Zaistrun's Charter Log

10th of Calistril

The next bird arrives, it seems the fire army was hired by the Lebedas for a quick strike on a city not believing that an attack would come until the spring thaw. Why they would also target us, it is hard to say. Perhaps our relationship with Silverhall is not quite as good as we had hoped.

16th

Dracean did some scouting for the Monastary of Gyronna, but didn’t find anything. It is hard to believe he missed something, but his memory is rather fluid. It may be that the temple is there somewhere, and it may do to make a more thorough search for it later.

26th of Calistril

Sarala’s spy returns with little more information.

29th of Calistril

It seemed good to Thad to have a ball, so that’s what we did. It was a lively affair, but he didn’t mix with the young ladies very much.

8th of Pharast

Dracean went to scout out what was going on in the north.

11th of Pharast

He returned. It seems that New Stetven was burned quite well, and the armies are sure increasing in Silverhall.

8th of Gozran

We took the Fifth Expeditionary Force to Varnhold to repay our debts from last year. Varn was gracious enough to loan us an army of a hundred for two weeks, we are planning to give him fifty men for a month.

12th of Gozran

We arrived at Varnhold with the army, and they were put to work there for a month.

17th of Gozran

Dracean does another look at Brevoy and discovers my family is about to engage with Silverhall in hostilities. Where I do not wish that they would die, I also find myself not wanting them to win either. Anyone who colluded with those accursed Surtovans needs to rethink their priorities..

7th of Desnus

We received an invitation to a wedding in Tatzelford. It would be on the summer solstice and would be the first major wedding they had there. The king and some of the court made ready to go. I asked Traica to come with, as I had meant to pry her for her cooperation with some education for the coming academy.

15th of Desnus

The Fifth Expeditionary Force returned, having seen a number of battles. There were a fair amount of injuries, and we had lost about twenty percent of their number. Varn had mentioned that the fighting had been brutal over there and he wouldn’t throw our men “to the wolves” I can only wonder how he is able to remain where he is.

7th of Sarenith

The founding day celebration went off well. There was some plotting toward finding the king an escort to the wedding.

9th of Sarenith

The contest will include baking, dancing and recitation to choose a suitable escort for the king. Although, to remove the pressure on the king and to also not to give the lucky lady the hope of becoming queen, we had many other eligible batchelors join in the contest as well, promising a social evening with the gentlemen. We narrowed it down to several dozen finalists. The actual contest will be in a couple days.

11th of Sarenith

The contest went quite well, and quite a bit of capital was raised for further building projects. The king eventually chose a fine young woman from a merchant family.

22nd of Sarenith

The wedding begins in Tatzelford.

Talking to the crowd, I discovered some interesting local rumors. Swamp witch exists somewhere over in the swamp waters of the Tuskwater. Somewhat friendly, but if you don’t get permission, she will turn tresspassers into a scarecrow. A Green Dragon moved into the southern reaches of the Narlmarches. Remains of a couple foresters have been found down there.

Viviana Albercroft cleric of Shelyn is doing the ceremony today. Shortly into the service, we were attacked by two swarms of bees. It took a long time and quite a few stings, but we managed to fight them off. Afterwards, there seemed to be some jilted gnome who was behind the attack, claiming vengeance. He put up a thorn hedge as protection, so we will see what happens next.

There were some large fey of some sort who came out of the hedge and attacked us. It didn’t take long before we subdued them. After a search about the wedding grounds to find any more threats, we escorted the wedding party to the town hall due to it being a bit larger.

While we were doing this, we were approached by an atomie by the name of Ambergretchie. She told us that another fey queen has summoned us to her presence, and it would be useful to know what is going on here. Queen Faluenel’s court was a couple miles away, and we were able to make the distance without incident.

The waters of the Skunk river flowed into a new pool and out came a Rasalka, a beautiful water fey that has extraordinarily long hair. She explained that the Fayen guard was broken. Queen Roswyn mixed her fey magic with shadow long ago. The spriggans, the large fey we fought earlier were from her realm which was separated from the first world. The Fayen Guard is made of stones that were broken. If we find them we should be able to hand them over to Faluenel and she would repair them. After exchanging some pleasantries, we went along our path.

We had to make camp a distance up the river, but we were not accosted in the night.

23rd of Sarenith

That next day, we found an area described to us by Faluenel as the place where the stones were at. It was called Dead Man’s Falls or something like that, and there was something magical at the bottom of the pool in between the waterfalls. Dracean went down to get it and came up with a bag. When he came up, we were immediately attacked by some water elementals, but we were able to defeat them.

Soon after, we were attacked by some more spriggans and that bleached gnome, at the same time the good queen’s forces were able to help us escape. We mounted some waiting unicorns and were taken to go visit Faluenel at her war camp although we had to leave our druid behind. I’m sure he will be fine. He can just hide underground should he need to.

At the camp, she described the way to repair the situation. It seemed that these stones were from a breach in the magical barrier meant to keep the Rozwyn locked away. We needed to go replace the stones, then go to her castle and take a think called the “crook” from her and use it to reseal her away. It was assumed that it would be relatively easy to figure out the ritual, the hard part would be sneaking into her castle.

After we agreed to do this deed for her, as it would seem that she would have trouble passing a barrier built to lock in Fey creatures, she sent us to the portal through which we could pass into the Fellnight realm. Then we should be about 24-26 miles from the fey wall. We needed to go south east. The hill where we entered the fellnight realm and there was a ring of mushrooms that turned into jet black flowers on the other side.

It’s an evil shadow realm, and as such shadow spells will be greater there. we moved a bit away from the portal to avoid any traffic that would come through The place was covered with a canopy of stars that never went away. How appropriate.

25th of Sarenith

We ended up going North East accidentally, and went south to correct our way. While our druid friend could easily get by with just himself, it seemed we could easily lose ourselves. It was a wonder we surveyed the land at all. We found the edge of the forest we were in and past it, we found the wall and started looking for the gap in it that we could fix it with the stones we had with us. The wall went up toward the mountains on one side and into the forest on the other. We traversed all the way to the mountains and didn’t find a hole, so we went the other way.

26th of Sarenith

On our way back to the forest we were attacked by a patrol. We defeated them and kept a spriggan for questioning.

27th of Sarenith

We finally questioned him in the morning and he confirmed we were finally headed in the correct direction. Sarala nearly squashed his brain in the midst of the interrogation, although she might have been cranky from staying up all night. We continued on and found that bleached gnome again. He seemed disgraced from his former position.

We defeated his bees and beat him a bit until Thad convinced him to change sides and fight against the Fellnight Queen. Surprisingly enough, he agreed.

We came upon a river, which we were unable to cross until Paido remembered he had a magical boat. I covered us with some illusions and we were able to cross without much incident. Our new gnoman ally took us through another forest toward the castle and to a secret entrance that was to take us into the dungeon level of the keep. It would have been terribly difficult to get into this castle without his help. It seemed Thad had made a wise decision in letting the spiteful bugger live.

28th of Sarenith

The stairway led to a ledge that went along a stream until we got to a cavern that had two exits, one to the south and one to the east. The guide we had said the dungeons were to the south, but he wasn’t sure the exact direction to go.

In the next cavern, there were roots descending from the ceiling, and there were gleaming and glittering among some bones on a platform in the cavern. There was a set of doors in here, as well as another passage that leads to the south after a western bend. Not trusting the doors with the bones in front of them, we checked the passage which led to another set of doors.

It led to the dungeon area, where there were four spriggans and a satyr, which we dispatched. There was also a man named Cort who was a prisoner there, I loaned him my staff so he could defend himself, but he generally stayed out of the way. He was a logger from Mivon whose compatriots had already died due to the torture devices we found. We moved along up the stairs and into a tower, which we went nearly to the top and spied out the area. We saw a courtyard and we saw a few defenses, and a few squadrons of spriggans.

Inside the castle on the ground floor, we found a pale woman, who was pacing the dirt floor. She wore plants and a revealing gown. Thad thought we should let her be if we can, so went up a floor and resumed our search for the crook and where to use it. On the second floor, there was an illusion of a party above the chamber that the Queen was in. We moved into the illusory dance of fey party goers, and were attacked by what seemed to be pixies.

I revealed them with my magic and Thad destroyed them with ease.

Paido went over to the door to listen and found a staircase that went both down and up. Not wanting to deal with the queen quite yet, we explored more of the second floor. A couple of confused and unexpectedly helpful satyrs told us the queen was on the third floor in her throne room. After a wrong turn and a fight with a shambling mound that went far better than our last encounter with one, we decided that we should just go to the queen and be done with it.

We entered her lair and she attacked, using a spell that allowed her to hide in the pillars in the room. It was an incredible tactic, and all would have been lost had not Thad been able to shrug off the effects of nearly every spell she cast upon him. Eventually he was able to exhaust her spells and her hiding places and he took mercy on her to keep her alive, much to the chagrin of everyone else. But what complaints would we make, he is the King, and we could not have defeated her without him.

In the midst of the fight, she did land a humiliating spell on me, but our short-lived allied gnome should be able to dispel it by the time we return from this realm. It fell upon me and Paido to complete the ritual, although it would have been easy to do it myself if it were not for the limitations to which the spell held me. The Feyguard was back in place and we started for home. The crook was entrusted to me but I had not yet the means to recharge it, and it will lay idle until I am able to do so, or for a dire emergency.

Erastus 2nd

We were glad to have finally left the Fellnight realm and decided to head back to Tatzelford to finish our obligations there. We took a wrong turn toward the Temple of the Elk, and received our bearings as well as lodgings for the night. Once again, it was necessary for us to find a guide so I put up a signal for Dracean to find us, and he came to us with haste.

Erastus 3rd

The next morning we actually went back to Tatzelford. We then decided to stay until the wedding happened as it was rescheduled three days hence. It was a bit of an imposition on the wedding party to make sure they finished the purpose to which we had been invited, but they had to be aware of such things when they planned to have us come in the first place. Our party we had brought to Tatzelford was glad to receive us again, and we set about helping make the preparations once again.

Erastus 4th

Sarala discovered some hobgoblin bandits, and we went and destroyed them. Thad kept one alive for questioning.

We offered the stolen goods back to the town as compensation for the families who lost loved ones. We set out in pursuit of the trail from where these hobgoblins came from, and headed first to the southwest, and then due west until we had to stop for the night.

Erastus 5th

Upon the morning, we were going to continue following the trail when our prisoner awoke. We pried him for information, discovering that their ruler was a bugbear named worm keeper or some such nonsense. Evidently he is some powerful sorcerer, but after a tussle with the Fellnight queen, it seems to lack punch. He did claim to have several warbands around the area as well, but it’s hard to say how many for sure. We decided to head back to Tatzelford for the wedding and check out this keep in the morning from a map that Dracean was able to make. He also mentioned something about the sorcerer walking the line between death and life, but it was hard to understand what he might have meant. Hopefully we wouldn’t be dealing with a necromancer, but it was more likely than I would like to say.

Erastus 6th

The wedding took place, and we enjoyed the party for a short while before heading on our way. A half-day’s journey would take us closer to the keep so we should arrive in the late afternoon. It feels odd not to have been in Akiros for so long, usually we had spent the first week of the month in administrative duties, but now we are out hunting threats to the kingdom.

Erastus 7th

We arrived at the fortress in the afternoon, and found it a bit disturbing that the place was littered with giant skeletons, thankfully not animate. We approached the keep, not quite surprising the manticore that was there. Thad’s practice with the bow paid off, but it could have been that he was firing within twenty feet at a large target. I was able to finish it with a magic missle, but not before they sounded the alarm.

In the next room we found four hobgoblin guards and a minotaur who was able to exit into the tower before we could stop him. We finished off the guards and were now getting ready for whatever might be in that tower that was already warned we were coming.

Inside was the sorcerer/ bugbear, the minotaur and two undead children who quickly silenced Thad, and the minotaur was quickly dispatched by Thad. The rest were quickly destroyed after that.

We found a map and a couple goblins whom we interrogated who gave us a little information. The troops here were a mere scouting party and there were tribes and tribes of goblins, hobgoblins and gnolls on their way. We had no idea when they would be coming, and how close they actually were, but we had to get back to Akiros quickly to let everyone know of all we had found here. Thad also decided to bring the body of the leader back to Akiros so that Traica could speak with his deceased spirit and give us more information.

With a bit of haste, we moved toward home until dusk that we might be able to be prepared for the armies to come.

Erastus 8th

This evening we made it to Tatzelford, and let them know of the trouble coming. Hopefully we should be able to make it through on my spectral steeds to Akiros by morning. We made arrangements for our horses to be brought to Akiros over the next few days.

9th

Early in the morning we arrived in Akiros. Before dawn we assembled the council and discussed what we should do about this raiding party. We let them know of some of the preparations that were to be made and it was decided that we should try to defeat this dragon before the goblinoid army were to meet up with it. It would be much harder to take down when it had armies to hide behind.

After a time of rest, Traica performed the ceremony allowing us to gain two answers from the deceased leader. What we discovered was that there was more than ten thousand troops coming to destroy and enslave us and that we have three days until the army reaches the dragon’s bridge and another nine until they are upon Akiros.

We left immediately for the north, our aides taking care of some purchases for us, and were able to make it back to Tatzelford by midnight.

Dracean came to us on our journey there, and he let us know that there were about nine hobgoblins, two hell hounds and the large dragon. From the size, we knew it to be younger, which was a good sign. We let Lloy know what’s going on and made preparations for the evacuation of the little town. There was no way they could hold off that many of anything for very long here. We may wish to fortify the place a little better if we have to rebuild it.

10th of Erastus

The speed of the spectral horses I conjure is truly impressive. We were able to make the more than fifty mile journey in about seven hours. After some preparation, we assaulted the bridge and made short work of the troops there. The one that was left alive was of no use in determining information. After we were finished, I destroyed the bridge easily and Dracean chose some choice scales from the dragon for a new armor. We distanced ourselves from the bridge a short distance before bedding down for the night.

In the night we were attacked by a Dark Naga, and it gave us some trouble but we were able to finish it. I do not know if it were in league with the Red Doom, but one thing is for sure, I need to have a chat with our front line fighters to see if it will be common for them to jump down in my illusory pits.

11th of Erastus

We made the trip to Tatzelford in the day, meeting the First Light on the way back. We told them to head back to town, as there wasn’t much we could do against such a large force without battlements. We decided to do some building and preparation to see what we can do to make Akiros more defensible.

