We had found this strange book hidden in the long-abandoned temple to some god none of us had ever heard of, but we couldn’t make any sense of the symbols contained in it. We surmised that the language in the book is a dead version of a supernal language and were hopeful that if we can find some high deva or a representative of one of the gods, he or she should be able to translate it.
We sat down to discuss the possible directions we could go from here:
• We could simply head in the direction of one of those pillars in the distance, assuming that when we got there we’d find something useful. They seem to be positioned such that each of them arises from one of the major cities of the republic, other than Allaron and Freeton. We pretty quickly decided against this course of action because it just seemed too risky.
• We could set out to find Council members who are still trustworthy. But where even to begin looking, now that we’d determined that the Council in Freeton was either corrupted or totally misguided?
• We could set out to find followers of the Raven Queen, since the dream seemed to indicate that she is especially important to the situation we find ourselves in. But, again, where would we start?
Once we’d ruled out those three, that left us with the two most plausible plans to decide between:
• We could go to the Isle of Freedom, off the southwest coast, which is evidently where the followers of Avandra have gone. Avandra is another god who the dream indicated would be important to us. Since his followers have left the Council, they might be the best avenue for finding out whether anyone remains in the Council who is still trustworthy. However, the Isle it would take us two months to make it to the Isle, and that’s assuming we have no trouble securing a ship once we reach the coast.
• We could go to Point Nicholas—the largest mountain in the area, to the northwest of our current position—which somewhere houses the key stronghold for Emperor Nicholas. Nicholas used this place as a base of operations when fighting to regain his empire, so it makes sense that it’d be where he would have fallen back to given how hard-pressed his forces would seem to be now. We know that the Emperor worked with the Council but was careful to maintain some clear boundaries between himself and them, so there is some hope that we could find trustworthy people with him. The mountain is only 4-5 days journey away. However, we were all reticent to walk right into another stronghold like we had at Freeton just a few days ago.
We debated for some time about which of these made the most the sense. Kelissa, Liam, and I were all in favor of going to Avandra’s isle, but we were not entirely convinced about the best course of action. Fergis wanted to go to Point Nicholas and he was increasingly adamant in pushing his opinion. Eventually, he just flipped out and went ballistic, threatening all of us and flailing about. It was really quite scary how worked up he suddenly got. None of us quite knew what to do with him as he was so agitated. Just as the situation really began to spiral completely out of hand, Yonah just unloaded and punched Fergis dead in the nose.
Fergis kind of settled down then and we decided we would go to the Isle of Freedom, but then realized that in order to do so, we’d have to go right past one of those pillars, which we had decided to avoid. So, we changed our minds and decided to go to Point Nicholas after all.
We spent a few unpleasant days traveling through severe thunderstorms before coming to the base of an absolutely gigantic mountain. I scouted about a bit and found humanoid tracks, which led to more heavily traveled tracks, including wagons and horses. We followed the trail until we came to Nicholas’ stronghold, carved into the very mountain itself.
We found two very ornate stone doors. Two massive earth elementals stepped out of the walls of the mountain beside them and watched us. Then the doors opened and a large numbers of guards marched out of the fortress and surrounded us, demanding that we surrender our weapons. Liam spoke with the leader of the troops, who recognized him, and then the rest of us, and gave the ok for us to keep all of our supplies. Some men led us into the keep and to a large conference room where they brought us Domino’s pizza—oh, wait, no that was for the players; guess the characters got mutton or some such—and then asked us to wait for General Jarek.
When Jarek arrived, Liam used his ability as a paladin to feel out his aura and reported to us that he was not only a good paladin, but a very powerful one. Jarek wore the symbol of Erathis around his neck and on his lapel was the symbol of the council of Divinity, but with a pair of angel wings superimposed atop it—in conversation with him, we eventually come to understand that the Council has split into two, and the ones who have superimposed the wings on the old symbol are the ones on our side, the Council that retains divine sanction.
Jarek told us that he knows who we are, and that they know we were present at “the fall,” but that they are relatively certain we’re not responsible for that fall. The highest devas among the Council say that this was the beginning of the Fall of Nine prophecy. We told him the story of our exploits thus far, but when we came to mentioning the book that we’d found, he asked to see it. When we showed it to him, he excitedly took it and said that he needed to go with it. He rushed away with the book. After a short time, someone came and led us through the bowels of the keep and eventually out to a sanctuary high up in the mountain.
At some point, we came onto a walkway that looked out over the valleys below with a stupendous view. We could see far into both Freenik and Gurisia. We could see that the huge pillars do indeed emanate directly from the ground in major cities. We could also see that what used to be Winterhaven is the center of a huge circle of death.
We were led into a circular cathedral with the Council symbol etched into the floor. Statues of all the gods were circled around the room, and at one end was a throne with an elderly deva sitting there, wearing around her neck an hourglass symbold like the one we saw on the book cover. Jarek was kneeling at her feet, and the book we had found floated in front of her as she read it quickly. Then she looked up at us and said, “This is the Prophecy of the Nine. It’s what we’ve been waiting for.” She called each of us by name: Liam the Defender, Kelissa the Stealthy, Gareth the Devout, Fergus the Unliving, Yonah the Protector.
She said she knows we are devout followers of the true Council & welcomes us, and asked us to make this place our home. She waves her hand and Fergus’ clothes fall away from him and he raises in the air and starts to spin around. Every inch of his body was covered in tattoos, which disappeared from his body and became a cloud that swirled about him and then zoomed into her forehead.
She said, “Know that you, Fergus, are a messenger and indeed touched directly by the Raven Queen. You are written into the Prophecy by name, as are the others in your party and still others, whose names I cannot reveal to you now.” The deva told us that the Raven Queen is still technically part of the Council but she’s gone missing. Her religion is in upheaval.
She placed Jarek in charge of one of the armies, making him a general. Kelissa was gifted with some sort of really cool sentient boots that know of her ancestry. She named me High Arbiter of Melora’s Grove, and Yonah as the High Warden. However, the Grove lacks a tree, so there’s little real benefit until we replant that yew tree, which she believes is currently in the Abyssal plane—that Council member we gave it to was a demon deva.
The deva told us that the 4 pillars are places we should avoid because if we go there
“death will be upon us.”
Then she translated the Prophecy for us. It tells of the 6 children of Avir. The high deva explained to us that Avir, who is represented by the symbol on her neck, was the progenitor of all the gods. Long ago, he was trapped by 5 of his original children, who are no longer known. The song “Darkness Falls” comes from this story. When Avir gave birth to his children, each one was given a choice between good and evil, but each of the first 5 chose evil. The last one was not given a choice, because Avir believed in balance and so required that he be good and balance the others, and then gifted him with greater power. Avir created the planes to herd the primordials who had come into being into their proper places
There was a battle between the 1 & the 5 over these planes of existence, and the greatest battle took place directly beneath Point Nicholas, which is what created such a huge mountain. When the battle dragged on, it drew down Avir’s power & eventually all 6 of them were destroyed along with him. Or they seemed to be. Avir gave the last of his power to the one, who became a seed, to come back only if the 5 returned. The yew sapling came from that seed, which she had sent to be hidden in that tomb during the attacks around the country. But it was found out and targeted in the attacks.
5 years pass.
[Yonah & I each spend time traveling through the wilds in the area. We gain a +5 to Nature checks in Praetoria or Grubnub.]
The deva called us in to talk. She told us that time is running out and we need to find the yew tree before the Five do. She said that our people have determined that the pillars are some sort of necrotic energy that function as corrupted gates to the Abyssal plane. One of them has already opened, the one that we came through.
The second place we needed to go to find more information is the Isle of Freedom. The first place to go was the giant pillar on the way.
The Abyssal Plane is in Elemental Chaos, where primordials and titans were sent & where elementals are created. The Abyssal Plane is just an infinite hole with huge floating land masses. The entre plane is highly mutable, so the stronger your will, the more powerfully you can control how the plane manifests. The deva warns us that when we go there, Kelissa must be especially careful because her ancestry might manifest itself powerfully.
Our mission was to go to the pillar in Dreston, find out how the pillar had been corrupted, if we can shut it down, and then get out. Then we should go to the Isle of Freedom and speak with Avandra’s avatar.
The deva teleported us to the middle of a field; 500 yards in front of us was a field of rubble where Destin used to be. The pillar was about 500 yards beyond the field. It’s actually a huge pillar of smoke.
In the field we found a pair of runes on the ground, obviously some sort of warding magic. Fergus approached them to investigate and it turned out they were rune spiral demons with lightning runes. They opened their eyes and emitted a high-pitched scream. We killed the runespiral demons pretty quickly but the rest of the demons had been warned.
