Avatar Party
*We pick up the story after the mine we were working for has been attacked by “tent-builder” marauders. We have met up with a small detachment of survivors, and 2 marauder prisoners.
Part of the survivors split of f and go south, fleeing to Minor Zenon.
The party members, plus Droka, Sorik, Grissom the 2nd level fighter, Archstrand the 3rd level elf, and Ingot, the dwarven woman who was in charge of the group hunting down the marauders (that were killed by Ghenelon), we head west to the River Keep.
Day 1
We skirt the hills. Go for a few hours and make camp. Hear some noises at night, but don’t get attacked. Keep moving the next morning.
Namisha suggests we put the prisoners in the shelter scroll. Then she tries to talk to the translater and learn about the marauder culture.
Day 2
Tall exposed hill. We decide to travel around and avoid the exposure. Think we smell wood smoke as we go around. Archstrand volunteers to be the scout. After 15 minutes, he comes back and says a group of 7 marauders have set up camp – they are Bluebeards. They are the largest recent wave of marauders. No association with the tent-builders. Our choices are avoid, or try to take them out. We all vote to attack.
The prisoners go into the shelter scroll. Droka casts Bless on the party. Archstrand casts Mirror Image. (gets 4). Uses a long bow.
Namisha casts Silence 15’ Radius.
Ghenelon casts Pro from Evil on himself. Plans to charge after the missile fire.
The party gets ready to ambush with missiles, Ferris gets into place (successful move silent), and gets to the far side of the camp unnoticed.
Com
We kill off the survivors.
Ferris starts looting their scrote sacks. That’s where the real loot is.
Loot total: 103 gold pieces, 1 silver, 3 copper. Some electrum.
Go six more miles, set camp, night passes. Sun rises.
Go three more hexes.
We pass through territory where it seems like there was a small human village that was deserted decades ago. We keep moving.
That night, as sun is setting… on Ingot’s watch…. “What was that?!” Lemat turns and sees a large dragon shadow against a hill a few miles away. It’s a “small” blue dragon. Sun is not down yet.
We make efforts to hide our tents. Ferris uses Hiding to disguise the tents.
The next morning, the forest thins, copses of trees broken by open grassy areas. Run from copse to copse, walking slowly in the trees. Travel like this all day long. And then we begin to climb into the mountains. As we are following a switchback, We come across a mostly eaten Pegasus carcass. Looks like it was the work of the dragon.
We move a bit farther, then camp for the night. Uneasily. Passes without event.
Next day, break camp. We come upon the fortress.
The fortress straddles a rather large river, with a fort on each side, and a portcullis blocking the river, preventing large things from moving freely up and down the river.
Ingoss and Sorik invoke their citizenship They give their full lineage and ancestry. Guards check it.
We’re allowed to enter, with our prisoners in tow. Lemat casts Charm on the translator. Lemat starts quizzing him. He says that they take pride in being the most sophisticated of the marauders. He says they occupy a section of the Tower. They maintain supply trains, don’t outstrip them, and can execute large scale plans. When their numbers grow, they move out of the tower and try to establish a base outside the tower. They have to bargain with the Mourners to get passage through the gate and into the territory. He guesses that at least 1000 left the tower this last time. They were going to set up a big base in the south that they would have an altitude advantage, scout out the area and look for a human settlement that they could take over.
How did they know about the mine? -Scouts just discovered it. They want it for the ore.
Tactics – they use these spear things they can through ahead of them into battle.
Other tactics, they build a pit trap, put a troll in the bottom of it.
He’s also proud of their ethics. They don’t necessarily kill each other in battle. They see us as heathens and animals. So we’re not worthy of the same moral standings. But they see the children as innocent. They work children to the bone, and then release them, because they didn’t have a choice about worshipping false gods.
Lemat uses the Ring or Spell Swapping to learn another Charm spell, Charms the chief.
We get more specific about their current tactics, invite the Viceroy at River keep in.
They are going south, but they also know about River Keep, and are heading this way with a few hundred marauders to try to take the keep.
Last time they attacked the fort had 100 soldiers. This time they are bringing more troops and are going to try to siege the keep.
The Viceroy will draft a letter of commendation for us. Is asking for us to stay and help, but will give us a boat to go back home.