12th of Erastus

In the morning, Dracean and First Light came back to town. We discussed strategy for a while, and then proceeded toward Akiros. Before we left town, we ran into Ambergretchie who led us into the Fey Queen’s presence. It was revealed that Thad had been betrothed to the Fey realm. Sarala, Dracean and I were for it, Paido and Thad were against it, and I suggested that he think about any personal commitment for a few days when Thad surprisingly agreed. Perhaps he was swayed by her beauty, but frankly I didn’t see the draw.

When we finally left and arrived at Akiros Wynn was waiting for us, She gave us information concerning the Mivonian Mercenaries and soon left to go visit the Elves nearby to entreat them for their cooperation.

16th of Erastus

The Fey armies started arriving today. There were satyrs, snow leopards, sprites and treants. I was informed that the treants can animate trees to attack, and the largest amount of trees we have are in the cherry orchard I’ve been working on in my spare time. I’m concerned for our harvest this year, but if they save lives it would be a decent trade.

19th of Erastus

Our city has been prepared for war, with some more finished walls and a new Barracks. Hopefully the enclosed area which was constructed with the help of the our new refugees will be able to protect them as well. Our last ditch defense is to send the people south to Mivon if the town is overrun. Hopefully it will not come to that, but we must do what me must do. Having never prepared for a war before, it was difficult to know if we had done enough.

20th of Erastus

Sarala and I and two guards went to Varnhold to see what had happened to the message we sent.

21st of Erastus

The town was deserted as best as we could tell, and a few monsters were moved in. We fought a feral boar and some sort of were-lobster before we decided not to take any losses in our exploration. We hastily made our retreat after we were sure there would be no help coming from Varnhold.

22nd of Erastus

That evening we returned and gave our report. It was grim indeed, but our task lay before us.

23rd of Erastus

The red doom is amassing at Karn’s Keep. We sent the payment to Mivon to get the mercs. Once we finish a notice of their speed we will begin our organization in earnest. The way it is going to look that all told, not counting any further fey remaining armies, we will have a quarter of their numbers at best. Hopefully with our defenses, we will be able to stave them off. We don’t have the funds to pay our armies, so we will have to hope they won’t try to wait us out.

2nd of Arodus

They razed Tatzelford, unfortunately. But they are coming straight here after that, which means they may have left the temple alone.

12th of Arodus

The skies have dragons, and other demonic creatures flying through the air. The former farmland is covered with the bodies of our assailants. They had brought many siege engines, as they needed a way over our walls. They began the bombardment of the whole of the town, not even aiming for the walls until nightfall. Then they all ran forward to try to take the walls, while their flying creatures aimed for the flanks of the walls, causing the Volk army to break first, but the fighting unexpectedly aimed for them first. Our other more expensive Petroisk army was invaluable at the corner wall, facing down multiple armies and superior numbers, but managing to repel siege towers again and again. I fear we would have surely lost without them.

The 5th Expeditionary Force valiantly held the gate, but eventually they were overmatched. The satyrs on the lakewall were forced to step back from the wall, being harried by demondrakes and manticores, and they let some ogres into the city using some hobgoblin siege works, but not before they beat down the initial onslaught of hill giants.

Concerned about that, we headed over to the breach to improve morale and were moving through the chaotic city. Suddenly Thad was attacked by an assassin with especially lethal arrows. We were able to storm the building he was in and kill the demonic being, but not before he had rendered the king unconscious. The fact that his goddess smiles upon him is likely the reason he is still alive. After Thad was healed, he grabbed the assassin’s bow and we were quickly on our way. The word spread and morale was improved that Thad was able to thwart an assassination attempt, and many of the armies were bolstered by the good news.

The treants and the Petroisk army were able to disable many of the enemies’ siege weapons, and our defenses had broken their advance except for the ogre incursion. On the river wall, our conscripted armies fought valiantly against a superior foe. The demondrakes over there took a huge amount of punishment before they were broken, having been surrounded on all sides by the mass of our home troops. Lady Wynnsaren led the charge, leading the displaced farmers and Zened with the Merchant Marines, and the huge sprite army also did some major damage to them before they finally fell. With the power of the enemy on the river wall broken, things began to look well, until we saw the ghosts coming across the lake.

There were over two hundred ghost lions coming across the lake to join the breach on the lakewall. The sprites and snow leopards moved in for support of their fey bretheren, as the Narlmarchers who had been supporting the flank finally broke ranks and fled. They had held the line over there for a long time, though and had taken heavy losses before the few that were left were too disorganized to be able to stick together. The ghost lions came in against the sprites and the snow leopards but the worst news was that the dragons had decided to join this fight, and it was yet an hour before dawn.

We were in the midst of going for the Ghost Lord, which coincidentaly was looking for Thad. I suppose there is a theme there. We fought and defeated him, and the ghost lions faded into the dawn. A short time of healing and recuperating and we had to take our fight to the wall, where two dragons were fighting our Treants who were remarkably holding their own. There we fought a demonic blue, and my magic did little to help against it’s defenses. Paido and Thad had to take it down from range.

Our forces began to get the upper hand as the numbers of those available to fight dwindled. People were fighting for their homes, for their liberty and their lives. The snow leopards fought an army of clerics to the last man, but both were so destroyed it was hard to say who won. The Satyrs kept the wall strongly against superior numbers after their initial lapse. The Petroisk army was able to defeat the Barghest army over the walls, the Merchant marines were finally routed when the dragons came in breathing fire. The sprites swarmed the black dragon like mosquito, and the First Light was peppering it with arrows as well. The Kobolds held the gate against amazing numbers, their general generating incredible amounts of fire whenever it looked like they were losing ground.

We began to fight the red as well when we were set upon the Wyrmlords. There were three in the party, along with another blue and they could all cast spells. They were doing some major damage to the group with a Magus and a Bard keeping pace with our front line and the blue dragon making Thad bleed. Eventually, Sarala went down, and in my rage I was not as careful as I should have been and I went down with arrows in my gut. What I witnessed next, I will carry to my dying day.

The magus had fallen to Sarala’s sap before she went down, and soon after I fell, the bard and dragon went down as well and it was Paido and Thad against the Cleric that was there. They fought until Thad fell, and it was Paido and the Wyrmlord trying to damage each other, they struggled as the sun began to rise over the burning city, and Ambergretchie came to the aid of the fallen King. Eventually he got up, while Ambergretchie was distracted, holding her own against a rampaging Gnoll. “Get out of my city!” He shouted, to which the cleric responded, “It’s not your city anymore.” and the epic struggle continued for what seemed like hours. The fighting was dying down all around us, and it looked as if we were winning this fight when Thad finally struck true on one side and Sir Paido landed a deft strike around his armor.

Without leadership, the hobgoblin armies retreated. We all should have died this day, but fortune, or the gods, had given us that slight edge we needed to succeed. And the dawn raised on us, bloodied, but victorious. Novastacia yet lives.

13 of Arodus

All day was spent in damage assessment and we discovered that Wynn was unresponsive but alive. All of the rest of the leadership had only minor injuries. I spent all day regaining organization and finding out the state of affairs in the city until those who rested immediately after the battle were able to take over the work. It was going to be a long time until we sorted out all of this mess.

I made a couple of maps from the dragon skins, getting locations in the Branthlend Mountains. Since they are so far away, it will be unlikely that we would be able to find our way to the lairs before they were ransacked by the ones who recruited them to the army.

I interrogated the prisoner, and learned little. The full details of the interrogation are in the annals of the King, likely rewritten by Sarala.

14th

We left for the swamp fortress we knew was a staging point of the invasion. Perhaps there was still something there that was of use to us.

16th

Upon approaching the lake, we went through the swamp and were divebombed by fireflies and eventually ran them off as they took parts of Paido with them. Due to his Ioun resilience, he should be fine.

17th

Paido was able to craft a boat for us and we made short work of the rest of the trip to the island. There was some treasure left there, but it was oddly deserted. One would think that they would not leave such things behind, but we were fortunate to find it. After collecting that treasure, we headed for home.

8 of Rova

In the midst of a meeting of increasing security options, Wynn awoke and gave us news of a fallen star. We needed to get there and fast, and so the five of us decided to go to Kirya and search out the trouble. Thad said we should leave in the morning. We gathered our spoils and headed for

9th of Rova

We spent the night in the abandoned fort at the edge of Brevoy. Paido and I began work on a new gem I had found, hoping to imbue it with magical power.

10th of Rova

On our way through Restov, we picked up some rumors there concerning their war. The bulk of the fighting was going on in the Garess lands, north of the Awzera river. Eagles watch is under seige and New Steven is also under Siege. We rode past and to the foothills and spent the night there.

11th of Rova

We stayed at Karn’s Maw which was an old relic from the ages past where the cyclopses had an empire here. Paido attempted to regale the story, and while he got all of the facts right, he went on about things that did not have a real plot or amount of suspense. It was probably something he had heard as a child, but storytelling is not his strong suit. I am sure he is aware of this, and no one asked him to refrain from doing so in the future.

12th of Rova

We camped in the hills of nonan.

13th of Rova

We arrived in Lenasiah about noon, and there was literally nothing here. We made it to Mishkar by nightfall. Wynn talked up a few people in the area getting some information about Karya, which was a mining town built up around a spring. There was also some rumors about a fallen star down there, but no one seems to have found it yet.

14th of Rova

We arrived in town and found the only Inn in town, the Mine Shaft. The proprieter Delius krynn served us and let us know about the poor sleep that most people were having. There has been some unfortunate events lately. Missing livestock, rising tempers, escalating violence. Some Galtans may have been causing trouble and a cook was missing, which Thad volunteered us to look into. We went to her room to see what might have happened. Sarala found a diary which let us know that sometimes she stayed at a cave called the steam lens.

We went to the place, and it warmed up a bit. After skirting a mudhole, we found a path that led to a cave. Inside the cave was the missing cook, cursed with leopard skin. She was able to defeat a few of the Galtans, which were lying there dead when we arrived. She attacked us, having gone completely feral, but we subdued her and were able to reverse her curse. She spoke to us of the place where she had been and produced a sphere that she had stolen from them. Perhaps it had something to do with the transformations, or even the dreams people were having. We set out to discover the place where they were and stayed in an old mine toward the end of the day.

15th of Rova

After we awoke, we traversed to the other mine where the Galtans were at without much trouble. Inside, there were traps that hurt and humiliated us a little, but we were able to track down the group of Galtans and defeat them. Their leader, a certain Abtero Vorenic, fled magically and we were not able to follow her quickly enough. We did find more spheres, and a journal from which we discovered her name.

I read the journal and it took me three hours because of the migraines and about the time I finished I felt like I should have delegated it to Paido. But in it was a map to the crash site, and so we headed over there right away.

We arrived to the sound of buzzards about. There was definitely death in this place. It was littered with crystals like the journal had mentioned that were used in the cursing of the people of the town. As we approached, we were almost immediately attacked by some rhino men, which we incapacitated without trouble. Inside there were some Lirgen artifacts, which had been where the ship originally came from. There was also a frogish captain guarding the orrey which had clearly gone insane. We incapacitated him as well and then attempted to assemble that Orrey.

When we finished, we were all assaulted by an alien intelligence, and I was able to discern that if we destroyed the Orrey that it would harm the intelligence that was definitely coming our way. I was able to weaken the artifact as Thad and the rest of the group beat it to pieces. We were relieved by the alien leaving our minds, but were left with the impression that it was coming faster. We decided to go back to town to make sure it did not receive a warm welcome.

Back in town, we discovered the root of the problem. The spring that all of the drinking water for the town had been laced with crushed crystals from the crash site, cursing all the people in the town. We told people to stay indoors or far away from the creature that was coming, but not many were willing. We decided to rest up, for it was likely we would be fighting it soon.

16th of Rova

After an early morning encounter with a bug eyed monster that got away, some Mi-Go and some weird thing that was a horrendously large cross between a bear and a rhino, Wynn uncursed the well and we told the local temple of Torag about the cursed people in town that would still need treatment. Hopefully he would be able finish the work, since we had a kingdom to get back to. We took the transformed people back with us, perhaps someday we could alleviate their trouble. I made to check with Dracean about scrying for the monster that got away, also the cult leader, but he had left already, and I was left to see if I could come up with a way to make it happen on my own. We had a long way to go, and conversation was a little subdued on the return trip, but toward the end, it became as lively as ever.

28th of Rova

We arrived back in Akiros and put the cursed people in protective custody. After the long journey we decided to get some rest. There had been some hobgoblin remnants reported, but nothing our military couldn’t handle.

8th of Lamashan

Fire broke out in Tatzelford, and hindered our rebuilding efforts. Unfortunately it will keep the construction crews there instead of working on the cathedral, and then of course my Academy. At least the faculty is coming along.

We decided to go to Varnhold to see what might lay for us there. The place seems to be abandoned during normal activity. It’s hard to say what’s happened here, but with Paido and the King there, we figured we could discover all of what happened here. After checking a few houses, we found another building with an acrid stench. It was filled with centaur hides, which we found deplorable.

A little while later we discovered an ale house, with a few ale house. It was the place they made cheerful delver stout. They would be worth about seven gold each. After we left there it was only natural we went to the tavern where we found the inscription of the centaur tribe, Raschalk. There was plenty of things just there along with a centaur reading a book called “secrets of the noman mounds” by earst davenport. His head is smashed in, and he was ensorcelled with sepia snake sigil, sometime in the last couple of weeks as that is about as long as the suspended animation lasts from that spell. There were three more books and a letter in the corner of the room which we collected.

The letter was from Magar Varn addressed to Maestro Pendrod, who is a fairly well known sage from the Kitherodian academy in Oppara in Taldor. Iobaran Prehistory, the centaur skyles of central kasmiran and the untold heritage of the Taldan armies of exploration were the names of the books. The letter was a explanation that some fellow named Willas discovered a jade bracelet on a local river. Due to certain markings on the bracelet was connected to the centaurs. He requested that Pendrod come to Varnhold to study the artifact.

In his room in the inn, there was a small library of reference books. Amongst them was a particulary interesting geography book with a passage marked concerning a Vordakai’s Island. We also found a viola worth about sixteen hundred gold.

We found a church to Eristal in which was a hidden drawer with some scrolls inside. We found a cat in a house nearby, but we moved on to the giant barn nearby. It appeared to be a granary of some kind, but held nothing important. One of the houses nearest the keep had taken major damage, but nothing of value was in there either. In a sod house, we found a small wooden box the size of a spell book. There was a journal in there from Willas’ writ, the last entry was a routine scouting through Varnhold pass. In the book there was an ancient Ulfen symbol to ward bad luck.

