Alex Muszynski
20 KiB
The Road North
Episode 56: What the Forest Holds?
We embark on our journey. We stumbled upon a broken cart in the distance.
We split the group up, one side to go find an animal to pull a cart, and another to fix a cart that we found while killing the beast last session.
Bit and Locke stay back.
Bit talks to Ky'Mytha, the demon is not happy that we lost the ring Camilla had. They ensure that if we do not find it that dangerous hunters will be sent to kill us and question why we don't have it.
[!IMPORTANT] Locke and Bit begin to draft up the schematics for what may become the steam engine.
Bit beings to also consider oracalcum as a power source for the engine.
As the others are getting their owl-bear. Locke and Bit are startled by a visige that is attempting to get to our fire. As it steps into the light, we see a man with a large animal pelt over him, its old super worn. He looks like he's been out here a while. He falls into the snow.
We drag the man to the fire. And Locke notices his pupils are two different sizes, leading to internal hemmoraging.
Apparently he has some cabin 2 days away from here. His name is Eryndor. He wants to stay the night, but we aren't going the same way as him.
Neil named the own-bear Kujo.
I cast detect thoughts and I get: What the hell was that they just poked me with.
Neil poked him with the staff that detects changelings and other things and it lit up.
I get thoughts of, he's having a lot of internal conflict. He's stressed about Locke being his boss and he really doesn't want to piss him off.
The guy is awfully suspicious, we think he might be afflicted with the same thing that beast we fought was.
He asks what the man's friends name is and he gets choked up. His eyes narrow and he claims he doesn't remember.
Locke and the stranger take a private moment, he talks about 'her needing the food.' We need to know who 'she' is, also no clue what the food is right now.
He tries to bolt, we restrain him with magic and ropes.
He begins to recite some jibberish, and screams 'I do not have a choice.' He is hysterical.
His body begins to morph as he is breaking down. He says she is West. She's looking for more.. there are others like him. His human face contorts and the man is covered in strange purple paint with insignias covering him. They are etched into his skin, he is tweaking out and his bones are shifting underneath him. His ribcage pushes out and splinters as he continues. A rib ends up splitting out from the skin and his chest flays open. He dies. We decide to pack up and get moving.
20th of Heim
We all suffer a point of exhaustion because we pressed through the night.
If we keep pressing through as it gets colder, the cost of pushing though will increase. As well as camp supplies.
As we travel, the snow lightens up. Travel becomes a little easier. The land itself is beginning to look to have some elevation. We see a view of the continuing view, which leads to a large river and its mostly frozen over. The bridge that is normally there is destroyed. This is a large stone bridge, 300 feet about. We cannot walk around the river.
Episode 57: Shards of Winter's Vein
Neil casts polymorph on me, turns me into a frog. I am scooped up by Camilla along with Cedric.
I am no longer a frog, but I did get to talk to Cedric for some time. Poor guy. I take Cedric back from Camilla and we get closer to the river. Neil finds a dark colored purple feather from the ground. We notice more feathers as we get closer to the river. Camilla recognizes that the feather belongs to harpies from her time living in northern Daein. She ensures that we are fine, nothing to worry about.
Neil throws a rock at the frozen river, and as he does an echo occurs.
We plan to levitate Neil while Camilla turns into a bat for transport. They begin by taking the cart. As they get half way across they begin to hear a whispering voice. Akin to wrath of the litch king vibes. Neil gets the feeling that something else is on the cart with him... he looks behind him and there is spectre form sitting there. Camilla turns, and sees the spectre floating. It's a scary guy, dementor looking. Beyond it in the trees many glistening eyes appear. Bird-like eyes.
As they continue on there is a cold breath, sucking in the air. The warmth slowly siphons away.
As Neil is hit he fails a wisdom saving throw. Takes damage and gains a point of exaustion.
Floating objects keep speed for 'some time', but air resistance will eventually stop it.
Locke Cassius and Bit start trecking across the river. Looking down most of the river is thickly iced over. It looks strange, the ice looks like it occured abnormally. We begin to hear the whispering noises that Neil heard earlier. We see a light moving under the ice. Dozens of them are moving under in the same direction. They are moving with the natural current of the river.
The above scene reminds me of the hades scene from Hercules. Where he dives into the soul pit.
We look down and are able to notice a great deal of magical power from what looks like a source to what we are experiencing. It looks bright as we look at it, the same yellow hue as the other spectres.
