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Govrina's rock hits in the same location Vraxis' did earlier, knocking the hobgoblin's head back with a horrible
Sorry I haven't been pushing this guys, work's gotten quite busy. I'll post more when I have a chance.
Aava is the one that responds while the rest of the aquatic elves wear large grins, "Oh we know, but the dwarf was so flustered when we arrived and has been so acerbic we pretended to not understand. It has given us quite a boost while waiting for your return." Bokar harrumphs before ignoring the elves completely. "Did you find anything else of interest down below?"
As Sharkrani swims forward to take a bite of the sarglagon it reaches out to touch her as she passes under its arm.
As its tentacles pass over Sharkrani's tough skin the purple haze leaves it and infuses Sharkrani. The sharp shark teeth break through the devil's rubbery flesh.
Hello all. I'm happy to be here to try and get everyone through the rest of the second book at the very least. I'll be posting more tonight/tomorrow morning once I figure a good way to pick things up. I've sent Paizo a request to take control of the threads, but with everything happening in the world right now I'm not sure how long that will take. I'll see you all in the gameplay thread!
Elaril's blast of glitter coats Shayle who just growls through her annoyance. "You'll pay for that human..."
Initiatives:
At Anthys' snapped order Vegazi rushes over to him, dropping her own bow and picking up the feather-wrought bow her mother was using.
Sharrowsmith’s Exports stands on the northwestern corner of the city. Towering wooden gates stand open, leading to a vast courtyard surrounded by thick, stone walls. Dozens of colorful awnings cover rows of tables and carts, as hundreds of customers peruse all manner of exotic goods. Two large, vaguely human statues rise from a central fountain. Their faces look up to the sky and their gaping mouths overflow with water feeding into the basin below. Beyond the fountain stands an immense stone building lined with monolithic pillars, behind which is a facade carved with great beasts native to the Mwangi jungles. Two guards stand watch over the bazaar just inside the gates, and two more stand outside the sealed doors to the inner building.
*Note-taking intensifies*
I severely underestimated what having a child does to my time over the holidays. I'm back now though.
Harg finds great success in his endeavor, gathering aromatic flora and combining them with several other reagents in cut open pine cones to make portable fresh smelling alchemical items. Govrina has less success, most of the materials she finds being rotten wood, boulders made of soft and easily cracked stone, and other equally inappropriate materials for defensive structures. Maybe with some more time she'll find better materials.
Luckily none of the corpses are in the area where the ceiling collapsed, so it is easy to determine who they were. Vegazi points to the tiefling and says, "My sister Yvogga," then at the orcs, "and members of the Hell's Fury tribe." Yvogga's gear:
Date: unknown, Location: Mox Amber, Time since Resurrection: unknown We have finally reached the exit. Out this door we can continue to explore deeper in the dungeon or we can head back to the Dreamlands. We have what we've come for, now we can continue on our quest. White light hits as we step outside... 6 August 1930 I jolt from my bed and look around. Back in the real world again. And now Timmy has disappeared as well. The only thing left on his bed is that funny map that Tobias was looking at earlier. Timmy's scrawled handwriting is all over it. Dirk takes it, 'for safe keeping,' but he has a bit of a glint in his eye. We spend our time in the library, looking for anything that might point to one of the Mox gems being in the outside world anymore. Our luck is not with us, so I go to have a talk with Madame Perry. She doesn't know that her husband is stuck in the Dreamlands and tells me that I'm too old to be having such an imagination. When asked, she provides manuscripts from Headmaster Perry that she kept after his travels over the years. I read them greedily, but they don't have much more than what I already know. The Crawling Chaos takes places from the real world and sets them in the Dreamlands. It started systematically eliminating gods in the Dreamlands. It wants to destroy the Dreamlands. By this point it is dark and we all go to bed, Dirk tucking the map under his pillow. I can only hope we all make it back this time. Date: Doesn't matter, Location: Brittania, Time since Awakening: 0 hrs I wake to find myself in my Svirfneblin skin once more. Socks is nearby, as is Ramag, the old teleportation wizard we found in the Mox Amber. But he's missing his hands. They performed the same rituals Brenda once did to summon us to their location. Timmy and Seravin suddenly come screaming out of a portal that opens in mid-air. They inform us that a month has passed and things have just gone from bad to worse now that Timmy's Castle Wife is destroyed. Apparently they went beyond the Plateau of Leng in the North and found the graveyard of the gods. They talked with the Crawling Chaos and were b###%-slapped back to us. During all of this Nanfoodle (thank the gods he's back) pulls out his staff of Ygg and does...something to Socks. Socks starts acting strangely, saying he is the goblin god Mablong and he doesn't have to listen to us. Says that Socks' has too much bravery for him and he just wants to go and hide. Surprisingly, it is Chicago that puts him in his place, demanding that Socks be brought back to the front of his mind. After several threats of physical violence Socks is back in control and can explain what happened. Camelot has fallen again. Pelinorae and his questing knights came back after discovering the Holy Grail was found. They killed Vel, Lionel, Bors, and all of the people loyal to me in a coup. All the witches in the land were herded together and turned into witch balls in one of the largest genocides seen thus far. The Deep Ones encroaching on Camelot's shores were captured and are now in forced labor camps. Pelinorae now has a nigh-unstoppable half human, half fish, half vampire army. Socks looks at Ramag, commenting that they forced him to reactivate the teleportation network. Then they cut off his hands, drained a good portion of his magic, and cast him aside. The old man looks a wreck, traumatized and broken before my eyes. I am quickly losing everything I once held dear. As I promise him that we will get him his power back Timmy cuts off his head. All I see is red, but Nanfoodle calms me long enough to remind me he can reincarnate Ramag. I agree. I wait, cursing, wondering what fool will be walking our way to the demise of their soul. Nanfoodle uses the staff and we wait. And wait. And wait some more. After 10 minutes Socks asks what we're waiting for. Something is different though. His words are more refined. His diction is clear. His raccoon tail is puffed and looks energetic. "Socks?" "What? Young Lord, I am Ramag, your servant as always. Shall I teleport us into the very den of that serpent Pelinorae?" Truly, everything has been taken from me. Chicago speaks up then, saying he has a 'Plan B' if things ever turn sideways for us. His inward facing circle can be flipped by taking it to the Rend. Once it becomes outward facing something will happen. I'm fuzzy on the details, but it should be something spectacular. I think I'm past the point of caring. Everything is tinged pink. I want to see the world run red. I want my throne back from Pelinorae no matter the cost. Ramag teleports the lot of us in. Seated on a throne of skulls encased in gold is a massive monster with a 15 foot wingspan. It has sharp claws, wicked teeth, and intelligent eyes. Beside its clawed hand sits a bowl, full of the black spiky witch balls I've seen in the past. The beautiful woman next to it calls the creature 'King Pelinorae.' Looking closer she seems to be constantly wet, and actually has a half-drowned look about her. Around us are Knights, probably of his wicked court, and a massive monster of earth and swamp. There are no words. No monologues. No warnings. A scream, primal, terrorized, hurt, claws its way out of my throat as I grip Caliburn tightly. The Lady is quicker than I am, encrusting Caliburn with ice and drawing me high into the air. Action starts happening all around me as I focus my will into the blade, causing it to burn with a ghastly black fire. Seravin rushes in, pulling two blades from his hips and taking the Knights head on. One blade appears to bite cruelly at his opponents and his own hand, while the other invigorates him. Nanfoodle drinks a potion and before I can look twice Red is standing beside him, claws out and looking wild. The mound of earth approaches, a stench coming from it, decay and filth clinging to my nostrils. I drop on it as Caliburn's fire eats through the ice, cutting off small portions of the muck. Chicago presents the Mox Pearl on his neck, summoning Dagon and Hydra surrounding Pelinorae. Timmy does something that makes a sleet storm cover the majority of combatants. There is desperate fighting on every side and I can't find it in myself to care. A great intoning is heard from within the sleet and the storm dissipates. Pelinorae uses this chance to get close, flying up next to me, eager to take my birthright by force. Spying the open throne I started concocting an idea. The monstrous gods clamored and moved around, doing as they pleased while the rest of my companions continued fighting. I slipped through Pelinorae and the mound of mud's attacks, then called on the magic flowing through my form to step through the space between spaces and end up sitting on the throne. "Nanfoodle! Drop the Siege Perilous in the throne!" Red begins casting spells and stops the Lady from doing anything. Nanfoodle readies his staff and Chicago uses his Chakram to fold space so he only takes a step to get to me. The staff touches the throne. It fills with the powers of the Siege Perilous. Caliburn explodes with darkness. I can feel my body stretching, moving in familiar, forgotten ways. I've returned to my original form. Caliburn, my birthright, glows in my hand. Its blade is darkness incarnate, but there is still a twinkle of light around the hilt. My eyes are drawn to it, and to the witchballs nearby, glinting in time. I understand. My last chance for redemption. Complete the mission I thought long lost. Rescue the young girls from their perilous existence. "Pelinorae," I growl. "It is time to make you pay for all that you've done!" I stand from my throne of skulls, faces of my subordinates taking a ghostly appearance over them, and stride forth. Before I get two steps further Hydra calls out to Pelinorae. It works. Pelinorae's mind is lost. Hydra takes her prize and vanishes. Dagon is quick to follow his wife. The wind taken out of my sails I point to the remaining Knights and monster of swamp and earth. "Yield, and kneel before your true king!" As they turn to look at me Timmy takes this opportunity to break from the melee and approach the throne. Then he reaches out with his gangly arms, grabs the bowl of witchballs and dumps all of them in his mouth! Darkness takes me. I breathe heavily and look around. Caliburn is nothing but darkness and the corpses of Pelinorae's knights and pet monster are nothing but bits. Timmy looks rather strange. Wary. He has lost his mind. He babbles in the voices of young women and little girls, before the voice of Ithaqua comes out.
It seems Timmy has forgotten about us. Now we must defeat him. This proves to be difficult as he takes on Ithaqua's appearance once more. Ithaqua seems to recognize the Staff of Ygg. The first thing he does is fly into the air, as far from us as possible, then starts suffocating Nanfoodle. This slime will pay for its crimes! Before I can so much as move Chicago calls out, "The Rend is now the Frend, and my friends are always with me! I turn this circle out!" It seems he changed the map too. The chakram in his hands flies up and squeezes itself into a new shape. The ground shakes, the air quivers, and all existence is torn asunder... Log of Dr. Brighton, regarding the Arkham Orphanage incident It appears that the two boys have been subdued. Their manic state has led our sedatives to be useless when used on them. They have been sent to solitary confinement, where they both continue to shout about 'the Dreamlands' being destroyed. One child, Darcsen, kept of a log of his 'adventures' in the Dreamland with his companions. Dirk was also taken into custody, but there is no trace of any Timmy, Tobias, or Calum, and the orphanage has no records of them existing either. After the terrible murder of the groundskeeper and Mistress Perry's breakdown strange going-ons have been happening around that Orphanage. Luckily the two boys were captured before they could attack their other groundskeeper. One of them obtained a sword, probably European descent, that looks positively ancient. The other had sharpened a protractor and appeared to know something about boxing. The journal has been entered as evidence against them as it speaks of their activities over the past days. They will remain under observation until- Now the brats are saying humanity is doomed. No one will be able to sleep. I know I'll sleep better at night once they are locked away for good. Addendum I know I work long hours. That's probably why I can't sleep. It has been four days since the boys were brought in. Everyone is stuck with a strange wakefulness. The crazies have started coming out in droves and the police are putting them all here! Arkham Asylum doesn't have the capacity for this! Maybe I'll be able to sleep once the shouting stops... Additional AddendumI can't. I need rest. God, just let me sleep. Maybe what they were saying is true. Maybe we do need a Dreamland to be able to sleep. We're testing new drugs. Drugs that will help us sleep. Sleep the deepest sleep. And wake refreshed. Here's the nurse now. I'll write more when I awake once again...
Hmm... It's been quiet. Not used to seeing this thread stay quiet for more than a day or two. Who wants hugs? I got those in spades. Though they'll be bony.
A whole lot of foraging:
Day 3 stats addendum: 30 more provision points found
Date unknown, Location: Mox Amber?, Time since Resurrection: unknown Flashes of time past roar through my head. Nanfoodle makes a pact with Bask. Sevarin disappearing after presenting this amulet. Traps. Kobolds. Bodies and bodies and more bodies. I startle and realize I'm in some form of dungeon with the rest of my companions. Nanfoodle looks weird. Turns out he is a cat person, and bigger than my current svirfneblin-Medraut form. His new name is Red Cloud of Clan Pine Ridge. I'll call him Red for short. We're in an amulet, a dungeon created that contains a 'Vault' with gear we can use to help in our assault on the Crawling Chaos. I feel punch-drunk. I don't know what I've been doing. Gods my head hurts. We've stopped in front of a door with an image of a dragon ascending on it. Chicago notices the handle has a peculiar sheen to it. I probe it with my dagger and find it is an extremely strong adhesive. We use my dagger as a new handle and open the door. Inside is a large room, 60 foot ceilings, pillars that stop at human chest height, and a whole mess of kobolds. Two kobolds with wings are hanging out in alcoves forty feet above the ground. There are a half dozen spearmen and some type of leader who shouts in a strange language. One of the kobolds above us pulls a lever, causing the poles to spin. The centrifugal force causes blades hidden along the sides to rise, creating spinning death traps that the kobolds, and myself, can run under. Chicago starts moving in, careful to avoid the blades and kills one of the flying kobolds using his Inward Facing Circle Chakram. The leader advances out to meet him but has difficulty pinning him down. Red jumps on a wall and starts heading for the other alcove while Seravin turns into a bat (?) and flies above the blades. Timmy drops a sleet storm on top of the rest of the kobolds, taking care of them. I move in under the blades and cast a spell, freezing the lead kobold in place for a few moments. Chicago takes that opportunity to punish the leader while Red rushes to take care of the trap. The spinning blades are soon taken care of and the ground in front of the alcove is burning with fire from some jars that spilled from above. This allows everyone to rush the kobold leader as the sleet storm rages in front of us. I assume Timmy sees something we can't in there. The leader's shield sends spikes my way, but they don't hurt too much. Timmy drops the sleet storm, revealing the remaining kobolds, nearly frozen to the bone. We take care of them quickly. The door at the end of the room has another ascending dragon. This one also has an inscription on it. Two by two, doubled again, and add ten. That is the amount of years it takes to see me. In my rather strange state I assume this means we need 18 of something to open the door. I have the others assist me in grabbing the 18 kobold corpses left in our wake and throw them at the door in sequence. We test the door and find that it opens! Either that worked, or we never had to do anything in the first place. Continuing along there is a corridor with what look like murder holes in the ground. Not sure what it is I jump on my shield and order Timmy and Seravin to throw me across. I skate across without issue and nothing seems to happen. Then the world turns fuzzy and light... I am woken by rough hands some time later. Chicago and Red explain that the holes were pouring some sleeping gas into the corridor. They plugged the holes with fingers cut from the kobold corpses to allow us to continue on. One side chamber we find has a box with three key holes in it, as well as three metal cylinders that have Draconic inscriptions. They read Junk Room, Grabby room, and Mummy room. We only have two keys so we ignore this for now. Continuing on we find another door with an ascending dragon and a hand-written sign in common. Enter challengers, if you dare. Inside is a large ring, like a boxing ring, as well as four enormous kobolds (they call themselves Swolbolds) in masks. "Two on two tag team wrestling for the hanging key! Let's go!" they call out. Chicago and I don't even question it. He hops in the ring while I divest myself of my weapons and shield then throw myself in with him. The swolbolds roar in approval and rush Chicago, ignoring me entirely (curse this form). He manages to dodge their attacks and allow me to get in a hit or two of my own before tagging Seravin in. Seravin runs in, ignores the rules of the ring (though there don't seem to be any) and attacks with his swords. He tags Timmy in while Chicago boxes the swolbolds and Timmy ends the fight with his beastly claws. The two remaining swolbold's jaws drop and they realize that this is Ithaqua's champion. They declare him the winner and allow us to attempt to open the large vault door behind them. They inform us the spinning dials need certain numbers to open it, but they can't remember and their boss has the combination written somewhere. Red swings in front of it and turns the dials to 4-8-18 and the door opens. Jaws still agape the swolbold brothers agree to help us transport the stuff inside out. There is a lot of gear that may help, and an old man, wrapped in ensorcelled chain. A cup catches my eye and Caliburn burns at my side. It appears I found the Holy Grail! I demand someone to put water in it that I may drink from the cup. Timmy makes a gash in his arm and drains some of his blood into it. I don't know why, but it seemed fine to drink from. So I did. Power rushed through my body and Caliburn ignited in dark fire. Something Irrevocably changed and I can't seem to care. Turns out the old man once knew me as a child. He says my father went out and found the grail with companions before being captured. This man is the last of my father's companions. When I inform him I still have questing left to do he jumps between dimensions back to Camelot as we head toward the exit...
