This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Elandra smiles as the camp magically appears again. Making short work of her evening meal she settles down and draws out her lute, sitting down and spending time strumming out chords, tuning it slightly, playing a few bars then repeating the process. She eventually settles into a steady four chord rhythm and hums along with it, setting a calming air over the camp as the low tune drifts around the fire Performance30.
When Dazlyn offers to take a watch, Elandra responds quicky, "I took a share last night, I think a full rest would do me the world of good right about now. So I shall bid you all a good night, though, I can still help with the watch." So saying she dips into the bag her goddess gifted her, and draws her hand back out, holding it out one way, then the other, then she turns it back round to reveal two fuzzy balls resting in the palm of her hand. Taking a moment to weigh them, she starts juggling them in the one hand, tossing them round each other before catching them both and rolling them out onto the ground in front of her.
The first, (1) a Giant rat, she tells to keep watch near the tents, and to squeak loudly should it encounter anything unfriendly.
The second, (2) a Giant Elk, she bids roam the outer edges of the camp, warding off anything that might approach the camp.
Jade looks relieved to see the magical camp set up again. She heads over to her tent and peeks in, smiling as she still can't believe this is real. As she watches Elandra with her bag of tricks, "Now, that is a cool trick. Impressive that you can get them to follow your orders like that. As for resting, I'm close to out of spell slots, so I could really use a rest, but if others need it I can stand guard." She stands, waiting to hear what others think before relaxing into camp.
Koric has largely been keeping to himself, studying, transcribing and investigating. He looks up briefly, his attention clearly elsewhere, "Yes, yes. Rest needed. Must be fresh for the morning." He looks longingly at his tent, but keeps to his work.
@DM: Will do his studies, then take a short rest perusing his books, followed by a long rest.
You sit around the campfire for a while, the incredible music Elandra is playing for you all floating around the camp as you all begin to settle in for the night
Elandra, I'm going to roll perception rolls for the two animals. They are still just beasts, even if blessed by your god, so getting them to watch for the night is a pretty complex order. However, If both succeed (DC10), I'll say they count as the 2nd person on watch for the night. Perception (Giant Rat) : 8 Perception (Giant Elk): 18
The elk roams the edges of the camp, doing as you commanded, but the rat just seems puzzled, skittering around without seeing much and not really knowing what to do. As of right now, it seems like Dazlyn is the only one on watch. Is anyone joining him?
Koric, having cast Identify on the cloak, you now know it is Cloak of Protection. Knowing this, what do you do with the cloak?
As the darkness settles in Koric rises from his studies, and hands the cloak to Jade, but speaks to each of those present who had so fearlessly run into the battle that day.
"This belongs with one who stands unflinching in the face of evil, and seeks to strike it down by force of arms." He looks at each of them and shrugs. "It is not for me; it is for you to decide who best can use it."
Liri sits by the fire, wrapping her arms around herself as she looks thoughtfully into the flames. As the subject of watches comes up, she looks up and around at the rest of the group.
"I can take watch as well. Better two sets of eyes than one."
Jade catches the cloak as Konica tosses to her and bows to him. She then looks around to the rest, “As I charge the enemies to the best of my abilities, this would very much benefit me. If the rest are alright with it, I would love to use this to assist our combined effort.” If no one objects, she packs it with her belongings.
As Liri offers to take the 2nd watch, Jade breaths a sigh of relief, “Thank you both, I could really use the rest.” And she takes refuse in her tent.
@All (Going to say Liri went on watch since they volunteered first)
As Liri volunteers to go on watch, the rest of you head into your tents, exhausted from the extremely dangerous day you just all went through. Lux, Jade, Koric, Elandra, Soloth, take a long rest! Liri, you take a short rest and then wake up halfway through the night, taking over the watch from Dazlyn
As you all wake up in the morning, the tents begin to vanish, and a lavish breakfast appears around the campfire for the eight of you. It's still quite early, the air chilly this high up into the hills, but with Axeholm seemingly less than a day's travel away, you all feel confident it won't be too much of a hassle to make it, assuming nothing else tries to kill you before you get there. As you all sit around the campfire and enjoy your breakfast, is there anything anyone wants to do/did over the long rest? I'll give it a few hours before moving on, and feel free to narrate it later
Jade, add the cloak to your inventory! Koric, give me two new portent rolls for the day
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Portent: 17 and 7
Before resting, Koric sighs at his own failing memory, and pulls out his book one last time to re-summon Balthar, trying to mollify the bird with tasty snacks from his dinner.
