Welcome to Saker's Pass; A coastal trading community of few thousand folk who have traveled far and wide in search of a better life. In this growing melting pot all kinds of adventures can be had every day. While we haven't had any major issues for the past 30 years thanks to our local hero Cavin Saker, this town is not without its rabble. The city watch is able to handle them though. Would-be Adventurer's are pointed toward the local adventurer's guild for any jobs. Artists and Merchants are pointed toward the city center markets. Everyone else, there's room for you too!
The Legend of Cavin Saker 30 years ago on the 15th of Mirtul, it was as normal a day as any other. After night fell, however, the village of Silvertear was quickly under assault by demons and infernals. Most citizens were able to flee for safety, but those that weren't found an unsettling end. While most of the details have been lost in poor or mad memories, everyone knew that when dawn came, Cavin Saker, a paladin of Pelor, stood in the center of the village, bloodied and almost broken, victorious against the invaders. He helped Silvertear recover from the horror, and in return the town agreed unanimously to rename after him and honor the 15th of Mirtul in his name. The legend doesn't go into detail about where the invaders came from, or why, but Saker assured us all they wouldn't return.
07/29/19
A long, long time ago, in a ..... wait. Three days ago a strange thing happened near Saker's Pass. A kobold blipped into existence. Whether by luck or some weird space/time anomaly where the previous world was so infused with faerzress from demon lords taking over that he lost his experience and his mind.. this creature appeared laying in a warm, sunny field just outside of the quiet town. We'll call him Peli. Peli got up, looked around utterly confused and saw the town nearby and went to investigate. He didn't know it was the 15th of Mirtul, and the town was celebrating the Saker's Day Faire! Avoiding some small creatures dressed up as knights and demons (children), Peli found himself at The Right Wife, a pretty decent Tavern in town.
Mother, the obvious owner of the establishment, was serving a group of Adventurer's who were enjoying themselves quiet well! Veronica, a blonde angel; Suffering, a tiefling with an eye twitch (or was it really a twitch?); Terinor, a hearty-happy dwarven smithy; Hana, a strange changling; Nimble Gnutz, of the Gnutz family, famous for their amazing and wacky inventions; and Porta-Billo, a big furry tree hugger who was talking up Mother's houseplants. A few drinks into the party, they were approached by a Vistani fortune-teller, Lady Taewen, who read the cards for them (secretly eyeing Peli at the same time from across the bar). The Wizard meant that their past was riddled with mysteries, of magic. The Abjurer meant that they were all well grounded with logic and this reasoning will take them far. But warns against overlooking clues or information just because it doesn't make sense. The Swashbuckler meant that they'll have to deal with some who either come and go with money with ease or someone who doesn't put much value in money. The Donjon stood for potential Isolation and Imprisonment, not necessarily literally, but one can be a prisoner of their mind as well. It warned against becoming trapped in their beliefs. And the Darklord stood for a single, powerful being of an evil nature. One who's goals have enormous and far-reaching consequences. The group of adventurers seemed to be in for a treat!
The festivities dragged on and later into the evening the joyous occasion turned more somber as the whole town dawned light cloaks and carried lit lanterns down to the river in remembrance of all those lost years ago in the massacre that Cavin Saker saved the town from. During the townfolks singing, screaming was heard over the harmonizing, piercing and shrill. A few houses in the neighboring street has been set aflame! Our party, now joined by Peli, quickly advanced to see how they could help.
Outside, some infernal creatures were taunting and tormenting three women. The party deftly made work out of them and they disappeared in piles of ash and sulfur. They worked with the town's aid carrying water and casting spells to put out the flames. Ultimately three homes were destroyed in the arson, but the women were saved. Of the known casualties, there was only and old married couple who passed. The party investigated the house while they could. In the center of the house on the main floor they found remnants of blue chalk which had created a summoning circle to bring forth the wretched demons. Having fallen through the cracks, they also found a necklace in the cellar below.
This is also where they first met Ronrick, another angel creature. He was laying in the middle of the floor, unconscious, nearby the summoning circle. He looked like he had been in a fight. The party saved him from the fire and quickly realized he was another adventurer like them and unable to be responsible for the demons. They all helped heal the townsfolk and each other before turning to question the three women that were attacked, Agama, Ibera, and Raine. They appeared to just work together and didn't hang out much outside of taking care of the elderly couple. While the party went searching for clues, one of the ladies left to return to her home. Her nerves where shot and she just wanted sleep. The party thought this suspicious and followed her to a bunkhouse where she was staying at. Forming a small mob with their insistence on this red herring, they demanded entry to the bunkhouse, which was vehemetly denied by the crotchety old mad who ran the place. Porta-Billo snuck in in the shape of a mouse and determined her innocence by the lack of blue chalk in her belongings. The party then returned back to The Right Wife to rest after dispersing the other townsfolk.
During the investigation of the bunkhouse, Suffering had returned to The Right Wife to inquire about the Vistani who had visited them before and found smudgings of blue chalk on the table they were seated at before when she was there. He asked Mother's husband, who was still there at the time, if the woman was "out of place" in any way, and was able to exchange one of his gold pieces for the strange gold piece the woman had paid with.
The next morning, the adventurer's decided to continue travelling together and went to the marketplace. They met an herbalist at The Silver Draught, Esther Dunn, an older gnome lady who loved that Porta-Billo was able to help her rare plants bloom and flower. She asked and the party accepted in looking in more rare ingredients for her.
They met an alchemist and purveyor of magickal arts, Jonna Romazi, a tiefling who ran the Auspicious Augur shop.
At "Red Owl" the market grocer, they met Esmee and Geoff Umbermoor, human twin siblings, where they were able to buy the blue chalk. and lastly they discovered the local Saker's Pass Adventurer's Guild, run by Krynna Vadu and her father Bran Vadu, a tiefling family. Krynna un-enthusiastically welcomed the party into their ranks and offered them jobs off the board.
Accepting two jobs off the board, the party went back to the Right Wife for the first one. There they met Dahlia Redfield who was looking for assistance in clearing her newly inherited home from anyone who may have taken up residence there. She wasn't ready, but happy to finally have help, she agreed to meet them back there at the Right Wife the next morning with her wagon and supplies.
So the party went over to the Mayor's house to talk with his wife for the second job. Mayor Sabjorn Carnago's wife, Yelina, was a proud, noble woman who was kind of pompous.. She told the adventurer's about her missing brooch and that it was last seen at Lord Glint's home where he had a party recently. She stated that this investigation must remain discreet however, because the brooch was a gift from her husband and she didn't want to upset him with the knowledge she had lost it. After becoming increasingly upset by the party's want to explore own home first, she booted them out to go search elsewhere. "I've already searched my own home from top to bottom! I wouldn't have asked for help if it was here!"
So off they went to Lord Glint's. In the middle of the day it was pretty quiet, so they first talked to the groundskeeper out front. A quick intimidation check granted them access via the servant's entrances in the back to the kitchen. There they met Soko, a halfling maid who worked in the kitchen. She hesitantly explained that she took the brooch from another maid who may or may not have been trying to steal it, but would only hand it over should the party not say anything to Lord Glint. She didn't want anyone to be fired over this. Ronrick alone was allowed to follow her to the servant's sleeping quarters where she hid it. She confessed that she had tried to return it immediately to Lady Carnago, but found the woman to be in a compromising situation and thought best to return it later. The party agreed to not rat out the other maid and left with the brooch in hand.
Returning later to the Carnago estate again, they turned over the brooch after failing to have Lady Carnago spill the beans about her affair. She once again booted them from the house. They went back to the Adventurer's Guild for their payment.
Then they finally received their shiny new Adventurer's Guild membership cards!
Porta-Billo returned to the herbalist while the rest went back to the Right Wife to rest for the night. At the Silver Draught, Porta-Billo bought some teas and inquired if there were any other plants that he could help Esther with. She seemed very happy about the idea and quietly took him down to the cellar, which was lit up with magickal heat-producing lights. On a shelf, she directed him to 10 specimens of carnivorous plants that she didn't know how to feed since the cloth trap of flies hanging above wasn't working. Porta-Billo did his magic and they bloomed and he was able to help identify food that each would prefer to eat. In return for his assistance, she agreed to give him a couple vials of whatever she was going to make from these plants.
Back at the Right Wife, Terinor got his comeuppance from Mother back in a small breakfast dish while everyone else ate normal portions. They loaded up the wagon and set off to the Redfield Manor along with Dahlia.
Also, Terinor had been drooling last night through the fence at the City Watch's armory barracks because he was eyeing their beautiful, newly finished, extra-deliciously-powerful trebuchet. They gave a working copy of it in keychain form to get him to stop drooling and go away.
Arriving at Redfield Manor, the place was a complete disaster area. The lawn was overgrown, the windows covered in a thick layer of dust and sludge. The floor, walls, ceilings, roof, all in various stages of decay.
The party began to explore the first floor, room by room, for any "unwanted" tenants. On the back patio, Veronica had a close brush from several swarms of rats that had taken up home in the cushions. In the study, Terinor found a spellbook that had belongs to Emilia, Dahlia's grandmother, as well as a letter and black, leather-bound journal written by Caliope, Dahlia's mother. In the dining room, Nimble had found a small vial of rose water perfume that was almost depleted and needed repairs to the spritzer ball, also belong to the grandmother. Last off in the greenhouse where they destroyed a few twig blights and awakened bushes that had attacked Suffering for disturbing them. There was also a Violet Fungus that fled from the fight, and they decided to leave it for the time being. They started towards the entrance to the cellar.
The entrance to the cellar was an old stone room filled with cobwebs. After clearing them out they stared at a square hole with a wooden ladder leading down into a dark dank room. Terinor decided to be the first to go down in there. The first thing that struck him was the smell of old musty decay of organic matter. The second thing that struck him was the cold stone floor below as the ladder gave out from under him! As he struggled to get upright, into the room broke two undead, shattering the south door in the process. Porta-Billo jumped down to aid him. Ronrick and the others joined in where they could in this cramped space as well and four more undead broke through the other door to the west. Thankfully the group defeated these before Ronrick himself was. From the tatters on the corpses and the marks and remains in the other rooms, it was assumed that these were the previous servants that used to work in the manor. Each of these four rooms were storage of some kind, to old now-leather meats, petrified fruits and vegetables, and broken junk. Thanks so having the blueprints to the manor, they found a secret tunnel in the southern wall of the SW room.
Peli snuck ahead to check for more monsters and traps and found 2 more undead waiting in the far room on the other side of the door. He tried, with difficulty, to communicate this to Veronica and Ronrick to try to ambush the creatures. Eventually they got it and started their attack. Peli hauled open the door and in rushed the two Aasimar. They attacked and the undead responded in a strange fashion, turning in jerky movements like their body was not the right size for their bones or muscles, and screaming in a way that they expanded their jaws and mouths to unnatural sizes. They were defeated after a hard fight, and transparent jellyfish-like creatures extracted itself from the corpses. One tried to use Peli's and Ronrick's fears against them with phantasmal forces. It disappeared, but Ronrick knew it was still nearby. Meanwhile, the other creature retreated to the closet and Suffering casted Create Bonfire at the wooden closet's door in attempt to kill/smoke it out. The rest of the party panicked over this, since the ceiling was wooden in this room, they were underground, and the whole manor wasn't quite stable since it had been neglected. The fire was put out and when the closet was opened, the creature appeared to have disappeared down a small hole in the collapsed wall. Porta-Billo shape-shifted into a honey badger and started to dig after it.
Terinor started back down the hallway they had come from and that's when they learned where the other creature went. It had taken over one of the more intact corpses they had killed in the other room and was now rushing at him! Fighting in the narrow hallway was more difficult than in the previous room, but the team was able to take this one out again and managed to defeat the jellyfish before it could escape! Nimble was able to capture the jelly's corpse in a jar he had on his person. In the room at the end of the hall, Terinor had found a ring of protection, and Ronrick had found a component's pouch and a Wand of Secrets (which is free to be used by anyone in the party). Component pouch:
2 small diamonds (250gp each) 3 tiny silver bells Unholy water cubic inch of flesh
The 2nd floor was easily cleared with no real challenge. Dahlia was incredibly thankful for their help and offered them if they needed a place that they could stay here at the manor once repairs were completed - she is all by herself and this is a big place for just one person. The party was grateful and asked if she'd like to join them. She whole-heartedly accepted and they planned out how the place was going to be remodeled. The party also realized that the trip back to Saker's Pass was only 30 minutes now instead of a few hours that it took them to get to Redfield Manor...
