would have accepted the duel. I am not eager to die by any means, but I have my honour. But the duelling rules allow the challenger to accept a change of duelist, and Ishirou decided my bodyguard would make a better target. He also decided that it would be a fight to the death. More fool him. The two fought on the edge of the camp. It was a quick fight. Ishirou’s head fell clean from his shoulders.
Thornton wasn’t happy about it at all, but frankly, if you’re stupid enough to challenge a dwarf you get what you deserve. He tried to convince Jask to heal whoever lost, unable to accept the idea of a duel to the death. I suggested that if Ishirou was in any mood to reconcile, he would have done it before challenging a dwarven warrior to a mortal combat. Nevertheless, not wanting to seem petulant, I helped Thornton to dig the grave. None of us had much to say, but we did get Jask to say a few words. He’s the closest thing we have to a priest on hand. It seemed the right thing to do.
Now the other members of our camp are giving Notmerlen and I dark glances. I doubt anyone else will gives us such trouble, but I wanted to convince them to help, not make them feel forced into compliance creating resentment. This is going to have repercussions, and I doubt they will be pleasant.
We are debating over who shall gather food, who shall guard and continue setting up camp, and who shall set out to explore the island interior. We suspect there will be all sorts of threats – more animals, cannibals who inhabit the island, and ancient ruins. Not to mention Ieanna is still unaccounted for. We are hopeful that, if she planned to come here, she would have some way to get back to civilisation. We intend to take it for ourselves in our escape.
I am hopeful that we can avoid further bloodshed among the party, but I doubt we can avoid shedding others’ blood. This is a violent place, savage and wild. I am not accustomed to it.
Entry Four
We set out southward into the island’s interior, climbing up a ridge looking down over the inland bay that occupies the centre of the island. We could see the distant shoreline, but not much beyond it. On the ridge, we saw a dimorphodon nest. We were talking about their eggs, and the similarity to Ostriches, and Chester opined that they were a ward against poison, and Thornton decided he wanted an omelette breakfast, so up we climbed. Unfortunately, the mother was keeping watch nearby, and swooped down onto Thornton. I’ll tell you, dangling on a rope from a cliff face and shooting a bow is not easy, but I somehow managed it. We eventually reached the nest, but one of the eggs had already hatched and the rest were presumably not far. We decided that while an egg big enough to make half a dozen omelettes is a valuable commodity, ones filled with stillborn Dimorphodon embryos are simply not worth it. We did, however, decide to keep the chick. I’m hopeful that I can train it, and keep it – some of my books have claimed that Dimorphodons can speak, parrot-like. I’d like to find out.
Thornton thinks he’s keeping it to eat. I will allow him his delusion for the moment.
Tying the chick with a length of rope as a leash, we decided to leave it on a makeshift nest out of the way of predators until we returned. Heading south-east into the island, we found a fresh water spring where we could drink out fill. Regrettably, we think it’s infested with snakes. More bloody snakes. We hadn’t brought much in the way of carrying tools, and Thornton wasted half his day’s rations trying to absorb some in a futile gesture. Chester decided to name the Bergen Memorial Spring. Dejected, we tramped back to camp, only to be met with a heavy downpour that relieved the heat but replaced it with humidity. Notmerlen graciously leant me his leather armour – a chain shirt in this heat is a ridiculous idea, and I regret ever having it. At least the rain allowed our campmates to replenish some of our freshwater.
The half-elf, Aerys appears to be an alcoholic, and had gone through a bottle in one day. On top of that, I was joking with Thornton, about hypothetical worlds without elves, and said something along the lines of “some would say they were better worlds.” Aerys heard me, I fear, and I didn’t get the chance to apologise or explain that it was merely a bad joke, before Chester stunned us by dumping water over her head, and then making a pun before fleeing. I don’t think I’ve ever been so stunned and horrified before. Chester eventually returned, and we managed to convince Aerys not to kill her – she can make fresh water, a valuable skill until we can find a source that isn’t infested with serpents.
Sitting around the camp with Gelik, Jask and Sasha, we started talking about our reasons for coming to Sargava. I explained that I was on my way to Sargava to negotiate the buy-out of one of their prominent mining companies for my uncle back in the Five Kings Mountains. Gelik explained that he was in the Pathfinder Society’s bad graces at the moment, and had been hoping to find the wreck of a Pathfinder-owned ship, the Night Voice, and recover something of value aboard it to get back into their good graces. On the subject of my stay in Cheliax, Jask started talking about his home in Corantyn, and went on to insist that he is innocent of the crimes he has been accused of, and in fact is a scapegoat for the corruption of his former employers. While I’m still suspicious – a guilty man would say the same – given the level of corruption among Sargavan officials I heard about in Cheliax, it sounds plausible. He also claims that proof of his innocence exists aboard a shipwreck, the Brine Demon, lost a few years after he fled Sargava to Cheliax. Sasha said nothing, and I didn’t press her. Aeryn I left alone, lest I end up with another Ishirou on my hands.
Chester just returned to camp. Together, the rest of the camp managed to convince Aerys not to tear her limb from limb. Thornton blamed it on her being a dwarf, and I declared that she’s crazy even by Dwarf standards. Which is entirely true, and I hope she isn’t the death of us all. Between us, and with Thornton’s “generous” offer of more rum, she decided to leave well enough alone.
We’re planning to explore the south west tomorrow.
Feel sick, probably food poisoning. Bugger.
21st of Arodus, 4170
Entry Four
I convinced Thornton to share his rum hoard with Aerys – intimating that if he didn’t capitalise on his “generosity,” I would, and he would not like it. He wasn’t left with much choice, but as long as it keeps the party calm and reasonably amiable, then it improves our chances of survival. Aerys seems considerably less hostile to us than she did last night, and as a whole, the party seems to be coming together. I hope it lasts. While discussing whether to move the camp or to leave it where it is, Chester suggested todays itinerary:
• Find researcher
• Kill snakes
• Befriend cannibals
• Monetise water
I don’t know about the “monetise water” part, but the rest of it seems perfectly sensible (for once), and I especially seconded the killing of snakes. Do not like them.
Entry Five
We decided to explore to the west of the island, and were almost immediately ambushed by another dimorphodon. The island seems infested with them, though I’d rather face one of them than the snakes that keep cropping up. I landed the killing blow as it dived for Thornton, and ended up toppling backwards under a crumpled ball of leather and fur, thrashing to get it off me. Not harmed, but quite alarmed. Thornton then decided to go crashing through the undergrowth after an animal. It looked to my eyes to be a fox, but Thornton swears it was a goat. Notmerlen and I fired our bows at the animal, expecting them to miss and Thornton to return empty handed. To my surprise, one of the arrows landed, slowing it down for Thornton to catch it. So now we had a goat to haul with us, as well as the dimorphodon. Had to heal Thornton of his heatstroke. No use letting one member slow the whole party down, I suppose.
Later in the day, we discovered a shipwreck. Thornton and Chester decided to explore it, suggesting that it belonged to the time travelling snakes. While I still believe they are both insane, I agreed to allow them the use of my grapple to rappel down. They tried to be stealthy, in their own ways – Thornton utterly failing, flailing and thrashing around as he descended, and somehow the sun caught Chester’s face mask (face?) turning her into practically a glowing beacon. If there had been anyone aboard the ship, I doubt we could have gotten the drop on them, even literally. Notmerlen and I descended after them, far less ostentatiously. Fortunately, there appeared to be nobody aboard. Unfortunately, there was nothing much of worth aboard the ship. I found the name – the Tattooed Lady, a Shackles pirate/smuggler ship I read was lost at sea about 50 years ago while in Cheliax. Other than that, the only thing we managed to find was copious amounts of seaweed, which Thornton and Chester immediately stuffed their pockets with. Thornton doesn’t even like the taste of seaweed, which didn’t stop him for some reason. Chester, of course, loves it.
Getting back to camp, we discovered the huts in disarray, the tent burnt down, and Gelik and Jask cowering in terror. Aerys has run off, Sasha has been grabbed by an apparent cannibal raiding party bearing the pentagram tattoos of Asmodeus, and our camp is now decidedly unsafe. Thornton advocated getting a meal in us, a good night’s sleep, and then finding the missing members of the party in the morning. I disagreed, trying to convince the others to set out immediately, without success. Possibly for the best – Aerys was the best tracker, and she’s somewhere else. At the mention of a meal, Chester started handing out the tainted seaweed. We debated goats for a while (are there Seagoats? Spacegoats?) as Thornton and I somehow scraped together a decent goat and seaweed soup, with Chester and Thornton eating the goat tongue and Chester particularly relishing it. I didn’t touch it, and gingerly removed as much of the seaweed as I could.
23rd of
Entry Six
We set a watch for the night, but it passed uneventfully. When the sun had risen, we set out – Notmerlen, Thornton and Chester tracking the cannibals south-west, and myself leading Gelik and Jask south-east to track down Aerys, agreeing to meet up at the dimorphodon nest from the other day if both groups accomplished their tasks. I thought I could hear some sort of ruckus at one point, carried across the jungle, but couldn’t make out what it was. Presumably, the other team had gotten into some sort of bother.
My own group found Aerys fairly quickly. Both Gelik and Jask seemed angry at her, but I believe I managed to smooth the situation. Aerys herself seems suitably contrite at fleeing the attack last night, but I reassured her that the past cannot be helped, and that she should try to make up for it by helping to get her back. She seemed to take heart from it. We are heading west now, to link up with the others – I know not whether they have had much luck finding Sasha, but we are following their trail south. Aerys seemed interested in some bushes, but we haven’t the time to gather food now. We did, however, pass another decapitated snake – this island is infested with sea scorpions, dimorphodons and cannibals, and yet it is the snakes above all else that I loathe. If I never return to this place, it will still be too soon.
Entry Seven
This entry will be spare. Have had a rough day.
Pressing on, we found an abandoned settlement. Thornton explored, discovering another plant zombie. I don’t know what the problem is, but Thornton tried to back away as fast as he could before we agreed to attack. Gellik shouted racist Gnome jokes to bolster our morale as we attacked. I dare say it didn’t work, succeeding only in filling us with mild contempt for the man. While Normelen, Chester and I closed to engage it, Thornton, in his infinite wisdom, decided to throw a Molotov cocktail, splashing on us too. It seemed to work, drawing its exclusive attention to Thornton, and allowing me to catch it with my battleaxe as it passed, showering me in gore. Chester was kind enough to use a water spell to give me a shower. I accepted it graciously. Note to self – when we get to civilisation, find the nearest public bathhouse and buy the most expensive pachage I can to cleanse my body if this filth.
The zombie was about three years dead, and the shelter is about that old. The zombie was a woman, dressed in ragged clothes. Nothing else to identify her. We briefly discussed leaving Gellik and Aerys behind to set up our new base, but decided against it and set out to track the cannibals. Barely setting foot outside of the camp, Notmerlen was hauled up into the air by a snare, but managed to free himself, falling back down. Thornton made an abominable pun about it. “We’re getting close, so there’s some good noose.” We agree that Thornton goes first. I managed to find the cannibals’ trail, and Thornton was immediately hauled up by ANOTHER trap, with Chester tossing her halberd and me throwing a dagger to try to cut him down. We both missed. Aerys was concerned at this, but not concerned enough to say anything, or help. I tried to climb the tree but was unsuccessful. Chester made it up there, as I swung my grappling hook for Thornton and Chester to climb down when he was freed. We continued down the trail, with myself taking the lead this time, watching out for more traps, but even so I nearly stumbled into one, barely managing to escape being flung into the air. Notmerlen tracked the cannibals southward.
Food poisoning caught up with me, and I immediately regretted eating the seaweed. We tracked them to a vertical cliff, with a wooden structure at the top, and started to climb – Chester found and dodged a trap, and then we were accosted by a quadruplet of barbarians at the top who injured Thornton and Chester with javelins. Thornton started lighting and tossing molotovs. Jask heals the two, looks up nervously at the cannibals. I missed twice with my bow, before managing to hit one in the shoulder, and the Cannibals sank two spears into poor Jask. One of the cannibals hurled a spear with a rope, and Notmerlen grabbed on, hoping they would haul him up where he could take them on at close quarters. Gellik and Aerys droped, prone, Gellik managing to stabilise Jask. I helped light one of Thornton’s molotovs, which sailed up and set fire to the cannibals’ structure. With their structure on fire, the barbarians started climbing down, fighting Notmerlen as he was still on the rope. Notmerlen managed to knock one off, unconscious; another fell, dead; I managed to hit another Barbarian with an arrow, while Notmerlen dealt with the last two; I managed to pierce one of the last Barbarians through the heart – he fell, crashing onto Thornton, who somehow shrugged it off. We focussed on the last one, images of Asmodeus and hellfire swimming across our visions in weariness, Jask trying to climb up to heal Notmerlen but thinking better of it. I missed with yet ANOTHER arrow. In desperation, Chester wrapped a Red Pearl Amulet around a rock and tossed it. It failed to hit. Finally we managed to get the last barbarian to plummet off.
It was at this point we discovered that Sasha was INSIDE the structure we had succeeded in setting on fire. Notmerlen managed to rescue her from it with only light burns which Jask easily healed.
I hate this island.
I hate it so much.
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Part 2/3
Thornton Poer, halfling sorcerer (ghoul bloodline). An immigrant from Thuvia, the halfling left a privileged life in a wealthy halfling household when he discovered something he did not want to contemplate. He consulted the Shouk, a tribe of degenerates. Once great seers, they were sought out by many for their counsel, but somewhere down the line the tribe's blood became tainted with that of ogres. Now they possessed little-to-no real power. Usually, those who still visited were quickly devoured—or worse—but they seemed to show no interest in Thornton. Instead, they gave him some almost useful advice...about hunger.
A few months later, Thornton signed on with the Jenivere and has served as their "cabin slip" ever since. Well, up til now.
Thornton, though hardly the bookish type, has taken to ripping out blank papers of other folk's journals—including the dead captain's—and writing down his jumbled thoughts. It serves as a distraction, if nothing else. The journals are written in the Halfling tongue, more to serve Thornton's weak grasp on Taldane grammar than to hide anything from his companions.
I
This is my first entry. maybe my last, but I have enough paper to last a while, we'll see.
I HATE dwarves. Stupid, proud, bloody-handed, and stubborn as sturgeons, the lot. This morning me and Athelstan was trying to get the tien man to help, and Athelstan managed to insult the fellow. I couldnt exactly tell what he said that bebothered him so, but his manner wasn't exactly fine. Patronizing. Probbly what set Ishiroo off. He challenged the little noble to a duel.
I tried to get between things, but the dwarves got set on accepting the request. If they'd declined we could've knocked the man unconscious, and maybe knocked some sense into him! But that bodyguard Notmerlen, he was out for blood after that. He let the tien take one swing, then lopped the man's head off like the fresh spring tulips for mam's vase. There was blood everywhere—I mean EVERYWHERE. I was standing nearby and I got some on my chicken. Though that wasn't my main concern then.
Who does that! Who just accepts a duel to the death without looking for other options! He acted like he made every effort to back out, well, no he didn't! He was all, "Right, duel, death? Kay. Chop chop. Teehee. I like beards and blood." He didn't even try to stop it once the challenge was out. He was totally unmoved after the kill, too. Reminds me of Grandpap.
Tried to bury the body deep. Didn't get far. Lots of rocks and water down there. I just stuffed him in there. Smell bothered me. Smelled like good pork. Haven't had fresh meat in so long. Think Chicken's days are numbered.
Anyway. Dwarves are crazy. They're good at killing, but they seem a bit too used to it for good, honest folk. A proper halfling gets challenged to a duel, he knows there's a million ways out of it. The dwarves din't even care to try. Their "honor" means blood. Is this what we'll all end up as? Meathungry monsters cutting each other up over the smallest of things? Blue Lady give me strength to resist savagery.
I swear I still smell Ishirou. Didn't bury the (meat) body deep enough.
Well I fell a bit behind, but here's last week's summary! Edit: Also the summary for the week after that!
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Session 3
While Thornton and Athelstan dug a shallow grave for the decapitated Ishirou, Notmerlen constructed a rudimentary raft prototype from sticks and leaves. While Aerys, Jask, and Gelik began their previously assigned tasks (guarding, healing, and entertaining, respectively), Notmerlen showed Sasha his prototype and explained to her how to begin work on the raft. Chester remained in her shelter until about two hours after sunrise, nursing a headache from her heat exhaustion the day before. Thornton found a small sheaf of papers in one of Ishirou's pockets, and discovered one of them seemed to be a map of Smuggler's Shiv.
After the grave was complete and Jask had said a few words, Notmerlen explained that the four of them - himself, Thornton, Athelstan, and Chester - would be climbing the forested ridge above the beach. The others assented, though Aerys was concerned about the paucity of rum.
After a couple hours of hiking, the team made it over the ridge and was able to look down on a wide bay below. There was a short string of islands visible to the east, and a long, uninterrupted strip of land curving from the southeast all the way up to the ridge they then stood on. Notmerlen noticed a rather large nest atop a cliff on the bayside, and the group hacked their way to the jungle to investigate.
As the four came out of the forest's edge, however, Chester and Thornton noticed something flying high, high above. It was not a bird, not an insect - nor even a bat. As the red, leather-winged creature dove towards Thornton, Athelstan recognized it as a dimporphodon - a species of pteradon with venemous fangs on its lower jaw. Fortunately, it was about ninety feet up, so before it managed to connect with the halfling, Thornton was able to wing it with a slingstone, and Athelstan punctured its wing with an arrow just before Notmerlen clove it in two with his five-foot sword. The creature swiftly bled out on the mossy rocks, and the four turned their gaze towards the nest up high.
Climbing the rocks was a bit more difficult, but Notmerlen was able to make it up and investigate. In the nest he found a baby dimorphodon. Thornton grew excited at this news, and asked for the baby to be lowered down, but Athelstan lamented that finding a nestling already hatched meant the eggs probably weren't good to eat. Notmerlen lowered the baby down, and he, Chester, and Thornton erected a sort of hammock between two trees to keep the chicken-sized reptile away from snakes. Unfortunately, Notmerlen was not the most experienced in hammock construction and could only raise the structure about two feet off the ground, in the half-hour they spent.
The four then hacked their way southeast along the coast, climbing another ridge to a high vantage point. However, by this time it was nearly noon, and the combined humidity and heat had even Thornton sweating under his shirt. They also noticed the birds were quieter here, and there were fewer rodents - probably meaning another snake nest of some kind.
There was, however, also the sound of running water. Walking about a half-mile along the ridge, the four came across a small pool, with a spring that ran downhill to the southeast. Chester with her helmet and the other dwarves with their buckets filled up, then carefully began trekking back to the camp, doing their best to keep from sloshing. The walk was hot, but slightly faster than before - and about halfway through the heavy clouds overhead broke, drenching everything in rain and cooling things down considerably.
Arriving back at Dimorphodragon Heights (as Chester labeled it on her map), they found the hatchling safe and sound, and Thornton put it in his bag. Just before entering camp, he split off from the group and stashed the baby in a cache with much of the castaways' food and the barrels of rum, along with his chicken.
In camp, the group found Aerys and Jask had industriously chosen to refill the water barrels during the downpour, and though most everyone was still stressed by their situation, they seemed to be working together. Aerys asked if they'd managed to find any rum, and Thornton admonished her - he understands addiction, but he can't support her harmful habit. Chester tried to freshen Aerys up by drenching her in conjured water, but the humorless half-elf just stared coldly at the dwarf and warned, "Leave me alone." Chester ran away, and the group noted Aerys seemed to have stopped making an effort to guard the camp.
In the interest of everyone's survival, Athelstan convinced Thornton to give Aerys the bottle of brandy the group found on the Jenivere. The cabin boy reluctantly agreed, and the two relatively charismatic castaways went to the front of Aerys' shelter to try and convince her to help. Thornton explained that he was willing to give her the brandy, but only if she promised to guard more carefully. Aerys didn't smile, but she took the brandy and nodded.
That night, Thornton prepared a mediocre meal of the last of the eurypterids before they went rotten. Thornton privately consumed the snake from the day before, tearing with unseemly gusto into the rare meat. Meanwhile, Athelstan went around talking to the other castaways, trying to buoy their spirits and hopefully win some more friends. Gelik told the story of his expulsion from Magnimar, but seemed a bit more upbeat than the others - he'd heard that the Pathfinder ship Nightvoice wrecked somewhere near Smuggler's Shiv, and finding its captain's log would probably erase his past dispute with the Society. Athelstan and Jask bonded over their shared time in Corentyn - as it turned out, Jask was originally from Sargava, but after uncovering a conspiracy between one of his superiors and the Free Captains of the Shackles, he fled and lived in exile for ten years. He's something of a sage, and worked as a scribe while he was up north. However, some months ago a Sargavan agent finally caught up with him and clapped him in irons, and the priest was dropped off in the first ship bound for Eleder. Now that the Jenivere has wrecked, Jask is sort of ambivalent about escaping the island, but he knows it is a dangerous place. He would be willing to leave, and would be in Athelstan's debt, if the group could locate the Brine Demon, which was captained by Avret Kinkarian, one of the pirates his superior was making deals with. Jask heard the ship wrecked in these waters, and hopes that if he finds it he can get some evidence to prove his innocence.
Athelstan tried to ask Sasha about her past, but at the mention of Ilizmagorti (where she boarded) she glared at him and went mute. Aerys was upset enough after Chester's prank and Athelstan left her alone.
The night passed uneventfully, save that around midnight the stars winked out and a light drizzle began to fall from patchy clouds. The sliver of the moon provided little more light than the embers of the smoky fire, but the dwarves were able to see in the darkness well enough.
On the morning of the 22nd of Arodus, the party seemed a bit worse for wear. Sasha and Aerys huddled in their shelters well past daybreak, seemingly plagued by nightmares, and even Gelik and Jask showed signs of strain. However, Notmerlen still convinced everyone to keep to their assigned roles, and Sasha's work on the raft was coming along quite nicely. The four who'd been exploring decided to strike west this day and see what lay at the tip of the island.
Thanks to their early start, the group made it past what Chester labeled "Mount Shiv M" on her map (the main hill to the west of camp) well before the morning heat, and had blazed a trail through about half of the distance before encountering any hazards. The rain was light enough that it was not discomforting, but also seemed not light enough to cool down the dense, hot air.
Around noontime, Notmerlen spotted another dimorphodon. This one was already below the canopy by the time he noticed, and was about to enter a dive . . .
-
Session 4
As the reddish fangbird dove, Thornton, Athelstan, and Notmerlen whipped out their projectile weapons and aimed upwards. Thornton's rock was too irregularly shaped, and ricocheted off of a series of branches, while Notmerlen's crossbow bolt went wide into the canopy. But Athelstan's bow was in prime working condition, and his arrow flew true into the dimorphodon's abdomen. Shrieking angrily, it dove at the dwarf, only for Notmerlen's gauntleted fist to smack it senseless as it passed. The dimorpodon crumpled on Athelstan's head before falling to the underbrush with a soft rustle.
While Notmerlen retrieved his arrow, Thornton noticed a jungle goat staring at them from the north. It was about eighty feet away, but without a second's hesitation the halfling had launched a stone. Unfortunately, the stone missed, and the goat began bounding off through the brush. Athelstan was reluctant to part with his ammunition, but he decided to join in, launching arrow after arrow at the peaceful woodland creature while Chester ran after it, waving her halberd. Finally, Athelstan stuck an arrow in the goat's side, just as it seemed about to escape. Chester ran up and swiftly decapitated it, then ran back to the group dangling the head as a trophy. Thornton was displeased and went to butcher the goat portions that Chester had not brought.
After killing the goat, the group explored further westward. They came out into a sort of dense scrub, with sumac and butterknife trees rising about four feet above the explorers' heads in places. Visibility was still better than in the forest, though, and after another hour of trail-cutting Notmerlen spotted a ship crashed against the cliffs down below. This wreck was much older than the Jenivere, and waves and rot had torn apart all but the hull's skeleton and portions of the top deck. Chester and Thornton shimmied down Athelstan's rope from a cliff above and, finding the footing secure, called their friends down. From what Chester could tell the ship had crashed here several decades ago, Athelstan figured it was a smuggling vessel out of the Shackles, judging by its nameplate (Tattooed Lady). While the four searched the ship for useful equipment, the sky began turning yellow towards the horizon. Chester ate some strange seaweed, collected more of it in her backpack, and offered some to Thornton, who it made feel nauseous. Finally, the group headed uphill and back along the ridge towards camp.
An hour after sunset, the team finally stumbled down onto the beach. Jask and Gelik were drenched and huddled around the black remains of the campfire. One of the wooden shelters had been knocked over and bashed to pieces. And, as the group slowly realized, Sasha and Aerys were nowhere to be seen.
"They took Sasha!" Gelik spluttered as soon as he saw the group. "And Aerys ran off!"
Jask looked up with weary eyes when Notmerlen approached the scene. "Chelish-looking folk with five-point pentagrams branded on their shoulders. We couldn't stop them, not once Aerys ran."
"The cannibals?" Notmerlen asked, but Jask and Gelik didn't know - and in fact, the question only made Gelik more apprehensive than before. As Athelstan and Thornton were able to glean, a group of barbaric-looking humans (possibly the rumored cannibals) had broken into the camp, destroyed the raft, and grabbed Sasha, who was too terrified to resist. Aerys had taken a look at the warriors and high-tailed to the southwest. The cannibals loped back into the forest to the southeast at an incredible speed - twice as fast as himself, Gelik noted - but did not seem interested in claiming any more victims at that time, as there had only been three of them.
Thornton, ever practical, decided the onetime passengers needed some food in their bellies before mounting any rescue missions. He prepared a goat stew, which was quite palatable and really much better than it would have been if he'd allowed Chester to add her dodgy seaweed. Chester nevertheless ate some from her stash and offered a few pieces to Gelik, who turned green shortly after he ate.
The remaining six castaways spent an uneasy night crammed into their remaining shelters and woke quickly after sunrise the next day (23 Arodus). Jask led Athelstan and Gelik along Aerys' trail. Meanwhile, Notmerlen, Thornton, and Chester followed the track of the three barbarians who had kidnapped Sasha.
As they climbed back into the hills above camp, Thornton moved ahead of the dwarves about forty feet to try and scout out any threats before they heard the dwarves' clanking. The barbarians' hasty bushwhacking made it easier for him to move quietly, so when he passed within ten feet of a blue-black krait hiding in the bushes, it didn't even notice. Unfortunately, he didn't notice, either, and it was Chester who finally heard the snake's hiss and ran up to protect her friend.
Thornton looked back in shock and cast a spell, running forward and pulling a bit of the snake's life force from its body. The dark-scaled creature recoiled and slithered towards Chester with surprising speed, managing to bite her in the leg but failing to weaken her natural defense against poison. She quickly finished Thornton's job, cleaving the snake's head from its body. Then she wrapped it around her waist as a belt.
As the trio continued on the cannibals' trail as fast as they could, Athelstan, Jask, and Gelik finally caught sight of Aerys again. She looked drenched and defeated, her eyes only on the ground, and was walking back downhill towards them. Athelstan called a greeting.
The half-elf looked up briefly, shooting a glance of distaste. "I f~~&ed us all over. I know. I'm sorry."
Before Athelstan could break in, Gelik replied, "They took Sasha, and you just ran away! What kind of s$%@ty guard are you?" Jask nodded, but seemed to recognize the perilous situation the group was in.
"I . . . I broke. I barely know where we are, or if we'll ever get saved. I don't want to get eaten by monsters or kidnapped by strange diabolists." She looked at Athelstan with surprising sincerity, her eyes red-rimmed and her hands shaking.
"Well, we're better off sticking together," the dwarf said. He offered her a bottle of rum, and she gratefully accepted, falling into place behind him.
Meanwhile, Notmerlen, Chester, and Thornton continued past the Bergen Memorial Spring. The trail led down the ridge to a valley where two streams joined, and then climbed up again along the other fork of the creek. On the opposite bank, the group saw a dense thicket of succulent vines, which Chester identified as viper nettles. According to her, the "nettles" (named by some botanically challenged explorer) secrete a minor poison on their thorns and cause a painful rash, but usually grow plump, red berries at the center of the grove. Supposedly, these berries can alleviate withdrawal symptoms and help recovery from illness, in addition to being rather flavorful. Thornton contemplated wading across the stream and trying to dodge his way through the vines, but the others were hasty to find Sasha, and they decided to check out the viper nettles later.
The stream's source was a deep bowl of dense fog-forest. Climbing to the ridge above the spring, Notmerlen spotted a gigantic, white web stretched in the trees above. Thornton made a comment about tent caterpillars but nonetheless the group hightailed it down towards the coast, still following the cannibals' trail.
About an hour behind the other group, Athelstan and the weaker castaways climbed up to what Chester's labeled "Dimorphidragon Heights," which had been their previously arranged meeting point. Finding no one, they cut across country to the barbarian trail. Athelstan was unnerved by the severed snake head, and later Aerys lagged behind as they climbed past the viper nettles. As they climbed up from the spring of the southern stream, the group heard a sound sort of like wood-chopping from the forest below.
In the heat of the day, with strong, hot winds whipping the trees above them, Thornton and his followers sighted a clearing off to the side. Curious, Thornton crept towards it.
As he came out of the undergrowth, the halfling saw a yellow-flowered bush in the center of the clearing. Vines grew from the bush in all directions - along the ground, up into the trees, and into the understory. Yellow flowers were everywhere. In addition to the bush, Thornton slowly realized there were two humanoid figures, also covered in wide green leaves and yellow flowers, just behind it. Before he could back away, the plant had turned one of its flowers towards him and fired a jet of yellowish powder at his face. Thornton's mind briefly blanked, and he began walking towards the plant.
As their halfling companion approached the dangerous plant, the dwarves ran through the undergrowth towards him, readying their weapons. Unfortunately, being forty feet behind the halfling in difficult terrain meant Notmerlen and Chester took 10-15 seconds to catch up, and Thornton by then was accosted by the pair of humanoids. The lurching, flower-covered beings moved with very little grace or speed, and only managed to slam Thornton once before he snapped out of his reverie. The plant tried to spray Chester as she ran up, but like most other technically poisonous substances it was unable to break through her importunable fortitude. She slashed one of the zombies with her halberd as Thornton retreated and conjured a magical armor of force around her.
Finally, Notmerlen arrived into the fray, charging the nearest plant zombie and cleaving it in two with his greatsword. As he did so, however, he exposed himself to a jab from one of the plant's seeking tendrils. The plant dug that pale root-like appendage into Notmerlen's head, and though it did not hold him for long, he quickly collapsed from the trauma. Chester swung again, dropping another of the zombies with a fortuitously lopping blow, but not before taking a gash in the thigh from it and also suffering a blow from the plant. She retreated behind Thornton, then, and released a burst of invisible positive energy to rejuvenate her allies. The healing also closed the wounds of the plant zombies, but none stirred, and she was able to revive Notmerlen before he sustained serious blood loss. Notmerlen flipped himself upright and swung his greatsword at the plant, cleaving off some of its tendrils, followed by Chester stepping forward again and ripping into the plant monster's main stem, tearing out chunks of woody bark. The plant retaliated by jabbing its tendrils into Thornton's head in a lightning flash, but somehow the halfling stayed standing. His fingernails elongated, growing a dark, purplish color, and his eyes took on a hungry glow. Leaping forward, Thornton tore off the plant's branches with supernaturally sharp claws, then hacked through its stem, sending shreds of flowers and leaves everywhere.
After another minute or so of furious shredding, Thornton stepped back, content that the plant was destroyed. His fingernails receded to a normal length. Meanwhile, Chester had gathered a few of the undamaged flowers and intentionally injected their pollen into her nostrils, but had failed to suffer any ill effects. She then shoved a flower in Notmerlen's face, telling him that it was good and he should try it. Unlike Chester, Notmerlen was immediately affected by the plant's mind-dampening effects, and stood in place for about half a minute. When he finally broke free, he drew his greatsword and threatened the priestess, commenting on her strange mask and her potential true identity as a non-dwarf. He warned her not to pull something like that again, but she did not hear the warning because she had finally managed to overload her immune system with the pollen.
23 Arodus 4715 AR
I hate this damn land.
While we had gone to investigate the island west of our beach camp, during our excursion, the remaining passengers were attacked by cannibals. Seemingly, only Sasha had been carried off, Aerys ran into the jungle to hide, and Gelick and Jask cowered in fear. We arrived to find the two huddled together by the fire, and the camp in a mess. Ridiculous. It had started to get late, so we simply fixed the state of the camp to the best of our abilities and prepared for an early morning. We decided that Athelstan would likely be the only one who could talk Aerys into returning to the camp, but we couldn't simply wait for him to deal with the half-elf. Sasha was our only survival expert. We couldn't risk losing her, and I particularly wanted to deal with these cannibals before they became a greater threat. Myself, Thorton and Chester armed ourselves and head south, following the tracks of the cannibals. They were hardly difficult to follow, probably because they were not used to having to hide their presence. Likely, they did not think we would go after them. Their mistake. Along the way, we discovered some of the more horrific inhabitants of the island. A large, yellowish plant that seemed intent on killing us with a well placed puncture to the brain. Seemingly, it had also propagated into the corpses of it's former victims, animating them. It could raise the dead. I had heard of such things lurking in the fringes of civilization, but from my understanding they were a product of dark and evil magic, not plants. Must simply...fill corpses with...itself? Regardless, I almost experienced first hand what it was capable of when it struck me unconscious with it's sharp tendrils. Thorton almost became a victim himself, a scar square in the center of his forehead to show for his efforts.
When I awoke, the cleric attempted to shove the plants pollen into my face. I barked at her to cease, but she pressed on and...I forget what happened. It's not important. What is important is that the cleric is an idiot, and I would have struck her down for such a grievous insult had she the stonesense to realize her folly. I am watching her from now on.
After our tussle with the plant, Athelstan arrived with Aerys and the others not long after. Seemingly, they had more success and a much easier time than we had done. Together, we ventured further south, arriving at a abandoned hut in the middle of a clearing. Outside the hut was a stray, shambling plant zombie. We struck it down quickly, but not before Thorton introduced us to his latest bright idea. He had created a makeshift firebomb out of lantern oil and a wet rag. Clever, particularly given his natural magics allowed him to simply ignite the thing and throw it onto his target, setting them ablaze.
After we had dealt with the considerably charred zombie, we took note of the hut and elected to continue further south. Along the way, we discovered that the cannibals had in fact prepared for us. Traps had been set up along the path, and as we travelled I found myself grabbed by the foot, and yanked against some spikes worked into trees above. A cord had strung me up. Bastards. Luckily my armour protected me, and I was only mildly hurt by the fall, which Jask kindly alleviated. Thorton, later, was not so lucky, and sprung one of the traps himself. He took the full brunt of the spikes, and it took a while to work him down. We came to a third trap, yet, when we attempted to disarm it, we found ourselves being rained upon by javelins.
Above us, into a cliff-face along the path, a small bunker had been hollowed out and thatched to conceal it. a cord was leading up to the thatch, and from underneath it, four cannibals were tossing their javelins at us. They were too high up to reach with our weaponry, and we were quickly being torn to pieces by the rain of weapons, Jask particularly being brought down quickly by focused javelin fire. The only way was up. There was a cord leading up to the cannibal's lair. I feared they would simply attempt to cut the cord once I attempted to climb, but instead, they eagerly watched me ascend, delighted with the prospect of another meal. As I climbed, slowly but surely, I noted that they appeared to be tattoo'd in the fashion of the Cheliaxian devil worshippers. Slightly sloppier than that of Cheliaxian custom but similar regardless. As I neared the top, below Thorton had began to hatch his 'brilliant' plan. The cannibals had run out of javelins, so they were hiding back to avoid returning fire from below. Thorton, using his makeshift bombs, hoped to flush them out. After several failed attempts, and a considerable waste of lantern oil, he finally got one to ignite, and set the thatch and cave ablaze. The cannibals scrambled out and onto the cliff face to get out of the flame, and in their eyes I saw the savage rage that fueled them. One was still on fire as it screamed at me and clambered down to swing at me with a broken, rusted scimitar. I managed to slay two with my shortsword as we swung on the wall, the rope my only lifeline, and a steady retreat backwards my only hope for survival. Below, my allies were attempting to assault the cannibals with anything at hand, conveniently ignoring the crossbow and bolts I had left on the ground.
The brutality of their attacks nearly knocked me unconscious, but a few well placed blows from below managed to deal an end to the remaining cannibals. From above, however, I learnt my ordeal was not over. A cry for help. Sasha was trapped in the burning bunker. I had to climb in and move past burning oil and through choking smoke to reach the restrained Ranger. She apparently lacked the energy to carry herself, so our decline was slow, and the heat from above did not help things.
After our ordeal, we moved back north to set up camp in the old hut in the clearing. And here we are now. The night is cool, and everyone is asleep. It's nice tonight. Even though we spied some strange phenomenon within the water, during the darkness of the night, strange lights dancing beneath and above the surface, there does not appear to be anything else of note. The outside air is silent and cool. It's nice, being able to take in the quiet of the moment. To think. My death could have come twice today. I'm glad to see it behind me. I feel like things are going to improve. Tomorrow certainly seems promising, and once I finish this watch, I'll quite happily enjoy a good nights res- *the page is torn here, and several pages after are soaked in mud*
EXTRAS
Fight with the yellow plant
Fight against the cliff-face.
Capitalist Barbarian Cannibals discussing pressing business with an attacking Dwarf.
All things presented assumed Chester's and maybe Thortons's actual grasp on reality.
Actual footage of our game from Chester's perspective:
Things missing: Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson, named after the former wrestler turned actor of the same name. Actual rock.
Dick Cheney, the plant zombie. She was dragged off somewhere.HAL 2001
Echo Beach
A sound grasp of reality and gravity of our circumstances
Me scrambling to create a new emergency backup character in case of the worst.
Teammates missing every single one of their ranged attacks.
GHOULS & RATS INFEST THE AQUIFER.
PLEASE PURIFY WATER BEFORE DRINKING.
MAKE SURE WELL IS UNOCCUPIED BEFORE
JUMPING IN.
AS ALWAYS, SAFETY IS THE TRAVELER'S BEST
FRIEND.WITH THAT OUT OF THE WAY,
HERE IS A LITTLE BIT OF HUMOR
TO LIGHTEN THE MOOD :I DO NOT NEED TREASURE. PERSONALLY, I FEEL THAT CARTOGRAPHY IS ITS OWN REWARD.
image
show worcester's log
But seriously, folks. . .
-
Session 7
After discovering yet another snare and cutting Notmerlen down from the rope, the party fell into disagreement about which direction to go next. Athelstan climbed a tree for a better look at the landscape, and saw again the imposing red mountain to the southeast and the forested hills to the west. Thornton had a strinkingly realistic day-dream of a group of wyrmling dragons coming out of the jungle and killing Athelstan with an electric blast. He seemed to be tuning out the argument between Notmerlen and Athelstan as much as Chester, who was looking up at the sky and sketching the surroundings for a future map.
Eventually, Athelstan wrangled Thornton into voting for a southward tack. The group hiked down away from the gorge, along the coast of what looked to be another bay, occasionally glimpsing deep gray water from the trees. After an hour of walking, they came to yet another branch in the path - one path led east, the other west. Here Notmerlen suddenly remembered Ishirou's odd map and tried to get his bearings, showing it to the others. At first, Thornton was skeptical about whether the map actually depicted Smuggler's Shiv, because it didn't show the northern bay at all. Notmerlen and Athelstan theorized hat the mushroom cloud-looking icon atop a hill was a volcano, though, which could have erupted and filled the bay. However, upon climbing a tree, he couldn't see any smoke coming from the western hills. Notmerlen was unsure whether the group should proceed westward - where also, supposedly, the lighthouse had been constructed decades ago - or southeast, where they saw the great redrock mountain looming over the island. But Thornton kept looking at the map, slowly realizing it was the island, and there was a noteworthy X-mark back near last night's camp. He grabbed Chester's map and showed his companions the similarities. Lured by the prospect of treasure, the group reversed direction and hiked northward through the afternoon.
About half an hour after turning onto the path towards the hill with the X-mark, Notmerlen noticed another tripwire strung across the path. He instructed the others on how to step over it safely, and the group continued on. After another half-hour or so, they realized the path was beginning to turn downhill, and struck cross-country into the jungle back towards the X.
Along the way, Athelstan noticed a shed snakeskin lying across the path. The group took pains to move more stealthy then, creeping through a region of forest with very little birdsong but a plenitude of small insect noises.
Thankfully avoiding whatever had left the five-foot-long skin, the group finally climbed to the topof the hill that seemed to match Ishirou's map. The crown of the hill was one of the few places on the Shiv that wasn't entirely jungle -the entire hilltop was an open area of tall grass overlooking the island's eastern shoreline. Consulting the map, Thornton saw that they would have to find the point on the hill where the sun came between two rocks at dawn. They bedded down on the hilltop amidst the end of an afternoon downpour and rested, with Chester mixing a pair of herbal supplements to speed up Thornton and Athelstan's recovery from the poison and disease (respectively).
The wind weakened as the night went on, and Athelstan seemed to be sleeping easier, having found a patch of soft grass. However, Thornton half-woke several times to retch out Chester's brew - it seemed to only work for dwarves. Since she was already tending to her patients, Chester stayed awake the whole night, making sure nothing came out of the forest to disrupt their camp.
Notmerlen dreamed of being back on the Jenivere and heaving over the rail with what looked to be the entire crew minus Captain Kovack and Ieana. Looking up from where bile surged in the surf, he saw Ieana leaning in to whisper something in Kovack's ear. Suddenly, the captain was holding a wooden soup spoon, and Notmerlen realized that everyone else in the dream was as well. Working feverishly, the crew tried to bail out the hold before the ship sank, but the waters kept rushing in. Just before Notmerlen awoke, he could see monstrous things with pincers trying to claw their way into the ship's hull. Then, he was sweating in his bedroll and blinking at the dark night sky above. Chester was sitting off to the side.
"Look at this bug," she told him. Notmerlen didn't see anything particularly interesting about the bug, but he was unwilling to return to sleep after such a dream. He waited until the sky was greying with morning and then roused Thornton and Athelstan.
After a breakfast of farmer's cheese and bread, the group fanned out on the hilltop, looking for the place the map described. Far to the east, the sun moved in the space between horizon and clouds, slowly giving the isle a warm orange glow. Notmerlen hurried down to the southern edge of the hilltop and was gratified to find that, indeed, there the sun rose exactly between two craggy pillars of red stone out in the waves below the hill. He began digging, using his kukri to break through the thick sod.
Athelstan, reprimanding his bodyguard for failing to bring shovels, began using his battleaxe to cut deep furrows into the earth Notmerlen exposed. Thornton joined in with only his hands, helping to scoop up the soil the dwarves dislodged.
The three worked throughout the morning and into the heat of the day, while Chester dozed. Digging a pit about ten feet wide at its highest and ten feet deep at its lowest, Thornton and the Five Kings Mountains dwarves finally reached something that made a thunking sound when Athelstan's battleaxe hit it. Clearing away the earth, Athelstan found the material to be partially rotted wood - what appeared to be a network of logs and branches woven together. As he cleared the earth from this platform, he discovered a skeleton wearing a rotten leather hauberk. The skeleton had belonged to a dwarf, but after determining that the party paid it no other heed.
Notmerlen began excavating around the wooden "plug." His effort took another three hours, at which point he was sweating profusely under his heavy armor. However, he was rewarded when, kneeling down to get a glimpse into the space below the plug, he saw it was simply a forty-foot drop into murky dark water.
Forsaking the use of a light, Thornton squeezed through the hole and began shimmying down a rope which Athelstan had affixed to a bush above. He wanted to scout the pit for monsters, just in case. He descended to the edge of his vision and looked down into the water. After a few moments, his eyes adjusted and he could see two pallid, humanoid forms lying prone at the bottom of the murky, foul-smelling water. Slowly, he climbed down - first testing with a foot, then submerging himself until only his head remained above water.
Then, the white shapes moved.
The first lunged upward and bit into Thornton's ankle, nearly biting through his tendon. The halfling scrambled up the rope in shock, but the other pale creature - who Thornton could now see had lips rotted away to the gums and a full set of canine teeth - swam up after him. The creature, which Thornton innately sensed a horrible kinship with, jumped up after the escaping prey and tore a second gobbet of flesh from his stomach, nearly exposing his organs. He tried to climb fast, but he was bleeding too heavily. After giving two tugs on the rope, Thornton fell back amidst the ghouls.
Fortunately, Chester had been watching the bush, and she saw the tugs. As Thornton fell, she was already leaping down onto the wooden plug and squeezing through the burrow Notmerlen made. As the ghouls turned to devour the unconscious halfling, suddenly Chester was among them, grabbing one by the head and holding her halberd with the other. Unfortunately, this meant she had no hands left for swimming, so she dropped the ghoul and focused on that.
Mere seconds after Chester leapt down with a splash, another great dwarven cannonball fell from above. Notmerlen swung his greatsword at one of the ghouls as he fell, but misjudged his speed and swung too late to hit it. Athelstan, meanwhile, began calling words of encouragement to his allies far below, inciting in them a righteous anger at (what he presumed to be) truly horrendous, inimical creatures. Even as he sank, Thornton's unconscious mind responded to these empowering words, and his heart kept beating.
Both of the ghouls then attacked Chester, clawing deep cuts easily through her leather armor. One also managed to bite the sun priestess, but she remained impervious to the afflictions of the body, and kept fighting even as numbnness crept over her body. She held up Keltheald's holy sunset-symbol and released a burst of golden energy that looked and smelled like citrus juice. This effect seemed to accelerate the rot in the ghouls' already-morbid flesh.
Treading water vigorously, Notmerlen swung his greatsword, quickly cleaving one ghoul's arm and leg from its torso. The undead's reddish eye-glint, only visible to the dwarves' nightvision, faded immediately.
Leaping down into the pit he had helped dig, Athelstan squeezed through Notmerlen's side tunnel and fired his shortbow at the remaining ghoul. This one nearly hit, but the ghoul dodged back from Chester at the wrong moment and the arrow sank into the water. Unfortunately, the cartographer's fury left her open to attack, and the ghoul sunk its claws deep into her stomach. Suddenly, Chester was numb to her core, and she could not move. Helpless, she began to sink.
Roaring in frustration, Notmerlen brought his sword down again - now on the head of the surviving ghoul. Black, coagulated blood stuck to his blade as that second ghoul sunk to the bottom.
Athelstan leapt down into the murky water to help as his bodyguard lifted Thornton above the surface. A quick healing incantation mended Thornton's wounds enough for him to come awake, and then Notmerlen was able to lift Chester to safety as the cabin boy quickly climbed the rope.
Above ground, Thornton hugged his knees, whimpering. Notmerlen tried to get him and Chester to come back down and help finish exploring the dark pit, but only Athelstan was in any condition to help.
Searching ten feet below the surface of the now bloody, churned-up water, Notmerlen noticed a passageway about five feet wide, cut into the rocky earth at the base of the wall. The passage went east about fifteen feet, then turned straight upward, and swimming along Notmerlen found a pocket of stale air at the surface of the new "room." Cut into the earth just above the water, he also found a ledge a few feet wide. On that ledge was a rusty, iron-bound sea chest with a mithral lock.
Notmerlen swam back through the tunnel with the heavy chest. He and Athelstan laboriously lifted it up the well and onto the grass, where Thornton was nervously eating from his food stores.
Notmerlen retrieved his greatsword and swung down at the chest's lock, sending up sparks but incrementally cleaving through. After much clanging, he broke through the bar, and swung the lid open.
Inside, the Five Kings Mountains nationals saw a glittering cache of coins. The chest contained thousands of copper pennies, silver weights, and gold measures, along with dozens of platinum Absalom sphinxes. The chest also held half a dozen rotted human-sized nobles' outfits, a high-quality buckler made of Andoren darkwood, a silk pouch full of garnets and amethysts, a bejeweled cold iron starknife, and a mithral scroll tube.
Examining the chest's contents more closely, Athelstan and Notmerlen estimated there to be 3500 copper, 2000 silver, 1000 gold, and 50 platinum pieces. The bag had about forty garnets and twenty amethysts, all of middling quality, and the lot would probably be worth ten pounds of gold, Athelstan thought. The buckler, they determined, was actually magical, along with the scroll inside the scroll tube (which itself was worth 500 gold thanks to its material and the artistic etchings on its outside). The starknife was not magical, but it had been smithed by a master, and the moonstones and opals set into the ring around its hilt made it worth as much as 650 gold according to Athelstan.
The buckler had a faint aura of abjuration, Athelstan determined with a few words of Dwarven and a hand gesture. At the same time, he also found the scroll to have a moderate aura of conjuration. Joined by the suddenly intrigued Thornton, Athelstan scanned the scroll with a spell to read magical texts. To their astonishment, the script was an incomplete spell for the resurrection of the dead, which could easily be completed with a simple ritual. The party immediately set to discussing if they should use the scroll - and who they should use it on.
II
Well, I haven't written in a while.
Been a rough while. Since the last entry, we no, I don't want to talk about that. Let's just say I haven't been sleeping well since...them.
They looked so much like them. Red eyes, sharp teeth, the only difference was I could tell these were wild. They weren't my kind like them.
I guess I'm not the only one sleeping badly. Chester woke me up last night talking about some awful dream she'd had. She ate a snake? I can never understand her. She's some sort of genius savant. All I can do is try to interpret, and in this case, I have a feeling the answer lies in that dead jellyfish I saw her prodding at a bit before supper. I couldn't find it when I walked by the beach later. That dwarf's stomach is like iron, but it can't be good for dreams.
I remember how I slept the first night I Anyways, the evening before I just remembered we went onto another wrecked ship. Found a treasure chest with some stuff. Notmerlyn had to carry me across. I still can't bear to touch the water, not after
The next morning we left Jask, Eris Arris Aeyrs?, and Sasha at the new campsite. Gelik came with us. I'm so weary of dealing with that bard. His jokes are dreadful (but weirdly motivating I suppose) and the gnome's smell
Makes me hungry.
But for some reason, he tagged along. I suppose he wasn't as bothersome as last time. We avoided another spider (bebothered attercops seem totally toothl mandibless)* and came to that big tree (NOT a volcano, thank heavens). The tree was called a, I'll ask the others
Well I haven't the foggiest notion what they were all doing there but I did not want to interrupt. So, we'll call it a Volcano Tree. Huge, leafy, very nice. There we met a beautiful woman with fern fronds for hair. We (back home)heard stories of the halfling fey women that lurked in the oasises, but this wasn't that. Aseenia seemed to haven't any idea what she was doing on that island, but she had been there a while. She healed me (that walk there was MISERABLE) and I felt strangely inclined to trust her. Aseenia was very protective of her tree, but I and Athelstan could tell she was a good, kind creature, whatever she was. She didn't seem to know what a map was until we showed her ours, apparently she can see the whole island in her head. We asked to house Sasha, Jask and the others there, and she said yes. Guess we have to move them again.
Oh, before I forget: SASHA STOLE MY DINOSAUR! My dymorfodan or whatever it's called. The baby. She stole it! That thing was going to be my lunch! Stinking THIEVING HUMANS.
I suppose it doesn't matter much tho. Anyways she told us that she hadn't seen that archaologist (sp?) woman, but she had seen a birdman running around. I think Notmerlyn called it a tengu. Some sort of eastern thing, probably not related to Ishirou, very good at swords. Did she say it had maps, too? I can't remember now. But that could be a real problem.
She's talking about some sort of fungus island she wants us to go to and clean up. As long as I don't have to go in the water again, fine, we could use her help. I honestly cannot focus on that right now. Drank my last bottle of wine (sneakily so Sasha couldn't see) and running short on cheese. Meat supplies are low, too. Chicken might be on the way out over the next couple days. Too bad my DINOSAUR GOT KIDNAPPED.
Oh, before I forget, here's a sample of Gelik's "razor wit" (not really): "What do a bush and a flower have in common? They're not a tree." I guess Chester thought it was funny. Maybe she sees something I don't.
*[It should be noted that Sasha, Aeris Jask and Gelik had to deal with one of the spiders avoided prior. Thornton just doesn't tend to think about stuff like that.]
Meet the new friend...Ekubus!
In his dreams, he is the star. Its him!
We hadn't played in two weeks, so last session was kinda a slow-moving train wreck.
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Session 8 technically 12, somehow
After bidding Aycenia goodbye, the five explorers hiked back down their trail, on their way to tell the rest of the castaways to relocate to her grove. They were about halfway down the banyan hill when suddenly, over by the Red Mountain, they saw webbed strands of lightning arcing up into the low-lying clouds. For nearly half a minute afterward, a rumbling sound rolled over the island. Athelstan speculated this might be caused by some sort of volcanic eruption, but there were not the ash clouds typical of such electric discharge.
After about three hours, the team arrived above the bluffs overlooking the lagoon between Red Mountain and the rest of the island. Gelik agreed to go fetch the other castaways at the camp to the north while the rest of the party investigated the cause of the rumbling. Picking their way down to shore, they found that the water level had dropped about twenty feet, leaving dead fish, scuttling crabs, and masses of kelp in its wake. Thornton began gathering up fresh fish for supper that night, but as he did so began to feel a queasy weakness in his gut. Nevertheless, Chester helped him gather up all the fish in the immediate area (including a gigantic ocean sunfish that had somehow found its way into the bay), and the party explored along the shore up towards the mouth of a stream. As she approached, Chester noticed a wrecked ship on the exposed sandbars below the stream.