@Slim: Decade long thread necro
Date unknown, Location: Castle Wife, Time since Resurrection: 0 hours A message raven gets to us after I come back. Lady Vel says that blue skinned lizard riders are attacking, and seem to use unconventional spatial tactics that seem to work anyway. Another problem for another time. I spend the next hour changing skins again. The world is too large as a svirfneblin. Sevarin takes that time to head to the underworld to deal with the Ghoul King and see if he can get the god of death on our side. I spend time explaining what Headmaster Perry told me as we discuss what we know. We are on a time limit. The Crawling Chaos will finish taking the rest of us in three real time days, stopping any attempt we make to save the Dreamlands. Even if we could get back to the real world, we would be erased from that realm completely and no one would be the wiser. Timmy informs us Alice escaped to either the moon or the Plateau of Leng. Dagon tells us what he knows of the other gods. The Ape men to the west have their god trapped in the Mox Emerald. One god survives still in the Great Tree. Hydra is trapped in the Mox Pearl in the Colorless lands. Hypnos is in the continent of Oriab. Koranes, an unknown if he is just a powerful dreamer or a god in his own right, is the king of Calepolis. The Green Man is also considered a god. Dagon curses at Bast for some reason. I also know that Pelinorae is still looking for the Holy Grail in the western part of the Red and Pleasant land. Timmy spends all of his time the next few days at the helm. Nanfoodle builds more broom nests and continues growing plants round the castle, which makes Castle Wife happy according to Timmy. It takes a day and a half of travel, but we finally reach the Colorless lands. Looking down we see a lot of fighting, well a lot of slaughter, by the Ister Channel. Deep ones are being butchered by the vampires there as magic users dam the waters. We make it thirty miles out of Crystal Lake, so named for the enormous crystal castle coming out of the pristine lake. A dragon flies around the keep. We observe it for a bit and figure it doesn't leave more than ten miles from the keep. It is green scaled and breathes fire every now and then. For amusement or some other purpose we can't tell. We continue moving towards the castle and get within five miles of it before the dragon flies up to stare us down. It demands to know who would dare intrude on the lands of Alezphraxian. After Dagon introduces himself by demanding Hydra's release Al says the Black Pharaoh told him to watch for us. He informs us that he currently has Hydra in the Mox Pearl and that she is the crown jewel of his hoard, a god in a necklace. He makes it clear we could trade him for it, though he will only take a god in a necklace in its place. He invites us into his home to discuss. As we approach we decide that we still need Dagon around to help us and discuss giving him something else instead. We eventually settle on trading the Jubilations book that none of us care for. We enter the castle and discover that, unlike our own, it is sized for humanoids, though it is the same size as Castle Wife. We make it through four entry halls before we come to a room with a large fountain, Al wrapped around it. He demands tribute for he is a great Tiberius Dragon. Discussions very quickly break down when Timmy starts boasting about his ability to kill Al as Ithaqua. Al says he is bluffing, not knowing that Timmy can only change once per week. When asked why won't he help us fight Nyarlathotep he responds that he is certain Nyarlathotep will fail. When asked for clarification he says it is because of us humans. Breeding like rats and always dreaming of new things. Even if this Dreamland were to disappear another would show up in time. We continue to barter for Hydra or his help for some time. When I ask what he is scared of, why he won't fly more than ten miles from the castle his response is profound. We recess as I leave to process this information. I change back to Medraut and try sensing Draco through my King Pact with him. I discover him bound in the hold of a ship in the Starless Sea, heading for the Nameless Rock. When I head back in to talk to the dragon Al is confused as to how royalty got into his castle without his knowledge. I explain Draco's condition and location and Al demands our assistance to rescue Draco. If we do that for him he'll give us Hydra. I tell him we can't get there that quickly, it would probably be best if he went to get Draco himself. We discuss Castle Wife travel logistics which means...turning to Timmy. Timmy holds a conversation and informs us that Castle Wife will fly faster with jewels and gold inside her. After negotiating Al gives us four chests full of precious gems and money. We transport it into the castle and Timmy says we can get there in two and a half days. We tell Al to wait for us here, but he says he wants to go and save his son. I tell him he'll slow us down. He says he can just rest in the castle's keep. Timmy grows rather irate, declaring he won't have no funny dragons in his wife. Nanfoodle confuses the issue saying the nests are for brooms. Al informs us that brooms don't rest in nests, they rest in closets. We promise to bring Draco back and leave the Crystal Lake. Along the way I help Nanfoodle tear down the nests and build sheds and change into Korth again. When we reach Nameless Rock we see it is well named. It is barren. What is not barren is the sea around it. The sea is filled with black longships, and more seem to be flying down from the moon every minute. We see the longship that holds Draco, inching ever closer to the armada and escape to the moon. Timmy has a plan, but it'll be dangerous, deciding to land the castle on top of the ship. I'm not sure Draco wills survive underwater long enough, especially if he is bound so I turn to Dagon. I heave a sigh and ask Dagon to make me and all of my servants able to breathe water. In exchange he can have two cities off the coast of Brittania. Nanfoodle nods and says that's a good idea and a good trade. Dagon is more than happy to have a place for his people to live and agrees immediately. As I shake his flipper I can feel a change, and see a change in Nanfoodle. We've grown gills. I can only assume the rest of the people of Brittania have as well. A vision assails me, of the future. My kingdom is a land full of monsters and men, all bound to different gods and entities. Shaking it off I tell Timmy to land. He drops Castle Wife like a rock directly on top of the longboat. The entire thing capsizes and I dive into the water. I spot Draco almost immediately and pull him up from the depths, throwing him onto the cloud the castle lies on as the armada takes notice and begins heading our way. When I safely get aboard Timmy commands the castle to bounce, causing tidal waves that start washing the armada away. Nanfoodle brings up an interesting point as we see to Draco's wounds. Nyarlathotep is either on the moon or has allies on it. And Gobogeg, still in his Staff of Ygg, wanted to destroy the moon. A quick discussion is held and we agree. It's time to set Gobogeg free. Timmy flies over the Nameless Rock and Nanfoodle shoots Gobogeg from his staff onto the island. The mushroom god roars in pleasure and starts growing. Its not fast enough, so Nanfoodle casts druidic magic and makes him grow more. We leave immediately. Turning back we see he is already a mile high and continues growing while the armada is attacking him. More longships are launched from the moon, only to crash on Gobogeg and get washed away in his spore clouds. Over the next two days I talk with Draco as Medraut, though to hide my new form I've taken to sitting on Nanfoodle's shoulders and wearing a trench coat. It can't hide my complexion, but that will be addressed later. Draco says he's happy in this form and he doesn't want to go back to his father. Al will turn him into a dragon. I tell Draco to wait as we enter the throne room where Al happily waits for us in the Crystal Castle. Nanfoodle and I totter in there, almost falling more than once, but I'm determined to talk Al out of changing Draco. We discuss. A lot. I explain how he is indebted to me as his king. Al scoffs at the thought. I need him as my spymaster. A dragon will just intimidate information out of my enemies. We go back and forth several times, but eventually I wear Al down to agree not to change Draco back. When I turn around to tell someone to go get Draco I discover Dagon is already walking back, Draco being held in his tail tentacles. Al asks Draco if this is the life he really wants. When Draco responds positively Al reminds me why I need to stop thinking of him as a derivative of Alezphraxian. He breathes dragon fire all over Draco, saying, He flies off while Nanfoodle and I try to stabilize Draco. He is maimed for life. One arm and a leg are missing, his body is covered in burns, and he groans in barely sensible pain. Dagon goes and gets the necklace with Hydra in it and seems...happier then ever after freeing her. From there he starts gagging, and eventually throws up. In the bile is Chicago, with the necklace that held Dagon once. Dagon and Hydra leave and begin heading south. The responses I get to whether they will fight Nyarlathotep are noncommittal at best. Chicago needs a good cleaning, which Timmy promptly gives him, saying that's not going in his wife. He then transforms into Ithaqua and begins taking everything from the castle that isn't nailed down for his wife. Then he starts taking the things that are part of the castle itself, like the crystal throne and the fountain. During all of this Draco is suffering. I can see it in the way he writhes. I do the only thing I can think of. I turn to Ithaqua and ask him to help. When Ithaqua dives into Draco's mind he sees something he likes. A cold breeze kicks through the castle, then a column of black smoke engulfs Draco. When it dissipates what stands before us is a Wendigo that howls once before heading back to Camelot. Ithaqua is pleased. I break out in a cold sweat and start calculating what this war will cost me...
Date unknown, Location: flying castle, Time since Awakening: 6 days Dagon's response is predictable. Timmy breathes a sigh of relief, though only in body language. The Wendigo snarls and talks about Timmy being a coward once again and preparing to die. Timmy is concerned not by the Wendigo's words but by the viscera that keeps dropping all over his castle-wife and wants to get this over with as soon as possible. The other monster snarls and orders him to prepare himself, warning that if any of us step in after preparations are done he'll summon his own help. Dagon sets himself up in a nice little nook overlooking the foyer where the action will take place. Nanfoodle and I start setting Timmy up with all the spells we can think of to prepare him for combat with what looks like a nimble and dangerous opponent. A space of pure life energy, invisible shields, some beast totems, and mirror images later and Timmy is ready to duke it out. Dagon amuses himself by commentating the fight as it begins. The Wendigo is faster on its feet, charging Timmy with a flurry of claws and teeth. Luckily Timmy's armor and hide protect him, but something does happen. He stumbles and bows over, overly long arms clutching his stomach. Dagon says something about being near a Wendigo causing intense hunger and chills. It seems Timmy shakes it off in time to defend against the Wendigos next attacks, though he has to pull a magical shield in front of himself to do so. His retaliation is with multiple spells, cutting deeply into the Wendigo and setting something under its feet. He backs off, drawing another attack that he blocks. When the Wendigo charges after him once more an explosion of sound and light engulfs it, exploding outwards. Timmy defends another assault, then follows it casting more spells to set mines under its feet. A flurry of back and forth hits and the Wendigo finally draws blood, a great gash that swiftly starts closing because of Nanfoodle's life energy. Another series of back and forth attacks, the Wendigo grabs another chunk of Timmy's flesh, this time in its teeth. More images of Timmy pop as it continues its assault. It doesn't hit often, but when it does Timmy visibly reels. Timmy continues to get hits in, slowly bleeding the Wendigo out. Dagon has gotten bored by this point and left, but Nanfoodle and I are on our toes, ready to step in if things get too out of hand. Twice Timmy falls to the floor as the Wendigo gets hits in, but Nanfoodle's precautions drag him back to consciousness. Eventually, after much fighting, the Wendigo falls. Timmy proceeds to eat it then cleans the castle halls. Feeling a pull towards the large black rock Timmy directs the castle towards it, tugging at his amulet. There is one problem. Several problems. A woman with long blonde hair. In a white and blue dress. Holding two massive fireballs. Surrounded by Fire Elementals. And Brightstone Goblins whose gems are glowing red. This can't be good. Seravin says this is probably Alice and that she's looking for Dreamers to kill. Dagon doesn't care, he just wants the ruby necklace she's wearing off to free another god. Behind the welcoming committee is a slot in the enormous black stone. Aukan takes off the amulet as we consider ways to get him behind Alice. Nanfoodle and he start digging themselves under the snow to approach while Seravin and Dagon go to talk to Alice with me behind Dagon's large bulk. Alice calls Seravin a "soulless suck up to the Ghoul King" and demands that Dagon get back into his necklace. Dagon demands that Alice release Kerakle from the Ruby. Aukan takes this time to pop from the snow throwing his magic handaxe, bearing the amulet, at the black stone trying to slot it in. Alice slices her hand open trying to grab it as it returns to Aukan when it misses. Dagon is startled by the handaxe and starts attacking, breaking down diplomatic relations. Alice throws a large fireball at our party, burning everyone, and ordering the fire elementals and goblins to attack. She wants the black amulet retrieved and Aukan's corpse. Strangely some of the goblins are too scared by Dagon's appearance to get near us. I guess we're all used to it now. The rest, and the elementals, swarm us. Ultimately nothing happens to us, allowing me to engage an elemental as Nanfoodle begins casting spells. Aukan rushes forward, dodging the attacks brought against him and making it to the Black Stone of Urg. He slips his amulet into the waiting hole, causing the thread holding it to disintegrate and a burst of light to spread out. Aukan's limbs burst open, he grows to double his height, shaggy fur covers his body. He is now Timmy, permanently. Dagon begins throwing his weight around, rushing towards and smacking Alice around, constantly coming from his strange mouth. Alice drops another fireball, this time on herself, consuming multiple goblins, causing them to explode, and injuring everyone further. She then conjures a dagger made of flame and stabs Timmy as hard as she can. Luckily Timmy is made of tough stuff and can shrug off the hit, though he's not looking too good. Sevarin fights off more goblins, causing each of them to explode. I demand Alice to explain why she's working with the Crawling Chaos while attacking the elemental in front of me. She doesn't respond, too focused on Timmy. Timmy does...something. That strange light spills from his mouth before a column of smoke starts coming out. It consumes him, writhing like a living thing, going up, up, up into the air. The smoke disperses revealing a new form. Ithaqua the Headmaster whispers to me. I can't describe how immense, how intangible, how terrible Ithaqua is. Dagon was bad, this is easily worse. Ithaqua doesn't even need to reach down, he just extinguishes the nearby fire elemental and explodes the remaining goblins with his presence. He looks at Alice, whispering, shouting, being. The blustery and frigid North and South winds form, slipping between Alice's lips and pulling out her breath. She collapses, pale and lifeless. Smoke. Heat. My rebirth as Medraut flashes before my eyes. Alice's body is consumed in flame. The wicked fire rises, growing to many times the size of Alice's body, only Ithaqua being bigger than it. The flames of the creature, god, being twist and whisper insanity. Kerakle, twisted by the Crawling Chaos, says the Headmaster. The two polar opposites rush each other, coming together in a column of burning flame and icy wind, each working to extinguish the other. The fire elemental I fight continues its assault, burning me, making it hard to breathe. I work to extinguish it while keeping an eye on the three gods fighting mere yards away. Kerakle does something, heat exploding. It's hot. I'm boiling alive! My armor, I can't reach its catches... I die. I feel my soul leave my body, free of the mortal coil. I slip into oblivion. I awaken in the Headmaster's office. He stands behind his desk with cold judging eyes and his magnificent mustache. "So Darcsen... have you learned the most important lesson yet?" "Trust nothing. It's been the most painful thing to learn so far." The thoughts of the witches flash behind my eyes. If only I could have saved them from their fate. Gobogeg, the giant. Hearing whispers of another traitor making its way to Camelot. Dagon, playing word games. Seravin revealing himself as a vampire. I can't trust the words of my fellows. I can't trust my senses. I can only trust myself, and even that is shaky at best. "A good lesson, but not the most important," says the Headmaster. He looks disappointed. I wrack my brain. I come up blank. "Then I haven't learned lessons. I have taken to working against the Crawling Chaos out of need. Need to survive, too thrive, away from the threat of the extinction of everything." His smile is grim, his mustache drooping. "Then you've got the essence of it... you will lose everything in this fight. Your friends too, though I doubt they realize it yet." Despair. Pure despair I haven't felt since the death of the witches. I shake. I consider. I am empty of all calmness. I am manic. I don't understand. Cannot understand. "Tobias has already learned. Is struggling even worth it? Can we win?" The Headmaster grows more serious. It seems he cannot express this enough. "You are the only ones who can. I spent my entire life and failed because I fought alone." Wait...Fighting alone. Trading stories with the other orphans. Learning what they have seen. What they have read and figured out during their own explorations. "Headmaster... do you know anyone by the name of Perry?" He smiles, "Yes...Yes I do." Pieces start falling into place. "Your wife misses you, you know." His smile turns bitter. He has to turn away and face the Knickknacks in his office. "I know. The hardest part was leaving her behind." He turns back and looks me in the eye once more. "Nyarlathotep took me like he took Tobias...Only my wife's memory remains of me in the waking world." There is nothing to say to that. I can't. I wonder if or how I will return to my comrades. To fight Nyarlathotep. [i]Date unknown, Location: unknown, Time since Awakening: unknown I awaken. Something is wrong. Nanfoodle got bigger. Much bigger. Then I notice Seravin also got bigger. And Dagon must have been eating a lot. Wait. The black rock is gone. My skin is darker. I can see in the darkness despite there being no light. I feel like Medraut, I haven't changed to Korth. "Boss!" Nanfoodle cries. "You're back! The Siege Perilous worked. I thought that Svirfneblin was crazy walking up to you, but then your soul did something and now you're here!" Oh gods. I think I'm going to hurl. Memories are imparted on me of both the life of this gnome and of Headmaster Perry's plan. He had a family, friends. A life. And he just decided to walk in this direction, for days. As though he knew. No! No time for more sorrow. Headmaster Perry's words come back. "You must unite the denizens of the Dream Lands to fight back against the coming forces of the Crawling Chaos. Rescue the gods to gather the strength needed to challenge the Black Pharaoh. He has them hidden beyond Leng in Unknown Kadath. Return the Dark Messenger to the Nuclear Chaos to preserve the Dream Lands." There is much to do and not much time to do it...