We were attacked by barlgura, neldrazzus, & evistra demons. After we’d fought them for a while, a huge demon with copper stripes joined the fray. The copper demon grabbed two of the evistra and ate them, then went on a rampage—it grabbed Kelissa and threw her across the battlefield. It can eat its own allies in order to gain extra action points that it can spend immediately in attacks. Then the demon attacked her again, doing some serious damage but luckily Liam was able to absorb the damage for her, then dealt the killing blow to the demon, which sucked into a cloud of smoke & became the pillar again—the demon itself was the pillar.
We ran to the portal and there was the demon again. We fought him again, and again Liam landed a critical blow that turned the demon back into the pillar. Beneath the pillar was a demon gate covered in a dozen runes.
We used out skills in religion, arcane, nature, perception, and thievery to variously disarm the twelve runes. There were some missteps, though, which resulted in Kelissa becoming hysterical, Liam and Fergis both becoming jittery, while Liam also became demented and Fergis also became melancholic and megalomaniacal. The demon ccame back and I was able to kill him a final time, and then the stone gate crumbled into dust. I spend an hour or two healing the rest of the party.
We gathered up the demon dust, which can be used as a reagent for rituals.
XP: 2,000 each.
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Journal Day 10
At the end of the 9th chapter, we had arrived at the docks of Freeton. We were met by guards, some in the livery of Freeton and some in the livery of the Council of Divinity. The guards took us to see the same guy we met when we first arrived in Allaron, the friend of Liam’s, who was a captain when last we saw him—but in the meantime he’s become a general. He told the guards to stand down & then took Liam away to talk. Some other council members took us to the cathedral. (The north & east gates were on fire?)
It’s a huge cathedral, w/ a wing for each major god. The guards took us to the Erathis wing and told us that Liam would return once he’d been briefed.
We decided to talk to some people and headed over to Sehanine’s cathedral. There was a Deva standing at the podium, who consulted a tome, the Moon Chronicle, which tracks all of her followers. He told us the last known entry in the tome for us was in Allaron … ten years ago.
We told him what happened at the Keep and he told us to wait there & wandered off toward the cloister. He motioned to the guards and then 15 guards approached us, drawing their weapons. The told us to surrender our items.
Suddenly, Liam comes storming through the doors, sword drawn, yelling “Ambush!” w/ more guards following him. He veered towards the library and we all followed after him, running toward some big stained glass windows. Yonah, Kelissa, & I (though it was mostly Yonah) toppled a pair of bookshelves in the way of the guards who were following behind us.
Liam ran headlong right through the windows and grabbed a metal flag pole outside of them, sliding down. Yonah and Kelissa jump through the window and grab the pole too. Fergis tripped on the edge of the window and fell, but Yonah grabbed him and lowers him safely with her as she slid down. I jumped after them and slid down too. We land on the roof of the common area of the cathedral. The only ways down were to climb the walls or jump into the moat.
Most of us successfully climbed down the wall but Fergis and Liam both fell into the moat. Yonah dove back into the moat and pulled the two of them to shore.
We all scrambled for the north gate, heading into the burnt areas. We found some streets blocked off and/or guarded. We found a house that we could use to circumvent the guards and get over the wall. We headed north out of town. As we walked, Liam explained that we were being blamed for the portal opening, and that we are wanted for the destruction of the city of Winterhaven. We talked and decided the Council of Divinity must’ve become corrupted—our divine powers are intact, so the gods must know that we’ve not turned against them. Liam tells us that he learned that Avandra’s followers have left the Council.
We eventually found a defensible place and made camp for the night. We all shared the same dream:
We’re sitting in a circle, in positions that reflect the deities we are connected with, all of us facing outward. Behind Liam is a man with metal towers on his shoulders. Near Dillius is a woman with coin purses. Near Gareth and Yonah, a red-haired woman w/ a gown of leaves. To the right of Dillius is a dragonborn male dressed in silver. Near Jalfred, is a dwarf with a hammer. Behind Kelissa is a man with fiery hair & a crown of sun rays. Behind Krusk is a female Halfling w/ a cup of wine.
Each of the gods’ images backed up, sort of like a ghost separating from a body. Liam’s man is suddenly crushed underneath o pile of rubble; Erathis turns and walks away; the Halfling walks back into his image and walks away, as does the dwarf. The image of Pelor turns and burns the elven woman into dust. Sehanine’s image sheds a tear and then walks away. Dillius’ avatar approaches the large fat man (?) and shoves gold coins in his mouth until he turns to gold and melts into the ground. The rest of the avatars mere into images and leave. The man who sent Fergis to us rises from the ground, looks confused b/c he has no image of his god, and sinks back into the ground.
The circle we were sitting around becomes metal, spins, then melts and pours into Fergis’ tattoos.
Rays shoot out of his body at all of us:
• We are each granted the power to spend a second wind whenever we’re unconscious as a minor action.
• Each of us has our god’s symbol tattooed into our forearms. We each get a +10 to all social checks when dealing w/ someone who follows our god.
We headed west for 3 days and found an old cathedral in ruins, devoted to a god who no longer exists. It’s marked with a symbol like a black widow’s hourglass.
Inside, it’s old & musty, full of empty bookshelves. We spend 4-5 hours searching the place with extreme care and found nothing at all.
Questions:
• Why was there no Raven Queen apparition in the dream? (Raven Queen is Goddess of Opportunity, controls death & winter. She came upon her power as result of an earlier war between the gods, & she overthrew the previous god of death.)
• Avandra’s followers have left the Council. Why? Can we find them? They are supposedly based on the Isle of Freedom.
• Dream & events before it show schism between the Gods and the Council. Can we find some trustworthy council member?
• Huge black pillars in the distance
• Point Nicholas is the largest mountain, far to the west of us.
While we sleep something attacked us. They are Shadar-Kai—they seek new experiences & rush of sensations. They are bound to the Raven Queen, who extended their lives, but then they experience malaise from living for so long in the Shadowfell, so they go off seeking adventure. There are 5 of them & we fight and kill them.
They’ve disturbed the rubble on the floor, and we find a new version of that same black widow symbol underneath all the rubble & dirt. When we step on the symbol, the floor depresses and underneath it there is a book.
__________________________________________________
The loot:
600 GP
2 potions (+2d6 healing)
2 katars
1 gloom blade
1 spike chain
5 sets of black armor
It’s a huge cathedral, w/ a wing for each major god. The guards took us to the Erathis wing and told us that Liam would return once he’d been briefed.
We decided to talk to some people and headed over to Sehanine’s cathedral. There was a Deva standing at the podium, who consulted a tome, the Moon Chronicle, which tracks all of her followers. He told us the last known entry in the tome for us was in Allaron … ten years ago.
We told him what happened at the Keep and he told us to wait there & wandered off toward the cloister. He motioned to the guards and then 15 guards approached us, drawing their weapons. The told us to surrender our items.
Suddenly, Liam comes storming through the doors, sword drawn, yelling “Ambush!” w/ more guards following him. He veered towards the library and we all followed after him, running toward some big stained glass windows. Yonah, Kelissa, & I (though it was mostly Yonah) toppled a pair of bookshelves in the way of the guards who were following behind us.
Liam ran headlong right through the windows and grabbed a metal flag pole outside of them, sliding down. Yonah and Kelissa jump through the window and grab the pole too. Fergis tripped on the edge of the window and fell, but Yonah grabbed him and lowers him safely with her as she slid down. I jumped after them and slid down too. We land on the roof of the common area of the cathedral. The only ways down were to climb the walls or jump into the moat.
Most of us successfully climbed down the wall but Fergis and Liam both fell into the moat. Yonah dove back into the moat and pulled the two of them to shore.
We all scrambled for the north gate, heading into the burnt areas. We found some streets blocked off and/or guarded. We found a house that we could use to circumvent the guards and get over the wall. We headed north out of town. As we walked, Liam explained that we were being blamed for the portal opening, and that we are wanted for the destruction of the city of Winterhaven. We talked and decided the Council of Divinity must’ve become corrupted—our divine powers are intact, so the gods must know that we’ve not turned against them. Liam tells us that he learned that Avandra’s followers have left the Council.
We eventually found a defensible place and made camp for the night. We all shared the same dream:
We’re sitting in a circle, in positions that reflect the deities we are connected with, all of us facing outward. Behind Liam is a man with metal towers on his shoulders. Near Dillius is a woman with coin purses. Near Gareth and Yonah, a red-haired woman w/ a gown of leaves. To the right of Dillius is a dragonborn male dressed in silver. Near Jalfred, is a dwarf with a hammer. Behind Kelissa is a man with fiery hair & a crown of sun rays. Behind Krusk is a female Halfling w/ a cup of wine.