To get down to the ship, the party had to climb back up off the shore, hike through the rainforest for a ways, and cross the stream above where it emptied into the lagoon. Athelstan was nearly swept all the way down to the waterfall, and buffeted by the rocks on the stream's bottom, but eventually climbed up onto the right bank, completely soaked. The party approached a ravine in between the bluffs. The ravine had several ledges along the sides, between which crossed what looked like recently-constructed wooden bridges. In the crook where the ravine ended, they found a nest containing a blood-drained jungle goat and great deal of fur, cloth, glass, sticks, bones, and treasure. Among the treasure was a composite longbow and a quiver with various high-quality arrows (which Notmerlen took), a mithral hook designed to be attached to an arm stump (which Thornton took), and a masterwork buckler. Notmerlen gave his old crossbow to Chester, as he now had no use for it.
Chester carefully removed the bones and climbed back on top of the bluff, then spent about an hour digging a shallow grave for them. While she worked, Athelstan examined the nest and Notmerlen examined a large stone monument overlooking the bay. To Twice-Dropped's horror, the marks on the jungle goat's neck were consistent with the bite of a chupacabra, a creature normally native only to Thuvia and Rahadoum. Judging by the size of the fang marks, it was larger than him, and - worst of all - seemed to either be an exceptional climber or possessed of flight. Thornton picked up the jungle goat and, when Athelstan voiced his concerns, nodded. "We used to have chupacabras all over back home."
Meanwhile, Notmerlen struggled to understand the carvings on the monolith. It had four main pillars, surrounding a central pyramid with a bowl-like indentation at the top and channels that flowed down its four sides into basins at their base. The stalagmite-like pillars each had a weathered, snakelike rune carved into their inner face, and what appeared to be fresh blood was splattered on each. The basins at the bottom of the pyramid were filled with what smelled just like seawater. Notmerlen was not sure what any of it meant.
After Chester had finished grave-digging, the party climbed down to the seafloor-level using the three rickety bridges. The sandbars and rocks here were covered with bright green anenomes, sea urchins of all color, dead fish, kelp crabs, and seaweed. They picked their way out to the wrecked ship and climbed onto its rotting top deck, which was covered in barnacles and more seaweed. Opening a hatch, they entered what must once have been the galley and then approached what might have been the forward cabin. Crushed, rotting furniture lay in a heap near the bow, and seawater covered the floor, deepening away from the door. A goblin-looking creature suddenly flapped out from on top of a ruined desk and challenged the party, asking what they were doing on his ship and if they had anything to report on the unexpectedly low tide. It had a shrill, sniffling voice.
The goblin, who was actually a "water mephit" from the Elemental Plane of Water, introduced himself as "Captain Ekubus" once he was sure the party had not caused the low tide and was not there to try to take his ship (called the "Salty Strumpet") or harm his crew. As far as the party could tell, his crew consisted primarily of the various crabs that crawled about the walls and floor of his ship. Chester and Thornton introduced themselves, asking how long the ship had been wrecked there and how Captain Ekubus came to be its master. The mephit claimed he had been there for "a million years" and told a sometimes inconsistent story of having a halfling master who lived aboard the ship before it sank, and of a great scaly winged thing carrying off all the crew on the top deck. Since everyone else had drowned, Ekubus appointed himself captain and enlisted a new crew.
Thornton explained that he was also a halfling, and that he was also now the captain of his own wrecked ship, the Jenivere. Ekubus was pleased to meet another seafarer again and, with Athelstan greasing the conversation with a few interjections, agreed to come along and help the party wherever they went as long as he could be back home within two hours. He also remarked that the group wasn't the first to come by the Salty Strumpet - just a few hours ago, after the water went down, a snake woman in robes and carrying scrolls had also passed by, though she didn't stop to talk to Ekubus. At Notmerlen's prodding, he explained that she had scaled skin, and a snake head, which is why he thought she was a snake woman. Notmerlen was pretty sure that Ieana the Varisian scholar had not had a snake head.
After Captain Ekubus bid his sea urchins and crabs goodbye, the party exited the ship and followed the path he indicated the snake woman had used. At the end of that sandbar, they found a pair of immense stone doors set into the cliff face and standing wide open. The doors were covered with thick sheets of green and black seaweed, but Thornton was able to clear away most of the muck and reveal a set of disturbingly gory carvings. The carvings depicted vampiric demons feasting on young human men and women, which Chester and Athelstan could not interpret without access to the library.
After casting a series of light spells, the party advanced into the passage beyond the doors.
I have not much time. I will write what I can.
So much has happened over the course of several days that I will document in a more peaceful time, but the rush of events has left me preoccupied, and my thoughts are constantly busy with trying to keep us moving. Needless to say, we are not short of things that need addressing...
We have entered this....temple. Presumably, it is a temple to some old snake god, full of snake people, worshipping some kind of snake religion. I hate snakes, and I hate this island and it's bloody snakes, and it's bloody flying reptiles. Why did I end up beached on this island in the first place? The walls are covered in pictures of various horrible acts against humans, mostly ritual sacrifice and torture. I'm not fond of humans either but this is something more than even I can take....
The moment we enter the temple, we wind up being attacked by skeleton snake people, throwing spears at unreasonable force for something long dead. Arrows, swords, even magic seemed to be of little use. I knew I should have brought the warhammer with me. I can see it now, sitting on my desk at home. My comfortable little stone room in the middle of Highhelm...
Curse this island and it's snakes. I joined Chester in smashing up the effigies on the walls of temple. It was entertaining. Then we were attacked by more skeletons, and the halfling got stuck in the ribcage of one of the less brave ones. We had to chase it down, but we lost the halfling in the process. He's somewhere in the dark. The stone here is cold and grimy and I can feel poisonous death in the air. I don't know if I'll survive.
Also, the mephit proved useful. Acid is quite handy apparently.
hastily scrawled onto a note in the back of the journal
I will leave this as emergency in case I cannot keep going. I have never been more closer to death than this, and I feel this is necessary. To anyone who might read this, I am Notmerlen Wyvernmane of Highhelm and I am son of Kagid Wyvernmane and Merle Wyvernmane. I sought vengeance and found myself in a kind of hell, slowly descending into what might be my doom. Far from my home and far from the memory of everyone I cared for. My remains might never find themselves in the soil of the Five Kings Mountains, like that of my ancestors and my family. My deeds...what deeds? I'm...not really sure there are any to speak of for me. What might find itself on the effigy of my tomb. He fought for rich and powerful dwarves, and died for the one he despised the most. Would, in my act of vengeance, I be discarded just like my father before me by the same man?
I hope this need not ever be found. I hope I can one day screw this note into a ball and toss it into the water. I hope I can get what I am owed.
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Part 3/3
And in his death, our adventurers are struck a cruel reminder of mortalities fickle hold upon our world.
Also, Chester is about to experience that first hand.
She's in the pit.
Session 10
After a debacle involving Thornton, skeletons, and darkness, the group returned to Chester's room of defacement and opened the great metal doors to the bridge beyond. The doors, which had eerie runners of red that made them appear to bleed, shrieked noisily as they were opened. The team of five crossed the bridge to another pair of doors of the same bronze alloy. Seeing no other option, they opened these as well, producing the same heinous shrieking noise. Ahead was a forty-foot hallway carved out of the same igneous stone as before.
Cautiously advancing, Chester and Notmerlen noticed a strange seam running down the middle of part of the hallway's floor. At the corners where the walls met the floor, they also noticed carefully concealed hinges. It was a pit trap, Athelstan confirmed after a thorough search, and it was about fifteen feet wide. He and Thornton easily jumped the gap, even in darkness. Notmerlen
tried, but tripped over his feet at the last second and landed facefirst on the trapdoor. The floor shuddered, then split open, and he fell with a heavy thud into a small room thirty feet below. Thornton chose this moment to summon a quartet of glowing orbs so he could see where Notmerlen had gone.
Athelstan retrieved his rope (with grappling hook attached) from his pack, secured it to a strange, glittering symbol he had conjured in the air above the pit, and lowered it to the slayer, who began to haltingly climb up. This left Chester alone with Ekubus, who she sent back to the skeleton alcoves to retrieve some bones for a bone bridge. Ekubus was about fifty feet away from her when he shrieked in horror, and she saw a pair of tiny dolls constructed of bird bones, baby bones, twine, and hair leap onto the poor mephit. One of them jabbed him with a dagger, but the blade was turned by his otherworldly skin; the other seemed to still for half a second before gracefully pressing a finger to his shin. Ekubus doubled over in pain as the monsters' touch ulcerated and necrotized his leg. He scrambled back to Chester, screaming for help.
The priestess of Keltheald stepped forward and lowered her halberd, calling to the Sunset Spires for luck. The first doll scurried up past her defenses and jabbed her in the leg with a poison-coated dagger, but she easily shrugged off the blow. As the second rushed up, its tiny fist coated in necromantic energy much like what hurt Ekubus, Chester cleaved through it, dissipating the energy and revealing a reddish gem that had been lodged in the doll's chest cavity.
At this point, Athelstan was struggling to help Notmerlen climb up, simply by wrapping more of the rope around the conjured symbol, but Thornton leapt back across the pit, his sling in hand. He called Ekubus back onto the bridge, and the mephit unleashed an acid, bone-melting breath on the remaining doll. This one leapt towards Chester again, but she had stepped back in preparation for its attack, and with Thornton's new distraction was able to lop its bird-skull head from its body.
Thornton examined the dolls' remains, but realized that the reddish gems were only garnets, and at most worth five gold apiece. The dolls' daggers were much too small to be worth anything, and Athelstan was pretty sure the poison would degrade quickly after removed from the inert dolls. Notmerlen finally made it up the rope and started reeling it up and putting it away. Ekubus was feeling very ill from his encounter with negative energy, and excused himself to go bathe in the bay and heal his wounds. Chester returned to her work on the bone bridge, using rope, old moldered seaweed, and centuries- or millennia-old skeletons to build something that would let her cross the pit.
Thornton, however, wanted to move a bit quicker, and after resummoning his dancing light spheres leapt out over the gap again. But this third time, he'd become used to the jump, and forgotten how far it really was. With a quick yelp, the halfling fell short, and crumpled in a heap at the bottom of the pit.
Chester continued working on her bone bridge while Notmerlen finished putting away Athelstan's rope, inexplicably leaving the unconscious Thornton at the bottom of the pit. Half a minute later, the group heard a gurgling sound from one of the tiny, two-foot wide tunnels at the bottom of the pit. With sudden horror, Athelstan identified the wet sound as the movement of a gibbering mouther, a oozing mass of flesh with countless mouths and eyes constantly disappearing and reappearing on its surface. Gibbering mouthers are the denizens of abandoned magic-tainted laboratories and forsaken demon temples, and Athelstan had heard tales of entire exploratory expeditions being consumed by one such monster. He also knew these things had a modicum of intelligence, and their gelatinous forms were resistant to swords and spears. In the split second before the monster appeared, he and Chester drew their weapons (shortbow and crossbow, respectively) and Notmerlen reversed his activity, unrolling the rope and stamping the grappling hook down on the edge of the pit.
The gelatinous predator flowed out of the wall in near silence, immediately engulfing and chewing Thornton and then beginning to emit hideous gibbering sounds from its numerous mouths. Athelstan was overwhelmed by the noise, and Chester's bolt sank uselessly into the monster's flesh. Notmerlen tried to flip the rope around and hook Thornton's corpse with the grapple, but he only tore up the halfling's shoulder.
The monster spit a gobbet of acid at Notmerlen, but the bodyguard blinked away the tears and fired his bow in synchrony with Chester. Athelstan finally broke free of the mouther's trance and fired an arrow as well; he was the first, and only, one to harm it. He noticed that this gibbering mouther was unusually small, at least compared to the more accurate accounts, and though it now tried it was unable to climb the sheer pit sides up to them. Unfortunately, Chester was already beginning to try to shut the pit doors from above, leaning down to swing them back up and bar the mouther from reaching them. She leaned over too far and, swaying, lost her balance, falling prone at the bottom of the pit just like Thornton and Notmerlen. Quickly thinking, Notmerlen flung the grappling hook over to the other side of the pit, where she was, and managed to lodge it so she could climb up the rope. The priestess was beginning to climb when she felt something sticky and sharp around her leg, and saw the gibbering mouther pulling her back towards itself.
Welp I'm only a session behind now . . .
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Session 11
Chester struggled to free herself from the gibbering mouther, but even when it released her she couldn't climb up the rope for fear of exposing herself to an attack. When she tried to heal herself with one of Keltheald's blessings, it lashed her with its pseudopods, interrupting the fragile spell energy and putting her on the brink of blacking out. Notmerlen did his best to fill the unnatural creature with arrows, but its amorphous form still simply absorbed the shafts. Athelstan's thrown club proved similarly futile.
The creature was about to slam Chester again when suddenly, Athelstan spotted a strange green haze coming up the passage, on Chester's side. As he watched, he realized it wasn't a haze - it was a translucent, green cube that filled nearly half the hallway. Before he could warn Chester or Notmerlen, the cube fluidly compressed and then expanded, vaulting down into the pit and nearly landing on the gibbering mouther. The mouther squirmed out of the way just in time and jabbed a squirming arm of gnashing teeth at the cube as it fell - only to recoil, its many mouths screaming in pain. The bitter smell of melting flesh filled the air. Coughing, Chester used this opportunity to climb partway up the rope.
Athelstan dropped a piece of meat in the pit, hoping to further distract the mouther, but it seemed only to hone in on living prey. It pummeled the cube, hissing and squealing each time it was burned. Clearly, it was in pain, but Athelstan and the others could tell the cube was also losing cohesion - bulging out at the sides and developing cracks on its top. Notmerlen drew back the master-craft composite bow once more and finally drew a little trickle of blood from the gibbering mouther as the cube surged forward again, putting it off-guard. The cube made a squelching sound, a kind of "Gleep!"
As Chester climbed towards the top, the mouther pounded into the cube once again, sizzling from some acid in the cube's protoplasm. It attacked . . . and then stopped. Mouths gibbering high-pitched screams and cries, it oozed back into the hole. All that remained to show its presence was a trail of blood and a dead halfling.
Chester climbed back down and placed a hand just above the cube's top. Focusing some of Keltheald's power, she was able to heal the cracks in the cube's top, and the thing seemed to regain some of the vigor it showed when leaping down moments before. Athelstan shouted down to her - "It's a gelatinous cube! Be careful!" - but she could sense that it would never harm her. She held her halberd out in front of it, and the gelatinous cube oozed around the blade and iron haft. Then, with a great effort, Chester began climbing up the rope, lifting the ooze along with her halberd. For the ooze, it was also very difficult - it had to solidify its inner gel so that the blade did not simply pass through it. Somehow, though, the dwarf and the ooze made it to the top of the pit.
Chester threw the rope back to Notmerlen and Athelstan, who climbed down and back up on the other side one at a time (Athelstan reasoned that at least if one of them got attacked by the monster from the holes, the other would survive). The group was returning through the big entry chamber when they met Ekubus, back from his healing bath. He was perturbed to see Thornton's dead body carried over Notmerlen's shoulders, but soon he was skipping along beside Athelstan, regaling the group with the tale of how his own halfling master had died. He also commented on the cube's appearance, saying he was surprised another member of the crew had come out to help the party. The cube was a strange thing - hard to read, unlike Ekubus' sea urchins and crabs - but it seemed to have a good heart, Ekubus thought.
The group returned to the drained-out bay, where Ekubus' ship the Salty Strumpet was still lodged between the pools. Ekubus skipped up onto the main deck, and the party followed.
Notmerlen asked if the group could stay the night aboard the Strumpet, to which Ekubus emphatically agreed.
However, Athelstan was worried about the water coming back in. He asked Ekubus if the tide normally did this, and Ekubus shook his head. Ekubus told the party that this was pretty much the strangest thing to happen in the bay in as long as he'd been there. It certainly wasn't a natural tide, he assented.
But without any sign of when the water would return, and quite tired from their expedition into the vampiric temple, the party sat down on the top deck to rest. The cube, which Chester had named Gleep, oozed through the waterlogged timbers so that only half of its "body" was sticking up in view. It spit out a vial containing a blue fluid, which Notmerlen examined and found to be a healing potion. Ekubus went belowdecks to his cabin to sleep, and the dwarves broke up some hardtack for a sunset meal.
Then, suddenly, every creature aboard the vessel felt and heard an earth-shaking rumble. Far down where the inlet curved towards the sea, Athelstan spotted a wave of water, perhaps sixty feet tall, rushing up towards the river. Immediately, Notmerlen (who had Thornton's body strapped to his pack) and Athelstan leapt off the boat and sprinted back towards the cleft with the wooden bridges. Gleep held still for inscrutable reasons, still lodging itself in the wood. And Chester ran down into Ekubus' cabin, hollering that she needed the mephit to help her surf the coming wave.
Notmerlen and Athelstan kicked up wet gravel as they ran, nearly skidding on seaweed and just barely leaping over tide pools. They huffed with exertion, but the water was moving a hundred times faster. A white, roiling wave as tall as Aycenia's banyan scooped them up, then seconds later lifted Chester and Ekubus as well. Gleep was buffetted by thousands of gallons of water, and only managed to hold onto the ship for a few seconds before it, too, was swept away.
The dwarves swirled around in the water, while above them waves crashed onto the grassy bluffs and even into the jungle. Chester struggled to the surface with Ekubus' help, feeling bruised and dazed from the water's impact. Seeing no one else had made it up, she instructed Ekubus to go find the others and bring them to the surface. As he dove, she swam against the breakers towards the bluff with the strange bloodstained stones. She was about halfway when Athelstan surfaced in front of her, followed shortly by Notmerlen. Ekubus popped up just before Gleep did (the cube was intaking water and jetting it out through its bottom. The party made it up to the bluff and collapsed onto the grass, thanks mostly to the waves' energy dissipating during their swim. Ekubus smiled big, waved goodbye, and then dove back into the bay.
I probably won't be separating them out by session from now on, just tacking more words onto the last entries if it's the same day then starting a new entry for the next day. Less cumbersome that way.
[Date to be filled in]
We headed south, worried about more dimorphodons and traps. I climbed a tree, and managed to see a mountain to the south. Thornton finally consulted Ishirou’s map – how have we not consulted it before now? Whatever the case, we saw treasure marked, a lighthouse, and something which might be a tree on a hill or a volcano. We debate about its meaning – why Thornton hadn’t read it before, how old and accurate it might be, why it’s missing the inland bay, whether to find the lighthouse or the Red Mountain – and eventually decide to try to climb the Red Mountain to get a better view of the island again. As we backtracked a bit, I noticed some snakeskin, and an absence of small land animals, and suspected that there were snakes in the area, so we snuck through the area without incident, reaching the west of the island. At 6p, I had finally recovered from my food sickness. We set up a temporary camp, and Chester healed us.
[Date to be filled in]
Notmerlen awoke first from a bad dream – he was on the Jenivere, vomiting over the side. The ship is being attacked, and the captain is convinced he can save it by bailing out the hold with a spoon. He goes out to check on Chester, who is staring at a bug.
Before sunrise, we began digging. Thornton climbed in, finding a dwarf skeleton. Digging further, we broke through to what seemed to be a well.
We lowered Thornton down on a rope to see if he could find the treasure. Dropping from the rope, he found two undead creatures reaching for him. Hurriedly clambering back onto the rope, tugging on it twice, he tried climbing up, but was followed by one of the ghouls which bit him. He tumbled off the rope, prompting Chester to leap into the pit after him with her halberd, with Notmerlen following soon after.
Sensibly, I started a raging song to inspire my allies, and tried shooting from above. Though they finished off one, Chester began to feel the effects of toxins from the ghoul’s claws, while Ijoined my comrades and leapt down into the pit, flopping into the water, clumsily getting to my feet and bringing my axe down on one of the ghouls, with Notmerlen landing the final killing blow. Notmerlen rescued Thornton from drowning, handing him to me to heal, and dived to save Chester from drowning. Notmerlen went back on with myself lighting the way to find the actual treasure. Notmerlen dived under the water, finding an antechamber where he found a water-sealed chest, which he brings up. I began another raging song to encourage Notmerlen as he opened the container, and he and Notmerlen appraised the contents of the container to be 3500 cp, 2000 sp, 1000 gp, 50 pp, silk pouch of garnets and amethysts Athelstan believes to be worth 500 gp in all, about 6 sets of moldered and ruined nobles' outfits, a bejeweled masterwork cold iron starknife that I estimated to be worth 650 gp, a masterwork darkwood buckler, and a scroll in a watertight mithral scroll tube Notmerlen thinks is worth 500 gp (for the tube, not the scroll). I detected a moderate aura pf conjuration around the scroll.
We headed to the beach, and waded out to a shipwreck. Thornton found a chest, with Ollo coinage: 300 cp, 22 sp, 8 gp; Chelish coinage: 80 cp, 21 sp, 1 gp; uncut tigereye worth 2.5 gp. We find the ship might be called the Windwar[indecipherable], a Chellish colony ship that wrecked many years ago, finally discovered by us. We returned to camp with our loot, to find the others returned with the rest of the camp. Sasha looked sick but steady, Aerys looked nervous, but steady enough. Gelik reports they encountered a spider, but were otherwise fine. I cast heal light wounds on the party members, with not much effect on Thornton and Chester but healing well Sasha and Gelik.
[Date to be filled in]
Chester had a scary dream of drinking soup, being bitten by a time travelling snake on the Jenivere. She woke Thornton, upset at the thought of eating a snake in her dreams, but was brushed off. She stayed awake the whole night, staring at the roof of the hut in terror.
Chester asked me to go into business selling water. I’m not sure what to make of the offer, but she’s convinced me the offer is at least intriguing. We would have to market it with Chester’s mask, rather than whatever suffices for a face beneath it.
Gods help me, the madness is taking me as well.
Afterwards, we headed out to find the lighthouse, bringing Gellik with us, who narrowly avoided a trap. Further west, we all encountered another one, except Gelik, but despite Thornton’s glares Notmerlyn alerted him. I cannot care for the gnome’s “jokes” but I wouldn’t wish him death over it. We crossed a river, making it to the other side, except Notmerlen who was swept downstream a way.
At the tree/volcano mark on the map, we found a green woman who healed Thornton. She claimed not to remember how she got to the island, but tended the Banyan tree over the years and came to be known as an evil spirit by the island’s cannibals. I think she’s trustworthy. After all, how bad can you be if the cannibals hate you. She allowed us party to stay, and Chester and Notmerlen tried to explain the concept of maps to her. She told us the cannibals were castaways from a ship, and before them there were other humans. Recently, she has seen a bird-man (tengu?) on the island, but not the woman we seek. She introduces herself as Aycenia. She talks about the island – ancient things beneath it, the Grey Island which she calls the Silent Isle. She offers her help if we can rid the island of its curse. As we headed back, the Red Mountain began to quake. We----[Pen skids along page]
Forgive the abrupt interruption, dear reader. It has been a…stressful day. Even by this island’s thrice-accursed standards.
As we were returning back to camp, he saw that the tide had gone out to a degree we have not see yet. The entire bay had drained, revealing the seabed and the wreck of a ship. Deciding that this was a noteworthy event worth exploring, we investigated. We passed a Cockatrice nest, and retrieved some small amount of loot from it before we moved on, not wishing to risk the wrath of such a beast. And as neared the ship, we made perhaps the most horrifying discovery of this entire island so far.
The snotgoblin.
Oh, he says he’s some form of planar elemental or some such creature, but…by the gods, the things ears were so pointed, so droopy, so gooey that it may as well have had three, all drippling some unknowable fluids. He introduced himself as Captain Ekubus of the Salty Strumpet. By reckoning, this strumpet has been salty for many years, submerged in seawater as it has been. He says it was a million. He says a lot of things. He also said he had a Halfling master who died many years ago, possibly from a dragon attack. Something winged and scaly at any rate. As scaly as the snake woman he claims to have met only hours before. This does not match Ieanna’s description. We already have a possible Tengu on the island, the last thing we need is a Snake person to content with.
We, for reasons that totally elude me, brought him with us as we spied what looked like a ruin, dripping mud and seawater still. The doors seemed to depict fanged humanoids feeding on other humanoids. Normally I would believe them to be vampiric figures, but this talk of snake people makes me fear something else. Inside seemed solid enough, but it was filled with skeleton horrors which we managed to dispatch. We explored the ruin, determining that it may have been a temple, but Chester began vandalising the bas reliefs so I guess there goes a chance to translate them later. Not that we could read them at the time, and given later events, it perhaps makes little difference.
I found a pit trap. It was reasonably well hidden, but I found it. Which makes the following events utterly inexcusable.
Notmerlen fell into it. I had the sense to conjure a solid note to use as a hook, grapple it, and swing over. Thornton simply leaped. Notmerlen tried to make the jump, and was unsuccessful. Chester charged Ekubus with making a bone bridge, but he found more skeletal monstrosities which attacked. Thornton jumped back across, and he and Chester eventually dispatched them as I helped Notmerlen climb back up. Chester resumed her search for suitable materials for a bone bridge. Ekubus retreated to heal himself.
I wish I could say I missed him.
Actually, that’s a lie. I’m glad I didn’t miss him. It means there’s some sanity left in me yet.
At this point, Thornton tried to jump across a third time, and fell, unconscious. While my grappling hook was still dangling from the ceiling. We left Chester to build her bone bridge, reasoning that if something dangerous had been down there, we would have seen it by now.
We were mistaken.
Some kind of ooze…well, oozed out of the wall, and immediately engulfed Thornton. The noise was unspeakable, and I reeled from it.
Eventually, I recovered enough to recognise it as a gibbering mouther, as Notmerlen tried to shoot it without much success. We tried using the grappling hook to pull Thornton away, but it was too late for him.
Chester knelt on the edge, trying to close the trap door shut on the mouther.
This was the point at which Chester fell in.
Notmerlen flung the grappling hook to the other edge of the pit, letting the rope dangle for Chester to climb up, but she was being mauled by the creature. I tried tossing some of my rations down at it, but it wasn’t interested in anything but Chester. We had all but lost hope that Chester could escape Thornton’s fate.
And then the sentient cube of green jelly arrived.
No, dear reader, I have not lost control of my faculties. You read truly. A living, intelligent cube of jelly arrived, and attacked the mouther, allowing Chester to escape. Apparently sentient jelly did what arrows could not, hurting the creature, as it slunk off back into the crack from whence it had come.
Chester seems to have bonded with the cube. She healed it, and carried it out of the pit with her.
Notmerlen and I clambered down into the pit and up the other side, one by one. I would like to say it was so that if something attacked, one of us at least would make it out, and in fact I did. In truth, I used Notmerlen as bait. Seeing that nothing ventured out to seize him, I hoped it relatively safe and followed.
We left the temple immediately, Notmerlen carrying Thornton’s body as we struggled back to Ekubus’s ship. He offered to put us up for the night, which we assented to, though I worried that the tide might roll back in.
Which it did.
Chester tried to use Ekubus as a surf board as Notmerlen and I tried to run for the shore. We were, again, unsuccessful in this. The water rushed over me, and I felt myself tumbling as the bay filled, tossed about by the current. I caught a glimpse of Notmerlen as I tumbled, but remember little else of it until I surfaced, gasping for air. Chester was already on her way to the shore, and Notmerlyn surfaced after me. After that, both Ekubus and the gelatinous cube rocketed up, accompanied by a smell which I shall not comment upon. As the waters calmed and we hauled ourselves up onto the shore, I succumbed to my exhaustion, and hallucinated some demonic feline taunting me. It does not bear describing. I shall never look at a lasagne the same way again. Ekubus waved goodbye and left. We trudged exhausted back to camp, to find Sasha and Jask making a stew of rabbits. We ate, filled them in on the day’s events, set a watch, and collapsed in the cabin.
Date to be added
WE'RE BACK. We had a slight, ill-fated PBP intermission here. Here's a nice summary:
GM
|
+
Drive
While
More
I'm
GM
|
+
Drive
1
After
Around
Jask
As
Heat
DC
DC
Weather
Crossing
Roll20;
Notmerlen
|
+
Male
Heat
Notmerlen,
'We
Notmerlen
GM
|
+
Drive
1
Jask
3
As
6
You
As
Wind:
Athelstan:
Notmerlen:
Gleep
|
+
Polyhedral
Alongside
Castaway
Notmerlen
|
+
Male
'Great.
'And
Notmerlen
Skill
Spoiler:
Morhek
|
+
Male
Athelstan,
Athelstan
Athelstan
GM
|
+
Drive
7
Jask
Gelik
Notmerlen
Athelstan
About
Wind:
Glowing
Notmerlen:
Weather
Morhek
|
+
Male
Fortitude
Athelstan
Knowledge
Morhek
|
+
Male
Posted
Gleep
|
+
Polyhedral
Perception:
Gleep
Gelik
PROOF
GM
|
+
Drive
7
Jask
Watching
The
11
Near
Midnight,
Unfortunately,
At
9
A
Chester:
Jask
Downpour
Group:
Wind
Athelstan
Gleep
|
+
Polyhedral
Gleep
Fort:
GM
|
+
Drive
Wind
GM
|
+
Drive
Settling
Notmerlen
Later,
During
Randomly
7-8
12-2
2-4
4-6
6-8
8-10
Gelik
GM
Chester:
Group/KC:
Paizo
Add
Edit: I just noticed we never summed up Session 12. Will get that up at some future date.
-
SESSION 12
After making it up onto land and bidding farewell to Ekubus, the group hiked back up to camp. Notmerlen carried Thornton's body. When they came into camp, Jask, Sasha, Aerys, and Gelik (who had safely transited the three miles earlier that day) expressed shock at the loss of yet another party member. Gelik tried to greet Gleep, but was warned away in time to avoid melting off his hand. Jask healed the party's remaining wounds while Sasha and Gelik prepared a warm supper.
Focusing her connection to the Sunset Spires, Chester laid out Thornton's body. She read the scroll recovered from the Vortex Burger over it, and sensing an immense sensation of sunlit warmth before the night, touched the halfling's corpse. After a few moments, Thornton's eyes opened. The halfling was disoriented - he'd been transiting from the Material Plane when Chester began to read - but coherent. Having been given a second chance at life, he wanted some time to himself in which to contemplate. Nevertheless, the castaways held a small celebration in honor of their friend's revival. That night, it rained relentlessly.
The following morning of 27 Arodus, Notmerlen explained the situation with the fey Aycenia. He suggested that everyone spend the day moving camp again, to Aycenia's grove. Hopefully, with the dryad's protection the party would run less risk of their camp being invaded by hungry predators. However, since the food cache had been left way back at the north end of the island, someone would need to go and retrieve it. Thornton volunteered for this role, taking the trail back north to the original landfall.
A sweaty trek ensued for the rest of the party (except Gleep, who does not sweat). That midmorning, the group made it under the cooling shade of Aycenia's banyans. The dryad asked that none of the living wood in her grove be harmed, but wood collection could take place outside of the grove, and dead wood was fair game. She also reminded the dwarves of their commitment to explore the Silent Isle and determine what had so thoroughly tainted the jungle there.
Aerys and Sasha were exhausted by the hike, by illness, and by lingering alcoholism (for Aerys). They, and originally Jask, wished to stay behind at camp were the dwarves and gelatinous cube to venture north towards the Isle. However, Gelik was more than happy to come along, and Athelstan requested that Jask come in case the group needed healing. The six adventurers shouldered their packs and began hacking a path northwards. They noticed a few snakeskins along their path, but managed to avoid any of those large constrictors.
Around noon, Jask and Chester heard a rustling in the bushes. Just as the group pulled out their weapons, five creatures Athelstan identified as dire rats scrambled out of the underbrush. Chester was bitten, but predictably shrugged off the disease Athelstan knew the rats to typically carry. Athelstan provided inspiring words and Jask healed Chester's wounds. With Gelik's arrows and Notmerlen's greatsword, the group swiftly dispatched the rats. They briefly rested, then continued on towards the beach where they could cross to the Silent Isle.
SESSION 13
After a DEADLY (for the rats) encounter with rats and a night on the beach, the group awoke ?rested? the morning of 28 Arodus and carefully crossed over to the green island. This was a bit more craggy than the main island, but still lushly vegetated. It was nothing like the looming, translucently gray mass ahead.
At the edge of the green isle, Notmerlen, Athelstan, Chester, Gleep, Gelik, and Jask found a 200-foot gulf of surf between them and their goal. Notmerlen organized the group and they began constructing a raft.
They scavenged fallen trees from the windy night before and used Athelstan's axe to chop down more. Vines were used to lash the logs together. Oddly, during the search for wood Notmerlen found a dead, blood-drained goat draped over a branch just a dozen yards from their construction site. After several hours of sweaty labor, the group finished their construction. The raft was sturdy-looking, so they decided to test the waters.
As Notmerlen carefully rowed the raft through the waves, the rest of the group cheerfully joked about how shoddily the raft was built and started coming up with sea-related puns. Unfortunately, fifteen feet out from shore the raft got caught in a riptide, and Notmerlen and Jask were helpless to stop it. Notmerlen got angry with the rest of the party and impetuously jumped into the water - only to immediately begin sinking. Fortunately, Athelstan was quick with some rope, and the warrior was hauled back onboard in time for Jask to somehow wrest the raft out of the current and back to shore. The raft seemed to have sustained no damage from the powerful surf, fortunately.
The group tried to cross two more times, each time nearly being swept out into the archipelago's center before having Jask or Chester steer them back. The raft never fell apart, but Gleep's acid was rotting the wood and the group could tell they were pushing their luck. Jask warned, "Gozreh's power is strong in the waters of Desperation Bay."
Therefore, the group decided to camp again, and wait for the tide to lower. They took watch shifts from the afternoon all the way to the witching hour, with the sleep allowing Athelstan and Gelik to recover from their bouts of fever somewhat. The rain did not recur, but about halfway through his watch Athelstan thought he saw something watching him from the darkness. The sounds of the small green isle were more muted than on the main island, which was eerie after almost ten days of jungle noise.
Past midnight on the 29th of Arodus, the tide had reached its lowest point - a dozen feet lower than before. Notmerlen roused his companions and they made a painstaking journey across the slick mussel-coated rocks and through tide pools filled with urchins and spiny starfish. On the island, they saw the gray "trees" were actually stalks of fungus, which slowly undulated in the wind. Pale gray lichen coated the ground, oozing in patches and creating a noisome stench. Chester picked a piece of the fungus and ate it, then about fifteen minutes later was wracked with clenching pains in her stomach. Athelstan identified the stuff as similar to toxic species of fungi found in the Darklands near the Five Kings Mountains, but noted that the stuff on this island had no caps, and could produce no spores.
A few minutes after Chester's revelation about fungus toxicity, the explorers saw a small, hunched gray humanoid approaching them stealthily. Chester called, "Are you interested in the investment opportunity of a lifetime? I have one word: JORTS." Unfortunately, this seemed to drive the creature into a rage. It, and a previously unnoticed companion, leapt through the fungus forest and attacked the party with spears and claws. When it got closer, Athelstan could see the creature had translucent "skin," and a pale clotted mass on its head that seemed to mimic hair. It was a "vegepygmy." When a humanoid inhales a dangerous, exotic spore from something called "russet mold," a vegepygmy grows inside the humanoid and bursts from its body several days later, killing the host. Vegepygmies' hyphae-tissue is resistant to arrows and other stabbing weapons, and their inhuman minds are resistant to most mind-affecting spells. And most vegepygmies speak no common tongues, so Chester's assailants likely could not understand her.
The ensuing battle saw Athelstan slightly wounded, the vegepygmies defeated, and Chester frantically trying to convey the meaning of her business proposal. Chester bound the wounds of the unconscious vegepygmies, and the group continued up towards the top of the island.
After fifteen minutes of walking through the eerie, night-time fungus forest, the group came over a rise and spotted a pair of interesting landmarks. One was a spire of rock about 50 feet high, off to the Silent Isle's east. The other was a ship with what looked to be intact sails and hull, wedged between two rocks off to the west. They decided to head for the ship.
Coming to the cliff near the ship, the group saw that the sails were not made of canvas, and the hull was not really wood. The ship was covered in a layer of fuzzy mold, and the sails appeared to be made of vast rubbery sheets of lichen. It looked like the team wouldn't have to brave the surf again, at least - there were fungus rope bridges, of sorts, leading from the cliff to the deck. Notmerlen, Chester, and Athelstan made their way across, while Gleep, Jask, and Gelik waited on shore. The team on deck was just beginning to investigate the wreck when they heard thumping below them, and three vegepygmies scampered out onto the deck.
At this, Gleep contracted backwards and then sprang forwards towards the ship, flying through the air with jets of gas propelling Gleep. Gleep landed on one of the rope bridges, which bent down half a dozen feet under Gleep's weight before bouncing back up again. Gleep slid-bounced the remainder of the way across the bridge, weakening its structural integrity as Gleep moved. Jask began crawling across another of the fibrous ropes, cautious because the crashing surf was a full sixty feet below him.
Notmerlen, Chester, and Athelstan quickly cut down two of the vegepygmies, but the third was stronger and more agile. It evaded their blows, and actually managed to wound the durable Notmerlen. Notmerlen did eventually manage to slice up part of the vegepygmy's chest, but the thing was almost as tough as he was. Gelik's blind archery wasn't helping matters. After a string of barely-misses, though, Gleep finally arrived. Gleep jumped down at the vegepygmy, causing it to lash out at Gleep with its spear. The spear's haft was made of wood, and the acid of Gleep's body quickly weakened its structure.
The vegepygmy tossed its spear aside and renewed its attack on Notmerlen with a pair of vicious claws. It managed to wound him yet again before Chester cut into the thing's neck with her halberd, ending the battle. The priestess went around stabilizing all the vegepygmies while Athelstan tended to his bodyguard's wounds.
Session 15
The victorious fungus-slayers returned back across the smaller islet and waded across the southern causeway. As they crested the hill from where they'd earlier seen the Silent Isle, Athelstan noticed a blue-mottled lizard skin in the underbrush - shed by something the size of a dog.
Examining the skin, Athelstan identified it as a shocker lizard skin, with a sort of sickening sense of familiarity. The things are renowned for their deadly electrical attacks, which they use to knock prey out before moving in to feed. Solitary lizards are generally cautious and timid, but a group of two or more tend to be fiercely territorial. Athelstan couldn't tell if there were other shocker lizards than the one that left the skin, so the group moved off the hill as quickly as they could. Jask asked for his dagger back, and Athelstan reasoned that the Garundi would have betrayed the group by now if he was going to and that the priest could use a chance to defend himself, so the knife returned to its owner.
As they came down the slope, the group noticed another shipwreck lodged on some rocks near shore. Notmerlen removed his armor and swam out, followed by the other five explorers. They found the name of the ship (Crow's Tooth, which they thought was pretty nonsensical), and searching through molding refuse in one of the cabins uncovered a piece of paper with a strange symbol. The symbol was faded and had bled on the page, but appeared to be two crossed praying mantis claws of a reddish color. Athelstan recognized this as the symbol of the assassin's guild called the "Red Mantis," an originally Rahadoumi sect of cleric-killers that hold the deity-slayer Achaechek as holy. Interestingly, the Red Mantis' headquarters are on Ilizmagorti, a wild island that the Jenivere stopped at for food and water. None of the passengers and most of the crew were not allowed on shore, but the captain had some sort of meeting and First Mate Alton needed to negotiate the price of those refreshments. When Captain Kovack came aboard, a red-haired woman came with him - Sasha Nevah.
Swimming back to shore, the team returned to their hacked trail. They again crossed the more established cannibal trail (the one leading to the cliff edge), then came down into one of the island's many valleys. As they approached the streambank, Notmerlen and Athelstan heard a rustling in the undergrowth, and spied an emerald boa creeping towards them.
Notmerlen shot an arrow at the thing, but this just lodged itself into a low tree limb. Athelstan pulled out his axe and moved in, but was also foiled by the foliage and the snake's rapid movement. The ophidian darted towards Gelik, lunging for the gnome's surprised flank. The Varisian gnome stumbled just out of the way as Chester charged forward with her halberd, cutting into the beast's tail. Gleep shuddered close to the snake and lunged with an acid-dripping pseudopod, but the snake was too fast. Meanwhile, Jask called on Nethys' magic to guide the party's weapons, and Notmerlen managed to shoot down the constrictor just as it slipped past Chester.
Chester held the snake aloft in triumph and then dunked it into Gleep, where it slowly began to rot. Athelstan lamented the loss of good meat.
As an afternoon downpour passed overhead, the group hiked up into Aycenia's grove and made it back to camp. There they found Sasha and Aerys sharing a meal with Thornton, who had safely returned with a load of food and liquor from the northern campsite. After conferring with Athelstan, Notmerlen pulled Aerys aside and made a bet: The two would have a drinking contest, and whoever won would get the lion's share of the remaining grog. Aerys readily agreed.
While the dwarf and half-elf set up their game, Athelstan approached Sasha. The hunter had her pet dimorphodon perched on her shoulder and was feeding the beast bits of goat meat when Athelstan held the scrap of paper from the shipwreck in front of her. Without even needing to squint at the faded sigil, the ranger shuddered. "Where'd you get that?"
"This is Red Mantis, isn't it?" Athelstan asked in response.
"Yes. So I guess you got me." Sasha pulled down the neck of her shirt, showing a tattoo of the same symbol on her back. "My mother's an assassin. Wasn't for me - I was terrible at it. I'm fine with killing, but I can't follow rules about it. I'm out now, and I'm never going back," she said.
"We found this on a shipwreck up north. Do you recognize the name Crow's Tooth?"
Sasha shook her head. "No. I wasn't really privy to that kind of info. There's enough Red Mantis ships in these waters that one going missing won't break the business model."
Athelstan appraised the woman for a moment, then nodded. "Fair enough."
"By the way, would you be interested in learning some of the tricks they taught us? I mean like, how to fight, how to stay alert. I could probably teach you the core skills in a day or so," Sasha said, standing. "If any of you all are interested."
"I'll think about it. Perhaps tomorrow," Athelstan replied.
Just as Athelstan finished talking with Sasha, Gelik came over with a small binder of paper in his hands. This, he said, was a book he'd stolen from the Pathfinder Society archives in Magnimar - essentially an unfinished manuscript. He was going to use it as toilet paper, but he started reading it beforehand and realized it was actually quite good. It proved useful for whiling away the dull hours when the ship moved quickly and everyone was too busy to talk. Gelik handed it to Athelstan, saying the dwarf might like to read it. Since Athelstan and the others had helped him get the log from the Nightvoice, he felt indebted to them, and was willing to spend time teaching any castaway interested how to enhance sound-based magic with jokes and funny stories. Athelstan wasn't too thrilled to learn Gelik's jokes, but accepted the book gift.
Both Notmerlen and Aerys managed three drinks before feeling any wooziness, but the tricorne'd woman was flagging fast by the time they'd each drunk six conch shells full. Notmerlen asked if Aerys was sure she wanted to keep going, but Aerys laughed. Apparently, she was just glad to finally have some drink in her again. Aerys grew redder and redder in the face, while Notmerlen was only beginning to perspire. Around the tenth drink, Aerys swayed, then tumbled unconscious to the ground.
Gelik rushed over and healed her, but when she woke Aerys laughed and pushed the gnome away. "Thanksh for the grog," she slurred at Notmerlen, stumbling off to her shelter.
Notmerlen was putting away the liquor when suddenly, the group heard the sound of heavy wingbeats close overhead. Something fell through the canopy and crashed into the fire, sending up a shower of sparks. The wingbeats faded as quickly as they came. Standing up to get a look, the group found the object in their fire was a pale corpse: a colobus monkey, drained of all its blood.
Athelstan gathered the castaways together and showed them Ishirou's old map. Pointing at the Red Mountain, he said that they had to stop the chupacabra. It kept harrying them, and eventually it'd decide to kill. The group agreed, though maybe after a day of rest and training - Chester wanted to learn some of Gelik's jokes, for example. Unsettled, the party set a watch and went to bed.
And then woke to a fervid screeching.
The dwarves with their nightvision, and Gleep with Gleep's smell-vision, saw a trio of colobus monkeys swarming over Aerys, who slept in the shelter furthest from the fire. They were all wounded in some way - Thornton had gotten out of his shelter and was whooping something about successful traps. Before any of the main explorers could act, Sasha got out of her shelter and sprinted downhill, a red-haired streak. Notmerlen scrambled out of bed and pulled out his greatsword, while Chester and Athelstan did the same. Gleep approached one of the monkeys, which in a foolish rage assaulted the cube, only to be devoured whole. Just after it bit Gelik, another monkey fell to Aerys' fists, and the last fled up into the jungle canopy. Jask crawled groggily upright and healed Aerys and Gelik, but also revived the unconscious monkey. Fortunately, Chester and Notmerlen were there and vanquished this one as well.
The third monkey seemed like it was going to get away, but then Thornton stepped around a shelter, whirling his sling. With a fierce motion, he lobbed a stone at the ursine colobus, and the creature dropped. Gleep ate the bodies.
After Notmerlen retrieved Sasha (who was apologetic about her abandonment of the party), the rest of the night passed uneventfully.
Tragically, Loather lost internet. We decided Chester would just hang around at camp rather than cancel the session.
-
Session 16
The next morning, the 31st of Arodus, dawned foggily on a sleeping camp. Eventually, Notmerlen, and Athelstan arose and went off a little ways into the jungle to train with Sasha. Sasha's pet dimorphodon was left with Jask, who was up to pray for spells.
Later, Thornton awoke and began making breakfast mush from some Varisian honey and hardtack. Gelik got up and started "helping" Thornton with cooking until the halfling yelled at him to go bother Chester, who woke to, "What's a dryad's favorite weight measuring device? A LOG scale!" Gleep digested the monkeys languorously. After several hours, Aerys got up, holding her head and cursing the forest (and Gelik) for being so noisy. Aycenia was not around, but now and then someone would catch a glimpse of eyes watching them from the bark of a tree.
After a bit of morning training, Sasha returned with the Highhelm dwarves and the crew had breakfast. Gleep wandered downhill for some reason, but soon after Notmerlen heard a thrashing in the underbrush. Coming upon the scene, the dwarves saw Gleep locked in a tussle with another emerald boa, which was sorely losing the fight. Athelstan put an arrow through the snake's head and Gleep added the snake to Gleep's biomass.
Despite the altercation, Gleep continued downhill, crossing the river and coming up to the intersection with the cannibal trail. Gleep began rooting around in the earth, trying to build a pit trap of some kind, but kept accidentally pushing excavated soil back into the pit.
Sasha, meanwhile, gave the Highhelm dwarves a thorough primer on the Red Mantis fighting style. She taught them some exercises to improve alertness and speed of reflexes, then showed them a few tricks with her rapiers (the training weapons of one hoping to wield sawtooth sabres). Gelik spend the day exchanging jokes with Chester, who felt her mastery over language-based spells expanding.
At the end of the day, Gleep returned to camp, dejected about Gleep's failure to successfully make the trap. Notmerlen, Athelstan, and Chester had finished their training, and felt edified if a little tired from the day's exercises. Seeing Gleep still wounded from the boa, Jask used his healing for the day and rejuvenated the cube. That night was cloudy, but safe - no monkeys or flying horrors harassed the camp.
The morning of Rova 1, Notmerlen and Athelstan awoke well-rested and planned for the day. They wanted to turn the chupacabra against the cannibals somehow, but the logistics were difficult. One idea floated was to trash the nest and leave some cannibal gear at the site, but they needed cannibal gear that didn't also smell like it'd been carried around in a dwarf's pack for several days. So they wanted to capture a cannibal - but building a trap was arduous, and unlikely to pay off. They also wanted to make sure the chupacrabra understood their bluff that the cannibals had trashed its nest, but they had no way of communicating with it. However, Athelstan seemed to remember a strange poem Aerys had once told, in a language called, "Aklo." There was a small chance the chupacabra would understand that. After an hour or so of debate, the plan coalesced: they would assault the cannibal camp, kill a cannibal, get its weapons and rags, then take these to the chupacabra's nest on the cliffs of Red Mountain. They would scatter the random collection of bones and sticks, then leave the cannibal's gear around the site. The next day, the group would come with Aerys and tell the monster that the offenders were the cannibals, which would hopefully spur it to take revenge on the camp and weaken the devil-worshipping humans.
Athelstan, Notmerlen, Gleep, Jask, and Gelik hiked down to the cannibal trail and headed southeast, towards the lighthouse as marked on Ishirou's map. Coming around a bend, they saw that the river they'd been following opened onto a small bay, with the ocean visible beyond. On the southern end of the bay, there was a tall, white-stoned tower that matched old Captain Quellig's pictogram surprisingly well. Around the tower were a collection of thatched huts, and leading up to this camp was a wide beach. The dwarves, plus Jask and Gleep, took to the forest beside the beach, while Gelik brazenly walked towards the camp, shouting jokes (this was a plan). Soon enough, a quartet of scarred and wild-eyed cannibals appeared from the compound and began running down the beach towards Gelik, hollering and waving their notched scimitars.
Gelik waited until the cannibals were close, then told a killing joke. "What did the apple say to the tree? Make like a leaf!" Two of the cannibals stopped, dumbfounded by the gnome, who was now laughing at his own joke. The other two cannibals didn't even slow, but as they started to pass their comrades, Athelstan jumped out of the bushes and droned a chant, sprinkling some sand in the wind. Suddenly, all but one cannibal slumped to the ground. This cannibal charged at Gelik, but before it could reach him Notmerlen shot an arrow in its shoulder and Gleep moved forward to lash out with a pseudopod. The cannibal hacked into Gleep with its scimitar, but Athelstan loosed an arrow that grazed the man's temple, and he fell much like the others.
I might get a version up WITHOUT commentary, later, but here is the s++% for now.
The images are pretty much the best part of all this. The team cartographer, spiritual advisor, and all-around ridiculouse Chester happens to have a player with a real knack for works of art. Sadly, this log is missing most of the truly great ones, but maybe a few will turn up in time.
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Here's the summary for last session, a week ago. I now realize that this log actually missed one of the most momentous sessions, where the group fought the Red Mountain Devil AND Klorak. Hopefully you can infer how those fights went.
Unfortunately, Loather also couldn't make it this time, so Gleep played Chester.
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Session 18 (probably)
After defeating 'Klorak' and his horrible friends, the party limped back to Aycenia's grove, arriving after the moon had begun its descent towards the west. Aycenia healed Athelstan, who was sorely wounded after he got too deep in the battle, and Notmerlen, who had been drained by the Red Mountain Devil. The group slept for a long time, finally waking in late morning. Looking to the south, they saw the smoke from the cannibals' camp had stopped.
Athelstan assembled a team. Sasha and Thornton were too worn-out to join the group, but Jask, Aerys, Gelik, Gleep, Chester, and Notmerlen came. They hiked down the hill and crossed the stream, Notmerlen taking the lead. As they rounded the bend and sighted down the beach towards the thatch-roofed camp and its lighthouse, suddenly a stake jerked out of the ground and nearly impaled Notmerlen. He avoided it, but the group proceeded with caution - clearly, the cannibals were ready for them.
The party was coming through a copse of young sapele outside the camp when suddenly, Gleep stiffened and Chester called a warning. A dark shape in the undergrowth surged forward and tried to bite Gelik. Athelstan remembered the rapidly moving red lizard as a Shiv dragon, and warned Gelik and the others of its poison bite. Chester moved close and cut off the lizard's tail, but the creature retaliated by sinking its teeth into her ankle. She felt a little woozy, and moved away from it to bless her friends with Keltheald's favor. Gleep and Notmerlen finished the creature off, just as they heard something rustling in one of the taller huts (sort of a tower, on stilts). Gelik started telling jokes and got out his bow to start shooting.
Two cannibals ran out onto a platform in the hut and lobbed their javelins towards the group, wounding Aerys as she ran forward and shot at them. Then, another four cannibals ran out from behind the huts and started wailing on Aerys and Athelstan with broken scimitars. Jask ran up to help heal and protect his friends, but was seriously hurt. Chester released another burst of healing, but accidentally revivified the Shiv dragon as she healed Jask. The Garundi obligingly used his newfound life to go and shank the lizard with the dagger Notmerlen had returned to him.
Aerys, meanwhile, was proving surprisingly adept in combat. She downed a cannibal with a single punch, and helped open a few others to attack by Notmerlen's greatsword. The fight was unusually lengthy, but with Gelik's jokes and Chester's blessings, the team eventually defeated the cannibals attacking by land. Then, they turned their fire on the cannibals throwing javelins. Gelik and Athelstan managed to drop one. Gleep jumped onto the platform and splashed acid all over the other, and the man jumped off his platform and into the sea fifteen feet below. He tried to swim away, but the current was too strong, and Aerys (who had run up to the water's edge to shoot at him) pronounced that he would most likely drown.
As she did so, the group heard a loud thud from deeper into the camp.
They entered the center of the camp, which had a great firepit with an enormous cauldron positioned over it. There were a few huts of varying size, and one that was built up around the lighthouse. Just a few feet from the lighthouse's wall was a deep pit in the ground, which had a coil of vine tied to a stake around it. Next to the pit was a woven circular sort of cover made of palm fronds. Notmerlen immediately went to the pit and looked inside, but could not see anything besides a few scattered bones and rocks. The pit looked about twenty feet deep, and there appeared to be a room down there.
Meanwhile, Athelstan and Chester looted the bodies of the fallen cannibals. Each wore a red pearl necklace, and each had plenty of skin for Chester's skin balloon.
To the southeast was a fenced in area with four animated human skeletons inside, and beyond them was another gate. Notmerlen told Jask to stand by the fence and yell out if the skeletons did anything. Jask instead just went by the fence and released a burst of positive energy, immediately obliterating every single skeleton.
Notmerlen led the rest of the group in a search of the huts. They found some stored food, water, and stone tools in one - some of the "food" was jerky made of suspiciously long meat. The hut where the javelin-throwers had been didn't have anything useful - just some makeshift beds. The hut adjacent to the lighthouse had a couple long tables covered in bloodstains, another fenced area that might have been used to contain prisoners, a refuse pit, and a doorway into the lighthouse.
