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What do you know, I've been peeking at the forum for almost five years and only now discovered that there's a campaign journal section!
I'm currently playing in two APs and have been keeping an in-character journal of them. This seems like a perfect place to share it!
This one's been running for quite some time now (we're currently at the tail end of book 4), so I'm going to take pity on myself and not individually post every single entry we have so far. Instead, I'll share the file I've been keeping the journal in (fancy formatting included):
As the campaign continues, I'll be adding the new entries to the doc as well as in this thread.
I hope you enjoy the recounting of the Lennys (yes, we named ourselves after our Wizard's monkey valet familiar) and their ongoing quest to take down Queen Ileosa Arabasti and save Korvosa!
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Player Note: It occurred to me a bit late that Cassius' way of speaking does include a fair amount of profanity. That's entirely my bad for neglecting that detail when posting here, so if it's grounds for removal then it is what it is I suppose. For now, I'll keep the journal link as it was originally written, but I'll try to make sure that my posts here are appropriately censored. If the mods want me to do anything further, then I'm happy to cooperate.
21/02/28 - Session 29 - Cassius’ Journal 29: The Den Where Maidens Are Made
17 Desnus, 4708 AR, Mainshore, North Point, Korvosa
Sparin' this Cinnabar woman turned out to be rather helpful. She was cooperative enough to give us a few more details about the facility we were about to walk into. Her map drawin' skills are s---- an' she didn’t know nearly as much as I’d have liked, but it’s a hell of a lot better than goin' in blind. After everythin' she’s done to help us there’s no way the Red Mantis will be takin' her back, so I guess it really is on us to keep our end of the deal. Personally I don’t like the idea of sendin' her to the rebel base one bit; seems an easy way to lead our enemies right to them, but I honestly couldn’t think of a better place to keep her safe at this point. Best I can hope our friends are smart enough to cover their bases with her. As for her f---ed up mind, it’ll have to wait until the problem of the Queen is good an' solved, but I can’t imagine Milani would take kindly to me turnin' away a victim of abuse like that. Sounded like she’s not one to have ever known compassion… We may have completely different circumstances, but in some ways I can relate to her situation.
Settin' that aside, we still have the rest of this base to clear out. After that mess with the Mantis, I took extra measure to scout ahead properly. First thing I came across was a crypt an' some sort of horrifyin' dog-headed zombie monster. Jules an' Lenore called it a meladaemon. I call it a problem we can save for later, since it didn’t see me. After all, the rest of the complex is what holds our real mission.
The prison itself is grim, but nothin' too far out from what I would have imagined, but instead of actual criminals, the place is full of Sable company marines an’ women that must have been pulled off the bloody street. The old hag covered in thorns waitin' around in the execution chamber was not somethin' I would have expected, mind you. I can only assume she’s some new addition. Once I did a sweep of the perimeter, we opted to start our attack with the room called the “nursery”, on account of the screams of peril comin' from it. The reason for that name made itself obviously pretty bloody quickly. This is where they make more of those f---in' maidens. That said, I don’t know what I was expectin' the process to look like, but I sure as hell wasn’t imaginin' a disembodied head tossin' around its entrails like bloody whips as bein' part of it! Good news is our little shock an' awe tactic took down the atrocity that is supposedly Zenobia Zenderholm, but the bad news is at least one soldier managed to sound the alarm…
Sure enough, now we’re stuck in a tiny room with several caged women an' we’re surrounded on all three sides. Normally I’d have a bigger problem with that, but it’s actually laid everyone out just perfectly for me to throw every bit of Milani’s wrath at these f---ers. They can rest assured that that’s exactly what I’ll be doin'...
21/03/14 - Session 30 - Cassius’ Journal 30: A Thorn In Their Side
17 Desnus, 4708 AR, Mainshore, North Point, Korvosa
I may be a city bloke, but I can appreciate a good garden as much as the next man. I enjoy them even better when they’re completely entanglin' more than half of the enemy force. Thank Milani for givin' me just the tool I need to hold down these Gray f---s.
Course, the decrepit-lookin' thorn b---- got herself out an' went after the others. Between its bug minion doin' some dronin' nonsense an' her stares unnervin' Trin an' the others, that side of the fight is a f---in' s---show. Lucky for me, Lenore used some of her magic to shut the bug up an' between Milani’s blessings an' Tin’s bad jokes keepin' spirits up, those little tricks of theirs didn’t last long. Wish I could say the same about whatever bloody poison this thing struck me with. Whatever it was it must have been makin' me see things, ‘cause the next thing I know she’s gone an' turned into a bloody frog. Well, didn’t matter none, frogs are still plenty vulnerable to a good stabbin’, so stab at it I did, ‘till she was good an’ dead.
Now if only the rest of us would get off their f---in’ a---s. The maidens that stuck around are all out cold, but there’s still their leader an' lieutenant, an' however many more of these b-----s left. Well, whatever. If I have to take care of the lot of ‘em myself, then I bloody well will, soon as Endrin gets the f---in' door open.
Player Notes: Between this and the Hell's Vengeance game before it, the dice seem to have been cursed in favour of our GM this week. In both games I made the first roll, and in both cases it was a nat 1 on a save (and in one case, it was immediately followed by another nat 1). That seemed to be the trend for the rest of the sessions. Meanwhile our GM had a nat 20 ratio of about 46% on all attacks made. I always believed Roll20's randomisation to be borked, but dang... Also on the subject of luck, I couldn't roll a single decent Fort save, resulting in me being left with a total of 5 Wisdom and the inability to accept spells or treat allies as allies so long as I had the damage (meaning no flanking, so sad Rogue noises). I used up all of our Lesser Restoration potions... And still have 1 damage left. Well, at least it will be amusing to play Cassius as having suddenly regressed to his untrusting attitude from book 1. Should make for some good roleplaying. Oh, and if anyone is wondering about the frog thing, that was Baleful Shadow Transmutation for the win!
21/03/21 - Session 31 - Cassius’ Journal 31: Gray Maidens Unmade
19 Desnus, 4708 AR, Kaer Maga
Truth be told, I’m a little disappointed. After all the trouble the Red Mantis gave us, these so-called personal guards of the Queen hardly put up a bloody fight. Lenore dropped Destaid an’ her last retinue into a shadowy spike pit before I even got halfway across the corridor to deal with ‘em. Well, no matter. Endrin can vent out his revenge for his old Sable mates. Meanwhile I can make sure the elf lieutenant b*@+& is dealt with while she’s still stuck in Milani’s thorns, then get on to the important shit.
Obviously the basement isn’t the only part of the Longacre buildin' to worry about, so we can’t exactly f*~& about down here all night. I barricaded the stairs to give us some extra time then went about pickin' the place clean an' lookin' out for any useful intel. Found a few things that could fetch a pretty penny along with plenty of records about the Gray Maiden’s operations… Some vile shite transpired down here. A lot of good people turned to slop in the name of whatever twisted fantasy this madwoman on the throne has cooked up. At least with these records we can go about givin' some of these families some closure. Then there’s the matter of another book. Had some elven scribbled about so I left it to Licia to figure out. From her expression, seems the notes were juicy. I’ll have to pry her about it later.
Of course, after I finished cleanin' house I joined back an' helped Trin’ finish off haulin' this sorry lot of would be inductees out of their cages, an' puttin' the processed maidens in their place. Unfortunate that we can’t do somethin' to fix their torn up minds, but we can’t exactly haul an entire platoon to base, so we’ll just have to hope that they’ll remain too damaged to come after us for the foreseeable future. There was one other victim we managed to find, an' that’s the elder Endrin, Marcus. Looked like absolute solly slop, even for someone who was supposed to be dead. Seems they broke the poor f#%#’s mind through an' through ‘till all that was left was a wailin' pile of flesh an' misery. Fortunately some magical horseshit took care of that, else I was thinkin' we might need to put him down out of mercy. Can’t imagine that would have gone over well with Endrin the younger.
Gettin' out of this place was a hell of a lot easier than gettin' in. Besides the one daemon left to clean up, there was nothin' left to resist us leavin' , an' at this point I could shepherd the entire population of f*#%in’ Bridgefront down the streets an’ get to the Gray district without anyone noticin' . All in all, a resoundin' bloody victory. Fan-f%#~in'-tastic. I need a bloody rest...
A good night’s sleep did the trick. Whatever that viny b##+$ pricked me with had me real irritable, even after all the potions, but a good sleep fixed me up. I prefer when the only voice inside my head is my own, thank you very bloody much. I’d like to say we might have had some time to take a breather after that whole f!%%in’ ordeal, but that’s just not how our lives work. The shaman called for us, so I hardly had time to get the scent of scorched badlands earth out of my nose before I was back up to my lungs with it. Would have been nice to catch up with the lot an' know what’s been happenin' in the city, but it is what it is. Hopefully they can handle all the new arrivals. Place was lookin' bloody crowded. I made sure to tell Cinnabar not to give ‘em any trouble. She in return left us her old gear. Safe to say neither of us wants to see another sawtooth sabre in our lives, just as it’s safe to say we probably f++$in’ will anyways. I’ll just hope Kroft an' the others can handle whatever gets thrown their way while we’re gone…
Not entirely sure what to make of the Sun Shaman’s ritual. Turns out we needed to call upon Zellara of all people to grant us the information we needed. Well, so far as best I understand, the picture is this: the Queen’s bein' corrupted by her crown, which is made from the teeth of some old Kuthite dragon called Kazavon. In order to destroy it we need a magical artifact called Serithial, which is locked up somewhere in some old castle out by the orc lands. Also, it’s protected by a bunch of undead, because of course it f&%$in' is.
It’s a goal at least, an’ Zellara did also give us some sort of blessin' along with her usual prophecies. Far as I’m concerned, the sooner we get in, grab this thing, an' get back to wipe out the queen, the better it’ll be for everyone, though we opted to make a quick supply run first.
Really wish we hadn’t done that. Now we’ve got some sort of arrangement with the bloody Kuthites to get through this place. Supposedly they want the fangs for themselves. As if that power bein' in their hands instead of Ileosa is much better. I don’t give a bloody rats arse what the church of Zon-Kuthon thinks is theirs, somethin' that dangerous belongs crushed, scattered, an' buried in the deepest f%#~in’ pit of this forsaken world.
An' yet, now we’re meetin' with Laori an' her absolutely charmin' Shadowcount friend outside the castle. I see no bloody way this could turn out well. F!&+...
Can’t be helped now. We’ve just got to finish our shoppin', then it’s off to Castle Scarwall, I suppose. Milani preserve us...
Player Notes: Whew, only barely got this one in before the next session!
21/03/28 - Session 32 - Cassius’ Journal: Persons of Interest 4
19 Desnus, 4708 AR, Kaer Maga
Eighty days in countin' now since the King was offed an' we got plunged into this sordid f&+#in' mess. At this point, I can't even tell anymore if it feels like it was yesterday or a bloody decade ago. In that time I've done a lot of things I never thought I would. To think there was even a time I thought I'd never set foot outside of Korvosa's walls. Now I've travelled all over the Cinderlands an' soon I'll be on my way as far as bloody Belkzen! Admittedly it's nothin' compared to your typical adventurer lot, but for some backwater thief like me it's a f**~in' world apart.
It's by Milani's grace I've survived this far. That, an' the help of my companions. I still find it hard to believe we've gone through so much together in such a short time. But if we're to be divin' into the gates of some ancient Kuthite dragon warlord's grim f!$*in' haunted Castle, I couldn't ask for better allies.
Kellogg Endrin
Kell's grown a lot in the time I've known him. From a dumbass disgraced noble that threw his life away on drugs to one of the most honest, hard-workin', determined dumbasses I've ever had the pleasure of fightin' alongside. He's been through Hell an' back an' hasn't taken a single step in the wrong direction. Not to mention that in less than a month, he's done more to repair his family's name among the people his ancestor once slaughtered than any other Endrin before him. To think one would even go so far as to call him brother…
Whatever his status, Kell's better suited to the term "noble" than any other highborn I know. Once we're back from this next trip I have every intention of tellin' that relative of his as much. If the Sable Company wants any hope of restorin' their former reputation, then they'd do well to take him back. If that's what Kell wants, that is.
Course, there'll be the matter of figurin' out what to do about all those Shoanti bastards he sired with the Sklar-Quah, but that’s his mess to deal with...
Lenore Lascariu
After our little chat at the House of the Moon, I feel like I understand Len a bit better than I used to. With all her terrifyin' shadow magic an' inscrutable fronts, I sometimes forget there's a genuine carin' woman behind it all. I wouldn't want to think of just how much she's had to go through before our journey together even started. I find myself respectin' her more for that than for any of the increasingly powerful bullshit she conjures up.
Jules Thurist
Jules is still somethin' of a mystery to me. His expertise, magical skills, an' craftin' talents have been invaluable, probably more for me than for anyone in our group. But after all this time I still know relatively little about the man himself. There's a lot I'd like to ask one of these days, but with impendin' doom around every corner it never quite seems like the right time… At the very least, I can always trust him to have our backs.
Trinia Sabor
I was more than a little apprehensive about bringin' Trinia along for this journey. Takin' on the responsibility of Blackjack was already a big leap, but to also take on a student… I hardly feel qualified to teach anyone anythin’. Hell, it wasn't that long ago that I was Ven's student! Still, she's absorbed everythin’ I've thrown at her, an' she's honestly got a knack for it. Not to mention her enthusiasm is bloody infectious. Even in the midst of near certain death, I find myself smilin' like a f!@@in' idiot When she starts crackin' jokes. Thanks be this hood comes with a mask or I'd never hear the bloody end of it.
She'll make a fine adventurer one day. Though if I'm honest, I'll be sad to see her go. These days I find myself relyin' on that light of hers to keep me goin' more than I care to admit. Once she's gone, I can't say I'd know how to keep those spirits up like that. It's funny, I've lived so long without this warmth, but now I can't imagine how I could ever go back to that sort of life…
Well, best I can do for now is keep to my current purpose: I'll rebuild Korvosa from the bloody ground up if I have to, so long as I can protect that smile.
The Shoanti
I'm a little ashamed to admit the Shoanti have never really been at the forefront of my mind, despite them havin' more legitimate grievances against Korvosa an' the Chels than anythin’ I could muster. Seein' how they've adapted to their lot, still keepin' their principles despite everythin’ they've suffered… I can't help but respect them immensely for that. I can only hope that our actions did that sentiment justice. It would be nice to one day see our kinds reconciled, an' throughout this crisis I feel as though I've witnessed the first steps of this takin' form, but there's a lot of spilled blood in the earth. Even if it's possible, it's goin' to be a long an' difficult road...
Cinnabar
Considerin' all of our encounters with the Red Mantis to date, I never in my life would have believed that I would be sparin' their Commander. But I suppose that's the nature of these toxic hierarchies: even the middle management is under someone else's thumb. In Cinnabar's case, it sounds like they pressed especially hard. That she managed to break through an' regain some semblance of humanity speaks volumes to her strength of will. Maybe with enough time, we'll be able to help her build a new, less murderous life.
Though before that can happen we're goin' to have to deal with whatever f%~$ers put her in this state in the first place. Until the Red Mantis in Korvosa is well an' truly gone, she's goin' to be in constant danger.
If nothin' else, at least she's more than capable of defendin' herself to an impressive extent. After all, the woman damn near actually succeeded at killin' us!
Player Notes: At the end of every book, I like to do a little retrospective on my fellow PCs and the significant characters we've met along the way. This book in particular didn't have that many, mind you, but I had fun putting in the little details of how the once cold and aloof Cassius has been gradually warming up to this crew.
21/03/28 - Session 32 - Cassius & Trinia Have a Chat
19 Desnus, 4708 AR, Kaer Maga
Cassius was sitting at the foot of the bed he had rented for the night, carefully going over his equipment when he heard a sound at the door. From the delicate rapping and the pattern, he instantly recognised it to be Trinia’s typical knock. Carefully setting down the now finely polished blade, he opened the door and ushered her in quietly.
All it took was one look at his assortment of blades on the bed for Trinia to smirk to herself. In the time they had come to know each other, she had never seen him use a bed for its intended purpose. “One of these days Cas', I’m really going to have to show you how a bed actually works...”
Even though he had grown somewhat accustomed to his understudy’s casual jibes, Cassius fumbled for the briefest moment before responding, “Gettin’ too comfortable’ll put you under too deep. Makes it easier to get caught unawares...”
Trinia sighed. This man is utterly hopelessly stuck in his ways. Then again, that stubbornness to his principles was part of what she liked about him. Of course, that didn’t mean she wasn’t going to grill him for it at every opportunity. His adorable flustered reactions to her teasing were also something she liked. With an exaggerated stretch, she moved over to the room’s small desk and took a seat, “Always so on edge Cas’. Remind me never to throw you a surprise birthday party. You’re more likely to stab the cake than cut it...”
Cassius did his best to hide his mild embarrassment at the obvious ribbing. He was generally quite good at hiding his emotions when he wanted, but Trinia was among the small handful of people that always seemed to get right past his defenses somehow. Out of habit, he leaned up against a wall, positioned perfectly to have a good line of sight to the window and door, “So, what brings you here Trin’? Couldn’t sleep?”
The bard tilted forward, obvious excitement on her face, “How could anyone! We’re going to be exploring an ancient haunted castle that used to belong to a dragon to look for a legendary artifact! It’s like something out of a two-pinch adventure book! The kind of adventure poets sing about and painters make masterpieces of!”
Much as Trinia’s adventuring fantasies worried the pragmatic rogue, he couldn’t help but edge out a small smile at her enthusiasm. It was undeniably infectious. Still, he thought, it was necessary as the teacher for him to be the voice of moderation and caution. “You know, it’s goin’ to be extremely dangerous. You might be better off stay-”
An accusatory finger was already raised and wagging at him before he could finish, “Up bup bup! Don’t you even start with me, mister! There is no way you’re sidelining me on this one! I’ll have you know that I can handle myself just fine, thank you very much! And besides, I’ll be with you and the others, so nothing bad’s gonna happen!”
Cassius rubbed his neck. There was absolutely no winning with this girl. “Never say never Trin’. We only got through the Vault by the skin of our teeth… Still, you did handle yourself well. Back in the Cinderlands too… You’ve taken to this sort of business better than I expected. Actually, you’ve been a big help.”
Trinia was genuinely surprised at the sincere comment. Cassius has always been so prickly when it came to putting her in danger, and was rarely one to be so direct with his complements. It actually made her blush a bit, “Yeah, well, I have a good teacher, you know…”
The embarrassment over his momentary sincerity having caught up with him, Cassius eked out a nervous chuckle and quickly sought to change the subject, “Right, well I’m just parrotin’ whatever Ven taught me… I still have a hard time believin’ he was Blackjack this whole time...”
The woman chuckled, “Gods, you are such a fanboy, you know that? Have you ever considered that by this point you and the others have probably done more incredible things than even he ever pulled off? I mean, taking on gangsters, curing a plague, making peace with the Shoanti!? When you look back on it all, it’s actually kinda crazy!”
Cassius idly looked at the window, the last few perilous months running through his head, “Heh, yeah, I suppose it has been one Hell of a journey. Hardly seems real, when you think about it all.”
Trinia egged on, swept up in her own hype, “Exactly! Now imagine just how much more impressive it’ll be when you get Serithial and defeat the Queen! You guys’ll be hailed as legendary heroes! And when you do, I’m gonna paint a super cool portrait of your epic final showdown! It’ll look so awesome!”
Endearing as it was, the sheer depths of Trinia’s excitement over the thrill of combat always unnerved the former thief ever so slightly. A not insignificant part of that was no doubt due to the fact that Cassius shared the sentiment, though he’d never admit as much, even to himself. “Awesome, hunh? I gotta say Trin', you’ve got some real strange tastes...”
“Yeah no kidding. I fell for you, didn’t I?” Trinia would never be so bold as to actually reply with something like that, though if Cassius had half the sense to scrutinise her properly, he would have no doubt noticed it written plainly across her face. Instead, the blushing maiden leapt to the next topic as she might have leapt from one roof to another, “So, have you given any thought to what you’ll do after? Once the Queen is gone, I mean.”
Oblivious as ever, Cassius did not see the deflection and instead replied to the question, “Well, there’s goin’ to be a lot of rebuildin’ to do. We were only there for a bit, but you saw yourself what a mess Korvosa’s become, an’ it’s not like gettin’ rid of the Queen is goin’ to just reverse it all. Even before that, the city was rotten to the core. The people that helped her do all of this, an’ the ones that took advantage of the situation for their own gain… Carvin’ out all that rot, it’s goin’ to take decades at the very least, an’ even then...”
Having shaken off her blush, Trinia shut her eyes and shook her head. This guy really did have a one track mind. “Decades? Knowing you, I’m gonna go ahead and guess you don’t plan on taking a single break, hunh? I can see it now, even as an old geezer, going around swatting bad guys with your walking stick, your butt still firm from having never sat on it a day in your life.”
The last comment caused Cassius to cough in shock, though he tries to quickly ignore it. “Yeah, well… Ven’ handed over the Blackjack title to me. When all of this is over, the people are goin’ to need a symbol of hope more than ever. Symbols don’t take breaks.”
Trinia furrowed her brow, “Yeah, well what about the man under the symbol? What about his needs?”
Cassius in turn responds almost automatically, “So long as I’m doin’ what I can for the city, I’ll be just fine.”
Trinia screamed internally, wanting nothing more than to blurt out, “Would it kill you to stop being the hero and be selfish for once, you dumbass!? Forget the city, what about me!?” She held her tongue however.
Ever oblivious to the internal struggles of the woman before him, Cassius asked in turn, “So what about you Trin'? If the Queen’s gone, your bounty goes with it. You could travel anywhere in the world. I imagine you’ve already got some ideas.”
By this point, Trinia was accustomed enough to Cassius’ lack of awareness to let go of her frustrations for the time being. “Me? Well sure, there are some places I’d like to go… But for now I think I’m gonna stick around. It’s like you said, Korvosa’s gonna need all the help it can get.”
