Session 46: Back-Stabbed.
8th of Pharast: The boasting contest came in the middle of the day; the Grig that the Aesir had brought did miserably despite good skills she was not used to such a large and rough audience and buckles under the pressure. Pitax came in first with the stunning and shocking comedy stylings of Annamede Belavarah, claiming that she had completely infiltrated Midgard’s intelligence organization and using very believable stories to humiliate the young nation.
Tane finds Annamede later in the day and attempts to humiliate her on stage while she is performing but he also fails to affect her and likewise gets humiliated.
9th of Pharast: Night of the Midnight Joust comes around, Vulpes is indeed drunk on Mr. Libixyten’s ale but Vulpes is unable to make it past the second round. When Pitax handily wins it actually ties Midgard and Pitax with 6 points each and Vulpes gets a second chance to win. Pitax’s champion, leader of the allied barbarian hordes, Villamor Koth is however not interested in winning and instead outright attacks Vulpes causing him near fatal injuries before Vulpes manages to unseat him in what appears to be Villamor letting him win to the trained eye. The tournament is over and King Irovetti hands over the prize to Lord Odin in a nice ceremony, Odin accepts and the Aesir head back to their house to rest.
Upon arriving Vulpes sees one of his Valkyire, a Centaur, lying wounded at its steps, injured by many arrows but Odin is able to revive her with his healing magic. The Valkyire informs the Aesir that Hannis Falls has been attacked by the Pitax army and that they are needed at once. After quick discussion the Aesir head over to King Irovetti’s tent but they find that all the guards are gone and that his tent entrance was most likely just a portal to someplace in Pitax. Tane questions Annamede in her tent but she tells him she knows nothing, when told to deliver a message she tells him she’ll think about it.
10th of Pharast (Part 1): Only a few hours after midnight, the Aesir with no rest since the end of the joust but with no other choice, Odin teleports the Aesir’s group to a safe place just outside Hannis Falls, near the secret entrance and has the non-combatants lead back to Stag’s Rest. Tyr tells the group that a large force left this entrance and boarded some boats, Demelvar flies up to inspect the town and find the castle flying Pitax flags. The group decides to enter the castle to see what’s left and determine whether Lord Numesti is captured.
Once inside the find a wall of force erected at the bottle neck but it’s quickly bypassed by Demelvar’s dimension door wand, Demelvar decides to have the group wait while he scouts around with a phantom eye. After the scouting Demelvar reports that there is a trap up ahead with a fake Lord Numesti and what appears to be the General of Pitax along with 2 squads of archers, 80 in total, and an invisible Ogre Mage. The group decides it’s worth the risk and formulates a plan of attack, with Tyr on the tower balcony while the rest of the group attempts to kill the enemy general.
The attack is launched perfectly with Vulpes charging in and slaying the men with the fake Lord Numesti and Belinda killing Pitax’s general with very little effort. Then the Ogre Mage appears with a blast of cold that chills Vulpes to the core and orders the archers to kill Vulpes, the enemy general. At this point once Tane can see the Orge Magi’s armor he realizes that this is actually Avinash Jurrg General of Pitax. The terrifying General stays floating in midair as hundreds of arrows rain down on Vulpes, Demelvar pulls some tricks out of his sleve to attempt to dispel his fly spell but dispels something else instead. Lord Odin comes to the rescue and dispels the rest of his enchantments. As soon as Avinash lands he lays into Tane almost killing him before Vulpes can interject to save him and the true fight starts.
Avinash and Vulpes each tear into the other in a titanic clash as the Aesir surround him he lets out another cone of cold, after nearly a minute under constant arrow fire Avinash manages to deliver a blow with his greatsword that drops Vulpes to the ground and then retreats with magic the second before he too would have be killed. As Vulpes lies on the ground bleeding to death the sounds of the Army moving within the city can be heard and it starts to thunder and rain.
Session 47: The Battle of Hannis Falls.
10th of Pharast (Part 2): Odin calls to the Edda for holy power and manages to bring the dying Vulpes back to the land of the living; Vulpes seems to have had an interesting experience while in-between life and death and has a big smile on his face. He quickly snaps out of it and tells the group that the Valkyrie and the Hannis Falls Defense Force (HFDF) have retreated to the allied Boggard village across the lake and Odin hurries them out of the castle and uses his folding boat to head to the far shore. Vulpes tells the Aesir what happened in Hannis Falls and how it fell, when pressed for how he knows this he tells the group that he spoke with the dead Valkyrie. Demelvar is relieved to find out that Ol’ Bristlemitts was ordered to walk into the lake and wait until called but decides to leave the golem there for now.
The Aesir arrive at M’botuu in the morning and are greeted by the Valkyrie in charge who relates what happened; Tyr takes command of the HFDF so he can start scouting out the enemy. The group is saddened to learn that Hannis Falls leader, Lord Numesti, had been assassinated by General Avinash the night of the 9th a few hours before the Aesir had arrived. Vulpes takes on the arduous task of leading the wounded Valkyrie through the Swamp to Alfhiem while the rest of the Aesir use faster travel methods to return to Stag’s Rest.
12th of Pharast: Upon arriving in Stag’s Rest Odin sets to getting the army formed, luckily Vulpes had spent the last few years training them and Odin figures he can get a thousand men together and armed by the end of the week. Meanwhile Demelvar returns to the newly finished Golem Works and orders the factory to hurry the completion of the 100 Bombardier Golems that he had designed, each Golem is a walking siege engine with a cannon attached, to support the main army. Tane goes about mobilizing his spy network.
13th of Pharast to 20th of Pharast: Tane learns that his spy network has been compromised and his Pitax agents have been assassinated, he learns this from an unlikely source, the comedian Annamede from Pitax. She tells Tane that she disagrees with the war and that she had learned all her embarrassing information from her informant in Daggerfall and that it is they who are selling Midgards information to anyone who wants it. Tane sends each of his agents a different account of Vulpes death and which Valkyrie replaced him as general to attempt to sniff out the mole. Near the end of the week he gets news back that Daggerfall is selling information that Vulpes survived the battle and that he is still in command. Given that Tane told none of his agents the truth the mole must be one of the Aesir, a member of the high counsel, a Valkyrie, his consort Lady Maray or Vulpes fiancée Lady Belinda Housen. So Tane devises a new plan to figure out the mole and waits to hear from Annamede again.
21st of Pharast: The Aesir set out with their army towards Hannis Falls.
22nd of Pharast: The Army arrives in Tatzlford.
23rd of Pharast: Tyr reports that 2 of Pitax’s army units are fortified at the Wyvernstone Bridge, a unit of 100 trolls and Pitax’s First Wyvern Flight that had been forced to retreat from the initial battle of Hannis Falls. Vulpes adapts one of Odin’s old battle stragities from 40 years ago when General Odin had to take that very Bridge from the Tiger Lords.
24th of Pharast: The battle of Wyvernstone Bridge is a massive success for the Midgardian forces with all enemy units destroyed before they can retreat with very few casualties.
26th of Pharast: The battle of Hannis Falls, Vulpes has to come up with a solution to the challenging task of taking a city he designed the defenses for. With Demelvar in charge of the golems he orders their massive amount of cannon fire to dismantle the city walls and castle while the Main army digs and waits. Lord Odin uses his impressive spell casting abilities to call the aid of the Edda to protect the vulnerable golem unit while they achieve this, Tane works on finding Ol” Bristlemitts for Demelvar. After Demelvar’s Golems succeed in taking apart the city walls and flat out destroying the castle the Main army moves in and a bloody fight starts in the streets of Hannis Falls supported by Odin’s many summoned allies. Demelvar turns over control of the golems to Tane and using his directions finds Ol’Bristlemitts and brings him into the city and they help in driving Pitax’s army from Hannis Falls and it retreats back to Pitax. Despite the amount of cannon fire and fighting in the streets civilian casualties are light but there is an estimated 175,000 GP in damages to the cities defensive structures, most being in rubble. Tyr brings the HFDF back to the city having called off attacking the fleeing Pitax army due to timing issues.
Demelvar had the presence of mind to capture of the Pitax’s officers in the battle among others and turns the officer over to Odin and takes the rest of the prisoners to a secret lab in the city for experimentation. The Pitax officer, clearly a noble, is very calm and agrees to tell the Aesir what they want to know for protection and freedom once the war is over. The officer divulges Pitax’s army details and how many units they have and were each one is located and the leader of each. He also tells the Aesir of a weapons lab hidden in the White Rose abbey, a former holy site for the Church of Cayden Cailean, and that they are working on a battlefield version of the cloudkill spell. If completed this weapon could destroy entire armies in seconds. As the church of Cayden Cailean happens to be a member of the Edda Odin tells the group that the abbey must be taken without the damage that an army would cause. As the Aesir look at the enemies arrayed against them they set to work to defend their nation.
Session 48: The Gardener of White Rose!
27th of Pharast: The Aesir discuss what needs to be done; they put Tyr in charge of Hannis Falls until they can get a new lord to govern while the rest of the Aesir head to Whiterose Abbey to put a stop to Pitax’s magical research. Odin receives a dream from Cayden Cailean informing him of the events that took place at the abbey 40 years ago, of when the Gardener stole a powerful sword and slaughtered every one and imprisoned the friendly water spirit that had helped the abbey make wine.
28th and 29th of Pharast: The Group makes their way across the plains and foothills being extra careful not to attract the attention of the army of mastodon riding hill giants in the area.
30th of Pharast: The group arrives at White rose and proceeds to scout the area; there is little sign of activity so they start by scouting what appears to be the old winery on the outskirts of the hill. The winery is abandoned with only the slightest hint that something had been there recently but there is a large tunnel leading into the hill. The group enters and proceeds down the tunnel which appears to have been for wine storage, after some distance they come to an underground pool with an island in the middle with another glowing pool in the middle. As they enter the sound of a pure anguish washes over the group becoming deafening before it stops, moments later the ghost of the abbeys gardener appears.
The Hafling ghost wastes no time in filling the area with black tentacles as his wisp companions join him attacking in unison. The Ghost starts off by demonstrating that it can turn into horrible looking fungus and Vulpes and Gagglefuzz run from the room screaming. Demelvar orders Ol’ Bristtlemits to capture the Wisps but as the golem enters the room it breaks the bridge and falls into the water. The Ghost easily dispatches Belinda by tossing her into the water with magic before moving on to Tane. As the Ghost is savagely beating Tane, Vulpes returns and delivers the final blow to the Ghost disrupting it for a while.
