We took a side trip to Berlitz to recruit Ark and friends for our assault on the wizard's tower. The dragonborn were excited to be doing something other than guard detail. We passed through one of Katja's portals and stared our march to Helmut's house. Sneakily, and slowly, we crept through Letherna's mountains until we came to Helmut's back door. After we disarmed a nasty death trap on the secret entrance, the stealthier members of the group entered the tower and proceeded upwards.
The Tower Basement:
Helmut's tower is build on top of a very old mine, which his men reported is filled with traps and monsters that Helmut sometimes uses as guardians or test subjects. If we get a chance, we might consider exploring this place sometime.
On the way up, the sniper and the mystic discovered a barracks full of guards. Luckily, the guards were goofing off and didn't notice when my crew locked them on their level of the tower. I suppose they're complacent because not many people are smart or stupid enough to attack Helmut's stronghold. It makes me wonder which class of attackers I fall into. Anyway, we made it up near the top of the tower without alerting anyone. The tower has a nice view of Letherna, I'll give it that much credit. Those weird lumiescent jellyfish things look like fireflies in the forest from up in the tower.
The only obvious way father up was behind a door with a sign that said "WELCOME: ENTER FREELY" which had to be a trap. The dark elf decided to take another (safer?) route to the top---he crawled out the window and started climbing the roof. When he was nearly to the top, a group of huge ravens attacked. It's a good thing he was wearing a safety harness because they knocked him off of the roof. About that time, the box with the feathers vibrated violently, warning us that we didn't have much time before Helmut was going to show up. We barely managed to get my team into the top of the tower before things got messy.
The top of the tower looked as though it might have been a lighthouse at some time in it's life, but the light had been replaced with a large dais with the markings of an arcane portal on it. We didn't have any time to study the portal because a whole horde of guardians burst into the room from one of the doors. We knocked over some bookcases and put up the fight of our lives. Magical guardians and strange beasts assaulted us from the windows and the eastern door, trying to drive us out of the tower, but we didn't give an inch.
After we slaughtered most of our attackers, Helmut and a stone golem friend materialized in the room. We were tired from the long fight, but the sight of our prey gave us new energy and we threw ourselves at him. Helmut threw thunder, lightning and fire all over us, but we did not falter. Outside, I heard more guards coming to help their master, but I think that's about the time Ark and friends found them. Without reinforcements, the wizard was ours. Killing him was very satisfying; it was a long time coming.
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Frei's Memories: Day 15
We poked around Nashik, looking for any information that might give us get the upper hand in our fight against Helmut. We got extremely luck and caught wind of some rumors that a large hunting part had recently headed into a large forest. We assumed they had to be Helmut's men out looking for the Nightmare Beast so we set out after them at the first opportunity.
We tracked the hunters to a large coral forest northwest of Nashik. It seemed like a good place to hide; volcanic vents covered about half of the old forest in a smoky veil. It didn't take us long to find their camp, though. There were only a few guards, some of them we recognized from our fight with Helmut's apprentice. They should have found other work while they had the chance---we fed them to a huge, predatory starfish after we dispensed with them. They didn't go quietly, though and attracted some of their friends. The shadar-kai reinforcements were half-bemused to see the starfish munching on their comrades, but their humor didn't last long. Their force was much stronger, but not enough to stand against us. After they were dead, we looted the camp and discovered a few bricks of very nice tobacco.
We engaged another group of hunters about a mile from the campsite. The shadar-kai were trying to separate the Nightmare Beast from its child. We fought the hunters in a bloody and sometimes confusing melee amongst dense corals and clouds of sulfurous smoke. The Nightmare Beast and child seized the opportunity and ran far, far away. In the end, we took only three prisoners from the shadar-kai and killed the other dozen or so.
Not long after the battle, our psychic knight made mental contact with the Nightmare Beast. The creature knew where Helmut laid his head at night and gratefully shared the location with us. Helmut wasn't a very social shadar-kai---he made his lonely home in an isolated tower in the rugged mountains far north of Nashik. In exchange for his life, one of our prisoners even divulged the location of a secret entrance to the tower. That damn wizard didn't have much longer to live.
Luck was with us and we found a coral archway to the obsidian prison in the northern part of the forest. We decided to pay Katja a visit and prepare for our assault on Helmut's tower. To help us fight the wizard, the obsidian dragon gave us a box of feathers. She said that they could reach into Astral space and trap anyone using teleportation for a few minutes. Katja was pleased with our gift of tobacco and broke out the fanciest (and largest) hookah I've ever seen.
We tracked the hunters to a large coral forest northwest of Nashik. It seemed like a good place to hide; volcanic vents covered about half of the old forest in a smoky veil. It didn't take us long to find their camp, though. There were only a few guards, some of them we recognized from our fight with Helmut's apprentice. They should have found other work while they had the chance---we fed them to a huge, predatory starfish after we dispensed with them. They didn't go quietly, though and attracted some of their friends. The shadar-kai reinforcements were half-bemused to see the starfish munching on their comrades, but their humor didn't last long. Their force was much stronger, but not enough to stand against us. After they were dead, we looted the camp and discovered a few bricks of very nice tobacco.