Cassius raised a brow, “Really? I thought after the way that place treated you, you’d want nothin’ more than to get as far from it as possible. It’s not like you owe it anythin’.”
“Look who’s talking, dummy. If I’m gonna do anything, it’s because I want to! Korvosa’s my home too, you know!” Trinia pouted, more comically than indignantly, “Besides, there are things there that I care about, so...”
Cassius smiled and nodded, “Fair enough. It’s actually kind of a relief, really. Havin’ you around means I can keep an eye on you. Not to mention the positivity you bring may well be what is needed to really heal the place… It healed me, after all.”
Trinia’s head shot up, “What?”
“Back when I was goin’ after scum like Lamm, I had a pretty pessimistic outlook on things. I just wanted to destroy all the evil parasites that fed on the city. I was convinced that was all I could do. All I was good for...” Cassius turned and looked at Trinia, a sincere expression on his scarred face. It was an expression that he rarely if ever showed, and it was completely disarming. “When we helped you hide from the Queen… It was the first time I did somethin’ to help that didn’t involve stickin’ a blade in someone. Then, when I would visit and we would just talk… It made me realise that helpin’ the city was more than just a matter of punishing villains. In the end, what’s important, is to do whatever’s best for the people. You made me realise that more than anyone, an' for that, I’m always goin’ to be grateful.”
For one of the rare moments in her life, Trinia was at a loss for words, “Wow Cassius… I don’t know what to say...”
The rogue shakes his head, still smiling, “No need to say anythin’ Trin’. Just… Be sure to bring that positive energy to the rest of the city. After all of this, they’ll need that more than they’ll ever need some shabby thief who’s good with a blade.”
Thus, Cassius Redima followed an astounding critical strike to Trinia’s emotions with a complete fumble, all the while completely unaware of his self-sabotage. Still reeling from his heartfelt confession, Trinia only managed to mutter out an “...Okay.”
Seemingly satisfied with his words of encouragement, Cassius lifted himself from the wall and started making his way back to his equipment, “Now go on and get some rest, Trin’. Tomorrow’s goin’ to be a big day. We can’t afford not to come at it at our sharpest.”
“Uh, right. Goodnight, Cas’…” Trinia stood up and left the room, as though in a stupor. Once she had shut the door, she pressed herself back up against it and buried her face in her hands. A simple thought ran through her mind.
“How could someone so perceptive be so damn clueless!?”
Player Notes: Along with the Persons of Interest entry, I try to also do one non-journal style entry, be it a letter or interaction to further push my character's narrative growth in the context of the adventure. In the case of Curse, it's been Cassius' ongoing romance with Trinia (who has been his cohort since I took Leadership at the start of this book). The situation just sort of developed naturally with Trinia being the first person Cassius actively worked to protect, and the GM and I liked the dynamic. Since then, I've been running with the idea that Cassius likes her, but is so convinced that love isn't something he'll ever get or deserve that he misattributes his feelings as being more like those of a mentor, much to Trinia's frustration. Eventually, Trinia is bound to get fed up enough with his foolishness that she'll make it obvious to him, but for now they dance around their relationship as only a Rogue and a Bard could.
21/04/04 - Session 32 - Cassius’ Journal 32: Orcs at the Gate
20 Desnus, 4708 AR, Castle Scarwall, Hold of Belkzen
It would seem we’ve really reached the stage where long distance travel is simply not somethin' we need to worry about anymore, thanks to the ridiculous reality-bendin' abilities of our resident magic man. There’s somethin' more than a little unsettlin' about suddenly findin' yourself several hundred miles away from where you were a bloody second ago. Useful as that is, can’t say I’ll ever get used to it.
Didn’t take long for us to meet up with our new “allies” the Kuthites. Wouldn’t have minded if that took longer, like say a f@%+in' eternity, but not much I can do about it now. Trin’ seems keen enough to chat them up, at least. As for me, I’m all too happy to stick to scoutin' well ahead.
Good thing I did for that matter, since before we even got to the castle we found us a little watchtower ahead. Pretty obvious from the state of it that one wrong step could bring the whole thing down, which I’m surprised hasn’t happened yet considerin' it’s currently occupied by a bunch of bloody orcs. When I heard we were makin' our way to Belkzen I took the time to read up on the place an' it’s giant green population. Vicious an' hard as hell to kill, but none too bright. I opted to push up an' get into position, ready to act on whatever plan the others went with. Turns out the plan was simply to hit them very hard with our weapons. Not the most elegant plan, but I suppose we aren’t lookin' to waste our better solutions when there’s an entire castle of problems just up ahead.
That said, I think that might have been a flawed approach. Readin' about how hard these greenskins can hit an' actually takin' a blow are too very different things. One wrong dodge an' I could have very easily been dropped before we even got into Scarwall. Even Kell was havin' a hard time droppin' these bulgy f*++s! Took him, Waydon, an' I absolutely unleashin' on their leader to finally put him down. Bastard damn near took as many strikes as that gigantic desert worm! I’m makin' a mental note to never come back to this bloody place after our business is done. One collapsed structure an' a few well placed strikes later, we cleaned these bastards out. Took more out of us than I’d have liked, but we still didn’t stretch ourselves too thin at least. Plus it means we can deal with the castle without havin' to watch our backs more than the usual amount.
Castle Scarwall’s positioned conveniently in the middle of a lake, with a single bridge leadin' to it from the mainland. I’ll hand it to Kazavon, it’s a smart move tactically. It’s also a huge pain in the arse for us. I’d be all too happy to take to the skies or waters an' go in through some window or battlement, but as the others pointed out a place this full of dark magic probably has ample defenses to deal with my sort of approach in a nasty way. So, much as it goes against every fiber of my bein', the front doors may well be our best option. Here’s hopin' they aren’t expectin' guests…
Player's Notes: So we begin the new book with the brilliant idea of attacking these orcs without any buffs, and it nearly kills us. That was... Not our best strategy. At least we've still got plenty of healing in reserve to compensate for that...
21/04/11 - Session 34 - Cassius’ Journal 34: Entirely Too Many Corpses
23 Desnus, 4708 AR, Castle Scarwall, Hold of Belkzen
Shouldn’t come as any surprise that the cavalcade of shit started the moment we went through the bloody gate. We opened the doors to a welcomin' party of a dozen skeletons led by one mounted on a horse. The knightly one charged right into Laori an’ ran her through, damn near killin' her. Lucky for her sake she’s a glutton for punishment. If it was anyone besides her or many Kel we’d have been killed on the spot! Fortunately, that’s all it could muster before Kel an' the Shadowcount’s chain-laden monster made short work of it, while our magic folk wiped the rest of the army out with some well-placed fireballs.
Gettin' through an' ahead wasn’t much of a problem after that. A bit of smoke got us past the kill-holes, an' I snuck ahead to make sure we wouldn’t be hit with any more nasty surprises.
We still were of course. The very next room was some sort of killin' floor completely f%%@in' littered with dead bodies. The really unsettlin' part though was the fact that some of them spoke to me, let alone saw me sneakin' up! Spotted the twisted pile of bodies in the back of the room an' called it out in time for the rest of the crew to join in. Whatever it was it wasn’t quite undead, so we had to get a bit creative with our approach. Kel gave it a few good hits an' ultimately the Shadowcount dropped the wretched thing into a big hole full of acid, but not before its scream did a number on poor Trin. I know she pushed to come along on this trip, but we’ve only gotten this far an' she’s clearly been takin' it rough…
I hate to say it, but the Kuthites are pullin' their weight so far at least. Somethin' tells me we’ll really need all the help we can get goin' through this bloody place...
Player's Notes: Trinia's really been having a bad time with saves lately. She's now got some Strength drain, is sickened for the next good while, and was shaken for a bit there. All that, and she's still cracking jokes like a true Bard. So proud of my little cohort. Also really thankful for these Kuthites; that charge would have absolutely downed any of the other potential targets it would have gone for. Laori herself only had 5 hp left! Granted, her Sadomasochism also made it worse for her than it would have for anyone else, so maybe not...
21/04/18 - Session 35 - Cassius’ Journal 35: Door to Door Peril
23 Desnus, 4708 AR, Castle Scarwall, Hold of Belkzen
I think we're startin' to get a pretty good idea of what kind of place this is now, by which I mean it’s a big heapin' pile of cursed undead solly slop. Len an' Jules took stock of the atmosphere an' it seems like any attempt we might make to get out of this place by way of magic isn't goin' to turn out so well. Likewise with bringin' anyone or anythin' in for extra support. Not what I like to hear, but for now I'll just take it as all the more reason for us to get that bloody blade an' get the f%%~ out of here. Somethin' tells me that will be more than enough of a challenge without all the extra magical limitations, so best we not linger to see what other surprises it’ll have for us.
Sure enough, soon as we walked through the next set of doors, we were greeted by some disturbin' hallucinations an' another undead guardian of some sort. This one looked more like a traditional ghost. I recognised it as a wraith, but despite readin' up on undeath, this place goes a ways beyond typical graveyard ghouls. Well whatever it was, the one hit it managed to land on me felt like it sapped half my f~!~in' life away! Thank Milani Len was able to fix that quick, of the rest of this mission would have been even more of a f+~@in' nightmare… in any case we still managed to take the bastard down an' push through… To even more skeletons an' zombies. At least these went down quick enough to continue before the hauntin' visions from that last room started up again. I also snagged the armour off of the corpse in there. Seems that wraith was what was left of some noble guardian knight. Well, at least he might rest easy knowin' his gear’ll be put to good use. It does feel damn effective, I’ll admit…
Now if only it could protect against these f%*$in' apparitions. Our next stop on this caravan of horseshite was apparently the kitchen, an' once again I damn near got myself offed! This time it was by an explosion of ghost fire. Thanks be the rest of the group was wise enough not to fall victim to that unpleasantness. I’m startin' to feel pretty bloody far out of my element at this point...
It's at about this point that we decided to stop wanderin' about like idiots an' figure out a proper action plan. I may never have robbed a bloody Castle, but if habits hold true, somethin' as important as this Serithial is goin' to be in one of just a few places. My bet would be on a vault, a trophy room, or a chapel. This place also has two major towers. Those stories about castles do always like to go on about the tallest towers an' all that shite, so there may be somethin' to that too. With that in mind, we're makin' our way to the northern tower. With any luck we’ll find this thing an' get the f+%# out of here before it bloody kills us...
Of course, before we could actually reach the tower we had to go through the courtyard, which seemed fine up until a giant plant tried to eat us. Lucky for Waydon an' I, I've learned a little magic trick to get us out of grapples, an' Kell can make himself big enough not to give a damn thanks to those new pauldrons of his. As for the plant, well… Today I've learned that Jules has a spell to absolutely obliterate things with a single strike, an' given the force with which it hit I think he was especially good at it. The man always did seem to say he wasn't all that good in a fight, but I think a solid shot from a spell like that could drop damn near anythin' we get put up against. Pity he can't use it all the time or our job would be much f$!#in' easier.
But that’s not quite how magic works, best I can tell, so we’ll just have to make do the old fashioned way for the most part. Next is actually gettin' into this bloody tower an' dealin' with whatever nonsense is up there… I hate this f*~@in' place already.
Player's Notes: I did not have the greatest luck with saves this session... Fortunately, all that luck seemed to have instead been transferred to our Wizard's first ever casting of Disintegrate on that Corpse Lotus, which on top of being a crit rolled extremely well on damage. Considering the absurd health pool, it seemed well warranted, though I do worry about us using such a powerful spell before we've encountered whatever named enemies I'm sure we'll come across in this place...
21/04/25 - Session 36 - Cassius’ Journal 36: Deeper Into the Kuthites’ Domain
23 Desnus, 4708 AR, Castle Scarwall, Hold of Belkzen
With the big f$#*in' man-eatin' flower out of the way we could get back on target. The doors into the tower weren’t just closed, but seems like they were welded shut. Best I can tell, they really wanted to keep somethin' in. The fact that we’re usin' Kell to undo that seal doesn’t exactly bode well for us, but nothin' in this bloody place does.
While we were busy with that, a pair of what I assume were former jesters came along an' started dancin' around us. I couldn’t make heads or tails or it, an' Trin didn’t recognise it either. Then Kell of all people stopped smashin' the door in long enough to realise that they were afflictin' us with some sort of mesmerizin' nonsense that was sappin' our bloody minds away. Once he pointed it out we wasted no time in dispatchin' the nasty wretches. Startin' to think I ought to go back to stabbin' first an' askin' questions later in this place. Then again with my luck, doin' that would just get me cursed that much faster… Have I mentioned how much I f!%%in' hate this place?
A few liberal applications of enthusiastic knockin' from Kell got us through the sealed doors. Seems like this place might have been the chapel, which could be a sign that we’re goin' the right way. There was a tub in the entrance that I recognised from some old Kuthite ritual tomes. You’re supposed to bleed into it then bathe in the mix of water an' blood to cleanse yourself. The very notion of performin' a ritual to that chainy f@$* irks me to no end, but even I’ll admit it seems a bad idea to piss a god off in their own temple, especially one as filled with curses as this. We all did our part, though I’m more than a little worried about how keenly the others went at it. We might not want to get on his bad side, but I don’t think Zon-Kuthon’s approval is all that much better, all things considered…
Course, all that ritual practice didn’t actually get us past the entryway. No, that would have been too bloody easy, wouldn’t it? In fact the thing shunted Kell right back with a blast that hit him hard enough to make me glad it wasn’t me. Jules identified it as some sort of magic that grants access based on your soul. This time interestingly enough made to keep people out. From his analysis it sounds like this was a case of mutual barricadin'. Funny to think both sides were frightenin' enough to not want to go at each other, an' here we are waltzin' in like we own the bloody place. The other interestin' thing is that Laori also got shunted, same way Kell did. Considerin' the Shadowcount’s chained b@$#& got through just fine, it makes me wonder if her particular brand of worship isn’t up to snuff with the pain god... Who knows, might be there’s hope for her yet.
Movin' on in from there we came up to some cells with some decrepit old corpses. By my estimation they were some low level attendants that turned themselves into undead guardians in service to their dark lord. Didn’t take too long for us to confirm that. At least in this case the low level attendants stayed low level guardians. Didn’t take too much effort to put a stop to them, in the end.
Naturally, where there are attendants, there are masters. We found what I can only assume to be one in the grand shrine below those spectres. In that room we spotted a skull studded with gemstones, startin' right bloody at us. Jules an' I recognised the creature then an' there: a demilich. I’m no expert on the subject, but I know enough to be sure that that isn’t somethin' we want to be f*@$in' about with on a whim. The rest of us agreed that that’s a fight best left for when we’re fully good an' ready. For now, we’re just goin' to let that sleepin' monstrosity lie.
All this travellin' through this wretched place seems to have bolstered us, oddly enough. Trin certainly seems to be reinvigorated, an' I’m feelin' a load off my mind as well. I get the feelin' that if we survive this ordeal, the uncursed world beyond will be a good sight easier to deal with by comparison. I think I’ve also picked up some tricks with usin' shadows to my advantage. Should help me avoid gettin' touched by these undead freaks in the future too. I can’t quite tell if this shadow trickery I’m developin' is from the Kuthites or Len rubbin' off on me. Can’t say I really want to know, either...
Player's Notes: Ding, level 14 (and 11 for Trin)! Our GM uses "Skyrim rules" for level ups, meaning we fully restored all of our stuff. The optimiser in me wishes we had at least fought a proper named boss beforehand so that we could really empty out all our abilities before the restore kicked in, but that's the way it goes.
Seems like Jules also gleamed some info about there being multiple anchors in this place, which I assume means we're going to have to start boss-hunting. I guess we'll find out more next session!
21/05/10 - Session 37 - Cassius’ Journal 37: The Post-Dated Prelate
23 Desnus, 4708 AR, Castle Scarwall, Hold of Belkzen
Sooner or later, we’re goin’ to have to kill that bloody skull thing, but that doesn’t mean we need to rush right into our deaths either. The one savin' grace about demiliches; they don’t leave their post. Guardians like that are usually a blessin' for people like me. Means you can get around them if you’re clever enough. Course, it’s a different story when they’re sittin' right on top of what you need, or they are what you need. Then it gets much more bloody complicated…
So, we opted to delay that encounter an' check out the rest of this tower first. After all, better we thin things down in case someone comes to see what’s goin’ on. Sure enough, just up the stairs we came up to another undead priest. This one must have been important, because he was smart enough to talk back to us. From the looks of him he’d been wrapped up like they do with their kings over in Osirion. Alone, the f*~*er was no slouch. Then his pet giant zombie burst out of the other room while we were busy with him. Thank Milani Trin had enough magic on her to survive that nasty surprise. Waydon damn near didn’t. Fortunately Kell was able to go over there an' keep it at bay while I took over priest-cleanin' duty. The whole fight took up more energy than I had hoped, but bein' efficient comes second to stayin' alive.
Most of the adjacent rooms were closets or prison rooms. There was a secret passage that brought us to the tower proper. I guess from there we know how to get up. There were a few trapped rooms too. Kell had a bad time with those. One made him scared to leave, an' another apparently severed one of his fingers an' put it in a jar without him even bein' bloody close to it! Still don’t understand how that happened, an' I don’t really want to risk us losin' any more pieces of ourselves to find out. Last room we found I assume belonged to that priest, or prelate, as the Shadowcount called him. Seemed like we might be able to rest there if we need to, not that the notion of sleepin' in this place sounds at all appealin' to me. Considerin' it’s also right next to the spontaneous amputation room… I think we’ll bloody well pass.
Well, with all of that, we’ve explored the gist of this tower. That leaves us with three options. One, we go to the basement an' clean out that demilich. Two, we take the tower up an' pray to our gods that whatever is up there isn’t even worse. Or three, we get the f%#@ out of here an' see what other shit this f@&+in' nightmare castle has to throw at us...
I don’t like any of these options.
Player's Notes: I won't lie, I am rather terrified at the idea of fighting a demilich. I do not have a lot of faith in our saves, and several of these fights have been far too close for comfort. But, what else can you do?
21/05/23 - Session 38 - Cassius’ Journal 38: Demolishing the Demilich
23 Desnus, 4708 AR, Castle Scarwall, Hold of Belkzen
Well, we managed to kill that skull in the basement. All it took was the ladies pumpin’ Kel with enough magical energy to level a bloody army an’ him throwing all his force into a wicked first flurry. Undead f%&+er didn’t even get a chance to wake up. Considerin’ all the shite that thing could have done if it had, I’m not exactly feelin’ bad about that.
Best I can remember from readin’ up on ‘em, your typical demilich will reform after a few days, but accordin’ to Jules the dark magic in this place could accelerate that process. Given that, we took the measures we needed to break the anchor part of its magic now before it reforms. Seemed to have worked, but it also seems like that alerted an’ pissed off the entire castle, because the bloody place wasn’t bad enough already. Sadly we don’t also have the magic to also put this thing to rest permanently, so until we do, we just have to hope that we can blast through the rest of this place as quickly as possible. The last thing we need is that skull comin’ back after us with vengeance on the mind...
Player's Notes: Kellogg did roughly 430 damage to that damn thing (bypassing DR as well thanks to Bestow Grace of the Champion), and it still took a couple extra hits to bring down (Thanks be for Heroic Finale and Hero Points). No idea what Scarwall was feeding that thing to be that strong... I'm assuming our GM buffed it like crazy because to be fair our characters are reaching OP status. It does make me worry about the shenanigans elsewhere in this place though. We can only overbuff like that so many times, and that was only our first of four anchors.
21/05/30 - Session 39 - Cassius’ Journal 39: Star to Eastern Block
23 Desnus, 4708 AR, Castle Scarwall, Hold of Belkzen
Ever onward into this wretched place. The rest of this so called star tower didn’t have much to it beyond what I had investigated before. A few empty prison cells, a sealed rooftop room that accordin' to Jules has some magic that might give us an exit if we can crack it, an' a room that for whatever reason reminds me of a story I once read about some sort of caretaker or “curate”. Can’t for the life of me bloody remember what that means though...
Either way, we did leave one room alone. Based on the structure, I’d hazard that it might lead down into some deeper part of the castle. Might just be my inner thief talkin', but nothin' good ever comes from the bottom of a big evil tower. Given how much work it was to get here, I’d be willin' to bet that path will take us to the darkest secret this bloody place has, an' I’m not exactly sure we want to poke that sleepin' giant - or whatever monstrosity Zon-Kuthon would use - just yet. We already know about these soul anchors spreadin' the curse in this place, so might be in our best interest to get rid of those first.
We were all on board with that notion, so next we’d need to figure out where to go instead. We ended up settlin' on movin' clockwise through the place. That meant goin' back out to the courtyard an' through the doors to the north-east. Sure enough, on the other side we came across some nasty worms. Of course, this is a giant f~%@in' cursed bastion to the Midnight Lord, so naturally they were imbued with some shadow energy. Nasty poison on ‘em an' their acid was nothin' to scoff at, considerin’ it damn near melted Waydon on the spot, but they weren’t immune to a good stabbin'. What concerned me more was the big bloody skeleton knight fellow that came in along with them.
I recognised the telltale signs enough to know that he was a graveknight an' that they’re hard as Hell to kill. No surprise there. Nothin' in this damn place wants to stay bloody dead. Still, with a sword like that I had no intention of gettin' in his way. Fortunately Len an' Laori set up a wall of flyin' swords followed by a pit with a mouth to keep him at bay. The little show ended up scarin' the sorry creature enough that he conjured up a horse an' f~&!ed right off! Kind of a shame, mind you. I’d have preferred that we finish him here. Now it’s just another thing that’ll be lookin' to ambush us…
Player's Notes: I like to think at this point that my gamer intuition when it comes to how APs are designed has gotten good enough that I can usually predict when a room is going to be bad news. After voicing my concerns to the party, the GM all but confirmed my suspicions that maybe this isn't the first place we should check out, so now it's on to the rest of this giant dungeon!