@All Alright, going to move on with the day ahead! Please feel free to retroactively narrate the morning if you haven't already
With breakfast behind you, you all continue your travels along the plateau towards the mountain ridge in the distance. As you walk, Norbus begins to talk:
"Can't beleive we're actually going to see Axeholm today. It's been so long since that fortress has been in proper dwarven hands."
As he walks along, he stops to ponder for a moment, thinking about the legends of Axeholm and the banshee within: Religion: 3 He continues:
"Only wish I knew more about the place and what we might find there. Been so long since my ancestors lived there that the stories are long since diluted through the generations. Only real way to tell what we are going to find there is to get there ourselves"
Dazlyn Religion Check: 6
Dazlyn chimes in "Ay, not much out there about that ol' fortress in the cragg anymore, but I'm sure we'll catch a glance of that traitor banshee. No curse like that shakes easy, even after this much time" Turning to the group, he adds, "An' by the way, thanks for coming with us. Should be a much easier brawl to liberate the cursed place with this much help! Let's just hope we don't get any more of those invisible ones. Can't stand fighing a foe I can't see."
As you walk along the path some more, you again notice a storm behind you, as you did early yesterday morning. It's certainly grown from the size it was before, spreading out across what seems to be a good portion of the hills you have been traveling through. In the clear of the morning, you can also see off the plateau to the southwest, and far in the distance the edge of the ocean can be seen, the water covering up what you know was once the marshy, haunted landscape of the mere.
By about a few hours into the trip, two rocky outcroppings become visible on the plateau, and as you approach them, they are surrounded by what appears to be old rubble, rotting wood, and crumbled limestone. One of them has what seems to be the remnants of a stone wall atop it, and the oher one seems to have some sort of rough cave dug into its face. t's unclear what exactly these were, but they've clearly been out of use for a long while.
What would you all like to do from here?
@Koric
Waving your hands for a moment as you begin to move for the day, Balthar reappears beside you and immediately flutters up to your shoulder, nuzzling his head against you
In the morning, Koric pores over his spell book with great interest, committing the new and unfamiliar spell to memory. He seems distracted with the mental effort, but he looks up at the mention of Axeholm, trying to recall what he knows its history.
Thinking about what you can remember about the city of Axeholm, there's not all that much that you know from your personal studies. You know it was once a powerful fortress of local a dwarven empire, and that it was a formidable military bastion of dwarven might in the region. You know, as the dwarves told you earlier, that it was abandoned after the elven ambassador Vyldara went crazy, attempted to stage a coup, died, and haunted the fortress as a banshee, and that this was a massive blow to the power of the empire that included Axeholm. You've learned from the dwarves the place was taken over by the cult of Myrkul and later abandoned, but the fact it's been abandoned for so long means there's functionally no literature out there that you've seen about Axeholm after it was abandoned . The only other relevant thing that comes to mind is dwarven texts describing the flight from Axholm, where they mention Vlydara commanding the souls of fallen dwarven inhabitants, forcing them to haunt the castle as ghouls and ghasts
... "Only wish I knew more about the place and what we might find there. Been so long since my ancestors lived there that the stories are long since diluted through the generations. Only real way to tell what we are going to find there is to get there ourselves" ... Dazlyn chimes in "Ay, not much out there about that ol' fortress in the cragg anymore, but I'm sure we'll catch a glance of that traitor banshee. ...
Koric seems lost in thought for a time, but eventually turns to Norbus, "Ghouls and Ghasts," he says slowly. "That, I believe, was the fate of the inhabitants. The old lord -- Vlydara -- used them to harry the fleeing survivors."
He then goes on to recount the little that he remembers from the history, wishing there was more. "So much knowledge lost in The Fall."
As they walk, he remains silent, watch their surrounds warily, and feeding small morsels to Balthar, "I'm not much of a climber, though I dare-say I will do better than yesterday" he says after a time. "And I do have some rope, if that helps."
(( I am assuming that we are heading to the crag to climb it, with those who are highly skilled in such things taking ropes up, so the rest of us can more easily ascend. When they near the point of climbing, Koric will send Balthar up to scout.
How long will the journey take? We may not want to arrive at the haunted tower in early evening...perhaps camping early, so we arrive at noon might be better? ))
Jade agrees with Dazlyn as they walk, "Yes, the invisible foes are not for the faint of heart. And I agree, lets not run into anymore, at least not today." She continues on with the group, mainly in silence, taking in the landscape and how it appears different than what she had been told since all the changes came about. She wonders if nothing was done, how soon that ocean would overtake everything she knew, everyone she loved.