Upon returning to town, the party was witness to an angry group of townsfolk shouting outside the Adventurer's Guild where they were heading. On closer inspection, they seemed upset that "demons" were running a business in town after the attack a short while ago. The party quickly intervened and the city guard showed up shortly after as well to help deter any issues. The townsfolk left in a grumble and the city guard shortly thereafter as well.
This is where we finally got to meet Bram! Krynna's happy-go-lucky father, the exact opposite of his brooding moody daughter. He was incredibly thankful for the work the party has done so far and encouraged them to continue and that more work would show up soon. After receiving their reward for Dahlia's original posting, the party split up to go about town for tasks for the house.
Dahlia and Ronrick went to the bank to secure a loan: (math may not be 100% correct, but we tried.)
After completing their errands, the group decided to go try out what the City Watch was all about and their Adventurer's Guild posting. Upon arriving they saw there was already 3 other other people looking to join as well. Dani, who decided to join up with the party afterwards; Ronnie, a strange, very pale-looking string-bean elf; and Pat, a non-verbal beardless dwarf who was surprisingly decent at whatever she was doing.
Seargent Cromwell began the testing with a simple strength test - break the boulder. Everyone did as expected during this one except for Su(ffering), who tried to cheat and got caught and then refused to use the sledgehammer. Next was an obstacle course. Dani and Veronice NAILED this. Again Su tried to cheat with mold earth trying to move the whole course. Next was a wisdom reasoning test as to WHO was the bad guy and WHY. Nimble was the one who aced this one! After that was discovering where in the room the weapon was. Terinor got the best on this one, closely followed by Porta-Billo. Next 3 guards walked in. Each person had the opportunity to ask them 1 question - 2 would tell the truth, and a 3rd (different each time) would lie. Ronrick got the best on this one, followed by Su and Dani. And lastly, the chef came in with their weekly 5-alarm chili special. If the group could survive eating this (since it was a weekly dish they made), then for sure they'd be a good fit as a guard. Ronrick sneakily casted purify food/water on it to remove the spicyness from it and it was all eaten up before poor Porta-Billo and Nimble could get any. A second pot was made for them and they had to suffer the intense heat! They did survive though.
The entire group successfully passed the entrance exam and were welcomed as Guard Reserves! Until their training was complete, they are considered "Rookie Guards" and don't have the full powers of one of the regular City Watch members just yet. (You can detain until a higher-ranking member showed up basically). There is training weekend once a month and each member receives a 100 gp / month stipend for their duty. They received badges as well.
After successfully becoming guards, it was decided to tackle another of their open jobs of retrieving the moonseed plants from north up the coast. After travelling for some time north from Saker's Pass along the coast, they eventually saw some plants ahead in the distance that were glowing under the light of the full moon that was rising. Getting closer, they also saw two small huts made from seawood and debris from the ocean. When they got close enough, Su used his Unseen Servant to go and pluck the three plants. However, when it saw a floating glowing plant, a Sea Spawn emerged from the shallows to investigate and destroyed the unseen servant, caught sight of the party, and began attacking with the assistance of two Sea Hags, their pets, and a few more spawn. Without terrible difficulty, the party was able to slay one of the Sea Hags on shore, and the other disappeared under the waves in a red wash as it was trying to escape. The party collected her head for the general monster bounty that is always available. They plucked 3 plants to turn in and returned to town.
Deciding they still had time, they also decided to go help the farmer who was having trouble and put an ad in with the Adventurer's Guild. Upon arriving at the farmstead they found the farmer in his home with his family. He explained as much as he was able - animals were being eaten, the disposed corpses were still being eaten at, crops were being eaten and destroyed. He'd lock up the barn tight, but still this would happen. Su was very suspicious of the farmer thinking that he might be a werewolf.. The party did their own investigating around the whole property as well. Alarm spells were setup at each entrance to the barn. No tracks were found leading to or away from the farm and no good/evil/fiend/fey/etc was to be detected. Very strange indeed! Ronrick, Su, and Nimble setup inside the barn to watch. Dani, Terinor, and Veronica setup outside in the garden. Porta-Billo, Dahlia, and Peli setup on the roof. Someone suggested that Porta-Billo make the crops grow to provide cover again~~ They stood happily at a little over 4ft tall after some sweet words from the Firbolg (LOL), and the party sat in wait.
After about two hours, Dani had dozed off for a moment and woke with a start when she received a cut on her cheek. Panicking she fled to the nearest fence and hid in the shadows. A few moments later, Veronica received a cut on her back just under the edge of her armor. Peli yelled out, "Cut the grass!" as he expertly jumped down off of the roof and sprinted into the garden. Veronica cut a swath around herself while the rest of the party lit up the garden area and readied for attack. Then it was revealed that there was a creature that looked like it was made out of straw, with long sharp claws protruding from its makeshift hands and rows of sharp, jagged teeth as it screamed at the angel for exposing it. It dashed back into the tall grass and the party soon realized that all five of the scarecrows in the garden were now "missing" from their posts. The grass laid down flat again at another command from Porta-Billo and all five creatures were exposed!
After a longer battle, they were able to defeat four of the five creatures, revealing in the process that they were not actually even Scarecrows, but mimics who had taken over the appearance of the bird-deflectors. A long shot killed the last mimic as it tried to run away. Peli, like a hunting hound, confirmed the kill. Nimble collected yet another gooey creature's essence in a vial. The farmer thanked them for saving the farm (and for not letting another animal die).
It was too late in the evening after the farmer to head back into town for their reward, so the party went back home to their campsite outside the manor for some rest. During the middle of the night, however, Su and Dahlia got up and started walking slowly towards the manor. The lightest sleeper due to his previous experiences in a previous dimension, Peli woke with a start and noticed two of his new friends in their nighttime stroll. He woke up Nimble and the two inspected the much taller friends and noticed that they were sleep-walking. Nimble knew that you shouldn't wake sleepwalkers so they followed them to make sure they didn't get into any harm.
Su and Dahlia stopped walking when they reached the top of the basement hole. Only a rope was still leading down and in their state, they wouldn't be able to climb down safely. In their shared vision/dream, Su and Dahlia were standing in their own separate foggy realm; a low red light lit the edges of the horizons and any near objects. A dark figure appeared through the fog; tall, dark, smell of sulfur and burnt roses. Obviously male, it laughed, a sound like smooth velvet vibrating over the air waves. Upset and threatened, Su let out a thunderwave. However, his actions in his dream were repeated in the waking world and his spell woke Dahlia from her dream and knocked back her and Nimble. Peli ran quickly back to the camp to get the others who were woken up also from the sound of his spell.
The dark figure laughed more and Su tried to cast hold person on him. While doing nothing in the dream, his hand reached out and his spell found Nimble. He was released shortly after when Su realized that his spell wasn't doing anything against the man, who then began to walk back into the fog. Su then started to run after him in the dream, and started to run towards the large hole that led into the basement! Peli had arrived with the rest of the party at this point and Ronrick grabbed Su's tail and stopped him before he could fall into the hole, pulling him back to safety. Recovering from their sleep walking, everyone went back to their tents and the rest of the night passed uneventfully.
In the morning, Brother Hamon arrived from the temple of Lysander to bless and consecrate the home. The party was in the middle of breakfast when he arrived and they spent a few minutes talking before going into the house. Taking out his incense, holy water, and prayer book, Brother Hamon walked through the home following the party.
When they arrived at the entrance to the basement was the first moment when Brother Hamon started to show any issues with his blessing ceremony. He persisted though and followed down into the basement. Inside the basement's first room though, things quickly changed. At first he because sweaty and started to be agitated. It quickly devolved into a angry mess as Hamon stopped being able to understand and read his book and what other people were saying, until eventually he seemed to pass out from the heat. Ronrick quickly carried him out of the basement and he regained consciousness but not his mind. Terinor dragged him out into the yard where he began to fully recover.
Except for that he had lost his memory until shortly before the arson happened in town. He knew who he was and his horse, but not who any of the party was or where he was currently or why. Dahlia suggested that they take him back to his temple immediately and get help for him. The party agreed and they all quickly mounted and set off.
At the temple they met Father Dagfinn. They left Brother Hamon in his care, explaining what had all happened. Father Dagfinn was concerned, but agreed to have himself and two assistants come to the manor later that night after the evening worship to attempt the consecration again. After arranging this, Ronrick went to his temple of Mielikki in town to pray. His brother's spirits came out while he was praying. Felben was concerned that something wasn't right and spoke to Ronrick to prepare for potential worse case scenarios. Sarmine didn't say anything, but agreed that it was unsettling and to prepare. Ronrick picked up his own blessing supplies from the temple and went to meet back with the party, who also had each run off for their quick errands, and were all going to meet back up at the Adventurer's Guild to turn in the Farmer's job.
When they arrived outside the Guild, the first thing everyone noticed was the place was under renovations! This is when everyone met Bram, Krynna's father, for the first time - a happy-go-lucky fellow who couldn't possibly have helped conceive the sarcastic, impatient younger tiefling. He was beyond excited to finally meet the adventuring party and share his enthusiasm about how good of a job they've all been doing so far; and that the renovations they were finally able to start on were thanks to them. That aside, Bram had a job for them to complete next before they took anything more.
A previous adventuring party of gnomes had come back, well one of them at least - Tim, broken and beaten and having failed in their job. He gave our party the inventory list of items stolen that were supposed to go to Jermaine Scott's jewelry store instead. Terinor, Dani, and Nimble went to question the remaining gnome, who went to a nearby clinic to recover. Arriving there, the gnome wasn't happy to see them, as he was in a lot of pain from his injuiries and reluctantly shared as much as he was able about the job, the bandits that stole the inventory, and the place they were holed up. He got very irate at one point, so Nimble gave him some special gnut juice which put the gnome on a super high and useless. So they tried to bring him down and he just started crying and bawling. They gave up, put him back on the high and left with the info they had. During this time, Su had went to The Auspicious Augur (Wizard shop/library) and obtained a library card to learn more about his vision, demons, and the history of Saker's Pass.
When everyone was ready, they agreed there was time enough to do the jeweler's job and return in time to meet Father Dagfinn back at the manor. So they took Dahlia's cart and set off to where the supply was originally ambushed.
The scene was atrocious! The previous gnome adventuring party left footprints and wrecked any potential evidence quite thoroughly. The good thing was that they also left a good trail leading off the main path to a small hill in the woods with a stone entrance that was ajar. The party found themselves in the entrance to an ancient cairn that appeared deserted, or at least the owner's went to great lengths to make it appear so they discovered in their investigation of the entrance.
The party went further into the cairn and discovered a wheel of potential exits from a massive central room. In the middle of the central room was an ancient oak tree that had died, runes carved all over its surface. The architecture was beautiful, intricate, and nothing of current times that anyone could discern. WISELY deciding to not split the party, they took the first stairs down to the right from where they entered and found themselves at a locked door. Peli was deftly able to unlock it and they went inside, setting off an alarm spell!
Su had changed into a Mist shape before this, went through the keyhole and discovered all the missing loot they were looking for, as well as what looked like an embalming chamber in the room beyond it.
The party holed up inside the room when the alarm went off, aside from Terinor who stood outside the door keeping watch. Three arrows whizzed past him as he shouted back insults before he also went inside and they closed and locked the door behind them. There was laughing from the other side of the door and upon opening it again, found they were not blocked by feet thick stone and earth.
With no option to go back out the way they came in, they decided to go deeper into the ruins. The next room was indeed an embalming chamber. A stone slab dominated the room in the middle with cuts in it to allow blood to flow to a trough below. Rusted antique instruments hung on the walls, too old to be of any use or value.