21/06/06 - Session 40 - Cassius’ Journal 40: Monster Mash
23 Desnus, 4708 AR, Castle Scarwall, Hold of Belkzen
With all the shit this place has thrown at us so far, I shouldn’t be surprised that we’d find a bloody dragon in this place. In fact, given the former owner of this castle, it almost would have been strange for there not to be one. Thank f~~* the thing was asleep, at least. Gave us some time to take a closer look.
Our resident arcane expert identified the thing as an umbral dragon. Fittin', given the settin'. He also was able to tell that it was bound with the same kind of magic that was on the demilich, meanin' we’ve found our second Soul Anchor. Now, I’m no expert on dragons, but I can’t imagine a creature like that would actually be all that happy about bein' chained to a site like this. Jules thought as much as well, an' that one fortune Zellara told Len before we came to this forsaken shithole did say somethin' about a powerful winged serpent bein' a possible ally. Might be that she was bein' more literal than usual with that one. Well, whatever the case is, fat lot of good it’ll do if we can’t get rid of the Anchor magic, an' right now we don’t quite have the magic to pull that off…
Given that situation, we opted to let sleepin' dragons lie an' went upstairs to the battlements. We’ve got a relatively easy access to the northwest tower an’ a few other rooms from here, though we decided to start with the big open one directly above the dragon’s lair. Started off lookin' like a simple cleanup job. The place only had a few flyin' corpses with bows. Compared to everythin' else in this place, baykoks are a piece of piss. Bloody well would have been too, but then some wraiths showed up all around me, followed by a small horde of zombies an' skeletons, an' then a spectre started harassin' Trin an' the other casters… All annoyin' an' dangerous in their own right sure, but still perfectly manageable.
That’s when a zombie dragon burst through the door right behind me.
Well, to be more accurate, it was some sort of taxidermied wyvern bein' operated by an object-hauntin' ghost called a dybbuk. I didn’t much care about its bloody name at the time so much as I wanted to get the f!!! away from the thing. That creature made it abundantly clear from just how narrowly I escaped it the first time that it was far more dangerous to me than it had any right bein'. Fortunately, I’m not the only one here. The others gave it enough of a thrashin' to give it pause, an' then Kel… Well I’m not exactly sure how to describe what Kel did to the thing. I can understand fannin' to get rid of smoke, but I honestly can’t say I’ve ever seen someone literally punch it out of existence. The whole ordeal made him look like some sort of oversized wind machine. Trin said somethin' about it almost seemin' like he outright inhaled the creature. Well, whatever that technique was, it took care of the thing, so I’m not about to f~++in' complain about how Kel ventilated it to death.
Instead, I’ll just be thankful he’s along with us. Sure as shit stinks, I’d be proper f+#!ed dealin' with all these undead on my own. You can’t exactly backstab a ghost, after all. Hell, if I’m bein' honest, I don’t think I could have made it much further than the first couple rooms of this place. Makes me miss the days when all we had to deal with were some shitty gang lords. You can just stab gang lords, an’ they don’t come after you inside of stitched up dragon corpses. Well, mostly anyway...
Player's Notes: It's been almost a week so I don't exactly remember what Kellogg did to demolish that dybbuk in the end, but I do distinctly remember comparisons to the Jojo's Bizarre Adventure fight between Jotaro and Enya the Hag being mentioned. I really am glad we have Kellogg around for this part. Those ghost touch handwraps of his have single-handedly (heh) been carrying our DPS for many of these fights where my rogueish DPS simply isn't effective.
21/06/13 - Session 41 - Cassius’ Journal 41: Climbing the War Tower
23 Desnus, 4708 AR, Castle Scarwall, Hold of Belkzen
In all my time as a thief, the idea of movin' through a castle was somethin' only fools with more ambition than sense would even bother talkin' about. Still, sooner or later someone would bring up the subject, usually as a joke about how they’d sneak into the tower an' steal the young Queen’s knickers. Those jokes aged poorly, now that I think back on ‘em, but that’s besides the point. The one thing that I always figured with castles is that strategically speakin', they must be configured in a way that makes it easy to funnel troops an' protect key individuals while also bein' hard for intruders to navigate. In other words, the most important loot would be in the places that don’t have an easy escape route, an' areas should be easy to section off to lock someone in.
So far, this castle lined up with those expectations. The battlements on the east side are pretty self-contained. Besides that room where we fought the last onslaught of undead along with the worst arts an' crafts project I’ve ever laid my f$$*in’ eyes on, there wasn’t much up there besides a forgin' hammer that looked like it might go for some decent gold. Heh, a few months ago that “decent gold” would have set me for life. F%&!in’ adventurers…
The last part of the battlements was the tower in the northeast. Apparently it was used for battle plannin' or somethin'. Just one door in an' out of the place doesn’t fill me with much confidence, but we’re well past worryin' about somethin' like that. Worst case we scale down the side from the roof. Magic sure as Hell makes this business a lot simpler...
Course, the entrance wasn’t empty. We had to contend with a few giant skeleton guards an' a couple of nasty lookin' hellhounds. There was a time that seein' a dog like that would have had me turnin' tail but with Kel an' the others there to put them down it was more of an inconvenience than an actual threat. The rooms here certainly paint a picture of some battle schemes an' war plots from days long gone. Still, this place has enough little surprises to send some shivers down my spine. First was a wisper I heard, just for a moment, suggestin' I “kill them all” If they meant all the freaks of nature inhabitin' this place, the voice shouldn’t need to worry much about that. Were it up to me we’d have this whole castle rigged to blow already. The next unpleasantry was a bunch of paintings, done by none other than the floatin' skull Kel caved in earlier in the chapel, Zev Ravenka. Best I can tell from what Trin’s taught me, the composition is nothin’ special, but what’s worryin' is the pieces that depict Kazavon participatin' in events that wouldn’t have happened in his or the painter’s lifetime. I’d rather not think of the implications that could have, so I’ll chalk that up to more supernatural bullshit an' leave it at that. Last thing we need is for us to overthink it an’ have the paintings to come to life so they can try killin' us along with everythin' else in this f#$+in’ place.
In one room we ended up findin' a heavily-armored orc zombie. Clearly had enough of his bits still attached that he might be a real threat. After seein' what the orcs outside the castle could do, I wasn’t too eager to give this one any free hits. I guess Kel disagreed since he apparently put himself in range of the thing when it was already gettin’ chewed up at the bottom of a magic pit. Sometimes I forget that behind all his strength an' bravery, Kel’s still a bloody idiot. I had already moved on to see what the big guy was guardin'. Turned out to not be much except for a headboard that I’m sure was keepin' that big fellow’s spirit chained. Or at least, I was sure of that when I walked into the room an’ saw it. Bloody thing pissed me off enough that I broke it, at which point it just seemed silly. Another case of this bloody castle toying with our minds. Though as far as tricks this place has pulled on us, I guess that was fairly harmless.
Would that that was the case with the next room we investigated. Jules an' I spotted a scroll there. I barely even touched the thing before I got a vision. I was graced with a first person account of the wonderful life story of the castle’s chamberlain. The poor f$!& got caught betrayin' Kazavon, got tortured for it, then ended up in the basement of the star-shaped tower where he was turned into a giant worm monster for personally pissin' off Zon-Kuthon. Explains the absolutely vile aura around that place an' the faint memories I had about some story like that. The pieces of that particularly morbid tale have all come together. The effect of the vision was potent too. For a second, I was damn near convinced that I was still in character an' was about to spend the rest of my days crawlin' around like some oversized f*#%in’ maggot. It’s by Milani’s grace that my mind is resilient enough not to completely fall for that shite, so all that came from it was a moment’s embarrassment that I’m sure Len an' Trin will never let me live down.
Ghosts must rise like smoke because the top of the tower was full of the bloody things. Fortunately a well placed spell from Jules took care of most of the problem, an' the rest of us could handle th cleanup without too much trouble. The rooftop of this particular tower had some siege weaponry worn well past any practical use, even if we knew how to operate them. I managed to spot a few gargoyles an' even more ghosties patrollin' the skies. I suppose that’s what we’d have needed to contend with if we tried comin' in from above. Hard to say if that would have been any worse than that one f~&#er on horseback an' the legion of skeletal guards at the front entrance, but for now I’m perfectly happy not to try an' compare ‘em. So long as they keep lookin' elsewhere, we can continue goin' on about our business. There’s still two more anchors to find, three to destroy plus the source, an' then the sword to retrieve. Somethin' tells me we’ll be spendin' more than a day in this shithole of a castle after all...
Player's Notes: Whoops, I guess I finally missed a week of journal posting for the first time! I guess the hiatus messed up my output schedule with these... Next entry coming in hot!
21/06/20 - Session 42 - Cassius’ Journal 42: Dealing with Devils
23 Desnus, 4708 AR, Castle Scarwall, Hold of Belkzen
Havin' cleared the top of the war tower, that just leaves the lower part. Lucky for us there wasn’t much to explore. Less lucky was what we found down there. A hideous lookin' corpse of a woman greeted us with with skin so shrivelled that it contorted her face into a disgustin' smile. I read up on these things as bein' called sayona, a type of vampire that drinks blood to get a youthful appearance. This one obviously hadn’t had a drink in decades, if not more. I was ready to put her out of her misery on the spot, but considerin' she even bothered to try talkin', we opted to see if she had anythin' useful to say. Turns out she did, in exchange for a fresh drink.
While Kel an' I debated over who’d make the trade, Trin stepped past us an' did it herself. It was absolutely bloody f&*!in' reckless on her part, but I can’t deny it at least got us somethin'. The woman rattled off a bunch of Kazavon’s most loyal subjects in the castle. From her descriptions we at least pieced a few of them out as bein' enemies we’d encountered an' dealt with. She also gave us information about where to find Mithrodar, the a%##%~~ responsible for the spirit anchors, as well as Nihil, the next most likely spirit anchor candidate, a devil that we’d find up near Kazavon’s personal chambers at the top of the central part of the castle.
It’s obvious from our interrogation that this undead woman doesn’t expect us to succeed in our mission. She can believe what she likes, I suppose. Much as I’d like to prove to her just how effective we can be, we’re startin' to run low on resources, so she can at least live long enough to see the curses infestin' this place get wiped off the face of Golarion.
We opted on our way out of the war tower to take on the devil first. On our way though, Trin decided to strike up a conversation with the bloody sleepin’ dragon. Maybe losin' all that blood to the vampire made her lose even more of her damn sense… She played off of our hunch about the dragon not bein' here willingly. By the Everbloom, it managed not to get her killed. From what Jules an' I could tell while Trin an' Lenore used their wiles, the beast was at least interested enough in our proposal to hear us out, though some magic compulsion prevented him from sayin' much about it. Of course, makin' the offer we did would have made a lot more sense if we actually had a way of gettin' rid of the spirit anchor from him right now. I guess Trin was hopin' he’d spill the beans to us on how to do that. But he didn’t, so we’re shit out of luck for the time being. The conversation became an awkward promise to come back with a key to his freedom, in exchange for him not meltin' us all before we got a chance to do it. About as well as it could have gone, given the circumstances, even if our play there was supremely stupid. I would tell Trin off for puttin' herself at risk like that, but at this point I don’t think it would do much to persuade her. Of all the lessons I’ve tried teaching her, the one about strikin’ up conversations with dangerous people definitely didn’t stick. Even now, she’s chattin' up Laori about who knows what...
We seem to be on a roll with these run-ins. The next thing we encountered on our way to the devil’s hiding spot was a hag. The ugly thing had been squattin' in this place, linin' her pockets by collectin' souls. Why Kel didn’t punch her on sight I’m not sure, but instead we opted to accept her deal of lettin' her have the lead devil’s soul in exchange for her assistance. I wouldn’t trust this crafty b~+@@ as far as I could throw her, so I’ll be keepin' an eye out in case she tries somethin' with us. Frankly though, these tentative alliances seem like they’re gettin' out of hand. They don’t seem to be of much use either, considerin' the damn hag couldn’t even warn us about the cursed painting that tore into Kel as we kept movin' up to our destination.
At least our final obstacles were simple. A bunch of spiky-backed devils came at us from one of the rooms. Strangely enough they managed to scare Kel off, which denied me the benefits of my ambush positionin'. Fortunately Len had a powerful trick up her sleeve an' managed to get the sorry infernal f%@*s to take care of themselves! As always, Len’s magic terrifies me more than any of the horrors inside of this place. Trin an' the Kuthites got Kel back to his senses before he made it to the other end of the damn castle, an' so we can move forward to finally deal with our second spirit anchor...
Player's Notes: Alternate title: Trinia gets tired of the boys being overly cautious and just starts doing stuff. She's quickly become a party favourite as the heart of the gang. Right now she's also gently trying to nudge Laori into reevaluating her choice of faith as well.
Anyway, there we go, the second of my two entries for today. Now I'm finally back up to speed so that when our little hiatus ends, I can resume my postings on a proper schedule.
21/07/11 - Session 43 - Cassius’ Journal 43: Ashbringer to Ashes
23 Desnus, 4708 AR, Castle Scarwall, Hold of Belkzen
Movin' on towards the domain of the anchor, we knew full well it wasn’t goin' to be an easy fight. Still, lookin' back on it, I ought to have been more cautious.
The imps barely stiflin' their chuckles as they perched on the railings to the tower made them an easy thing to dispatch. Bloody disgrace of a warnin' mechanism, if it was one. I made short work of the lot, at least.
Then there was the tower itself. At first glance, simple enough. One door on our level, then a sheer rise to an openin' at the top. On the ground, another barbed devil an' one last imp. Roughly halfway up the tower, this so-called Nihil the Ashbringer. Had I scouted the tower properly first, I could have set up a trap for our prey up top an' kept everythin' confined to one battleground. Instead I joined Kel from below an' tried trappin' her where she was with Milani’s blessed walls. She teleported out of it like it was nothin' more than a bloody nuisance. Should have figured she’d be too tough for that trick.
Kel, Len, an' I went up to deal with that an' we left the rest of our flightless friends below to handle the barbed. This Nihil was a crafty b~%#~. Brought out a couple more of her kind to face us. Lucky for me none of the lot could see through my invisibility, so while Kel took the brunt of her ire I went after them with impunity. After feelin' my blades stab weakly through fleshless bones an' phantasms, piercin' some real meat was a nice change of pace. It wasn’t an easy fight by any means, but when you put as many holes through someone as I did in that b&$#&, sooner or later she’s goin' to fall, an' fall she did, right into the hag’s clutches.
Can’t say I’m happy about that particular outcome. Besides savin' us from yet another fight in this wretched place, she gave us a raw deal. Bloody useless all the way here, an’ didn’t even help in the fight. Well, good riddance for now, I suppose. Best we could tell she’ll be smart enough not to try an' double cross us, but I’m not holdin' my hopes high either. Maybe after we finish dealin' with this place, we ought to track her down, just to be on the safe side…
For the moment though, there are bigger concerns. In hindsight, I ought to have destroyed the bloody barbed devil before movin' up against the Ashbringer. It proved a hell of a lot more trouble than it had any business bein'. Credit where it’s due, the Kuthites did what they could, which was very bloody little. Our underestimation of the situation down there left the Shadowcount without his pet, an' Laori nearly as punctured as I made Nihil. Worst of all, the ordeal damn near took Trin. That bloody idiot girl strode in there tryin' to keep Laori alive an' nearly lost her damn soul in the process. Well, thanks be Jules managed to draw out enough magic at the last minute to put the thing down for good before it could do more damage, an' Len froze the last Bone Devil before it could sneak in any final surprises, allowin' me a chance to use it as a landin' pad to finish it off.
I’m bloody f$&&in' livid, but since we’re usin' this moment to rest, I’m distractin' myself by countin' all the coins an' skulls in what seems to be Kazavon’s horde. Still, it’s damn near impossible for me to ignore these feelings...
Trin’s gotten too bold. First the vampire, then the dragon, an' now this. She hasn’t stared down death the way I have, so she hasn’t learned to give it proper due. This isn’t the place for her to learn it, either. Not when this damned place drags in an' corrupts every soul it can get its f&~%in’ grips on. She can’t afford to bloody go puttin' herself at risk like that! If Laori hadn’t drawn the creature her way, or Jules an' Lenore hadn’t managed to get their spells off in time… If any of that didn’t happen, I would have been too late. I WAS too late. She needed me there to protect her, an’ I wasn’t!
It’s been a very long time since I lost someone dear to me. I’d forgotten what it felt like.
I don’t want to be reminded ever again.
Player's Notes: This week's games have not been kind to my characters, it seems. Trinia got hit with a Horrid Wilting, then the barbed devil got in a lucky hit through her Mirror Image to bring her down. She was 2 negative hit points away from a fate worse than death when we finally concluded the combat.
Now, for the first time since we came into this place, we're going to try resting. I'm thinking this might be a good moment for the Cassius and Trinia relationship to take a step forward (nothing like a near death experience to get the romance pumping).
On the gameplay side, we've yet to find out just how many of the things we've dealt with will need to be exterminated all over again after this sleep break... I sure hope it's not too much...
21/07/22 - Session 44 - Trinia Checks up on Cassius
23 Desnus, 4708 AR, Kaer Maga
Silent as she could be, Trinia crept to Cassius’ room. He had retired from the others early and without a word. Though not particularly out of the ordinary for him, Trinia knew it was different this time. The events in Castle Scarwall had shaken the man, that much was obvious. The fact that he'd been avoiding her all night only confirmed the fact.
For all his skill with subtlety, Cassius was a predictable sort, and by this point Trinia had more or less memorised the rogue's quirks and habits. She would find him in the room nearest to the stairs, with the door unlocked in case he needed to rush into action, but with a small makeshift alarm set up in case someone tried to come in. He’d be sitting on the bed, maintaining his gear and brooding, since as far as she could tell that's what he did instead of sleeping. She also knew that even if she removed the alarm, he would notice her almost immediately, because Cassius' senses of perception defied all reason.
Sure enough, she was right on all counts.
"Your stealth still needs work," he said brusquely, his back to her. He didn't look up from his newly acquired armour, which he was in the process of cleaning. It occurred to Trinia that for most of the day, Cassius had been wearing a shirt that he'd picked directly off of a corpse. That was weird, but she quickly dismissed it as adventurer's pragmatism. It was very good armour, after all.
"I'm guessing you're still mad then?" Trinia stepped a little closer, albeit hesitantly.
The rogue snapped at her, "Of course I'm mad Trin'. I'm f#*!in’ livid! Do you realize how close to death you came today?" Trinia expected him to use his soft, disappointed fatherly tone, but Cassius' words came out harshly. The prickle in his voice made Trinia flinch. She'd seen him angry, but never quite like this. Before, it was always in response to a battle or some have moral injustice. Here, it was personal. There was a tinge of fear in his words. It was enough to rattle her a little
Nevertheless, the bard held her ground, though her voice was more quiet than usual. "Well, I was the one dying, so yeah. I've got a pretty good idea..."
Cassius set down his armour, though he still didn't turn to look at her. "You can't keep actin’ so recklessly! With everythin’ we've been up against, for you to keep puttin’ yourself in harm's way… It's a bloody miracle that you made it out of there, Trin'."
Hoping to defuse things a bit, Trinia offered up a little joke. "Well, I guess that must put Milani at two for two for life-saving miracles, then?"
The rogue didn't bite, offering only a cold rebuttal. "That's not the same and you know it."
Increasingly annoyed, Trinia pushed back. "How is it not? What, are you the only one allowed to put yourself in harm's way? Coming here was my decision to make!"
Cassius bristled. "It was a mistake! You're in over your head! You don't know what you're doin’!"
Now, Trinia was mad. It felt as though Cassius was prodding all of her bundled up nerves. "I'm not a child, Cas'! I knew the risks, and you needed my help!"
"That's not for you to decide!" Cassius' voice rose nearly to a shout. "You may not be a child, but you're my responsibility!"
Trinia's frustration nearly brought her to tears as she yelled back. "Why do you have to shoulder everything yourself, hunh? It's always 'Blackjack this' and 'Queen that'. You're only one man, Cassius! You can't take responsibility for everything! You don't have to take responsibility for me!"
"I do Trinia! I've already lost everythin’ I've loved before, I can't lose you too!" At that moment, Cassius seemed to break. "I just... Can't…"
Trinia, more than a little bit stunned at this outburst, simply stood stupefied for a few seconds, before finally approaching Cassius and sitting down beside him. She reached over and took his chin, turning his head to face her. There were tears running down his scarred face. She had never seen the man so vulnerable, and she couldn't help but smile as she wiped his cheek with her thumb. "Took you long enough to say it Cas'. I love you too, dumbass."
With that, she leaned forward and pressed her lips to his. Cassius didn't react at first, as it was his turn to be stunned, though soon enough he started to return the kiss. In those brief moments, all of their pent up feelings seemed to explode in a messy, awkward display of passionate affection.
Trinia pulled away just long enough to defuse whatever remaining anger might have been left. "Cas', next time you tell a girl you love her, try not to cry while doing it."
Cassius laughed in earnest and wiped his face, before swiftly repositioning so that he was properly facing the woman. "How about this then. I love you, Trinia."
Trinia smiled at him. "That's better. Tell you what, if you can promise to be more honest about your feelings, I'll promise to be more careful."
Cassius smiled back, and even dared to crack a joke. "It's a deal. Wouldn't want you to end up looking like me, after all."
"Hey now, I'll have you know that I happen to find scars sexy." The look that she gave him as she ran her hand gently along his cheek was more than enough of a signal, even for someone as oblivious as him.
With her seal of approval, Cassius initiated their second kiss.
Trinia did not return to her room that night, and anyone else that might have tried to find her or Cassius would have had their search hampered by the sudden inexplicable appearance of a hedge of rose bushes blocking the doorway to Cassius’ room. Roses that just as inexplicably disappeared the next morning...