We engaged another group of hunters about a mile from the campsite. The shadar-kai were trying to separate the Nightmare Beast from its child. We fought the hunters in a bloody and sometimes confusing melee amongst dense corals and clouds of sulfurous smoke. The Nightmare Beast and child seized the opportunity and ran far, far away. In the end, we took only three prisoners from the shadar-kai and killed the other dozen or so.
Not long after the battle, our psychic knight made mental contact with the Nightmare Beast. The creature knew where Helmut laid his head at night and gratefully shared the location with us. Helmut wasn't a very social shadar-kai---he made his lonely home in an isolated tower in the rugged mountains far north of Nashik. In exchange for his life, one of our prisoners even divulged the location of a secret entrance to the tower. That damn wizard didn't have much longer to live.
Luck was with us and we found a coral archway to the obsidian prison in the northern part of the forest. We decided to pay Katja a visit and prepare for our assault on Helmut's tower. To help us fight the wizard, the obsidian dragon gave us a box of feathers. She said that they could reach into Astral space and trap anyone using teleportation for a few minutes. Katja was pleased with our gift of tobacco and broke out the fanciest (and largest) hookah I've ever seen.
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Frei's Memories: Day 14
Serradus and the Grymoir:
We were unnerved at how much of the text in the grymoir suggests that Iblis is still out there. That idea is perfectly consistent with our experiences in Erebus and other places in the Shadowfell. Not only that, but Iblis's symbol much in common with an insignia we noticed on the elementals that invaded the Aon's game. In light of this information, we decided to get Serradus involved. Katja insisted on having our meeting in her domain, which I though was ballsy almost to be point of recklessness.
The moment Serradus arrived, Katja made it abundantly clear who was in charge. Outside of the game and in Katja's prison, Serradus seemed about as threatening as a box of kittens. He turned pale when we showed him our evidence about Iblis. He promised to take the grymoir to his superiors immediately. However, we wasn't very hopeful, since Iblis's death is canon among Aons. Apparently, Serradus is one of the youngest and lowest ranking Aons and his masters might not take this issue seriously coming from him. (Managing the Aon's game isn't a terribly prestigious role, it seems.) At any rate, we agreed to let him borrow the grymoir. After Serradus departed, Katja grumbled pessimistically about the odds of the Aons helping us.
Aons in other worlds:
According to Serradus, the further supernatural beings travel from their homeworlds, the weaker they become. The rule applies for shades, angles, Aons, etc., but NOT for mortals. I guess the downside for us mortals is that we're just not all the powerful, even in our homeworld.
The Trial:
We traveled, slaves in tow, to Nashik to meet our court date. The law in Nashik considers the relative rank of the two parties when setting penalties. I guess our mystic is about on par with Helmut, so we just had to pay some damages. We sold Helmut's thugs back to him and that covered half of the damage (I snicker every time I think about this) and the court gave us a month to come up with the other half. I was happy with the outcome, but disappointed Helmut didn't show up personally. I want to know what he looks like. I want to see fear in his eyes.
Shadar-Kai Legal system:
Given some stories from the mystic and our experience in court, it's obvious the Shadar-Kai legal system cares more about the law than about justice. There's also a 'keep-what-you-kill' mindset. That is, you can commit all sort of crimes to increase your status, but you'll only go to court if you are incompetent or unlucky enough to get caught.
Meeting the King:
The king of Nashik graciously granted us an audience. He praised us for causing Helmut so much trouble. The king promised, even though he wouldn't personally help us kill Helmut, he would look the other way if we killed the wizard. Given the Machiavellian politics in Nashik, I'm pretty sure it's a meaningless promise; he probably views us a threat, too. I'll bet we can use the Shadar-Kai's culture of keep-what-you-kill to our advantage against the Helmut and the King---Wizard first, King later.
We were unnerved at how much of the text in the grymoir suggests that Iblis is still out there. That idea is perfectly consistent with our experiences in Erebus and other places in the Shadowfell. Not only that, but Iblis's symbol much in common with an insignia we noticed on the elementals that invaded the Aon's game. In light of this information, we decided to get Serradus involved. Katja insisted on having our meeting in her domain, which I though was ballsy almost to be point of recklessness.
The moment Serradus arrived, Katja made it abundantly clear who was in charge. Outside of the game and in Katja's prison, Serradus seemed about as threatening as a box of kittens. He turned pale when we showed him our evidence about Iblis. He promised to take the grymoir to his superiors immediately. However, we wasn't very hopeful, since Iblis's death is canon among Aons. Apparently, Serradus is one of the youngest and lowest ranking Aons and his masters might not take this issue seriously coming from him. (Managing the Aon's game isn't a terribly prestigious role, it seems.) At any rate, we agreed to let him borrow the grymoir. After Serradus departed, Katja grumbled pessimistically about the odds of the Aons helping us.
Aons in other worlds:
According to Serradus, the further supernatural beings travel from their homeworlds, the weaker they become. The rule applies for shades, angles, Aons, etc., but NOT for mortals. I guess the downside for us mortals is that we're just not all the powerful, even in our homeworld.
The Trial:
We traveled, slaves in tow, to Nashik to meet our court date. The law in Nashik considers the relative rank of the two parties when setting penalties. I guess our mystic is about on par with Helmut, so we just had to pay some damages. We sold Helmut's thugs back to him and that covered half of the damage (I snicker every time I think about this) and the court gave us a month to come up with the other half. I was happy with the outcome, but disappointed Helmut didn't show up personally. I want to know what he looks like. I want to see fear in his eyes.