As they come across the outcroppings she stops and gazes at them for a bit from afar. "We should investigate this area. It might give us more clues as to what we can expect at Axeholm." she turns to the rest, "Agreed?"
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Koric nods, "Agreed." He links his senses with Balthar and asks him to to rise up and try to get a view of the top of the outcrops, without approaching.
(( Move as directly up as possible 100' above Koric and look toward outcrops ... what he does next depends on what he sees
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Roll: 1
You can't make out much yourself, but with Balthar flying above the outcroppings, he can make out what appears to be runic carvings in the wall of the first outcropping, and the outline of some sort of ruins inside the cave on the other outcropping 5
@All (A roll of 2 triggered random encounter, the other roll was for what that would be)
As Balthar flies along though, the sound of what initially seems to be thunder overhead fills the air, deafening the conversation between the group. Soon enough though, it becomes pretty clear there's no thunder here, with not a single stormcloud in the sky you can see besides the one far behind you've already noticed. You don''t have to guess what it is making this noise for very long, as an absolutely gigantic beast, a bird of proportions that would seem fantastical if it wasn't directly in front of you, flies over your head, nearly knocking the group to the ground with the wind blowing from each flap of its wings. You all instantly know what this is: it's a roc, a gargantuan species of bird that hunts giants and even dragons.
Luckily for you all, it doesn't seem to notice you all in the slightest, and it flies overhead.... just to land right on top of the outcropping with the cave and curl up, seemingly falling asleep. It's a good thing this beast didn't notice your presence, because if it wanted to, it could pose a serious threat even to experienced adventurers and chosen champions of the gods. It certainly hasn't landed in a very convenient spot though if you want to explore the cave
What do you all do from here? Only thing I will say is that any attempt to sneak into the cave of the outcropping the roc is sleeping means you need to make a stealth check, and sneaking past the roc and moving along the path will also require a stealth check from each member of the group. While I won't say the DC for any given check is, I will note that it would likely require multiple failures before the roc might be awoken by the party's actions
Map for reference. The party is currently about 50ft south on the path from the area pictured:
Elandra smiles as the camp magically appears again. Making short work of her evening meal she settles down and draws out her lute, sitting down and spending time strumming out chords, tuning it slightly, playing a few bars then repeating the process. She eventually settles into a steady four chord rhythm and hums along with it, setting a calming air over the camp as the low tune drifts around the fire Performance 30.
When Dazlyn offers to take a watch, Elandra responds quicky, "I took a share last night, I think a full rest would do me the world of good right about now. So I shall bid you all a good night, though, I can still help with the watch." So saying she dips into the bag her goddess gifted her, and draws her hand back out, holding it out one way, then the other, then she turns it back round to reveal two fuzzy balls resting in the palm of her hand. Taking a moment to weigh them, she starts juggling them in the one hand, tossing them round each other before catching them both and rolling them out onto the ground in front of her.
The first, (1) a Giant rat, she tells to keep watch near the tents, and to squeak loudly should it encounter anything unfriendly.
The second, (2) a Giant Elk, she bids roam the outer edges of the camp, warding off anything that might approach the camp.
Bring out your inner chatacter class...
Jade looks relieved to see the magical camp set up again. She heads over to her tent and peeks in, smiling as she still can't believe this is real. As she watches Elandra with her bag of tricks, "Now, that is a cool trick. Impressive that you can get them to follow your orders like that. As for resting, I'm close to out of spell slots, so I could really use a rest, but if others need it I can stand guard." She stands, waiting to hear what others think before relaxing into camp.
Koric has largely been keeping to himself, studying, transcribing and investigating. He looks up briefly, his attention clearly elsewhere, "Yes, yes. Rest needed. Must be fresh for the morning." He looks longingly at his tent, but keeps to his work.
@DM: Will do his studies, then take a short rest perusing his books, followed by a long rest.
@All
You sit around the campfire for a while, the incredible music Elandra is playing for you all floating around the camp as you all begin to settle in for the night
Elandra, I'm going to roll perception rolls for the two animals. They are still just beasts, even if blessed by your god, so getting them to watch for the night is a pretty complex order. However, If both succeed (DC10), I'll say they count as the 2nd person on watch for the night.
Perception (Giant Rat) : 8
Perception (Giant Elk): 18
The elk roams the edges of the camp, doing as you commanded, but the rat just seems puzzled, skittering around without seeing much and not really knowing what to do. As of right now, it seems like Dazlyn is the only one on watch. Is anyone joining him?