As dawn broke, Trinia woke to the soft glow of emerging daylight through the window. She could just make out the faint remnants of the starry night giving way to the blue sky. Part of her wished that she could hold on to those stars just a little bit longer. But that would have to wait until after whatever perils the cursed castle would have for them today…
Somehow though, it felt all the more worth it now.
21/07/25 - Session 44 - Cassius’ Journal 44: ...
24 Desnus, 4708 AR, Kaer Maga
…
I slept fine. Let’s move on.
Player's Notes: At long last, progress in the romantic subplot! I figured a near death experience was a good enough reason to finally get Cassius to crack.
I can only imagine Kellogg will give Cassius a hearty slap on the back while Lenore gives him a slightly condescending "good boy" headpat, to which Cassius will have no decent retort.
21/08/15 - Session 45 - Cassius’ Journal 45: Return to Castle Scarwall
24 Desnus, 4708 AR, Kaer Maga
It’s a new day. That means we need to get back to work. We made a few stops while we were still in Kaer Maga to prepare. Made a point to grab a few extra pieces of equipment. Mostly some magic to cover for our magicians. Wouldn’t do for them to run out while we’re in there. At the very least, it ought to help us deal with the curses in that godawful shithole.
Returnin' to Scarwall wasn’t somethin' I was lookin' forward to, but we still had a curse to break. Our next stop was the dragon. Course, they weren’t just goin' to leave the place empty for us to walk in. Fortunately by this point dealin' with a few shadows an' skeletons is a piece of piss.
Would have been f*%*in’ peachy if the same were true for the dragon. Had the thing been alone, we might not have had any trouble, but figures it had company when we arrived. A few wraiths wouldn’t have been all that much of a problem, an' hell even that f**%er of a graveknight Knurlott would have been easy to pick off on his own, but their presence meant that the big scaly prick couldn’t just lay down an' ignore us either. Curse’s compulsion or some shite. The bloody bastard of a lizard hit most of us with so much strength-sappin' dark breath that it knocked Trin out cold! Thank Milani Len had Restoration magic available to fix her as soon as the fight was done… It’s takin' all of my strength not to lose myself again. She said she could take care of herself, an' then this happened. However strong-willed she might be, she’s still nowhere near tough enough for this place. I’m not even entirely sure that we are…
Well, I don’t exactly have the luxury of time to mull it over right now. Len managed to break the curse from the dragon, which promptly f%#!ed off with Knurlott’s corpse in jaw. That just leaves the last anchor an' the source itself. Accordin' to the circlet we found in Kazavon’s chambers, some guardian named Castothrane is our next target, an' he’s located on the top floor above the front gates. I may not have the full layout of this place, but I think I have a pretty good idea how to get there. I’m all too ready to be done with this a$+@*&~ and his master swiftly. The sooner we rid Golarion of these bloody abominations, the better.
Player's Notes: It really does figure that my luck would be so that Trinia would find herself hit by two blasts of Strength Drain, roll under 6 both times, and then roll max damage on them... Just after that whole dramatic thing of Cassius being told she can take care of herself. Between this and th other two games I'm in... I don't know why my dice luck has been so woefully abysmal lately, but it's enough to make even a skeptical fellow superstitious.
21/08/29 - Session 46 - Cassius’ Journal 46: Breakin' Binds
24 Desnus, 4708 AR, Castle Scarwall, Hold of Belkzen
We didn’t waste any time makin' our way up to Castothrane’s location. Wasn’t hard to find him, given everythin' we already knew. This place is startin' to feel familiar enough that I can navigate by memory, which is not a fact I’m bloody pleased about...
Fortunately, the flamin' skeleton in heavy armour turned out to be a piece of piss to deal with. Given what we knew of how his circlet was made, seemed like all we needed to do was put them back together. Link body an' soul to put both at peace, or somethin' like that. Either that or it would blow up in our face somehow. Well, I guess for the first time since we stepped foot in this cursed castle, we got lucky. I rushed ahead an' sat the thing onto his head, an' he happily crumbled to dust like a corpse is well an' supposed to. Wish I could have said the same about the shadows an' those bloody jesters (could have sworn we took care of them yesterday, but I guess death is a temporary state in this place). At least the others made quick work of ‘em. Not fallin' for their little dance trick twice, I can tell you that much.
Would have been nice if that was the end of it, an' we could now focus on cleansin' the curse once an' for all, but somewhere in the hustle to finally deal with the final Anchor, we lost sight of Jules an' the Shadowcount. ‘Course, nothin' good comes of people up an' wanderin' off in a place like this, so we immediately set after findin' them. The trails split at some point. One I traced goin' to the northeast tower, which tells me that the deal with that shrivelled corpse b*~~@ didn’t last more than a bloody day. F@##in’ figures. I let the others go ahead while I tracked down the Shadowcount. His trail went up to Kazavon’s bedroom, then vanished. I don’t like anythin' about what that suggests, but seein' as the person among us with the magical sight necessary to tell anythin' further is likely about to become drip-feed for a thirsty vampiress, Sial will just have to wait.
By the time I got back to the others, it was an absolute shitshow. Jules was freed, but I arrived just in time for the sayona to hit everyone except he an' I with some sort of magical fright. So that just left me an' the wizard to deal with her. Much as I’d love to punch a thousand holes into that b$!+! for every drop of blood she took from Trin’ earlier, I’m not exactly ideally equipped to kill her ilk. Surprise attacks work best when the creature can actually be surprised, an' whatever look she gave me really slowed me down on top of that. Well, I at least kept her at bay long enough for the others to snap out of it an' come back to finish her off. That’ll be the end of Risibeth. Probably should have done this in the first place an' saved us all the bloody trouble, but good f%%!in' riddance all the same.
So that’s Jules back, but surprise surprise, there’s somethin' new gettin' in our bloody way. Another day, another pile of shite to wade through...
21/09/19 - Session 47 - Cassius’ Journal 47: Be Our Guest
24 Desnus, 4708 AR, Castle Scarwall, Hold of Belkzen
Jules got over his little undead encounter quickly enough to read the new magical energies messin' with the castle. Soon enough though, we all could see and hear it. Ghostly figures dancin' an' ballroom music echoed all around. Our magical expert identified it as a Danse Macabre. As best he could tell, the thing was interferin' with the spirit anchors, as if it was tryin' to take control of the curse for itself. Livin' corpses an' ghosts wasn’t bad enough, now they need to dance. Bloody fantastic. Jules’ eye pointed us towards the guest wing to the west. As I recall, that’s where we ought to find the grand ballroom. Of course, what better place for a “Danse Macabre” than some mad torture dragon’s ballroom? Just when I thought I couldn’t hate this place any more…
Didn’t take long after gettin' into the west wing that we came upon our first oddity. The way I saw it, the room ahead of us had a banquet with Kazavon at the head, compellin' me to have a seat an’ listen. I was naturally skeptical, but somethin' about the place strongly urged me to at least hear him out. The other’s snapped me back to my senses quickly enough to realise that the meat an’ ale I saw was all dust an’ memories, an' one quick stab later the shadow that was in “Kaz’” place was dealt with. That was embarrassin' enough, but then while checkin' a hidden path, I could have sworn a minotaur was about to ambush Laori. I managed to get her out of the way of the absolutely bloody nothin' that was there, because this damned castle still can’t help but play with my f+$%in’ senses. What wasn’t an illusion was the massive undead orc woman that emerged right after, or the horde of wraiths after that. We figured out quickly enough why the last room told us to “beware Ukwar”. Luckily, Kel an' I boxed the orc in an' after a good squeeze from Kel, Laori was able to finish her off with her own axe. Lucky we did that, since as best Laori an' I could tell she was a kind of undead that isn’t killed so easily. As for the Wraiths, well I’m thankful that Len an' Liscia are as good as they are with their channelled energy an' explosives. Got rid of those bastards right quick.
Oh, an' apparently at some point Ukwar’s soul went into her axe, an' now she wants to help us destroy the curse. Wouldn’t be my first pick for an ally, but we’ll take what we can get, I suppose.
Hopefully that’s the gist of what we’ll need to deal with in this wing, an' we can move along to gettin' rid of this damned music…
Player's Notes: Took me long enough to get back to this one too, but delays, personal stuff, and whatnot. I'm getting increasingly eager to finally be done with this terrible place. Not that I don't enjoy the adventure (far from it), but man the number of undead with lifesense, or weird rules about how to kill them and effects that circumnavigate my abilities, not to mention the absurd amounts of ability drain... It all just makes it so hard for me to plan or be effective for the vast majority of these fights. Plus we've been at it for 14 sessions now, making it officially the longest I've ever spent on a single AP book.
I just miss stabbing fleshy dudes in the back...
21/09/26 - Session 48 - Cassius’ Journal 48: A Dance With Death
24 Desnus, 4708 AR, Castle Scarwall, Hold of Belkzen
Havin' dealt with our first set of apparitions an' one very angry undead orc, it was about time we finally got around to the damned dancin' ghosts runnin' rampant. Fortunately, there was very little blockin' our way to our destination. I guess the wraiths saved us some trouble by mobbin’ us earlier, because best I could tell, there was nothin' of note left in any of the guest rooms besides some very rusty torture devices. I can’t help but think that these sick Kuthite f#$~s would have preferred them that way… We’ve been in this damn castle too long.
Besides the mostly empty rooms, there was a statue at the end of the hall with a bag over the head, an' a ladder behind leadin' up to another tower. Fortunately we know better than to mess with a covered face in a place like this, so instead we prepared ourselves to enter the grand ballroom. Given the layout, it wasn’t hard to figure out which doors we needed to go through. Now if only the spirits were as straightforward as the corridor was…
It took a moment for the danse macabre to manifest once we got in. In typical haunted castle fashion, the door locked itself behind us as the reaper-lookin’ bastard went straight for me first. Too much to hope for any of these damn ghosts to not see right through my hidin' skills. Nevertheless, I dealt what damage I could, while Kel did the real work with his ghost-punchin' bandages. Startin' to really wish I had kept enough gold sails to give myself somethin' similar. Stabbin' ghosts really just doesn’t bring the same satisfaction…
There was somethin' about the danse when we first came in that really made us want to follow its tune. Lucky for us Trin’s bardic abilities were perfectly suited to puttin' a stop to that. Little by little, we’ve been chippin' away at this ghost, though it really isn’t givin' up without a hell of a fight. We need to get rid of it quickly, because I’m not sure how many more hits from that f~@@in' scythe we can take!
Player's Notes: Have I mentioned how much I hate incorporeals with Con drain? I hate them so much... I'm currently at 6 Con after just two hits from this thing... Here's hoping the others can land something good because I'm rapidly running out of hp.
21/10/03 - Session 49 - Cassius’ Journal 49: A Dance With Death’s Finale
24 Desnus, 4708 AR, Castle Scarwall, Hold of Belkzen
Lucky for us all it took was Len usin’ her magic to toss Kel straight at that bloody danse an’ him goin’ wild on it for the job to be done. Good thing to, because we’ve still got a Curse to end…
Player's Notes: It ended up being a very short session. One good application of Telekinetic Charge and a full attack from a Brawler/Cavalier was all we really needed to finish the job.
21/10/17 - Session 50 - Cassius’ Journal 50: Scarwall Unchained
24 Desnus, 4708 AR, Castle Scarwall, Hold of Belkzen
The way to the throne room was clear. Somehow, that made it feel more eerie than when we were comin' across some undead obscenity every other room. Not that I’m complainin', of course. It gave us ample time to prepare for the fight that was to come.
The so-called chained spirit Mithrodar at the heart of this castle’s curse was every bit the grim bloody horror one would expect. Big, ghostly, an' full of nasty tricks. Came with its own crew of spectres, includin' the hag from before. I guess she got too big for her britches an' it bit her in the arse. Serves her right, I suppose.
Mithrodar kept our casters on their toes with its chains reachin' all through the hall, but fortunately by this point we’re all used to workin' under duress. Trin got Kel an’ Liscia up close to the bastard to let them do what they needed to, while I spent most of the fight keepin' the lesser ghosts out of the way. Kel took one hell of a beatin' from the thing, but Len had more than enough magic saved up to keep him fightin’. Didn’t help much with whatever the side effects of that thing’s touch were, mind you. By the tail end of the fight, Kel looked more like a mad Bridgefront beggar than a noble son of Endrin. Still, he held fast enough for us to take care of the stragglin' minions an' join him. As expected of our steadfast soldier.
The strangest thing about this monster was that it seemed like it was stuck in place, even more so than the spirit anchors. Suited us just fine, because it meant Laori could drop a wall of magical blades runnin' right through him. Poor sod just stood there an' took it. In the end, we all dumped what we had on the spirit an' that was that. Mithrodar was no more, an’ along with him went the curse that’s made these two days a livin’ bloody nightmare.
Naturally, it wouldn’t be a fittin' curse if it didn’t leave us with some partin' words. We were greeted by some ancient noble bloke named Andachi. He gave us the gist of the legend we mostly pieced together by now. He’s the one that brought Kazavon in to deal with Belkzen, then got himself grimly offed by the dragon bastard when he objected to his methods. Mandraivus the paladin came here in the armour I’m now wearin' an' a legendary sword we still haven’t found, killed Kazy, then got blindsided by some orcs. With no one there to hold back the darkness, it took over, an' that left us with this mess. A tragic tale, to be sure, punctuated by the fact that the storyteller’s ghost was bein' skinned while he told it to us. Even with everythin' we’ve been through, that isn’t a pleasant thing to watch…
In any case, it’s all in the past now. The curse is lifted an' with it we’ve been reinvigorated. That means all we have left to deal with is retrievin' Serithial an' rippin' Kazavon’s spirit off this mortal coil once an' for all. Though somethin' tells me Zon-Kuthon’s remainin' lackeys aren’t goin' to make that an easy job. If that worm-man vision I had in the tower was any indication, whatever we’ll be fightin' next may well give this fight a run for its money…
Not to mention we’ll still have to find out what happened to our old pal the Shadowcount… Truth be told, I don’t have high hopes for what state we’ll find him in.
Player's Notes: Comparatively speaking, that fight actually turned out not to be nearly as bad as we were expecting. It was by no means easy, and Kellogg definitely had several close calls, especially with the Charisma drain (though he also took enough damage to need two castings of Heal). I'm just so glad the curse is finally lifted!
It also really helps that we're now level 15, so the end of the curse also coincides with me getting my 10th level of Rose Warden. I sincerely hope whatever comes next in the depths of the Kuthite tower is vulnerable to sneak attacks, because I am so ready to start delivering some Smite Tyranny...
21/10/31 - Session 51 - Cassius’ Journal 51: Deepest Depths Below Darkest Star
24 Desnus, 4708 AR, Castle Scarwall, Hold of Belkzen
Before makin' our way to the final depths of the formerly cursed castle, we took a bit of time to investigate the surroundin' area, on the off chance that we might encounter somethin' of use. Some of the phantasmal visions still lingered for a while, leavin' me with the occasional unpleasant surprise, but with every passin' moment the curse’s bloody taint is liftin'. I managed to collect a few useful pieces of equipment here an' there, though maybe the most impressive was a giant iron golem. The thing was apparently runnin' off of the curse, so by the time we found it, it was inactive. Thank f*%*. I’ve had my fill of things that can’t be backstabbed. Jules took a likin' to the contraption, sayin' he could make somethin' useful of it. I just hope he gives it a new face. I’m sick of seein' Kazavon’s ugly mug at every bloody turn.
With the main castle all but cleared out, we returned our attentions to the Kuthite tower. This time, when we reached the room with the well at the base, we were met with an eerie voice demandin' that we present a suitable candidate for somethin' called a “Curate”. I vaguely remembered somethin' about this place needin' one before, though I couldn’t recall what it does. Apparently it’s some position of honour for Kuthites in which they stay in the tower an' guard it until they get offed. Sounds like a shite deal to me. Even Laori didn’t seem too keen on the idea. Best we can tell, this whole ordeal has really shaken the poor lass. Devout or not, we’re not about to give her up if she isn’t willin' to take on the role, so we opted to instead seek out the Shadowcount. We figured if anyone would either want the job or know an alternative solution, it would be him. Now that the curse is gone, it shouldn’t be too hard to locate him either.
Sure enough, we found Sial at the top of the tower. Or at least, what was left of him. Somethin' about this place must have f+#~ed with his mind, because the formerly composed an' stoic fellow was scratchin' desperately at the stone tryin' to answer some call. By then we had a pretty good idea what that call would be, so we brought the apparently directionally challenged bloke down to the well. As soon as the offer was made, he accepted an' went about his way to what I can only assume is absolute bliss by Kuthite standards, or an absolute nightmare by any sane person’s. Can’t say I’ll miss him, but a part of me does feel bad about lettin' him go to his god so easily. Then again, Kuthites make no sense to me in the first place, so what do I know. What I do understand is Laori’s loss of faith. The events that transpired in this castle would shake anyone to the core. All in all, I’d say it’s for the best that she move on from that shitty religion an' find somethin' better. Maybe even Lenore’s Black Butterfly might serve as a suitably shadowy alternative for her devotions. An’ if that doesn’t work out, I can always try talkin’ to her about Milani.
The well turned out to be our ticket down; one that was apparently much harder for Kel to deal with than the rest of us. Chalk it up to one last nasty magical surprise in this hellhole. Below the castle we found a network of caverns. Some parts even seemed to connect all the way to the darklands. Thankfully we didn’t need to go that far to find what we were lookin' for. Not too far in we came across some big ugly f$$!s with mouths for heads that I recognised as gugs, nasty things with a habit of ritual sacrifices. The voice from the well room warned us of servants belongin' to Rovagug, so the dots were easy to connect. Unfortunately for the creatures, they’ve got solid flesh on their bones. I will admit, there’s a part of me that really missed bein' able to sink my blades into somethin' tangible after two agonizingly long days. They never stood a bloody chance.
There was one other problem to deal with in this cavern. In a lake at the far end of the tunnel, we came across the horrible tortured monster once known as Kleestad. The vision I saw of his transformation into a worm didn’t quite do justice to the disgustin' pile of flesh an' sores he had become. It put up a hell of a fight, but ultimately, we managed to put the wretched thing out of its misery.
Player's Notes: Whoops, forgot to post this one before, so I guess it's double post time. Words cannot express how pleased I am to finally be done with all these undead. The gugs by comparison are such a welcome reprieve. Kleestad did give us a scare with an insane critical, but that same attack made us realise that our GM had been miscalculating power attack for who knows how long, basically making it add 4 times as much damage (and that's before crits). This has apparently been a long running misconception. Suddenly, a lot of very powerful hits that we've taken in both this game and Hell's Vengeance make a lot more sense...
21/11/07 - Session 52 - Cassius’ Journal 52: Serithial Claimed, Scarwall Tamed, Korvosa Aflame
7 Sarenith, 4708 AR, Gray, Southern Korvosa, Korvosa
Kleestad was the last obstacle between us an' Serithial, so Kel an' I wasted no time in gettin' to the rock in the middle of the lake where it was sheathed. To be on the safe side, I checked the thing for any final curses or tricks that might have been left. Lucky for us, that really was the end of it. When I yanked the blade out, I could feel the holy energy from the thing. It was like a warm light on a summer’s mornin'. Not all that different from when I woke up that same mornin' in Kaer Maga, come to think of it. Len, I know you’re readin' this. Don’t you say a f@%@in' word.
In any case, Serithial seems to attune itself to whoever is wieldin' it. In my hands, it could become either a rapier or a dagger. For Kel, it returned to bein' the bastard sword it initially appeared to be. Doesn’t seem to change its properties none, so it was just a question of who ought to wield the sword between us.
In the end, Kel graciously left it in my hands. He’s always been more of a hand to hand combatant anyways. There’s somethin' rather awkward about some ex-thug turned vigilante wieldin' the blade an' armour of an ancient holy paladin, but if these are the tools we need to put down Kazavon an' save Korvosa from the Queen’s tyranny, then by the Everbloom’s grace, I’ll see them used fully.
Of course, we weren’t goin' to rush back to the city at full tilt, much as I might have been tempted to. We dealt a serious blow the last time we were in the city, so no doubt the Queen has been plottin' for our return. We took some time to ready our equipment, our bodies, an' our minds so that when we would return, we’d be ready to put our all into finally takin' Ileosa down.
Part of that was also preparin' mentally for the state Korvosa would be in. Even with the Gray Maidens an' Red Mantis gutted, the Queen of Korvosa has dangerous allies, enough to keep the city squirming under her thumb. Though our friends in the rebellion are puttin' up some fight, they don’t have the means to truly contest her, so she’s been puttin' the citizens through hell. After reunitin' with our old friends an' allies, Kroft gave us a rundown of the various issues that need to be dealt with before we can officially bring the Queen to justice.
One of the very first points immediately set me off. Someone by the name of Trifaccia has been goin' around supposedly actin' as the people’s hero. Normally, I’d be all for another ally against tyranny, but this one is supposedly fightin' false rebels. It reeks of deception to me, an' it seems like it did for Kroft an' Ven too. There’s no bloody way in hell that I’m goin' to let some charlatan smear Blackjack’s name on his own turf. I’ll be payin' the bastard a visit sooner rather than later...
The other items were largely similar. We had heard rumours of a black dragon months ago, an' now they seem more credible than ever. I had already seen the morbid tub of bloody flesh callin' himself the seneschal. Cinnabar had spoken to us about her leader, who apparently has come to take the assassins over since we stole away they second in command. We’re all but certain that the Queen has been usin' devils, an' we would just have to prove it, an' then there’s capturin' Queen Ileosa herself.
That said, some other points warranted some surprise. Our old ally from the Church of Abadar, Ishani Dhatri, apparently went missin' not long after makin' his way to Castle Korvosa. Given the state of things, I don’t expect he’s havin' a good time of it. I only hope we can get to him before somethin' truly awful happens, though if I’m honest, I’m expectin’ the worst.