The next room had three caskets laying on a raised floor area in one corner of the room. Using the party's Wand of Secrets, Ronrick found a secret compartment beneath the middle casket and pulled out a small chest that had been sealed with wax.
Cracking it open, a sigh seemed to go through the room, and inside he found an old dried up candle (no longer useful), as well as some ancient coins (that Ronrick took with) and a scrap of fabric that crumbled under his touch. There wasn't anything else of interest in this room, and they moved on. In the next room, the group was attacked by a handful of shadows they had some difficulty in defeating due to cramped spaces, but were able to defeat them nonetheless.
The next room was dimly lit, and upon opening revealed it to be a small temple. One figure stood over four others kneeling in a small prayer. Upon a closer quick look, they were all found to be undead. Not risking it, Su let out a fireball in the room, which hurt them all badly in the initial explosion and destroyed them all (and most of the room) a moment later in the ensuing flames that lit up everything since it was old and dry. The party put out the fires after the undead were truly dead. Ronrick found a necklace of prayer beads in the remains of the altar table, with 4 beads on it that could cast either cure wounds at 2nd level OR lesser restoration per bead.
The opposite door in this room lead back to the main chambers, where they found the corpses of the bandits who tried to lock them in the storage room. Standing over them was a bigger undead being who looked like an ancient archdruid accompanied by two ghostly wolves. This creature wasn't peaceful, and after another fight defeated by the party.
All in all, the party, after fully exploring the entire cairn, discovered 2 scrolls of bless, 2 potions of healing, one scroll of lesser restoration, 500 GP in various coin, 5 garnets (worth 35 gp each) and a Dagger +1 that they gave to Peli, in addition to every item on the jeweler's inventory receipt.
At this time, it was necessary to head back to the manor to meet back up with Father Dagfinn to try and consecrate the manor again. The party split (safely), since Porta-Billo wanted to try and re-awaken the giant oak in the ruins. Ronrick went back home with half the party, and the rest stayed with Porta-Billo. Ronrick took the jeweler's inventory with them. They arrived back at the manor just in time that Father Dagfinn and the two younger priests with him had just arrived. They quickly set to work, redo'ing the blessings on the upper floor and main floor without any issues. It wasn't until they reached the basement that the task became difficult.
Stepping down into the basement (at some point Terinor had taken the time to craft a metal spiral staircase that led into the basement), the air became thicker and hot, and Ronrick and the priests began to sweat. Suffering at the back of the party was fine though, being a tiefling and a warlock of the fiend. The storage rooms were easier to bless, and once done the heaviness lifted from the rooms. Going into the hallway behind the secret door was more difficult though, as it felt like Ronrick was walking into pool, sluggish and pushing back. Continuing his prayers and blessing the air and earth before him with his incense and vial of holy water, Father Dagfinn and the priests followed closely behind doing the same. Through his determination, Ronrick and them were able to reach the end of the hallway, although the task looked like it was starting to toll on him.
Opening the door to the far room was like opening a door to a hot oven, and the air felt like wading through mud. The room seemed to breathe and try to push them all out. Ronrick forced his way in, repeating his chants and blessings, throwing whole vials of the holy water around. Through sheer determination, perseverance, and help from his diety, the room started to scream and laugh in his mind as he drove the unholy presence from it. Finally it was gone, and Ronrick collapsed in his exhaustion having accomplished the task. There was only one room left though, the closet that the dybbuk had escaped down before.
Opening and looking through the door, however, revealed a barred entrance, with a glowing holy lock inscribed with Ronrick's symbol of faith. As much as anyone tried, it would not open yet. Probably for the best, even the assisting priest's were exhausted. Ronrick had to be helped up and out back to where he could rest in his tent. Father Dagfinn and the priests left back to their temple, and construction could begin again the next day.
At the moment that Ronrick was able to finally remove the last shred of evil from the manor and collapsed, part of Veronica's memory flashed before her eyes as she watched Porta-Billo and the tree..
She was standing in a dark room, lit barely by sconces on the walls around. Cloaked figures stood in a large circle, murmuring a chant that reverberated around the room. Next to her was a taller, chiseled man, shirtless with belted black pants tucked into black leather boots. His face was shrouded in darkness, but his teeth gleaned in the firelight as he held out his hand for Veronica to take a sword from it. Picking up the blade she noticed that his hand had six fingers, the last one trailing on her skin as she pulled away. He motioned toward the center of the circle where a humanoid creature sat on its knees.
It's head was hung low and two stumps protruded from its shoulder blades. It's armor was shredded and Veronica noticed it was chained to the floor by its ankles, hands, and neck. She stepped towards it. The creature looked up and she saw it's bright emerald green eyes that burned unaffected by its current captivity. Its once long golden hair was cut short and cuts and bruises covered its entire body. "Do it! Do it already you..." and it spat at Veronica's feet. The chanting in the room began to rise to a crescendo and drown out most everything.
Without any feeling in her heart, like a void rather than a purposeful intent to feel nothing, Veronica raised the blade and drove it into the creatures chest. Blood flowed from the wound and came up out of its mouth. The green eyes stared back at her through a grimace of hatred. The vision began to blacken around the edges and started to consume everything, except those eyes. Veronica felt a sadness as she stared back into the green as it died, not from herself, but something deeper in her chest.
Coming up out of the vision, Veronica's chest felt heavy, and she pulled out from under her armor an amulet she had forgotten about. On the large plate of metal was the face of a woman with wild hair. the sadness was there again, but faint. She placed it back beneath her armor and saw that Porta-Billo was coming up at the 8-hour mark of casting Plant Growth in an attempt to revive this ancient tree in the druid cairn.
The spell concluded in a flash of green light and Porta-Billo fell to his knees from the hard work. The runes carved into the tree began to glow a neon green, starting where the roots peaked above the soil and slowly climbing towards the trunk and branches. Plants grew out out of almost every crevice in the cairn, vines climbing the pillars, flowers blooming in the walls, and lush grasses sprouting between the stones at their feet. Buds began to form on the ancient oak, unfurling and plumping into dark green leaves that blotted out the moonlight from the hole cutout above. The entire place began to glow in a bright green enough for anyone to see clearly.
The air smelled fresh again, bugs began to hum once again above and within the revived shrine. From behind the tree walked around a ghostly visage of much younger looking arch-druid that they had fought earlier. He stood straight, wore furs and ritual garb of his high rank, and was flanked by two ghostly blink dogs who sat obediently beside him as he stopped and stood infront of Porta-Billo.
He greeted the firbolg in druidic and thanked him for re-igniting the spark of this sacred place. Porta-Billo stood and received from the arch-druid an amulet carved from wood of a tree. The archdruid explained that this was the symbol of their grove forever ago. Time had forgotten them, but thankfully this place still existed. Now, thanks to Porta-Billo though, they might be able to continue their history. Porta-Billo enthusiastically accepted the gift and was then taught how to use the amulet to teleport back to this place (1x/day). He was then imparted with a gift of wisdom from the archdruid and was now able to wildshape into a blink dog. The archdruid began to fade and walk away, promising to help again in the future once the temple was more restored. For now, he had done all he could.
The party was super excited about all this, but needed to return to the manor for some rest. So they packed up and went back home for now.
Mirtul, 30th.
They stopped at the Adventurer's Guild and then to the Jeweler's to return the inventory and get paid. Ronrick was FINALLY able to join the carpenter's guild and began to work on a few pieces for the manor in addition to the work they had there. Terinor spotted the Vistani woman talking to one of the orphans and the party tried to follow unsuccessfully. Talking to the kid, they instead got a lead that if they wanted info about the vistani, that they needed to go see Peter that night at the park near the docks. After that at the Auspicious Augur, Su, Dahlia, Terinor, and Veronica ended up all joining the Harper's Guild after having Jonathan help them do a Scrying spell on the Vistani woman.
The vistani was somewhere in a shop near the docks, but she noticed she was being scryed upon, and let the party know that she knew, before she stopped the spell. During the day the party went and did their once a month work at the guard barracks so they would get their pay. Then that night they went to the park.
Su pushed Ronrick around on the merry-go-round REALLY FAST and the party seemed to be enjoying themselves for a bit before Peter and the gang of orphans showed up. Then it was only realized that Peter was actually a girl... Su did the negotiating with Peter and they came to an agreement that if the party helped rescue their friends from the prison where experiments were being on them, Peter and them would help the party with information about the Vistani woman. They agreed, Ronrick went back to the guard barracks and was able to get them all on the next rotation for Prison Guard duty.
They went back to the manor since the next rotation started the next day. The night passed peacefully; except for for Su, who had sleep paralysis and dreams of succubi...
The next morning, they rose, had breakfast, greeted the coming construction workers, and left for the Coastal Penitentiary to begin their week long work. It was about two hours carriage ride northeast of Saker's Pass. The trip was quiet. Arriving there, they had to circle around to the north gate and were greeted by a gated guardhouse with a barred window facing the front door. Ronrick showed the attending guard their papers and were laughed at when they said that they had volunteered for this duty. "No one here 'volunteers' for this work." Suffering quickly piped up that he was voluntold and the guards seemed to believe that more. Either way, they were let in and told to go meet the Quarter Master Tilda inside for their arms and colors. Tilda was a beast of a human woman; almost 7 foot tall, dark brown hair pulled back into a tight bun at the base of her skull, thick lips and a unibrow (think Miss Trunchbull). She deprived them of any sharp weapons, ok'd a few smaller blunt weapons, and gave them each a black and orange waifenrock and a tonfa to signify their position as guards. Once set up, they were instructed to go and meet with the Commodore to receive initial instructions in the next room over.
Commodore Skandalor was an older gentleman of muscular stature and white hair. He was sitting behind his desk talking to a woman in noble clothes, very prim and proper. When the party arrived, she turned to see them and became quite pale at first, and then a deep red of hatred as she recognized them. The party also immediately recognized her as the mayor's wife as well, Lady Yelina Carnago. The woman they had previously attempted to blackmail for her indiscretions. "Oh it's you.." and the party snarked back some quick remarks. She grinned and whispered to the Commodore something about "trash" and "giving .. hell". "Enjoy your duties here!" she quipped, ignoring any further comments that they uttered and walked out.
The Commodore stood and cleared his throat and assigned them immediately to cleaning duty of the entire main floor and the guard towers. Private Larsen was going to chaperone them and make sure that they did a good job. A tiny gnome walked in with an attitude of a giant and the voice of a squeaky mouse. Terinor laughed at the pipsqueak and then was slapped in the knee by the short man's tonfa. "Get moving! We don't have all day!"
Starting in the kitchen, it took the rest of the morning to clean the entire first floor, avoid the condescension from the "noble" inmates that had lofty cells on the first floor, and also clean out the higher levels of the towers. When they were done, it was time for lunch. Su tried to get Larsen to play some pirate dice, but it never quite worked out.
After lunch is when their normal shift work began. Dani and Suffering were assigned to the south entrance, and quickly learned the the inside of the prison was affected by an anti-magic field. Because of this, Suffering grew quite stir-crazy not being able to cast magic, and a large lumberjack-like fellow names Alex Louis Armstrong had to pay him a visit and sat on him for the remainder of the watch. They talked and became good friends. Dani however sweet-talked her way out of guard duty with a cute older officer and they went off back to his office for "R&R".
Terinor and Nimble were assigned to the main courtyard patrol and were able to catch on to some gossip as people came through. Veronica and Porta-Billo were stationed in the top of the southwest tower and saw some of the shenanigans that Su was trying to pull before Su was restrained. Dahlia, Ronrick, and Peli were stationed at the top of the other southern tower. In their boredom, Peli pee'd off the side of the tower as his friend Ziggs climbed up and down the walls. Ronrick went downstairs to see who was there and found two privates, Turi & Raine, and shared some in some "G'nut Juice" with them.
Terinor at this time was also trying to get better duties and was able to get on Captain Tayler Coyle's good side. The first day ended rough, the party was tired and sore from their work, and got some rest.
