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Campaign Journal
200 years ago, General Krellesthenon Doppunet, an elven general of 800 years and a veteran of skirmishes that followed the eternal war, was killed at sea; eaten by an Aboleth. Aboleth's devour the minds as well as the bodies of their meals and because the general happened to be psionic he took control of the mind of the Aboleth. He found an entrance to the lost caves and discovered their society in turmoil. In exchange for clerical research into removing his mind from the Aboleth, he agreed to lead them. His first gesture was to contact an Elven council in Ravensfall, a city east of the Shtelheim mountains. His contact was Rudolph Liqaur, a powerful cleric in the council. Rudolph helped organize a meeting between emissaries from Drow and Aquan constituencies, both of which wish to annex the new society into theirs, and the mines that lie below it as well. What the general public doesn't know is that the general is dying. He is closing on 1000 year old and his mind is beginning to fold into the Aboleth's. He is holding on as well as he can, but his mind is fading. He has a month, perhaps less to complete a treaty before he dies completely. If he dies, there will be no-one to speak for the needs of the new dark aquans. When Rudolph was killed, charges were trumped up against three of his old adventuring friends whom he'd invited into town, but not seen. The trials were fast and the friends hanged. Once the city thought it had justice, a new plot began. The three friends who'd been hanged, as it turns out, were not dead. They were given the task by the executioner's assistant Estronn, of stewarding the General to Yokatta, a city in the south-western continent of Akatta, where summits for peace were to be held between the Shuvarr (dark aquans), the Drow and the Aquans. Estronn presented the General in a small container as he had been shrunk down for the journey. Their job was simple: to get beyond the city walls and rejoin Estronn. They would do this by riding in a cart of the dead to the city walls where the bodies of the poor and executed were dumped. It all began to unravel when the drivers of the cart decided to sell the bodies in the cart to a maker of flesh golems. Ilvenian, the wizard of the three, teleported with Xana, their cleric, from the cart and onto the street. Ilmenmenon the warrior chose to simply stand and jump from the cart. Chaos ensued as "the dead" began to escape from the cart. Quick thinking Ilvenian created a disturbance of ice and wind in the streets which enabled them time to escape. With two of the three invisible and the Ilmen hiding, they followed the cart to it's original destination as the local constabulary had detained the would be flesh merchants and put the cart back to its intended use. The three waited near the gates for Estronn to arrive, not fully understanding that he had meant for them to meet him outside the gates after they'd been dumped. After a run-in with a rogue, Ilmen decided to hole up in a local inn, but with a famous face of one who'd slain Rudolph, a popular local regent, he was recognized almost immediately. With time running out and the constables drawing close, Ilvenian recalled his teleport spell once again and teleported them all to his home, a cave in Nord Mounts. Ilmen and Xana cleaned up while Ilvenian studied his scrolls. Sometime near midnight, they heard the sound of wings. When the sound was revealed to them as coming from a small dragon, they braced for whatever was to come. Luckily, they found that this dragon, once tansformed into elven form, was an emmisary who'd come to warn Ilvenian's adopted mother of impending danger. A new kind of dragon had been born in the depths of the sea and was now meanacing on the horizon of dragon kind. When the messenger departed, they slept for the night. Before they laid down, Ilvenian spoke briefly with the General in his container. The General only knew that Estronn knew the way to Yokatta and that they needed to return to him. In the morning, they teleported back to Estronn outside the city walls. A few arrows flew from the wall, but they managed to get into Estronn's cave...an angry Estronn awaited them... > Session 2 < "Where the hell 'ave you been?", asked Estronn. Estronn's cave had been dog out of the mountain of corpses that had been dumped outside the city wall. After riding in the carm the crew was quite used to the sights and smells of dead and rotting flesh. Nevertheless, they felt no more comfortable with the cold welcome they received from Estronn. As the group began to explain what had happened, there was a rumbling from around them and the