Locke casts dancing lights in a red hue, and the souls begin to slowly flock to the lights. The massive light begins to dwindle a bit as what seems like things are transfering over to the new light source. As this happens we are able to see something under the water where they were previously gathered. We see it move but it is too dark to make anything out of it.
Neil turns into a bird and runs away to the forest. Camilla, who the spectre want's nothing to do with, begins to move toward those who are crossing the river and falls in.
Cassius finds a weak spot and his leg is plunged in. When he gets it out his armor is rusted and corroded. We all see Camilla fall in.
Bit has Noxx and Cassius throw him with feather fall and flies across the rest of the river. Noxx Cassius and Locke fall in, Camilla attempts to rescue them...
Neil is conversing with some Harpies on a branch.
As Camilla saves them Locke notices a long haired thing floating in the water. It has female characteristics. Some large female amphibian with large yellow eyes looking at Locke as he is ripped from the water.
Neil is trying to convince the harpy to grab one of the party members that are on the river. They notice Bit standing defenseless on the shore.
The harpies retreat as they are outnumbered. They give off a communacative noise to alert other harpies nearby.
Important
When using fireball, cast 2 at the same time and combine them into a concentrated blue fireball that deals 2x using sorc points.
Episode 58: Power within
20th of Heim
Camilla wakes up in the night, approaching Cassius which is entranced in what he is currently doing. He runs through the motions, elegantly training this morning. He normally goes through an effort not to train in front of outsiders, making this session a little odd. Camilla has a conversation with Cassius regarding the loss of people and how it impacts them. Cassius has some regrets about not being able to protect people in his past that are no longer with him. Which is one of the reasons he continues to fight. He feels he needs to pursue combat due to his natural gifts. To help those that cannot defend themselves well as he can.
Neil makes a few calls to the Kyrie warrior that helped us return from the past. Neil then tells Bit to contact Ozen to let her know that the Kyrie Rachel Renethil needs to get in touch with Ozen.
We begin to travel for the day. A blizzard begins to come down.
As we continue on for the day nothing yet comes of it.
Locke has a snow monocle, that gives him +4 to perception checks when looking through blizzard conditions. Not light snow, blizzard.
Locke finds a slight overhang that could give some cover to wait out the blizzard. Locke pulls out his 'Regular Degula' wine that he brought from the past.
Neil gives Camilla his pocketwatch as they are talking outside of the camp that Creed, Bit, Cassius, and Noxx are sitting at.
Regular Degula is made of the Degulia plant found in Crimea and Eastern Benyon.
We have some campfire chit chat, talking about Ulq. What Cassius would do if he was never a fighter, which he never put much thought to.
Neil is now conditioned to consuming spoiled food/drink
Creed and Camilla set out to get some fire wood for the night.
Creed finds an abandoned teepee, inside is a dead body with a gash across his collarbone and abdomen. He also sees a piece of paper that has arcane markings, he is unable to descern what the beginning of the spell could be.
The dead body is scalped by some orc clan that Creed was able to identify. Made for a scary long rest.
Creed is woken up before everyone wakes by Cassius, presumably to train with him.
Episode 59: Whispers of the Woods
Locke boxes Cassius, Locke gets an espada point which improves his ability points.
Camilla pulls a potato and puts it back in the sack, the potato is just sitting in the sack... testing the sacks capabilities.
Camilla and Neil go looking for poisonous plants and seem to find something off the path. It has an orange red tint. Camilla puts this, phallic... looking object in her mouth.
Locke and Bit fail to make a breakthrough on the steam engine. We are traveling and the clouds break and the day looks to be a good travel. The snow stops, sun comes out and all is quiet so far.
Neil and I dimension door up 500 ft, and fall to safety as we observe a clearing 2 days north east. We travel going about 2 degrees west so we avoid the clearing after Neil observed a horn sounding somewhere ahead. As we travel we find disturbed snow. We see a snapped arrow in a tree, Bit looks at the tracks around. Trying to figure out if this was a battle or a hunt. Large tracks: orcish, a beast, and some humanoid smaller ones. The distance doesn't indicate there was any kind of urgency, or running involved.
The majority of the tracks came from the West. The exact way we were going to avoid the spec and the bone noise... We should probably avoid this route and move back. Unless we want to confront these seemingly violent individuals.
We split up... Locke and I stay at a disturbed area. I start a fire and hide in a tree to draw the people out. We draw one out, an orc in ragged armor and weapons. He hears a war horn and as he does he pulls out a horn made of bone and prepares to blow into it. The orc goes running and Shembulock baits him to a gunpowder bag that Locke planted. Locke snipes the bag and the orc is charred meat.
Camilla and Neil make it back to the scene of a dead orc and an empty area.
We regroup and try to get to Cassius and Noxx. Along the way there is a murder scene, we assume this is where they got ambushed.
Locke and Camilla turn into avian creatures and fly ahead to find a group of 9 orcs and a large wolf like creature. Locke and Camilla fly ahead and lay a trap for them in their path.
Locke and Camilla are now in combat with all of these fuckers. Bit and Neil are far behind.
Episode 60: Savagry
Neil and Bit have been running for the better part of an hour. Neil notes that his polymorph should be available now if we want to use it again.
Camilla and Creed continue to battle the group. The ambush goes well but the creatures are not killed by the surprise attack. Seven orcs all jump down from the beast.
Neil casts sending towards Camilla and Creed and they are not doing well over there. In response Bit is transformed into an owl, 14 minutes out at full speed that means Camilla and Creed needs to survive 140 turns of combat to wait on Bit.
The older pale mounted orc says: you fool we need more alive.
Camilla is downed non-lethally.
14 minutes pass and I make it to the scene of the battle. We begin to follow their trails, and push through the night as we notice the tracks slowing. We plan to ambush them while they camp.
Camilla and Creed are taken captive and reside in their camp. They are being shaved and painted for what seems like some sort of ritual. The leader of the orcs seem to be happy to find people like Locke and Camilla. Urzog is the name of the mage type orc.
They notice Camilla is undead, and find her fangs. They recognize the fangs as their first instinct is to run away from a vampire. We could be in the area of Camilla's kin.
While they examine Creed, he tries to antagonize them: "Shouldn't the strongest be calling the shots?" They are pissed at Creed for disrespecting Urzog.
They are expected to choose between the two of them, to... do something. The man chooses Camilla. He takes strikes at her already beaten self. And the last thing Camilla sees is his blurred face. Camilla is going to die here.
Bit and Neil, approach the camp. Unknowing of Camilla's death. It's currently 4am, we have a point of exhaustion at this point. We get a little closer than we expected, there is no fire at this camp. The camp existed before they got there, its quite large. Currently we may assume that there are more than the 9 orcs and single dog here.
We discuss plans to draw them out.
Episode 61: To Honor the Dead
Camilla died last session.
Bit and Neil prepare to ambush the camp in order to save their allies.
We lay 100 ft of rope laced with oil, and lay it across from the prison. Bit lights the rope, Neil is in place at the prison zones.
[!IMPORTANT] DECISION: The caster of invisibility cannot see the invisible target
Neil creeps around and sees Camilla's corpse, laid out in the camp. Neil attempts to pick the cage, gets Cassius' attention while Locke is still unconcious. Bit is lying in wake.
We are victorious in combat, however the main sage retreats with an ancient looking grimoire.
Walking into the main orcs tent, there are signs of where paper was hung on the walls. There is reminants of a large tub, with viscous purple liquid bubbling. It looks like oracalcum bubbling. Some markings around are the same that were on the book that he ran away with. Most of the left over books are in orcish, a single in common deals with the stability of oracalcum, the ranges that have been discovered.
As Bit enteres he is met with past events from the spellbinder society, he hears Malrik. Another jolt of pain as it feels like somehting is physically supressing my memory. An unexplained familiarity washes over me when I see the tub of viscous oracalcum.
I need to talk to Eldric
The three orcish books are reading right to left. They basically detail the process, trial and error, of refining the oracalcum for untraditional purposes. Mad scientist journal, not a detailed textbook. Seems to have been used for some sort of treatment or alteration. Used on living creatures.
Neil touched unstable oracalcum bath, and blew us all up almost killing everyone in the radius.
Episode 62: Numb
We find a cave for the night, and split a large sum of gold between us. Bit now has about 2.3k gold to himself.
We successfully long rest.
We find a large automaton on our travels as soon as we begin for the day. It doesn't seem to respond to us in any meaningful way. The robot is property of the oracalcum exchange. We find liquid oracalcum in the robot. We find stage-2 oracalcum in the robot and it is the most dangerous.