The next day they did more guard/patrol work. Ronrick picked up more juice from Nimble, and was able to stop by and talk to Captain Desmina in the sick bay, who was attending to two guards who had gotten sick from what appeared to be "toilet juice" instead of the proper juice. Nimble came along with also and was able to take a sample from their vomit and created an antidote to help the guards recover faster. Ronrick got Desmina to agree to meet up after their shifts to partake in the proper juice.. On Su's shift, he became even better friends with Alex Louis Armstrong and learned that the lumberjack didn't know how to read or write! So Su took it upon himself to teach the man.. In Infernal. It took their entire shift, but the big piece of meat picked it up quite nicely and they were having full conversations in his new language by the end!
Dani didn't have quite as nice of an ending with her new friend. After the R&R in the captain's office, she wanted to keep him and take him back to the manor. So she stuffed him in her bag of holding, not realizing the air supply limitation. Rumors spread about her and the captain, a "walk of shame" kind of thing, since the captain was known to fool around. However the next morning during her shift when she opened the bag to check on him... She quickly closed the bag again and went about her day in a silent paranoia.
Veronica and Porta-Billo had chef duty. Terinor, Nimble, and Peli got upgraded to delivering meals instead of having to patrol. While delivering meals, Peli noticed that an old friend was locked up in the prison. Samantha actually came from his dimension! They had both survived the takeover of the demon lords when they come up through the Underdark. Their previous party had been lost in Neverlight Grove specifically when Zuggtmoy infected them with spores. After a short, discrete reunion, Peli was determined to help her get out. The locks were simple enough, but he needed a disguise for her first.
During the afternoon meal deliveries is when the meal delivery boys did more recon about the place. There were 3 underground levels of general prison population. The entrance to the next level down was behind a cage and set of armored guards.
At the end of their shifts for the day, Peli reached out to Private Jenson, who surprisingly had a full disguise and makeup kit. The gnome was happy to let him borrow it in exchange for doing Peli's own makeup. Peli was the most beautiful kobold ever that evening and had everyone's heads turning as he went past. Meanwhile, Captain Desmina came and picked up Ronrick from the sleeping quarters and took him and Dahlia back to her office where Turi & Raine were also waiting. The 5 of them mostly blacked-out about that evening - memories mostly include missing clothing and lots of laughs...
Porta-Billo, Veronica, and Peli went down after their shift ended to go spring Samantha. They gave her a guard uniform that they were able to get earlier in the day when Ronrick visited the armory and shared some G'nut Juice with the attendant there as well. Peli used the disguise kit to clean her up and make her look like a regular guard. Once this was done, Peli and Samantha went back to the sleeping quarters while Veronica was going to help distract the guards leading into the lower levels.
Veronica did her best blonde impression to try and impress upon the guards, who weren't having any of it. But it was enough for Porta-Billo to drink a potion of gaseous form, that he had earned earlier for helping Esther with her carniverous plants, and sneak past the guards undetected as he floated across the ceiling.
The fourth and fifth levels down seemed to just be increasingly higher security areas. It didn't look like these inmates were let out of their cells very often, if at all. Some of the children they were looking for upstairs in a section specifically for juveniles, but one was here in the high security. The only one they hadn't accounted for yet was Antia.
In the middle of the fifth floor was a locked manhole with a ladder that led down to a sixth level. It was an empty room with two doors opposite each other. Choosing one of them, Porta-Billo floated through the keyhole and discovered in the first one a larger room with a cage in the center that dominated the room. Inside was the last child missing, Antia. She was sitting in a corner in dirty rag of a smock. Porta-Billo observed her for a short while when all of a sudden, the vistani woman poofed into existence just outside the cage! Porta-Billo held his breath (even though he didn't have to in this form) and hid as best he could and continued to watch. Antia was elated to see the woman, who handed her a book. Porta-Billo saw the vistani woman's face light up red as if the child's eyes were glowing while she was showing her an intricate set of hand patterns and words to repeat. The light faded and the child laughed happily. The vistani brushed her hair, smiling and saying soft praises. Porta-Billo froze in air when the vistani woman then looked up at him and grinned. She said good bye to the little girl and then poofed back out of existence. The girl repeated the hand motions and words and the book she had been given disappeared. Repeating it again, the book came back. Antia giggled again and kept practicing at this.
Porta-Billo left this room, unsure what to do at the moment and went into the room opposite. Inside looked like an alchemist lab with various vials and instruments at work. In the center of the room was a glass-covered pedestal with an orb floating in the center. The orb itself was black and imperceptible (like vanta-black) but had gray rays radiating out of it like a star, but completely devoid of color. Porta-Billo dropped his gaseous form and removed the glass cover, and then had to figure out how to turn this thing off... He tried all kinds of magic words and touching it, even removing it from the pedestal. But nothing was working yet..
He sat with it in his lap trying all kinds of different things and pondering how to turn the dang thing off, when after an hour had passed it clicked with him. Sitting with the thing he had unintentionally attuned to it and was gifted knowledge of what it was and how it worked. He spoke the key words while holding the orb in his hands and the gray light faded, the black sphere dulled into a gray and the orb was suddenly heavy and unremarkable in his hands.
nstantly, alarms everywhere within the prison started to go off - they must have been suppressed by the anti-magic field that was held in place by this orb. Panicking, he stuffed the orb into his bag and pulled out his new druidic talisman and teleported himself to the old druid cairn.
The rest of the party was roused from whatever activities they had been doing while waiting for Porta-Billo and were ordered to guard the Prison from the oncoming inmate riot that was clearly heard down below.
The riot immediately filled all levels of the prison's population and started to spill out into the ground floor. The guards and our party gathered quickly to try and subdue it. After securing the ground floor, Captain Desmina and Coyle led their party down into the general population. The first level wasn't terrible, these were everyday brigands - more tough to look at than take a punch from. This is also where the majority of the other guards were as well, so it didn't take long for the whole group to knock heads of those that needed heads knocked and put everyone back in their cells with a manual lock.
The second level down was a little more difficult, as these were your higher crimes, but not terribly heinous. It took effort and harder head knockings, and the party and the fewer guards available were able to put everyone back.
The third level down was the last level of the general population, and it held the most heinous, but not murderous, villains - like the guys who do tax evasion scams and what not. Even fewer guards to help here, but the party was able to subdue the criminals and put them back on their hard time, maybe only one death, unintentionally.
Reaching the fourth level down changed the attitudes of what thy were facing though. Now these were criminals who didn't care and would kill for it. The guards that had been stationed to protect the next level were dead at their post and the gate was broken open. Going down, they heard the chaos before they saw it and immediately had to start taking action to protect themselves as magic users were starting to lead the prisoners in the chaos. The party and guards made quick work out of most of them with fireballs, and contained those that could be contained, and slain those who couldn't be. Here they also found where a side room had been that contained nothing but children, and they found all but one of the kids that they had been sent here for.
The guards to the fifth level down were also deceased, but in a more gruesome way. Exiting the bottom of the stairs down, they saw that everyone in their entirety on fifth floor was done in in the same way, guards and inmates alike. Bodies looked like hunks of meat and sinew, and the floor was painted in blood. Parts were barely indistinguishable from the rest. The other guards with the party at this point had stayed behind to help with the fourth floor, and they went ahead alone.
In the center of the fifth floor they found the manhole cover that hid the ladder leading down into the sixth level. Removing it, the only sounds were the activity above them, and the dripping of blood down the open hole to the floor below. Carefully they climbed down.
Creeping out of one of the door frames was ethereal black tendrils tasting the air. The other looked normal. Opening the scarier door first, Ronrick went in first. A little girl, Antia they discovered having saved the children from the previous floors, stood in the center of a cage with an open door. Her eyes were glowing bright red, and the air around her shimmered with its own heat. She stood motionless, unblinking, staring at something the party couldn't see. The rest of the party climbed down and followed Ronrick; Dahlia and Dani staying behind in the entryway at first.
Su quickly scrawled a message in his book of shadows, asking his patron for help. A cryptic reply came back finally. Instead of allowing the party to fight this little girl who's magic started to shake the very earth around them and the entire prison, Ronrick stood in the line of fire and took a blanket from his bag. At first he felt sluggish and stone-skinned somehow staring at her, but was able to shrug it off and slowly approached the girl and wrapped her in a big hug, telling her that they were here to help her and that nothing bad was going to happen to her. Su quickly followed suit, hugging her from the other side, calling her little sister, and saying that they were not going to leave her.
Peli and Samantha joined in on the hugging as well. Terinor started to come in as well, followed by Veronica and Dani - who hid in the shadows, The girl lets out a wall of force in a bubble around her, prying Peli and Samantha off of her. Ronrick and Su were able to hold on. At the same time Terinor felt the same sluggishness that Ronrick felt earlier, but wasn't able to shrug it off, and his skin started to turn to stone from the outside in. Veronica quickly went to his side to try to stop him from completely turning to stone.
All the while, Ronrick and Su were talking in the girls ear, telling her she was loved and that family was here, that nothing bad was going to happen to her. At the same time her power was fluctuating, from radiating out so much that the building started falling apart in places, to being reduced to minimal at other times from the words of Ronrick and Su. They were saved while holding her only because her cell had a ceiling more than that of the room's.
Dani and Dahlia attempted to run. Terinor and Veronica were struggling against the dwarf's body turning to stone. Peli and Samantha were trying to help Ronrick and Su save the little girl. The building couldn't take much more. There was a particularly violent tremor and the angel and demon hugging the little girl gave her a few more words of hope about love and family. Her eyes stopped glowing and her power stopped trying to repel them. She looked around for a moment and started to cry before eventually falling unconscious. The tremors stopped immediately.
As they attempted to leave, the vistani woman appeared in the entry way to the girl's cell. She demanded at them, "Put down my daughter." and raised her hand in a magickal threat. The party did not oblige and she repeated her threat, stepping forward. She was stopped suddenly at this point, turning her head slightly as if someone was whispering in her ear. Hatred and rage washed over her face and she stepped back, clenching her fists. "You are safe for now..." she grimaced, and disappeared.
Carrying the little girl out, they stopped in the room across the hall, finding it unlocked, and discovered a ring of clovers and learned that Porta-Billo had made it out safely. They climbed out of the lowest part of the prison and worked their way to the top. Captain Desmina and them were waiting for them, and they volunteered and were given writs allowing them to escort the children back to Saker's Pass, and end their guard duties early this time.
The children were all cared for, and chose to go back to Peter and the other orphans, who were elated to have them back. Antia was set to rest in the furnished infirmary back at Redfield Manor, and the party adopted her. Peter gave back the ring of protection, and they struck out a deal that any orphans who were wanting could go to Redfield Manor for work. The party also asked if Peter's orphans could keep an eye in passing on Yelina, the mayor's wife. It wasn't a clean prison, children shouldn't have been there at all they had learned, and they wanted to see how corrupt this woman was.
Peter also explained more about the Vistani woman, Xavia Taewen. That she didn't originally come from this dimension, something about demon lords and the world being covered in fungus. Peli and Samantha had vivid flashbacks, and everyone agreed that this woman probably came from the same place as them. Peter was adamant that the vistani was only kind to them. The party asked to let them know whenever she came around nonetheless.
Welcome to Saker's Pass; A coastal trading community of few thousand folk who have traveled far and wide in search of a better life. In this growing melting pot all kinds of adventures can be had every day. While we haven't had any major issues for the past 30 years thanks to our local hero Cavin Saker, this town is not without its rabble. The city watch is able to handle them though. Would-be Adventurer's are pointed toward the local adventurer's guild for any jobs. Artists and Merchants are pointed toward the city center markets. Everyone else, there's room for you too!