The group heals up as they start exploring the room; Odin finds that the bottom of the smaller pool is false and removes the glowing water to open the secret trap-door. Demelvar climbs down and quickly finds a mechanical do-dad that raises the bottom area out of the now empty pool. The only thing on that gets raised out is an ornate water clock many research notes, Demelvar scoops them up and reads about the Gardener obsessed with the water spirit that should be here. After digging through his notes for a few minutes he deduces that the water spirit is trapped in the clock.
The water is drained out and it forms into a beautiful black haired woman with slightly webbed feet and hands. The nude woman looks around very scared before latching onto Vulpes and begging for help saying, through tears, that she needs her Shawl back. Odin explains that the woman is a Nereid and that the Shawl holds her life force and that the gardener likely took it to exact some control over her. Vulpes calms the Nereid down and introduces the Aesir to her, she likewise tells them her name is Evindra and tells them that the Gardener imprisoned her in the water clock after he stole her Shawl. Evindra tells that the sometime after her imprisonment the Gardener took Briar, when asked who Briar is she tells Vulpes that it’s the bastard sword that she has been protecting for a very long time. The groups asks her where it is and she just tells them it’s to the south-east some distance and they conclude that it must be in Pitax. Before leaving Evindra manages to save some of the magical water that Odin had dumped out and give it to Demelvar seeing the Gnome’s distress after he had read the notes about its alchemical properties.
Session 49 and 50: Rats and War!
30th of Pharast (Part 2): The group arrives back at the small camp they had set up to discover that the Valkyrie have captured an Elf. The Elf claims to have been sent here by Cayden Cailean to help cleanse the place but the man admits he is a pacifist and has been unable to accomplish the task. After Odin verifies his story the man is untied and promises his wand if they rid the place of its haunting.
The Aesir march up to the abbey at the top of the hill, they are ambushed by some Shambling mounds from the graveyard but they are hardly a match. Upon entering the Abbey’s main hall they are ambushed again but this time by a Pitax assassination force led by Pitax’s chief assassin, the Ware-rat Gaetane. Tane is almost killed having to retreat from the building before Evindra’s water elemental knocks the Rat from his perch and Vulpes and Belinda force him to surrender.
Gaetane offers up all his information about Palace Pitax’s layout and is able to save his life; Odin gives Tane the clearance to do what he wants with the Ware-Rat and leaves to explore the abbey. Tane eventually manages to hire the Rat to assassinate Villamor Koth leader of the allied barbarian horde and the Rat leaves after telling Tane that Irovetti has another assassin named Gedovius but that he has never seen him. Demelvar manages to find some more wisps in the cellar which he captures. The second floor holds a library with only two useful books, one about the Gardener and the other an ancient book in Aklo about astrology. The third floor contains the remains of the abbot who had been decapitated some time ago; Odin performs a cleansing ritual and put the spirits of the abbey to rest.
1st of Gozran: The group heads back to Hannis Falls.
3rd of Gozran: They arrive at Hannis Falls, Tyr has started reconstruction of the city walls and reports what his scouts have told him in the last several days to Odin. Odin deduces that the enemy is stalling, most likely until their main army has recuperated. Oleg arrives later in the day along with some of the Valkyrie as guards and a large caravan of supplies to go over finances with the Aesir and make sure Hannis Falls and the armies are well stocked. After the Aesir make sure the Kingdom is in good shape they turn their attention to war planning. Tane receives another letter from Annemede telling him that things are not good in Pitax and to look into what happened to Littletown and find Ilora.
4th of Gozran: One of Tyr’s scouts reports that a large group of Mammoth riding giants is heading towards Wyvernstone Bridge, as the group can’t find Demelvar, Tane takes command of the Bombardier Golems and heads to the bridge with Vulpes following with the main army. Tyr finds that Demelvar has ordered Ol’ Bristlemitts to obey his commands and also takes him to the Bridge.
5th of Gozran: Demelvar, disguised as a squirrel, sneaks into Pitax to test his newly created poison. He first tests it on a dock worker and the man is overcome with hunger and bankrupts himself on food until kicked out of the market eventually being arrested by guards when he turns to theft.
6th of Gozran: Tane’s Golems arrive at Wyvernstone Bridge only a few minutes before Tuskers Raiders and have just enough time to form a defensive line, the main army unable to march throughout the night lags a half day behind. In a battle that last’s for a good ten minutes the Golem army manages to drive the Raiders back and keep them from crossing the bridge into less the defended part of Midgard. Odin and Tyr pursue the fleeing army to find out where its base camp is.
Meanwhile Demelvar visits his friends the Sapphire Imp Actor’s troupe after seeing a missing poster for Asmeranda, they tell him that she was taken by the wardens and they suspect that Irovetti has her as they think he has become obsessed with her.
7th of Gozran: Tane marches the Golems back to Hannis Falls and calls up several of his scouts to cover the border and watch for more activity. After killing a warden Demelvar uses an illusion to look like him and just walks into Irovetti’s Palace and starts exploring the place. After several hours he finds the Prison and finds that Irovetti has imprisoned all the prominent people who talked to the Aesir at the Rushlight, including Asmeranda, Annemeda, The merchant Malchar and the Gnome brewer Bixin. He returns to the troupes now closed bar and hatches a plan to break them out.
8th of Gozran: Odin and Tyr find were the Giants are hiding and return to Hannis Falls. Demelvar sneaks into the jail once again but this time there is a Gargoyle torturing a prisoner and he immediately gets questioned. Demelvar attempts to lie to the creature but the Gargoyle is very adept and reading people and calls his bluff do Demelvar bombs the jailor instead. Demelvar manages to make the jailor retreat and erects a Wall of Force trapping the Gargoyle and the two giant hell hounds he was un-caging at the back of the cell block. After putting a solid fog at the entrance he starts using his wand of Dimension Door to rescue the people he knows and then escapes the city with the 8 people.
9th of Gozran: Odin starts casting Legend Lore to find out who Ilora is. Demelvar skillfully evades Pitax’s border guards and slips into Midgard.
11th of Gozran: Demelvar arrives in Hannis Falls with his friends and explains what happened in Pitax, Odin finishes a Legend Lore spell to find Ilora and the group sits down to discuss how to proceed.
Session 51: Alliances.
12th of Gozran: Demelvar comes forward with his plan to infect the people of Pitax with his hunger contagion but Tane and Odin tell him not to do it, after talking with Demelvar, Tane convinces him to make some Poison for General Jurrg. Demelvar stays behind to make some very strong poison while Odin, Vulpes, Evindra and Tane go to find Ilora. Before they leave Frigga drops in to tell Odin that Mivon has agreed to help defeat Pitax’s armies as long as they receive all land south of the current Midgard/Mivon border, Odin agrees and Frigga leaves. The comedian Annemeda tags along as she thinks it’s the best place to hide from any Pitax assassins.
15th of Gozran: The group arrives at the area that Odin’s legend lore told him to go to find Ilora, after searching for the hidden camp for a few hours they find it and Ilora greets them with weapons in hand. Initially apprehensive of the group Ilora eventually puts her weapons away to listen to the group. Tane tells her that they are going to kill King Irovetti and liberate the city of Pitax from his rule and Ilora appears to be on board with the plan and agrees to come with the group and tell them her extensive knowledge of the Palace and the city.
16th of Gozran: The group heads to Littletown to find out what happened, they find a nice hill to spy on the town from around evening but only see ruined buildings and no people. Tane sneaks closer and notices a huge number of Wyverns nesting in the ruins of the Town hall and comes back. Vulpes ask Evindra to find some animals that might know what happened she comes back with a river otter who tells that a massive white Wyvern came with many other Wyverns and they ate the people of the town. Odin tells the group the story of a great Wyvern called “Eater of Kings” that nests on Mount Branthland and that killing her would most likely cause the Wyverns to scatter.
The group comes to the conclusion that Irovetti promised the Wyverns the people and livestock of Littletown in order to secure their services as an army. Annemeda tells that group that with some message tokens that she could tell the commander of the second Pitax Regiment what happened in Littletown and that he would probably turn against Irovetti.
17th of Gozran: The group heads back to Hannis Falls.
19th of Gozran: Upon arriving at Hannis Falls the group gets Annemeda some message tokens and she sends out her letters. Demelvar is finished with his poison but when he brings up the plan with Odin and Vulpes the plan is turned down, Demelvar is furious that they won’t let him play any jokes on Irovetti and that they need to all get a sense of humor. Odin eventually agrees to let Demelvar give VIllamor Koth horrid nightmares. Tyr tells Lord Odin that Demelvar needs to be able to conduct his pranks, even the mean ones, or they may lose the Gnome. The Centaur army has also arrived while they were gone and they are greeted with open arms by Odin and they are included in the planning of the war.
Demelvar attempts to cast Nightmare on Koth but the spell fails so Demelvar gets Tane and Frigga to help him sneak into the Cat’s-paw encampment so he can nightmare Alasen the leader of the mercenaries. Without a soul seeing him Demelvar finds some hair and goes back to Hannis Falls were he cast Nightmare on her.
20th of Gozran: Tane’s scout tells them that he saw the Pitax Horde cross the border in the morning and that they were heading straight for Hannis Falls, battle plans are drawn up to hold them at the river.
21st of Gozran: Demelvar takes command of his Golem army and General Vulpes assumes command of the main army with the centaurs as back up. Some fortifications are made at the river crossing as the bridges are still under construction. The Horde arrives around noon apparently not having taken any time to rest and charge the Midgard army. The Horde manages to make it through the bombardment and into a grand melee with the main army and in a grueling battle they are eventually slaughtered. Vulpes attempts to call out their leader during the battle but gets told that cowards don’t get honorable fights.
22nd of Gozran: The general in command of Mivon’s border guard arrives with two thousand men to help; a battle plan is drawn up over the course of several hours. Mivon will take out the Troll Marauders and the Cat’s-Paw Mercenaries while Midgard gets Tuskers Raiders and the second Wyvern Flight, they will march the next day.