He has 100-150 soldiers here. He’s not afraid. The Viceroy thinks it is unwise to venture out to try to take out the vanguard.
We ask the chief what kind of flying allies they have.
He says they are slavers. They have manticores, hippogriffs, trolls, and random stuff they find in the tower. They will be using that stuff in the advanced guard.
We agree to wait around until the main force strikes, and serve as healers and back ups, let lemat use his spells, create monsters, etc.
The initial vanguard comes down. Smaller than expected. They come on rafts.
We hang back, and don’t participate.
Devine – a paladin of Thurs. She’s rather tall. Georgeous. A sight for sore eyes for people that are interested in the females. Droka especially is excited about it. Namisha tries to set them up. She says she hasn’t been in the Tower. She’s interested, but hasn’t found the right group. She’s above name level. “Worthy of her name.” they offered her a lot of money to come to the keep and help defend it. She became interested in material things. “Get it so you can guard it”, is a Pflarr saying, apparently. The male soldiers like to have her around. She’s been here for 6 months, plan to leave in about another 6 months. Here today to provide healing and support.
Minor healing done, some people are just dead when they are brought in for healing.
We wait a couple more days for wave 2 to arrive. It approaches in an impressive looking force. Two catapults. Two siege towers, ladders, a battering ram.
Our strategy will be to create sharks in the water, and watch for fliers coming over the wall. They stop outside of arrow range to set up their machinery, but the keep harassing them with ballista bolts.
Lemat casts Haste on a big group of 24 soldiers, including the party.
Their soldiers start to stomp and scream, and charge forward.
Ghenelon casts Pro from Evil
Droka casts Bless, Striking.
Lemat creates the sharks, drops them into the water. Instructs them to attack anything with two legs. Four orcs also.
The viceroy has people whose job it is to peek out and see where the ladders are going up. They tend to die. One shouts out locations of 4 ladders being set up. Lemat responds by creating 2 stone giants to knock the ladders down, plus 2 orcs. They get down to business. The marauders waiting to climb the ladders start attacking.
Fliers. The first one is a manticore, about 500 feet up, with a rider, presumably a marauder. Ghenelon flies up, gets close enough, charges and lances the manticore. Attacks once more and the manticore falls, the rider falls. Namisha was flying up, the guy passes her on the way down. She sees several other manticores and hippogriffs. There are two things coming up, but they are a way away.
The sharks are freaking out people in the water. The attempts to land a siege tower are delayed.
A ladder is landing on the wall, Ferris stops telling his story to the archers next to him, jumps up and hustles over there. At that time, a low flying manticore flies over the wall and drops something.
The package cracks open and spills something oily on the parapet. Ferris gets out his blowgun and hits the first marauder coming over the wall. He’s paralyzed, carrying a torch, and falls off backward down the ladder.
The manticore attacking Ghenelon hits with a claw attack.
Ferris leans out, shoots another dart at the ladder, hits and paralyzes another marauder.
Namisha is attacked by a manticore, hit by a claw.
Another hippogriff is coming in…
Ghenelon starts using his bow from a safe distance (attacking at -1 for range)
Lemat fireballs the base of the siege tower, it bursts into flame, killing a bunch of people, and the people at the top are jumping into the water.
Ferris is hit by an arrow (3 points), overacts the damage, asks the “lord” to receive his soul.
Ferris hits another guy for 2 points (nat 20!). And is hit for another point.
Lemat and Ghenelon start looking for shamans to attack.
Segment 4 – a catapult fires at the wall, a second one is about to fire when an Elf in our group fires 5 magic missiles into the catapult crew and kills them.
Segment 3 – shout that a new ladder is going up between 7 and 8. Wall breach!
Hippogriff goes after Namisha. She hits for 9, Ghenelon skewers it for 36 points of damage. It’s dead.
Lemat finishes by picking two guys to target with magic missile (15 missiles).
We discuss strategies for how to finish….
Summon creatures using the box, safely. Roc +8 orcs, hasted. The orcs will find supply wagons, the roc will pick up whatever they were targeting. Roc brings back the supply wagon to the fort. Sometimes it brings back supplies, sometimes it doesn’t come back.
Viceroy will write a glowing recommendation. He is very pleased with our service. To exit the fortress, we’re going to create a roc, haste it, have it carry the boat that the viceroy is going to give us, fly out over the siege, and then escape.