In the next house, we found a hidden door in this potter’s place that led to a small hidden cellar. There were some excellent crafted dinnerware in there. Along the way we found a Tailor, and a livery and blacksmith shop. After having looked through the town we went to the keep, to find that they were occupied. We sent Paido in on a scouting mission. There were some hogoblins inside, so we stormed the keep to drive them out.

I took us to the roof of the keep, and we decided to battle our way down, as that’s a good way to keep people surprised, and we were able to take out one guard without him making alarm. The problem came when Thad’s large mailed boots were on wooden floors above hollow rooms that led us to believe that if we couldn’t be silent, perhaps we could be swift. We found a Aranea on the second floor, but we were unable to stop her from going outside to gather reinforcements. After taking out a few more hobgoblins on the bottom floor, we were able to meet them all outside the keep as she had gathered them all for us. The three of us were more than a match for the rest of them, and we defeated them all without too much trouble. The trouble was that these were not responsible for the disappearance of the town, and that was yet troubling.

We used the Breath of Life scroll we found in the temple on the centaur in suspended animation before I dispelled it. It spoke a language shared by the King and Paido, so although I did not understand it’s speech, I got to watch it’s posturing and I will say I was far from impressed with the way it comported itself. Upon questioning it, the others found out that the centaurs don’t claim the disappearance of the Varn company. It also seemed that it was completely ungrateful for what we did. We decided to let him leave anyway although felt the scroll may have not been well used, but upon reflection, it’s use is difficult so we may not have even found a buyer if we took it back to town..

14th of Lamashan

We arrived back in Akiros and met up with the delegation. After some speculation and a scry on Magar Varn, there was no evidence or really anywhere to go. We had some people look into things some more.

15th of Lamashan

We discovered that the Jade bracelet was a cylopean artifact of some kind and not really connected to the centaurs. I asked the pathfinders to discover anything else about it, and we will get to see if they really have the skills they claim.

12th of Neth

To stave off boredom, we headed out to do exploration, staying in Tatzelford the first night. The rebuilding was almost complete and life was returning to normal there. I doubt the village will ever get to a large size, especially once we build another city out to the west here. But there is much that still needs to happen before we can do that..

14th of Neth

Today, we explored around the keep the Red Doom used as an advance post. It was otherwise uninteresting.

15th of Neth

I have decided that the dragon flies next to lake Hooktongue are no longer interesting.

17th of Neth

There is a very large quicksand pit near the lake here, and Sarala warned me before I stepped into it. She has lost her chance to be rid of me it seems.

20th of Neth

We found an old waystation for a trade route to the north when we were attacked. In the waystation, there were fourteen or so Boggards, with only three that got away. In one of the huts, there were six Drelev bodies. We gave them (the humans that is) a proper burial and took our leave.

21

We explored the area around the destroyed bridge today, and it seems a shame I had to destroy it. Perhaps we will rebuild it someday. This area might make a decent place for a city, but I also think that rebuilding the fortress to the south would be a decent option. We will have to see once we claim the area.

22

There was what the gnomes call a random encounter.at night. We were attacked by some will o wisps and an aurumvorax. Since it dragged Paido underground and he said “you’re in this hole with me” and slew it himself, I thought it would be fine to stuff it. Sarala got the skin and I mended the holes he left. We left from there in the morning with a fine expensive hide..

26th

After finishing our surveying, we decided to head for home.

Upon arrival in the evening, Piotr found information concerning the bracelet. There is no connection with centaurs in any way. some of the language is able to be deciphered and the notes were handed to me. VRDKI were the letters, and we made the connection to Vordekai’s island in the notes we found in Varnhold. Hopefully we would be able to discover this island and root out the evil there.

29th

We had a private concert with Madame Coppola. She was amazing as usual, and broke several wine glasses just for show.

8th Kuthona

We decided to look for the island, but mostly it was an excuse to get out of the castle. If we leave the king in here for too long he gets a bit stir crazy. It seems better now that he is betrothed, but it is best not to take chances

9th of Kuthona

After arriving in Varnhold, we decided to check the rivers nearby to see if we can find a clue.

10th

We went up into the mountains and got attacked by a Mastodon but didn’t really find anything else. The Mastodon was quite good, and we carved a large chunk to take back to Akiros for a banquet.

13th

We got back to Akiros, and scryed for the nymph but found she was protected. We will have to wait until we get more information.

21st

We held a memorial for the fallen of the war, and the Fey queen was there and we announced their betrothal. We had a feast and there were rousing speeches, but overall, it was rather boring.

8th of Pharast

Spring begins coming to Novastacia and the temple is nearly finished. Sarala sent some emissaries to Iobaria to get some cyclopean historical experts. We sent out word to see if we can find a priest of Desna to reconsecrate the temple in Varnhold to her as a show of good faith to the centaurs.

9th of Pharast

Researching the Soul Eater that attacked Thaddeus in the night.

10th of Pharast

We left for the mountains to do some searching for the island.

29th.

After three weeks searching through the mountains here we have found nothing but a Peluda in the mountains that attacked us. We dispatched it and found its hoard before heading for home. It was good to get the fresh air that the mountains afforded us, and we were invigorated by the exercise.

8th of Gozran

Finished Cathedral and decided to head back to Varnhold. Dracean found a raven circling us and scared it off.

Thad was attacked again, this time with three soul eaters. We began to wonder if the two events today were connected, and decided to look deeper into it in the morning.

9th of Gozran

Dracean scried the birds, and found it difficult to do. The fact that there was some trouble with it and that the huge amount of ravens are still in varnhold was not lost to us, and we decided to go and confront them.

11th of Gozran

We addressed the birds, and they attacked. Dracean chased them down and was blinded for his efforts, while I finished off the lot with a fireball from a scroll we had found a while back. A few birds got away, so we decided to take our druid back to Akiros for healing. As we were on our way, he told us that one bird in particular was casting spells, so it seemed that we were dealing with a wizard or a witch of some kind. Since the planar assassins sent against Thad were usually used by evil conjurers, the identity of his assailant was becoming more clear.

12th

Half a day yesterday and a full day’s ride today allowed me to return to Akiros with the druid in my pocket. Healing him was set up for the morning, and the donation was made as to not offend the church so we could leave early the next morning to rejoin the king and his entourage.

13th of Gozran

We scried the bird again, and found it circling in the mountains to the south of Varnhold, and so we caught up with the king and he decided we should chase it down.

14th

We found that it was going south, and we pursued it past Varnhold, and we were steadily gaining ground on our foe.

15th of Gozran

We found the familiar in a wide valley decorated with fetishes of bones every 50 to sixty feet. they have a muting effect on the wind in the area, and it feels quite opressive. After there, we found that it was then dotted with 9 foot stellas marking graves. Dracean found a set of unshod horse tracks heading in the same direction we are going. We found a stair up through the crack in the wall, and instead of going in, Dracean cast his camping spell and we waited until early the next morning to go up.

16th Of Gozran

Going up to the stair, we were attacked by a zombie and that familiar which we were able to take down relatively quick. We went up the stairs to find a large river surrounding a 100 ft pillar. The lore of the evil island came to our minds and we found that place we were hoping we could find out what happened to Varnhold. On our way out, we were attacked by drakes of some kind, but they were easily dispatched.

Inside we found a crypt of some kind, with a couple of zombies and some gold. A secret corridor led us to a pool that had a dinosaur in it. We originally tried to bypass the creature, but after exploring the rest of the area, it became apparent that we had to explore where it was. After collecting some meat from it’s corpse, we moved through the water into a room on the other side. There was some ancient pottery in there that depicted some scenes of cyclopean feats and history. Later there were some statues, but we had to leave that area quickly due to a trap, and we moved on.

Above, there was a room filled with three altars and some pillars depicting daemons. After destroying the altars, we went to the north and found a Piscodaemon that Thad had to destroy before we were able to proceed. All of the obstacles we were running into seemed to be telling us that we were headed in the right direction.

Soon Sarala showed up with Dracean in tow and after some small talk, we pushed into the next room. It would seem that the piscodaemon we fought was a jailer of some kind, for they held a centaur prisoner. Thaddeus healed her up, and there was some sort of paralyzation effect on her that was difficult to dispel. We were able to do so and after we did there was some conversation.

She introduced herself as Zamathay Silverfire and she claimed to be the daughter of the high war priest of the Rashalk Tribe. She seemed quite reasonable, unlike the other centaur we rescued. She said she had dreams of her captor, a skeletal cyclops with a gem for his eye known as Vordekai, whose name we recognized immediately. After we found she was fit to travel, I took her back to the stair and wished her well before I spirited myself back into the tower.

Along the path that Sarala took to find us, there was another corridor that led to a room full of tar. From out of the tar came some zombies, and there was a magic using zombie amongst the stalactites in the ceiling. We were able to defeat the tar zombies easily, but the flying zombie was a little more difficult. We transported across the tar room to a door on the other side and went on from there.

We came to another crypt where we were attacked by some more Soul Eaters, and having understood their style, we dispatched them with a minimum of fuss. Up more stairs and we found ourselves looking at two doors, and the first of which opened into a long crypt. There was an ulfen corpse on the floor, who had turned into a spectre that attacked us, but it was not long before we put him to rest. At the end of the crypt, we set up camp using Dracean’s camping spell which made things quite comfortable, and we took a much deserved rest.

17th

Through the other door there was a large majestic room filled with a table lined with dozens of chairs. In each chair was a corpse, it’s brain having been eaten. There were a few cyloclopean zombies in here as well, and they gave us a little trouble, but the greatest threat was Dracean’s whining. A grand stair wound up from the back of the room, and we surmised that perhaps our host was waiting up there for us.

The corpses around the table were from Varnhold, and at the head of the table was Varn himself. I’ll have to do some research on how the scry spell worked, since it didn’t seem to work the way I thought it would. Perhaps I should just leave it to Dracean. We left the dead people in their chairs for now, as we had much more pressing matters, lest we join them.

We went up the stair to find another hallway that led to a strange room in an octagon shape with an eye on the ceiling looking down at a circle of some kind. I was unable to discern what it was, but hopefully there will be some more clues nearby. After that room we went into a foyer with a large pool of sulfuric water from which a huge water elemental came. It took some time to defeat it, and then we went through the large double doors underneath which was a small rivulet that fed the pool.

Through the doors, there were a few more cylopean zombies and a Lich who seemed to answer to the name Vordekai. It seemed to understand Thad’s language, and we engaged in battle. We took out the zombies and attacked the lich. It was not terribly long before he left via Dimension door, and we were able to survey the room. We looked up the stair off to the west and when we came back down, Vordekai was interested in battling again. At one point he managed to paralyze Thad, but we got him working again with a dispel. After a long fight, Thad managed to destroy the ancient creature, which relieved us all.

We found his phylactery around his neck, and his gem eye radiated evil. It is most likely an artifact. I’m not sure how we can get rid of either right now. I decided to check the library of stone slabs that was in the lich’s chamber. The rest of the group found a secret door in no time and another with a chamber behind it with a teleport gate that is likely to be activated by the Lich’s eye. We decided that we will try it tomorrow.

I needed advice on destroying a lich’s phylactery. So I messaged Piotr for his encyclopedian knowledge to realize we need to destroy his phylactory with an adamantine blade. So we went back to Akiros with as much loot as we could fit in the boat while Dracean went to Restov to get an adamantine sword to destroy the lich for good.

Further on in we found nearly fifty jars which I was able to identify as Soul Jars. Thinking that all of Varnhold was killed with their souls in these jars, we prepared to open them in a releasing ceremony so their soul would go to the boneyard. We were quite surprised to find that a man came bodily out of the jar and was very much alive. We fed him and clothed him and decided to release the rest of them in a safer place and reacclimate them in Akiros.

I also was able to shrink one of the stone slabs full of ancient information that we could use to perhaps barter with the pathfinders when we arrived home.

19th of Gozran

Upon return, we went to open the jars and free the people. It was decided that they could choose their own fate, whether they wanted to return to their homes or live elsewhere, but they all wanted to go home.

I bartered with the pathfinders to get a wayfinder, and sent for some new scrolls. If I am to be growing these stones out of my arms, the very least I can do is figure out how they work.

21st

The spy network notified us when we got back to town of a man in purple who seemed to be a wizard. They were unable to find out who he was, but we told them to keep an eye out for him and perhaps we’d have to visit him personally. We also spent some time talking to the foremost scholar in the field about peace with the centaur. It would take some work, and we discussed changing the deity of the temple in Varnhold to see if we could mollify their wrath a little. We also had the fact that we went and saved the chief’s daughter. That had to count for something.

23rd

We took some time in the morning to speak to Varn’s people. They have quite a lot of land and they want it all to be annexed by us. The fact that we saved them and were kind to them wasn’t lost on them evidently. We made plans to do so at the earliest possible time.

That evening we saw the man in purple. It was my brother. He looked well I suppose. He buttered me up a bit and then told us of a problem in Silverhome which had something to do with my heritage. It seemed a cultist of Lissala was causing trouble, and it was to both our interests that we dealt with it. I presented the case to Thad, who was less than enthusiastic, but since our people were also in danger, he reluctantly agreed.

24th

We left for Silverholm. Arriving in the evening, unannounced and abruptly made a fairly large splash in the local social scene. As we attempted to keep the locals from overreacting, e learned about some missing fishermen and decided to check in the morning.

25th

I spent a good part of the day, looking about in the lake, but found nothing. Sarala discovered an interesting man who was patrolling the housing district, and we didn’t confront him. We will try to confront him later tonight.

26th

Early in the morning we talked to Serov, who told us his brothers were missing. He followed their tracks to the town and they never left. After I scryed for them, we found them dead and in an attic. The occupants were unaware of the contents of their own home, since it had happened rather recently, and we decided to set up a watch to see if we could find the culprit.

The man who we caught accused us of being sent by the Feasters of Flameforge and turned out to be a vampire. Not being entirely sure what to do with him, we attacked him until he turned to mist and I captured the vampire in a cocoon of stone while in mist form. I will send word tomorrow to Piotr to see how we might dispatch it from there.

27th

Messaged Piotr about how to kill vampires, he told me immersion in water, and keep them away from their coffin is a way to do it for two hours. We decided to find the rangers and question them. We found them at their advanced camp, and we gave them back their stuff, and it seemed like there was no more information to be had.

Upon our return to Akiros we discovered a few things about Vampires and how to kill them. What we did was sufficient, so there was no more to do with him, although we were happy enough to note that when we would run into any in the future.