Inside the first floor of the lighthouse, the group found a room with a nice bed made of driftwood and a feather mattress and not much else. On the floor were the remains of what looked like rations from the Jenivere - Notmerlen could've recognized the worm-eaten hardtack anywhere.
There was also a cluttered room with what looked like a bunch of rubbish taken from various (or perhaps only one) shipwreck(s), arranged kind of as a shrine. The centerpiece of the room was a devilish figurehead, reminiscent of the archdevil Asmodeus, which was nailed to the wall opposite the door and grinned disconcertingly at the dwarves as they entered. There wasn't much of value in this room.
On the next floor, the team found a large bedchamber. The bedding here was tattered, but appeared to be the remains of fine Jalmeray linen. There was also a dented footlocker with several rotting sacks of coin - 4200 silver pieces struck with Queen Abrogail I's face, and 180 gold pieces with an image of the Arch of Aroden. An open window led out to a balcony made of rickety wood, which no one in the group attempted to cross.
The top floor of the lighthouse was unfinished, and open to the air. Chester immediately identified it as the perfect landing site for her skin balloon. Athelstan also identified the strange apparatus on this floor as the incomplete machinery for a light. There was even a massive bronze reflector lying under some skins. Athelstan suspected he could get the light in working order in a matter of days.
Athelstan was thinking about starting to repair the light, but Notmerlen reminded him that they still hadn't checked what was on the path beyond the skeleton gate. They went back downstairs and reunited with Jask. Gleep helped him and Gelik stand guard at the camp entrance while Aerys, Notmerlen, Athelstan, and Chester investigated the path.
The path led around another little thicket of trees and into a quiet clearing. There was a hut in its center, and a raspy voice could be heard saying something inside. Notmerlen argued about whether or not to open the door with Chester, but then the door opened anyways, and a bent old woman with a monkey on her shoulder shook a staff at the group. The monkey jumped at Athelstan, suffering a slash in retaliation, and drained some of his life force. The woman tried to get Notmerlen to laugh, but did not realize that the dour man had no sense of humor. She was able to dodge the attacks of him and Athelstan, but her monkey was killed by Chester and Notmerlen. She tried to scare Chester, but could not seem to concentrate. As she was getting out a wand, Notmerlen finally managed a solid blow - and cut her clean in two, from shoulder to shoulder.
Athelstan and Chester teamed up to identify the woman's possessions. They had been fighting in what looked like some sort of cruel apothecary, with dead snakes swimming in jars of foul-smelling liquor and dried humanoid eyeballs strung from the ceiling. In the hut they found three vials of antitoxin, two smokesticks, three tanglefoot bags, a thunderstone, six potions of cure light wounds, and two potions of lesser restoration. The woman's quarterstaff was nonmagical, but her wand was able to suck the life force of its targets.
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Last session was pretty fun (and Chester's player was back!).
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The party packed up the cannibal's more useful creations and sent Gelik, Jask, and Aerys up to the empty tower to watch for any unexpected threats. The party decided to check out the hole in the center of the camp, and lowered one of the vine ropes rolled up at the edge. At the bottom of the hole was a dirty cavern with bones, bits of rock and sticks, and other detritus strewn about. There was a narrow tunnel leading to the east (reminiscent of the one used by the gibbering mouther), and Gleep and Chester followed it with Notmerlen a few paces behind and Athelstan staying outside the entrance. After nearly a minute of squeezing, Gleep emerged into a chamber with a low, sloping ceiling on the west side and a dome-like ceiling to the east; on the far north eastern side were six alcoves in the wall that appeared to be caked with mud. There were also two stinking undead creatures with spines all over their backs, long teeth and claws, and permanently unhinged jaws. They swarmed at Gleep and ate part of the acidic jelly, apparently deriving nourishment from Gleep despite the acid. Notmerlen spent long seconds squeezing up to where Gleep was, and helped Gleep flank the ghoul-like creatures. Unfortunately, they took advantage of the new target, biting the dwarf and raking him with their claws. He felt his limbs seizing up, but managed to fight off the paralysis. Chester ran out of the tunnel and used her healing to restore Gleep's and Notmerlen's vigor, as they had not been healed after the earlier cannibal fights. Athelstan began summoning a dog.
Gleep launched a pseudopod at the ghoul-thing next to Gleep, and with a lucky hit melted the undead's face off. While the ghoul's friend was distracted by this turn of events, Notmerlen followed up with a powerful slice that separated its neck and one shoulder from its torso. A spray of decayed flesh splattered Notmerlen in the face, but he was OK with that.
The two undead were destroyed just in time for Athelstan and his dog to arrive. Athelstan identified the slain creatures as "festrogs," a corrupt form of ghouls that arise from victims of ghoul fever succumbing to their disease in places of ancient, inhuman evil. He and Gleep searched the alcoves to the northeast, and realized that they were sort of cocoons or cages for the completion of a human's transformation into a ghoul, made of mud mixed with bones and designed to hold a humanoid securely until they were no longer alive. The group speculated that the festrogs were made in these cocoons. Gleep found a shredded piece of leather armor with something written on it in blood. Gleep was about to eat it when Athelstan noticed his find and intervened. He told Gleep not to take it, that it was not food - but Chester broke in and said Gleep should be able to eat whatever Gleep wants. A tense negotiation followed, but eventually Gleep caved and allowed Athelstan to yank the piece of armor away.
I am Captain Alizandru Kovack, betrayer of my crew and destroyer of the good ship Jenivere. Hell would be a welcome escape from what hideous unlife looms before me, but it is no less a punishment than I deserve. That I was enslaved mind and body to a serpentine demon who wore a Varisian's skin does not pardon me. It is my weakness that led the Jenivere, her crew, and her passengers to their doom. That Ieana has abandoned me here is nothing more than the fate I deserve. I do not beg forgiveness, but I despair that she lives still, and that she seeks something dire on this forsaken isle - she seemed particularly interested in Red Mountain. If you read this and you be a kind soul, seek out what I have become and destroy me, and then seek out Ieana and slay her as well. And to those whose lives I have helped destroy, I can only apologize from this, my dark cradle and darker grave.
After reading the note, Athelstan passed it to the others. He wasn't sure why Ieana had come to the cannibal camp or to these caverns, but he could tell that Kovack's message was important. Chester sensed that Gleep was excited to learn the captain's fate, and also wondered if Gleep could eat the armor since Athelstan was done with it. Athelstan insisted on keeping it, saying it was the last testament of a dead man.
The small tunnel continued downwards on the other side of the undead-birthing chamber, so the party followed it, this time close enough together that they could react should enemies appear. They came to a cylindrical kind of cave with a ledge spiraling down from the tunnel exit, leading down to a dark pool. Four other tunnels led off from the ledge at different points. The sloshing of waves could be heard to the west, but more interesting to Notmerlen was a track of footprints in the dust, going into a tunnel leading east. Gleep squeezed through this tunnel and found a long, almost cathedral-like chamber with carved images of ophidian humanoids along all the walls. Stone pillars carved to look like gigantic coiling snakes held up the ceiling, while four small cells blocked by rusted bars were set into the east and west walls. To the north, a massive carving of a snake head loomed with an ash-caked stone door clenched in its jaws, and to the south was an eight-foot-tall mound of bodies in various states of decomposition, arranged to resemble a coiled snake made of corpses. However, more important to Gleep were the two ghoul-like creatures standing beside one of the pillars, and the cannibal with a bloody bite in her shoulder who lobbed a javelin right for Gleep's center. Fortunately, Gleep opened a hole in Gleepself just in time to avoid the javelin, and slid backwards through the tunnel as the ghoul-like creatures ran up to flank it.
Chester told the others that these were basically like the ghouls they had faced in Thornton's rat pit adventure, but pointed out the webbing between the toes of these ghouls - they were technically "lacedons," an aquatic subvariety of ghouls. And like ghouls, they were smart - the lacedons were trying to bottleneck the party while their cannibal ally threw javelins. Notmerlen placed himself in front of the other side of the tunnel, ready to attack the lacedons if they came close enough. The cannibal threw a couple more javelins at the slayer, but he managed to dodge the first, and the second went too high and clattered off the cave ceiling. Then the cannibal roared and the lacedons ran in to attack Notmerlen. The first one was downed by his readied attack, while the second managed to survive long enough for its claws to scrape off Chester's armor. The cannibal followed the lacedons into the tunnel and tried to smack Notmerlen with her battered scimitar, but the slayer's armor easily took the blow, and he unceremoniously cut off the cannibal's head. Athelstan wondered if this cannibal may have been the source of that loud thump the group heard earlier. It also seemed she had allowed one of the lacedons to bite her.
The party then fully entered the strange snake temple. Athelstan, Notmerlen, and Chester had an easier time interpreting the carvings than Gleep, and identified images of serpents walking upright like humans, snakes coiling around and eating hapless women and children, and stranger scenes. Notmerlen tore out a page of his journal so Athelstan could sketch the more commonly repeated images.
After doing some sketches, the dwarves turned their attention to the ash-covered door in the carved serpent's jaws. Athelstan noticed some empty vials lying around the door, and carefully examining them realized that they were some of the same vials Ieana had been carrying on their voyage. There was a very small amount of residual potion in the vials, but he couldn't identify the aura. Uncaring of the potions' purpose, Notmerlen opened the door and revealed a small sanctum with a low stone altar and even more elaborately decorated walls. The altar was shaped like snakes, too.
On the walls were images of anthropomorphic serpents using strange, pointed megaliths of stone to work great feats of magic - transforming an army of humans into zombies, calling down flaming bolts of lightning from the stars, or parting the waters of the sea to dash human ships upon the exposed rocks of the seabed below. This final image seemed to have been recently dusted, and several lines of text had been made more legible by application of what appeared to be red ink. The text was, of course, all written in Aklo, so there was no way for Athelstan to read it. He seemed to remember Sasha being able to read Aklo, though. Notmerlen started taking rubbings of the cleaned carving, and as he did so noticed smaller carvings below that image depicting serpentfolk splashing blood on curved runes carved on upright stones before a red mountain, and then holding venemous snakes against the blood that they might lick the stones, pouring water onto a pyramid-shaped block of red stone from a bowl, and standing before the pyramid of stone with arms upraised and mouths agape as if to shout to the heavens as a bolt of lightning arcs up from the stones into the sky. He and Athelstan identified the mountain depicted in those carvings as Red Mountain, and as Athelstan studied the carvings further he realized that all of the carvings depicted scenes somewhere on Smuggler's Shiv. He used a spell to examine magical auras in the room, but found none until he turned his vision to the door. Suddenly, he realized that the door had once held a magic trap capable of vaporizing a person, and that this trap had gone off several days prior. He and Notmerlen rushed out of the room, though Athelstan was fairly certain that the trap did not reset itself. One thing they were certain of: Something was up at Red Mountain.
Rubbings and sketches in hand, the party climbed back out of the cave complex and up to the cannibal camp. Jask, Aerys, and Gelik joined them as they hiked back to Aycenia's grove, arriving in midafternoon just before a torrential rainstorm. Athelstan asked Sasha to read the Aklo rubbings, but the ex-assassin had no idea what he was talking about. He suddenly remembered that Aerys was the one who could read Aklo, and offered her the papers instead. The sailor nodded and spent a few minutes translating the strange symbols into Taldane.
To Command the Very Tides to Rise Up and Eschew What Lies Below:
Empower the Four Sentinel Runes with the Blood of a Thinking Creature Tempered by the Kiss of a Serpent's Tongue.
Anoint the Tide Stone with Water Brought from the Sea in a Vessel of Purest Metal.
Invoke the Lord's Sacred Name to Wrap His Coils around the Sea Itself that He Might Lay Bare What Lies Below and Cast Down Your Enemies on the Waves above.
Aerys was a litte perturbed by the rubbings, questioning what exactly Athelstan had found down there. She couldn't tell what "the Lord's Sacred Name" was.
After one of Thornton's (steadily improving in quality) meals and Jask's healing, the party bedded down for the night, with Gleep and Aycenia standing guard. Athelstan was beginning to feel a little sick for some reason - perhaps a result of fighting a bunch of horrible undead. However, most of them were awoken a few hours later by the sound of someone moving very noisily through the underbrush. Notmerlen got up to look, and saw it was a cannibal - the cannibal, the one that Aerys thought had drowned earlier. The man was clearly very damp, and too intent to notice the dwarves and cube mobilizing. Aycenia walked up to the man and smiled charmingly, but the cannibal was even too intent for her spell to work. He seemed hell-bent on killing one of the sleeping castaways. But Gleep caught the cannibal just as he was approaching Aerys' tent, and slugged the cannibal with an acidic pseudopod. The cannibal collapsed, and then Aycenia dove forward and tore out his throat. She had a right to revenge after so many decades of the tribe despoiling the island, she said. It was a little morally questionable, though.
The rest of the night passed peacefully, with Gleep digesting the fallen cannibal after Chester harvested his skin. In the morning, Aerys went up to Notmerlen at breakfast and handed him her remaining share of rum. She had regretted that drinking "game" of a few nights back and wanted to try going off drink. There was a rare berry that grows on Smuggler's Shiv called viper nettle, which supposedly helped with withdrawal symptoms, according to Aerys, and she asked Notmerlen to get some of those berries while the explorers were on the eastern side of the island. She didn't have much to offer in exchange, but would be grateful. Notmerlen accepted the rum, and said that it was a fair exchange for the berries.
The party is planning to head back to Red Mountain today. But there might be something they're missing . . .
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Loather's internet went down last night so we had Gleep NPC Chester again.
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Session 20, probably
The party elected to leave Gelik, Jask, and Aerys in camp while they struck out across the island for Red Mountain. It seemed they had killed or scared off most of the wildlife in the area, because they arrived at the bluff above the lagoon unmolested. Notmerlen examined the strange standing stones once again, keeping in mind Aerys' translation of the Aklo rubbings. He also remembered her commenting on how it was strange that the carvings talked about "laying bare" what lay below the sea, since she had heard from the party that the lagoon had also been previously bare. Notmerlen was thinking the monoliths might be the means of lowering the water level in the lagoon, but Athelstan and Gleep were skeptical. Athelstan posited that performing the ritual the carvings had described would be playing right into Ieana's hands. Notmerlen argued that since the monoliths seemed to have already been used, there was no added danger from using them again.
Athelstan was still nervous, but Notmerlen examined the standing stones around the central pyramid and found old blood splashed on them - indicating that at least the first part of the ritual had been performed. He also found salt in the central indentation of the pyramid. Fears of accidentally starting the apocalypse assuaged, Athelstan helped Notmerlen plan out the steps for the tide-changing ritual. He reasoned that the blood of a thinking being could come from multiple people in the party, though probably not Gleep. The serpent's kiss would be harder - Chester started attempting to disguise the deceased and skinned chupacabra as a snake, but dipped too much of it into Gleep and melted off too much of the lower torso for the rotting corpse to really look anything like a snake - but Athelstan figured he could cast a summoning spell to call a viper. Notmerlen was worried that a vessel of "purest metal" would require some rare material, but eventually decided they should at least try using a vessel of iron for carrying seawater and pouring it in the pyramid's indentation. He had the idea of using his sculpted breastplate, or perhaps an iron pot if they got back to camp. But, as they realized at the end, they did not know "the Lord's sacred name."
Athelstan suggested swimming down to the dungeon again - perhaps some of the carvings had the name of this deity? But he remembered, Chester had defaced those carvings, so it would probably have been pointless to go down. Notmerlen also reasoned that if they could get into the temple by swimming, there was not much point in doing the ritual - but he suspected the doors had been closed when the waters came back in, so it could be hard to get through. With a groan, the party realized their only real lead was probably in the unexplored portions of the lacedon caves. Nevertheless, they decided to climb Red Mountain and see if there was anything of interest at the summit.
Red Mountain was striking not just for its red rock, but for its bareness. Hiking up the rough path to the peak, the dwarves noticed vegetation gradually getting smaller and sparser, until at the top it was completely empty - just bare, pinkish stone and weather-worn gravel. The dwarves couldn't find any carvings on the stone, or anything else signifying a humanoid presence besides the path. From the summit, though, they could see across nearly the entire island. There was the plateau to the north, in the center of the island - and was that a little hut? One of the smaller hills to the west was where the party dug for treasure, and first encountered ghouls. Further north, the valley of spiderwebs and the stream that ran past the viper nettle patch (neither the webs nor the nettles were actually visible from this distance), and then far on the other side of the island the place where the Jenivere crashed two weeks ago. The rocks ringing Smuggler's Shiv were quite obvious from this vantage, and they could even see some of the shipwrecks, including one in a small bay just northeast of the ghoul pit. To the northeast was the central bay, the gray isle of vegepygmies and fungus demons, and the region that the strange bird-man was rumored to haunt. And to the west, the dwarves could see Aycenia's banyan and the cannibal lighthouse silhouetted against the puffy clouds on the western horizon.
As nothing at the summit told them the name of the snake god, Athelstan started up a marching chant and led the party west. It was a harrowing march, after nine hours of walking just to get to Red Mountain, but somehow with Athelstan's stories of dwarven heroes the party made it. Notmerlen didn't want to go back to camp without Aerys' berries, and he steered the dwarves and cube left rather than right, down the path to the cannibal camp. They arrived a little after midnight on Rova 4 (a Starday), the light of the waning gibbous moon giving the empty camp an eerie feel.
The party climbed down into the hole again, squeezing through the narrow caves, until they arrived back at the room with the central pool. Notmerlen snuck down the ledge to one of the side passages and peered through the tunnel - and saw three web-clawed lacedons, gnawing on bones. One of the lacedons bore a vague resemblance to the deceased Captain Kovack. He stepped back and held up three fingers to his companions behind, and they began to file into place. Athelstan began a summoning spell, but before the lacedons could react to the noise Notmerlen had lodged an arrow in the eye of one. Chester shouted encouragement while Gleep slid down the ledges and moved into attack position as Notmerlen stepped into the tunnel to meet the first ghoul's bite. He dodged, then cut the thing down with Klorak's magic scimitar as Athelstan completed his spell and called a celestial eagle to flank the Kovack-lacedon. Notmerlen stepped back, then, to allow Gleep to attack. However, both he and Gleep missed. Chester threw her halberd, but the weapon fell far short and splashed into the bottom of the pool. Fortunately, the eagle had a burst of efficiency and tore through the lacedon's neck, allowing Notmerlen to deliver the killing blow. Kovack had been lain to rest, for good. The third ghoul seemed to have run away.
The party joined Notmerlen and Gleep at the side tunnel entrance and squeezed through, finding a mostly empty chamber with bits of bone scattered about. There were several passages leading out of the chamber, and at the far end of it was what seemed to be a wide ledge of rock overhanging sloshing water. The party moved up towards this ledge, but then heard something moving to the south, back behind them. Notmerlen moved back down to look, but almost jumped out of his skin when he rounded the corner and saw three lipless ghouls grinning back at him. One of them seemed to be unusually old, its skin having acquired a bluish tinge and with a pointed tongue nearly a foot long. The ghoul wore a yellowed snake skull on a thong about its neck.
The woman spoke to the two dwarves she could see - Chester and Gleep had jumped off the ledge and were swimming around the back to try to surprise the ghouls. She offered them "eternal life" and a new, refined purpose. All they need to do was let her bite them, just a bit. "Ydersius" could offer them their rightful place in the universe, and she would see that her children were protected. As soon as she said this, Athelstan started summoning another eagle. In response, the cleric cast a spell that summoned a giant, translucent counterpart to her amulet. The fangs tried to bite Notmerlen, but he dodged out of the way. What he couldn't dodge was a lucky strike by one of the lacedon "children" of this snake god cleric. Notmerlen's muscles suddenly froze and he was paralyzed for several seconds, while Athelstan fired an arrow at the cleric, dealing minimal damage, and the Heaven-blessed eagle tore the lacedon a telling blow. It screamed, "Commend me to the Lord, Mother!"
During this time, the other lacedon had again disappeared. It ran down a subterranean beach and dove into the water to claw Chester, hoping to take advantage of the dwarf's presumed unsuitability for the terrain. As its claws scraped off her armor, though, Chester hacked it viciously with her halberd, and then Gleep came from underneath and melted the ghoul's legs off, making the light go from its eyes. Chester got onto the beach and ran towards the fight, yelling at Gleep to follow her. Somehow resisting her will, the cube turned back in the water and, expelling air through Gleepself at incredible speed, burst out of the water and tried to get all the way to the ledge above. Unfortunately, Gleep missed. Gleep fell back to the salty water, and began laboriously trying to climb up the cave wall to the top of the ledge. This would take pretty much the entire fight.
As Chester arrived on the scene, she squeezed through the tunnel and tried to use a positive energy spell on the undead, but missed due to some sort of magical protections around the creature. The cleric stepped out of the tunnel and used Notmerlen's frozen body as a shield from Athelstan's arrows as she cast a spell to fill the skald's ears with the sound of an enormous snake slithering. Athelstan did not let his fear get the better of him, though, and stayed in place. Somehow, also, the cleric's spell failed to penetrate Notmerlen's tough armor. Notmerlen snapped out of his funk and cleaved the lacedon-child's head off. The cleric took this opportunity to heal herself with a spell, ignoring Chester's attempt to disrupt.
Chester followed the cleric out of the tunnel and finally grabbed her, discharging healing energy that disrupted the lacedon's corrupted anti-life force. The cleric blessed herself with something about "Ydersius" and then entered melee, quickly paralyzing Notmerlen again and landing a blow on Chester. Her spell finally managed to bite Notmerlen before disappearing, and Athelstan's eagle vanished as well. Athelstan used some of his last spell energy to discharge positive energy into the undead cleric, though she didn't seem too fazed by it. Then the cleric turned her claws and fangs on Chester. Somehow, the priestess of Keltheald resisted the paralysis, though she was worried about the ghoul fever Thornton had previously encountered. Then Athelstan used his last healing spell, causing the lacedon to shriek in pain. She attempted to cast some sort of wordless spell, but was too hemmed in by danger and took a deep-cut wound to the leg from Chester's halberd.
The lacedon surged forwards and bit deep into Athelstan's shoulder. And followed up with a couple claws for good measure. Muscles frozen, and bleeding from multiple wounds, the skald collapsed.
And then Gleep gave up on climbing, and jumped up to the top of the ledge! Gleep launched the previously consumed lacedon corpse in a cleric-wards direction, but missed. The melted, rubbery bones and rotten flesh just sort of splattered all over the frozen Notmerlen.
Notmerlen finally broke free again. The slayer raised his scimitar high, and cut into the lacedon's arm. Chester used her halberd to bisect the lacedon's head, destroying her.
Chester released some healing energy as Notmerlen examined the lacedons for loot. He found that the cleric had a silver ring and, well, the snake-skull amulet. Notmerlen immediately donned the ring, but didn't notice any effects. Meanwhile, Athelstan had awoken and overcome his paralysis. He got to his feet and warned whoever took the amulet that it might be cursed, or something. Chester used another healing spell to rejuvenate him a bit further, and then immediately Notmerlen was shoving loot in the skald's face asking him to identify it. Athelstan identified the ring as a ring of swimming, and identified the amulet of natural armor snake skull amulet as an amulet of natural armor . Since Athelstan had not been the best swimmer back at the broken bridge, Notmerlen recommended his client take the ring of swimming. Chester wound up with the amulet.
Notmerlen then went around the rest of the rooms in the sea cave complex. He found one with some more detritus and one with some crude carvings in Aklo, which neither he nor Athelstan could read. Athelstan copied those carvings, with the intent of showing them to Aerys later. Chester, meanwhile, jumped back into the water and investigated the tunnels leading to the west. She found that they quickly submerged (i.e. there was no air), but conserving her breath and swimming cautiously she was able to determine that they opened out directly below the cliffs on the west side of the cannibal camp. She rejoined the group as they examined one last cave, which was a small little alcove that had a mound of bones and seaweed in the shape of a strange nest. The walls of that alcove were covered with carvings of snakes and skeletons.
Having apparently explored the complex in its entirety, the party climbed back to the surface. They were far too beat-up and exhausted to hike back to camp that night, so they went to the second floor of the lighthouse and collapsed in the musky-smelling beds there. Gleep kept watch and tried to accelerate Gleep's companions' healing, but was ineffective due to concerns about accidentally burning them. And actually, Athelstan was feeling much worse after that night's sleep. He awoke covered in red boils, feeling as if the strength had been sucked right out of him - it was red ache again.
Athelstan is planning to go back to camp today and ask if Aycenia can heal him of his various diseases. The party does have several potions to restore health, but ghoul fever is scary.
Actually, Athelstan was hit by the ghoulbits. Notmerlyn's player is, I am afraid, sadly mistaken and probably high right now.
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Started late so only a 2-hour session, but the entire group was here this week!
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Session 21, probably
After eating some of the cannibals' less questionable stored food, the party hiked back up the bayshore. They were walking along the cannibal trail through the jungle when a trio of goats charged out of the undergrowth. The dwarves remembered that time they shot a random wild goat in the forest, and wondered if these ones were seeking revenge. Notmerlen quickly decapitated one, while Gleep and Athelstan assumed offensive stances, but Chester instead pulled something out of her backpack - five pounds of seaweed and zombie flowers. She offered these to the remaining two goats, which quickly began devouring the (probably somewhat rotten) snack. Notmerlen slung the dead goat over his shoulder and hiked on, though he and Athelstan were feeling tired from the heat.
The party arrived at Aycenia's grove a little after noon, Gleep emitting a high-pitched shrieking noise to summon Aycenia from her tree. She was startled, but agreed to help Athelstan. About half a minute of concentration later, the dwarf was healed of his red boils, but the dryad warned him that she could not purge the disease from his system - only treat its symptoms. Jask also healed everyone of their direct wounds and from any heat fatigue.
While Athelstan was being administered to, Aerys approached Notmerlen expectantly. Hemming and hawing, he explained that they hadn't gotten to the berries yet, but they were definitely going to. He apologized for taking so long. She nodded, saying it was all right, and went into her shelter to lay down. Notmerlen took Thornton aside and reminded the halfling where the berries had been, then asked him to go and pick some for Aerys. He cautioned that the vines were poisonous, so Thornton would have to be careful. Thornton agreed, and after packing some food headed down the path to the eastern side of the isle.
The party set out a little after Thornton, making fairly good time due to an epic poem Athelstan told that kept their footsteps in rhythm. They were slowed by Gleep, though, and never caught up with Thornton. They were not accosted by any wildlife, and after swimming back across the river with the broken bridge, arrived at the bluff with the four standing stones and the pyramid. Notmerlen cut his hand and smeared blood over each of the four serpentine runes of the standing stones, then Athelstan summoned a celestial viper. Chester promptly attacked the viper, cutting off its head, and before the summoned creature's body faded held the head to each of the bloody stones and made smooching noises. She felt a little static shock each time she did so. Notmerlen went down to the lagoon and scooped up some seawater in an iron pot from camp. He poured this onto the indentation in the central pyramid, and the water ran down the sides into the four basins. Stepping back, Notmerlen shouted, "Ycenias!"
Nothing happened.
Chester shouted, "War of the battle elders: the dark chronicle saga." Again, nothing happened.
The party scratched their heads for some time, trying to remember the name of the Lord that the lacedon cleric had referred to. Gleep sent Chester an empathic message that Notmerlen had been wrong-but-not-all-wrong. Suddenly, it came to the slayer: "Ydersius!"
An immense grinding noise sounded from deep in the earth, and the four standing stones released four gigantic lightning bolts into the dark clouds above. Notmerlen and Athelstan were temporarily deafened by the immediate crack of thunder. The entire mass of water in the lagoon roiled out to sea, the frontal wave moving faster than the fastest mountain falcon, and when the churning had subsided the water level was lowered by twenty feet, exposing rocks and flopping fish. It started to rain heavily as the party (some still deafened) climbed down into the empty lagoon.
They passed by Ekubus' ship, the mephit saying hello to Gleep and remarking on the really strange tides that have been happening lately. Athelstan and Notmerlen found their hearing returning. And then the party re-entered the ancient temple.
The temple was much as they'd left it. The serpentfolk skeletons were still lying on the stone floor, and there were still disturbing carvings of cannibalism and blood-drinking everywhere. The strange dolls were still lying in pieces on the bridge (but Gleep ate them). The pit trap still caused an utter debacle, between Chester laying down in front of the pit and temporarily refusing to try swinging across and Athelstan falling and losing concentration on his solid note spell. Notmerlen also fell, nearly breaking a leg, but Gleep seemed to jump across with ease.
The dwarves rounded the corner on a new corridor, then immediately noticed another pit trap. Chester just leaped into it. She fell well, and was barely bruised, however. Athelstan and Notmerlen hung their rope down from the south side of the pit, climbed down, yanked the grappling hook off, then threw the grappling hook to the other lip of the pit, and climbed up. Notmerlen stepped into the room ahead while Chester climbed up, and Athelstan and Gleep also moved into the new room.
This room was hexagonally shaped, with a pool of bloodlike liquid in the center and numerous alcoves in the walls. It had some strange grooves in the ceiling, and a corridor leading north towards two double doors. Chester told Gleep to eat the blood, so Gleep moved to the center of the pool and stood in the two-feet-deep liquid. It was definitely real, human blood, and was at body temperature. Athelstan identified it as having a necromantic magical aura.
With a horrible shrieking noise, two bronze-colored sheets of thick metal suddenly slid down out of the ceiling at the entrance and exit to the room. Thinking quickly, Athelstan leapt back to the edge of the pit, narrowly avoiding being crushed by the door as it slid into place with a clicking sound. Notmerlen and Gleep hacked and slammed at the door, trying to get it open, while Chester hacked on the other side with her bardiche. Athelstan began shouting encouragement, which somehow made himself, Notmerlen, Chester, and even Gleep grow horns and become exceedingly strong. Just at that moment, though, Notmerlen felt something glide just inches from his head. When he looked up, he saw a strange pendulum with an axe-tipped blade swinging into the ceiling. It swung down again, scoring a nasty cut through his shoulder and clavicle. As he was already seriously wounded from his fall earlier, he redoubled his efforts to break through the door. Chester slammed her face into the door, making a fist-sized hole with the horn sprouting from her mask. She reached in and healed Notmerlen, while Gleep deflected the pendulum's third swing from its original target. Athelstan remembered he'd taken some damage from the fall as well and healed himself. And then, suddenly, the doors slid back up into the ceiling and the pendulum clicked into some locking mechanism. It stopped swinging, at least for the present.
The group hurried quickly across the trapped room to the far corridor, where Chester gave everyone a bit of healing. They stood in front of two more red-streaked bronze doors, and are preparing for what may lie beyond.
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No Loather this week. Her internet is shiiiit.
Also dwarf barbarian-clerics with the travel domain power and expeditious retreat are a wonder to behold. God bless.
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Session 22, probably
Chester started the party's preparations by putting her face against the door and concentrating really hard. Her reason for this was not explained.
While she was doing this, the others heard a grinding noise to the southwest. A gibbering began. Gleep slid back into the trap room and waited outside the hole, ready to smack the mouther if it showed itself. While Gleep waited, though, Athelstan let the jabbering get to him and struck himself in the face with his battleaxe. Chester healed the skald while Notmerlen pulled out his bow and moved into position behind Gleep. But then a fresh wave of horrible mangled voices sounded from the hole in the wall, and Notmerlen and Athelstan became the backup chorus. Gleep lost his concentration, and wildly expelled a chupacabra bone fragment from its center. This bounced off the wall, then landed point-first in Gleep, slicing a minor wound in the cube before losing momentum. Chester ran back and forth, worried about being trapped in the room but also about Gleep's condition.
With a sound like teeth grinding sand, the gibbering mouther finally slithered out of the hole in the wall. It was much bigger than before. Gleep, Notmerlen, and Chester were unable to hit it, so Athelstan began a raging song to strengthen everyone's wills and also to make horns grow out of their foreheads.
As he did so, the mouther finally struck at Gleep. It oozed over Gleep, biting Gleep in half a dozen places and leaving lasting holes in Gleep's gel. Even as it did so, its exposed surface was rapidly burned by the acid - tongues blackened and rotted away, and eyes smoked as they were consumed by the acid. It was actually unclear which of the oozelike creatures would die first.
The bronze doors slammed down, nearly catching Chester on the head. She dodged out of the way, but remained inside the trapped room to help the others. Notmerlen ran behind the mouther and stuck his sword in it. Hard. The mouther's corresponding side lunged for the slayer, releasing its grasp on the cube.
Notmerlen dodged most of the blows, but his arm was grabbed by the mouther. He used his scimitar one-handed to hack at it, and his and Gleep's melting keratin horns distracted the cube while Chester lined up a shot with her halberd.
Then there was a click from the ceiling, and the axe-pendulum swung down again. The dwarves ducked as it moved - straight for the gibbering mouther! The mouther managed to dodge, but the added distraction allowed Chester to land the telling blow. She hacked the mouther into gross fleshy pieces, then pushed the pendulum away from Gleep as the cube fed on its vanquished enemy.
The final pendulum swing targeted Gleep again, and seemed destined to hit Gleep - it connected soundlessly, slicing a deep gouge in the cube's surface and for the first time silencing the presence Chester felt in her mind. The party quickly returned to the small 10'x10' space between the two doors, Chester dragging and pushing the insensate Gleep with her halberd. Chester and Athelstan dispensed the remainder of their healing, and then Chester put her face up to the door again, peering through the opening. After focusing for a minute, she saw two skeletons inside a dark, large room with pillars supporting the ceiling. She couldn't see any further due to the limitations of her spell.
Chester told the others what she saw and decided she'd look through the door after every watch. She sat down on her five-foot square of space and, sensing the sun setting outside, began praying to Keltheald for spells. After preparing these, she kept watch for a few hours, then woke Athelstan when a great thundering above announced that the sea had swept back into the lagoon. The skald woke feeling like he'd been put through a forge - the red boils had returned with a vengeance. Despite his illness, he labored to accelerate the others' healing. Under his care, and the ensuing care of Notmerlen (who took the third watch, which ended about an hour after midnight on 5 Rova, 4710 AR, a Sunday), Gleep regenerated enough to reactivate Gleep's consciousness. Chester woke up then, and saw that the cube was animate again. She released a healing burst, closing the cube's wounds further. She, however, was feeling ill and weaker than normal, with her skin noticeably pallid and her fingernails purplish. Athelstan calmed himself and summoned memories of fighting alongside his friends, and rejuvenated his spells. As he was weakened by the red ache, he asked Notmerlen to carry his backpack for him. Chester looked through the door again, but saw no skeletons. She cast a couple spells to make herself and the group better fighters.
And then the party opened the great double doors, and Notmerlen stepped inside.
The dark room was like a great cathedral, but not to any deity the dwarves had witnessed worship of. A red stone altar at the west end of the room weeped blood into a great, shallow channel that ran down the room's center and emptied into a void gated by bronze bars. Looming over the altar was a statue of a ten-foot-tall humanoid woman with billowing batlike wings, fanged teeth, and taloned feet. The stone pillars Chester witnessed were in evidence, supporting the ceiling, as were two dried-up fountains on either side of the channel. Three large alcoves set into the northern and southern walls contained complex carvings, and the room felt unusually cold.
In addition to the statue, a living person stood next to the altar. But she was not human, or dwarf, or any other humanoid race the party had seen on the island. She was a snake person. Her head was like that of a giant pit viper, and she had a long green tail trailing behind her. She still had arms and legs, but her hands bore gnarled birdlike claws. She wore a robe, but in an alien style that emphasized layers of stiff overlapping fabric. And she wore a small snake skull amulet.
Arrayed in front of her were four of the ancient-looking skeletons Chester had seen, their equipment obviously rotted by the milennia. They carried rusted scimitars.
As Notmerlen entered, the snake woman looked down at him and hissed, "So, have you figured out all the mysteries I left for you?"
"We found the captain, if that's what you mean," Notmerlen said. "We know you used him."
"And we know you're trying to revive -," (To Chester: "What was the guy's name again?") Athelstan said, breaking off when he realized he couldn't remember the serpent god's name.
"You don't know why I did all this, do you? You don't know why I braved months of confinement with smelly humans and halflings just to crash the ship on this island?"
"Nope. Enlighten us?" Notmerlen asked.
The snake smiled, showing a wide row of sharp teeth. "I've found something earth-shattering. The next clue to the ancient city of my people."
"Where is it?"
"Far to the east, in the wildest jungle." As the snake person talked, she moved her head from side to side. Gleep realized with a start that some sort of spell had come over Chester, and it also appeared to affect Athelstan (but not Notmerlen!). Gleep punched Athelstan in the side with an acidic pseudopod, nearly dropping the skald with the force of Gleep's blow but definitely breaking whatever spell had affected the two casters.
While the others were distracted by being hypnotized and attacking Athelstan, Notmerlen had tried to approach the snake lady and been swarmed by the skeletons. The snake woman called out, "In the Age of Legend, you worshipped us, served us as slaves," twisting her hand as if squeezing a rodent, and locked gaze with him. He didn't move. And then he turned around to face Athelstan, who was already wounded by Gleep. The skeletons stopped clawing him.
The snake woman yelled, "Kill your friends."
And Notmerlen stepped forward and slashed Athelstan across the chest, immediately dropping him. The snake lady called, "Tell your soft-skinned gods that Yarzoth, servant of the Headless King, sent you."
Chester stepped back and picked up a rock, calling back, "My god is the sun - it doesn't have skin!" She hurled the rock at the closest skeleton, immediately destroying it. "We will/We will/Get STONED, say the skeletons," she sang.
Gleep watched as Athelstan was put in mortal danger partially because of Gleep's attack a moment previous. Gleep felt uncomfortable. Gleep wondered if maybe Gleep did the wrong thing. Athelstan had never done anything horrid to Gleep. Gleep sent a stream of empathic messages to Chester: "Save him and run."
"RUN. RUN CHESTER. LOVE YOU LOVE YOU LOVE YOU."
"GOOD LUCK WITH YOUR WATER"
"LOVE YO-"
As Gleep sent this, Gleep slid forward to face Notmerlen, heedless of the slayer's closeness. And though he fought the spell, snake-Notmerlen took the opportunity to cleave the wounded cube in two.
The skeletons fell on Gleep, tearing the gelatinous cube to pieces and ending any chance for Gleep to survive. Yarzoth sent Notmerlen a new command, telling him to come to her side and protect her, and ordered the skeletons to chase down the two remaining targets. She cast several protective spells on herself, including one that blurred her form.
Snake-Notmerlen suddenly felt a tearing in his mind. Abandon his charge, and serve another? His honor would be forfeit. This niggling sense of dishonor was vile, born of soft-skins' weakness, he told himself. But it would not go away. As he turned his steps towards Yarzoth, he felt the tear stretch, widen. Memories of fighting side by side other dwarves rushed back to him. Memories of shared grog with his foppish charge flooded into his memory. With a snap, he broke the compulsion. But he kept moving towards Yarzoth, regardless. He realized that having someone think you were dominated could be very useful.
Chester, unaware of the change in Notmerlen's demeanor, told Athelstan, "I think we should maybe leave." The skald agreed, and they fled the skeletons through the trapped room. Chester jumped across with ease, but as Athelstan was still aching from the splotches covering his skin, he was afraid he wouldn't make the jump. He yelled to Chester, "I'll hold them off!" and summoned a bit of healing energy into his palm, damaging the first skeleton that neared him. Somehow, he dodged the attacks of all three.
"Athelstan, I'll catch you! Truuuust me!" Chester shouted, holding her arms wide. Athelstan demurred, trying to cast another healing spell to destroy another skeleton. The close quarters, though, distracted him from his arcane gesticulations, and he lost the spell. The skeletons again failed to grab him, and Chester smashed one with another thrown rock.
"This is not okay Athelstan. Stop kidding around." Chester laid down on the pit rim, holding her halberd. This time, she didn't fall in. She lifted up one flap of the pit trap, levering it with her halberd as a support. It . . . almost? looked sturdy enough to support a dwarf. "We're all dying, dammit! I'm not gonna be stuck alone with Thornton!" she yelled at the skald.
Giving up on his heroic plan, Athelstan ran across the tilted floor, managing not to slip and fall like every other time previous. Then with a ticking noise, the mangled trap room door slammed down and smashed one skeleton to pieces. The other skeleton, which had managed to duck out to the ledge, crouched low and then leaped at the cleric and skald. But without a running start, it had not enough momentum, and scrabbling for the rim, fell. It shattered into a hundred pieces on the pit bottom 30 feet below.
Athelstan and Chester ran to the next pit, which Chester had predicted the previous day she would fall into. But casting a spell on herself to make her move faster than a horse, she picked up Athelstan and jumped across while carrying him in her arms.
The dwarves landed with a thump on the other side, then ran down the sets of stairs towards the main sanctum. Athelstan reached for his pack, then realized he'd given it to Notmerlen, and looked inside Chester's pack instead. Chester had a bunch of potions in there! They were from Captain Kovack's cabin in the Jenivere, and some of them were still unidentified. Athelstan drank one already labelled as mild healing, and felt his wounds closing. He offered one to Chester, but the battle priestess had not actually sustained any wounds (she's sick, but not terribly so). Quickly sorting through the other potions, he identified one as a potion of water walk and another as a potion of cure moderate wounds, but there were still some unidentified.
What remains of the party is searching the entrance sanctum for a way to get the big doors open, and will likely head back to Aycenia's grove forthwith. Meanwhile, Notmerlen plots in the blood temple, and destiny coalesces around some unknown person.
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YARZOTH IS DEAD LONG LIVE YARZOTH
GG played Gelik for the first few scenes of this session, while KC played his new character The Grisgol.
Click here for the story of Dovret (best read after recap below, I think).
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SESSION 23?
Chester and Athelstan, fleeing from Yarzoth's presumed rage, ran down into the entrance chamber and looked around for a way out. They spotted a previously ignored lever in one of the alcoves, and pulling this heard the telltale sound of lightning discharging and waves rolling out. The great stone doors ground open, and the two dwarves rushed out and began hiking back to camp. Athelstan recited some inspiring stories, which Chester ignored, but which helped him keep up with her as they hiked back across the island towards camp.
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Meanwhile, a strange individual used her broken pickaxe to smash through the last of the stone ceilinging (sealing?) her in. She found herself in a big temple to a heathenish god she recognized as Ydersius. The big snake head was a good clue, though she didn't understand the meaning of the pile of dead bodies. Exploring the cave complex outside the temple, she found some more bodies, some water-worn passages, and eventually, a rope leading upward through a hole in the roof. The individual could see a faint silvery light up there.
The individual climbed up the rope. As her head came over the surface, she gasped. There were a million lights scattered over the sky-tapestry. They were covered in places by the large water masses she understood to be clouds and by the spot where the moon shone half its light, but they were still awe-inspiring. She wanted to go up there.
Looking around, she saw a number of primitive buildings that were similar to the fungus houses mongrelfolk build. There was also a small stone spire. But the buildings were empty. She found a path leading down to a beach that ran along the edge of a bay of salt-smelling water; looking out its mouth, she could not see any further land. There were also green growths around her - surface vegetation, she knew from her reading. The trail was well-used, but the freshest tracks she found led away from the abandoned settlement, so she followed them along the beach. Eventually, she came to a crossroads, where two other trails intersected hers. One was recently cut, with stumps of vegetation still jutting up from the earth, and she chose this path.
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Gelik was up late that night, watching the dying fire and keeping guard. This, despite the fact that Aycenia was already guarding. He saw a strange, bulky figure approaching - a dwarf with gray skin, but lacking any hair except for her eyebrows. She carried a small knapsack, wore a belt pouch at her waist, and carried a silvery shield. She wore dark robes with stars on them, and carried a weird-looking crossbow. Gelik asked who she was. The strange woman introduced herself as the Grisgol, who had come up out of the Darklands into the temple down by the abandoned settlement. After looking around the camp - the wooden shelters, open fire, and disheveled sleepers - she told Gelik that she could help his primitive society build better structures and give them other technological wonders. She asked to meet Gelik's leader, but the gnome said that the leaders were off fighting in some old underground ruins, and would be gone a while.
The Grisgol claimed one structure for her own and flopped down to sleep, but noticed a pair of eyes watching her from the woods. Gelik asked the dryad why she had not halted the dwarf before she reached camp, but Aycenia was not forthcoming. She only warned the Grisgol not to cut any living wood from her trees. "What happens if they die first?" the Grisgol.
". . . Then I guess it's okay," Aycenia replied. The Grisgol categorized Aycenia as the group's enforcer, and said that she respected her position.
Shortly after, the bloodied and exhausted Chester and Athelstan arrived. The Grisgol asked where the leader was. Athelstan replied that he was more of a bodyguard than a leader, which she took to mean servant, and assumed that they had no leader, taking the spot herself. The dwarves mostly ignored her, as Gelik was already asking them what happened to the two other members of the party. Gleep and Notmerlen. Athelstan said that they didn't make it, due to an evil snake lady who psionically dominated Notmerlen. Around this time, Aerys hopefully woke up and came out to see if her berries had arrived. When she saw Notmerlen missing, she cringed, muttered something, and awkwardly went back to bed. By this time, Athelstan had turned on the Grisgol, who he recognized as a duergar. He told her that he knew she was those dwarves that pledged eternal service to the evil god Droskar and who stayed behind underground during the species-wide Quest for Sky. The Grisgol fired back by comparing the dwarves to rats fleeing a sinking ship.
Chester was mostly interested in what the Grisgol's bag contained. She reasoned that a duergar who served an evil dark god would be evil, and wanted to see if the Grisgol had anything interesting. The duergar's backpack was unusually large on the inside, but mostly contained scrolls and so forth. The Grisgol was too busy arguing with Athelstan to really mind the weird round dwarve rifling through her scant belongings, but when Chester opened the Grisgol's spell component pouch, the duergar slapped her hand and told her to stop that. Chester wound up with fingers smelling of bat guano for her trouble.
As the sun rose, Jask got up to make his daily prayer. When he heard the news, and heard that a rescue/revenge party was being organized, he advised that they bring along all who would come. Overwhelming force might be the only way to take the powerful mage down. Chester said she hated snakes. After asking what spells the Grisgol could muster, Jask prepared his. Athelstan convinced Aerys and Sasha to come along.
He also asked Aycenia, but the dryad demurred. She didn't want to go so far from her home tree. She did, however, offer to heal him and Chester again. A few healing touches later, the dwarves were mostly rejuvenated from the damage wrought by their diseases. Aycenia also reached inside her tree and pulled a long piece of living banyan wood out of it. The pole had leaves growing at the top. Aycenia took Chester's halberd, snapped off the blade, and when she stuck the blade into the end of the pole it stayed. Aycenia told Chester that as long as she planted the halberd in the light of the setting sun every day, and as long as Aycenia herself lived, the halberd would grow in power. When the cleric examined it, she realized Aycenia had made the weapon magical. Aycenia asked for Chester to use the blade to end the corruption boiling under her island's surface.
Packing what supplies they needed, the party left their camp and hiked across the island. For the first hour, Athelstan told the Grisgol the abridged story of the castaways' adventures on the island so far, though she frequently interrupted to clarify some aspect of surface world culture. Though their discussion slipped between Common and Dwarven, the rest of the group nonetheless felt inspired by the stories, and marched faster. Once he'd caught the Grisgol up, though, Athelstan wanted to preserve his creativity and went silent, focusing on the hike.
A couple hours after noon, the party arrived at the bluffs above the lagoon. Once Athelstan read Aerys' translation to the party, Sasha told the others that she probably wouldn't be much use in the fight, anyway, and stabbed her palm to smear blood over the monoliths. Everyone watched her in discomfort as she enlarged the wound, digging deeper into her flesh to draw out more blood for the other three monoliths. Seeing their faces, she explained - Red Mantis assassins are trained to withstand far worse pain.
Athelstan approached the monoliths next, asking Chester very politely not to kill the snake he was going to summon. She yelled, "Noooo!" but restrained herself. He picked up the snake and held it to each of the monoliths in turn, so that it licked the blood from each.
Next, the Grisgol went down to the water's edge and filled her silvery shield up with seawater. Athelstan suddenly realized what it was - mithral. He was shocked at the expense she must have gone to to acquire it. The duergar poured the saltwater into the top bowl of the central pyramid, and the liquid flowed down to the four pools before each monolith. Then, Athelstan stepped inside the spire stones and shouted, "Ydersius!"
Lightning, splashing, and thunder ensued as the water level in the lagoon dropped again, exposing the black doors. The party climbed down to the lagoon floor and picked their way across the sand bars to Ekubus' ship. Athelstan asked the snot goblin to come help, and he agreed.
Before entering, Jask asked Athelstan and Chester to warn them when the party was about to face Yarzoth. Athelstan remembered to warn everyone about the death trap room that was just before Yarzoth's temple.
The party re-entered the cave complex, seeing the bones of undead serpentfolk and humans scattered around. They crossed the bridge again and came to the first pit. Athelstan warned everyone to step back, and with Chester handing him bones, jammed the false floor of the trap permanently in the horizontal position. Everyone scampered across, and Athelstan fixed the other side of the trap as well.
The second pit trap was not so easy to fix, however - Athelstan had used all the good bones on the first one. Fortunately, he, Gelik, Jask, and Chester jumped across quite easily, then ran across the trap room to the corridor on the other side. Unfortunately, the Grisgol fell short, and just barely yelled an incantation to arrest her fall. The incantation also benefited Sasha and Aerys, though they did not immediately jump. Ekubus flew down and helped the Grisgol climb back up, then went to perch on Jask's shoulders. Once everyone else was safely across, Sasha and Aerys jumped across and waited for the rest of the party to open the doors and move out, so the half-elf and human would have a place to stand that didn't put them perilously close to the trap.
Athelstan, squeezed against the wall by a gnome, noticed a pile of vials on the floor in the corner by the temple doors. Next to the vials was his complicated musical instrument, and below them was a piece of paper that he recognized from his journal (the same journal that was in his pack along with all his other belongings, and which Notmerlen had taken). He read the letter on it aloud to the rest of the party:
Athelstan,
If I live when you next see me, I may be free. If I am, I will speak the words 'My word is my oath'. For it is, my friend. I said long ago I would defend you. But I have failed in this task. I nearly cut you down, and have dishonoured my name.
But know that I have dishonored that for far longer, and have deceived you. For I followed a far greater oath. One of revenge for a wrong that robbed me of all of who I cared about. The name 'Wyvernmane' more than likely does not seem notable, for it is a false name.
My original name, my true name, is Dovret Thunderhorn, son of Gungrad Thunderhorn and Jakril Thunderhorn. You may recognize this name as one of your uncle's mines. This mine once belonged to my family, which they had held for generations. Until your uncle ran my father out of business, ruined his name through deception, and left us all destitute. Your uncle claimed the mine for himself, profiting from the abundance of gold within. My parents died of sickness and exposure. I survived by the sword, selling my skills to rich nobles to cut down their enemies and protect their assests and person through brutality. As a youth, I knew only killing and hunger, and anger at what happened to our once great name. My sister, wishing to help me but naive, joined a caravan as a guard, taking my family's ancestorial sword and our family armour. I had refused to touch them for fear of dishonouring their history with the evil I wrought. Maybe that was foolish...
The caravan was attacked by ogres. I will not go into what happened, for even as I write this the tears well and I wish I had been quicker to stop her going at all. But I joined the search party for the ogre family. They had taken the merchant's goods with whatever they could catch alive. We dived upon them, driving hooks into their flesh and pulling them to the ground. I rushed forward and drove an axe into the skull of the one that kept my families blade at it's side and wore my sister's poncho around it's neck like a damn bib. It had ruined the handle of the sword, and the armour had been crushed to useless metal. I took it's bones and made a new handle. I took the metal of the armour and made a gauntlet. And I vowed to my sister's spirit that I would bring down the one who did this. Destroy him like he had destroyed the Thunderhorns.
I would kill Half-Beard.
And I intended to do that through you, Athelstan. I had spent many years building the reputation of 'Notmerlen Wyvernmane'. Made myself as respectable a guard and mercernary as I could, while delightfully betraying my patrons where I could, selling their secrets to their enemies, and building connections with those less reputable to exploit when the time came to strike against Half-Beard. It only required one final piece of the puzzle to begin my revenge. I was approached by a recruiter of Half-Beard's as your personal guard. The perfect opportunity. On meeting you, I took you for a fool, easy to convince and easy to manipulate. And when the time came, I would slip a blade through your ribs, and send you piece by piece back to your uncle. Then I would come for him personally. But not before I destroyed everything of worth to your family name in Mwangi.
But that was some time ago. Over these months, my demeanor has changed. As has my opinion of you. You are a fool, Twice-Dropped, but you are someone I value as a friend. I doubt that means much after this confession, but it is the truth.
So I say this. If my words mean nothing to you, or you find I do not give you my sign of freedom. Shoot me dead. I will not prevent you from taking vengeance for my deception, and I cannot live while I am in the clutches of another. My will not my own.
But if you find mercy in your heart, and I still live or can be saved, then stay your arrow. If you can reconile with what your uncle has done, and empathize with my tale, but I lie dead at this mage's machinations, then please. Carry on my duty, and bring rest to my family's spirit and honor to it's name.
And take my blade, Josdrel. Carry it to the grave. Either as a sign of having overcome another of your enemies, a sign of your authority and respectability. Or to carry the legacy of Thunderhorn, one of those who broke through to the Sun so long ago, for yourself as the new owner of its history.
Take care. May your escape be safe and swift.
Dovret Thunderhorn, heir of the Thunderhorn family.
Athelstan was shocked by the revelations in Notmerlen-Dovret's letter, but he knew it was true. He resolved to make amends with Notmerlen, perhaps joining his crusade against Halfbeard.
