Dammerung 2.0 - a 5e campaign journal

[curious-puzzle]

New game! (mostly) new players!

Same campaign world! Same hack GM!

Just starting to run another game, still set in my Dammerung kitchen sink

Spoiler: Stuff about the setting

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Spoiler: Intro fluff

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Surrounded by her fallen comrades, the dwarven warrior flicks the gore off her blade and tightens her grip. Hissing ghouls clamber over the dead, inexorably swarming towards the last defender between them and the tunnel leading to the city.

The Tiefling wanderer clears his throat, mind racing for which song to play. The fey court watches eagerly, and he stridently attempts to ignore how sharp their teeth and claws look...as well as deliberately not stare at the messy remains of the poor soul who “auditioned” before him.

Packs laden with treasure, the band of scavengers run for their lives. Lungs and legs burning, they scramble for the cavern entrance at the bottom of the valley. Trees tremble and the wind howls as the Radiance storm descends on them.

The mercenaries eye each other as the villagers flee to their homes. Doors lock and shutters slam as the eerily thick mist envelops the fishing village. Guttural chanting begins to echo from seemingly all directions, and out on the water the prow of a raiding ship cuts through the mist.

Spoiler: Important definitions & info snippets

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Light and Dark: Pure primordial energies of creation and dissolution Portals of Light and Dark pour forth from the north and south Poles, shaping and warping the geography & weather.
Light is heat, life, growth, expansion and complexity. Magic that creates something usually taps into Light, whether that creation is an explosion of flame, a summoned servant, or an idea in someone’s mind that wasn’t there before. Too little Light, and new life cannot come forth. Too much Light, and it corrupts, overwhelms, and ultimately destroys.

Dark is cold, entropy, simplification, division, and definition by absence. Magic that removes or curtails is associated with Darkness; tearing the life force out of a living being, binding a spirit, or clouding memories. Too little Dark, and life warps and grows rampant. Too much Dark is oblivion.

When concentrated, both Light and Dark energy can manifest and solidify into a crystallized form. These crystals are a highly sought after resource, used to power many forms of magitech, as well as a component in magical rituals. Searching out and harvesting these crystals are the primary reason many set out into the wild landscape

Radiance is the fallout from the pure Light at the north pole, spilling across the world in waves. It triggers unrestrained growth, eventually mutating and overwhelming. It can twist and warp both the mind and body, seemingly strengthening some individuals before eating away at their sanity and mortality. The further north you are, the stronger and more dangerous Radiance is. Thick enough stone and metal can block radiance - this combined with how destructive Radiance storms can be is the reason that many settlements are at least partially underground. The largest and most advanced cities have magitech relics that help shield from Radiance; repairing and powering these devices drives many to venture into the wilds scavenging for resources.

Radiance storms are dangerous storms that create insane monsters, wild magic, and rampant chaos. At their mildest, radiance storms are violent weather patterns with shifting light patterns and a malicious disposition. At their strongest, solidified light can rain down from the sky as burning plasma, reducing entire landscapes to dust.

The Spirit World: Also known as The Ascendant Plane or The Astral Sea, this is the counterpart to the Physical realm / Material plane. An endless void of burning light and icy shadow, interspersed with floating monoliths of stone and crystal, and gates of all shapes and types. A realm of will and power, creatures with enough of the latter can use the former to carve out their own Throne world. Souls travel the Spirit World before birth and after death, grand shining ribbons zealously guarded by the Celestial angels. Hungry Fiends, malevolent spirits, and stranger things all attempt to prey upon these souls,eager to turn them to their own ends.

Spirit Gates: Permanent gates in the Material plane that allow incredible distances to be traveled using the Spirit World. No-one is sure who or what created the Spirit Gates, but every society and species has used them as a (relatively) safe means of travel. Some instantaneously warp those who step through, while others require a path walked through the Spirit World. Control and access to to known & stable Spirit Gates is a hotly contested resource - the island of Fallen Alshajara in particular possesses numerous Spirit Gates

Magitech: The arcane technology pioneered by the once-great empire of Alshajara. Able to be produced far more quickly than purely enchanted items, and produced in mass, magitech items can be created to accomplish almost any goal. Powerful arms and armor, shield generators to protect whole cities from Radiance Storms, mighty Warjack constructs of steel and will, magitech is powered by crystallized Light and Dark rather than by magic bound into the item. This makes them much more versatile, but at the cost of a power source that must be sought out and replaced regularly. Unearthed magitech from Fallen Alshajara is extremely valuable, as the scale and quality of what was created centuries ago far outstrips what can be created now

The Sorrows: Immortal monstrosities that have plagued the world for millennia. As much catastrophes as creatures, the three Sorrows have murdered species, nations, and gods alike. Appearing at random, the Sorrows have never been destroyed; only sometimes driven back at immense cost. Their absence for the past 300 years has brought both furtive hope and growing dread in equal measure.

Spoiler: The Sorrows

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The Hungry Dream, the Sorrow of the Earth: heralded by an eerie magenta glow seen even by the blind, a force that claims, controls, and consumes all it encounters. Only colorless rot and dust is left behind
The Tide Breaker, the Sorrow of the Sea: A pelagic nightmare of titanic proportions, the world itself trembles in its wake. Even the hint of its presence can drive the living mad with fear
The Ruin storm, the Sorrow of the Sky: An endless storm that shatters the very stone. And at its heart, a mountain that walks

Spoiler: Primary playable races

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Spoiler: Humans

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If humans once ruled this world, those days are long past. Their kingdoms shattered, their gods slain, humanity hangs on by ragged nails and cracked teeth. But they still endure, fighting for whatever scraps they can claim.

The Day of Three Sorrows destroyed the ancestral seat of humans, broke the back of the empire that had grown and swelled around it, and murdered the gods who guided and protected it. The survivors fled and scattered to all corners of the world, desperate to somehow escape the end of everything they had known.

But 300 years later the race of man still stands. Whether a penniless child of refugees struggling in the bloated cities, a vagabond fighting for survival in the wilderness, or a mercenary killing for coin, humanity continues to fight against all odds.

Spoiler: Dwarves

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Dwarves live their lives by three tenets.
Loyalty to one's lord.
Honor to one's ancestors.
Duty to one's people.

Such iron dedication has enabled the dwarven race to survive a state of near-constant warfare for ages...but one could argue this has cost the dwarves greatly. Individual expression and drive is crushed by the necessity of the many, and dreams of the future are discarded in favor of obsession with the past and present. Despite such sacrifice and bloodshed, though, the dwarves have only managed temporary and pyrrhic victories against their immortal foes.

For millennia the Undead hordes have surged from the deepest pits of the world; for every ghoul and phantom granted true death, another is raised from those who fall battling against the tide of undeath. There will be no cessation or surrender from the dwarven people, though. That is not their way.

Spoiler: Forged

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Given life by the eldritch Creation Forges scattered throughout the underground, the Forged are sapient and unique constructs who somehow possess souls - or at least something so close as to be indistinguishable.

The Dwarves were the ones to discover a gigantic Grand Creation Forge centuries ago. After managing to activate and control it, they used the Forged as little better than slaves, expendable untiring weapons of war. After all, even a sword that spoke was still just a tool to be used.

It took an act of unmatched bravery and compassion by an unnamed Forged, but those events during the Battle of Singing Steel reshaped the two races and what they meant to one another. No longer property, the Forged were free to choose their own path. Some stayed and continued fighting alongside their former masters, and ever so slowly the jagged bitterness between the two was hammered into unbreakable respect. Others ventured out into the world, causing ripples with every step.

The Grand Forge the dwarves found has been lost and reclaimed over the years of roiling and shifting combat underneath the surface, and damaged to the point that it can no longer produce legions of gleaming warriors at will. But now another Great Forge has been unearthed, on the other side of the world.

Spoiler: Tieflings

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Tieflings were once shunned and persecuted for the Fiendish taint lurking in their bloodlines. Outcasts struggling at the fringes of society, many felt a strange calling to travel north, to the swamps. There they began to eke out an existence for themselves, away from the judgements of their progenitors.

There is no small amount of irony that 300 years after the empire of humanity was utterly destroyed, the kingdom built by the exiled Tieflings is one of the most powerful and stable in the world. 7 great Houses rule secular concerns, while 7 grand Choirs of deities preside over matters of faith and mystery. Indeed, there are more Gods, Powers and Dominions in the capital than any other - perhaps their otherworldly heritage calls to those in search of worship.

But despite their cosmopolitan outlook and mercantile attitude, one should never forget where the heritage of Tieflings originates. And there are whispers that the deepest, darkest parts of those swamps hide the secret of what those houses did so long ago in exchange for their kingdom.

Spoiler: Elves

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Eyes ever cast upwards to the heavens, the Elves are seekers of esoteric mysteries. Dissatisfied with physical existence, they strive to unlock the secrets of the universe, particularly that of Light and Radiance. Such focus (bordering on obsession) has granted elves a mastery with magic beyond any other race, but Radiance is not gentle to mortal flesh or minds. Its corrosive touch has weakened an elf’s grasp to the mortal coil in more ways than one.

Beyond their hunger for arcane knowledge, elves are guided by their past. Even more than the dwarves, for the elves’ ancestors still walk among them. Slipping their physical shell, they are infused with so much Light that they become beings of pure will and energy. These Deathless advise and direct their physical descendants, as well as creating and empowering the Risen, their undying champions. Woe to those who imply any similarities between undead and either the Risen or Deathless, however. The undead are anathema, and such an insult is more often than not worth the life of whoever utters it.

But can beings who cast their mortality aside as a stunted failure truly be trusted to guide the living?

Spoiler: Orcs

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Dismissed by many as primitive savages, the tribes of the orcs have held to their traditions for countless generations. Peerless survivors, they can live and even thrive in conditions that others would not even attempt. No expedition to the wilds would regret hiring an orcish guide - they have an uncanny connection to the land and its ferocious inhabitants.

Even this connection has not been enough to spare the orcs from the touch of Radiance, however. Slowly but surely they have become more prone to violence, more likely to dismiss reason and calm. The other races have only exacerbated this, clashing with tribes in their search for resources and relics. Forced to stray from ancestral hunting lands, the orc tribes struggle against starvation, vicious monsters that were normally avoided, and near-open warfare against the predation of these ’wall-dwellers.’

As their numbers dwindle and tribes fracture, it remains to be seen if the Orcish way of life will survive.

Spoiler: Hybrids

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The adaptability of humans is truly remarkable, extending even to their ability to reproduce with other races. Tieflings are the epitome of this, claiming to be an improvement over their progenitors in every way. But other unions deserve attention also - half-elves and half-orcs in particular. Their circumstances all differ, but all hold the potential for true greatness.

Half-orcs are the children of two fallen races, and they will be either the salvation or doom of both their parents. Possessing both the ambition of humans and the might of orcs, these driven individuals thrive in adversity. Some communities embrace them as a new hope, while others fear them as a sign of a future with no place for the old ways. It is no surprise that many travel into the wilds to face their future head-on.

Often the children of tragic love, half-elves are set apart from both of their parents’ people. Romances of star-crossed lovers are popular amongst both races, but almost all end poorly. Humans warn that elves are too much like the stars they admire; beautiful, but simply too cold, distant, and even alien in the end. Elves, for their part, caution that humans are fire - rapid, passionate, and entirely capable of saving your life in one breath and consuming you utterly in the next. Such offspring feel out of step with both parent races, and the driving force behind many half-elf adventurers is finding somewhere they belong

The motives of Celestials are nigh-inscrutable to mortals, and those who inherit their blood seem to share this trait. Unlike the widespread Tieflings (who have fully become their own species), Aasimars (or Angel-blooded) are exceptionally rare. “Blessed” with strange visions and portents, the burden of their celestial heritage is rarely escaped.

And a map

And the PCs this time round:

Spoiler: Elianna

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Things were starting to look up for Elianna. She'd made it to Flotsam, smashed some undead, got a little bit of positive attention. She helped her companions - the grim priest Dag answered the summons from a Dwarven noble (who turned out to have died 5 years prior, but it all worked out). The quiet Brokk managed to be accepted as a blacksmith apprentice in the dwarven outpost of Yarim Yol. It was working out.

And then the nightmares started haunting her again, worse than they'd been in some time. Taking the next boat going anywhere else, the mercenary wandered for half a year, making her way nearly across the world to the great city of Trezora, capital of the tiefling empire of Tsekoral.

Still a "mutated human" (aasimar suffering from ignorance and probably denial) Zealot barbarian

Spoiler: Wren

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Her peaceful village in the forest destroyed, Wren was "rescued" by a mage who took her in. Unfortunately, the mage simply treated her as an indentured servant, and his callous abuse was endured because Wren owed her life to him. At least, that was what she repeated to herself.

One night in her room (a cot crammed in the corner of the cellar), Wren noticed a glow coming from a crack in the stone wall. Night over night, using her claws and a fork, Wren worked the crack wide enough to slip inside - and inside she found a natural cavern full of bioluminescent mushrooms, hundreds of them of all shapes and sizes. As she spent more nights in her newfound sanctum, the mushrooms became her friends and confidants, giving them names and speaking of her daily life to them. Then one of them actually spoke back to her. If Wren would take the mushroom with her, out of the cavern and into the world outside, it would teach her its magic. Learn magic from her (only) friends? Wren agreed on the spot, scooping the small mushroom up with a bit of soil. As the days passed and the mushroom grew, so too did Wren's magic. Once the mushroom grew too large to easily stuff into a pouch, Wren took to placing it atop her head - after enough time it seemed to settle upon her scales and horns, and so it stayed much like a hat.

After years, karma seemingly caught up to the mage. One night the mage's tower was broken into; by whom or why Wren did not know. Once the noise had stopped, she crept out of her mushroom cave to find it was nearly dawn. The tower was ransacked, potions and equipment smashed. The only sign of the mage was a faint spatter of blood leading out the demolished door. This was obviously no longer a safe place. Wren took all the money she could find along with anything small and valuable-looking, bundled up in layers of mismatched clothing, and set out into the world.

Kobold Circle of Spores Druid

Spoiler: Kalis

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Kalis was always a little different. Born seemingly touched by Radiance, her horns grew where her eyes should have been - but she could still see, in a way. Her family quickly became familiar with their "blind" daughter's flashes of uncanny (and sometimes spooky) knowledge and insight as she grew up. They often didn't make sense at the time, but later became startlingly clear - and what also became clear was Kalis' future lay on the Street of the Gods. But while all the mysteries and rituals appealed, none of the grand Choirs felt quite right. Neither did any other of the numerous gods, Powers, Dominions, and cults within Trezora manage to catch Kalis' devotion.

But something called to her, driving her to wander to strange places, to act in strange ways. And in return the blind tiefling sees more deeply than many and wields magic.

Then one day she saw a stranger who glowed with Light and Radiance, and felt driven to follow her.

Tiefling Celestial warlock (with a heavy dose of pathfinder Oracle)

Spoiler: Sophia

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If Sophia had been born to a wealthy family (or been born a tiefling of even a minor branch of the Great Houses), a formal education would have revealed her ferocious intellect. In time she most likely would have become a scholar to rival any born in the history of Tsekoral. Instead, she was born the middle child to poor parents in one of the rougher and more destitute districts of Trezora. A hard childhood only encouraged her instincts to care for others, shaping her into a caretaker for other children in the district, mending garments and wounds alike. As they grew up and many of her friends took up less legal occupations, Sophia kept looking after them. Despite never working a job or heist, she was a staple at the Thieves' Guild, stitching people up, identifying stolen goods, and brewing healing tonics. In exchange, the guild furthered her self-education with stolen texts, reagants, and components.

Eventually a sickness swept the city. For those with the means to acquire magical healing, it was an inconvenience. But for those without the money to pay, or the attention of gods to sweep it away, the sickness could very easily kill. Sophia's helpless rage grew as more and more of her friends fell ill, and it finally boiled over when her beloved litter sister became sick. Sophia swore that she'd do whatever it took to not only cure this illness, but all diseases. She would craft a Panacea.

Throwing herself into research, Sophia quickly burned through all of the books the thieves' guild could acquire for her. She even had her friends dig up the graves of those recently slain by the illness, examining them for any possible bit of knowledge. Shortly thereafter Sophia set out to travel the world and gather more knowledge, test more theories. All to further her mission to cure her sister, her friends, and everyone who was too poor or unimportant for those in power to help.

Human Alchemist Artificer

I'll have the intro session of everyone meeting up (and me throwing shenanigans at them) shortly!

[Picanet]

Girl partaaaaaaaaay!! I am looking forward to this game again. :3

[curious-puzzle]

Since everyone had their characters all ready to go, we ran an intro session! Our adventurers are all in the capital city of Trezora, all leaving as part of a caravan travelling through a Spirit Gate on the outskirts of the city. This several-hour trek will allow them to traverse halfway across a continent, ending up on the central island of Alshajara.

Spoiler: Here we go

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Elianna grudgingly drags herself out of the nearby inn – sleep is a precious thing when more often than not you’re suffering disjointed and confusing nightmares. Wren isn’t too far behind (or may have been hiding in Elianna’s backpack), claws full of “acquired” bacon. It’s a bit of a surprise to see Kalis, the strange tiefling Elianna had bumped into previously, sitting on the ground & pouring out cups of just-finished tea. A passer-by seems to think the eyeless tiefling is a beggar and drops a coin into an empty cup, and Kalis blesses them as she makes the coin disappear with a flourish (no-one is quite perceptive enough to notice the tiny hands that snatch the coin as it passes by her hair). There’s a bit of awkwardness from Kalis’ “coincidental” arrival and Wren’s not-exactly-tactful questions about Kalis’ horns, but a trade of bacon for tea smooths things over. Wren notices the tiny hands that snatch a piece of bacon and disappear it back into Kalis' hair, but it remains a mystery still.

Sophia had already been waiting for the caravan guide to arrive, and quickly notices the unusual trio of a rather large merc (Elianna is easily over 6’5, drifting towards 7 ft tall), a rather small reptilian creature (Kobolds are uncommon, especially in cities), and a tiefling with horns growing where her eyes should be. Marching right up, Sophia introduces herself briefly before immediately asking if Kalis' features are due to Radiance mutation . Bemused, Kalis just replies with "I suppose you could say that," and Sophia busts out a notebook as she peppers everyone with questions. Small talk continues as everyone becomes more and more impatient waiting on the guide (who's a good 20-30 minutes late at this point). Finally a very hungover half-orc staggers out of the same inn Elianna emerged from, squinting and groaning at the morning light. He's heavily armed from tusks to toes, studded leather just festooned with daggers. Sophia cranks a perception roll though to notice that most of the knives' placement would bind up on each other when drawn, the armor seems barely used, and the half-orc's hands are callous-free. She also mutters all of these observations out loud, so the rest of the party hears as well. Elianna in particular eyes the "poser" guide, looks at the rest of the travelers in the square, and re-evaluates her expectations of the trip from "mindless walk" to "expect trouble."

The guide doesn't hear Sophia's rather clinical dissection of his martial prowess (too hungover), but calls out for everyone to line up, rummaging through his pockets as he slumps towards the stone arch in the center of the square. Pulling out what looks to be a tuning fork made of aged metal, he taps it against the stone, and with a humming drone a rippling green veil opens within the arch. Standing by the gate, the guide calls out for everyone to display their payment chit and wait on the other side until everyone's through. Sophia cues up right away and passes through no problem, Kalis gets a double-take from the guide (what with her playing up the "feeling her way with a staff") but her pass is presented smoothly and she walks through confidently. Wren is partially in Elianna's backpack, so Elianna hands both chits over as she eyes the guide one more time. With a sigh, she steps through as well.

Spoiler: The Ascendant Plane

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The travelers are all standing on a massive flat slab of stone, looking out over an endless void of light and shadow.

Spoiler: close visual of the ascendant plane

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The guide corrals everyone and admonishes the group to stay together, and "not go flying off." Sophia is the only one who makes a high enough Arcana check to know that gravity is a little subjective in the Ascendant plane - the pull is towards the closest object with the most mass, but if you focus your mind, you can propel yourself through the void with sheer willpower. She makes the intelligence check and promptly inverts herself before zipping around a little in defiance of the guide. He grumbles a bit, but continues his routine. "All right, this is about a 3 hr walk to the next gate before we're in Alshajara. Keep together, stay on the path with the glowing stones," the guide cracks an alchemical stone on a dagger hilt and it glows brightly, "and long as we keep moving should be nice and smooth." It's easy enough to see a gleaming sort of path leading across the stone, towards the outlines of more floating structures.