The Legend of Cavin Saker 30 years ago on the 15th of Mirtul, it was as normal a day as any other. After night fell, however, the village of Silvertear was quickly under assault by demons and infernals. Most citizens were able to flee for safety, but those that weren't found an unsettling end. While most of the details have been lost in poor or mad memories, everyone knew that when dawn came, Cavin Saker, a paladin of Pelor, stood in the center of the village, bloodied and almost broken, victorious against the invaders. He helped Silvertear recover from the horror, and in return the town agreed unanimously to rename after him and honor the 15th of Mirtul in his name. The legend doesn't go into detail about where the invaders came from, or why, but Saker assured us all they wouldn't return.
07/29/19
A long, long time ago, in a ..... wait. Three days ago a strange thing happened near Saker's Pass. A kobold blipped into existence. Whether by luck or some weird space/time anomaly where the previous world was so infused with faerzress from demon lords taking over that he lost his experience and his mind.. this creature appeared laying in a warm, sunny field just outside of the quiet town. We'll call him Peli. Peli got up, looked around utterly confused and saw the town nearby and went to investigate. He didn't know it was the 15th of Mirtul, and the town was celebrating the Saker's Day Faire! Avoiding some small creatures dressed up as knights and demons (children), Peli found himself at The Right Wife, a pretty decent Tavern in town.
Mother, the obvious owner of the establishment, was serving a group of Adventurer's who were enjoying themselves quiet well! Veronica, a blonde angel; Suffering, a tiefling with an eye twitch (or was it really a twitch?); Terinor, a hearty-happy dwarven smithy; Hana, a strange changling; Nimble Gnutz, of the Gnutz family, famous for their amazing and wacky inventions; and Porta-Billo, a big furry tree hugger who was talking up Mother's houseplants. A few drinks into the party, they were approached by a Vistani fortune-teller, Lady Taewen, who read the cards for them (secretly eyeing Peli at the same time from across the bar). The Wizard meant that their past was riddled with mysteries, of magic. The Abjurer meant that they were all well grounded with logic and this reasoning will take them far. But warns against overlooking clues or information just because it doesn't make sense. The Swashbuckler meant that they'll have to deal with some who either come and go with money with ease or someone who doesn't put much value in money. The Donjon stood for potential Isolation and Imprisonment, not necessarily literally, but one can be a prisoner of their mind as well. It warned against becoming trapped in their beliefs. And the Darklord stood for a single, powerful being of an evil nature. One who's goals have enormous and far-reaching consequences. The group of adventurers seemed to be in for a treat!
The festivities dragged on and later into the evening the joyous occasion turned more somber as the whole town dawned light cloaks and carried lit lanterns down to the river in remembrance of all those lost years ago in the massacre that Cavin Saker saved the town from. During the townfolks singing, screaming was heard over the harmonizing, piercing and shrill. A few houses in the neighboring street has been set aflame! Our party, now joined by Peli, quickly advanced to see how they could help.
Outside, some infernal creatures were taunting and tormenting three women. The party deftly made work out of them and they disappeared in piles of ash and sulfur. They worked with the town's aid carrying water and casting spells to put out the flames. Ultimately three homes were destroyed in the arson, but the women were saved. Of the known casualties, there was only and old married couple who passed. The party investigated the house while they could. In the center of the house on the main floor they found remnants of blue chalk which had created a summoning circle to bring forth the wretched demons. Having fallen through the cracks, they also found a necklace in the cellar below.
This is also where they first met Ronrick, another angel creature. He was laying in the middle of the floor, unconscious, nearby the summoning circle. He looked like he had been in a fight. The party saved him from the fire and quickly realized he was another adventurer like them and unable to be responsible for the demons. They all helped heal the townsfolk and each other before turning to question the three women that were attacked, Agama, Ibera, and Raine. They appeared to just work together and didn't hang out much outside of taking care of the elderly couple. While the party went searching for clues, one of the ladies left to return to her home. Her nerves where shot and she just wanted sleep. The party thought this suspicious and followed her to a bunkhouse where she was staying at. Forming a small mob with their insistence on this red herring, they demanded entry to the bunkhouse, which was vehemetly denied by the crotchety old mad who ran the place. Porta-Billo snuck in in the shape of a mouse and determined her innocence by the lack of blue chalk in her belongings. The party then returned back to The Right Wife to rest after dispersing the other townsfolk.
During the investigation of the bunkhouse, Suffering had returned to The Right Wife to inquire about the Vistani who had visited them before and found smudgings of blue chalk on the table they were seated at before when she was there. He asked Mother's husband, who was still there at the time, if the woman was "out of place" in any way, and was able to exchange one of his gold pieces for the strange gold piece the woman had paid with.
Family Traditions [Campaign Log] COMPLETED
Cursed Islands [Campaign Log] IN-PROGRESS
The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.William Arthur Ward
08/05/19
The next morning, the adventurer's decided to continue travelling together and went to the marketplace. They met an herbalist at The Silver Draught, Esther Dunn, an older gnome lady who loved that Porta-Billo was able to help her rare plants bloom and flower. She asked and the party accepted in looking in more rare ingredients for her.
They met an alchemist and purveyor of magickal arts, Jonna Romazi, a tiefling who ran the Auspicious Augur shop.
At "Red Owl" the market grocer, they met Esmee and Geoff Umbermoor, human twin siblings, where they were able to buy the blue chalk. and lastly they discovered the local Saker's Pass Adventurer's Guild, run by Krynna Vadu and her father Bran Vadu, a tiefling family. Krynna un-enthusiastically welcomed the party into their ranks and offered them jobs off the board.
Accepting two jobs off the board, the party went back to the Right Wife for the first one. There they met Dahlia Redfield who was looking for assistance in clearing her newly inherited home from anyone who may have taken up residence there. She wasn't ready, but happy to finally have help, she agreed to meet them back there at the Right Wife the next morning with her wagon and supplies.
So the party went over to the Mayor's house to talk with his wife for the second job. Mayor Sabjorn Carnago's wife, Yelina, was a proud, noble woman who was kind of pompous.. She told the adventurer's about her missing brooch and that it was last seen at Lord Glint's home where he had a party recently. She stated that this investigation must remain discreet however, because the brooch was a gift from her husband and she didn't want to upset him with the knowledge she had lost it. After becoming increasingly upset by the party's want to explore own home first, she booted them out to go search elsewhere. "I've already searched my own home from top to bottom! I wouldn't have asked for help if it was here!"
So off they went to Lord Glint's. In the middle of the day it was pretty quiet, so they first talked to the groundskeeper out front. A quick intimidation check granted them access via the servant's entrances in the back to the kitchen. There they met Soko, a halfling maid who worked in the kitchen. She hesitantly explained that she took the brooch from another maid who may or may not have been trying to steal it, but would only hand it over should the party not say anything to Lord Glint. She didn't want anyone to be fired over this. Ronrick alone was allowed to follow her to the servant's sleeping quarters where she hid it. She confessed that she had tried to return it immediately to Lady Carnago, but found the woman to be in a compromising situation and thought best to return it later. The party agreed to not rat out the other maid and left with the brooch in hand.
Returning later to the Carnago estate again, they turned over the brooch after failing to have Lady Carnago spill the beans about her affair. She once again booted them from the house. They went back to the Adventurer's Guild for their payment.
(Leveled to 2.)
Family Traditions [Campaign Log] COMPLETED
Cursed Islands [Campaign Log] IN-PROGRESS
The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.William Arthur Ward
08/12/19
Then they finally received their shiny new Adventurer's Guild membership cards!
Porta-Billo returned to the herbalist while the rest went back to the Right Wife to rest for the night. At the Silver Draught, Porta-Billo bought some teas and inquired if there were any other plants that he could help Esther with. She seemed very happy about the idea and quietly took him down to the cellar, which was lit up with magickal heat-producing lights. On a shelf, she directed him to 10 specimens of carnivorous plants that she didn't know how to feed since the cloth trap of flies hanging above wasn't working. Porta-Billo did his magic and they bloomed and he was able to help identify food that each would prefer to eat. In return for his assistance, she agreed to give him a couple vials of whatever she was going to make from these plants.
Back at the Right Wife, Terinor got his comeuppance from Mother back in a small breakfast dish while everyone else ate normal portions. They loaded up the wagon and set off to the Redfield Manor along with Dahlia.
Also, Terinor had been drooling last night through the fence at the City Watch's armory barracks because he was eyeing their beautiful, newly finished, extra-deliciously-powerful trebuchet. They gave a working copy of it in keychain form to get him to stop drooling and go away.
Arriving at Redfield Manor, the place was a complete disaster area. The lawn was overgrown, the windows covered in a thick layer of dust and sludge. The floor, walls, ceilings, roof, all in various stages of decay.
The party began to explore the first floor, room by room, for any "unwanted" tenants. On the back patio, Veronica had a close brush from several swarms of rats that had taken up home in the cushions. In the study, Terinor found a spellbook that had belongs to Emilia, Dahlia's grandmother, as well as a letter and black, leather-bound journal written by Caliope, Dahlia's mother. In the dining room, Nimble had found a small vial of rose water perfume that was almost depleted and needed repairs to the spritzer ball, also belong to the grandmother. Last off in the greenhouse where they destroyed a few twig blights and awakened bushes that had attacked Suffering for disturbing them. There was also a Violet Fungus that fled from the fight, and they decided to leave it for the time being. They started towards the entrance to the cellar.
(Leveled to 3.)
Family Traditions [Campaign Log] COMPLETED
Cursed Islands [Campaign Log] IN-PROGRESS
The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.William Arthur Ward
08/26/19
The entrance to the cellar was an old stone room filled with cobwebs. After clearing them out they stared at a square hole with a wooden ladder leading down into a dark dank room. Terinor decided to be the first to go down in there. The first thing that struck him was the smell of old musty decay of organic matter. The second thing that struck him was the cold stone floor below as the ladder gave out from under him! As he struggled to get upright, into the room broke two undead, shattering the south door in the process. Porta-Billo jumped down to aid him. Ronrick and the others joined in where they could in this cramped space as well and four more undead broke through the other door to the west. Thankfully the group defeated these before Ronrick himself was. From the tatters on the corpses and the marks and remains in the other rooms, it was assumed that these were the previous servants that used to work in the manor. Each of these four rooms were storage of some kind, to old now-leather meats, petrified fruits and vegetables, and broken junk. Thanks so having the blueprints to the manor, they found a secret tunnel in the southern wall of the SW room.
Peli snuck ahead to check for more monsters and traps and found 2 more undead waiting in the far room on the other side of the door. He tried, with difficulty, to communicate this to Veronica and Ronrick to try to ambush the creatures. Eventually they got it and started their attack. Peli hauled open the door and in rushed the two Aasimar. They attacked and the undead responded in a strange fashion, turning in jerky movements like their body was not the right size for their bones or muscles, and screaming in a way that they expanded their jaws and mouths to unnatural sizes. They were defeated after a hard fight, and transparent jellyfish-like creatures extracted itself from the corpses. One tried to use Peli's and Ronrick's fears against them with phantasmal forces. It disappeared, but Ronrick knew it was still nearby. Meanwhile, the other creature retreated to the closet and Suffering casted Create Bonfire at the wooden closet's door in attempt to kill/smoke it out. The rest of the party panicked over this, since the ceiling was wooden in this room, they were underground, and the whole manor wasn't quite stable since it had been neglected. The fire was put out and when the closet was opened, the creature appeared to have disappeared down a small hole in the collapsed wall. Porta-Billo shape-shifted into a honey badger and started to dig after it.
Terinor started back down the hallway they had come from and that's when they learned where the other creature went. It had taken over one of the more intact corpses they had killed in the other room and was now rushing at him! Fighting in the narrow hallway was more difficult than in the previous room, but the team was able to take this one out again and managed to defeat the jellyfish before it could escape! Nimble was able to capture the jelly's corpse in a jar he had on his person. In the room at the end of the hall, Terinor had found a ring of protection, and Ronrick had found a component's pouch and a Wand of Secrets (which is free to be used by anyone in the party). Component pouch:
The 2nd floor was easily cleared with no real challenge. Dahlia was incredibly thankful for their help and offered them if they needed a place that they could stay here at the manor once repairs were completed - she is all by herself and this is a big place for just one person. The party was grateful and asked if she'd like to join them. She whole-heartedly accepted and they planned out how the place was going to be remodeled. The party also realized that the trip back to Saker's Pass was only 30 minutes now instead of a few hours that it took them to get to Redfield Manor...