After some conversation with Mivon’s general and Spy-master Vulpes goes to Tane and Demelvar and asks if they had anything to do with Koth’s assassination. Demelvar says that assassinations are no fun and Tane tells him that if he was going to have someone killed he would do it himself, Vulpes walks away confident that Midgard had nothing to do with Koth’s assassination. Tane meets with Gaetane later that night and pays the Rat the other half of the 5,000gp, when asked what he will do next Gaetane says he will hide in Hannis Falls until after the war.
Session 52: The Sickness.
23rd of Gozran: Odin calls a meeting early in the morning and tells the Aesir what the Edda has imparted on him over the last several days. He tells the Aesir that Irovetti uses mind control to keep his hold over Pitax, that there is something that he has been searching for in the Stolen Lands and that something important to him is in the Thousand Voices forest. After some debate the Aesir decide to stick to their original plan and Midgard and Mivon’s Armies march on Pitax. Demelvar leaves camp that night to sneak into Pitax.
24th of Gozran: The Midgard army camps on the border with Pitax. Demelvar arrives in Pitax and uses his many abilities to gain entry into the Palace’s food and water storage where he seeds his hunger inducing contagion.
25th of Gozran: General Vulpes lures the two defending Pitax army units to a battleground of his choosing. As he predicted Tusker’s Raiders and the Second Wyvern Flight attack, Odin uses his connection with the Edda to shield Midgard’s main army from some of the damage. Demelvar, whom arrived just before the battle started, has his Bombardier Golems shoot the Wyverns down while the Centaur use their mobility to keep range from the two battles and support were necessary. By the end of the day Midgard has destroyed both units before they could turn and run.
26th of Gozran (part 1): Odin orders Vulpes to take the City of Pitax with minimal civilian deaths and kill Irovetti. Upon arriving at Pitax the Aesir can see that battle is taking place in the city and a rider with a white flag rides out to meet them with many archers watching from the walls. Vulpes rides out the meet the man who introduces himself as General of the Second Pitax Regiment and that his unit has been attempting to take control of the city for 3 days now. He tells Vulpes that his unit has taken half the city but that the first regiment is fortified in the Palace and that just today there appears to be some sort of plague that’s affecting the Palace. The General says that if the Aesir can kill Irovetti that the populace would back them as long as they restored freedom. Odin agrees and the Aesir and the main army are led into the city while the Golems and Centaur circle around to the south gate.
The Main army is told to secure the main town square while the Aesir go to see some of the sick that are in the Cathedral of Calistria. The Aesir meet the caretaker of the cathedral a man named Drey Yarnes an influential man who shows them the sick men that escaped the Palace. After Odin determines that Drey is not mind controlled he inspects the sick men and concludes that it’s poison but brings Demelvar over to make sure. The Gnome happily asks the man how he feels and records the answers but cures the man after he begs for help.
The Aesir arrive at the Palace, Vulpes already having taken care of securing its perimeter and blowing down its 6 inch thick iron doors. Demelvar starts hyping himself up on alchemical admixtures while the group breaches the main entry chamber with one of Odin’s summoned monsters Omega Rex. The entry way is littered with dead soldiers from the First Regiment apparently killed by the trolls and each other. The group enters the main hall and encounters many of the Palace’s Troll guards accompanied by General Jurrg and Irovetti himself. The main hall is likewise littered with dead soldiers many of which seem to have been mostly starved when they were killed. Irovetti gives a short speech about how they will end it here and now and Tyr shoots him and a contingency whisks the coward to safety.
Demelvar and his trusty mount Gagglefuzz hop into battle, Demelvar now completely in an alchemical fueled frenzy. Odin’s son Thor proves his prowess in battle and charges in with Vulpes and Omega Rex stomps in behind devouring Troll after Troll. Tane emerges from the shadows and joins the fight after seeing Alasen eviscerated and strung up on one of the pillars around the throne. General Jurrg has some success in ordering his troops to attack the massive Omega Rex but Vulpes, Thor, Odin, Tyr and Tane take them down with some effort. Demelvar and his stalwart companion keep General Jurrg, who has a hard time hitting the little blue werewolf hyped up on alchemy, occupied until the rest of the Aesir chew through his Troll guards. General Jurrg attempts to escape with a spell but Odin counters it with his own magic and the Oni is dead from the groups combined onslaught before he can react.
Session 53: End of Irovetti.
26th of Gozran (Part 2): The group moves to where their map says Irovetti’s bedroom is, they find one of the lords of the city Jhofre Vascari in their way in the next hallway. Odin quickly releases the man from Irovettis influence and Jhofre breaks down in tears, after calming the man they leave him in the hall but tell him not to leave. They head down the stairs into Irovettis bedroom, Demelvar uses magic to bypass his door and Odin quickly releases his charmed monster Naga from his magic. Demelvar and his trusty mount leap into the room, Demelvar using a bomb to shatter Irovetti’s magical defenses as Gagglefuzz constricts around Irovetti. Tane moves in behind Irovetti and with a lucky but skillful attack slices Irovetti’s neck making him unable to speak. As the group surrounds him as they mock him; telling him that all he has to do is tell them he surrenders and they won’t kill him. After a short fight Irovetti is dead and his former charmed Naga flees from the palace.
Evindra tells Vulpes that her shawl is behind a wall at the back of the cavern where a small natural lake is, it takes Vulpes some effort to open the door. Within is Evindra’s shawl wrapped around a beautiful sword, Evindra happily reclaims her shawl and then attempts to talk to the sword, after nothing happens she looks at Odin somewhat distressed and asks the King what’s wrong with Briar. Odin inspects the sword that’s floating in the water and after some time tells the assembled that the sword has lost all its energy but exposure to First World energy will recharge it. Vulpes takes the sword vowing to Evindra that he will protect it. Evindra tells the assembled about the origins of the sword and that one of the eldest, she doesn’t know which one, charged her with protecting it from a powerful fey named Nyrissa.
The Aesir proceeded to clear the rest of the palace, releasing many creatures from magical effects or bonds and assessing the shear destruction that the hunger poison did to Irovetti’s troops, Tane eventually convinces Vulpes that the poison had come from Irovetti himself. After the Aesir leave they go to the Cathedral of Calistria and Tane and Odin give some nice speeches to the people of Pitax about returning freedom to Pitax. Odin then sits down with the lords of the trade houses and hashes out how Midgarian ruler ship would work and restoration of free trade.
27th of Gozran: The Aesir spend the day inspecting the city of Pitax and searching the palace, Tane finds Irovetti’s reports for the last ten years from Daggermark. Tane also reviews the case of the serial killer Gadovious whom had escaped and vowed to come back to hunt it down. Demelvar immediately heads back to Stags Rest with his golems, while the Centaurs head back to Nomen and the Main army stays to make sure things stay stable.
28th of Gozran: The majority of the group arrives back in Stags Rest via Queen Frigga’s magics, Demelvar arrives back in stags rest with the Golem army late at night and puts them on standby outside the capital.
Session 54: "Portable" Labs!
3rd of Densus: The Aesir return to Pitax to hunt down Gadovious after Demelvar uses his Divination powers to narrow down where he is. With Tyr leading they pick up the trail in the runis and follow the tracks to an abandoned 3 story building. Demelvar, Tane and Tyr head sneak into the build and find Gadovious and ambush him. After a nasty fight with the Gargoyle and his two Hell Hounds the Aesir emerge victorious.
4th to 14th of Desnus: The Aesir spend time doing their Jobs and running the Kingdom, Demelvar makes his Lab “Portable” by attaching 40 foot tall legs to the building and then using his golem making skills and his team of apprentices to animate the entire thing. Vulpes replaces the Valkyrie that where killed during the war while Tane digs through the years of reports from Daggermark that Irovetti had. Tyr searches Irovetti’s things again and finds some documentation that Irovetti sold a slave to Daggermark that matches his mother’s name and race; he dispatches some of his border guards to question the man who bought the slave. Odin does what Odin does… Adjudicate for the people for the two months he missed due to the war and the people are happy again, a King’s work is never done.
At the end of this time Narthropple’s group returns with maps for everything in the Glenebon Uplands but Thousand Voices forest and Mt. Branthland citing that the two places in question were to dangerous. The Aesir decide to personally map out the area in question and after some convincing Demelvar is allowed to bring his new “portable” Lab.
15th of Desnus: The group is shocked when Demelvar’s 100’ tall “Portable” Lab walks up to the rest of the waiting Aesir. Odin admits after a bit though that it beats riding and they all board the Lab and it proceeds to walk the 200 miles to the Thousand Voices forest. After some time it is generally agreed upon that this is the second most extravagant way to travel after teleportation. (Too see the "Portable" Lab click here)
16th to the 18th of Desnus: It is a nice peaceful journey to Thousand Voices as nothing messes with the giant walking building. Demelvar sets it down in the destroyed village of Littletown and the group proceeds up river into the forest from there.
Session 55: Thousand Voices. (End of Book 5)
19th to 24th of Desnus: The Group explores up the Whisper River in the unsettling Thousand Voices forest. The only thing suspicious they find is an empty glade where the Voices are a bit more audible.
25th of Desnus: The group finds what appears to be a Dragon’s lair with the head of an adult Sliver Dragon prominently displayed impaled on a tree. After some searching of the area Tane sees a nice place for the Dragon’s nest but upon swimming down to it, it appears that the Dragon has recently vacated. The group then heads up to Mount Branthlend.
26th of Desnus: Mountain exploration is hard.
27th of Desnus: The summit of Mt. Branthlend offers a wonderful view of the Glenbon Uplands and southern Numeria, evidence suggests that a massive Wyvern has been up here in the last month. As the group looks around they spot a cleft in the mountain to the south and decide to explore that way.
28th of Desnus: The Aesir enter a rent in the mountain that, according to legend, was made by Gourm in a battle lost to history. At the back of the cleft they spot a massive Wyvern resting on a small island watching them approach. Vulpes charges the Wyvern but is stopped by Tane who notices that the Wyvern is does not look all that interested in fighting. In Draconic, which everyone but Vulpes can speak, Tane strikes up a dialogue with the Wyvern. The Wyvern who goes by the name the Barbarians gave it, Eater-of-Kings, is adamant that she be left alone.