Even for the party members who have travelled via Spirit Gates before, it's quite the view striding across chunks of bizarre structures, shards of massive rock & crystal, and remnants of broad walkways all hanging in a void held between light and darkness. Glowstones (smaller but longer lasting version of sun rods) are wedged into crevices and corners every few hundred feet, but it's a pretty loose path. The line of travelers weaves its way forward for a couple hours, and then that dastardly GM starts making some dice rolls.

The caravan hits a fork of some sort, and after a brief hesitation, the guide leads the way to the left. After another hour or so, the path does a bit of a vertigo-inducing straight down and around a curve of stone. Once over the ledge, something new appears. A broad glowing band of some glowing substance hangs in the void, gleaming with a pearlescent shine. It's hard to tell whether it's relatively small and fairly close, or a great distance away but quite large. The shifting pattern of light and colour is near-hypnotic, and there's the hint of whispers at the edge of everyone's hearing. As the guide slows in confusion and the caravan admires the shining ribbon, Elianna and Kalis feel a sudden flood of emotion. It's the foreboding sense of intruding somewhere that you are very much not meant to be...Elianna loosens her greatsword from its sheath, and Kalis raises her Bell Branch. The heavy brass bell that represents Fiends drones menacingly, just as a flash of flame streaks down towards the caravan!

Spoiler: Chaos

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There's a thunderous crash as something smashes into the stone the caravan stands upon! The impact causes the slab to spin end over end in place - everyone's feet stays rooted, but the sudden rotation is dizzying. Bizarre creatures spring forth from the crater! Multilimbed insectoid horrors armed with tridents scuttle forth, and looming above them some stretched-out monstrous amalgamation of an anglerfish and a hellish nightmare.

Spoiler: Insectoid horror

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Spoiler: Nightmare anglerfish

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It's immediate chaos, the fiends surging forth and rampaging amongst the panicking travelers. The party is closer to the back, so they aren't immediately thrust into the madness. Sophia makes a high enough arcana check to recognize the fiends as Mezzoloths (the human-sized insectoid ones) and an Astradaemon (the much larger one). She'd read through a few stolen books describing the summoning and use of fiends as mercenaries - mezzoloths were mentioned several times as dangerous but able to be offered payment. The Astradaemon...Sophia's mouth goes dry as she recalls its description as an extremely powerful devourer of souls - The sort of powerful that eats everyone in a town. Elianna wrenches her blade out and rushes at the nearest mezzoloth, barking at Sophia to "get the others out of here." As she rages, it's quite distinctive in this world of spirit and will. Her body starts glowing and all her features seem to sharpen and become more distinctive, more solid. She makes a wild downwards chop! Which bounces off the Mezzoloth's chitin with only a couple sparks.

With what Sophia recalled of the Astradaemon, Elianna's suggestion seems like a good idea. Tugging a bag off her belt, she stretches the opening out further than you'd expect and shouts at Wren and Kalis to get in (her infused item replicating a Bag of Holding). Only one of the fiends is currently close enough for Kalis to clearly see, but she can feel the Astradaemon up ahead of her, a gnawing ache in her mind. She climbs partway into the bag of holding, but hurls an Eldritch bolt at the Mezzoloth. It glances off the chitin, but it catches the fiend's attention. Segmented eyes fix on Kalis, and a voice that scrapes like swarms of insects scuttling over stone drags in her mind.

<Little Light...>

Wren does not want any part of what's going on, but this big tielfing is between her and the safety of that bag! So she clambers up and just starts stomping and kicking to get Kalis the rest of the way in the bag. Partially from Wren's player rolling quite high, and partially from the awesome mental image, the little kobold succeeds in stomping the surprised Kalis all the way into the bag of holding and dives partway in herself.

The Mezzoloth stabs and claws Elianna, her rage keeping it from being too damaging. The other travelers don't far so well against the other fiends, with the Astradaemon in particular slaying three victims. Both claws and the surprisingly long tail snap out, and whatever it touches collapses instantly. It stretches up towards to glowing band of energy and hisses - and more streaks of light shoot down towards the combat! These streaks turn out to be winged and armored humanoids - except they all have four faces: human, lion, ox, and eagle. They roar and smash into the fiends, yelling in a language that only Kalis and Elianna understand. It's still too chaotic to fully catch it, but what they do hear are threats and oaths that the fiends "shall not profane the River!"

Elliana lands a crit, but unfortunately it barely draws blood/ichor/daemon goo. It does encourage a horrible telepathic threat from the mezzoloth that it will <eat you from the inside>, though. The rock is still spinning end over end, and now angels are fighting too?! Sophia does her best to convince Wren to get the rest of the way into the bag, and for Elianna to get over to her as well. It's definitely the time to be anywhere but here.

As Kalis had slid into the bag, she finally coaxed her familiar out of hiding, and Nyus the Sprite (who has 6 wings like a tiny seraphim) zips forth to be Kalis' eyes and ears. Nyus invisibly surveys the bedlam going on, the angels battling fiends, and especially the Astradaemon looming overhead, and makes an executive decision of "Nope." He quickly zips back into the bag as fast as he can. Elianna realizes this is not a good place to be and retreats, ignoring the claw that gouges her shoulder. Just as she makes it next to Sophia, there is a flash of blue from above, and a thunderous voice in Celestial booms:

BE NOT

As a massive bolt of lightning hammers down through the Astradaemon and rips the entire slab of rock apart! Everyone is sent hurtling in all directions, Elianna and Sophia managing to lock arms. They spin wildly, rocketing through space. As another island rapidly approaches, Elianna decides to be a big damn hero and spins to put herself between Sophia and the incoming rock. With a crash, everything goes black.

Spoiler: Later

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Sometime after the world stops spinning, Kalis and Wren push the bag of holding open and clamber their way out, and Sophia snaps awake in a large amount of pain. They're all in the remnants of a small tower from the looks of it, the only notable features a collapsed doorway, the Elianna-sized hole about 8 feet above them, a sealed trapdoor below them, and pieces of broken masonry. Elianna is underneath them, and while she's breathing, that's about all she has going for her. Normally Sophia has a monster bonus to Medicine, but a nat 1 is rolled so we blame the likely concussion she has. Kalis manages the roll though, and focuses her inner light to heal Elianna. With a faint song and the sound of bells, a warm light suffuses the mercenary and her spine returns to a much healthier shape.

After everyone takes stock, they climb/float out of the hole in the side of the tower. After careful observation, it's determined they have no idea where they are. A faint sparkle in the distance might be where the fiends and angels were fighting, or it might just be a sparkly hunk of crystal. The island they're on is featureless other than rubble and the remnants of the tower. The group remembers to check the trapdoor in the tower, and Sophia produces a prybar from her wonderous bag. It cracks open easily, revealing a tunnel with steps spiraling deeper into the island. A fitful green glow pulses erratically from the tunnel. Taking the stairs down, it opens into a small room with a stone archway in the center. The room has partially collapsed on the archway, and the greenish veil flickers and shudders within the arch. The gate seems damaged, but still functioning at the moment. It's decided that wherever this Spirit Gate leads is better than just flying aimlessly through the Ascendant plane, and our heroes step though.

Not sure if there will be another game before the dreaded Santa season, but will be starting regular sessions in the new year!

[PrismCat21]

Wooooooo!!!!!!
We love you CuriousPuzzle! and gang :D

[Picanet]

Wooooooo!!!!!!
We love you CuriousPuzzle! and gang :D

Holy **** you’re still here! XD I remember feeding your baby vulpix <3

[martixy]

The geography of your world gave me an idea.

In the real world, there is a concept known as the terminator line. It is the line that separates the sunlit side of a celestial object from the shadowed side. This isn't very significant on our planet, because of the effects of the atmosphere. But... on an object without an atmosphere, which can scatter light and trap heat, the terminator signifies a sharp transition between temperature extremes (e.g. above desert hot to below arctic cold in the span of minutes).
Now this has been explored in fiction before - I think there was a planet in the Star Wars EU where the inhabitants lived along the terminator of a tidally locked planet - the only temperate region, as the sunlit side would be permanently too hot, and the shadowed side, permanently too cold. Mass effect probably had a few planets like that too.

But this concept can be extended to other opposing forces. Like your light and dark energies. There could be just a narrow band of habitable zone along the equator of the planet, and anything outside would be a volatile environment of permanent radiance storms or a dark energy wasteland (possibly reminiscent of the positive/negative energy planes from the older D&D cosmology).

Apart from that, I saw the map. Your world seems distinctly small. Like maybe moon-sized at best. At least that's what the terrain features, compared to the scale of the map suggests. Is that on purpose or accidental, I wonder?

Sophia's backstory also reminds me of John Snow. No, not that one. The real life human, who is the father of Epidemiology. (It's a fascinating story.)

[curious-puzzle]

You caught me, big chunk of this setting originally started with the idea of a tidally-locked world. Then the idea shifted and changed to more of the magical influence rather than permanent day & night. As for the habitable zone, yes, the more green middle third of the map is the "calm belt," where the weather and temperatures are much more reasonable to live within. The further north you go, the hotter and hotter things get, and the more dangerous and violent Radiance Storms get (the emerald swamps in the northwest-ish part of the map benefit from all that pure Light energy while being shielded by the mountains from the brunt of the storms). The further south, the colder and darker things get, and once you get really-really far south, the more still and lifeless. There are still people/things that live in the more extreme regions of the world, it just means you either need serious protection of some sort (magical, mutation, bunkers, etc) or you're going to have a bad time.

As for the scale, that's unfortunately due to me still not being great with inkarnate I think. Scale wise it's more meant to be "Pangea but split down the middle" sort of size...I'll have to work on making that more visually clear (sounds like making the terrain features not quite so big would help).

[martixy]

Heheh. Nailed it, I guess.

You have however created a world that would exhibit the effects of a tidal lock, without being one. The Star Wars example I gave above omits a rather crucial point (don't know if they account for it in the EU or not).

Initially I assumed it's all just magic and fairies. But you explicitly specify the poles are not just sources of magic or esoteric energy, but also heat, and that creates problems for you (or the poor saps living in your world).
Earth is rotating. This means, the atmosphere on the day side doesn't have much time to heat up, nor cool down on the night side. Not so in a world where there is a constant gradient of energy. Climate-wise your world would have MASSIVE convection currents transferring enormous amounts of energy from the hot side to the cold side, via air AND water. This can both be pretty bad for life (never-ending hurricanes, flesh-peeling winds) and also could be effectively be an infinite source of freely available energy.
On the sea side, rapid currents could have massive ramifications for civilizations and trade, making travel in certain directions easy, and impossible for medieval-era ships in others. On earth the Gulf stream is a massive energy transport engine + wikipedia says the following:

A summary of Ponce de León's voyage log on April 22, 1513, noted, "A current such that, although they had great wind, they could not proceed forwards, but backwards and it seems that they were proceeding well; at the end, it was known that the current was more powerful than the wind."

Plus, if Alshajara is not connected by land, the energy gradient + the narrow straits around it would create erosion forces that would act on the order of lifetimes rather geologic timescales. Straight lines would also be eroded rather quickly. Depends on how long ago your world rift was made.

As for the map - what you need are finer features, yes. More fractalization, more noise. It's less about being good with a specific software and more about the lack of a sense of scale. For example if take your world to be earth-sized your swamps would be the size of Sahara. Dragonsbreath bay is more like the Mediterranean sea. Of course, a lot depends on what map projection you chose for your world.

There's a nice way to cultivate a sense of scale for these things.
Open 2 tabs:
Tab 1: https://earth.google.com/
Tab 2: https://www.maptoglobe.com/

Plaster your map in the second site and get the globes to take up roughly equal size on your screen. Then you can switch tabs to get a sense of scale compared to real world features, countries, continents.
And both sites have measurement tools if you wanna get fiddly.

[curious-puzzle]

exhibit the effects of a tidal lock, without being one.

That was part of the tweaking & changing - I liked some of what a tidal lock would do, but not all of it. So there is some definite handwaving going on, haha.

Initially I assumed it's all just magic and fairies. But you explicitly specify the poles are not just sources of magic or esoteric energy, but also heat, and that creates problems for you (or the poor saps living in your world).

This is part of the handwaving, in that the Throne of Light does give off heat, and the Throne of Dark does absorb it, but it's more of a secondary thing, magic/esoteric energy is a bigger part of it - I was going for a partway point between the Thrones being like positive and negative energy, but still with the world being warped by said heat.

This can both be pretty bad for life (never-ending hurricanes, flesh-peeling winds) and also could be effectively be an infinite source of freely available energy.

Those are definitely a thing, and that's a big of thing of Radiance Storms. Sailing without protective magic /magitech ends very badly, and the Storms are why the biggest concentrations of civilization are in the dwarven holds underground - it takes lots of resources and effort to maintain large structures on the surface

Plus, if Alshajara is not connected by land, the energy gradient + the narrow straits around it would create erosion forces that would act on the order of lifetimes rather geologic timescales. Straight lines would also be eroded rather quickly. Depends on how long ago your world rift was made.

Alshajara not having been eroded to nothing + the World Rift remaining an unnaturally straight line is actually deliberate - the stone & earth around there is far more resistant and enduring than it should be

As for the map - what you need are finer features, yes. More fractalization, more noise.

lack of a sense of scale.

I'll work on that, thanks!

swamps would be the size of Sahara. Dragonsbreath bay is more like the Mediterranean sea.

that's pretty close actually. The things I wanted to show on this map are the big, world-defining features. My wording isn't that accurate on these features, but I was going for simpler titles that flowed well ("emerald swamps" is a bit more evocative than "crazy huge mishmash of the Everglades and the Amazon", and using Bay instead of sea in that case was just because I liked the sound more).

One of the things I shamelessly pilfered took inspiration from for the map was Exalted's Creation, for just how silly big things were.

There's a nice way to cultivate a sense of scale for these things.
Open 2 tabs:
Tab 1: https://earth.google.com/
Tab 2: https://www.maptoglobe.com/

I'll have to give that a try, thank you.

Hopefully my pirate-style answers (well yes but actally no) aren't too frustrating!

[Picanet]

* blinks in acute lack of planetary science *

[martixy]

Hopefully my pirate-style answers (well yes but actally no) aren't too frustrating!

Nah, I'm just nerding out over something I enjoy.

[curious-puzzle]

Any interest in me posting more setting info until the game fully starts in January? Or would people prefer this remain more firmly "campaign journal" rather than "campaign journal with surprise ambush of homebrew lore everywhere" :P

[curious-puzzle]

*pretends to be someone else* "Me, I want more setting info!"

Some short little snippets about the world in the form of a gazetteer!

Spoiler: Gazetteer

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Spoiler: The Radiant Wastes

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These badlands on the northern edges of the continents are well-named. The power that spills from the Throne of Light scours the Radiant Waste without pause or warning, leaving little but ash behind. Anything strong enough to withstand the Radiance is quickly warped by its touch, mind body and soul. But buried in the dust lies the very power of creation manifested- waiting for those capable enough to seize it

Spoiler: Stormbreaker Mountains

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The elves say that the roots of the Stormbreaker Mountains are the foundation upon which the entire world is built, and that their peaks anchor the firmament above. This mountain range has endured the constant Radiance Storms pulsing forth from the Throne of Light for time immemorial, and it will remain steadfast until the end of Light itself
Notable locations: Towers of Kailashun, the Dwarven Hold Batikkale

Spoiler: Towers of Kailashun

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Home of the Elves, the Deathless, and their Risen protectors. These grand towers are marvels of engineering, stretching towards both the peaks and roots of the mountains they are built upon. But these marvels are built to pursue mysteries cosmic and arcane, with little care for physical comforts. The harsh mountainsides and storms crashing against them only exacerbate the rigorous conditions. The underground Vaults of the towers offer somewhat more gentle living conditions and a shield from the touch of Radiance. Some of the Vaults are even deep enough to connect with the great Dwarven Hold of Batikkale, far below

Spoiler: The Emerald Swamps of Tsekoral

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A lush and verdant paradise that hides dark secrets beneath the surface. Deceptively deep swamps flow into gleaming jungles, which eventually give way to rich farmlands carved out of the foliage. The dominant empire of Tsekoral lays claim to the entirety of the swamps, and their capital city of Trezora is claimed to be the greatest in the world. The tribes of Orcs forced from their ancestral homes, and spirits bound to servitude would perhaps have different opinions though.
Notable locations: Trezora (capital city), island city of Lanmevan

Spoiler: The Hungering Hollows

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Trackless jungles with canopies so thick sunlight never touches the ground, towering forests whose trunks contain entire villages, flora & fauna alike red in tooth & claw. The Hungering Hollows is nature’s endless cycle of death & life, of countless predators struggling to become the apex. The favoured hunting grounds of the Erlking and his Wyld Hunt, this untamed wilderness could swallow entire nations. The tribes and peoples that manage to thrive in such a place are supreme survivors, for every day is a battle against death.

Spoiler: The Penumbral Tundra

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Blanketed by snow and Darkness alike, the Penumbral Tundra is rich in few things, other than longing. Life on the icy wastes is short, harsh, and hungry - and sometimes death is no different.

Spoiler: Fallen Alshajara

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The island kingdom at the center of the world, Alshajara was the seat of undisputed power. An empire spread to every corner, their magitech harnessed the power of both Light and Dark energy to their will, and the gods of triumphant humanity watched over them with pride and love. Then the Day of Three Sorrows destroyed Alshajara and its gods, scattering humanity to the wind. Even 300 years after such devastation though, the allure of lost magitech still calls many to delve into the ruined remains of the empire.
Notable locations: numerous ruins, fallen Dwarven Hold of Baslankale, many Spirit Gates

Spoiler: The Beggar Kingdoms

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The provinces and kingdoms most closely tied to Alshajara may not have been destroyed as it was on the Day of Three Sorrows, but they were struck a fatal blow nonetheless. Without the wealth, power, and magitech flowing forth from Alshajara, the kingdoms quickly devolved into insular and squabbling city-states. As kingdoms and cities weakened and collapsed, their corpses were set upon and scavenged by the survivors. Over three hundred years, scarce few places were remembered by their original names, let alone matched their former glory. The region is now colloquially referred to as the Beggar Kingdoms
Notable Locations: Flotsam, The Gulf of Promises, The Styes, fallen Dwarven Hold of Cicekkale

Spoiler: The Silken Steppes

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Vast flowing grasslands and broad plateaus, the Silken Steppes are a place of rare calm. That does not mean they are entirely safe, however. To be caught in a Radiance storm while traveling might mean you are miles from any sort of shelter. Villages on the coastline face raids from the vicious Children of the Wake, and earthquakes occasionally open caverns to things best left forgotten underground

Spoiler: The Wyrmspine

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The volatile Wyrmspine mountains coil around the southeast, blocking off land travel towards the Riven Isles (or perhaps protecting everyone else from them). Highly volcanic and unstable, fire and smoke from them can be seen from nearly all of the Silken Steppes. It is unclear whether they were named for their shape, or for the fact that dragons are known to lurk among the peaks and caverns

Spoiler: The Riven Isles

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A chain of numerous islands off the southeast, the Riven Isles are as cold and unforgiving as their inhabitants. The mysterious Children of the Wake claim these lands, setting out on the Shrouded Sea to raid and pillage any they come across. Using the strange magic of their Old Dead Gods, their ships sail through shadowed paths to raid any coast regardless of distance. The giants and beasts may offer a kinder welcome to strangers than the Children will

Spoiler: Newforge

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So far south as to be nearly parallel with the Throne of Dark itself, the surface of Newforge is incredibly lethal. Heart-stoppingly cold and perpetually enveloped in Darkness, it is only deep below that life endures. A new Grand Creation Forge, the second to ever be discovered. If it is unlocked and activated, it could change the course of history

Spoiler: Thrones of the World

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The Throne of Light:The North Pole, the seat from which the Light of pure creation and life pours forth. The power and heat has turned the land into pools of plasma, gleaming crystal and unceasing Radiance. This is not a place where mortal flesh may walk

The Throne of Dark:The South Pole, the heart of absolute Darkness. As one approaches the center, all things cease; sound, heat, movement, life, Light. Any intrusion into this void holds countless dangers

Spoiler: The Seas

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The Gilded Sea:The waters of this warm sea often gleam gold like their namesake from the redirected Radiance splashing off the Stombreaker mountains, full of light and life
The Scorched Sea: Few things live in these near-boiling waters, which only become hotter the closer you venture to the Throne of Light
The Glass Sea: Turbulent and storm-wracked, the Glass Sea is mercurial and jagged to traverse
The World Rift: The unnaturally precise gouge through nearly the entirety of Dammerung, leaving only the island nation of Alshajara behind. The Rift is incredibly deep, and extends down even into the Underground, a miles deep drop into an underground sea
The Dreaming Sea: Strange songs and bizarre visions emanate from the waters of the Dreaming Sea. The coasts touched by its waters are ill-omened and feared
The Gloaming Sea: Waves and tides settle and still as you travel further south across this icy sea, until jet-black icebergs loom overhead silently and without warning
The Shrouded Sea: Mist and fog obscures what little of this sea that is not already draped in eternal twilight. Only the most experienced sailors can navigate their way to safety

Spoiler: The Underground

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An entire world awaits below the surface. An endless and often-changing network of caverns, tunnels, canyons, and even seas. While protected from the ravages of Radiance storms, the hordes of restless Undead are an ever-present danger underground. The fortress-like citystates of the Dwarven Holds are the few bastions of safety for the living, and they are assaulted constantly
Notable locations: Dwarven Hold of Batikkale (beneath the Stormbreaker mountains, connected to the elven Towers of Kailashun), Dwarven Hold of Fallen Baslankale (beneath Alshajara, contains the 1st Great Creation Forge), Cursed Cicekkale, the Undersea

[curious-puzzle]

We've played another two sessions, now! Why wasn't the write-up for the previous session done a couple weeks ago? supreme procrastination It's a mystery.

Spoiler: Elsewhere

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The party steps out of the Spirit Gate to emerge into another dark room, but a natural darkness rather than the too-sharp separation of light&dark of the Spirit world. Someone produces a light, revealing a stone chamber. There are hints of worked stone, but they're mostly buried under dust and rubble - the wall in front of the Gate is completely collapsed. The other side of the chamber is more promising though: small pinholes of sunlight shine through the dirt and debris. Wren goes to take a swipe at the rocks, but pulls back just in time-noticing the rubble is loosely packed enough that she could have brought it down on herself.

Sophia is pulling a crowbar forth from her bag of tools just as Elianna winds up and plows straight through the accumulated rock & dirt! Luckily she was on-target and smashes the buried opening clear (rather than the solid stone on each side). Unluckily, all of the mercenary's existing injuries don't appreciate being part of a human battering ram. But there's sunlight, and grass! And trees...and a forest that is completely different from any of the jungle/wetlands surrounding Trezora. It's nice out, and there's a distinct lack of soul-snatching fiends, so the party takes it as a win. Tumbling out of the cavern, everyone gazes at the tall beech trees and thick bushes all around. Now that it's been smashed open, the entrance to the Gate chamber is obviously worked stone, but there is no sign of civilization other than that. No-one makes a high enough check to to recognize where they are from the surrounding flora, other than somewhere on the Eastern continent (so easily halfway across the world).

The gang takes a bit to catch their breath; Kalis and Wren take a stroll to gather some food and water, Sophia starts feverishly taking notes about her new surroundings, and Elianna just kind of flops over on the ground to try and sleep off her injured everything. Said flop snaps Sophia out of her research-fugue, and she carefully treats & bandages Elianna into much better health (go Healer feat!). Elianna is quite pleasantly surprised how not-creepy it feels; she's received magical healing quite a few times, and it always made her uncomfortable, regardless of the god the healer served. After salves have been applied and ribs wrapped, Elliana stretches back out and Sophia goes back to sketching out the new & unfamiliar forest.

I was expecting the party to have some rations + scrounge up some food here and there, but hunger would be a danger lurking over their shoulders (seeing as the only "woodsy" PC is out of her element too). Instead, a combination of the Wanderer feature from Kalis' background and Wren's smoking Survival check means they nearly effortlessly gather nearly a week's worth of food. The "blind" tiefling fearlessly strides through the woods and gathers fresh water, berries, and some hearty roots/veggies, while Wren quickly snatches up some rabbits. After an hour or two, Kalis & Wren return to Sophia & Elianna, arms full of supplies. Sophia busts out a cooking pot from her All-purpose tool, and puts the Chef feat to good work!

While Sophia is cooking up a much nicer meal than anyone expected, Kalis has Nyus (her sprite familiar) fly up and get a better view of their surroundings. Sharing his vision, Kalis gazes down on a whole lot of untracked wilderness. There is however what looks like a river to the Southeast, and a notably larger hill with a lighter-colored shape on top of it to the Southwest. Both are easily a day's travel away from the looks of it, so there'll have to be a a decision on which way to go first. Since this is the first time the rest of the party has actually seen Nyus, Kalis chides him into actually introducing himself and speaking with everyone. With a bit of a huff, the six-winged sprite grudgingly does so, politely nodding to Elianna before squinting suspiciously at Sophia and scowling at Wren (Sprites are somewhat judgmental sorts). No-one is feeling up to immediately blazing a trail through the wilderness, so the remainder of the late afternoon/evening passes quietly. Wren is rather fascinated by Sophia's notebook and her sketches, perching over her shoulder and asking if Sophia can draw her too - that starts a whole ramble and demonstration of Sophia's compilation regarding kobolds and related sorts. Elianna keeps sneaking glances at Kalis and Nyus, unsure what to think of her or her magic. Kalis? Well, she's got a really good poker face, and a slightly unfair advantage to unobtrusively people-watch and observe the rest of the party. The evening passes uneventfully, but it starts raining just a couple hours before dawn. It quickly builds into a full on storm, the rain coming down in heavy sheets while lightning lights up the clouds.

Spoiler: Onwards

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The party spends breakfast and morning preparations huddled back in the Gate chamber (the Spirit Gate still flickering inconsistently). Even with the storm pounding down so heavily, the party decides to head due south, between the river and large hill they spotted yesterday (with the plan of cutting towards one of those options if they don't encounter anything else). Sophia makes for a rather different sight once fully geared up, mainly due to the plague doctor mask. Wren sneaks her way mostly into Elianna's backpack, with her mushroom hatboon companion serving as an impromptu umbrella. Kalis and Elianna just pull hoods up, and it's forward march time!

The party can only see 15-20 feet in front of them thanks to the rain, and the morning quickly turns into a slog. They manage to stay on course travelling south, but they can't really tell much more than that. The rain and wind is too rough for Nyus to get above the trees, not to mention the thunderstorm booming above the rainfall multiple times a minute. Speaking of that-I unfortunately don't roll "poorly" enough for anyone to be struck by lightning :(

I do however roll a fun result on my forest encounter list, so Wren notices something with the next flash of lightning; several BIG gouges across the trunk of a nearby tree. Taking a closer look, they're definitely claw marks, probably from a bear (or bear-like creature).

Spoiler: GM note

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Soon as I said that, there may or may not have been a quick chant of "owlbear owlbear"

Kalis has Nyus carefully scout ahead (staying right near the ground), and a little while later he comes back with good and bad news.
Good news? There's some shelter that should fit everyone not too far away
Bad news? It's the den of whatever left those clawmarks on the tree.

Even with the size of said claw marks, there's only a brief debate before the party decides to track down and confront the creature - the driving force behind the decision though is Wren's desire to consume the flesh of bear and/or owlbear, and everyone pretty much goes along. It doesn't take too much longer before they're creeping around a large knoll, and the stench of musky fur and feathers is noticeable even over the rain. The party isn't quite sneaky enough to get a surprise round in though, and with a shrieking growl, the bus-sized Gigantic Owlbear bursts out of its den!

Oh my!

This Owlbear doesn't have fancy tactics, but it does muscles, claws, and a mean disposition. It surges forward and tears chunks out of Elianna, but she stays standing (if a little alarmed by how hard the swipes are). She focuses her own rage and chops right back! Elianna is between the owlbear and the rest of the party, but it can still reach them. Not risking an errant mauling, Sophia pumps healing magic into Elianna, it manifesting as an injection of numbing anesthetic. Kalis has Nyus attempt a poisoned shortbow shot, but shockingly the bus-sized beastie shrugs it off. Wren lashes out with her spores, digging into the thick mass of fur and feathers.

The quickly devolves into a slugfest, the owlbear just ripping into Elianna and her chopping back, and the trio of Sophia, Wren, and Kalis alternating between trying to heal Elianna and blasting the owlbear. Acid splashes, Toll the Dead and eldritch blasts shoot forth, some glancing off and some landing solidly. Wren manages to blind the monster briefly, which lets the non-barbarians of the group get out of claw-reach..but when you're a 14 ft tall several thousand pound ragebeast, you can just swing blindly and you'll probably still hit something. Sophia shoots a sickly green ray of enfeeblement out as the owlbear regains its eyesight, and that definitely keeps Elianna in the fight longer. But even with healing magic and supernatural toughness, the owlbear finally catches Elianna in the ribs and sends her smashing to the ground. The screeching predator (who would have more than likely fled if it wasn't fighting at its den) is looking quite wounded, but it lumbers forward menacingly still. Wren, Kalis, and Sophia keep blasting away, and the owlbear rips into Kalis!

Who promptly counters with a Hellish Rebuke, actinic light blazing and searing the owlbear with brutal force. It staggers back, and a final assault finally brings the giant beast down.

And that was where session 2 ended

Halfway caught up now, sorry for taking so long. Should have the next session written up over the next several days, then by the next time we play maybe I'll be not quite as rusty.

[Picanet]

Owl Bear! Owl Bear!

[curious-puzzle]

Next session!

Spoiler: Burrow & Rain

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Sophia & Kalis peel Elianna off the forest floor, a whiff of smelling salts ending her bearclaw-induced nap. It's roughly late afternoon now, but everyone is pretty tapped from the battle with the owlbear, and the thunderstorm shows no signs of relenting, so the gang trundles into the now open burrow. There's room for everyone and a small fire, so there might even be a chance to dry off.

Wren's predator instincts are running hot, but she is unfortunately unable to single-handedly drag her vanquished prey out of the rain. A couple test chomps fail to get past the thick fur & feathers, so the kobold reluctantly leaves the owlbear in the rain...for now. Once she scuttles into the burrow, Sophia pauses her dinner preparations and holds a notebook out - opened to a sketch of a kobold. Wren carefully takes the notebook and spends the rest of the night fascinated by the drawings (and possibly falls asleep around the book).

Elianna is again 6+ feet of "ow everything hurts" (hey, gotta get your money's worth out of those hit points), and as she slumps against the dirt wall, she quietly channels her inner Light to try and heal a little. She's practiced over the last few months and can consciously call it forth now; but she doesn't want to do it in front of people since everyone got all "weird" about it before. Sophia and Wren don't notice...but Kalis' attention immediately snaps over to Elianna's hands. She doesn't say anything, just smiling a little and tapping her nose twice all "it's a secret" style. The storm continues, but it's actually rather cozy out of the rain, and the night passes uneventfully.

The storm finally breaks a couple hours before dawn, and steam is rising from the forest floor as the party starts the day. Their most important task yet lays before them.

Owlbear meat!

It's a slightly more involved process than a couple rabbits, so I call for some survival checks. Rolling quite well, they end up with a sizable haunch of owlbear meat (that's about the largest amount they could feasibly take with them without it going bad), the heart (Kalis' arm is rather gruesome-looking after retrieving that, all the claws, and most of the beak. Most because Sophia tries to fluster Elianna as she's removing it by mentioning how it it's sold as an aphrodisiac.

After a productive morning, Nyus flies up and scouts again. Flitting back down, he confirms that the hill to the west definitely has a structure of some sort, and there was some movement around it too. This seems like a better choice to investigate over the river to the east, so westward the gang journeys!

Partway through the afternoon, the party comes across their first sign of civilization since their crash-landing; a foot-worn dirt trail travelling north-south. It's no polished roadway, but even this small thing relieves some pressure. Everyone follows the trail north, and they definitely don't trigger an alarm spell they had no means of expecting... An hour or so later, Wren's sharp eyes notice a rustle up ahead just before a man with a crossbow stands up. He's a little scruffy and dressed in simple loose clothes, and the crossbow is loaded - but not pointed directly at anyone.

"Well, wasn't expecting anyone in these parts. Whatcha doing out here?"

Wren puffs up a little threateningly, but Elianna & Kalis explain that they're actually lost.

"What, you wander out from Flotsam or something?" Elianna's head tilts with more than a little disbelief. What do you mean, Flotsam?

The crossbowman nods and explains that they're a few days north of Flotsam, the closest town.

Somehow Elianna aggressively wandered for half a year, using Spirit Gates to travel to nearly the other side of the world...and end up right back where she was trying to leave. As that little tidbit processes, Sophia & Kalis mention the Spirit Gate they had stumbled through. Some Insight & Perception checks are made, and the man lowers his crossbow before suggesting the party comes with him back to the monastery. They agree, but what monastery?

Spoiler: Monastery of the Unseen Paths

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It's not too much further before the man (who introduces himself as Weasel - Wren mocks his name, but he casually counters with the fact she's named after a bird) leads them through some simple and sturdy gates. Inside is what seems to be a tiny commune built around a broad hill. Several rough structures surround the hill, on top of the hill is a more polished stone building, and a large flat platform covers most of the ground in front of the hill. There's around a dozen other people on the platform, all dressed in similar clothes and going through exercises of some sort. Two of the group peel off and intercept the party, dismissing Weasel as they do. One is an older human man, heavily muscled and scarred tanned skin. The other is someone completely covered in armor - but at a second look is a Forged, mostly silver metal and blueish-white ceramic plating with sharp edges. The Forged is the first to speak up.

"Welcome to the Monastery of Unseen Paths, guests. We are the masters of this place. I am Apricity Fading, and this is Kristoff of the three eyes. What brings you here?"

The gang lays out the misadventures leading up to their arrival, and after a bit of discussion the masters offer to let the party shelter at the monastery until the next trip to Flotsam (which will be in a few days) in exchange for working around the monastery. The party gains more points by offering to share the owlbear haunch & heart with everyone, and Sophia & Kalis trundle off to the kitchens along with several students to prep said meat. Once the haunch and heart are slowly cooking away, they help bring back already prepared food for the students & their new guests.

Things spread out into more relaxed discussions over shared food. The topic of exactly what the monastery is focused on comes up, which is answered simply with "the accumulation and understanding of knowledge." It seems each master has a different viewpoint, and Apricity cheerfully springs a question on all the party members:

"What is more important, knowledge of oneself, or ones surroundings?" Apricity teaches that you must know and understand your own mind, body and soul in order to achieve your goals. Once such true understanding is gained, you can even manifest the force of your soul to manipulate the physical world itself; the Emergent Soul style (Astral self subclass). Kristoff teaches that the acquisition of knowledge is paramount. By accumulating enough knowledge of past, you can understand the flow of the present. And by using knowledge of the past & present, you can determine the future; the Inquisitive Demon style (Cobalt soul subclass & Divination school of magic). Elianna and Kalis lean towards Apricity's answer, while Sophia and Wren seem more inclined to Kristoff's.

Spoiler: GM note

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And I really hope I didn't mis-remember and mix that up. If I did, I'll definitely edit things and bury evidence of my error own up to it

As the topic of wizardry comes up, Sophia hones in on the fact that the monastery has a library of decent size. Just staying on the side of polite, she almost-demands to know how many books it has, how long it would take to read them all, and what payment would be required in order to do so. Kristoff barters back and forth with her, and they end up agreeing on 5 days of study in the library (for any of the party who wishes to do so) in exchange for information about the Spirit Gate they used, along with its location. Sophia's already standing and waiting for Kristoff to lead her to said library as soon as they agree, and the game breaks into a few days of downtime.

Spoiler: Kalis and Sophia

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Kalis isn't sure about Kristoff. He definitely gives off some slightly suspicious vibes, particularly in the fact that he can see Nyus (and closed a door in his face when he scouting the monastery out on the first evening). When asked about it though, Kristoff mildly replied that he didn't know who Nyus was, and hadn't invited him inside. After that, Kristoff greets Nyus properly, and leaves it at that. The arcanist-monk also seems quite unsurprised at Kalis' interest in the library, despite, you know, *waves at lack of eyes*. The library does have a couple braille (I haven't come up with an in-world name for braille, so we'll leave it at that) texts, but he doesn't say anything about Kalis grabbing far more books than that over the week. Kristoff also politely grills her about magic a few times, sounding out her interest in the wizardly arts from what she can tell.

Sophia spends every waking moment of the 5 days absolutely devouring every text that she can. Particularly focused on anything related to medicine & disease, she has a couple notable successes there. There's a relatively recent journal that mentions dwarven miners from Cicekkale (the dwarven Hold deep underground, normally accessed from the town of Flotsam) having outbreaks of Stone Sickness - an affliction that causes fits & seizures that can build into paralysis, but seems to fade with enough time away from the mines. It sounds to Sophia like something caused by maybe a parasite, or spores of some sort...it would require hands-on research however (hey look, a reason to travel underground). Sophia also finds an alchemical recipe for Blacksap, a fluid made from local river-plants & flowers. It can be a rough anesthetic...or if concentrated a bit, a knockout poison when ingested.

Spoiler: GM note

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I think the Alchemist subclass needs more "alchemy" tricks, so there will be a variety of substances that Sophia will be able to find recipes or / come up with using SCIENCE.
Plus that way I have an excuse to slide more Iron Kingdoms stuff into the world

Spoiler: Wren & Elianna

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Elianna is a little hesitant at first about staying at the monastery, and comes off a little shifty to the rest of the party. The topic of her nightmares is an old & sore one, so it gets danced around, but she mostly agrees to hang around for now. Pleasantly, it's some of the most peaceful sleep Elianna has had in a while. The appeal of not being sleep-deprived means she doesn't question the circumstances too much, and ends up practicing alongside the students for something to do. The two martial styles contrast each other - Emergent Soul is sweeping and aggressive, with heavy kicks and punches (that strangely seem like they don't follow through to Elianna). Apricity demonstrates a more advanced technique one day, calling forth part of her astral self. An intricate lattice of glowing crystals and lines of light weave together into jagged limbs that stretch much further than the Forged's physical ones, and the lack of followthrough suddenly makes more sense.

The Inquisitive Demon style is in comparison much more direct. Short snapping jabs and thrusting kicks to joints and soft targets, quick counters to push opponents off balance, and several of these students also mix arcane gestures into their attacks. It's light sparring, so there are no flame bursts directly into faces.

Wren seems pretty content to just rest, observe everyone around her, and maybe get a little into other's business when she can. Most of the students are relatively friendly, all eight of them.

Spoiler: The Emergent soul students

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Amala, a quiet and rather standoffish elven woman, emphatically not friendly
Toros Fizek, a dwarven man, who has a completely hairless head that's normally set in a scowl (resting bitch face is a terrible affliction)
Weasel, the scruffy human man who first met the party, quite cheerful
Murat Teshk, a dwarven teenage boy, quite vain about his beard

Spoiler: The Inquisitive Demon students

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Safiye, a bubbly dwarven woman, quite nosy, arcanist and monk
Quell, a half-orc man, quickly pointed out as the mother hen of the group
Fatirah Seatouched, a human woman with silvery hair despite her youth, a little hot-headed
Claude, a tiefling man, the other arcanist-monk studying, blatantly avoids questions about himself

Weasel and Safiye in particular are quite friendly with Wren, encouraging her to try some of the martial exercises and stretches as well. Amala, however, is cold to the point of outright hostility towards the kobold. After the elven student seems to almost take a kick at Wren, Weasel or Quell "coincidentally" are always around when Amala & Wren are near one another. Nothing more comes of it other than fierce glares, though.

The few days of study & rest pass quickly, and we end the session as the five days end.

There, caught up just in time for next game tomorrow.

[curious-puzzle]

Spoiler: Finishing up at the monastery

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Everyone is feeling quite recharged and well-rested by the end of the five-day stay at the monastery. Well, Elianna hasn't slept so well in months, Wren and Kalis also are quite relaxed. Sophia...

In her battle to read the ENTIRE library, Sophia had decided that sleep was an acceptable casualty, with full meals also being collateral damage. She makes her saves to avoid actual levels of exhaustion, but may or may not have passed out on a library bench unless physically guided elsewhere to catch the bare minimum of sleep once or twice during the 5 days.

The evening of the fifth day, Kristoff sits down with the party to finish off the bargain of library time for details on the Spirit Gate they pinballed through "discovered." He offers that they can either lead him to it, or if they'd rather not backtrack, describe it in as great as detail as possible + allow him to read one of their minds. No-one particularly wants to go back to the Gate, and Wren immediately volunteers her mind to be read, with no ulterior motive what. so. ever. She does her utmost to empty her mind, and then produce a mental jumpscare for Kristoff - unfortunately it doesn't get much of a reaction. Kristoff says his farewells (since he's planning on leaving early the next morning for the Gate) and invites the party to visit the monastery again if they're ever in search of introspection & education. Seems they've made a positive impression, at least. That night, though, Elianna and Kalis don't sleep very well...

Spoiler: Elianna

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Elianna doesn't have a particular dream or nightmare that she recalls, but she tosses and turns the whole night. Waking before dawn, she's struck with the lovely combination of a prickling itch between her shoulder blades (like someone's staring really hard) and the sensation that there's something important she should remember.

Spoiler: Kalis

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Kalis dreams of home, of when her parents let her go to the Street of the Gods by herself for the "first" time (first time not sneaking out at least). She wasn't able to see normally then however, and she's fairly certain her mother wasn't formed of blazing light either. Her mother radiates fondness as she speaks.

"Kalis, my dear, you're doing so well. Going out into the world on your own, it's such an important first step. I'm proud of you." This isn't what her mother had said back then, she had fussed and been worried about Kalis. "But as you venture forth, are you sure you aren't forgetting something?"

Kalis wakes up to that terrible nagging feeling that she's missing something

Elianna creeps out of the cabin before dawn, knowing she isn't going to get back to sleep from experience. Wandering about, she notices Kristoff working through exercises and moseys over to see why he's up so early. Since he's just exercising before traveling to the Gate, the conversation quickly turns to why Elianna is awake. She's pretty good at being evasive regarding her dreams, but Kristoff seems more insightful than he should be. Kalis ghosts up behind Elianna to join them, taking up the topic of dreams as well. Asking Kristoff what he knows about interpreting dreams, especially ones with an oracular nature, makes his brow furrow. The mage-monk is a little perturbed by what Kalis mentions (and Elianna pointedly doesn't), and offers to make tea. Coming back with a heavy pot and a tightly wrapped scroll (of Divination), Kristoff quickly brews up some tea and offers a cup to Kalis as he spreads the scroll out in between them. "Once you've finished the tea, spread the leaves on the paper, and focus on what you wish to learn."

A martial arcanist Kristoff may be, but he makes a lousy cup of tea. Kalis powers through and shakes the leaves out to activate the spell. After a little bit of debate on exactly what to ask, she keeps it simple and asks "what was my dream meant to tell me?" The wet leaves glow faintly and dry on the scroll, curling and twisting to form words.

Doors passed through remain open. Beware of the Past bearing grudges

From the dream and that message, it seems there's a good chance someone or something unfriendly has found the same Spirit Gate the party did. With this revelation, Kristoff asks a favour of Elianna and Kalis.

"My students are not ready to face fiends such as you described, but I would not have both myself and Apricity leave the monastery at the same time. Might I ask you and your companions to come with me, to face whatever might have come through the Gate?" Kalis agrees right away, Elianna is a little hesitant remembering how little her sword seemed to harm the Mezzoloths, but agrees after Kristoff mentions that they should be able to figure something out about that. A plan is made to leave mid-morning, then it's off to convince the other PCs! Wren is a pretty easy sell, setting a piece of food in front of her snout until she snuffles awake, then just a "hey, we're going to help Kristoff check out the Spirit Gate. Coming?" Sophia takes a little more. Still in the library and quasi-awake, she hasn't managed to read the entire library yet, but a big chunk was completed. After Kristoff's request is laid out, Sophia bargains with him. First she sets out a dozen or so texts that she hasn't gotten to and suggests that she take them with her in exchange for coming to the gate. Kristoff firmly rejects that option, but offers another week of study in the library (and a sly offer of further study by joining the monastery). The additional week is agreed on and put in writing, then Sophia has a couple hours to wake up and brew some goodies up.

Once she's alone, Kalis asks Nyus for his thoughts on Kristoff's intentions and the reading/divination about her dream. The dour sprite is still a little frowny that he can't read Kristoff's heart, but his request and interpretation of the dream seems genuine. This does however press on an old sore spot; Nyus has been Kalis' close companion for as long as she's had her powers, but he has never explained who/where they came from, or where he came from for that matter. A comment regarding how the dream's message was a little confusing produces a pulse of guilt from Nyus.

"You know I've never pushed or blamed you about explaining my gifts or their origin, Nyus." There's only another flare of guilt from Nyus at that, and he disappears until it's time to leave for the Gate.

Spoiler: Backtracking?

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Once preparations are made, Kristoff and the gang set a hard pace directly northeast through the forest. They don't run into any more owlbears or preternatural weather, so it's mid-afternoon when they stop a short distance from the cavern containing the Gate (that Wanderer background feature putting in work to recognize surroundings). Kalis sends Nyus ahead to stealthily scout, gazing through his eyes. He zips through the canopy, and spots 5 small humanoid creatures wandering about the cavern entrance. They are spectacularly hideous, with rubbery flesh, emaciated limbs & claws, a distended belly, and squashed-up faces (Kalis doesn't make her check to recognize them).

Spoiler: Said ugly creatures

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After a moment though, a more recognizable figure steps out of the cave, a man-sized insectoid terror wielding a trident. It's a mezzoloth for certain, and just to dispel any lingering doubts, it is notably burnt. Nearly half its chitin is blackened and scorched, as if it was exposed to some source of extreme heat & energy...like a bolt of lightning or something like. The compound eyes of the mezzoloth seem much more observant, and even invisible Nyus ducks behind some leaves just in time. The fiend stomps up and kicks one of the other creatures over, making it squeal piteously as it torments it for a little. After a moment of casual abuse, the bug-monster barks something in an unpleasant tongue before skittering back into the cave. Nyus retreats to the party, and it's tactics time!

They don't know for certain what else is in the cave beyond the mezzoloth (with burns like that, it's definitely one of the ones that the party had encountered prior), but there's not much to be done other than trying to creep up quietly and get the drop on the creatures outside the cave. Strike first, hard, and run away if a dragon pops out *nod*. Elianna brings up the supernatural toughness of the mezzoloth again, and Kristoff twists his hands through strange patterns before murmuring and touching Elianna's blade. It glows faintly and gains a bluish sheen (Magic Weapon). With that, the party moves out, slowing to a sneaky crawl once close. I call for stealth checks, and Elianna rolls hot, the rest of the party's rolls get progressively worse. The comedy of bad rolls plays out as Sophia stepping on a branch, Wren going "SSSHHH" far too loudly, and when someone turns to stare at Wren for being so loud, they bump into Kalis, which causes her Bell-branch staff to jangle. Ambush = unsuccessful. With grunts and squawks of surprise, it's initiative!

Elianna pounces forward and cuts into the dretch that had already been beaten up (face twisting at how terrible they smell), and cleaves through it hip to shoulder in a burning arc! Kristoff moves up and readies a spell, gaze fixed on the cavern entrance (I see his magic as very Dr. Strange movie-esque, so runes and glowing patterns circling his hands/wrists). Wren moves forward and calls up her Spore Halo, scouring one of the dretches as it charges & flails at Elianna. Sophia acid splashes several dretches, and acrid burning flesh makes their stench somehow worse. The mezzoloth emerges from the cavern! And triggers Kristoff's readied action - he winds up and hurls a javelin of crackling multi-hued lightning forward. The Psychic Lance zips around Elianna & the dretches to slam right between the mezzoloth's eyes, and it reels from badly failing the save. The second mezzoloth stepping out of the cavern, though, is not struck by any such magic, and with a clatter of mandibles spews forth a Cloudkill. The burning green gas engulfs the whole party and deals solid damage.

Spoiler: GM note

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My 3.5 instincts applied the damage early, whoops!

Kalis retaliates with a Hellish rebuke, but it doesn't scorch the mezzoloth as much as it should have. Everyone scrambles out of the magical chlorine gas as best they can, Elianna slashing at another dretch while it paws at her. Wren pulls out a new trick, awakening her symbiotic spores to grow around her as a fungal sheath of armor (and making her look like a little draconic myconid, which I really liked). The dretches have multiple attacks, but they can't hit the broad side of a barn, and in pretty short order die gruesome deaths - cut down by a scorching sword, dissolved by acid, devoured by aggressively growing fungal infections, etc. The two mezzoloth are more resilient however, Sophia discovering that they completely ignore her Acid splashes, and much more skilled with their claws and tridents. Elianna's blade is cutting much more deeply this time though - at least until a particularly vicious stab breaks Kristoff's concentration. Elianna can feel that sensation of building pressure & fury as the unnatural creatures spill her allies' blood, and it bursts forth eagerly to scorch the air with her Radiant Consumption. One of the mezzoloth glares at Kalis, and again that dry horrible chitin-dragging voice scrapes through her mind. "Little Light...eat you." In response Kalis hurls an Eldritch Blast - and Kristoff uses a Portent to ensure a critical hit. He subtly bumps the mezzoloth at just the right moment to make sure the bolt of blazing light hits the bug-fiend right in the face! The other mezzoloth doesn't like that, and rips into Kristoff. He's pretty hurt, and busts out his final Big Spell^TM. Pulling a set of carved prayer beads from his vest, he palm strikes one of the mezzoloths so hard it goes flying to another dimension (Banishment). This gives the party time to focus on the remaining Mezzoloth; it was the one that had been Lanced and crit-Eldritch-blasted, so even with its resistances it goes down from everyone gang-beating it.

Kristoff's hands shake around the smoking prayer beads, and he shouts that the creature is forcing its way back! Except the players (properly) point out that if nothing breaks Kristoff's concentration, the spell will complete smoothly. Elianna steps back so her aura doesn't burn Kristoff, and my devious ploy to have the mezzoloth reappear just cause it'd be dramatic is thwarted the banishment concludes. The prayer beads burn up one after another, and as the final one goes poof, Kristoff relaxes. Everyone is pretty banged up, but Elianna in fact did not take a dirt nap this fight, new achievement!

Kristoff, Sophia, and Elianna head into the cavern, and the Gate is pretty much unchanged. Still the same colour, still flickering erratically, the only difference is it smells like burnt chitin, and there some scrapes & gouges around the Gate. While the party treats wounds, Kristoff carefully shakes an elaborate circle of powdered silver around the gate, focusing and chanting softly to solidify the powder and set it into place (a fluffed up ritual of a low-grade but longer lasting Magic Circle). This ritual won't keep the Gate completely closed, but he's confident it'll keep most things out for at least a few days, long enough for Kristoff to come back with some allies to properly ward it. There isn't really any reason to linger, so the party buckles down and force-marches back to the monastery to arrive late in the night.

Aiding the monastery and defeating the fiends is enough of a milestone that the party dings to level 5!

There was a really cool conversation between Kalis and Elianna about her lineage and the boatload of issues she's anchored to it, but I think it'd fit better with the next entry. Ooorrr I might con the players into transcribing it into a min-entry, eh, eh? *pointed stare outwards at players*

Spoiler: GM thoughts

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-I think the fight had a decent amount of tension, in hindsight should have used the dretch's stench ability more.
-I think I hit a decent balance with Kristoff as an NPC ally - he's more powerful than the PCs, but not to the point of trivializing them. Those 2 4th lvl spells are the peak of what he's capable of, and if they hadn't went along to help him, it would have come down to a dice roll whether he was severely injured and managed to retreat, or was surprised and killed by the mezzoloths. Either result would have definitely soured relations with the monastery
-I'm not sure if I was too blatant with the dreams & divination. One of the things with Celestials/angels in this setting is they follow a very different set of rules than other beings, and they especially have a really hard time relating to and communicating with mortals. Even for those that they have a connection to, like through lineage or pact of some sort, their messages swing between the extremes of "super cryptic" and "eye melting proclamations of a crusade." Still trying to find that balance of displaying that while they're creatures of Good, they are a little alien to mortals.
-thoughts on the writing/pace of the journal? Want to keep it detailed enough to be entertaining, but not an exhaustive transcript of every moment

[Picanet]

Spoiler: Elianna and Kalis: How the Light Touches

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Elianna is quiet on the way back; glad there aren't questions about her turning into a burning beacon of light. It's not the first time it's happened, but it seems to becoming more frequent. The light burns first from every scar before breaking free and concentrating around her blade and the target of her keenly focused rage. It's hard to say it's just a radiance mutation, random and serendipitous, when every thought becomes instinct and -

Kristoff asks again if she's aware of her heritage and Elianna, who already rolled her eyes at tea leaves and prophetic dreams, snaps at him. It's a mutation. Nothing more.

But then Sophia remarks that it's unlike any mutation she's ever seen, read about, or could even theorize based on her years of medical studies. It's happening again. People that are too ... knowing - telling her things that make sense and scare her in other ways.

Quickly picking up Elianna's stonewall on the subject, Kristoff and Sophia back off. Something something don't piss off the very tall mercenary woman. They leave to tend to their own matters and interests.

It's Kalis who finally catches the edge of Elianna's mask of denial and lifts at its edges. The strange tiefling embraced The Light a long time ago, and while she doesn't understand 'why' she gets certain urges to wander or follow people, it hasn't steered her wrong. Elianna burns brighter than anyone she has ever 'seen' before. Elianna scoffs, recalling their several very near misses with death in the past few days alone. Additionally, the light is not kind to her like it seems to be for Kalis - and while Kalis does gently tilt her head to remind Eliana that she has no eyes because of the 'touch of Light,' Elianna places her radiance-burned hands into Kalis'; still radiating heat like a bad sun burn. Elianna is truly glad that Kalis has Nylus, and guiding dreams, and comfort in her faith and The Light. But Elianna only had a radiance-addled mad-woman and nightmares.

"It's a radiance mutation, because if it's something else... that's dangerous."

It's not an admittance in the traditional sense, but it's the closest Elianna has come to acknowledging that the burning light inside her is more than the result of growing up in a **** town with poor shields and frequent radiance storms.

Kalis is patient though, and offers to be there to talk when Elianna is ready. Silently, she wonders if The Light burns Elianna because the young woman refuses to embrace it, but she hadn't expected to get even this far into the conversation. The subject is left in limbo, and Elianna leaves wondering why she talked about it with Kalis at all.

Her dreams that night are similar to one she had back in Flotsam a year ago. A black obsidian mountain of a wall, and a growing crack of light where her hand rests upon it. The light and heat aren't what bother Elianna though; it's the overwhelming sense of unmitigated righteousness that emanates from the expanding crack.

She shouldn't have said anything...

[curious-puzzle]

TwoThree journal entries in one to catch up! Sorry for the delays, I need to just get these out rather than obsessing, stalling and restarting repeatedly, whoops. We were missing Kalis' player for one session, then Wren's for the other; but both were just in 'silent follow mode', just either off being cryptic and mystical (in Kalis' case) or lurking in a backpack (Wren).

Spoiler: Second crack at the Library

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The next morning Sophia throws herself back into the library, stopping just shy of chewing the books to cram their knowledge in her brain. Her companions try and make sure there's at least some sleep and food mixed in there, but it's crunch time. Sophia is joined by Elianna and Wren for a couple afternoons, though:

-Elianna tries to understand the appeal of such study, especially of multiple and (seemingly unrelated) studies. Sophia misses a few steps explaining how a journal describing the pattern and strength of local Radiance storms over the last 10 years could relate to the increase of communicable diseases in nearby towns, so Elianna nods and kinds sidles away from the impassioned rant lecture

-Also curious why Sophia likes these book things so much, Wren ends up admitting that she doesn't know how to read. Sophia instantly goes into education mode, but poor rolls on both their parts means that the "Primer" book Sophia picks out ends up being "A Primer on incarnate runes and their metaphysical ramifications"...poor Wren makes no steps towards literacy. She does however find a copy of "Grymm fairytales" and is quite enthused with the gruesome illustrations of menacing fey monsters (in kobold fashion she tries to nick it but does not succeed)

Beyond some time in the library, Elianna is just content to relax some more. The last several weeks (minus the chaos and terror of careening through the Spirit World briefly) have allowed her to get more full nights of sleep than she's had in a couple years, and one doesn't squander that sort of thing. Wren does catch Elianna's attention mid-week though, mentioning how hateful the one student, Amala, acts whenever it's just Amala & Wren. After making sure Wren didn't steal any of Amala's possessions, Elianna casually questions the elven woman one morning to see if Amala has some sort of issue with Wren. Amala has her back turned or is bent out of sight washing pots, but denies any issue and apologies for any awkward interactions, mentioning that she has a hard time conversing with the "shorter-lived" races. Wren is still suspicious, remembering a moment of disproportionate rage and near-violence when her and Amala were alone, but Elianna doesn't get any sort of bad vibe- so the matter ends there.

At the end of the week, the party departs from the Monastery of the Unseen Paths with genuine thanks from Apricity Fading and Kristoff, as well as invitations to return. There's a creek of sorts on the other side of the hill, and a 15 ft-ish barge sits waiting. Quell and Weasel are aboard, and after farewells from the students (Amala is conspicuously not present), they push off.

The monastery is quickly hidden by the thick forest, the trees pressing right up to each side of the creek. After a couple hours the creek connects to a wider offshoot of the river, and the barge seemingly speeds up by itself (Elianna is interested and then frowny faced when it’s explained the barge has a minor blessing from Meles, the patron god of the river).

It’s a rather peaceful float down the river, one that’s luckily not interrupted by bandits or flying owlbears. Quell and Weasel chat with the party idly as they travel for the rest of the day, mainly about how the local bandit used to be much more organized and threatening, until Serode (the unofficial sheriff/law of Flotsam) dealt them a shattering defeat 5-6 years ago. Weasel also asks Sophia a couple questions in Thieves Cant (I mangle some fake sort-of Cockney together that has Sophia's player both in-game and out of game going "...what??") which she's not fluent in, but recognizes the slang from her thief friends growing up. Weasel recommends avoiding any sort of criminal deeds in the "new" part of Flotsam, and instead braving the ruins of Oldtown to find Old Gursel for less than legal goods/jobs/what have you.

*Criminal Contacts acquired!*

Rather than pushing through the night, the party camps by the river for another peaceful evening, only marred by another weird Elianna dream.

Elianna stands at the top of a massive valley. Or maybe the peak of a mountain, because the view below is obscured by thick rolling clouds. With a growing anticipation, she begins the descent into the unknown…and wakes up.

Around midday, the barge floats into view of Flotsam

Spoiler: Flotsam

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Flotsam is still a not-particularly impressive sight, the ragged bridge arching high above the river, the rough patchwork walls huddled around Newtown, the sprawling abandoned remains of Oldtown. What’s left is a frontier town fallen on hard times, with no sign of crawling back up.

Weasel conspicuously stays with the barge (mentioning that he has no interest in going anywhere that Serode could notice him) while Quell wanders alongside to the gate to Newtown. The guard is a little crude, and Sophia is immediately in his face (or at least glaring upwards at it). The guard is a little shocked by the slip of a girl verbally thrashing him, but before things can escalate, a woman’s voice commands the guard to go be busy elsewhere. Serode dismisses the guard and studies the party, the half elven archer idly wandering right up to them. Sophia absolutely flubs her Insight roll and thinks that Serode is just interested in her as a newcomer, nothing inappropriate. Everyone else (especially Elianna), however, is on high alert from Serode’s hungry serial-killer expression as she eyes Sophia. After a few tense heartbeats, Serode welcomes Elianna back to town (along with her new friends) and reminds her not to cause trouble - and if anyone’s interested in spilling blood for coin, there’s probably work available.

In a lightning round tour of the town, the Gilded Owlbear inn&tavern is shunned with copious amounts of scorn (grudges about money are ffoorreevveerr), and Elianna immediately takes everyone to see when the next caravan is heading down to Yarim Yol.

Ulviye is just as unsettling as before, everyone catching on right away that his mask & clothing is the type meant for dealing with diseases like leprosy. Sophia is quite compassionate interacting with Ulviye, and manages to surprise him a little by not sliding into pity. She rolls a high Medicine check and a solid Perception; that plus a couple comments from Ulviye makes Sophia certain that whatever the masked dwarf is suffering from, it is a magical affliction or curse of some sort. There's no immediate oath to try and cure Ulviye (said out loud), but we'll see what happens in the future.

The party confirms there's a caravan heading down to Yarim Yol the next day, and since it's only mid-day, decides to head over to the ruins of Oldtown. There are two objectives: Meet with "Old Gursel" (the grubby dwarf that Elianna had dealt with previously) so Sophia can chat with him, and try to find a mage named Jaban. Kristoff had asked the party to pass on a request for aid to Jaban if the party could find him - since Jaban is "twitchy" about his privacy though, he hides from divination magic (including sendings) and lives in a moving structure that can't be seen by mundane vision. With a suggestion to carry mirrors (apparently reflections will show Jaban's home), the gang heads for Oldtown!

The bridge over the river is still rather precarious to cross, and Sophia almost goes for a swim, a stone tile sliding out from under her feet (makes her save exactly).

Creeping into the city abandoned to the elements, the party stays alert thanks to Elianna's mention of giant carnivorous centipedes, piratical undead, and iron-booted fey that kick people in the face. None of these things rear their ugly faces however, and after some wandering they catch the attention of someone peeking out from a cracked-open cellar vent (people do still live in Oldtown, they just have to be rather careful). With a bribe of some coin, they get instructions to wait, and after half an hour or so, a grime-encrusted dwarf peeks around the corner. Old Gursel is still as filthy as before, but he is immediately intrigued by Sophia mentioning that Weasel recommended him. After some bargaining back and forth, Gursel agrees to send a letter to Sophia's friends&family in Trezora via smuggler's channels (no guarantee on timeframe, since even with Spirit Gates involved it's a LONG way). He also mentions his willingness to buy and sell "sensitive" items, as in he's a fence for stolen goods.

Since there's 4-5 hours of daylight left, the party pushes onward to keep looking for this Jaban fellow. They head towards the centre of Oldtown, which has more intact structures and reputedly more monsters due to stable tunnels leading underground. In a twist though, the party is ambushed before they reach town square, while walking between some former houses!

The stench of spoiled wine and rotting corpses assaults our heroes just before a pack of ghouls come scrabbling out of broken doorways! They don't look much better than they smell, dwarves and humans all with bloated flesh, suspicious purple/red stains all over mouths & chests, and fingertips torn to jagged bony claws.

The ghouls (plus ghast) swarm the party and it's quickly a slugfest. Elianna wades into the fray, hacking back twice as hard for every claw or bite that rips into her, managing to resist being paralyzed. Sophia's limbs lock up, but she manages to shake it off right away. Poor Kalis however does get paralyzed, and while one ghoul somehow misses biting the paralyzed tiefling (I blame a Sentinel attack hitting the ghoul, not me rolling a 2 and a 4), another rips a mouthful out of her with a crit. Sophia goes invisible and drags Kalis out of the fray, and Elianna dashes to join them after spotting a ghast on the roof above about to hurl a barrel down into the melee. Said ghast is too far committed to stop, and sends its allies tumbling as the barrel of "wine" crashes into them (is it still wine if it's gone a little…chunky)!

Kalis regains control of her limbs, and an extremely well placed web & grease lock the remaining ghouls and ghast to am absurd degree. This lets them be blasted apart by a barrage of acid splashes, eldritch blasts and greatsword chops. Elianna does briefly go down, but the party is victorious ( I think that means Elianna has been dropped in 70% or so of the fights so far). Briefly searching the building the ghouls came out of, all they find is a barrel with a spigot on a table, and a bunch of wine-stained cups&mugs strewn about. Then they hear a faint thump…thump.. ssccrrappe. Listening closer, they hear it again..and it's coming from the barrel of (presumably) wine. Rolling the barrel on its side, Elianna is handed a crowbar from Sophia's bag o tools, and she pops the barrel open. (Jump scare video) Immediately a wine-marinated ghoul scrambles out and attempts to chew Elianna's face off! It gets curbstomped in short order. Thinking back to all the stains around the mouths of the other ghouls, Sophia is reminded that ghouls are often festering with diseases, including the aptly named ghoul fever.

It doesn’t answer the question of why there was a ghoul in the wine barrel, but everyone drinking the ghoul-wine, dying and turning into ghouls makes enough sense that the party hastily moves on.

It’s getting into later afternoon, but the gang’s made it to what was either a town square or central buildings of some sort. Peering over their shoulders with hand mirrors (and wandering about with totally-not-Daredevil vision for Kalis) is a little awkward, but they do spot a strange discrepancy down a sort-of alley. First glance, empty. Glance with the mirror…there’s a squat tower there, 30 ft tall and covered with some sort of dark metal. There is a door [crazy earl door) with a closed eyeslit and a pullcord of some sort. There’s a cautious pull, and…Jaban slides the eyeslit open.

Jaban is not particularly friendly, immediately accusing everyone of being either soul stealing assassins or mind-devouring shapeshifters. The arcane sigil from Kristoff calms him down enough to listen to the explanation about the new Spirit Gate the party discovered, but that just devolves into accusations of them being daemonic servitors. Kalis “innocently” eggs him on a little just to see how creative Jaban’s ideas get. Once the conspiracy theories subside to a mumble and no-one brings out either gold to spend on magic or magical items to sell, Jaban tells the party to come looking some other time and slams the eyeslit shut. Everyone hustles to get back across the river before nightfall (and succeeding in not rolling a random encounter), clambering back across the bridge. Aaannd Sophia fails, slipping at nearly the same spot but barely passing the “ohno” dex save to avoid falling off the bridge entirely. Out of self preservation, she crawls the rest of the way over.

Spoiler: Back in town for one night only

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The Gilded Owlbear is scoffed at yet again, and Elianna leads her compatriots to a building right at the edge of the docks. Part of it hangs over the river’s edge, and there’s a wooden sign with clean Infernal writing: The Kon Kase (broken horn). Strolling in, Kalis and Sophia are immediately hit with the scent of familiar spices & Trezoran-style cooking - it’s almost like walking into a bar back home (if not quite enough of a dive for Sophia). Standing behind the bar is probably the largest tiefling any of the party has ever seen. 7 ft even before the horns start (one of which is indeed broken with a jagged end), and built like an ogre strongman, the bartender Kabrit is only Medium-sized by technicalities (and GM whim). Setting down the tankard that had nearly disappeared in his ham-hock hands, Kabrit tosses his head at the party in the universal “C’mere” direction. As they wander up, Kabrit nods and lets out a welcome-back grunt at Elianna before squinting menacingly at the other three. For Kalis, Kabrit’s gimlet-eyed stare feels suspiciously akin to Nyus judging someone’s heart, but after a few seconds she gets a nod. Kabrit leans wwaayy over the bar to look at Sophia, who gets a longer stare before another nod. Wren….Wren gets an eyebrow raise and a skeptical grunt.

Waved over to a table and told encouraged to get the fish pie, everyone relaxes and enjoys the night. It gets a little heavy as Sophia interrogates Elianna about the “spilling blood for coin” that Serode mentioned, but she’s mollified when Elianna explains that it was more her watching over companions and tagging along rather than bounty hunting. The alchemist reaffirms her extreme distaste for the wealthy & powerful, not just from growing up in the slums of Trezora, but briefly mentions a more personal betrayal in her past (mmm delicious notes for later for the GM). Kalis gets caught “staring” at Kabrit quite a bit, and Sophia decides to play Wingwoman for her (Kalis was more admiring how stable and relaxed his Light was, but she doesn’t try very hard to dissuade Sophia). The operation ends in failure, but it does get a chuckle out of Kabrit. Elianna spends some time outside stargazing (since they presumably won’t be seeing them for a while), Wren eats & drinks damn near her own body weight, and a good time is hand by all.

Spoiler: Yarim Yol

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The next morning they meet up with the caravan, and walk into the guarded tunnel just a little outside town. The relatively featureless tunnel goes down…and down…and down. A day's worth of walking has everyone's sense of direction pretty scrambled as they reach a wide alcove, obviously a rest-point. Being surrounded on all sides by stone is a little weird for everyone except Wren, but the night passes uneventfully.

After a few more hours of walking, the tunnel opens into a humongous cavern, and the outpost-turned town Yarim Yol. The tunnel opens at a higher point in the cavern, so it gives a good view of most of the outpost. It seems to be the opposite situation of Flotsam. Most of Flotsam has been abandoned, with only a small section of the city being upkept and used. Yarim Yol on the other hand, has swollen and spilled out beyond it's original boundaries. It is fairly regimented and orderly, but as much of the cavern as possible has been put to use, and it definitely looks cramped. It's also easy to see (even without stonecunning or anything like that) the older sections/structures of the outpost: the larger (and more central) buildings are much smoother lines, more incorporating the cavern features, while things become more rough-hewn and carved out towards the far end. The cavern is brightly lit with smokeless glowing lanterns all over the place, which also allows everyone (except Kalis) to see the MASSIVE pit at the other end of the cavern. Looking to be a couple hundred feet across, it is surrounded by glowing lights, defensive looking barricades, and miscellaneous equipment, including what looks to be an absurdly oversized winch, chains, and crane arm.

Waiting in line to enter the heavily guarded gates, the party eyes two unusual sentries. Clad in head-to-toe plate armor, they are broad and wide enough to suggest dwarves, but they're nearly 6 ft tall. The whine and hiss of pistons is audible when they move, and occasionally there's a little jet of steam that puff of the back of the armor. Wickedly bladed polearms and hefty tower shields complete the image of mass & power. Elianna recognizes the equipment as steam armor - magitech powered suits that augment the wearer's strength and durability to incredible heights. Without water and Light Crystals to fuel them, though, it's a struggle for any but the strongest to even move. She also recognizes the sigil on a shoulder as that of the Shield Bretheren, a dwarven mercenary company of some renown.

The party is also close enough to see something curious going on at the gate. After being questioned, everyone entering Yarim Yol is required to hold out a hand. The guard pricks their finger with a gleaming knife, then they stick their finger into what looks to be a bowl of water. When the party asks about the knife & bowl, the guard simply replies,

"To make sure you aren't dead."

Everyone makes it through (dipping a finger into the bowl feels like pushing a finger into a jacuzzi jet, but it heals the cut immediately) without being revealed as an undead monstrosity! When giving their reason to enter Yarim Yol, Sophia garners some attention stating that she's a doctor looking to aid those in need. The guard hands her a small carved stone, instructing her to present it to the Quartmermaster. Wit that, they properly enter Yarim Yol. It's much busier than Flotsam; mostly dwarves hustling to and fro, but there are other humanoids, most of whom whose appearance screams "mercenary/sellsword/murderhobo."

As they're maneuvering towards one of the central buildings, Kalis freezes right before a tween boy runs into her side with an "oof!"

Spoiler: What Kalis sees

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A ragged spectre looms before Kalis. A hood, cloak, and strips of black cloth cover every inch of the figure, but this does nothing to disguise its unnatural proportions. The limbs and digits are all impossibly long, seemingly stretched and warped; the neck almost makes an oval with its hunch. As Kalis flinches from the boy bumping into her, she looks down briefly. When she looks up again, the figure is Right. There. The empty hood just inches from her face.

"Oh wow, you can see my friend?! That's really unusual, especially cause you don't have eyes." The boy chirps as he looks at Kalis with interest. An exasperated woman in heavy armor comes chasing after the boy, and blinks in surprise to see Elianna again. This is Fenn & Vadaris, two other mercenaries/explorers that Elianna had briefly traveled alongside during her first trip to Flotsam. While they chat, Kalis watches Fenn's hooded "friend" contort itself to hunch possessively over the boy. In acknowledgement of Kalis' attention, it raises a far-too-long finger in front of where its face should be in a ssshhhhh gesture. After a promise to catch up at the Hammer tavern soon, Fenn and Vadaris head off.

"Bye Sunlight and Storm ladies!" Calls Fenn, and then he does the same ssshhhh gesture. With Fenn wandering off, the "Friend" dissipates to nothingness.

While this was happening, Sophia kept marching ahead in search of this Quartermaster, finding what someone standing in line calls a commissions hall. Using large amounts of self-importance and the power of the Clipboard Effect, she makes her way past ¾ of the lineup before one of the sellswords stops her. That's far enough up that their arguing catches the attention of the Quartermaster. A rotund mustachioed dwarf glowers at Sophia, clearly expecting an explanation. The glower fades as Sophia hands the gate token over and is replaced by interest when she explains her medical training and intention to help treat the outbreak of stone sickness. There’s a sly side comment about payment, but when Sophia honestly replies that that she’d offer her skills regardless of payment, the Quartermaster is a bit surprised. He introduces himself as Yusuf, and after another thoughtful glance, asks Sophia to come see him the next “morning” (a society living almost entirely underground would probably have different terminology, but I’ll get to that later) with her companions to discuss a job offer.

Sophia meets back up with everyone else, happy to report that they’ve got a meeting lined up tomorrow so she can treat patients, AND they might get paid for it! The enthusiasm dims a bit when Elianna quizzes Sophia things like what exactly they agreed to, for how long, for how much money, was there any sort of contract, etc - but everyone agrees to meet with Yusuf in the morning to get more details. With the rest of the day to kill, they wander about the merchant stalls a little - this section seemingly sells anything other than weapons and armor (the smiths display and do that directly in their section), and is definitely geared to sell to adventurers. The gang’s a little light on funds though (almost like some mercurial and spiteful overlord hasn’t given them a chance to accrue wealth), so the only thing purchased is some fresh fish sashimi-style. They do hear a rumour that the # of bandit attacks against explorers and patrols have been increasing the last few months, and notably seeming more organized.

Elianna leads the gang to the Crafters section, hoping to find Brokk again. As they walk between the combination of smithies, storefronts, and display rooms for jewelry, weapons and armor, voices and hammers call out in rhythm. Yes, this was just a GM excuse to throw this song in, deal with it.

After getting thoroughly lost amongst the smoke and ringing steel (and explaining that the outpost runs under martial law, so Wren REALLY doesn’t want to steal anything, shiny or not), Elianna manages to spot someone with green skin slaving over an anvil. It is indeed Brokk, and he’s managed to officially become an apprentice to one of the master smiths! He’s happy to see Elianna again, happy to meet new friends of Elianna, and happy to see that she’s still putting the weapon he helped fix up to good use. He offers to give it a quick lookover and sharpening, and quickly goes to work. He starts up using the traditional expected methods, but when he thinks no-one is looking, smooths out some burrs on the blade with his bare hands, the melting flowing & bending like putty for his fingers.

Brokk gets yelled at for being distracted shortly afterwards, so he has to scurry back to work, but *NPC contact for custom equipment acquired*

They head back to the merchant section, specifically the Hammer tavern for food and drink. The Hammer is a large, loud, and somewhat rowdy tavern, quite a contrast from the distant & polite behaviour in most of the town. Sophia’s good mood is soured when she overhears a nearby table speaking in Infernal - but it’s 100% upper crust educated noble Infernal, pompous enunciation and everything. Eyeballing the three tieflings, she grumbles that they look like rich brats too. It’s a little awkward when Elianna turns out to know them - it’s the Beasts, the three rookie adventurers that I had slapped “gonna die to cause the PCs emotional trauma” warning labels all over. They’re a bit more scarred and traumatized than a few months ago, but they’re still all alive and intact! Lisette introduces herself as Lisette d’Fyete, and goes off to grab drinks for the table. Sophia grumbles more at the confirmation - Fyete is one of Great Seven Houses of Trezora, so even if her pronunciation implies a lesser branch, Lisette is still an “arrogant noble whelp” who profits from the suffering of people like Sophia’s friends and families.

Lisette had retreated a little from Sophia’s initial hostility, and overhearing her scorn towards her family name just makes her even more embarrassed. Before Sophia can stomp off to party with another party of miners, though, she overhears Lisette’s admission that the tiefling trio should probably be named “the Bastards” rather than “the Beasts.” After some more chatting (and a slightly competitive shot-for-shot throwdown of had liquor), Sophia extends an olive branch and keeps drinking. And we fade to black then cause the GM was sleepy!

Spoiler: GM notes

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-I have no idea why, but that was a massive hunk of writer's block to get caught up. I'll try to be a leettle quicker with the next entry.
-So many NPCs. Too many all at once?

[curious-puzzle]

Unfortunately wasn't able to play tonight, but that technically means I'm actually ahead in terms of prep and journal updates. So instead some more fluff about some of the peoples and cultures!

Spoiler: The Tiefling empire of Tsekoral and its capital, Trezora

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-Since Tsekoral was formed by tieflings from every corner of the world gathering together, it is a kaleidoscope of different cultures, faiths, practices, and people- bound together by the desire to escape persecution for their blood
-The collapse of Alshajara was quickly followed by Tsekoral’s rapid rise to power - they quickly grew and established themselves as a united nation, taking advantage of knowledge and wealth that escaped the ruined human empire, the sudden absence of the Sorrows, and numerous pacts, bargains and oaths made with scores of powerful spirits, lesser deities, and would-be gods
-Trade is an integral part of Tsekoral - trade of goods, services, knowledge, and even faith. From an outside view, Tsekoral (and especially tieflings) have a very transactional slant to their worship and religion: prayer and worship in exchange for protection, or power, or even companionship. A negative viewpoint would see it as hollow, cheap or insincere, but most approach it more as symbiosis. Deities are empowered and nourished by worship and followers; it only makes sense that followers are encouraged to become more numerous, more powerful, and more faithful in turn
-The attitude towards Fiends is a little complicated - there is the argument that they should be treated and judged by their actions and behaviour, but the more pragmatic acknowledge there is a world of difference between the fiendish touch upon Tiieflings, and being a true fiend (and actual manifestation of cosmic Evil). Thus there are more than a few silver-tongued Fiends on the Street of the Gods, though they are watched with no small amount of suspicion by their neighbours
-The 7 Great Houses (Lanvi, Gouman, Evaris, Paresseux, Kole, Jalazi, Fyete) were 7 families that helped found & create Tsekoral, but they’ve grown more into a combination of political faction,trade guild, and noble house than familial relations. A ruling council made from members of each house leads in matters both political and economic
-The 7 Great Choirs are the largest faith in Tsekoral, but there are countless other churches, temples, mysteries, and cults - the Street of the Gods is in fact an entire district of Trezora (the capital city)
-Intrigue and scheming is an everyday part of life - between different Houses, within each House, between different Choirs, within the same Choirs, manipulations and plots are constant
-While slavery is outlawed, unwary victims can be caught in labyrinthine contracts, nigh-unpayable debts, or binding spiritual pacts - these technically have means of being ended, but the difference is sophistry (this practice is often a source of conflict between different groups and faiths)
-Prejudice against other species (especially humans) does occur, but the majority of tieflings see such views as hypocritical and “old-fashioned” - a sense of superiority over members of other nations/cultures is a bit more widespread however (especially from those in the Great Houses)
-Smartass TLDR summary: lots of intrigue and scheming, very open to spiritual relationships and bargains of all sorts, our nation is the best nerds and we can prove it
-Foods! The combination of so many cultural influences, robust trade, and exceedingly fertile farmlands allows for an incredible variety of foods & dishes inTsekoral. Seafood (especially shellfish) dishes are often seen as regional specialties, along with numerous uses of tropical fruits. Among nobles, fiery Elven peppers have been in vogue for some time

Spoiler: The Elven Towers of Kailashun

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-The elves of Kailashun often seem quite distant to other species, even cold and dismissive
-Both their longevity and commonly held beliefs contribute to this perception. An important step to understanding and becoming “one with Light” is learning how to shed attachments made on the mortal coil. This combined with a lifespan measured in centuries can set elves apart from others
-Rather than lacking emotion, it is more that elves experience and process them more slowly than other species.. An elf may not immediately display grief at the loss of a loved one, but that grieving will last decades or even centuries
-There is the constant drive to evolve and improve, but “if something is worth learning, it is worth the time to learn it fully” - when you live for nearly a thousand years (and can exist for even longer), spending 50 years on a single skill seems quite natural
-Elven goods are normally expensive due to their scarcity and quality
-The leadership of the Deathless heavily contributes to this mindset. Spiritual and political leaders, the Deathless plan and shape against a backdrop of millenia. Since change is such an integral part of the “Path to Light,” the Deathless usually aren’t hidebound relics refusing to adapt - it’s just their changes are stretched and planned out over said millennia
-Everyday life in Kailashun can be quite ascetic, filled with contemplation, study, and self-reflection
-The majority of Kailashun’s inhabitants live in massive Towers, the Vaults (underground settlements very similar to Dwarven Holds) at the base, and some towers stretching upwards to the peaks of the Stormbreaker mountains. The higher sections of the towers are bombarded with Radiance, making them dangerous to those still “shackled to mortality” - contributing to an unofficial hierarchy based on tower height. The progression of moving upwards from the Vaults is often compared to growth towards the Light
-Most non-elves live in the Vaults and lowest areas of towers, along with “younger” elves
-The Risen are the servants of the Deathless, protectors and guardians of the Towers and their inhabitants. They are carefully chosen champions and warriors that are somehow infused with so much Light and magic that death is only a momentary hindrance - resurrecting from nearly any killing blow. They are rarely seen outside the Stormbreaker Mountains or Radiant Wastes
-Becoming a Risen is seen as a great personal sacrifice, for it is not only a binding to the mortal coil (making oneself unable to evolve further), it is to be steeped in violence forever. The majority of Risen were elves, but not exclusively. The selection and creation of Risen is a secret guarded closely by the Deathless however
-Darkness and related magic isn’t seen as technically evil, instead as spiritually stagnant and harmful (and Light being treated as superior in nearly every way). The Undead and magic relating to undeath however is extremely taboo (and comparing the Deathless or Risen to the Undead is a very risky thing to do)
-(out of game thing that is super obscure in-world) Perhaps because of spending so much of their lives in Radiance, elves are much more spiritually “malleable.” They are changed and influenced by magical energy, in mind body & soul
-Foods: Restricted by what can be grown and raised in the harsh mountainous terrain and violent Radiance storms, barley is a staple ingredient. Goat is common (as is products from the goats), and hearty vegetables. Elven dishes are often seen as “simple”, other than their infamous spices: numerous types of peppers grow in the mountains, and many of them are incredibly hot (a common joke among non-elves is that elven peppers can make you one with Light on the spot if you aren’t ready for them)
-TLDR: Very spiritual and long-lived, what’s a hundred years when you live a thousand. Deathless are a little spooky and very mysterious, “a bit” of Nirvana/buddha vibes

Spoiler: Dwarven Holds/Kales

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-Much more of a strict and regimented society than most others
-The battle against the Undead (seemingly since the beginning of dwarven written history) influences nearly every aspect of dwarven culture
-Society consists of 5 castes: Asalet, Savasci, Yaratan, Isclier, Yabanci (rough social standing in that order)
-Asalet: Rulers/nobles and priests of the ancestor cults. Asalet rule by bloodline and knowledge of the ancestors - using tradition and past precedent as laws and strictures. Leaders, guides, and judges to all other castes
-Savasci: Career soldiers/warriors. All dwarves are expected to have basic martial training, so a reserve town guard would not be a Savasci. As the blade and shield of the Holds, many heroes in dwarven history were Savasci. The influence and power a famous enough Savasci wields can even force Asalets to humble themselves - but a life spent warring against the Undead is often short and brutal
-Yaratan: The “Master” trades = blacksmithing, stoneworking, and magecraft/artifice. They’re the “master” trades since they’re seen as directly related to war.
-Iclier: Merchants/farmers/laborers/the “lesser” trades. Technically a subordinate caste to the previous three, but unsurprisingly everyone needs food regardless of your caste. Can marry into or be adopted to the other castes (except the Asalet happens so rarely it might as well not)
-Yabanci: Foreigners/outsiders/rebels/artists & entertainers. Translates roughly to “other” or “outside”, applies to most non-dwarves, as well as those who refuse the castes, and full-time entertainers&artists. Dwarven society is just a smidge repressive, with anything that’s not immediately useful or in service to “the Great War” is strongly shunned and discouraged - which puts career artists/entertainers in the strange position of being both scorned and longed after. Having the wealth/resources to be a patron of an artist is a sign of extravagance
-Changing from one caste to another does happen, most often through marriage or adoption into a clan (except for the Asalet)
-The only way into the Asalet is the extremely rare cases of a priest being chosen by ancestral favour
-Non-dwarves can join castes (very common for Forged, a more rare “honor” for others) by adoption
-Clans commonly are all of one caste (marriages or adoptions take the clan name of the higher-ranking caste), but clan bloodlines are a labyrinthian web recorded and managed by Asalet
-Lots of social pressure to be efficient and always working to support clan, caste, and Hold - free time or leisure normally frowned on. “Death does not rest” is a common saying
-Often slides into a bit of a “work hard, party hard, express shame at partying and everyone nods understandingly at the slip”
-Most of the largest cities in the world are Holds - even with the danger of Undead attacks, on average it is safer to live in a Hold rather than the unpredictability of the surface. Trade-off is much more cramped living conditions, food restrictions, and less social rights (for the majority of Isclier and Yabanci)
-Foods: Mushroom farms are the staple crop for every Hold, along with fish and some varieties of larger insects the standard protein. Lots of pickled or dried foods, due to needing food to last as long as possible. Surface foods vary from an uncommon treat to a rare luxury item depending on the freshness. Trade for long-lasting goods from the surface is a constant need for the Holds
-TLDR: major Rokugan/fantasy samurai vibes (particularly Crab Clan from Rokugan), strict conformist martial society doesn’t know how to change, it’s not paranoia if there really are things in the dark that want to eat you

[curious-puzzle]

Next session!

Spoiler: Afterparty

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The chatting (and drinking) continues well into the night with the Beasts (revealed to be illegitimate lesser noble scions from Trezora), and both Elianna & Sophia party hard. Things get a little hazy when the bright green liqueur made from moss comes out…

Both wake up the next morning with wicked hangovers, but everyone made it back to the right room and in one piece. At least being so far underground means that they don’t have to worry about sunlight?

After a slow breakfast of rice porridge (and some smoked fish), the main topic of conversation comes back to mind - what exactly the deal is with this place along with Cicekkale!

Spoiler: BIG OL’ BLOCK OF EXPOSITION

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-the dwarves here in Yarim Yol are attempting to work out a way to retake the Hold of Cicekkale below
-since there’s roughly 2-3 ish thousand in Yarim Yol, and Cicekkale was a city of easily over ten thousand before things went bad, it’s not just a matter of marching down and purging the city. Mercenary/adventuring sorts are hired normally to

• Kill undead (lesser bounties but they can add up)
• Escort/guard mining crews, farming caverns, caravans of goods & metals/gems
• Blaze “safer” paths/ways down to Cicekkale
• Establish boltholes/beachheads in the Underground to enable further offensive pushes
• Recover magitech/ magic / information from Cicekkale

-Speaking of Cicekkale! It’s not actually that far away from Yarim Yol, just 3 miles…straight down. There’s generally 5 choices for ways to try and get down to Cicekkale

• The Plunge: The giant (several hundred feet across) hole at the far end of Yarim Yol. It is a direct drop to Cicekkale (3 miles). When the city hadn’t fallen, there was a Grand Lift that would transport goods up and down in several hours. Unfortunately the equipment has been damaged and unusable for many years. Despite the direct path, the Plunge is not regarded as a safe route for several reasons, mainly gravity - and the Creature. Said Creature appeared in the last decade, and no-one knows for sure what it is. What is known is that it flies, it’s fast, nearly silent, and it leaves no remains or bodies behind at all. Erwan thinks it’s either a dragon or fiend of some sort, but little else is known. Micri’s Ravens (the ill-fated mercenary company that Elianna bumped into the last members of) were the last to try and brave the Plunge en masse - only 5 escaped
• The Switchbacks / Plunge paths: A series of switchback trails and tunnels that weave back and forth across and next to the Plunge. These allow travel to Cicekkale in 1-2 days, BUT they are extremely risky -they often open into the Plunge and are quite exposed, and angry spirits seem to haunt the switchbacks
• The Mining Roads: Series of wider tunnels that weave between Yarim Yol, Cicekkale, and the colossal network of the mines. These are the most commonly taken routes, balancing haste and danger. They’re a bit of a maze however, and there is no direct path down to Cicekkale. It takes 3-5 days and there are often large numbers of Undead roaming the roads
• The Mines: Centuries of mines that span miles in all directions, an unmapped nightmare to navigate. With good fortune, there could be an empty path straight to Cicekkale. With bad fortune, weeks of collapsed dead ends
• The Wilds: The unworked wild caverns of the Underground. Much like the mines, all sorts of paths and creatures can be discovered. Dwarven bandits, rogue constructs, hordes of restless Undead, shadowed Fey, you could run into anything

After breakfast, everyone heads out to meet with Yusuf the Quartermaster. On the way out, I roll a success on my “random things occur” chart, and the street seems unusually clear & quiet. A dwarf in ornately detailed full plate stalks by, sharp eyes sweeping back and forth in an obvious “bodyguard” manner. A few feet behind walks another figure in head-to-toe armor -at a second glance, it’s a Forged. More heavily built than Apricity Fading, this Forged is also composed of a much darker matte material. The other noticeable feature is the copious amount of fine runes and symbols (dwarven writing, but no-one can read it) engraved all over the Forged’s plating. Over half its body is covered, including half of the faceplate. Glowing eyes appraise the small crowd, all the dwarves stopping and bowing to the Forged. As the pair walk by and further onwards, Wren audibly calls out “Who’s that?!” It’s actually the fresh-fish vendor (with the sashimi yesterday) who murmurs, “That is the Epitaph, a member of Clan Mezhar.” Clan Mezhar tweaks the party’s hangover brain, they are the ruling noble clan (and were the ruling noble clan of Cicekkale before its fall).

Onwards to the Quartermaster! Yusuf is a rather rotund dwarf, with a prodigious waxed moustache atop a perma-sneer. He raises his eyebrows at Kalis & Wren, but nods at Sophia (Elianna looks like a mercenary, so nothing unusual). Grilling Sophia on what exactly Sophia and her companions are capable of, he presents several options regarding stone sickness and the miners. Sophia’s high Nature and Medicine rolls means she knows that stone sickness is an affliction of the nerves, causing shakes, hallucinations, seizures, and eventually paralysis. It's also most likely related to spores or parasites of some kind. It’s temporary, thankfully, but there seems to be no way to gain any sort of immunity. Partway through the highly technical explanation, Yusuf cuts Sophia off and presents several options.


If the party just goes to the mining camp and treats/cures those sickened for 2 weeks, he’ll pay them 1000 gp total.
If the party does this and manages to come up with a treatment/vaccine to reduce the cases of stone sickness, that will be 2000 gp total.
If the party also acts as escorts/guards for the miners and camp in addition, he’ll pay another thousand gold on top.
Finally, if the party can actually cure the stone sickness permanently (whether with medicine/treatment or removing the cause of the sickness) as well as act as guards, he’ll pay them 4000 gp total.

Yusuf slides a contract across the counter, then sighs as he realizes none of them can read dwarven. A few minutes later, a copy in Common is produced, and Sophia & Elianna peruse. It seems pretty straightforward if detailed; about the only unusual clause noticed is the oath to never reveal the location of the mine, its contents, and to never attempt to use the mines themselves for personal profit. The shift of miners is heading out at evening bell, so the gang has the rest of the day to prepare. Yusuf suggests that beyond food/water and whatever the party wants/needs for medicinal work, that some doses of Corpseflame might not be a bad idea. What’s corpseflame? A substance that makes sure that if companions die (and you can’t take their body back with you), that the corpse will not rise as a foul Undead monstrosity. Some of the lesser priests (known as Bone-burners) sell the stuff, so off everyone goes.

On the way, some water, clean cloths, and new Healing Kits are acquired. As they enter the “temple” section of the outpost (everything’s clearly separated because of Dwarven Culture, not to make things simpler for the GM, hush), it’s notably a more wild section of the cave. Much less worked stone and more making use of the natural stone’s shape and flow. A cluster of stalagmites have been smoothed down and flattened to serve as numerous pedestal displays, it seems. It’s a wide variety of objects, no seeming pattern beyond that they are all well taken care of - dwarves here and there amongst the pillars have their heads bowed in silent contemplation. Elianna does the slightly awkward “I’m in need of assistance but don’t want to say anything” customer stance, and after a bit, a man in unusual robes approaches. The robes have hints of bone woven into them - not the stereotypical “skull as a mask” or anything, but certainly a little morbid. The dwarven priest (safe guess he’s a Bone Burner) is polite enough to the uncomfortable “totally not an aasimar”, and sells two doses of Corpseflame to her. He explains that it is an acid that eats through only dead flesh (too slow to weaponize, though still not great to spill on living flesh), then will ignite once it reaches bone - reducing the corpse to fine ash over a few hours. Elianna quickly makes her escape after the explanation, asking the priest to pass a greeting onto Dag Hayaleti (the dwarven priest she originally escorted down to Yarim Yol) on her way out.

The rest of the day rolls by smoothly, and the party heads for the eastern gate. As this path winds closer to the Plunge, Elianna wanders up to the edge and peers down. Seeing only darkness below, Elianna focuses light into a stone and heaves it into the middle of the Plunge. The gleaming pebble goes down…and down…and down…until after around a minute and a half it can no longer be seen. She never hears the impact. Staring a little longer to see if any of the sensations from her dreams are conjured up, Elianna instead gets a strong dose of l’appel du vide (the call of the void). Kalis meanders up next to Elianna, peering over the edge and commenting, “looks pretty deep.” That manages to crack Elianna up, breaking her out of her mini-trance and they head back to the others.

There’s a dozen or so dwarves who’s equipment and demeanor might as well be shouting, “we dig holes in rock for a living” waiting by an elemental cart, and after brief introductions, they all head off to the mining roads! The gate they leave through is obviously a lot more heavily armored and defended than the one the party entered Yarim Yol through, but makes sense considering what they connect to.

Spoiler: Into the mining roads

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The mining roads are larger than the tunnel from Flotsam to Yarim Yol, but more worn-feeling too. It’s a relatively quiet caravan, the miners don’t seem frightened but they’re certainly all on guard (even with the PCs along as escorts). The party can’t really scout ahead that far (since they don’t know the way to the mining site), but Kalis has Nyus flit up ahead back and forth. Well, until we double check and realize that Nyus doesn’t actually have darkvision. So he can still be a scout, it’s just a much riskier proposition since he has to carry a light source around.

After a couple hours of marching with sparse quiet conversation, the creak of the cart, and the unfamiliar feeling of being surrounded by absurd amounts of stone, there’s something spotted up ahead. Nyus sneaks up (just after this was when we realized his lack of darkvision) and notices what seems to be a partial collapse - rubble is strewn across the floor, and part of a wall around the corner has been gouged away. Kalis ghosts up to the edge, and summons a spark of will into her Bell Branch. The heavy lead bell lets out a flat dead (heh) tone, revealing the presence of Undead. She has Nyus fly back to the party - the miners hang back, tightly defending the cart with picks and crossbows. Elianna comes up and flubs her stealth roll, kicking a chunk of rock into the opposite wall with a CRACK. In response, the shuffling of dead feet and hungry groans echo from the darkness!

Initiative!

Lighting is a big thing in this fight - ¾ party members have darkvision (or daredevil vision), but that still cuts out at 60 ft. Ahead of the party is a long hallway (darkvision only sees partway down it). Immediately in front of them is piles of shattered stone and debris (about 15-20 feet of difficult terrain), with the 10-ft hole hole in the wall to the left of that. The party holds their position, Elianna casting Light on a stone and dropping it on the ground. After a tense moment, a ragged shambling figure stumbles into view. Then another. And another. A veritable tide of zombies falls over itself as it advances on the party’s delicious brains!

Spoiler: GM note

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I trawled the interwebs and slapped this horde together from a few ideas of medium-sized swarms and gave it the same Engulf ability as a gelatinous cube. Seemed to work out!

More preparations are made as the zombies advance closer. Wren activates her symbiotic entity (which I totally envision as her mushroom friend/hat stretching and growing around her in fungal armor) and Elianna steps up to meet the enemy - and hears the scrape of steel and bone against stone to her left. Looking at the hole in the wall, it opens to the next tunnel over - where there are 4 armored and skeletal figures just visible in the dim glowing light! Squat and heavily armored, three grinning skeletons crank up heavy crossbows while a fourth looms protectively with a shield. A bolt whips by, but there’s not much to be done before the zombie horde is in range!

Spoiler: Note the second

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x3 bone marksmen and a bone bulwark from the homebrew Darkest Dungeon pdf that I’m a fan of. The marksmen have a Deadly aim ability to add +2d6 dmg to an attack that definitely came into play. I’m also sad none of the party walked into view on the previous round to trigger all 3 marksmen’s readied attacks, ah well

Elianna’s blade rips through zombies, and flashes of near-sunlight scorch dead flesh. Wren also blankets them with spores, the rapid decay devouring the zombies as they shamble closer. But there are a LOT of zombies packed into this horde (a huge-sized amount in fact), so any that fall are simply trampled by the remainder. Sophia carefully darts in and out of the marksmen’s line of fire, dousing several with Acid Splashes before ducking out of sight. Kalis carefully makes her way up to peek around the edge of the hole and takes a potshot at a marksmen with an Eldritch blast - but the Bulwark shoves its shield in the way to deflect the blast of swirling energy (Foul Warding to impose disadvantage + Kalis’ player rolling terribly). Elianna takes an arrow across her back but shrugs it off, and then the horde is upon them! The tide of rotten walking corpses engulfs Elianna and Wren, biting and tearing hungrily. They continue slashing and ripping with steel and spores, but see previous mentions of SO many zombies.

Sophia continues to pop into view, douse the marksmen in acid, and then dive back out of sight - which ends up being a wise decision. My dice go a little - well, feral with the bone marksmen. I land a crit on Elianna for a big chunk of health. Then a crit on Wren, blowing all of her temp hp from her symbiotic entity. And for a triple combo, a brutal critical hit on Kalis, piercing her collarbone and dropping her instantly.

Elianna keeps hacking and slashing at the zombies surrounding her, being dragged along as they shamble closer to the other PCs. Wren decides to remove herself from the horde by casting gaseous form and floating away, and once out of brain-eating range, manages to blind the zombie horde! This gives Sophia the time and space to inject Kalis with a dose of magical healing/adrenaline, shocking her back to awareness just before (flavour-wise) and zombie torso chomps her foot. Kalis rolls dramatically to eldritch blast the marksmen that dropped her! And completely whiffs before rolling out of the line of fire.

The last dregs of the zombie horde are finally chopped down, and with a flare of glowing heat their fallen forms smolder and go still. Elianna also ducks out of sight, not wanting to suffer more crossbow bolts either.

Spoiler: The party taking cover after all the crits

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Sophia manages to melt one of the marksmen into a slurry of bone-juice and acid, but the remaining 2 + bulwark scramble down the hallway to chase the party and keep shooting them. A flurry of readied actions are prepared in a mexican standoff of “who will step into the other’s field of vision first” - and Elianna picks up the Light stone and whips it as far down the hallway as she can as she readies javelins. The marksmen turn the corner, advance, and are then illuminated by said stone. One goes down in a hail of acid, chill touches and javelins, and then the second gets blown apart by eldritch blasts. The remaining skeleton, the bone bulwark finally steps into view. Standing above the glowing stone (for dramatic lighting), the undead warrior raises its axe in a salute before charging headlong at the party! A critical javelin humming with radiant energy (these bone undead are vulnerable to radiant damage) blows apart one shoulder entirely, but it keeps coming. Finally, another chill touch fells the bulwark, the necrotic energy rotting and decaying what little is left. Devil’s finger mushrooms sprout through the crumbling skull and armor, consuming it.

And we end it there!

[curious-puzzle]

No game this week, since the new Zelda release will be devouring most of the group's souls on Friday. In the meantime, some questions for over the next couple weeks!

-Any feedback on the journal? Want more focus/detail on anything, or less? Too much/little sneaking world-stuff in?

-For those who find the world interesting, I'm debating on offering to run a game in this setting for another group I play with. Is there a particular section of the world that people think would be especially interesting to start in?

[curious-puzzle]

No Elianna player this session (so she’s brooding in appropriate corners and keeping quiet), but back to the action! Well, technically back to just after the action, but details.

Spoiler: ”Docters” without borders

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Everyone takes a breath of relief as skeletal remains stop clattering and miscellaneous zombie bits smoulder and go still. The dwarven foreman, Harkan, creeps his way up to the party, and whistles softly at the battle’s remains. The dwarves had been somewhat standoffish with the party, but seeing concrete proof of their skills (and you know, saving the lives of the mining crew) thaws them out more than a little. All the dwarves get to work clearing the path of rubble, unceremoniously dragging and tossing rocks and corpses alike into the gap in the wall. While this is going on, the party engages in the honorable and ancient tradition of looting!

The skeletal bulwark (the one that had the shield and axe) was blown apart thoroughly with barrages of magic, so all that’s salvageable from it is the battleaxe. It’s finely crafted, with lines of dwarven writing etched into the face of the blade. Wren hefts it over her shoulder (for her it’s basically a greataxe) and drags it to the nearest dwarf for a translation. Bemused, they explain that it is a call to the wielder’s ancestors, for the blade to strike true and deeply. It is a nice axe, but Wren decides against becoming a two-handed melee warrior. Away it goes into the bag of holding! The skeletal marksmen have been somewhat melted, but several dozen bolts and two heavy crossbows are still in good condition (with some modifications). One crossbow has a bayonet mounted onto the front, while the other has a strange glass and metal tube on top of it - a scope.

Spoiler: Bayonet and Scope rules

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Bayonet: Lets you use a crossbow or pistol/rifle as a melee weapon when this is mounted, it is a 1d6 piercing melee weapon. If you have multiple attacks, you can perform a combo attack. Make a melee attack; if it hits, you can then make a ranged attack against that target with advantage (since you’re essentially stabbing and then pulling the trigger).

Yes, this basically offsets the disadvantage for using a ranged weapon in melee - unless you have Gunner or Crossbow Expert, for example

Scope: Can be mounted on rifles or crossbows - use a bonus action before making an attack with the scoped weapon: your short and long ranges are extended by 50% for that attack. The scope can also be removed and used as a spyglass

The crossbows are too hefty for Wren to use, Sophia doesn’t show any interest, but Kalis points at the one with the scope and goes, “Ooh, that one looks like it would be great for me.” One dwarf fails their composure save and snort-giggles before getting dope-slapped by another for rudeness. Kalis unerringly turns to face them, and the pair hurriedly finds elsewhere to be. The way is clear for the cart shortly afterwards, and the caravan continues.

The dwarves are more open with the party, but they’re also strung much more tightly since that was a well-laid ambush that was fought off. It’s a tense hour or so before the tunnel curves to reveal an opening with heavy barricades across it. A set of crossbows point out at the caravan before Harkan calls out in Dwarven, and the barricades are dragged open for everyone to slip in. Mining camp reached! Harken quickly brings Sophia to the miners that are sick enough to be bedridden - there are 4 of them, unnaturally rigid and locked joints. Sophia’s prodigious talent with Medicine (and Wren’s aid) reveals that this Stone Sickness is more akin to a poison or toxin, causing hallucinations, seizures, and eventually paralysis. The symptoms aren’t permanent, the greater risk is not being able to take in enough water and food when paralyzed (or say if you succumbed out in the wild without friends to drag you to safety). One of the dwarves (named Ruslan) is partially conscious, and the party teases some more info out of him. Unfortunately, Sophia doesn’t think there’s much they can do for the dwarves other than try to make sure they get as much water as possible - or they could use magic, as they realize between Sophia and Wren, they can cast remove disease 4 times.

Wren’s casting looks as if she’s sprinkling fine dust/spores from her mushroom hat/friend. They sink into exposed skin, and a moment later, the cured dwarf jerks upright and erupts into wet hacking coughs. It’s some truly unpleasant green phlegm, but seems like an acceptable side effect when you can move again. Sophia’s is a glowing fluid administered via injection. No problem on the unconscious dwarf, but for the awake Ruslan…well, it takes him a few seconds to psych himself up. The grizzled miner grits his teeth and screws his eyes shut before nodding to Sophia; she just shrugs and jabs him with the (relatively small) injection.

With the worst of the afflicted cured in a matter of moments, the dwarves are both flabbergasted and overjoyed. There’s a lot of deep bowing, along with cheerful dwarven banter now that their companions are miraculously healed. Ruslan reaches under his cot to produce a small jug of mushroom wine to share, and there’s an impromptu little celebration. Wren asking questions of and conversing with her mushroom hat/friend (is she crazy? Is the mushroom answering? It’s a sseeeccrreett) tilts conversation to mushrooms and cannibalism, which then brings up Nature checks, which brings up stuff about Myconids. They are in fact mushroom people who live underground, they’re not known to be aggressive, but they are known to grow and use a multitude of different fungi to great (and seemingly magical) effect. Sophia muses that this Stone Sickness does seem more like a toxin or poison - and Wren chimes in that there are definitely mushroom/fungal spores that could make people sick like this. Time for Science! The scope isn’t powerful enough to actually act as a microscope, but that + scooping up some of that phlegm (ick) into a vial+ casting Druidcraft allows them to spot fine thread-like filaments growing in the phlegm.

While the experimenting is going on, Kalis is asking the dwarves about anything unusual they’ve noticed prior to the Stone Sickness becoming much more widespread. A lot of strange noises or sights can be accounted to sickness-caused hallucinations, but several mentions of laughter & singing around the Southern Tunnels catches Kalis’ attention. The dwarves are a little uncomfortable talking about that area, but Harkan is more than willing to answer any questions.. The Southern tunnels had to be abandoned a few months back, as an angry spirit of some sort appeared in the tunnels. Since there were only ‘several” casualties and the spirit seemed content to lurk in the Southern tunnels instead of chasing the miners down - Yarim Yol hadn’t sent anyone capable of laying the spirit to rest. Rather than risk the lives of his miners, Harkan instead set them to work in the northern tunnels instead. Trailing off in thought, Harken muses that the Stone Sickness became more prevalent around that same time - and every time someone has become sick, it was after working in the northern tunnels.

Putting their heads together, the party is pretty certain that Myconids are related to the miners becoming sick, if not responsible (even if the dwarves have not seen any Myconids around). They carefully avoid outright statements to the dwarves blaming the mushroom-folk,

Spoiler: GM note

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wise decision

But they decide to check out the northern tunnels the next day, see if they can find a source to the disease, or clues about mushroom-related shenanigans.

Does Wren just want to find mushroom people? Abso-freaking-lutely.

Spoiler: Kalis' Dream during the night

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Your dreams again have that strange fuzzy-jagged haze to them, so clear in the moment but fading the moment you wake. You dream of the first time you saw the ocean.

This was when you were barely more than a child, before your family understood that you weren’t truly blind. You had wrapped fine cloth around your face like an obscuring shroud- just like how some acolytes of the Choir of Umbrum did. And if the guards at the Spirit Gate to Lanmevan had assumed you were a straggler from the larger group of acolytes that just recently passed through, hustling to catch up? Well, who were you to turn down such a gift? You had rushed to the shore, barely noticing any other part of the city.

They say the Gilded Sea is aptly named, but you just remember how warm it was to both your bare feet and to your Sight. You also remember how massive it felt, that it stretched so far beyond your senses, that you could never hope to understand more than a fraction of it.

You’re still to this day unsure how your brother found you, but he always had been clever. He swooped down on you sitting in the sand with the tide lapping against your ankles. Furious with worry, he had started to shout before abruptly deflating and collapsing next to you.
“So damn fearless,” he grumbled as he tossed a stone into the ocean. “You…you see more than you should, don’t you? No, don’t give me that smug little enigmatic smirk, I know that one. Even if you see and know more than we think, there are things in this world that you need to fear.”

Like the Dark? You had playfully tossed at him. He sighed at the twisting of ritual phrases you had overheard in the past.

“No. Listen, the dark is like the sea out there. If you got caught too far out in it, yes you would drown and die, but it’s not out to kill you. It’s too…big, too vast, to feel anything about you, to even be aware of your existence.”

This is where the dream diverged from your memory. Abruptly the water and sand went ice-cold, and the warm sun beating down vanished into empty stillness. A prickling heat washed over you from where your brother once stood, a virulent yellow flame burning in his place. Your limbs sank into the sand as the flame grew, and your brother’s voice rang out.

“It’s what hides within the Dark that you need to fear.”

Spoiler: The Northern tunnels

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The next morning (or equivalent in an entirely underground society), Harkan leads the party to the northern tunnels. On the way, he nearly hits his forehead on the ground bowing to the party. The display of divine magic to heal his fellow miners + the party’s immediate willingness has deeply impressed Harkan, to the point that he declares that he’ll do anything in his power to assist them, all they have to do is ask. Apparently the ancestor priests in Yarim Yol are capable of similar feats of magic, but the situation in the mines would have had to be “quite grim” for them to actually venture out to the mines (reading between the lines, a lot more miners would have had to die).

The northern tunnels are a large main shaft, with a bunch of branching off paths. Harkan explains that the tunnels are self-contained, so they don’t have to worry about getting lost and venturing out into the wilds by mistake. Rather then travel with the party, the foreman stays near the entrance with some of his workers, letting our heroes do their thing. Since the starting point of the plan is, “find mushrooms or mushroom-adjacent creatures”, the gang methodically starts scouting the tunnels.

I stole the disease rules from an Iron Kingdoms Requiem book - as characters are exposed to sources of infection, they build up dice in their infection pool. Once it hits a threshold, I roll the pool of dice versus a DC (normally based off a stat). If it exceeds the DC, the character has to make a saving through or become infected. In the case of Stone Sickness, the source is from inhaling spore-tainted air, and the infection pool rolls against the character’s intelligence. Sophia has her plague mask, and Kalis wraps a clean cloth around her nose+mouth, so they get advantage on any relevant saving throws. Wren just breathes deep, she’s not scared of no mushrooms!

They travel probably around half of the tunnels, getting close to the end of the main shaft when I spike the infection dice on Kalis…and she flubs her saving through even with advantage. The first stage of Stone Sickness is mild hallucinations, causing disadvantage on Intelligence and Wisdom ability checks. I begin to describe how Kalis starts seeing strange flickers of color and movement in the corners of her eyes- then catch myself since, you know, no eyes. Instead, sound goes a little sideways, noises echoing strangely or cutting off suddenly. Short bursts of tinnitus, or that sudden niggling feeling that you just heard something important, but you can’t catch it anymore - Kalis gets all of these as they’re traversing the tunnels, and is thrown off more than a little. Sophia determines that Kalis has the beginnings of the sickness, and Nyus does his best to try and sternly bully Sophia into healing Kalis right now. It’s impressive how much of a glare the barely-foot tall insectile knight can produce, but Sophia assures him it’s better to observe the symptoms for now (but she’ll make sure to cure it before anything progresses too much). Nyus sulkily goes invisible, but not before promising Kalis that he’ll stab Sophia if she “tries to experiment” on Kalis.

Once they’re at the end of the main shaft, Wren notices a breath of air drifting by her snout - coming from the wall up ahead. Inspecting closer, she can definitely feel air moving from cracks in the stone, as well as very tiny green mushrooms poking out from cracks. It’s right around this time that Wren starts tripping out fails her save and contracts stone sickness. For a second the stone wall is covered with glowing roots and patterns, but when she blinks its back to a stone wall. Sophia is rapidly taking down notes of Wren & Kalis’ behaviour, but decides to see how things go for now. Since the wall isn’t solid stone, Wren is able to use Mold Earth a few times to open a tight tunnel, revealing faint blueish light from the other side. And Sophia sees it too, so it’s not even a hallucination!

Wriggling through the opening, the party finds themselves in a BIG cavern, mushrooms of numerous shapes, sizes, and color all over it. That soft blue glow is from one type of mushroom, but there are some large enough to double as trees. There are also many more of the tiny green mushrooms Wren had previously spotted, all over the wall behind them. Kalis is still trying to figure out if those noises she keeps almost hearing are real, and Wren is double-taking at what she swore was someone standing on a mushroom up ahead, so the party is a little distracted. They don’t pay any attention to a few larger mushrooms in front of them, man-sized with teardrop-shaped purple heads dotted with honeycomb-like openings. They walk closer, and then tendrils shoot out of the openings to wriggle menacingly as the violet fungi lumber towards the party! Initiative!

The violet fungi aren’t particularly threatening, but they do have the potential for a lot of rotting tendril attacks. Since the attacks are “rotting tendrils” that deal necrotic damage, I describe flesh struck by the tendrils as stinging & burning briefly before going worryingly numb, skin and scales just sloughing off. The party overcomes the 5 fungi pretty rapidly, but Wren in particular has bad luck as I roll a lot of tendril attacks against her, quite a few of which smack her around. Kalis blows a fungi apart with an Eldritch Blast, and unsure if these are perhaps Myconid, awkwardly shouts, “...Sorry?!”. Sophia melts some with acid, and Wren wails on the treacherous mushrooms and gnaws away with her own spores.

We end the session there, with 2 of 3 party members hallucinating, the third taking notes, and them all in a strange new cavern!

And no session this week, ye olde plans during the summer, so next game is in 3 weeks!

[curious-puzzle]

Spoiler: Regarding Wren

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Wren’s player unfortunately had to bow out of the game :(, so Wren is in NPC mode for the session

Spoiler: Mushroom cave

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Elianna being absent last session was turned into her having slept in due to chronic insomnia. She jolts awake and promptly panics at the lack of her companions, and hustles out to the northern tunnel (plans were made before sleeping). She bumps into Harkan, who points her to the far end of the tunnels. Totally not fretting over the thought of her squishy allies being alone, Elianna power walks as fast as she can to the end of the main shaft. She bursts through the narrow tunnel with a drawn blade!

To find the other three mostly unharmed (though covered in mushroom bits), and she kind of sheepishly sheathes her sword. Onwards!

The natural cavern is the second largest that the party’s been in since traveling underground (Yarim Yol being the largest). Almost the entire cavern is lit with that soft phosphor glow, displaying the plethora of mushrooms of all shapes & sizes. There seem to be multiple paths in and out of this area, the largest going west, north, and east. Wren notes that the fungi seem to growing more heavily to the west, so west we go.

It’s a little refreshing to not walk in eerie claustrophobic silence - there’s the faint background of tiny creatures rustling and living amongst the mushrooms (nothing big enough for the party to notice or worry about), and just the general ambience of nature. There are no other attack mushrooms, so the gang makes their way west without issue, until they come to a choke point of sorts. The western “exit” of sorts narrows down, with large shelf-like mushrooms growing off both sides. Kalis and Sophia slow down (with high enough perception checks) as something seems off. Kalis senses a faint shimmy up above, at the edge of her perception, and Sophia looks up as something catches her eye. She swears that a stalactite up there just blinked. Looking closely, there’s a distinct lack of any sort of growth beneath said stalactites, and the cavern floor there is kind of…stained.

Deciding that they shouldn’t walk directly underneath, Elianna carefully clambers up the shelf-like mushrooms. She stops partway to reach down and help others, but Wren springs and bounds her way up no problem. Kalis, even with Elianna trying to help…completely flubs the roll and goes sailing off to the side. She breaks her fall on a mushroom - but that reveals a violet fungus lurking in the back! It slaps her in surprise, and the also surprised warlock retaliates with a double-barreled eldritch blast point blank. The second try goes a bit better, and she makes it across to join Wren. Sophia spurns Elianna’s aid, certain she is more than athletic enough to excel. She’s nowhere nearly as athletic as she thinks she is, but high rolls means she pulls it off no problem. The party proceeds, leaving the disappointed gang of piercers to remain hungry.

The western passage is a slight downward incline, but the natural stone ground is rough enough to make it akin to steps. It’s another couple hours of wandering through winding tunnels and small caverns before the path abruptly stops in a sheer drop. Strangely, there seems to be a bridge made of large frond-like mushrooms stretching out across the drop. On the other side, a dense cluster of tall tree-like fungi glowing in the dark. Peering over the edge, Kalis can’t sense a bottom to the drop. No-one recognizes the type of fungi making up the bridge, but it is far too uniform and straight to be natural growth. While Elianna is looking for a secure enough point to tie a rope to, Kalis steps onto the first mushroom.

There’s an immediate ear-piercing shriek! It is painfully loud, and everyone winces before noticing the fronds of the bridge rapidly closing one after the other. Kalis flings herself backwards - and makes her save, tumbling to land at Sophia & Elianna’s feet. As the shrieking continues, a silhouette rises out of the darkness below.

A large bulbous sphere. Numerous protruding growths jutting from the top of the sphere, it slowly floats up, and up, and floats closer to reveal…

Spoiler: The creature

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. The creature is silent, and slowly floats towards the party. No-one recognizes the creature, but Sophia and Wren have high enough rolls to note that most things that sort of colour are often poisonous or toxic, so they slowly back away. Elianna and Kalis try calling out to the gas spore while still retreating with no response. It silently and slowly pursues, and after a little longer, Sophia lobs an acid splash. To my disappointment, everyone is 25-30 feet away as the gas spore violently detonates, hurling a cloud of hideously green gas in all directions. Elianna flinches back as she was barely 5 ft out of range. After waiting a bit more to make sure the cloud has stopped, they then creep back towards the bridge.

Spoiler: No badgers or snakes here

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The shrieking has stopped, but further investigation is interrupted by a group of humanoid figures stomping across the bridge towards our heroes. Half a dozen man-sized mushrooms with limbs and (kind of) facial features confront the party - Myconids. They’re not attacking, but there’s definitely some tension. One steps forward and breathes a cloud of coloured mist on everyone!

Everyone makes their intelligence save for this granted telepathy to not be completely involuntary, so no embarrassing secrets revealed alas. There’s a series of images, emotions an sensations that convey suspicion inquiry from the lead myconid. Kalis carefully crafts a response of mental images and feelings to try and transmit that the party means no harm, that they’re on a mission to try and cure dwarven miners of a sickness.

The telepathy refines itself as the spores settle in, and the myconid bemusedly replies that Kalis can just think her response like she was speaking, rather than the telepathic version of pantomiming broadly while t a l k i n g s l o w l y.

Kalis repeats their mission of searching for a cure to the sickness affecting the dwarven miners, and their discovery of it seemingly being caused by fungal spores. After some going back and forth, the myconids admit that the green fungal spores are part of their land’s borders. If the dwarves simply leave their borders alone, they will no longer become sick. Unsure if “just don’t mine that direction” will be enough of a solution, the party continues to treat with the myconids, seeing if there is anything else that could be done other than avoidance. Working together (and aided by Wren’s strange & immediate kinship with the mushroomfolk), they are persuasive enough that the myconid invites the party to converse with their “chief.” Sophia is a little unsure, but not enough to refuse, especially when Wren & Kalis are champing at the bit. With that, the gang is escorted across the fungal bridge, and into the Myconid village!

The mushrooms are tall and dense enough to act as trees, obscuring everyone’s view until they pass between the broad trunks. Hidden within this forest (of sorts) is a small village of sorts. It’s not to the point of being able to immediately point out a tavern named the “adjective noun”, but there are obviously myconid villagers going about their business. There’s quite a bit of shuffling and pointing at the fleshy outsiders, but most keep their distance. At least, until a stubby little myconid [baby dark souls mushroom pic] wanders up to Kalis with the fearlessness of youth. She crouches down slowly and holds a hand out in greeting - and the myconid child blares a telepathic “Stranger Danger!” and punches her in the chest before fleeing behind its mother. Said mother mists Kalis to express its mortified embarrassment, but that breaks some of the tension. Continuing onwards, the party is brought before a larger myconid, one that is covered with what seems to be long shaggy lengths, almost like hair or a mane.

Spoiler: Example pic

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The chieftain Hericium greets everyone, asking what brings them to this village - it’s been quite some time since fleshy sorts have visited. Explaining the plight of the miners gets a similar reaction initially of “well, don’t cross our borders then,” but the conversation continues. Mentioning that the dwarven miners have been forced to mine to the north (when previously they hadn’t worked so far to ever brush the myconid’s borders) due to angry undead gets some commiseration. Elianna is a little surprised that the myconids have anything to fear from the undead, but Hericium explains that while their bodies are different, the restless dead still hate them since they’re alive. The myconids have ways of dissuading mindless undead, but they try to avoid any that have rational thought. This shared issue prompts the party to suggest cooperation, and Hericium hmms and haws. Trade isn’t a major concern for the myconids, they simply require sustenance and space. The bushy mushroom chief understands that dwarves need to dig and gather, it’s what they have always done. So if the dwarves had somewhere else to mine, then they wouldn’t have to bother the myconid’s lands? Hericium flubs a Deception, so his mental tone goes very blatantly “oh dear, I’m so innocent suggesting this, no ulterior motives at all.”

The myconids have a small problem - or rather a large one. There is a river that feeds and sustains their village, but the source of the river has been taken over by a giant. Said giant has been torturing and tormenting any myconids that try to travel near (mental images of tearing, rending, and teeth flash across everyone’s minds), and sullying the waters. The cavern where this river and giant are also happens to be rich in ores & gems - particularly “glowing jewels.” If the party and/or dwarves happened to deal with the giant, that would open a new place to mine - as long as the river’s left alone, the myconids will happily leave that area alone. Sophia realizes that the “glowing jewels” are most likely crystalized Light or Dark - a valuable resource that can power magitech, fuel or supercharge magic, and is all around desirable.

Sophia reminds everyone of still needing to deal with the stone sickness spores, and Elianna points out that immediately poisoning trespassers is a little excessive. Hericium harrumphes and his fungal mustache quivers, but acknowledges this. He picks up several pink mushrooms, and mashes one into his approximate mouth location before breathing a cloud of mist out. Wren and Kalis are cured of their initial Stone Sickness! He hands several more of the mushrooms to Sophia, explaining that they will counteract the spores (and they indeed look like pink counterparts to the green spore-mushrooms).

The party doesn’t immediately agree to slay the giant, and Hericium doesn’t agree to allow the dwarves to continue mining into his territory unimpeded, but things are definitely looking up for cooperation. Hericium offers for the party to rest in the mushroom grove in the night, before travelling back to the dwarves alongside a myconid representative (since there was the unspoken acknowledgement that the party can’t really agree on anything official for the dwarves). Sophia isn’t a huge fan of this Hericium, but that just might be her default stance to any authority figure - so the party takes a break in the myconid village.

There’s a silly little sidetrek to discover myconid music and jokes about mushroom raves, but all in all it’s a peaceful night.

And Wren decides to stay with the Myconids to learn more about them - this way if the player ends up joining the game again, Wren can easily reappear.

And did a little time travel, adding another of Kalis' cryptic dreams to the previous post.

[curious-puzzle]

Oh hey, a late journal entry, I can't think of any reason why it was delayed *kicks copy of FFXVI and growing pile of primed Tyranids out of sight*

Spoiler: Envoy of the Myconids

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The gang meets the envoy they’re to be escorting to the dwarves the next morning, named Basidi. Basidi is a pale mushroomfolk, shorter and rounder than most, and seems to be covered in small spiky growths (much like a spiny puffball). The instant the rapport spores take effect, a rather chipper assault of questions ensues! Basidi is quite cheerful and enthusiastic, and apparently fascinated with non-myconids. The puffball has a pose quite similar to Sophia when she’s on the hunt for knowledge; “head” tilted forward, one hand gesticulating, just exchange feverish note-taking with brief spacing out. Once everyone’s species is identified (and Sophia insists that she’s a perfectly average height for a human, Elianna is just excessively tall), across the fungal bridge we go!

Everyone has a lot of questions for the rotund myconid (particularly Kalis), and Basidi matches them with just as many in return. “The Meld” is referenced several times - Basidi explaining that all of the myconids (in that settlement at least) are connected to one another’s minds, able to share knowledge, memories, and sensations. The older myconids take up leadership roles as they have been part of the Meld longer, experiencing and contributing more in turn. A Myconid’s memories remained in the meld even after death, making them a surprising trove of knowledge - at least for the topics which concerned the colony. Sophia muses that the Meld sounds at least a little similar to a colony of ants - the Myconids still have individual minds & identities, but they all work together towards a shared purpose. That brings up a whole tangent of life on the surface, and the part-day walk through the tunnels & caverns passes swiftly.

Well, seemingly swiftly, as Basidi isn’t a very fast walker - best comparison of the way they walk would be a short spiky Baymax shuffle. The chatty Myconid also mentions several times how brave and strong the party is, to willingly travel the Underground alone, with no Meld to support them. The thought of being able to share, accumulate, and effortlessly access multiple lifetimes of knowledge certainly sounds appealing to Sophia, at least.

Returning to the large “central’-ish cavern, the PCs remember the Piercer ambush spot, and attempt to bypass it again climbing up the shelf-like mushrooms. Elianna clambers up again, Kalis makes it across smoothly with Elianna’s aid (I have a dyslexic moment and start to describe Kalis face-planting before I remember “oh yeah, advantage not disadvantage”), and Sophia aces it again, reinforcing her natural athletic talent. Basidi? The hefty puffball does manage to make it on the second try, but Elianna nearly slips a disc yanking them upright. She complains that Basidi is far heavier than she expected, and the Myconid (a little smugly) agrees that they’re much less squishy than fleshy non-mushroomfolk. The poor piercers continue to go hungry, too slow to even attempt a pursuit…

Kalis’ Outlander background helps point the right direction to return to the northern mining tunnels, and once there Elianna shuffles through the small tunnel to reassure any jumpy dwarves on the other side. This is a very good idea, as there’s a flipped over cart-turned impromptu barricade, with a pair of crossbow-wielding miners behind it! Friendly fire is averted, and the dwarves shout to fetch Harkan. Once Elianna explains that there’s a “guest”, the others come through, and Basidi baaaarrrreelllyy squeaks through. The two dwarves stare, blink, and decide that Harkan can deal with the whole situation. Said foreman comes speed-walking up to the party, his relief at their return blatant.

“It is good to see you back, I was concerned when you vanished into that new passage. I hope you are all well - where is Wren?”

“She’s no longer with us.” It’s only after Harkan’s face goes ashen that they realize exactly how bad that sounded, and quickly correct themselves to, “she’s safe, just not traveling with us.” After that brief scare, Harkan notices the ambulatory mushroom in the room, Basidi almost bouncing in excitement at getting to see dwarves in person. The gang explains that Basidi is here as a diplomatic envoy of the Myconids, as the recent mining had encroached on their territory (and the increased sickness was part of said territory’s defenses). Harkan gets a faceful of rapport spores, and after a quick exchange, the foreman’s expression goes from confusion, to understanding, back to confusion, and finally the universal despair of, “I’m not being paid enough for this **$!.” He does formally bow to greet Basidi, and invites everyone back to the common room/resting area rather than standing around the mine. On the way, he hesitantly mentions to Sophia that several workers had started showing worsening symptoms, and Sophia agrees to treat them almost before he’s even finished asking. Harkan doesn’t quite prostrate himself in gratitude, but it’s close.

While Sophia treats the two workers with ease (enough spell slots left for lesser restorations), Harkan pulls a strange fist-sized stone out of a sealed box. He holds it and seems to concentrate for a moment, before putting it back into the box with a nod. Wandering back once Sophia finishes healing the workers (both who bow very deeply to Sophia and thank her effusively), Harken mentions that a diplomat with the authority to treat with Basidi will arrive within 2 days. There isn’t much in the way of luxury to offer in a small mining camp, but Basidi (and the party) are welcome to whatever they need while waiting. Beyond water, though, Basidi just wants to ask questions of anyone who gets hit with the rapport spores.

Speaking of spores, Sophia hands over the pink mushrooms (that counter the green stone-sickness causing ones) to Harkan, explaining what they can do. Basidi gives her a bit of a sideye after doing so, and Elianna asks what the issue is.

“Oh, Hericium is saying that those should have been held and used to improve a bargaining position - but I agree with your decision.”

“You’re speaking with him now - through that…meld? From this far?”

“Oh yes. It’s quieter, slower - but we are all still connected.” Basidi pats Elianna on the shoulder for bad luck to not be a Myconid.

There’s a bit of debate on whether to wait around for this envoy - technically the party has completed their contract (if early), so they could just head back to Yarim Yol. For Sophia, the part that actually matters (the sickness) has been dealt with. Authority to treat most likely means nobility, Sophia’s least favourite people, so she’s not super enthused at the thought of getting tangled up with them. Kalis and Elianna bring up the giant at the river-source and the potential of Light crystals - but it’s more wanting to make sure talks don’t go sour for the Myconids I think that sways the party to hang around for several more days. They’ve got to watch out for Wren’s new home, after all, and Basidi has grown on them a little…like a fungus.

A throwaway comment Elianna made earlier in the day about farming slides the conversation to what else the party members might have done for a living. Sophia muses about an orphanage or school, something to look after and uplift the less advantaged children. Even Nyus (who hasn’t stopped glaring at or insulting Sophia since she didn’t immediately obey him and cure Kalis of Stone Sickness) grudgingly admits that Sophia would be a good caretaker. Kalis muses a little about serving on the Street of the Gods (Sophia & Elianna suggest cult leader), but can’t really come up with any truly solid alternative to her current path. That does bring up the fact that Elianna & Sophia don’t actually really know what Kalis does - other than be enigmatic and a little creepy. Of course, the appropriate response to that is a cryptic smile. Circling back to Elianna, the idea of her as a farmer is…yeah, no-one can see it. Wandering mercenary work isn’t ideal, however, and Elianna brings up that there’s never been anything that truly made her happy. This is a pretty big falsehood, it’s just that Elianna doesn’t want to bring up that slaying undead monsters recently is that source of happiness.

Since the rapport/telepathy spores are still in their systems, and this is hammering Elianna’s big red repression and denial buttons, I call for a save - failure. Kalis and Sophia get a flash from Elianna’s perspective: a snarling and laughing corpse attempts to draw a bowstring across an ominous fiddle, but is split open from hip to shoulder with a blazing slash. As the undead crumbles to ash, a fierce sense of righteous exultation burns away everything else, uncompromising and absolute.

After an awkward hiccup of silence, Kalis tries touching on Elianna’s Light & Radiance (this is what you are music)-related issues again. Still a thorny topic, the “definitely human, just some Radiance-related quirks” mercenary does open up a bit more this time when Kalis mentions that she was also born in a Radiance storm. Circumstances of birth dredges up talk of Elianna’s mother, a storyteller who couldn’t keep grasp of reality amongst her fanciful tales & legends. Just a brief mention of her whimsical mysticism puts Elianna clearly on edge. The idea that her mother might not have just been an addled traveler touched by a little too much Radiance? Not particularly comfortable.

Said idea that the Light and Radiance (or something within it) is trying to guide and direct them is taken very differently by Kalis and Elianna - Kalis has followed the pull of the strange dreams and vague urges, trying to resolve whatever issue or situation she comes upon (though she still is grasping for a clearer & deeper sense of purpose). Elianna has been hounded by barely-remembered nightmares and aversions she can’t discern the source of (whether her refusal and denial has anything to do with this…is unclear). At the end of the conversation, Elianna is still challenging the idea that just blindly following these strange visions & dreams is the right thing to do; but at least admits it may not be the wrong choice.
“It seems that while we’re both searching, you fear what may be hidden in the Light,” muses Kalis, “while I fear what may be hidden in the Dark.”

Sophia hadn’t heard any of their previous conversations, so she quite happily metaphorically munches on popcorn while possibly recording pertinent information. She also assures Elianna that regardless of what she decides, Sophia is willing to help her stay whole and healthy throughout the process.

Spoiler: The Dwarven Envoy

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The next morning, Sophia awakens to Basidi staring at her from about 10 inches above her face. A “good-morning” blast of spores later, she’s explaining the concept of sleep to the myconid. A period of inactivity where they are unaware of their surroundings? What about predators? Sophia gets another “you poor thing” shoulder pat for not being a Myconid - this attitude could come across as condescending, but Basidi is so wholesomely cheerful they mostly avoid that.

The morning and afternoon pass by uneventfully, beyond Basidi low-grade terrorizing nearby dwarves with a deluge of queries. Kalis does overhear several miners muttering about more eerie light & laughter emerging from the Southern mining shaft (the one that was abandoned due to some sort of angry spirit). It’s around mid-late afternoon when there’s the noise & bustle of someone entering the mining camp. Harkan is near the party when this happens, remarking that the officials at Yarim Yol were working very quickly for the envoy to be here already. 5 dwarves enter the central room - 4 fully outfitted in worn but obviously high-quality plate armor, and a young dwarven man in (almost out of place) fine robes. His clean-shaven face is already in a sour frown, and the nose tilts skywards to clearly convey his disdain for everyone here. Harkan sighs and quietly identifies the arrogant dwarf as Emit Mazhar. As one of the bodyguards removes her helmet to reveal a dwarven woman with a scarred face & slightly exasperated expression, though, Harkan nearly chokes on his own tongue.

“What is Commander Yaslan doing here?!” Harkan is frantic as he whispers to the party, but none of them recognize the name. “Commander Yaslan Mazhar, she’s one of the highest ranking commanders of Yarim Yol’s army!” The foreman sinks into hissing despair, but is still speaking in common for the party. “There is no reason to send a general to escort a low-ranking diplomat on a mission like this…except for someone playing politics.” The last word is practically spat, and Sophia seems very much on the same wavelength. Harkan turns to look at the party in concern, and warns them to be very careful about being caught up in the machinations of the Asalet (the dwarven ruling caste of nobility and priesthood).

“When Asalet are plotting, blood is spilled - and not theirs.”

Understandably the party asks for any more info about what they might have inadvertently stepped into. Because they made such a positive impression on Harkan (curing & healing his fellow miners, being courteous of them, handing the curing mushrooms over with no additional demands), he passes on some quick snippets of info that he normally wouldn’t talk about.

Both Emit and Yaslan are part of Clan Mazhar, the ruling clan of Yarim Yol (and previously Cicekkale). Yaslan also used to be part of the Asalet caste, but a terrible scandal around 15 years ago resulted in her being banished from the Asalet, instead becoming Savici (the warrior/soldier caste). He doesn’t describe what the scandal was, other than it is something that is not spoken of in polite conversation. Being sent out like this as a bodyguard has to be either the beginning of someone’s scheme, and/or is a grave insult to Yaslan that she technically couldn’t refuse. Harkan can’t pass any more info on beyond that, as he has to hustle up to formally greet the envoy & bodyguards.

Even though none of the party speaks Dwarven, they’re observant enough to glean insight from the tone & body language. Harkan bows very low to Emit, acting very formal, nearly servile - but it is stiff, mechanical, and seems insincere. Harkan’s bow and behaviour towards Yaslan, however, is different. The bow may be more shallow, but it is much more genuine, his tone and expression far more admiring. While Harkan goes through formalities, our heroes sidle up next to Basidi, who is still just thrilled to be around so many dwarves. They all get a fresh dose of rapport, and the myconid addresses them.

“My thanks again for helping me reach here safely, and for answering so many of my questions, and helping this meeting to occur. Thank you - friends? Yes, that is the word. Friends, I would like it if you would visit my home again also.”

The trio of Emit, Harkan, and Yaslan wander over to Basidi and the party for official introductions.

“So these are the Yabanci that brought this about?” Just Emit’s tone is enough to confirm that he’s everything Sophia dislikes about nobles, and Elianna & Kalis seem less than impressed also. Whatever Emit is about to sneer about Baisidi is interrupted by a faceful of spores, though. Yaslan steps quickly, a hand on her hilt, but relaxes just as rapidly once it’s clear there isn’t a threat. As Emit blinks in surprise, and the diplomatic talks begin, Harkan introduces the trio to Yaslan in notably warm tones.

The dwarven commander eyes them up with the assessing gaze of a tactician and bows slightly. “I thank you for the fine work you’ve done in service of Yarim Yol, and hope you continue to do so. Perhaps later, we can converse further? I may have further opportunities for you.” Sophia isn’t enthused about saying yes, but there isn’t really a polite way to refuse Yaslan. With another nod, she strides off to converse with the other bodyguards, keeping a polite but near distance from her charge.

Basidi and Emit keep their conversation narrowed to just the two of them, so there’s a lull of relaxing and people-watching. The other miners seem to act similar to Harkan; anything towards Emit is stiff, formal, and cold, while any interaction with Yaslan is sincere and a little awed. Whatever this Yaslan has done, she seems well-regarded by nearly all the dwarves here. After an hour or so, though, Emit storms to his feet and barks out some phrases that are clearly uncomplimentary before storming out of the room in a huff. Yaslan, however, waves the other bodyguards down before following the angry diplomat herself. Harkan sighs from his seat next to the party, muttering that these talks should be a simple and easily agreed to thing…except for, well - he gestures at where Emit just left the room. Kalis nudges Elianna and Sophia, and asks if they’re interested in a little espionage. Nyus flits up invisibly to the ceiling, ‘hmmphing’ mentally in reply to Kalis’ admonishment to be extremely careful. Flying out of the room and down the hall, Nyus lurks up above Emit and Yaslan engaged in an intense conversation. Emit is all waving hands and flying spittle, Yaslan tightly-wound politeness. Emit continues ranting at Yaslan in dwarven, before Nyus (and Kalis by proxy) catches particular emphasis on what seems like a name.

“kardeşine yaptığın gibi beni de hayal kırıklığına uğratma Tenris?”

And with that word Yaslan strikes Emit in the jaw so quickly that he’s unconscious before he crumples to the ground! She catches the younger dwarf and gently guides him down onto his side, tucking him into a recovery position. Once the ko’d diplomat is settled, Yaslan stomps over to the wall and slams a fist against it with a loud CRUNCH. After some deep controlled breaths, she stomps back to the crumpled Emit. Waving a small bottle under his nose, Emit jerks awake before squeaking in terror as Yaslan heaves him upright by the collar. Speaking with icy controlled tones, Yaslan’s tight grip disguises itself as smoothing out and straightening Emit’s robe collar. Whatever words were exchanged made Emit’s face pale, and he nods frantically before Yaslan finally lets go.

On hearing these events, Elianna decides she likes this Yaslan.

Returning to the chamber, Emit bows to Basidi, contriteness oozing from every inch. With that, the discussions continue, but with a much more subdued and polite Emit. Sidling next to Harkan, Kalis quietly catches his attention.

“I would like you to answer a question, but I’m afraid you can’t ask how I learned about this.”

“Uh…all right, I’ll do my best.”

“Who or what is Tenris?” Harkan goes bug eyed and starts to demand how Kalis heard that before catching himself. With quick glances in either direction, Harkan leans right close to Kalis.

“Tenris Mazhar was Yaslan’s twin sister…she died 15 years ago. It was a great tragedy, and that was the event that lead to Yaslan’s banishment from the Asalet. I know I promised not to ask how, but-ugh. PLEASE don’t go around asking about her, it’s a very taboo topic.” Kalis agrees and thanks Harkan, who just sighs at these helpful strangers who keep simultaneously being wonderful and stress-inducing.

The talks go a little longer before both Basidi and Emit bow to one another, and Basidi comes happily waddling up to the party while Emit slinks off out of sight.

“Friends! There shall be accord! The short hairy ones will avoid our borders in exchange for the information given on sources of glowing stones, and we will aid them in identifying the growths used to mark the edges of our territory.” Basidi again thanks their new friends, repeating the offer to come and visit the Myconid village again - the party agreeing that they’ll have to do so.

A little after dinner (where the miner’s bowing and scraping to Emit in particular continues to irk Sophia), Yaslan manages to corner the party for that previously threatened conversation.

“Harkan mentioned that your contract was now complete - perhaps you would be interested in signing with me for some additional work before you returned to Yarim Yol?” Sophia is already shaking her head.

“We are not sellswords concerned with simply coin.” Elianna is shaking her head, that’s not exactly true, but Sophia catches Yaslan’s attention with that.

“Yes, Harkan had mentioned that you had quickly cured the miners suffering from the Stone Sickness, and then did it again without a single mention of additional compensation or payment. Why?”

“I am a healer. I do not do it with the expectation of payment.”

“Hmm.” There’s a faint hint of approval from Yaslan at that. “Altruism is not something that I normally see from those who travel down here. A welcome change. Then I will not attempt to manipulate you or obfuscate facts. This treaty with the Myconids will occur whether you agree to this additional work or not, have no worry of that. The miners will begin work further away from the edges of the Myconid’s territory - but the most viable locations to do so would be either the Southern mining shaft, which had to be abandoned due to a restless spirit lashing out; or the source of the river mentioned by the Myconids, which has been claimed by a hostile giant. You three seem quite capable. If you lent your aid to attempting to resolve either of these issues, you would aid both these miners, and the myconids as well.”

Slyly, Sophia points out that despite her claim of not attempting to manipulate the party, Yaslan is just blatantly trying to play on the party’s sympathy for two groups they’ve become invested in (the miners and myconid village). Instead of denying it, or blustering and threatening like Sophia expects though, Yaslan just smiles slightly and tips her head like a duelist acknowledging a clean hit. A person in authority not acting like a total sleazebag? This catches Sophia off guard, and it even makes her cheeks go a little flushed as she surreptitiously studies Yaslan.

The party agrees to sleep on it, and make a decision in the morning.

And summer plans means a few more weeks till the next game

[Picanet]

You're falling behind on these again mwahahaha.

Sorry for play delay folks! Summer set backs and scheduling issues mwaaaaaah.