Then there’s the matter of Sabina Merrin an' the chief indoctrinator of the Gray Maidens. Before takin' on her unsavoury career path, Merrin was Ven’s student an' part of a love triangle between him an' Grau. Neither of the men believe her to be the kind of person that would have agreed with the Queen’s atrocities, so there may be some manipulation at work. If that’s the case, then it may well be that the indoctrinator has somethin' to do with it. Either way, I trust Ven’s judgement, so I’ve given my word that I’ll try to save her if I can. I just hope she isn’t beyond savin'.
That left us with the last little twist of our visit. It would seem the Queen is understandably eager to hunt us down, more so than any of the other rebels. Seein' as we need Seneschal Kalepopolis an' the rest of the rebels alive to keep things in order after all of this is ended, we collectively concluded that it would be best if we didn’t linger in the Dead Warrens with ‘em.
Fortunately, findin’ a hidden base of operations shouldn’t be a problem. Korvosa is my city, an' I have friends besides the rebels that have been keepin' an eye on things for me. My allies lie in the shadows, an' Korvosa’s buildings cast a bloody lot of them...
Player's Notes: At long last, book 6. I'm really eager to see how this one plays out! Especially that fake vigilante. Coming off of an in character duel in Hell's Vengeance, I'm looking forward to putting this guy in his place. This is Blackjack's city, after all!
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Player's Notes: I'll put the notes up top for this one, since it's kind of huge. At the end of every book, I like to write a special entry, summarising Cassius' thoughts about the situation and the characters he's encountered thus far. This time, I thought I'd do something a little bit different, and write the whole campaign up to now from Trinia's perspective. Seeing as we're about to dive into the final book, it seemed like a good time for a recap!
21/11/11 - Session 52 - Trinia’s Journal: The Tale So Far
31 Desnus, 4708 AR, Kaer Maga
It’s been one week now since we lifted the curse in Scarwall, and with our current itinerary, we’ll be heading back to Korvosa in one week too. Seeing as we’re right smack in the middle of this prep time, and I’m already bored, I figured why not take a page out of Cas’ book (literally) and write a little something myself. What better time to tell the tale of how this group of brave adventurers went from being a ragtag group of disgruntled citizens looking for revenge against some crappy old fart to the heroes that will save Korvosa from a Queen gone mad and an ancient evil dragon!? It’s not every day you come across a story as crazy as that, and even more rare to be a part of it! So if you’re reading this, get yourself a warm mug of something spicy, plop your rear down on your comfiest seat, and prepare to be amazed!
So, like I said, this group of would-be heroes came from pretty unexpected backgrounds. Kellogg Endrin was once a bright eyed noble with a promising future as part of the legendary Sable Company, but an unfortunate shiver addiction sent him spiralling into debt and disgrace (he also has a really cute hippogriff mount called Waydon, by the way). Jules Thurist was a travelling scholar from the far off land of Nex that came along with a dear friend of his (and his adorable pet monkey Lenny, who I’m pretty sure is smarter than he lets on) to check out Korvosa’s famed Acadamae, but an incident left his friend dead and the wizard hungry for justice. The lovely and mystical Miss Lenore Lascariu was once a veritable Chelaxian lady, but a mysterious bad romance left her deaf and alone in the merciless streets of our city. Finally, Cassius Redima was once as common a thief as you could find, but a near death encounter and a divine intervention saw him change his ways and become a vigilante for the lowborn folk.
Through some strange circumstances, all four of these lost souls found themselves summoned to an old shack. Greetings were exchanged and some old faces reunited. Remember that near death experience Cassius had? Well believe it or not, Lenore was the one that rescued and healed him! Small world, hunh? Or maybe it was a sign of fate! Anyway, the lot of them were all spoken to by a lady named Zellara Esmeranda. As it turns out, everyone present had been screwed over at some point or another by this bottom feeding crime lord called Gaedren Lamm. Zellara gave the crew some ideas about where he was and how they could get after him, and asked if they’d get her justice for her dead son. Our heroes may not have been a team just yet, but one thing they all had in common was a thirst for justice! So they went to the old fishery he used as a base and fought Lamm’s cruel gangsters, rescued the orphans working there, and eventually turned the old Gaedren into croc chow! It was a tough first mission for the gang, but they got justice for themselves and for Zellara’s spirit (plot twist! She was a ghost all along! And she’s been following us around as an enchanted deck of Harrow Cards giving us cryptic but helpful advice ever since.)
Now, these four might have thought that this would be the end of their little collaboration, but they found something of note among Gaedren’s things, a bauble bearing royal inscriptions! Being the good samaritans that they were, our heroes went to the guard to return the item. But as it happens, their timing coincided with a rather dramatic event: King Eodred II had died! One thing led to another, and the four of them ended up getting an audience with the widowed Queen Ileosa Arabasti. Turns out the Queen wanted some adventurers to take care of some trouble in the city, and so our intrepid heroes were sent to the leader of the Korvosan Guard, Cressida Kroft (yes, THAT Cressida Kroft). For the next couple weeks, they worked with the guard as troubleshooters, fighting cannibalistic meat makers, crime bosses, and a very nasty necromancer that had done some gross stuff to a poor Shoanti fellow down in the Dead Warrens. Pretty soon, they made themselves invaluable allies to the city. But something more nefarious was afoot...
All the while that they were trying to keep the city under control, others were trying to find the cause of the King’s death. This is where yours truly comes into the story. You see, I had been given a job to paint the King’s portrait, and had been doing so until just before his death. Just for that, I got pinned for regicide! Just my luck, hunh? One day you’re painting a rich old guy’s picture and next thing you know he’s kicked the bucket and the best gig you’ve ever got turns into an execution order. But it turns out I was lucky after all, because the people they sent to get me were none other than our heroes! Of course, I didn’t know them back then, so I took to the rooftops and gave em a good chase. Cassius, being the sneaky bandit he was, managed to keep pace and caught me, but somehow he could tell that I was innocent, and instead of bringing me in, he and the others brought me to a friend of theirs, a nobleman named Vencarlo Orisini.
You wouldn’t guess from his gruff scar-covered exterior and pissy attitude, but Cassius is actually a huge softie, and came to visit me every day while I was in hiding. He even got me some paint supplies from my house! Honestly, I’m pretty sure he had already fallen for me by then (and who could blame him; I’m adorable), but obviously we had bigger things to worry about. Even though I was safe, the Queen had picked some patsy and pretended she was me to perform a public execution! Obviously, our heroes couldn’t have some innocent person take the blade, so they went to rescue her, but imagine their surprise when none other than the legendary hero Blackjack suddenly showed up and rescued that fake me (Cas is a huge Blackjack fanboy, so he was going crazy)! I gotta admit, it’s kind of flattering knowing that a famous hero no one had seen for years by that point would come out of retirement just for me, but again, who could blame him? (Oh and that double, we met later, and still keep in touch. She’s a sweet girl!)
Obviously, the Queen was none too happy about getting called out by Blackjack, and the city was still kinda tense, but a couple weeks later when things seemed a bit safer, Vencarlo asked our heroes to escort me out of the city to someplace safe. That place ended up being Harse. A fun little town, that Harse. I ended up staying there for a whole month, got bored, went on an adventure, messed with some local bandits, teamed up with a Shoanti ghost to take them on… They were some fun times! But that’s nothing compared to what our heroes were up to back in Korvosa…
Right around the time I was being escorted out of the city, a boat called the Direption had sailed in. A boat… Full of something really nasty and insidious. Not long after, the city started getting affected by a plague called Blood Veil. Blood Veil is as unpleasant as you can probably guess from the name. It’ll make you spew your guts and cough your lungs out until everything that ought to be inside of you is outside. Obviously, this thing was a problem, but it was harder to deal with than crime bosses. You can’t stab a disease, after all (well, most of them anyway; if there’s one thing I’ve learned from Cas, it’s that you can stab anything if you try hard enough).
Still, our heroes helped out where they could, allying with a friendly Abadaran priest called Ishani Dhatri to take down fake cure sellers, overly aggressive wererats (though most of them were pretty friendly actually), and one particularly crazy clown assassin lady who murdered and zombified an entire manor full of people. At some point in all the kerfuffle, Old Korvosa even got cut off from the rest of the city. Cas lived up in Bridgefront, so as you can imagine, he was none too happy about that particular turn of events (though he’d be even less happy with how it turned out later; keep reading to find out).
Now dear reader, you might be wondering “but where did Blood Veil come from? Was it the boat?” Well yes, but not quite. You see, the Direption was a misdirect. A misDireption, if you will. During their investigations, the heroes found out a few pretty interesting things. The first was that the boat had ties to a pretty famous Urgathoan priestess called Andaisin (Urgathoa is the goddess of undeath, sickness and other nasty stuff like that, so you can probably see where that’s going). Another was that the disease was apparently being spread through smaller denominations of coins (which of course we common folk touch pretty much daily, explaining how it spread so fast). And the last was that the masked doctors that the Queen brought in to help with the plague were not entirely honest about what they were up to.
Have you pieced it together yet? If not, don’t worry. Not even the heroes were entirely sure of what was going on until they decided to investigate the Hospice of the Blessed Maiden, where the Queen’s royal physician Reiner Davaulus was working. That’s where everything became clear. You see, Reiner and the Queen’s Physicians weren’t tasked with curing the plague, they were the ones causing it! Reiner and his goons, including some members of the newly formed Gray Maidens tried to kill the heroes, but our champions weren’t so easily beat, and instead used the opportunity to pull off a little trick of their own. They disguised themselves as Reiner and his goons and went down into the basement to see what was really going on.
Turns out the place was a front for some pretty gruesome experiments. The physicians were in league with the Urgathoans, not only crafting the current plague, but developing even more potent versions. The heroes tore down the operation from the inside while the city guard and the Gray Maidens had a tense standoff over the investigation upstairs. It’s around this time that the heroes were also joined by an old friend of Lenore’s, an enthusiastic half-elven alchemist named Licia L’Étranger. (And I gotta tell you, she’s a real blast to be around! I mean, she’s got great chemistry with just about anybody, you know?)
Our heroes masterfully snuck in and fought their way through the cultists, working as a team to cunningly take down their evil army. They even ended up fighting Rolth Lamm! Who’s that, you ask? Well, he was the son of Gaedren Lamm, that old gang lord from the start of the story, but he was also involved in so much more. Remember that necromancer situation in the Dead Warrens and that manor massacre with the crazy clown lady? Both of those were because of this guy! What’s more, he wasn’t just an ally to the Urgathoans, but also the infamous Key Lock Killer, a murderer who had been known to go around stabbing people with daggers that looked like keys (There was some pun there on unlocking their deaths, but as a pun connoisseur, I find it to be in pretty bad taste). Truly, this guy was the worst of the worst in all of Korvosa, maybe all of Varisia! But thanks to the heroes, that nasty mess of a guy won’t be cutting anyone else up ever again. Anyway, there was some more fighting, and eventually the heroes fought and defeated the cult leader Andaisin… And then fought and defeated her AGAIN when Urgathoa decided to bring her back as some flying scythe monster. Some bad guys just really don’t want to stay dead, you know? (You can’t read it in my words, but I’m winking right now. That’s because I just did what’s called “foreshadowing” with that last comment. You’ll see what I mean later. Keep reading!)
The news that the Queen’s Physicians were Urgathoans working to poison the city really didn’t paint the Queen in a good light (nor should it, because she’s the one that hired them; in case you haven’t guessed yet, the Queen is the villain of this story), but it wasn’t enough to take her off the throne. Actually, something very different happened instead. During a big ceremony, the Queen blamed all the other organisations in the city for their incompetence and declared that she’d be giving a whole bunch of authority to her new guards, the Gray Maidens. Marcus Endrin, the leader of the Sable Company and a relative of Kellogg’s, decided this was the right time to call the Queen out and tried to kill her, but even though he shot her right through the head with an arrow, she just yanked the thing out and stabbed Marcus with it! Now, dear reader, I’m not sure how it is wherever you come from, but I can promise you that in Korvosa normally if you get shot in the head point blank with an arrow, it kills you, so something was obviously very wrong here.
Sadly, the heroes wouldn’t really get a chance to figure out just what that was yet. Cressida Kroft needed them to take care of something else. Not too long ago, she had gotten a message from Vencarlo (that nice noble who hid me for a while). He had apparently found out something big in Old Korvosa, and was going to investigate. However, Cressida had lost contact with him. She needed the heroes to go into Old Korvosa and figure out just what was going on.
The heroes didn’t waste any time and snuck into Cas’ old stomping grounds. The first place they checked out was Vencarlo’s home, but instead of Vencarlo, they encountered a pair of assassins from the Red Mantis, crazy strong agents that specialise in contract killings and that worship a big scary red mantis god (hence the name). Our heroes barely made it out of the burning house alive, but in the end, they eeked out a victory at the last minute.
Next, they went to find a fellow called Salvator Scream, a pretty famous painter known for his creepy aesthetic (I’m still jealous that I didn’t get a chance to meet him; I’m a big fan of his work! It’s so spooky!) This time, instead of finding the person they were looking for, they ran into a surprisingly cheerful elven woman named Laori Vaus who also happened to be a priestess of Zon-Kuthon (god of torture and pain; you know, the one with all the spiky chains and very kinky looking piercings). Obviously, the heroes were pretty wary, since ZonZon’s an evil god, but she apparently wanted to help them find Salvator. So they made a tentative alliance and followed the trail to the realm of Pilts Swastel, the self proclaimed Emperor of Old Korvosa.
So for a bit of context, after getting separated from the rest of the city, the island of Old Korvosa kind of became a lawless wasteland of murder and anarchy. There were only really two groups that had some authority, and that was Pilts and House Arkona, the one noble family based up in that area. Pilts was a madman and turned a chunk of the district into his personal playground for his crazy imperial fantasies. The heroes tried to play along, even participating in a game he invented where you would try to get piglets across a field and into a pit with a hungry wolverine (the poor piglets!) Well, it din’t take long for things to get out of hand, and the whole thing turned into a big fight. Fortunately, our heroes weren’t about to get beaten by some crazy guy with a fake crown, so they managed to get rid of the emperor and rescue the imprisoned Salvator (and a few innocent pigs) from his grimy clutches.
Before Salvator joined Laori and parted ways with our heroes, he revealed some pretty amazing secrets to them. When the King died, the castle seneschal Neolandus Kalepopolis went missing. People assumed he went into hiding because he had a part to play in the King’s death, but in reality, he had gone into hiding to escape the Queen! As the seneschal, Neolandus had the power and knowledge to officially get the Queen off the throne, so it was only natural that Ileosa would want him dead. Salvator explained that he helped Neolandus hide, and then later Vencarlo came looking for him, and followed the same trail. Where did that trail lead, you might wonder? Well dear reader, it led right into the home of the Arkonas.
The Arkonas have always been a bit of an oddball family in Korvosa. On the one hand, they’re a noble house with quite a lot of influence that is known to do a lot of charity. On the other hand, they’re also known to have their finger in just about every major criminal enterprise in the city too. They’ve got ties to the far East, and are all around pretty secretive. So, not exactly the most trustworthy bunch. Still, the heroes decided to go with the direct approach and sought an audience with the head of the house, Glorio Arkona. The man used a bunch of doublespeak, but basically confirmed that Neolandus and Vencarlo were his prisoners, and that the heroes could find them in the basement. This was already kind of weird, but apparently Glorio suspected that other members of his family were plotting against him, so he decided to use the heroes to eliminate the competition. Either that, or he fully intended to trick the heroes into getting themselves killed or captured down there. Apparently, the basement was a real headache of a trapped maze to get through, so it wouldn’t be surprising if Glorio expected it to kill them. Still, our heroes made it through with skill and tenacity, managing to defeat Glorio’s sister Meliya Arkona and rescue the two men they were looking for. In the process, they even discovered yet another pretty crazy secret: the Arkonas aren’t people at all, but rather a family of Rakshasa! You can think of them like devils, but more hedonistic and with animal heads and also really good at shapeshifting. The heads of the family were actually the same two people shifting shapes every few years to deceive the entire city!
After rescuing Neolandus and Vencarlo, the heroes made haste out of the city and to the one place they knew would be outside of the Queen’s eye… Harse! Yes indeed, dear reader, this is where I finally reunite with our intrepid heroes! In fact, right around this time, I joined them! I mean, laying low in Harse might be a good plan to keep Neolandus safe, but it had been exactly a month since I got there and I was feeling pretty antsy for more adventure. So I used my irresistible charms and convinced Cas to let me tag along as his protégé. I guess hardcore adventuring really builds you up quick, because he and the rest of our heroes sure seemed a heck of a lot tougher than when I last saw them. It really motivated me to catch up!
As for our next destination, well that is where the seneschal’s knowledge really came into play. Neolandus knew that the Queen had been spending a lot of time wandering into Castle Korvosa’s treasury “borrowing” treasures. Given that and the Queen’s sudden superhuman powers, Neolandus suspected that it might have something to do with a legend about a blue dragon servant of Zon-Kuthon named Kazavon. In fact, he believed that the Queen’s new crown was made with the dragon’s teeth, and were imbued with the evil dragon’s essence! Sadly, the Korvosan accounts of this old relic were pretty sparse, but there was a group that might still know about this ancient legend: the Shoanti!
Given the Shoanti’s history of being driven out of their homeland and into the barren Cinderlands by Chelaxian colonists, they aren’t exactly friendly with Korvosans. However, the heroes had an ace up their sleeve in the form of their favour to them back when they recovered one of their fallen warriors from the Dead Warrens. So, with that and what could possibly be the fate of Korvosa in their hands, the heroes (plus yours truly) went into the Cinderlands to seek an audience with some Shoanti shamans.
The journey was a little more complicated than you might expect. The Sklar-Quah (Clan of the Sun) were the ones that had the knowledge we sought, and they weren’t about to share it with just anyone, let alone Korvosans. Instead, we went to the Skoan-Quah (Clan of the Skull) to speak with Thousand Bones, the Shoanti leader our heroes had previously befriended. Thousand Bones (or T-Bones, as I call him) suggested that we go about the Cinderlands doing a bunch of feats to prove ourselves worthy of speaking with the Sun Shaman. That little quest took us all over the wastelands. Kellogg honour-wrestled a guy so hard they eventually became blood brothers. We explored an ancient Thassilonian temple to retrieve a sacred mark (and fought a giant tentacle monster in the process). Then we joined up with the Lyrune-Quah (Clan of the Moon) to fight a giant red gorilla that was occupying their sacred Desnan temple (we also joined forces with a lovely Truthspeaker fellow named Akram for a while). Then we lured a giant sand worm (seeing a pattern here? It’s giant creatures all the way down) that Cas dived right into and then cut his way out of (that didn’t even kill the worm; that’s how big it was).
After all of that, we went to speak with the Sklar-Quah. They accepted our accomplishments as proof of our worthiness and let us in, but before we could go too deep into details, the camp was attacked by a whole bunch of Red Mantis assassins and one very angry ranger. Sadly for them, they weren’t prepared for Lenore’s crazy magical powers, or the rest of our tricks for that matter. The assassins were slain and the ranger, a poor old man fueled by revenge over a long-running blood-feud, was permitted to be exiled from the Cinderlands after we made a plea to stop the cycle of violence between the Shoanti and Korvosans. That night, we had a great party with the tribe as honorary Shoanti. Kel even shaved his head and spent a lot of time with a lot of Sklar-Quah ladies, which is a pretty big deal considering the Endrin’s involvement with the clan being driven from their lands. Maybe some day, there’ll be a bunch of half-Shoanti Endrins running around, proving that old wounds between people really can be healed with enough time and good faith.
Before the Sun Shamans could reveal their knowledge about Kazavon, we got called back to Korvosa to deal with yet another problem. By now, the Queen had gone completely mad with power, and those allies of the city, even Cressida, were driven into hiding in the Dead Warrens as rebels. However, thanks to the dubious help of Boule, the guildmaster of the Cerulean Society (Korvosa’s thieves’ guild), we learned about a secret entrance into a place called the Deathhead Vault, a notorious prison that was now being used as a base of operations for creating the fanatical soldiers known as the Gray Maidens. This was an opportunity we couldn’t pass up, so our group made our way to the Vault to wipe out this scourge of villains!
Dear reader, I don’t know if you’ve ever seen a maximum security prison (I sure hope not!), but I can promise you they don’t typically look like this. For starters, they probably don’t have a whole army of Red Mantis assassins hanging out in a cave turned temple by the backdoor. Even with all of our precautions, they were a fierce bunch, and we had some pretty close calls. Still, by working together, we took those vicious assassins down and even captured their leader, a woman named Cinnabar that had apparently been controlled through enchantments to do their bidding. After that, we went into the actual prison. There, we not only defeated the Gray Maidens there and dismantled their indoctrination site, but we also rescued a whole bunch of prisoners that were on their way to being turned into Gray Maidens as well! We even found Marcus Endrin among the prisoners (I know, I thought he was dead too)!
With that little day trip dealt with, we returned to the Shoanti and learned the legend of Kazavon, the brutal warlord dragon that terrorised Belkzen and Ustalav. He committed all sorts of terrible atrocities from his castle, Scarwall, before he was defeated by a paladin of Iomedae, but those soldiers were then ambushed by orcs, triggering a curse that plunged Castle Scarwall into darkness. Our key to stopping Queen Ileosa, and by extension Kazavon, was to retrieve the paladin’s sword that slew him in life, the holy blade Serithial. It lay dormant somewhere deep in the castle, so we would have to brave its curse and retrieve it.
Lucky for us, we had some help. On our way to the remote castle, we happened upon Laori and one of her Kuthite allies, Shadowcount Sial, all the way from Nidal. They apparently belonged to a group called the Brotherhood of Bones, and they wanted Kazavon sealed away just as much as we did! So, spooky as they were, we let these weird allies join us in our quest to claim Serithial.