Each of the gods’ images backed up, sort of like a ghost separating from a body. Liam’s man is suddenly crushed underneath o pile of rubble; Erathis turns and walks away; the Halfling walks back into his image and walks away, as does the dwarf. The image of Pelor turns and burns the elven woman into dust. Sehanine’s image sheds a tear and then walks away. Dillius’ avatar approaches the large fat man (?) and shoves gold coins in his mouth until he turns to gold and melts into the ground. The rest of the avatars mere into images and leave. The man who sent Fergis to us rises from the ground, looks confused b/c he has no image of his god, and sinks back into the ground.
The circle we were sitting around becomes metal, spins, then melts and pours into Fergis’ tattoos.
Rays shoot out of his body at all of us:
• We are each granted the power to spend a second wind whenever we’re unconscious as a minor action.
• Each of us has our god’s symbol tattooed into our forearms. We each get a +10 to all social checks when dealing w/ someone who follows our god.
We headed west for 3 days and found an old cathedral in ruins, devoted to a god who no longer exists. It’s marked with a symbol like a black widow’s hourglass.
Inside, it’s old & musty, full of empty bookshelves. We spend 4-5 hours searching the place with extreme care and found nothing at all.
Questions:
• Why was there no Raven Queen apparition in the dream? (Raven Queen is Goddess of Opportunity, controls death & winter. She came upon her power as result of an earlier war between the gods, & she overthrew the previous god of death.)
• Avandra’s followers have left the Council. Why? Can we find them? They are supposedly based on the Isle of Freedom.
• Dream & events before it show schism between the Gods and the Council. Can we find some trustworthy council member?
• Huge black pillars in the distance
• Point Nicholas is the largest mountain, far to the west of us.
While we sleep something attacked us. They are Shadar-Kai—they seek new experiences & rush of sensations. They are bound to the Raven Queen, who extended their lives, but then they experience malaise from living for so long in the Shadowfell, so they go off seeking adventure. There are 5 of them & we fight and kill them.
They’ve disturbed the rubble on the floor, and we find a new version of that same black widow symbol underneath all the rubble & dirt. When we step on the symbol, the floor depresses and underneath it there is a book.
__________________________________________________
The loot:
600 GP
2 potions (+2d6 healing)
2 katars
1 gloom blade
1 spike chain
5 sets of black armor
Journal Day 9
Enemies:
Pain (actually a swarm of insects that forms into a woman’s body)
Woe (a golden woman, susceptible to fire)
Burden
Fear
Bone dragon
A Vortex from Shadowfell
Ice devil
Zombie hulk
___________________________________
I launched a fire arrow at Woe. As the arrow flew, time slowed down and the portal reopened. 2 individuals standing there: a human w/ his hand on the portal and a dwarf, who stepped through the portal and then became solid. He touched the dragon which burst into motes of light & disappeared; then he touched the ice devil, which melted away. His body was totally covered in tattoos, which glow with a golden light. Then time restored to normal.
An epic battle ensued. We all took serious damage. Burden kept raising more minions to battle us. Dillius at some point found Kalarel’s book of rituals and used it to dispel the shadow creatures of the vortex & zombie hulk. Fergus took control of Burden somehow & forced him to attack his allies, and Pain killed Burden to stop his attacks. I managed to hit Pain with a Sun Hammer and she burst into flame and died. We all dealt out some good damage to Fear, but finally Dillius finished him off with a Stirring Shout. But we were all in tough shape at that point and Woe was left. She was dealing some serious damage. I was brought down to 0 hit points, but managed to take a healing potion and then to launch an Evasive Strike at her, making a critical hit and killing her.
We found that the Rift was permanently closed.
Fergis told us he was sent her to help by the Raven Queen to fight against Death. He is a Revenant, a race of beings created by the Raven Queen. She brings their souls back to life, making them appear just as they did in life. They are not undead, but reborn individuals, generally treated as any other race. The tattoos that cover his body are an ancient language. We somehow (??) know there is a temple related to that language somewhere near Freeton.
When we got back outside, everything was different, barren and dead. The sky was gray and the sun dim. Very far in the distance there were wide swaths of blackness in the sky, pillars maybe a mile high. We saw no animals or signs of life anywhere. It reminded us of Splug’s Tale of the 9.
We went to Winterhaven. There was nothing moving or alive there. There were signs that the city was simply abandoned, in something of a rush. It was a complete ghost town. We gathered rations when we could find them. The magic shop was packed up and locked and Padraig’s mansion was packed up, locked and boarded.
We went to the scholar’s tower and found at least many of his books left behind. We spent a bit of time going through them and found a ledger of people who’d entered the town. Based on what we can gather from the ledger, we seem to have been gone for at least 3 years. We also found some scholarly text on the Shadow Realm and looked for info on the Keepers of the Nine: tales of the world’s last days, destruction and disasters. We found some prophecy scrolls that describe 9 portals, each corresponding to a different catastrophe, and once each have been triggered, the world is destroyed. Each portal has a keeper, typically someone from the Council of Divinity.
We spent another day searching Winterhaven and found nothing especially worthwhile, and no other signs of life. We went to the River Freenik not far away and built a boat to travel to Freeton. The water of the river is gray—no algae, no fish, no bugs, no life at all. As if all life has just stopped.
For a full day of traveling on the river, there were still no signs of life. The next day, we began to see vague signs of lige. By the third day, we started to see birds and small animals. On the 4th day we approached Freeton.
In the distance, still see those deep black pillars in the sky. As we approached the city, we saw that it was on fire, or at least big chunks of it are. There are some fortifications and we can see people there, fighting to defend the city.
We pulled up to the docks of the city and the guards approached.
___________________________________________________
The loot:
6000 GP
Safewing amulet +2 [Fergis]
Goggles of the Book Collector (+3 to monster knowledge check)
Pain (actually a swarm of insects that forms into a woman’s body)
Woe (a golden woman, susceptible to fire)
Burden
Fear
Bone dragon
A Vortex from Shadowfell
Ice devil
Zombie hulk
___________________________________
I launched a fire arrow at Woe. As the arrow flew, time slowed down and the portal reopened. 2 individuals standing there: a human w/ his hand on the portal and a dwarf, who stepped through the portal and then became solid. He touched the dragon which burst into motes of light & disappeared; then he touched the ice devil, which melted away. His body was totally covered in tattoos, which glow with a golden light. Then time restored to normal.
An epic battle ensued. We all took serious damage. Burden kept raising more minions to battle us. Dillius at some point found Kalarel’s book of rituals and used it to dispel the shadow creatures of the vortex & zombie hulk. Fergus took control of Burden somehow & forced him to attack his allies, and Pain killed Burden to stop his attacks. I managed to hit Pain with a Sun Hammer and she burst into flame and died. We all dealt out some good damage to Fear, but finally Dillius finished him off with a Stirring Shout. But we were all in tough shape at that point and Woe was left. She was dealing some serious damage. I was brought down to 0 hit points, but managed to take a healing potion and then to launch an Evasive Strike at her, making a critical hit and killing her.
We found that the Rift was permanently closed.
Fergis told us he was sent her to help by the Raven Queen to fight against Death. He is a Revenant, a race of beings created by the Raven Queen. She brings their souls back to life, making them appear just as they did in life. They are not undead, but reborn individuals, generally treated as any other race. The tattoos that cover his body are an ancient language. We somehow (??) know there is a temple related to that language somewhere near Freeton.
When we got back outside, everything was different, barren and dead. The sky was gray and the sun dim. Very far in the distance there were wide swaths of blackness in the sky, pillars maybe a mile high. We saw no animals or signs of life anywhere. It reminded us of Splug’s Tale of the 9.
We went to Winterhaven. There was nothing moving or alive there. There were signs that the city was simply abandoned, in something of a rush. It was a complete ghost town. We gathered rations when we could find them. The magic shop was packed up and locked and Padraig’s mansion was packed up, locked and boarded.
We went to the scholar’s tower and found at least many of his books left behind. We spent a bit of time going through them and found a ledger of people who’d entered the town. Based on what we can gather from the ledger, we seem to have been gone for at least 3 years. We also found some scholarly text on the Shadow Realm and looked for info on the Keepers of the Nine: tales of the world’s last days, destruction and disasters. We found some prophecy scrolls that describe 9 portals, each corresponding to a different catastrophe, and once each have been triggered, the world is destroyed. Each portal has a keeper, typically someone from the Council of Divinity.
We spent another day searching Winterhaven and found nothing especially worthwhile, and no other signs of life. We went to the River Freenik not far away and built a boat to travel to Freeton. The water of the river is gray—no algae, no fish, no bugs, no life at all. As if all life has just stopped.
For a full day of traveling on the river, there were still no signs of life. The next day, we began to see vague signs of lige. By the third day, we started to see birds and small animals. On the 4th day we approached Freeton.