We leave our prisoners with the fort.
Ferris & Furywing – we offer to take messages from the soldiers. 100 messages, 40 need the letters written for them. 1 gold per message, 1 electrum from each person who needs it written. Total: 120 gold. Ferris buys the boat from the Viceroy for 1 gold. Extra for letters that need to go beyond Zenon.
The Roc carries the boat in its claws, with the party members in it, then the roc drops the boat in the water at flying speed 480’. Go down the river one day, then half day to the bazar. We run into the reinforcement troops coming up the river, towing the supply barges from the shore.
The soldiers are eager to hear about what we’ve been through and what’s happening at the fort. Ghenelon uses each interaction as an opportunity to pitch products for Ferris & Furywing.
Pass the troops, Ferris tries to sell the boat. Unloads it for 150 gp.
PART II
Between delving the Tower some more, and following a lead to the “Pegasi Island” a.k.a the Godlands, the party decides to risk crossing the open ocean with a flock of pegasi, and convince Drokka to come along for the adventure.
With magical flight across the ocean an impossibility, the party devises an insane plan of climbing into their Shelter Scroll, which would be carried by Ghenelon, who would have the lives of all of them in his hands. Lamat is to use the ring of spell transference to be able to exceed his normal limits of third level spells and will cast Create Air to extend the amount of time that the individuals can stay in the scroll without suffocating.
Ghenelon meanwhile practices marathon flying in anticipation of flying for more than 24 hours straight across the ocean.
Namisha and Ferris indulge in some weapon training, provisions are packed, and we are on our way. Sorik stays home. Ghenelon encourages some pegasi to make the trip by promising them barrels of lightning moss to eat along the way. We pack 17 barrels in our Bag of Holding for the trip.
The ocean is teeming with life. Ghenelon is alone among the pegasi as he watches colossal shapes moving beneath the 80 foot waves. After a day and a night and a day of flying, Ghenelon arrives at the first stop, the place that the pegasi call “green fall”, and island in the middle of the ocean.
To our amazement, the “island” is actually a tower. An abandoned ancient tower, jutting up out of the ocean. Only the highest floors of the tower are visible. New structures have been built on the top of the tower, but even these are ancient. The tower features four giants of unknown species on each side (later identified as Trockklans).
(Notes from Anil)
NGs flight to the Pegasus Isle:
* Greenfalls is the first stop 1.8 days from the coast of Arselon. Ghenelon bravely flies non-stop from the coast and when we arrive we find that green falls is actually an ancient tower. The tower overall is made of a turquoise like rock. There are two sections, a lower section that is 120’ tall, upper smaller section is 80’ tall. On top of the lower section are buildings built on top of the tower — human sized barracks, the “moon window building” (see below). There is also a staircase, open hole. The base has four pedestals sticking out into the ocean and four giant statues, two men with roman shields and spears, two older and mostly undressed women with small shields, and holes. Giant statues seem to have a leathery armor skin; we later find that they are Trockklans. The pedestals are 60’ above the ocean. The arches connect to passageways but you can’t see all the way through the building. They are filled with life like you might expect to see in a tidal pool. Seems dangerous.
Exploring notes:
* We find a piece of paper suspended in a crystal in a room at the bottom of the short shaft. This is a letter from “Nysytheny” who is attempting journey from the god lands to the tower lands to join with a banker, she leaves the letter for others to find and deliver a message back to her family. Likely quite ancient (500 years?).
* The Moon window building has fresh water inside, pegasi immediately fly straight through the window to drink. Inside is an altar with grooves. Room slopes to collect water. Giant sized spiral staircase.
Upper tower:
* On the first floor, across from the main entrance there is a giant eye, there are also woodworking set ups with petrified wood laying about. Central shaft with no apparent entrances, everything we see in outer corridor
* Second floor, appears to end at a dead end – a flat wall with a mural on it.
* Third (top) floor, has a dais with a giant horn on it. Completely open floor. Horn faces outwards to the wall. With ancient knowledge, Ferris had read that people found a giant horn amongst ruins at the edge of Zenon. The horn has been filled with plaster, and the wall used to be a window that has been filled with blocks. Ferris and Ghenelon chip out the plaster from the horn, and re-open the window but do not blow the horn.