Chester reminded everyone that she had door sight, and stepped up to the double doors to look through. Concentrating, she saw no sign of Gleep's body, or of any of the shattered skeletons, Dovret, or Yarzoth.
When everyone was in place, Jask cast a spell to give Nethys' blessing to the party, and the Grisgol cast protection spells on each of the corridor people using a wand she carried.
Then Chester threw open the doors.
Inside the temple, Yarzoth again stood by the altar, with Notmerlen standing in front of her. She started yelling at him to charge his friends, but Ekubus flew out of the corridor and launched a gobbet of acid from his nose before she could do so. It sizzled into her robes, then began eating into her scales. Gelik and Chester ran inside, with the dwarf covering the gnome while he told jokes and pulled out his bow. Sasha ran out into the center of the room, drawing her rapiers, while Aerys moved into the mostly-empty corridor and pulled out her bow. Athelstan began shouting the story of Dovret saving the party from eurypterids on the beach. Most of the party grew horns.
In turn Dovret shouted, "My word is my oath!" and charged Yarzoth, but before he could take a swing she had fixed her eyes on Sasha, who swayed in time with the serpentfolk's hypnotizing gaze.
Sasha began to run towards Dovret. But suddenly, she stiffened. The Grisgol was weaving her hands in a repulsing pattern, causing voices of terror and despair to surround the ranger. Sasha took one look and fled to the far end of the room, hiding behind the statue of Zura.
Ekubus flew up and breathed a cone of acid at Yarzoth, who sidestepped most of it and, moving behind the altar, cast a blur spell and something that split her into eight identical serpentfolk. Dovret swung at her, but missed, cutting off a Yarzoth head and alerting the party to the fact that the copies were just an illusion. Gelik destroyed another illusion while the Grisgol turned herself invisible, causing Sasha to break out in a sweat of pure dread. Aerys was pretty much useless with her bow - she kept finding an aim and then cursing and putting a hand to her forehead. Jask tried to use Nethy's power to force Yarzoth to drop prone, but the serpentfolk's telepathic laughter rang in the party's heads, and she seemed utterly unaffected.
Athelstan moved a little closer to Yarzoth and summoned a pair of eagles to harry her. They slowly picked away at her illusions, with Gelik and Ekubus helping. Ekubus had not grown a horn like the other members of the party - instead, his nose had elongated even further, and he jabbed a fake Yarzoth in the face with it. Dovret finally managed a telling blow on the serpentfolk, cutting deep into her side with his greatsword.
Yarzoth tried to edge around the wall of the temple, hoping to flee the eagles and dwarve and goblin so she could cast a spell. However, the Grisgol suddenly appeared out of nowhere and shot the serpentfolk's last image with a crossbow bolt trailing a piece of rope. Chester stopped guarding Gelik and ran up, vaulting over Dovret's head and trying to tackle Yarzoth to the ground. Unfortunately, Yarzoth deftly sidestepped, and the dwarve ate s$&+. Gelik followed her and stepped in to help corner the servant of Ydersius.
Yarzoth lost one spell to the hemming-in enemies, then lost another when the Grisgol fired a readied crossbow bolt (bolas? boltas?) that wound around the serpentfolk's legs and dropped her to the ground. Struggling to cut herself free from the entangling rope, she was unprepared to defend herself from the eagles, who dropped her to almost-death . Chester climbed onto Gelik's shoulders and then leapt down on top of Yarzoth - but again missed, due to the blur effect. This was extremely frustrating to Chester and all others involved in the fight. The Grisgol conjured a silent image, which she superimposed over the snake lady's body to give the others a better idea of where that body actually was. Jask, not having cottoned on to the plan, tried to stab the bound, prone serpentfolk with his dagger and horn, but was unsuccessful. Ekubus, Gelik, and Dovret focused on distracting the serpentfolk, and Athelstan urged his eagles to pause their attacks for a few moments while Chester again climbed onto Gelik's shoulders. The gnome mouthed, "Don't tread on me," and then the dwarve jumped up, being lifted higher by the eagles and posing as she ascended towards the celing. She slammed down on the snake with a force that could break through stone, delivering the people's elbow of the sun god cleric to Yarzoth's exposed neck with an audible crunch.
Choking, she telepathically sent, "I'm glad I wrecked you all on this island. You are terrible people."
Chester, who had been raging this whole time, picked up the serpentfolk's body and tied it around her waist as a belt. The serpentfolk died from massive internal bleeding.
YARZOTH IS DEAD.
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Loather missed this session.
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Session 24?
As the Yarzoth-belt issued a death rattle, some scrolls fell out of her satchel. Dovret sorted through the satchel's contents and also discovered a potion and some spell components. Athelstan looked at the scrolls. Some were what Dovret expected – writings in Aklo and numbers in Azlanti, calculations and transcriptions based on the murals in the red temple's alcoves. Dovret also noticed Yarzoth was wearing a ring, which Athelstan identified as a ring of mind shielding.
Ekubus at this point waved goodbye to everyone and remarked that hopefully, his lagoon would finally be free from the tyranny of Yarzoth's tide-meddling. He returned to his ship.
While examining gear, Dovret told what had happened to him while Yarzoth held him captive. He summarized her history of the island, with key points being that it was originally a serpentfolk outpost that was overrun by Azlanti who were exiled from their city for trying to curse it with vampirism. The Grisgol inspected the vampire statue that overlooked the temple, but neither he nor Athelstan could remember the name of who it depicted, and it was Dovret who identified it as “Zura.” The Grisgol remembered that Zura was a demon lord patron of Azlant, perhaps even originally an Azlanti who ascended to demigoddess status after death, and also that her portfolio includes vampirism, cannibalism, and undeath. Dovret also told the party that he saw Yarzoth go near the statue and then disappear, when he was captive. He pointed out a hole in the ceiling that could be a clue.
The hole was about a foot wide, and the stone around it was polished smooth. The Grisgol suggested she use a rope trick spell to string a rope up to the hole, but she had no rope. Athelstan had rope, but he decided to use his own spell, speaking a single dwarven word whose runes immediately appeared in solid form up near the hole entrance. He flung his grappling hook onto the runes, then bade Gelik climb up. Gelik could fit his head in, but his shoulders were too big, and too padded by his carefully maintained outfit. He kept trying to squeeze through, though. The Grisgol lamented that she had already used her grease spell to try and make Dovret drop his weapon.
Dovret turned his attention to the statue, and Athelstan joined him. As he did so, however, he stopped concentrating on the spell, and a few seconds later the runes faded and rope, grappling hook, and Gelik fell to the floor. The gnome brushed himself off, frowning, and went to the corridor between the temple and the trap room. Jask, Sasha, and Aerys joined him shortly thereafter.
Athelstan cast a spell to see if the statue had any magical auras. Indeed, it did! The statue had moderate transmutation magic on it that allowed anyone who smeared some blood on its lips to turn into a fine mist. He was telling Dovret this when he noticed something out of the corner of his eye.
A spheroidal mass of what looked like clotted blood and globs of green protoplasm was oozing up the trough in the center of the room. Athelstan shouted out that it was some sort of blood snake.
The Grisgol immediately launched a tiny white ball, which exploded into thick webbing around the ooze. She said it was a blood ooze, and that when one of these creatures grappled someone they could force their protoplasm into any of their victim's orifices. The only remedy she knew of was alcohol, which was apparently repulsive to blood oozes.
Dovret pulled his scimitar, running up to meet the ooze as it broke free of the webs. He cut it a powerful blow, and then Athelstan completed a summoning spell and brought in an eagle that also tore into the strange, undead-like ooze. The Grisgol summoned an unseen servant named Fellstroke, who carried a bottle of alcohol to Dovret. Gelik felt useless, but began telling really bad jokes anyway (“What does a blood ooze eat its food on?” “Platelets!”).
Meanwhile, Chester had started to run towards the new enemy, but was collapsed to the floor, holding her head with both hands. ”It's in my head!” she yelled.
The ooze lunged for Dovret, latching onto his arm and pushing itself under his fingernails, but he quickly hacked at it with his scimitar and then squeezed it back out of his body. With the eagle's help, he destroyed the corrupted vestige of Gleep. Chester crawled to the splattered blood and slime and folded her legs, seeming to contemplate it.
The other dwarves returned to the statue. The Grisgol dabbed her fingers in the blood flowing from the altar, then smeared it on the Zura statue's lips, and suddenly disappeared into vapor. She willed her mist-self to flow up the hole, which turned south and then east. After about a minute, she arrived in a small X-shaped room with a small pallet, some scattered meat (shellfish, plucked birds, and strips of meat that might have been taken from monkeys or jungle goats – all completely untouched by decay), and even more scrolls. The scrolls seemed to have similar contents to the ones below, though none of these were magical. The walls were covered in more bas-reliefs of vampires, and included a prominent carving of a vampiric lady whose lips were caked with a thin layer of dried blood.
Athelstan and Dovret followed via mist, and conducting a thorough search of the room also unearthed a white feather and identified some of the discarded clothes as belonging to Yarzoth's false identity as the Varisian scholar Ieana. Athelstan and the Grisgol identified the feather as a swan boat feather token which would transform into a magical boat when the command word was spoken. Athelstan put it in his hat as per the picture.
After packing up all the scrolls, the party cut their thumbs and smeared blood on the winged carving's lips, flowing back down to the temple and dismissing the effect. With Aerys', Gelik's, and Jask's help, they made rubbings of the Azlanti script and started making sense of Yarzoth's writings. After a couple hours, the carvings were adequately copied, and the party packed up and headed out of the temple complex. They bade Ekubus goodbye, then climbed out of the lagoon and got back onto the old cannibal trail running along Red Mountain's base.
The party arrived back at the banyan grove late that night, where Aycenia greeted them. She said that there was still some evil brewing at the island's roots, but thanked them for doing their best to eradicate it. Sasha reunited with her pet dimorphodragon, Beaky. And Athelstan called a vote. He said that now that Yarzoth was dead, justice had been served and vengeance had been taken. There was also a new option presented for leaving the island – her swan boat feather token. The three options were 1) to repair the lighthouse and use it to signal a passing ship, 2) to use Chester's skin balloon to fly off the island, or 3) to use Yarzoth's feather token. Dovret noted that the swan boat would take only about four hours to get to the mainland, and warned that the lighthouse might signal a pirate instead of a merchant, since Shackles pirates were common in these waters. Chester voted for the 2nd option, of course, and Athelstan and Dovret voted for the 3rd. Sasha said the skin balloon sounded like a good idea, then when everyone looked at her askance explained, ”C'mon, we've all seen worse.” She immediately started working on the skin balloon again, ignoring further votes. Aerys voted for the lighthouse, explaining that she had some contacts with the Shackles pirates and might be able to bribe passage if a pirate ship did see their beacon. Gelik was a little nervous about being used for Chester's skin farm, and liked the sound of a magic bird boat, so he voted for the feather token. The Grisgol and Jask abstained, with the latter explaining that he was still not sure what would happen to him when they got back to civilization. Athelstan remembered that Jask had been framed for graft by some pirates and some shady bureaucrats who had been in bed together, and that Jask had said one of those pirates might have wrecked in these waters. In consultation with Dovret, he decided that the party should try to find some proof of Jask's innocence on the island. There were still a few areas unexplored on the island.
The next morning (of 6 Rova, a Moonday), the party ate the remainder of their stored honey in a grain mash with pineapple. Athelstan, the Grisgol, Dovret, Chester, and Jask set out soon after, but just as they were crossing the unnamed river saw Thornton approaching from the east, holding a small metal pail full of red berries. He waved when he saw the group, and quickly told his story – he hadn't been attacked, but had gotten scratched up a bit by the vines and rested at the abandoned camp where the party previously found a plant zombie. He said he'd also noticed a funny-looking figurehead on a ship on the eastern shore of the island – a big brass thing that looked kind of like a demon. Jask started – he remembered the Brass Demon as the ship of one of the pirates who was involved in the graft.
The party started on the closest unexplored area, which bordered the mouth of the lagoon and was occupied by one of the great plateaus of the central island. Athelstan began a marching chant, reciting the Rhyme of the Ancient Caravener, a story of a caravan from Andoran to Brevoy and the many risks it faced along the way. After several hours of hiking, the party found a cannibal trail leading up the slope to the plateau's top, and spotting a small shack up there decided to investigate. When they reached the top, they found a clearing decorated with the bones of at least half a dozen different people. The bones were cut by stone knives in some places, and in other places by human teeth. Athelstan was wary about entering the shack for fear of what could have eaten all those people, but Dovret decided to investigate anyways. They looked inside the shack, finding an array of rotting items like a chair carved from a tree stump, rusted pieces of metal, and broken clay dishes. In a small niche at the back of the room, they found a leather-bound journal that was almost completely unreadable due to mold. The only readable portions seemed to be from the admiral of a Chelaxian fleet that got stranded on Smuggler's Shiv. They crash-landed, and slowly devolved into cannibalism, guided by the creepy lady who eventually became the ghoul cleric. The writer was eventually surrounded and eaten.
Chelaxian vessels were not the ships they sought, so the party went back down the plateau and hiked through the ravine where they chased the cannibals that had captured Sasha. They passed the fork in the trail that led to the plant zombie camp, then passed the decayed remains of the plant zombie itself, then crossed through the spider valley and down to a small bay. Here they saw a shipwreck leaning against the cliff and lodged on several reefs. It had the grinning demonic figurehead Thornton had spoken of, and the rusted nameplate on the side read Brine Demon. The party climbed aboard, and quickly eliminated much of the ship as simply too dilapidated to hold anything of value. However, they found a relatively intact skeleton in the captain's cabin. The skeleton was reaching for an open desk drawer, inside which was a darkwood coffer which was not standing the test of time well. Athelstan jimmied the lock with the aid of the Grisgol's grease spell, and inside the coffer the group found a locket, a well-made dagger, and several fat ledgers and journals. The locket was made of gold, and inside had an incredibly detailed yet miniscule portrait of a red-haired half-elf, with the name “Aeshamara” printed below her face. The dagger the Grisgol identified as magical, and Jask immediately grabbed for the papers. Flipping through them, he beamed. ”This is what I needed. More proof than I needed, really. This was Captain Avret Kinkarian's ship -” he indicated the skeleton, who had a hook for a hand, a noble's outfit, and a three-corner hat (all of which were incredibly decayed) ”- and he was essentially the leader of a group of Sargavan and Bloodcove governmental officials who were scamming their governments out of taxes, and scamming the Free Captains of the Shackles out of their share of Sargava's wealth. Never met the man, but this was definitely him.”
Jask put the papers into his travel bag and thanked the party. With this resolved, they returned back the way they had come. Towards the end of their hike, they were caught in a torrential downpour, which delayed their arrival at camp until midnight on 7 Rova, 4710 AR, a Toilday. When they got there, Aerys was chatting with Gelik and Thornton, but she broke off the conversation to jump up and wave. She said, ”I was this close to giving in again and hunting down your stash, when Thornton arrived. My headache's finally gone! Thanks, Notmerlen – I mean, Dovret.” She'd already thanked Thornton, presumably, but the halfling still remarked that Notmerlen hadn't done anything to deserve thanks.
Jask poured himself a cup of rum from Dovret's stash and sat by the fire, reading through the papers. It'd been ten years since he'd been framed and fled Sargava, and he was excited to get back to it. He told Athelstan that he'd vote for the swan boat, since it seemed like the swiftest means of getting there. Meanwhile, Sasha was feeding Beaky, hanging out on the far side of the fire. The dwarves did some drinking, but as it was quite late, they retired soon afterwards.
The following morning, the dwarves reconvened. There was an exact tie between option 2 and option 3. It was then that the Grisgol proposed combining the two options – making the skin balloon into a wind sail for the swan boat, so that they could do some “wind surfing”. Athelstan and Dovret seemed fine with this, though Aerys was skeptical of the safety of such a maneuver. Athelstan reasoned that the magical swan boat would be better at navigating the treacherous waters of the Shiv than most mundane vessels.
Bidding Aycenia a fond farewell, the party hiked down the path they'd hacked, then followed the cannibal trail south to the cannibal camp and lighthouse. Chester carried the entire skin balloon, bundled up into a big bag, on her back. Somehow. At the top of the lighthouse, the dwarves used the lens apparatus to bolt together a very s%!@ty stove that took in wood and belched out hot black smoke, and the other castaways built a platform for the skin balloon. They placed the stove on the platform, hooked up the balloon, and slowly filled it. When it was full, everyone stepped onto the platform, and Dovret pushed it off the top of the lighthouse with a mighty heave, then jumped aboard.
The balloon was made of the skins of a goat, a chupacabra, a Shiv dragon, several snakes (but not Yarzoth, who was still being worn as a belt), and over a dozen humans. It carried a fifty-pound stove and another fifty pounds of wood. It also carried dwarves Dovret Thunderhorn, Athelstan Twice-Dropped, and Chester A. Arthur, duergar the Grisgol, half-elf Aerys Mavato, gnome Gelik Aberwhinge, humans Jask Derindi and Sasha Nevah, and baby dimorphodon Beaky. And it was drastically overloaded. The skin balloon plummeted.
Just before it reached the waves, Athelstan shouted, ”Anatidus!” and threw his feather down below the platform. In the space of milliseconds, the feather multiplied, forming a mass that solidified into something like wood. The platform landed on the boat with a great splash, but Aerys and Chester and Dovret straightened it and tied it down safely. The boat looked very much like a swan from the front, but it had a wide area in the back that allowed everyone to step off the platform while the stronger dwarves and the ex-sailor worked on getting the skin balloon working. Athelstan piloted the boat out of the harbor and out of the dangerous, churning waters that surround the Shiv, using the balloon to ride the wind up over especially dangerous waves. When Smuggler's Shiv was only a green and red mass on the horizon, he turned the boat south and east, towards Eleder.
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No Loather again this week. However, a new friend..................., appeared. (Ilisa, played by Candor.)
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Session 25(?)
The swan boat, with its sail of skins, sped across the waves of Desperation Bay. After several hours, Aerys sighted the coast, and with Thornton's knowledge of these waters guided the swan sailboat along the coast from Haliad Point eastwards. As it did, Jask remembered something - he told the Grisgol that she might want to start her research at the Colonial Archives, which is Eleder's sole seat of learning.
Eleder gouged itself into the craggy coast of Desperation Bay's southern shore like a starfish gouges into a mussel shell. The tiered city seemed to churn with people, but to the experienced eyes of the dwarven travelers was actually rather small. Important edifices included a great wall that encircled the main harbor, a massive set of locks in that same harbor, a large palace surrounded by green hedges, and a high hill on the northern side of the harbor that had a towering lighthouse and some sort of fortress perched atop it. The architecture had an imposing, complicated style familiar to Athelstan and Dovret as Chelaxian, but seemed slightly older, and the lighter paint colors implied some adaptation to Sargava's climate. Speaking of that climate, it was late in the afternoon, and even on the water the party was still baking from the sun. As they approached the opening in the walled jetty that restricted entry to the harbor, their swan boat was stopped by a confused-looking woman in a rowboat.
The woman waved a badge and shouted her name and rank - Shana Illenda, Eleder Harbormaster. She asked if the party had a permit to dock in Eleder Harbor. The party did not have a permit, Dovret lamented, but that was because they had been shipwrecked on Smuggler's Shiv for more than two weeks! The woman was not convinced by this, though - she was looking very carefully at the sail on the back of the boat, a look of uncomprehending proto-disgust forming on her face. Athelstan said that their original ship the Jenivere must have once had a permit, so couldn't Shana just transfer that permit to their new vessel? The harbor master supposed that would be acceptable, and waved the boat through.
The swan/skin boat slid into port at one of Eleder Harbor's deep granite piers. Chester took down the (cannibal-, Shiv dragon-, snake-, and chupacabra-skin) sail-balloon and hauled it off the boat after everyone else had disembarked. As soon as she did so, the swan melted into the water, dispersing into a billion feathers that dissolved when they touched the surface. People began pointing at Chester's load, and soon a crowd had gathered around the party, staring in horror.
Jask ignored the rubberneckers and jerked a thumb up at the palace with the hedges around it. "I'm gonna take Kinkarian's letters up to the Courts - anyone wanna come with me to make sure I get a fair hearing?" Dovret said that he could accompany the cleric, and they shouldered their way through the crowd and headed for the Baron's Palace.
Gelik excused himself, saying he was going to take the Nightvoice journal to the Pathfinder Society headquarters in New Haliad. Sasha and Thornton squeezed out through the crowd after him, but turned north towards Portside, calling that they were gonna catch out the nightlife. Aerys also went into Portside, saying she was gonna check out some old haunts, though it'd be kind of awkward now that she wasn't drinking.
Athelstan suddenly noticed a familiar face in the crowd - it was Geir Thimbleshield, one of the men Uncle Halfbeard had sent ahead to prepare Brimstone Mine for the merger. Though talented in the magical discipline of wizardry, his greatest prowess was with accounts, records, and figures - more than one would-be embezzler from the Halfbeard Mining Corporation had discovered himself caught out by a furious dwarve with fireballs. Thimbleshield pushed past an onlooker who wore a lizard around her neck and clapped Athelstan on the shoulder. "I was beginning to worry you'd been lost for good. What in the world happened?"
Athelstan grimaced, saying that it was a long story but that they had been shipwrecked. Thimbleshield suggested they go back to the hotel room that's been kept on reserve for Athelstan and his bodyguard - also, where, exactly, was his bodyguard? Athelstan said Dovret would show up soon enough, and they might as well get going. Thimbleshield told Chester and the Grisgol the address of the Charop Hotel, and then he and Athelstan hiked up from the docks and ate in the reserved suite. He caught Athelstan up on the events at the mine - he'd been there a couple months, checking records, and suspected that the Regional and Accounts Manager, the colonial Victor Borde, was skimming off pay at the mine. He also said that there had been some strikes in recent weeks, and that the other agent Halfbeard sent ahead, Hrafn Goldenbeard, fears a worker's revolt if the mine management does not noticeably change. It was for this reason that Goldbeard was especially worried about Athelstan's safety. Thimbleshield said he'd arranged for horses to leave the city the next day and head for the mine, but Athelstan stopped him. Athelstan told Thimbleshield the full story of his marooning, including his party's discovery of the ancient Azlanti and serpentfolk ruins, and the references to the lost city of Saventh-Yhi. He told Thimbleshield that he intended to pursue this discovery, and asked if Thimbleshield could go ahead of him and prepare the mine for the transfer. Thimbleshield's face fell, but he nodded - he'd go and make the negotiations and get the paperwork ready, and then Athelstan could come and spend just a day or two stamping documents and getting a handle on his new responsibility. This was against his uncle's instructions - he was supposed to stay at the mine for several months - but he didn't really care, because he intended to buy out the mine for himself soon enough (though he did not now tell Thimbleshield this).
When Athelstan started walking away, Chester stuffed the skin balloon into her backpack and headed up outside the Diomar Wall to the Zenj Slums. Asking around, she found someone willing to preserve her serpentfolk belt, despite its grisly appearance. The taxidermist, named Dukbi, said she would even weave in some enchantments of strength providing Chester give her some magical items in return. Chester agreed.
The Grisgol, meanwhile, followed Jask's advice and headed up to the Colonial Archives, just south of the Baron's Palace. She showed the library-bouncer some of Yarzoth's notes as proof of her scholarly intent, and was quickly escorted inside. She several hours going through the catalog and noting books that might pertain to ancient Azlant, ancient Ydersius, and archaic navigational systems.
Meanwhile, Dovret had entered Eleder's Courthouse, a multi-balconied building that sat to the east of the Baron's Palace. He'd watched Jask talk to half a dozen notaries, each showing a starker expression of shock at seeing him than the last. Finally, a clerk whose job covered filing evidence of a high-level graft-based conspiracy took Jask and Dovret across the street to the Baron's Palace. She led the men into an office overlooking the tiered gardens, where a clean-shaven grey-haired Chelish man was writing at a clean desk with a few stacks of paper on it. The clerk introduced Jask and Dovret to Baron Utilinus, saying that Jask appeared to have been unfairly accused of bribe-taking. Jask handed over the sheaf of papers recovered from the Brine Demon, then stammered a bit, then launched into a summary of what he'd uncovered on Smuggler's Shiv. The Baron listened quietly, then thanked Dovret for bringing this proof to his attention. He began talking to Jask about the circumstances of the original accusation - who had set him up, who had been skimming the payments, who reported him. Jask sat down in a straight-backed chair across from the Baron, then smiled at Dovret. "Think I'm safe here now."
After unpacking his room, Athelstan took one of the sacks of coin he'd divided up and headed to Temple Street, looking for someone who might be able to remove his ghoul fever and red ache. He caught a priest of Pharasma just as the man was locking up his shrine, and managed to wheedle the fellow into preparing a blessing to remove the diseases. The man, a Garundi whose name was Bin, unlocked the shrine and went inside to pray for fifteen minutes, then laid his hands on Athelstan's head and chanted. Athelstan didn't feel any better, but the priest assured him he was healed.
With Jask taken care of, Dovret left the palace and tried to locate Athelstan. Around an hour after sunset, he found someone who said they saw a dwarve heading to Lower Harbor, so he went out through the Diomar Wall and along the path down. Lower Harbor was much noisier than New Haliad, and more diverse than Portside, with Mwangi workers fresh off work in the big factory-looking buildings mingling with colonial pirates and sailors along the docks. Dovret was passing the Starstone Inn, which was emanating laughter and light, when he felt something faintly cold in his pocket. It was the golden locket he'd picked up on the Brine Demon.
At the same moment, he heard an unearthly wailing from the surf a block away. He instantly bolted inside the Starstone Inn, pushing open the doors. Just inside the doors was a table with a slight halfling woman, a half-elf woman with long black hair, and a dwarve woman wearing mail. Further west into the big common area were numberous other tables and a few other patrons, most of whom were engaged in less boisterous conversation than the three women at the front table. Glancing behind him, Dovret saw a translucent skeletal figure coming through an alley from the beach. It screamed, "Alas my Aeshemara!" as it moved towards the dwarve in the doorway.
Dovret sprinted for the long bar on the southern side of the common area and leapt over the counter, sending glasses shattering to the floor. The bartender, a tall colonial with brown ringlets, immediately started haranguing the dwarve for disrupting her establishment. Meanwhile, the ghost stood in the doorway, wailing about thieves. Someone came stumbling downstairs, rubbing the sleep from their eyes, and then in the corner of Dovret's eye they seemed to shift and morph, taking on the form of a small stuffed bear that leapt down onto the taxidermied body of a large sun bear near the windows. Dovret pulled out the locket and threw it at the ghost, who tried to catch it but failed, and then stooped down, trying to pick it up or open it. Two of the women at the table by the door pushed the table over and hid behind it for cover, but the halfling stepped up to the fallen locket and opened it for the ghost. He clutched an ethereal hand around the locket, then disappeared into a spray of sea mist.
The bartender immediately demanded that Dovret pay for the glasses he broke. He climbed back over the bar and forked over the exorbitant amount requested. Then the halfling, dwarve, and half-elf joined him at the bar, asking him how he got that locket and what was up with it. Dovret offered to sell them the locket, first, but they suspected it was cursed and refused. Then he divulged a little of his adventures on Smuggler's Shiv, and introduced himself as Dovret Thunderhorn. The other inn patrons introduced themselves as Nesica Basti (the halfling), Juno Joralan (the half-elf), and Ilisa Khazdar (the dwarve, who wore a tiny mug around her neck). As they were doing this, the bartender (who the halfling referred to as "Jayda") bent down behind the bar and started sweeping up broken glass. The moment she did so, the smaller bear by the windows audibly inhaled, then quickly transformed into the shape of Nesica. She walked up to the bar and took a seat beside the halfling, who looked a little askance at the appearance of her double but didn't immediately cry out. When Jayda surfaced, she leaned in to Dovret and whispered, "Is it racist to say they look alike?"
At this, the apparent Nesica twin introduced herself as "Nesi Kender." Juno tried to move the conversation away from the disturbing apparition of "Nesi," ordering beers for everyone. Jayda took the 10 gold pieces and said, "Ah, you want the good stuff." Nesica protested that she didn't drink, but Jayda set shots of some amber liquid down in front of everyone anyways. Nesi Kender pushed her drink towards Juno, saying that she also didn't drink. Dovret challenged Ilisa to a drinking contest, surmising her religious affiliation to be Caydenite, and Juno joined in. In between shots, they asked where Dovret had picked up that locket, and he briefly explained the events of the previous month and also that he was deeply afraid of ghosts. The women explained they were members (and leaders) of the Eleder Explorer's Guild, a small company that does adventuring-type work around the city (though they warned Dovret not to call it an Adventuring Guild, because these were explicitly outlawed by Eleder civil law). Just a few hours ago, in fact, Ilisa and "Nesi" had returned from an expedition far to the north in the Mwangi Expanse. This was all very interesting, but they didn't get to talk about much because in the span of a few short minutes, Ilisa drank Dovret and Juno under the table. Dovret's last waking memory was of seeing Nesica shove her drink towards Ilisa, who downed it, as well.
Chester returned to the Charop Hotel late that night and flung her skin balloon out into the alley behind the building. It settled over a dung heap and a very frightened cat.
The next morning, the 8th of Arodus, a Wealday, Dovret woke in a small, cramped cabin that smelled of sea with a headache that would have overwhelmed Yarzoth's mind control. When he exited into a corridor and climbed a ladder, starting to worry that he'd been shanghaied, but found himself on the main deck of a sailing ship that was safely docked near the shore of Lower Harbor. On the dock in front of the ship was a stone statue of an impeccably dressed tall noble. However, the statue's head had been cut off, and lay at its feet. The statue appeared to have been given a new head, that of a tusked half-orc with good bone structure. Dovret was still standing, trying to make sense of the statue, when Nesica came up behind him. She explained that it had originally depicted the city's cultural leader, Lady Madrona Daugustana, but after a slight by the Lady's agents the Explorer's Guild had had the head replaced with the face of one of their members, Luidruchtig. Also, she explained that they used the ship, the SS Skeleton, as a headquarters in case Lady Daugustana's cronies in the Courts of Sargava tried to shut down the Explorer's Guild again. Dovret still wasn't really sure what to make of this, so he said thanks for putting him up for the night and left.
He first went up the western path to Outerwall, where he located a smith willing to remake his ancestral sword Josdrel. It was the greatsword his sister bore, which he'd been forced to retrofit with a handle after an ogre misused it. He brought it to a smith called Sono, who lived in the large district of the city outside the Diomar Wall (called the Zenj Slums, or Outerwall by even-tongued folks). Sono was a secretive person, even for the veil-garbed Mulaa, and spoke as if disguising their voice. They agreed to make Dovret's sword better, using the bones of the ogre he slew and the metal of Josdrel to form a potent weapon. Once Dovret paid 325 gold, they waved him away and asked him to come back in about eighteen days. He left Sono to do their thing and headed to New Haliad, where he finally got directions to Athelstan's place of lodging.
Athelstan woke up at sunrise on the 8th, a little after the Grisgol departed for the Colonial Archives. He no longer felt sick, or drained, or headache-y (neither did Chester, though she never bought a healing spell). So he got up, said goodbye to Thimbleshield, and did some shopping and selling. He was referred to the Sargava Club for some of his more mundane purchases - some special bandages and gloves, and a set of cords that wrapped around his shoulders and seemed to make him stronger - and contracted Smith Cibran in New Haliad to make him a magic mithral chain shirt. He also sold some of the shields and gems recovered from the Shiv.
When he got back to the Charop Hotel, he found Dovret waiting there for him. The slayer looked pretty tired, but briefly recapped his encounter of the previous night. The Grisgol met with Athelstan, then, and explained what she'd determined in the library the previous night and that morning. She said the party would need to hire a translator for the Aklo portions of Yarzoth's notes, though they could probably contract Aerys if she was still around. Athelstan, though, wagered they could save money by having him attempt the translation work - he had been reading through what translations Aerys had already finished, and though he could use those as a dictionary for the rest of the translations. He was naturally gifted with languages, anyways. The Grisgol was a little skeptical but agreed, and said that while Athelstan was working on the translations she'd go back to the library and continue researching Azlanti ruins in the Mwangi Expanse. She was just leaving when one of the door-guards of the hotel appeared. She informed Athelstan that there was a halfling waiting for him below - should he be allowed up? Athelstan nodded, and soon enough Thornton stood outside their door.
The Thuvian said he was still looking for work in town, but that he'd spent the night down in one of the Portside sailors' taverns. One of the men he used to buy provisions from in Eleder, an old Mwangi marketeer named Ongner, came to Thornton and asked him to get in touch with the other castaways who'd escaped the Shiv. Ongner didn't speak for his organization, the Freeman's Brotherhood (he stressed this - a new firebrand had made the organization a lot more nativist), but he asked that the Shiv survivors ensure that no additional native blood was spilled in their search for Saventh-Yhi. Yes, he'd already heard the rumors about Saventh-Yhi, and yes, he'd managed to get into Portside despite the curfew. This was important. The Aspis Consortium and the Sargavan government were pillagers, interested only in profit and power and uncaring of ancestral rights to Mwangi land, and they would not mind killing a hundred or a thousand Mwangi if they stood in the way to Saventh-Yhi. Ongner was trustworthy, Thornton told Athelstan. Once he'd delivered the message, the halfling told the party he was going to go trawl the harbor for work, and said farewell.
The dwarves (minus Chester, who was overseeing the taxidermization of her snake belt) were still discussing the warning, and the translations, when Gelik showed up. He was wearing a new-looking chain shirt and carrying a heavy sack of gold, which he turned over to Dovret – the party's share of the reward Pathfinder Society venture-captain Finze Bellaugh gave for turning in the Nightvoice log. Gelik also told them that Bellaugh had offered to finance an expedition to Saventh-Yhi from the Pathfinder Society's considerable coffers and contacts, and also offered a signing bonus of 500 gold pieces per explorer to use in outfitting themselves for the expedition. He also offered 1000 gold for the entire party once they found Saventh-Yhi. Gelik pulled out a funny-looking bronze compass-type object and pointed to a dial on it, saying that it was a wayfinder, the symbol of the Pathfinder Society, and that he also managed to bargain Bellaugh into promising each member of the party their own wayfinder if they teamed up with the Pathfinder Society. Basically, Bellaugh wanted the party to blaze the trail to Saventh-Yhi, moving ahead of a slower, longer caravan of archaeologists, guards, and menials.
Gelik was still in the middle of his offer when Jask arrived. He was wearing a new breastplate, and carried a bulging pack. The Garundi's expression turned sour when Gelik started talking about caravans and trailblazing, and he cut in. "I have a similar offer, from Baron Utilinus himself." Utilinus was offering the same amount of gold, but instead of those glorified compasses he was offering a squad of the Sargavan Guard. If the party were to successfully plant the flag of Sargava in Saventh-Yhi before anyone else could claim the city, the Baron was also offering noble titles complete with a tract of land to each explorer.
Athelstan was interested in the land and noble titles - they seemed like a good way to build his holdings in Sargava. He asked Gelik what the compass thing does. Gelik explained that in addition to showing true north nonmagically, a wayfinder was the symbol of the Pathfinder Society. Each wayfinder would emit light like a torch when a command word was spoken, and if an ioun stone was inserted into the indentation in its front, would provide its bearer all the benefits of that stone without the distraction of a rock orbiting around their head. Gelik reminded Athelstan of that draft Pathfinder's Journal entry he'd read, wherein Eando Kline used a wayfinder for navigation and found that a strange ioun stone altered the "glorified compass"' properties. Jask showed the party a writ from Baron Utilinus exonerating him of all charges, and also said that the Baron had arrested several of the bureaucrats who framed him. (Not all, though - some were untouchable due to their status.)
Dovret said that the free land was certainly attractive. Conglomerating power and wealth would make it much easier for Athelstan to buy out first Brimstone Mine and then the Halfbeard Mining Company itself.
The Grisgol wasn't really interested in any of that, though - she asked Gelik and Jask what their patron factions' stances were on "interstellar exploration." Gelik apologized that the Pathfinder Society as yet had no means for interstellar travel, but would probably be interested in it if it were ever feasible. Jask stammered a bit, saying that the Sargavan government had no particular interest in travelling to the stars, but that his deity Nethys would be a powerful ally in the pursuit of such magic.
The dwarves wanted time to think on it, so Jask and Gelik hung around in Athelstan's suite while they waited. Athelstan worked on the translation. After a few hours, Aerys turned up, clearly tired but not obviously hungover. She was carrying an enormous bow and wearing a greenish armor that seems to sparkle in the light. She was hanging around her old haunts, feeling weird about not drinking, and then heard someone mention the name of her old mentor and former captain – Kassata Lewynn of the Shackles, who'd apparently arrived in town just a few hours after the party. Aerys quickly found the Last Hurrah on the docks, and after waiting for a dwarve, a dwarve-orc, and a couple odd-looking humans to disembark with their possessions, ran up the gangplank and said hi. She and Kassata got to talking - the pirate had just made an impressive fortune running drugs through the Arch of Aroden, but was not satisfied because she still hoped to rule a Shackles island some day. Aerys brought up her translation work, and Kassata was immediately interested in this word of a “lost city.” Aerys says Kassata called in some favors from the crew of other pirate captains in the city right now, and has the money to finance the expedition and then some. In exchange for them blazing a trail to Saventh-Yhi, Kassata's offered the same pay as anyone else. She was also willing to give the PCs command over a small group of crewmates to act as bodyguards and menials, or to just give them a bunch of gold. Aerys said, "This is a really good opportunity, guys!"
The dwarves discussed this, too. It sounded like the pirates would probably just want to loot the city like the Sargavans, but they weren't the faction that Ongner had warned of. The Grisgol didn't want to work for the Sargavans - they sounded like a#+!&!+s, and Jask didn't seem especially close to them. No one really minded the idea of joining Lewynn's expedition, since Aerys was a good friend and was recommending someone she trusted implicitly, but no one was particularly swayed by their offers of additional gold and crew, either. The Pathfinders would be the most valuable for ruin and space exploration. Nevertheless, Athelstan and Dovret really wanted to get the land offered by the Baron.
Later, in the evening, Sasha showed up, limping slightly. Beaky was no longer perched on her shoulder - it'd grown to the size of a dog in the two weeks since Sasha'd claimed it and started feeding it, and trundled along behind her on its short legs. She said she'd had "contact" with the Red Mantis assassin's guild, and they'd asked her to deliver a simple message. Whatever they were being paid, the Red Mantis would pay 1.5 times that for the privilege of having the dwarves lead their expedition. They would also fork over 500 gold worth of antitoxin or poison to each party member. Sasha wasn't even sure why the Red Mantis was interested in Saventh-Yhi, but she guesses it was some "arcane quest for power or something like that." Dovret asked if the Red Mantis had hurt her, and she changed the subject. "Look, no one f@+#s with the Red Mantis. You snap your fingers, and anyone who's wronged you gets killed. And you wouldn't need to worry about the reverse happening to you - the Red Mantis knows other assassins better than they know their own families.”
Dovret, Athelstan, and the Grisgol all agreed that they didn't want to take the Red Mantis' offer. But Dovret was kind of worried. "Are they going to hurt you if we don't join them, Sasha?" he asked. This time, the ranger's answer was a little more straightforward. She said no, they probably would just run their own expedition. The two masked people who captured her she talked to said they were going to keep her on retainer.
The party debated for a while longer, then came to a conclusion. Because the Grisgol would not accept any alliance with the government of Sargava, and because the Pathfinder Society offered the second-best offer, they told Gelik that his organization was their chosen sponsor. Dovret apologized to Jask, who'd been waiting there all day, but the Garundi said it was fine. He knew that Sargava's was not the best government, though he worried what would happen to the country in coming years as its coffers ran drier and drier. "I don't imagine my apartment is still vacant. I'll do some looking for one tomorrow. Oh - also," here he pulled a sack of coins out of his backpack. "I nearly forgot - this is your share of the Baron's reward for finding those notes about Kinkarian's collusion with the bureaucrats."
After thanking the party, Gelik left, followed shortly by a downcast Aerys and Sasha. Athelstan continued working on the translation, having been interrupted too many times to make progress earlier in the day.
The dwarve worked late into the night, well after Chester returned from the Zenj Slums and went to bed. He was about to go to bed when the door-guard appeared again, propping up one side of a wounded Gelik with the dwarve cleric Ilisa on the other side. Once he was sat down with some lukewarm cream soup in front of him, he explained what happened. He'd been invited to the home of an unusually attractive halfling in Lower Harbor, and had been walking down the main drag there when a pair of cloaked men ambushed him and dragged him into an alley. In between punching him, they'd extracted what he knew about Tazion and Saventh-Yhi. They were colonial in appearance, though this didn't help him figure out who they were or who they worked for. He was sure they were going to move on from his gut to his excellent face when he heard a shout, and saw a dwarve - here he jerked a thumb to Ilisa and smiled - running up towards him from the main street. Another couple of hooded men, these obviously with some Mwangi blood, joined the dwarve and started beating off the thugs with their clubs. The dwarve summoned some holy energy and poured it into the gnome, and he could hear the songs of angels as his flesh was mended. Ilisa then stood and joined the fight, brutally stabbing one of the thugs and helping the new arrivals flank the other. Unfortunately, the thugs managed to run away, with the two hooded men chasing them. Gelik said that the hooded men did not identify themselves, but he introduced his new friend, Ilisa, to the party. Dovret already recognized Ilisa from the drinking contest the previous night. He introduced her to Athelstan and the Grisgol as a cleric of Cayden Cailean, the god of bravery, freedom, and wine.
Gelik once again praised his rescuer, then headed to bed. He was mostly healed, but the affront of someone specifically targeting him was enough to make him tired.
Dovret and Athelstan then asked Ilisa, did she want to join their party? Someone who protected Gelik was at least trustworthy, and her recent expedition to the Mwangi Expanse could provide valuable insight on routes to Tazion and Saventh-Yhi. Ilisa said that a wise Caydenite had recently advised her to seek a new path in life, and joining the party of dwarves seemed like the perfect opportunity to do so. With a firm handshake and a slap on the back, she was in.
Though she was officially now part of the Shiv survivors group, Ilisa returned to the SS Skeleton. She told Nesica she'd be leaving soon, though she wouldn't necessarily be giving up her membership in the Guild. She was going to look for Saventh-Yhi.
The next morning, the 9th of Arodus, an Oathday, a courier left a message for one of Ilisa's friends. The message was from a contact in Eleder's shipping industry, and said that the Aspis Consortium had been contracted to put a hit on the Explorer's Guild. Apparently, Lady Daugustana was put out by all the adventurers wandering around New Haliad, and it had reminded her of her hatred for the Explorer's Guild. Since the whole town was distracted by these new adventurers, and everyone was abuzz with talk of the fabled Saventh-Yhi, she'd chosen that afternoon as the time to try exterminating the guild once and for all.
Nesica got in touch with her contacts in the Freeman's Brotherhood. Okkri Ten, a kid who ran messages between her and the Brotherhood, said they could spare a couple fighters but that they were planning a demonstration later that week and wanted the Explorer's Guild to case the place and figure out how to secure it. The fighters, Dged and Thed, arrived in time to get into position. Ilisa recognized them as the two men who'd helped her defend Gelik the night before.
About two hours later, Ilisa's friend, who had disguised herself as a gull, flew back to the SS Skeleton and transformed back into her human form - a Bekyar lady with a long wooden club called an iwisa. This was Sunt, the same woman who had impersonated Nesica's nonexistent twin a couple nights before. Sunt told Ilisa and the other explorers that she'd seen a white-blonde man leading four cloaked colonials with longswords towards the docks. The explorers readied themselves, hiding inside the captain's cabin-cum-office and in the space belowdecks. Sunt hid in the water, assuming some new form.
Ilisa heard shouting a minute later, and quickly climbed up the ladder behind Juno. She saw the ship aflame in several places, and Djed and Thed shooting at the attackers with longbows. It just so happened that two of the attackers were the same ones who'd attacked Gelik the previous night, which must mean that the Aspis Consortium was preparing for their own expedition. Ilisa and Nesica joined forces to put out the flames with their magic, while Juno unloaded a couple rounds of musket shot into one of the attackers. However, the fire was spreading quickly, and Ilisa wasn't sure she could put it out on her own. Juno saw her problem, and called Djed over. They grabbed a bucket from downstairs and, tying a rope to it, lowered it in the harbor.
Meanwhile, Thed had blocked off the gangplank and was fighting desperately against three different enemies. The white-haired man was casting spells and shouting encouragement to those agents. Just at this moment, Sunt emerged from the surf. She had become a many-limbed, mutated creature with sea otter faces replacing her many hands, a long, sleek tail that ended in the head of a sea otter, and with her own face replaced by that of a squash-nosed, mangy-haired mockery of an otter. She climbed up onto the docks, and opened her mouths. The sound of dozens of otters emitted. Then she bit one of the Aspis thugs and their leader, who she later told the party was named Fisp Whitton. Another of the thugs immediately fled, leaving only one thug and Whitton conscious. Whitton cast a spell that turned himself invisible, then ran away as well. The third thug threw an alchemist's fire at Sunt, but then fled down the dock and east towards their warehouse. Sunt tried to track Whitton, but the man was too stealthy.
Thanks in large part to Ilisa's work with create water and Juno and Dged with the bucket, the Explorer's Guild managed to put out the fire on their ship.
That day, and the next two (9 Arodus-11 Arodus) were pretty uneventful for the Saventh-Yhi researchers. Dovret sold the rest of their loot, including the locket, which didn't seem to be cursed any more as far as he could tell? In breaks from translation, Athelstan calculated what share of the loot each party member deserved. The Grisgol accepted a smaller share, since she'd only there for a bit of the Shiv exploration, and took only a tenth share while the others each took a 30th share. Once the money was distributed, Chester went and paid the woman working on her serpentfolk belt (though it was not yet complete), and Dovret checked up on his sword (it was still coming along slowly). The Grisgol spent most of her time in the library, but visited Janek's Scrolls and Sundries in Northcoast to buy some scrolls. In the evenings, she scribed these into her spellbook.
Ilisa and the Explorer's Guild got around to scoping the Freeman's Brotherhood demonstration site on the 11th of Arodus, a Starday. It was at the South Arcadian Whaling Company, an Eleder-based corporation that provided most of the lamp oil, baleen, and whale meat for the region. Okkri told the group that they didn't yet have permission to enter the warehouse, but asked the Explorer's Guild to scout the outside all the same. They foudn that the complex was completely surrounded by an 8-foot stone wall, and had a large, open warehouse on one side. Ilisa surmised that someone might try to hide in the smaller western building, and in her recommendations would state that the front office should be set up as a security checkpoint. She said to wall off the spaces between the main warehouse and the office and between the office and the western building, and to post guards in the small shack on the harborfront side of the complex. Nesica and Juno, who'd come along, added their own suggestions, and then Nesica delivered the recommendations to Okkri back in Lower Harbor.
Finally, late at night on the 11th of Arodus, Athelstan finished translating Yarzoth's notes. The serpentfolk's phrasing was overly complex, however, and he had difficulty understanding her references to what seemed to be cities older than Tar Taargadth. Fortunately, the Grisgol's library studies paid off, and she could recognize several of the Azlanti cities used as coordinates. She helped Dovret calculate the location of Tazion, and also helped decode the rest of Yarzoth's notes. Basically, they confirmed what Yarzoth had let slip to Dovret before - the Zura cult on the Shiv originated in the fabled city of Saventh-Yhi but were exiled, and planned to return to Saventh-Yhi some day to extract vengeance. However, the city was hidden behind powerful wards meant to confuse those seeking it, so the Zura cultists planned to journey first to the smaller city of Tazion. There, something called the "Pillars of Light" would have allowed them to locate Saventh-Yhi and enter it. The dwarves placed Tazion in the southernmost reaches of the Mwangi Expanse, north of the Bandu Hills, and about halfway between the headwaters of the Upper Korir and Ocota Rivers. This city was the stepping-stone to Saventh-Yhi.
The next day (12 Arodus, a Sunday), the party relayed this information to Gelik, who got the message to the Pathfinder assigned to lead the expedition, one Amivor Glaur. Amivor asked the party to meet him at the Pathfinder Society Warehouse in New Haliad in seven days - the Society needed some time to hire people and order provisions. Nesica told Ilisa that she'd contracted with the Pathfinder Society to send some Explorer's Guild workers along with the expedition, and that their mutual friend Thunderchild Thrice-Locks the Heart, who'd been along on the previous expedition to the Expanse, was going to lead that sub-group.
For the next week (12 Arodus-18 Arodus), the Explorer's Guild and the Shiv survivors mingled, checked up on their friends, and did some sightseeing around the city. With the Halfbeard Mining Company paying for Athelstan's suite, food and lodging were cheap for the dwarves. Jask did manage to find a new apartment down in Lower Harbor - a good-sized studio just across the hall from a member of the Eleder Militia named Vardosusi Voadblake. Sasha disappeared for several days, but visited the party on the 16th of Arodus to show off the new mithral chain shirt she'd been given. Aerys promised Thornton a job with Kassata Lewynn's mother Blossom Lewynn, an aging pirate with an eclectic crew that included a mermaid seasinger.
Finally, the 18th of Arodus, a Starday arrived. After finishing a trip out to the top of Haliad Point (from which they could see Smuggler's Shiv!), Ilisa, Dovret, and Athelstan went down to the warehouses in northern New Haliad to meet their faction leader. (The Grisgol and Chester had not gone along on the trip, but made plans to meet the party there an hour after sunset.)
When they were a few blocks away, however, they heard screaming, and a crowd of panicked people sprinted up the street past them. Seconds later, they saw a pack of dogs, all foaming at the mouth, rushing up the street towards them. Dovret stepped out to meet them and dropped one with his greatsword, while Ilisa called a blessing from Cayden and Athelstan began to recite a story to empower his bodyguard with rage and devilish horns. The dogs bit Dovret, but he took the blow easily thanks to Athelstan's song. Athelstan loosed a couple arrows into the eyes of one dog, and Ilisa moved around to flank with Dovret and drop another. The last two dogs couldn't get through her shield or Dovret's armor, and were quickly dispatched. However, the dwarves heard more screaming downhill from the direction of the block their warehouse sat on, and they also saw black smoke rising into the sky . . .
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Full five-person party for the first time!
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Session 26
After they'd put the rabid dogs out of their misery, the dwarves heard footsteps behind them. Chester and the Grisgol had arrived! They had seen the running people and were worried about whatever was happening around the smoke.
The now reunited dwarves ran towards the smoke, coming to the block that contained the Pathfinder Society Warehouse. They saw a couple of cloaked, hooded men holding torches to the bottom of the warehouse walls, and smoke billowing up from the flames that spread from where their torches were. When they saw the new arrivals, the men dropped their torches and pulled out flasks of greenish fluid. "Go home, filthy dwarves!" one of them shouted, hurling his bottle at Athelstan and covering the skald in oily flame.
Athelstan patted away the flames briskly, then began bellowing the inspiring story of the Goldbeards to grant his companions fiendish horns again. Ilisa made Dovret's scimitar slightly bigger, and the Grisgol made Dovret's form blur as it moved. Dovret and Chester charged up and slammed into the closest of the men, cutting open his kneecap. The arsonists tried to flee, but the Grisgol caught them and several fleeing colonials in a web at the corner between the alley and Whalebone Lane. She also, sadly, caught Dovret and Chester, who had been following the fleeing arsonists. Chester dodged the webbing and managed to free one of the civilians trapped in the web, but Dovret was securely fastened. One of the arsonists threw his vial of alchemist's fire at Dovret, and he was covered in flames as the web around him began to burn. He thrashed around, managing to put out the fire directly on him but not get free.
The Grisgol turned invisible and summoned her invisible air-servant, Fellstroke, to begin helping Ilisa put out the fire. Athelstan stopped chanting the story because he wasn't sure if the other dwarves could hear him, and instead pointed to the unwounded arsonist. Suddenly, the man's eyes turned black, and cracked, and he screamed and held his head in his hands. Somehow in his blindness, the man wrenched his way through the web and broke free near Chester. He began making his way along Whalebone Lane, but the fleeing colonials around him made the going slow.
Finally, Ilisa finished putting out the nearest fire, and she and Fellstroke moved onto the next, with Fellstroke waving a towel to beat out the flames. Athelstan ran inside the warehouse and found a crate of sand, and using a bucket began putting throwing sand up at the remaining burning wall. Chester joined in, beating the flames with her halberd.
The Grisgol dismissed the web, allowing both the wounded arsonist and Dovret to chase after the blinded man. They caught up to him quickly, and then Dovret put on a burst of speed and slashed the faster, wounded one in the back, dropping him. He grabbed the blinded arsonist.
Once the entire team was focused on putting out the remaining blaze, it died quite quickly. Through the smoke, the party saw a figure approaching - it was Amivor Glaur, the Pathfinder in charge of the Saventh-Yhi expedition. He was pretty scruffy-looking, with lank red hair and an unkempt mustache. With a grim expression, he informed the dwarves that Freeman's Brotherhood rebels had captured Gelik and were holding him hostage at the South Arcadian Whaling Company, just a few blocks down Whalebone Lane. He asked them to try to free the gnome while he cleaned up the warehouse.
Hustling down the street, the party came to the warehouse Glaur had spoken of. It was exactly the same warehouse Ilisa had previously surveyed for the Freeman's Brotherhood, and she was starting to feel apprehensive. In the twilight, the whale-processing complex's white stone and red bricks made the buildings look like blood from a wound, and the whole place certainly smelled like rotting flesh. On top of the warehouse stood a cloaked man holding a smaller, tightly bound figure. It was Gelik!
The man was preaching to a crowd of hecklers and onlookers below. He yelled, "Even one with a drop of Chelish blood cannot be trusted! The country that allowed me to be enslaved, that oversees the subjugation of the Mwangi peoples, cannot be trusted! The Pathfinder Society - tomb raiders and looters!"