In the distance, still see those deep black pillars in the sky. As we approached the city, we saw that it was on fire, or at least big chunks of it are. There are some fortifications and we can see people there, fighting to defend the city.
We pulled up to the docks of the city and the guards approached.
___________________________________________________
The loot:
6000 GP
Safewing amulet +2 [Fergis]
Goggles of the Book Collector (+3 to monster knowledge check)
Journal Day 8
We went further into the depths of the keep and found a room with a towering statue of a warrior in plate armor and a pair of crouching dragons. When we entered the room, the doors behind us slammed shut & bolts slid in place locking the door. The statue lifted slightly off the ground and began spinning around, with its sword sweeping in wild arcs. I jumped on the statue’s back and found a panel to deactivate it but before I could actually do so, I got thrown off its back, landing near one of the dragons, which activated and hit me with a breath weapon attack. Kellisa managed to get onto the statue & disarmed it permanently, though.
There were four cherub statues surrounding the door out of the room. When Liam walked between them, a translucent wall went up between them, trapping him inside and the room started filling up with water. The rest of us put our backs into it and toppled the other statues over, breaking the spell and releasing Liam from the trap.
Beyond the door, we found stairs down to a natural cave, which opened into a huge expanse, maybe a mile in diameter. We were in the Underdark, the world beneath the earth’s crust. We saw a huge cathedral covered in jet black gargoyles carved from obsidian or onyx.
Inside the cathedral, crimson streams of blood trailed along the floor, spilling down into a grate in the floor. The blood was supplied from a dais where 2 men with ram skull tattoos covering their faces were chanting and carving up bodies. Bodies of brutally mutilated, bloody humanoid men, women, and children littered the floor around them. In the pit, the blood dripped down around a series of chains that led deep into the darkness.
The men at the dais didn’t see us, so we tried to sneak around closer to them, but as we turned the coner, there was a dark-creeper—a Halfling shaped humanoid made of shadow—waiting around the corner for us. He charged at Yonah and then a half-dozen feral-faced vampiric humanoids came at the rest of us. When we destroyed the dark-creeper, it exploded and everyone in the party except me was blinded temporarily. Then 2 barbarians and the pair of underpriests burst through the doors and attacked. We eventually fought them off. On the dais we found a ritual book, a shroud of gloaming, and a suit of hide armor.
We descended the chains into a nightmare. Blood poured down into a pit, a yawning black portal dominated the north wall with something straining against the portal from beyond. Blazing runes were inscribed in the floor and a giant statue of Orcus was in the corner, with two more smaller statues of orcus next to a small pit. A deathlock wight stood near the pit (causes fear, reanimated the undead, serve as powerful sgts & lts to more powerful undead. Very intelligent, pulls back the flaps of its face to cause terrible fear in its enemies). 2 skeletal warriors stood to the side.
Kalarel, a human in heavy armor with a rod stood at the altar, chanting a low droaning prayer from the book opened before him. More mutilated, disemboweled bodies were chained to a series of black pillars.
We managed to surprise Kalarel, and I launched a powerful ranged attack on him but my shot was just wide of the mark, even after I tried using my elven accuracy and an action point to aid the attack. Then Liam charged at him, but as he crossed the threshold near him, the bodies on the columns screamed out in agony and moved to shield Kalarel. They were pale reavers, semi-substantial intelligent undead creatures that can become insubstantial & pass through solid objects. They attack with their hair, through which they suck blood and rejuvenate themselves.
A bunch of them swarmed in front of Kalarel and we were unable to fight our way through them all before Kalarel completed the ritual. The portal was activated. A blazing light flashed out from it, and Kalarel and all the other enemies in the room were blasted into nothingness. Our party was all thrown against the far wall.
4 horsemen, the same 4 who had been flying over the city of Allaron, rode in through the portal and dismounted. Their steeds returned through the portal. The 4 horsemen were deva, with red skin & black markings: they are Woe, Fear, Pain, and Burden. 1 has pure white eyes & bears a shield, another has glowing red eyes, another has metallic silver eyes and also bears a shield, and the 4th has pure black eyes with blue swirls within it (the same color as that cloud which attacked us earlier) and a laugh that I somehow remember from the depths of my subconscious. The fourth has a shield with a coat of arms that’s a modified version of the symbol of Orcus and as he breathes his breath frosts in the air.
The first step forward and says in an unnatural voice, “We are Death.” The third greeted Dillius and Liam and said, “I know who you are.” The second greeted Yonah, calling her sister. We looked around and figured out that Splug was missing, and the second told us “He has returned to his master.”
The first then told us that we have two choices, “Join us or die” but another interrupted, pointing out, “If they join us, they’ll die anyway.” Though Dilius mumbled something about looking for the easiest way out, we told them that we would never join them.
The 4 spread out and each yelled out calls to their minions to come.
______________________________________________
The loot:
Bracers of Escape [Dillius]
Ritual book w/ 3 pages (last sight visions, explorer fire, transforming enchantment ??) [Dillius]
Shroud of Gloaming (+2 fort/ref/will & bonus to stealth) [Gareth]
Sylvan hide armor +2 (bonus to athletic & stealth) [Yonah]
Footpad friend’s dagger [Kellisa]
Holy Gauntlets [Liam]
Cloak of Resistance [Dillius]
Bracers of Defense [Kellisa]
Boots of Free Movement [Liam]
Mindiron Bracers [Yonah]
XP:
3117
There were four cherub statues surrounding the door out of the room. When Liam walked between them, a translucent wall went up between them, trapping him inside and the room started filling up with water. The rest of us put our backs into it and toppled the other statues over, breaking the spell and releasing Liam from the trap.
Beyond the door, we found stairs down to a natural cave, which opened into a huge expanse, maybe a mile in diameter. We were in the Underdark, the world beneath the earth’s crust. We saw a huge cathedral covered in jet black gargoyles carved from obsidian or onyx.
Inside the cathedral, crimson streams of blood trailed along the floor, spilling down into a grate in the floor. The blood was supplied from a dais where 2 men with ram skull tattoos covering their faces were chanting and carving up bodies. Bodies of brutally mutilated, bloody humanoid men, women, and children littered the floor around them. In the pit, the blood dripped down around a series of chains that led deep into the darkness.
The men at the dais didn’t see us, so we tried to sneak around closer to them, but as we turned the coner, there was a dark-creeper—a Halfling shaped humanoid made of shadow—waiting around the corner for us. He charged at Yonah and then a half-dozen feral-faced vampiric humanoids came at the rest of us. When we destroyed the dark-creeper, it exploded and everyone in the party except me was blinded temporarily. Then 2 barbarians and the pair of underpriests burst through the doors and attacked. We eventually fought them off. On the dais we found a ritual book, a shroud of gloaming, and a suit of hide armor.
We descended the chains into a nightmare. Blood poured down into a pit, a yawning black portal dominated the north wall with something straining against the portal from beyond. Blazing runes were inscribed in the floor and a giant statue of Orcus was in the corner, with two more smaller statues of orcus next to a small pit. A deathlock wight stood near the pit (causes fear, reanimated the undead, serve as powerful sgts & lts to more powerful undead. Very intelligent, pulls back the flaps of its face to cause terrible fear in its enemies). 2 skeletal warriors stood to the side.
Kalarel, a human in heavy armor with a rod stood at the altar, chanting a low droaning prayer from the book opened before him. More mutilated, disemboweled bodies were chained to a series of black pillars.
We managed to surprise Kalarel, and I launched a powerful ranged attack on him but my shot was just wide of the mark, even after I tried using my elven accuracy and an action point to aid the attack. Then Liam charged at him, but as he crossed the threshold near him, the bodies on the columns screamed out in agony and moved to shield Kalarel. They were pale reavers, semi-substantial intelligent undead creatures that can become insubstantial & pass through solid objects. They attack with their hair, through which they suck blood and rejuvenate themselves.
A bunch of them swarmed in front of Kalarel and we were unable to fight our way through them all before Kalarel completed the ritual. The portal was activated. A blazing light flashed out from it, and Kalarel and all the other enemies in the room were blasted into nothingness. Our party was all thrown against the far wall.
4 horsemen, the same 4 who had been flying over the city of Allaron, rode in through the portal and dismounted. Their steeds returned through the portal. The 4 horsemen were deva, with red skin & black markings: they are Woe, Fear, Pain, and Burden. 1 has pure white eyes & bears a shield, another has glowing red eyes, another has metallic silver eyes and also bears a shield, and the 4th has pure black eyes with blue swirls within it (the same color as that cloud which attacked us earlier) and a laugh that I somehow remember from the depths of my subconscious. The fourth has a shield with a coat of arms that’s a modified version of the symbol of Orcus and as he breathes his breath frosts in the air.