Bit looks at it, with rememberance. I get a physical reaction as I remember a burn go through my arms and body. I get a flash as I return to that chair, sitting down--more clear as I see a few others around me. People I recognize and names I can almost remember.Walking around multiple people inject tubes into your arm, and a headset is placed on the back of your head. I feel a burning sensation as the memory goes through me. And I remember what they were putting through those tubes... the solution right in front of me... the stage 2 oracalcum.
I don't know why I was in the chair, but I do know I wasn't there by force.
Magiflax, can take in energy L-ion battery for magic.
The only surface we cannot see is under the liquid.
[!IMPORTANT] DECISION Cannot send message(s) to the hells.
We are able to pour 3/4 of the oracalcum into a box. I need to use magiflex to contain the oracalcum for the engine.
We see a k9 esque beast. We are getting to the more northern zone.
We see a small unmarked village, the first civilization we have seen since stonemarsh.
Episode 63: New town new faces
There are about two dozen building that we can see. Ample room between them, some on the edge of the forest line.
Date 11th of Fenros
As we approach a steady snow begins.
We approach what looks like the innkeeper who is fixing a sign outside the inn. He is a half-elf that is rather friendly. He goes off to prepare us a meal as we sit down at the largest table available. His name is Marcus.
The man goes to wake up the other guests, two figures emerge. The first man is in a full suit of chainmail armor, black with blue accents. Hanging from his shoulders is ragged and torn cloak, a traveling type. Behind him is a taller man, with well maintained all red armor.
They take notice to us as we are trying to mind our own business, but keeping tabs on them. They take seats at the "bar" in the corner. They order some of the cheapest ale around.
Damascus Thorn, and Victor are the names of our new compatriots.
We have a conversation poking around at our backgrounds and our intentions. Wondering why either party is around. They are vampire hunters, or at least not fond of them. As we discuss an old lady comes in named Mara. She runs their concept of a general store in this small village.
It seems that the purpose behind their being here is regarding rumors of a vampire being present. Sebastion reveals that his true body is the frost dragon that we have encountered a few times now. We need to dig more into that at a different time. Our new compatriots--Damascus and Victor--come with us due to our potential knowabouts of some vampires they can be a part of vanquishing. There seems to be a specific vampire they are most interested in--name unknown at this time. We make our way to the general store, the inside of the house is noticibly cold. The windows have frost on the inside of them. The heat coming off the fire doesn't seem to spread very far from off of its origin.
Locke casts detect magic, and detects something in the bedroom. Neil investigates invisibly, its a small room with. Neil begins to investigate. He finds a necklace with a twine rope, there is an animal bone on there as well. Very voodoo looking.
There was someone who came by and gave the amulet at some point--the one which summons ice wraiths apparently--Cold Marrow is the person who gave it to her apparently, according to Sebastion. He shouldn't be out this far though, a month away from Bloodhaven.
Victor smashes the amulet, and the heat of the fire begins to spread. If we wait for the next day the old lady will give us 1 week of rations each for helping her lift the cold curse thing. So Damascus, Victor, Bit, and Cassius go hunting to no avail, however Victor finds some bright orange berries from a shrub. He doesn't seem to confident about what they are.
Damascus reveals himself as a Drow, Victor is a human. As we settle down for the night, Bit makes an exquisite potato soup, and Damascus reveals that he once had an oath as a paladin, since broken. He claims that the vampires have been harassing his town; Dunstone? His oath was to always stand before the people; in terms of fighting off vampires. Apparently he failed to do so in the midst of a rather terrifying breed of vampire.
As Locke and I take watch for the night, we notice a dim blue glow from the woods. We find wraiths, we kill them. We get our week of free camp supplies. Timbleroot Village is the name of where we are.
The next day during travel, we see a fire in a blizzard and ignore it. As we take watch, we notice footprints we eventually identify it as a Fiend of sort because Damascus can smell undead.
The blizzard intensifies, we move at half speed due to the weather. Cassius sees some mountainous terrain in the distance, we are on the right path.
During the travel Neil gets a splitting headache and sees a differnt PoV for a second. Multiple twisted purple hands moving fast. Another flash something moving fast through our old campsite that we recently moved from. It tears up our campsite as it passes though and continues on its way on the same path we are. The last flash is it at a place 40 minutes behind, following our tracks.