Shadar-Kai Legal system:
Given some stories from the mystic and our experience in court, it's obvious the Shadar-Kai legal system cares more about the law than about justice. There's also a 'keep-what-you-kill' mindset. That is, you can commit all sort of crimes to increase your status, but you'll only go to court if you are incompetent or unlucky enough to get caught.
Meeting the King:
The king of Nashik graciously granted us an audience. He praised us for causing Helmut so much trouble. The king promised, even though he wouldn't personally help us kill Helmut, he would look the other way if we killed the wizard. Given the Machiavellian politics in Nashik, I'm pretty sure it's a meaningless promise; he probably views us a threat, too. I'll bet we can use the Shadar-Kai's culture of keep-what-you-kill to our advantage against the Helmut and the King---Wizard first, King later.
Frei's Memories: Day 13
The sniper is acting strangely again today. I don't know if I should pity or envy the dark elf. The mystic has made some remarks that lead me to believe his case is the latter. My hypothesis is that shadar-kai just aren't black enough for the obsidian dragon.
Katja's Garden:
I guess while we were out waiting to ambush Helmut's men, Katja used that shadowstone fragment to make a nice flower garden, complete with a marble fountain. The fountain was, of course, a statue of Katja with artist's liberty taken quite liberally. Anyway, the curious thing about the fountain was that it had fish in the pool around it. We fed them some bread crumbs and they ate them. We asked Katja if she's had the fish brought in, but she insisted the shadowstone fragment created them. We had a look at them under the light of our paper lamp. The fish appeared as animated ink blobs swimming around in the water. How very, very strange!
Mastering the Ossuary Grymoir:
We made a nervous, brief trip back to Nebel to retrieve the Ossuary Grymoir in hopes it would have something we could use against Helmut. We managed to get it back to Katja's without incident. Katja shook her head and made a remark about our predilection for dangerous books. The priest and the mystic spent a few hours studying the grymoir. It is such a strange book . . .
The ancient, unliving book we found in the basement of the Nebel cathedral was easier to work with once we got it under control. The book must have at least four authors and two editors. It contains history, fiction, commentary and some rantings, ravings and ciphers we haven't unraveled just yet. More confusingly, there's a bunch of contradictory information. It's really more complicated than I'll record here, but I'll provide a gloss of what we know so far. The take home message though, is that a being named Iblis reportedly killed El. Iblis's symbol appears many, many times in the book. The scary part is that I recognize the symbol, or at least a variant---Victor had a whole reliquary of artifacts with that symbol.
The Ossuary Grymoir (Gloss):
Back in the day, some folks weren't happy living under El's rule and plotted an insurrection. Somehow they contacted Iblis, an being from another universe, who promised to help them murder El, the creator. Iblis and and El battled so fiercely, they tore toe world in two, creating the rift. Iblis struck El and cast him down into the rift, where presumably he died. The other deities succeeded in quashing the uprising and cast Iblis back into its dimension, though some parts of the book, report the deities eradicating Iblis. Unfortunately, before the deities could completely seal off all connections with Iblis's world, they started warring over who would become the new over-deity. That's when the Primordials attacked, starting a war that further shattered the world.
Katja's Garden:
I guess while we were out waiting to ambush Helmut's men, Katja used that shadowstone fragment to make a nice flower garden, complete with a marble fountain. The fountain was, of course, a statue of Katja with artist's liberty taken quite liberally. Anyway, the curious thing about the fountain was that it had fish in the pool around it. We fed them some bread crumbs and they ate them. We asked Katja if she's had the fish brought in, but she insisted the shadowstone fragment created them. We had a look at them under the light of our paper lamp. The fish appeared as animated ink blobs swimming around in the water. How very, very strange!
Mastering the Ossuary Grymoir:
We made a nervous, brief trip back to Nebel to retrieve the Ossuary Grymoir in hopes it would have something we could use against Helmut. We managed to get it back to Katja's without incident. Katja shook her head and made a remark about our predilection for dangerous books. The priest and the mystic spent a few hours studying the grymoir. It is such a strange book . . .
The ancient, unliving book we found in the basement of the Nebel cathedral was easier to work with once we got it under control. The book must have at least four authors and two editors. It contains history, fiction, commentary and some rantings, ravings and ciphers we haven't unraveled just yet. More confusingly, there's a bunch of contradictory information. It's really more complicated than I'll record here, but I'll provide a gloss of what we know so far. The take home message though, is that a being named Iblis reportedly killed El. Iblis's symbol appears many, many times in the book. The scary part is that I recognize the symbol, or at least a variant---Victor had a whole reliquary of artifacts with that symbol.
The Ossuary Grymoir (Gloss):
Back in the day, some folks weren't happy living under El's rule and plotted an insurrection. Somehow they contacted Iblis, an being from another universe, who promised to help them murder El, the creator. Iblis and and El battled so fiercely, they tore toe world in two, creating the rift. Iblis struck El and cast him down into the rift, where presumably he died. The other deities succeeded in quashing the uprising and cast Iblis back into its dimension, though some parts of the book, report the deities eradicating Iblis. Unfortunately, before the deities could completely seal off all connections with Iblis's world, they started warring over who would become the new over-deity. That's when the Primordials attacked, starting a war that further shattered the world.