The first step forward and says in an unnatural voice, “We are Death.” The third greeted Dillius and Liam and said, “I know who you are.” The second greeted Yonah, calling her sister. We looked around and figured out that Splug was missing, and the second told us “He has returned to his master.”
The first then told us that we have two choices, “Join us or die” but another interrupted, pointing out, “If they join us, they’ll die anyway.” Though Dilius mumbled something about looking for the easiest way out, we told them that we would never join them.
The 4 spread out and each yelled out calls to their minions to come.
______________________________________________
The loot:
Bracers of Escape [Dillius]
Ritual book w/ 3 pages (last sight visions, explorer fire, transforming enchantment ??) [Dillius]
Shroud of Gloaming (+2 fort/ref/will & bonus to stealth) [Gareth]
Sylvan hide armor +2 (bonus to athletic & stealth) [Yonah]
Footpad friend’s dagger [Kellisa]
Holy Gauntlets [Liam]
Cloak of Resistance [Dillius]
Bracers of Defense [Kellisa]
Boots of Free Movement [Liam]
Mindiron Bracers [Yonah]
XP:
3117
Journal Day 7
When we stopped last, the ghost of Sir Keegan had just risen from his
sarcophagus and demanded that we state our business or prepare to die.
We answered that we had come to Shadowfell to insure that the rift
remain closed. When I told Keegan that we had heard stories about
what transpired in the Keep, but were not certain what had really
happened, Keegan replied that he had failed at his responsibility,
because “Orcus’s vile taint soaked through the rift and influenced my
dreams,” undermining his sanity and driving him to murder his wife,
children, and compatriots.
Keegan interrogated us about our plans and experiences. At first it
was difficult to convince him that we were telling him the truth, and
we each needed to play a part in the conversation. Yonah was
particularly effective in intimidating him when it looked like he
might distrust us so much that he’d resort to blows. Eventually we
convinced him that we were serious in our plans to destroy Kalarel,
and he offered his own sword to us, saying that he hoped we would
redeem his eloquent weapon with out exploits. He further advised us
to seek Bahamut’s boon at the altars and he might aid us in our quest,
and then he burst into a cloud of dust. We once again inspected the
dragon statues we had found, and realized that whoever bears one gains
a +2 to defenses against the foe who attempts to reopen the rift.
We decided to search the room further, when from Keegan’s dust some
foul creature from the netherworld coalesced and attacked us. None of
us had ever seen anything like it and couldn’t identify it at all, but
it was a creature from the plane of shadow. It attacked mainly by
surrounding us in clouds of smoke that attempted to dominate us, and
with necrotic ice or lightning attacks. The sound of the creature’s
laughter stirred some dim memory from my childhood—was this creature
involved in my parents’ deaths?
It was probably the most powerful single creature we had fought,
especially because of its power to dominate, but we eventually
defeated it. From out of its howling core, dropped a pair of items
when it was destroyed: a belt and a suit of platemail armor.
Since we had completely cleared out that level of the dungeon, we
prepared to descend down to the level where Kalarel had gone. At the
bottom of the stairs, we found 4 hobgoblins standing watch over a
door, with a Deathjump spider the size of a horse in a cage nearby.
[Deathjump spiders were tamed by the Drow and are used mainly by the
followers of Lolth.] As we came down the stairs, one shouted out
“shadow seeks shadow” and I replied with the password we had gleaned
from Balgron: “life fails in the dark.” They asked us what business
we had with Kalarel and, remembering the note we found back in the
blue slime’s chamber, I told them that we had been sent by Chief Krand
of the Blood Reivers, so they escorted us to their war chief.
They brought us to a big room and then went to fetch their chief. When
he came, we told him that we were there to see Kalarel, bearing a
message from Chief Krand. He was skeptical, but we totally bluffed
our way through the conversation, until he was finally convinced that
we were in fact an elite guard for Kalarel and one of the dragon
statues we had found was the new symbol for the Blood Reivers. The
War Chief then told us that we couldn’t talk to Kalarel because they
weren’t certain where he was—he went deeper into the dungeon and
hasn’t been seen for some time. The Chief said they’ve been waiting
around with nothing much to do and wondering when they would receive
further orders. The Chief asked us, then, whether Krand had sent
orders along to them. I thought for a second and then told him that I
wasn’t supposed to say, but we were there to evaluate Kalarel and,
based on what he had told us, we would be exercising extreme prejudice
in our … uh … critique of Kalarel, and I ordered him to gather up his
men and return to the Blood Reivers for further assignment. He seemed
surprised but called in some of his men and ordered them to gather
their gear.
We spent a couple of hours standing around scowling at the hobgoblins
as they prepared to march. At some point, one of the hobgoblins went
up to scout out the way and returned with news that the soldiers
guarding the entrance to the keep had been killed. The Chief turned
to us suspiciously, so I told him there was obviously an assault
underway so they needed to move on the double to get out so that we
could make sure that Kalarel was dealt with before the enemy arrived.
So the Chief and his men stormed out of the keep.
We avoided fighting 23 hobgoblins and the deathjump spider by bluffing
our way through that encounter.
We followed the hallway to where the Chief had indicated Kalarel had
disappeared. There were a pair of double doors with a board nailed
across them with “Closed” written on it in common. Yonah smashed the
door down and we found a short hallway that was remarkably clean and
free of dust. This warning wasn’t enough to make the battle with the
gelatinous cube in the hallway any easier, really. It was hard to see
in the failing light in the hallway and we tried to retreat away from
it, but ended up fighting both it and a pair of corruption corpses
(humanoid zombies in pools of their own rotting flesh, which were
difficult to fight because if you got close to them, they smelled so
fetid that it made it next to impossible to focus on fighting).
Once we had killed the cube and the corruption corpses, we found
another small room with a check inside it bearing the image of
Bahamut. Inside the chest were children’s clothes, a wooden toy
sword, a hairbrush, a pair of amulets, and some jewelry.
____________________________________________________
The loot:
10 gp
Medallion worth 250 gp (inscribed Drystan Keegan)
Platinum bracelet worth 200 gp (inscribed Ceinwin Keegan)
Hairbrush inset w/ mother of pearl worth 5 gp
Retribution Longsword +2 [Liam]
Ironskin belt (gain resist 5 to [some kind of?] damage) [Yonah]
Deathburst Rimfire Plate Armor +2 [Liam]
Safewing amulet +1 (if fall, drop slowly & land on feet, no damage
from fall of 10’ & fort/ref/will defenses +1)
XP:
1808
sarcophagus and demanded that we state our business or prepare to die.
We answered that we had come to Shadowfell to insure that the rift
remain closed. When I told Keegan that we had heard stories about
what transpired in the Keep, but were not certain what had really
happened, Keegan replied that he had failed at his responsibility,
because “Orcus’s vile taint soaked through the rift and influenced my
dreams,” undermining his sanity and driving him to murder his wife,
children, and compatriots.
Keegan interrogated us about our plans and experiences. At first it
was difficult to convince him that we were telling him the truth, and
we each needed to play a part in the conversation. Yonah was
particularly effective in intimidating him when it looked like he
might distrust us so much that he’d resort to blows. Eventually we
convinced him that we were serious in our plans to destroy Kalarel,
and he offered his own sword to us, saying that he hoped we would
redeem his eloquent weapon with out exploits. He further advised us
to seek Bahamut’s boon at the altars and he might aid us in our quest,
and then he burst into a cloud of dust. We once again inspected the
dragon statues we had found, and realized that whoever bears one gains
a +2 to defenses against the foe who attempts to reopen the rift.
We decided to search the room further, when from Keegan’s dust some
foul creature from the netherworld coalesced and attacked us. None of
us had ever seen anything like it and couldn’t identify it at all, but
it was a creature from the plane of shadow. It attacked mainly by
surrounding us in clouds of smoke that attempted to dominate us, and
with necrotic ice or lightning attacks. The sound of the creature’s
laughter stirred some dim memory from my childhood—was this creature
involved in my parents’ deaths?
It was probably the most powerful single creature we had fought,
especially because of its power to dominate, but we eventually
defeated it. From out of its howling core, dropped a pair of items
when it was destroyed: a belt and a suit of platemail armor.
Since we had completely cleared out that level of the dungeon, we
prepared to descend down to the level where Kalarel had gone. At the
bottom of the stairs, we found 4 hobgoblins standing watch over a
door, with a Deathjump spider the size of a horse in a cage nearby.
[Deathjump spiders were tamed by the Drow and are used mainly by the
followers of Lolth.] As we came down the stairs, one shouted out
“shadow seeks shadow” and I replied with the password we had gleaned
from Balgron: “life fails in the dark.” They asked us what business
we had with Kalarel and, remembering the note we found back in the
blue slime’s chamber, I told them that we had been sent by Chief Krand
of the Blood Reivers, so they escorted us to their war chief.