"Gelik's just a gnome!" Chester shouted back.
The man replied, "He's still Avistani!" As the dwarves moved through the crowd, they saw that the man was holding a kukri to Gelik's throat. They stepped back a bit to make a plan.
Ilisa could fly (apparently), and the Grisgol said she also had a spell that would allow one of them to fly. She said Dovret would be the best option because he could carry one other person - preferably her, so she could easily control his movement. Chester would run around the wall surrounding the complex to the office entrance, while Athelstan would summon an eagle to join the fliers. The group discussed a few other options, but eventually agreed on the plan, and Athelstan kicked it off by summoning the eagle. When the man on the roof saw the casting, he shouted, "Cheating northern magic!" and ducked down a trapdoor into the warehouse, apparently unencumbered by Gelik's weight.
Ilisa cast her flight spell and ascended to the rooftop. The Grisgol's flight spell seemed a little different - it just raised Dovret straight up, and she clung to his bootstraps as he ascended. The three dwarves landed on the roof and looked around for the kidnapper, while Athelstan moved to help Chester. Chester smashed through a window, revealing a desk and another door - this seemed to be the front desk of the South Arcadian Whaling Company Warehouse. She climbed through and opened the door, and was surprised to see two more fighters with clubs waiting outside it.
When he heard footsteps on the roof, the kidnapper climbed back up. He was a little surprised to see so many dwarves there, but he still held his kukri to Gelik's throat. "All Avistani must leave, and you in particular must leave here in particular. You will not get your friend back unless the Baron immediately outlaws slavery. If you move against me, I will slit his throat!"
Chester took a club to the head, but her tough dwarven skull absorbed the blow. She crawled back out of the window and ran back towards the warehouse. Athelstan met her halfway, started to ask why she was exiting so quickly, and then saw the two fighters behind her. He also ran away, but the fighters managed to slam him in the gut. When the crowd saw the rebels running towards them, they quickly dispersed.
The dwarves balked, ready to attack if the kidnapper hurt Gelik but unsure how to proceed otherwise. Sensing their hesitation, the kidnapper pressed his kukri into Gelik's throat. The Grisgol sped through a spell, taking milliseconds to complete it and instill a sense of innate fear in the man's heart. He seemed unaffected, however, and dragged his kukri across Gelik's throat. Ilisa jumped forward and healed the gnome even as the kidnapper kicked him rolling down the roof. At the same moment, an arrow sprouted from the kidnapper's chest, and he grunted in pain.
The kidnapper then went into a whirling frenzy, flipping out another kukri and spinning his two blades between his hands. It . . . looked kind of silly, though. No one was impressed. The summoned eagle clawed at his cloak, but he just smacked it away.
As Gelik rolled, the Grisgol muttered another short spell, untethering herself, Dovret, and Gelik from the bonds of gravity. Gelik rolled off the edge of the roof and then took an abnormally long time to fall. Athelstan and Chester got into place and caught him, gently lowering him to the ground. Chester undid his gag and used her halberd to cut through the ropes. Gelik stood, still somewhat bruised, and yelled, "Wow, you really got me . . . untied." Somehow, his joke inspired everyone.
Ilisa rushed forward and stabbed the kidnapper in the gut. The Grisgol lowered Dovret to the rooftop, and he lodged another arrow in the kidnapper's gut. He growled, "You call yourself a priest of freedom. At the least, will you tell my story? I am Umagro -" The Grisgol cut him off by summoning a cloud of fog.
"That's cool. I just wanted to save my friend," Chester shouted up. The Grisgol walked off the edge of the roof.
Dovret and Ilisa also quickly fled the encounter, and the eagle's duration on the Material Plane expired. Umagro was left shouting on the roof, trying to locate the party. Dovret was for a little while stuck a few feet off the edge of the roof, suspended in midair, but the Grisgol eventually remembered him and started bringing him down.
Meanwhile, Chester and Athelstan had been fighting the two Brotherhood fighters. They'd wounded one, and flanked the other, but Athelstan took another heavy blow and was close to passing out. Gelik jarred one with a wounding joke ("You know what's worse than being tied up? BEING GAGGED"), and she was marginally annoyed. Then Ilisa flew overhead and dropped an alchemist's fire on them. It didn't directly hit, but it splashed oily fire all over the fighters and Athelstan, burning them slightly. Athelstan retreated and was healed by Chester, who then also healed Gelik. From midair, Dovret launched an arrow at the most wounded fighter, dropping him. The Grisgol telekinetically willed him all the way down to the ground, then filled the remaining fighter's heart with genuine terror. She fled, and the keen-eared of the party heard the trapdoor on the roof closing.
They left the dying fighter on the ground, and fled with Gelik before any more of the Brotherhood came after them. On the way, Gelik and Athelstan healed themselves.
They got back to the Pathfinder Society Warehouse a minute later. Amivor thanked them for saving Gelik, and wrote each party member a slip of credit for 500 gold pieces from the Pathfinder equipment store, to be used either here in Eleder or in camp during the expedition. He also gave them leave to hock the gear of the rebels they'd captured, but said he was going to turn those in to the Eleder Militia.
Dovret rifled through the fighters' clothes, confiscating weapons. He found some more alchemist's fire, but also a receipt showing payment from the Aspis Consortium. The rebels were being financed by the Aspis Consortium? It must have been the faction in the Freeman's Brotherhood that Ongner had warned Thornton of. And it seemed that the Aspis Consortium had been going out of their way to f*~+ with the expedition.
Some minutes later, the Eleder Milita arrived and took the fighters, whose names were Tikaba and Kanbbi, into custody. The Militia had apparently been busy putting out fires all around Portside and New Haliad, and they'd just returned from storming the South Arcadian Whaling Company. According to Lieutenant Pollallle, the rebels and their leader had cleared out very quickly. There were bloodstains on the roof and on the ground outside the complex, but no sign of the Freeman's Brotherhood. The night watch for the complex was tied up and gagged in the grinder room. Pollallle said there was an unfamiliar vessel that'd been moored at the complex earlier in the night, and he suspected that it'd belonged to the rebels. Those involved in that "demonstration" (Pollallle's emphasis) must have left Eleder.
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Full party! I homebrewed an extra sidequest to make up for last session's complete circumvention of the SAWC fight.
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After they returned Gelik, Amivor told the party the original reason he'd wanted to meet them there. The expedition was almost ready to leave, but Amivor said that in the days until departure the party should try to find a local guide to lead them to Tazion. He recommended one Diamata Sirathini, a plains-running Bas'o who was exiled from her tribe and now lives in Outerwall. Even among her people, she was renowned for her wilderness savvy and her ability to find a path both in the savanna and in the jungles, and she could be invaluable as a diplomat between the non-native dwarves and Sargava's indigenous peoples. He said, “She's no friend of colonials. If you're asking her for help, you'll need some way to prove you're trustworthy. The best way might be to gain the blessing of an aged mystic priest of Shimye-Magallah, called the Tempest, who lives up in the Pallid Bluffs north of town.” Athelstan had educated himself on Eleder's hinterlands in the last few days, and remembered hearing about the Tempest. Known originally as "Nkechi," the Tempest lives alone in a cave atop a jagged seaside cliff face north of the city. These cliffs, called the Pallid Bluffs, form the highest point of a tall promontory and drop some 300 feet into the angry sea. His hermitage is not visible from above, and most supplicants approach the Tempest's home from the shore. Incidentally, Athelstan remembered that today, a Starday, was the day of the Ijo Pearl Markets in Lower Harbor. The Ijo who bartered their pearls at the Markets lived in a village just a few miles north of the Pallid Bluffs. Athelstan said, if the party hurried, they might be able to catch the Ijo as they were packing their wares and buy a ride. The dwarves briefly debated buying a folding boat or just a normal rowboat, but decided to save that for a later date when they had more money.
The party hustled to Lower Harbor and found a group of Mwangi people packing iron tools and other items into long white canoes. One of them looked up when the party approached, and asked what the party wanted. Athelstan asked if there was space in anyone's canoe for five dwarves, and offered money. The one who noticed him introduced herself as Owabakanb, and said that yes her canoe had space for them. She asked for ten gold pieces each, however. The Grisgol felt vaguely uncomfortable about this but didn't really understand the value of surface money, and consented to hand over her coin. When the party had paid, they piled into Owabakanb's long canoe and rowed up around the jetties. After about four hours, they arrived on the rocky outcroppings below the Pallid Bluffs. These were cliffs of pale limestone, covered with lichens and outcrops of plant growth, that lit up in the faint light of the crescent moon. The surf's endless rage against the rocks was deafening, and spewed up thick sea spray into the still-warm air.
Owabakanb said her goodbyes and left in her canoe. The party stood on the rocks, and looked up at the cliff. After careful inspection, they saw a narrow trail leading up to a cave about two-thirds of the way up the cliff face. About a hundred feet below the cave, the path turned into a sheer climb, with only a few handholds here and there. The dwarves were about to start climbing the trail when they noticed something emerging from behind some rocks to the north. It was a pair of giant crabs!
Dovret and Ilisa immediately jumped into action, moving up and smashing into one of the crabs with their weapons. Athelstan summoned a celestial dolphin, which dealt the killing blow to that crab, and then chased the remaining crab out into the ocean before disappearing back to Heaven. During the fight, Chester respected the crabs, and reprimanded the others for fighting them. The Grisgol did not have any applicable spells so she did not participate in the battle, either.
Ilisa cast a spell on herself and simply flew up to the cave entrance. As she touched down on the ledge, the seaweed curtain before her was pushed aside. A wrinkled Bonuwat man stood in the doorway. He asked, "What the f$*$ are you doing?"
Chester shouted up, "Walking. Crabwalking"
But the Grisgol reminded her, "Chester, he can't hear you. He's a hundred feet up."
Ilisa was dumbfounded. The man, who the dwarves took to be Nkechi, yelled in her face. "Why are you on my doorstep? How the f+~~ did you get up here?"
Chester shouted up, "CRABWALKING. DISTURBED IS MY FAVORITE BARDIC PERFORMANCE GROUP."
The Grisgol covered her ears. "DO NOT YELL WHEN YOU ARE RIGHT NEXT TO ME."
From below, Athelstan shouted up to Nkechi, "We came to ask your help! She flew!"
Nkechi made shooing motions at Ilisa. "Get off my doorstep!" When the cleric complied and returned to her companions below, he shouted down. "My help with what?"
"LET ME SING YOU THE SONG. THAT MEANS THE MOST TO ME. I WALK A LONELY ROAD. THE ONLY ROAD I HAVE EVER KNOWN. BA DA, BA DA, BA DA," Chester shouted while the Grisgol facepalmed.
"We seek to find the lost city of Saventh-Yhi!" Athelstan shouted back.
"How does that concern me? F@@~ing Pale Ones, I'm not going to help you ransack Mwangi treasures!"
Dovret shook his head, which was probably imperceptible to the human 200 feet above. "It's an Azlanti ruin, not a Mwangi one!"
Athelstan rejoined, "We only want your blessing. We want to hire a guide, and need to prove we are worthy!"
"Her name is Diamata Sirathini!" the Grisgol shouted up. She moved up the trail.
Nkechi was shrinking back into his cave. "I'm not going to help colonials! This is one of Shimye-Magalla's sacred places, blessed by thalassic crabs and a view of the sun and stars, and you do not deserve to pollute it any longer! Stop climbing, and go away!"
Chester stopped singing and shouted up. "I RESPECT CRABS. GIANT AND OTHERWISE. I RESPECT THEM. CRABS. GIANT. I RESPECT GIANT CRABS. AS A CHILD, A CRAB TAUGHT ME MATH. I WOULD DO ADDITION AND A CRAB WOULD GIVE THE ANSWERS BY PINCHING ME THE CORRECT NUMBER OF TIMES."
This gave Nkechi pause. "You like crabs?"
Chester nodded. "WE WERE THE BEST OF FRIENDS."
Ilisa and Athelstan took the opportunity to repeat the dwarves' request. "We just want your blessing!"
Nkechi kind of ignored them. "Perhaps there is some goodness in you. I will give you a chance to prove yourselves." He said he was not confident in the dwarves' abilities, and said they seemed at best ignorant bumblers. He wasn't sure they could even make it back to town safely, let alone survive the jungle. "But Shimye-Magalla may have different ideas, and it may serve their purpose for me to bless you. I am willing to accept your proposal if you first prove yourselves by completing three simple tests, one of wind, one of water, and one of stars." He said they could decline these easy challenges, but that would bode poorly for their expedition.
The dwarves deliberated. The Test of Stars sounded good, since it was currently night. Chester shouted up, "TEST OF FARTS."
"The Challenge of Stars is perhaps the easiest. There is an inn for Pale Ones north of the Ijo village. It is called the Fetching Fishwife, and it is owned by a foolish man named Kimbal Pall. His brother was, rather than foolish, quite cunning, and before leaving the inn to Kimbal ran a smuggling operation out of it. He collected Mwangi artwork, symbols, artifacts. One of the artifacts is the Sliver of Moonrise, a rock from the heavens that once belonged to the Ijo priest of the pearl bed village. It bears Shimye-Magalla's symbol. You must simply retrieve the Sliver of Moonrise and bring to me as proof that Shimye-Magalla's luck blesses you."
Athelstan asked some clarifying questions about the Sliver - apparently it was silvery, with an image of a butterfly with leaves for wings carved into its main flat face. Kimbal's brother did not acquire it lawfully. Once they'd gotten enough information, the party picked their way up the rocky shore and started walking to the Fetching Fishwife. "Also," the Grisgol said to the others, "I think this man might be making these tests up on the fly to get his chores done."
They arrived at the inn around the witching hour on 19 Rova 4710 AR, a Sunday. The salt-encrusted beach house-turned-inn teeters on a rocky beach a short ride north of the Pallid Bluffs. The small, quaint building was made of red-stained wood, and was distinctly Chelish in construction. Out front, a melting totem carved of sandstone, apparently depicting a panther, glared down at the entrance. A stairway behind the house's stable seemed to lead down to a dock.
Standing underneath the panther carving, the party debated how to get the Sliver. Dovret suggested just asking for Pall to hand it over. "What, Dovret, you mean like threaten him?" the Grisgol asked.
"Worked in the past. It isn't his to own. He needs to give it back."
"Seems clumsy," [b]the Grisgol replied. "A threat pales before the use of real force, or a subtle act only noticed after the fact."
Athelstan suggested they just buy it, but was quickly ignored.
Ilisa was more interested in theft. She said they could just break in, steal the Sliver, and be out before Pall knew. But there was a light on inside, and the Grisgol reminded her that they didn't know where the artifact was.
Chester got bored of all the debate and just went inside. She went up to the counter, where a grizzled, very tired-looking human was standing. "Who is the fetching fish wife?" she asked.
The man shrugged. "It's an inn, where you can stay for the night and also buy meals and drink. It's very popular with vacationers."
"No no no, who is the fish wife," Chester asked. "WHO."
"Oh! Hmm. She was probably someone who lived here before it was an inn. Or something like that. I don't actually know the origin story of this place. I only recently acquired it. By the way, do you want a room here for the night?"
"Yes! Was she a hot fish?" Chester asked.
"Oh, no, she wasn't a fish, she was a human. Probably. Maybe she was a fish?" The man seemed thoroughly confused by Chester's questions. "Who are you, by the way? The name's Kimbal Pall."
"I'm a traveler. Want to see my maps? I do cartography." Chester shoved her maps in front of the innkeeper, who confirmed that they were maps. "Thank you. And this sure is an inn! How much for a room?" Chester asked.
"A silver for the night. Normally it'd be more, but you're coming here kind of late, so I won't charge for the full night."
"Deal." Chester put a silver piece on the counter, and then headed upstairs, followed by Kimbal with a lantern. She just barged into the nearest room and jumped into the bed, which was full of what smelled like five pirates. She fell asleep immediately, then woke up and opened the window, while Kimbal was still in the room. She shouted down to her friends. "I GOT US A ROOM."
One of the pirates woke up sort of and groaned drunken curses. Chester massaged his eyelids to help him fall back asleep before leaving. "Sorry," she said.
She thanked Kimbal and went downstairs to join the party, who had entered the foyer. "What were we doing again?"
Athelstan explained the Test of Stars in whispers while Dovret and Ilisa purchased an actual room. While making the purchase, Ilisa noticed a trapdoor behind the counter, in addition to the backroom door. Dovret told the party to head upstairs and sleep. Chester asked if Dovret was comming on to her. "N-no..." Dovret replied.
"Ok. Good. You're a little short for my tastes," Chester said.
Everyone went upstairs. Then Chester came back downstairs, and got the innkeeper's attention again. "Innkeeper. Innkeeper. You hiring?"
Pall bit his lip. "Yeah, sure. What are your qualifications?"
"I've traveled the world, so I can relate to travelers, who are the patrons of any inn. I'm rough AND tumble. I am good at bookkeeping. I'm reliable, trustworthy, and good with business. I don't ask the customers what they can do for me, I ask what I can do for my customers. Who are ALWAYS right. I can beat up troublemakers, and heal trouble UNmakers. I also have a resume, if you'd like to see it. I've been to inns in every corner of the world and I can tell what quality is."
"You sound quite qualified! I'm wondering, though, could you take off the mask while you're working?" Pall asked.
While Chester and Pall were talking, the Grisgol used her ancestral magic to turn invisible and sneak downstairs. Athelstan used a skald charm to cloak himself in a shorter-term invisibility, and also went downstairs. The Grisgol then climbed over the counter and hid just by Pall's feet. She saw the trapdoor.
Chester nodded to Pall. "Oh definitely, do you have a screwdriver?"
Pall cast around. "Maybe in the-"
"I'm just messing with you, I have no problem taking it off. I can't take it off while you're watching though. That'd just be weird and uncomfortable. Maybe if you stepped outside for a moment?" Chester asked Pall.
The innkeeper nodded. "Yes, of course. Take all the time you need."
He walked to the half-door that provided counter egress, nearly tripping over the Grisgol's invisible form as he did so. Then he went outside to the courtyard.
Chester immediately ran over and jammed the door shut behind Pall with her halberd. She went behind the counter, and started "working." Ilisa saw Pall outside through her room's window, and went downstairs with Dovret. She ordered drinks from Chester, who ducked down into the trapdoor and hauled out a cask of dwarven ale. Athelstan followed her down into the trapdoor and found a strange device - an oven, but without a chimney! Examining it magically, he found auras of conjuration and transmutation on a strange box on top of the oven. It seemed spelled to filter smoke particles out of the air, and to teleport the particles away from the oven.
While the others were drinking and investigating the cellar, the Grisgol opened the door to the backroom. She found a small, cramped room with a bed, a closet, and a few other pieces of furniture. At the far wall was a wooden door with a lock on it. She inspected the room, and found no magical auras or traps. But she could not pick the lock herself.
Meanwhile, Dovret, Ilisa, and Chester were drinking. "You know, Chester, I was once the most important bodyguard in the Five Kingdoms. Then . . . now I'm here," Dovret said. Chester gave him a mug of ale, and then took several mugs of ale for herself. She drank as quickly as possible. "Where did you come from, anyway? What's with the ma- where are you getting all these mugs?" Dovret was watching horrified as Chester downed several mugs in a minute.
"I work in sacred cartography," Chester said. "That's my story."
Ilisa got a mug of her own, keeping a record of her tab to pay the innkeeper when the party left. Dovret said, "Fair. I do woodwork in my spare time. I like to make carvings of animals. I have a woodwork of a cute dog. You want it? It's kind of rubbish but I have a few of them. Hey Ilisa; you look like a hawk person. Want a wooden hawk? Or maybe it's an owl."
"Chester, what do you mean by sacred cartography? That doesn't make sense,"[/b] Ilisa said.
Chester poured ale over her eyes and went over to the room where the Grisgol was working. She pressed her forehead against the door and concentrated for about a minute. "There's a chest. Not a bare chest, there's a stone on it. Some paintings, some dead birds. Is what in there."
Athelstan replaced Chester and tried to pick the lock. As he was sticking in a lockpick, though, he accidentally tripped a very small lever jutting out of the bottom of the handle. An arrow shot out of the wall, and jabbed into Athelstan's thigh. Looking down, he saw that it was coated in a strange clear fluid that mingled with his blood. His heart seemed to be beating more rapidly than usual, and he fell back, stricken by poison. It was a deadly one - wyvern poison - he realized. He focused very hard, repeating a power chant in his mind, and the pain subsided. Chalk another victory up for dwarven constitution.
"So, Ilisa, you always run with those weird ladies on the boat?" Dovret asked.
"Mostly. They're a fun bunch. Had a few near-misses, though."
"Near misses? I know that feeling. I got mindcontrolled once," Dovret said.
Chester went back to the bar and trapdoor area. She mixed an unknown number of drinks into a mug, so that the liquid was steaming a foul cloud, and then came back out and drank all of it. "Take notes, Ilisa, this girl is invincible," Dovret said.
In this time, Athelstan finished picking the lock, and the Grisgol summoned her invisible servant and sent it in. Fellstroke opened the now untrapped, unlocked door and went in, picking up the stone without any more poisoned arrows or explosions. It quickly gave the stone to the Grisgol, who saw that the rock was indeed silvery and had Shimye-Magalla's symbol on it. Athelstan re-locked the lock to ensure that Pall wouldn't find out about the theft until later. Fellstroke closed all the doors the party had opened.
The party heard a knocking on the door. "Hello, lady? Are you done taking your mask off?"
Athelstan, Dovret, and the Grisgol ran upstairs. Ilisa left 30 gold on the counter and then followed them.
Chester went to the door. "Oh, sorry, I changed my mind. Hold on, let me get the door." She unjammed it, then politely let the man in. "I'm going to bed now. Thanks for everything."
She went upstairs to her room and opened the window. Then she leapt out of the window and bolted off into the wilderness, hitting the ground running. She went behind the inn and slept in a bush. She could never return.
The dwarves slept in until well after sunrise. Save for Ilisa, who had to make her morning prayer.
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No Loather this week :(
--
When they woke up the next morning (still the 19th of Rova), Pall was ringing a bell and wearily calling, "Breakfast is served!"
The dwarves, minus Chester, went downstairs and saw the two tables crammed with food. The five pirates Chester had previously encountered were gathered around one table, and a couple elderly vacationers were sat at another. Pall was at the counter, selling whiskey to pirates who wanted it in their coffee.
The party joined the vacationers at their table. Ilisa asked if they slept well, and the vacationers said, "Oh, yes, we slept quite well. We did hear a strange thudding noise around midnight." He spoke in a heavy Taldan accent.
The Grisgol said, "The surface weather is quite strange."
"What a strange thing to say," the vacationer said.
Dovret smelled rum from one of the vacationers' mugs of coffee, and commented on it. "This is absolutely unacceptable." The vacationer asked him to be sensitive to other cultures.
Athelstan said, "He's a dwarven nationalist, sorry, please ignore him."
"Do you even have a nation?" the Grisgol asked.
"Five kingdoms, actually," Dovret said.
"What, like, he owns all five of them? Impressive," the vacationer said.
"The Five Kings Mountains," Athelstan clarified.
"Oh, yes, mountains. I know what those are," the Grisgol said.
"We'll be seeing a lot more of them as we head into the Expanse," Dovret told her. "There's some big ones."
The vacationer piped up again. "Oh, you're going into the Mwangi Expanse? How interesting!"
"Huh. You mean you're going to the Expanse as well?" Dovret asked.
"Oh, haha, no. We have um . . . class, you could call it," the man replied.
For the first time, his husband spoke. "Alfred, please stop bothering these poor people." "Alfred" left off, drinking deeply from his rum-laden coffee.
"I believe I'm considered very well-to-do actually, by the standards of this culture" the Grisgol muttered.
The party hurriedly finished their breakfast. Athelstan was very adamant that they had to pay, and by that he meant that Dovret had to pay, because Athelstan was out of money.
"I don't know why you had breakfast when you couldn't afford it," Dovret said.
"Well, everyone else was having it, and I didn't want to be left out," Athelstan said.
Hearing their conversation, Pall called, "Oh, don't worry about it, breakfast is on the house."
Athelstan bowed deeply in thanks. Pall just stared tiredly at him. Dovret tipped the innkeeper, which the Grisgol criticized. "Service wasn't that good."
Pall thanked him. "Wow, you really throw around money, huh. You know, just last night someone left thirty gold pieces on the counter. Can you imagine?"
"Hmm. Mysterious," Dovret said.
"I just hope you can put it to good use. Maybe invest. I hear there's a mine opening up east," Athelstan said.
Pall frowned. "Hm. Yes, that seems oddly specific, but sounds like a good plan."
"I assure you that in the future, mining is the way to go. Invest in mining," Dovret told Pall.
"Back home, we trade in labor," the Grisgol remarked.
"We . . . kind of trade in labor. But the money is there to make sure that everything goes smoothly," Dovret told her.
"Oh yes, of course. We have Freedom Tokens, to ensure you still have the privilege of owning your own body and soul. I can show you."
"Oh, no, I don't need any," Dovret said.
"Ah, haha, you thought I was giving them to you? No, I couldn't do that. Otherwise, well, I'd be like you."
"I'm not a slave! I make my own decisions," Dovret said.
"Hmm, yes, if you say so. But if I understand, you live in a quasi-capitalist society, sort of similar to ours. Except instead of owing your labors to a supreme deity, you pay off nobles and the wealthy." She pointed at the Taldan. "Sort of like that."
The party went out the front doors, and saw Chester approaching. Her hair was covered in sticks and leaves, and she fell into line behind the party. They hiked back to the Tempest's bluffs, arriving around noon.
The party saw Nkechi meditating on the ledge, eyes closed.
"Hey, kooky old man on the ledge! We got your rock!" Dovret shouted up.
He opened his eyes. "Oh, very good. Leave it on the trail up there," Nkechi said. "Which challenge do you wish to take next? You have just completed the Challenge of Stars, and you must also complete the Challenge of Wind and the Challenge of Water."
"Challenge of Wind," Athelstan shouted up.
"The task of Wind is a simple one. You must simply retrieve a single feather from the noble stormbird. One such creature, named Chirok, nests on a spire of rock to the north. The spire is called 'Gozreh's Crest.'"
"Is this like an eagle?" Dovret asked.
"No, it is much larger."
The Grisgol remembered these birds. Called "ercinees" in northern climes, stormbirds were giant, intelligent parrot-looking things. They had spell-like abilities like searing light, and several other light-based abilities. Their screams could drive people into a frenzy, and they fed usually on mammals up to and including human-sized ones. They were typically neutral-aligned, and only spoke Auran. The Grisgol remembered when a creature like this that was captured and sold to the duergar some years ago, which eventually was butchered and eaten.
The Grisgol did not speak Auran, and though Ilisa had comprehend languages, there was no way to communicate with it. Dovret and Athelstan asked the Grisgol not to relate the story of her previous encounter with ercinees.
Athelstan suggested a plan wherein he summoned a bunch of eagles to commune with the ercinee. The Grisgol said that this was a good idea, because they could show their dominance over smaller eagles and show the ercinee that it must surrender its feather or also be forced into servitude like those eagles. Dovret just wanted to show that they had a connection to the natural world. By the time the team had arrived at Gozreh's Crest, however, they had forgotten this plan entirely.
By that time, it was also very stormy. Winds whipped off of the ocean and a large dark cloud hung overhead, draining thick raindrops onto the party.
Gozreh's crest was a large granite promontory, the top about 500 feet above sea level, that seemed shaped almost like a wave. At the top was a nest made of large branches and small trees, about eight feet wide. Though the lower slopes of the promontory were shallow enough to walk up, the last 300 feet were a sheer ascent.
All the dwarves climbed up to a place below the first difficult portion.
Dovret got out his grappling hook and rope, but asked Ilisa to fly up and secure the grappling hook herself. Ilisa followed this instruction and, struggling against the wind, rose up into the air. She got about a hundred feet up, then secured the grappling hook again. The Grisgol, Athelstan, and Dovret followed her up. Ilisa said, "Everyone else find something to hang onto," as she was going to lift the rope further up.
"Jeez, I didn't realize this was going to be so dangerous. We needed more f~*+ing grappling hooks!" Dovret cursed. Dovret and Athelstan tried to grab onto the rock.
The Grisgol climbed back down the rope, asking, "Do any of you have an alchemist's fire?"
"Yes, I have seven," Ilisa said.
"Well, if the creature attempts to blind you, deploy the alchemist's fire, and I will attempt to blind the creature in turn."
Dovret managed to find a place on the rock to hold onto. Athelstan kicked around, trying to find a spot to lodge himself, but as he reached for a far handhold he lost his grasp. He fell towards the Grisgol.
When he was less than a tenth of a second from landing, the Grisgol lifted her hand and made a sign towards Athelstan. He suddenly slowed, and floated down to the ground.
Ilisa then took the rope and started flying upwards again. But she lost control of her flight! She tried to arrest her plummet, and meanwhile the Grisgol ran under her. At the last second, the Grisgol got into position, and giving an exaggerated sigh caused a small flash to emit from her ring. An invisible force caught Ilisa and dropped her much more slowly to the slope below the cliffs.
Immediately, Ilisa took the armor off. Dovret also climbed back down and took off his armor. He and Athelstan (who didn't need to take off his armor) climbed back up the rope, and had about 200 feet left until the top. Dovret and Athelstan secured themselves on the cliff face.
The Grisgol suggested that Ilisa help her kill Chester so she could anchor a web on Chester's body. This was an odd joke. But Chester suggested instead that she plant her living halberd into the ground next to the cliff, and the Grisgol anchor the web to that. She did that, and the halberd's roots grew into the soil like a small tree.
Ilisa tried to take off again, but was unable. She took off her shield, threw it on the ground, and then put it back on. "I will not climb this mountain this day," she said.
Seeing he'd have no aid from below, Dovret threw the grappling hook up to the top of the spire. He began climbing, shouting, "Who needs magic, anyway?" The Grisgol waited for him to fall.
Athelstan joined Dovret in climbing, and they made it up to the top of the spire. There was a giant nest made of seaweed, driftwood, and brushy plants. Five melon-sized eggs sat in the nest, but the party couldn't find a feather immediately. After some searching, Athelstan finally found a green and blue feather the length of his forearm, and then jumped off the cliff.
The Grisgol's jaw dropped. Athelstan yelled, "Cast feather fall!"
The Grisgol didn't have any more feather fall spells.
Instead, she conjured a web. It instantly surrounded herself, Ilisa, and Chester.
Athelstan fell three hundred feet and then landed in the web. He broke through layers of filaments - with each broken web and snap of broken bone, the Grisgol winced. When he broke the last web, he smashed into the ground, falling unconscious immediately.
Ilisa tried to go heal Athelstan, but she couldn't move in the web.
Dovret just had his face in his hands.
Eventually, he began climbing down. He scaled the first two hundred feet, and then jumped from the bottom of the rope, taking significantly less damage when he landed on the soft filaments of the web. Finally, the Grisgol dispelled the web. Ilisa released some channels to heal the climbers.
"My grappling hook," Dovret lamented. It was clearly stuck up there. He picked himself and dusted himself off. He looked up mournfully.
"I could probably retrieve that, with levitation. Actually I could have used that earlier as well," the Grisgol said.
". . . We could have solved all of this, with levitation. Why -"
The Grisgol's attention shifted. "Athelstan, you looked quite badly injured there. Are you all right?"
”Don't ignore the question!” Dovret muttered.
Athelstan stood and cricked his back. "Well, I've taken worse falls. But now I might have to change my name to Thrice-Dropped."
As the party came down from the crags, they saw four warriors coming up to the base of the spire. They were frowning, and one of them yelled, "What are you doing up there?"
"We're admiring the beautiful, rolling vista of nature," Athelstan called down. "It's really quite something."
"Ah, that is a worthy endeavor. Still, you should not be trespassing on sacred land. Come down from there."
Another of the warriors narrowed his eyes. "I don't think you were just up there to see the land. You're covered in bruises. And there's a feather poking out of your backpack. You have stolen!"
"No we haven't - we're using it for religious purposes," Dovret said.
"You must prove your worth, in a wrestling challenge," the warrior said.
"Alright. Sure. I'll wrestle you," Dovret said. He came down the mountain, into more comfortable conversation distance. The warrior threw down his weapons, and the other warriors gathered in a ring around him.
Dovret threw down his weapons as well, and studied the warrior. He was middle-aged, but still clearly muscular, and stubbled in beard and hair. The two fighters circled each other warily, but after each feinting a grab Dovret got a hold of the warrior's arm. The grapple shifted across the ground for nearly a minute, neither fighter gaining ground as they each struggled for control. Eventually, though, Dovret got the warrior in a headlock, and slammed his face into the mud. He held him there for several moments, and then the warrior grunted that he was defeated.
Once Dovret let go of him, the warrior got up and wiped the mud off his face. "You are worthy to hold Chirok's feather."
Athelstan presented Dovret with the feather, so that the warriors wouldn't try to challenge him.
The warrior said, "You are welcome to visit our village, ones who would visit the storm. It seems that there is nothing amiss with your actions here. We're going to go home now."
Athelstan waved as they left. Dovret said, "I told you I could do it."
It was still raining heavily as they returned to Nkechi's abode. They climbed down the shore, but it was wet everywhere. When they were hopping from rock to rock on the water's edge, a storm-emboldened wave washed over Ilisa, Dovret, and Athelstan. Athelstan with his ring and Dovret with his strength easily kept in place and crawled back onto the rocks, but Ilisa was not so lucky. She was toppled, then dragged underwater by a vicious undertow. She quickly disappeared from the party's sight, but Athelstan summoned a dolphin to go and help her. The celestial dolphin dove into the water and spotted the being that Athelstan designated as an ally, but even when it got close to Ilisa it couldn't help her get up to the surface. She had no way to swim back up, and she was too far from the seafloor to walk back along it. Then she remembered something from a previous adventure - she had a potion of air bubble! So, at least her head was surrounded by air. The dolphin disappeared.
After waiting too long, Athelstan dove in after Ilisa and swam down to the seafloor. He found the cleric floating in the water, a shrinking bubble of air around her head. With much struggling, he dragged her up to the surface, and they swam back to the rocks.
Nkechi came out of his cave. "Ah, I see you've been practicing for the Challenge of Water. Very good. Please put the feather in the same place you put the rock."
"Alright, old man who wants to get us all killed. What's next?" Dovret called up.
"Next is the Challenge of Water. It is hardly difficult - mostly a test of patience. Shimye-Magalla requires that you retrieve a single black pearl. Head north along the coast to the great headland, and there find the Ijo pearl beds. Such pearls are not difficult to find if you know where to look."
As the rainstorm petered out and moved further west, the party hiked up to the fishing village. Chester took an hour to prepare her spells in the sunset, and then the party arrived in the village after sunset. "We'll rest here before we go pearl-diving," the Grisgol said.
The village was situated underneath a great headland that rose to the west. Out to sea, they could see rocks rising out of the water, and dead coral on the exposed air surfaces. The village itself was a collection of thatched huts, and the party recognized Owabakanb (the woman who'd given them a ride) and the warriors they'd met earlier in the day.
"Ah, you've taken us up on our offer. Welcome!" said the man who'd initially approached the party. One of the warriors went around the party and offered each of them a small plate of raw oysters. Athelstan was worried that they were hitting on him, but determined that the idea of raw oysters being an aphrodisiac was probably not constant across cultures. The Grisgol eagerly ate, apparently having no worries about poison. The other dwarves eventually followed suit.
"Can you become diseased?" Dovret asked the Grisgol, wondering why she was so willing to eat raw seafood.
"No more than most. We're immune to poison, though."
"Dwarves are resistant to poison, too!"
"Not according to my experience," the Grisgol said. "How you doing there, Ilisa? You look a little bit tired."
"I think I'll stay on shore for just a little bit. Make sure the water's safe for me before I enter."
Dovret suggested, "One of us should have a chat with the fishers around here."
Athelstan then approached Owabakanb, with Dovret in tow. He asked if they had any advice for pearl fishing. Owabakanb said, "Be careful of the sharp reefs. They may not seem dangerous, but with the strong currents they can deal much damage. Also, be careful not to get swept out to sea to your deaths." She offered to barter some of her equipment - sandbag weights and diving floats (which were basically barrels with rope attached) - in exchange for mundane equipment such as rope or cookware.
"Very good. How much gold do you want?" the Grisgol asked.
"Um, sorry, we don't have much use for gold. We could get it if we wanted it, but . . ."
The Grisgol frowned. She turned to Athelstan accusatorily. "I thought you used gold! Currency!"
"I'm just as appalled as you are," Athelstan said.
"Dovret, how much are you worth?" the Grisgol asked again.
"I'm not worth anything," Dovret replied.
"Oh dear. Dovret, don't say that about yourself. Athelstan, how much - ahem," the Grisgol asked, nodding to Dovret.
"Let me put it this way. They couldn't afford him," Athelstan said.
Dovret redirected his attention to Owabakanb. "Okay, how would you care for . . ." he said, searching through his pack. "A crowbar?"
"Yeah, sure." Owabakanb took the crowbar, and got a bunch of bags of sand with rope attached out of her hut. "Just uh, have 'em back to me by tomorrow morning, ish."
"How do you use these?" Dovret asked.
"Just tie them to your legs, or - you don't even have to tie them, you can just hold onto them."
He approached the man he'd wrestled, whose name was Kechikusht. Kechikusht said he had a few extra floats with rope. Dovret traded a masterwork short sword for these, though Kechikusht at least told him he could keep the floats permanently.
The party spent the evening hanging out in the village, with Chester telling stories of her travels and Ilisa telling of her work with the Freeman's Brotherhood. The Ijo exchanged their own stories, and also provided drink (potent pineapple mash which was familiar to Ilisa and Dovret) and more food. Athelstan and Dovret told stories of the white northern homelands of the dwarves, which sounded utterly alien to the Ijo and were more interesting for it. The Grisgol ate, but then withdrew to her bedroll. After much talking and drinking, the other dwarves joined her.
The dwarves woke up early the morning of 20 Rova, a Moonday, with plenty of time for Ilisa and the Grisgol to prepare spells.
When this was done, the Grisgol went looking for a canoe. Kechikusht was willing to loan his canoe for however long they needed that day, but asked for some payment. The Grisgol offered him an alchemical tindertwig, which could start a fire in emergencies. The warrior accepted it - he could make use of this when grass was wet and no good for lighting fires. The Grisgol cautioned him that if the tindertwig itself got wet, it would be useless, and he nodded.
The dwarves all piled into the canoe, and with Dovret at the bow they rowed out to the reef. Chester got out and stood on the rocks, but everyone else stayed in the boat. Dovret asked Athelstan for his ring and his gloves, and Athelstan allowed him to take these items. Tying a float to his body and gripping a sandbag, Dovret dove down into a crevice in the reefs. The currents were indeed powerful, but with the ring it was easy for him to avoid their sharp edges. He found a patch of oysters, and opened them with his knife. One contained a tiny seed pearl, but no black pearls. He took the seed pearl anyway. He then swam back to the surface, climbing the float, and deposited the pearl in the boat. When he'd refilled his lungs with air, he dove again.
With each dive, Dovret found another seed pearl. He twisted Athelstan's gloves, which had a magical power to give aid in an endeavor, but even with their help he was unsuccessful. But finally, after seven dives, he found a large, black pearl the size of a tooth. The oyster he took it from was small, actually - not what he might have expected. He swam up to the surface and showed the pearl to Athelstan, and both dwarves agreed that it was flawless. Dovret climbed back into the boat, sopping wet, but he was clearly a little disoriented from all the time holding his breath - when he took the steering oar, he nearly crashed the canoe into a rock. The Grisgol quickly seized the oar from him, and with the others rowing steered the canoe back to shore. The Grisgol returned the boat to Kechikusht and Dovret returned the weights to Obakanb, and then the party said farewell and headed back to the Pallid Bluffs.
It had not rained that day, and the noonday sun had dried the previously slippery rocks. When the party picked their way along the shore, the tide seemed lower than normal, and the dwarves were able to walk on damp sand. They saw Nkechi at the cave entrance far above. "You have completed the tests of stars, wind, and waters. Shimye-Magalla clearly approves of you, and you have proven yourselves determined. You have my blessing to Diamata, but I would like to invite you to take one more test. The Test of Prophecy, which will perhaps give you a vision of what you will find in your future journeys." He threw a dried seaweed rope down the cliff face.
After briefly discussing, the dwarves agreed to go up. Dovret eyed the rope sadly. He had cannibalized the ropes from Kechikusht's floats, but together they were only about fifty feet long.
When they got inside the room, they saw that Nkechi's home was a natural limestone cave, with a shaft in the roof that led directly upward and let in the high sun. The floor of the cave had a circle drawn on the floor, with a clay brazier in the center that released the aroma of burning herbs. Nkechi went around the group and painted arcane symbols on their faces, marks that the Grisgol recognized as similar to divination magic. Nkechi then ordered everyone to sit in a circle. Chester refrained, staying back by the entrance of the cave. When Nkechi pulled out a pouch filled with some small roots, ate a piece, and passed the pouch to the others, Chester did not join in. Nkechi looked at Ilisa, Dovret, the Grisgol, and Athelstan as they each ate a piece of root. "We are going to speak to Gozreh."
And then everyone but the Grisgol and Chester collapsed.
The root was bitter, but the Grisgol didn't notice anything unusual about it. She wasn't sure why everyone was passing out.
Meanwhile, Athelstan, Ilisa, Dovret, and Nkechi felt themselves drifting away from their bodies. It was suddenly night, and they rose up the shaft to the stars. Looking west, they saw the end of a sunset, and then the sky turned red. Looking west, they saw a distorted image of the land the dwarves were about to enter. The entire Mwangi Expanse stretched into view, from the Barrier Wall in the north to the Ruins of Kho in the east. They saw the verdant rainforest, the rushing rivers, and the still waters of Lake Usaro. They felt themselves transforming, taking on the shapes of animals. Athelstan took the shape of an eagle, the creature he so often summoned. Dovret took the form of a large wild dog. Ilisa grew a horn and the thick leather plates of a rhinoceros. And Nkechi was a humble giant crab. "These animals are representations of how you see yourselves, or of creatures you have an affinity for. In the real world, you may find yourselves able communicate with these creatures."
With his crab mouthparts twitching, Nkechi stared out at the Expanse and gave a vague prophecy. He saw an ancient city rising from forgotten folklore. Many rivals sought the city, and who would succeed in claiming it was not apparent. Darkness lived in the city, and there were dark storm clouds on the horizon. Nkechi hissed when he saw the darkness, because something came out of it. An enormous green pit viper!
The viper lunged for Athelstan-eagle, but missed, and was quickly surrounded by Dogvret, Nkechi, and Ilisa-rhinoceros. Athelstan and Nkechi slashed the snake with their talons and claws and beak, scoring half a dozen hits until the snake gripped Athelstan in its jaws. As it did so, Dovret realized that the snake's face was very reminiscent of Yarzoth's. At that moment, Ilisa gored deeply into the snake's hide, and then in a fit of strength Dovret bit down on the snake's neck. His jaws seemed to grow larger, and grew to savagely rip the snake's head from its body.
The snake's body twisted in its death throes, spasming across the expanse. As the party watched, its head dissolved, the flesh melting off into ash. Only the skull remained. And then the vision faded, and the dwarves and Nkechi awoke in Nkechi's cave. The Grisgol was chewing on the roots. "It kind of grows on you."
Nkechi snatched the bag away from her. "Do you know how long it took to collect those? You should have only needed a little bit!"
Ilisa, Dovret, and Athelstan related what they'd seen to Chester and the Grisgol. Dovret mentioned what he'd seen - that it was Yarzoth who bit Athelstan. Nkechi said that this was probably a manifestation of a subconscious fear in the group, and asked who Yarzoth was. The dwarves explained that it was a serpentfolk.
Shock was evident on Nkechi's face. "You saw a serpentfolk? How long ago?" Just last week, the dwarves told him. "That is very troubling. Thousands of years ago, the serpentfolk ruled the Expanse, and Avistan, and most of Garund to the eastern shores. If you saw one here just a week ago, that is . . . a very foul omen, in light of what we just saw. We must never allow the serpentfolk to reign again. Imagine the Chelish empire, but with the lifespans of elves." Nkechi shivered. Then he picked up the three items the party had acquired for him.
"Take these to Diamata Sirathini. Tell her you have my blessing. Tell her something more important than her own redemption is at stake. And I think she will guide you."
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The following entries are presented without regard for factual accuracy.
After our meeting and your arrangement for your guide's payment, I realized I had forgotten a few pieces of information that will be vital to your journey. Firstly, we have contacts in the city of Kalabuto, who can house you while you refill your supplies. I recommend against staying in an inn and fraternizing with the locals, both Chelish and Mwangi – the Aspis Consortium has many allies and agents in Kalabuto, and they have the resources to buy off an entire inn if it means they get to obtain your maps. Our contact, a dwarf named Cheiton, visits the Shrunken Head tavern every day a few hours before sunset, and stays until a few hours after. You can identify him by the cave-and-pick tattoo on his shoulder. He owns a house near the tavern and can safely lodge the six of you while you prepare for the next stage of the expedition.
As I said, you should be wary of Aspis Consortium agents. They left yesterday, also following the M'neri Road, and you may run into their agents in the plains or jungles as well as in Kalabuto. The pirates, led by Lewynn, sailed up north to who-knows-where the day you left – possibly Crown's End, or else Bloodcove. The Sargavan government is still mustering its army, and I expect they won't even leave today, or the day after that. You might be interested to know that they've convinced your friend Jask to go along with their advance scouting group.
With regards to your friend Sasha – I'm afraid she's disappeared as well, and the Venture-Captain's informants in the Eleder Militia say that in the last few days, an unusual number of merchants have been leaving through Baron's Gate and heading northeast on the Bandu Road. I'd wager that's the Red Mantis' expedition sneaking out of town. Why do they have to make EVERYTHING a secret? (flip over)
Anyway, from Kalabuto, you should follow the Upper Korir River north through the Screaming Jungle. Our sages believe there will be sufficient riverside trails for you to make your way quickly along the riverbank without becoming lost. Once you clear the jungle, make your way northwest across the Bandu Hills and enter the Mwangi Jungle. Somewhere under those ancient trees you should find the Azlanti outpost of Tazion, which will show you the way to fabled Saventh-Yhi. We will meet you there.
With well wishes,
Amivor Glaur, Pathfinder, Leader of the Expedition to Saventh-Yhi
Salutations, fellow travelers! Amivor let me use this blank space on his note to write you. I just wanted to say, now that you're basically Pathfinders, you should start recording your experiences! Then when you've got your field commission, you can publish them! I've been keeping my own record of our adventures, but I lost a bunch of pages when we left the Shiv. I'm going to send you some copies when Amivor buys a stronger bird in Kalabuto >:p Speaking of which, we're going to be sending that to the Lake of Vanished Armies, so make sure to stop there to find our next message.
What do you call a trip through the savanna? PLAIN!
Cheers, Gelik Aberwhinge
P.S. Athelstan – I wrote a letter to Venture-Captain Shevala to ask for the rest of Eando Kline's journals. Hope they arrive in Eleder by the time we get back!
Ugh, stupid Pathfinder Society journal. I'm not even a member! I guess they're counting me as one as a replacement for one of the dwarves? I dunno.
* Hooked up with a party. Three dwarves and another human. Phila, the human, seems nice. So does Ilisa, who's a cleric of a boooze god, which I can respect. And The Grisgol is quite competent at The Magics, so yeah, totes cool with her right now. Chester...is something. We'll see. She reminds me of dad's court jester, if he was insane, and also not buried in the tomb with him.
* Found a cockfighting ring. I won 500 gold pieces by betting 5 gp on the favourite. The Grisgol managed to steal both of the chickens, and I managed to convince the owners that they shouldn't mess with the "Aspis Consortium." So yeah, we've got two Fightbirds with us now too.
* Arrived at a village, nice place, friendly locals, wanted to sacrifice us to monkeybears. We put them down quickly enough, earning their eternal priase and adulation. Wonderful stuff.
* Nobody's asked why I don't need to eat or sleep yet. Must try harder to seem enigmatic and glamourous!
Looking forward to really getting to the meat and potatoes (is that the phrase? gosh dang Avistani phrases) of this adventure, which I hear has involved ancient ruins and ghouls. Excited!
Thunderchild-Thrice-Locks-The-Heart
1st of Lamashan
Since arriving home, my time here has been, if anything, tumultuous. Irori preserve me, these dwarves are an excitable bunch.
I joined the forward party two days ago, after they had bid farewell to two of their compatriots. Tycoons in the local mining business. The Brimstone Mine. They had to double-back briefly. The venture captain had me join them to ensure their numbers were up. He even let me take Tulip. He's my favorite of the oxen. Always dependable and a hard worker. Unlike that lout Larry. He can stay with the expedition.
Regardless, myself and Thunderchild (odd name) were tasked to join the group. Apparently, both her and one of the dwarves, Ilisa, are guildmates in a fairly new organization in Eleder. The Explorer's Guild. As I am to believe, they are known for their own antics and tomfoolery, and given what I have seen of these two and the company they keep, I can see what people mean.
Nearly within a day my patience with one of the members, simply known as The Grisgol (once again, strange name), was tested when she attempted a breakout for some chickens at a cockfighting ring. I was definitely more angry at the cockfighting than I was with the Grisgol, mind you, but she seems to lack forward-thinking in her planning. Particularly when she unleashed a smog cloud on top of both myself and Ilisa while we attempted to cook a stew for the crowd. We were meant to be the distraction. But I didn't realize exactly what that distraction would be. The giant illusionary chicken she summoned from the cloud did not help things. Also, one of our travelling companions, who might I mention and state right now is dressed in an extremely offensive manner and appears to be appropriating Zenj culture, has a dinosaur she cannot even control. Said dinosaur nearly killed the proprietor. I had to hogtie it using my years of experience in the Irorian animal husbandry farm outside Absalom. There is little difference between a vicious maneating raptor and an aggressive auroch, I can tell you.
After scaring the proprietor half to death, and leaving a few gold pieces richer, we also got two chickens out of the deal. They are roosters, so they won't provide eggs. But I have grown to like Cornugon. He's had a hard life but now that he's settled into staying within the cart, I think he's really begun to show his true colours. He certainly is mischievous. He pecked through one of my grain sacks and tore up one of my spare pant legs.
The next day we arrived in Namaduk, a village of the Zenj people. Kalabuto and Namaduk are somewhat different, and it became quite apparent. I somehow felt a stranger among people who have been, culturally, quite close to the Kalabuto. I suppose 10 years of re-education and exposure to other cultures can do that to a person. Maybe they felt that way as well. Could tell I did not really belong....
The villagers were quite welcoming and hospitable, but the Grisgol was very much on edge. From what I understand from her frequent rambling about her home, the duergar culture makes them prone to extreme pragmatism, selfishness and severe mistrust in those without social constraints keeping them in line. Though she hardly could guess, I understand it better than she might otherwise think. And it is such an instinct so finely tuned that allowed her to catch onto something amiss. The village was quite generous and keen for us to stay. We only later discovered why when we inadvertently made contact with the village shaman while searching for the bird with our orders. The Grisgol (under an invisibility spell) and myself spoke with the shaman and learned that the village was besieged by chemosets. Apparently, a curse was laid upon the village a few months ago, and they had been snatching a person from their homes every night, devouring their brain. The news was unsettling. Chemosets were mostly the subject of a few children's stories to keep us from wandering out at night or disrespecting shamans and holy people. I had not thought them real.
The Grisgol gloated about being right about the villagers. I couldn't exactly disagree, though I do not feel guilty for giving them the benefit of the doubt, as they deserved. The people of the village, even as I reflect upon it, were desperate and afraid. The shaman had less than kind words for them, but what were they to do in the face of such a powerful foe? Just as well we were to be their next victim. But sadly, so was our host, Kabar. For the next night, I laid down traps within and without our host's house.
Our host may have suspected what was about to happen. I cannot truly say. But when the chemosits finally attacked, and our trap for them sprung, we learnt that he had been killed almost as quickly as the creatures had arrived. My beartraps were appropriately effective enough to keep at least two from entering or escaping, and the mages maintained a tight defensive position. I had a little trouble dealing with one of the monsters, but we were eventually able to fight them off. When we finally pulled him from the jaws of one of the beasts, it had...the details are grizzly and not worth recounting.
I would like to think Kabar was willing to sacrifice himself along with us as repentance for lying, and in the vague hope of keeping his fellow villagers alive, rather than out of some act of malice. I will never learn the truth, however. And maybe it best that way.
Regardless, the shaman and the village were thankful for having rid them of the menace, despite their active participation (the shaman being the exception) in concealing the truth from us. Maybe in the future they might be more forthright about informing adventurers about local dangers for which we are grossly overqualified to handle. I believe that is what our occupation largely entails.
We continue to Kalabuto. I am already anxious in my seat as I think of returning home. I cannot wait to see what has changed, and to see, hopefully, old faces once more.
Been a couple days since the last entry. Eventful. Killed some big bugs, tried to drag the horses away. There were a lot of birds too! Even lost one of the horses. Gosh darn vultures and geiers! Today we found a mount. For some reason I thought maybe it belonged to race of halflings so terrible some god smote them from this world, and Ilisa thought it was a holy spot for Cayden, which...I suppose aren't mutually exclusive. I started digging, and it took them until AFTER I'd fallen in for them to realise it was a burial mound for some priests of Sarenrae. I grabbed a rapier and a headband before they hauled me out, and Phila packed the dirt back on the mound and prayed over it while Ilisa, the Grisgol and I bickered over the loot. Some how the Grisgol got the headband, Ilisa got the rapier, and Chester got a helmet of charisma while all I have is...a really, really good shovel. Fat lot of good that does me! Jokes on Ilisa though, her sword bleeds.
Hopefully we get to Kalabuto before we lose more horses. Ilisa and I have a plan - we want to buy a wand of endure elements, so she doesn't have to keep using up so many spell slots! It's very inconvenient for her, having so few spells to keep us from dying of heat exhaustion. Of course, if I'm the only one with sellable loot, I guess that'll be ME buying the wand, so I really hope this job pays off at the end or I am going to be very cross.
"Dovret, how much are you worth?" the Grisgol asked again.
"I'm not worth anything," Dovret replied.
"Oh dear. Dovret, don't say that about yourself. Athelstan, how much - ahem," the Grisgol asked, nodding to Dovret.
"Let me put it this way. They couldn't afford him," Athelstan said.
Dovret has low esteem issues. :(
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Breaking these up - part 1/2
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Session 29
With the blessings of Nkechi in hand and the events of their Spirit Quest fresh in mind, the party returned to Eleder. That night, they went to the home of Diamata Sirathini, the ranger they were hoping to contract as a guide. They told her about their quest to find Tazion, and of the vision of darkness they saw coming over the Mwangi Expanse. Showing her the ercinee feather, the black pearl, and the silvery symbol, and promising pay from the Pathfinder Society, the dwarves convinced her to join them. Then they returned to the warehouse in New Haliad and met with Amivor Glaur one last time.
Amivor helped the party do some last-minute provisioning. He gave each party member a sturdy horse; Chester named hers Applestan. The Grisgol used some of the credit she'd been given by the Society to buy a wagon. Dovret used his credit to stock up on ropes and other useful items.
The leader of the expedition then gave some final instructions and pointers. He and Gelik Aberwhinge would be in the main caravan, following at most two days behind the party, which would act as trailblazers. Gelik had wanted to go along with the main party, but was enjoying the comforts of civilization too much to spend days riding in the saddle and using leaves as toilet paper. Amivor told the party they should leave as soon as possible – probably tomorrow. As one last warning, he instructed them to be wary of the advance agents of other factions, such as the Aspis Consortium.
The next morning, 21 Rova, the dwarves and their human guide departed Eleder, heading east along the M'neri Road. A front of stormclouds from Desperation Bay overtook them, dumping buckets of water in something like a final reminder of their weeks on Smuggler's Shiv. Once the storm passed over, however, the water quickly soaked into the sandy soil of the wagon track, and the weather was calm. The party met a few miners returning to the city on leave, but otherwise met no encounters on the first day of their journey.
On the second day, 22 Rova, the horizon lit up with lightning, and dark thunderheads passed overhead. The 23rd was similar. The group met a few more miners, some merchants, but traffic was much lower than on similarly sized roads Athelstan and Dovret had used in Cheliax.
As they entered the Bandu Hills and approached the outskirts of the Laughing Jungle, the party was faced with a decision. Would they stop by the Brimstone Mine, the new Halfbeard Mining Company acquisition and Athelstan's primary reason for being in Sargava? Geir Thimbleshield had requested Athelstan to come and at least sign the forms needed to legally take ownership of the property as an agent of the HMC, but the party was not sure if they could even spare that much of a detour, since the expedition to Tazion was a race. Their guide, Diamata, recommended a shortcut along a wagon road that used to lead to a salt mine – they might be able to shave a couple days off their time if they cleared a route through the mine to the other side of the hills. Eventually, the party came to agreement: they couldn't spare the time for Athelstan's detour.
The next day, 24 Rova, they left the M'neri Road and began skirting the Lion Woodlands, which bridge the space between the Laughing Jungle and the foothills of the Bandu Hills. They didn't see any lions, and the day was exhaustingly hot – worse than Smuggler's Shiv, because even when the clouds broke, they only drizzled.
On the evening of the 25th of Rova, a cooler, clearer day, the party spotted a far-off band of folk carrying weapons, coming up behind them through the hills. These people looked to have some grisly trophies adorning their armor. The Grisgol urged the horses into a copse of thick-trunked baobab, hoping to slip out of sight and hide the wagon. Fortunately, whoever it was didn't notice the party, and continued past to the northwest. The party made a little more headway towards the defunct Fzumi Salt Mine, then camped by a spring.
The next morning (26 Rova), they decamped and continued on the track towards the mine. The track led up in elevation, coming to a valley between two rocky buttes. The valley steadily narrowed. The valley was at most a hundred feet wide, becoming more of a draw than anything, when the party spotted a person up ahead. She looked Chelish, but wore furs in a Zenj style and had her hair in dreadlocks. Beside her stood a large lizard-like creature. The woman called out a challenge in broken Polyglot, introducing herself as ”Athyra” and telling the party to stay where they stood. The Grisgol perceived the woman's movements as aggressive, however, and sprayed a stream of colored light at her and the reptile, which was quickly blinded and stunned. Athyra entered a protective combat stance and hit hard with her bone glaive, but she was not able to evade the missiles and and attacks of a half-dozen warriors at once. The reptile, which Athelstan identified as a deinonychus, didn't rouse itself enough before Dovret ran up and knocked it out. Athyra fled up the hillside, but was knocked out by an arrow from Diamata. Dovret bound Athyra and Ilisa healed her, only to accidentally heal the deinonychus as well. It got up and managed to run at Athelstan before Dovret ran down and knocked it out again. Athyra was displeased.
Speaking to Athelstan and the Grisgol, the few who could understand her meager vocabulary, Athyra warned them not to hurt ”Jaji” or any other dinosaurs in her territory. Fear of dinosaur hunters was what motivated her to accost the party. The party carved a warning into a nearby tree telling the Pathfinder Society expedition not to harm any reptiles in the vicinity of the salt mine. Athelstan proposed leaving Athyra and Jaji, which was presumably the deinonychus, to escape their own ropes, but the others obtained a promise from Athyra that she wouldn't attack them again in exchange for leaving the dinosaurs alone. Ilisa healed them enough for Jaji to reawaken, and he and Athyra limped away up the hillside.
About ten minutes later, the trail diverged from the draw to end at the base of a rocky outcrop in one of the buttes. A collection of weathered buildings surrounded the cliff, and behind them was a gaping darkness. The party investigated the buildings, finding debris and items they'd expect to find in any other abandoned outpost – stuff too heavy to carry away, too damaged to re-use, and too inexpensive to bother stealing, as well as some snake skins and rat skeletons – until they discovered a moldy book in what must have been the old operations office. Ilisa caught a whiff of mold when she examined it. The book seemed to be a record of the Fzumi Mining Company's doings for the 12 years it was in operation, but the last entry was dated 4695 AR – a little more than 15 years ago. According to the most recent entries, the owner, Feran Crinhouse, had been trying to connect his mine to another mine on the other side of the butte, which had been abandoned in 4663 under mysterious circumstances. When his miners broke through, though, they discovered a strange, blue-colored orb that radiated a faint unearthly light. Feran was going down to investigate, and the next entry was written in a different script, reading, ”They’ve come up from below! They’re all dead, and their touch withers the flesh! May the gods have mercy on us!” The party decided to check out the mine.
The tunnel leading down into the rock was wide, with rotting wooden planks set on the floor at regular intervals to increase traction. At the end of the tunnel was a cavern with water pooling in the center. The party started walking around the edge of the pool, but Dovret spotted something translucent moving down there. It turned out to be a pair of crystal oozes, which the party defeated fairly easily. (Enough so that they got bored.)
They continued into the cavern, finding surprisingly well-preserved wooden bridges criscrossing a channel filled with salt-saturated water. After several minutes of stealthily traversing the rocky shores, they rounded a bend in the flow and found what looked like the remains of a small campsite. There was mining equipment, three mine carts, and three dessicated mule corpses. There was also a rusted iron strongbox. Dovret immediately began trying to break the box open, smashing his magical scimitar against the lock.
A few moments later, the dwarves caught sight of someone moving at the edges of their darkvision. A horde of humanoids with dessicated, patchy flesh suddenly ran towards the party from around the next bend. To the party's horror, four of these humanoids also crawled out from under the nearest bridge, and they were facing a dozen of the creatures. The Grisgol identified them as salt wights, and lobbed an expanding net of web at a choke point to slow them down.
Session 30
The party's initial fears at being outnumbered proved unfounded. The wights isolated Dovret and Athelstan for a short period, seriously wounding the slayer, but then the Grisgol used some arcane power to command several of the wights to serve her. They began clawing their erstwhile fellows. Dovret killed several of the wights with his scimitar, and Ilisa weakened many more with bursts of channelled energy. Athelstan shot a few with his shortbow.
Chester, meanwhile, hacked at both commanded and uncommanded wights with equal fervor. By the time the fight was done, she'd killed several of the Grisgol's servants and was gunning for the remainder. Ilisa supported her, saying the party shouldn't let any undead remain alive longer than necessary. The Grisgol was surprised that no one had remembered that she was a necromancer, and ordered Chester to reimburse her monetarily for every wight servant destroyed. Chester refused. Dovret and Athelstan were of the mind that wights could be useful cannon fodder while they explored the caves, but they and Ilisa pressured the Grisgol to let the wights be destroyed in the interest of party unity (and with the understanding that the Grisgol could command undead in the future, just only during fights with those undead). The Grisgol eventually relented and ordered the wights to eat themselves, and the party returned up to the mine buildings to rest for the night. Dovret finally smashed open the lockbox, uncovering several hundred gold pieces in Sargavan coinage. There was also a bone scroll case inside the chest – it contained what appeared to be the deed to the Fzumi Salt Mine, made out to Feran Crinhouse.
The next day was the 27th of Rova, a Moonday, and it marked the 7th day of the expedition. The party awoke from their rest early, Diamata and Ilisa praying while the Grisgol consulted her spellbook. They decided to bring the wagon, since they didn't know how long the cave went and didn't want to waste time going back. With Diamata driving the horses, they entered on foot, passing the pools with ooze and wight corpses, and explored several branching forks in the cavern. The second fork had a ruined rock crusher, the use of which Athelstan was familiar with. The party was initially nervous about approaching the crusher, but Athelstan spotted a satchel hidden underneath it, and among the detritus left in the satchel were five small diamonds!
The party continued through the caves, and discovered the blue orb that the journal spoke of. It stood on a sandbar in the middle of the flooded cave, only the upper half visible above the sand, and was several yards in diameter. The orb had a hole in the side, as if someone had broken it open, and shards of bluish glass were scattered around the islet. The party cautiously approached the orb, the Grisgol using a spell to see if any undead were in the area and Chester summoning a holy rat in case a fight erupted. As it happened, there were undead and a fight did erupt. Athelstan shot a bolt into the hole, but it was swiftly deflected by what looked like a shovel. Dovret set to trying to smash the orb open further while several wights ran out and attacked the Grisgol, Ilisa, and Chester. Chester hurt one of the wights, and one of Athelstan's summoned eagles did minor damage to several more of them. One of the wights fled, clutching at a key hung on a silver chain around its neck, but the celestial giant rat caught up to that wight and killed it. Then the wight which had wielded a shovel emerged. Unlike the others, it had an unearthly blue pallor to its features. It was about to attack Ilisa when the Grisgol magically subdued it, and it helped kill the other wights. Chester allowed the Grisgol to interrogate her new minion – the wight said it was the Blue Warrior, a spirit bound in the orb that had taken over the body of the host they saw before them. It had killed and reanimated everyone who lived at the mine, using the power it had stored in the orb over centuries. If the orb was destroyed, as Dovret was accomplishing rather quickly, the spirit would have no home to go back to when its vessel was destroyed. So Dovret destroyed the orb, and the Grisgol ordered the Blue Warrior to give up all of its possessions. It relinquished its helmet and shovel, which were both magical, as well as a silver locket. When Athelstan opened the locket, he saw a faded picture of a kindly-looking man holding a small child, opposite the initials ”F. C.” The man and child both bore a passing resemblance to Athyra. Chester claimed the helmet, while Thunderchild claimed the shovel.
The party suspected that the locket might hold some sentimental value for Athyra, so they sent Chester, Athelstan, Diamata, and a horse back through the mine to find the barbarian. Athelstan rode on Chester's shoulders, and Diamata rode on the horse. After some searching, they saw Athyra and Jaji climbing a slope about half a mile away from the entrance of the mine, and hailed her. Athelstan went up and gave her the locket, and she recognized the faces, thanked him. He also offered the deed to the Fzumi Salt Mine, but she couldn't read and didn't want it. She said she had no way to pay them back, so he suggested that she join the party and help deal with animals along the way. Diamata did NOT like this idea, saying in Common that she found Athyra's style of hair and dress incredibly offensive. Athelstan, of course, ignored her. Athyra said she'd meet the party on the opposite side of the mine – she didn't want to go through. She climbed onto the too-small Jaji's back, and they began bounding up the slope.
Meanwhile, Ilisa, the Grisgol, and Dovret continued through the mine, the Blue Warrior in tow. They found a large door, and when it was opened, morning light spilled in – they'd reached the other side. The Grisgol waited for the others to pass, and then told the Blue Warrior to eat itself the same way the other wights did. Then she followed Ilisa and Dovret.
The dwarves looked out east from the mine exit, seeing an expanse of hills melding into grassland extending before them: the M'neri Plains. A little closer, a wagon track ran from north to southeast – probably the M'neri Road, which they'd left on the 24th. And coming up from the south along that road was what looked like a warband of a dozen Zenj hunters on foot and one unarmored woman riding a horse. They spotted the dwarves and diverged from the road, shouting that they intended no harm in Common and Dwarven. When they got close enough for conversation, the woman on the horse got down and introduced herself as Zola Ihejirika. She was a worker at the nearby Brimstone Mine, but the regional manager for the gold mine had initiated something like a mutiny and locked up the several of the mine's workers, the mine's owner, and a pair of dwarves that were there to facilitate a transfer of mine ownership. Dovret recognized this mine as the one Athelstan was supposed to bring into the Halfbeard Mining Company, and offered the party's aid at the same time that Zola asked for help freeing the prisoners. The Grisgol was concerned about the effect the detour would have on the timetable to Tazion, but Zola said she might be able to help speed up their travel. She knew the route from Brimstone Mine to Kalabuto well, and could advise the party on hazards in the way. The warriors she rode with were from Namaduk Village, the only major settlement on the M'neri Road between Eleder and Kalabuto, and could escort the party to Namaduk Village on their way home. When Athelstan, Chester, Diamata, and Athyra arrived, it was already decided – the party would go north and help sort out the Brimstone Mine situation.
They followed Zola's contingent northwards, up into the Bandu Hills.
Session 31
After a hard few hours of hiking, they reached the track that led up to Brimstone Mine. It was three hours before sunset when they arrived at the palisade that surrounded the mine's buildings. The main group of the party hid behind some bushes with the horses while the Grisgol went invisibly ahead. Athelstan, using a shorter-duration spell, decided to tag along. He became visible shortly after reaching the palisade.
The Grisgol was preparing to climb over the wall when, suddenly, Ilisa flew up from behind cover. She was not invisible, and quickly drew cries of alarm from the people inside the wall. The Grisgol rushed over to the gate, and, peering through one of the openings in the fence, used her web spell to catch most of the workers and bind them to the buildings inside, the fence itself, and the gate. The fight escalated, with Dovret and Athelstan arriving and throwing alchemist's fire, and Diamata kneecapping those workers who made it over the palisade. Athyra held Jaji back and used her glaive to deal glancing blows that stunned the workers without outright killing them. It was a protracted fight, but by the time the Namaduk tribesfolk intervened, it was a one-sided fight as well. The only properly armed guard conceded defeat, and the miners laid down their picks and shovels. However, the regional manager was not among those captured. The party searched the smaller buildings in the mining camp, finding a cart horse (which Chester dubbed Carty and claimed for her own) and some miners who hadn't joined the fight, but quickly surrendered. The regional manager, and those he'd imprisoned, were in either the main office or the mine itself, which was behind the main office. But as the party approached that office, Ilisa got a crossbow bolt in the shoulder. Someone also started dropping heavy objects out of one of the upstairs windows. Chester stormed the entrance of the office, the Grisgol just barely having her invisible servant open the doors before Chester, mounted on Carty, tried to barrel through them. Chester then wheeled around and started urging Carty to climb the stairs up to the second floor of the office. Someone in the second story dropped a frying pan in the Grisgol's vicinity.
Meanwhile, Ilisa floated up towards the third floor, which is where the crossbow bolt had come from. She engaged the shooter, who looked to be another of the well-trained and well-outfitted mine guards. A greying Chelish man with a dagger and a pretty blue shirt backed away from the fight, while another guard joined in keeping Ilisa at bay. Ilisa couldn't land any hits on the shooter until suddenly there was a banging from the door downstairs. The second guard seemed to think a moment before ducking out of the fight and going to open the door, releasing Chester in all her fury. Chester and the second guard then joined the fight against the shooter, distracting her enough for Ilisa to land a telling blow. The man with the dagger, who by this point they were assuming to be the regional manager, put up a paltry fight, but as soon as he was hit he gave up his weapon. He wasn't cooperative, though – Ilisa grilled him on his motivations and found that the man was thoroughly xenophobic, to the extent that he thought anyone who wasn't a ”true” Sargavan (aka anyone who wasn't Chelish) should be driven from the country. He introduced himself as Victor Borde, champion of Sargavan workers. He lamented that the new owners of the Brimstone Mine would be an international company run by dwarves from the Five Kings Mountains, not Sargavans, and that they were intent on bringing in dwarves, gnomes, and Mwangi workers. It was clear that he partially believed his rhetoric, but Ilisa also had the suspicion that he had organized the workers out of his own self-interest: if he claimed the mine for himself before the transfer of ownership was complete, he would only face the ire of a distant trading company and the man he had stolen the mine from, and would be able to continue business in Eleder through smuggling. The Grisgol had arrived by this point, having told the person who was throwing frying pans that her boss had surrendered, and criticized Victor for starting what sounded an awful lot like a worker's union.
During the fight upstairs, Dovret, Athelstan, and Zola entered the mine. They saw many branching passages – all much narrower than those in the salt mine. To their immediate left they saw an iron-reinforced door with two warriors guarding it. Athelstan introduced himself as an agent of the Halfbeard Mining Company (HMC) and explained that the uprising had already been defeated outside. The guards exchanged a glance, then unlocked the door for them. Nearly half a dozen people surged out – Geir Thimbleshield embraced Athelstan, saying ”I told you so” to the next man out, who Athelstan recognized as Hrafn Goldbeard, the HMC-installed Head of Security before the mutiny. Hrafn complimented Athelstan on his tan and his new muscles, saying that the dwarve had grown up quite a bit since they last met. The others in the cell were Noregs Scintillia, the current mine owner, Khamisi Afolayan, a Mwangi worker at the mine, and Marielle Quentin, the Chelish supply chain manager who'd been too friendly with Khamisi to be trusted outside the cell. Zola wrapped Khamisi in a hug and introduced everyone. Just then, Ilisa and the rest came down with Victor Borde and the guard who hadn't surrendered, and the party locked Victor up in the cell.
Then Geir proposed that Athelstan, Noregs and he go and finish up the paperwork. Noregs was anxious to leave the mine and retire in Eleder, so Dovret suggested he take the untrustworthy guards back with him so they didn't have to worry about another mutiny. Athelstan turned to the party. He said that he had initially planned to just sign the papers and continue on his quest, but he'd come to realize that he wasn't cut out for the adventuring life. He'd even gone so far as drawing up a will, with the fear that he'd die before the journey was complete. He wanted to build up the mine here, make sure it did well in the transition and beyond, and he could best do that by staying behind while the rest of the group went on. Dovret also voiced his wish to stay on at Brimstone Mine, surprising Athelstan and the rest of the party. He'd cut short the lie he'd been living, and now all he wanted was revenge on the man that took his parent's home and livelihood and condemned them to illness and death. He'd stay at Brimstone Mine and help Athelstan expand the business, eventually taking over the Halfbeard Mining Company from Tolskeinn Halfbeard. Dovret and Athelstan joined hands, vowing to see ”Uncle Halfbeard's” empire crumble for what the man had done to their families.
Athelstan tried to get some of the Namaduk hunters to come work for him at the mine, but they already had fulfilling lives – they said they'd let people in the village know that there was opportunity at the Brimstone Mine, though.
Athelstan and Dovret apologized to the others, and gave parting gifts. Athelstan gave a set of magical bandages and an oil of timelessness to Ilisa, while Dovret gave his grappling hook, rope, and crowbar to Chester. Dovret also left some of his more useful possessions in the wagon – some arrows, a ten-foot pole, a collapsible bathtub, and about 90 days worth of hardtack, jerky, and salted fish for food along the road. Heartfelt farewells were exchanged, but those continuing on the journey needed to keep moving to recoup the time spent coming up to Brimstone Mine. Ilisa, the Grisgol, Chester, Diamata, and Athyra, plus the twelve hunters from Namaduk Village, made an hour of progress back down the M'neri Road before sunset forced them to stop for the night.
Session 32
The next day, 28 Rova, was hot and humid, with oppressive thunderstorms scudding up from the Laughing Jungle. The party reached the Fzumi Salt Mine at noon, but saw a long baggage train filing out of the caves from a good distance away. A group of outriders approached, and the party recognized Gelik among them, along with some dwarves, a couple humans, a half-orc, and an elf. This was the Pathfinder Society expedition, as Gelik excitedly informed the party. His first two questions were what had happened to Dovret and Athelstan, and who the dinosaur lady and warriors were. Ilisa and the Grisgol explained the events of the previous day while Gelik and the other outriders took the party to meet Amivor Glaur, who was at the head of the line of mules and porters. Amivor greeted them and got filled in. He said that Dovret and Athelstan would need to return their commissions, since they abandoned the quest so early, but that he was happy to give the scouting party replacement members if they desired it. He asked the elf and one of the humans to go along with the party, but the elf backed out – they enjoyed the creature comforts of the expedition center too much. So the two humans were added to the scouting group insead. One was a Kalabuta named Bhekithemba Phila, who wore an imposing suit of plate armor with a stylized human face painted on the chest (and with an open hand painted on the forehead of that face) and had a bulging backpack. The second was an Osiriani named Thunderchild Thrice-Locks the Heart, who wore an ostentatious gold headdress, fine silks, and looked altogether unequipped to be in the wildernesses of Sargava. She carried a tortoise with white glyphs drawn on its shell. Amivor offered them anything they needed from the expedition, and Phila requested an ox, named Tulip, that he had grown fond of. He also took a small oxcart, filled with rations and rope and other important gear. Thunderchild requested nothing, saying that she did not need to eat.
Eventually, Amivor sent them on their way, telling them that he'd sent a letter ahead to Namaduk Village by eagle and they should pick it up there. Athyra showed them a shortcut through a dried-out streambed, and later the 20-some people camped on top of an outcrop of black rock. Unfortunately, Ilisa's spells of weather protection expired around the same time everyone went to bed, and it was a fitful, oppressive sleep for most.
The 29th was significantly cooler, once the storm passed. The party hiked past noon, eventually stopping at a small campsite that had people and wagons gathered around it. The people looked like miners and merchants of varying stripes, and their focus was centered on a wire cage about a dozen feet wide. Many of them whooped and cheered as the party got closer, and the party saw a sickly-looking Garundi man pulling something limp out of the cage with a stick. One of the Namaduk tribesmen, a man named Kabar, explained at Phila's request that this was a cockfighting arena, and wondered if they might stop to watch a show. Phila and Ilisa were upset with the idea, and started organizing a plan to free the roosters. The Grisgol volunteered her services. Meanwhile, Thunderchild and many of the Namaduk hunters joined the crowd, while Diamata, Athyra, and Chester held back.
When the proprietor of the gambling operation spotted the new arrivals, he invited them all to come and place bets. Phila, Ilisa, and the Grisgol refused on moral grounds (where the Grisgol's morality was more concerned about the act of gambling than any harm to animals), and were loudly heckled by the bookies and merchants gathered. Thunderchild made a bet of five silver on a speckled bird called Cornugon, and would not acquiesce when the proprietor, who introduced himself as ”Rickets” Perga, pressured her to gamble more. Giving up on the new arrivals, Rickets called for the second bird, a large brown rooster named Muddy Lyza, to be released into the cage.
The roosters began fighting. Meanwhile, Ilisa had set up Dovret's collapsible bathtub over a fire and was loudly exclaiming about the delicious stew she was cooking. Several of the Namaduk tribesfolk rushed over to be first in line when the food was ready, and the crowd split its attention between the stew and the ring. Then, Phila started trying to open the cage. Several of Rickets' bookies, who were heavily muscled and armed with clubs, converged on him. At this stage, the Grisgol used a spell to cause Ilisa's fire to suddenly explode into choking smoke, causing Ilisa, several tribesfolk, and one of the bookies to be lost in the haze. A gigantic rooster, at least as tall as a human, then exited one of the wagons where roosters were kept, and started striding towards Rickets. Rickets backed away, only to be cornered by Athyra and Jaji, who had seen the fighting and decided to take part. Athyra couldn't hit with her glaive in the close quarters, but Jaji could, and he shredded one of Rickets' thugs with his teeth and talons. Athyra's commands of ”Down!” went ignored. Thunderchild was engrossed in the cockfight, watching Cornugon spur and peck Muddy Lyza until the latter was lying on the floor of the cage, gasping for breath. Phila wrestled Jaji to the ground to stop him from hurting anyone else, then tied the dinosaur up, and Rickets fell down on his knees before the armored warrior. He offered all the money he had on hand – five hundred gold pieces – if Phila would take his people and go far, far away. Ilisa came over and made sure the bookies weren't dying, and Thunderchild got the return on her bet – a net gain of 5 silver pieces! The Grisgol sent her invisible servant into the ring to collect Muddy Lyza, and she caught Cornugon. She then made a hasty escape back to the wagon, the giant rooster vanishing and revealing itself to be an illusion.
Ilisa apologized for cutting the cooking short, and packed up the bathtub – the fire had gone out when the Grisgol made smoke come out of it. She and the rest of the party, and the Namaduk hunters, rejoined the wagon, with Jaji carried between Athyra and Phila. Phila didn't understand why the barbarian woman couldn't control her beast.
The party camped in a shaded vale where Athyra and Kabar hunted a large number of small rat-like creatures, and they all ate well that night.
The next morning, the 30th of Rova, was hot again, and the scant showers offered by clouds rising over the Bandu Hills did little to assuage the heat. The party hiked for a good five hours before they reached the grove of palms, banyans, sterculias, and other trees that surrounded Namaduk Village.
When they arrived in the village, the hunters swiftly returned to their homes, spreading the word of the newcomers. The village bustled with activity despite the heat (which was a little lessened, in under the canopy's shade), and the party saw people bearing baskets of meat, laundry, and grain as well as people sitting on porches, weaving vines and grasses to make nets and mats. Excited children chased each other past the party, clearly taking any excuse they got to gawk at the strangers. Kabar invited the party to stay for a feast in their honor that night, and offered his own home as a place to rest the night over. In the face of such effusive hospitality, the party could hardly say no. The Grisgol, however, harbored doubts – the people seemed too friendly.
She couldn't put her finger on it until they came to Kabar's house. Across the road, an old woman whose face was painted bone-white was staring at them – she was the only person in the village who didn't seem excited to see the party. When they asked Kabar, he said that she was the village's shaman, and was old and wary. Then the Grisgol and Thunderchild spotted an eagle with a paper tied to its leg roosting on the roof of the central meeting hut, and everyone was distracted trying to catch it. Ilisa eventually made herself fly and floated up to where the eagle roosted, but it flew away to another tree, and she had to approach it more slowly and use gentler motions to get it to relinquish its burden. She unfurled the letter.
While Ilisa was communing with the eagle, the Grisgol beckoned Phila and they approached the house of the old woman. She opened the door a crack, then seeing their faces told them to go away (in Polyglot). The Grisgol refused, and getting straight to the point asked what was going on in the village that made everyone act so strangely. The woman sighed, then opened the door and stepped outside. She said she was named Storm Sun, and was old and set in her ways. The reason she was so standoffish to the party was that she did not respect the role they were about to play. Questioned further, she revealed that the village had fallen under a terrible curse, and that a malevolent creature called a chemosit was eating the brains of its people. Her magic had been unable to lift this curse. Every night for the last two weeks, the beast would come out of the forest to the south and steal a new victim. The villagers had taken to stationing guests in the area closest to the forest in the hopes that the chemosit would choose a guest to be its victim, and had gone so far as to draw symbols of attraction on the doorstep of the house where a guest was staying. The people of the village felt terribly guilty about this, so they tried to make the final nights of their guests as pleasant as possible – hence the feast. The shaman only hoped that the party that had just arrived would be strong enough to face the chemosit and destroy it. The Grisgol was mollified by this revelation, and decided that she would go to this feast in payment for the risk she was taking. Phila, however, went into combat preparations almost immediately, returning to Kabar's house and seeing the painted symbol on the doorstep as a reminder of how soon the beast would be attacking.
The two groups of the party exchanged their knowledge, with Thunderchild being sufficiently alarmed by the revelation that she decided to stay at Kabar's house instead of going to the feast. The Grisgol and Phila were glad that the message had been retrieved, but didn't immediately have a response to it.
Around sunset, Diamata, Athyra, Ilisa, and the Grisgol went to the feast. They ate flatbreads, porridge, and fresh fruit, and were offered a very strong wine after the meal while several of the tribesfolk entertained with dancing, acrobatics, and fire-eating. Diamata and Athyra got hammered, but the Grisgol is unable to become intoxicated, and Ilisa was far too familiar with alcohol to exceed her limit on a night they would be fighting. They returned to Kabar's house after the feast, and Athyra and Diamata promptly collapsed onto couches in a side room, snoring soundly. Jaji curled up by Diamata's feet.
Kabar pointed out the other sleeping accommodations to the party, then said he'd be upstairs if they needed anything. There was a poignant note to his words, though no regret was apparent on his face. After he retired, Phila began preparing. He took half a dozen bear traps out of his pack and arrayed them around the house, with multiple set in the yard behind the house, which was closest to the jungle. The party had left the horses, ox, and vehicles outside, since Namaduk Village didn't have anything resembling a stable, so Phila took care to place the bear traps away from the horses. Inside, Ilisa began barricading doors and blocking windows, leaving one open for Phila to re-enter. Chester prayed for spells from Keltheald. Preparations made, the group settled down to wait.
Session 33
A little after midnight on the 1st of Lamashan, Ilisa heard a gurgling noise upstairs. When she went to investigate, she saw a massive, gorilla-shaped form silhoueted against the windowsill and crouching over Kabar's bed, which was slick with blood. The chemosit whirled, attacking her. Phila rushed outdoors to get a better vantage, only to spot the shaggy shape of another ape-bear in the garden and a third on the roof. He backed inside the house and shut the door, but one of the chemosits slammed into it, quickly carving up the wood. Chester stepped forward and met the oncoming chemosit with her halberd, her muscles rippling with unnatural strength, and she and Phila managed to swiftly kill it. Phila got scared by the chemosit upstairs roaring. Thunderchild healed the wounded of the party with rays of positive energy. The Grisgol made everyone move faster, snared the third chemosit with a web, and then joined Ilisa on the stairs. Thunderchild set that chemosit on fire with rays of scorching heat as it tried to claw free of the web.
Meanwhile, the chemosit that had entered through the window held Kabar in its jaws and jumped out of the window in a fluid motion. Then Phila heard the clack of a bear trap closing shut. He finished off the webbed chemosit with Chester and Thunderchild, then vaulted over the garden fence and started smacking the chemosit with his staff while the Grisgol and Ilisa attacked from above. The creature was sorely wounded, and couldn't pull the trap free from its stake, but it still had one trick left. It bit into Kabar's head, cracking the skull and exposing the man's brain, and then devoured that organ. It swelled with new strength and vigor . . . and still couldn't break the trap. They took potshots at it until it collapsed.
Unfortunately, Kabar was likely already dead by the time the chemosit pulled him out of the window, and there was certainly no saving him after his brain had been eaten. The party disposed of the chemosit bodies in the jungle and, once the sun rose, informed the tribal leadership of Kabar's death and the end of the curse. There was a kind of apologetic jubilation, tempered by guilt over subjecting the party to the risk and by mourning for Kabar, who was swiftly buried in a closed shroud made of woven vines.
The shaman approached the party after the funeral and thanked them for lifting the curse. She gave them a grisly, shrunken monkey head with the lips sewn shut and a faded map that she claimed to have taken off the corpse of a Sargavan soldier. Chester was curious about the monkey head's stitches, and suggested removing them, but the shaman warned her against that – doing so would release the monkey's spirit, making the item useless. She explained that the spirit monkey head was a tool for banishing evil and unwanted forces, and that the treasure map led to some sunken ship in the Lake of Vanished Armies. The party accepted these gifts and bid Namaduk Village farewell, striking out on the last leg of the M'neri Road.
The day was mild, the pleasant weather perturbed only by a string of thunderheads that left the canvas covering the Grisgol's wagon saturated with rain. The party camped in a clearing in the midst of acacias.
Session 34
The next morning, the 2nd of Lamashan, they broke camp and were hitching up the horses when Phila noticed a strange mound near where he was dumping the wash water. He concentrated for a moment and then rose into the air, from which he could then see dozens of similar mounds completely ringing the camp. They were irregularly shaped – some branching, others ovoid and small – something like molehills, but considerably more on the mountain side than the burrows he saw in Avistan. He shouted a warning to the party, and at the same moment three ox-sized, insect-like creatures burst from the ground around camp and lunged for the horses, an acrid smell emanating from their mouthparts. Ankhegs!
The party rallied around the floating Phila, drawing weapons and preparing spells. He and Athyra charged at the nearest ankheg, but had difficulty landing a solid hit, and they would spend much of the fight killing it (and being burned by its acidic spittle). Ilisa backed them up with her rapier.
One of the ankhegs had surfaced near Thunderchild and the Grisgol, who weren't able to halt it as it grabbed one of the horses and retreated into its burrow. The third ankheg was harried by Diamata and Chester, but it managed to subdue a horse as well and began to escape.
Fortunately, Ilisa was able to disengage from the fight with Phila's ankheg and rushed over to heal first one, then the other horse. Athyra paused in her battle long enough to order Jaji to help kill the ankhegs, but the deinonychus was feeling unruly, and only started helping out after one of the horses had been re-bitten and slain. He killed one of the ankhegs, but proved mostly useless in fighting the other, which nearly escaped after it dropped its prey. Fortunately, Thunderchild's scorching rays halted the monster, and Ilisa healed the wounded horse. They led the horse back out of the tunnel and hitched the remaining four horses to the wagon, then continued on eastward.
That afternoon, a pair of humongous vultures – larger than Tulip, who they tried to carry away – attacked the party. Phila beat them off, and they fled away from the party after a few parting shots from Diamata and Thunderchild. Thunderchild identified the creatures as ”geiers.”
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Session 35
As they continued on through the savanna, the terrain flattened out even further, with less than one tree per hectare. They spotted more geiers and smaller vultures scribing lazy circles high in the sky, but no other animals were present. The only landmark ahead was a low hill, at most 5 meters high, which lay almost directly in their path. When they got closer, they saw that near the top of the hill was a crumbling stone wall with a broken, jagged top like the ramparts of a fortress. Rising above the wall was a tree that they first thought was heavy with leaves – but then it was dead, and filled with vultures. The sun was low in the sky, giving everything a yellow cast, and their shadows stretched unnaturally far towards the horizon.
Suddenly, the ramparts shifted, and the party realized that they were the hunched forms of three gigantic black vultures - ”blackfeathers,” or dire vultures. The party fought them at the base of the hill until Athyra was grabbed. The vulture tried to take her up to the stone wall to eat, but Phila pursued it through the air and killed it with his sansetsukon, it screaming hideously. Once all the blackfeathers were dead, the vultures roosting in the dead tree flew away with a heavy drone of wingbeats.
The party investigated the mound. It exuded a faint aura of abjuration, and all the good party members felt vaguely uncomfortable while standing atop it. Phila tried to dispel the magic, but was unsuccessful. Phila and the Grisgol examined the stone wall and found it covered in a simple set of hieroglyphics that bore a resemblance to modern Polyglot's syllabary. Symbols of warning and rest were common. They managed to decipher the writing, which described an intrusion into ”the land of far horizon” by a cult of demon-worshipping vampires and their thralls coming from the west. The Grisgol recognized the demon as Zura, and could tell from the portfolio she was described to have that the writing on the wall predated Earthfall. The vampire people had been slain and burned by the kingdom that ruled that land, a people who worshipped a godess of sun, redemption, and healing. Though the vampires' ashes were consecrated, the people had mixed those ashes into a large volume of earth and made a mound of that earth, because the vampires were powerful and wily. They had built a watchtower on top of the mound, but their prophets saw the coming darkness, so they inscribed warnings on every square inch of stone of that tower. The carvings claimed that there was nothing to find in the mound, that only pain would come of even living near it, that eventually the protections would fail and evil would leak out to infect the natural world. Phila felt a little bad about trying to destroy the abjurations on the place.
Thunderchild, of course, was already using the Blue Warrior's shovel to dig a hole in the mound, looking for archaeological artifacts and so forth. She found the going difficult until she penetrated a thick layer of clay and fell about eight feet into a dark pit. Feeling around, she felt irregular walls made of compacted earth, down one of which a trickle of water ran. She also felt two items of some interest, sticking out of the mud: a sword of some kind in an intact scabbard and a headband with gemstones on the front. When she got someone to help her out of the pit, she opened the scabbard and found that it contained a rapier – but a rapier that appeared to constantly weep blood from its edges. The headband had rubies on the front, and the Grisgol identified it and quickly claimed it for herself. Ilisa claimed the rapier, finding that it was very sharp due to some potent magical enhancements. Unfortunately, both items exuded a faint aura of evil, but there didn't seem to be anything obviously immoral about them.
The party left the mound behind them and camped a little ways to the east. Chester was surprised when she discovered her halberd had turned translucent at some point since killing the vultures, and that if she willed it she could extend part of the weapon into the spirit world (phasing it out of the material).
The next day was the 3rd of Lamashan, and it was even hotter. The party got to cool down a bit when some rainstorms passed over, but just an hour later the sun was out again and beating down on their backs. The party encountered a swarm of bats leaving a cave, managed to scare the bats off, and then claimed the cave for their own. They cleared the guano to one side to sleep, and then Phila and Ilisa remembered that guano was actually rather prized for its use in fertilizer and alchemy. Phila spent the night shoveling two hundred pounds of guano into Tulip's cart.
4 Lamashan, a Moonday, marked the party's 14th day since leaving Eleder. It rained some more, and wasn't quite as hot. They made some more progress towards Kalabuto. But nothing happened!
Session 36
Finally, on the morning of 5 Lamashan, the party spotted the River of Lost Tears in the distance. They began descending towards the lowlands around the river, and the vegetation shifted from open savanna to acacia woodlands. Shortly afterwards, they came upon a grisly sight: A bulbous, burnt boab tree with a score of humanoid bodies strung up in its branches, and another half-score on the ground. The bodies reeked of decay. The dead tree and bodies were surrounded by a ring of tiny bones of indeterminate origin. The party approached very cautiously.
Thunderchild identified the bones as being finger- and toe-bones. Metatarsals and metacarpals, as well. There was a disturbing range in the sizes of those bones. None of the bodies in the tree or on the ground were recently deceased, so the ethnicity and even species of each were difficult to discern. But several wore clothes that were similar to those worn by the Namaduk tribesfolk, and several more wore rotted colonial attire. Phila and Diamata suspected that the scene had been created by agents of Mzali to terrorize the locals of Kalabuto.
The Grisgol examined the place with magic and discovered a necromantic aura. Suddenly, the bodies jerked into motion. Those in the tree slipped out of the nooses around their necks and fell to the ground, while those already on the ground stood up. When Thunderchild blasted one away with a bolt of fire, it exploded, and the Grisgol identified the creatures as undead ”plague” zombies – very dangerous to engage in close quarters.
Athyra warned Jaji to stay away, and the dinosaur was more than willing. She and Chester used their polearms to detonate several zombies at range, and then the Grisgol imposed her will on more of the zombies and forced them to attack their fellows. She webbed the side of the tree where Chester and Athyra weren't fighting, and when one of her zombies was destroyed it set off a chain reaction that demolished all the undead on that side. Athyra, meanwhile, stepped over the ring of bones surrounding the tree, and was overwhelmed with nausea – she just barely managed to stumble away before zombies exploded in her face.
The party destroyed the rest of the zombies with ranged attacks from Phila, Diamata, and Ilisa (whose ranged attack was just positive energy). They scattered the bone ring and piled the bodies in a heap around the base of the tree, collected some wood, and lit a fire. With a pillar of ugly smoke rising behind them, the party continued down the gentle slope towards Kalabuto.
The Sargavan border city was surrounded by acre upon acre of orchards and fields. The party was walking through a forest of date palms when they caught a view of the city for the first time – a sprawling expanse of ruins that blanketed a low hill just in front of the river. They passed the first ruin around noon. Soon after they entered Kalabuto, they were accosted by a grungy preteen who introduced herself as Kibi and asked if they wanted to buy some wooden trinkets. The trinkets were small disks carved to depict different animals. Ilisa, Phila, and the Grisgol consented to buy one each, with the latter arguing Kibi down from a price of two copper pieces to one. Ilisa got a dog, Phila got a fish, and the Grisgol got a parrot. Thunderchild regretted that she had no need for trinkets, and even though Kibi assured her that the trinkets would prove her as a friend to tribes in the jungle, refused to buy one. As the party was leaving, Thunderchild threw a gold piece towards the child, not looking to see if Kibi had actually noticed. Chester did not buy a trinket.
Phila was born in Kalabuto and had lived there for much of his early life, so he wanted to visit his family while the rest of the party did other stuff. They agreed to first find the Shrunken Head and arrange stabling for their horses (and feed for their chickens) there. They did this, then split up: Ilisa, Diamata, Athyra, and Chester would stay in the docks district, and Phila, the Grisgol, and Thunderchild would head towards the home of Phila's mother Biba in the southeastern residential area of the city. One thing Kalabuto didn't lack was space and shelter, and Phila's extended family had a whole group of buildings all to themselves.
On the way to Ma Biba's, Thunderchild ducked into a sketchy magic shop and made some quick purchases and sales. As they were returning to their route, the party suddenly heard yelling. Two people were jumping off a roof, barrelling feetfirst towards Phila. While they were still in midair, the Grisgol conjured a web that snared everyone and arrested the attackers' falls. The people were shocked for a moment, then laughed, calling Phila's name. They were Phila's cousins Marasi and Grokushtal! Phila told the Grisgol to dismiss the web and embraced his cousins as they fell on top of him, then stood and asked where they had learned to fight with such martial prowess. They explained that there was a monk from across the Shattered Range who lived in Kalabuto and took students. Kalabuto was doing well, recovering in the lull since the last attack from the Walkena worshippers of Mzali, but still on edge, as Mzali had found new avenues of spreading fear. Phila mentioned that he had noticed one of those novel methods, and the kids shared his revulsion for the gallows trees. They also explained that they'd heard he was back in the city and that word had spread fast – a feast was now planned for him down in the Phila-Phon neighborhood where his mother lived.
Meanwhile, the group at the docks split up further. Ilisa went to buy magical materials for an item the Grisgol was hoping to start work on, and she foisted Athyra and Jaji off on Diamata, who immediately set to drinking. Chester stayed with the horses. Ilisa found a shady shop run by a burly man named Bira who punched walls to punctuate his speech, and bought a goat's heart, some rare metals, ”dry ice,” and other basic magical components. Unfortunately, she tried to convince him to sell her wares that were of dubious legality, and he was affronted by the accusation and charged her nearly twice as much.
Phila, Marasi, and Grokushtal led the way to their home. The neighborhood was quite empty, all the way until they reached the central square. There, four tables were arrayed beside a cookfire, and more tables with food laid out on them were off to one side. Nearly twenty people were there – all relatives of Phila, by blood or by water. Prominent among them were his Ma Biba and her parents Papa Makiki, Mama Dukpoduk, and Papa Mketjan Phon. His paternal grandfather Moh Roodsisial Phila was also there, as were many aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, and so forth. The absences were the most striking, though. His father Xhaawalong and sister Sibiu, he knew would not be there. But his paternal grandmother Mama Orthoj was missing as well.
The Grisgol and Thunderchild were of course completely unaware of Phila's thoughts on the matter. They were busy stocking up on hospitality and enjoying the conversation and entertainment (some of Phila's family were playing music and dancing). Phila eventually partook as well, though he made a note to ask later about what happened to his grandma, and was warmly greeted by family he hadn't seen in years as ”Hero Bhekithemba.” The celebration settled down to eat, and the food was quite good. Breadfruit, sausagefruit, pineapples, flavored coffee, roast spiders, very large breads, and sweets made from fruit, sugarcane, and nuts were arrayed before them, along with a potent wine made from some local berry. Phila's Aunt Bima stood up to give a toast in honor of ”the one who stayed true to his people,” which prompted Moh Roodsisial to stand and demand an apology for the disrespect of his son. The squabble spread, with people on both sides of Phila's family arguing that ”Xhaawalong was trying to save our people from the oppressor,” and people on both sides of Phila's family arguing that ”Xhaawalong was a dangerous traitor.” Phila's Chelish aunt Sorasho awkwardly stood off to one side during the debate. It was all completely incomprehensible to the Grisgol and Thunderchild. But the Grisgol started throwing pies at people anyways.
Eventually, Moh Roodsisial started punching Mketjan Phon, and Phila stepped on top of his table, staff in hand, and commanded everyone to stop fighting. His coming home shouldn't be about his dad's leaving home, regardless of the circumstances of that abandonment. His dad had made a mistake by acting as a mole for the forces of Mzali and by going over to worship the child-god Walkena, but it shouldn't divide the family. The Grisgol broke up the Roodsisial-Mketjan fight with some pies, and everyone settled down. Aunt Bima apologized with the explanation that Mama Orthoj had gone missing just a few days before, and that everyone feared she had been taken by the spirit of old Lady Godfre in the abandoned tower, and so the whole family was very on edge. Seeing confusion on the faces of the Grisgol and Thunderchild, Phila explained that Lady Godfre was an old Chelish woman who had gone into some sort of cold-blooded rage and killed all her house servants, then all of her family as well, some decades ago. Around the anniversary of her death by suicide, Lady Godfre's spirit is rumored to steal the body of the proudest, most happy person this side of the colonial enclaves, and Mama Orthoj lived quite close to the old tower, away from her family. What Lady Godfre does to her captives none know, but wailing is often heard from the tower for a few nights afterwards. He asked his companions to help investigate his grandmother's disappearance, but they agreed they should first return to the Shrunken Head, get the whole party together, and meet Cheiton.
When Ilisa got done with shopping, she wandered the docks, taking in the unique architecture of the part ruin, part Kalabuta, part colonial Chelish city. She found Diamata and Athyra standing in the middle of the street in front of a puddle that looked like partially digested rodent and smelled strongly of alcohol. Both Athyra and Jaji were moving very unsteadily. Diamata looked like a warrior going to her final battle. It was either a mistake for her to let Athyra drink, or it was a mistake for her to not also get drunk.
Ilisa was getting Athyra cleaned up when she heard someone yelling from the river, and saw a pair of Mwangi people in expensive-looking Chelish clothes in a canoe, stranded on a sandbar some fifty feet out in the current. They asked Ilisa to help them get dislodged, so she untied a rope from a pier and threw it out. They pulled the canoe to the dock, and the two Mwangi explained their story: they had been house slaves in one of the gated colonial enclaves that occupy the most picturesque regions of Kalabuto, and had just escaped. Their names were Bibio and Taala. They asked Ilisa to buy them some food – any kind would do, though long-lasting stuff was better. Ilisa jogged over to the Shrunken Head and bought about ten gold worth of grub, then brought it back to Bibio and Taala, who remained out of sight under the dock. They pulled some jewelry out of their pockets as payment, and thanked her and her friends as they pushed off from the docks and began paddling downstream.
Ilisa took Athyra, Diamata, and Jaji back to the Shrunken Head at about just the same time that Phila, the Grisgol, and Thunderchild returned. They got Chester, then entered the tavern.
As Amivor's letter had said, there was a dwarf in the tavern, and he had a hammer and pick tattoo on his shoulder. He waved when he saw other dwarves entering the tavern, and asked if they were with the Pathfinders. They said yes, and established that he, in turn, was the Cheiton they were supposed to meet. He greeted them warmly, ordered drinks for those who were interested (not, fortunately, of the heady pineapple mash Ilisa remembered from Eleder), and asked how they were liking the city. He was pleasantly surprised to learn that Phila was a native of Kalabuto, and said that while he couldn't claim the same, he thought of the city as his home these days. He was utterly cavalier about the Grisgol being a duergar. And he offered to pay for all of the party's expenses in Kalabuto, and to further resupply their stores should they need it.
The topic of conversation turned to the road ahead, and he got quieter. He suggested that the party move to his house just next door, where they would be away from prying ears. Looking around, Ilisa spotted one such pair of auditory organs – attached to a weathered-looking man in a brimmed leather hat who quickly looked away when she met his eyes. The group filed out of the tavern and went into Cheiton's house, which was cramped, with eight people and a dinosaur, but still safer than talking in the tavern.
They sat down at Cheiton's kitchen table, nuts, cheese, and fruit on hand, and he launched into an explanation.
“Y'all had the good luck to find those ruins right as the Sargavan rainy season was ending. We've got the monsoon ending by the end of Lamashan, and after that it'll get a little hotter but a lot less humid and rainy. That means that wagon I saw you stabling will be able to handle most of the trails, even along the riverbank where it floods earlier in the year. So, just keep following the Upper Korir River northeast.
“But once you do cross the river, you'll have to be careful. You'll be leaving Sargava's territory, and that means attacks by warriors from Mzali are that much more likely. Oh, and - for those of you who don't know, Mzali a city run by a xenophobic cult that worships the living mummy of a long-dead child. I wouldn't plan any vacations there.
“Once you get to the Screaming Jungle, double your watches. I've heard too many stories of guards getting dragged off into the darkness and then jungle spirits devouring whole camps of folk. Enough stories that you have to wonder how there are so many survivors, but still worrisome. And to add to that you should be careful of the cannibalistic fey Eloko, as well as the demon-worshipping ape-people called the charau-ka. The latter you'll also have to worry about once you cross over into the Mwangi Expanse proper.
“You should spot a ruined city – once called 'Liclac,' now burned and broken – on the opposite bank as you're leaving the Screaming Jungle. Don't camp near it if you can avoid it.
“After the Screaming Jungle, it's a short trip through some foothills of the Bandu Hills, and then near the shores of the Ocota River you should find the ruins of Tazion. Got any questions?”
The party quizzed him on the particulars of the route they'd take, and on the state of Kalabuto in relation to Mzali. There hadn't been an overt attack on Kalabuto itself since 4702 AR, but the number of gallows trees, the number of attacks on outlying settlements, and the number of missing travelers were wearing the city down. The military, punitive rule of General Alban has only inflamed tensions. A riot last year had torched the local Pathfinder Lodge and caused the Decemvirate to withdraw the local Venture-Captain back to Absalom for reassignment. In short, the city was unhealthy.
Phila explained to the rest of the party what had happened to his grandmother. They agreed to take the time to save her – but not until tomorrow, as they wanted to rest and regain spells. Cheiton offered his three guest rooms upstairs, and to pay for hotel rooms if they desired – but staying at his house would likely be safer. The party squeezed into his guest rooms, with the Grisgol providing dubious ”organization” and Jaji claiming Thunderchild's bed. Cheiton also turned in.
Session 37
Thunderchild was near the end of her normal sleep cycle when she felt a stabbing pain in her stomach. She couldn't see in the darkness of the shuttered room, but she could feel someone pressing a hand over her mouth to stifle her. She heard muffled screams from the other rooms.
Phila had also been stabbed, and he felt something on the blade of his attacker entering his bloodstream, wracking him with pain. Still lying on the floor, he kipped up and tried to smash his attacker in the face, but was caught by two rapid slashes and fell to the floor, bleeding out.
Ilisa had also been stabbed, but she shook off the poison easily. She could see in the darkness that the attacker was the same man she'd spotted watching the party back in the Shrunken Head, and that he carried a small sword and wore a punching dagger on one fist. She got to her feet and nearly stumbled over Diamata, who was limp and prone on the floor. There was no chance to check how the party's guide was faring, though – she was fighting one of the attackers for her life with only her rapier to protect herself. The Grisgol and Chester, both sleeping in the same room as Ilisa, slowly awoke and then jumped into action to help Ilisa. When she got a chance to breathe, she summoned a celestial eagle to harry the attackers, who had been pushed out of the room. One of the attackers yelled ”Spellcasters! Remember, just liked we trained!” and then ran back into the room, throwing a thunderstone down at the ground. A powerful sonic boom deafened Ilisa and her eagle, but the Grisgol and Chester seemed to shake off the effects.
Meanwhile, Thunderchild tried to get Jaji to attack the person who was stabbing her. She did not have any success, and was dropped to the floor. Then the attacker heard a door opening behind him, and came face to face with a groggy dwarven man with a crossbow. Unfortunately, Cheiton was not a night person, or a morning person, or even a particularly good shot, and he didn't do anything more than distract the man while Jaji slowly got off the bed, growling. When the man turned around and saw the angry dinosaur, he began backing up . . . only to be blocked off by an advancing Athyra, who was raging and swinging her glaive around angrily. His comrade, the one who had attacked Phila, had already been killed. He was knocked out.
The Grisgol cast a light spell on Ilisa's rapier. Ilisa braved attacks from the attackers to get out into the main hallway, where she released a burst of positive energy that woke up Phila. Once Jaji actually started biting and clawing, they made short work of the attacker who had hurt Thunderchild. Cheiton, well-versed in the contingencies most adventurers prepare, went into her room to look for potions, and finding one that was labeled healing poured it down Thunderchild's throat. She also gained consciousness and joined the fight with the last two attackers.