Eventually Tane and Odin negotiate with the creature that if it gives up its nearby hunting grounds that the Aesir will supply it with fresh Bison each month, Eater-of-Kings agrees. Demelvar makes a side deal with the Wyvern, a suit of easy to put on Mithral scale barding for a bucket of its rather potent poison. When questioned about the Dragon that left recently the Wyvern attends that it was perplexed by it leaving especially since it left its trophy atop its tree, Eater-of-Kings tells the group that the Dragon was Ilthuliak, Odin knows this name as a legendary dragon that is seen throughout the River Kingdoms recorded history, Odin estimates that it’s a Black Dragon Wyrm.
The group heads back to Demelvar’s portable lab to rest that night, Odin communes with the Edda to ascertain what happened to the Dragon. He finds out that the Dragon left for the first world at the beckon of the Nymph Queen Nyrissa, he finds out that two books will be useful for any dealing with Nyrissa, her realm or the First world in general. The Edda tell him to retrieve “The Serpent’s Tane” and a copy of “Zuddiger’s Picnic” Odin knows about both books, the first is a unique book kept in the royal library of Brevoy in New Stetven. The latter book Vulpes knows Lady Belinda to have a copy of; the same book that she told Vulpes a fortune teller told her to give to the Aesir.
Odin asks Demelvar to send a message to Frigga to come here, later in the evening Firgga shows up and Odin asks her to speak with the dead silver dragon. Luckily Odin had had the foresight to bring the Skull from where it had been impaled. The dead Dragon tells them that he was the assigned protector of this region. The Dragon tells them its name and who to contact about its death before the spells energy runs out.
29th of Desnus: While Demelvar’s apprentices’ make the Wyverns armor the group explores the southern tip of Thousand Voices. Early in the day the group runs afoul of a Quickwood, a very large one, once again Vulpes charges it. The Quickwood attempts to grab Vulpes with its roots from across the clearing while attempting to use its fear aura on the group. Seeing as Vulpes is ineffective and the Quickwoods fear is likewise useless, Tane who calls for a truce in Sylven. The Quickwood agrees to talk and Vulpes backs up to the group, the Quickwood introduces himself as Sharp Tooth. Demelvar summons a group of Dire Boars for the tree to eat, as a sign of good faith; the tree mulches the boars without a second thought.
He tells the Aesir that they can travel through the forest but any other people will be eaten. The Aesir agree to his terms as long as he answers their questions. He tells the group that this is a refugee zone for those that the Queen kicks out of her part of the first world. He says that he and the few other surviving Quickwoods protect the forest so that Nyrissa doesn’t murder them. When asked he tells the group that to enter Nyrissa’s Realm they must use the portal at the Castle of Knives, but the castle is currently out of phase with the material world.
30th of Desnus: The group heads back to Stags Rest having explored the forest and mountains.
Month of Serenith: After the founder’s celebration, which gets a little out of hand cause a temporary hiccup in the economy, the Aesir spend most of the time managing the Kingdom. Near the end of the Month during a court session the Aesir are informed that there has been no contact or shipment from the Iron Mine this month and that a scout sent to check it out has not returned.
Session 56: Ymir.
25th of Serenith: The Aesir decide to go scout out the mine to determine what happened.
27th of Serenith: Upon arriving they find that the mine has been taken by a clan of Frost Giants, the Ymir, they also notice a large castle build on a nearby Tor. As the group approaches the giants make shift fortification at the mine they get a few spears thrown at them, Odin takes a hit to his good leg but nothing serious. Vulpes bellows a challenge to the Frost Giants to send out their strongest, which they do. Demelvar drinks a potion of Magic jar and take over one of the giants watching from the wall. As Vulpes is destroying the strongest giant they had at the mine Demelvar starts a fight with his new body and manages to kill one of the other giants before they gang up on him and send him back to his body.
The giants seeing their strongest fall all rush to gang up on Vulpes but Odin is faster and summons Omega Rex at the gate which stops them dead in their tracks. A short while later the remaining giants flee into the mine, Demelvar follows them with an arcane eye and see that they have dug and escape route to the top of the mountain. Once the Aesir get to the top of the mountain they see a path that leads to the large castle they saw from their approach. Once their Odin asks to talk to the Frost Giant leader and after some time Ymir the leader of the frost giants gets up on the wall to talk to them.
Demelvar attempts to use word play to confuse the giant but it just enrages him instead, making Odin’s diplomacy all the harder. Odin asks why the giants have taken their mine and Ymir replies that the giants had it stolen from them, that they have been using it for over 100 years. Odin eventually convinces Ymir that Midgard didn’t kill the Giants mining the mine but that Vordakai had done it and they just simply took the mine after that. Ymir then demands that the mine be returned to the Giants or they will take it and hold it by force, Vulpes steps in to call out Ymir on the fact that he was using his own daughter, Belinda, as a slave to make the giants weapons. Ymir replies that she is his daughter and he can use her however he wants by the rights of his tribe. Ymir says that he can keep his daughter because she is more trouble than she is worth but that the mine belongs to the Ymir.
At this point the negations break down as both sides want the mine and neither is willing to back down, after some more chit-chat Odin gets Ymir to agree to a rite of possession for the mine, Midgard's champion against Ymir’s champion. Ymir names himself and Vulpes is named to fight for Midgard. The fight is set to take place the next day at noon and the Aesir fall back to a camp site. During the night Demelvar uses his arcane eye to see what’s happening inside the castle and count troops, he counts over 100 Giants and sees that Ymir is meeting with other tribal shamans to prepare for the next day’s fight. After that is done Demelvar quietly sneaks over to the sleeping Vulpes and gives his friend an edge in the fight to come, without anyone the wiser.
Session 57: The joke.
28th of Serenith: High Noon comes and Vulpes is ready for his duel, Odin and Demelvar have made sure he has all the best spells for protection on him. Ymir shows up in Frost Giant ceremonial battle garb, a loincloth, wielding the Star of the North a vaguely axe shaped shard of adamantine that glows with fire, only the true leader of the frost giants can turn the flame into Cold-Fire. Ymir casts his last few spells as he makes his way to Vulpes, one of which displaces him into 3 nearly overlapping places as Vulpes charges spitting insults at Ymir. Ymir spends the first part of the fight destroying the Aegis of Armag eventually sundering the shield into 3 pieces, Vulpes attempts to chop Ymir into tiny pieces but the Frost Giant’s displacement makes the giant untouchable. Ymir lays into Vulpes delivering many resounding hits, finally Ymir’s displacement wears off and Vulpes is able to land some solid hits. Right after Vulpes scores his first three hits Ymir shows pain from another source, Ymir proclaims Vulpes a coward and with three devastating hits sends Vulpes to the ground.
Seeing his friend cut down Demelvar, who had been drinking all his combat extracts during the fight, races up to Ymir and yells at him about this not being a very funny joke. Ymir kicks Vulpes body down the road and Demelvar loses it and attacks Ymir, using his defensive training from his youth Demelvar is able to score several hits on Ymir without taking any in return. Odin reaches Vulpes in time to use Breath of Life on the fallen knight and prevents him from dyeing but the scar across his face will last forever. As Ymir is about to attack Demelvar back he is overcome by Demelvar’s poison and seeing Odin and Vulpes calls for his army to march. The Aesir wisely retreat with Demelvar staying to deliver one last hit and Tyr hefting Vulpes on his horse.
29th of Serenith: The Aesir head back to Stags Rest to get their army, Vulpes is saddened and angry that Demelvar intervened and caused a war. Tane arrives at the camp site in early evening and is updated on the events that led to another war saying that it was most likely unavoidable.
30th of Serenith to 3rd of Erastus: The Aesir ready the Main army and the Golem army and march to conflict. Using scouts they see that the Frost Giants have only re-taken the mine and fortified it more than it was and that they don’t seem intent on further conquest.
4th of Erastus: Demelvar and Tane move covertly ahead of the main force to scout the enemy fortifications, using powerful magic Tane is disguised as a Frost Giant for 24 hours. Tane using his knowledge of Frost Giant culture infiltrates the castle, during the 10 hours he is in the castle he learns that the Giants are here to stock up on weapons and armor so they can crush the alliance of Frost Giant clans that pushed them out of the mountains to the north. He learns that the entire clan is here, women and children included, and that the Giants built the castle with an emergency exit at the rear.
Tane returns to the group and informs them of this and advises that the group destroy the Giant’s exit so that they can trap the Giants in the castle and then use that to negotiate a cessation of hostilities. Only Vulpes really wants to wipe them out but is overruled by the other Aesir, the plan is to only destroy them if they leave no other choice.
6th of Erastus: The Midgard army arrives at the mine, in the standard strategy the Main army advances while the Golems destroy the fortifications. Vulpes uses his growing knowledge of military tactics to overwhelm the Giants in quick order forcing a retreat in a matter of minutes. A full 1 in 3 of the Giants are killed in the initial engagement but they manage to retreat back to their castle. Just before they get there Demelvar’s bombs seal the rear exit trapping the Giants in their own castle, as the snow starts to fall Tane asks to speak with Ymir.
Before Tane can start talking to Ymir Demelvar steps up and tells the Giant that Midgard won’t slaughter his clan if he can tell him a joke, Tane then tells Ymir the conditions of surrender. The Giants will have to leave the Iron mine in Midgards hands, Midgard will sell raw iron to the Giants at discount and Ymir has to personally tell a joke to the assembled crowd. Ymir ponders his situation for several minutes, consulting with his Oracles before accepting the conditions, when pressed for the joke his answer is “Why did the Remorhaz cross the valley? BECAUSE I THREW HIM ACROSS!” Despite the cultural difference most of the Aesir laugh, including Demelvar, and the war is over.
Month of Erastus: Vulpes eventually learns that Demelvar had poisoned his sword but is unable to catch the Gnome to chastise him. Belinda travels to Ymir’s castle to see her father and gets him to relinquish any claim on her he had, while there she is able to buy the sundered pieces of the Aegis of Armag back from the Giants. The month is very prosperous for the Kingdom and they build two of the theaters that Lady Belinda wanted and with plans to build the other two in the works she hands over the book she had promised them.
Session 58: Day One.