They brought us to a big room and then went to fetch their chief. When
he came, we told him that we were there to see Kalarel, bearing a
message from Chief Krand. He was skeptical, but we totally bluffed
our way through the conversation, until he was finally convinced that
we were in fact an elite guard for Kalarel and one of the dragon
statues we had found was the new symbol for the Blood Reivers. The
War Chief then told us that we couldn’t talk to Kalarel because they
weren’t certain where he was—he went deeper into the dungeon and
hasn’t been seen for some time. The Chief said they’ve been waiting
around with nothing much to do and wondering when they would receive
further orders. The Chief asked us, then, whether Krand had sent
orders along to them. I thought for a second and then told him that I
wasn’t supposed to say, but we were there to evaluate Kalarel and,
based on what he had told us, we would be exercising extreme prejudice
in our … uh … critique of Kalarel, and I ordered him to gather up his
men and return to the Blood Reivers for further assignment. He seemed
surprised but called in some of his men and ordered them to gather
their gear.
We spent a couple of hours standing around scowling at the hobgoblins
as they prepared to march. At some point, one of the hobgoblins went
up to scout out the way and returned with news that the soldiers
guarding the entrance to the keep had been killed. The Chief turned
to us suspiciously, so I told him there was obviously an assault
underway so they needed to move on the double to get out so that we
could make sure that Kalarel was dealt with before the enemy arrived.
So the Chief and his men stormed out of the keep.
We avoided fighting 23 hobgoblins and the deathjump spider by bluffing
our way through that encounter.
We followed the hallway to where the Chief had indicated Kalarel had
disappeared. There were a pair of double doors with a board nailed
across them with “Closed” written on it in common. Yonah smashed the
door down and we found a short hallway that was remarkably clean and
free of dust. This warning wasn’t enough to make the battle with the
gelatinous cube in the hallway any easier, really. It was hard to see
in the failing light in the hallway and we tried to retreat away from
it, but ended up fighting both it and a pair of corruption corpses
(humanoid zombies in pools of their own rotting flesh, which were
difficult to fight because if you got close to them, they smelled so
fetid that it made it next to impossible to focus on fighting).
Once we had killed the cube and the corruption corpses, we found
another small room with a check inside it bearing the image of
Bahamut. Inside the chest were children’s clothes, a wooden toy
sword, a hairbrush, a pair of amulets, and some jewelry.
____________________________________________________
The loot:
10 gp
Medallion worth 250 gp (inscribed Drystan Keegan)
Platinum bracelet worth 200 gp (inscribed Ceinwin Keegan)
Hairbrush inset w/ mother of pearl worth 5 gp
Retribution Longsword +2 [Liam]
Ironskin belt (gain resist 5 to [some kind of?] damage) [Yonah]
Deathburst Rimfire Plate Armor +2 [Liam]
Safewing amulet +1 (if fall, drop slowly & land on feet, no damage
from fall of 10’ & fort/ref/will defenses +1)
XP:
1808
Journal Day 6
When we stopped at the end of day 5, we had 2 paths left to us: a
hallway off the chamber where we confronted the blue slime and the
stair, which Splug told us led down to Kalarel. We decided to follow
the hallway before going further down, on the rationale that we didn’t
want to leave anything behind us once we headed down.
We found a chamber full of kruthiks, which are a species of chitinous
reptilian hunters that form hives undergound. They are methodical
hunters, destroying all the prey in an area before moving on to the
next. They butcher their kills and carry treasure back toehir nests.
Strange tracks that look as if they were made by spikes are sure signs
of a kruthik horde. They communicate with one another through a
complex series of insectlike chitters and hisses. They hatch from
eggs, grow into young, then enter into a hard cocoon to change into
the next larger stage. They take the scent of their own dead as a
warning, so slaying enough kruthiks in an area might drive the
remaining hive elsewhere. The kruthik arise from the Tiefling empire,
where mages infused worldly reptiles with fiendish blood. They
probably had a way to control the kruthiks then, but if so that
technique was lost with the fall of the Tiefling empire.
We killed off the hive and searched the lair, finding a big pile of
useless gear, some gold & silver, a small chest holding 5 amethysts,
magic boots of climbing, and a magic bow and arrows.
The experience from that battle with the kruthiks was enough for me to level up
There were no other exits from the hive, so we circled back to the
stairs down to Kalarel.
At the bottom of the stairs, everything was pitch black. Hallways
stretched in 2 directions: down one there was faint light and Splug
saw some zombies standing about in the room. Krusk wanted to go
exploring down the pitch dark passageway, in the hopes that whatever
was that direction would be surprised by our presence & we wouldn’t
squander surprise on the zombies. I wanted to go ahead and attack the
zombies with the element of surprise and then move on to the next
threat, rather than risking wandering blindly into a trap and losing
surprise anyway. But Krusk wouldn’t listen to me and just started
down the dark hallway, so I followed. After a few steps, Krusk
stepped on a terror rune inscribed on the floor, which he couldn’t see
because of the dark, and the rune both set off an alarm screech and
set off a reaction of fear in each of us that forced us to run at full
speed away from the rune, right into the room full of zombies.
We killed the zombies, and then another group of zombies that had been
down the dark passageway, who came after us when the alarm sounded.
Then we found a secret door the led into an armory and I think we
killed a few more zombies [I paused to read stories to the kids, so am
not 100% clear on what happened.] There was a suit of worthless,
tattered armor along the wall and a plaque, which spoke the words to a
riddle. We answered the riddle and the worthless armor transformed
into some cool magical hide armor covered in vines.
We rested in that armory, since it was a readily defensible room, and
then set out again. We found a long hallway, shaped like the nave of a
cathedral, with a row of sarcophagi spaced along the walls, each
adorned with some indecipherable draconic script. The other end of
From some of the sarcophagi, we could hear faint clicks and noises,
which I thought probably indicated that there were skeletons inside.
Kelissa and I decided to pause and carefully inspect these sarcophagi
before moving any further into the room. Krusk decided instead, to
just grab one of them and open it up. A bunch of skeletons came
pouring out and attacked. We killed the first wave, but more kept
coming at us.
At the apse of the hallway, there was a huge dome with the image of
Bahamut carved into it. Bahamut is the God of Justice & Honor, the
first of the metallic dragons. He is Lawful Good. Though there are
rumors that it is disrespectful to call him by name, which is why many
refer to him only as The Platinum Dragon, these rumors are false. His
followers resist evil, protect the weak, and offer aid to those most
in need; they also revere Tiamat, even though he is the opposite of
Bahamut, because of his draconic qualities. His paladins are
quintessential paladins. His followers were the first to recommend
the creation of the Council of Divinity. There were 2 big tables in
the transepts, inscribed with words celebrating Bahamut, ending in the
phrase “I need only kneel and offer Bahamut my praise,” so Yonah knelt
and praised Bahamut and the skeleton assault ended.
In one of the tables, we found a secret compartment with 8 small
silver and platinum dragon sculptures.
We found a doorway at the end of the hall that led to steps up to
another large stone sarcophagus, this one carved with the image of a
warrior in plate armor with a sword laid across his chest with the
point at his feet. This seemed to clearly be the burial place for Sir
Keegan. Draped over the sarcophagus was a cape, which turned out to
be magical.
We opened the sarcophagus and Sir Keegan’s skeleton burst out, saying
“The Rift must never be reopened! State your business or prepare to
die…” He prepared himself to attack, but before he did I said, “We
are here to ensure that the Rift is never reopened” and he stopped to
listen.
And that’s where we stopped for the night.
____________________________________________
The loot:
59 gp
216 sp
5 amethysts w 50 gp/ea
8 small silver & platinum dragon statues w 60 gp/ea
2 healing potions
Boots of spider-climbing [Krusk]
Lightning longbow +1 [Gareth]
Firestorm arrows +1 [Gareth]
Life vine hide armor +1 [Krusk]
Cape of the Mountebank [Kelissa]
XP:
644 for Gareth, Kellissa, and Krusk.
322 for everyone Yonah, Liam, Dillius, & Jalfred.
_________________________________________________
GM Update:
David,Gareth - Host, MVP (for suggestion of Bahamut's solution) - 500xp
Tiffany, Kellisa - Conditions and Beads, There before me - 400xp
James, Krusk - Initiative Tracking - 200xp
Totals:
David, 1144xp
Tiffany, 1044xp
James, 844xp
Liam, 322xp
Michael, 322xp
Stephanie, 322xp
Thomas, 322xp
hallway off the chamber where we confronted the blue slime and the
stair, which Splug told us led down to Kalarel. We decided to follow
the hallway before going further down, on the rationale that we didn’t
want to leave anything behind us once we headed down.