Frei's Memories: Day 12
The Ambush:
After we picked up our imitation (trapped) tome and headed back to Katja's, we decided it was time to set our trap for the wizard of Nashik. Katja generously gave us some unguents to mask us from magical spying and helped us send Helmut a (rather nastily worded) letter to tell him where to meet us. We put the book in a bag and buried it a short distance away from the portal in the petrified forest so it would take Helmut a while to claim his prize, giving us the opportunity to strike. We hid in some brush on some nearby hills and started the long, boring stakeout.
Just as night began to fall, some Shadar-kai appeared, an important-looking mage among them! The mage commanded his minions too start digging. There were lots, and lots of minions, forming a group intimidating enough we wanted to believe the mage was indeed Helmut. None of us had ever actually seen him, so we couldn't have been sure. One of the more important looking Shadar-kai eventually ended up with the book. I started feeling the pins and needles of adrenaline. He offered the book to the mage. I held my breath. The mage shouted angrily at the soldier and he moved away. My whole team gave a crestfallen sigh. Then, the soldier opened the book and it detonated, paralyzing him and some of his buddies where they stood. Even though the mage hadn't been neutralized, we launched ourselves from our position and attacked.
It turned out to be the hardest fight, yet. I got blasted right off of the priest's shoulder by a thunderlance and scampered around the grass trying my best not to be underfoot. There's got to be away to make me human again. I'm getting fed up! After I got my ride back, the mage counter-sniped our sniper and started retreating. We sure as hell weren't going to let a single one of them get away, so we chased him. The cowardly bastard died begging and we captured most of his underlings. We interrogated some of them and finally got one to admit that the dead mage was Helmut's apprentice. They really didn't know much. I take that to mean that Helmut (wisely) keeps his underlings in the dark.
Katja looked unenthusiastic about having unwanted guests in her domain, but she perked right up when we let her borrow the the shadowstone. She took an alarming amount of pleasure crafting custom (and uncomfortable!) prison cells for them. It seems to me about every other time we visit I am reminded of just how much we don't want to piss her off.
After we picked up our imitation (trapped) tome and headed back to Katja's, we decided it was time to set our trap for the wizard of Nashik. Katja generously gave us some unguents to mask us from magical spying and helped us send Helmut a (rather nastily worded) letter to tell him where to meet us. We put the book in a bag and buried it a short distance away from the portal in the petrified forest so it would take Helmut a while to claim his prize, giving us the opportunity to strike. We hid in some brush on some nearby hills and started the long, boring stakeout.
Just as night began to fall, some Shadar-kai appeared, an important-looking mage among them! The mage commanded his minions too start digging. There were lots, and lots of minions, forming a group intimidating enough we wanted to believe the mage was indeed Helmut. None of us had ever actually seen him, so we couldn't have been sure. One of the more important looking Shadar-kai eventually ended up with the book. I started feeling the pins and needles of adrenaline. He offered the book to the mage. I held my breath. The mage shouted angrily at the soldier and he moved away. My whole team gave a crestfallen sigh. Then, the soldier opened the book and it detonated, paralyzing him and some of his buddies where they stood. Even though the mage hadn't been neutralized, we launched ourselves from our position and attacked.
It turned out to be the hardest fight, yet. I got blasted right off of the priest's shoulder by a thunderlance and scampered around the grass trying my best not to be underfoot. There's got to be away to make me human again. I'm getting fed up! After I got my ride back, the mage counter-sniped our sniper and started retreating. We sure as hell weren't going to let a single one of them get away, so we chased him. The cowardly bastard died begging and we captured most of his underlings. We interrogated some of them and finally got one to admit that the dead mage was Helmut's apprentice. They really didn't know much. I take that to mean that Helmut (wisely) keeps his underlings in the dark.
Katja looked unenthusiastic about having unwanted guests in her domain, but she perked right up when we let her borrow the the shadowstone. She took an alarming amount of pleasure crafting custom (and uncomfortable!) prison cells for them. It seems to me about every other time we visit I am reminded of just how much we don't want to piss her off.
Frei's Memories: Day 11
After recovering from our trip to Grandma's house, we headed back to Eibelstat to claim the rest of our reward. Vel paid us in full. She noticed the soulstone we were carrying and offered us citizenship in exchange for it. I thought it would be a go way to protect us against our problems in Nashik, but the rest of the group really, really wanted the soulstone. Vel seemed disappointed---she curtly told us Albrecht had no more work for us and she sent us on our way. The offer is probably still open, but I don't think they'll want anything to do with us otherwise.
I could tell immediately on arrival that Katja wanted our new shadowstone and I was frankly surprised she didn't just demand it. Instead, we overpaid the dragon to enchant some more of our equipment. I think that made her happy enough to forget about the shadowstone for a while.
Soulstones II:
We asked Katja what she could do with the soulstone. She said the easiest way is to use it to recharge other magical items, but they have to be serious equipment. That is, there's an appreciable chance the energy from the soulstone will obliterate a garden variety enchantment. It is possible to make a piece of equipment out of the stone, but Katja warned us that the item would have a mind of it's own. I wonder what Eibelstat does with them.