26th of Erastus: The last few days had been getting stranger and stranger for Demelvar. For the last 2 days he had found, at first 1 then 2, Ferry Dragons hiding in his room invisible the first one had been scared off by accident by Demelvar the next two just sat at their perch silent and trembling in fear. Demelvar awoke early on the 26th to see if there were any more, when he checks he sees dozens and freaks out demanding an answer, one of them says in a meek voice that they are hiding from “Her”. As they tell him this a tiny Pixie appears in front of Demelvar looking very surprised, after a pause she starts begging Demelvar for help saying that her 6 sisters have been kidnapped by an evil “Worm Man”. Demelvar tells the Pixie that she is safe here and tells the assembled fey to come with him to talk to Lord Odin.
As King Odin sits in his breakfast nook with his Queen in the early morning a small mechanical bird flies up to him, knowing it’s a messenger bird he touches it and it starts playing a message from his friend the Lord Mayor of Restov. The Lord Mayor’s message tells Odin that he is either dead or missing and that he needs to find the highest ranking person in Restov and humbly asks Odin to help Restov if needed. As Odin ponders the message Demelvar comes running in with a Pixie and many fluttering sounds and starts telling Odin about the plight of the small Pixie, whose name is Limm.
Shortly their after a messenger brings Lady’s Belinda’s promised package, a copy of Zuddiger’s Picnic, to which Demelvar starts reading it aloud to the assembled but invisible Fey, the book tells of Zuddiger’s trip through Thousand Breaths. Tane appears out of the shadows he had been hiding in the entire time and tells Odin that he will send messages to his informants in Restov and leaves. When Tane arrives at the rookery he sees a messenger hawk has just arrived, when he inspects the message it reads “The Aesir need to come to Hannis Fall’s immediately – Lady Numesti.”
Tane brings the message back to Odin, at this point Odin looks concerned so he orders a council meeting, Tane fills in Vulpes and Tyr on the way. Odin briefs the assembled Aesir on the situation and tells them that they will see about Hannis Falls while the rest put the army on high alert. The Aesir then teleport to Hannis Falls, they arrive in the throne room but it’s empty save for one guard who looks relieved that they have arrived and asks them to come with him to the dock.
Once at the dock the group sees what the emergency is, a giant whirlpool at least a mile in diameter as appeared in Lake Hooktongue and there are thousands of black swans in it being slowly pulled to the middle where they then fly back to an edge and there are many people at the lake shore that have been stricken with blindness from drinking the water. After a brief chat with lady Numesti where she informs them of what’s going on Demelvar jumps into the water to go talk with the swans. Demelvar finds the swans very ill-tempered, they peck and bite him repeatedly until threatened, when he finally questions one it tells him that they fear the center because it’s loud and scary and that the whirlpool has always been here and they have always circled it.
Demelvar comes back to the dock to tell the others what he found out and then they devise a plan, while the rest fly out to the center Demelvar swims. As Demelvar is being pulled into the center 4 huge water elementals come out to greet him, Vulpes jumps into the water to help his Gnome while Tyr, Tane and Odin provide ranged support. The battle lasts some time, with Demelvar having to retreat and Vulpes being sucked into the center where he is held at the center of the vortex. When the last water elemental is destroyed and Vulpes rescued the Whirlpool collapses and the swans cry out in unison and die, Demelvar starts collecting them to study them. During the fight the Sword Briar absorbs some First World energy and Vulpes finds that the sword can somewhat communicate with him with a sort of empathy.
After sorting things at the docks the Aesir teleport back to Stag’s Rest where Demelvar starts his research eventually discovering that the Swan bodies hold residual First World energy and that they may be useful if they ever need to go to the realm that they came from. He reports all this to Odin the rest of the Aesir and then he and Tane decide to go see Tiressa and bring along Limm the Pixie.
When they arrive they find that there is a large gathering of Fey, Perlivash is currently talking about something being wrong as he holds up a mythical Dweomercat cub, Demelvar rushes in and scoops up the cub to see something new. Tane and Demelvar explain what happened at Hannis Falls today and the Fey go quiet, one of them exclaims that sounds like the Lake of Midnight Swans in Thousand Breaths. When asked the Fey tells them that she was kicked out of there this morning and in-fact almost all the Fey present were kicked out of Thousand Breaths today.
A Satyr steps up and says that his brother and him where fleeing when Kargstaad captured his brother, he says they were fleeing because his brother had discovered something that Queen Nyrissa was planning. Tane mentions that maybe the book “The Serpents Tane” might shed some light onto the matter and the Fey tell him it’s a good start, when Tane asks about the book they tell him that it was written by a First World scholar long ago and that it can’t be copied. Tane asks for some volunteers to help steal it and gets the Satyr and some Ferry Dragons before leaving, Demelvar returns to Stag’s Rest to re-start the Golem army.
Session 59: The Serpent's Tane.
27th of Erastus: Vulpes preps the Army while Tane makes his preparations to steal “The Serpents Tane” and Demelvar oversees the repair of the Golem Works. Around midday Odin teleports Tane and the volunteer fey to the edge of the Gronzi forest near Brevoys capital of New Stetven , Odin then requests the aid of one of the fallen Valkyrie who has graduated from merely dead to an Angel. Odin waits in the forest while Tane’s task force enters the capital, after only a few hours and making use of disguise potions Tane has gained entry into the Ruby Fortress, the center of power in Brevoy and a grand monument to the Lord of Iron.
Tane finds the book locked behind a magically warded display case in the first world section of the library, he takes some time disabling the various wards and traps then the lock and touches the book and uses a Wand of Demission Door to teleport away to safety and escape the palace. Once back at Odin they take a walk while Odin reads the book before teleporting back to Stag’s Rest, Odin learns many great things about the first world in the book and its information will be quite valuable in the coming days.
28th of Erastus: Vulpes marches the Army to Restov, Tane and Odin join him later in the day.
29th of Erastus: A Messenger from Restov meets Vulpes on the road today; he tells the General that Restov was taken in the confusion of the Lord Mayors assassination but that they managed to get the city guards and most of the Sword Lords out.
30th of Erastus: The Army meets up the Restov forces; Lady Jamandi Aldori, now the ranking official, meets the Aesir and explains the situation. Brevoy has occupied the city with 1,100 troops, including the Crown Knights of Brevoy which is Odin’s former unit, 200 Sword Lords and 1,000 guards managed to escape and are ready to attempt to take the city back before more enemies arrive. Midgard has brought the Aesir and its own 1,000 man army, they have to cross the Shrike River at one of 2 bridges to even attempt to take the city, which is fortified.
Session 60: Day Eight: The Armies of Midgard.
1st of Arodus: Early morning the Aesir and Sword Lord Jamandi gather to plan the retaking of Restov. Tane suggests that they take the city without using violence and the rest of the Aesir start discussing how to do that. By mid morning a plan is together and they start enacting it, Demelvar uses some persistent magic to create a massive fog bank filled with shadows and sounds of demons around Restov, and under cover of fog Midgard’s main army marches to the North East around the city. Using magic to create a bridge across the Shrike several miles upriver from Restov the main army crosses and makes its way to the north of the city throughout the day eventually finding the road just before dusk.
With the army in place Demelvar and 9 of his apprentices read scrolls of the spell Vail and with Lord Odin’s guidance as the former general of Brevoy disguise the army as the part of the Shield of Stetven, Brevoys largest army. The army disguised they march with torches in hand along the south road to Restov, Vulpes and Odin making sure the army marches and sounds like the Shield, Tane acting as commander approaches Restov and is met by a rider. Tane tells the rider that he has been sent from New Stetven with orders to relieve the Crown Knights and house armies in Restov, he convinces the man that Midgard is marching to the capital and using Restov as a diversion. After checking the orders the rider takes Tane to the leader of the Crown Knights who reviews the orders and questions Tane, after which he lets the disguised army into Restov.
2nd of Arodus: A tense night passes as the disguised army takes over the Crown Knight’s positions around the city, as first light breaks the Crown Knights and the house armies ride out to the north. After 14 hours of keeping spell concentration Demelvar and his apprentices let the spell go all of them completely exhausted. A great confusion sets in among the towns folk then celebration as they realize that Midgard just liberated the city. The guardsmen and Sword Lords are let into the city and Lady Jamandi explains to the citizens that the city is once again in the right hands and that Midgard will help defend the city from further aggression from Brevoy. The Aesir spend the rest of the day preparing the city for such an assault as their ruse should be figured out in a few days.
3rd of Arodus: Early morning Demelvar receives a message from Perlivash asking for help exclaiming that can’t get to Tiressia’s grove because of scary monsters. The Aeisr elect to use Frigga’s teleportation power to go to Alfheim then ride to Tiressia’s Grove, the Fey seem to be agitated in Alfheim upon arrival saying that the First World is encroaching. A few hours later the Aesir come to a wall of vegetation, the entire area between Alfheim and Tatzlford is choked with thick vegetation of an unknown type; Odin recognizes it from the Serpent’s Tane as vegetation native to the First World.
A few hours of slow travel thru the dense growth has revealed little, only the frequent eerie baby like cries that emanate from their surroundings follow them. Demelvar is the first to spot one as he trips over a tiny four inch tall Mandragora and before he can exclaim how cute it is hundreds start falling and climbing out of the trees onto him. Odin is the first to realize the danger these tiny Mandragora pose and summons a fire elemental, a second swarm of the tiny creatures emerges behind Tane and they let out the shriek of a thousand tiny babies, nauseating the spymaster. Demelvar drinks a potion of transformation and becomes a fire elemental as well and the swarm on him moves away to eat Vulpes and Odin.
As the fight with the Mandragora wears on Odin takes to the sky and summons a trio of Lilend’s to aid him in healing, Demelvar starts tossing bombs as the swarms start overcoming Tane and Vulpes. As Tane lays there paralyzed Demelvar kills the last of that Swarm and turns on the other one chewing on Vulpes, not long after that swarm also dies. In a wailing cry that echoes across the forest the thick vegetation and even more of the Mandragora start dying, withering up and falling to the ground. As the power of the First World is drawn back to where it came from Briar starts glowing as he consumes more First World energy growing in power. With the vegetation dead and thousands of the tiny Mandragora dead the area returns to normal but the damage remains and it’s clear that the road will have to be rebuilt. The Aesir leave where they fought the swarms, Demelvar collecting many of them for experimentation, and they head to Tiressia’s Grove.
