"I say that if we're not using the boat, we put the deaders back in it and send it down the river on fire."
"I think its far too valuable for that. We might be able to use it someday, although I am not sure how or when. We may be able to use it to return south quickly when this war is all over. I guess I cannot know what lies in store for us. Maybe someone would buy it. I am curious why they even had a boat this far inland on the river."
Karkoran rubs his temples and starts to work on keeping the troll unconscious and not regenning in a very weak acid (made from pine needles or any sort of fruit from vingear/ascetic acid).
...The troll won't need his arms or legs for a while either, or eyeballs...Karkoran puts on his vivisectionist hat and does the dirty work off to the side. All for the greater good.
"I don't know what to think about the boat. It might be useful, but I don't want to waste too much time with it. "
"I was thinking about the dream, I can send a reply to Xanya this night, I had intended to message another group, but I can delay that, or double up tomorrow."
"I'll do a cairn for the giant and harpies somewhere from rocks. Hey Kark, go easy on that troll, we're the good guys and girls."
Ash smiles to the group, "We did good on that one. We didn't have much time to ready. Taya and Grobly thanks for dealing with the flyers. Lump o' rocks, your heals helped me a lot. You ever gonna crack some skulls with that banjo?"
Ash goes about tying up the worgs.
"Do we have enough rope to tie them all up and drag the ship?"
"If I have to crack skulls with the mandolin I will, but it means that you big guys let someone through the front line! Hah!"
"While I admire the intent on the troll, do we really need to increase our load and potentially drag him along where an enemy might heal him mid-fight and increase our woes?"
"I think we should keep the boat for sure. Maybe even take it a bit north if we can manage, because it sure would be a nice escape southward.
"I'm not sure that dragging the scepters to the temple is wise. They are homing beacons that could draw enemies en masse to the temple. Maybe we should make sure they can neutralize them first. Or see if ol' funny-hat in the dwarf fort can dispel them for good."
"I have 200' and you have 200' and Grobly has some. We will manage fine."
Karkoran will be inspecting the new sceptre also once the prisoners and the ship are dealt with.
"Ash, yes send a dream back and tell them to keep following us. We go northeast now, they can follow our trail and see what lies in store for us in the north"
"Can anyone think of anything else we are missing here?"
"Good idea Lump. Can we sail it upstream? I don't have any sailing experience."
"I guess the troll could be a threat, but I will deal with it if he gets free. He will be in a barrel so it would take a while for him to get out. I need to study his regenerative properties too. Quite fascinating for research."
Pacing back and forth rumbling, "The sceptres are such a mystery, but we have come so far now. To return to the fort with them seems just as dangerous. Maybe this was even a set up to get more sceptres into our hands and so that we return with them and BOOM we are the trap."
"They may or may not be dangerous to the temple. I think if the temple has survived up here in the north all this time with an army around, maybe its hidden or has strong defenses. I am hoping for an extra dimensional storage or lead box to keep them in. I don't want to bury them, because they will just come and dig them up. If they want them back, they have to come through us first. Do we have any other ideas or magic available to us? Rope trick comes to mind but it doesn't move and is fairly short in duration for our level of mastery."
You successfully bound all the worgs, and you find a barrel in the boat for your weird experiment with the troll. You manage to haul the boat ashore with a combination of magic and brute strength. It will take a lot of work to conceal it. Advise if you continue with that line of effort.
Sailing upstream is particularly hard given the current, and your lack of rowers. With a strong wind you may be able to tack back and forth, but the river is not that wide, nor are any of you skilled boat pilots or sailors.
Its evening of Day 17, about 7PM, and still light out as it is close to the summer solstice.
"Well on the scepter plus fort front, I had hoped that adequate warning to them about the dangers would make them heed our suggestions about doing whatever they are going to do to them outside the fort. But perhaps we haven't garnered enough trust to convince them so. Perhaps you are right about the temple, assuming anyone remains there, even..."
"You are right Lump. Well I hope someone is at this temple. I forgot what our Commune told us. I thought we were confirmed that someone was there that could help us. Maybe there will be clues or relics at least or somewhere we can fortify."
"Lets take this evening to learn from our battle and rest. In the morning we can strike out. Let's leave a sign or maybe even a note for our friends. Is there anything we need to tell them, or will you send another dream Ash?"