* On the second floor, We discover a shaft through an secret door (the mural). This shaft goes below the level of the ocean and eventually ends in a pool of dark water. There are pieces of broken stairs and landings on the way down. One statue broken off at the ankles on the landing near the bottom. Nimisha and Lemat fly down and create orcs (allowing one to breathe water) and sharks to explore the underwater region. When the orc touches the statue with the broken feet, he has to save or die choking — we discover nested overlapping diamond shapes holy symbol on the orc’s forehead. Four additional statues lie below the water: a bicep, a fist, a hammer, and a feather The bicep fist and hammer all imprint the same holy simple (a combination of all three). The orc explores further down and finds a hearth, tunnels and a throne room. The sharks retrieve a 13 magical spearheads from the hearth portion.
Underwater exploration:
Lemat then saves up spells that allow us all to move and breathe underwater.
* In the throne room we find the following inscription. “The suns loyalty to his mother is rooted in the body. The daughter who after her mothers death lives for 30 years without changing her rules is filial indeed.
One big throne flanked by two smaller thrones on each side, also 11 smaller thrones on each side. Sitting on the main throne, people can be commanded, and lights can be turned on or off (including a “harsh light” attack mode that stuns creatures. Ferris finds a secret passage way behind the throne with lots of giant sized treasure and several potions. The passage way is an escape tunnel that looks like it would open under the ocean, what would have perhaps been a hillside eons ago. We explore the rest of the base floor, find little else. We find a secret door off the library that was not flooded, but is immediately flooded when we open the door. The ancient scrolls inside are quickly destroyed. We grab fragments in the water to take with us in case we have an opportunity to repair the objects.
Several windows and doors have been blocked off with quality masonry. This leads us to believe that the ocean level slowly rose, giving the inhabitants time to defend the keep against the rising waters.
In the upper part of the lower tower we send in created ogres and discover 2 rock golems guarding the room, and a passage going down. We kill one of the golems and find a very valuable statue (400k+ gp) of a winged creature that giants used to ride around on as steeds. We find a crystal ball with a giantess trapped in it named Amandel. She gets us to say her name by mouthing it and immediately possesses Lemat (he was the first to say her name). She is a Trockklan, and appears to be a sort of robotic creature designed to question and determine the threat level of intruders. After we answer her questions she returns to the crystal ball. Lemat tells us that he was watching the conversation from the crystal ball while he was possessed.
The second leg of our over-sea journey is to stone shards. There is a rest stop on a coral reef, but waves are too high to land. The stone shards are steep rocks jutting from the ocean. The final segment is a slightly shorter leg. the first land you encounter are islands on a little bay. The first island is truly the home of the pegasi. We later learn this is called “white flock” by the humans in the area.
Arrival in the God Lands
We talk to Pflarr and find out that Trockklans are a giant like creature that ended the age of dragons and began the age of giants. The creatures we saw in the tower were Trockklans. Pflarr is particularly interested in what kind of a hold the gods have on these people. Are people all a worshipper of one god? How pure? What species live here? What resources are available? Do they use golems or enchantments?
We find out from the pegasi that there is a “blurred city” (big city) to the North Northeast. We stop at the nearest town along the way; women are dressed finely. We meet Ness, the tribal mother of a small ranching community. They are in the Fainholds, they worship Akessi. By talking to her and her son we find out the following:
The largest city in the Fainholds is Degg — old capitol, Eisen is the new capitol. They mine iron ore and raise cattle. To the East is the Blessed Kingdom, Deus fanatics. To the north, Maon, another poor multi-religious country. Across the bay Poln, the imperial power. The Fainholds are on Silver Bay, a sheltered bay with 8 nations bordering. There is a tower in the narrow entrance to the bay that keeps the big waves and nasty creatures. The shrines are referred to as the “spires.” We talk to her son, he was hired out in Maon mercenary, and he has been to Poln, capitol city is Hennemar. We find out that the “Blessed Kingdom” became powerful 20 years ago and rid the bay of lycanthropes.
We also find out the Ordanna region is referred to as the “Forest of the furry foots” — (furryfoots = fae creatures)
We stop for a night in Eisen, do some meeting people, shopping. Ferris makes out with one of the many rogue ladies around — the non-matriarchs join lesbian bands of thieves who seem to be marginalized but accepted part of the society.