Session 61: The hunt begins!
3rd of Arodus (Part 2): The group arrives at Tiressia’s Grove, all is eerily quiet no birds or animals, Tiressia’s tree has had its leaves removes and the bark has been badly damaged. Demelvar sees a stone statue of Tiressia’s lover Falchos with a sign around its neck that reads “Please Un-stone me”. As Demelvar looks in his bags for some stone to flesh slave Vulpes calls for Tiressia but there is no answer, Odin comes to the rescue with a stone to flesh spell and releases Falchos from his stone prison. Falchos manages to get Tiressia to come out of her tree and she looks much like her tree looks, she tells the group that the Mandragora tried for hours to destroy it and firmly believes that Nyrissa just tried to have her killed. Perilivash and Tig-Titter-Tut join the group later and they all talk about how to deal with Nyrissa long into the night.
4th of Arodus: Vulpes and Demelvar are awoken at dawn when they suddenly hear a hunter’s horn sound; they quickly realize that only they heard it. After that they head back to Firgga in Alfheim and teleport back to Stag’s Rest. Demelvar goes to where he left the ferry dragons and asks them what the horn means. One of them tells the group that The Horned Hunter one of Nyrissa’s scariest minions sounds a horn that only those he is hunting can hear then he and the other ferry dragons immediately flee the area. Demelvar and Vulpes spend the rest of the day preparing a trap for the Horned Hunter and his “hunting dogs” 12 large Ettens.
5th of Arodus (Part 1): With his trap in place Demelvar asks Vulpes how to lure the Hunter into it, Vulpes tells him to just ask the Horned Hunter to come to him. Demelvar uses a sending to ask the Horned Hunter just that but the reply he receives is “Tell you what, Ill attack this village of Olegton and you can try to stop me.” As quick as they can Vulpes and Demelvar gather the other Aesir and teleport to Olegton.
Session 62: Day nine: The Horned Hunter.
5th of Arodus (Part 2): Arrival in Olegton is bleak, many guards are dead and a dozen Ettens are breaking buildings. Vulpes sends Belinda to the manor house to secure Oleg and his family while the group begins killing Ettens. Tane spots The Horned Hunter atop a building on the other side of town already shooting arrows and pops one of his own FeyBane™ arrows off and hits the Satyr. Arrows come arcing in at Vulpes, bending around Ettens to hit him with deadly accuracy.
Demelvar teleports Vulpes to the Hunter once he knows where he is but Vulpes only gets in one solid hit before the Hunter teleports to the other side of the town. Odin calls in the Aid of Omega Rex and a massive Roc to help with the Ettens. After a minute or so of playing teleport games with the hunter and Vulpes being badly wounded then healed by Odin the Roc manages to get hold of the Hunter and without any more teleports remaining squeezes the life out of him. With the Hunter dead the group begins surveying his stuff and the damage to Olegton which is extensive. Tane takes the hunter’s arrow curving bow and Vulpes claims his helmet.
Session 63: Day Twelve: Nightmares and Dreams!
6th of Arodus: Reports form Restov indicate that Brevoy’s Army decided not to march straight back and seems to be holding up in New Stetven. Tane has Frigga teleport him to the Noman can and asks for permission to modify Sky Bolt with the powers of the bow whose wielder it killed the War Priestess says she will commune with Mother Moon and have an answer by morning.
In the evening Demelvar drinks a potion of Dream so he can talk to Nyrissa in hopes of stopping her. Once in her dream he meets the Crazy beautiful Nymph and asks her about her plans. Nyrissa changes between arrogant and condescending and crazy angry several times but Demelvar is able to determine the timetable for her plan and that it somehow involves bottling the Stolen Lands and using it to buy back her stolen future. Nyrissa ends the exchange by telling Demelvar that she will bring terrible nightmares upon him.
7th of Arodus: Demelvar tells Odin and the Aesir about his dream with Nyrissa and Odin consults the Edda, they tell him to look into Count Ranilc Nyrissa’s lover and the influence that ultimately got her striped of her ability to love. Odin tells Tane to get a book on Count Ranilc and he remembers that he is mentioned in Hobard’s Catalogue of Impossible Beings volume 3. With the aid of Vulpes new helmet of teleportation Tane retrieves the book and its 3 brothers in a matter of minutes. Tane gets permission to modify Sky Bolt and hands it off to Demelvar’s apprentices.
The book tells about how the Count survived his supposed murder by siphoning off some of his essence during the murder and that he had been hiding out on the plane of shadow. At some point during the 3rd century of the Age of Enthronement all record of him ceases about the same time as the Arch-wizard Nex assaults Absalom. With the information in hand Demelvar drinks his handy ale of Contact Other Plane and has a nice sit down chat with Count Ranilc. The vary amenable and not crazy Count divulges much information to Demelvar, telling his such things has how to break him out of his “prison” and agreeing to help him with his Nyrissa problem should he do so.
Late in the night the entire city of Stag’s Rest is afflicted by terrible nightmares that turn real, Demelvar wakes up in his tornado destroyed room after being slammed against a wall while having a dream about being caught in a tornado. Odin and Tane have bad nightmares but manage to avoid the real effects, only Vulpes fights back against the ever present Raven that watches every dream and manages to injure it acquiring a black feather as a trophy. The rest of the City is not as fortunate as the Aesir and mass chaos is happening out side, it takes the Aeisr the rest of the night to bring things under control and they end up losing the granary in a large firestorm but thanks to Demelvar fire proofing the city it doesn’t spread.
8th of Arodus: Odin talks with the town’s folk and the Aesir and from Vulpes account determines that the creature is projecting the nightmares into the material world form the first world. During the day the Aesir prepare the city for another bad night, Tane gets the upgraded Sky Bolt back as well. The Aesir formulate a plan and around dusk all drink Dream potion or cast the spell from scrolls and enter the Nightmares Raven’s dream and bring the fight to it. While it is terrorizing the citizens of Stag’s Rest for the second night they assault it and force it from the dream, seeing their lords attack the giant Raven inspires the citizens of Stag’s Rest that are dreams to also attack. With Briar present the sword even takes its share of energy from the Raven and whatever means it is using to project into the real world is sundered, everyone involved wakes up with a new Raven feather as well.
Session 64: The Count.
9th of Arodus: Demelvar spends most of the day waiting in a Dream spell to talk with Nyrissa again, when she does finally go to sleep things do not go well. Demelvar mentions that Count Ranilc is alive but trapped and Nyrissa just loses it, showing just how crazy angry she is, she ends the conversation by telling Demelvar that she’s sending her Giants to crush him.
10th of Arodus: Reports from Tane’s Spy indicate that Brevoy’s Armies are marching south towards the Midgard border, Odin consults the Edda and is told that they are marching to Stag’s Rest. Tane and Vulpes travel to Restov to mobilize the Main army to move it west, while the Golem army is prepped to move by the next day.
Demelvar contacts Count Ranilc once more and in his most pleasant conversation with the half dead imprisoned Eldest learns that Nyrissa is most likely using an artifact of his own design called the Fable, when Demelvar mentions that he things Nyrissa is going to try to bottle Midgard the Count admits that Nyrissa has had a few thousand years to formulate a plan. The Count tells Demelvar that he can use its power against Nyrissa by killing all the top dogs of the various glades in Thousandbreaths to force the Realm to “Crash” into Galorian. While this action would not kill any of the inhabitants it would sever their connection with First World energy and greatly diminish their individual power. When asked where the realm would crash Demelvar is told around where the Castle of Knives is with glades appearing as much as 20 to 30 miles away.
Demelvar relays this info to Odin and admits that he still needs another piece to activate the portal at the Castle of Knives. Demelvar then uses a scroll of Planar Ally along with Odin’s knowledge to summon one of Eristils hunters, Blackfeather, to help hunt down the Giants sent to kill him. Blackfeather accepts Demelvar’s offering and pledges service for one week then takes off to search for the Giants.
11th of Arodus: The Aesir march with the Golem army north to Olegton to meet the Brevoy army, the Centaur allies and the Main army march west to meet there as well.
12th of Arodus (Morning): Blackfeather returns and reports that the Pass to Varnhold has wild pine tree growth and a giant monolith of ice at the top, he also spotted 6 of the Ice Giants rampaging in the farmlands to the just to the west of the pass. Near the same time a scout reports that the road ahead is completely blocked by thick briars encompassed by thick fog and an eerie feeling, the briars seem to be growing at an alarming rate. After a bit of discussion the Aesir decide to take out the briars first to clear the army to march north then head off to deal with the giants themselves.
Session 65: Two Blooms One Day!
12th of Arodus (Part 2): As the Aesir are using the Bombardier Golems to clear a path through the fog filled and quite eerie Briar patch a trio of three-armed Giants emerge, they seem to be tending to the Briar patch, and attack the Aesir. The three-armed giants quickly realize that the Aesir are more than a match from them and attempt to flee; only one makes it away. The Golems start clearing a path and after only a few min they find the one that ran, now completely healed, the Golems destroy the poor giant in a single barrage of cannon fire. There is a rumbling in the ground with all 3 of the giants dead and 3 glowing green pods emerge from the ground where each one died and start growing new giants. The Aesir manage to destroy the pods before they can grow new giants. As the pods die there is a great shriek as the briars whip around then die.
With the area cleared the Golems are ordered to continue to Olegton, Vulpes uses his new helm of Teleportation to take the group to Varnhold pass. When they arrive Demelvar sends a sending to Blackfeather to come to the watchtower they arrived in. Blackfeather arrives in a few minutes and informs the Aesir that the Giants are off marauding in Varnhold, the Aesir look outside and see a monolithic gravestone made of Ice at the center of a blizzard at the top of the pass. Looking at the Gravestone proves to be quite unsettling as each of the Aesir quickly finds their own name and the names of anyone they care about. Odin casts a spell to clam the weather and makes the blizzard vanish then he summons a pair of Fire elementals to melt the Gravestone. Demelvar creates a circle of fire around its base to topple it while Tane notices the Giants at the bottom of the pass some 5 miles away but they are too far out to get back to save the Gravestone. As the Gravestone topples it slides down the slope and slams into the watchtower shattering into thousands of tiny ice like daggers, the Giants are immediately banished back to wince they came.