Reader, I won’t lie, the two days we spent in Castle Scarwall were easily some of the most terrifying and horrible days in my entire life. It was full to the brim with haunted rooms, grisly undead, and all manner of gruesome and ghastly things. Skeletons, ghouls, zombies, a mummy, a demilich, a vampire, a shadow dragon, a taxidermied wyvern, a carnivorous flower, a hag, a devil, a cursed ballroom, a giant worm man… You name it! I personally very nearly died no less than four times, and certainly would have were it not for a mix of good fortune and the skill of our heroes! We actually did lose the Shadowcount when he was taken to become some sort of special servant for Zon-Kuthon. THe whole thing was so traumatising that Laori gave up her religion! Point is, it was not a mission for the faint of heart or the frail of body. But still, never before have I been so excited! The suspense, the peril, the history… Oh, dear reader, if only I could explain in words the experience of such a place! It’s something I’ll remember for the rest of my life, I can promise you that! Of course, it also helps that somewhere within all of that, My dear Cas finally mustered up the courage to confess his feelings for me, and we shared a lovely night together, but that’s beside the point.
It was a long and grueling mission, but ultimately, we lifted the curse of Castle Scarwall, and reclaimed the sword Serithial. In fact, it’s sitting right here next to me as I write this from the hotel bed. It’s a very pretty sword. Versatile too! Normally it’s this big chunky thing, but whenever Cassius picks it up, it turns into a slender rapier. When I take it, it becomes a tiny shimmering dagger. Magical artifacts really are incredible, aren’t they?
Anyway, that’s the story so far. Korvosa is still under the Queen’s tyranny right now, but by this time next week, we’ll be returning to take back the city. Everyone’s been gearing up, and Jules even got himself a big metal golem he repurposed from the castle! I’m pretty sure today would be Angel Day in Magnimar, which seems like a fitting holiday, considering it’s about celebrating angels defeating devils and the city’s founders’ escape from Korvosa. Except this time, we’re going into Korvosa to liberate it! I’ll be sure to say a prayer to whatever empyreal lords I can think of for good fortune in this fight we’re about to undertake, and for the safety of all those people in Korvosa that are waiting for us.
To you fine folks of Korvosa, future readers of this epic tale, I bid you to hold fast. The heroic conclusion is sure to be at hand very soon, and when it is, you’d better believe I’ll be sharing this story far and wide for all to hear! And then, I’m gonna paint a hundred really awesome murals of the whole thing all over the place! But probably after taking a very long nap. Being a hero takes a lot out of you, you know?
21/12/05 - Session 53 - Cassius’ Journal 53: Wishing for a Saviour
9 Sarenith, 4708 AR, Pillar Hill, Midland, Korvosa
Back before this whole ordeal started, I had always preferred workin' solo. Even as a thief, you could never be too sure when one of your mates might sell you out for a few coppers. By comparison now, I’ve got myself an entire network of trusted allies an' informants. Korvosa may be in the worst state it’s ever been, but I’ve never felt so well equipped to deal with it.
Our first order of business was findin' the Shoanti. Thousand Bones brought a small group with him to support our efforts an' remember our tale. Trinia’s face lit up like a damn beacon as she shoved a manuscript in their hands. I guess she’s taken a likin' to storytellin' now. Well, no harm in sharin' the story when all is said an' done, so long as the secret of Blackjack is kept hushed. After Kel got done squeezin' the life out of his blood brother Krojun, we sent them on their way to the other rebels. Kroft will know how to make use of ‘em.
The list of issues we’ve got to deal with are largely focused on the castle, so Jules an' Len took to investigatin' the structure. Their magic is better suited for scoutin' out the nastier surprises that place might have in store for us. In the meantime, Trin an' I got to talkin' with the network we’ve built around the city for news about this supposed vigilante Trifaccia. What we heard definitely lined up with Kroft’s suspicions. The guy operates mainly in big public spaces, at sunset when the sunlight reflects perfectly off of his immaculate golden costume of foreign design. Guards are conspicuously missin' at the moment that the “rebels” attack, an' Trifaccia never denounces the abuses performed by Ileosa’s other authorities. Even if he didn’t make his allegiance obvious, everythin' about his methods is too clean. Too orchestrated. Real vigilante work is messy, an' it only rarely happens where there’s an audience. Trifaccia is a fraud, no doubt about it.
There was one other strange thing about his little performances. Apparently durin' one of them, someone said somethin' to the effect of wishin' someone would go to Hell, an' sure enough they vanished. Now, that could mean any number of things, but based on the accounts we got, it sounded like someone was usin' powerful magic to grant the wishes of those in the audience. Gives us some idea of what we might be dealin' with, at least, though I sure as shite don’t like the sound of a power like that...
Markith, the old man that gave us most of our intel, used to be a skilled smith that made equipment for the guard. Since then, he fell on hard times an' now is off makin' horseshoes for a pittance. His story isn’t exactly uncommon of late. Even beyond the oppression of her soldiers, Ileosa’s once again found ways to hurt the people of this city. I handed him a sack of gold that would have made my former self salivate at the mouth an' gave him the information he needed to get in touch with the real rebels. No doubt Kroft will appreciate havin' a skilled blacksmith among her forces.
While Trin an' I had our friends in the city set up a watch around the areas most likely to see their next “heroic rescue”, Len managed to spot somethin' bizarre at the castle. While sendin' out her shadows to probe the floors, she got stopped prematurely by the sight of some unpleasant creature. She an' Jules called the thing a belier devil. I remember seein' a picture of one of those things before. Somehow those bastards are uglier than even your regular devils. Looked like a bloody three headed slug. The thing chased Len out of the castle an' forced us to give up the base she had been scoutin' from. Well, if nothin' else, it’s at least confirmation that the Queen’s got some Hellpower on her side. Honestly, I’m just thankful that it’s not more bloody ghosts.
Trifaccia’s was too quiet for my likin', so I took the initiative to get to work patrollin' as Blackjack, doin' real work against actual enemies in the city. Trin followed to spread the word of the true vigilante’s return an' callin' out the fake for what he was. Figured that’d get the charlatan to come out of his hole. If he wants to make badmouthin' Blackjack’s good name a public affair, I’ll make sure his trial matches suit.
Lucky for me, it didn’t take much provocation to stir our rival to action. While makin' the rounds at the Gold Market, I caught word of a few false rebels plannin' to stage an assault against one of their buddies. I stalked them while they waited for their designated hour, then interrupted them before they could pull their stunt. While we took them down, they uttered a few “wishes” at us that could have turned things really ugly had they worked, but our contingencies an' tenacity held through against the tricks. After that, it didn’t take much to knock a couple of them out of commission. I was hopin' we might get them to slip their real intentions, though they didn’t make it quite that easy for me. Instead, Trifaccia himself finally made his appearance.
As expected, the fellow was full of hot air an' false swagger. He spouted some nonsense about bein' a real hero an' then challenged Blackjack to a duel. Shame for him I’ve been trained by the best, so I accepted an' left the goons to my friends. Jules hung back to make sure this bastard wouldn’t pull any tricks.
Sure enough, the ruses started before the fight even began. My first thrust made it clear that my allegation of hot air was more literal than it ought to be. Sadly for him, my eyes are as sharp as my blade, so all it took was a careful look to spot my real foe on the rooftops. From there, he tried to cage me in a ring of fire an' get at me with some cheap tricks. An easy enough fight, until he hid behind his fire an' hit me with an unnatural level of force. Made me glad I invested in my new belt. A few more strikes like that an' he may well have dropped me. But it wasn’t enough, an' instead, he gave me the perfect openin'.
Jules took down the walls of fire, revealin' Trifaccia for what he truly was: an efreeti genie. With the ruse lifted, Trinia boosted my stealth an' I went to town on the bastard. With Rose (the name I’ve given to Serithial for the time bein' as a precaution) in one hand an' Thorn (the dagger I commissioned durin' our weeks out) in the other, I unleashed all the fury of Blackjack on this deceiver. Needless to say, he won’t be utterin' any more falsehoods for the Queen.
With Trifaccia dealt with, the Queen’s lost one arm of her propaganda machine, but that isn’t going to stop her minions from sowing terror an' violence on the people of Korvosa. I’ve asked my allies around the city to do what they can to aid the rebellion, but we aren’t going to get anywhere until we make some deeper cuts into Ileosa’s support network. In order to do that, we’re going to have to stab at the heart of her operation: Castle Korvosa.
Player's Notes: It was kind of amusing that almost immediately after having a 1 on 1 duel with a similarly built character in Hell's Vengeance, I would find myself in yet another duel in Crimson Throne. Funny how things work out that way...
I'm really glad we had time to sell off everything from Scarwall and make some purchases before this book. We had a massive gold reserve, so I ended up using my share to invest in a +2 Holy Keen Adamantine Dagger, a +6 Belt of Dex and Con, a +4 Belt of Int and Wis, and a Luckstone. All four of these items saved me in one way or another during that fight. And had I invested in getting one extra point to my AC somehow, I would have managed to dodge at least two really nasty hits. Btw, our GM's track record for unreasonable crit luck persists. Got 3 of them in 7 attacks total. I don't know what dice god has blessed this man, but I need to find out because damn...
21/12/12 & 22/01/10 - Session 54 & 55 - Cassius’ Journal 54 & 55: Into Castle Korvosa
10 Sarenith, 4708 AR, Pillar Hill, Midland, Korvosa
Breakin' into Castle Korvosa... For any Korvosan dancer, it's the sort of job you dream about, but no one in their right mind would ever go about actually tryin' it. Not unless you wanted your head decoratin' the castle walls…
Then again, bein' in my right mind isn’t somethin' I could get accused of much these days.
Fortunately for our little plan, we had somethin' any would-be heister could only dream of: two people who have spent more than enough time in the inner parts of the castle to give us a full summary of the layout. Seneschal Kalepopolis an' Trin made quick work givin' us a broad map of the castle. Of course, there’s no tellin' what surprises Ileosa’s added, but after our experience with Scarwall, we’re more than equipped to handle those as they come.
Gettin' into the castle, funny enough, was the easy part. You’d think the seat of power in the city would have some magical protections against teleportation, but I suppose the army of guards would be enough to handle any normal intruders. We weren’t normal intruders though, so that oversight would cost them dearly.
Though, perhaps not in coin. We teleported into the basement of the castle, where the castle vaults are supposed to be, but the place was damn near barren. The only things left were a few errant jewels an' a very interestin' corpse. Oh, there was also a trapped tomb for someone that Jules identified as bein' Kusasfa, Shorshen’s first consort, but Runelord lore didn’t seem immediately relevant to our current mission. At least, I hope not. Then again, hopin' against things like that never seems to go my bloody way…
In any case, the basement was as empty as it was unsecured. Best I can guess, Ileosa’s been drainin' the royal treasury dry to keep her empire of tyranny afloat. I can’t imagine engineerin' a plague or creatin' a brainwashed army of psychotic warrior women comes cheap. Not that I’m one to weep for royals with light pockets, but it does make me wonder how we’ll be fundin' the reconstruction effort after this is all done.
Settin' thoughts of the future aside, we still had a mission to complete, an' some mysteries to solve. The tiefling corpse in royal robes raised a lot of questions for me, but without a way to speak to the dead it wouldn’t do us much good, so we opted to take it along with us. Perhaps some of our friends at the base will know more. As it was, we were better equipped to deal with the livin'.
The one staircase up led to a secret door in a closet. On the other side, the unmistakable smell of brimstone an' hellish laughter of the infernal. We worked quickly an' precisely to cut them down, though at least one fled immediately, I assumed it was to tell Ileosa that her favourite nuisances have arrived. It’s a bit annoyin' to lose the element of surprise so early, but we can still do some damage before we have to cut our losses an' try again tomorrow.
The erinyes an' palace guards that came after us weren’t slouches by any means, but compared to what we faced in Scarwall, dealin' with them was child’s play. This left Trin a chance to pilfer some brandy (payment with interest for the portrait she’d been commissioned for, she claimed), an' the rest of us to check out the holdin' cells.
A part of me did hope against hope that we’d find Ishani beaten, but alive. For bein' an Abadaran, he had enough of a conscience to take action to help the people when it mattered. He certainly didn’t deserve whatever sick an' twisted torture they subjected him to. Jules called the monstrous statue his corpse was chained to an Akaruzug. I call it a damned abomination an' yet another atrocity on Ileosa’s long list of crimes.
Initially, we tried to have Kel pull Ishani free of the contraption. Apparently that’s one way to turn them off, like takin' the fire out of a hearth. He was well lodged in there though, so instead we resorted to the old fashioned method. Trin got me in close, an' between Kel, myself, an' Jules’ golem, the unholy statue was cleansed. Sadly, Ishani was already dead, but not so dead that we couldn’t solve that problem. The things he saw in here, not to mention why he came in the first place, they might just be invaluable in helpin' us against Ileosa an' her goons. But there’s a time an' place for that. We still had a bit more time before the castle can fully muster itself against our surprise attack.
Our next stop was the castle forge. There wasn’t anythin' particularly noteworthy, but I opted to snatch a few tools for Markith. I figured if he’s goin' to help arm the citizens, against their oppressors, he might as well have the right tools to do it. My old mates in Bridgefront would have never let me hear the end of it; I make it all the way into the second floor of Castle Bloody Korvosa to steal a hammer an' some tongs. Funny, that.
As we moved into the second floor, we started seein' more of the Castle’s branchin' paths. Multiple stairs an' towers, each potentially containin' a clue to findin' an' stoppin' Ileosa before she can complete her twisted ritual. Each potentially containin' devils, or soldiers, or whatever other horrors Ileosa’ brought into her fold. Still, after Scarwall, I couldnt help but feel as though it was all so… Tiny. Korvosa is a city, but it is just a city, at the end of the day. Cities have human guards, human guards need sleep, an' a rogue like me can slit those sleepin' throats with ease. The anticlimax makes me feel like this is all a little too easy. Ileosa had to know that we’d attack sooner or later, so why was the reaction so weak? Did she underestimate us, or maybe she’d moved on past us to somethin' else? Perhaps she really wasn’t as strong as we feared an' I was overthinkin' it.
The last one at least was true in some respect, because I flubbed the last gray maiden assassination. Couldn’t quite shut her up before her cries called forth more guards. Meanwhile, Len an' the others started makin' their way over to a room of barbed devils.
That would be enough contemplation for the time being. Somethin' told me these next opponents would be a little more ready than the last ones…
Player's Notes: Not gonna lie, the drought of games over the holiday really made me miss this campaign. All the more so now that we're in the last stretch! Unlike with Scarwall I feel very well equipped for this one. Perhaps too well equipped. That said, there's a bit of a counterbalance in the fact that Jules' player dropped out of the game. It's a real shame to lose him, especially when we're so close to finishing the campaign, but it happens. I can only wish him all the best. For now his character is still technically there, acting like a pseudo NPC we can call upon when we need the extra help.
The accidental slip up with the last assassination was actually a problem of my own making. I was given the opportunity to kill four sleeping guards and told I wouldn't need to roll for it, since my stealth was so absurdly high. I opted to anyways for funsies, and rolled a nat 1 on the last of the 4 attacks (because of course I did). Honestly, I'm kind of happy that it turned out that way. It shook up the dynamic of the fight (and let's be real, we're kinda overpowered against devils and humans, so they need some sort of edge). Part of me worries that we might have bitten off more than we can chew, but the other part of me is too busy laughing at the fact that something called "Pudgyknuckles" is in the initiative tracker.
22/01/24 - Session 56 - Cassius’ Journal 56: Bloody Mage Battered & Bruised
10 Sarenith, 4708 AR, Castle Korvosa, The Heights, Korvosa
With the castle on alert, we found ourselves dealin' with foes on three fronts. On one side Len, Kel, Trin, Jules an' his golem were tendin' to the barbed devils. Meanwhile, guards had started funnellin' from the other room an' floors. Lucky for us, the castle uses a piss poor corridor structure. Made it real easy for me to block off both routes with a spread of Milani’s vines, an' pick them off one by one as they tried in vain to cut through it. For all their tyrannisin' of the city’s people, the Gray Maidens aren’t much of a threat when faced against someone that flights back.
The others had gotten whatever Hellish bedlam was goin' on in the other room well in hand when another new resident of the castle made their appearance. I couldn’t forget the new seneschal Togomor if I wanted to. First time I saw him was when the Queen finally showed her true colours against Commander Endrin. I remember thinkin' at the time that it hardly seemed possible for a man hold himself up carryin’ around that much flesh. I’d never heard of bloatmages, but it seems they collect an excess of blood to enhance their magical abilities. Maybe it’s because I’m not of an arcane disposition, but I can’t for the life of me think why anyone would choose to live like that. Then again, maybe it just takes a comfort with decadence that I couldn’t grasp, not that I’d ever want to.
Well, the why wasn’t important. What was important was that he an' his obese imp were after us. Shame for him Len knows more than enough tricks to disable casters. A simple cast of silence an' all Kel had to do was rush in an' feed him a feast of fists. He made quick work of the imp, but the seneschal managed to teleport away before I could join in to assist. By Kel’s estimation, the fellow wasn’t actin' of his own accord. That combined with the sketches we found in his room afterwards suggests that we’ll next find him with the belier devil Len an' Jules ran into before. Given that, may as well cut the middle man an' take out the devil first. If all goes well, that’ll kill two birds with one stone.
After the initial forces were wiped, gettin' rid of the remainin' guards on the second floor was child’s play. I took the opportunity to check for anythin' worthwhile. Didn’t find much besides some of the wizard’s books, maps of the region, an' a secret escape route from the castle. We also discovered that the temple of Aroden could use a serious dustin', but that’s not much of a surprise. Who’d bother carin' for a dead god, anyway?
We decided to push our luck an' made our way to the third floor. Didn’t take long for us to come across the gallery, featurin' Trin’s portrait of the former King slashed to ribbons. Naturally, she took it poorly. Trin takes a lot of pride in her work. Wouldn't matter if it was the King of Korvosa or some Bridgefront empty. I can get the sentiment. A lot of time an' effort goes into a person’s craft. To disrespect a piece is to disrespect the artist.
Well, that just makes one more crime Ileosa will have to answer for.
Player's Notes: Yep, I still love Wall of Roses. Such a great way to remove a few enemies from an encounter. You could consider that entire fight a game of invalidating spells. Between confusion, silence, fog, and the wall of roses, none of our enemies could do much against us. It's a far cry from the fights we've had in the past. I can't help but wonder if the bosses in this place will throw us a curve ball.
22/01/30 - Session 57 - Cassius’ Journal 57: Sloth-Like Devils and Rabbit Dragons
11 Sarenith, 4708 AR, Slope, Midland, Korvosa
It didn’t take long for us to run into our next batch of forces. Just as you’d expect from a castle, it’s teemin' with bloody guards. We came across the next lot of ‘em in the gatehouse, still watchin' the front steps. Guess they must have missed the fact that we had already made it inside. Groupin' eight Gray Maidens together didn’t make them any less useless against us. I dropped a couple from the shadows of the castle an’ Len dropped the rest into a movin' pit. The real problem came in the form of the barbed devils an' their horned leader flankin' us from the main stairs. James, Kel, an' I took care of the barbed while Len whipped out another surprise to deal with the big f%!!er. Next thing we knew he was loafin' about without a care in the world. Accordin' to Len, he was made to think he’s a sloth. After that, Kel had an easy time tamin' the thing, not that I know why we’d want a tamed sloth devil. We figured after that, it was as good a time as any to return to base an' recoup before we ventured in again to finish the job.
We weren’t exactly finished yet though. As we were on our way out, Sabina Merrin of all bloody people drops in on us ridin' a giant f!~&in’ black dragon. It was much bigger an' meaner lookin' than Belshallam back in Scarwall. Honestly, if it weren’t for Merrin pullin' it’s reigns to keep it an easy target, we might have had a real problem on our hands. With her help though, we kept the beast busy enough for Len to turn it into a bloody rabbit. I can only imagine what anyone nearby must have thought, seein' us transform a dragon into a f@#&in’ rodent right in the middle of a city square. Given the atmosphere in the streets afterwards though, I think that may well have been the signal they needed to know that Ileosa’s tyranny was at an end. Her allies are dwindlin' rapidly, an' by this time tomorrow, I plan to see to it that she won’t have a single one left in Korvosa.
Our time in the castle may have been at an end for the day, but we still had plenty to take care of. First was the matter of Sabina Merrin. We took her to Lamm’s old fishery, figurin' it would make for a decent place to hide her while we finish retakin' the city. Funny to think the last an' only time we met Merrin was just after cleanin' that place up. Feels like decades ago…
By Merrin’s own account, she was a loyal agent of Ileosa’s (an' far more than that from what I gather) until the woman’s cruelty became too much to bear. Since then she’s been lookin' to defect, an' thought that helpin' us remove one of Ileosa’s strongest weapons would grant her some lenience. Can’t say I understand why she would have fallen for the Queen, but I can at least sympathise with the notion of seein' someone you love fall down a dark road. It’s not like I haven’t seen my fair share of good people losin' their way, though in my case it’s usually drugs an' coin that are to blame, not some evil dragon crown. In any case, Merrin came to her senses enough to join the right side of this fight. Even if it’s a little late, she can be of use. If nothin' else, we’ll spare her for Ven an' Grau’s sakes… Oh, an' with her testimony we don’t have any need for the devil, so Kel took it out back an' disposed of it. Thank Milani for that, because I had no idea what we’d do with a bloody horned devil in the first place.