Koric, having cast Identify on the cloak, you now know it is Cloak of Protection. Knowing this, what do you do with the cloak?
As the darkness settles in Koric rises from his studies, and hands the cloak to Jade, but speaks to each of those present who had so fearlessly run into the battle that day.
"This belongs with one who stands unflinching in the face of evil, and seeks to strike it down by force of arms." He looks at each of them and shrugs. "It is not for me; it is for you to decide who best can use it."
Liri sits by the fire, wrapping her arms around herself as she looks thoughtfully into the flames. As the subject of watches comes up, she looks up and around at the rest of the group.
"I can take watch as well. Better two sets of eyes than one."
Jade catches the cloak as Konica tosses to her and bows to him. She then looks around to the rest, “As I charge the enemies to the best of my abilities, this would very much benefit me. If the rest are alright with it, I would love to use this to assist our combined effort.” If no one objects, she packs it with her belongings.
As Liri offers to take the 2nd watch, Jade breaths a sigh of relief, “Thank you both, I could really use the rest.” And she takes refuse in her tent.
Lux says “I can take last watch “
D&D since 1984
@All (Going to say Liri went on watch since they volunteered first)
As Liri volunteers to go on watch, the rest of you head into your tents, exhausted from the extremely dangerous day you just all went through. Lux, Jade, Koric, Elandra, Soloth, take a long rest! Liri, you take a short rest and then wake up halfway through the night, taking over the watch from Dazlyn
As you all wake up in the morning, the tents begin to vanish, and a lavish breakfast appears around the campfire for the eight of you. It's still quite early, the air chilly this high up into the hills, but with Axeholm seemingly less than a day's travel away, you all feel confident it won't be too much of a hassle to make it, assuming nothing else tries to kill you before you get there. As you all sit around the campfire and enjoy your breakfast, is there anything anyone wants to do/did over the long rest? I'll give it a few hours before moving on, and feel free to narrate it later
Jade, add the cloak to your inventory! Koric, give me two new portent rolls for the day
Portent: 17 and 7
Before resting, Koric sighs at his own failing memory, and pulls out his book one last time to re-summon Balthar, trying to mollify the bird with tasty snacks from his dinner.
@All
Alright, going to move on with the day ahead! Please feel free to retroactively narrate the morning if you haven't already
With breakfast behind you, you all continue your travels along the plateau towards the mountain ridge in the distance. As you walk, Norbus begins to talk:
"Can't beleive we're actually going to see Axeholm today. It's been so long since that fortress has been in proper dwarven hands."
As he walks along, he stops to ponder for a moment, thinking about the legends of Axeholm and the banshee within:
Religion: 3
He continues:
"Only wish I knew more about the place and what we might find there. Been so long since my ancestors lived there that the stories are long since diluted through the generations. Only real way to tell what we are going to find there is to get there ourselves"
Dazlyn Religion Check: 6
Dazlyn chimes in "Ay, not much out there about that ol' fortress in the cragg anymore, but I'm sure we'll catch a glance of that traitor banshee. No curse like that shakes easy, even after this much time" Turning to the group, he adds, "An' by the way, thanks for coming with us. Should be a much easier brawl to liberate the cursed place with this much help! Let's just hope we don't get any more of those invisible ones. Can't stand fighing a foe I can't see."
As you walk along the path some more, you again notice a storm behind you, as you did early yesterday morning. It's certainly grown from the size it was before, spreading out across what seems to be a good portion of the hills you have been traveling through. In the clear of the morning, you can also see off the plateau to the southwest, and far in the distance the edge of the ocean can be seen, the water covering up what you know was once the marshy, haunted landscape of the mere.
By about a few hours into the trip, two rocky outcroppings become visible on the plateau, and as you approach them, they are surrounded by what appears to be old rubble, rotting wood, and crumbled limestone. One of them has what seems to be the remnants of a stone wall atop it, and the oher one seems to have some sort of rough cave dug into its face. t's unclear what exactly these were, but they've clearly been out of use for a long while.
What would you all like to do from here?
@Koric
Waving your hands for a moment as you begin to move for the day, Balthar reappears beside you and immediately flutters up to your shoulder, nuzzling his head against you
In the morning, Koric pores over his spell book with great interest, committing the new and unfamiliar spell to memory. He seems distracted with the mental effort, but he looks up at the mention of Axeholm, trying to recall what he knows its history.