"I can send another dream. I will tell them to keep going north to the edge of the black ice."
"We are fine, enemies killed. Going northeast to temple. We will leave signs. Meet at black ice. Asheranthi via dream."
Asheranthi, you receive a reply from Xanya not long after, and recall it when you awaken in the morning.
"Congratulations! Scepters attract enemies, come meet first. We bring scepters back, protect dwarves fey goatlings priority. Xanya sleep 2 3"
"I got another dream from Xanya last night. Something about the scepters attracting enemies. They want to bring the scepters back."
"Are they headed this way? We could leave the scepters somewhere they could find them if they want to take them back."
Aid Other familiar (DC10)
Spellcraft with Identify and Guidance and Familiar Aiding
"I spent the night examining these things. I am not entirely sure taking them back to the fort is the smartest move. The giants were taking them to the fort Why would we complete their mission? I think it will be far safer to get to the temple first and see if there are any options there. If this temple thing is a false lead or a total bust, we can take them back to NEAR the fort, and maybe send some dreams to the loremaster there asking for advice, before we bring powerful magic weapons into the fort."
"I likewise would not advise taking them inside. I advise the loremaster making a decision on them, with the full warning from us that bringing them inside the fort is dangerous."
Having two of the scepters now, lets compare and contrast them a bit more, and also allows you to sense their cooperative magic somewhat.
You get the sense that they function as magical staves. They are charged by necromantic magic, and you feel like you could use the scepters to leech the life source from a dying being and charge them. This account for the necromancy.
You also sense that they scepters can, within close distance to at least two more scepters, open some sort of gate. You haven't puzzled out the distance yet, but this may be the conjuration aspect. You know you need three or more scepters to open these gates to elsewhere, even another plane.
You know the scepters can be used to scry on other holders, as long as they are willing. Unwilling targets can resist. The scepters also allow one to sense and track down other scepters if you concentrate.
Finally there is an evocation destructive power that while destroying the scepter will obliterate potentially a large area.
You haven't honed the details yet, but you discover the scepters have a name. The two you pos sess are named Skolocha and Whobora.
Day 18 - Morning
The group assembles, ready to depart. Asheranthi shares her dreams with the group and Karkoran reveals his breakthrough with the scepters. The group discusses their options and plans. You know you are close now to the location where you hope to find the temple. You were also warned that the black ice may pose a problem in location it. You hitch up the sled again.
You still have some unfinished business however.
I believe you buried the giant, burned the harpies, but you have all the unconscious worgs and the elder worg. You also have a troll. An adult troll is about 1000 lbs. Without the arms and legs, its about 550lbs. An adult troll is 14' tall and with legs is still too large to actually fit in a barrel, without more surgery and reduction. The troll cannot be reduced to HP more negative than what it would have when dead. (negative CON). At its regeneration, this means it can always return to consciousness with a functioning brain, lungs, stomach etc, within seconds This prevents the troll from starving or suffocating since it still requires organs to survive. Your methods of using a weak acid to prevent it from regenerating would work, but you need a larger storage tank, and the liquid would weigh a lot, plus whatever vat you were transporting.
"So they can track us as long as we carry the staves, but if we tried to hide them they could use the magic to ferret them out?"
"That is the impression I got. They must remain in our possession or the possession of a similarly competent and trustworthy individual or collection thereof."
"I have further study to do on the sceptres, but yes they aoppear to be able to use them to track the other sceptres. It is clear that bringing three or more together is unsafe, and certainly the closer the are to the fort, that closer they can open a gate of some sort, emptying who knows what into the vicinity. "
"So, do we want a troll or worgs on the team or give them the boot? I guess it will be less mouths to feed, and less risk but I feel like Goodwin would have wanted us to try."
"What is everyone's vote on the troll and worgs? Kill them? set them free? leave them bound and gagged to escape slowly? The enemy can already track us, so I guess we hardly care if they get away to tell on us. We will perhaps find shelter in the ice or the temple or mountains soon."
"If we reveal ourselves to be agents of their enemies, I doubt they will be amenable to our ideas. I would think, from their point of view, that they do not have a stake in allowing the dwarves to do as they wish unopposed. Were I them, I would feel the dwarves would move into my land, take it over, and rob me of my resources and treat me as a monster."
"I think its a noble idea, but I don't think we are prepared to babysit a bunch of evil monsters and guide them on the road to goodness like Master did with us. I say let them go after a stern lecture and an offer of help someday. If we remember them well, when we are powerful enough we can scry them and teleport to them and pick up where we left off."
"Lets keep our goal in mind. To the temple."
"Very well. I will heed the wisdom of my companions."
Karkoran will drag all of the bound worgs to the edge of the clearing before they are ready to go. He leaves them all bound. They will manage to escape on their own.
He takes the troll elsewhere and kills it, then drains all the blood from the troll, and takes some bone from it before burying it.
He returns and hitches up the sled and prepares to head out.
"Lets find Master Goodwin."
The group moves out again in similar fashion to previous days.
You push northwards to where the Elder Goatling's Commune indicated the temple's location.
As before you make excellent progress, but the terrain begins to get hillier after several hours. You started out a bit later in the morning after dealing with various things. By early afternoon you are into the foothills and late afternoon the mountain peaks loom before you. You have seen all day with ever increasing size, a large black wall towering above all but the highest mountain peaks. Before you is the black ice, a massive glacier that has remained since the times of the Destroyer. The air rapidly gets colder as you move north and by midafternoon, even though you are close to the summer solstice, you have donned your cold weather gear.
You push into the mountains further following a natural ridgeline, and before long you are but a mile away from the ice. It towers above, perhaps a mile or more in height. The edge of the black glacier slopes down from the mountains and the terrain here is very rugged. You see no sign of a temple but realize your area of search is as was possible, underneath the ice. Grobly flies close, wheeling about as the group approaches the foot of the glacier and eventually returns to report that multiple large tunnels appear to have been carved into the glacial ice.
"I'm leaving a note for the other group before we leave."
Note to other group:
We are going to the temple, keep following us, but don't get too close. When three or more staffs are close together it is unsafe. They can be used to track other ones. Maybe you can figure out how.
"Into one of the tunnels I say. Lets get closer and look for tracks or clues."
"Let's investigate one of these tunnels more closely."
"Before we go in. I just had a thought. It occurred to me, we can use the sceptres. If the gates are two way, we can use them to transport our allies from the fort to the temple if we find it. That will save them time from having to travel here. We should keep one sceptre and give the other to the other group, and if they wish to return to the fort with it, and if others are acquired, they will have three and maybe we can travel between the locations."
"Also if the sceptres can be used to scry on each other, we can use them as an efficient way to message each other or find each other in case something happens. Each of our groups should carry one."
"If the gates are two way we can use these once the war is ended to keep our groups together and travel easily. I guess the only downside is the evil method of recharging them. Ash, would you be able to take the form of an eagle, or perhaps Grobly, and fly to the other group and deliver one of the sceptres? We will retain the other. I will summarize my theories in some notes and the group can take those notes to the Loremaster as well."
Karkoran explains what he has learned and theorized to the group. "Any opinions of something I may have not thought about?"
Tayanalla sneaks up to a tunnel entrance to investigate.
Tayanella sneaks stealthily up to the huge tunnel. Once there, the tunnel is perhaps 40' high and wide, carved into the ice by you know not what. The wind whips and howls here at the glaciers foot, and the blackened ice, trapping the ash and soot looms like a giant dark curtain to the northeast. Creeping closer to the tunnel, you look about. You do see signs of tracks and other movement to and from the tunnel, but not really where they lead. The tunnel is dark and your vision lets you see only so far into it, but you notice nothing within that would be cause for alarm. The snakes on your head look about, but move slowly, the cold air seeming to put them in a torpor.
You look around further and notice the other two tunnels several hundred feet away and examine them each, but find nothing different between any of them. Tayanella you search for other signs but find little evidence of anything else. Perhaps signs of ancient campsites years old.
The cold wind blows.....
While Taya explores the tunnel entrances, Karkoran will study the sceptres more. There was a key here he was not seeing, he needed more information before he felt the group could make a decision about them. He flexed his new arm. It was a little sore yet. He suspected the primal energy he kept pushing through himself had something to do with it. Probably the mutagens he was consuming for these battles as well. Perhaps even the tumor he had was contributing. Maybe even the magic of the sceptres themselves.
It was handy having four arms now. He could wield weapons with the arms, but not all four at once. It wasn't like the primal ones he could manifest briefly. Maybe in time they might become functional.