Merrin did tell us some useful information. For one, the woman responsible for Ishani’s demise was none other than his sister, Vavana. She also mentioned a Red Mantis leader, no doubt Cinnabar’s former commander, an' some other bein' that lay at the top of the tower who was responsible for sendin' Ileosa down her current path. I promised we’d see to it that whatever fiend was responsible for her downfall would be put to justice, though I could make no promises for savin' Ileosa. For the sake of her soul, I hope the hell she’s put Korvosa through was not truly of her own doin', but I doubt she was ever truly innocent…
Once we got back to the rebel hideout, one of our first orders of business was bringin' Ishani back to the world of the livin'. It might have been our own personal bias, bringin' him back when so many have perished, but we know the good he’s done for the city an' what he can still do, not to mention what we now know. He confirmed it easily enough: his sister has gone mad an' works in service to Ileosa. Apparently she used trickery to get him to go to the castle, then had him tortured an' killed. She obviously didn’t expect us to rescue him though, as she had told him somethin' pretty damn interestin'. Seems the Ileosa currently stayin' in the castle is a fake. The real Ileosa left Korvosa for some purpose. Knowin' what we know now, it can’t be for anythin' good. We’ll have to find an' stop whatever it is she’s doin', but first we have to finish the job of liberatin' the city. Ishani requested that we spare his sister. After everythin' she did to him, it’s amazin' that he still believes she can be saved. Still, if he was willin' to walk into the devil’s den just to save her, we might as well try for his sake… With all the people we’re supposed to be attemptin' to save or redeem, I’m startin' to think it’s no coincidence that today is a Sarenite holiday…
We filled in Neolandus on everythin' we’ve learned, an' while we’re at it I asked him about the tiefling corpse we found. He admitted that it was the king’s brother, an unfortunate man by the name of Venster. He lived in the upper floors of the castle in hidin', on account of the obvious stain in the bloodline he represented. That alone would have been little more than a curious fact, were it not for the sudden echo of a spirit in my head requestin' that I return his body to him. Not entirely sure what to make of that, but at this point we may as well give the poor sod a proper rest. One more thing to do once we return to the castle.
With that, we’ve all got our jobs set. The rebellion will work towards retakin' the city an' figurin' out where Ileosa could be headed, while we deal with whatever forces are still left in the castle. For tonight at least, Trin wanted to see her home after bein' away from it for so long, and insisted I escort her…
Suppose I don’t need all that much sleep.
22/02/06 - Session 58 - Cassius’ Journal 58: Devils Destroyed, Double Dethroned
12 Sarenith, 4708 AR, Castle Korvosa, The Heights, Korvosa
Whoever’s left in the castle didn’t learn their lesson after yesterday’s infiltration, because gettin' in was just as simple a matter this time around. We skipped the lower floors an' made our way directly to the royal chambers. If Ileosa wasn’t there, then we figured we might as well find out who is, an’ maybe learn Ileosa’s plans in the process. We took advantage of a secret passage through Merrin’s chambers to get into the royal bedroom before anyone could detect us. There, we found Togomor, along with a few more barbed devils. Knowin’ that he isn’t in control of his own mind, I took care only to knock him out, while the others made short work of the remainin' devils.
Once the room was cleared, we bound the bloatmage an' gave him a more thorough investigation. Len was able to impede the possession long enough for the man to blather uselessly for a bit. Not to give the devil a chance to make him a problem for us again, Jules fully dispelled the effect, pushin' the devil out to greet us. Len’s descriptions an' Togomor’s sketches didn’t do this horrid worm justice. It had to be the ugliest bloody thing I’d ever seen. Somethin’ told me that lettin’ it live even a second longer would be a mistake, so I went to work at it with everythin’ I had. It managed to get one nasty spell out that sapped the energy out of most of our group. Sadly for him, that didn’t include me. I introduced him to Rose an' Thorn many times over an' pumped all of Milani’s wrath into the strikes. By the time I was done, the belier devil looked more like an overused pincushion.
Togomor was much more chatty after that. He told us that Ileosa had taken a particularly keen interest in some immortality rituals he had been investigatin’. I remember seein' as much in some of the books from his study. Not exactly surprisin' that Ileosa would want to achieve eternal life, though I’m more concerned about the cost of it. Somehow, I doubt she’d be sacrificin' her own blood for that sort of project…
Still, we aren’t quite done with the castle, so she’ll have to wait a while longer. We secured Togomor (not that he could have gone much of anywhere without his spellbooks, magic equipment, an' most of his strength sapped away) an' moved on to the throne room.
The Ileosa simulacrum wasted no time in greetin' us an' declarin' that our work together had ended, as if we were ever on the same side. Then she so graciously offered to let us leave with our lives if we abandoned Korvosa. I answered her request by disablin' Vavana, who stood beside her, before anyone could react. Kel an' the others handled the soldiers, assassins, Nessian hellhounds, an' imps, while Len made sure the false Ileosa couldn’t escape the flurry of blades I had ready for her.
By the time we were done, the Crimson Throne was empty again, with a pool of blood at its base the only thing remainin’ of its former occupant.
We still have the Red Mantis an' whatever other mysteries lie in the upper floors to deal with, but the next time we return to this throne, it truly will be rid of Ileosa’s influence once an' for all…
Player's Notes: Fell a bit behind on things last week, so it's a double duty this time. Frankly, there isn't much to say about the previous session beyond "Baleful Shadow Transmutation is a terrifying spell". Two big scary encounters, ended just like that...
I've got to say, there are few things quite as satisfying as a greater invisible Rogue launching a hasted full attack with two holy weapons and a bunch of other anti LE buffs active. After all was said and done, I dumped almost 400 damage into him in a single round. The multiple crits helped as well.
Vavana and Ileosa's double weren't much different. I had gone through the trouble of stealing Vavana's spell component pouch in the surprise round in case I didn't down her right after, but that turned out not to be all that necessary. My skill rolls may have been poor, but my attack rolls more than made up for it that session.
22/02/14 - Session 59 - Cassius’ Journal 59: Cleanin' the Castle Attic
12 Sarenith, 4708 AR, The Sunken Queen, The Mushfens
After takin' out the false Ileosa, the only known defenders of the castle were the Red Mantis. I still remember our first run-in with 'em back in Vencarlo’s flat. Just two of the bastards were enough to give us the fight of our lives… But that was then. We’re much stronger than we used to be, an' their tricks are nothin' compared to ours. That much was obvious when I took out the assassin perched on the balcony waitin' to ambush us. He couldn’t tell I was behind him before my blades had already gone through his throat.
Felt more than a little cathartic, if I’m honest.
That isn’t to say the mercenaries didn’t try to put up a fight. Once we got into what looked to be a party room, the remainin' lot of 'em tried to leap down at us. Of course, I had already made my way up to give 'em a few passin' stabs, an' once the rest of our group had their chances they could hardly even swing their blades before they were brought down. The only one that posed any sort of threat was their leader, Kayltanya. Cinnabar told me some about her. Enough to make me feel more than justified runnin' her through. Didn’t really have the chance to, mind you. Len hit her with enough destructive magic to turn her an’ everythin’ on her into a fine dust. Now, it might be wishful thinkin' on my part, but I get the impression that that may well be the last we see of the Mantis for a good while. If those shites never dare try to darken the docks of Korvosa again, it’ll be too bloody soon in my book.
We didn’t encounter any more resistance after the assassins. Made it easy to scour the place for any hints as to what Ileosa was up to. Our explorations brought us to a room with some harrow cards lyin' about. As soon as we looked at ‘em, the bloody things went flyin' every which way, then directed us up to the floor above. With that hint, it didn’t take us long to find the room belongin' to the King’s secret brother. It wasn’t unoccupied, either. Venster’s ghost showed up an' asked for his body, which we obliged.
Venster had a lot to say for a dead man. He told us that Ileosa tricked him into poisonin' the King, then she killed him to hide the evidence. He also filled in the missin' pieces of her plan: she’s goin’ to conduct a mass sacrifice ritual to achieve immortality, an' is currently preparin' it in a place called the Sunken Queen.The site apparently has some connections to the old Runelord Shorsen, an' that ancient power’s what Ileosa’s usin'. Whatever the details are, the important thing is that we can’t let her go through with it. Venster added that for his soul to be freed, Ileosa must die, but given everythin' else at this point, I’m thinkin' that’s been a foregone conclusion for a bloody long time.
The last thing Venster did was perform a little card trick, bringin' Zellara along for the ride. The two of 'em enchanted the old woman’s deck I’ve been carryin' around since we first formed this team. After drawin' from it, the others all got some sort of potent magical power from it. The thing had just as many if not more chances of triggerin' somethin' terrible, mind you. I opted not to meddle with the shit, despite Trin’s proddin’. Seemed a good way to curse yourself into oblivion. I did pull one out after the magic faded, just to prove a point. The card would have turned me into a f~*%in’ noble. Dodged a bloody poisoned arrow with that one. Well, good to know the spirits have a sense of humour, I suppose.
The rest of the castle didn’t have much beyond the usual extravagances of a royal hold. There was one exception though, an' that was the secret royal study. There we not only found an abundance of powerful magic scrolls, but also the contracts provin' that Ileosa had made deals with the Red Mantis an' the fat worm devil, as well as the poison she used to kill the King. There was also a book mentionin' more details of the ritual she was preparin', with several people listed as her soon to be sacrifices (us included, of course). In that one room there was more than enough evidence to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that Ileosa never should have been within reach of the Crimson Throne, let alone sittin' on it. Let that put to rest any lingerin' doubts about the justice of our cause, though in my opinion you’d have to be pretty f~~%in’ blind not to recognise it at this point.
We dragged our captives back to the Grey an' delivered the good news to Kroft an' the others. We didn’t stick around to celebrate though, as we still have one loose end to take care of. We immediately teleported to the Sunken Queen an' cleared the frogmen that guarded the exterior, leavin' us only to enter the structure an' end this once an' for all.
By Milani’s grace, the day would not end without the true Ileosa’s blood on my blades, an' Korvosa free of her tyranny…
Player's Notes: Aw yeah, the final stretch!!!
Drawing The Empty Throne from the Harrow Deck of Many Things after the magic wore off definitely gave me a chuckle. I opted not to draw mostly because I don't think Cassius would be the kind to take unnecessary chances. It didn't help that Trinia already had to use up 2 of my rerolls after drawing The Fiend and The Crows, before finally picking The Big Sky. My luck with cards is historically not great...
22/03/06 & 22/03/20 - Session 60 & 61 - Cassius’ Journal 60: The Crimson Conclusion
12 Sarenith, 4708 AR, The Sunken Queen, The Mushfens
Queen Ileosa is dead. At long bloody last, this nightmare is over.
As soon as we got into the Sunken Queen, we encountered a few more frogfolk guardians. We avoided most of them, but instead ran into a massive devilfish on our way up the structure. Lucky for us Len’s animal mind trick worked an' the creature wound up thinkin' it was a pufferfish.
The next floor’s guardian was considerably more of a threat. Jules called it a scarlet walker. Whatever it was, it knew how to cast spells an' struck at us with all manner of nonsense before Kel an’ I hit it with everythin’ we’d got an’ Len finished the job by turnin’ it into a pile of fine ash. We also came across some trident-wieldin' erinyes, though they didn’t stick around too long after we took out the giant spider thing.
We did a quick perimeter check an' I came across a large gemstone with my name engraved on it. Jules figured out that it was probably made to capture my soul. We tried to get close enough to destroy it, but it was guarded by a large ooze of some sort. Len sent it off this plane, which allowed us to destroy the trap without consequence. That just left us with one more floor to ascend. We prepared, an' went up.
Obviously after the erinyes fled, they warned Ileosa. We found ourselves in a room filled not only with devils, but multiple copies of the b!!#@ herself, all surroundin' a magical pool of blood. Stickin' out of that pool was a creature that looked like the mostly rotted corpse of a dragon, though the way it attacked proved that it was anythin' but dead. Even with all of us at full strength, we would have a fight on our hands.
From the onset, Len set about stackin' the playin' field. She erected a ring of blades around us to keep the fightin' area contained, then put silence on James to prevent our enemy from castin' at us. For all the downsides of Len’s disability, she’s done remarkable work of turnin' it into a formidable strength. As a thief, I’d always known the value of silence, but I could never have fathomed just how potent it can be in magical form.
That said, it didn’t solve the problem entirely, as the sheer volume of erinyes comin' at us knocked Liscia out early. Fortunately Trin pulled off a trick to reposition some of our more vulnerable teammates out of the line of fire. That gave Kel an' I enough time to take out the rotted dragon an' most of the devils. As for Ileosa’s simulacrums, a few rounds of lightnin' an' a garden of Milani’s thorns was enough to take them out of the equation. That only left us with an ice devil, a couple furies, an' Ileosa herself. Or it did, until another bloody disease dragon emerged from the pool.
We had figured out some ways into the fight that the woman we had been seein' up close to us durin' the fight wasn’t the real Ileosa. Fortunately, Jules’ third eye granted him the vision to see just where she was hidin', above us in a corner of the room. Len an' Trin managed to strip away her magical defences while I repositioned myself. Kel an' James made short work of the dragon an' moved on to help Waydon fend off the remainin' devils. Trapped by Trin, Len, myself, holy thorns, whirlin' blades, an' a zone of silence, Ileosa was quickly runnin' out of options…
That didn’t mean she went down without a fight. Before we could manage to put her down, Ileosa unleashed a furious series of attacks against Trin. The strikes would have been lethal, were it not for the quick work of Len an' Jules to bring her back. My partner held her own just long enough to give me a good set of strikes against the mad queen, nearly bringin' her down before some magic contingency restored her. That gave Ileosa one last chance, which she used to try an' kill the two most important women in my life, all the while ignorin' me. There might have been some strategy in that, but a part of me can’t help but feel that she was tryin' to spite me in her final moments. The last wrathful actions of a petulant greedy woman corrupted by an even more petulant and depraved dragon.
Of course, that just gave Kel enough time to join up with me, which was all I needed to unleash my own frustrations.
Turns out mine were stronger.
With Rose and Thorn in each hand, I signed the former Queen Ileosa Arabasti’s abdication.
Would that it ended there, but one last issue remained. The pool wasn’t quite done, an' had begun pullin' the Crown of Fangs into itself. For the briefest of moments, we could see the form of Kazavon bein' reconstructed in full this time. I, let alone any of us, wanted to find ourselves up against that horrendous creature. Thankfully Rose, or rather Serithial, shared the sentiment, an' in that moment granted me the clarity needed to stop the catastrophe. I grabbed the crown, set it into Milani’s vines, an' shattered it with the holy blade.
All at once, the ritual subsided, an' the room was little more than an unsettlin' yet dormant Thassilonian relic currently carpeted with infernal corpses.
Turns out Len feigned bein' killed to avoid any true harm, which meant that as soon as Ileosa was out of the picture, she was able to bring Trin back. It ought to shake me a bit more than it did that the woman I love was killed twice, but without that sacrifice, I never would have been able to land the decisive blows we needed to end this. Yet again, I find myself owin' Lenore more than I could ever repay…
After Trin was brought back, we set about gettin' everyone else back into shape. Thanks to Len’s healin' powers an' our absurd array of magical resources, that wasn’t too difficult. Somehow despite everythin', I didn’t get a single scratch. Kel took a bloody beatin', but bein' the indomitable force that he is, he pulled through just fine. Len, Liscia, an' Jules had all suffered pretty bad injuries, but nothin' that couldn’t be solved with some wands. Though many had been lost in this long war against Queen Ileosa, by Milani’s grace none of us were among them.
Now, we can finally begin to rebuild…
Player's Notes: It was a hard fought battle, and Trinia literally died twice (turns out getting hit 5 times with a +4 glamered human-bane icy burst speed rapier, including 2 crits, isn't particularly good for one's health), but we finally emerged victorious!
Admittedly, our in session conclusion felt just a little bit rushed (I believe our GM had some personal matters to attend to), but I'm looking to make up for that with a pair of epilogue entries providing some details on what happened after the AP, mostly for my own fun, but also to give one last thing to my fellow players, and to whoever else has been reading these journal entries (I know some of my friends do, though I have no idea if anyone does here. If you do, hi, and thanks for reading! Please feel free to tell me what you think!) Expect to see those epilogues some time this week (the first one's written, but just needs a revision pass).
22/03/20 - Session 61 - Cassius’ Final Journal
12 Sarenith, 4708 AR, Castle Korvosa, The Heights, Korvosa
When we got back to Korvosa with the Queen’s lifeless corpse an' the declaration that her reign of tyranny is finally ended, the city damn near erupted into a frenzy of cheers. I understand the feelin', probably better than most, but I can’t bring myself to celebrate her death. Not to say that I regret it. The woman was mad an' needed to die for the good of everyone in this city an' beyond. At the end of the day though, she was another victim caught up in circumstances beyond her control. Another lost soul led down a dark path. In some ways, that path she took wasn’t so different from mine. A younger me would have thought I was spewin' solly slop, but it’s been a long few months. Fact is, if I’d found Kazavon instead of Milani… Well, I couldn’t say. We all like to think that if it were us, we wouldn’t give in to the temptation. We would be better. Most of us never find out what we’d really do if we were tested. That’s probably for the better…
Then again, it’s not all bad either. This whole ordeal showed me more than I thought I’d ever see in my lifetime. I saw people succumbin' to their basest urgest an' turnin' into the ugliest creatures imaginable. I also saw people findin' their hidden strength to face hardship in the bravest of ways. I’ve seen what happens when hope is lost, but also when it’s found. I’ve seen hate, vengeance, an' destruction, but also love, forgiveness, an' rebirth. Never would I have thought to see a Chel an' a Shoanti embrace as brothers, nor a Kuthite workin' to protect the world from zealous cruelty. I definitely never expected that I’d find myself respectin' a guard captain.
I also never expected I’d find love, or any sort of companionship for that matter, an' yet now I find myself with both.
I’ve known for a long time now that I never would have gotten this far without my allies. Kel, Len, Jules, not to mention Licia, Lenny, an' even James. At some point or another, each of 'em has been directly responsible for savin' my life, most of 'em multiple times over, an' I’d like to think I’ve done the same for them. It goes deeper than that though. I trust them on the battlefield, but I also know them all to be stalwart friends an' people of the highest calibre. They’ve made me a better person, an' each of 'em will go on make the world a better place, in their own ways.
I know they’ve all got aspirations to do it, too. Kellogg, big oaf that he is, is probably the best hope for reconcilin’ the centuries of bad blood with the Shoanti. Lenore has the terrifyin’ power, immense compassion, an’ wisdom of experience to save so many people, be it from death, or their own poor decisions. Jules has a mind more brilliant than any I’ve ever seen, an’ I can scarcely imagine what he could do with it now that he isn’t busy makin’ all my equipment. I don’t rightly know what Licia might do, but I know that I probably don’t want to be within ten blocks when she does it.
When we first met, none of us were in a particularly good place. We’d all been scarred, damaged in one way or another by Gaedren Lamm, but also by ourselves. Each of us has since confronted our demons. In a strange way, all the adversity brought out the best in us, I think. Would that it didn’t take a bloody tyrant queen with evil dragon powers to do it. Still, there’s some pride in havin' gone through all of that with them. I couldn’t have asked for better adventurin' companions. For better friends.
They weren’t the only people I’ve grown close to. There are so many others that helped us along our journey, an' that we helped as well. I met bloody f##+in' Blackjack, for Milani’s sake! Some of our friends were a little rough at first. Hell, we nearly killed a few of 'em before they came to our side. Still, time an' time again we found those brave enough to do the right thing when it counted. Before all of this, I didn’t have a whole lot of faith in people. Now, I can look back on folks like Cres or Ish, people that respect the law, but will do what’s right when push comes to shove. Or people like Cin, Laori, or Sabina, who are workin' day an' night to find a new path after spendin' so long down a darker one. Some people really can be good, if you let 'em try, and give ‘em a helpin’ hand.
I suppose that’s why I’m not too bent up over all the talk about who’ll take the Crimson Throne. Were it my choice, we would be done with that bloody thing, an' find a more egalitarian system. But for all its wounds, Korvosa’s roots still run deep. Maybe some day we’ll move on past the monarchy, but for now, I can stomach it, so long as the monarch isn’t a tyrant an' actually cares about the people they lead. Last I heard, Cres is bein' fielded for the position. She’s just about the best candidate I could think for the job, at least. Queen Cressida Kroft of Korvosa has a decent ring to it. Though that might just be Trin’s love of alliteration rubbin' off on me.
Speakin' of… Of all the things that have happened to me throughout this whole adventure, Trin might just be the one I’m most personally thankful for. I’ll admit, when I first saved her, my thoughts were as far away from romance as they could be. In my mind, she was the embodiment of every mistreated citizen, abused by the corrupt system she was born in. It took me longer than I care to admit to stop seein' her as a victim. Never mind that, it took me longer than I care to admit to stop seein' myself as a victim. Trin reminded me that we’re all people, composed of more than just our scars. Lenore an' Milani might have saved my body back in that dark alley years ago, but Trin’s the one who healed my soul.
There’s still work to be done. The fires may be out, but there’s plenty of ash an' rubble to clean up before Korvosa can heal. But I’ll be there, pickin' up stones with the rest of the people, an' I know now that Trin will be right there beside me the whole time.
I’m goin' to find Jules. I’d like to ask him to craft me a ring. Then I might ask Lenore if she can do somethin’ about these scars. I don’t think I need them anymore…
Player's Notes: There we go, that's an end to the campaign that was Curse of the Crimson Throne! That said, I'm still not quite done yet. I've got two epilogues coming up!
22/03/20 - Session 61 - Epilogue - One Year Later
12 Sarenith, 4709 AR, Garrison Hill, Old Korvosa, Korvosa
One year ago today, we liberated Korvosa from Ileosa an' Kazavon’s clutches. It hasn’t been an easy year. Hell, if anythin' it’s been a harder time than the three an' a half months we spent after Zellara brought our lot together against Lamm. Crime lords an’ tyrants are easy enough to deal with, but you can’t stab institutional inequality with a sword, no matter how fine the blade. Doesn’t mean we haven’t been tryin’, mind you. So, I figured now as we prepare for the anniversary of Korvosa’s renewed lease on life, that I’d take stock of how far we’ve come.
Seein' as King Eodred an' Ileosa didn’t have any children, the Crimson Throne was without an heir. The choice was left to seneschal Neolandus Kalepopolis, with our advice, but honestly the choice for a new ruler was easy. Cressida Kroft, once the Captain of the Korvosan Guard an' our most steadfast ally throughout this entire ordeal, had consistently worked for the good of the people of Korvosa. Though I may not have seen eye to eye with the law in the past, I can trust that a woman like her will always do what is best for this city. Besides, if she or Kalepopolis get too big for their britches, I’ll have no qualms about remindin' 'em who they really answer to. Hasn’t happened yet though, thank Milani.