Date unknown, Location: flying castle, Time since Awakening: 0.5 hours Awake again we leave the castle proper to get our bearings. From Seravin's map and the various topography around us we seem to be over a red square in the Red and Pleasant lands. Timmy jumps back into the throne to take the 'helm' as we begin discussing our next destination. Looking at Seravin's map I suggest the Baths of Szaczard, as it may be where Hydra is. Dagon was very vocal about finding his wife. He does tell us that the baths are where the Queen of Hearts historically kept the undying heads of the nobility of the clubs, diamonds, and spades courts. I can't wait to be able to understand Dagon without the need of a translator, I'm pretty sure Seravin isn't telling us everything he says. The castle has started moving, though we're not sure where its going. When asked Timmy was particularly cagey in his response, saying "The castle wants to go home." Where or what home is to a flying castle is something none of us really know, but last I checked it was Timmy that controlled where the castle went. I'll have to fix that. I spent the next hour using the newest boon granted me by the Headmaster, shedding Korth to don, once again, Medraut. Seravin spent that time conducting a ritual creating an 'Elder Sign', while Dagon went about doing Dagon things and Nanfoodle started trying to make the gardens grow on the cloud around the castle. Paranoia about Camelot begins seeping in as my skin changes. I would order Timmy to take us there immediately, but it may be more helpful if I come back bearing the Holy Grail and sitting atop the Siege Perilous. Now I just need my sword back. I can't believe I gave it to Chicago for safe-keeping as Korth, that just isn't right. The castle continues heading North, away from the Red and Pleasant land. So I order Timmy to turn the castle around. When he gets cagey again I am explicit. "Do your best to turn the castle around right now." He communes with the sphere on the arm rest before telling me he can't. Something intangible and very real between us snaps then there is a large clatter. Timmy shakes his big furry body and pieces of full plate start raining off of him. Seems something broke our pact. Considering Timmy is the one attuned to the castle at the moment I can't just throw him off the cloud and be done with it. I don't want to waste any more time, but it looks like we're heading North now. So I begin inspecting Dagon. And ask him if he feels my sword inside him. He demands fealty and obeisance before his godly might. I refuse. He informs me that he feels something and I ask him to look in his mouth. He demands recompense. I inform him I will not willingly kill any females we may find. His jaw pops open and I can just barely see Caliburn deep in his gullet. As I begin reaching toward him and planning on retrieving my sword his maw snaps shut again. Oh. So we're playing word games? Fine, two can play at that you overgrown seal. At this point Seravin finishes another ritual and places an Elder Sign on me. I can feel my shattered psyche knitting back together and start thinking clearer. Dagon demands that he and his cults and children be allowed in Brittania. That they be safe from government eyes and receive no retribution for what they do. I consider my words carefully. "I will not personally sanction any government actions or take action against your cults." If his big dumb face could look smug it would. He doesn't realize that I plan on writing or messaging Lady Blackheart to create a small taskforce to look for more signs of cult activity that I have no say in, stake or power over. Anything they do will be disavowed. When Dagon opens his mouth again I dive right in without hesitation, not giving him a chance to spin his words once more. The monstrous seal has no gag reflex! I slide right down into his gullet and get my sword back. I start poking him with the sharper bits of my armor and am thrown back up. I don't know if this was my action or others that caused this, but I am now covered in sick. I notice Timmy has started cleaning the castle and tidying up. When asked why his response was, "My wife wants me to do it. It makes her happy." Startled and confused we ask for clarification. We learned several interesting things from that conversation. The castle is alive. It considers whomever controls it her husband. It lives in Uth-Nargeye. It is already nagging Timmy about multiple things, including how dirty it is in here. And throw pillows. Something about sixteen throw pillows for a bed. I was still a bit churlish about Timmy's pact breaking with me so I started rolling around and spreading the sick more. It was great fun watching him try to clean it until Seravin brought up that he had Prestidigitation prepared. Never trust a vampire. About our second day out I sense a portal near us to the west. It feels big. I inform everyone but we don't have control of the castle, Timmy does, so it is ignored in favor of Uth-Nargeye. Looking at Seravin's larger map of the overall Dreamlands it appears we are in for about a week's journey. And someone, namely Timmy, scrawled all over it. He wrote that Urg, the capital of Uth-Nargeye was incredibly close to us and made some other inane changes. We could tell he did it because he scrawled his signature in the corner of the map. I while away the time asking Nanfoodle to gather some ravens to be used as message birds. I send them to Lady Blackheart, informing her of our whereabouts, what has happened, to form the task force, and that we may be arriving in a floating castle. Nanfoodle spends the rest of his time trying to get the gardens restarted, and building an enormous nest. He says it is for brooms to come roost. Seravin and Dagon take turns reading from Jubiliations and informing us about their findings. Seravin learns about Alice. She is the Flame Princess and wields the Ruby. Apparently she has found herself in the goblin woods rather than Urg because of a new portal. She has been ordered to kill Dreamers. He also learns that the other necklaces holding gods are: a diamond necklace, an opal necklace, a cat's-eye necklace, and a sapphire necklace. He also learns that Ulthar is in the Waking World. Dagon gets a list of gods that are captured and gods that are not captured. He neglects to share this with us at the moment. He does tell us about what the Crawling Chaos plans. It convinced the Dreamlanders to turn their backs on their gods. In the confusion it got its followers to trap them in the necklaces. It is swiftly moving to destroy all of the Dreamlands. The trip takes shorter than we thought, only lasting four days. Four. Listening to Dagon babble. Timmy complain about his wife. Seravin crave the blood of a Vampire Lord. And Nanfoodle. I spend most of my time with Nanfoodle. He's a good adviser. We finally reach Uth-Nargeye, specifically Urg. It is an enormous black rock, bigger than the castle, and set in a glacier. The city below us is in chaos, much as Camelot was. Everything seems to be on fire, people are screaming, and all because of something amiss. Literally a hemisphere is missing from the rock. As the castle moves to examine it Dagon sees some people on the coast. A high priest of his cult and four acolytes. Timmy seems upset. So much so he takes his amulet and throws it to the ground. A draft drifts through the castle, whispering the word, Heretic over and over. He puts it back on and talks with the castle. It shoots into the sky and moves at least twice as fast as it did before back South. Dagon then talks about his home and what he learned from his priests. It has sunk beneath the waves and is now inhospitable to his children and followers. Two more days in the air and we return to the Goblin Woods. The mountains, instead of being capped with snow, are now covered in it. The snow and ice is spreading from a point that corresponds with where Timmy placed Urg on Seravin's map. The nearby greenery is already getting choked out by the ice. Timmy speaks up and says something is waiting for us in the entryway. A brown-furred creature, as large as Timmy almost, and dripping entrails on the stonework greets us. It challenges Timmy to determine the true champion of Ithaqua, wanting a one-on-one fight. It asks Dagon, as a god, if it will join him in striking down the Heretic...
Date unknown, Location: unknown, Time since Awakening: 0.25 hours The platforms are the board? The board becomes the platforms? Nothing makes sense here in the Dark Tapestry. Even my senses are confused. Gravity feels relative, scents across my tongue feel strange, the void around us is endless. Five larger islands, several smaller ones, all of them scattered about, with pillars, probably 25 feet high standing freely throughout. On each island lies a slab with Greek letters, the center one holding a channel where the slabs can be placed. Also on the islands, waiting for us, are old 'friends'. I can see Magog, as he was before the mushrooms hit, his bully boys, a half dozen green hags, and some mummies coming out of sarcophagi. Timmy is already on one island. Turns out the void hadn't consumed him. A prison cell is built into the island across from his horizontally. The island across from him vertically looks like it will be Chicago's landing place. Next to that island is the one Nanfoodle will land. And I'm headed straight toward the central island. With Magog. My scales start shifting as I look at my odds of defeating him myself. They are not good. As we land lightly the voice from before comes back, Seravin seems to teleport into the prison cell, giving the voice from above a tone other than anger, confusion. Chicago is as quick on his feet as ever, dashing from his island to mine, punching multiple bugbears and throwing his chakram at Magog along the way. Nanfoodle is quickly surrounded by the mummies on his island, and Timmy does a particularly Timmy thing to the bugbear on his island. He rushes it, jumps across a small chasm, then plants all four of his weird monster feet into the bugbear, pushing it off into the endless void below. Nanfoodle begins climbing the pillar on his island to get away from the mummies, and I finally gather my bearings. I follow Chicago's course of action, rushing around to the opposite side of Magog and stabbing him with my shortswords. Only one makes it through his thick fatty body, but it seems to do major damage. I can taste rich red blood from a liver as it sprays across my face. It is hard to spit without lips, but I think I manage it. Goblin blood makes me wish I was swallowing ash instead. The bugbears and hags start up, pushing pillars to make bridges between islands and casting spells. Then Magog grins, his voice grinding out like a rockslide. "Now you learn why you ought not have done that..." The veritable tree he uses as a weapon crashes into Chicago, dropping the weak fleshy man with a crunch. Then he turns to me his grin turning to a vicious smile before he swings at me. The only thing I can hear is a high pitched whine. My tongue tastes like copper. How did I end up a few feet away from that elephantine foot? Oh. Its Magog. The fact that I'm still breathing, though it feels like the air is full of glass, is a miracle. I hear a high pitched scream as Nanfoodle's column starts dropping into the void. The gnome manages to leap off but falls in anyway. That's not good. There's a grinding sound from elsewhere, but even the thought of moving my head hurts. Between Magog's legs I see Chicago, blood oozing out of him and slowly forming a red pool. I hear the crack of thunder. My scales are hot. I can feel my muscles spasm and my heart supercharge before I pass out. A breath manages to shudder its way out of my broken and electrified body. I lift my head. Chicago is up, Timmy's ridiculously long arms have imparted him with some magical healing. Looking left Nanfoodle did the same to me. How did he get here? Shouldn't he be falling forever? And what's that funny hat? Oh...That's Magog's...I really hope Nanfoodle gets out from under there, it can't be good for his health. Another thunderbolt. More heart squeezing. Then blackness once more. Instead of air coming out of my mouth it is blood. Things have moved around again. The Hags and Bugbears are closer. Nanfoodle is out from under Magog. There appears to be grime on his helmet. My stomach turns and I vomit more blood. I'm getting sick of this and its not just the blood. Timmy reaches out with his long arms and imparts more healing on Chicago. A cackle from behind me. I manage to avoid most of the Hag's sharp nails. I don't avoid the second hag's nails. The bloodloss makes me pass out again. The next time I wake a bugbear is near me, fighting to get over Magog's girth. Apparently he was taken down by my companions. Good. Couldn't have happened to a better person. I stab the Hag and notice that another bridge has been made of a column and Seravin has gotten free from his prison cell. Horrible squelching sounds come from behind me. Yellow eyes the size of dinner plates. Folds of rubbery green flesh atop seal flippers. Blue tentacles coming from the back and rear. Teeth bigger than my wrist gnashing down and around. Something about this creature is not right. It has too many bones. It doesn't have enough mass. It doesn't fit. It still doesn't fit. Why doesn't it fit. When I stop seizing I realize that Chicago is missing. Timmy and Nanfoodle don't seem bothered by it, so the creature must be friendly. Seravin isn't moving on one of the other islands. I kill the hag that closes with me. I guess they're out of spells? Or they just want to rely on their nails. The monster is surrounded by bugbears and hags, but seems to be handling itself real well. That light shines from Timmy's mouth, possibly upset, possibly content, whispering Dagon. Dagon. Dagon. The next minute is a blur of killing and avoiding the monster. It finishes all of its opponents then begins doing unspeakable things with the hags. The rest of us start moving to collect the slabs. Nanfoodle figures out they use Greek letters to spell 'Delta'. The world shatters around us, and we wake up in the flying castle. I have no idea where we actually are anymore. Seravin seems to have gotten better and starts explaining what happened to him in the real world. Apparently the Crawling Chaos pulled him into the Void, and is going to do this to each of us in turn. One per dawn. In the Void Seravin found the Lord of the Underworld, Nodens. A war was brewing between the gods and to end it we have to kill the Crawling Chaos. I hear whispers from the Headmaster, congratulating me on finding one of the gods, and granting me a touch more power. Nodens is supposed to help us kill the Crawling Chaos. But in the end it won't bring back Tobias, he's been removed from our existence...
5 August 1930 Looking around the others are all here. Except for Tobias. He's gone, as well as all of his stuff. Only a bare mattress is left. Timmy runs downstairs after hearing Madame Perry speaking to someone else. When he returns he says we have a new groundskeeper, an old man. He has an eye patch, long ragged hair, and a limp. We also have a free day while she shows him the ropes. I hide Caliburn as well as I can before leaving the orphanage, heading towards a local pool. I spend time talking with others my own age, observing some girls, and spreading rumors that there are crazy experiments happening underground. The day passes quickly and my panic starts deflating. Date unknown, Location: unknown, Time since Awakening: 0 hours I wake in the dreamlands, familiar scales, claws, and teeth covering me. I have the faint notion that I will be betrayed by others, especially anyone new. Speaking of new, Seravin is back. When questioned he says he didn't want to wake us. I don't believe a word of it and do what I can to get away from him as fast as possible. We have ended up on an enormous board, 10 squares by 10, red and white. A void and walls surround the board.
With that proclamation an enormous cube of jelly appeared on the other side of chessboard. Ten levers appeared on two sides of the board, floating out in the void between the board and the walls. I moved over to investigate one of the levers, poking at it with my shovel. I flipped it, causing all of the squares in the row I was on to blast with light and runes. 'Seravin' revealed himself to be a traitor, changing forms before us and firing several blasts of force from his hands, nearly knocking me off the board and into the void. I see Hypnos in my head. Trying to talk to us. He is distraught, then angry. I hear bits of his speech. The gods are gone, they are going to die. It doesn't make too much sense. I also hear names. Nodens. Ukranos. Karakle. I work through the Pact I have with the Headmaster, and discover that we are somewhere in the Dark Tapestry. My other comrades attack not-Seravin, nearly killing him and forcing him to retreat. The cube gets sucked into one of the spaces on the board and appears over top of Timmy. Timmy manages to avoid getting sucked into the cube and fights back against it. When Nanfoodle sets it on fire it combusts and boils away, but it leaves Timmy a drooling mess. Seems he still hasn't gotten over his fear of fire. Chicago takes care of not-Seravin, driving his foot through the horned man's chest and kicking him into the void. "Master...Please...Save me..." is all we hear. We have a few moments of respite before a skeleton appears in the gear that not-Seravin was wearing. Then the cube comes back. I spend time trying to figure out what the deal is with the squares and why the cube can travel the way it can. My comrades continue fighting, all except for Timmy. He seems like something is on his mind, then before we can do anything he dives into the void, managing to squeeze his mass into the tiny hole. I've finally got it! We need to turn all the levers off to stop the cube from moving. I begin flipping switches, Nanfoodle works on getting rid of the cube, Chicago flips multiple switches while killing the skeleton several times over. If it wasn't for Chicago we'd all be much more injured. A dangerous cackle is heard as the skeleton finally stops getting up. In my head I see a vision of another teenager, a few years older than I am. I've seen him before. He was missing a hand, and I see him burning alive, calling for his master. As the last switch flips the entire chessboard becomes an enormous sigil. Then an enormous tentacle smashes the board, dropping us all onto floating platforms...