(Leveled to 4.)
Family Traditions [Campaign Log] COMPLETED
Cursed Islands [Campaign Log] IN-PROGRESS
The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.William Arthur Ward
09/02/19
Upon returning to town, the party was witness to an angry group of townsfolk shouting outside the Adventurer's Guild where they were heading. On closer inspection, they seemed upset that "demons" were running a business in town after the attack a short while ago. The party quickly intervened and the city guard showed up shortly after as well to help deter any issues. The townsfolk left in a grumble and the city guard shortly thereafter as well.
This is where we finally got to meet Bram! Krynna's happy-go-lucky father, the exact opposite of his brooding moody daughter. He was incredibly thankful for the work the party has done so far and encouraged them to continue and that more work would show up soon. After receiving their reward for Dahlia's original posting, the party split up to go about town for tasks for the house.
Dahlia and Ronrick went to the bank to secure a loan: (math may not be 100% correct, but we tried.)
After completing their errands, the group decided to go try out what the City Watch was all about and their Adventurer's Guild posting. Upon arriving they saw there was already 3 other other people looking to join as well. Dani, who decided to join up with the party afterwards; Ronnie, a strange, very pale-looking string-bean elf; and Pat, a non-verbal beardless dwarf who was surprisingly decent at whatever she was doing.
Seargent Cromwell began the testing with a simple strength test - break the boulder. Everyone did as expected during this one except for Su(ffering), who tried to cheat and got caught and then refused to use the sledgehammer. Next was an obstacle course. Dani and Veronice NAILED this. Again Su tried to cheat with mold earth trying to move the whole course. Next was a wisdom reasoning test as to WHO was the bad guy and WHY. Nimble was the one who aced this one! After that was discovering where in the room the weapon was. Terinor got the best on this one, closely followed by Porta-Billo. Next 3 guards walked in. Each person had the opportunity to ask them 1 question - 2 would tell the truth, and a 3rd (different each time) would lie. Ronrick got the best on this one, followed by Su and Dani. And lastly, the chef came in with their weekly 5-alarm chili special. If the group could survive eating this (since it was a weekly dish they made), then for sure they'd be a good fit as a guard. Ronrick sneakily casted purify food/water on it to remove the spicyness from it and it was all eaten up before poor Porta-Billo and Nimble could get any. A second pot was made for them and they had to suffer the intense heat! They did survive though.
The entire group successfully passed the entrance exam and were welcomed as Guard Reserves! Until their training was complete, they are considered "Rookie Guards" and don't have the full powers of one of the regular City Watch members just yet. (You can detain until a higher-ranking member showed up basically). There is training weekend once a month and each member receives a 100 gp / month stipend for their duty. They received badges as well.
After successfully becoming guards, it was decided to tackle another of their open jobs of retrieving the moonseed plants from north up the coast. After travelling for some time north from Saker's Pass along the coast, they eventually saw some plants ahead in the distance that were glowing under the light of the full moon that was rising. Getting closer, they also saw two small huts made from seawood and debris from the ocean. When they got close enough, Su used his Unseen Servant to go and pluck the three plants. However, when it saw a floating glowing plant, a Sea Spawn emerged from the shallows to investigate and destroyed the unseen servant, caught sight of the party, and began attacking with the assistance of two Sea Hags, their pets, and a few more spawn. Without terrible difficulty, the party was able to slay one of the Sea Hags on shore, and the other disappeared under the waves in a red wash as it was trying to escape. The party collected her head for the general monster bounty that is always available. They plucked 3 plants to turn in and returned to town.
Deciding they still had time, they also decided to go help the farmer who was having trouble and put an ad in with the Adventurer's Guild. Upon arriving at the farmstead they found the farmer in his home with his family. He explained as much as he was able - animals were being eaten, the disposed corpses were still being eaten at, crops were being eaten and destroyed. He'd lock up the barn tight, but still this would happen. Su was very suspicious of the farmer thinking that he might be a werewolf.. The party did their own investigating around the whole property as well. Alarm spells were setup at each entrance to the barn. No tracks were found leading to or away from the farm and no good/evil/fiend/fey/etc was to be detected. Very strange indeed! Ronrick, Su, and Nimble setup inside the barn to watch. Dani, Terinor, and Veronica setup outside in the garden. Porta-Billo, Dahlia, and Peli setup on the roof. Someone suggested that Porta-Billo make the crops grow to provide cover again~~ They stood happily at a little over 4ft tall after some sweet words from the Firbolg (LOL), and the party sat in wait.
After about two hours, Dani had dozed off for a moment and woke with a start when she received a cut on her cheek. Panicking she fled to the nearest fence and hid in the shadows. A few moments later, Veronica received a cut on her back just under the edge of her armor. Peli yelled out, "Cut the grass!" as he expertly jumped down off of the roof and sprinted into the garden. Veronica cut a swath around herself while the rest of the party lit up the garden area and readied for attack. Then it was revealed that there was a creature that looked like it was made out of straw, with long sharp claws protruding from its makeshift hands and rows of sharp, jagged teeth as it screamed at the angel for exposing it. It dashed back into the tall grass and the party soon realized that all five of the scarecrows in the garden were now "missing" from their posts. The grass laid down flat again at another command from Porta-Billo and all five creatures were exposed!
After a longer battle, they were able to defeat four of the five creatures, revealing in the process that they were not actually even Scarecrows, but mimics who had taken over the appearance of the bird-deflectors. A long shot killed the last mimic as it tried to run away. Peli, like a hunting hound, confirmed the kill. Nimble collected yet another gooey creature's essence in a vial. The farmer thanked them for saving the farm (and for not letting another animal die).
(Leveled to 5.)
Family Traditions [Campaign Log] COMPLETED
Cursed Islands [Campaign Log] IN-PROGRESS
The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.William Arthur Ward
09/09/19
It was too late in the evening after the farmer to head back into town for their reward, so the party went back home to their campsite outside the manor for some rest. During the middle of the night, however, Su and Dahlia got up and started walking slowly towards the manor. The lightest sleeper due to his previous experiences in a previous dimension, Peli woke with a start and noticed two of his new friends in their nighttime stroll. He woke up Nimble and the two inspected the much taller friends and noticed that they were sleep-walking. Nimble knew that you shouldn't wake sleepwalkers so they followed them to make sure they didn't get into any harm.
Su and Dahlia stopped walking when they reached the top of the basement hole. Only a rope was still leading down and in their state, they wouldn't be able to climb down safely. In their shared vision/dream, Su and Dahlia were standing in their own separate foggy realm; a low red light lit the edges of the horizons and any near objects. A dark figure appeared through the fog; tall, dark, smell of sulfur and burnt roses. Obviously male, it laughed, a sound like smooth velvet vibrating over the air waves. Upset and threatened, Su let out a thunderwave. However, his actions in his dream were repeated in the waking world and his spell woke Dahlia from her dream and knocked back her and Nimble. Peli ran quickly back to the camp to get the others who were woken up also from the sound of his spell.
The dark figure laughed more and Su tried to cast hold person on him. While doing nothing in the dream, his hand reached out and his spell found Nimble. He was released shortly after when Su realized that his spell wasn't doing anything against the man, who then began to walk back into the fog. Su then started to run after him in the dream, and started to run towards the large hole that led into the basement! Peli had arrived with the rest of the party at this point and Ronrick grabbed Su's tail and stopped him before he could fall into the hole, pulling him back to safety. Recovering from their sleep walking, everyone went back to their tents and the rest of the night passed uneventfully.
In the morning, Brother Hamon arrived from the temple of Lysander to bless and consecrate the home. The party was in the middle of breakfast when he arrived and they spent a few minutes talking before going into the house. Taking out his incense, holy water, and prayer book, Brother Hamon walked through the home following the party.
When they arrived at the entrance to the basement was the first moment when Brother Hamon started to show any issues with his blessing ceremony. He persisted though and followed down into the basement. Inside the basement's first room though, things quickly changed. At first he because sweaty and started to be agitated. It quickly devolved into a angry mess as Hamon stopped being able to understand and read his book and what other people were saying, until eventually he seemed to pass out from the heat. Ronrick quickly carried him out of the basement and he regained consciousness but not his mind. Terinor dragged him out into the yard where he began to fully recover.
Except for that he had lost his memory until shortly before the arson happened in town. He knew who he was and his horse, but not who any of the party was or where he was currently or why. Dahlia suggested that they take him back to his temple immediately and get help for him. The party agreed and they all quickly mounted and set off.
At the temple they met Father Dagfinn. They left Brother Hamon in his care, explaining what had all happened. Father Dagfinn was concerned, but agreed to have himself and two assistants come to the manor later that night after the evening worship to attempt the consecration again. After arranging this, Ronrick went to his temple of Mielikki in town to pray. His brother's spirits came out while he was praying. Felben was concerned that something wasn't right and spoke to Ronrick to prepare for potential worse case scenarios. Sarmine didn't say anything, but agreed that it was unsettling and to prepare. Ronrick picked up his own blessing supplies from the temple and went to meet back with the party, who also had each run off for their quick errands, and were all going to meet back up at the Adventurer's Guild to turn in the Farmer's job.
When they arrived outside the Guild, the first thing everyone noticed was the place was under renovations! This is when everyone met Bram, Krynna's father, for the first time - a happy-go-lucky fellow who couldn't possibly have helped conceive the sarcastic, impatient younger tiefling. He was beyond excited to finally meet the adventuring party and share his enthusiasm about how good of a job they've all been doing so far; and that the renovations they were finally able to start on were thanks to them. That aside, Bram had a job for them to complete next before they took anything more.
A previous adventuring party of gnomes had come back, well one of them at least - Tim, broken and beaten and having failed in their job. He gave our party the inventory list of items stolen that were supposed to go to Jermaine Scott's jewelry store instead. Terinor, Dani, and Nimble went to question the remaining gnome, who went to a nearby clinic to recover. Arriving there, the gnome wasn't happy to see them, as he was in a lot of pain from his injuiries and reluctantly shared as much as he was able about the job, the bandits that stole the inventory, and the place they were holed up. He got very irate at one point, so Nimble gave him some special gnut juice which put the gnome on a super high and useless. So they tried to bring him down and he just started crying and bawling. They gave up, put him back on the high and left with the info they had. During this time, Su had went to The Auspicious Augur (Wizard shop/library) and obtained a library card to learn more about his vision, demons, and the history of Saker's Pass.
When everyone was ready, they agreed there was time enough to do the jeweler's job and return in time to meet Father Dagfinn back at the manor. So they took Dahlia's cart and set off to where the supply was originally ambushed.
The scene was atrocious! The previous gnome adventuring party left footprints and wrecked any potential evidence quite thoroughly. The good thing was that they also left a good trail leading off the main path to a small hill in the woods with a stone entrance that was ajar. The party found themselves in the entrance to an ancient cairn that appeared deserted, or at least the owner's went to great lengths to make it appear so they discovered in their investigation of the entrance.
The party went further into the cairn and discovered a wheel of potential exits from a massive central room. In the middle of the central room was an ancient oak tree that had died, runes carved all over its surface. The architecture was beautiful, intricate, and nothing of current times that anyone could discern. WISELY deciding to not split the party, they took the first stairs down to the right from where they entered and found themselves at a locked door. Peli was deftly able to unlock it and they went inside, setting off an alarm spell!
Su had changed into a Mist shape before this, went through the keyhole and discovered all the missing loot they were looking for, as well as what looked like an embalming chamber in the room beyond it.
The party holed up inside the room when the alarm went off, aside from Terinor who stood outside the door keeping watch. Three arrows whizzed past him as he shouted back insults before he also went inside and they closed and locked the door behind them. There was laughing from the other side of the door and upon opening it again, found they were not blocked by feet thick stone and earth.