28th

Piotr had more information of Flameforge, a fortification on the river in Rogarvia. Due west of the valley of fire. Created the forgeright, and some of the rostland nobility made their home there and began a siegeworks. We decided to approach it quietly due to the fact there’s a war on, but since we have a few other things on our plate, we decided to wait for a more opportune time.

8th of Desnus

Finally, I created the sword for Thad, the ghost iron is a little brittle, so it would serve in an emergency or for ceremonial use. I was a little disappointed, but these things are likely when you are working with otherworldly materials. At the least, I discovered that magic certainly made it easy to make such a tool. I’ll continue the rest of the set when I have opportunity.

9th

We stopped at the temple of the elk on our way to make it easier to travel to Pitax, it is fixed up and looking fine.

10th

In order to reinstitute trade, I started rebuilding the bridge I destroyed during the war. It should be able to support enough weight to get a cart across by tomorrow, although it’s a bit thin yet. I’ll have to shore it up the next time we come here.

11th

I finished rebuilding bridge and made it back to the temple of the elk. We are planning to take a bit of a caravan through here on our way to Pitax. Hopefully we will be done with our errand by the time the rest of the group reaches the bridge. It would be better to have the safety of the guard rails on the sides.

13th

We arrived back in Akiros at about noonish. Then we went to Restov via spell and inquired into the war. Three sieges around greyhaven, eagles watch and New Stetven. Tomorrow we went back to Akiros to prepare for our excursion.

15th We scried the area, and realized that the best way in was on foot. I could port us out of there in a pinch.

16th So, traveling in foreign lands with a king we did our best to disguise him. He was dressed as a monk, and it was a good thing as well. We were held up at our campfire outside Fireforge by soldiers needing arms. I gave them a few items and convinced them that it was all we had. Thad wanted to defeat them all, but he was able to hold himself back. Sarala would have been proud had she not slept through the whole encounter up in her tree.

17th Seeing the defenses of the city, we found out that the Medvyeds had taken the city. Rather than letting them know we were in town, we decided stroll into Flame Forge in disguise and Sarala and Thad were discovered. Either that or they were simply arresting everyone coming into town. Some magic later we got Thad out, but Dracean and Sarala stayed in town.

18th Dracean set up communications with us, and I sneaked into town at night to set up a plan. Sarala would hunt for information and I gave her an invisibility spell so she could use it in an emergency.

19th Sarala continues information gathering. She finds a prisoner who seems to have an idea of what’s going on. The problem is that he is insane and in prison. I could get him out easily, but I’ll have to make a bit of a stir. Thad decided that I should just go and get him, which was pretty easily done.

We talked to him and made him better and he told us all we needed to know. Anyone could make contact with the cult, they just needed black cloaks at the monolith up the way at midnight. He was grateful for his freedom, and I offered to give him a basic education to give him some chance in the world. So we had a few days for preparations. I left with him to Akiros, found him lodgings and set him up with a tutor.

22nd

The time had come for our invasion of the feaster’s cult. They took us into a circle and did a quaint little dance, marking runes with their feet as they did. Afterwards, they told us of the mark, not naming Lissala but claiming that she would give them what they desired. It was quite pathetic, appealing only to simple minds. When I spoke to them in the mother tongue, they did not understand. It was as if they were merely playing at the sacred rituals of my ancestors and I got a little heated.

After they were all dead or incapacitated, we made the survivors talk, and they led us to a secret door inside the furnace. After we tried to open it properly, I made a door with a spell and we were set upon by vampires. We set them to mist in a short manner, and they all escaped under the doors. We thought it best to take a minute and get prepared for whatever we might see in that room. But before I could even speak, Paido threw open the trap and then the fight did not go extremely well.

After it was all over, we discovered some good items, took care of the vampires for good and lectured the peasants on the dangers of nameless and secret gods. There was also a note, of which I will discuss later. We went outside town for a couple of hours on phantom steeds and made camp a good way from the fighting armies to avoid another mugging.

23rd

Upon waking in the morning, Sarala was acting weak and cranky. We thought she might have some energy drain from the vampires, and so we went quickly to arrive back in Akiros and get her healed. Since the caravan for Pitax was leaving in the morning, we had some preparations to make.

24th

Before anything else, I sent a message to my brother based on our actions and the note we found. “Brother, we found nine vampires under direction from Vandiana. She’s pleased with his efforts and said other cells were working to prepare for Krune’s awakening.” He was pleased, but I’m not sure what to make of all of this. Regardless, I’ll have time to think as we go to Pitax.

27th 9.5 days to rushlight

6th of Saren

Arrived at the Rushlight Festival. We were slightly early.

7th of Sarenith

We met with the king of Pitax, he certainly likes a party. Paido lost a duel to some pompous halfling wench who goaded him into not using his magic. It was somewhat pathetic, but I believe he learned a lesson..

8th of Sarenith

Thad placed third in Archery despite having no preparation time. He probably was a little lucky, but it didn’t get us anywhere in the actual competition anyhow.

9th

Artimisa placed third in the axe competition while wearing a dress, despite never holding one before. I hope it doesn’t drive certain champions to give up their pride. She definitely exceeded my expectations.

10

Madame Coppola placed first in the boasting competition by a fairly wide margin. I’m certainly glad that I didn’t enter.

11th

We took a day of rest today, as the jousting competition is meant to be held once all the participants are drunk.

13th

Today we had the final ceremony Second place overall was as good as I expected. I hope that Thad made the connections he wanted to while he was here. To get back to our business, we left halfway through the day.

14th of Sarenith

We went to seek out what was going on at Fort Drelev, as Sarala had heard some rumors. We decided to enter the keep from the underneath, and I made us both able to tunnel through the earth. We entered right into the dungeon, finding a man in there that seemed to be fairly knowledgeable about the troubles going on in the town. It seemed that the Baron had loosed some giants in the city to eat people that got out of line, which seemed a bit extreme. Then he also sent off some virgins, including this prisoner’s daughter, to the Tiger Lords, who claimed that they really ruled this land. I’m fairly certain we’ll have to deal with both of these issues when we bring the news to Thad, so after a bit more scouting and deliberation, we went to tell him.

16th We took the prisoner back to Akiros, and decided to wait until the caravan returned from the festival before we moved.

27th The caravan came back today, but our work for the new month was looming in our faces, so we decided to finish that before we made a move.

8th of Erastus

After a little talk, we decided to go destroy the Drelevs.


10th Of Erastus.

We beat up Baron Drelev and we might have killed a few of his guards. Thad told the other occupants of the place to exile themselves and afterwards we raised an army and killed the mercenaries who had oppressed the people. Overall it was fairly simple, although the Baron himself was a bit of trouble.

In any case, there was also a drug dealer in town that needed to be dealt with as well. After sneaking Sarala in the front door, we dealt with the dealer and his thugs. The bigger issue came in when I found Thassalonian runes on a table in the back. It was likely there was a cell of Krune worshippers here as well. The real unfortunate part was when we lost track of Thad. We were ambushed by cultists and monstrous will o’ wisps. We managed to escape, but just barely. Unfortunately with Thad not living through the encounter. Sarala was understandably upset.

We teleported back to Akiros, directly to Wynn’s chamber and made plans to bring him back. It was expensive, but since he had no heirs, we really had no choice if we wanted the kingdom to continue.

11th

Paido and I traveled to Restov for the expensive components to the spell and got a few other
supplies. We decided to ride back on phantom steeds in case on the next day Thad wanted to leave right away.

12th

Wynn cast the spell to bring Thad back from the dead. I don’t think the rumor got out that he was dead. There was some drama, and we decided to go get the barbarians the next morning.

13th

Off to Barbarians- Teleport nearby, communal mount to encampment. There were a few rats outside the cave which were guarding the stolen maidens. After they were dispatched we went inside to cut the head off of the snake.
We were met in the first room by the rumored ladies that accompanied Armag. They said the end of our civilization was at hand, and we would never beat the Twice-born or the Lord of Iron either. Of course they were wrong, and after that we determined that this particular place was made to test barbarian strength and endurance. The first room was a test of strength, which we failed in spectacular fashion. I decided after we healed up that I’d just port us through to the next room which was completely cold. This was a little easier, especially with a scroll I had to resist the cold. After which we made our way into the next room.

There was some treasure and spiderwebs in the next room, we burned the webs and took the treasure. Then we moved on into another room with a iron golem. I cast grease on it, and it lost its footing, but even while down it hit Sarala hard. Discretion is the better form of valor, and we left that room with haste. In the next room, there were eight bloody skeletons raining down arrows from a high cliff. It took a while for us to beat them down, but they had a fair amount of weaponry and we took that and buried them under the stone floor.

After that we were a bit tired from the exertion to take down those skeletons so we went outside to have a more pleasant rest.

14th

With some magical preparation, we headed back into the cave via magic to confront Armag. We found some more treasures and prepared to enter the next room. In it was a cleric of Gorum saying we didn’t belong here. We agreed with him on that point, but he’d rather fight it out like a good cleric of gorum does. After we defeated him, we went into the next room to fight Armag.

Armag certainly looked impressive in his spiky armor and annoying sword, but Thad allowed Paido to fight him since the coward backed off after their first encounter. The rest of his skeletons took longer to defeat, but in the end they didn’t give us that much trouble. Armag’s sword was an artifact of some kind, having intelligence and the ability to dispel magic that tried to affect the wielder. We decided that since we had such a tough time in this tomb the best place to protect this thing was to keep it here. We put it back in Armag’s first grave and left to head back to Fort Drelev.

15th

Rode into Fort Drelev with the stolen girls in the evening. Sarala informed us that she had learned through her network that the Drelevs were gone as per request.

16th Erastus

We left by teleportation the next morning. We began to do a lot of preparation to appropriate the Drelev’s previous territory.

8th of Rova

The Academy was finished and we discussed some interesting information. it seems the Red Doom is stirring again, and we have to make preparations. It was also decided that we’d annex Fort Drelev and use it as a front line of defense against them. We set out to do the scouting necessary to make that happen for next month.

9th of Rova

We leave for our scouting excursion.

13th

Finally, the rumored beast of the hooktongue made itself known. The ahuizotl had killed off some fishermen, and we sought to slay the beast.

15th

Thad went to find out if the chief of the boggards had an idea of the ahuizotl or where it might rest. As we suspected they attacked and were terribly unreasonable. Without any trouble, we defeated the scouts and proceeded deeper in.

We went down a hole and found some more boggards who were unwilling to listen to Thad as well, and we ended up killing most of them while some got away.

We spent the rest of the day hunting for the ahuizotl. Using an illusion to appear as a normal fishing boat, we baited them in. It wasn’t too long before we were uncharacteristically attacked by two of them. Thad and Paido made short work of them and I stowed the bodies in a location where we might be able to study them later.

17th explore

Found cloudberries and basilisk, killed lizard ate berries, went home now that our exploration was complete and we could claim the Drelev’s territory in the coming months, we have to do something about the name of the place though.

20

Excellent festival starts, it went quite well. Feluanil showed up and was excellent in her dancing and Sarala asked her for some pointers which was quite hilarious.

Lamashan 3

Sarala’s birthday

Instead of celebrating Sarala’s birthday, we instead had a long work day followed by the unexpected arrival of Zander in my room with bad news. There’s new cell who have found a shortcut to Krune’s lair. There’s a temple of Lissala that is reported to have refuge tokens that would take them directly to him. We’ll need to stop them if we want to prevent his resurrection.

Later that evening we were able to ascertain the location of the temple, west of Kaer Maga- Eastern side of Wyvern Mountains, and we decided to leave immediately.

After bypassing an angel who was wary of grave robbers. we entered a room to parley with the people that were waiting in the entrance of the shrine. One introduced him as something of nobility by calling himself a Marquis. They paid us no mind as we passed by into the next room.

In the next room which looked something like a temple, there was a Cavalier astride a Phantom Steed. She challenged us in Thassalonian and made ready to charge. Also in the room was a strange creature with backward feet. The Cavalier was not much trouble but strange ghost with backward feet went after Sarala’s blood. Thad was able to fix her up quickly though and we went forward.

In the next room was a large statue of Lissala and half a dozen slothspawn. Behind them was a conjurer that was a bit of trouble. He somehow had heard us coming and was loaded with protective spells which made it troublesome to deal with him expediently. After we finished the sinspawn Thad got to him and beat him down.

Looted the man found a note. As we were unaware of the ramifications other than that it looked like Krune was fairly close to being revived, we prepared to hand it over to my brother.

4th

Returned and set Piotr into discovering how to remove curse from the gem we found.

Lamashan 8

We annexed Fort Drelev. There’s a food shortage, but some extra farms should set us on our way.

Lamashan 21st

It was decided that Thad was going to lead an expedition toward the Red Doom. It seemed they were amassing more troops to make another foray into Novastacia. We moved into the forest, taking a scouting team ahead of us made up of Sarala and Sir Paido. They were set upon by twenty hobgoblins which they subdued before Thad and I could do anything for them. They were quite tired after a full day of travel and then defeating ten times their number so Thad ordered we rest for the night.

22nd

After circumventing the hobgoblin army we went up into the mountains and found a large 150’ statue in the side of a mountain with a dragon of five heads, each a different color. there was an opening in the cliff next to the statue in which we knew a blue dragon was in there due to the intel we received. We prepared and went into the Dragon’s Den and chased it out. After we smote it’s ruin down upon the mountain, we liberated it’s magical treasure and proceeded to enter the temple with a dimension door to avoid the trap.

Inside the first room there were bearded demons and undead wyverns. I used the newfound staff of fire to create a wall of flame, but that didn’t work that well since the demons (or were they devils, it doesn’t matter) were immune to flame. In any case, it wasn’t too long before we’d beaten them back and we moved toward the left.

We found a barracks of sorts filled with half-dragon minotaurs. They were black scaled and spat acid at us. With some time spells, they were not a terrible threat, although we needed to heal up a bit before we moved forward.
---
The next room was a torture chamber with three bone devils in it. We fought them for quite some time because of their natural toughness and their abilities to turn invisible and teleport. When we had nearly cornered the last one, it teleported away.

We decided to look around some more and we found a kitchen with a night hag in it as well as some bearded devils waiting for a snack. During our fight, the Bone Devil reappeared and told Thad that “The Mother was waiting”, but he might as well have tried to intimidate a stone. The hag was very interested in Sir Paido, calling him a ‘morsel’. Because she had knocked Sir Paido out at one point with magic missiles Dracean came and healed him. She didn’t like that much at all and told Dracean she’d be waiting for his soul at the river Styx. After some time we were able to defeat the devils and beat up the witch a bit until she went ethereal and drifted through the wall. I think that the Hag’s threat spooked Dracean quite a bit, because next thing we knew he was gone.