Weary Elves:
We ran into Nico and friends while we were poking around Berlitz. The seemed in ragged shape so we gave them a cut of the money we received from our collusion against Herrick---the elves did deserve it, after all and it did make them considerably happier. They reported falling into the Shadowfell in the woods East of Keening. I suppose that explains how those thugs from Nashik tried to ambush us around there. They elves lucked out, though. They had a close encounter with the crawling city in Neth. Nico said it seemed to be stalking them. They managed to escape through the mountain portal to Letherna with Ark's help.
Herrick's Request:
We got a letter from Herrick requesting a meeting with us. He wasn't clear about the purpose, but we went anyway. We were treated well when we arrived a Herrick's place and later had a secretive meeting with the mining tycoon. He offered us a large reward if we could tell him how Katja refines the essentia ore. He didn't seem to know much about her and (luckily) he was unaware of our relationship with the dragon. He told us we might start with Ward, since he's Katja's representative to the outside world. We accepted the job and acted enthused about it. Herrick was happy. Katja was livid, but not surprised. She told us not to worry about Herrick; she would have a nasty plan ready soon enough.
I could tell immediately on arrival that Katja wanted our new shadowstone and I was frankly surprised she didn't just demand it. Instead, we overpaid the dragon to enchant some more of our equipment. I think that made her happy enough to forget about the shadowstone for a while.
Soulstones II:
We asked Katja what she could do with the soulstone. She said the easiest way is to use it to recharge other magical items, but they have to be serious equipment. That is, there's an appreciable chance the energy from the soulstone will obliterate a garden variety enchantment. It is possible to make a piece of equipment out of the stone, but Katja warned us that the item would have a mind of it's own. I wonder what Eibelstat does with them.
Weary Elves:
We ran into Nico and friends while we were poking around Berlitz. The seemed in ragged shape so we gave them a cut of the money we received from our collusion against Herrick---the elves did deserve it, after all and it did make them considerably happier. They reported falling into the Shadowfell in the woods East of Keening. I suppose that explains how those thugs from Nashik tried to ambush us around there. They elves lucked out, though. They had a close encounter with the crawling city in Neth. Nico said it seemed to be stalking them. They managed to escape through the mountain portal to Letherna with Ark's help.
Herrick's Request:
We got a letter from Herrick requesting a meeting with us. He wasn't clear about the purpose, but we went anyway. We were treated well when we arrived a Herrick's place and later had a secretive meeting with the mining tycoon. He offered us a large reward if we could tell him how Katja refines the essentia ore. He didn't seem to know much about her and (luckily) he was unaware of our relationship with the dragon. He told us we might start with Ward, since he's Katja's representative to the outside world. We accepted the job and acted enthused about it. Herrick was happy. Katja was livid, but not surprised. She told us not to worry about Herrick; she would have a nasty plan ready soon enough.
Saturday, April 23, 2011
Frei's Memories: Day 10
We debated spending the night in Eibelstat, but the cost of living was too much for these misers. We didn't want to stay with Katja, either, because it might not have been polite and we didn't have anything of value to mollify the dragon if she took exception. Of course, I'm pretty sure the dark elf could stay over any time and Katja wouldn't mind at all. Anyway, we roughed it outside of the petrified forest.
Day 10:
It was still 3 days until the book would be ready so we decided to do something other than sit around and fret about how Helmut was going to kill us in nasty ways. We met with Vel, Albrecht's second in command about possible employment. She seemed as happy to see us as a cold, steely woman can be. Conveniently, she had a job for us. We were to go to a town, Guyer, south of Albrecht's domain and help them with a Shadowfell-related problem. Vel gave us a small load of gold for up front expenses and gave us Eibelstat badges so the folks in Guyer would have no question who was ultimately responsible for helping them.
Our hike to Guyer took about six hours. On the way, we crossed a continental divide and entered a different land. A river fell from the sky and chiseled its way through green, jagged mini-mountains. We followed the river to a small settlement on the side of a large mountain overlooking a waterfall down onto a whole other continent with a lake that seemed to go on forever. The people in Guyer were quiet and suspicious of us--except for one of them--Feng Li, a boisterous, noisy person who accused us of trying to annex the town for Albrecht. We tried to explain that we just wanted to help them, but he was just plain irascible. A little later, the mayor invited us for tea in a beautiful, serene tea house and apologized for her son's behavior. She outlined the problem to us.
Children had recently been running away in the night. There had been no finding them, either, so the villagers had taken to locking their kids up at night with varying degrees of success. The mayor also asked us to make sure her son took part in solving the problem so that he would no longer be an embarrassment to her family. We only half-heartedly agreed to the second point, but zealously set of in search of the main problem.
The Monkey Temple:
We investigated their temple at the top of the mountain. It turned out they worshiped some sort of executive monkey god statue. It sat at a desk with a gold placard in the sanctum of the temple. Our priest burned some of the incense we stole from Helmut as an offering. It smelled disastrously bad. The monks made every effort not to turn away in disgust, but some of them just couldn't take it. I had to try so hard to keep from laughing at them as they strained not to offend us. The incense, however, seemed to have a profound effect on one of the younger monks.