He looked at the vessels of troll blood he had taken. These will be useful.
He sat down to inspect the sceptres further, willing his tumor to tear away into usable form. He favored a small dinosaur, perhaps due to Ash's influence of her raptors. The small creature was also able to make use of its foreclaws which was a boon to assisting in various tasks. He prepared an extract of Alchemical Allocation and quaffed his potion of Identify immediately spitting it back into the vial. As the magic auras swam before him, he began to inspect the sceptres as he laid them both out before him on a large rock.
Aid Other familiar (DC10)
Spellcraft with Identify and Guidance and Familiar Aiding
Karkoran you focus hard on the scepters and concentrate on the magic and what you know of magic, and by using the magic of your extract are able to gain extra insight into their workings. You are able to determine that the scepters you possess are part of a pool of scepters both Greater and Lesser. The scepters you possess are Lesser Scepters
All scepters have these powers:
Recharge: The scepter can invoke a Death Knell spell effect, and as the spell it will kill the target victim, but rather than the normal spell effects, it will recharge the scepter 1 charge for each 2 HD of the victim up to a maximum of 4 charges.
Locate: Any scepter holder can locate another scepter on the same plane of existence, by making a DC 15 will save if they have the name of the other scepter. This can be blocked by various anti scrying magics or by placing the scepter in an extradimensional space or by a layer of lead. This use requires no charges but requires continuous concentration. The locator will feel a mental nudge in a certain direction toward the other scepter.
Destruction: Any scepter can be invoked destructively. This uses all remaining charges, and does 2d6 per charge in a 20' radius. For each 2d6 reduction in damage, the radius can be increased by 10'. This also destroys the scepter reducing it to nonmagic molten slag.
Only Greater Scepters have these powers:
Open Gate: A Greater Scepter can open a gate within an area where any three scepters, lesser or greater are within 1 mile of each other. The triangle ( or whatever shape is created by even more scepters ) is the field in which the gate may be opened. For each scepter above three an additional gate may be opened somewhere within the field ( 4 scepters = 2 gates ). The gate(s) is/are an opening up to 30' x 30' and visible as a shimmering semi opaque window. The gate is opened to wherever the Greater Scepter is that invoked the creation of the gate. Since the Greater Scepters can be used to 'Scry'(see below) on the Lesser Scepters, the gate can be invoked remotely using a holder of a Lesser Scepter as the eyes on the ground so to speak. The gate can be to another location on the same plane or to another plane. This effect takes 10 charges from each scepter participating in gate creation. The scepters must be at least 30' from each other to support the minimal size for the gate. The range of the gate creation is 1 mile but the target location must be visible with line of sight and line of effect to the location. The gate must be created vertically, and must be created on a solid immobile surface (for example the deck of a moving ship is invalid). It cannot be created in midair or within solid ground or within a liquid medium such as underwater. Targets on the linked planes have line of sight through the gate (with minor concealment due to the blurry effect) but not line of effect. The gates are two way.
Scry: Any Greater Scepter holder can 'scry' through a willing Lesser Scepter wielder using whatever senses are available to the Lesser Scepter holder who is being used as the local observer. An unwilling target gets a Will save DC 18 to resist, and is aware of the effect and can take preventative measures ( simply closing ones eyes or covering ears for example ). This use requires 1 charge and lasts up to 1 hour. The name of the scepter is required. The scepter must be held and wielded in order for the scrying to take effect. (Merely carrying the scepter is not enough).
As he is both stealthy and handy in a fight, Taya motions for Grobly to accompany her and ventures up a tunnel for a quiet looksee.
Planning on moving in at half speed for 5 minutes or until I see or hear something interesting.
You scout deeper into the tunnel. You wonder how they were created. Examining the walls, you suspect they were maybe carved at one time, but over time, wind and shifting of the ice has worn the walls down or created jagged cracks or other changes. You wonder if the tunnels ever shrink, or if the shifting glacier ever collapses a tunnel. You hope not. Perhaps they are maintained somehow, but that seems unlikely given that no one seems to be around.