A bit further on, there were some stairs and Thad decided instead of finishing the exploration of this level we would proceed. I reapplied some buffing spells that were wearing thin and we descended deeper into the temple.

Below there was a sanctuary of some kind with strips of goodly dragon hide hanging from the ceiling. Inside were five wyverns, alive this time. We remedied that problem and took a look around the place, eventually finding a secret door near the altar.

Through there was a more natural cavern that had some interesting draconic demons. They were a bit of trouble as they had the same strength against good as the King had against evil. I was able to turn one to stone as he prepared to address me point blank and the others were able to defeat their respective troubles as well.

Just beyond the natural cavern was a hallway that led to a strange magical device that seemed to be fueled by a gaggle of hobgoblin priests. Any magic that was sent into the device was eaten up by the thing and that made it hard to deal with. But before we could deal with that, a couple of greater shadows came and drained Sir Paido and Thad’s strength. I made a wall to buy us time and we were able to heal and deal with the shadows before going in against the clerics. They proved to be a bit more troublesome when a barbed devil showed up with them to attack us after we brought the wall down. After it was down, the rest of them were relatively easy.

There is a hole up from that chamber to an area above, but we don’t know what’s up there. Since the device radiated magic of a conjuration nature, it was likely trying to bring in reinforcements from the planes. This was a troublesome understanding due to the fact that there might be a greater issue of time and we were all looking quite weary from the rest of our venture into the dragon temple. Thad decided we would scout the room above before we decided on our next course of action.

After a few words, Thad was not really needing any scouting done. He was going to go up there no matter what we found. Up the pipe we found a tall room that was dripping energy from the ceiling. A half dragon hobgoblin was staring at us with four blue wyvern type creatures surrounding him. He seemed rather full of himself until I turned him to stone, but that’s when the Abyss broke loose.

The top of the room cracked open like an egg and Tiamat herself breathed out her displeasure and ate up her high priest, or at least that’s who we think he was. After she left, we thought we were in the clear and the whole room was dark. But then the statues near the top of the room began to glow. As light began to pour out of them, I realized that it was a good time to make an exit.

As we waited outside, we heard roars and crashing from inside the mountain. It took about a half hour but the creature came out and collapsed the mountain for us. We heard the roars diminish and made the decision that it would probably attack Akiros. We headed it off, and realized it was a five headed dragon. Paido told us it was the herald of an evil Dragon god, which made it much better. It immediately knocked Sarala and Paido out with several breath weapons and they plummeted to the ground. As I rushed to rescue them, Thad got a good hit in on it but then was torn to pieces. I caught Thad’s and Paido’s broken body and teleported to Akiros with Sarala.

The king was dead again, so I walked down toward the Abadaran temple to get the proper spells to bring him back. I made the mistake of waking up Sarala first with some magical healing, lesson learned. Zened was able to calm her down with a spell he mercifully didn’t charge us for. After we got the King back, we talked to the council, grabbed some resources and went out to face the thing again prepared. It was a terribly difficult fight, but we managed to defeat the creature. Thad ordered the heads mounted on pikes near the forest as a warning to other gods’ heralds and we left it at that.

Neth 7


So it seems that Wynn has become a party to her nightmares. Her perceptions were altered and she walked into the throne room and stabbed Thad with a knife. Knowing that it takes far more than than to kill that man, I was more concerned with public perception and the other assassins that showed up. There were five, including the missing Abtero and some rhino men that were veiled into looking like normal peasants. Wynn was obviously distraught and ashamed, not realizing what she’d done until she’d done it, and helped us dispatch the rest of the assassins. The people were fairly upset as well, but the council understood it was beyond her control.


After some attempt at convincing, we decided we would go and root out what may have caused this. If we were getting to be a problem for this unnamable darkness from beyond the stars, perhaps we should push back. It was revealed at this time there may be a lead at Skywatch, and so the King’s party made travel plans to enter into Brevoy.


Neth 8


We dodged some patrols and made our way up towards the abandoned city. This was fairly easy since we traveled through Medvyed lands, and at least a third of our group knew the area like the back of their hands. We bedded down for the night within sight of our destination.


neth 9


When we woke up, Dracean was there for some inane reason. Evidently he wanted to follow us into a dangerous place and then disappear again. We ran into a barrier around the city that was inviolable by anything besides plant matter. It surrounded the city completely and pushed anything away. When we first ran into the barrier, it took us a moment to decide what to do with it, and during our considerations we were attacked by some kinds of ravenous vines. After a short pruning job, we decided to test the extent of the barrier and knocked at the door. Paido noticed that plants grew through the barrier and we put together a wooden sculpture to hide in and go inside the wall.


Unfortunately once we went inside our magical powers were suppressed by a gigantic anti-magic shell. Such a feat must have artifact level power behind it, and it left many of us feeling quite powerless. Sarala grabbed us a peasant to question, and he decided that he would lead us to the center of the city. Of course, when he got into the city proper, he sent the whole city after us. They were quite tenacious, but due to some divine intervention via Wynn’s starlight bridges we were able to escape to the rooftops.


After we got to the center of the city where we were told the populace never goes, we ran into some elite soldiers. After we defeated them, we noticed that they were really only people on the outside. On the inside there was some sort of ichor that made them seem quite alien to all of us.


----


Further on in the building we ran into a lush jungle atmosphere full of plants of all kinds. In the corner of the room was a huge flowery plant with spines and teeth that tried to eat us. In the end it was pretty simple to defeat with the aid of Wynn and Dracean. We found the room was being kept the way it was by a machine of sorts made from plants and metal. We tinkered with it a little, but none of us could understand it so we left and went to the observatory.


The observatory was tall and sheer with magical walls, so we decided to use the door. Inside were a couple of Cyclopean mummies of some sort and we defeated them with a minimum of fuss as well. There was an entire library of star charts and astronomical readings in a bookshelf that Wynn was very interested in. She left them reluctantly and we headed up higher in the tower. At the top of the tower was another mummy and he was a bit of a spellcaster, but since he was alone we were able to defeat him as well without too much trouble..


This mummy had scrolls and information in this room pertaining to the dreaming, and mentioned something or someone by the name of Luthunar. Not knowing what that was, we took a look at the instruments for a while and decided to explore more of the city center.




In the next building we have a strange room with a metal floor. There are cylopses dancing to the sacrifice of differing kinds of sentient beings. After we all went into the room, there was a electric discharge that leapt up from the floor to shock us, but after some protective magic we had no more problems there. The ceiling of the chamber was littered with runes that signified one of the great old ones, Wynn said, but we didn’t know which. Evidently there are quite a few of them.


In the next room, Dracean found some Mi-Go which we defeated, and found a strange cloning machine of sorts which Dracean obviously found abominable and destroyed it and the fruit of it.


After that we went into one of the center buildings and found a room surrounded with vines and a mirror. The vines were mostly just regular vines, but there were a couple assassin vines as well, surrounding the mirror. In the mirror was the reflection of a Devourer, which was some sort of twisted spellcaster from the Dark Tapestry that cast spells of confusion, the encounter wasn’t terribly difficult, although several of us had a momentary lapse of judgement.


Further in the structure there were two Devourers whom we defeated with relative ease, and then we decided to do what we could to get some rest. We went back up to the top of the observatory because it seemed to be a relatively defensible position. At least it was until the remaining Mi-Go in the area somehow removed the roof and descended on us en masse. Our retreat to the lower levels was fraught with miscues and trouble, and eventually I was able to dimension door us to the first floor where Thad was.


To give us some breathing room, I put up a stone wall to cover our retreat. The Mi-Go had foreseen the need and broke out some stone saws that gave us about a minute to catch our breath. When they came through, we hit them with everything we had and it was enough to give us a respite for the night.


10 neth


In the morning, we decided to go back into the Devourer’s building to see what was in the rest of the building. Inside was another devourer and the Emissary creature we fought against in Iobaria who had escaped. There was no escape for him this time, although he had specifically made a room where it could easily hide. It gave us some trouble but we were able to defeat it.


Along the wall were a few unfortunate souls who were being used to feed the beast. We released those that were still alive and healed them up. These were mercifully devoid of the madness that took the people outside the center of town and spoke to us with lucidity. They had been infiltrated as a town quite some time ago and when the revolution came, there were precious few of them left to be able to put up the fight they needed to be successful. Since then the rebels were penned up in the jail and used as food for the beasts. We decided to go and free them and left these men to do so.


Inside were some alchemical golems that we thought better to destroy than to leave alone. It didn’t take us very long to finish the job. In the rest of the building we had found a multitude of fascinating and well made tools for various types of construction. We pocketed the ones that looked valuable, and continued on exploring the area.


Although this building abutted the next building, there was no internal connection and we were forced to go in through the front door. The entryway was populated by strange golems that were made of fountains that guarded the area. They were a bit of trouble, but we subdued them and found the bulk of the prisoners inside. After some conversation, we moved the people out to the entryway to enjoy a bit of the sunshine and to be slightly more comfortable. They were unaware of all that had transpired for all these years since they had been made prisoners of the Mi Go, and so we brought them up to date and had the other ones we rescued meet up with this group as well. We gave them our rations and I wished that Dracean hadn’t slaughtered all those animals for we could have cooked them a feast.


We discovered a Mi-Go nursery next and destroyed that before moving on to the last building.


In the northernmost building there was a temple dedicated to one of the great old ones that had lots of tentacles, which supposedly narrows it down. Inside were some more alchemical golems and a Mi-Go with some wands. He was a bit of trouble, but it was doomed to cross us. Inside the temple was enough magical ink for scrolls to provide for an entire academy, which incidentally, we have.


In there was a hallucinatory terrain of an endless void, and in such void was a dragon that breathed a suffocating effect on Sarala. She was unable to avoid its attack and although I turned it to stone, it still continued to affect her until Paido gave her some alchemical air to eat that re-filled her lungs. Once we discovered the mechanism for that illusion, we destroyed it and moved on.


There was an interesting room nearby that contained all the creatures that had attacked us during Wynn’s vision quests. It seemed that as Wynn had known about us and the possibility of us defeating this invasion, it also knew who we were and was learning about us as well. It seemed that whatever we were to find was a worthy foe. I was hoping to find the dreamer that had made Wynn attack the king, but since it seemed like the creatures here were also looking for it, we needed to also find it elsewhere.


There were some Mi Go in the next room and they hit us again with their magical beams, but we prevailed and went to open the last door in the place. It looked like a closet with nothing in it, but there was a secret door that led into a large room filled with a pillar of plant that turned out to be an artifact of sorts. This seemed to be the power source of the barrier around the place, so we sought to destroy it. It had various brains that were inside that were somewhat visible from time to time. When we crushed one, the central stalk let out a magical burst the undid all our magical protections, then from the stalk emerged a brain harvester or something.


In any case, it was a troublesome opponent with spells and a tough hide. Eventually it was vanquished through the combined efforts of the team and we discovered that the barrier was gone. Also, there was some runes on the walls that held great significance for Wynn’s research, it would take some time for her to decypher it, of course. We had one more thing to destroy, a rolling bladed construct that had been moving around the compound this entire time. Although our resources were low it had little in the way of ranged attacks, so we destroyed it and made safe the city.


We discussed with the survivors what they wished to do, and it was ultimately decided when they knew some of the details of their situation. It was decided that they would find refuge in Akiros and work on starting a new life there. Wynn stayed behind in the city and it took quite some time for me to ferry them all via teleportation to the capitol.


In my absence, it seemed that there was a rabble rouser who was trying to overthrow the king. We invited him to dinner and everyone showed remarkable restraint.


21st of neth


After resting up during our excursion, we had the dinner party with the fool. He really was good with words, but since people lived in peace and prosperity, there was little ground for him to stand on. We briefly considered putting him in our employ due to his shown skill, but he did little to elicit trust.


27 neth


I finally managed to attune my ioun stones for implanting. I was hoping it wouldn’t have taken this long, but being able to do it does increase my confidence in my growing power. I don’t believe I am quite the equal of my mother yet, but I am now unaware of there being anything she could do that I now cannot.


8th kuthona


My brother arrived today with more information concerning the Krunish cults. Sarala bristled a bit at his manner in such a way that made me slightly jealous. She used to only get that uncomfortable when I talked to her.


9th Kuthona


We headed off to Varisia again to work out the details of the cultish attempt to waken Krune. The place we had to go to was a place of a thousand spires. There was indeed such a place, and it was protected from magical scrying. We were able to locate it through visual confirmation though, and eventually came upon a place of carnage with a whole heap of cultists burned by acid and torn asunder. The copper dragon that had been protecting this place had found them, and found us just as quickly.


Thad talked to it, and uncharacteristically was able to gain us passage without violence. It probably helped that the copper was supposedly a good creature.


Inside, there was an octagon room with doors and riddle that required a few tries to figure out while we were hounded by creatures of a dimensional nature who had taken a disliking to our arrival.


We eventually came upon a set of sphinxes who told us to take a path to a set of plates beyond a gelatinous cube. The sphinxes told us that these were the plates, but I had my doubts, as they were fairly cheaply made. We decided instead to check out the rest of the floors of the tower, but the search was fruitless. The only place left to look was where the sphinxes said there was a great curse. After announcing the intention, they attacked revealing their true form slightly after we killed two of the three. They were some kind of evil outsider that had an ability to polymorph any object into another. We decided to take a bit of a rest, as there were no longer any threats here.


10th of Kuthona


Down the other hall was the real plates, and no curse as far as we know. We discussed at length of what to do with the plates now that we had them. Thad was of the opinion that if this was the only key to wake Krune, then we should do what we could to make that impossible and it was determined that since the set needed to be used, scattering them was the best option, destroying what we could and rendering unfindable the rest.


As we were leaving the tower, we were attacked by a host of animate dreams the like of which we saw in the crashed ship, but we were able to do relatively well against them.


After a quick teleport back to Akiros We dispersed them amongst ourselves and the dragon for destruction or hiding, but there’s a nagging feeling that we’re not doing the right thing. I just can’t shake it. In any case, Dracean left to drop a plate in a volcano after losing one beneath the divination free zone in the canyon we just left. It wouldn’t be long before the plates were irretrievable.


14th


Sarala comes back from her plate scattering mission and we had a good conversation. I still cannot shake my unease that we were going about this the wrong way, but the King’s logic seemed sound.


15th


My brother came to visit.