The fellow candidly related his story of madness and suffering. He reported visions of candy and childhood games and a beautiful, motherly woman calling to him. He took us to the top of the temple and pointed off into the wilderness---revealing the direction the visions were urging him to travel. We immediately collected the cantankerous, and utterly incompetent Feng Li and set off down the old, little used mountain path. We forced Feng Li to cut the brush for us, partly because we didn't want to do it, but mostly to make it abundantly clear who was in charge. Along the way, we found evidence that children had passed that we recently.
The Hanging Graves:
After crossing some rather rickety robe bridges (particularly frightening for the knight!), we noticed some large baskets hanging on the cliffs around the path. The dark elf, either out of curiosity or greed, commenced fearlessly scaling the cliff. I swear, that guy could climb a sheet of glass without a problem. We sat uncomfortable with Feng Li while the sniper rummaged around high up in the cliffs. We suddenly became agitated and started yelling for us. With some ingenious rope work, we all managed to get up into the cliffs. The baskets contained mummies, old ones. The smaller baskets contained bells, metal rods, keys, and a strange paper lantern. We were disappointed the grave offerings weren't more valuable. They looked like some kind of tools for the dead. More excitingly, the dark elf showed us a shadowy instability in an alcove. It resembled the one back in the mountains by Berlitz. We summoned a could of darkness and passed through the shadow vortex into another world.
The Land of The Dead:
The place vaguely reminded us of Erebus---nothing but blowing grayish sand under our feet and an atmosphere of darkness that swallowed all of our lights. That made me very afraid. It made all of us afraid. The priest was especially worried that his undead dragon god was going to home in on him and eat us. Since the world did not kill us outright, I guess we figured it'd be okay to explore a while. We came upon a lonely grave. Less out of respect and more "just for the Hell of it" we burnt some incense at the grave. A rather friendly ghost emerged.
The ghost seemed happy to have company. We related a frightening, and relevant, story. In life, his first wife had been unable to produce children. Apparently, she was batty, too, and went off the deep end. He insinuated he had killed or banished her somehow and was very happy that she was not allowed in the land of the dead. I had a feeling we had just identified the root of Guyer's problem. Anyway, on his way back to sleep, the ghost hinted that we should light the paper lantern with the special candles we found in the baskets outside.
We lit the lamp and it miraculously lit up the land of the dead, revealing a multitude of graves and an eerie cavern. Naturally, we approached the cavern with all the reckless haste of adventurers. A stuffy old doorman-ghost appeared and told us to scram. We had a brawl with him and he attached us by shooting furious ghosts out of his sword. It was a tough battle, but we earned the right to enter the cave of the ancient ghosts. The spirits therein were a bit senile, but had some good stories for us. They were younger than Katja, and apparently some of them witnessed the rebellion against El. They identified our magic lamp. I'm really, really glad we didn't mess with it because it is supposed to contain a dark angel as a punishment for deicide! I am terrified of the magic lamp now. I think we should put it in Katja's vault if we get a chance.
The ghosts were amused with our visit and gave us an old rusty sword and a soulstone to help us on our journey before sending us on our way. I bet someone in Eibelstat will give us something super nice for that soulstone. We excited the land of the dead and arrived back in the mortal world. Suddenly, the mummies in the baskets turned their heads to look at the paper lantern. The mystic put the lamp out as quickly as possible and I evacuated my bladder all over the priest's shoulder. I guess the lamp acts oppositely in opposite worlds.
The Spirits of the Dead:
I'm not convinced the ghosts in the land of the dead are really the souls of these people's ancestors, but I suppose it's not impossible. The Shadowfell has a way of responding to emotionally powerful events in the material world and it is entirely possible the energy there imprinted off of the nearby burials. I suspect this is the case because I'm pretty certain the Gods or Aons are the ones that end up people's souls. Of course, there might have been a glitch in soul collecting around the time most of these people bit the dust.
Grandma's House:
We climbed back down the cliffs and met up with Feng Li, who was just screwing around like an idiot. We decided just to leave the jerk to his stupidity and pressed on down the path. As the sun sank, the trees starting changing shape and shadows seemed to be following us. The road split into a slightly more normal path and a scary path. On a hunch, we marched right down the scary path where we were soon greeted by a will-o-the-wisp. It offered us candy and promised there was a party at grandma's house with toys and games. Yep, definitely on the right track. We followed the spirit through the underbrush and to another cliff. We were greeted by happy looking people. With a brief flash of our paper lantern, the illusion melted away and they became skeletal---held together and animated by aethereal strings extending up into the sky. They were like macabre puppets, dancing, enticing us . . . That's when we knew there was no time to lose.
We passed through a shadowgate and into the dark mountains. In a clearing we found the proverbial gingerbread house. There were kids everywhere---real, live kids. They seemed happy enough. Then, a middle-aged woman appeared from the house and introduced herself as our grandma. She offered, no, demanded we come inside for milk, cookies, and games. We requested a minute to look around and she allowed us. Then, the mystic gave the place a flash from our lantern. Everything (except most of the children) was dead and the house was rotting and grandma was a gaunt monster with a multitude of arms holding and pulling a multitude of strings. She smiled at us and nonchalantly returned to the house.