With no option to go back out the way they came in, they decided to go deeper into the ruins. The next room was indeed an embalming chamber. A stone slab dominated the room in the middle with cuts in it to allow blood to flow to a trough below. Rusted antique instruments hung on the walls, too old to be of any use or value.
The next room had three caskets laying on a raised floor area in one corner of the room. Using the party's Wand of Secrets, Ronrick found a secret compartment beneath the middle casket and pulled out a small chest that had been sealed with wax.
Cracking it open, a sigh seemed to go through the room, and inside he found an old dried up candle (no longer useful), as well as some ancient coins (that Ronrick took with) and a scrap of fabric that crumbled under his touch. There wasn't anything else of interest in this room, and they moved on. In the next room, the group was attacked by a handful of shadows they had some difficulty in defeating due to cramped spaces, but were able to defeat them nonetheless.
The next room was dimly lit, and upon opening revealed it to be a small temple. One figure stood over four others kneeling in a small prayer. Upon a closer quick look, they were all found to be undead. Not risking it, Su let out a fireball in the room, which hurt them all badly in the initial explosion and destroyed them all (and most of the room) a moment later in the ensuing flames that lit up everything since it was old and dry. The party put out the fires after the undead were truly dead. Ronrick found a necklace of prayer beads in the remains of the altar table, with 4 beads on it that could cast either cure wounds at 2nd level OR lesser restoration per bead.
The opposite door in this room lead back to the main chambers, where they found the corpses of the bandits who tried to lock them in the storage room. Standing over them was a bigger undead being who looked like an ancient archdruid accompanied by two ghostly wolves. This creature wasn't peaceful, and after another fight defeated by the party.
All in all, the party, after fully exploring the entire cairn, discovered 2 scrolls of bless, 2 potions of healing, one scroll of lesser restoration, 500 GP in various coin, 5 garnets (worth 35 gp each) and a Dagger +1 that they gave to Peli, in addition to every item on the jeweler's inventory receipt.
Family Traditions [Campaign Log] COMPLETED
Cursed Islands [Campaign Log] IN-PROGRESS
The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.William Arthur Ward
09/16/19 - 29th of Mirtul
At this time, it was necessary to head back to the manor to meet back up with Father Dagfinn to try and consecrate the manor again. The party split (safely), since Porta-Billo wanted to try and re-awaken the giant oak in the ruins. Ronrick went back home with half the party, and the rest stayed with Porta-Billo. Ronrick took the jeweler's inventory with them. They arrived back at the manor just in time that Father Dagfinn and the two younger priests with him had just arrived. They quickly set to work, redo'ing the blessings on the upper floor and main floor without any issues. It wasn't until they reached the basement that the task became difficult.
Stepping down into the basement (at some point Terinor had taken the time to craft a metal spiral staircase that led into the basement), the air became thicker and hot, and Ronrick and the priests began to sweat. Suffering at the back of the party was fine though, being a tiefling and a warlock of the fiend. The storage rooms were easier to bless, and once done the heaviness lifted from the rooms. Going into the hallway behind the secret door was more difficult though, as it felt like Ronrick was walking into pool, sluggish and pushing back. Continuing his prayers and blessing the air and earth before him with his incense and vial of holy water, Father Dagfinn and the priests followed closely behind doing the same. Through his determination, Ronrick and them were able to reach the end of the hallway, although the task looked like it was starting to toll on him.
Opening the door to the far room was like opening a door to a hot oven, and the air felt like wading through mud. The room seemed to breathe and try to push them all out. Ronrick forced his way in, repeating his chants and blessings, throwing whole vials of the holy water around. Through sheer determination, perseverance, and help from his diety, the room started to scream and laugh in his mind as he drove the unholy presence from it. Finally it was gone, and Ronrick collapsed in his exhaustion having accomplished the task. There was only one room left though, the closet that the dybbuk had escaped down before.
Opening and looking through the door, however, revealed a barred entrance, with a glowing holy lock inscribed with Ronrick's symbol of faith. As much as anyone tried, it would not open yet. Probably for the best, even the assisting priest's were exhausted. Ronrick had to be helped up and out back to where he could rest in his tent. Father Dagfinn and the priests left back to their temple, and construction could begin again the next day.
At the moment that Ronrick was able to finally remove the last shred of evil from the manor and collapsed, part of Veronica's memory flashed before her eyes as she watched Porta-Billo and the tree..
She was standing in a dark room, lit barely by sconces on the walls around. Cloaked figures stood in a large circle, murmuring a chant that reverberated around the room. Next to her was a taller, chiseled man, shirtless with belted black pants tucked into black leather boots. His face was shrouded in darkness, but his teeth gleaned in the firelight as he held out his hand for Veronica to take a sword from it. Picking up the blade she noticed that his hand had six fingers, the last one trailing on her skin as she pulled away. He motioned toward the center of the circle where a humanoid creature sat on its knees.
It's head was hung low and two stumps protruded from its shoulder blades. It's armor was shredded and Veronica noticed it was chained to the floor by its ankles, hands, and neck. She stepped towards it. The creature looked up and she saw it's bright emerald green eyes that burned unaffected by its current captivity. Its once long golden hair was cut short and cuts and bruises covered its entire body. "Do it! Do it already you..." and it spat at Veronica's feet. The chanting in the room began to rise to a crescendo and drown out most everything.
Without any feeling in her heart, like a void rather than a purposeful intent to feel nothing, Veronica raised the blade and drove it into the creatures chest. Blood flowed from the wound and came up out of its mouth. The green eyes stared back at her through a grimace of hatred. The vision began to blacken around the edges and started to consume everything, except those eyes. Veronica felt a sadness as she stared back into the green as it died, not from herself, but something deeper in her chest.
Coming up out of the vision, Veronica's chest felt heavy, and she pulled out from under her armor an amulet she had forgotten about. On the large plate of metal was the face of a woman with wild hair. the sadness was there again, but faint. She placed it back beneath her armor and saw that Porta-Billo was coming up at the 8-hour mark of casting Plant Growth in an attempt to revive this ancient tree in the druid cairn.
The spell concluded in a flash of green light and Porta-Billo fell to his knees from the hard work. The runes carved into the tree began to glow a neon green, starting where the roots peaked above the soil and slowly climbing towards the trunk and branches. Plants grew out out of almost every crevice in the cairn, vines climbing the pillars, flowers blooming in the walls, and lush grasses sprouting between the stones at their feet. Buds began to form on the ancient oak, unfurling and plumping into dark green leaves that blotted out the moonlight from the hole cutout above. The entire place began to glow in a bright green enough for anyone to see clearly.
The air smelled fresh again, bugs began to hum once again above and within the revived shrine. From behind the tree walked around a ghostly visage of much younger looking arch-druid that they had fought earlier. He stood straight, wore furs and ritual garb of his high rank, and was flanked by two ghostly blink dogs who sat obediently beside him as he stopped and stood infront of Porta-Billo.
He greeted the firbolg in druidic and thanked him for re-igniting the spark of this sacred place. Porta-Billo stood and received from the arch-druid an amulet carved from wood of a tree. The archdruid explained that this was the symbol of their grove forever ago. Time had forgotten them, but thankfully this place still existed. Now, thanks to Porta-Billo though, they might be able to continue their history. Porta-Billo enthusiastically accepted the gift and was then taught how to use the amulet to teleport back to this place (1x/day). He was then imparted with a gift of wisdom from the archdruid and was now able to wildshape into a blink dog. The archdruid began to fade and walk away, promising to help again in the future once the temple was more restored. For now, he had done all he could.
The party was super excited about all this, but needed to return to the manor for some rest. So they packed up and went back home for now.
Mirtul, 30th.
They stopped at the Adventurer's Guild and then to the Jeweler's to return the inventory and get paid. Ronrick was FINALLY able to join the carpenter's guild and began to work on a few pieces for the manor in addition to the work they had there. Terinor spotted the Vistani woman talking to one of the orphans and the party tried to follow unsuccessfully. Talking to the kid, they instead got a lead that if they wanted info about the vistani, that they needed to go see Peter that night at the park near the docks. After that at the Auspicious Augur, Su, Dahlia, Terinor, and Veronica ended up all joining the Harper's Guild after having Jonathan help them do a Scrying spell on the Vistani woman.
The vistani was somewhere in a shop near the docks, but she noticed she was being scryed upon, and let the party know that she knew, before she stopped the spell. During the day the party went and did their once a month work at the guard barracks so they would get their pay. Then that night they went to the park.
Su pushed Ronrick around on the merry-go-round REALLY FAST and the party seemed to be enjoying themselves for a bit before Peter and the gang of orphans showed up. Then it was only realized that Peter was actually a girl... Su did the negotiating with Peter and they came to an agreement that if the party helped rescue their friends from the prison where experiments were being on them, Peter and them would help the party with information about the Vistani woman. They agreed, Ronrick went back to the guard barracks and was able to get them all on the next rotation for Prison Guard duty.
They went back to the manor since the next rotation started the next day. The night passed peacefully; except for for Su, who had sleep paralysis and dreams of succubi...
(Leveled to 6.)
Family Traditions [Campaign Log] COMPLETED
Cursed Islands [Campaign Log] IN-PROGRESS
The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.William Arthur Ward
09/23/19 Kythorn, 1st.
The next morning, they rose, had breakfast, greeted the coming construction workers, and left for the Coastal Penitentiary to begin their week long work. It was about two hours carriage ride northeast of Saker's Pass. The trip was quiet. Arriving there, they had to circle around to the north gate and were greeted by a gated guardhouse with a barred window facing the front door. Ronrick showed the attending guard their papers and were laughed at when they said that they had volunteered for this duty. "No one here 'volunteers' for this work." Suffering quickly piped up that he was voluntold and the guards seemed to believe that more. Either way, they were let in and told to go meet the Quarter Master Tilda inside for their arms and colors. Tilda was a beast of a human woman; almost 7 foot tall, dark brown hair pulled back into a tight bun at the base of her skull, thick lips and a unibrow (think Miss Trunchbull). She deprived them of any sharp weapons, ok'd a few smaller blunt weapons, and gave them each a black and orange waifenrock and a tonfa to signify their position as guards. Once set up, they were instructed to go and meet with the Commodore to receive initial instructions in the next room over.
Commodore Skandalor was an older gentleman of muscular stature and white hair. He was sitting behind his desk talking to a woman in noble clothes, very prim and proper. When the party arrived, she turned to see them and became quite pale at first, and then a deep red of hatred as she recognized them. The party also immediately recognized her as the mayor's wife as well, Lady Yelina Carnago. The woman they had previously attempted to blackmail for her indiscretions. "Oh it's you.." and the party snarked back some quick remarks. She grinned and whispered to the Commodore something about "trash" and "giving .. hell". "Enjoy your duties here!" she quipped, ignoring any further comments that they uttered and walked out.
The Commodore stood and cleared his throat and assigned them immediately to cleaning duty of the entire main floor and the guard towers. Private Larsen was going to chaperone them and make sure that they did a good job. A tiny gnome walked in with an attitude of a giant and the voice of a squeaky mouse. Terinor laughed at the pipsqueak and then was slapped in the knee by the short man's tonfa. "Get moving! We don't have all day!"
Starting in the kitchen, it took the rest of the morning to clean the entire first floor, avoid the condescension from the "noble" inmates that had lofty cells on the first floor, and also clean out the higher levels of the towers. When they were done, it was time for lunch. Su tried to get Larsen to play some pirate dice, but it never quite worked out.
After lunch is when their normal shift work began. Dani and Suffering were assigned to the south entrance, and quickly learned the the inside of the prison was affected by an anti-magic field. Because of this, Suffering grew quite stir-crazy not being able to cast magic, and a large lumberjack-like fellow names Alex Louis Armstrong had to pay him a visit and sat on him for the remainder of the watch. They talked and became good friends. Dani however sweet-talked her way out of guard duty with a cute older officer and they went off back to his office for "R&R".