Date unknown, Location: Pursuing Diviticus, Time since Awakening: ~30 hours More screams and cackling. The soft thrum, then powerful sucking of a void opening up. The hags are gone, destroyed by the Green Man the same way Lady Vel did the day before. More combat, chasing down Diviticus. He drops as missiles of pure energy strike from afar, Timmy's magic. An immediate squabble between Chicago and Timmy, each wanting Diviticus' horned hat while Nanfoodle holds a discussion with the Green Man. He has obtained Diviticus' staff, a powerful artifact. The Green Man says he was trapped in that wood centuries ago, taken by Diviticus to start a false druid's circle. He then tasks Nanfoodle with healing nature and killing fake druids. To do this he gives the halfling a small seed, extraordinarily golden and said to be the seed of the Tree of Life. The staff carries two large presences within it, the serpent god Ygg, and the essence of the Siege Perilous. Chicago has finally won the hat, racing away from Timmy. We pull more things off of the corpse, and discover a large tome, a strange dagger, and an amulet. We decide to head back to Camelot before examining things further. The city is rejoicing, the Picts fled or assimilated. I discover more about my country and my Knights. Astelot is the second seat of power. Three cities to the north, Hadrian, Umber, and Gwent are all destroyed cities. Before the Picts and Diviticus invaded there was a great wall protecting Brittania from the evil woods. It has been destroyed. The Knights of the Round Table that still are in the city are Sir Lionel, Sir Bors, Lady Vel, Sir Draco, Sir Socks, and Sir Hans, who was not able to participate in the battle. He was cursed by a witch and is a humanoid frog, as small as a regular frog, instead of the dwarf he once was. He was disappointed to learn that Diviticus was dead and that his curse was not lifted. The Questing Knights are King Pellinore, Aglovale the Black, Erik the Red, Hellan the White, Bert the Green, and Nimueh the Blue. When asked about the giant broom we were informed it was enslaved, it dropped off witches and barbarians, then flew south towards its home. Lionel and Bors both want to be the General in Camelot, Lady Vel wants to be the Magister, Draco, the Spymaster. Already two positions in the court are filled, a mister Svart is the Quartermaster, and a madame Alfwyn is the Librarian. While I decide on positions of the Knights in the court Nanfoodle examines the gear from Diviticus. His amulet is a communication device with the Crawling Chaos. The name of it is the Shining Trapezohedron. Sevarin starts translating the book, written in Aklo. It is The Jubilations and Exaltations of the Dark Tapestry. It has spells and rituals. Lore, Eldritch Entities, Strange Geometries, and who rules the Dreamlands and how. The book also details the dagger Diviticus was using, a core component of many rituals in the book. It is the Quill of the Tapestry. I've decided how the court shall be filled while I am away. Multiple ticking clocks force my hand. Bors will be my Diplomat, Lionel my General. Draco, despite my misgivings, my Spymaster, Hans, the Treasurer. Alfwyn and Svart will remain in their positions, and Lady Vel will be the magister. I also appoint her the Steward of Camelot until my return with the Questing Knights. She is rather pleased with that development. Socks wants to use Camelot's resources to attack the Cats of Ulthar and take back the Goblin's totems. I inform him that the city, and the country is too divided to accomplish that at the moment. We discuss our next move as we perform more research. Camelot once had a robust transportation circle system in place, able to reach cities halfway across the Dream World in a blink. They are destroyed now, but may be fixed in the future. Seravin does research on magic weapons to bolster his fighting prowess and discovers tales of Clarent, the Holy Avenger, Frostbrand, Flametongue, and more. We discover Sir Hans Ribbetweed wields the Hammer of Thunderbolts and it is currently his size as well. Nanfoodle discovers some locations to plant the Tree of Life, specifically Mnar, and the Plateau of Leng. Our destination, for the moment, is the Red and Pleasant Land. The others convince me that we should also be looking for the flying castle, as a form of transportation. Timmy thinks he can make it faster with the great North and South winds of Ithaqua. We begin our journey shortly and spend two and a half days on the road to Astelot. Along the way we hear tales of a new King of the Goblins, probably Lefty, the Cats of Ulthar gearing up for war, and the flying castle, slowly coming down to the ground. It drops lower and lower each day, shedding spores like snow, and leaving mushrooms in its wake. It carves trenches in hills that are too high for their own good. We continue our journey, spending three more days travelling to Gwent. Along the way I point out some injured birds to Nanfoodle, who heals them with his magic. They say they hit a solid cloud and were chased away from it by Mi-Go. Nanfoodle is declared a friend of Ravens everywhere. We pass a slow moving wagon train, heading in the same direction. Hear about a local warlord, rebuilding fortifications in Gwent. Aukan decides to put on his amulet and scares them back to Astelot. We can see Gwent at the end of the third day in the distance. We see activity and fires, the stones of its once mighty buildings now scattered around. It has been rebuilt in wood. We set a watch through the night. Chicago sees a group of armed men approaching in the morning, just before dawn. He wakes us and we prepare ourselves. The men, realizing how...potent we could prove in combat, choose discourse over violence. They agree to take us to Warlord Guy while commenting on how funny of a Court Fool Chicago is, and how amazing the talking bear in the party is. I didn't have the heart to tell them that Chicago runs his mouth and that Timmy is not a bear. We are brought to the largest structure in town, a longhall. Inside, seated on a wooden horned throne is a large old man. The discussion is tense. I inform him I will demand his respect when we return with the Grail in hand. We continue on and start moving off the road, continuing north. Ravens help keep funguys away from our camp. Nanfoodle learns more from the birds. The castle has landed in the Spore Fields, where the fungus is starting to destroy nature. The Spore Fields are a three and a half day journey from our location. We decide to head there. On the second day we cross a road near a bridge and discover a small settlement of goblins. We are informed it is called Splat's Crossing and that the floating castle did pass by. They want a toll for crossing the bridge, but we don't have to cross it. They seem a bit put out. Spores in the air. Cloth over our faces, wet with our waterskins to keep the air we breathe pure. We continue travelling, the local fungus making travel difficult. Eventually we spy the castle. An enormous mushroom grows from the top of it. It is surrounded by Mushroom Men, holding hands and...singing? The castle appears open so we approach it. There are not only mushroom men in the circle. Mushroom deer, rabbits, animals of all shapes and sizes. Even some flora. All living things are being converted into mushrooms. We start sizing up the distance we'll have to go to get into the castle. The ring stands 80 feet away from it. Suddenly a small mushroom person approaches us from the circle. We say we are here to see Gobogeg and are immediately granted access. The castle is heavy with sporeclouds. Inside we are greeted by a Fuan, whose ribcage is torn open, and a mushroom is clearly seen replacing its heart. Chicago starts discussing forming a Pact with Gobogeg, the Faun tells us to see him ourselves. We can't even get into the throne room anymore. It is one giant mushroom stalk, wit six eyes and three mouths. The first mutters, the second exhumes spores, and the third talks in Aklo to us. . Nanfoodle touches Gobogeg with his staff and immediately begins shuddering. Something so small begins absorbing something so large. There's no space. There's no space! Nothing should be happening, why? Why? Why can this small stick contain such a large presence? Too much! Too too much. It can't happen. Wait. My castle. My kingdom! If I'm here who is there to protect it? I must go back. Protect it from those thieving Knights and that Warlord Guy. I can't let them have it. It's mine! By birthright! By the sword on my hip, the blood in my veins. Something presses on my feet, then my back. My eyes open to discover the castle has shot up into the sky! I turn towards Camelot. I must go back. 5 August 1930 I wake painfully, Caliburn poking out of the bed sheets as my thoughts are consumed. I must get back...
Yeah...no. Half-demons in Pathfinder follow the templates that UnArcaneElection mentioned. D&D may have tieflings be half demons, but the tieflings here have a smidge of outsider somewhere in their past. Most tieflings never know their fiendish sire, as the coupling that produced their curse occurred generations earlier.
Date unknown, Location: Battlement atop the wall surround Camelot, Time since Awakening: 0.5 hours The fight has been draining. Everything is blurry, especially with the hags running rampant. Socks is dropped by the hag he fights, most of his throat in her claws. Another throws a lightning bolt. Too slow. Too. Slow. Lightning courses through my body as I lose consciousness again. Nanfoodle grants me life and the will to fight again. Sometime during my near death experience Chicago did something. He is now foaming at the mouth, muttering "Daleleoth, Render of Veils," repeatedly. But he points out the last hag. I throw Caliburn with everything I have. The mighty blade replaces the hag's spine and the nearby area grows silent. My knights. They flock to me as I recover. Nanfoodle recovers Socks as well. Socks comes to me, as I discuss with the knights what to do about the Picts in the city. They suggest that they handle the chaos in the city while I recover as I had been targeted multiple times throughout the fight. Socks asks how he can help, and if he can be a knight too. It doesn't take me more than a few seconds before I agree. Bors and Lionel look wary, Vel disgusted, and Draco is inscrutable as ever. Shortly the five Knights head into the city while I take the others to the castle where we can rest. Realizing that Camelot has an enormous library we decide to do some research after relaxing. I start looking for information on the Holy Grail, Aukan looks for information on something called the Blackstone of Urgh, Chicago looks for the Inward Facing Circle, and Nanfoodle searches for the Green Man. Seravin instead starts looking through the armory for better gear. My research is fruitful. Others were looking for the Grail before we arrived. Sir Pelanorae took half of the Knights of the Round Table into the Red and Pleasant Land. He is searching for the Holy Grail and the Questing Beast. Aukan finds a book with descriptions of other lands. The Blackstone of Urgh is the largest piece of Onyx in the Dreamlands. It resides in the country of Ooth-Nurgeye. The capital of this land is Ingaknock, a major trade hub. It provides Onyx for all of the Dreamlands. Aukan also found the way to this place. He described it as 'across the Starless Sea, or a long way by the Land of Mnar, the gnomish lands, and through the Forbidden Zone.' Chicago didn't find much, just the phrase, 'Rend in the Veil, at Veil'. Nanfoodle couldn't even discover who or what the Green Man is. After the library my Knights have returned. The Picts are mostly slain, they are going to begin the cleanup. A minor ceremony is held while I get my rightful accouterments, including my crown, a signet, ring, staff of office, etc. Then we take a trip to the Royal Armory and discover more weapons and armor than we can imagine, including several suits of full plate. I take one, Aukan and Nanfoodle ask for one each as well. Something pulls me to make a Pact with them. With Aukan, he is to be my vassal for 18 days in real world time, Nanfoodle, my Court Healer and Advisor. They are both made Knights of the Round Table. Caliburn thrums, pleased that another seat in the court is filled. Next order of business is to find Diviticus and stop him. I grab Socks and Lady Vel, my Court Inquisitor, and start asking for answers. Diviticus was once the magic adviser for the last young king. He became the defacto ruler when the king passed and he continued gaining power. He pursued more and darker magic, then was expelled as a Black Wizard. He appears to be a Warlock of a Great Old One. He leads a cult of witches that almost worship him, but each individual Witch makes a pact with a different entity. Socks says most of Diviticus' power comes from his staff, and that he is likely a Druid because Socks saw him doing 'Druid magic.' That's enough information for me. We begin heading out to find Diviticus' camp after Socks gives us a general direction. Seravin, the stealthiest of us, goes to find it. He does, then reports back saying Diviticus is sending people out to do something while he works a new ritual. We head out immediately, leaving the Knights to perform more clean-up. We find the man summoning another large tentacled abomination, just like the one at Fort. He is in a small clearing, surrounded by small trees and rocks, and three more Green Hags. Diviticus sees us and turns his staff into an enormous Cobra, green with yellow markings all over it. The tentacled thing is in a rift that Diviticus is slowly opening more and more. The hags are quick, holding Timmy through some foul magic, then nearly killing him with their claws. Chicago sees an opportunity and punts Diviticus into the rift with the tentacle thing. He floats, black anger flickering across his features. He then closes the rift and drops in front of Chicago. The snake, seemingly intelligent, chases after Nanfoodle, providing us with support and healing. Seravin defends our healer with his blades, leaving massive cuts in the side of the snake. Two witches begin flying while another sends a lightning bolt through Nanfoodle and Timmy. Ozone. Burning flesh. Things are quickly growing chaotic. "Diviticus! I will end you and all of your foul deeds!" Caliburn ignites with righteous fury in my hands as I chase him down. There are whispers, digging into my mind standing next to this champion of darkness. He flees and I bring holy justice down on him as he does so. Then he starts something else, calling up a void, a piece of space from between the stars. There are horrible slurping noises surrounding me, the void is pitch black. I can't see. I can barely hear. But I know which direction Diviticus lay in. Each step is a mire. The ground sucks at my boots. My plate clanks and still doesn't drown out the sounds around me. I exit the void and immediately hear a crunch from the other side. It doesn't matter, Diviticus is in front of me. Chicago rushes around the bubble as I advance. A voice calls out for freedom. Powerful. Angry. The hags in the air scream as they are rent in two, the witches inside dragged out of them and back into the void between worlds. Nanfoodles' cry. "Green Man is free!"
"Konohana Kitan"! It's a Funimation thing. The main character behaves very similarly to my main OC ("Vixie Moondew," my account's namesake), so it's very fun to watch. You should warn people about the diabetes they'll get from the show. Geez, I need to see my doctor about my sugar levels now. Also no hugs since Monday, so bony-robed hugs from the skeleton in the funny hat.
Date unknown, Location: Battlement atop the wall surround Camelot, Time since Awakening: 0 hours Smoke. Screams. A city on fire and on the verge of being invaded. I find myself in a new body, Medraut, the Scion of Mordred. Memories flash through my head. Mother, hiding us in the forest. Learning the skills of my father's holy blade. Learning the history of my city, Camelot, my legacy. Learning how witches manipulate, cheat, steal, as they are today. I stand from my kneeling position, Caliburn grasped in my fist. I see my companions around me, Auken, not yet wearing his amulet, Seravin, looking paler, leaner, hungrier, Chicago, glancing around wearily, and Nanfoodle, guileless and ever curious. We are atop the walls of Camelot, knights guarding on either side, a select few farther off atop another battlement. Introductions are brief, for in the distance we spy a horde of Pict barbarians, clad in whatever armaments they could scrounge up, ladders being carried for a siege. "I suggest you hand over that blade." A voice, familiar. Brenda. Behind us on a broom, uttering the words I have learned to fear and loathe from her kind, both through my time as Korth and the memories I have anew. She reaches out her hand, expecting Caliburn. Instead she gets a chakram, cutting deep, followed by a flying kick from Chicago. Wood clatters against stone. I look around, barbarians scaling the walls, pulling knights from them like grapes from a vine. Rage courses through my veins, I leap to defend my city, my people. My sword draws blood, holy fire burning along its blade as I sweep it through the Picts. Brenda is not dissuaded from her goal. She charges on her broom, growing claws and growling like the beast she hides within. My armor. The scales, not strong enough, my shield not fast enough. My blood fills the air as I continue bearing on the barbarians. Seravin shouts with success as Brenda crumples behind me, an arrow in her throat. Timmy dons his amulet and leaps to assist me, defending the wall, Nanfoodle helping us all with spells, Seravin and Chicago taking another portion. The ground rumbles beneath our feet. I look, and in the distance a giant approaches, tall enough to overlook us fifteen feet in the air. More ladders clatter against the walls. The knights continue fighting, losing ground. The four with unique crests manage some damage, but it is too little, too late. The giant reaches us, an enormous sword cutting one knight in half. The large eye in its head turns on another, a Lady Knight with a crest of a blackened heart. She barely holds under a mental assault. More crunching of metal, more blood spilling along the stonework. The barbarians have broken through! They start scattering into the city, but I cannot stop them, my oath calling me towards the giant. Chicago manages a heroic maneuver, kicking the giant in its enormous eye, causing it to slip and fall to the ground outside. Not amused, it stands and turns the eye on him. He flails under the mental assault and nearly crumples to the ground. Its enormous blade turns on Seravin, who only just manages to avoid being bisected, instead accepting an enormous cut. The four crested knights begin tearing into the remaining barbarians. Taking some inspiration from them I leap atop a Pict still on the ladder, riding him down as I would a sled. I call for the giant's attention before feeling an enormous impact in my back and begin losing consciousness. The last I hear is, "Protect the King!" I am brought back shortly after, not much having changed, though I am now surrounded by the knights. I take Caliburn in my hand, my wrath feeding its flames once again and leap up, stabbing the giant through the knee. It drops, its mouth opening in a feral scream of pain. The Knight with silver flames as his crest takes his blade and finishes the beast. Cackling and screeches are heard in the distance, the sounds of the green hags from the dream before. I and the knights introduce ourselves as we prepare for another assault. The only survivors, Sir Bors the Younger, Sir Lionel the Silverflame, Lady Vel the Blackhearted, and Draco Tiberius. Bors and Lionel both seemed eager and enthusiastic at my return, Lady Vel less so. Draco did not seem to care one way or another, but seemed just as shifty as Seravin before he informed us he was a vampire. Nanfoodle helped us all with a spell, a spot of green appearing that healed us as we walked through it.