We had a short tour of the house and, after discovering a reserve of purple and orange essentia in the basement (the servants called it "Grandma's medicine") we decided to join the master of the house for cookies. She flashed a few knives and made it clear that the children were her hostages and we were going to have to play her games or they wouldn't make it out alive. Deciding not to negotiate with terrorists, we immediately attacked her with everything we had, but it wasn't enough. The old hag slaughtered a few of the hostages and retreated, oozing through the floor.
After a long battle with an evil, animated piano, we broke through and cornered the dark mistress. She called a swarm of her puppets to defend herself, but my team was just too skilled for them and punched through and just about took her out. Just when she started retreating again, the knight produced the old, rusty sword from the land of the dead, spoke in tongues, and spit booze all over the blade. The sword projected a field that prevented Grandma from falling through the floor again. She didn't even have a chance to beg.
We lifted a pristine shadowstone and a bunch of gold off of the old witch and lead the kids back home. They were awfully traumatized, but otherwise most of them were just fine (some of them took it much better than I did). On our way back, we took a short detour down the other path and found a small orchard with, you guess it, a portal to Katja's place. That's going to save us a lot of travel time. There sure are a lot of those portals. They must have really wanted that dragon dead! Anyway, we met up with Feng Li and returned to Guyer.
Feng Li pompously claimed all responsibility for the rescue and indirectly blamed us for the the losses. The mystic flipped his wig and beat Feng Li to a pulp in front of everyone. I laughed my tail off, but the mayor's face turned cherry red. I was indifferent to that hag, too. If she really cared about her family's reputation, she'd have sent her son somewhere far, far away. Besides, the townsfolk were grateful and gave us lodging for the night. We told the temple priest that it might be a good idea to build shrines at the cliff sites and keep bright lights burning there at all times.
Day 10:
It was still 3 days until the book would be ready so we decided to do something other than sit around and fret about how Helmut was going to kill us in nasty ways. We met with Vel, Albrecht's second in command about possible employment. She seemed as happy to see us as a cold, steely woman can be. Conveniently, she had a job for us. We were to go to a town, Guyer, south of Albrecht's domain and help them with a Shadowfell-related problem. Vel gave us a small load of gold for up front expenses and gave us Eibelstat badges so the folks in Guyer would have no question who was ultimately responsible for helping them.
Our hike to Guyer took about six hours. On the way, we crossed a continental divide and entered a different land. A river fell from the sky and chiseled its way through green, jagged mini-mountains. We followed the river to a small settlement on the side of a large mountain overlooking a waterfall down onto a whole other continent with a lake that seemed to go on forever. The people in Guyer were quiet and suspicious of us--except for one of them--Feng Li, a boisterous, noisy person who accused us of trying to annex the town for Albrecht. We tried to explain that we just wanted to help them, but he was just plain irascible. A little later, the mayor invited us for tea in a beautiful, serene tea house and apologized for her son's behavior. She outlined the problem to us.
Children had recently been running away in the night. There had been no finding them, either, so the villagers had taken to locking their kids up at night with varying degrees of success. The mayor also asked us to make sure her son took part in solving the problem so that he would no longer be an embarrassment to her family. We only half-heartedly agreed to the second point, but zealously set of in search of the main problem.
The Monkey Temple:
We investigated their temple at the top of the mountain. It turned out they worshiped some sort of executive monkey god statue. It sat at a desk with a gold placard in the sanctum of the temple. Our priest burned some of the incense we stole from Helmut as an offering. It smelled disastrously bad. The monks made every effort not to turn away in disgust, but some of them just couldn't take it. I had to try so hard to keep from laughing at them as they strained not to offend us. The incense, however, seemed to have a profound effect on one of the younger monks.
The fellow candidly related his story of madness and suffering. He reported visions of candy and childhood games and a beautiful, motherly woman calling to him. He took us to the top of the temple and pointed off into the wilderness---revealing the direction the visions were urging him to travel. We immediately collected the cantankerous, and utterly incompetent Feng Li and set off down the old, little used mountain path. We forced Feng Li to cut the brush for us, partly because we didn't want to do it, but mostly to make it abundantly clear who was in charge. Along the way, we found evidence that children had passed that we recently.
The Hanging Graves:
After crossing some rather rickety robe bridges (particularly frightening for the knight!), we noticed some large baskets hanging on the cliffs around the path. The dark elf, either out of curiosity or greed, commenced fearlessly scaling the cliff. I swear, that guy could climb a sheet of glass without a problem. We sat uncomfortable with Feng Li while the sniper rummaged around high up in the cliffs. We suddenly became agitated and started yelling for us. With some ingenious rope work, we all managed to get up into the cliffs. The baskets contained mummies, old ones. The smaller baskets contained bells, metal rods, keys, and a strange paper lantern. We were disappointed the grave offerings weren't more valuable. They looked like some kind of tools for the dead. More excitingly, the dark elf showed us a shadowy instability in an alcove. It resembled the one back in the mountains by Berlitz. We summoned a could of darkness and passed through the shadow vortex into another world.
The Land of The Dead:
The place vaguely reminded us of Erebus---nothing but blowing grayish sand under our feet and an atmosphere of darkness that swallowed all of our lights. That made me very afraid. It made all of us afraid. The priest was especially worried that his undead dragon god was going to home in on him and eat us. Since the world did not kill us outright, I guess we figured it'd be okay to explore a while. We came upon a lonely grave. Less out of respect and more "just for the Hell of it" we burnt some incense at the grave. A rather friendly ghost emerged.