After wondering why I hadn’t contacted him, my brother came and offered more information than I’d considered, making me feel quite foolish. (yes, Sarala, it happens. Also I know you’ve been reading this..) It seems there were several keys and ways to find the resting place of Krune, and we simply had destroyed the only way we knew of to get there. I decided to do what I could to mitigate the damage, but I fear it’s lost to us now. Both Sarala and Dracean went back to their respective plates to see if they could be found, but it’s unlikely.


16th


I begin to deliberate various options to see if I can rectify my mistake. If the cults reach Krune before we do, it could only spell disaster. I begin looking at various high powered divination techniques to see if it could be managed but concerning the situation, I’m concerned if my lack of trust toward my brother was warranted. I had to see if I could verify his story and loyalty to me, so I began to make preparations.


17th Teleport


I was able to make it to Absalom today, I needed some higher level magical assistance, and this is the place where it can be discovered to the best of my knowledge. I picked up a few scrolls and toured the city a little. Every time I visit, I am drawn to the Starstone. Perhaps someday I will enter that Cathedral myself.


19th


Today I began casting divination spells in earnest, hoping to discover the information necessary to prevent Krune’s awakening as well as alleviate the kings fears and my own curiosity. There is a slight chance that the information that I seek may drive me insane, and I am beginning to realize the stress that Wynsaren has been under for at least as long as we have known her.


24th


Mother is no longer human, she is broken in her spirit, mind and body. Should I meet her, it will be likely that the best thing to do would be to end her misery. This is quite troubling to me, but it also lends strength to my brother’s story.


Now came the troubling possibility that Krune would actually awaken and begin to wreak havoc across the landscape.


25th evening


I have magically adjusted my headband to help in my endeavors. It requires some adjustment as the spell I was using is more suited to the scholarly approach instead of my forceful adjustment of reality. I have also enlisted Zened to aid me, so as to minimize the risk.


1st of Abadius


My questioning is turning up troubling results. It seems the only way to get to Krune is through stealing it or following along after someone who already has the key. There’s a pressing need to get closer to this cell, but I have a feeling this could be quite troubling for the region, all due to the mistrust of my own brother. But I’m still not entirely certain he can be trusted. I know not if he wants to just plain use me to gain his own power or if he truly wants to defeat Krune and work with me to set up a restoration of the Thassalonian Empire.


8th of Abadius


I continued my inquiry to narrow down the search. If we cannot find a key, we can find those that have a key with a bit more ease. People are easier to search out than items


13th of Abadius


After my latest discoveries, I asked Sarala for counsel and told her Kaer Maga was the place to look. She went and sent word back to wait a couple of days until she got more information. I’d never sent her on a personal mission like this before, but she seemed enthusiastic. Something tells me she just doesn’t like staying in the same place for too long.


15th of Abadius


On this day, she sent for us. She had infiltrated the shop, but knew no Thassalonian. I went along in something of a disguise and pretended she was my apprentice who knew nothing. They had some interesting books, but nothing along the lines that I’d actually be really interested in. Later we continued the guise and I censured her in public. It seemed to make an impression. She snuck around and found out some more information in the evening, so I waited around until morning to see what she uncovered.


16th of Abadius, Sarala broke into the bookstore owner’s house, finding a Lissalan prayer book. We decided to have her look for any potential Lissalan cultists, but it seems that the tale signs of self flagellations were disturbingly common in this town. She decided to watch the shop at night and spotted a person going in with foodstuffs, but not coming out. We decided there was more to the store than it seemed on the surface and it was time to go in.


17th of Abadius, early in the morning we assaulted the store, jumping in magically and ending up right next to a large clockwork construct that ground us a little, but we managed to defeat it. Sir Paido said it was going to explode when defeated, but it did not. We healed up and put on some strengthening magics and went down stairs.


Down the stairs was a large room with a Lissalan Cleric and some Mercenaries. These were the same mercenaries that got the better of Thad a few months back. They weren’t terribly difficult in an even match though, and it wasn’t long before we had them taken care of and the priestess dead.


It was a good thing a couple of them survived because we received information from them concerning the plate. It seemed it was used to transport four to Krune’s resting place yesterday. I sent my brother a message and used an Item spell on the plate to take it with us. “Have new plate, lash mistress used it yesterday with naga and two other servants. In Kaer Maga, advise. “ Brother met us in the bookstore above immediately, and I unfurled the plate there. We received instructions on how to get there but there was a bit of a tantrum concerning the whole situation by several of the party. My brother even prepared to go with me alone to confront the Runelord if need be, but it did not have to come to that. As little as my friends trusted my brother, they would rather be with me where he sent me than let me go on without them. When it was over and a good portion of our protective spells had begun to wear off, we finally went.


In the sanctum, it seemed a herald of Lissala was waiting for us. She attacked first and spoke in Thassalonian to me during the fight. She stated that we were going to be unable to defeat Krune because he had a rune which made him immune to blade and spell. Thad was evidently upset over the fact his talking had collapsed his flight spell and he took to throwing his blade at the Herald. She grabbed his sword and teleported out of the room, giving us a bit of time to rest and re-equip magical protections.


---


After coming back without the holy sword, the Herald fought us for a while, but then explained that her death was going to bring back Krune, so we left in a hurry out the door. Out in the hall were several runes that required a certain kind of spell to deactivate it. Due to the convenient boasting of the herald, we were able to discern that taking care of these runes was terribly important in our ability to take care of Krune when he awakened. Taking care of the runes was terribly difficult to figure out what they were and how to turn them off, especially due to a knock to the head that the Lissalan herald gave me, it was difficult to think straight. Eventually we were able to unpower all of them before we went into the Cryptorium.


Within were a couple more mercenaries, a Dark Naga and a Lash mistress, presumably in charge of the whole situation. I took care of the mercenaries while the others took out the tougher targets and we were able to finish off the battle relatively quickly.


We were too late to be able to halt the progress of Krune’s awakening, and we wasted several spells to my chagrin on the attempt to stop it. With a flash of lightning, he appeared and told us to kneel before him. Knowing that was not going to happen, we began in earnest to attack and I disarmed him with Telekinesis. He stalled us with a stone wall and summoned in an Angel to serve him, but that was just the beginning of our issues. I was able to make a hole in the wall, but the angel stopped it up and cast blade barrier around the hole. I brought Thad over with a Teleport scroll, and he inflicted upon Krune some terrible wounds, along with some air elementals that Dracien summoned.


This caused him to go back to the other side of the wall and start summoning noxious, poisonous clouds which Dracean was able to blow away with some weather he generated in the small chamber. Without his help, I’m sure we would have most certainly died. Paido was surprised by the angel’s capability and took some ugly hits to his head and was forced to retreat, Sarala ended up getting possessed by a demon that was also summoned in, and I was even mauled by a dire boar before we were able to get rid of all of Krune’s helpers. At that point he summoned in thousands of tentacles to grasp us, and only due to some grease I managed to summon, Thad and Paido slipped free and continued the attack.


After what seemed like hours of combat, Krune had taken enough damage to be concerned. He made a foolhardy charge through our ranks to retrieve his weapon and before he could teleport out, he found out about the business end of an angry paladin. Still surprised at our tenacity, he slid into two parts and we stood in a bit of a trance as we contemplated the magnanimity of what we just accomplished.


Surprisingly, Krune didn’t have a spellbook on him, but he did have some interesting items, including his intelligent spear. It decided to insult me, but I didn’t take the bait. I will take my time with this item and see if I can wear it down and eventually win it over. Admittedly, a process that may take years, but I’ve done it before.


We went back to Kaer Maga, and my brother was glad to see me alive and relatively well if not infinitely weary. He told me he might need to borrow the spear at some point, of which I was a little worried. I might need to have a longer conversation with him in the future.


18th.


Good news, it seems I am able to force the Heal Scroll to work with my robes regardless of it being a divine spell. The bad news is that it didn’t fix the fog in my mind that’s been there since we fought the herald. I think I’ll take a trip to see Wynn and see what she thinks. I could have Zened take care of it too, but I’ve been looking for an excuse to check on her.


19th,


I went to visit Wynn and found her overworked. I told her to take a few days off a month at least, and she helped me with my problem as well. It was good to see her. We made an arrangement for her to pick up something in Restov for the wedding.


26th


Sarala goes on expedition to discover what’s going on near us. It seems that Mivon has mobilized troops against us. They aren’t advancing, they’ve just camped along the river in their territory. There was something about a show of force, but if they’re looking to make us more prepared for invasion, they have succeeded.


8th of Pharast


The king informed me today that House Garess in Brevoy is no more. I’ve decided to ask the Lebeda clan if I can visit my ancestral home and gain some closure. I don’t believe it’s going to be a bother to them, but hopefully we’ll be able to do a service of some kind. I don’t know if my poking about will bother the new occupants of the castle I grew up in, but to be honest, I don’t really care. Sarala had a desire to go as well, and I believe it would be good to take her with me.


21st of Pharast


The wedding day is finally here, we get to celebrate the possibility that our monarchy will last past the first generation. Everything went swimmingly until we found a dead bard in the sitting room. She had desired to meet with Thad so Paido went along. Sarala and I hid in the secret passage and were glad we did since the mercenary company including the halfling lass that humiliated Paido some months back. They accused Thad of slave trading and attacked, but I turned two of them to stone before the king knew they were there.


The fight was pretty disappointing, and one had to wonder if they had any idea what they were doing and how they lasted this long in the first place. We took the survivors to the dungeon as we discussed how we should proceed from here.


23rd


We interrogated the assassins, trying to produce some sort of information about their informant. It seems that they’ve been enchanted, unable to remember even the features of the man. The search was fruitless so far, but I impressed upon them a greater desire to work for the information, but we’ll see what happens.


We eventually got word that we should look at the body for the clues, and discovered a piece of gargoyle claw. Scrying for the creature was difficult, and if the person who put all this together was prepared, we wouldn’t be able to get the job done soon enough.


24th I embarked on a divination journey that could take up to a week to complete. With the information we have, I hope it won’t take as long as that.


29 It seems the Gargoyle was a mass murderer in Pitax some years ago. I finished my spell about the time that Sarala got back with cooperative evidence. It was supposedly killed. Our current theory is that Arrietty has dominated the creature and is using it to do his dirty work. The king desires that we don’t go to war over this, but we’ll see what we can do.


30th Sarala left today to get information on the bandit leader from Pitax who seems to be trying to get an army to depose Arrietty. Unfortunately the one we thought was the culprit was not. But Sarala recruited her to our cause.


7 The building on the Waterfront was finally complete today. We will be able to do much more with it as soon as we finish the river modifications up north. Word also came through today that our bandit leader has never left Pitax, so we’ll have to go there to find her, although it will likely be difficult to do so.


12 Thad returns from his honeymoon, he is interested in a holding pattern until we receive more information. He doesn’t seem particularly happy, but perhaps they will at least produce an heir. He can be so troublesome at times.


13 Sarala returns, from her


15 We had the trial of the would-be assassins. Exile is their punishment, with a return being death on sight. It was fairly lenient, although it might be quite difficult to return their number to full strength again.


16 The king wanted to do some exploration to unwind, and so we scouted the lands to the west. We started at Armag’s tomb and proceeded form there.


22 We found some giants in a cave, and they were very quickly destroyed. We took what little treasure they had and left knowing the area was a good deal safer than it was yesterday.


23 We discovered a Silver Mine among the hills. It likely has some use left, but we will have to come a fair way to lay claim to it.


30 We finished our exploring with a bit of satisfaction. Not all of us take well to the duties of running a kingdom, and even I admit I’ve missed the ruggedness of the unknown. We have much more to do here, hopefully we would be able to finish it next month.


7th of Desnus


I oversaw the completion of the first Lock along the river. With the construction of a few more, we would open up trade from the Sellen to Restov, bringing in a boost to the economy. It’s been a long time in coming, but it has been worth it to see the advanced structure working flawlessly.


8th Desnus


The Herald of Pitax invited us to the Rushlight festival. I suppose we will go, and I’m certain we will do better this year. Having finished our monthly duties, we headed out for more exploration.


11th
We found an abbey that seemed quite wonderful, Dracean was particularly fond of it immediately.. In it were a magical well and a ghost to guard it. We killed the ghost, who gave us a bit of trouble and we will have to come and sanctify the grounds again. The well is terribly valuable, and it would be good to establish an outpost here as soon as possible.


Rushlight Fest


6th Sarenith.


We made it to the celebration Thad said something terribly rude in front of Arrivetty and it did cause a bit of a stir. He of course, refused to make nice, and instead it seemed to encourage the fighting spirit of our contestants. We’ve done well in our events so far, having won 4 out of the five contests.


In the end despite a less than stellar performance in the drunken joust, we were able to capture the prize and gain the Rod of Lordly Might for ourselves. Sarala did some daring maneuvers to apologize for Thad’s rude behavior, fooling the entire nobility assembled there. However during the awards ceremony, the queen appeared and told us of an impending attack by both Pitax and Mivon. We left immediately and went to Akiros to make the arrangements for defense. We went out to speak with the Centaurs, but had only a little opportunity to improve relations with no opportunity to receive reinforcements.


The next order of business was to evacuate Sarkenhold. We went up into the pass to make things a bit more easier to defend and holed up at the old watchtower. We have about 450 soldiers to defend against an attacking force of 1500, but we will have some fey help as well which hopefully will make the difference.


12th


We summoned Dracean to make the place more favorable for defense, and he did so as we directed. The enemy was forced to take a narrow passage and be peppered with arrows for quite some time before they could engage us face to face. This was so we could fend them off despite our lower numbers. The Troll Army was able to engage us first, as well as the Wyverns up on the heights. Our archer cores and the sprite army fought the Wyverns and with some archer support were able to drive them off. The Troll Army was the next to fall, being effectively surrounded by superior numbers until the bulk of the Pitax forces could arrive.


But these forces were unlike anything we’d fought before. They were magical constructs, and although they took a certain amount of damage from our arrows, it wasn’t near as much as regular troops would have. Once they came into melee with our smaller forces, despite our defences, we were being devastated.


Meanwhile, Dracean and I went looking for their commanders to seek them out and see them dead. It was an annoying business due to the fact that their commander made himself invisible and hid or ran for the entire fight, but eventually we were able to find and subdue him with the aid of the rest of the council members we had with us. He was an ogre magi of some kind, and it would have been a much more interesting fight if he were not just trying to escape. Thad mentioned something about sending his head back to them in a box.


After we dealt with the leadership, we went back to aid the armies against the constructs, our presence encouraged the troops and we began to turn the tide. They eventually wiped out our ground troops and we were left fighting them with our Archers and the sprite army. We lost many good people on this day, but we had won and we sent the surviving people back to their town as we prepared to deal with the invasion from Mivon.