Six green hags appear before us in a burst of light and sound. We charge out from the gate, not wanting to get pinned at the wall. Chicago and Timmy start taking the hags out. Suddenly a burst of blood. Socks! The goblin appears behind one of the hags, again with his blade through its chest. Lady Vel does...something. She calls out in tongues none of us understand, ripping something out of one of the hags. A scream, familiar to the young witches when they were in my head. When I look there is nothing but a desiccated husk of a green hag on the ground...
Date unknown, Location: Outside the gatehouse to the Giant's Castle, Time since Awakening: Unknown I'm not happy that we're here. I am less happy that something in my gut is telling me our companions are inside the keep with the giant. And what is really upsetting me right now is the fact that there are two stupid monkeys with wings looking at us from the top of the wall and asking what business we have here. Remembering the conversations overheard last time I told them we had moon rubies to trade with the giant that lived in the castle. They looked away, started screeching at each other, then told us to proceed and, "watch the broom." Well, at least it was easy to get in here. Chicago, Timmy, and I proceed through the slowly raising portcullis and see what the monkeys were talking about. An enormous broom, Giant-sized really, is sweeping a path across the floor in enormous strokes. Chicago and I would have no trouble dashing across its path with our speed, but I wasn't so sure about Timmy. While we're pondering how to get Timmy across without getting swept up Timmy goes to talk to it. He simply asks it to stop brushing so we can pass and it does! Bless Timmy and his oblivious child brain. We proceed again and quickly find the great hall that I observed before. It's different. Very different. Sitting upon the throne in the back of the room is the Giant, though less alive than I remembered him. And more fungusy. Also in the room are Nanfoodle and Seravin, standing before the throne, also fungusy, and with a Satyr at their back. Surrounding the throne like concubines are a variety of mushroom men, though they don't seem to care about the proceedings. On the sides of the room are more of those fungus things that came out of Magog, Mi-Go whispers the headmaster in my mind, and two of the creatures I saw last time I was here, moon-men. Clearly outnumbered we didn't make too much noise until the Satyr talked about using Nanfoodle and Seravin in place of the witches, "despite their limited magical power." It is at this point I cleared my throat. Not my best move admittedly, but necessary I feel. The Satyr recognizes us as the ones who escorted the witches before, mostly me, and demanded their return. In exchange he would give us Nanfoodle and Seravin, whom he wanted less than the witches. The Satyr was kind enough to let Chicago, Timmy and I hold a group huddle to discuss our options. We decided to lie. We told the Satyr, because the Giant wasn't really asking questions, or even looking at us, that we didn't have the witches. When I asked what they wanted the witches for the Satyr was overtaken with a look of rapture. "Gobogeg hungers. He needs magic people for his sustenance, and witches are the best dish for one such as He." Feeling uncertain about everything I started negotiations. Eventually I had to step back as Timmy, surprisingly, was the most adept at these. From these negotiations we learned that the moon men and the Satyrs formed a coalition and were working together. Eventually a deal was made. We trade Chicago for Nanfoodle, and we need to procure four goblin shamans to get Chicago and Seravin back. It was at this point a look of shock crossed the Satyr's face, shortly before a blade erupted from his chest. Socks appeared behind the Satyr, already pulling his rapier back. Brenda had also appeared and cast a spell, causing the Satyr to fall into a deep slumber. We took that as a sign that it was time to go. We immediately booked it. Running away we asked Brenda if she could fly broomsticks like the stories and if there was a size limitation. When she answered that she could because of the pact between the broom people and the witches we were thrilled and disturbed. Making it back to the broom we asked if it would fly us away from here, and it immediately complied, allowing us all the climb on it. Well, it made for a nice and easy trip. Brenda wasn't happy with me because of a suggestion I made during the huddle. If we weren't able to talk it out with the Satyr I suggested we each eat some of the witch balls in the preparation to fight it out. When I explained it was a last ditch effort Brenda shrugged it off with an offhand remark. "I guess they'd still come back, even if it was in a possessed body." More than ever before I had to think about the relationship I had with this woman and her crazy people. To kill time I asked Brenda about Brittania, and Diviticus. The Knights of the Round sit in Camelot, the capital of Brittania. The Druids who once ruled were kicked out of the country. They are of the order of Merlin and are looking for a way back in. The country has not had a true king in two generations, leading to discontent and more people being exiled from the country. Diviticus is gathering the castaways - druids, witches, hill giants, picts, and various unseelie fae under his banner. I have started getting chills up and down my spine with this new information. Apparently the sword of leadership, wielded by the Kings of Camelot has been missing for those generations. It is a legendary blade that goes by the name Caliburn. By this point we are flying lower and land just outside of the Witch's Circle, the home base of Diviticus. It looks like a series of stone henges, 1 large one in the center of the area, surrounded by five smaller henges, and the entire thing is surrounded by a number of small stones. Considering the time we decide to spend the night at the Witch's Circle. Diviticus greets us and takes the witches off my hands, in their Witch Ball forms. I'm not sure about doing this anymore, but I hand them over without a fuss. He asks if we want to form a pact. He'll give us great power if we accomplish one of three things, bringing the heir of Pendragon, the weapon of the crown, Caliburn, or the death of every male in Camelot. None of us agreed, begging off saying, "We have other things now that the witches are off our hands." Diviticus offers us things that we need to advance other pacts. Seravin, by this point complaining incessantly about wanting to "drink" someone agrees immediately, as does Timmy, who apparently wants to eat someone. Diviticus brings them over to a line of prisoners that he and others took from Camelot. Nanfoodle takes the time to pull Chicago and myself aside. He explains that none of these people are actually druids, they continue to commit crimes against nature, and if they continue on nature itself will suffer. He should know, he is a druid. Things are getting more and more disturbing as I watch Seravin and Timmy take their "reward." Seravin drinks. And drinks. And continues to drink until the prisoner before him is a wrinkled husk, not a speck of blood left. He proceeds to go crazy with bloodlust, rushing off into the night making me lose sight of him. Timmy...Somehow Timmy is worse. He eats his prisoner in one bite, his jaw unhinging itself. I still hear the crunching on some of my better nightmare nights. But then he kept going. He looked sated for a second or two, then went to the next prisoner in line, eating that one. And the next. And the next and the next and the next! By the end of it he dropped to the ground, all of the prisoners consumed, his belly bloated, but continuing to rumble with hunger pangs. Diviticus didn't waste time keeping track of us now that he had the Witch Balls. He started brewing something, for a ritual we were told. To give the Witches their true bodies back. I forced myself to watch. They were my responsibility, and I could still feel them in my head. Seemed like what I would think is a regular ritual, candles, silver powder, smoke, incense. But soon the Witch Balls started floating. A terrible sound echoed through Witch's Circle and a tear was opened up in space-time. The witch balls float in and I can feel the connection to them in my head sever. Seeing the tear, feeling the souls of these young women be ripped from me, gaining memories of things not of this existence stretches my sanity to near its breaking point. Before I pass out I see fourteen green hags step from the rift. I had been catatonic for nearly sixteen hours. I asked Brenda what she thought of the witches new forms. Her reply gave me chills. "I wish I could be one of them, in their true forms." We start preparing to depart and ask the big broom for another favor. Apparently it considers us friends and Nanfoodle discovers he can make it fly with druidic magic. We take off and head for Camelot with full speed. 4 August 1930 We wake abruptly back in the real world. I can't even get myself out of bed. Everything is too dark or gray, and every now and then I see images, monsters. They crawl from the corners, threatening and salivating, promising quick death. And I cannot be moved to care. Timmy discovers nothing went to the dream world with him and everything was still under his pillow. I catch sight of the sheathe and remember Brenda's examination of the short sword handed to me by the group long ago, it was not magical by itself, it had a missing part. I ask Timmy to give me the sheathe, it keeps calling. I hold it close, wrapping my spindly limbs around it and feel better. Just holding it makes me feel like a heroic knight, leading Camelot. I feel a pressure, to expel manipulators like B@#~# Witches. I start getting delirious, thinking of how I'm going to punish those that oppressed my people. Now I can act, and move. I don't know what the others did, but I play all day long. Even during chores. I play Knights and Witches, cutting down my enemies and laughing about it when they cry for mercy. Before long we are back in bed. I discover myself in a familiar office, new furnishings apparent. In addition to a small detective lens there is a model amulet, like the one Timmy wears on the Mustache-Man's desk. I ask him his name, as I forgot last time. His response is to call him the Headmaster. Now the diplomas and fancy papers and books scattered throughout the room make sense, as well as the large globe in the corner, though it doesn't have the continents as I have learned them. The headmaster tells me my current dream form is not strong enough for the challenges ahead. He gives me the persona of the noble night, which he calls the Scion of Mordred...
Alf leans into Mal, speaking in a low rough voice with barely above guttural Taldane. "The leader of the attack force is a brutal, sadistic hobgoblin named Scabvistin, but most of us soldiers answer to his various adult children. My sergeant is named Bekri, but I don't know what she and the rest of the squad are up to. I was given orders to ransack this place with poor Turgut over there." He points to the hobgoblin lying in a pool of its own blood in the tavern. "The leader of the army is the great hobgoblin general, Azaersi. She's not here, but she's the one in charge, and only the highest ranked officers are allowed to speak with her. Scabvistin told us that we were to take the town and all of the humans inside as slave stock, I don't know why. We all came in through an underground tunnel that ended in the middle of town, I'm not sure where precisely Phaendar is. As far as escape, we don't need to, there are more than enough of our forces here to secure the puny humans. Not you though, you're my friend and I'll make sure you get treated extra nice."
The door flies open with a strength only the truly fearful present. Two humans fall to Govrina's feet, speaking through noses pressed firmly to the floor-boards, "Please! Please don't kill us, we'll do whatever you want we swear!" Each seems to be holding a pack full of provisions. It appears they were planning on holing up in the room for the duration of the assault.
Date unknown, Location: Somewhere north of Brittania, Time since Awakening: ~72 hrs Still on the road to Brittania and worrying about that floating castle. We started heading south, following Nanfoodle as he started leading us down game trails. We managed to spot a deer, though none of us were able to get it to supplement our dinner. The castle appeared to stop heading the same direction as us, giving me some peace of mind. Sometime in the mid day we came across a ravine that led to a river about forty feet down. Luckily it was only 10-12 feet across at any given point, with several trees that seemed to stretch across it. I told Timmy he couldn't jump it. "Bet," was all he said before leaping across smoothly. I followed then heard Nanfoodle tell us to stop. Some people were behind us and arguing, heading our direction. I instructed everyone to get across after securing a rope to both sides of the ravine. Socks and Brenda got across rather quickly, followed by Chicago, leaving Seravin and Nanfoodle alone when a large two headed monster burst from the trees. The heads seemed to be arguing with one another, and the monster looked strange as well. One half was healthy and had mottled green skin. The other half was gray with red eyes and was complaining about wanting blood. Nanfoodle revealed it was a weird Ettin. We conversed with the beast, which revealed it was half vampire, causing another argument between the heads. I told Nanfoodle and Seravin to cross the ravine and the river, vampires couldn't cross running water. The Ettin wanted to eat Nanfoodle and didn't seem to care all that much about Seravin, which sort of broke down negotiations. Timmy threw his axe at the Ettin, clocking the living head in the face and presumably killing it. I say presumably because it stopped talking, bled heavily, and the gray started taking over the Ettin's full body. I tell the other two to just cross the river and get it over with. Nanfoodle does and Seravin reveals he probably can't cross the river...because he's a vampire too. The Ettin, introducing themselves as Liam and Mott, gets bored because it can't cross the river and goes to look for more food. I suggest leaving Seravin because he can't cross the river to the consternation of my companions. Luckily Seravin manages to cross the ravine, though with some difficulty, something about his pact with the Vampire Lord not having taken full affect yet. Chicago doesn't like how I'm sticking so close to Socks and we start debating on what makes a race evil. Timmy doesn't like our debate, which is very close to a physical confrontation, and pulls us apart. He then refuses to let go of my arm while Chicago decides to scout ahead. Chicago discovers Sniffer goblins and waits for us to catch up before we decide to try and move around them. Nanfoodle decides to go find a skunk to cover our scent. Nanfoodle instead finds a cat and brings it to us thinking it is a skunk. The cat immediately sees through Socks' terrible disguise and gives chase to the goblin. I try to slip out of Timmy's reach but can't to help Socks. Luckily he agrees to chase them and we do so together. After distracting it Socks manages to kill it with his rapier. Timmy, seemingly over his issue with killing 'innocent' animals eats the cat. Socks asks if cats and goblins have the same relationship in our world as they do here. After taking time to explain that there are no goblins and cats are household pets. Nanfoodle decides that Socks' disguise failed because he wasn't acting enough like a birdman. So Socks did. And he attracted more Sniffers our way. Chicago calls the sniffers to us because of my 'love' of goblins. Swearing to get him for this I pulled out my bow and took the Sniffers out. Chicago is unrepentant about how close I am with Socks and instigates another fight. While arguing I don't realize how loud we're getting and by the time Timmy pulls us apart again we've been surrounded by 2 Satyrs and 9 Sniffers. During the opening moments of the ensuing fight one of the Satyrs pulls out a tube that shoots a net over Brenda. She disappears screaming into the sky. Shortly after I also get netted and don't know how the fight went. Brenda, Chicago, and I find ourselves in a place that consists of webbing and has a bluish-purple tint to it. It appears to be circular and we can see ourselves in myriad ways, making my brain itch and hurt. Inside is an enormous spider-thing. It starts talking to me, causing my brain to burn further, almost feeling like my psyche is splitting. Suddenly I hear mustache man again, translating the spider's words. It informs me we are between the Plateau of Leng and the Dark Tapestry. Only a Master can open the way out of this place. Brenda seems to grow concerned and tells Chicago to go hit the spider thing, leading the man to do so. Everyone else seems to have won the fight, and begin appearing in the plane to start attacking the spider. I grapple Chicago and demand everyone stop, I think I have a way out. I tell the spider we have a Master that can let us escape, pointing at Timmy's amulet. The spider refuses, saying it would rather die than bow to an aspect of Ithaqua. Suddenly Timmy's mouth opens wider than it possibly should and a crazy light show appears. We all hear a voice, which the spider bows to and calls "Ithaqua, walker of the southern and northern winds". Ithaqua tells us all to kneel and we can escape. Chicago does so immediately, disappearing, while Timmy doesn't have the opportunity to do anything while controlled. The spider freaks out and says Ithaqua wants it to consume its own legs. Seravin genuflects and tries to get out but Ithaqua tells him he needs to change form or eat the spider to get out. Seravin refuses. I start asking the Mustache man for help when Ithaqua stops controlling Timmy. Turns out he doesn't care whether the spider lives or dies, but does care about us. He'll get us all out, but requires something different from each of us. Nanfoodle needs to find the Green Man. Seravin needs to kill a Vampire Lord. Aukin needs to take the amulet to Unknown Kadath. I have to get him two dreamstones. We have a month in the real world to do these things or forfeit our souls to the Dark Tapestry. Some time during all this Socks and Brenda disappeared, making me really start to think about our relationship. Aukin and I accepted the Mustache Man's deal. We find ourselves in front of a familiar gatehouse, on a white and fluffy surface. We were dropped off in front of the Giant's Castle...