The ghost seemed happy to have company. We related a frightening, and relevant, story. In life, his first wife had been unable to produce children. Apparently, she was batty, too, and went off the deep end. He insinuated he had killed or banished her somehow and was very happy that she was not allowed in the land of the dead. I had a feeling we had just identified the root of Guyer's problem. Anyway, on his way back to sleep, the ghost hinted that we should light the paper lantern with the special candles we found in the baskets outside.
We lit the lamp and it miraculously lit up the land of the dead, revealing a multitude of graves and an eerie cavern. Naturally, we approached the cavern with all the reckless haste of adventurers. A stuffy old doorman-ghost appeared and told us to scram. We had a brawl with him and he attached us by shooting furious ghosts out of his sword. It was a tough battle, but we earned the right to enter the cave of the ancient ghosts. The spirits therein were a bit senile, but had some good stories for us. They were younger than Katja, and apparently some of them witnessed the rebellion against El. They identified our magic lamp. I'm really, really glad we didn't mess with it because it is supposed to contain a dark angel as a punishment for deicide! I am terrified of the magic lamp now. I think we should put it in Katja's vault if we get a chance.
The ghosts were amused with our visit and gave us an old rusty sword and a soulstone to help us on our journey before sending us on our way. I bet someone in Eibelstat will give us something super nice for that soulstone. We excited the land of the dead and arrived back in the mortal world. Suddenly, the mummies in the baskets turned their heads to look at the paper lantern. The mystic put the lamp out as quickly as possible and I evacuated my bladder all over the priest's shoulder. I guess the lamp acts oppositely in opposite worlds.
The Spirits of the Dead:
I'm not convinced the ghosts in the land of the dead are really the souls of these people's ancestors, but I suppose it's not impossible. The Shadowfell has a way of responding to emotionally powerful events in the material world and it is entirely possible the energy there imprinted off of the nearby burials. I suspect this is the case because I'm pretty certain the Gods or Aons are the ones that end up people's souls. Of course, there might have been a glitch in soul collecting around the time most of these people bit the dust.
Grandma's House:
We climbed back down the cliffs and met up with Feng Li, who was just screwing around like an idiot. We decided just to leave the jerk to his stupidity and pressed on down the path. As the sun sank, the trees starting changing shape and shadows seemed to be following us. The road split into a slightly more normal path and a scary path. On a hunch, we marched right down the scary path where we were soon greeted by a will-o-the-wisp. It offered us candy and promised there was a party at grandma's house with toys and games. Yep, definitely on the right track. We followed the spirit through the underbrush and to another cliff. We were greeted by happy looking people. With a brief flash of our paper lantern, the illusion melted away and they became skeletal---held together and animated by aethereal strings extending up into the sky. They were like macabre puppets, dancing, enticing us . . . That's when we knew there was no time to lose.
We passed through a shadowgate and into the dark mountains. In a clearing we found the proverbial gingerbread house. There were kids everywhere---real, live kids. They seemed happy enough. Then, a middle-aged woman appeared from the house and introduced herself as our grandma. She offered, no, demanded we come inside for milk, cookies, and games. We requested a minute to look around and she allowed us. Then, the mystic gave the place a flash from our lantern. Everything (except most of the children) was dead and the house was rotting and grandma was a gaunt monster with a multitude of arms holding and pulling a multitude of strings. She smiled at us and nonchalantly returned to the house.
We had a short tour of the house and, after discovering a reserve of purple and orange essentia in the basement (the servants called it "Grandma's medicine") we decided to join the master of the house for cookies. She flashed a few knives and made it clear that the children were her hostages and we were going to have to play her games or they wouldn't make it out alive. Deciding not to negotiate with terrorists, we immediately attacked her with everything we had, but it wasn't enough. The old hag slaughtered a few of the hostages and retreated, oozing through the floor.
After a long battle with an evil, animated piano, we broke through and cornered the dark mistress. She called a swarm of her puppets to defend herself, but my team was just too skilled for them and punched through and just about took her out. Just when she started retreating again, the knight produced the old, rusty sword from the land of the dead, spoke in tongues, and spit booze all over the blade. The sword projected a field that prevented Grandma from falling through the floor again. She didn't even have a chance to beg.
We lifted a pristine shadowstone and a bunch of gold off of the old witch and lead the kids back home. They were awfully traumatized, but otherwise most of them were just fine (some of them took it much better than I did). On our way back, we took a short detour down the other path and found a small orchard with, you guess it, a portal to Katja's place. That's going to save us a lot of travel time. There sure are a lot of those portals. They must have really wanted that dragon dead! Anyway, we met up with Feng Li and returned to Guyer.
Feng Li pompously claimed all responsibility for the rescue and indirectly blamed us for the the losses. The mystic flipped his wig and beat Feng Li to a pulp in front of everyone. I laughed my tail off, but the mayor's face turned cherry red. I was indifferent to that hag, too. If she really cared about her family's reputation, she'd have sent her son somewhere far, far away. Besides, the townsfolk were grateful and gave us lodging for the night. We told the temple priest that it might be a good idea to build shrines at the cliff sites and keep bright lights burning there at all times.
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