One of them went down quickly – he tried to make a break for the stairs down, but was surrounded by a half-dozen powerful melee combatants. The other, who seemed to have incidentally deafened himself when he detonated his thunderstone, was a little bit smarter. He drank a potion of invisibility. He moved quietly. He had one chance – to break a 2nd-story window and survive a fall out of it.
And he never got that chance. A deaf eagle and a deaf cleric knocked him out.
Phila dragged the invisible, unconscious, and bleeding attacker back out to the main hall. Thunderchild and Cheiton got the one other who was still breathing – Jaji's intimidation target, surprisingly – tied up, and then Ilisa released a channel. She examined Diamata, who had not bled much but who was looking incredibly wan and felt very cold. With some more healing magic, she patched the ranger's wounds up, and Diamata coughed and awoke. She was sorely drained by the poison, and having experienced similar wounds figured it'd take her a few days to flush it from her system.
The party searched their attackers for loot. There were more thunderstones, more potions, sets of enchanted armor, well-made short swords and punching dagger, and vials of a poison that Thunderchild identified as coming from the Mwangi spider vine. The party argued for a while about what the poison would sell for in a potentially saturated market like Kalabuto. They also found a wand that the Grisgol identified as containing the spell glyph of warding, with a few charges left. And some odds and ends. There was no identifying information on them.
Cheiton went back to bed, and the party muttered about how he acted like an old man.
Session 38
Phila hefted the deafened, invisible enemy and took him downstairs to avoid disturbing Cheiton and Diamata's rest. Athyra and Jaji stayed upstairs and slept. But the rest of the party followed Phila. Phila tied the man to a chair and used some smelling salts to wake him up.
They started by asking the man, who'd sent him? The attacker spoke loudly, saying ”Do you really expect me to be able to hear you?” Phila turned to the Grisgol and asked for a piece of paper, which she provided. Seeing this, the attacker sighed long. ”They're conducting a f$##ing interrogation on me through a piece of f&*!ing paper.”
Phila began writing questions on the paper. The guy did not make any responses that they could see, since he was invisible. But then Ilisa pulled out her sword, got up on a stool, and held the bleeding blade above the chair. Blood dripped down and disappeared when it touched the attacker's face, and once he realized what was happening he screamed, ”What the f@&$ – Get that away! Okay, okay, I'll read your f!&!ing paper. Just tell me, is Derrick still alive?”
Phila had no idea who Derrick was, and indicated the paper again. The attacker acquiesced. He said yes, his gang was working for the Aspis Consortium. Just as hired thugs, really. He got a message saying to track down Pathfinders entering the city. Around that point he became visible again – he was a tanned, scraped-up Chelish man in his thirties or forties, and referred to himself as Dtan. The party asked if Dtan knew where the Aspis Consortium expedition was. He couldn't tell them – he'd just gotten a message a few days ago with the job order. That came from one Dargan Etters, the central agent of the Aspis Consortium in Sargava, and not from the leader of the Aspis Consortium expedition. The Grisgol remembered that Etters is a sorcerer who likes to act as a puppetmaster behind the scenes, who's utterly ruthless when it comes to his own interests and has no compunctions about killing. His stake in the expedition to Saventh-Yhi is simply profit-based, the exploration of an ancient lost city being nothing more than an investment in his mind.
Dtan looked at the party anxiously as they talked. He asked for healing, and they looked to Ilisa, who was still deaf. Eventually, they conveyed their meaning, and she gave the man a small bit of healing. Dtan asked the party to let him go, or kill him, but not to harm a hair on Derrick's head. They agreed, though they still didn't know who Derrick was, and Phila knocked the guy out with a punch. Then Phila and Chester prepared to haul Dtan and the other unconscious guy, respectively, out of the house.
When they touched the doorknobs, though, a jolt of electricity sparked into their bodies, followed by a massive explosion. Both doors flew off their hinges, while Phila and Chester flew backwards, badly burned. Fortunately, no one else was in the immediate blast radius. The Grisgol identified the effect as coming from the same wand she'd identified earlier.
Phila and Chester took their unconscious captives over to the Shrunken head, propped them up in chairs at a corner table, and untied them. Phila then left a gold coin on the table for Dtan and his friend to buy a wheelbarrow to cart away the bodies of their dead friends, and asked the bartender to relay the message to the still-bleeding men should they wake up. The bartender asked who was going to pay for Derrick's and Dtan's bar tab, and Phila said the bartender could just take it out of the coin he'd left. (Derrick must be the other unconscious guy they captured.) He said that Derrick was a great guy, but he spent all his wages on alcohol as soon as he got paid. Phila was a little shocked, and said maybe he should get his cleric friend to come and teach Derrick about moderation. The bartender said no, no, Derrick doesn't drink all the beer, but he orders rounds for the whole bar every time he's in here.
The Grisgol had followed Phila, and asked why he didn't just find a wheelbarrowry and rent out one of their wheelbarrows. She was surprised to learn that they don't rent wheelbarrows on the surface, and surmised that it was related to the relative scarcity of necromancers here. How else did one cart around the bodies of the dead? Someone else in the bar jumped up, saying, ”That's a perfect business plan!” and ran out of the building.
Phila threw the bodies of the dead Aspis agents out of the upper-story window at the rear of Cheiton's house. There were now two corpses lying in the alley behind the house.
When the party woke the morning of the 6th of Lamashan, the bodies were still down in the alley. They went to check the unconscious men in the Shrunken Head – they were still unconscious, though Dtan looked close to coming to. Ilisa was no longer deafened. Cheiton woke up after most of the party had gotten up and went downstairs to brew his morning coffee – and then saw the two doors blown out. He groused good-naturedly about those and a little less good-naturedly about the bodies in the street, then set to fixing the doors. The Pathfinder Society owned this house, not him.
Diamata was still slowly recovering. She planned to spend the next couple days just resting in Cheiton's house, and Cheiton agreed to help look after her.
The Grisgol went out to buy a wheelbarrow, but she had some difficulty finding one – everyone said that their wheelbarrows had all been bought up by some guy talking about a business startup. Eventually she tracked that guy down and rented out one of his wheelbarrows. She left it by the unconscious guys in the Shrunken Head, telling the bartender to tell them that if they didn't wake up in one hour, they'd be footing the bill for the remaining time on the barrow rental.
The party prepared their morning spells and set out for the Godfre Tower, Athyra and Jaji in tow.
They found the crumbling ruin of the tower on top of a small hill, in the midst of a completely abandoned section of buildings. The tower's windows were still shut by intact shutters, and the only entrance still had a functioning iron door, but the upper stories looked completely collapsed, and rubble had fallen around the building. The Grisgol made herself invisible and snuck up to the building to look through one of the cracks in the wall, and got a glimpse of a figure hunched over another figure near the opposite wall. The inside of the tower was one big room, with rubble, decaying corpses, and unrecognizable garbage strewn about inside.
She started to make hand signals to the party, but then realized that they couldn't see her. So she stealthily returned to them and explained what she'd seen. Thunderchild flew up to one of the shutters and blasted it open with a ray of scorching heat at the same time that Phila pushed open the double doors with Athyra.
Sunlight shone in on the creature. She looked like a cross between a large insect and a blond-haired woman, with folds of exoskeleton and rough fur draped around her like an especially ornate dress. She had a large turban covering most of her hair, and her face was oddly porcelain, almost like a mask. She had six legs, heavy-looking wings with white bone ridges and transparent interstitial material, and a very hornet-like stinger the size of a dagger. As Phila charged in to attack, she stabbed him with her stinger and flew up to land on top of a broken staircase, about fifteen feet up. She shot a projectile that broke off from her stinger and got Athyra square in the neck, but this didn't kill the barbarian, even though it visibly pulsed as it pumped poison into her blood. The Grisgol made the party move faster and more efficiently by decreasing their personal gravities. Thunderchild flew in and missed with some more scorching rays, and then Ilisa got into the fray and, situated underneath the strange spirit of Lady Godfre, looked upwards and released a belch so powerful that it made the air look like swirling water. The Grisgol worsened that effect by increasing gravitational force around the creature, so that it moved about half its regular speed. The creature stumbled, coughed, and moved drunkenly as it tried to fly free of the miasma. It flew up through the ceiling and began slowly fleeing the tower.
The Grisgol was not done, though. She summoned a holy spider beneath the creature, and the spider spat out silk that bound the creature's wings. Chester chased after the creature and bounded off the hilltop towards the creature. Athyra lobbed a stone knife at the creature, dealing significantly more damage than Chester had with her metal-headed halberd. Phila came to the realization that metal-based weapons were somehow less effective than ones made of stone, and potentially other materials. Thunderchild made an unerring strike with some holy fire. When Athyra finally got Jaji to join the fight, the deinonychus made an even more impressive jump than Chester. As they had both timed their jumps so perfectly that when the creature tried to make its getaway, Chester and Jaji each got a chance to attack before falling down to the ground some 30+ feet below. Chester powerfully cleaved the monster from cracked mask-face to stinger, killing it.
Phila went to the only body that was still moving, and identified it as his Mama Orthoj. She looked like she was sleeping, almost peacefully, but he saw small holes in her neck. As he was picking her up, she woke, and touched his face. She'd been having terrible dreams, she said, before drifting back to sleep.
The Grisgol and Thunderchild searched the other bodies. They found a lot of jewelry, some money, and a very well-made club. Chester came inside holding some rustling sheaves of papery skin folded over one arm, saying that the creature was a very good source of materials. She also held up the wings of the creature, and said that they were surprisingly lightweight and seemed to have magical properties. The Grisgol identified the magic as abjuration, and surmised that the wings made the wearer better at resisting poison, avoiding explosions, and holding strong against fear. She claimed the wing-cloak for herself.
Session 39
The party took Mama Orthoj to the home of Phila's Aunt Bima. There, they hung out while Phila talked to his aunt, who again thanked him for coming back and thanked the gods for having Orthoj's disappearance coincide with his return. Ilisa made some recommendations as to treatment for Mama Orthoj, but regretted that if the party was leaving soon she wouldn't be able to oversee the treatment herself, and the party returned to Cheiton's house. The bodies in the street were gone, as were the beaten men in the bar – the bartender, a new one now for the day shift, said they'd cleared out soon after sunrise. Cheiton was commentating his work on the door replacement to an unamused Diamata sitting in the kitchen.
The Grisgol brought up the party's plan to create items to shield them from the heat. She asked Chester to use some of the skin she'd acquired to start making an amulet of braided leather, and Chester was . . . adequate at doing so. The Grisgol had also heard that a local shopkeep had an impressive display of leatherworking in his shop, so she dragged Chester to the shop and had her start looking through the display for copyable concepts, while the Grisgol tried to understand the shopkeep's obscure dialect of Polyglot. Unfortunately, Chester misplaced the unfinished amulet somewhere in the shop, and after hours of searching for it they gave it up for lost. The Grisgol went back to Cheiton's and spent the rest of the day rewriting sections of her spellbook, working on something in response to Chester's complaints about undead-control.
Phila went south along the docks, following directions his aunt had given him. Soon enough, he found Marasi and Grokushtal. They were balanced on a ruined wall that bordered a gradually sloping ramp that went down into the earth – before just stopping at another vertical wall, with an unfamiliar woman giving them instruction. When they spotted Phila approaching, Grokushtal called a greeting and jumped down to meet him. Marasi was about to join him, but seemed to restrain herself. The cousins' apparent teacher told Marasi it was time for lunch break anyway, and she joined Grokushtal in embracing Phila. They introduced Phila to their teacher, and she introduced herself as Farso, an itinerant from over the Shattered Range and south of the Field of Maidens. Phila tried to identify the style she'd been teaching, but confessed that it didn't look like any of the ones he knew of – not the fluid, improvisational style he'd learned in the temple of Irori in Absalom, that was for sure. Farso explained that it was a style unique to the city of Anuli, her home in the nation of Holomog. She was intrigued to learn that he was a follower of Irori, who she said had laid a lot of important groundwork for the art of self-improvement through fighting. She didn't really appreciate the connection between religion and monastic tradition in general, though – the celestial mystery cults in Holomog already pervaded too many aspects of life there.
Phila suggested that if Farso was available next time he returned to Kalabuto, they might train together and exchange their learning. Farso was delighted by the idea, and agreed. She was going to take the kids out for lunch that day (she explained that she had to kinda bribe them to come, as none of local kids seemed to want to learn unarmed fighting when it was so easy to take up a spear and join the Militia), but she thanked Phila for coming by and said they should meet again later.
The party slept well that night, Cheiton having installed deadbolts on the doors and cooked up an earthy feast for supper.
They woke early on 7 Lamashan, and the Grisgol, Ilisa, Thunderchild, and Chester discovered an Authentic International Waffle House of Andoran just a few blocks away from Cheiton's. Phila went to eat some real food with his family, a little disappointed in the party's snub of the local cuisine. He arrived back at the Waffle House just as Ilisa was paying, and met them on the porch. Behind him, a piece of the ruined foundation (on which the Waffle House had been built) moved. It was a grovelling, stony-looking creature with big wings and short hairs covering its body that were now undulating angrily. Thunderchild identified it as a gargoyle, a common bogeyman in Osirion. Gargoyles were well known for disguising themselves as actual stonework on old buildings, and for their ability to slowly adapt their appearances to their environments (gargoyles in Osirion are tan-colored like sandstone). They were hard to damage with nonmagical weapons, and were excellent fliers. She quickly told everyone this info, to which the Grisgol shouted back, ”Is it hungry?”
Thunderchild consulted her extensive knowledge of gargoyle hunger. ”Um, probably,” she said.
The Grisgol crafted an illusion of a fat, cow-like goat near the gargoyle. She was starting to move the goat away from the party, but she'd put it too close to the gargoyle, which quickly caught up and tore the ”illusion” into shreds. It seemed to realize it'd been pranked, and turned to advance towards the party. Thunderchild released a glancing fire bolt to ward it off while Phila went inside. He demanded that the chef produce as many waffles as possible, as quickly as possible. The staff said they didn't have a chef, they just had a guy who got the waffles out of their packaging and heated them up. Phila didn't understand or sympathize with their confusion and just grabbed a plate full of waffles, heading outside. He began throwing waffles at the gargoyle.
Ilisa went inside to pay, again. She listened to the staff member's explanation that she just worked there, she didn't know how to make waffles, they ship the waffles from Andoran, that's why it's international, sorry. Ilisa put down a gold piece, and the staff said that'd get her forty waffles. Apparently the waffles coming from Andoran was why they were so expensive, too.
Ilisa went outside with yet more waffles, and she and Phila basically blanketed the gargoyle in them. The Grisgol summoned a holy orb of law while singing something about ”heaven's light” that no one understood, and the orb blasted holes in the gargoyle's side. Beset on two sides by beams of light, the gargoyle fled into the air, leaving a pile of waffles and a swiftly fading goat illusion in its wake.
The party cleaned up the waffles and set about their real errand for the day: Starting another amulet. The Grisgol and Chester put in a good first effort, but they used the wrong kind of skin for one of the braided loops, and had to spend several hours re-doing their work. Later in the afternoon, Thunderchild was lounging around downstairs watching the Grisgol work, when suddenly a glowing light entered the room. A melodious, high-pitched voice emitted from it, saying, ”Oh it's so good to see you [b]Thunderchild, my great, great, great, great, great, great, great -”[/b] continuing with the list of ”greats” for nearly a minute ”- great grand-daughter. I'm so proud of you. I'm your ancestor in Heaven, your great, great, great, great [. . .]” The Grisgol noticed the amulet was starting to smoke. She called Phila over and asked him to try to use his magic to control the flow of energy between Thunderchild's ancestor, while she erected magical safeguards around the device. Instead, Phila just shook his stick in the center of the light, dispelling the visitor mid-”great” – and causing a shower of glittery powder to land on everything in the room, particularly the amulet. The rest of the party cleaned that room with Cheiton while the Grisgol continued her spellbook study.
The next day, the 8th of Lamashan, the Grisgol and Phila worked all day on the amulet. Phila was trying to patch up the damage he'd done by disrupting the flow of energy in it, and the Grisgol trying to minimize the use of the resources she'd had Ilisa buy. They had an interruption in the creation process when there was a knock at the front door, and Amivor and Gelik were on the doorstep!
Amivor asked the party why they were still in Kalabuto – had something happened? They related the events of the Aspis hit, Phila's grandmother, and particularly their goal of protecting at least one of their members before venturing back onto the savanna. Amivor thought that sounded fine, but he urged the party to leave as soon as possible. So far, the Pathfinder Society expedition hadn't had any real problems, for which he thanked the group. Gelik said the people in Namaduk Village could've learned a lesson in hospitality – they charged a rather exorbitant sum for letting the expedition's porters and mules sleep in the village for the night. He asked the party if they'd be willing to fill him in on what had happened since they last met outside the Fzumi Salt Mine. Phila suddenly remembered he had planned on keeping a journal of his experiences, and nodded – he'd certainly be willing to help Gelik create his own log. Thunderchild, Athyra, and Chester went off with Gelik first, while Phila and the Grisgol finished making the amulet. Cheiton and Ilisa hung out with Amivor.
After eight long hours of work, the Grisgol poured the last bit of magical energy into the amulet, and held it up for all to see. It looked like a leather rope, but with a brilliant, smiling sun made of some glittery paper glued to the front. When she put it on, she said, ”It doesn't seem to be working.” Everyone laughed. ”What is it – what's so funny?” she asked. ”Oh, wait – my voice.” Her voice had gone up an octave, apparently just from placing the amulet over her head. With some tinkering, she determined that the amulet only worked outside cities, and that Thunderchild's celestial ancestor's meddling had caused the amulet to be imprinted with a very melodious voice.
While the Grisgol and Ilisa had their interviews with Gelik, Phila went to visit Mama Orthoj. He was pleasantly surprised to find her awake and relatively alert, though it still seemed like she was a bit off from the poison. She told him that the spirit was an evil thing, probably crawled up from the underworld beneath the city, and thanked him for saving her now that she could understand what had happened. She thanked him for coming back, and warned him to always do so. She also said that she was probably going to be staying with Bima for a while, even after she was healed, and that she didn't want to go back to her old hut so close to the tower. Phila kissed her on the cheek and said goodbye, but promised to return when he could.
After he'd had his interview with Gelik, he joined the rest of the party at the docks. They said goodbye to Amivor and Gelik (with Gelik reminding them to pick up his letter at the Lake of Vanished Armies!), and then boarded the barge that would ferry them across the River of Lost Tears, leaving Sargava for the Mwangi Expanse.
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Session 40
The party hiked all day on 9 Lamashan, having to make more frequent stops to push the wagon out of mud now that they were in the River of Lost Tears floodplain, but still making good time due to the many game trails that networked the forests and scrub around the river. At lunch and supper, Chester and the Grisgol started work on another magic item to protect from the heat – a big raincoat, made of some leather Chester purchased in the tiny community straight across the river from Kalabuto.
The party camped near the banks of the River of Lost Tears, below a gnarled tree that drifted yellow-colored seeds down on the camp and the water all night. It was cooler than most other nights the party had experienced in Sargava, and dry, with a northeasterly wind from the continent's center.
It was about an hour before sunrise on 10 Lamashan when Thunderchild woke everyone. The seeds had started making ticking noises, suddenly bouncing off the ground and rising into the air through some sort of spring-loaded action. She'd been watching them for some time when she suddenly realized that they were burrowing into her robe – then she recognized the tree over the camp as a viretree. Viretrees release swarms of seeds that, when agitated, jump around to embed themselves in anything yielding, be it soil, wood, or flesh. A vireseed embedded in a creature's flesh will slowly grow its roots into the creature's body, eventually killing them and growing a new viretree. Thunderchild said that the swarms were increasing their agitation, and in less than a minute they'd be able to track the movements of creatures near them. Everyone got up out of their bedrolls, and the Grisgol got a rope from the wagon, describing her plan as she went. She threw the rope up above her head, and its end disappeared. She ushered Jaji and Athyra up the rope, then handed Muddy Lyza and Cornugon up. Once they got about five feet above the ground, they suddenly disappeared from reality. Ilisa and Thunderchild also climbed up the rope, the latter giving her tortoise Runeshell to Diamata, who was not going up the rope. Then Chester and the Grisgol herself climbed up. Once she was up she looked around the extradimensional space she'd created and explained that no more than eight creatures could live up in that space. Something about the spell prevented a ninth creature from climbing up, which would completely prevent the swarm from entering.
Meanwhile, Phila yanked out the stakes for the horses and Tulip and urged them away from the campsite. Dozens of the light yellow seeds settled on him as he did so, their barbed tips burrowing into his clothing. Diamata hopped onto one of the horses and grabbed the halters of two others, leading them away at a gallop. Phila followed, but every party member still in the Material Plane was covered in seeds. As the seeds back at camp reached a crescendo (watched by those in the rope space), the ones on the horses and Phila began bouncing back and forth rapidly, leaving cuts across the exposed skin of himself, the horses, Tulip, and Diamata. The seeds were now a veritable storm, though few were digging deeply into flesh. Diamata and most of the horses bolted up the river, leaving Phila behind with one horse who was getting seriously injured by the seeds. Phila felt one seed enter a vein in his arm and dug it out with his fingers, closing the wound with a gout of flame he directed across his arm and out into the heart of the swarm. Many of the seeds caught fire, quickly burning to ash, and he fled with the last horse. Once he got about sixty feet away from the swarm, it stopped seeming to follow him. When they were clear, Phila and Diamata set to yanking seeds out of each other's clothing and removing them from the horses.
The swarm in camp raged all the way until sunrise. When the Grisgol and everyone else finally descended, they saw that the seeds had embedded themselves into every single surface. There were holes in the bedrolls, in the canvas canopy of the wagon, and seeds even poked out of the wood of the wagon. The party spent another hour removing the seeds from their belongings, hoping to avoid spreading the dangerous plant.
They set off eastwards and southwards, towards the Lake of Vanished Armies. Chester spent her rest breaks patching the rents the seeds had made in her raincoat, and that evening Phila and the Grisgol completed the raincoat – more quickly than the last creation, because Phila had chosen to infuse some of his daily magical power into the item and the Grisgol had found an excellent shortcut to finishing the necessary runes in a book she'd brought from Eleder. Chester donned the raincoat, and found that it did exactly what it was supposed to do.
They camped on a grassy riverbank, well away from any trees. The next morning was 11 Lamashan.
As they traveled, Chester started going on little hunting trips and collecting the hides of the various small animals she found, as well as picking up interesting pieces of bark and pretty-looking rocks.
The party continued their trek downstream, finally arriving at the Lake of Vanished Armies at noon. There were a dozen small villages along the shores of the lake, the style of colorful washing hung up between houses and the choice of roofing material giving each community a distinct character. As they were passing through a community with many wide lawns for grazing cattle, asking people about the Namaduk shaman's treasure map, the party discovered a strange, long-legged bird walking in one pasture, pecking the ground. It had a scroll case tied to its neck. Thunderchild identified the bird as a hadada. A blessing from Thoth, she mused.
They approached the hadada and retrieved the scroll case. There were two small squares of parchment, and a long roll of paper covered in childish, but tiny, handwriting.
To the Shiv survivors and their cohort, this Starday the 9th of Lamashan, 4710 AR:
We have refreshed our stores of supplies, mules, and porters, and will be leaving this morning as the weather is expected to be pleasant. There is little to report to you, or to instruct you on, since our last meeting, but I promised Gelik that I'd send another bird once we reached Kalabuto. He is quite fond on you lot.
With well wishes,
Amivor Glaur, Pathfinder, Leader of the Expedition to Saventh-Yhi
–Hi everyone!
It's Gelik, again. I've been having a great time in Kalabuto. Great local food, and the waterfront is way bigger than Eleder's. Plus, lots of great nooks and crannies to explore, if you're well-prepared. I didn't have much time to do so, but Cheiton's told me a lot about the place – did you know there used to be a Pathfinder Lodge here? They closed it up because of riots. I just wish everyone would chill out and let knowledge be free the way it wants to be.
Anyway, here's what's been taking all my time away from exploration: the tale of your journey up to your adventures in Kalabuto! Glad we had a stronger bird this time!
Cheers,
Gelik Aberwhinge–
[Previously posted journals]
Phila and the others spent the rest of the day trying to find out the location of the sunken warship in the Lake of Vanished Armies. They asked many people, but while the tribesfolk could tell them stories of the great monster Aomak that lurked in the lake, how when Sargava first sent its navy to fight Mzali their ships were turned back at the mouth of the Upper Korir, and how the lake got its name from three separate settlement expeditions being vanished by something that came from the lake and left all of the tents and gear behind, no one knew what Storm Sun's map was pointing to.
After a full half-day of fruitless canvassing, the party camped in a pasture and made plans for the morning. The Grisgol and Chester began making a pair of shoes. Chester used some wood bought at the Lake of Vanished Armies to begin carving the soles of the shoes – but at first, she just had two blocks of wood that she was carving into the shape of clogs.
On 12 Lamashan, Phila went and rented an oversized rowboat. The party left their wagon, cart, and various animals with Diamata on shore as they rowed across the northeastern area of the lake. The sun reflected off the water, slowly baking everyone in the heat and partially blinding the light-sensitive Grisgol. Around noon, they finally spotted a spar glinting a few feet below the water surface, and when they ducked down saw a pair of sunken ships down on the lakebed. Athyra, Ilisa, Thunderchild, Phila, and Chester took in deep lungfuls of breath (or drank one of Ilisa's potions to summon bubbles of air around their heads) and swam down.
After a half-minute of hurried searching (there was a significant time constraint, since Athyra and Phila were holding their breath), they found a locked trunk made of iron in the hold of one of the ships. Phila and Chester carried the trunk out of the hold and set it on a ledge on the rocky lake floor. Then, suddenly, Chester caught a glimpse of movement out of the corner of her eye. Something very, very large was moving around a low underwater hill towards them. She cast some spells on herself and slipped into a thicket of long, vertical lake weeds and slowly moved towards the creature, which much more rapidly made itself known to the rest of the party.
The creature was a blue-gray reptilian creature with a long neck and a mouth filled with dozens of large, angular teeth. It was twice the size of the chemosits the party had fought back in Namaduk Village, easily comparable in bulk to a small keelboat. Thunderchild identified it as an elasmosaurus, but she couldn't talk underwater to convey what she knew.
The party slowly moved forward through the water, unable to really charge. Ilisa and Thunderchild summoned celestial dolphins to harry the elasmosaurus, but as one of the dolphins swam forward to attack, the elasmosaurus' neck jabbed forward and bit the dolphin in half. Ilisa then gave the party a blessing of Cayden and summoned a celestial octopus, which released a cloud of ink (which obscured the direction Chester and Athyra were approaching from) and bit the elasmosaurus with a poisoned beak.
Jaji saw the fight below and jumped out of the boat to begin swimming towards the monster. Unfortunately, as he was swimming down to attack, the elasmosaurus bit into one of his haunches, and then bit again in his neck. Bleeding rapidly, the deinonychus began sinking . . . down into the ink cloud, underneath the elasmosaurus.
Athyra, seeing her companion nearly butchered by the monster, charged forward and hacked with all her might. Unfortunately, she couldn't land a solid hit on the creature, hampered as she was by the water slowing her swings. She was also turning blue in the face, using up all her oxygen on her useless swings. Suddenly, she gasped – and breathed in. She started paddling frantically.
Session 41
The Grisgol had been summoning animals to try and hamper the elasmosaurus, but she changed tactics by creating an illusion of a smaller version of the creature, which paddled feebly in the water like it was hurt. The elasmosaurus was distracted until it tried to shield the ”baby” and the Grisgol didn't move the illusion in time to stop the creature's paddle from intersecting with it. However, by then it was sorely wounded, with Phila and a now divinely empowered Chester having fractured its skull and hacked into its neck. Thunderchild had also gotten into position and used her underwater crossbow to shoot the elasmosaurus, managing to find a weak spot in its belly. So the creature tried to flee, barrelling past the struggling Athyra and upwards away from the shipwreck. But Phila caught up and dealt a second blow to the elasmosaurus' head, killing it.
Phila swam back to Jaji in the ink cloud, grabbing him and Thunderchild. Focusing on his staff, he suddenly popped the three of them up on the rowboat.
Ilisa got to Athyra and fed a potion into her mouth, and suddenly a bubble of air popped up around the barbarian's head. Athyra coughed out the water she'd swallowed, then grimly swam over to the elasmosaurus and separated its head from its body to make sure it stayed dead. She then swam up to the surface with Ilisa.
Chester did some dives down to the smaller wrecks, looking for other loot. She turned up a few dozen gold pieces worth of pricey silverware and assorted coins, then joined the rest of the party above. Then Phila went down and tied a rope to the iron locker, and the party hauled it up to the boat. They rowed back to shore, and Thunderchild told some of the assembled onlookers that they had indeed found the treasure – and killed a great reptile that was guarding it. The person who lent Phila her boat was impressed, musing that perhaps the great monster Aomak had finally been killed.
With a few choice smashes, Phila broke open the rugged iron locker. Inside he discovered twenty golden ingots, three potions, and an adamantine machete. Two of the potions had an earthy texture as if soil had been mixed into them, and the Grisgol identified these as potions to speed recovery from debilitating spells and poisons. The third potion, with an iridescent cichlid coloration, would grant the drinker enhanced agility.
The party collected Diamata and the wagon and headed east, up along the banks of the languid Upper Korir River. They spotted herds of zebras and water buffalo, as well as the odd crocodile. It was raining on and off throughout the afternoon, but never heavily or for long periods. They settled down to sleep by the riverside that evening, and Chester returned to her work on the clogs. Unfortunately, she realized that the rough clogs had gotten infested with vireseeds that burrowed deep in the wood, so she had to spend the whole evening removing those and scavenging some of the leather she brought from Kalabuto to fill the holes.
The next morning was the 13th of Lamashan, and it was clear – and surprisingly cool, in the morning. The fog took a while to burn off, but by the time they were on the road it was only little wisps in low-lying places. They hiked steadily uphill, until eventually they could see the confluence where the Pasuango River entered the Korir. The Grisgol wandered off to relieve herself in utmost privacy. As the rest of the party kept hiking, Phila noticed some movement off to the side. When he called out, four rangers with drawn bows revealed themselves. They had different styles of dress, but they quickly divulged that they were all warriors of Mzali and ordered Phila and his group to turn back and return to Sargava.
Phila said that they couldn't do that, that they were just passing through this territory, and couldn't they let him and the rest of the group through? They didn't like that idea, but since there was only one Chelish-looking human in the group, and they weren't headed for Mzali lands or Mwangi ruins, the rangers eventually were convinced to allow it. As long as they were the only such group to pass through the area.
Phila spit in his hand and held it out to seal the deal. He assured them that – that of course no one would be coming after him. And the speaker for the rangers looked at his hand, and looked at his face, and then slowly backed away. ”He's lying – scatter!” she shouted to the others.
Session 42
Everyone in the party, except Diamata who is a bit trigger-happy, hesitated – did they really want to hurt these people who were just trying to defend their borders from imperialist ”explorers?” Phila knew that the warriors of Mzali were ruthless, and that if they hadn't outnumbered the rangers 3 to 2 there was a good chance the rangers would've tried to snipe them. Everyone remembered the gallows tree outside Kalabuto and the fears people in Kalabuto had about another invasion. And Phila, Athyra, and Jaji started knocking out the fleeing rangers because if one of them got back to Mzali to warn the military, the Pathfinder Society expedition would be at risk. But there was still something off about it.
Suddenly, they heard a rumbling noise, and the ground shifted. Almost everyone collapsed, and one of the horses got its foot caught in a crack in the earth. The Grisgol and Ilisa could tell that the noise came from deep underground. Chester would have been able to make the same determination, but she was not ”present.”
Chester has a vision of a forested valley nestled in the midst of a group of craggy hills, steep cliffs surrounding it on all sides but for a river that snakes downwards. The vale is filled with a city on the scale of Kalabuto, though this one appears carefully organized, rather than sprawling along miles of riverbank. It appears to be midafternoon – the same time of day that it is currently. Then the lighting suddenly changes, the sun now flitting across the sky dozens of times in a second before just as suddenly coming to a stop. Chester didn't count the number of days, but she can sense that it was not many. The city looks about the same – placid, peaceful, with a few people moving about. It is early morning after a rain, just before sunrise. And then suddenly, the valley explodes. Out of a hole the size of a city, a massive snake wriggles. Its scales are the size of houses, its fangs like the tallest obelisks in Osirion. The vision shifts, and Chester sees a dwarve wearing leather armor and carrying a halberd, flame-colored wings growing from her shoulders, flying towards the creature and trying to break its scales with her weapon. Another dwarve, face strained, leans on the shoulder of a third, who is applying healing and simultaneously speaking to an angelic-looking creature as they float in midair. The snake hisses something sibilant, and suddenly the wounded dwarve turns on her ally, opening a gate to a dimension of squirming worms and blades and pushing her healer through. The blue-clothed person grabs the wounded dwarve and drives her into the shattered ground. A quarterstaff-wielding human flies up to the creature's face, a whirlwind of blades surrounding him, and delivers a blow to the snake's eye – breaking its protective casing. As the blood washes over the man, it melts the flesh from his bones and he falls in pieces. A human who appears to be garbed entirely in layers upon layers of golden jewelry runs towards the snake, transforming into a beam of light that punches through the snake's scales and reappearing on the other side. Which is where the snake grabs her in its mouth, crushing her. The dwarve with the halberd cuts into the hole the human already made, but Chester sees the snake's tail whipping around towards her. And then the vision fades. Chester is left with two words. “BE. EARLY.”
Chester started telling the others what she'd seen in her vision, roughly, saying that apparently something awful was going to go down in Saventh-Yhi, something that they could stop if they got there early.
The party decided the quickest way to resolve the situation would be to hunt down the rangers, rather than letting them flee to Mzali and organize the army to come after the Pathfinder Society expedition. So they chased the scouts, knocking them out and (for the two who had tried to swim out into the river) dragging them back to shore. Diamata said the party might be able to leave the captives in a village of the Noedtwan tribe in the northern half of the Screaming Jungle, as that group was spiritually enlightened enough not to simply kill the Mzali for the crimes their city had committed against the Noedtwan. Ilisa and the others who were trained in healing made sure the rangers' wounds were bandaged and then loaded them into the back of the Grisgol's wagon.
They continued on northwards, using a path that Chester found that would take them away from Mzali lands more quickly. Chester also took the time to relate her vision in detail as they hiked. When they camped, she continued work on the clogs with Ilisa helping select additional leather pieces to fix the item.
As the party's captives slowly came to in camp, Phila and the others gave them water and food and talked to those rangers who were willing to speak. The rangers were named Omawa, Zira, Makankanb, and Reongpo, though Reongpo refused to talk to the party. Omawa was the one who had first spoken, but her trust in Phila had obviously been betrayed so she was not very forthcoming. Zira was a little more talkative, and divulged the names of their companions.
On the 14th of Lamashan, the skies remained clear and the party continued northwards. Phila told some stories about his life in Absalom while they hiked along the riverbanks, seeing crocodiles lounging in the shallows and great flocks of wading birds that flew up in storms when the party approached. Around lunchtime, the Grisgol and Phila sat down to finish making the clogs. Unfortunately, Phila imbued too much energy into them, and they caught on fire just as the Grisgol was sprinkling some bat guano over to complete the enchantment. The party left the flaming, stinking ruins of the shoes behind and quickly moved onwards. That evening it was warm, and several party members stayed up late dicing with Diamata (and Athyra, who whittled her own dice and was not half-bad at it).
The 15th of Lamashan passed uneventfully, with the Mzali captives seeming resigned to their imprisonment – or just utterly stymied by the knots Phila tied. Chester continued gathering shed lizard skins and beetle shells for her inscrutable arts. The land was getting hillier, with long stretches where the party couldn't see the river because they had to detour around a stretch of cliffs or boulders. They could see the mountains of the Screaming Jungle approaching quickly towards them. When she hiked up to a promontory at sunset to look out to the west, Chester saw a long line of clouds extending from the foothills of the Bandu Hills to the faint glimmer of what might be the Lake of Vanished Armies to the south.
The next morning (16 Lamashan), the rains had returned. The party was now hiking through patches of woodlands, palms dotting the banks and larger trees growing in clusters. There was a sun break when the party spotted a large herd of hippopotamuses (Thunderchild's ID) wallowing in the river. A trio of lizardfolk, having not spotted the party, chased one of the hippos up onto the shore to isolate it . . . and the hippo charged straight for the party. The lizardfolk shouted apologies that only the Grisgol could understand (they spoke Draconic). When it was injured, another hippo came up from the river to join the fight.
The fight was rather one-sided, with only Jaji getting significantly injured and Phila nearly killing a hippo with a single sansetsukon blow. Chester used her halberd to fell a tree that landed on top of the other hippo, then tried to throw the Grisgol at it, but she just rolled off the hippo's back and fell facefirst into the mud. The the party and lizardfolk joined forces to finish off that hippo as the Grisgol got to her feet, muttered a command word, and caused Chester to begin slowly levitating upwards.
The lizardfolk apologized for accidentally siccing the hippos on the party, using the Grisgol as interpreter. They presented Athyra with an amber river-polished diamond as recompense for the damage done to Jaji, introducing themselves as Jeklina, Helli, and Jektan of the Shezek tribe across the river, and asked if they would be allowed to take at least one of the hippos back to their tribe. Thunderchild suggested they split the meat evenly, and the lizardfolk agreed. The two groups began butchering the meat.
Meanwhile, Chester continued to ascend. She got about two hundred feet up – well above the canopy – and started picking up a bit of westward wind, which slowly pushed her across the river and downstream of the hippos. Beyond the light, puffy rainclouds that had been sprinkling on the party all morning, she saw that the clouds got thicker and taller, and knew that the real rain was yet to come. Fortunately, the Grisgol spotted this and began lowering the dwarve down so that she touched ground right on the opposite bank. She spent the next half-hour or so wading and swimming across the mud flats and channels in the river, and arrived at the butchering ground (which Phila was avoiding with distaste, as a vegetarian) just as the lizardfolk had finished cleaning out their carcass.
Once the work was done, the lizardfolk thanked the party for their help and said they regretted not being able to bring the party back to their enclave. Unfortunately, they had encountered humans in the past who were swindlers and thieves, and as a rule they couldn't trust explorers with their home's location. Phila said that was fine, and asked if they could provide any guidance about the route ahead. The lizardfolk did not recognize the name Tazion, but they said there was a great monster wandering the woods to the north, they had heard – something like a human, but as large as a hippo, with terrible claws. They also warned about the expansion of Mzali, which had pushed the Shezek tribe up from the south in recent decades.
The lizardfolk said farewell and, towing their carcass, began swimming down and across the river. The party spent a little while longer packaging up their meat and then continued on the trail up the western shore of the river, entering the mist-laden expanse of the Screaming Jungle. As the trees rose in height around them, the odd hoots or screams became more and more common, until finally it was an endless cacophony of voices. Thousands of primates, as well as birds and insects like the group had encountered on Smuggler's Shiv, screamed and hollered and rattled and buzzed all day without end, though they were not always directly above the party.
In the midafternoon, the downpour that Chester had predicted finally arrived. It made the sometimes jarring noise of the forest into a dull roar as rivulets streamed down from the canopy and the river became a blur. Suddenly, the party realized that they were walking in a valley, and there were brown marks on the trees all the way up to Diamata's head. The puddle they were walking through wasn't getting any shallower, they realized. So the Grisgol magically hastened the horses, and they began running.
Chester decided to try something different, and tied herself to a fallen log.
Though Ilisa urged the horses on as best she could, they just weren't quick enough to outrun the rapidly rising water. Phila detached from the cohort fleeing the flood and, swimming in place, tied Tulip's cart to the trunk of a healthy-looking mvule tree. Once the weight of the cart was lifted off his shoulders, the ox was able to paddle in place and keep his head above water.
Meanwhile, Chester was crouching on top of her log, riding the current down to the river. She looked totally radical, but no one was around to see it. Then she slipped and fell off the log into the river, and grabbed her flotation device tightly to prevent it from swinging around and hitting her in the head.
The Grisgol's wagon slowly rose off the ground, and once it was floating the trick of driving it became more a trick of sailing it. The Grisgol, Thunderchild, Diamata, and Athyra all busied themselves bailing water, giving advice, and lending moral support, while Ilisa gripped the reins with white knuckles showing and continued urging the now swimming horses onward, pulling them out of the way just in time for each passing log. Makankanb and the other captives were cursing at the cramped conditions, and the chickens were screeching nervously. But Ilisa laughed maniacally as the rain poured down around them, causing the Grisgol to reconsider her estimation of Ilisa as one of the rational members of the group. Finally, they reached a point above the floodwaters, and Thunderchild jumped down to kiss the solid ground.
After the flood receded a half-hour or so later, Phila came up with Tulip behind him, and Chester arrived a while later, completely covered in mud and leaves. They continued uphill a little ways and then made camp. As they were chatting around the fire, someone used Phila's name, and Makankanb looked up. She knew Xhaawalong Phila, recognized Bhekithemba's name, and didn't understand why his son wasn't helping fight for Mzali land. They had an awkward moment, there.
Session 43
On 17 Lamashan, the camp was completely shrouded in fog. The party couldn't see more than a few dozen feet in front of them as they hiked and drove along the riverbank. They encountered what appeared to be a bend in the river, running up and to the west, and Diamata led them up it. After an hour or so, though, they could see the other shore of the river, less than 20 feet across, and they were gaining elevation more quickly than Phila and Ilisa thought they should be. After some discussion with Diamata, and after getting out their wayfinders, they determined that the river they were following was not actually the Korir River, but a tributary – the Ecllap River, maybe. They were lost.
Ilisa took out her wayfinder and pointed across the river. They could reconnect with the Korir if they just forded the Ecllap and headed northeast, without having to waste any extra time going back down the Ecllap to the tributary. Phila gave his wayfinder to Diamata so she could direct them better in the future.
As they continued on their way, Chester continued picking up sticks and snakeskins and so forth. She had finally finished collecting materials – about twenty-six silver pieces worth.
They camped by the river again. The Grisgol apologized to Phila for, some time earlier, criticizing him for failing to lie to the Mzali rangers. She had her invisible servant Fellstroke help set up the tents with him. Phila said he didn't hold it against her. Diamata said that any decent person should have trouble lying. The Grisgol then criticized Phila for lending his wayfinder to Diamata, since she was the only one ”getting use out of it.” Diamata argued that the wayfinder was helping the Grisgol survive, so why was she complaining? The Grisgol went to bed.
18 Lamashan, the 4th Moonday of the expedition, was foggy all day as well – cooler, with a thunderstorm around noon that didn't affect the party at all. When they camped, Ilisa explained the concepts of baths to Athyra, who promptly got in fully-clothed and splashed around. The Grisgol said that they just use sponges among duergar. Thunderchild said that she could understand water scarcity, coming from a desert.
The next morning was the 19th of Lamashan, was less foggy, but overcast and warmer. As Diamata and Athyra were finishing their morning prayers and Ilisa was going to put on her boots, Thunderchild and Phila saw movement by the tent. Ilisa dropped her boot as a snake jumped out of it and bit her sleeve. Thunderchild fired off a scorching ray and accidentally set a bush on fire, and two snakes managed to bite into Ilisa and pumped a bit of venom into her. Fortunately, her dwarven constitution protected her. The party quickly put down the group of snakes, with Phila showing off a new trick where he telekinetically lifted up the twenty-four handaxes the Mzali rangers had been carrying, launching them towards the snakes and cutting them in pieces with a flurry of chops.
After cleaning up the snake detritus (mostly by feeding it to Jaji), the party continued up along the river. They didn't encounter anything more dangerous than the snakes for the rest of the day, and again camped along the riverbank.
The fog had returned in force on 20 Lamashan, and the clouds stayed low overhead all day. There was another thunderstorm in the afternoon, but it only briefly poured on the party. Once they'd camped for the night, the party amused themselves with the Grisgol's inability to understand chicken biology and some philosophical ”chickoans.”
Then Ilisa thought she would be smart and gave Muddy Lyza magical flight, and the chicken streaked up into the canopy. Phila cast fly on himself to chase it down, accelerated thanks to the Grisgol's haste. Phila asked Ilisa not to cast spells on his chickens.
On 21 Lamashan, the weather was essentially the same as the previous day. The party continued hiking up through the wide river valley. They arrived at a strange scene: a clearing filled with putrid corpse flowers, with half a dozen people lying dead on the riverbank, shredded by what looked like enormous claws. The party heard a crashing sound ahead, and Athyra, Diamata, and Chester ran forward to have a look. Athyra said, ”It's pretty big!” Diamata moved more cautiously to avoid attracting attention, but stepped on a branch and abandoned that plan rather quickly. She shot an arrow into the undergrowth ahead, shouting back, ”It's about 12 feet tall!” The Grisgol got out of the wagon and sped up most of the party, and Thunderchild cautiously advanced the horses forward, scanning for undead and detecting none. The chickens, which had been following behind the group, went off to the west to investigate an ant mound. Suddenly, an enormous dark-furred ape lumbered from behind a group of palms, its mouth and hands bloody, beating its chest.
Phila ran right at the creature, being unable to dodge out of the way as it lunged down and bit his arm. When Jaji ran up to join the fight, he was clawed in the side, with the gigantopithecus (as Chester identified it) tearing off some of his scales. Jaji clawed it in the leg in return.
Ilisa charged into range, dodging out of the way of the ape's claws. She stabbed it in the kneecap, and it stumbled, falling down on one knee. Chester circled around the ape and flanked it with her halberd, cutting deep into the ape's midsection with her dryad-blessed weapon.
Then, a vaporous creature slid out from underneath the ape's body. It was pure shadow – pure darkness. It laughed in a raspy voice. ”Now I will find a new body!”
Phila, the Grisgol, and Thunderchild identified the creature as a shadow demon. It was incorporeal, meaning that it was impossible to hurt with mundane weapons, extraplanar (coming from the Abyss), and typically attacked through enchantment and illusion magics. It was immune to electricity and poison, was resistant to acid and fire, was resistant to magic in general, and was difficult to damage with weapons that were not holy or made of iron forged in the deep earth. It was chaotic and evil, and it was very, very dangerous.
Athyra moved up to attack, flanking the demon with Jaji and entering her defensive fury. She managed to pass her glaive through the shadow demon's form, but was unable to deal any damage because the weapon was not magical.
The Grisgol stayed back behind the wagon and showered a snow of sparkles and glitter upon the demon, but it was not blinded. Thunderchild urged the horses onward past the fight and hopped out of the wagon to move closer. She loosed a bolt of heavenly fire at the shadow demon, but the creature was able to dodge out of the way.
Diamata shot an arrow, but it passed right through. Then the demon stepped close to Chester, faced towards the rest of the party, and opened its mouth to release a cone of terror. Phila and Jaji were terrified, but Thunderchild, Ilisa, Athyra, and Diamata were only mildly shaken. ”Ilisa, Thunderchild, do you have any way of dispelling that?” the Grisgol asked. Unfortunately, they did not.
Phila's hands shook as he focused on his staff, stepped away from the monster, and suddenly vanished, instinctively shunting himself to a safe location – the east bank of the Upper Korir, apparently downstream. With the source of danger removed, he was less immediately panicked and began flying back towards where he thought the fight was, holding the monkey head he had received from Storm Sun the Namaduk shaman.
Jaji fled with all the speed of a magically hastened deinonychus. He was gone from sight in seconds.
Chester moved to flank again with Athyra, but with each swing just barely missed the monster. Athyra stepped back and summoned an ugly, gray baby-looking creature, which chittered in its language and tried to doom the shadow demon. The demon shook it off.
”Well, these are dark times,” the Grisgol muttered. She commanded Fellstroke to move one of the bodies near the shadow demon, which lunged out at the false threat and scored a small smoking gouge in the corpse. The horses continued moving, and Thunderchild continued firing off heavenly flames, but missed again. Ilisa completed her own summoning spell and summoned a fire elemental, which was unable to hurt the demon but still managed to provide flanking for Chester.
Diamata yelled out, asking if anyone had anything magical she could use to hurt the demon. When no one responded in the affirmative, she went back to the wagon to root around.
The demon pulled the shadows from the surrounding terrain and created a strangely shadowy crocodile near Thunderchild and Tulip.
Chester charged at the demon, but missed terribly. Athyra disengaged entirely from the direct fight with the demon and went over to the wagon, cleaving through the crocodile on her way and turning it back to shadow.
The Grisgol summoned a pure, beautiful orb of light – a lantern archon, which floated over one of the rocks and launched a pair of light rays at the shadow demon. As it dodged Thunderchild's attacks, the demon also dodged the archon's. The Grisgol then began casting the same spell over again, the ring on her hand beginning to glow.
Thunderchild missed yet again with her heavenly fire. Diamata caught up to the wagon and held up a pair of arrows with blood-red fletching, which the party recognized from the Mzali rangers. ”These might be magical!”
The demon moved away from Chester and the fire elemental, but as it went Chester finally hit, slicing down and slashing the demon's buttocks and seeming to phase the demon's form into materiality where it touched. ”Whuh? Itombu has never been hurt in this forest before!” the creature exclaimed. He spat out an orb of blackness that landed near the back of the wagon and then exploded in dark, shadowy fire. Thunderchild, Diamata, Ilisa, and the Grisgol were burnt (with the Grisgol's cloak smoking quite a bit, and her spell lost), but still standing. Tulip and two of the horses went down, and the cart and wagon looked a little scorched. As the smoke cleared, Ilisa ran to the epicenter of the blast and released a healing burst that brought the horses and ox back up and reversed most of the fire's effects. She also heard the captives in the back of the wagon groaning as they were apparently resuscitated.
Chester charged up and missed the shadow demon, and Thunderchild didn't realize it yet, but the backpack she kept her tortoise Runeshell in was smoking. Athyra was about to act . . .
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I'm gonna be posting these piecemeal because it's kinda too daunting otherwise. And hopefully they won't all be quite as long as this one:
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Athyra turned out to be mostly useless for the rest of the fight, actually. Her glaive could not damage the demon, her dinosaur was missing, and the others were using their own magical weapons. The only thing she could do was try to help surround the demon and block off his escape routes.
Diamata faced similar difficulties. Though she had apparently magical arrows, she needed to score a perfect shot to do any damage at all. She sent several arrows into the center of Itombu's inky body to no effect, other than the vanishing of those arrows.
Ilisa was busy freeing the captives, who were trying their best to escape the fight despite being bound at the ankles and hands. She cut the ropes of Makankanb and Zira, noticing to her relief that the chickens had escaped the blast entirely.
But Itombu was doing his best to make her earn her keep. After the half-shadow fireball, it shot a beam of surrealistically physical electricity at the horses in the front of the wagon, killing Chester's beloved Applestan.
The Grisgol completed a second summoning spell, conjuring another holy archon that joined the other in burning small patches of light into Itombu. Before too long, though, she saw Phila approaching across the river to the southeast. He was blindfolded, and shouting, "I CAN'T SEE OR HEAR ANY OF YOU BUT I HAVE THE MONKEY HEAD, CAN SOMEONE COME TAKE IT?" So the Grisgol sent one of her archons to take the head from Phila.
Phila was at that point navigating solely by smell: the odiferous corpseflowers had led him back to that spot on the bank, but he couldn't locate the exact area where the fight was, and he was still terrified at the thought of coming close to Itombu. When he smelled something like anise and cooking pasta approach him, he had to hope it was an ally, and handed over the head. The archon then balanced the withered artifact on its central orb and floated back to deliver the orb to Ilisa.
Ilisa focused the power of the monkey's spirit for the first time, causing wisps of ghostly energy to surround her from head to toe. She charged up and touched Itombu, but the demon only laughed: She could not break through its magic resistance.
All seemed lost until Chester was hasted by the Grisgol and got into position. She glowed with the divine favor of Keltheald and roared with rage as she twice hacked through Itombu's shadow-stuff form. Itombu shrieked, saying that the party seemed like the most worthy vessels he had seen in a long time. He promised to return, and then began to flit through the shadows away from the party - flitting from one to the next until he was under the river, into the undergrowth, and then gone among the trees of the opposite bank.
Soon after, Phila felt his fear dissipating. The Grisgol's archon teamed up with Athyra to hunt down Jaji, who returned with his tail dragging through the underbrush. As half of the Mzali captives had still been tied, Phila was able to recapture them and force them back into the wagon. The Grisgol promised that she would not be distracted again if they were put into danger.
Thunderchild finally realized something was amiss with Runeshell. There was a smell of charring very close to her, but her wounds had been healed. And when she opened her backpack, she saw that the tortoise was still, its tongue lolling out. She began to sing a death song, gently laying Runeshell on the ground and praying for Thoth to give the tortoise's soul a good place in the afterlife. But slowly, the burning smell evaporated. Runeshell's leg twitched. And the shapes on his shell squirmed into new ones - now the central symbol was the head of an ibis, surrounded by glyphs of knowledge and understanding. Thunderchild's request had been heard, but a greater gift had been granted: Runeshell was back to life.
The party picked over the battle site, finding that the ape had been wearing a turquoise-studded and rain-spotted belt of natural armor +1 around one bicep, while the slain explorer-types had four sets of masterwork studded leather, three masterwork spears, five short swords, and what the Grisgol identified as a ring of sustenance with a pyrite inset. Phila claimed the ring, and Thunderchild claimed the belt. The party then unhitched their dead horse and continued on the riverside path.