Magog. Alone, covered in mushrooms, and clearly angered by us. I was still shaken by finding the lives that I had been protecting since the beginning of this madness changed in such a fundamental way. I didn't notice my comrades had started the fight. Eventually the roars of Magog, the thrashing from Timmy, the battle cries of Seravin, the general chaos of the field brought me back. I picked up my bow to begin firing on Magog, none of us wanting to close with that monster. We saw how easily he turned his bully boy into paste and we wanted none of it. It was strange. Slowed down. Everything felt unreal, especially as we kept doing damage to Magog. A particularly devastating blow from Chicago ripped away a portion of Magog's skin. Inside, instead of guts, there were more mushrooms. The started sporing out and we needed to end this fight. I rushed him with my swords, doing more damage, but Seravin was the one who finished Magog with an arrow. Then the blighter exploded. A shower of gore was expected. Instead I got a shower of spores as something was standing in Magog's place. It looked vaguely like an insect, with stubby wings, razor tipped appendages, and multiple heads. There was some form of fungus growing on it, and the entirety of the creature looked moldy. Seravin, not caring that I was in the way used a spell on his arrow creating a rain of thorns that knocked me unconscious. The next thing I know I'm on my back and the creature is in the sky, Nanfoodle's magical bolt of light hitting it, followed by another of Seravin's arrows, droping it from the sky. With the creature's death (note to self: we really need to figure out what that was) the goblins around us came out of their stupor. Some went fetal. Some babbled like idiots. And some threw themselves from the edges of the coliseum as others fled. Nearly entirely spent we gathered what materials we could before fleeing Fort. I cradled the witches to myself while Nanfoodle and Aukan (for Timmy took off his amulet, a task that looked to be getting harder and harder) grabbed weapons and armor from the bugbears. About two hours into our hike back to where we left Brenda and Socks we found them. Captured by a bugbear and bound. He identified himself as 'Lefty' a bugbear that left Magog when he started changing. He demanded to be declared king of the goblins and in return we could have Brenda and Socks. I agreed immediately and glared at anyone who spoke out. Being the oldest has its perks sometimes. After discussing the ritual with Brenda and showing her the spiky balls she declared them 'Witchballs'. She informed me she had only ever read about them, but her master might know how to change the witches back. She described a bit of the process of changing witches into these forms so other beings can consume them and increase their power greatly. Chicago got a look in his eyes and said he wanted to try one. I reminded him of the orphan Sam that used to live with us until he tried to swallow a pine cone. These were far more sharp than mere pine cones. We set a watch and rested for the night, in the morning Nanfoodle and Chicago pointing out a floating castle, one Brenda, socks, and I had an intimate encounter with before. I dreamed. I didn't think that was possible in the Dreamland. I dreamed of geometry, angles, planes, forces, that didn't make sense. They fit together in ways not possible in the natural world. And behind that, I could hear the witches, calling for help. I still shake hearing those voices in my head. Seravin grew incredibly excited seeing the castle off to our South and East. He exclaimed it was his to explore and claim its riches. I shrugged him off, saying we didn't want to go there while the giant was around. That didn't dampen his excitement at all. As we headed south, towards the witch's home and Brenda's master we talked. We discovered that this master went by Divinicus, and he is the wisest druid in the land. He told all the witches conquering Brittania is their birthright. While I quailed inside at the thought of more violence in the lives of these little girls and young women I had already thrown my lot in with them. My fears grew as Brenda explained that when the witches got their mortal bodies back they would gain untold power after being Witchballs. Our first day of travel proved light and easy, something we were grateful for as we were still trying to recover from our clash with Magog and the thing inside him. The second day things took a turn for the interesting. A cat approached us in the middle of the road, glaring daggers at Socks. Nanfoodle started talking to it as the rest of the group got into an argument about some inane thing. Nanfoodle's translating did not reveal good things. The cat wanted to kill Socks for violating 'the treaty' and entering cat lands. Asking Socks for confirmation he stated that there was a treaty in place, but the cats were not usually this far north. He'd give his life for us. So I turned to Aukan and told him the cat liked to start fires. This prompted him to put on his necklace and try to squish the cat. Chicago saw through my bluff and called for him to stop, but it was too late. Timmy's inertia caused him to slip and squish the cat with his massive bulk. Socks dropped before Timmy, thanking him for saving his life. Chicago started looking wary around myself and Socks, but that's not something I need to deal with right away. Nanfoodle, surprising as ever, helped to make a disguise for Socks so we could travel freely. Socks is now covered in feathers and is colored blue. Chicago continues to look at me with distrust, Timmy seems deeply affected by killing an 'innocent' animal, and that castle in the sky continues heading South with us, always slightly ahead and to the east...
Date unknown, Location: Mysterious Circle, Time since Awakening: 4.25 hrs Barely able to hear each other over the screaming and chanting of the goblins surrounding us we headed down the amphitheater towards Magog and the bugbears around him. The idea was for everyone to distract Magog and the bully boys while Chicago and myself slunk around the sides to engage Malonie. Magog had noticed us coming from a long distance away and set up his minions in preparation. As we stepped into the gladiatorial pit Malonie had just finished summoning something new before turning back to his ritual, the crystals growing out of his skin glowing eerily. Magog was set to our right, around an enormous circle with 14 smaller circles along the edge, the empty clothes of the witches in each of these. In front of the circle were his four bugbear bully boys, each wielding large and blunt instruments of death. Newly summoned on the left was a pile of mush. It was constantly writhing, had a strange buzzing noise coming from it from this distance, was exuding some form of poisonous looking slime, and looked to be covered in randomly opening and closing sores. Malonie himself was on the opposite side of the circle from us, working on the ritual and trying to draw the thing in the center into our plane of existence. We tried to implement our plan, Chicago moving ahead and distracting a bully boy before moving away, but they were faster than we expected. The entrance to the coliseum was rushed by the three other bugbears while the one Chicago attacked moved to take care of him. They hit hard and left us little doubt as to their physical capabilities. Timmy, Sevarin and I were able to take down one of the bugbears and push a way through. Nanfoodle did what he could and started casting spells to help us. Magog clearly didn't take us as much of a threat, slowly advancing along forward and staring with contempt. What surprised, shocked, and frankly frightened me was when Magog hocked something into his hand then threw a bolt of absolute darkness at us that exploded on impact! The thing along the left also advanced on us, leaving trails of green ooze and getting more distinct with every foot it advanced. Looking closer there appeared to be teeth in its sores, and the droning was starting to sound like words, though still indistinct. Chicago continued to fight off the bugbear cornering him against a wall until Timmy could go and help him out. I engaged another bully boy in an attempt to thin the ranks set against us with Seravin coming to help. We dealt a fair amount of damage with our attacks from all angles, but the monster was too tough and survived the onslaught, allowing another to get on the other side of Seravin for his own punishment. Nanfoodle continued moving around and was targeted by a bully boy to "Get the small'un!" Seravin and I stopped the bugbear from moving, but that got Magog mad. Nanfoodle continued casting spells seemingly to spite the Ogre sized goblin. Magog moved into combat with him and Timmy, swinging his meaty fists, bigger than the gnome himself, crushing the poor man to the ground. Timmy fared better, able to call up a shield from somewhere within himself, stopping Magog's attack cold. The mush with mouths continued advancing on us, getting close enough to soon begin chowing down. This entire time Malonie was casting his ritual, making the thing in the circle more substantial with each passing second. With Magog no longer blocking access around the circle, none of us wanting to have stepped into it without knowing what it would do, Chicago saw his opportunity and started advancing toward Malonie. Seeing him do this I apologized to Seravin, then abandoned him to the bugbears, working my way through the combats that were happening all around, eyes only set on defense. Once I was out of the way of danger I put my swords away in favor of my bow. Nanfoodle tried to get away from Magog but was smacked into unconsciousness. Timmy did what he could, knocking out another Bugbear, but was not able to get to the gnome. Seravin later told me that the words coming out of the mush mouth didn't make sense. He was close enough to hear them and start comprehending what it was 'saying.' It was like someone lit his mind aflame, and the only thing he wanted to do was get away from that nastiness. He barely escaped from the bugbears, getting up near Timmy, taking a breather from the fight. Magog continued attacking Timmy, fists pounding down on his nasty furry form, though Timmy's inner shield kept him safe. Meanwhile Chicago and I started our assault on Malonie, he able to get in close with the Brightstone Goblin while I could only open fire from afar, sure to get close soon. We started beating on him, disrupting his ritual and causing him to flee, heading into the circle, right to the base of the thing that was slowly losing definition. Timmy recovered Nanfoodle with his inner energy, allowing the gnome to also slip out of Magog's grasp. The bully boys moved to attack Seravin and Timmy again, the two remaining boys swinging as hard as they could while the mush mouth continued moving closer. I continued sniping at Malonie while Chicago moved into the circle attacking him directly. He also later told me that he started seeing things standing in that circle. Worlds that didn't exist, things out in space, monsters indescribable. Magog continued his attack on Timmy, and to a lesser extent Seravin. Luckily his fist only crushed some rocks on the ground, though Timmy started looking nervous (or as nervous as he could) as his shield finally shattered. Malonie had had enough and cast a spell to start flying away. Chicago missed him as he ascended into the air, grabbing something from the top of the thing as it finally faded entirely from existence. It looked like an organ, pulsing with a strange heartbeat and slick with ichor. My shot missed him, but Nanfoodle stepped up, calling to some nature spirits. Black energy cracked and enveloped Malonie, suffusing the goblins body and turning all of his crystals into pitchy tar. He dropped to the ground, the mush mouth disappearing at the same time. The bully boys, seeing the ritual undone started to flee. Something Timmy did to one of them set off as it took two steps, causing it to explode from the inside out. The other avoided Seravin and made it about 10 feet before Magog swung down and pasted it across the turf... I rushed over to the organ bag, grabbing it and ripping it open, something telling me the witches were inside. Tumbling into my hand were small black balls, covered in thorns and pulsing with life. Despair filled my mind, as I wasn't able to conceive of any way to bring the witches back. My charges were gone and as I looked up Magog had turned to us, one statement boomed across the now silent coliseum: "You ought not have done !"
I'd like to note that while monsters that focus on killing downed PCs will definitely increase individual player kills, they will in many circumstances reduce total party kills. You make a good point; for that combat. I only say that because I don't know many adventures that end in one combat. After characters have been killed each subsequent fight is much harder. So those individual player kills very quickly lead to total party kills.
Date Unknown, Location: Mushroom Kings Court, Time since Awakening: Unknown Not even back to Brenda and Socks and we were already facing something much bigger and much more dangerous than anything we've seen before. This mushroom "king" was bigger than anything we'd seen before and the nasty smirk on the wife or bridesmaid or whatever it was sent chills down my spine. Surrounding us were more mushrooms, of the type we'd been dealing with for more than a day. The bridesmaid immediately started calling out to the mushrooms, drawing forth monstrous mushroom men, and more disturbing, stepped into the mushroom king. She stepped back out from a pile of mushrooms nearby Seravin. Chicago and I moved to engage the king while Timmy went to fight the mushroom men, and several corpses filled with mushrooms that began marching from the mushroom piles. Chicago and Timmy were eventually stunned while Nanfoodle went down to more creatures and the bridesmaid, but not before we were all able to kill the mushroom king. Eventually I was able to kill the bridesmaid which also destroyed the corpses, evidently summoned by her. With only a single mushroom man left and everyone but Seravin asleep or unconscious from blood loss I left it to him while I started getting everyone up. I will say, Nanfoodle is a miracle worker, able to grow berries immediately, each one more refreshing and full of life than the next. Without him we'd still be on the ground in that field. Looking over the 'palace' we found a bunch of rusty arms and armor, as well as 5 stones with sigils and a throwing axe. Practicing with it, we discovered it moved towards whomever it was closest to after being thrown. Then the world went dark. 3 August 1930 I woke in my bed in the orphanage. After panicking for a solid minute the others also woke. Timmy seemed to forget that he was once again the shortest trying to reach for the light switch while the others were figuring out what happened. We heard the sound of sobbing coming from downstairs and investigated, crawling to the peek around the corner. Mrs. Perry, the owner of the orphanage, was crying into the shoulder of a police officer. Two medics were carrying a corpse away under a red sheet. We ventured downstairs to figure out what exactly was going on and were informed that Bo, the groundskeeper had moved on. Timmy, less than understanding questioned who would want to adopt Bo and why he wasn't adopted yet. As Mrs. Perry tried to explain she did manage to say there were no chores for the day. Dirk started sneaking off and I followed him on a whim. He told me yesterday when I left the orphanage he and the others found a secret door with a bunch of secret things in it, but Bo was the one with the keys, so we needed to get them before the police did. I showed him my secret way out of the room and down the drainpipe. We got to Bo's place next to the greenhouse and saw a cop still gathering bloody evidence from his room. We managed to distract him with thrown rocks and pull him from the room long enough to nick the keys and flee. Checking in on the others, Timmy was playing and having fun, something to calm him down after changing so often in the other world. Calvin was trying to talk to squirrels, thinking some of his abilities from the other world passed over. Tobias was looking through books in the library. Dirk and I went into the secret room, taking a scabbard, belt, stone idol, and flag from the chests there. Before bed we stuffed them all under Timmy's 'magic pillow' which had once before allowed him to bring his amulet to the Dream world. Date unknown, Location: Mysterious Circle, Time since Awakening: 0 hrs Feeling a ripping and tearing of our souls we all awoke in an enormous field, filled with partially destroyed and uncompleted ritual circles. The only fully complete one was the one we were standing in, apparently made by Brenda, who stated, "Oh good, you're here," before promptly passing out. None of the items traveled with us. Socks came rushing to our side, raccoon tail waving wildly, and just about exploded from nervous energy. He explained that we had been gone for about a week and that a couple days after we left Magog, now sporting an enormous mushroom mane all down his back, and a number of his bully boys crashed the Romani camp, capturing all of the witches. Only Socks and Brenda were able to escape, and come up with the plan to try and intercept us on our way back to the Dreamlands. Magog had plans to attempt a birthing ritual in his home base called Fort. It is an enormous square fort with four entrances, built on a hill and with a moat of spikes surrounding it. Ramps lead upwards into Fort and they can be drawn upwards with levers like old drawbridges. The birthing ritual can normally never be held out of season, but Magog thinks with the witches power, and a goblin warlock by the name of Malomie, he'd be able to perform the ritual. Asking some questions about the things we had seen in the real world or found in this one we discovered the flag in the real world had a symbol called an Elder Sign on it and the stones we found could be used to communicate with other stone wielders up to thrice a day. Useful information. More useful was that the ritual was going down today and Fort was about 4 hours out from this clearing. I felt responsible for leaving the witches alone and accosted everyone until the plan was to go and rescue them. Little niggling thoughts in my head kept saying we could save them, there was still time. On our way to Fort we heard the sound of massive bits of metal up ahead. We didn't stop. Instead we found a small cruel looking man with an enormous sickle, shiny metal boots, and a bright red hat clonking his way through the forest. We ambushed him, something in our guts telling us he wasn't the talking kind and brought him down without trouble. Timmy kept his boots while Nanfoodle scalped the hat from his head. When we reached Fort we discovered the nearest bridge was guarded by four hobgoblins while the sounds of ritual chanting and shouting was coming from inside. Chanting was a good thing as Socks explained the ritual was about summoning something called a Dark Young, which was then rushed by 1000 goblins. Each goblin ripped apart by its tentacles or teeth would split into two goblins instead of dying. Not stopping at the bridge we approached the hobgoblins, asking if we could help the ritual in any way. Said we were Witch handlers, able to stop any sneakiness from going on. Somehow we were convincing so three of the hobgoblins left to go ask the boss if we were allowed inside. I couldn't wait any more and moved to attack, Chicago quickly falling alongside me. Instead of our weapons felling the creature it was Timmy, who got Nanfoodle to hunker down behind the hobgoblin while Timmy pushed it. The result was a set of very messy spikes below the bridge. Chicago and I, being the fastest started rushing up the ramp to get to the main area, when two other hobgoblins, standing in the watchtowers overlooking this particular bridge pulled a lever, dropping an enormous boulder onto the ramp. Chicago and I dodged with aplomb, being sure not to step on any of the clearly marked 'trap spaces' Magog's boys had been sure to point out. Timmy attempted to stop the boulder with his muscles instead of dodging out of the way, his larger form unable to move quickly to the side. He was crushed, bleeding on the ramp. It was a wonder he didn't die straight out from the weight, but he managed to survive. When the stone hit the halfway point of the ramp that section dropped twenty feet, making a flat plane for it to continue rolling on and stranding Nanfoodle and Seravin behind us. Luckily someone built ladders to get up to the rest of the ramp, but I had problems of my own to worry about. Chicago had run around the watchtower and engaged the two bugbears by himself. I chose to climb the side of the tower and arrived just as he engaged. I managed to distract them a bit, though I was punished for it with their enormous mallets. That gave Chicago enough time to follow Timmy's example, using something he called 'ki' to push the two bugbears off the tower to become a gory mess below. Nanfoodle and Seravin got to Timmy in time to save him, healing him with more berries granted by the gods, or nature, or something. Chicago and I turned to examine Fort behind us. An enormous amphitheater stuffed to the gills with goblins from every tribe was the sight that greeted us. Each goblin was shouting, chanting, or just writhing in ecstasy as the ritual took place. The three bugbears that went to ask about us were caught up in the crowd, surfing atop the goblins. Some were beating their heads against hard surfaces, others ripping off pieces of their clothes, still others screaming to the heavens. The cacophony was deafening. Looking down at the center of the pit we could see Magog and his bully boys. Socks was right, the ogre sized goblin was more mushroom than green, at least along his back, and carrying what looked like a full tree to fight with. He had four bully boys surrounding him, each looking outward, ready to fight. Behind them was a large ritual circle, standing before it the goblin warlock Malonie. Surrounding the circle were the empty clothes of the witches I saved what felt like weeks ago. Something still whispered in my brain that they could be saved if the ritual was aborted. The worst thing though, was the shadow inside the circle itself. It was an oily smoke that continued taking form. There was no rhyme or reason to it, simply many tentacles, and many mouths atop a stumpy trunk of a body. And it was getting more solid with every passing second...