Nimisha meets Weirman Nesh, a knight from Seddenholds. He has two sisters who are mages and he himself is a Knight — in Seddenhold families there is one matriarch and the younger sisters are mages — he has to remain “celibate”. He tells us that there are still Trockklans. We find out that the reason they are so good is that they are very disciplined in battle and have very organized societies. The shields are the secret to their success.
Additional Geographical Information we discover:
God lands (aka the Homeland, Blessed Lands) Continent has three regions:
Western region (3 bays, each with concentration of human civilizations)
Middle regions (Fae creatures, humans, giants)
Eastern region (giant home, dragon home, place they fight)
Isle of the Barricades is the Akessi shrine along northern coast, east of Kind gulf (east).
Silver Bay, Kind Gulf (north and South; north of Silver Bay), Gulf of Reiland (south)
Hynth has the best places of learning, but Seddenholds have more mages and is a matriarchy. All the younger women become
Gulf of Reiland — Westgriff is a nation built on ruins of Giant empire. Close to Griff Archipelago. In Westgriff, go to Bronzewood Town on the borderlands. Tourist trap for adventurers.
We head to Degg, sell lightning moss and kill some thieves. We then sail to Hynth’s capital Erud. The captain is Nysdi. Along the way, we sail past a lightning rod. It still detects magic but no one has ever heard the electricity. We also neutralize some pirates. We encounter a octopus which is quickly killed and we save most of the passengers and crew.
Weirman has things he wants to do when we arrive in Erud, introduces us to Meerenfast. Meerenfast is a member of the Seership academy, the finest academy in magic, history, religion, farming techniques, mathematics, astronomy, and ship building. Ghenelon gets information on astronomy for tower usage. Ferris finds out about holy symbols — water droplet: loyal to the elemental sphere of water; may have flooded the plain, feather: advocate for social societies, arm & hammer:
This religious scholar thinks that there was a time when there was not just elemental spheres, but many distinctive spheres. During this time, the plane was ruled by a balance of the four elements with an adjudicator (fifth element). This fifth element was somehow related to electricity. This group was called the Pentaganon council. It was these gods that built the tower. Eventually, everyone was forced to belong to the four elemental spheres. Eventually plane was ruled by water. The sentinel towers were built by Trockklans. The pentaganon council got renamed to the citadel council, at some point this tipped towards air/thought. When the age of humans happened someone defected from entropy to time. Time is associated with water and this is probably the source of the ocean rise. Matriarchy comes from Trackklan.
Other interesting finds:
* We find that pegataurs come from Red Tree Top Mountain.
* Griff Archipelago has rods that are seasonally active. Can not reach them easily; magical flight not always possible. Southernmost island with an abandoned palace — its overgrown, but people seem to be there. Once a great a bridge existed to the Trackklan homeland, but its been torn down.
* Flying Steeds — theory that they’re extinct or that they are kept still by the Trackklan.
* There are lots of Fae Folk, but apparently nothing unique Fae. There are super powerful dryads that are born from triple strands (also exists on nine kingdoms) and can mass charm.
* Some unique golems exist.
* The old empire has piers at sea level and below the see. The empire gradually faded, lasted well into the age of humans.
* Towers are made of a distinctive material, mined long ago, but no one knows where they came from (we speculate that these must be underwater). This material protects against lightning, sticks together, its strong. The Trockklan bridge is made out of it. It can be reworked.
* Akesi has converted giants to his religion; his giants are building great walls to defend themselves against dragons. He is especially in the Kind Gulfs area.
* Akesi’s shrine is on the Isle of Barricades.
* The three continental shrines are great spires going miles into the air.
* The other sentinel towers: find book that tells of the Adventures of Sorrai who discusses there being others. Had a mighty
“pegasus” steed. Found other towers out in the middle of nowhere. He conquered parts of the plane for a while. We become pretty convinced that Sorrai is Deus.
For XP purposes: octopus & thieves, lemat saved pirates.
We last did XP at arrival on Whiteflock.
Loot:
* 13 magical spearheads from tower.
* Everything Giant sized: chain mail coat, 3 helmets, halberd, 2 spears, small shield. 11 potions
* Sale of lightning moss + ambush loot — 99108 gp — already distributed to party members