We found a chamber full of kruthiks, which are a species of chitinous
reptilian hunters that form hives undergound. They are methodical
hunters, destroying all the prey in an area before moving on to the
next. They butcher their kills and carry treasure back toehir nests.
Strange tracks that look as if they were made by spikes are sure signs
of a kruthik horde. They communicate with one another through a
complex series of insectlike chitters and hisses. They hatch from
eggs, grow into young, then enter into a hard cocoon to change into
the next larger stage. They take the scent of their own dead as a
warning, so slaying enough kruthiks in an area might drive the
remaining hive elsewhere. The kruthik arise from the Tiefling empire,
where mages infused worldly reptiles with fiendish blood. They
probably had a way to control the kruthiks then, but if so that
technique was lost with the fall of the Tiefling empire.
We killed off the hive and searched the lair, finding a big pile of
useless gear, some gold & silver, a small chest holding 5 amethysts,
magic boots of climbing, and a magic bow and arrows.
The experience from that battle with the kruthiks was enough for me to level up
There were no other exits from the hive, so we circled back to the
stairs down to Kalarel.
At the bottom of the stairs, everything was pitch black. Hallways
stretched in 2 directions: down one there was faint light and Splug
saw some zombies standing about in the room. Krusk wanted to go
exploring down the pitch dark passageway, in the hopes that whatever
was that direction would be surprised by our presence & we wouldn’t
squander surprise on the zombies. I wanted to go ahead and attack the
zombies with the element of surprise and then move on to the next
threat, rather than risking wandering blindly into a trap and losing
surprise anyway. But Krusk wouldn’t listen to me and just started
down the dark hallway, so I followed. After a few steps, Krusk
stepped on a terror rune inscribed on the floor, which he couldn’t see
because of the dark, and the rune both set off an alarm screech and
set off a reaction of fear in each of us that forced us to run at full
speed away from the rune, right into the room full of zombies.
We killed the zombies, and then another group of zombies that had been
down the dark passageway, who came after us when the alarm sounded.
Then we found a secret door the led into an armory and I think we
killed a few more zombies [I paused to read stories to the kids, so am
not 100% clear on what happened.] There was a suit of worthless,
tattered armor along the wall and a plaque, which spoke the words to a
riddle. We answered the riddle and the worthless armor transformed
into some cool magical hide armor covered in vines.
We rested in that armory, since it was a readily defensible room, and
then set out again. We found a long hallway, shaped like the nave of a
cathedral, with a row of sarcophagi spaced along the walls, each
adorned with some indecipherable draconic script. The other end of
From some of the sarcophagi, we could hear faint clicks and noises,
which I thought probably indicated that there were skeletons inside.
Kelissa and I decided to pause and carefully inspect these sarcophagi
before moving any further into the room. Krusk decided instead, to
just grab one of them and open it up. A bunch of skeletons came
pouring out and attacked. We killed the first wave, but more kept
coming at us.
At the apse of the hallway, there was a huge dome with the image of
Bahamut carved into it. Bahamut is the God of Justice & Honor, the
first of the metallic dragons. He is Lawful Good. Though there are
rumors that it is disrespectful to call him by name, which is why many
refer to him only as The Platinum Dragon, these rumors are false. His
followers resist evil, protect the weak, and offer aid to those most
in need; they also revere Tiamat, even though he is the opposite of
Bahamut, because of his draconic qualities. His paladins are
quintessential paladins. His followers were the first to recommend
the creation of the Council of Divinity. There were 2 big tables in
the transepts, inscribed with words celebrating Bahamut, ending in the
phrase “I need only kneel and offer Bahamut my praise,” so Yonah knelt
and praised Bahamut and the skeleton assault ended.
In one of the tables, we found a secret compartment with 8 small
silver and platinum dragon sculptures.
We found a doorway at the end of the hall that led to steps up to
another large stone sarcophagus, this one carved with the image of a
warrior in plate armor with a sword laid across his chest with the
point at his feet. This seemed to clearly be the burial place for Sir
Keegan. Draped over the sarcophagus was a cape, which turned out to
be magical.
We opened the sarcophagus and Sir Keegan’s skeleton burst out, saying
“The Rift must never be reopened! State your business or prepare to
die…” He prepared himself to attack, but before he did I said, “We
are here to ensure that the Rift is never reopened” and he stopped to
listen.
And that’s where we stopped for the night.
____________________________________________
The loot:
59 gp
216 sp
5 amethysts w 50 gp/ea
8 small silver & platinum dragon statues w 60 gp/ea
2 healing potions
Boots of spider-climbing [Krusk]
Lightning longbow +1 [Gareth]
Firestorm arrows +1 [Gareth]
Life vine hide armor +1 [Krusk]
Cape of the Mountebank [Kelissa]
XP:
644 for Gareth, Kellissa, and Krusk.
322 for everyone Yonah, Liam, Dillius, & Jalfred.
_________________________________________________
GM Update:
David,Gareth - Host, MVP (for suggestion of Bahamut's solution) - 500xp
Tiffany, Kellisa - Conditions and Beads, There before me - 400xp
James, Krusk - Initiative Tracking - 200xp
Totals:
David, 1144xp
Tiffany, 1044xp
James, 844xp
Liam, 322xp
Michael, 322xp
Stephanie, 322xp
Thomas, 322xp
Journal Day 5
We prepared to enter the secret passageway into Balgron the Fat’s chambers. We decided that we should go in as stealthily as possible, and we decided that we some of us should go stay with Jalfred, who had stayed above ground when we entered the keep, so Kelissa, Liam, and Dillius went back to the surface. Splug remembered that he had left some of his gear back in the torture chamber, so he and Krusk went and got his suit of leather armor, holy symbol of Sehanine and a dagger. It turns out that Splug is a cleric/rogue and given how he comported himself for the rest of that day, quite a fine one. He has expressed interest in staying on with us at least until we finish dealing with Kalarel’s cult. When we first took him with us, I must say that I expected him to betray us the first chance he got, but then in very short order he had a number of opportunities in which to do so and he remained loyal, indeed he went above and beyond the call of duty.
(Our original agreement was for him to work for us in return for us sparing his life and returning the vial of his blood that Balgron held. That agreement, I think, is insufficient now. We should discuss it as a party, and discuss it with Splug, but I would be in favor of some much more generous pay to him—I am thinking something like giving him a half-share of whatever coins we find [i.e., by the end of this 5th remove of adventuring, the three PCs and Splug found 599 gp, so each of the PCs would receive 171 gp and Splug would receive 86.]) I am open to other suggestions for how to remunerate Splug, should he continue to adventure with us, perhaps more of a flat-rate: at the end of our adventures in the keep, once we’ve foiled Kalarel’s plan, we pay him 200gp or whatever.)
Once Splug returned with his gear, we went through the secret door right into Balgron’s sleeping chamber, which was separated from a larger room by tapestries. We heard one goblin guard on the other side of the tapestry wall, so we decided that Yonah should grab and intimidate Balgron while the rest of us tried to jump the guard and kill him before he could sound a general alarm. We were successful. We tied up Balgron and began questioning him. He tried to lie but when Yonah applied a little physical pressure he very quickly broke down. He told us:
• Kalarel is indeed in the lower level, performing a ritual, and is guarded by many undead.
• We’ll need a password to get into the lower level. After much pressure, he said the password is: “Life fails in the dark.”
When Splug said smthg about taking the symbol from around his neck, which he could use to raise his goblins from the undead, Balgron freaked out and managed, within an instant, to shrug out of the ropes that we had bound him with, tumble out of the bed and through the tapestries, then to get halfway down the hallway. For such a big creature, he moved with incredible speed. We chased after him, and he ran straight through the locked door at the end of the hallway without so much as unlocking the door, let alone opening it.
Yonah charged willy-nilly through the door and after him, and ran right into a large group of goblins who had by that time been alerted that we were coming. It was a pretty nasty fight for just the four of us, but we eventually turned the tide and were taking them down, when Balgron snapped the symbol from his neck and smashed it on the ground and all the goblins we’d killed were raised from the dead and rejoined the battle. At one point, all four of us were badly bloodied, but eventually the only enemy left was Balgron and he was backed into a corner and seriously wounded. I raised the idea of trying to capture him to question further but before any of us really had a chance to even decide, Splug sank his dagger into Balgron’s chest with a killing blow. When Balgron died, a blast of black energy burst out of him, knocking us all flat, and then a ghost reflection of him rose from the body and was sucked screaming into a magic pit that opened beneath him.