Terinor and Nimble were assigned to the main courtyard patrol and were able to catch on to some gossip as people came through. Veronica and Porta-Billo were stationed in the top of the southwest tower and saw some of the shenanigans that Su was trying to pull before Su was restrained. Dahlia, Ronrick, and Peli were stationed at the top of the other southern tower. In their boredom, Peli pee'd off the side of the tower as his friend Ziggs climbed up and down the walls. Ronrick went downstairs to see who was there and found two privates, Turi & Raine, and shared some in some "G'nut Juice" with them.
Terinor at this time was also trying to get better duties and was able to get on Captain Tayler Coyle's good side. The first day ended rough, the party was tired and sore from their work, and got some rest.
The next day they did more guard/patrol work. Ronrick picked up more juice from Nimble, and was able to stop by and talk to Captain Desmina in the sick bay, who was attending to two guards who had gotten sick from what appeared to be "toilet juice" instead of the proper juice. Nimble came along with also and was able to take a sample from their vomit and created an antidote to help the guards recover faster. Ronrick got Desmina to agree to meet up after their shifts to partake in the proper juice.. On Su's shift, he became even better friends with Alex Louis Armstrong and learned that the lumberjack didn't know how to read or write! So Su took it upon himself to teach the man.. In Infernal. It took their entire shift, but the big piece of meat picked it up quite nicely and they were having full conversations in his new language by the end!
Dani didn't have quite as nice of an ending with her new friend. After the R&R in the captain's office, she wanted to keep him and take him back to the manor. So she stuffed him in her bag of holding, not realizing the air supply limitation. Rumors spread about her and the captain, a "walk of shame" kind of thing, since the captain was known to fool around. However the next morning during her shift when she opened the bag to check on him... She quickly closed the bag again and went about her day in a silent paranoia.
Veronica and Porta-Billo had chef duty. Terinor, Nimble, and Peli got upgraded to delivering meals instead of having to patrol. While delivering meals, Peli noticed that an old friend was locked up in the prison. Samantha actually came from his dimension! They had both survived the takeover of the demon lords when they come up through the Underdark. Their previous party had been lost in Neverlight Grove specifically when Zuggtmoy infected them with spores. After a short, discrete reunion, Peli was determined to help her get out. The locks were simple enough, but he needed a disguise for her first.
During the afternoon meal deliveries is when the meal delivery boys did more recon about the place. There were 3 underground levels of general prison population. The entrance to the next level down was behind a cage and set of armored guards.
At the end of their shifts for the day, Peli reached out to Private Jenson, who surprisingly had a full disguise and makeup kit. The gnome was happy to let him borrow it in exchange for doing Peli's own makeup. Peli was the most beautiful kobold ever that evening and had everyone's heads turning as he went past. Meanwhile, Captain Desmina came and picked up Ronrick from the sleeping quarters and took him and Dahlia back to her office where Turi & Raine were also waiting. The 5 of them mostly blacked-out about that evening - memories mostly include missing clothing and lots of laughs...
Porta-Billo, Veronica, and Peli went down after their shift ended to go spring Samantha. They gave her a guard uniform that they were able to get earlier in the day when Ronrick visited the armory and shared some G'nut Juice with the attendant there as well. Peli used the disguise kit to clean her up and make her look like a regular guard. Once this was done, Peli and Samantha went back to the sleeping quarters while Veronica was going to help distract the guards leading into the lower levels.
Veronica did her best blonde impression to try and impress upon the guards, who weren't having any of it. But it was enough for Porta-Billo to drink a potion of gaseous form, that he had earned earlier for helping Esther with her carniverous plants, and sneak past the guards undetected as he floated across the ceiling.
The fourth and fifth levels down seemed to just be increasingly higher security areas. It didn't look like these inmates were let out of their cells very often, if at all. Some of the children they were looking for upstairs in a section specifically for juveniles, but one was here in the high security. The only one they hadn't accounted for yet was Antia.
In the middle of the fifth floor was a locked manhole with a ladder that led down to a sixth level. It was an empty room with two doors opposite each other. Choosing one of them, Porta-Billo floated through the keyhole and discovered in the first one a larger room with a cage in the center that dominated the room. Inside was the last child missing, Antia. She was sitting in a corner in dirty rag of a smock. Porta-Billo observed her for a short while when all of a sudden, the vistani woman poofed into existence just outside the cage! Porta-Billo held his breath (even though he didn't have to in this form) and hid as best he could and continued to watch. Antia was elated to see the woman, who handed her a book. Porta-Billo saw the vistani woman's face light up red as if the child's eyes were glowing while she was showing her an intricate set of hand patterns and words to repeat. The light faded and the child laughed happily. The vistani brushed her hair, smiling and saying soft praises. Porta-Billo froze in air when the vistani woman then looked up at him and grinned. She said good bye to the little girl and then poofed back out of existence. The girl repeated the hand motions and words and the book she had been given disappeared. Repeating it again, the book came back. Antia giggled again and kept practicing at this.
Porta-Billo left this room, unsure what to do at the moment and went into the room opposite. Inside looked like an alchemist lab with various vials and instruments at work. In the center of the room was a glass-covered pedestal with an orb floating in the center. The orb itself was black and imperceptible (like vanta-black) but had gray rays radiating out of it like a star, but completely devoid of color. Porta-Billo dropped his gaseous form and removed the glass cover, and then had to figure out how to turn this thing off... He tried all kinds of magic words and touching it, even removing it from the pedestal. But nothing was working yet..
He sat with it in his lap trying all kinds of different things and pondering how to turn the dang thing off, when after an hour had passed it clicked with him. Sitting with the thing he had unintentionally attuned to it and was gifted knowledge of what it was and how it worked. He spoke the key words while holding the orb in his hands and the gray light faded, the black sphere dulled into a gray and the orb was suddenly heavy and unremarkable in his hands.
nstantly, alarms everywhere within the prison started to go off - they must have been suppressed by the anti-magic field that was held in place by this orb. Panicking, he stuffed the orb into his bag and pulled out his new druidic talisman and teleported himself to the old druid cairn.
The rest of the party was roused from whatever activities they had been doing while waiting for Porta-Billo and were ordered to guard the Prison from the oncoming inmate riot that was clearly heard down below.
Family Traditions [Campaign Log] COMPLETED
Cursed Islands [Campaign Log] IN-PROGRESS
The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.William Arthur Ward
09/30/19
The riot immediately filled all levels of the prison's population and started to spill out into the ground floor. The guards and our party gathered quickly to try and subdue it. After securing the ground floor, Captain Desmina and Coyle led their party down into the general population. The first level wasn't terrible, these were everyday brigands - more tough to look at than take a punch from. This is also where the majority of the other guards were as well, so it didn't take long for the whole group to knock heads of those that needed heads knocked and put everyone back in their cells with a manual lock.
The second level down was a little more difficult, as these were your higher crimes, but not terribly heinous. It took effort and harder head knockings, and the party and the fewer guards available were able to put everyone back.
The third level down was the last level of the general population, and it held the most heinous, but not murderous, villains - like the guys who do tax evasion scams and what not. Even fewer guards to help here, but the party was able to subdue the criminals and put them back on their hard time, maybe only one death, unintentionally.
Reaching the fourth level down changed the attitudes of what thy were facing though. Now these were criminals who didn't care and would kill for it. The guards that had been stationed to protect the next level were dead at their post and the gate was broken open. Going down, they heard the chaos before they saw it and immediately had to start taking action to protect themselves as magic users were starting to lead the prisoners in the chaos. The party and guards made quick work out of most of them with fireballs, and contained those that could be contained, and slain those who couldn't be. Here they also found where a side room had been that contained nothing but children, and they found all but one of the kids that they had been sent here for.
The guards to the fifth level down were also deceased, but in a more gruesome way. Exiting the bottom of the stairs down, they saw that everyone in their entirety on fifth floor was done in in the same way, guards and inmates alike. Bodies looked like hunks of meat and sinew, and the floor was painted in blood. Parts were barely indistinguishable from the rest. The other guards with the party at this point had stayed behind to help with the fourth floor, and they went ahead alone.
In the center of the fifth floor they found the manhole cover that hid the ladder leading down into the sixth level. Removing it, the only sounds were the activity above them, and the dripping of blood down the open hole to the floor below. Carefully they climbed down.
Creeping out of one of the door frames was ethereal black tendrils tasting the air. The other looked normal. Opening the scarier door first, Ronrick went in first. A little girl, Antia they discovered having saved the children from the previous floors, stood in the center of a cage with an open door. Her eyes were glowing bright red, and the air around her shimmered with its own heat. She stood motionless, unblinking, staring at something the party couldn't see. The rest of the party climbed down and followed Ronrick; Dahlia and Dani staying behind in the entryway at first.
Su quickly scrawled a message in his book of shadows, asking his patron for help. A cryptic reply came back finally. Instead of allowing the party to fight this little girl who's magic started to shake the very earth around them and the entire prison, Ronrick stood in the line of fire and took a blanket from his bag. At first he felt sluggish and stone-skinned somehow staring at her, but was able to shrug it off and slowly approached the girl and wrapped her in a big hug, telling her that they were here to help her and that nothing bad was going to happen to her. Su quickly followed suit, hugging her from the other side, calling her little sister, and saying that they were not going to leave her.
Peli and Samantha joined in on the hugging as well. Terinor started to come in as well, followed by Veronica and Dani - who hid in the shadows, The girl lets out a wall of force in a bubble around her, prying Peli and Samantha off of her. Ronrick and Su were able to hold on. At the same time Terinor felt the same sluggishness that Ronrick felt earlier, but wasn't able to shrug it off, and his skin started to turn to stone from the outside in. Veronica quickly went to his side to try to stop him from completely turning to stone.
All the while, Ronrick and Su were talking in the girls ear, telling her she was loved and that family was here, that nothing bad was going to happen to her. At the same time her power was fluctuating, from radiating out so much that the building started falling apart in places, to being reduced to minimal at other times from the words of Ronrick and Su. They were saved while holding her only because her cell had a ceiling more than that of the room's.
Dani and Dahlia attempted to run. Terinor and Veronica were struggling against the dwarf's body turning to stone. Peli and Samantha were trying to help Ronrick and Su save the little girl. The building couldn't take much more. There was a particularly violent tremor and the angel and demon hugging the little girl gave her a few more words of hope about love and family. Her eyes stopped glowing and her power stopped trying to repel them. She looked around for a moment and started to cry before eventually falling unconscious. The tremors stopped immediately.
As they attempted to leave, the vistani woman appeared in the entry way to the girl's cell. She demanded at them, "Put down my daughter." and raised her hand in a magickal threat. The party did not oblige and she repeated her threat, stepping forward. She was stopped suddenly at this point, turning her head slightly as if someone was whispering in her ear. Hatred and rage washed over her face and she stepped back, clenching her fists. "You are safe for now..." she grimaced, and disappeared.
Carrying the little girl out, they stopped in the room across the hall, finding it unlocked, and discovered a ring of clovers and learned that Porta-Billo had made it out safely. They climbed out of the lowest part of the prison and worked their way to the top. Captain Desmina and them were waiting for them, and they volunteered and were given writs allowing them to escort the children back to Saker's Pass, and end their guard duties early this time.
The children were all cared for, and chose to go back to Peter and the other orphans, who were elated to have them back. Antia was set to rest in the furnished infirmary back at Redfield Manor, and the party adopted her. Peter gave back the ring of protection, and they struck out a deal that any orphans who were wanting could go to Redfield Manor for work. The party also asked if Peter's orphans could keep an eye in passing on Yelina, the mayor's wife. It wasn't a clean prison, children shouldn't have been there at all they had learned, and they wanted to see how corrupt this woman was.
Peter also explained more about the Vistani woman, Xavia Taewen. That she didn't originally come from this dimension, something about demon lords and the world being covered in fungus. Peli and Samantha had vivid flashbacks, and everyone agreed that this woman probably came from the same place as them. Peter was adamant that the vistani was only kind to them. The party asked to let them know whenever she came around nonetheless.
Leveled to 7
Family Traditions [Campaign Log] COMPLETED
Cursed Islands [Campaign Log] IN-PROGRESS
The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.William Arthur Ward