Date unknown, Location: South of Goblin Town, Time since Awakening: 36 hrs Seravin had gathered a map from sometime before I met up with the rest of the orphans. It was a magical map that he was slowly adding to over time. From it we determined that the witches were probably from the 'Witches Circle' to the south. We had a choice of two routes, we chose the direct shot, even though that brought us through some nasty sounding woods. We kept an eye out as we advanced, our small party in the front, along with Brenda and Socks, the other 14 witches trailing behind us. We stopped at a clearing along the way that had some form of Romani wagon train. It was eerie because of the lack of people, despite looking like it could accommodate a large party with its three large wagons and a refuse pit that appeared to have been recently used. Chicago and Seravin started poking at the trash pit and discovered six fresh corpses within, the mushrooms also in there visibly growing over the corpses. Seravin stepped away shortly after, then came back stating he found another corpse in the woods in traditional romani garb. He had lifted the fancy bracers with the arrow motif on them from the corpse, though we didn't discover that until later. Timmy found a large tent with a strange water pipe and cushions all over the floor. He decided it would be a good idea to start puffing from the mouthpiece of the pipe and unceremoniously fell asleep. I gently lifted the amulet from around his neck and changed him back into his Goliath form. From there Chicago and myself started investigating the wagons, the first was stuck shut. It was clear why after opening it. A charnel house greeted us, at least from the smell and blood scattered everywhere. There were no bodies, but the blood could not have come from only a single person. The next wagon was open and had an enormous mushroom, almost as big as Timmy's Goliath form, spewing spores into the air. I was hit by them as soon as the door was opened and dropped like a rock. Apparently Chicago woke Timmy after I passed out and got him to pull me into the pillow tent, after which he pulled his amulet from me and put it back on. Chicago destroyed the mushroom. Nanfoodle started looking for magic and discovered some in the corpse pile. Timmy went diving in and passed out due to the mushroom spores. I was woken, and upon discovering Timmy face down in the trash pile tried to pull him out. I was also dropped by the spores, leading to a daisy chain of our comrades pulling us out. When Timmy and I were awoken Timmy discovered a strange chakram in his hand. He threw it at Chicago, only for the man to catch it. It had magic runes on it and caused him to go blank for a bit. We then heard screaming in the distance in a language only Chicago seemed to understand. He explained it was a call for help in the Romani tongue and started leading us to help whomever it was calling. We instructed Socks and Brenda to look after the other witches as we headed off. After moving through the woods for a half hour we came across a river flowing swiftly to the west. Across the way in another clearing we saw seven small mushroom men with gray skin standing at the points of a star surrounded by a circle. Shrugging, we all crossed the river, myself easier than the others due to my scalie nature. Something in that water, which I now realize was much brighter and clearer than a normal river running through the wild, got to all of us, knocking us all out, all except Timmy, who, experienced a strange darkness and the feeling of cold. When we came to, and Timmy got his senses back, we discovered we had been invited to a tea party, hosted by a fairy. An enormous table was set for 10 places, with a large platter of food at one end, and five skeletons already sitting in place. The fairy invited us to join the party, and not knowing what else she could want we asked when the party would end. "When all the food is gone of course!" A strange bell sounded, leading to the fairy excusing herself. Timmy tried throwing the food on the platter into the surrounding woods, which worked. But after he put it back on the table it refilled itself. This was disheartening to say the least. After taking our seats, unsure of how powerful the fairy was and whether we should be worried, she returned with a five more of her friends. She grew worried that not everyone would have a place to sit, whereupon we all gladly stepped away from the table letting the fairies slip into the open spots. Shortly after they started eating and talking about inane topics a crashing came from the forest nearby. An enormous Carrion Crawler emerged, and set itself upon one of the skeletons sitting at the table. The fairies screamed and scattered as we leapt into action. Against the five of us it did not last long, I'm not even sure if any of us were injured in the fight. Chicago and the others started standing around the table and asking questions while I was pondering the words of the fairies. Chicago discovered that his Chakram was inscribed with the Mystery of the Inward Facing Circle. The others started eating the food presented. As I pondered more I started realizing that everything was false. Their posturing, the food, the expressions they were giving the group. Then I realized something even worse. The only one I trusted to pull themselves out of the illusion was Chicago... I started moving to everyone else telling them it was all a lie, but none of them were able to listen. So I did the only thing I could. I flipped the table. With the table on the ground everyone was freed from the spell leading to an excited shout from myself. "I told you the only way to end a party was to flip a table!" With the spell broken we found out we were surrounded by mushroom men and corpses being controlled by mushrooms. That fight was rougher, but we were still able to hold our own, just using most of our resources. At that point we started hearing the screaming of the Romani man once more. Chicago, wanting no other distractions, immediately charged off, and being faster than the rest of us, was quickly out of sight. We caught up to him after he had reached the screaming man. The man was twenty feet in the air, and Chicago had stopped about 30 feet from where he would land. They spoke together in a language I didn't understand before Chicago threw his Chakram at the rope holding the man up, cutting him down. We discovered that his Chakram returned to his hand after being thrown. We also discovered the man had been set up as a trap. When he hit the ground, which had looked soft from a distance, he started screaming. A cage of pointed bones burst from the ground for twenty feet in every direction, engulfing the man as the ground around him opened up in tiny hungry mouths. They started consuming the Romani man alive, all of us too stunned to do anything. From the spot he hit more mouths started expanding outward, grinding and chewing anything in their way until they reached the edge of the bone cage. When there was nothing left the mouths disappeared and the cage retracted back into the earth. After being dumbstruck for a while we knew there was nothing we could do. We tried to find our way back to Socks and Brenda but became hopelessly lost in the woods. Lost in the right direction, because the next thing we saw was the Lord of all Mushrooms, standing much taller than Timmy's Other form, with a fairy queen(?), bride (?) at its side.
Date unknown, Location: Abandoned Farmstead, Time since Awakening: 1.5 hrs The voices came from a small group of people, discussing the large vertical mouthed, multi-armed thing they just fed a "bad hoofed person" to. After a rather tense stare down we started recognizing one another, as from the waking world rather than our dream forms. Tobias I could tell from his constant depression and whining of dead parents. He calls himself Serabin in this world, and clutches his longbow as though his life depends on it. Timmy has taken the form of an extremely large man with gray skin and strange markings on himself. He is covered nearly head to toe in armor and wields a large sword and shield. He goes by Aukan. Calum is as short now as he is in the waking world, with strange hair and an incredibly squeaky voice. He has a long list of names, but all I remember is Nanfoodle. Last is Dirk, who I learned is threatening to throw people in the boiler?! I'm not sure what that is about, but I'll have to keep an eye on him in the waking world. He wears boxing gloves, shorts, and little else. He goes by the name Chicago here. All of them have retained their personalities through these personae, though Dirk and Timmy have adjusted to these dream selves with much vigor. Once we all met recognized ourselves we got down to business setting up a watch to rest in this area, they having already taken care of the occupant. It was at this point that Timmy pulled out a medallion, spoils of the fight, and put it on. He transformed into a large lumbering beast, covered in shaggy hair, curling rams horns, and arms that reached the floor, all drenched in blood. Seeing that made my head ache something fierce, and my brain felt like it was on fire, but I managed to hold my calm and tell him to take it off. He seemed disappointed pulling the medallion off, but that wasn't my concern at the moment. After situating the witches and discussing a bit more with Brenda and Socks we all decided to continue exploring. Tobias had drawn a map of all the places they explored and was adding to it from local charts found in the house. We decided, mostly at my prodding, to take the witches back to their Circle in Brettonia, seeing what we would discover along the way. Socks was incredibly helpful and very verbose on the journey. He called us "Dreamers" and said he'd seen our kind before. Then he started giving us history about the goblins, and their various tribes in the region. All of them are birthed from rituals, called the thousand young rituals. The way they look determines which tribe they go to. There are some that are man sized, some larger, some smaller, some with crystals, and many more. Socks seems to hate those he calls "Mutie freaks". He spat on the ground more than once talking about them. Apparently his tribe had their totems stolen from them by the "cat people" in the west. I told him we'd do what we could to retrieve his totems for him, especially, after moving within a certain distance of one, he was able to show off some magical abilities. He told us all goblins could do that around their totems, which sounds quite promising to me. He also informed us of Timmy's new form, a servant of Ithaqua the windwalker. That particular god governs the southern and northern winds, but Socks couldn't provide much more than that. After travelling a full day we set up a camp and kept the witches closest to the fires we set up. We set a watch so Calum could get a full nights rest, having used a lot of magic earlier in the day. I was informed after my watch that Tobias had seen some red eyes watching us from the shadows in the night, though neither he nor Dirk felt it necessary to inform the group until daybreak. It got us our rest, but I'd have preferred to be wary all the same. Searching around in the morning showed weird signs of undead in the area, and we figured that was what had been watching us. We continued on, discussing more of what had happened to us when we caught sight of some Satyrs. Calum informed me they looked like the bad hoofed man who tried to feed them to something. Each one had three goblins on chains. The goblins had elongated noses, no eyes, and giant mushrooms sprouting from the backs of their heads. They didn't even call out as they rushed our position. Timmy immediately put on his amulet and became that...thing, that avatar or monster of Ithaqua. I got to see what the rest of the group could do combat wise because of this fight, and even a bit more about Brenda and Socks. Socks was incredibly useful, helping me surround and defeat one enemy at a time, beating them into submission with little wounds received on our side. Dirk was an incredibly mobile fighter, rushing around the battlefield, getting a few hits in, then removing himself from the fight. Calum was very adept at casting magic, though it seemed most of it revolved around feelings of death and despair. Similarly Brenda showed herself incredibly capable when she took out an entire group of goblins with a single spell. Tobias was using his longbow to decent effect, though that didn't explain his large blades crossed at his hips. And Timmy was a monster on the field, nearly unable to be touched and destroying the enemy with his frosty fists. In the end we triumphed, though one of the satyrs got away after we killed its brother. Surely that won't come back to haunt us. We examined the surviving goblins, namely those Brenda had put to sleep with her spell. We tried removing the mushrooms from their head to see what would happen. We very quickly found out they die. The fungus grew into their brains and started populating throughout their bodies and once this rooted were impossible to remove without killing the host. Before any of us could think of what else to do the mushrooms were harvested by Calum. I was a touch speechless, but at his tender age of four I wasn't sure we could really explain what he just did. Continuing on we eventually hit a goblin village, filled to the brim with ramshackle huts, strange glowing crystals, large metal plates, and nearly every type of goblin Socks had described to us. They all stopped and looked at us as we began passing through, making sure to keep the witches in sight at all times. The hush was noticed by what appeared to be the leader of this village, an enormous goblin, the size of an Ogre with a large red beard, an entire tree as a weapon, and what appeared to be a lion's tail. He introduced himself as Magog, the leader of this village, though Socks later informed us he had taken it and several others nearby by force. Magog was willing to let us pass peacefully so long as we left the witches with him so they could partake in the spawning ritual where a thousand goblins would be born. I declined, nearly violently, after having my questions as to the health of the witches afterward were evaded. Dirk was doing his level best to sell off the witches, I'll have to keep an eye on him, and the rest were busy stuffing their hands in the pockets. Until Timmy stepped up. At the time I was incredibly worried that I would have to kill Magog in order to get through the village but Timmy showed some inscrutable depth and told Magog that the witches were all "like this." Then he put on his amulet. Magog was disgusted by Ithaqua's monster and told us to take our "diseased witch scum" out of his fair town. We beat a hasty retreat, but not before Calum wanted to see what the mushrooms would do to Magog. I was busy getting the rest of the witches through the town and making sure Dirk didn't sell any of them off to interested passerby so I didn't notice Calum and Socks cavorting. Socks showed more magic and turned invisible, then went to put the mushroom on Magog. The enormous goblin kicked behind him like a nervous horse and we heard Socks flying and screaming off into the distance. We got one good look back and saw some mushrooms growing from the hairy tuft of Magog's tail, and I wasn't going to go back and tell him about it. We beat a hasty retreat, gathered Socks once more, and continued on our journey.