We took an extended rest in Balgron’s chamber and then set out to explore those last caves on this level before heading down to the lower levels. We found a wide natural cavern full of rocks and debris, and then were attacked from some vicious Rats of Unusual Size, followed quickly by an attack from an ochre jelly. The rats were no trouble at all, but that jelly was a tough bugger. He was an amorphous jelly who could shift easily through the hazardous terrain and used a tremor sense track us. When he was bloodied, he split into two separate jellies, and then split again.
We found no treasure at all in the room but we did find a secret door that led to a small shelter stocked with a bedroll, rations, and a few other supplies. This seemed to be a little shelter for Balgron, where he could escape to and hide.
As we were talking amongst ourselves, one of us mentioned the rift and Splug chimed in that this rift in Shadowfell is probably one of “The Nine,” a prophecy that speaks of 9 seals created to keep at bay a supernatural disaster that would destroy the world. There were 9 Keepers appointed to stop those rifts from opening.
There were two exits apparent from the jelly’s cavern, a set of bronze double doors and a long hallway. The bronze doors were greened with verdigris and fungus, and scratched into the fungus were the words “Stay out. Really!” in the common tongue, so of course we decided we should go in there first. We found behind the doors fungus coated stairs the led down to a well of water with a small island in the center of it. We were soon attacked by a Blue Slime, a creature a lot like the ochre jelly but which usually lives in water, which used acid sprays as its main attack. The slime absorbed a helluva lot of damage but we eventually destroyed it, though when it died it erupted with a spray of slimy acid.
We searched the island and found some coins, a potion of healing, some magical chain mail armor, a potion of healing, and a wooden message cylinder.
Inside the cylinder were three sheets of velum:
• A map that showed the kobold lair region, Winterhaven keep, and a burial site (S of Winterhaven but west of the kobold lair)
• A message: “Remember, don’t wet the nodule unless Kalarel is not receptive to my offer, then wet it only from a distance and immediately turn and run. Water will bring the creature out of dormancy and it will consume everyone it can reach.”
• Another message: “Greetings, Kalarel, I have recently learned of your activity in the area and I have an offer for you. During your time in this region, if you capture humanoids we’re eager to buy them. We have Durgar allies in Thunderspire in need of slave stock. If you’re interested, send an envy back to me. My messengers will show you the way. Signed, Chief Krand of the Blood Reivers”
It would seem that this message tube was never really opened, since the note to the messenger remained with the other note. My guess is Chief Krand sent this Blue Slime as an assassination attempt on Kalarel, but this messenger one way or another triggered the slime in this well.
We had taken a fair amount of damage by the end of this encounter so we decided to stop there for the night. We’ve earned an extra action point for facing 2 encounters without an extended rest.
________________________________________________
The Loot
13 leather armor
50 javelins
club
crossbow & 20 bolts
8 short swords
5 spears
2 sunrods
2 days trail rations
waterskin
aleskin
599 gp
157 sp
Magical Items
Key of Ghostly Walking (can attune the key to a specific lock & then anyone holding the key can pass through the door without opening it or unlocking it) [Kelissa?]
Bracers of Archery [Gareth]
Potion of healing [Gareth]
Mithril chain mail armore +1 [Jalfred]
(Our original agreement was for him to work for us in return for us sparing his life and returning the vial of his blood that Balgron held. That agreement, I think, is insufficient now. We should discuss it as a party, and discuss it with Splug, but I would be in favor of some much more generous pay to him—I am thinking something like giving him a half-share of whatever coins we find [i.e., by the end of this 5th remove of adventuring, the three PCs and Splug found 599 gp, so each of the PCs would receive 171 gp and Splug would receive 86.]) I am open to other suggestions for how to remunerate Splug, should he continue to adventure with us, perhaps more of a flat-rate: at the end of our adventures in the keep, once we’ve foiled Kalarel’s plan, we pay him 200gp or whatever.)
Once Splug returned with his gear, we went through the secret door right into Balgron’s sleeping chamber, which was separated from a larger room by tapestries. We heard one goblin guard on the other side of the tapestry wall, so we decided that Yonah should grab and intimidate Balgron while the rest of us tried to jump the guard and kill him before he could sound a general alarm. We were successful. We tied up Balgron and began questioning him. He tried to lie but when Yonah applied a little physical pressure he very quickly broke down. He told us:
• Kalarel is indeed in the lower level, performing a ritual, and is guarded by many undead.
• We’ll need a password to get into the lower level. After much pressure, he said the password is: “Life fails in the dark.”
When Splug said smthg about taking the symbol from around his neck, which he could use to raise his goblins from the undead, Balgron freaked out and managed, within an instant, to shrug out of the ropes that we had bound him with, tumble out of the bed and through the tapestries, then to get halfway down the hallway. For such a big creature, he moved with incredible speed. We chased after him, and he ran straight through the locked door at the end of the hallway without so much as unlocking the door, let alone opening it.
Yonah charged willy-nilly through the door and after him, and ran right into a large group of goblins who had by that time been alerted that we were coming. It was a pretty nasty fight for just the four of us, but we eventually turned the tide and were taking them down, when Balgron snapped the symbol from his neck and smashed it on the ground and all the goblins we’d killed were raised from the dead and rejoined the battle. At one point, all four of us were badly bloodied, but eventually the only enemy left was Balgron and he was backed into a corner and seriously wounded. I raised the idea of trying to capture him to question further but before any of us really had a chance to even decide, Splug sank his dagger into Balgron’s chest with a killing blow. When Balgron died, a blast of black energy burst out of him, knocking us all flat, and then a ghost reflection of him rose from the body and was sucked screaming into a magic pit that opened beneath him.
We took an extended rest in Balgron’s chamber and then set out to explore those last caves on this level before heading down to the lower levels. We found a wide natural cavern full of rocks and debris, and then were attacked from some vicious Rats of Unusual Size, followed quickly by an attack from an ochre jelly. The rats were no trouble at all, but that jelly was a tough bugger. He was an amorphous jelly who could shift easily through the hazardous terrain and used a tremor sense track us. When he was bloodied, he split into two separate jellies, and then split again.
We found no treasure at all in the room but we did find a secret door that led to a small shelter stocked with a bedroll, rations, and a few other supplies. This seemed to be a little shelter for Balgron, where he could escape to and hide.
As we were talking amongst ourselves, one of us mentioned the rift and Splug chimed in that this rift in Shadowfell is probably one of “The Nine,” a prophecy that speaks of 9 seals created to keep at bay a supernatural disaster that would destroy the world. There were 9 Keepers appointed to stop those rifts from opening.
There were two exits apparent from the jelly’s cavern, a set of bronze double doors and a long hallway. The bronze doors were greened with verdigris and fungus, and scratched into the fungus were the words “Stay out. Really!” in the common tongue, so of course we decided we should go in there first. We found behind the doors fungus coated stairs the led down to a well of water with a small island in the center of it. We were soon attacked by a Blue Slime, a creature a lot like the ochre jelly but which usually lives in water, which used acid sprays as its main attack. The slime absorbed a helluva lot of damage but we eventually destroyed it, though when it died it erupted with a spray of slimy acid.
We searched the island and found some coins, a potion of healing, some magical chain mail armor, a potion of healing, and a wooden message cylinder.
Inside the cylinder were three sheets of velum:
• A map that showed the kobold lair region, Winterhaven keep, and a burial site (S of Winterhaven but west of the kobold lair)
• A message: “Remember, don’t wet the nodule unless Kalarel is not receptive to my offer, then wet it only from a distance and immediately turn and run. Water will bring the creature out of dormancy and it will consume everyone it can reach.”
• Another message: “Greetings, Kalarel, I have recently learned of your activity in the area and I have an offer for you. During your time in this region, if you capture humanoids we’re eager to buy them. We have Durgar allies in Thunderspire in need of slave stock. If you’re interested, send an envy back to me. My messengers will show you the way. Signed, Chief Krand of the Blood Reivers”
It would seem that this message tube was never really opened, since the note to the messenger remained with the other note. My guess is Chief Krand sent this Blue Slime as an assassination attempt on Kalarel, but this messenger one way or another triggered the slime in this well.
We had taken a fair amount of damage by the end of this encounter so we decided to stop there for the night. We’ve earned an extra action point for facing 2 encounters without an extended rest.
________________________________________________
The Loot
13 leather armor
50 javelins
club
crossbow & 20 bolts
8 short swords
5 spears
2 sunrods
2 days trail rations
waterskin
aleskin
599 gp
157 sp
Magical Items
Key of Ghostly Walking (can attune the key to a specific lock & then anyone holding the key can pass through the door without opening it or unlocking it) [Kelissa?]
Bracers of Archery [Gareth]
Potion of healing [Gareth]
Mithril chain mail armore +1 [Jalfred]
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