Old Korvosa was my first target after gettin’ back to the city. Kel an’ the others were quick to help me rid the place of whatever would-be tyrants still thought they could fancy themselves king of the island, startin' with Bahor, otherwise known as Glorio Arkona. After we cleaned his house he last time, he didn’t have nearly enough allies to truly hold us back. Now, all of that wealth is bein' repurposed for actual charities to help the impoverished of the district. No strings attached or fronts this time. It’ll be a long time before Old Korvosa is brought completely out of poverty, an' there will be plenty of scum ready to become the next Gaedren Lamm or the King of Spiders, but we’re more than able to deal with their kind.
Same goes for the Cerulean Society. Didn’t take long after we took down the Arkonas for 'em to know that they’d be next. Boule was a smart enough man to know not to swim against the current. Cerulean’s mostly a legitimate tradin' guild now, though they still do some business in the shadows from time to time. The difference is that they work for me, an' instead of committin' theft an' bribery, they prevent it, as Old Korvosa’s district security. Turns out a bunch of thieves an' criminals really do know better than anyone how to catch their own kind. There’s got to be some irony in the fact that Glorio once promised Old Korvosa to the Society, an' here I am givin' the Society to Old Korvosa.
After we took care of Old Korvosa, Len, Jules, an’ Licia had another target in sight. Given the chaos at the time, the Breaching Festival was delayed by a month, which meant it started just a couple weeks after Queen Kroft’s coronation. The idea was to make it a celebration of “returnin' to form”. It ended up bein' somethin' entirely different, but the long an' short of it is that the Acadamae is under new an' considerably less infernal management. Last I heard, Togomor remained in the city an' works for 'em as part of his penance. Majenko meanwhile has become somethin' of a school mascot, replacin' the overabundance of imps that once infested the area. It’s made the district far more tolerable, that’s for bloody sure.
Eries Yelloweyes still leads the wererats. These days, a lot of their kind work as informants an' messengers for myself an' the Korvosan Guard. There’s still a long way to go before they’re trusted in the city, but we’re workin' at it.
The memory of the devastation brought on by Blood Veil still lingers, though the disease itself has been all but eradicated. These days, anyone showin' symptoms can receive a cure from any local church, free of charge. That includes the temple of Abadar. Accordin' to their doctrine, the fee provided comes in the form of the continued productivity of the city’s citizens. Chief Enumerator Ishani Dhatri gets most of the credit for that little adjustment.
For that matter, Ish can also be credited for his ongoin' efforts to undo the psychological damage created by the Gray Maiden indoctrination, along with some help from myself an' Sabina. It can’t exactly be easy for the man, dealin' with his deranged sister’s lingerin' influence. The way I hear it told, he hasn’t missed a single week visitin' her in the dungeons, either. Abadar must be proud to have a follower that’s so persistently punctual. Maybe someday Vavana will come to appreciate it too…
I paid a brief visit to Harse not that long ago for a short vacation with Trin. It’s still as quiet an' peaceful as ever. Jasan was kind enough to give us lodgin' at Blackbird Ranch. The man shared all sorts of stories about his time as an adventurer with Ven. Trin’s eyes were nearly bulgin' out her eyes the whole time. Caught a glimpse of the Cinderlander while we were there too, tendin' crops. He’s still a surly bastard, but it seems like the new life of plantin' seeds instead of burnin' 'em has done him some good.
Kel still makes regular visits to the Shoanti. I’ve heard that since he was reinstated in the Sable Company as a Lieutenant, over a third of his contingent are Sklar-Quah. Imagine that, Shoanti Sable Marines, never mind that they’re servin' under an Endrin. Of course, Shoanti-Korvosan relations aren’t fully smoothed over, but with men like Kel, Thousand Bones, an’ even Krojun pushin' for reconciliation, they’re gettin' further than anyone has in centuries. After all, no one would have believed that we’d ever find ourselves with a Shoanti bearin' the last name Endrin, let along a dozen of ‘em!
Sometime after we cleared the curse, we revisited Castle Scarwall, this time with a contingent of powerful priests. We wiped the place clean of any lingerin' dark magic an' instead set up an assortment of wards, along with a memorial for Mandraivus an' the fallen heroes that defeated Kazavon the first time around. Nowadays the place is used on rare occasions by members of the Acadamae for study, though the star tower remains firmly off limits an' permanently sealed. Orcs dare not approach the place, in part because the rumours about the cursed place still linger, but also because the region is occasionally said to be patrolled by a certain shadowy dragon… Turns out Belshallam had some gratitude after all.
We never did hear from the Brotherhood of Bones or any other Kuthites. After Laori renounced the faith an' Sial took up his post in Scarwall, I think they got the message that they wouldn’t be gettin' their hands on Kazavon’s Fangs. They’ll just have to settle with enjoyin' Salvator Scream’s art, for whatever that’s worth. Likewise, we never saw Ramoska Arkminos, the vampire that worked with the Urgathoans. Personally, I’d be perfectly happy to never meet him again.
Gaedren an' Rolth Lamm are both enshrined in the history of the city now, thanks to their involvement with us, not to mention Rolth’s preexistin' infamy as the Key-Lock Killer. It’s more credit than they likely ever had in life, an' more than they deserve, but at least their legacies now are as cautionary tales to the would-be villains of the world about the cost of cruelty. The same goes for many of our enemies, though some of the stories I’ve heard about 'em sound more extreme than I remember. I suspect Trin’s to blame for that.
Zellara Esmeranda is somethin' of a household name too. Her legacy as the one that brought our little group together an' then helped guide us all through our journey has reinvigorated the popularity of harrow in Korvosa. As for the woman herself, a small shrine sits in the Gray, alongside one for her son Eran an' another for the Venster Arabasti. We’ve not seen their spirits since the final harrowin', so I can only hope that they’ve been granted peace in the afterlife.
The Soldado family returned to Korvosa not long after things settled down. Tayce an' the children sometimes come to visit Grau at the fencin' academy. Trin’s even taken to teachin' Brienna how to sing an' dance. Somethin' about it bein' a crime to let such a pretty face go to waste, or some such.
As for me, I took on the Orisini name an’ became Ven’s heir, now in both public an' secret identities. I wasn’t keen on the noble title, but Ven was quick to point out the good use I could put it to. If nothin' else, he’s given me easy access to his swordplay students as candidates to join the new Cerulean Guard.
Speakin' of, I’ve had no small measure of help in that capacity. Amin Jalento takes care of most of the matters of noble administration, while Grau has taken on the role of Cerulean Guard Captain with more ease than I could have hoped. Without them, I fear runnin' this operation would have consumed me more than the Cindermaw did.
Of course, they’re not the only assistants I have. I couldn’t live with myself if I allowed Blackjack to fall into obscurity once again, nor could I spend my days at a desk or in council meetings. I make it a point to go out an' do real work often enough to keep my skills sharp an' the public safe, but I’m also only one man. It’s fortunate then that I have others like Tiora, Cinnabar, Laori, an' Sabina on my side. All skilled combattants in their own rights, any of 'em would make a good successor, should it be necessary. For now however, I’m all too happy that criminals live in fear that any of the five Blackjacks might come for 'em. The heroic legend is alive an' well, if a little more confusin' now.
Of course, while some of my closer friends (which is to say Lenore, because of course it would be) might tease me for havin' four women sharin' my identity, there is only one who has claim to my heart. Trin never did lose that adventurer’s spirit, though she ended up channellin' it into turnin' our life together into the adventure. Blackjack often finds himself accompanied by a beautiful minstrel who spreads the word of justice an' righteousness. She’s capitalised on our heroic deeds to create artwork an' music. She’s even been arrangin' for this anniversary of Ileosa’s defeat to become a week-long festival. Even I’m not as busy as she’s gone an’ made herself.
Yet, we still find time to take on other adventures. I’ll never be able to forget our honeymoon in Elysium of all places (an unexpected weddin' gift courtesy of Len), or our “diplomatic” missions to Whitethrone an' Kintargo. Even so, it’s always a relief to come back to the familiar stones of the Korvosan streets.
What matters most though is that through it all, we’ve been together, an’ I don’t see that changin' anytime soon…
Player's Notes: Going through the characters of the campaign and coming up with their epilogues was genuinely quite fun, and gave me a chance to really reflect on the journey as a whole. Curse of the Crimson Throne is an excellent adventure, and I had the good fortune of playing it with a great group of players. Prior to playing in this game, I had kinda been burnt out. War for the Crown, which I had poured so much time and effort into running, fell apart due to a dumb mistake, and soon after a personal falling out basically destroyed that group. I came into this game as a complete stranger, yet somehow lucked out. There was great roleplay, challenging and interesting battles, and more than a few epic moments. It wasn't always perfect, but it was always a fun game, and it came at just the right time for me.
I've got one last epilogue to write, though it may be a bit before I get to it, since I want to make sure I properly consult with the other players to make sure I get their endings right.
I genuinely don't know if anyone actually reads these besides my GM and a few of my friends, but if you do, I hope you enjoyed my self-indulgent writing exercise! Please feel free to let me know what you thought! I'd love to hear it! Either way, I wish you all the best in your future games.
22/03/20 - Session 61 - Epilogue - Five Years Later (Trinia’s Retrospective)
12 Sarenith, 4713 AR, Garrison Hill, Old Korvosa, Korvosa
Hello again, dear reader! I hope that as I write this, you’re enjoying the joyous wonder of the Crimson Festival! If, by some chance you’ve stumbled upon this text while having no idea what all the burning effigies and people in crazy costumes are about, then allow me to give you some context. Five years ago, on this very day, a group of brave adventurers slayed the villainous Queen Ileosa, a greedy woman with no appreciation for art that was even further corrupted by the evil spirit of a Kuthite dragon warlord. She had been plotting to sacrifice the city of Korvosa for eternal life, but the heroes managed to defeat her minions and finally slayed her in one last epic battle. And I can promise you that it was most definitely very epic. I was there, after all!
Through her quest for power and control over the city, Ileosa tyrannised Korvosa with brainwashed soldiers, a plague, assassins, and all sorts of other pretty nasty stuff. In case you hadn’t guessed by the giant burning statues, we Korvosans didn’t take too kindly to that. But these days Korvosa isn’t a city that broods over stuff. The Crimson Festival is a festival for a reason! We remember the bad stuff, sure, but what we’re really celebrating is how we all came together to deal with it, over and over, until we came out on top. It’s a testament to the Korvosan spirit!
So, you may be wondering about the heroes of this little tale. The last time I wrote about this story, it didn’t quite have an ending yet. Well, these days everyone knows the ending. The heroes returned triumphant from Scarwall, defeated all of the bad guys Ileosa left behind in the city, then chased her down to a magic blood pool, killed her, and finally destroyed the Crown of Fangs before Kazavon could be resurrected. Blah blah blah, all very cool hero stuff. But you already know all of that! It’s baked right into the festival. Literally, in some cases! I didn’t know you could make pies with faces, but honestly now that I’ve seen them I kinda wish you couldn’t. Cas’ scars look way freakier when there’s rhubarb jelly oozing out of them…
So where was I? Right! The good stuff! Forget the climactic final battle! I know what you’re all really wondering! What happened to our heroes afterwards? Did they get their happily ever afters? Well, dear reader, take a seat and listen well as I tell you all about the saviours of Korvosa! (Yes, I know some people still call them “the Lennys”, but honestly it just really doesn’t sell how cool they are. It was a joke name, people! You weren’t supposed to actually run with it…)
Kellogg Endrin and Waydon the Hippogriff
Kel, or “Commandant Kellogg Endrin” as people know him today, eventually took over the leadership of the Sable Company from his relative Marcus. This came as a surprise to literally no one, since even though Kellogg Endrin had been disgraced, disowned, and dishonourably discharged because of a shiver addiction, he somehow managed to pull himself together enough to save the city several times over, rescue a whole bunch of Sable Marines, including their commander, from being indoctrinated by the Gray Maidens, and spearhead the most successful alliance with the various Shoanti tribes that Korvosa has ever seen. So yeah, it made sense that one of the city’s greatest heroes of the century would get the job.
Since becoming the Commandant, Kellogg’s been keeping up his work as the city’s strongest (in every sense of the word) diplomat to the Shoanti peoples. Thanks to policies that he’s pushed, many Shoanti have been repatriated in Korvosan lands. It’s still kinda bumpy sometimes, but the fact that a much more ethnically diverse Sable Company is overseeing things does help to keep the peace.
As for Kellogg himself, he’s considered to be one of, if not Korvosa’s most eligible bachelors. Some people (yours truly included) suspect that even Queen Kroft might be eyeing that particular cut of prime beefcake. And why wouldn’t she? He’s got good looks, giant muscles, command of a whole military, a fancy noble name, and the heart of a golden retriever! Well, I guess there is the matter of him also having a whole bunch of half-Shoanti bastards that he legitimised. That was a whole big controversy when House Endrin found out. But that’s kind of a normal thing for the Shoanti, so people have mostly gotten over it by now. For the record, they’re all super adorable little scamps.
The only partner Kel has that everyone is sure about is his trusty hippogriff Waydon. He’s the goodest birb, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise! So that’s why you should keep your eyes to the skies, and keep some jerky on hand. You never know when he might do a flyover to say hello to the good people of this city!
Lenore Lascariu
Ah Len… She’s always been a mysterious lady, even during our travels together. She’s upgraded to being the mysterious headmistress of the Acadamae now. There’s a whole story about how she ended up in the position. It involved the Breaching Festival, some devils, and a whole lot of surprise reveals no one could have possibly expected! However, that’s a story best left for another time. Point is, the school operates pretty differently now than it used to. A lot less devil stuff, and a lot more shadow stuff. It’s made the school pretty popular with people who are curious about Nidalese magic, but aren’t into the spiky chains and whips enough to enrol at Dusk Hall in Pangolais. I highly recommend visiting the campus if you get the chance! They do the best shadow puppets!
As for the the lovely Lady Lascariu, she still keeps her private life pretty secret. Not even I know if she’s seeing anyone, and I’m basically one of her besties! But fear not, dear reader! I do still have some delicious gossip for you! But listen closely, and be careful not to share these too loudly, because if you do, she might just hear you… That’s not a fake warning either, by the way. I’m 99% sure Lenore scries on all of us on the regular. Sure, she denies it when I ask her, but she isn’t fooling me, I can tell you that much!
Anyway, here’s the first secret. Lady Lenore may look like she’s just in charge of the Acadamae, but she’s got a whole lot more political sway than you might think. I happen to know for a fact that she secretly acts as at least four different power-players in Cheliax. Sometimes she even does it simultaneously! I don’t know how she does it though… Both literally and figuratively. It’s kinda crazy. And as for whom… Well that, my dear reader, I shall never tell!
As for the second secret, you might wonder where our fair Lady goes when she wants to unwind. Well, just between us, she’s quite fond of making trips to the Shadow Plane. I’ve made a couple trips there with her myself, but to be perfectly honest with you, it’s a bit spooky, even for my tastes. Actually, she often goes with Miss Laori Vaus, the former Kuthite. You see, the two of them share certain religious interests, among other things, so they often go on trips together. What do they do there? Who can say? Curious as you might be though, I wouldn’t recommend trying to spy on them. Even in the incredibly small chance that you do succeed, you’ll have to deal with two very lovely but dangerous madams. Okay, now that I just read that back to myself that’s probably going to encourage more of you than it dissuades. Well, it’s your funeral.
Jules Thurist and Lenny
Master “Three-Eyed” Thurist put his immense magical acumen to use at the Acadamae. He is now a professor of artificing, and also heads the Quintus Xasper Department of Thassilonian Research. In case you were wondering, it’s named after his deceased friend that he originally travelled with to Korvosa, and whose death led him to join our heroes.
Despite not making many public appearances beyond the Acadamae, Jules is quite well known in Korvosa. Between his establishment of a student exchange program with Nex and his own innovations with magic items and golem crafting, he’s been instrumental in establishing Korvosa once more as a major site for magical research. It’s a point of pride among the nobility to be in possession of a Thurist craftwork. I myself have and still use a pair of outfit-swapping sleeves he once gave to Cas for a mission. You never know when a speedy wardrobe change will come in handy!
Anyway, Jules pretty much spends his days making sure that the school keeps running smoothly, so you’re not likely to find him wandering the city grounds all that often. If you explore the campus though, you might be fortunate enough to spot his monkey companion Lenny (yes, THAT Lenny). He’s something of a mascot for the Acadamae now, along with his buddy/rival Majenko the house drake. They say that feeding them is a good way to ensure a good grade in your next test, and I wouldn’t baulk at that superstition. Lenny’s a lot smarter than you might think… In fact, he might just be smarter than all of us!
Oh, and one last thing. Should you have any information about the recent news out of Magnimar about that Thassilonian artifact they discovered, you should get in touch with Master Thurist directly. As Korvosa’s expert on the subject, he would no doubt want to hear it!
Licia L’Etranger
Licia is another staple figure of the Acadamae these days. She teaches alchemy, and often helps out Jules with his magical research. They work quite closely together actually. In fact, you could even say they’ve got some… Chemistry! Well, I don’t know if they actually have anything going on, but it’s fun to speculate, isn’t it, dear reader?
Of course, that isn’t to say she isn’t famous in her own right. Licia’s concoctions are some of the most prized potions you can find in Korvosa. They come with a warning label as long as your forearm, but if you manage not to blow yourself up, they can do all sorts of wonderful things! Lately, I think she’s even been improving the stability of her formulas too. It’s been about two weeks now that she hasn’t blown up anything important! Then again, judging by the smoke I see on the horizon right now, there is a distinct chance that that count may need to be reset…
Cassius Redima-Orisini
Ah Cas… Dear reader, if you’ve been reading my stories, hearing my songs, or seeing my paintings, then I’m sure you already know about my beloved husband. Not too long after Ileosa was defeated, Cassius made a super romantic (and adorably awkward) proposal, and it wasn’t long before we were married. As a wedding gift, our old buddy Ven actually adopted Cassius, giving him (and me, by extension), the noble Orisini name. He still gets a bit prickly when people call him Lord, so you’d better believe I still tease him about it all the time.
Anyway, he took over Ven’s dueling school after the old fox retired a couple years back. It’s more like a training academy for aspiring Cerulean Society agents these days. The Cerulean Society, as you might know dear reader, was once the city’s thieves’ guild. Since Cas took over though, it’s more like Old Korvosa’s dedicated city guard, focusing more on internal threats like corruption and organised crime, but also on community outreach programs. The organisation’s affiliation with the goddess Milani is basically an open secret. It’s all in the name of helping those less fortunate climb out of poverty, and helping each other do the same. It’s not quite Elysium yet, but I’d say that in the last five years it’s done wonders for improving the state of living not only in Old Korvosa, but also the rest of the city. Korvosa is a much kinder, safer place than it once was, and a lot of that is thanks to Cassius. Well, him and Blackjack.
As you might have noticed, Blackjack is still very much a popular figure in Korvosa. After his surprise reappearance when Queen Ileosa first tried to execute me (well, a fake me; we’ve covered this already), his legend once again swept through the streets. Nowadays, my precious hubby’s secret identity is anything but secret. I mean, he goes around with a pair of super recognisable holy swords he calls Rose and Thorn. Plus he’s got a beautiful bard who assists him on his missions, helping the citizens while he fights the bad guys and spreading the good word of Milani in his wake. It’s great fun and it does a lot of good for the people of Korvosa, but let’s face it, pretty much everyone knows what’s up. The disguise is more symbolic than it is practical, these days.
But Blackjack’s legend doesn’t stop there, dear reader! No, this is where it gets extra interesting! For you see, there is more than just one Blackjack and lovely assistant! In reality, there are many Blackjacks, each with their own unique flavour, but all of them skilled swordspeople ready to appear from the shadows and dramatically save the good people of Korvosa from evil, wherever it may lurk! Actually, some people have started identifying each Blackjack by their particular weapons of choice, and some people have favourite Blackjacks! So, in a weird way, the secret of Blackjack is still a secret, just a more complicated one than it used to be. Personally, dear reader, I find it hilarious.
Oh, and if you’re wondering, my favourite Blackjack is the goofy one that names his blades after a flower. It takes a true romantic to do something silly like that, wouldn’t you agree?
Trinia Sabor-Orisini
That leads us, dear reader, to the final hero of this little group, me! As you’ve no doubt noticed, the lovely name “Lady Trinia Orisini” can be found all over our fine city. That’s because after Queen Cressida Kroft took over, I was given the title of Korvosa’s Minister of Culture! If you haven’t guessed from all the public works and festivals, I take my job very seriously. These days I even go all over the Inner Sea as Korvosa’s representative on diplomatic missions! It’s a funny thing, dear reader… I had always figured I’d travel the world, but as an adventurer, doing jobs for important people. Now I’m one of those important people giving jobs to adventurers! Such are the little ironies of this world!
That said, I probably won’t be making too many long trips in the near future. You see, on my last voyage to Kintargo, I found myself getting seasick something awful. That was pretty strange, considering I never get seasick. Well, I had myself checked and let’s just say that after I finish writing this, I’m going to have to pay a visit to Old Ven’...
After all, he should know that he’s gonna become a grandpa!
THE END
Player's Notes, Final
That's it. That's the final final conclusion to this journal. It's bittersweet to bid farewell to this wonderful campaign, but I shall always remember it fondly. I will most certainly be taking heavy inspiration from it as I continue to write my own adventure...
Once more, I hope anyone that found themselves reading this journal enjoyed it. If you did (or even if you didn't), I welcome any feedback you might have! Either way, I wish you all the best. May your dice roll high!
(Also, if you do find yourself wanting to read more for some reason, I have another journal for Hell's Vengeance that I'll still be posting to for some time yet.)