That afternoon, the winds suddenly picked up, throwing the (still loose) chickens up into the trees. Ilisa flew up to try to catch them, but the Grisgol had already used a web spell to that effect, so instead Ilisa just tried to scout the weather. And she saw a massive, striated black cloud swallowing up the horizon to the west. She struggled against the winds coming down, nearly being swept away, but managed to be secured by Phila. Diamata diagnosed the cloud as a tropical depression, and just as she was saying so, a tree fell across the path behind the party, nearly crushing Jaji.
The party didn't have any choice but to keep going and try to find shelter, but their efforts were unfruitful: that night they camped in a muddy clearing, and all night they heard the cannon-peals of more trees coming down around them. They were even pelted with a short burst of hail - rare, in the tropics.
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The next morning was the 22nd of Lamashan, which was decidedly calmer both in terms of attacking monsters and weather. The forest was filled with fog all day as a result of the drenching on the 21st.
The evening of the 23rd of Lamashan, the party was attacked by a swarm of botflies which tried to infect one of the horses. Phila drank an unusual oil and tried to breathe flame on the bugs, but instead grievously burned his throat. Once he recovered, he, the Grisgol, and Thunderchild scared off the remainder of the swarm with glitterdust and fire. Ilisa surgically removed the eggs from Phila and the injured horse.
The 24th of Lamashan, another, less intense storm came through the hills. A lightning bolt struck quite near to the party, but thankfully the tree that it exploded did not harm anyone or any of the animals. That night, some curious giant spiders were caught prodding Muddy Lyza and Cornugon. Thunderchild killed one of the spiders before the other two fled, drawing the ire of the Grisgol who didn't think the death was necessary.
By the 25th of Lamashan, Athyra had finished training Jaji to guard during the night, which would hopefully lead to less intrusions from local wildlife. Still, the party typically had both Phila and Thunderchild on watch at this point, because as the latter always said, "[she doesn't] need to sleep." This Moonday was the beginning of the 6th week of the expedition.
The 26th of Lamashan was foggy and cloudy. The westerly winds were strong, but not nearly so inconvenient as those that accompanied storms.
On the 27th of Lamashan, the party woke to chaos. Phila had somehow acquired feathers stuck to his modified hellknight plate, making the frightening face on the chest appear like a wizened old owl. There was also an eldritch-looking chalk circle drawn on the ground around where he slept. Diamata jerked awake when Muddy Lyza crowed at about 10x his normal volume, bonking her head on the inverted collapsible bathtub that was apparently keeping the rooster confined to her upper body and face. The Grisgol woke with her hand in a jar of honey and feathers all over her face, and smacked herself in the face with the honey when she tried to feel what was irritating her skin. After tumbling ass-first out of the rope trick, she ran into the undergrowth in bewilderment. Fellstroke carried a bar of soap and some other items out to its master.
The person behind these pranks was Ilisa Khazard, though she'd had a little help from Thunderchild. The Grisgol surmised that the chaotic priestess had something to do with her humiliation, and began sending passive-aggressive messages out to the other party members with Fellstroke as courier. When Ilisa would only respond with strange and disturbing drawings of smiling faces, the Grisgol resorted to Diamata, who could explain that the 27th of Lamashan was known as Jestercap in Avistan and was a favored holiday of gnomes, Andorans, and Caydenites. The main tradition was to play pranks on friends and family members - the more unexpected, the better, with whole gnome villages descending into harmless chaos once a year. After a bit of thought, the Grisgol decided that she would play her own prank on Ilisa, and that it would be the best prank anyone had seen. As you'll read later, it was not really the best prank anyone had seen.
The party cleaned up camp (and the feathers) and got the Mzali captives back into the wagon. The day was cloudy and not humid, so they made good progress along the Korir. However, as they were rounding an oxbow cutoff, a swarm of small black flies rose out of the marshy grass and covered Athyra, Jaji, and one of the horses. Thunderchild urged the horses forward, hoping to get them out of the flies by galloping ahead, and Phila urged Tulip to do the same. However, he was distracted when he received a silent tap on his shoulder. The Grisgol's voice, emanating from nowhere, asked for his complicity in a prank she was about to play on Ilisa. All Phila had to do was give her a small jug of some sort.
Phila didn't have the space of mind to argue, so he handed over the jug and then stepped up to blast the swarm with a bolt of lightning.
The Grisgol filled the jug from the pond and quietly cast prestidigitation, causing it to smell and look exactly like a fine dark rum. She capped the lid and handed it off to Fellstroke, who began water-walking to the opposite bank of the pond with the jug floating behind it.
Meanwhile, Diamata and Thunderchild had identified the insects: they were yet more botflies. The flies had planted eggs in Chester and many of the animals, but at least the plan of outrunning them was working! The rapidly accelerating horses pulled out of the swarm . . . pulling Thunderchild, the captives, and the chickens into it. The Grisgol suddenly realized that she'd broken her promise to free the captives if they were at risk, and raced after the wagon to try to help them herself. But Ilisa was already bombing the swarm with alchemist's fire, and Thunderchild had scorched the last of the flies to ash before the Grisgol was able to do much of help. The fight was over, and Chester and Ilisa cut the implanted eggs out of everyone injured. Omawa complained throughout the procedure.
After that short rest, the party continued around the river's extension, and Ilisa discovered a strange wooden jug poking out of the ground. Opening it, she realized it was a delicious alcoholic beverage. She was suspicious, though, until the Grisgol took a swig and offered it to her. It had to be real!
Except oh, no, it was actually just regular pond water! The Grisgol was very proud about her successful prank, and it almost made up for breaking her promise to Omawa and the other captives. Ilisa was kinda worried about getting sick.
That night the party came to a quiet abandoned village. It was vine-ridden and looked like it had been previously flooded, but the stone houses were cool respites from the warmth. Ilisa spent a few minutes creating water and then using silver dust to bless it, in case they were attacked by demons again.
Around noon on the 28th of Lamashan, the Grisgol started feeling kind of sick. Suddenly, every half-hour she was calling for a rest stop and going into the bushes with some of the wide soft leaves Diamata had provided. Ilisa believed her duergar friend had contracted dysentery from the pond water, though Ilisa herself was free of symptoms.
It was during one of the Grisgol's rest stops that the party heard wingbeats and screeches. Suddenly, nearly a dozen red-scaled dimorphodons were diving out of the canopy. Those around the wagon huddled underneath its cover with the chickens, while those left out in the open shot spells and projectiles towards the approaching reptiles. It proved moderately effective to try and scare the dimorphodons away from the party, and it also proved effective to fly at them and fight them in the air. Soon, several of the dimorphodons had been killed and the rest had been driven off. The meat of those killed would supplement the party's hunting for the next few days.
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That night, the party camped on the riverbank with a small fire for cooking the dimorphodons. It was some hours before sunrise on the 29th of Lamashan that Phila and Thunderchild heard a splashing down in the water and suddenly saw four cobras slithering towards the shore. They got up to try and warn the animals off, but suddenly everything went dark. Supernaturally dark. The distorted voice of the shadow demon Itombu called out that he would now choose his host.
The battle broke out before everyone had fully woken, and the situation was indecipherable even to those who had witnessed its beginning. The most the party could gather was that Itombu had possessed one of the cobras, that the cobras were spitting cobras, and that they were more than willing to use the water to their advantage. Itombu opened with a blast of pure terror that sent many of the horses running, and Phila and Thunderchild actually intentionally freed them and Tulip from their tethers in case the fight went south. The Grisgol set Fellstroke to freeing the Mzali prisoners, who began helping the invisible servant free their fellows and then started running back along the wagon's tracks southwards. The rest of the party tried to give themselves an edge with the magics they had remaining, with Athyra and Jaji running up to fight the cobras and then the constrictor snake that Itombu had called to his aid. Thunderchild ran uphill to meet a crashing elephantine monster that Itombu had also summoned. She couldn't see it, though. No one could see anything.
Itombu opened the next round by summoning a wall of horseflesh between himself and the party, which isolated Jaji and the snakes he was fighting. Jaji was faring badly, not yet poisoned but badly wounded. And then suddenly, the party could smell jasmine and hyacinth flowers, and heard a roar. An angelic singing suddenly emanated from Jaji's position, a flickering light penetrating the darkness briefly before diminishing and letting the party see Itombu's snake-vessel slithering backwards about twenty feet out into the river. But the main thing the party saw was a golden afterimage of Jaji wreathed in flame, with a halo floating over his snarling head. He tore the cobra in front of him to pieces.
Diamata got ahold of some of the holy water Ilisa had made and started throwing it at Itombu - she got one lucky shot, but was still just throwing things in the dark and hoping they stuck. In response, Itombu conjured a shadowy crystal of ice that seemed to grow and divide of its own accord - making random ceilings, walls, and floors across the battlefield. It briefly separated Phila from the fight, but not for long: he banged his staff against the ground and began to lift off the ground. He gave his everburning torch to Ilisa, and then went invisible. After Ilisa brought the torch in range of Itombu, Jaji broke through the snake wall and started swimming towards his enemy. It was still dark, though - until Ilisa realized that the center of Itombu's spell was a stick lying on the shore. She cast daylight to counter the darkness, and the fight lit up as if the sun was rising. Chester broke through the horse wall and joined Jaji in the water, narrowly dodging a torrent of water that seemed to evaporate into nothing as soon as it lost momentum. The water did knock Ilisa back on her haunches, briefly removing Itombu from illumination.
In the confusion, Thunderchild discovered that the sound of crashing brush was just that - a sound. Standing in the center of it with a light, she couldn't see anything threatening. She returned to the party.
Phila flicked back into visibility and charged towards Itombu. He missed, but gave Jaji and Chester the chance to close. They proved more than adequate to destroy the shadow demon's vessel, and he predictably rose above the water in shadowy-jpeg form. And was shot at by the archons that the Grisgol had been accumulating in the area. Suddenly, the party had it encircled in all directions. Except up.
Itombu started to flit cloudwards. And was suddenly stopped by a long, heavy stick that bisected it from head-zone to waist-zone. A second Phila had appeared directly above Itombu. The real Phila, actually. The Phila who'd missed the demon earlier was an illusion conjured by the Grisgol. And its place in the square had already been closed by Athyra. The archons and Thunderchild - and the now apparently celestial Jaji - began tearing burning rents in the demon that had brought the party so much grief. The fight seemed almost over - there seemed no way Itombu could cast while so penned-in.
But there was.
The demon melted out of the way of halberd, staff, and claw as it focused its inner magic. It seemed to disappear. And then the ioun stone that had been floating around its head since the first fight with the ape vessel floated through the air towards the shore.
It settled into an orbit around the Grisgol's head.
Itombu's laughter filled the party's heads.
And then the Grisgol disappeared from sight.
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The party searched for hours. They found the horses grazing nearby. They found Tulip with them. They found the footprints of the Mzali rangers heading south at speed, and decided to let them go for their missing companion's sake. But sunrise came, and they couldn't find the Grisgol.
The party slowly broke fast and then camp. They led the wagon up the noisy riverbank. Still no sign of their missing friend.
At one point, Jaji nearly brushed up against a strange-looking scaly tree. Thunderchild realized that this tree was the obligate home of an aphid that secretes a thick oily poison. She first shouted for Jaji to get away, then warned everyone not to use fire. With Athyra's help, Jaji was effectively warded away, and nothing came of the encounter.
About an hour afterwards, the party came into a cloud bank, and it began to gently mist.
Near sunset, the party arrived in the village they'd been planning to take their captives to: the Noedtwan tribe seasonal camp. It was built in a clearing about fifty meters from the river, with a corral populated by goats and cattle situated closest to the trail. In the center were a scattering of stone and wood buildings with thatch roofs, and closest to the river was a pond that was connected to fresh water with a deep ditch. Circling the village were wooden statues sculpted to have terrifying faces. Thunderchild believed these were designed to defend the village from unwanted spirits.
Diamata hailed the first person the party saw in the village, a lanky gatherer named Orda, and they were quickly welcomed.
As they entered the center of the dwellings, Diamata explained that the Noedtwan tribe believed in wendo, or spirits, that suffused the material world and could be called upon in exclusive, private ceremonies. The Noedtwan tribe was spiritually led by their wendifa, who led these ceremonies and protected the tribe from otherworldly threats. Just at that moment, Orda showed the party into one of the stone dwellings. It was dark and smoky inside, but they were warmly greeted by the Noedtwan wendifa, Su-Eloko Amkharize. He introduced them to a strange two-dimensional paper-person, named Healer Siren, and a burly warrior named Mureg Fish-Scarred.
Amkharize offered the party one of the houses on the outskirts of the villages in which to spend the night. He also asked if they had any news of the southern forest, as the Noedtwan tribe would be moving down in elevation at the start of the oncoming dry season. The party recounted their encounters with the Shezek tribe, and the botflies and dimorphodons, and the shadow demon Itombu. The last caused Amkharize to gasp. He explained that Itombu, the Seventh Accident, had in the last 10 years exterminated or driven off all the other tribes in the western Screaming Jungle, and that it was only through his regular refreshment of the protections on his tribe that they had escaped destruction. For the party to have survived two encounters with that contrary wendo meant they were as worthy warriors as the Noedtwan hero Amghawe.
The party also warned Amkharize that they were only the advance agents of a larger group of explorers seeking the lost city of Tazion. Amkharize had not heard of Tazion, but he suggested that their two groups could find a way to mutually assist one another. His tribe would offer no hostility to the Pathfinder Society expedition, in exchange for their agents vanquishing a greater wendo that had only recently become a threat.
Mfuello, the Journeyer, was a frog-like wendo who possessed an impetuous young Noedtwan necromancer named Jigeke about a month ago. Jigeke, with Mfuello controlling, then raided the tomb of Mfuello's old companion Amghawe, enthralling two long-clawed undead defenders as well as Amghawe's legendary spear and war mask. Mfuello and Jigeke had been roaming the forest indiscriminately killing everything they come across, and Amkharize had been unable to stop them - all he could do was make his own tribe members invisible to Mfuello and immune to the wendo's spells. Mfuello would prove a threat to both the party and their expedition, if left unchecked.
The party agreed to try to track down Jigeke and exorcise Mfuello from him, one way or another. At this point, Amkharize offered them the aid of one of his people - Healer Siren, certainly, could help lead the way to Amghawe's Tomb. She seemed most exuberant about the prospect. The wendifa also asked for a bit of hair from each of the party, and promised to prepare them juju tokens to protect them from Mfuello's magic. The party then dispersed to check out what was going on in the village.
During the meeting, the villagers had been gathering around the wagon. Mureg Fish-Scarred explained to a befuddled Phila that one of her people's patron wendo was the rooster Tokuru, the Lover. Their tribe held chickens in high esteem, and the birds were allowed to walk freely around the village and eat from the villager's grain. Phila realized this was the perfect opportunity to give Cornugon and Muddy Lyza a better life; there had been more than enough close calls in these battles with Itombu. He decided to do some shopping.
Thunderchild was way ahead of him, though. She had discovered that the lanky hunter, Orda of the Canopy, had a prism-like lens of detection, and with Ilisa's help thoroughly fleeced her through an extended haggling. No one even wants to know how little she paid for the item. Ilisa was ashamed for helping, as she hadn't realized that scamming was what was happening. Thunderchild gave Ilisa her old lenses of comprehend languages as thanks.
When Phila joined Thunderchild, the sorcerer had found someone selling magic scrolls, and the fighter bought nearly the whole stock. He bought scrolls of protection, utility, offense, and communication. Phila immediately used one of the latter - a scroll of commune with birds. He then went back to the wagon and, wrestling with the magical writing for a few minutes, managed to cast it. He bade farewell to Cornugon and Muddy Lyza, promising them that they would be safe and well-fed if they stayed with the Noedtwan nomads, and also went to talk to Jaji. Jaji was terrible to talk to. As the time on the scroll was running out, he flew up into the canopy and tried talking to some of the songbirds. They couldn't give much useful information, but talked about giant monsters to the north. They said that the giants were sleeping in a hole. Phila gave some of the scrolls to Thunderchild to hold onto.
That night, the party stayed in their cramped house while the villagers conducted a murmured ceremony outside. They wondered what had happened to the Grisgol.
The next morning was the 30th of Lamashan. Amkharize came to the party's house and divided out little bags with what felt like bones inside. Even the horses and Tulip received such a bag. Amkharize explained that the bags would grant them immunity to Mfuello's spells and just generally deflect ill luck, for one day less than two weeks. However, if they chose not to apprehend Jigeke, they would instead be cursed for the duration of that period. Amkharize expressed his hope that the party survived the battle ahead.
Healer Siren joined the party as they were hitching up the horses, and began to lead the way north.
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The party climbed uphill through rain and fog for hours. After noon, Healer Siren directed them off road, following a set of enormous angular footprints. After a few minutes, they had arrived in a clearing filled with anthills. A boab tree in the center of the clearing was adorned with the splayed-open carcass of a boar. Behind the tree was a cairn with a gaping hole.
As the party approached, the fog shifted, blocking their view of the cairn. They suddenly heard a deep, yet strangely squeezed-sounding, voice. "Who has come to see Mfuello, and what do you want?" said a Noedtwan man stepping out of the fog. He held a long spear, and he wore a wooden mask carved in the shape of a frog. Two enormous figures with off-color green flesh - troll zombies, Ilisa and Thunderchild gathered - stepped out to flank the mage.
The party explained that they wanted Mfuello to free Jigeke and give up the spear and mask he had taken from Amghawe's tomb. Mfuello refused with a petulant croak, and waved his trolls forward. Then a ghostly force shot forward from him, grabbing the party in invisible giant fists - but their bone pouches began to rattle, and the squeezing sensation suddenly melted away. Healer Siren pulled a 2-dimensional lute out of her backpack and began playing a soothing yet inspiring song. Athyra, Phila, and Jaji then met the onrushing trolls, which had gone straight for Tulip and the horses. Unfortunately, Tulip was seriously injured, but the trolls couldn't long survive the meat grinder.
One troll was down, and the other was tied up in combat with Jaji and Athyra. Ilisa got in close to Jigeke and tried to use the magic of the spirit monkey's head to dispel Mfuello's hold on him, but the wendo just shrugged it off. Mfuello lifted up into the air and started turning the ground around the party to mud, but as Phila charged forward each footstep turned the slop back into solid ground. Mfuello let out a froggy curse. Why was everyone conspiring against him? He shot a ray of sickly dark energy at Ilisa, who felt a drain on her life force but resisted permanent injury.
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Diamata then started unloading arrows into Mfuello, and Phila closed to melee. He felt a tangible, if not all that powerful, leaching of his energy when he approached the possessed Noedtwan. Then Mfuello actively stole some of the fighter's life force with a vampiric touch spell, before pulling down a tree and flying north through the understory.
Unfortunately for him, the bone pouches rattled again, and the tree landed as if in slow motion, leaving plenty of time to move out of the way. (Having killed the second troll) Chester raced after Mfuello on foot with halberd drawn, rapidly outpacing the armored Phila. Ilisa was too busy repairing Phila's wounds to take advantage of her own Cayden-granted speed. Thunderchild couldn't fly, but she and Diamata could shoot, and the two of them kept unloading magical and mundane missiles into Jigeke's body as the wendo fled. Then Phila grabbed Thunderchild and slapped his staff against the ground. Suddenly, the two of them were in the middle of the jungle, with the light of the clearing behind them and Mfuello just before them. Thunderchild blasted him with holy fire, and he tried again to flee while pumping healing magic into himself from a wand. Phila put a stop to the former by thrusting outward with an invisible force and grabbing Jigeke's body, and Thunderchild dispelled Jigeke's flight for good measure. Phila dragged the struggling necromancer/wendo back to melee range and began psychically squeezing the life out of him while Thunderchild kept blasting at point-blank range. She worked out that Mfuello had an aura of cannibalism that the necromancer had surrounded himself with - it drained the life of humans and gave it to Jigeke. But Phila's mental grip strengthened, and Jigeke's face turned green. And suddenly, he was lying prostrate on the ground, with the blue form of Mfuello the greater wendo looming in the canopy above. The party heard an echoing croak of disappointment as he disappeared.
When the party revived Jigeke, he was contrite and upset about what "he" had "done" while under Mfuello's control. He asked the party to take his onyx gems, because the art of necromancy had been ruined by what he'd done under Mfuello's control. He also gave over the spear and mask of Amghawe, which Healer Siren reminded Phila were his to take if he felt they would help in keeping the Mwangi Expanse free. Phila decided to take them. Thunderchild promptly confiscated the necromancer's spellbook to keep him from creating or controlling more undead, and in case the Grisgol wanted it, if they could ever find her and free her from Itombu. Jigeke also offered some odds and ends - an amulet of natural armor, his wand of cure light wounds, a scroll - saying he was going to try and avoid adventures like these from now on.
The party repaired Amghawe's Tomb and bid farewell to Jigeke, who said he was going to seek forgiveness from his people. Healer Siren said she'd stay on until the party reached a certain waterfall, but would then need to return homewards in preparation for the triannual Noedtwan migration.
That night, Phila asked Thunderchild to start helping him learn Celestial, and Thunderchild decided to learn Polyglot from him. Since they both now had rings of sustenance, they got in plenty of study time.
Around three hours before sunrise, they noticed a bunch of snakes sneaking into camp. Fearing another Itombu attack, the party quickly roused and began bashing in snake skulls, but it appeared that the six snakes were simply looking for food. The party scolded Diamata for her overzealous response - she was throwing unconscious snakes into the river rather than giving them the chance of recuperating on their own.
After killing the snakes, the party heard a rustling to the north.
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As soon as she was shunted into the stone, the Grisgol lost all perceptions save for a strange sense of the souls around her. She sensed numerous living beings of varying power at the start - including powerful soul which occupied the place where her body had been moments before. The other souls were likely those of her friends, but she sensed them for only a few moments before they were suddenly gone. The quiet hum of tiny life still resonated in the space around her, but the locations of each speck had changed, implying to the Grisgol that Itombu had teleported away from the battle rather than killing all her friends instantly.
She quickly discerned that the demon was teleporting around rapidly; perhaps using a method for throwing off pursuit that the demon had learned in the Abyss. Eventually, he slowed down, and the Grisgol sensed that he began to systematically extinguish the lives of hundreds of living beings - almost all of them were small in power, at least. The slaughter seemed unending, unmoored from sight and sound as she was, so it took her a few minutes to realize he'd stopped killing. In fact, he was staying still in reference to the other life around him. Then, suddenly, she was unconscious.
The Grisgol dreamed of the Dark Smith berating her personally, warning her that her transgressions would land her in his forge. Then he picked her up and threw her out into a kind of wakefulness. She didn't resist until it was too late - she was back in the stone, able to perceive its magic and the lives of creatures around it, but nothing else. Suddenly, Itombu teleported, and there was an unusually large living being, not Itombu, who was very close by. It began to speed towards Itombu, but the demon teleported a small distance away and snuffed out the being's life just like everything else. Then Itombu teleported to a place that was devoid of life except for a column of tiny beings extending in one direction away from Itombu until they faded out of sense range. The life forms began crawling over Itombu's spark. Itombu allowed this to go on for a long time (perhaps hours), but then teleported back to a biome that the Grisgol was beginning to recognize as cloud forest. Itombu did not resume his killing spree, but the Grisgol was relatively certain he was still getting up to some mischief as he walked through the forest in her body.
After a while, Itombu stopped moving. Suddenly, the Grisgol was sleeping again. She had a dream of revelry and music that was interrupted by chains that snaked into the feast and began pulling people away. No one else at the feast seemed to notice the disappearances, and soon only the Grisgol remained. And then a chain came snaking out of the smoky darkness for her. But she realized it wasn't her, but an illusion. She remained in her own flesh, and now she woke - in her own body.
The Grisgol was in a familiarly noisy forest. She was incredibly thirsty. And incredibly hungry. And covered in bruises and some sort of arthropod bites. But she was back in her body.
Itombu was floating over her, his form barely visible as a transparent silhouette against the leaf-dappled stars. He hissed at her, then fled.
The Grisgol stepped out from the vegetation. She was covered in bites, cuts, bruises, and strange red marks, and her normally gray skin had an unhealthy white pallor. She started to call out a hello and ask for water, but was suddenly warned not to approach. Phila and Thunderchild asked her for proof that she wasn't still possessed.
The Grisgol started trying to explain that she'd broken free, that she was incredibly thirsty . . . but suddenly, the campsite went completely, utterly dark.
The party realized that Itombu had begun his third assault on their group, and rallied around Phila's everburning torch and Ilisa's magic circles against evil. When Itombu released a blast of fear, not even the horses were afraid, but his gaze started worming his way into the psyche of the Grisgol again.
The Grisgol had prepared spells immediately after realizing she'd resisted Itombu's most recent possession attempt. She summoned a lantern archon, which shed enough light in the regular darkness that the party could see and fight. Phila heightened the inherent magic in his staff to specifically hurt demons, while Athyra dispelled yet another shadow-crocodile. Diamata and Thunderchild used the magic they had to try and cut some holes in Itombu, while Healer Siren played a song to keep everyone moving quickly.
Suddenly, the Grisgol felt the mounting pressure on her mind culminate - she felt that Itombu had been misunderstood this whole time. He hadn't killed her or any of her friends, had he? He was just a wild spirit - no, no, that was wrong. He'd starved her of food and water, he'd killed Thunderchild's pet. She shook off his control once and for all.
Phila finally caught up to Itombu, who was flitting around the campsite like an especially large insect. He and Jaji, who was once again glowing with a strange angelic light, pulled the demon's shadowstuff body to shreds. Itombu was shocked at how quickly this was happening - panicked, he tried to teleport away again. But Phila saw that plan, and attacked at just the right moment to disrupt the spell. Itombu let out a howl of "This was my forest!" as Phila's staff divided him into two puffs of smoke, which then flattened down into a shadow underneath Phila. The demon was finally dead.
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The Grisgol walked over and picked up the stone that had been circling around Itombu's head - the ioun stone that her soul had been imprisoned in. She placed it in a pocket.
Then she turned to Ilisa and demanded some water.
The party made no rejoicing at the return of their friend and the death of their enemy. After ten days of being hunted by Itombu, they were too tired. They simply slept for the hours of the night that remained, then broke camp. As they were doing so, they noticed that Healer Siren had shouldered her 2-dimensional pack and was standing at the southern side of the campsite. She explained that now that Itombu was gone, the party need not worry about something following them out of the jungle, and they did not really need her help with the Grisgol returned to them. She also needed to return to the Noedtwan camp before they moved on to the next village site, so it was best that she leave them that day. The party and she exchanged farewells, and then both groups departed in their opposite directions.
As they climbed up a narrow zigzagging track cut into the side of a waterfall-sprayed cliff, Diamata explained that the season was shifting. That day, the 31st of Lamashan, was the last day of the dry season. By a funny coincidence, it was just that day that they reached the top of the cliff and saw the forest open up into the already-browning upland Korir Plains. Diamata said that the heat would now be even worse than what the party experienced between Eleder and the Screaming Jungle. For that first day of hiking, though, there was a cooling rainstorm in the afternoon, and the air was pleasantly dry in contrast to the cloud forest. The Grisgol seemed to be recovering nicely from her dehydration and illness.
The 1st of Neth, a Moonday, was the end of the party's 6th week on the road. The party hiked along the riparian zone of the Korir River, which was sometimes wide and reed-filled, other times deeply eroded and flanked by massive trees. Along the way, Athyra asked the party what their favorite dinosaurs were. Thunderchild said hers was the ankylosaurus, a club-tailed variety with heavy armor. Athyra thought that deinonychuses were the best.
The next day was the 2nd of Neth, and apart from some fog coming up from the lower elevations, not much happened.
The 3rd of Neth, the party came across an ancient well with runes in archaic Polyglot saying that dropping a clean agate into its water would curse their greatest enemy. Thunderchild and Diamata spent about twenty minutes casting about for agates. When she found one, Diamata said she was cursing someone who betrayed her, while Thunderchild wasn't sure who she was cursing but figured it was good to be safe. Phila and the Grisgol thought the whole idea was kind of petty.
On the 4th of Neth, the fog returned, but Diamata was born a Bas'o - she would never have problems navigating in the plains.
The 5th of Neth brought more fog in the morning and evening, but it just lay around the river. Because the party was now practically travelling through the Bandu Hills, they were able to find a small rise from which they could clearly see the night sky that evening. Diamata and Phila were helping Ilisa and Thunderchild through some phrases in Zenj, when Diamata spontaneously asked why everyone ended up leaving their homes. Thunderchild explained that she'd been groomed to join the cult of Bast by her parents, but that she had no interest in becoming a backstabbing schemer and fled to join a wizard's school . . . where she also didn't feel at home. And then she wound up in Eleder looking for work. Diamata grimaced in recognition at that last part, but didn't share her own story.
The next day (the 6th of Neth) was calm and warm. As the party walked, they periodically spotted ruins on the opposite shore, crumbled beyond recognition. On their side of the river, the dirt track that they had followed in the Screaming Jungle had merged into an overgrown stone pathway. Diamata described the decaying remnants as the last marks of the Devouring Kingdom, a nation that had once reigned across the highlands of the Mwangi Expanse before being consumed in a war with a mighty city-state.
Near sunset, the party spotted a pair of canoes in the shallows of the Korir River. There were four Bonuwat people in each canoe, and all seemed to be wearing a similar style of clothing - knee-length dresses made of a silvery material that the party later determined to be enormous fish scales.
The Grisgol cautioned everyone to go into the meeting slowly - these people were of the Birana tribe, which had a rigorous honor code according to the books she'd read on the subject. Someone in the party needed to perform a Stranger Greeting, raising a shield and making a series of non-aggressive gestures, to approach members of this tribe while within their river zone. Of course, she couldn't do it herself, but Phila was willing to take Ilisa's shield and approximate the proper symbols with the Grisgol and Diamata coaching. The Birana made signs of friendship in response and rowed ashore. Their leader, Aoo, was the only one in the group who could easily speak Zenj, so the party spoke to her primarily. She said they and their coming expedition were welcome to pass through the Birana's lands, and appreciated the warning Phila gave about more hostile groups potentially coming through. She offered to share a meal with them at the group's camp a couple miles upstream.
The party agreed, and led their wagons upstream while the Birana bore the canoes over their heads. They stopped at a grove of palms with a fire ring and tents made of skins and thatch. Across the river from the camp, on a hilltop, were the ruins of the city once called Liclac. The Birana began cooking a small, bony fish called maka-yika, which acquired a buttery taste when fire-roasted. As she cooked, Aoo told the party about events in the region; among others, that the Tarasu Zenj tribe to the north had recently lost their spirit dancers to some unknown calamity. The party told her about the wendo they'd defeated in the Screaming Jungle, which she was impressed by. She also asked for stories of distant Kalabuto, and was regaled with the saga of Jaji getting drunk and throwing up, as well as that of the party saving Phila's grandmother.
Suddenly, the party heard the clear sound of a bell ringing in the night. All eight of the Birana simultaneously stood up and began running towards the sound. Phila ran after them, trying to understand what was happening.
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The party then heard a second bell, ringing to the south. They felt a strange pull towards the source of the sound, and Athyra, Chester, the Grisgol and one of the horses stood up and began to curiously pursue the noise. Thunderchild realized that some sort of enchantment had befallen the party and their hosts, and began following her friends. Ilisa chased the whole group and buffed them with bless and prayer.
Phila chased the Birana tribesfolk through the dark grove, and nearly stumbled on three of them up to their necks in what he quickly realized was quicksand. He threw a rope to one of the Birana and used the power in his staff to fly over the ground, hoping to avoid any more pools of liquefied mud.
Soon, the southern group encountered something that seemed to be related to the ringing. It was a tiny person with brilliantly, garishly colored skin and hair and a rusty iron bell around their neck. The person swung at the approaching Chester with a long, bloodstained halberd and hopped backwards. Chester didn't snap out of her fugue - just stepped slowly forward. And before their eyes, the tiny person suddenly sprouted into a giant twice Phila's height. Athyra fled at once, and the Grisgol as well felt her will breaking again. Athyra mired herself in a pool of quicksand, while Chester and the horse doggedly followed the object of their fixation and the Grisgol was tripped by Thunderchild.
Thunderchild realized that these were the gnome-like Eloko that Cheiton had warned the party about back in Kalabuto; they were especially dangerous when their prey were caught unawares.
Ilisa cast dispel magic to remove the Grisgol's compulsions. Unfortunately, she didn't do much to keep a second Eloko from hopping out of the green to ambush Chester and enlarge, and the barbarian-cleric was actually wounded with these new attacks. Thunderchild began spraying beams of fire and bolts of magic to burn the new appearance, and ordered Jaji to attack. About this time, Diamata got line of sight with those Eloko and also started shooting. Ilisa decided to use her flight spell to run over to help Phila, who might be dealing with more Eloko himself.
Meanwhile, Phila had caught up to the Eloko who had indeed lured away the Birana. The whole group was already at the western edge of the grove. Unfortunately, by the time Phila arrived, several of the Birana several lay dying on the grass. Aoo was still standing, but was also still enthralled. Phila rushed up and began swinging at the Eloko responsible, but couldn't stop it from casually retreating, then slashing the Birana who followed it. Just in time arrived Ilisa, who let out a channel to heal the wounded Birana and then helped Phila pen in the Eloko. Then the spell over the Birana seemed to lift, and those conscious pulled out their weapons and began helping Phila. Unfortunately, Ilisa noticed one of the Birana still laying face-down in the quicksand . . .
Jaji ran to join the fight with the southernmost Eloko, but was promptly frightened away by one of their scares. He ran right into the quicksand that had captured Athyra, who had since broken free of the fear effect and was closing back in on the Eloko. Suddenly, she and Chester both also seemed to break free of their transfixion on the bell sound, and began chopping with wood halberd and bone glaive in unison. The first Eloko was decapitated, and the other tried to flee - but Thunderchild and Chester quickly destroyed it.
Phila yelled for the Birana to save their friends from the quicksand and flew back over towards his friends. He saw that all the enemies had been defeated, but that Jaji was still trapped in the mud, and he leaned down to try to pull the dinosaur up. Unfortunately, he overestimated the strength of his spell, and was sucked down into the quicksand with Jaji. Then Jaji stepped over him to climb onto dry land. Athyra came up, saw Phila stuck, and got a rope from the wagon. She then had Jaji pull the fighter out, and barbarian and dinosaur seemed very proud of their helpfulness.
Meanwhile, the Birana had saved their suffocating member, and everyone went down to the river to clean off in the moonlight. They heard strange scream-like noises from the ruins across the river, and Aoo said it was best that everyone get under cover and sleep away the full moon. The Birana set up several additional antelope-skin tents for the party to use, and surprisingly, the night passed peacefully after that.
The next morning, the 7th of Neth, Aoo presented Thunderchild with a white eelskin glove, saying that it would show the Birana's favor to the next tribe the party met in the Korir watershed. Thunderchild wanted to trade something in return for the glove, but Aoo would not hear of it. The party also picked up the gear that the Eloko had carried - their halberds and some leather armor and daggers - and Chester pocketed the iron bells for her own purposes.
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The party made good progress that day, apart from a detour they had to make around a valley filled with cracks wide enough to swallow a wagon wheel. The next day was the 8th of Neth, a Moonday that marked the end of the seventh week of the expedition. It was windy, and the aridity was beginning to become uncomfortable under the blazing blue sky, even though most of the party was magically protected from heat.
The 9th of Neth, the party came to a wetland where a bunch of clotheless humanoids were digging in the mud. As soon as they saw the party, they ran towards them, screaming with teeth bared. The Grisgol identified them as chimpanzees, and Phila scared them away with Amghawe's mask.
On the 10th of Neth, the sky was overcast, the air humid, and massive swarms of midges descended on the party's eyes, noses, and mouths. The horses were very uncomfortable, but the insects didn't prove dangerous. That night, the party camped quite close to the river.
Shortly after midnight on the 11th of Neth, as the stars were starting to peek out from behind the clouds, Thunderchild heard a strange noise from the riverside. When she went to look, she discovered two small river dolphins swimming in frantic circles in a pool separated from the river itself by a patch of drying gravel. Thunderchild woke Ilisa and the Grisgol and got them to magically lift the two dolphins out of the river pool and into the river, and the dolphins stayed and chittered at the party for a moment before swimming out into the channel.
After completing their rest, the party continued up along the Korir. At this elevation, the tall ngalamas and afzelias had given way entirely to wide wetlands of reeds, mangroves, and lotuses. After a few miles of travel, the party spotted four young Zenj women washing laundry in the river.
The women greeted the party and introduced themselves as Zakiyya, Alala, Masozi, and Osumare. They invited the party to come share a meal with them, and the party gladly accepted and was led to a little riverside hut. Chester said she'd watch over the animals outside and eat later, but Athyra brought Jaji in with her.
As the four women were cooking, Osumare explained to the party that they were spirit dancers and tattooists, capable of awakening a person's connection to nature. The spirit dancers offered the party these spirit tattoos, saying they had an air of destiny around them. The Grisgol was perturbed by the idea of taking the tattoos without paying in some way, and offered to tell the story of the party's experiences so far in exchange for the food and ink. She began doing so, starting with the day she climbed out of that tunnel underneath the Shiv.
Meanwhile, Thunderchild was doing some serious sleuthing. She thought the way the spirit dancers was acting seemed a bit strange - forced, sometimes. Like they were being compelled by some sort of enchantment. So she coughed and tried to surreptitiously cast detect magic without arousing the dancers' suspicion. Phila thought this was extremely rude - casting a spell under someone else's roof, without asking? - and Zakiyya echoed his concern a little more diplomatically.
But just at that moment, the food was ready, with Alala taking a portion of fish over to Jaji before joining everyone else at the table. The party sat down and began eating the hearty fish, frog legs, and wild rice that had been prepared for them. The Grisgol completed her story up to the point where Itombu was finally slain, which particularly impressed Zakiyya. That was the same Itombu who'd been a scourge on the Screaming Jungle for how many years now?
Suddenly, Thunderchild tried to cast a message spell to her friends. At this, Phila outright grappled Thunderchild and demanded she stop insulting their hosts. Masozi stood up and said the dancers didn't know the party, that they couldn't trust them to keep casting spells on them without knowing the content of those spells. Thunderchild begrudgingly sat back down.
The Grisgol suggested a compromise. She didn't think there was anything to Thunderchild's claim that the spirit dancers were possessed, and she didn't want to be rude, but there was a way to check the purported auras on the spirit dancers without directly casting any spells on them. She would go outside, cast detect magic, and THEN open the door, letting the natural vision of detect magic fill the room but not actively casting any spells the spirit dancers couldn't identify.
Zakiyya nodded. "Yes, let's do that." Phila followed the Grisgol outside to keep an eye on her.
Then as soon as the door was shut, the spirit dancers stared hard at everyone in the room, several of them twisting their hands and making strange intonations. Ilisa and Thunderchild suddenly felt an incredible wash of love for them. Ilisa managed to resist what she immediately realized was charming, but Thunderchild had no such luck.
Outside, the Grisgol cast dispel magic on Phila, who tried to stop her for a short moment before composing himself. As soon as the spell completed, the fighter blurted out that he had been compelled to stop Thunderchild from spellcasting. The Grisgol nodded and began buffing and summoning dretches.
Hearing the prolonged spellcasting outside, Alala stepped up and opened the door prematurely, and a brawl broke out. The Grisgol's dretches started filling the hut with stinking cloud, making the possibility of the spirit dancers casting more enchantments slight. The party heard several of the spirit dancers retching in the midst of the noxious cloud.
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Thunderchild and Ilisa recognized the demons the Grisgol had summoned, and were not happy with her choice of servant. Someone in the fog shouted, "You're accusing us of being charmed when you're summoning demons?"
Phila ran around the side of the building and reached through the window to grab Masozi, who began gyrating strangely rather than trying to get out of his grip. Suddenly, Phila felt a hand not Masozi's grab his arm - Diamata was trying to help her break free! Inside the building, Athyra could be heard calling to Jaji to "Attack bubbly mouth things!" - meaning the dretches. Ever obedient, the dinosaur ran outside and began tearing into one of the two the Grisgol had summoned. Thunderchild left the building, avoiding the nausea by holding her breath, and went around the back side of the building, saying that she was going to try to talk down the spirit dancers before a real fight broke out.
Someone started blowing darts out one of the windows towards the Grisgol, and one hit - but she felt only a mild sting. When she looked down, she realized that it had been tipped with poison, but she was of course immune to that.
Ilisa got a hold of Athyra and dispelled the effect on her. Athyra pulled out her glaive and stepped towards the back of the hut, calling for Jaji to stop attacking the demons.
Phila pulled his captive through the window, breaking Diamata's grasp, and brought her into a magic circle against evil that was surrounding the Grisgol. A light seemed to re-enter Masozi's eyes, and she kicked herself to her feet and exclaimed that he could let go of her now. Phila released his grip and she began trying to daze Alala and Osumare.
Just at that moment, Phila and the Grisgol caught a glimpse of something odd. Thunderchild was leaning into the back window . . . and Zakiyya was touching her forehead!
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Thunderchild was glowing, radiant, but something was off about her. The Grisgol realized then that Zakiyya was a succubus, and all the other details suddenly fit. She had compelled the spirit dancers away from their homes - them being the same Tarasu Zenj dancers that Aoo had spoken of - brought them to this hut, and was now using them to waylay travelers.
The focus of the combat began to shift towards Zakiyya, despite her sending her remaining minions in the way. Chester circled around the whole combat, having finally decided to do something, and grabbed Osumare with the intention of bringing her into the Grisgol's magic circle, but the spirit dancer wriggled out of her grasp and fell prone inside the window. Zakiyya came to the northern window and grabbed Ilisa, kissing her full on the mouth. Ilisa didn't glow, though - her hair became a touch grey, and she stumbled as if suddenly exhausted.
Athyra got Jaji to attack - but he didn't know who she was indicating in the fog, and started trying to kill Alala instead of Zakiyya. The Grisgol yelled to Osumare that her friend was about to die, but Osumare couldn't break free of Zakiyya's control, and kept trying to daze Phila. For a moment, she succeeded in stalling him - but just for a moment.
Phila grabbed the succubus by the shoulders and wrenched her out of the house, continuing to hold her as the dretches, Masozi, and Ilisa attacked. Unfortunately, the dretches and Masozi weren't able to penetrate Zakiyya's unnatural flesh, but Chester arrived to add her living halberd to Ilisa's bleeding rapier.
Zakiyya frantically ordered Thunderchild, Osumare, and Diamata to attack Phila, but his armor was too thick. She began to grow transparent, starting to phase out of reality - before Phila jerked her back, breaking her concentration. The demon broke free of the grapple - but just for a moment, as he then stepped forward and felled her with his staff.
Ilisa ran into the house just in time to stablize Alala, and the four spirit dancers thanked the party for freeing them. Thunderchild quickly came to her senses and explained that Zakiyya had spoken to her in her head, telling her that she could make her cast spells of greater power. And she'd accepted that gift, and felt no side effects. Ilisa was a bit skeptical, but couldn't detect anything immediately dangerous about the gift.
Masozi said the party could take Zakiyya's effects, as they had no use for them. Chester took her poison and blowgun, her dagger, and her tattooing quills. Thunderchild took her amulet, which she had determined would grant thickened skin, and tied it around Runeshell's shell. Phila took the demon's two bracers of armor and stuck them on Tulip's legs, creating a weak shield of protection around the ox.
After being fully healed and cleaning up the mess on the dining table, the spirit dancers asked if the party still wanted the tattoos they had spoken of earlier. The tattoos would guide the party to the end of journey, and perhaps help them later when they were fulfilling the destiny that Nkechi and then Chester had foreseen.
The party agreed to receive the tattoos, and the spirit dancers set to work. For each party member, they performed a long interpretive dance, summoning a minor wendo copacetic with that person's outlook and personality. They then bound that wendo into the person's skin with (anesthetic-coated) quill and ink. Chester received a tattoo of a vulture on her left bicep. Ilisa received a tattoo of a rhinoceros on the side of her leg. Phila's tattoo was of a wasp, which he got on his right fist. The Grisgol's tattoo was of a parrot on her cheek. And Thunderchild got a tattoo of a turtle on her lower back. Diamata didn't want a tattoo, and Athyra started getting one and immediately chickened out from the pain. The rituals lasted into the night.
As she finished the last tattoo, Alala explained that those who bore one could call upon their wendo to gain luck in an endeavor under that spirit's scope of power, or to commune with an animal of the same type. The party thanked the Tarasu women, and as it was late, everyone put bedrolls and straw mattresses on the floor and went to sleep. The next day, the Pathfinders would leave the Korir River and strike out across a spur of the Bandu Hills, while the spirit dancers would head north to find their tribe.
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The next morning was the 12th of Neth, a Fireday. Masozi, Osumare, and Alala said a quick goodbye, shouldered their possessions, and began the walk north to where they hoped they could find the Tarasu tribe. The party took a bit longer to get ready, with Ilisa's condition being no better. Eventually, though, they shouldered their packs and began the uphill march with the sun still at their back.
About an hour in, Thunderchild realized they should give the Pathfinder Society some directions. She spent a short while preparing a note to the Pathfinder expedition about it at a crossroads in the bush trails, and placed a pouch full of gold and a scroll of whispering wind with it.
Yo Gellik, it's TC. We had a bit of trouble, Ilisa got blasted by a spell and needs some diamond dust. I can hook you up with the gold, if you could send a pidgeon or something with a bag of it that would be great.
Phila left some rocks in an arrow shape to point out the party's direction.
The party led their wagon west into the foothills. Just as the sun had gone down between two green-capped mountains, everyone felt a strange stirring around their necks. The little bone pouches the party had gotten from Su-Eloko Amkharize animated into small bat-shaped creatures that ripped themselves free of the strings and flew away on leather wings. The party's protection against wendo was gone with it.
The night was cool and clear. The next morning was the 13th of Neth. It was warm and humid, with thunderstorms all morning. Around midmorning, a lightning strike connected to a tree near the party, sending burning wood shards flying - thankfully, no one was harmed.
Along the party's path that morning, Thunderchild heard strange, loud voices speaking in Giant. The Grisgol went to scout and saw five trolls arguing with each other about a watering hole that had dried up. Thunderchild suggested that they just give the monsters a wide berth and creep past, but Chester realized that she could easily solve their dispute and went to the top of the hill to cast create water. The trolls ran up to drink from the impromptu pool she'd created, and they loved it so much that they also tried to grab her. Unfortunately for them, Chester's friends started spraying blinding glitter at them and killing them with blades and fire spells. Chester also tried to distract the trolls by yelling about how dinosaurs were really birds, and the trolls dropped her as Phila hit them. Ilisa had the idea of setting up her collapsible bathtub, and began filling it with water. Chester got into the tub and sat down. A duck-shaped toy from her pack floated up to the surface of the tub as she yelled out, "Come on in boys, the water's fine!"
After three of the trolls had been killed or blinded, the two remaining fled at speed. The one who had been blinded stumbled away in a different direction, and now the party was the sole owner of the mud hole.
They didn't actually care about the mud hole, and continued westward. Now and then, when they were most feeling the strain of the uphill hike, the more perceptive members of the party felt a gentle push of energy from their bicep, or leg, or lower back.
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That night, the party camped in what looked like an abandoned cave, which had the bones of cattle, humans, and other animals strewn around it. Some of the bones had large tooth marks, and many were broken. Ilisa spent several hours excavating a pit and burying the bones. The party got a good rest that night in the cool cave.
The next morning was the 14th of Neth, and it was another stormy one. Late in the day, with dark clouds overhead and a gusting wind making the wagon cover flap and Thunderchild's jewelry jingle, a gigantic spotted lion suddenly emerged from behind a rock the party had passed and charged towards Tulip. Tulip immediately bolted towards the top of the ridge the party had been about to crest - but stopped short when he saw two more lions lying in wait.
The lions, which Thunderchild identified as cave lions, proved to be less than a threat. Though it'd injured Tulip, the first lion was quickly put down by Phila, Ilisa, the Grisgol, and Thunderchild. Seeing the quick defeat of their companion, the other two lions tried to escape - but Athyra sicced Jaji on one, and he and Diamata easily killed it before it even got down the hill. The party let the other lion escape, though Diamata was skeptical of the idea.
The party made camp soon after defeating the lions. Distant lightning strikes could be heard all night, until the thunderheads finally dissipated right before dawn on the 15th of Neth (the expedition's eighth week). As the party was packing up that morning, the Grisgol noticed that Thunderchild was putting a spellbook in her bag, and asked where she'd gotten it. Thunderchild said that she'd sell the spellbook, which she'd gotten off of the necromancer Jigeke, for 800 gold pieces.
That evening, the party arrived at a small abandoned village with spindly grass growing in between the houses. It looked like it had been destroyed by a monster, scattered with human and dog bones and torn fabric made of millet grass. Diamata and Thunderchild identified the teeth marks as consistent with those of cave lions, and Diamata was further disappointed that the party had not killed the last one.
Looking around the village, Phila noticed a hawk perched atop one of the largest remaining buildings. Pretty quickly, he figured out that it was the animal messenger from the Pathfinder expedition. Athyra called the hawk down from its perch way up there, then managed to offend it and was rescued by Diamata. The hawk carried a small pouch around its leg, and tied to the pouch was a note.
Dear Thunderchilld and friends,
Amivor says hi, and good job clearing our caravan through the Noedtwan and Birana territories. I loved that funny flat lady! We need to chat soon so I can get your stories about the things you've seen since Kalabuto.
Things have been going well back here, save that one of our scouts spotted the Aspis expedition about 10 miles south of us yesterday – they're weaving through the Bandu Hills rather than going around them, and somehow they're gaining ground on us. We've gotta speed up, or they'll beat us to Tazion!
I'm 'crushed' to hear that Ilisa got blasted. We'll hang onto your scroll until we next see you, but here's some diamond dust for now. I wasn't sure how much you needed, so Amivor said to give you a full ounce worth. The bird Bisho (our hunter) lured looked pretty worried about the weight so I hope it was able to catch up to you. Get 'well' soon, Ilisa!
BTW, just in case we don't manage to catch up to you in Tazion, could y'all keep your noses sharp for anything that looks like it might be from an old Pathfinder expedition? There've been a lot of groups that went missing looking for Saventh-Yhi, and if any of them actually got close you might be able to recover their log books.
Sincerely,
“Gelik Aberwhinge"
Checking the pouch, Phila found a coarse crystalline powder - doubtless the diamond dust requested.
The party decided not to camp in the lion-ravaged village, and moved on to the next dale before unhitching the horses and Tulip.
On the 16th of Neth, the party woke to a gentle easterly wind and a clear sunrise, with light creeping down the hillside to the west of them. After Diamata had returned from a morning hike and Ilisa had cast a spell of refreshment to recover what Zakiyya had taken from her, the party continued westwards and northwards.
Around an hour after setting out, the party came to the top of a ridge that had been carefully lined with foot-sized grey stones. Diamata cautioned that this was the Dukrama tribe's boundary, and they needed to wait for a Dukrama tribe member ot allow them over the border, or else go around. The party decided to wait, and it was only a few minutes later that a guy wearing furred cow leather and carrying a spear-thrower appeared over the crest. As he approached, Phila performed the stranger greeting and Thunderchild waved the white eelskin glove. The party asked for permission to pass through Dukrama lands, and for permission to their expedition, and the boundary man, named Dukwakusht, nodded and granted it on the basis of the Birana tribe's recommendation. He escorted the wagon down into the valley, past a few small fields glistening with irrigated water, over a river, and up another hill to another line of stones.
The party was now entering the lands of the Baim!bira tribe, in which Diamata had a second cousin. She assured the party that she could get them clearance through that cousin. The party continued on their rolling journey through the hills for the rest of the day, shielded from the sun and heat with their magic.
The next morning, the 17th of Neth, the wind had strengthened again, and was now howling on the hilltops. The party still did not encounter any member of the Baim!bira tribe.
The 18th of Neth, the party came down one last, great hill, and came out onto a long plain of burned grassland that crunched underfoot. They arrived at a verdant wall of vines, shrubs, and trees. Diamata and Phila began hacking the vegetation aside with her longsword and his machete, respectively, and the party entered under the sheltering canopy of the largest known rainforest in the world: the Mwangi Jungle. It was perceptibly cooler than the hills, but more humid, and smelled of a hundred different flowers and the earthy decay of leaf matter. The forest was not as loud as the Screaming Jungle, but nevertheless sang with the calls of birds, frogs, and insects. The party continued into the jungle, their progress slowed by having to cut their own path, and built a camp around a little pond with an island in its center. Diamata cast an alarm spell on the campsite.
That night, as Thunderchild was feeding Runeshell a bit of lettuce, the tortoise looked up at her. "I'd just like you to know I'm very depressed," he said to her. Thunderchild was shocked - this was the first time the tortoise had ever spoken to her or anyone else. Was it something new? However, the tortoise was thereafter recalcitrant. Thunderchild was very proud of her familiar, regardless of the meaning of his message.
The next morning, the 19th of Neth, the party got ready as normal. It had been exactly three months since the crash of the Jenivere that set off this whole race to Saventh-Yhi, a small anniversary that only Chester noted. It was a little drier than the day before, though the sky was now patched with clouds. The party was just about to start hitching up the horses when they heard something heavy moving through the understory. Phila and Ilisa ran to get into position, and then the aggressor was upon them - a pair of four-armed apes, which the Grisgol and Thunderchild identified as girallons. The girallons were dangerous mundane creatures, but nowhere near deadly, and they didn't stand a chance against a party recently refreshed by rest. Chester, Athyra, and Jaji even sat the fight out - they simply weren't needed.
After a brief scuffle, the party had blinded, stunned, and then slain both girallons. Thunderchild had accidentally scorched part of Phila's armor - but that was the most lasting injury done to anyone in the expedition. The easy battle was a positive sign for the day ahead - in which they would finally reach Tazion, if Diamata was right. They did now hitch up their draft animals and begin the day's travel.