History: 19
@Koric
Thinking about what you can remember about the city of Axeholm, there's not all that much that you know from your personal studies. You know it was once a powerful fortress of local a dwarven empire, and that it was a formidable military bastion of dwarven might in the region. You know, as the dwarves told you earlier, that it was abandoned after the elven ambassador Vyldara went crazy, attempted to stage a coup, died, and haunted the fortress as a banshee, and that this was a massive blow to the power of the empire that included Axeholm. You've learned from the dwarves the place was taken over by the cult of Myrkul and later abandoned, but the fact it's been abandoned for so long means there's functionally no literature out there that you've seen about Axeholm after it was abandoned . The only other relevant thing that comes to mind is dwarven texts describing the flight from Axholm, where they mention Vlydara commanding the souls of fallen dwarven inhabitants, forcing them to haunt the castle as ghouls and ghasts
Liri will use 2 hit dice (plus 3 con for each) to recover HP: 17
Koric seems lost in thought for a time, but eventually turns to Norbus, "Ghouls and Ghasts," he says slowly. "That, I believe, was the fate of the inhabitants. The old lord -- Vlydara -- used them to harry the fleeing survivors."
He then goes on to recount the little that he remembers from the history, wishing there was more. "So much knowledge lost in The Fall."
As they walk, he remains silent, watch their surrounds warily, and feeding small morsels to Balthar, "I'm not much of a climber, though I dare-say I will do better than yesterday" he says after a time. "And I do have some rope, if that helps."
(( I am assuming that we are heading to the crag to climb it, with those who are highly skilled in such things taking ropes up, so the rest of us can more easily ascend. When they near the point of climbing, Koric will send Balthar up to scout.
How long will the journey take? We may not want to arrive at the haunted tower in early evening...perhaps camping early, so we arrive at noon might be better? ))
To be clear, the “fortress in the cragg” Dazlyn is referring to is Axeholm itself, not the two outcroppings you’ve come across
Axholm is still a good bit off in the distance, but you are pretty sure you could arrive there before it gets too dark or too late in the evening
Jade agrees with Dazlyn as they walk, "Yes, the invisible foes are not for the faint of heart. And I agree, lets not run into anymore, at least not today." She continues on with the group, mainly in silence, taking in the landscape and how it appears different than what she had been told since all the changes came about. She wonders if nothing was done, how soon that ocean would overtake everything she knew, everyone she loved.
As they come across the outcroppings she stops and gazes at them for a bit from afar. "We should investigate this area. It might give us more clues as to what we can expect at Axeholm." she turns to the rest, "Agreed?"
Koric nods, "Agreed." He links his senses with Balthar and asks him to to rise up and try to get a view of the top of the outcrops, without approaching.
(( Move as directly up as possible 100' above Koric and look toward outcrops ... what he does next depends on what he sees
Koric Perception: 10 (passive 19)
Balthar perception: 10 ))
Roll: 1
You can't make out much yourself, but with Balthar flying above the outcroppings, he can make out what appears to be runic carvings in the wall of the first outcropping, and the outline of some sort of ruins inside the cave on the other outcropping
5
@All (A roll of 2 triggered random encounter, the other roll was for what that would be)
As Balthar flies along though, the sound of what initially seems to be thunder overhead fills the air, deafening the conversation between the group. Soon enough though, it becomes pretty clear there's no thunder here, with not a single stormcloud in the sky you can see besides the one far behind you've already noticed. You don''t have to guess what it is making this noise for very long, as an absolutely gigantic beast, a bird of proportions that would seem fantastical if it wasn't directly in front of you, flies over your head, nearly knocking the group to the ground with the wind blowing from each flap of its wings. You all instantly know what this is: it's a roc, a gargantuan species of bird that hunts giants and even dragons.
Luckily for you all, it doesn't seem to notice you all in the slightest, and it flies overhead.... just to land right on top of the outcropping with the cave and curl up, seemingly falling asleep. It's a good thing this beast didn't notice your presence, because if it wanted to, it could pose a serious threat even to experienced adventurers and chosen champions of the gods. It certainly hasn't landed in a very convenient spot though if you want to explore the cave
What do you all do from here? Only thing I will say is that any attempt to sneak into the cave of the outcropping the roc is sleeping means you need to make a stealth check, and sneaking past the roc and moving along the path will also require a stealth check from each member of the group. While I won't say the DC for any given check is, I will note that it would likely require multiple failures before the roc might be awoken by the party's actions
Map for reference. The party is currently about 50ft south on the path from the area pictured: