Larisnar has three moons. Bascaron, God's Eye, which is always visible in the night sky, and La Hashan, whose erratic orbit causes the sandy-colored moon to appear just over the edge of the horizon. Lunar conjunctions are rare events that last a full night. Each of the lunar conjunctions have occurred less than ten times in the last one thousand years.
Bascaron behind God's Eye: During this conjunction the power of the gods is absolute. The gods share more of their power with their followers. High priests are also blessed with a vision of a prophecy.
Bascaron behind La Hashan: During this conjunction arcane energy is enhanced. It is said that some of the most powerful artifacts have been created during this conjunction.
God's Eye behind Bascaron: This night is filled with ill omens. Bascaron itself warps divine magic and interferes with divine spell casting. It is said that on this night many clerics were warped into monstrous beasts or went mad for casting divine spells.
God's Eye behind La Hashan: During this conjunction mortals can defy the gods. All gods are blind to what transpires outside of their plane and divine spell casters can not cast divine spells.
La Hashan behind Bascaron: During this conjunction it is said that anyone who sleeps will dream of nightmarish creatures. These creatures spawn from the dreams and roam the night. Any creature that survives the night will spawn and create a new vile race of monsters.
La Hashan behind God's Eye: During this conjunction, mortals are powerless against the gods.
God's Eye behind La Hashan behind Bascaron: Also know as the Supreme Conjunction, this has only occurred twice in recorded history, each time laying waste to whole regions.
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Monday, November 26, 2007
Show me the way to go home
So we finished our cleanup on the Black Lightning and set Dearthen to rowing us towards the inky curtain. We rowed through and as we saw the sun anew we looked behind us and noticed there was no sign of the cloud wall.
Before long we reached shore, pulled the boat up, and went into the nearby village. The first person we met was very friendly, but didn&rsqo;t have much information to offer. We were the first visitors in over 20 years, the last one being a Northrog That sounded promising, but he suggested the mayor would be the one to talk to.
We didn’t get much additional information from the mayor—there were no written records (the lighthouse where they were stored having burnt down long, long ago), and they didn’t even know of any other settlements on the island...
We were sitting in the inn trying to decide what to do next as night fell, and all the locals transformed into masses of tentacles. Obegard managed to enchant several of them to stop them participating in the fight, and we managed to kill the other three and retired to our room and waited to see if there was any more trouble.
I tried to use Malakar’s wand to mend the damage we’d taken but it failed to work, even though I was sure I’d down the right thing. I asked Obegard and he said it was probably something to do with the plane we’re on—divine magic won’t work at night time. Oh joy.
The following day everything was back to normal and the locals were totally oblivious to what had transpired, though they had noticed that three “people” had disappeared. Apparently it wasn’t the first time people had mysteriously disappeared. Perhaps this is why they’re called the islands of light and shadow...
We decided we’d try to spend the next few days scouting during the day but making sure we were safely locked away by nightfall. While this kept us safe there was another problem—every time we had Erson fly out he’d get lost and was somewhat lucky to find his way back. We set out as a group and after several days had the feeling we hadn’t gone anywhere.
We weren’t sure what to do, but as Obegard explained some basics of planar mechanics it occurred to me that the orientation problems were probably tied to daylight, so in order to go out searching we would have to travel at night when living creatures transformed into aberrations.
As we prepared to set out that night, it appeared that we’d somehow made our way into the middle of the nearest forest, despite not recalling crossing the river that completely separated the village from the rest of the island. Our theory seemed to hold though, as we were confident that we were actually making progress by night.
While probably too good to be true, we actually came across a small clearing with a building in it and I wondered if it was possible we’d reached our goal already. We moved into the clearing and were attacked by two giants with three arms. We made a mess of them and then moved up to the building.
We opened the front door and something lurched into motion inside. We closed the door again and Obegard explained that this sort of construct has a control amulet and if we could find it we could make the construct act as a guardian. He magically determined that the amulet was in an adjacent room and then cast a spell that allowed us to walk through the wall.
Obegard grabbed the amulet and it certainly seemed to work as he made the construct obey him. There was also a circle on the floor that Obegard said reeked of old magic.
There didn’t seem to be much else of interest but it didn’t look like we’d be doing anything else that night so we searched around and I found a trapdoor which could help to pass the time.
Before long we reached shore, pulled the boat up, and went into the nearby village. The first person we met was very friendly, but didn&rsqo;t have much information to offer. We were the first visitors in over 20 years, the last one being a Northrog That sounded promising, but he suggested the mayor would be the one to talk to.
We didn’t get much additional information from the mayor—there were no written records (the lighthouse where they were stored having burnt down long, long ago), and they didn’t even know of any other settlements on the island...
We were sitting in the inn trying to decide what to do next as night fell, and all the locals transformed into masses of tentacles. Obegard managed to enchant several of them to stop them participating in the fight, and we managed to kill the other three and retired to our room and waited to see if there was any more trouble.
I tried to use Malakar’s wand to mend the damage we’d taken but it failed to work, even though I was sure I’d down the right thing. I asked Obegard and he said it was probably something to do with the plane we’re on—divine magic won’t work at night time. Oh joy.
The following day everything was back to normal and the locals were totally oblivious to what had transpired, though they had noticed that three “people” had disappeared. Apparently it wasn’t the first time people had mysteriously disappeared. Perhaps this is why they’re called the islands of light and shadow...
We decided we’d try to spend the next few days scouting during the day but making sure we were safely locked away by nightfall. While this kept us safe there was another problem—every time we had Erson fly out he’d get lost and was somewhat lucky to find his way back. We set out as a group and after several days had the feeling we hadn’t gone anywhere.
We weren’t sure what to do, but as Obegard explained some basics of planar mechanics it occurred to me that the orientation problems were probably tied to daylight, so in order to go out searching we would have to travel at night when living creatures transformed into aberrations.
As we prepared to set out that night, it appeared that we’d somehow made our way into the middle of the nearest forest, despite not recalling crossing the river that completely separated the village from the rest of the island. Our theory seemed to hold though, as we were confident that we were actually making progress by night.
While probably too good to be true, we actually came across a small clearing with a building in it and I wondered if it was possible we’d reached our goal already. We moved into the clearing and were attacked by two giants with three arms. We made a mess of them and then moved up to the building.
We opened the front door and something lurched into motion inside. We closed the door again and Obegard explained that this sort of construct has a control amulet and if we could find it we could make the construct act as a guardian. He magically determined that the amulet was in an adjacent room and then cast a spell that allowed us to walk through the wall.
Obegard grabbed the amulet and it certainly seemed to work as he made the construct obey him. There was also a circle on the floor that Obegard said reeked of old magic.
There didn’t seem to be much else of interest but it didn’t look like we’d be doing anything else that night so we searched around and I found a trapdoor which could help to pass the time.
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Wrecked at the Edge of the World
Faced with a binding oath, all the brashness and bravado seems to have faded from my companions. I stepped into the faerie ring alone, accepting Witchthorn's oath, so that we could continue with our mission. Quailing from a commitment seems odd; it's no worse than the violent deaths we court on a daily basis, and the gains are obvious.
Thanks to the shirkers, we only have a month to return with Witchthorn's price (or with sufficient force of arms to unseat him -- though he could simply avoid us in that case). Witchthorn told us that Jartik went to the Isle of Secrets, among the Isles of Light and Darkness, 3000 miles east of the shore of the Shattered Lands. That's much too far for any means of transport that I can muster. In an ironic twist, he then revealed that the only man with the knowledge and means to reach the Isle of Secrets is the Captain of the Black Lightning -- who we so recently crossed in Valen.
We could teleport to reach the Black Lightning, but there was some concern about a mishap landing us in the ocean, so I first fabricated a launch out of a suitable tree. The others were suitably impressed; I'm beginning to wonder how I ever lived without this kind of power. This ease in transformation is so fulfilling I forget how newfound it is.
When we appeared without warning, in a boat, on the mid-deck of the Black Lightning, the sailors overcame their surprise to closely surround us. Fortunately the Votaur Captain was more bemused than angry, and agreed to take us to the Isle of Secrets for a surprisingly small one-way fee. Apparently he dealt with Witchthorn in order to gain ths ship, which is full of surprises: a Storm elemental drives it at immense speed, and he uses an obscure magical artifact for navigation.
Days from land, we sighted a wall of inky darkness across the horizon. The Captain stopped the ship within a few miles (so he said) of the blackness, and told us that the island we sought was about fifteen miles away straight on the other side. Before we could negotiate for return passage, though, the ship was attacked by a monster out of the deep -- a guardian or a wandering marauder, I don't know.
The Kraken emerged and slapped huge tentacles and arms across the ship, bellowing out a cloud of evil which paralyzed Malakar and Borrow before they had a chance to act. I knew it wasn't a "natural" Kraken (well, as natural as Kraken can get) but I couldn't tell exactly what planes had warped it. A bitter fight ensued, as the Kraken wiped the decks clear of crew and shrugged off our attacks; though the Captain got in a few good blows before falling.
It became clear that we were losing the fight, with Malakar and Borrow helpless and most of my spells exhausted, so Livia and I raced back to the deck (I was levitating out of reach of the beast, naturally) and dimension doored us all away into the water. I held us levitated just out of the water, using the ship as cover from the Kraken, as Ili hacked Malakar's divine scrolls to release and heal him and Borrow.
Picture this: we're dripping wet, half dead, having lost definitively to the Kraken, all the sailors are dead, and the ship is being torn apart. The nearest land is 15 miles away inside a mysterious darkness. What does Malakar want to do as soon as he is freed? Attack the Kraken, of course! I thought he was nuts but Borrow was game, so I protected them as best I could with invisibility and followed along at a safe distance.
We came awfully close to defeat again, but Malakar's smote the beast with his full fury, and Borrow's unleashed the full lethality of his shortsword, and the Kraken fell into ruin.
Now we board the remnants of the ship, barely afloat, to see what we can scavenge. I do not plan to linger here, lest another monster attack. It looks like at least one of the launches is left, so we should be able to reach the island as planned. Getting back without the Captain may be another story.
Thanks to the shirkers, we only have a month to return with Witchthorn's price (or with sufficient force of arms to unseat him -- though he could simply avoid us in that case). Witchthorn told us that Jartik went to the Isle of Secrets, among the Isles of Light and Darkness, 3000 miles east of the shore of the Shattered Lands. That's much too far for any means of transport that I can muster. In an ironic twist, he then revealed that the only man with the knowledge and means to reach the Isle of Secrets is the Captain of the Black Lightning -- who we so recently crossed in Valen.
We could teleport to reach the Black Lightning, but there was some concern about a mishap landing us in the ocean, so I first fabricated a launch out of a suitable tree. The others were suitably impressed; I'm beginning to wonder how I ever lived without this kind of power. This ease in transformation is so fulfilling I forget how newfound it is.
When we appeared without warning, in a boat, on the mid-deck of the Black Lightning, the sailors overcame their surprise to closely surround us. Fortunately the Votaur Captain was more bemused than angry, and agreed to take us to the Isle of Secrets for a surprisingly small one-way fee. Apparently he dealt with Witchthorn in order to gain ths ship, which is full of surprises: a Storm elemental drives it at immense speed, and he uses an obscure magical artifact for navigation.
Days from land, we sighted a wall of inky darkness across the horizon. The Captain stopped the ship within a few miles (so he said) of the blackness, and told us that the island we sought was about fifteen miles away straight on the other side. Before we could negotiate for return passage, though, the ship was attacked by a monster out of the deep -- a guardian or a wandering marauder, I don't know.
The Kraken emerged and slapped huge tentacles and arms across the ship, bellowing out a cloud of evil which paralyzed Malakar and Borrow before they had a chance to act. I knew it wasn't a "natural" Kraken (well, as natural as Kraken can get) but I couldn't tell exactly what planes had warped it. A bitter fight ensued, as the Kraken wiped the decks clear of crew and shrugged off our attacks; though the Captain got in a few good blows before falling.
It became clear that we were losing the fight, with Malakar and Borrow helpless and most of my spells exhausted, so Livia and I raced back to the deck (I was levitating out of reach of the beast, naturally) and dimension doored us all away into the water. I held us levitated just out of the water, using the ship as cover from the Kraken, as Ili hacked Malakar's divine scrolls to release and heal him and Borrow.
Picture this: we're dripping wet, half dead, having lost definitively to the Kraken, all the sailors are dead, and the ship is being torn apart. The nearest land is 15 miles away inside a mysterious darkness. What does Malakar want to do as soon as he is freed? Attack the Kraken, of course! I thought he was nuts but Borrow was game, so I protected them as best I could with invisibility and followed along at a safe distance.
We came awfully close to defeat again, but Malakar's smote the beast with his full fury, and Borrow's unleashed the full lethality of his shortsword, and the Kraken fell into ruin.
Now we board the remnants of the ship, barely afloat, to see what we can scavenge. I do not plan to linger here, lest another monster attack. It looks like at least one of the launches is left, so we should be able to reach the island as planned. Getting back without the Captain may be another story.
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Tentacles make me sad
Don’t you hate going in circles?
I’ll give Obegard props, he manned up to share Livia’s debt so that we could find out what we had to do yet. Know what it was? Go back to our poison-potion smuggling friends on the Black Lightning, who apparently have some secret knowledge to get them to some Island of Shadow I’ve never heard of in some island group called the Islands of Light and Darkness or something that I’ve also never heard of. Apparently I wasn’t alone either because the others looked pretty confused too.
The whole thing was pretty funny, if you think about it. We’d had the captain where we wanted him and forgot to actually ask him about Jartik. Hahahahahaha.
Obegard and Malakar collaborated to locate the Black Lightning and get us there, but I think the thing that made the difference was my amazing portrait of the captain that allowed Malakar to attain a focus on him.
We weren’t 100% certain of hitting the ship, so we crafted a boat to take with us when we teleported. It made it look very strange when we actually landed exactly on target in the middle of the main deck...
The captain was surprisingly accommodating and in short order we had a deal to sail to the Islands. The captain summoned some storm creature that propelled the ship faster than I’ve ever heard of a ship moving. Not that I know how fast a ship typically moves, but I occasionally saw creatures in the water as we sped past them.
In only a few days we had arrived at our destination. The captain pointed to a wall of black in the near distance and told us this is as far as he goes, and Jartik swam off through the black.
We were a bit unsure whether that was what we really wanted to do, and what we would do afterwards (the captain had been consulting some device he kept carefully hidden to navigate the route here). As we discussed the options a vast tentacled creature pulled up beside the ship and the deck was covered with its many tentacles.
Malakar called for everyone to come to him and he’d cast something to let us walk on water, and I was fool enough to do so. I don’t remember anything else until we were in the water watching the creature chomping on the ship. Apparently it had been less than a minute but the creature had already killed the whole crew of the ship and I’m not sure I understand how we escaped.
Livia and Obegard were all for just trying to work out some way to get to the wall of darkness but Malakar seemed bent on revenge, and quite confident that we could finish this thing off. Malakar usually knows what’s what so despite some doubts we followed along and I can’t say it was easy, but Malakar soaked up the major damage while my trusty shortsword plunged what I figured were sensitive spots at the base of the tentacles, and then into the eye.
Obegard says these things have a lair, but I’m strangely uninterested in finding it. I think I’ll just content myself with looting the ship.
I’ll give Obegard props, he manned up to share Livia’s debt so that we could find out what we had to do yet. Know what it was? Go back to our poison-potion smuggling friends on the Black Lightning, who apparently have some secret knowledge to get them to some Island of Shadow I’ve never heard of in some island group called the Islands of Light and Darkness or something that I’ve also never heard of. Apparently I wasn’t alone either because the others looked pretty confused too.
The whole thing was pretty funny, if you think about it. We’d had the captain where we wanted him and forgot to actually ask him about Jartik. Hahahahahaha.
Obegard and Malakar collaborated to locate the Black Lightning and get us there, but I think the thing that made the difference was my amazing portrait of the captain that allowed Malakar to attain a focus on him.
We weren’t 100% certain of hitting the ship, so we crafted a boat to take with us when we teleported. It made it look very strange when we actually landed exactly on target in the middle of the main deck...
The captain was surprisingly accommodating and in short order we had a deal to sail to the Islands. The captain summoned some storm creature that propelled the ship faster than I’ve ever heard of a ship moving. Not that I know how fast a ship typically moves, but I occasionally saw creatures in the water as we sped past them.
In only a few days we had arrived at our destination. The captain pointed to a wall of black in the near distance and told us this is as far as he goes, and Jartik swam off through the black.
We were a bit unsure whether that was what we really wanted to do, and what we would do afterwards (the captain had been consulting some device he kept carefully hidden to navigate the route here). As we discussed the options a vast tentacled creature pulled up beside the ship and the deck was covered with its many tentacles.
Malakar called for everyone to come to him and he’d cast something to let us walk on water, and I was fool enough to do so. I don’t remember anything else until we were in the water watching the creature chomping on the ship. Apparently it had been less than a minute but the creature had already killed the whole crew of the ship and I’m not sure I understand how we escaped.
Livia and Obegard were all for just trying to work out some way to get to the wall of darkness but Malakar seemed bent on revenge, and quite confident that we could finish this thing off. Malakar usually knows what’s what so despite some doubts we followed along and I can’t say it was easy, but Malakar soaked up the major damage while my trusty shortsword plunged what I figured were sensitive spots at the base of the tentacles, and then into the eye.
Obegard says these things have a lair, but I’m strangely uninterested in finding it. I think I’ll just content myself with looting the ship.
A thorny situation
So after the poison master surrendered, he tried to convince us to let him go by telling us that he, himself, was working for someone else. He said that there was a man who ran some sort of zoo, who had ordered quite a bit of poison in the past. We went there to confront him, and as soon as we said that the poison master had given us his name, he immediately attacked. We were able to defeat him, but not without taking some injuries.
With him dead, we finally discovered that the mysterious woman who had kissed Obegard was actually the clerk who was downstairs. Apparently, she, like many others, could change forms, and we learned that she hated the zookeeper because he had killed her mate (a bird of sorts), and trapped him in his zoo. I'm still not sure why she didn't just tell us all of this up front, and had us mount a surprise attack on the zookeeper, but to repay us, she took us to a fascinating library run my enigmatic scholars called the seekers. From what I could tell, the library was not located anywhere in this realm, and contained almost all the knowledge of the world. We finally learned that the siegemaster's lieutenant had entered the elven forests, and got mixed up with someone named Witchthorn. It was there that even the seekers didn't know what happened next.
For some reason, Livy knew this Witchthorn character, and she let us know that he was a member of some race of Fey who all had the audacity regard themselves as "Verdant Princes". Livy kept telling us that they were an evil race, and when we entered the elven forest a week later, she even knew how to summon Witchthorn. However, it was then that all turned sour. Obegard thought that the best course of action was to parlay with this evil beast, and when Livy unexpectedly tried to attack, he, instead of casting spells against the Witchthorn, attempted to attack Livy. I tried to put a stop to things, but between Obegard's spells and the Witchtorn's attacks, it wasn't long when Livy was rendered unconscious and was nearly killed. I had noted, however, that she had some sort of healing abilities that rapidly closed her wounds, and prevented her from bleeding out.
It was then when the Witchthorn told us of the debt that Livy owed. Apparently, her powers weren't natural, and were granted to her by this fiend in exchange for a variety of foul magical reagents and fifty thousand gold, all of which were due in a few weeks. The Witchthorn also knew the information we needed about the lieutenant, but would only tell us if we took up Livy's debt as well.
I wasn't in any mood to agree to a deal that involved killing innocent creatures in order to harvest them for parts, and the rest of them didn't seem willing to do that either. I'm not sure what the next step is. I really wish that Livy had just told us the truth. If we prepared well, we probably could have rendered "his majesty" unconscious, and compelled him to talk in exchange for his life. As of now, both Obegard and myself have expended magical resources, much of which was on each other, and Livy was badly wounded and trapped beneath some plant.
With him dead, we finally discovered that the mysterious woman who had kissed Obegard was actually the clerk who was downstairs. Apparently, she, like many others, could change forms, and we learned that she hated the zookeeper because he had killed her mate (a bird of sorts), and trapped him in his zoo. I'm still not sure why she didn't just tell us all of this up front, and had us mount a surprise attack on the zookeeper, but to repay us, she took us to a fascinating library run my enigmatic scholars called the seekers. From what I could tell, the library was not located anywhere in this realm, and contained almost all the knowledge of the world. We finally learned that the siegemaster's lieutenant had entered the elven forests, and got mixed up with someone named Witchthorn. It was there that even the seekers didn't know what happened next.
For some reason, Livy knew this Witchthorn character, and she let us know that he was a member of some race of Fey who all had the audacity regard themselves as "Verdant Princes". Livy kept telling us that they were an evil race, and when we entered the elven forest a week later, she even knew how to summon Witchthorn. However, it was then that all turned sour. Obegard thought that the best course of action was to parlay with this evil beast, and when Livy unexpectedly tried to attack, he, instead of casting spells against the Witchthorn, attempted to attack Livy. I tried to put a stop to things, but between Obegard's spells and the Witchtorn's attacks, it wasn't long when Livy was rendered unconscious and was nearly killed. I had noted, however, that she had some sort of healing abilities that rapidly closed her wounds, and prevented her from bleeding out.
It was then when the Witchthorn told us of the debt that Livy owed. Apparently, her powers weren't natural, and were granted to her by this fiend in exchange for a variety of foul magical reagents and fifty thousand gold, all of which were due in a few weeks. The Witchthorn also knew the information we needed about the lieutenant, but would only tell us if we took up Livy's debt as well.
I wasn't in any mood to agree to a deal that involved killing innocent creatures in order to harvest them for parts, and the rest of them didn't seem willing to do that either. I'm not sure what the next step is. I really wish that Livy had just told us the truth. If we prepared well, we probably could have rendered "his majesty" unconscious, and compelled him to talk in exchange for his life. As of now, both Obegard and myself have expended magical resources, much of which was on each other, and Livy was badly wounded and trapped beneath some plant.
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Webs of Deceipt Unraveled, Nets of Evil Spun
With Millan Rourke's death, our long side-track through the cult of Bascaron in Valen has ended. The mysterious woman turned out to be no woman at all, but a Phoelarc, who led us with subtle clues (the Mournish coin, the theft of my Spire pendant) to discover and dissect the local cultists and their allies. Her ultimate goal was the release of her mate, now a Phoera, from Millan's menagerie.
She rewarded us well in gold and in information, introducing us to the esoteric Tellers, an extraplanar race of librarians and historians. The Tellers brought us a record of Jartik's deal with a Verdant Prince named Witchthorn to locate his master. Jartik had killed a previous headmaster of the wizard's academy as payment, which led tangentially to the peripheral involvement of the Aranea, Katlyn.
As usual, we didn't understand what was going on until it was over, but at least this time our puppetmaster was benign, well-motivated, and well-connected. We made enemies among the cult of Bascaron and the pirates, but that's par for the course.
Finished with Valen for the time being, we shadow walked off to Myreth Forest to find Witchthorn. Livia had heard of him, and even knew where we could go to find him: in hindsight we should have questioned her in detail about how she knew so much. Upon reaching a mushroom-warded glade, Livia told us to wait outside and called for the Fey to appear. And that's when things went in an entirely unexpected direction.
As we later came to understand, Livia had made a terrible bargain with this Verdant Prince: in exchange for her growing power and a Fey connection to dodge her impending Elf-hasty mortality, she was to deliver fifty thousand gold pieces worth of gems and a cornucopia of vile materials. Livia hoped to kill the Fey in this one confrontation, and be free of her burden.
Sadly, she chose not to tell us what was going on, and doesn't seem to care that we need Witchthorn to find Jartik. Malakar's success rate at speaking with the dead has been less than stellar, and I suspect that we'll need more from Witchthorn than an X on a map.
When Livia made to attack Witchthorn without provocation, I prepared to disable her. Unfortunately, none of my spells stuck (she remained most un-turtle-like), and Witchthorn's swift retaliation took her out of the fight before most of us could react (Malakar's pillar of fire was impressive, but didn't seem to alarm Witchthorn too much).
With Livia pinned unconscious by a newly-awakened Oaken Guardian, Witchthorn offered us a dubious deal: if we assumed shared responsibility for Livia's debt, then he would help us reach Jartik. Which leaves us with a debate; deal sincerely, deal falsely, fight, run? Do we leave Livia to her fate, justified by her secrecy and unilateralism? Do we assume her burden and risk the treachery of the Fey? Do we fight (so many reasons)?
We've come this far, I think we need to deal to continue. The question then becomes: who will break faith and when? And the small matter of obtaining the vile goods the Fey has demanded without tainting our souls beyond recovery: perhaps another evil could be defeated in order to satisfy this one, but life doesn't always offer such neat packages. Premeditated vile deeds are far from any path of wisdom and truth that I have known; violence and chaos dog our heels, but our shadow does not yet fall as evil.
She rewarded us well in gold and in information, introducing us to the esoteric Tellers, an extraplanar race of librarians and historians. The Tellers brought us a record of Jartik's deal with a Verdant Prince named Witchthorn to locate his master. Jartik had killed a previous headmaster of the wizard's academy as payment, which led tangentially to the peripheral involvement of the Aranea, Katlyn.
As usual, we didn't understand what was going on until it was over, but at least this time our puppetmaster was benign, well-motivated, and well-connected. We made enemies among the cult of Bascaron and the pirates, but that's par for the course.
Finished with Valen for the time being, we shadow walked off to Myreth Forest to find Witchthorn. Livia had heard of him, and even knew where we could go to find him: in hindsight we should have questioned her in detail about how she knew so much. Upon reaching a mushroom-warded glade, Livia told us to wait outside and called for the Fey to appear. And that's when things went in an entirely unexpected direction.
As we later came to understand, Livia had made a terrible bargain with this Verdant Prince: in exchange for her growing power and a Fey connection to dodge her impending Elf-hasty mortality, she was to deliver fifty thousand gold pieces worth of gems and a cornucopia of vile materials. Livia hoped to kill the Fey in this one confrontation, and be free of her burden.
Sadly, she chose not to tell us what was going on, and doesn't seem to care that we need Witchthorn to find Jartik. Malakar's success rate at speaking with the dead has been less than stellar, and I suspect that we'll need more from Witchthorn than an X on a map.
When Livia made to attack Witchthorn without provocation, I prepared to disable her. Unfortunately, none of my spells stuck (she remained most un-turtle-like), and Witchthorn's swift retaliation took her out of the fight before most of us could react (Malakar's pillar of fire was impressive, but didn't seem to alarm Witchthorn too much).
With Livia pinned unconscious by a newly-awakened Oaken Guardian, Witchthorn offered us a dubious deal: if we assumed shared responsibility for Livia's debt, then he would help us reach Jartik. Which leaves us with a debate; deal sincerely, deal falsely, fight, run? Do we leave Livia to her fate, justified by her secrecy and unilateralism? Do we assume her burden and risk the treachery of the Fey? Do we fight (so many reasons)?
We've come this far, I think we need to deal to continue. The question then becomes: who will break faith and when? And the small matter of obtaining the vile goods the Fey has demanded without tainting our souls beyond recovery: perhaps another evil could be defeated in order to satisfy this one, but life doesn't always offer such neat packages. Premeditated vile deeds are far from any path of wisdom and truth that I have known; violence and chaos dog our heels, but our shadow does not yet fall as evil.
Sunday, November 4, 2007
One good deed
With Harthen beaten into submission we were able to find out how he got into the poison business, which we guessed was our next lead.
We went in with the story that Woe had used one of the poisoned potions and now we wanted an explanation.
Some people are so touchy—no sooner did they mention Harthen than the guy went into attack mode, and he had some neat tricks. It probably would have been easier if we’d taken some time to recover. I had ben studying one of the books some of the dwarves had loaned me and some of the tricks in there might have helped with that annoying little imp thing that was floating around near the ceiling.
We finally cleaned him up and were trying to work out whether Malakar would have to call back his dead spirit for interrogation, but on our way out the clerk transformed into the woman that had kissed Obegard and set us on this path.
Apart from the interesting equipment we’d salvaged, she actually paid us some m-o-n-e-y. Not only that, she took us to some weird library maintained by some extra-planar beings called Tellers who were able to tell us where to find Jartik, the guy we’d come here for in the first place. Maybe she had an “in” with them because it turns out she was some weird reincarnating creature called a “phoera” or “phoerarch” or something.
More or less.
They had information about where Jartik had gone from here, but then they said something about him “leaving the Accordlands” which I find vaguely disquieting.
We took the opportunity of being in a large trade city to finish up some loot disposal, and then we had to leave for the Elven forest to speak to some fey creature called Witchthorn.
Strangely enough Livia seemed to have heard of him, but all she would tell us is that he’s “evil” which the humans seem to throw around very loosely, and I haven’t spent enough time with elves to know if they’re more selective. At least she was able to provide pretty accurate directions on how to find him, which included some sort of summoning ritual she knew.
We stood around ready for almost everything except what happened. Livia did her ritual, Witchthorn arrived with some other plant-like creature, he said something about Livia coming to pay her debt, and then Livia tried to kill him.
I don’t think anyone knew what to do—we needed the guy for information, and Livia hadn’t provided any sort of advance warning about some dispute she and Witchthorn have.
I stopped to see what was going on, as did most of the others. Obegard tried to disable Livia so we could start a conversation or something. It didn’t work, but it succeeded in putting off her spell-casting and once Witchthorn had rendered her unconscious we managed to find out what was going on.
Apparently the magical skills she displays are “gifts” she procured from Witchthorn and when he told us how much she owed him we couldn’t see how she was ever going to pay.
Witchthorn had an idea, however. If we would take on Livia’s debt then he would give us the information we wanted. Hahahahaha. It was good to see that nobody else was much keener to get sucked into that one.
I don’t know exactly what we’re going to do—perhaps Livia had the right idea and if only she’d given us a hint of what she was going to do maybe it would have gone that way. It still might, though now we’re starting from behind with Livia out of it and some of the other spell-casters having already expended some of their power to prevent Livia and Witchthorn killing each other.
We went in with the story that Woe had used one of the poisoned potions and now we wanted an explanation.
Some people are so touchy—no sooner did they mention Harthen than the guy went into attack mode, and he had some neat tricks. It probably would have been easier if we’d taken some time to recover. I had ben studying one of the books some of the dwarves had loaned me and some of the tricks in there might have helped with that annoying little imp thing that was floating around near the ceiling.
We finally cleaned him up and were trying to work out whether Malakar would have to call back his dead spirit for interrogation, but on our way out the clerk transformed into the woman that had kissed Obegard and set us on this path.
Apart from the interesting equipment we’d salvaged, she actually paid us some m-o-n-e-y. Not only that, she took us to some weird library maintained by some extra-planar beings called Tellers who were able to tell us where to find Jartik, the guy we’d come here for in the first place. Maybe she had an “in” with them because it turns out she was some weird reincarnating creature called a “phoera” or “phoerarch” or something.
More or less.
They had information about where Jartik had gone from here, but then they said something about him “leaving the Accordlands” which I find vaguely disquieting.
We took the opportunity of being in a large trade city to finish up some loot disposal, and then we had to leave for the Elven forest to speak to some fey creature called Witchthorn.
Strangely enough Livia seemed to have heard of him, but all she would tell us is that he’s “evil” which the humans seem to throw around very loosely, and I haven’t spent enough time with elves to know if they’re more selective. At least she was able to provide pretty accurate directions on how to find him, which included some sort of summoning ritual she knew.
We stood around ready for almost everything except what happened. Livia did her ritual, Witchthorn arrived with some other plant-like creature, he said something about Livia coming to pay her debt, and then Livia tried to kill him.
I don’t think anyone knew what to do—we needed the guy for information, and Livia hadn’t provided any sort of advance warning about some dispute she and Witchthorn have.
I stopped to see what was going on, as did most of the others. Obegard tried to disable Livia so we could start a conversation or something. It didn’t work, but it succeeded in putting off her spell-casting and once Witchthorn had rendered her unconscious we managed to find out what was going on.
Apparently the magical skills she displays are “gifts” she procured from Witchthorn and when he told us how much she owed him we couldn’t see how she was ever going to pay.
Witchthorn had an idea, however. If we would take on Livia’s debt then he would give us the information we wanted. Hahahahaha. It was good to see that nobody else was much keener to get sucked into that one.
I don’t know exactly what we’re going to do—perhaps Livia had the right idea and if only she’d given us a hint of what she was going to do maybe it would have gone that way. It still might, though now we’re starting from behind with Livia out of it and some of the other spell-casters having already expended some of their power to prevent Livia and Witchthorn killing each other.
Dance with the devil in the pale moonlight
Maybe I should have told them a bit more about my powers, but then again, they didn't help me anyways. Those fuckers just left me unconscious in the middle of the glade. Durthy has chopped plenty of people in two and they happily stuff them in a bag of holding and question the corpse, but when I try to rush in, it's time to hold back and try to turn me into a newt. No thanks.
It all started 10 years ago. I was 20, an adult elf, but still young enough to feel invincible. And I was weak. Have you ever seen an old weak elf? Nope -- the weak ones are on the front lines, cannon fodder in conflicts. They don't make it to 30. Honestly, at that age, I didn't quite think I would either. I was stuck in the army as a pawn, and that just doesn't suit me one bit. As a powerful warlock I moved up quickly, gained power and comfort. I was able to start a family and have a real life. The bargain I had made was in the back of my head after a year - I got on with my life.
Warlock powers don't just spontaneously appear, they're granted. A deal with the devil, you might say. Or a verdant prince in my case. I got these magical powers and a special connection to the power of the fey. In return, I owed him an unspeakable amount of money and unspeakably evil relics. I had planned to kill him with my unit before I ran off. I didn't even realize how quickly it was coming up when I met these adventurers. They had to have known something was up with my powers though, they're so obviously unnatural.
It wasn't until we were in the city, after dealing with the cult of basc that I even thought to check a calendar. I figured I'd just come up with a dream one night, say I saw this guy doing evil things, maybe pretend he's linked into the Medusan Lords somehow. I've saved their butts enough they'd owe me this once. Besides, they usually seem gungho about rushing into kill evil things, ask questions of the corpse later. And with durthy's axe habit... But no, this one time they had to exercise caution. Obegard tried to stop me, ineffectively, but he did prevent me from blasting the shit out of Witchthorn. Until Witchthorn blasted the shit out of me and then entangled me in that damned plant monster.
Oh, and we happened to get into a huge fight with another evil alchemist, met the woman who kissed Obegard, found out she took his pendant to get us to kill said evil alchemist, traveled to some weird interdimensional library of people who know everything about our lands, found out there's some other land beyond our lands and you can travel to them somehow, and a few other minor issues. Nothing of importance really
The Poisoner's Dilema
So not too long after, I was pulled out of the ooze thing, and I was able to get a breath of fresh air in. Durthen was able to dispatch the ooze soon after, and he went back to face the tentacle faced thing. I was still feeling really tired, but Durthen took an even rougher beating. I managed to cast a Heal spell on him to return him to full strength, but he kept getting hurt faster than I could heal him. Fortunately, he was taking a toll on the monster as well, and just when I thought that I wouldn't be able to keep Durthen on his feet, Durthen finished the creature off with a swift slash from his axe.
We caught our breaths and explored the rest of the cult hideout. We managed to find some valuables as well as a ledger that seems to describe their operation. We hightailed it out of there and took a quick break the next day to buy and sell supplies. I also questioned Annie Basc, but the information merely revealed that her operations were no more than to make money, and that the Basceron, more or less, had been working alone. However, after carefully examining the ledger, I determined that they got most of their poisoned potions from a single source. I was also able to discover that most of the potions that we had found in the hideout were also poisoned. Fortunately, I was able to track down the buyers of the ones we sold, and I neutralized all the poison from them.
The next day, we cased the home of the poisonmaster. He seemed to be doing quite well for himself, perhaps a bit too well for someone who supposedly just sells alchemy goods. I briefly talked with the poisonmaster's wife, and she seemed to be honest enough. Perhaps poisonmaster had been keeping her in the dark. We decided to return in the evening to hopefully confront the poisonmaster without too much trouble, but I guess that it was to be expected that the house would be heavily trapped with poison. We had to retreat after a number of us were hit by debilitating poisons. Obegard even fell unconscious from the attack. We went back to our inn and the next day, I cast spells that restored us to normal. This time, we decided, we'd simply confront him about it.
We went back, and Livy managed to set us a meeting with the poisonmaster. We returned to meet with him an hour and a half later, but in hindsight I suspect that he had used the time to hide the evidence of his illegal operation. Nonetheless, three of us went upstairs to meet with him while Obegard and Borrow waited outside the balcony in case there was trouble.
We confronted the poisonmaster about his foul deeds, and he seemed to be disgustingly unconcerned about the consequences all the people he killed with his tainted potions. He had the temerity to try to blackmail us to ensure his silence. I gave him the laugh off, and even though Livy kept insisting to us that had he gone to the authorities, it would have been our heads on a pike, it looked like he was quite worried about his own hide, too. He tried to threaten me into handing him the ledger that implicated him, and again, I laughed it off.
Durthen stepped between him and myself as I put the ledger securely back in my bag. However, the poisonmaster was quite prepared in his own home. Suddenly, a statue leaped into action and a large carpet behind me animated into life. When Durthen struck the man, his skin also turned as hard as stone. The rug had me tangled up, but Livy helped teleport me outside onto the balcony. At that moment, the poisonmaster created a wall of force that completely cut off the balcony, separating us from Durthen. Fortunately, he hadn't expected that we had backup, and at that moment, Obegard levitated up to the balcony and blasted the wall of force out of existence. A wall of blades and a few hacks from Durthen's axe later, the animated carpet was in tatters.
Obegard cast another spell that turned the poisonmaster into a turtle so that he wouldn't be able to cast any more spells, but I guess that even as a turtle, he had the instinct to walk into an invisible screen that dispelled his transmutation. Fortunately (for us, not him), that also dispelled almost all of his protective magic, and with an angry man wielding an axe in his face, he wisely surrendered. I'm not sure what to do with him at this point. I suppose that getting a written confession of his misdeeds would ensure that we would be out of hot water when turning him into the authorities.
We caught our breaths and explored the rest of the cult hideout. We managed to find some valuables as well as a ledger that seems to describe their operation. We hightailed it out of there and took a quick break the next day to buy and sell supplies. I also questioned Annie Basc, but the information merely revealed that her operations were no more than to make money, and that the Basceron, more or less, had been working alone. However, after carefully examining the ledger, I determined that they got most of their poisoned potions from a single source. I was also able to discover that most of the potions that we had found in the hideout were also poisoned. Fortunately, I was able to track down the buyers of the ones we sold, and I neutralized all the poison from them.
The next day, we cased the home of the poisonmaster. He seemed to be doing quite well for himself, perhaps a bit too well for someone who supposedly just sells alchemy goods. I briefly talked with the poisonmaster's wife, and she seemed to be honest enough. Perhaps poisonmaster had been keeping her in the dark. We decided to return in the evening to hopefully confront the poisonmaster without too much trouble, but I guess that it was to be expected that the house would be heavily trapped with poison. We had to retreat after a number of us were hit by debilitating poisons. Obegard even fell unconscious from the attack. We went back to our inn and the next day, I cast spells that restored us to normal. This time, we decided, we'd simply confront him about it.
We went back, and Livy managed to set us a meeting with the poisonmaster. We returned to meet with him an hour and a half later, but in hindsight I suspect that he had used the time to hide the evidence of his illegal operation. Nonetheless, three of us went upstairs to meet with him while Obegard and Borrow waited outside the balcony in case there was trouble.
We confronted the poisonmaster about his foul deeds, and he seemed to be disgustingly unconcerned about the consequences all the people he killed with his tainted potions. He had the temerity to try to blackmail us to ensure his silence. I gave him the laugh off, and even though Livy kept insisting to us that had he gone to the authorities, it would have been our heads on a pike, it looked like he was quite worried about his own hide, too. He tried to threaten me into handing him the ledger that implicated him, and again, I laughed it off.
Durthen stepped between him and myself as I put the ledger securely back in my bag. However, the poisonmaster was quite prepared in his own home. Suddenly, a statue leaped into action and a large carpet behind me animated into life. When Durthen struck the man, his skin also turned as hard as stone. The rug had me tangled up, but Livy helped teleport me outside onto the balcony. At that moment, the poisonmaster created a wall of force that completely cut off the balcony, separating us from Durthen. Fortunately, he hadn't expected that we had backup, and at that moment, Obegard levitated up to the balcony and blasted the wall of force out of existence. A wall of blades and a few hacks from Durthen's axe later, the animated carpet was in tatters.
Obegard cast another spell that turned the poisonmaster into a turtle so that he wouldn't be able to cast any more spells, but I guess that even as a turtle, he had the instinct to walk into an invisible screen that dispelled his transmutation. Fortunately (for us, not him), that also dispelled almost all of his protective magic, and with an angry man wielding an axe in his face, he wisely surrendered. I'm not sure what to do with him at this point. I suppose that getting a written confession of his misdeeds would ensure that we would be out of hot water when turning him into the authorities.
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