13th of Arodus: The Golem army arrives in Olegton along with the Aesir, Vulpes orders his Valkyrie to prepare some traps and ranged markers on the battlefield that they plan to meet Brevoy armies at.
14th of Arodus: The Main Army the Centaurs and the Sword Lords of Restov all arrive in Olegton to counter Brevoy’s brash move of an all out attack on Midgard.
Session 66: Kings and Generals.
15th of Arodus: 6 Brevoy army units approach Olegton in the early morning including the Shield of Stetven Brevoy’s largest army and the Crown Knights. Vulpes has the Pegasi mounted Valkyrie take to the air to harass the house armies which he knows have no way to fight back along with the Centaur. Midgard’s main army along with the Golems are kept within the magically rebuilt walls of Olegton while the Sword Lords relatively small unit is positioned to intercept the Crown knights. As the battle heats up the Sword Lords fall back to the walls and let the Golems bombard the House Armies that the Crown Knights use as shields. The Shield of Stetven along with the Black Claw mercenaries lay into the main army and at first gain the upper hand but with Odin’s 40 plus years experience Vulpes is able to turn the tide of the battle. The Centaur and Valkyrie eventually dispatch the 2 house army units that were sent after them, the mounted horseman of the Brevoy houses unable to cope with the Centaurs mobile archery tactics.
With all 3 house armies retreating or dead and the Shield of Stetven severally damaged the Brevoy general calls for a general retreat. Vulpes seeing his opportunity moves the Midgard army out of Olegton to attack the Shield of Stetven while he teleports into the enemy formation and captures the command staff including General Hod, Odin’s old rival.
A little more than half of the Shield of Stetven is captured while the Black Claw and the Crown Knights escape unharmed. Odin visits his old rival who asks what Odin is going to take from his this time as he has already taken his sight and his Daughter. Odin tells Hod that this time he will take his house from him and then leaves to plan his next move.
16th of Arodus: The Aesir along with Hod and a servant Golem teleport to the Gates to New Stetven where Hod is released along with his new servant Golem. A move that will surely call his loyalty into question and will almost certainly end his days of being General. King Surtova and his entourage meet with Odin and the Aesir outside the city. Over the next few hours Odin negotiates the release of the Shield of Stetven for what would be the army’s monthly upkeep cost to Brevoy and the cessation of hostilities and Restov’s secession from Brevoy.
The Aesir return to Stag’s Rest to plan how to deal with Nyrissa, Demelvar says he has enough pieces to activate the Gate at the Castle of Knives if they want to take the fight to her realm. Considering the information gained from Count Ranilc Odin agrees that this would be a sound plan of action and Demelvar springs into action preparing potions and the ritual to open the gate.
Session 67: Thousandbreaths.
17th of Arodus: Having inquired about Nyraissa’s next incursion into the Stolen Lands Odin tells the Aesir that the Hooktongue swamp will be the next target. Tane lets the Boggard leader know in the middle of the night and by the time the Aesir arrive in the morning the Boggard have spread out to search for something strange.
Around midday a Boggard reports back that his scouting party was attacked by giant worms near the old Hydra lair. Vulpes teleports the group to the old Hydra lair and the scout tells them that the worms were moving north. Late in the day after dodging several sinkholes the size of a house and even having to fish Ol’Bristlemitts out of one the Aesir are beset by three giant Worms. A horrid red in color and the size of one of a castle tower the first one to emerge picks up and attempts to swallow Ol’Bristlemitts and even manages to drag the golem down into the swamp but the worm is destroyed shortly after exploding into thousands of tiny worms.
With one dead two more emerge with Ol’Bristlemitts still at the bottom of the sinkhole it was dragged into and attack the group. Odin summons a massive servant of the Edda that the worms can’t swallow but Vulpes is still picked up. The group lays into the worms quickly bringing one down and starts working on the other in a race to kill it before the worms poison paralyzes people. The second one is brought down as Odin and Tane are paralyzed but with the danger gone Demelvar quickly restores them to full strength. The Aesir return to Stags Rest to prepare for entering Thousandbreaths in the morning.
18th of Arodus (Part 1): Early morning the Aesir arrive at the Castle of Knives, unlike their previous visit where the Castle looked like a crumbling pile of stone unrecognizable as anything, it now looks like well maintained Castle will sharp curved spires. The group nears the gate while is framed by two giant statues of who Demelvar recognizes as Nyrissa holding hands to create the archway each statue is holding a sword that looks like Briar. The group enters Thousandbreaths, an eerie twilight bathes forest with thousands of voices calling out in a range of emotions all of them negative. The group progresses down the path through the forest as the forest its self looks dangerous and uninviting.
After some hours the group enters an area with black lake with a huge whirlpool in the center and thousands of black swans sitting on the water. The group decides to follow the path across a bridge when suddenly bolts of lightning coarse through the group and four large Treant’s scared with lightning strikes and coursing with electricity block the way ahead and behind. Recalling Hobard’s books of imposable beings Tane points out their staggering defenses and the group decides to bypass them rather than fight them. With the excellent use of Omega Rex the group manages to bust past the two guarding the way ahead and head down another path.
Session 68: Tortured twilight.
18th of Arodus (Part 2): The Aesir arrive at a frozen graveyard filled with giant gravestones a huge mausoleum and a great broken tower leaning on some of the massive trees. The Aesir make their way through the graveyard to the path that leads between the mausoleum and the tower, hanging on the tower are the bodies of six frost giants. Constantly on the lookout for the guardian of this glade no one is surprised when he leaps from a snow drift and attacks, but the might of the Aesir lay him low in just a few short seconds.
The path to the next glade is lined with creepy flesh trees with people trapped in them screaming for help the group does its best to ignore them. When the almost mile tall spire is spotted some hope that they have found the right place emerges but then they see another of the realms imposable beings, a Roc made of nightmare. Undeterred by this horror Demelvar teleports Vulpes, Bristlemits his mount and himself onto its back but upon arrival Demelvar is stricken by the shear horror of this creature. Odin summons a large Roc from the Edda but his creature is useless against the magically protected nightmare Roc. Before being knocked off the Roc’s back like everyone else Vulpes uses a tanglefoot bag on himself to glue himself to its back and starts stabbing it. Vulpes manages to kill the creature as it starts gaining altitude to escape to the safety of its spire and the Roc tumbles to the ground with Vulpes still glued to its back. The Roc’s dead body lands on its back seemingly crushing Vulpes but in the last second before that happened he used his helm of teleportation to escape.
With the Roc’s dead body behind them the Aesir leave this dead end glade and return to the Graveyard and start walking up the frozen river eventually resting for the night.
19th of Arodus (Part 1): The Aesir start their journey once more following this river, some hours later they come to another glade. This Glade is very peaceful; the constant unsettling voices of the realm quite, a large lake and water fall occupy most of it with the lake containing a statue of each of the Eldest. After a short rest here the group decides to head up the water fall and investigate. They follow the river up through a series of larger waterfalls until they get to a towering cliff where Demelvar uses more of his Dimension Door wand to bring the group to the top. At the top is a massive lake with an island with a house on it and a bridge connecting from the side they are on. Past the island is nothing, just the great cosmos, Demelvar speculates that this must be the House at the Edge of Time and the group crosses the bridge.
At the half way point of the bridge a massive two headed wingless serpent like dragon bursts from the water. As it lands it rears its heads back to breath its deadly acid but Demevar manages to get a wall of force in the way and none of it hits the group. With its initial attack blocked the Aesir tear into the Dragon with Demevar tossing bombs, Vulpes teleporting to it, Odin summoning another Omega Rex and Tane shooting it with Skybolt. The Dragon manages to poison Odin before it’s taken down and the good King almost dies but Demevar remembered to save one neutralize poison potion and saves him.
Session 69: Snicker, Snack!
19th of Arodus (Part 2): Using an arcane eye Demelvar scouts out the gate house and find that it’s guarded by a dozen elven ghosts. After noting that ghosts can’t exist in the first world because of the over abundance of life energy the group is dimension doored to the top of the gate house. The ghosts start by separating Vulpes from the group and ganging up on him while attempting to fear the group, only Demelvar succumbs and flees. King Odin decides that what these ghosts need is some healing and starts’ tossing out mass healing spells which has the added benefit of also undoing the damage the ghosts are inflicting. Despite the ghosts best efforts they are dealt with in short order and the Aesir enter the courtyard after retrieving Demelvar.
As they enter the courtyard the group hears Nyrissa’s voice telling them that they have made a valiant effort by that they are no match for her Jabberwocky, as she says that a large flying Dragon with buckteeth and a long neck fly’s over the house towards them. As soon as it’s sighted Briar starts glowing brightly and tells Vulpes and the group that he was made to kill this creature and to cut its head off, so listening to the sword Demelvar teleports Vulpes to the creature. Vulpes with a large amount of assistance from Briar swings and connects with the Jabberwocky’s neck severing its head in one swing; the last thing the Jabberwocky hears is Briar saying “Snicker, Snack”.
The Jabberwocky crashes into the house and in front of the main door so it takes some time for Bristlemitts to clear the body. After it does the group enters a strange room with a marble floor with a depiction of the sun being devoured by a great dragon, the walls resemble a twilit forest with dark shapes moving around in it. The group enters the room and almost as soon they do the lead group members are ambushed by scary looking demon fey with wings of pure shadow. They initial attacks do little and Demelvar is immune to their poison and they are unable to penetrate Vulpes’s thick plate armor. Vulpes responds by nearly killing on and Demelvar poison’s one in turn with the Tarn Linnorm’s poison and then the creature unleash a devastation barrage of prismatic colors instantly killing Gagglefuzz and turning Odin into a stone statue. Soon after Vulpes kills two of them and one dies of the Linnorm poison and then the remaining one is finished off.
Demelvar pokes at his faithful mount for a few seconds before realizing he is dead and handing the body over to Bristlemitts for safe keeping. Demelvar then looks to restoring King Odin while Vulpes and Tane watch hopeful the Alchemist has something else up his sleeve, after a minute or two of preparing some scrolls and casting them Odin is returned to his normal fleshy self. Demelvar then administers some sort of Alchemical salve to Gagglefuzz’s body before leaving Bristlemitts at the entrance with instructions and heading deeper into the house with the rest of the Aesir.