Before we went back, we had to check out some suspicious cracks in the mountainside. Inside there was a trap for us with some kind of elementals in them. I suppose it was supposed to be difficult, but we managed defeat them without too much trouble. Although we should probably upgrade some of our weapons.


13


We received word that the Mivonian army was heading toward Silverhome. We prepared to send armies to intercept, although there was much discussion having to do with whether or not it would be just easier to rebuild. We put together some armies from Akiros, but they were likely not nearly as well equipped or experienced as the Mivon armies were, but we decided to make our stand.


While the slow moving armies were doing their business, Sarala and I went off to discover what we could about his location. As we neared his palace, it seemed there were just as many constructs as we had seen before, as well as twice as many trolls surrounding his palace. When we approached invisibly from the air, we did notice that there was an illusion instead of a roof, and underneath was a clockwork dragon.


We made a hasty retreat, although I was able to note some distinguishing characteristics Particularly some kind of rod sticking out of Construct Dragon sitting on Irivetty’s palace.


---


Northeast of the rushlight, we ran into an army of barbarians looking for blood. After attempting to talk to them in person we decided instead to infiltrate at night. Sarala was able to overhear that they were in the pay of Arrivetty. Many of them also were interested in attacking Windsong Ranch for sport, but their leader kept them in check for the time being. After receiving this information, we went to Windsong Ranch and advised them to be ready to evacuate. Since they had the best and swiftest horses in the entire kingdom, they should be able to escape the barbarians who would come after them on foot as long as they were able to see them coming and were prepared to go.


14th of Sarenith


After a teleport back to Akiros. Our armies should be able to converge on the Mivonian force about a day outside of Silverhome. Upon doing some research in the library, we were able to discover the meaning of that rod, it was a defense against electricity, the Clockwork Dragon’s only weakness. It could be overloaded with a lot of electricity, but it would take quite a bit of that to work. After doing our research, we left on some phantom steeds to get to the battlefield.


15th


The armies collided at early evening, we captured their leadership and made their army surrender. Thad interrogated their leader, and we were informed that the Mivonian force was merely mercenaries for Pitax. Thad inquired on their business practices and we were able to realize that we’d need permission from the houses before they would receive payment and change sides.


17th


In the late evening, we arrived back in Akiros. Having collected a fair amount of armed men, we set out to go around the horn of the Hooktongue and down to Fort Datzeg to meet up with the armies waiting along our border. While they traversed our country, we focused on doing business within the country which we neglected during the Festival and we were able to raise some serious capital in which to be able to supply and pay our armies as they went on the march toward Pitax.


22nd


We arrived in Fort Datzeg at the same time as the armies who marched around, in the early evening. Thad was interested in gaining Armag’s gear to use as either a negotiation or intimidation with the Barbarian army, due to the fact that most of them were tiger lords. Fetching the sword wasn’t a big issue, but it was quite strong in it’s bloodlust, not quite as strong as our King’s will, which was useful in getting it out of there.

23rd

We went back to Fort Datzeg, and found that the sword seemed to be gaining in strength, but Thad was able to fight it off again. We then went forward to scout out the armies that had gathered. We did find that there were four armies there now. A group of Hill Giants on Mammoths, the barbarian horde we saw before, the wyverns that escaped our grasp a while ago, and a group of rag tag people, what seemed to be a mercenary company of some kind. We sent word to the armies at Fort Datzeg to come out to Windsong Ranch and stage our fight against them from that place.

At this point, we discussed it, and found that it was probably best to return the sword back to Armag’s tomb. It’s power and bloodlust would be dangerous in anyone’s hands.

From there we decided to do some more searching for other armies, but it turned out that was all we found. Paido and Thad went to the Thousands Voices and announced our intent to attack Arrivetty, so that possibly we might bring us some allies on our way.

During the night, Sarala and I went throughout the camps of the opposing armies, seeing if any were there out of being enchanted. There weren’t any of those, so we fixed that. It seems that the Stone Giant general was terribly interested in fighting humans, it didn’t really matter which ones he fought. A little nudge was all it took. They hit the human camp at dawn, and we decided to come back later to see how it all worked out.

24th

Marching up against the enemy, we had a fair bit more numbers than they did, so winning the battle was a foregone conclusion. As the enemy also understood this, they decided to focus their fire on one of our armies, the Theater company. They were able to rout that particular army, but the rest of them were chewed up by our larger armies and the survivors fled the field. We were still a good day and a half out of Pitax proper, and it seemed like it was a good idea to start thinking about our strategy about how to take out the construct heavy fortification once the army distracted his troops.

We took a shopping trip to Kaer Maga, purchasing several weapons

26th

We went up to the palace as the armies kept the trolls and constructs around the city defending the walls. We defeated the clockwork dragon and proceeded into the palace. There was some trolls in the first room which were easily dispatched, and inside the next one was Irrevetty with a couple dozen guards. The guards weren’t much, but they did take a while to fight through. As soon as he was touched with a fireball, he ported himself out of there.

We moved through the palace, killing constructs and trolls, wiping out the castle guard constructs and looking for his hiding place. After a while we found some stairs down in a kitchen and heard a voice trying to see what our intentions were. It was a strange creature looking for a sword. Paido said it was a worm that walks, and it needed the sword for his mistress. We decided against doing any deals with him and drove him off after a few rounds with Thad.

After that we took a look around, fighting off some more constucts and found a little arena. Under there we found some hellhounds, a Remoraz, and some sabretooth tigers. Once we got back up to the ground floor, we were attacked by a weretiger and the gargoyle we’d been hunting. It had some strange abilities, but we were able to defeat him.

--

After a bit of healing, we continued to search out the palace. We ran into some more of Irravetty’s automatons, and we fought them in the narrow corridors. Wanting to save up magical power for the king, I even resorted to smashing them with my staff. Normally I’d see what I could do so that wouldn’t have to happen, but Sarala and Thad both approved of that action, so I may have to do it more in the future.

Eventually we found the hole he was hiding in, and he had a Naga with him, along with a wererat who was particularly good at hiding. We exchanged pleasantries and then tried to kill one another. Irrevetty was wearing a proof of protection versus petrification, but I hit him with a surge of extra power and was able to turn him to stone anyway. But if we expected his cohorts to be demoralized, they didn’t show it. the Naga kept up its assault and the wererat shot me in the neck, so I don’t remember much more of the fight.

Later we found that it was a weapon designed specifically to kill humans, and so it was only due to my protective magics and a little luck that I didn’t die. Sarala got to me first with a potion, and then I was able to fly out of there. Thad had killed the Naga, while Paido had to chase down the rat, dragging its body back by the scruff of it’s neck. the fight was over here in the palace, we have yet to see what’s happening outside, but hopefully anyone will think twice before invading us again.

In Irriveties cavern, there was a small pond, under which we found the sword that Thad had been looking for. It was definitely a potent weapon, but was somehow subdued and veiled. There was also the shawl that we needed to return to the nereid.

27th

The next day, we decided to send out a call for anyone willing to take responsibility for the city, and they came right away ready to do politics, but Thad decided he would wait a day or two to decide if they were the best fit. Thad began trying to work with the representatives of the old council while Sarala and I went to find the rumored bandit, but she had no real claim on the area as far as rulership is concerned, just an overactive grudge. We came back to town and set about discovering what we could about the council. We did discover a raging drug problem in the town, but are still working on what to do about it.

28th

Sarala and I talked to all possible council members, reported to Thad, and worked up a treaty. Sarala thought she might be able to discover where the drugs are coming from, and will spend the night looking for clues.

29th

Thad ended all concerns by stating that he did not come to make enemies, he came to kill enemies. He’d put them all on the council and let them sort it out. Sarala returns from her fact finding trip with very few facts. So we decided to leave it in the hands of the new council, we sign the treaty, and go home. It seems that the queen was ready for when we returned the sword. She absolutely insisted that Thad kill her with it, and he did, as she rarely asked him for much. Her life essence went into the sword, and she would not be raised, but the sword was empowered now.

We talked to the nereid a bit about what the sword was and what we should do about all of this, and she basically told us of a new threat, an even older fey queen than the last one we fought. This one is a nymph that is supposed to have powers that make her think she can treat herself as an Elder of the First World, but the Elders kind of resent that. With all of that drama, she’s reportedly taken an interest in reconquering the lands we now hold, and that we cannot allow.

Also, there’s another artifact level sword that is being pursued by this nymph’s followers, of which Sarala’s father is one. It is supposed to bring itself into the dragon’s lair by the name of Silverstep, but we don’t know where that is. This is particularly urgent, so I hope we have time to catch either the sword, or Sarala’s father or both.

Thad is notably upset about being caught up in his in-law’s family feud, and might need to sulk it out for a bit. Sarala went to talk with him, leaving Paido and I to figure out exactly what we were going to do. Dracean came along and we decided to keep it all hushed while we went out to further our part in the story.

30th of Sarenith

I am able to travel wherever I wish now, I finally mastered the trick. as well as a few more. There is magic in my blood, and whenever I go through great stress, I find myself stronger than before. I’m hoping by the end of what is Matsuro Chi’s destiny, I may actually be able to pursue my own dreams.

I picked up quite a few objects from Absalom today. I do enjoy that city, I may wish to spend more time there in the future. We needed to be prepared for our journey, and we found ourselves somewhat enriched at the end of our last expedition.

Thad decided we should go in the morning, and so that’s what happened.

1st of Erastil

Dracean found some caves under the lake that seemed possibly the right way to go. He did say there were no dragons in them, but if legend were true, then silvers did like making their lairs under mountain lakes, so we had a good idea that it may have once been his lair. We needed to get into there to see what we could find. I changed into a more suitable shape and went inside with Dracean for backup. We discovered through winding tunnels a cavern with evil fey in it. I grabbed the others and we fought them until they fled or were killed. It didn’t take long until we were able to explore the cavern a bit. There was a waterfall sound up the way, and we thought that might be the way to go.

…

In the next chamber we had a dragon head in the stone behind a waterfall. It was magically warded, and I managed to dispel one of the wards before Sarala opened it up. When we went through, we ran into a few greater shadows, a wizard or witch of some kind and Sarala’s father in all his monstrousness. I put up a wall of light to ward off the shadows, and turned the spellcaster to stone, disintegrating her familiar.

The daddy fled past altar into another room with a bunch of undead, a trio of fetchlings and a priestess. Thad gave us a small bit of his divine power and I used it on the priestess, riddling her with arrows. She was no longer a problem. But the Ancow fired off a prismatic spray and ended up sending Thad to another plane, so we had to make do without him after that. Paido and I had to deal with some of the undead, called Bodoks with a gaze attack that could eat away at your life force as well as the fetchlings, and Sarala squared off against her father. After a long fight, we whittled them down and we were able to gain the upper hand.

I turned two of the sisters to stone while the other fled and Paido fought through the Bodoks to distract the Ancow enough so that Sarala could knock out her father with her trusty sap. When we had won, the vesper’s rapier appeared, and Sarala grabbed it. But at what cost? I couldn’t track down Thad today, I was too spent. We needed to get some rest and I would begin trying to locate Thad in the morning.

2nd of Erastil

The good thing was, I didn’t have to find him as he showed up in my bedroom in the middle of the night along with Wynn, and Sarala and Paido. Dracean was strangely absent from the party at the time. As I lay there, they continued to talk, it seems that some friendly planar being sent Thad back to Wynn, as she discovered that the tower she’d been studying in was really a ladder to a portal to the moon. Excited about the prospect, but still quite tired from the day, I suggested several times in their excitement that we wait until morning to get prepared until they finally listened to my request and let me sleep.

In the morning, we headed to Akiros, and then off to Skywatch to activate the portal, of which it was my responsibility. We uncovered the magical illusion with a dispel to see what was necessary, and since Wynn had done the footwork to reveal the other five glyphs, I was able to activate all of them and thus the portal and we headed through.

There on the moon, there seemed to be a terrible problem. It seemed something was leaking Abyss all over the moon, as it creeped over the Worldwound. It appeared as if the particular fashion of this place was a jungle, excepting that instead of plant material, there was flesh grown into such shapes. While we were distracted by the grotesque strangeness, we were attacked by some creatures that burst out of the ground. We defeated them without too much trouble and prepped for more encounters as we headed toward the only path that left from this portal. The trip was terribly long, and many of the enchantments we’d begun had run out before we ran into anything else.

Eventually we ran into a troll with nine heads wielding a huge scythe. He was accompanied with a few giant undead hands, which he commanded to attack us. The hands were easily handled and the troll himself didn’t really get to do that much damage before we defeated him as well. The scythe he carried was magical, but it was terribly large and unwieldly, it would be trouble to even take it back to sell it, so it was probably best to just leave it here for now.

Another mile past that point, and we came upon a lake. Inside the lake was a largeish tentacled being, but I turned it to stone and we carried on.

A while later, we came to a clearing with a bloodstone post in the middle. There were manacles there that were supposed to summon a particular demon. While we were there, we were attacked by some kind of giant force creature. It really didn’t like Thad, but we were able to defeat it but it took a little time. As for the bloodstone, we destroyed it and went on.

After that we came upon a city carved into the side of a mountain, whose upper surface was so shiny and black that it reflected the stars and seemed to just disappear. We ran into three moon beasts, of which Wynn hit with a prismatic spray. Thad flinched a little, and one of them ended up turning to stone, which seemed like a good idea to me, so I turned the other two to stone as well.

In the city, there were a few haunts, they let us know that there was some major catastrophies that happened. The first we ran into was some sort of whispers that made us confused. But Sarala and I succumbed to the whispers, in my own case because I wanted to make out what they were saying. It turned out the information wasn’t worth it.

A bit farther, we saw a cyclopean alchemist detonate himself. The haunt allowed us to be hit by the explosion even at this distant time.

Up in an alleyway, Wynn and I went up into the sky to get a better look around the city and we found a gathering place, or a town square or something and we decided to check that out. We ran into another haunt on the way, and it was an apparition of a chaotic brawl with a little cyclopean toddler asking them to stop. The brawl was rather brutal, and seemed to include us as well, We were able to do enough positive energy in the area to disrupt the haunt and put those memories to rest. A little farther we found the square.

There was another big haunt around a dias in the middle of the square of a ritual suicide. Evidently, it wanted us to participate. Wynn destroyed it, and we moved in to take a look at the dias. It was surrounded by 13 pillars, which were of the celestial caravan. There was a trifling puzzle that went along with it, but thanks to some good thinking we were able to make the proper answer. A stairway opened up and we went down about a thousand feet.