Further in the tunnels the wind still whips through them creating a weird howling droning noise, but at least you are out of the bitter exposed cold. Underneath the ice, it is quite chilly but less frigid. You look for clues. You hear nothing over the howl of the wind, you see nothing that perks your interest other than puzzling out the purpose of the tunnels and how they are kept open. After five minutes inside you are far enough in to not see signs of outside. The snow and debris from blown in from the outside world has dwindled to nothing. The tunnel itself seems to be more or less straight. It is not perfect, and even its size seems to vary slightly, but is more or less uniform for most purposes.
Clearly having endless wastes of glacial ice created a problem for whatever lived in these mountains so you guess most things went under the ice, creating endless miles of warrens, tunnels and caves within it. Though you have narrowed down the area of the temple you still have a significant amount of potential tunnels to cover if you are to find it. Now, over a quarter mile in you look for anything that might indicate being in the right tunnel. You stop and listen. Wind howling, occasional deep booms, which must be the ice shifting and cracking as the glacier shifts every so slowly.
You know that the black ice gets its color from volcanic ash, and therefore at some point deep within the mountains there must be volcanic activity. You suspect that could be scores of miles away however.
You also wonder if at some point the ice tunnels would merge with earthen or stone tunnels descending further into the earth.
While our stealth team explores the tunnels, Karkoran cracks the secrets of the sceptres, "I have determined how these work. They seem to be linked to other sceptres, lesser and greater. There is indeed the potential for a gate to be opened if they sceptres are brought too close, however it seems they would need to be linked to one of us to do it remotely. Since that is not occurring, we could wait for our kin to arrive. They could attempt to force a scry upon us but we would know."
Grumbling to himself, "It also seems the sceptres can be destroyed, hopefully not remotely, as that would cause great bodily harm. I wonder how one would activate it on a local scale since the holder would be dooming themselves."
"Ash, would you fly to meet our fellows and inform them of what I have learned, they could come close, but warn them that if they are scryed we may be in danger of a gate. Here, I will write down the details of the staff that way some others have the information and if I perish the information is not lost."
"Oh, by the way, here Ash, have some troll blood. If he was a caster, you can use Blood Transcription to learn some of its magic."
"Thanks for the blood. It looks tasty. Give me the notes and I will fly with the speed of an eagle and look for the others."
Asheranthi, you set off along the path back the way you came, going off the dream messages that Xanya sent you that they are following. With your speed to find them after a few hours. They are moving in the direction of your group, albeit a bit slower now over the rougher terrain.
"Maybe we just throw them in the volcano below."
Tayanella returns with Grobly to report on their findings in the tunnel. having found no solid lead or clues, the group tries to brainstorm how to select which tunnel, while they wait for Asheranthi to return.
"If we head up one of those tunnels and run into enemies, there won't be any option for avoiding them. It'll be a straight up fight." Taya tells her companions.
"We're stealthy enough that we should get the element of surprise versus most enemies, but if we run into something we can't handle we'll have to run."
"Hello everyone, I am back, took a while since I couldn't fly back. I gave your notes to the other group, they are deciding what to do about it, probably going to destroy their scepters or put them in a bag or something, I am not sure what they decided. They are very dedicated to helping the dwarves in their fight. How does the tunnel exploration go Taya and Grobly?"
"Just a big, wide tunnel for the first quarter mile or so. We'll have to go pretty deep to find something I think."
"Let's just go in. We may need to see what lies deeper inside. I can't think of any way out here to narrow down our choices without serious divination. We can look for clues deeper in or maybe run into some denizens who have information. Maybe Tayanella can scout far enough ahead."
"I think the closest tunnel is as good as any." Taya suggests.
"Grobly and I can lead the way quietly. Probably a good distance out in front of the rest of you."
"I don't know if bringing the sled, elk, and the rest of our circus along is a good idea for this initial exploration."
"The elk ran away two combats ago. The sled makes noise, but i can bury it in the ice and snow, and leave some of the more cumbersome gear with it. We won't need a tent in the tunnels, and I can leave the bear traps to guard the sled and camouflage it."
Karkoran proceeds to bury the sled further up the glacier under several large chunks of ice or boulders, and then spread the bear traps around the area under a light layer of snow and ice.
"I don't think we Ash will leave her raptors behind, but they are reasonably stealthy. If you stay out ahead a hundred fifty feet, you should be free of our noise and we can use the message cantrip to stay in touch. "
"Ready to go here. Lead the way."
Lump will travel towards the center of the group's marching order.