Session 70: The Wizard!
19th of Arodus (Part 3): Using Demelvar to make random decisions for them the group makes starts searching the house. After searching a servant’s wing they return to the entrance and head a different way this time ending up in a dining room with a large buffet laid out and a very nice statue of Nyrissa in a corner with a real cloak covering it. Demelvar sees that the cloak is magical and takes it down identifying it as a cloak of displacement he hands it to Vulpes who puts it in his pack for later use.
The group enters the next room and is greeted by a very lovely Astral Diva who orders the Aesir to leave at once telling them that they trod upon the works of one under the protection of heaven. It’s not long before a fight ensues but quick thinking Odin counter spells her blade barrier. The angel proves to be quite resistant because the Aesir are not geared to fight angels, but before the fight goes too far the real enemy reviles it’s self through use of hostile magic. Demelvar drinks a Beer of See Invisibility and spots the swarm of worms that make up an invisible spell caster and he realizes that this is what spawned the mire worms and is the spell caster that his divination's told him was more powerful that Odin.
The wizard’s onslaught concentrates on King Odin and he is almost killed before he can heal himself. Odin manages to get True Sight onto Tane while Vulpes is attempting to deal with the Angel. The Worm-That-Walks paralyzes Vulpes but King Odin and Demevar avoid the effect. Demelvar starts tossing his dispelling bombs around and scores a nice hit on the wizard dispelling a key spell that was allowing the Wizard to micromanage the Angel. The Angel is now clearly holding back as much as it can swinging wild powerful blows at Vulpes who easily avoids damage, but all the same Briar is not meant to kill angels and Vulpes is having a hard time damaging the her in return.
Odin starts counter spelling all of the wizard’s spells to give the group some time to deal with the Angel and re-focus on the Wizard. Tane is finding that he has nothing that can hurt the Wizard and even Demelvar’s bombs are having no effect. Vulpes finally deals a death blow to the Angel and its banished back home, Demelvar comes up with a brilliant idea and transforms into an Air Elemental.
Demelvar realizes that the Worm is just a bunch of tiny creatures and thus must be highly susceptible to high winds and engulfs the Worm in his new from. The Worm-That-Walk attempts to cast another spell but is promptly counter spelled by Odin, Vulpes uses a bomb that Demelvar gave him but it has no effect on either Demelvar or the Worm. Demelvar tells Tane to hold open his bag of holding and as soon as he does he flings the Worm-That-Walks into it sealing it in a pocket dimension for the time being, the wizards staff clatters to the ground unable to fit into the bag.
The group breathes a sigh of relief and congratulates Demelvar on his quick thiking knowing that they will have to deal with the Worm-That-Walks as soon as it can free it’s self. Demelvar gives the Wizards staff to Odin having identified is as a Transmuters Staff and they he runs up the stairs at the end of the hall.
The top of the stairs reviles a destroyed dining hall with a large statue in the center and many different statues of Nyrissa around the room. Sitting on the statue is a ultra rare Barbtongued Wyverm and its mate is scrounging for food on one of the tables. Demelvar approaches and talks them down from attacking when he offers them some nice food and after a bit he gets them to talk about the house but before he can get any useful information out of them one of them explodes, the second one begs for his life then explodes as well.
The group explores a wing behind a secret door that Tane spotted from across the room but it turns out to only be a servant’s wing and they move up to the third story of the house.
Session 71: The Sound of a Thousand Screams.
19th of Arodus (Part 4): Ravaged by time and what appears to be a large monster the top floor remains un-repaired and dilapidated. The group moves through the ruined and overgrown halls but soon Vulpes is smacked by a spectral hand and instantly feels the crushing weight of a curse of despair. Demelvar peeks around the corner and sees some sort of Medusa, invisible, and casting a new spell. Tane starts shooting her but then is cursed as well while the Medusa seemingly unaffected by the rubble and overgrowth moves into a new room. Demelvar climes onto the roof through a hole and then jumps down onto her with his Claws of Gore while King Odin summons a Trio of Dire Tigers which quickly corner her and attack tearing her up.
The Medusa teleports away but the Tigers quickly pick up her sent and pounce on her again with the group right behind them. Unable to escape a second time the group tears the Medusa to shreds in a matter of seconds, Odin removes the Curses from Tane and Vulpes and they move on.
The group moves out of the ruined section and find a library and everyone spreads out to look for useful information. King Odin finds a book detailing how Nyrissa plans to “Bottle” the Stolen Lands and learns that she is using an extra- dimensional space called the Fable which allows her to affect realty if she can maintain a sufficient amount of connections. Odin learns how to enter and exit the fable, which needs to be done in specific rooms, right before a Flame Strike obliterates the books.
With the library still on Fire Vulpes and Demelvar jump out of the room to see an ancient looking hag with a symbol of Gyrona casting a spell. Whatever the Hag casted is wasted as it was deflected by Vulpes magical defenses and she is soon pounced upon by the duo. The Hag uses Wall of Stone to cut off Odin and Tane but quick thinking Odin uses a Stone Shape to make a hole in the wall. After taking a beating and healing herself the Hag realizes that she is out matched and uses a Word of Recall to escape leaving the group alone in Nyrissa’s garden. Odin recalls that this is one of the rooms used to gain access to the Fable and after a short preparation the group enters the Fable.
The Aesir appear in a gently rolling field of green grass on a nice summer day, one of four “rooms” of the Fable that Odin read about. Demelvar shouts out asking where Nyrissa is and is soon answered by Nyrissa saying “right here” as she appears in mid air some distance away. The sword Briar greets Nyrissa then tells Vulpes that he will protect him from her magic, she then Mazes King Odin while simultaneously conjuring two massive boulders that crash into Vulpes doing serious injury and knocking him down and almost pining him under the rubble pile. Vulpes manages to get up and with Odin gone he decides to activate his flight and head up to Nyrissa but is unable to land a hit on her. Demelvar also flies up to her while drinking some of his extracts and Tane shoots at her but the arrow bounces off of her robust magical defenses.
King Odin manages to free himself from the magical maze after only a short amount of time but as soon as he does Nyrissa conjures up a nightmarish ice storm that nearly freezes Tane and Odin in place, as they scramble to get out of it Demelvar and Vulpes try in vain to hit her. Demelvar busts out his dispelling bombs and manages to get rid of one of Nyrissa’s defensive spells she then drops back from the duo and uses a Prismatic Spray which does nothing to Demelvar but turns Vulpes into stone. The group looks in horror as their friend crashes into the ground and shatters, Demelvar simply tells Nyrissa that that’s number two and continues to dispel her defenses.
Nyrissa drops down next to King Odin as he starts his chant to counter-spell her; Tane is blinded in the process but still manages to put an arrow in her dangerously close to her head. The sword Briar shows its true power as an artifact and restores Vulpes to life and repairs his body, with Nyrissa’s defenses take care of by Demelvar’s dispelling bombs Vulpes manages to land a hit which seems to un-nerve Nyrissa.
With her defense magic gone Odin stops counter-spelling and summons a celestial Roc which plows into Nyrissa doing some damage. With the group gathered around her Nyrissa falls back again and uses another Prismatic Spray killing the Roc instantly and turning Tane into stone, the spell has no affect on Vulpes or Demelvar. Demelvar exclaims that that is number three right before peppering Nyrissa with three bombs that inflict terrible wounds. Vulpes attempts to chop her head off like Briar wants but Nyrissa manages to dodge most of the swings and comes out with her head still on her neck.
After taking more damage from Demelvar’s bombs Nyrissa channels a spell through the rod she has been carrying and fire engulfs the group, Briar manages to deflect the spell from Vulpes and Demelvar’s own magic likewise protects him from it but after the flames subside King Odin is lying on the ground. Vulpes rushes up in anger at the possible death of his beloved king and comes dangerously close to removing Nyrissa’s head while Demelvar uses the last of his bombs which would have killed Nyrissa except a contingency kicks in healing her somewhat. In retaliation Nyrissa’s Mazes Vulpes leaving just her and Demelvar on the field, exclaiming that that’s number five, Demelvar drinks his mutagen of transformation and turns into a werewolf runs up to her just missing her. Nyrissa attempts to electrocute Demelvar but his magical defenses manage to deflect all of it.
Nyrissa starts casting a Heal spell but Demelvar manages to get his claws in the way and interrupt it as he leaps onto her clawing and biting her, Demelvar keeps clawing at her and ripping her up until she stops moving laying dead on the ground before him. Demelvar quickly calms down and hurries over to Odin who is still alive but just barely and administers a healing potion. Vulpes is spit from the Maze and he quickly uses Briar to remove Nyrissa’s head from her body just before a large crack appears in the sky.
Odin gathers the group and uses the command thought to leave the Fable, the last that the group sees of Nyrissa is her headless body being engulfed by black lightning. Once in the house the situation is not much better as the house is being ravaged by earthquakes, fire and lightning, but then Sleipnir flies through the roof and lands. Sleipnir tells that group that they should leave and most are surprised that the horse can talk but get on anyways, Odin loops a rope around statue Tane and the horse carries them all to safety.
The group hears the sound of thousands of screams as the first world realm is ripped into the material world then all is silent and they find themselves at the Castle of Knives.
The Aesir return to Stags Rest to find it in disarray, the cities northern wall having been breached by a large Fey army lead by a fearsome Black Dragon. Just before they arrived the Army had turned to stone and the Dragon fled to the west leaving a broken wall, dead soldiers and a field of stone statues.
Wow a year and a half, it's been amazing. I hope those of you who read this liked it. My group and I loved it and can't wait to play our next adventure path. The end boss fight was truly epic!
Ill be posting an Epilouge soon.
Congratulations on finishing Kingmaker, it's quite an achievement! It looks like that final fight was really what you'd want after a year and a half of play. My group and I are currently at the end of book 4 but it'll still take us a while to finish the campaign, but I'm really looking forward to the last book.
Thanks for taking the time to write this journal. I tried doing the same and had to stop because I just didn't have the time to commit to it, so kudos for writing these 76 posts! :)
Do you know what you'll be playing next?