We found ourselves in a grand chamber around a large pool with some Mi-Go and a stout soldier with a flaming axe. The Mi-Go were more well equipped than we’d seen before, having technological rods that mimicked a disintegration ray. Through strong spells and arms we defeated them, but it did take a while for it to happen.

The pool was a dispelling screen, or a portal, or some combination of the two. Wynnsaren made a bridge down through the portal and we made our way through with all our protective spells taken from us. Down there were several creatures in stasis, seemingly priests of a sort. I had a bad feeling that they would be the final defense of the dreamer, but time would tell.

Down there we had a long and not particularly interesting conversation with the Raktevarna weapon that ran away from us three or so years ago. Thad wanted it destroyed, and we ended up doing so, and by doing so were able to free the priests from their temporal stasis spell. We fought and killed most of them, although one was a vampire that escaped.

Once they were all killed or dispersed or turned to stone, we began taking what they had that was of value. But soon after we began, out of the floor flew a harbinger of the evil. It looked like an octopus with six tentacles. It gave us a little trouble and I learned it could not be turned to stone. During this time, We discovered that there was also a statue of the dreamer, known as Cthulhu who was filling with a sort of Ichor at a certain rate. When it filled completely, the dreamer would come in one of 9 places. We just had to find out where. Under the floor was a mist that was near impenetrable and expansive. We left it alone for the time being and decided to go home and get some rest.

3rd of Ersatil

So we went back to Golarion, and found that there was someone to see King Thad, it was Lis, and he told him of the death of his older brothers, much in the same vein as he had told me some time ago. After that information, we discussed what to do about the announcement of the dead queen and what to do from here on out for the next hundred days or so.

---
Founded Terissapsa

8th

Today I finished my wedding present for the King. I put in a permanent Circle of Healing in the Cathedral of Sarenrae. Sarala started a rumor that the ghost of the queen made it happen to attempt to make her loss more palatable to the people.

10 of Erastus

I took a trip to go see my friend Asterton and let him know a few things. I also met an interesting fellow. I’ve been looking for an alchemist and there was a particularly potent one down in Savith Yhe. He has the ability to make copies of himself, and he loaned me one for my personal use. With his vast understanding of crafting and nature, he will be quite the useful ally for the future.

11th

Sarala went to the library and discovered information about the book that the queen gave the king for their wedding. It was a book written in Pitax by a madman that supposedly visited a fey realm. If Narissa’s realm is actually in the Thousand Voices like her research indicated, we might be able to take the fight to her and make her threat against the kingdom come to an end.

15th

We started searching the woods to see if we can find anything there that can lead us into the fey realm.

21st

We found a castle in the woods today, that seemed quite old. When we searched it, we found nothing and when I searched it magically, it seems that the gate is only available when it’s opened from the other side, or possibly on a solstice or equinox. We will likely have to wait until the first day of fall to enter in. We decided to look around in the forest for some time to see if we can find any more clues.

26th

Went up to the mountains to explore after finishing the woods, I think that we all would just like some time to just be out of the city for a while. With the threats of fey and the stars coming this year, there is a weight to these outings that keeps a touch of solemnity to them.

27th

There was an area in the mountains where it seemed like there was some evidence that a great Black dragon lived in this place. It was swampy, and there were signs of acid damage all over the place. We also found a Silver Dragon skull set up as a warning. So after some consideration, we decided to find and fight the dragon in his lair.

We made some trips to get more prepared, and we even took the dragon skull so we could get some information about the big black. I had to run down to Absalom to get a few scrolls, including a resurrection scroll for the silver dragon.

Amvarean was resurrected and seemed perfectly willing to share what information he had as well as to help us hunt the big one, for justice. He insisted on that. He turned into a human and we gave him a comfortable suite in the castle for the evening. It’s likely we have this dragon in our debt, especially if we avenge his death, but we will leave that to the side for now.

28th

We went dragon hunting, and came up empty. There was just some Red Doom that needed some extermination, and that… we did not even need Amvarean for. Overall, even though we were able to destroy them all without trouble, I am somewhat disappointed we could not defeat the big black. If we ever run into him in the future, we may be much less prepared than we were today, and that is not a comforting thought.

When Sarala went out of town for the evening, I asked Thad about a personal matter.

29th

Paido and I took a trip to Absalom, as I had a couple planning questions to go over with him. We picked up some things for the king as well as a few odds and ends.

30th

I have decided that it may be possible to atone the spear, which was created good. It will take a bit of planning, but I believe I found a way to do it. I begun the process, and we’ll have to see if it has a chance of working in about seven days.

3rd of Arodus

Today, we got a report that the Hooktongue is turning black. One of our trade ships disappeared and the other saw black swans on the blackened waters. We talked to our resident nereid about what was happening, and it seems that there is certain places that are foundations of Narissa’s realm. It is in these places that she can begin to invade, and most sincerely has done so. We just need to find some way to collapse these foundations so that her realm will be brought here and she will be vulnerable.

We teleported out to the old ruins on the north end of the lake and took off on our illusory steeds. Finding some kind of fey jellyfish, we destroyed it, and began to look for the source of the dark taint.
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Farther to the south we found the black swans, but they didn’t attack us, so we left them alone for the time being. There was a large whirlpool that reached all the way to the lake floor to a one way magical gate. When we went down, we were attacked by four elder water elementals shaped like black swans that came out of the black water. After a bit of a lengthy fight, we were able to destroy them. As their magic dissipated, the whirlpool collapsed. shattered magical energy spread about the area, killing all of the black swans. One of them had enough residual magical energy to be noticeable, and I took it back to Akiros along with the rest of the party.

Once back in the city, I discovered that this particular trophy is worth about one third of a key to get us into Narissa’s realm. Unfortunately without much to go on, it was likely we’d run into more swans. We sent out scouts to see about the second page from the book, since black swans were on the first one. So since mushrooms were on the next page, we thought that might be the next thing we’d find.

9th of the month

We had a messenger ride into the city reporting large mushrooms near Oleg’s. We went out immediately to investigate, and the extra growth had spread for nearly ten miles. When we went inside, we ran into a couple swarms of tiny plant creatures, which we destroyed with a bit of difficulty. Once again, one of the swarm had residual magic that could be used as part of the key to get to Narissa’s realm.

The mushrooms and new growth did not disappear, so we we’ll have to see about remanning the sawmill, so we can restore the land to it’s original state. We checked on Oleg and Svetlana, and found that they were alive, they were able to escape to some kind of cellar.

We sent out some more scouts with instructions concerning the next page in the book. The next issue should take place near a waterfall, and there are only so many in the area. Dracean’s druid allies should be able to find it quickly and get back in touch with us as fast as they can.

10th

Got engaged today. Compared to this, everything else should be easy.

12th

At night, i had a vision of being in the jungle with Astarton. We were talking about Savith Yhe, and the earth trembled. A large lizard ate Asterton, and another came beside it to come and devour me as well. Something felt off about the whole thing, since I had no magic available to me, and none of my items. As it made little sense, I began to think it was some sort of illusion, and I saw a large crow off in the distance appraising me. I challenged the lizards in front of me, and they appeared in my bedroom. I was able to turn one into stone immediately, but the second came around it and grasped me in it’s jaws, with a very real pain. I was able to escape magically to outside my door as the confused lizard decided to take out its frustration on my decor. Sarala arrived first, and had brought some healing potions for me. I healed up a little and went back in, having the other lizard turned into stone.

We looked about to see if there was some sort of caster about, while Thad smashed the statues. He needs to kill the evil fey in order to bring Briar to its fullest strength. But these were simply summoned creatures, and they disappeared in minutes. We decided to all sleep in Thad’s room that night, and some of us didn’t manage to sleep at all.

13th
In the morning, we had a call that Windsong Ranch had been under attack. We wisked out there and found giants with fairy wings. As we were fighting them, a satyr came after us with a bow. We destroyed them all, but there was no dispersion of magical energy like with the other guardians, and it was possible this was simply an advance force of Narissa’s armies. We cleaned up the mess and headed back home, preparing for a rough night if the crow came again.

Before bed, I cast a Vision spell that told me the crow was responsible for the dreams. It was also a coward, and if it was challenged, it would flee and not trouble us again. When the dream came again that night, I was able to challenge it and make it run. As I awoke, I found a feather in my hand, and it was the key we would need to finish unlocking the castle of knives and make it to the first world.

14th

I used my newfound strength to transform into a dragon about my own size. The spell should last a week or two until I reform. Sarala was a little uneasy about it, but was won over when she discovered that it would be much more durable than my previous body and that I would turn back eventually.

15th

We went to the Thousand Voices and upon entering had an experience that powered up Thorn a little. It seemed to gain empathy, there were statues of Narissa holding the sword over the fence and they glowed for a moment as the change took place.

Further in, we went a couple hours to the whirlpool as it appeared on the map. The map was accurate, and we discovered the pool, a miniature version of what appeared before in the Hooktongue. We fought some treants there and won, electing to move on.

At the next grove, we fought a gigantic mandoraga, and I have to say it was preferable to the swarms of them we fought near Olegs. After we defeated it, the whole realm settled back to the material, and we knew that it would be a bit more easy from this point on.

We then went to what was supposed to be a waterfall, and it was rather dry, but we were attacked by two winged owlbears. Thad believed it was a shame to kill such maginificent animals, but we had to for the sake of the realm. Any creature allied with the Fey Queen would only spell trouble, but once slain it would aid Thorn to overcome her.

The next page in the book was the graveyard, of which was still covered in snow for some reason. We went in and were attacked by frost giants, one of which had four arms. It took a little while to whittle them down, but we managed to finish it off without taking too much time and took inventory of our remaining strength.

We decided to do one more slaying before resting, and we came to the spire. The Nightmare Rook was there, the one that had caused me trouble and put giant lizards in my bedroom. I threatened it again, and we went forth and destroyed it, flinging it’s ruin on the plains below. That night as we attempted to rest, we were interrupted by a large troll riding an enormous black dragon. As we were quite tired and depleted of our magical resources, we decided discretion was the better part of valor, and instead went to rest at the nearby abbey near the mountains.

In the morning we came back and went to the swamp where we were attacked by very large worms. They were tough, but we managed to maintain our record of success, although we did not escape unscathed. Their hide was terribly thick, and Thad had a difficult time slaying them, although not impossible.

From there we went to the warped house on the map, as it was close to the place where we were. We had given up on doing things in order, and we were attacked by three armed trolls as soon as we opened the front door. A witch of some kind came off the balcony, but was able to escape after we defeated the trolls. We looked through the house, because the spell she used would bring her to a place of safety for her, but there was nothing there except a blood filled tea set.

After there, we went to the beehive looking thing, and the less said about it the better. It was a horrid place filled with necromantic explorations and appalling architecture. We looked throughout the structure, but found nothing of consequence. It seems that the queen has recalled her troops to the castle for her last stand.

Though it was possible there was nothing left in the final grove, we went there anyway, just to be thorough. We did actually find the old black dragon there, although it wasn’t ridden by any troll. She made some disparaging noise at our paladin, and actually tried to sit on me but we were able to take her down with our combined might. There was even a dragon hoard to enjoy as well, and all that was left for us was to assault the castle, but we figured we could do that well rested.

As we approached the castle of Knives, we saw the old place that we used as the gate, but it was restored and in good repair. It was also well defended. Coming up from the moat was a Tarn Linnorm, albeit a small one, and fairy tigers from the rear, as well as a big troll right through the gate. The troll died with spell, but the Linnorm was poisonous, and it’s hideous poison infected Sarala. Thad was able to rid her body of the poison, but the dastardly creature poisoned her again. As she lay languishing on the ground I turned the linnorm into a toy boat and tore it to pieces in my rage.

Thad was able to heal Sarala, which was very nice. After which we decided to move forward, we had to go over the wall, which wasn’t too difficult with four out of five of us able to fly when we wanted to do so. On the wall, we found a cadre of ghostly guards. They were a bit annoying, but we were able to deal with them in time, the problem was the Jabberwock that came from a dead tree in the courtyard. It had beams of fire coming from it’s eyes and an strange warbling that came from it’s throat. Eventually, Sarala and Dracean had to retreat, Once we were able to focus our attention on the Jabberwock we were able to subdue it. We wore out a wand of healing after that, and prepared to look at a magical tree.
It was a gate of some kind, or at least part of one. According to the auras and my extensive magical knowledge, we’d need to unlock four such gates before we could get past to what laid beyond. It seemed a good magical barrier for treasure or regents. I unlocked the gate with a dispel and then we started to explore. Also in the courtyard was a stable that housed phantom steeds, which could be useful in our own kingdom, although without the rotting horse facade.

In the big double doors at the end of the courtyard, there was a large room that looked like a sylvan setting had been painted out on the walls with some mysterious and dark shapes looking at us from behind trees and bushes. When we went to leave the room, they shadows came out and attacked. They resembled Sarala’s daddy, and after we destroyed them, we didn’t bother talking about it.

In the next room we found some aquatic fey that all looked exactly like our late queen. It was awkward, and unsettling, but we had to destroy them. We found a trap door in that area, but decided to ignore it for the time being until we could finish the level we were on. There was an undead bear that was dancing in a cage when we went into the next wing, and Dracean decided to destroy it, although it exploded after it took a certain amount of damage. We found another well that Paido explored, but found nothing in it, as it was completely dry.

A little later, we found a door that opened to a throne type room with a bridge across it from the second floor. There was a summoned angel and our good friend the worm that walks. We fought him for a little while until, like a coward he ran away.

In the door on the far side of the chamber, we ran into a library with a large water clock in it. Standing next to the clock was a small and ugly watery fey of some sort. He was not hostile, so we talked to him a little. Using my powers of persuasion, we extracted little information from him before his head exploded. It seems Narissa is keeping an eye on what goes on in her castle from a pocket dimension called the Fable. We’ll have to go there in order to defeat her. The keys i’ve been unlocking will likely open the door to where she is at. Hopefully we’ll be able to defeat her there.

Across the hall we found four air elementals that were quite strong. It took us a little time, but we defeated them and moved on to the upstairs. There were a couple of interesting wyverns, and we managed to beat them without much trouble as well. Exploring the upstairs, we came across the overlooking bridge to the throne room and ran into a few tortured nymphs. They seemed quite evil, and beyond redemption, so we destroyed them. In the midst of the fight, they managed to blind both Sarala and Paido. We’ll need to fix that before we move on.