Darcsen's Journal 2 August 1930 Today was a strange day. I decided to climb the wall again, just because I could and because I needed to get away from the other orphans. Being 12 and having no prospective parents wanting to adopt you makes life very sad. When the others are always clamoring for attention, it really gets to you, you know? So I climbed over the wall, ready to head into Arkham proper. Luckily none of the officers that know I'm an orphan were on route today or I would have been sent back to the orphanage right quick. While exploring I found a bunch of flyers for a technology demo in an old, I guess almost abandoned, theater. So I went. A lot people that still had some form of money were able to go inside, they had fancy clothes and proper hats! When I saw that they were producing tickets I knew I wouldn't be able to go in the front door. I tried to be the same as my favorite detective, Mr. Troy. He would sometimes tell me his stories about his work when he would catch me and send me back to the orphanage. Now we have a game where I try to follow him and see if he'll notice me. Usually he does and I get sent back. Anyway, I went to the back of the theater and crawled behind some stacked boards and trash. Unfortunately it all fell on the ground in a big Crash! Lucky for me no one was back there, and a door was even unlocked! I made my way inside and climbed up to the rafters where some of the equipment was kept. I sat myself down, wishing I could go and get some of the snacks that the rich people brought in with them. Then a large man appeared in a puff of smoke onstage! I thought this was about technology, not magic! He had olive skin, was covered in nice perfumes, and had a shiny, shiny beard. He was also wearing a turbin and sounded like he was from a different country. Maybe Arabia? I don't know other countries that well. On stage with him were a bunch of different metal machines. There were two large towers with round things on top of them, and when the man threw a lever they exploded with lightning! The lightning kept dancing between the two towers, and made funny noises depending on the different things he threw between the towers. The crowd was real excited for that. Then he showed us more, a lot more! He showed us a television without antennas, a box that melted stuff real quick, and even floating metal plates! He set them up then flipped another switch and he used them as a staircase! I was worried for that one because he climbed so high up he was only a little below me when he stopped and started descending again. Then came the finishing act, a machine that made a funny noise and a bunch of swirly lights. Then he spoke, what seemed like for the first time. His voice was rich, and deep, but soft, like velvet. He told everyone to start heading underground, where his master needed their help. I scratched my head, it seemed a strange thing to do, but then the audience did it! They all started heading downstairs. I ignored them and paid attention to his machines again. But then I remembered what he said, and felt like going underground was the right thing to do. Lucky for me his plates were still up and I was able to use those to get down. I didn't even feel scared slowly climbing down from plate to plate. I must have made a noise when I hit the stage because the man turned around and looked at me. "Hello little one," he said. I could feel him looking me over as I started toward the door, but before I got more than two feet he put his hand on my shoulder and stopped me. "You are very special young man. I think your help would best be used elsewhere." Then he reached out and poked me in the forehead with his index finger. Darkness... Date Unknown I woke up and found myself in a big leather chair, the smell of cigar smoke and mothballs hanging in the air. Across a large desk from me was a big man, rotund almost, with a big bushy walrus mustache. He greeted me but didn't tell me his name, so I didn't tell him mine. After inquiring as to why I was here and where I was he informed me I was in the Dreamlands. We talked for a little while before he got to the point of why I was here. I was special and was able to visit these Dreamlands. So were some of the others that I knew, but they were already in the Dreamlands and I might meet up with them later. He told me we were supposed to do something important. The gods in the Dreamlands were gone, they disappeared and no one was able to find out why or where they went. It was up to us to do so. I could smell a mystery so I held out my hand, quickly engulfed with his own, and shook saying we were on the case. Finally, a real mystery! He sent me into another room where one of the gods, Hypnos, managed to make contact with this part of the realm, saying he had questions for me. After going to that other room Hypnos asked me a series of questions, seven of them I think. Every question seemed to be simple, who my hero was, what I wanted to be. Then the last question, which I didn't really understand. This god asked me, "What did your face look like before you were born." That one really made my brain itch and hurt. I remembered something from our schoolings, about evolution and we came from something else? So I answered "Scalie," then fell asleep again. Date Unknown, Location Unknown I woke again to observe my surroundings, my tongue flicking out to taste the air. I appear to be in a prison cell, though this one is sized for someone 10 times my size, as are the furnishings within and without it. The bars are so large I can just step outside without effort, my equipment a familiar weight as I move outside. I gnash my teeth and flex my arms, assured of the strength in my jaws and scales, then check my swords, tools, and gear is all in place. I observe my surroundings closer, seeing a mousehole, large enough for me to escape through, a writing desk, chair, and giant door leading out. Instead of heading for immediate freedom I decide to observe what I can through the door. Somehow I got my head under the jamb but couldn't get my shoulders through, so I just called out for a response. "Hello. Isss anyone out there?" I was shocked when a response came back asking for help. I couldn't see where the voice originated from location but could see that it was another room filled with giant furniture, and a giant hearth as well. The voice asked for my name and my response came out automatically, "Korth Greenssscale, at your ssservice." A bit of a shock for me, but it felt right, as everything has since awakening again. Promising to help I pulled my head from the jamb and started coming up with a plan. The closest I came up with was to move the chair in the office close to the door to open it up. It took some muscle, but I was able to get it over there. Unfortunately the door was locked. I pulled my short swords from my belt and had a rough time jimmying the lock open using them as a set of thieves' tools like the regular size set on my belt. The door swung open and I was able to get to the other room finally. Heading out, swords at the ready in case of attack, I turned a blind corner and saw who had been calling for me. A woman, about 20 years of age had been calling for help from a cage built for people our size, though looking at it it seemed as though it were a giant sized mouse trap. Along with her were 14 other humans, ranging from ages of 7 or 8 to 16 or so. There were also three goblins, two of which kept their backs to me at all times. The third was rather strange looking, wearing a bandit mask and a pair of the most colorful socks I've ever seen. He was wearing a potato sack and had a hole for his raccoon tail as well. The woman I discovered was named Brenda, and she was the impromptu leader of this group of humans by dint of being the oldest. I quickly opened the three cages, and had the strange goblin talking to me almost immediately. Turns out he calls himself Socks, because of his fancy socks. Brenda was worried about the giant that had captured them all, saying they were from some place called Brettonia and wanted to go back, but didn't know how to escape. I explained there was a mouse hole in the next room that looked promising for moving through the walls but to move everyone in front of it while I explored. Socks volunteered to go with me, collecting a small selection of rocks for throwing, before saying he would look for an exit. He ran ahead of me and came back saying there was a giant rat in the wall and he couldn't get past it. I handed him a spare dagger and went into the hole asking where he had seen it. He pointed in the direction and I started traveling that way, soon coming to a small warren and the rat, which was chewing on something bloody. I immediately set upon it with my short swords, cutting into its mangy hide and dropping it at my feet. I asked Socks if he had seen any more while watching ahead of us. His answer of "Nope!" followed by a scream was less than reassuring. Turning back I saw another rat had snuck up behind him. In the small space I couldn't reach the rat, so I called for him to get behind me while I faced off with the beast. It managed to nip me with its nasty teeth, luckily they failed to break through my tough green scales. I responded by stabbing it in the chest and biting it myself, ripping into its throat and allowing its vitality to fill me. Confidence overflowing I decided we should explore further. We followed the direction the second rat had come from and found ourselves ascending, leading up to the rafters in an enormous room. Peeking around the corner I saw a large mushroom man, and several smaller white blobby men hanging out on the rafter. After describing them to Socks he said we should avoid them, they gave off a bad smell and filled lungs with spores. I agreed with his sentiment and traveled back down to the ground floor. We took the other direction, going through the warren where the first rat was killed and found ourselves in a small area with water running under us and enormous spider webs nearby. Looking carefully we could see the two spiders who had laid the traps. Deciding to pull them into the tunnels where we could fight them one on one I asked Socks to throw a stone at the first spider. We drew its ire and retreated, facing it in the tight confines of the tunnel where I was sure my short stabbing blades would give me an advantage. I was right...mostly. Socks continued to pelt it with rocks from behind me, injuring its eyes and allowing me to get several good stabs on its thorax. Its response was enthusiastic as it bit at me, poison dripping from its mandibles. At one juncture it wrapped them around my calf, crushing it and leaving a fierce bruise I was sure. I managed to end the fight shortly after, but winded and wounded I asked Socks if he had any experience as a healer. When he replied negatively I suggested we get that last spider out of the way. Our lure worked a second time, perhaps too well as this spider was angry. I barely managed to stab it once before it jumped on me, knocking me to the ground and flicking one of my blades away. I pounded at its head with my closed fists, but it sank its mandibles deep into my less protected stomach, piercing through the scales and filling me with its venom. I blacked out from the pain and poisonous ichor flowing through my veins. I came to with Brenda hanging over me, my stomach fully healed and the poison in a pile of my vomit close by. I don't know what Socks did to save my hide, but he gave me back my short sword and went to go wring out his potato sack, mask, and socks of the ichor left by the spider. After thanking Brenda profusely I got back to my feet, a large scar across my abdomen and a distinctive distaste for spiders my trophies from the battle. I found the carcasses and quickly broke off pieces of its carapace to forge into a quick shield for Socks as thanks. To get over the running water I headed back to the giant office, shovel in hand. Using it like an axe I broke of a large splinter of the wood from the chair to use as a bridge. Using it to cross the water Socks and I found another hole in the wall that allowed us to peek into the next room. In it was a giant throne, and in that throne was a Giant! I now understood who owned this place. Making obeisance to him were a dozen strange pale creatures, of my own size, perhaps a bit larger. They were grossly rotund with skinny arms and legs, tiny tentacle like appendages coming out of their faces about where their mouths should be. Something primal in me snarled in fear, wanting to destroy these abominations, though I didn't know why. Even stranger than their appearance was their speech, a high pitched buzzing whine that made sense if you cocked your head the right way. They were negotiating with the Giant for witches he had captured from Brettonia. They offered "Moon Gems", pearls and rubies the size of my chest for 15 'brides'. Shuddering I listened as they bargained back and forth, trying to make sense of everything. It appears these gems are useful for capturing magical enchantment and the giant was looking to make rings of power for himself. When their business concluded the Giant indicated the moon men should remain in the throne room while he obtained the prisoners for the trade. Fear bolting through me I rushed back to Brenda and the other witches, nearly falling into the water until Socks helped pull me up. "Brenda! Call the others into the mousehole, now! The Giant is coming!" The only way through the other room was by confronting the moon men, and I'd rather not have the witches be in their clutches, so I decided we had to go and confront the mushrooms from the ceiling rafters instead. Rushing up the wall and into the rafters the mushrooms were still there, and as I stepped out they started surrounding me, though they seemed more curious than hostile. Instead of drawing my blade forth or my lips back I indicated, as quickly as I could through mime work, for them to back off. The largest mushroom man in the back seemed to understand and called the others back, allowing us safe passage. I stood at the hole into the wall, ushering everyone else forward. Socks and Brenda led the way across the rafters to another hole in the opposite wall, and as the final witches were through I heard through the wall, Fear again bolted through my bones as I rushed to the other side of the rafters and through the mouse hole. I wound up at the front of the group and led the way, glancing back every so often to check that everyone was still with the group. The mouse hole led to the outside of the...castle I soon found out. What stopped me was the sheer drop off the side. Looking down led to a moment of vertigo as the only thing below me was...cloud. The white puffy stuff rolled beneath us, as though the castle were floating high in the sky. Unsure of what to do I froze. Socks, more brave, or more foolish than myself, immediately leapt down I turned, watching the first friend I made in this world plummet to his doom. Until he landed on the cloud, bouncing twice and calling for us all to follow him down. I immediately leapt, and after I landed safely was able to convince Brenda and the rest of the prisoners to follow Socks' example. With everyone out of the castle we started looking for ways to escape, as the sounds of Giant feet could be heard just on the other side of the large structure. Brenda was the one who pointed out a green stalk, just over our height, and slowly moving along the cloudy ground. Taking that as our only chance we rushed to it. It was a long way down, but I asked Socks to lead the way as I could see the Giant turning the corner toward us. Socks started climbing down as the cloud the castle was situated on continued to float on, slowly leaving the beanstalk alone in the air. I held back, ensuring the rest of the group started making it down before climbing myself. We got lucky, the cloud was too far away from the stalk by the time the Giant reached us, his cursing loud as thunder, and twice as striking. Reaching the ground we found we were in an abandoned farmstead. Socks and I started exploring the house and reached the kitchen when we heard voices...
I have a soft spot for Otyughs and their N alignment status. I am always looking for ways to make graffiti into names for them.
New Discussion thread is up as promised. Working on gameplay now. I'll rescan Vindler.
The last hobgoblin drops without much fuss, allowing you to breathe easy once more. Following the battle with Gaspar and his brigands, Jamila approaches you and thanks you, before spinning a tale on the greater plot that had occurred. She admits to being a janni and explains that she has known Targos Min-Katheer for over 40 years, serving as both ally and sometimes lover to the heroic Pathfinder. She states that the two of them had stumbled upon a plot by parties unknown to cripple Qadira’s economy by disrupting trade along the Silken Way. They had narrowed it down to just a few local merchants, but Targos began feeling the effects of his advanced age after suffering from heart pains and decided he would be ineffective in completing the mission. By agreement, rather than allowing Targos to slowly dwindle away from his ailments, Jamila gave him a dose of venom from a desert scorpion, and the famed venture-captain peacefully passed on to the afterlife. She and Targos felt the chances were great that the plotter would use the event of the trade route protector’s death to launch his plot. As such, she carefully ensured that all of the suspected merchants would be on the same caravan on which Targos’s body would travel with his Pathfinder escort. Though she thought Hokama might be the plotter, it turns out it was Gaspar who murdered his partner so he could secretly pay off a pair of harpies to waylay travelers along the Silken Way in conjunction with strikes by his hired band of desert brigands. Gaspar had hoped to attract the greater harpy colonies of southern Qadira to the easy pickings of the trade route and thus seal off the route for years to come. Once Jamila realized that you were still alive and could help her, she broke her cover and moved to end the threat to the all-important Silken Way. The rest of the trip to Katheer is uneventful. Upon arriving in Katheer, Targos Min-Katheer is given a hero’s funeral attended by many Pathfinders (including some of the Ten), as well as notables from the satrap’s court and a few genie-kin from the deep desert. Jamila claims Gaspar’s wares as compensation for the danger he placed her caravan under, but gracefully gives her ring of djinni summoning over to the Pathfinder Society when diyya is demanded for the death of Targos Min-Katheer.
I'm actually expecting a glut of new recruitment threads in the coming month as students get out of school for summer break. Followed by the vast majority of those games dying when school comes back in session in the fall as people realize just how much time they don't have to run games.
Anthys and Berato bring down the final harpy, sending it to crash against the mountain while the merchant tumbles and rolls from her claws, a little bruised, but otherwise none the worse for wear. Hokama points out that if the mouth of the cave up above is really the harpies' aerie they probably have treasure of some form or another up there. After coordinating you figure out the safest way to ascend the cliffs with a series of ropes and safer areas to climb. Hidden among the detritus of the harpies’ cave are a scattering of 245 sp and a small teakwood chest. Within are 40 gp, a map of the nearby Silken Way where it passes through the Zho Mountains (with Gaspar’s personal seal on it), and a bejeweled masterwork kukri recognizable as part of Gaspar and Mahmoud’s weapons shipment. You also find an amulet of natural armor +1 hidden in the harpies’ filth. With the day quickly turning to night you decide to rest the night before you continue following the Kamawgyar Shrine trail. Early the next morning you reach the main route of the Silken Way as it leaves the western flank of the Zho Mountains. The smell of water in the air as you leave the mountain pass indicates that the Shat-al-Qadr River runs somewhere nearby. You have found your heading again. As you round a final talus slope, you discover something altogether unexpected. The very caravan you have sought waits before you, the merchants and drovers kneeling with their arms bound behind their backs and the camels clustered nearby. Among these captives walk a dozen or so armed warriors wrapped in the dark robes and helms of the desert bandits you fought before. Standing with his back to you, not ten feet away, is the armored form of the Taldan knight, Gaspar du Mer. He holds his wide-bladed sword in one hand and clutches the tied arms of the caravan mistress Jamila al-Shafah with the other as he shouts orders to the brigands.
Understood. Let me know if anyone does want to retrain. Once this combat is over I'll finish the mod and get chronicles out as quick as possible. Depending on how long that takes I'm thinking of running a Season 0 scenario to get credit in the Outpost game day, and that'll be fairly quick. Thoughts?
Map has been updated (finally -_-;). Berato, I'll make a note on your chronicle about the retraining and sign off.
Are you looking to make them on par power wise or will you be dealing with distinctive advantages and disadvantages?
Anthony scratches his head and pauses to consider the years that Vivian was gone. "Hmm... Nobody in particular pops to mind..." He starts recounting some of the events in town and stops on one in particular. "This man wasn't odd per se, I think his job has more of an effect on his demeanor than most people. Wait, let me start at the beginning," he breathes and goes into a story several years old. "This town isn't visited by much in the way of entertainment, so any that does pass through the area is greatly anticipated and appreciated, as you well know. One day, out of the blue, we hear the sounds of cutting and working going on a few miles out of town. A few townsfolk, including your father, go out to investigate and discover a travelling circus is being set up. The proprietor, one Seifer Monroe, approached us explaining that his Umbral Carnival was travelling around Lake Encarthan and had decided to stop nearby. He gave everyone free tickets as well as flyers and encouraged us to tell the town about it. Word spread like wildfire and soon everyone was clamoring to see the circus. It was quite a show from what I remember, the ringmaster, Monroe himself, keeping everyone's attention and working the crowd like a master puppeteer. He looked much more flush that night than we had seen him the day before, pale and gaunt like a leper. Anyway, your father said he was going to try and make a business transaction with him, see if he couldn't distract himself from loneliness for a bit. When he came back I thought he had seen a ghost, he was pale, sweaty and shaky. But he looked happier than he had in some time. Said he had a feeling you were going to be alright. It was shortly after that he started getting sicker and weaker. Then you came back, and you know the rest." He shrugs, "I haven't given it much thought before, but do you think the carnival had something to do with it?" |