sound of whispers. Estronn began to tell them that they had to head toward a river ten miles to the south and get a boat there, but just as he finished, a hand from the walls of his cave reached out and snapped his neck. As Xana tried to free him from the grip of the hand that held the back of his neck, they heard the General whisper "Run!" insistently in their minds. With that, they began to exit the cave expeditiously, still trying to save the fallen Estronn. As they ran, they could see the cave collapsing on him, but with the enormous shape of a large foot stomping him into the fleshy floor of the cave. Outside, they witnessed the maddening sight of a giant flesh golem rising from the corpses of the mountain of bodies. They fought it tooth and nail, Xana with her bow, Ilmenmenon with his sword and Ilvenian with his magic, which only served to slow the creature down. They found that the electricity of Ilmen's blade actually healed the beast and made it faster. After dousing it, the battle raged on with Ilvenian's cold magic slowing the creature. Little did they know, the beast was being aided by a hidden mage from beyond the city's walls. When Ilvenian detected this, he made short work of the mage, who would not show his face again. After much blood was spilled from both Ilmen and Ilvenian, they laid the vial flesh creature to rest and set about trying to dig poor Estronn from the mass of corpses that had tumbled upon him. The guards from the wall, seeing that a victor had emerged from the battle, sought to finish off the crew with a flurry of arrows. Several struck Xana as she burrowed through the mountain flesh to Estronn until Ilvenian's quick thinking created a wall of ice that protected them from further attack. When they reached Estronn's body, they found him crushed and lifeless. With time ticking away, they began to deliberate their next move... > Session 3 < Not having a clear picture of Yokatta, the group decided to head south toward the river that would thake them to the southern coast of Shtelheim and onto the continent of Akatta. After a few short hours, Ilmen noticed that they were being followed. Once again, Ilvenian brought forth his sleet storm in an attempt to prevent further chase. This worked to stave off the inevitable encounter they would face with a beleaguered band of Lizardmen who were wandering the wood, hoping to go unnoticed. When Ilmen turned to face them, an elderly Lizardman Shaman Myelke, approached them. He explained that they were tresspassing on the land of his tribe, and begged not to be hurt. Further, he said that the path that they walked was once a river that had dried up and that their numbers were slipping away. When Myelke asked if the crew could fulfill a mission for him by taking a small pouch of soil to "The Weeping Woman", a creature of legend, Xana, Ilmen and Ilvenian accepted. The Weeping Woman would somehow restore the river that the Lizardmen once called their own, and in exchange, they awarded the party with amulets that would allow them protection from Lizardmen and their ilk. From there, the party travelled on until they reached the origin of the river they sought. A small town was situated around the small lake with docks extending into the water. After a quiet night, interrupted only by the town tax collector, the party awoke and rented a vessel from the cousin of a young woman and her sister. The cousin, known as Yahn, agreed to pilot his fishing boat down the river for a small price. Quickly getting underway, they shared conversation until they began to pass small towns and shires at the side of the river. Yahn tried to steer clear of these places, but when a drunken pirate fell into the river, Xana insisted on saving him. Her kindness would be repaid with deception later when she realized that the drunk she saved from drowning had, in fact, stolen her ring. As he jumped ship to flee, Xana used her magicks to locate her ring. While she found it, and the pirate, Ilvenian and Ilmen awaited their moment of attack. When the thief reached the shore, he was being greeted by a small dispatch of a Halfling color guard. In his attempts to slay them, he was struck down by the might of the arrows of Ilmen and the vicious cone of cold cast by Ilvenian. The halflings celebrated the victory by inviting the party of adventurers to a feast, including their boat pilot, Yahn. They were told that they would be introduced to Beldibeerge, an envoy from the Halfling nations who was going to trade in politics in Yokatta within the week. While the men sat and ate with the halflings, Xana spoke with the general who recommended, uncharacteristically, that the envoy, and all of his kin be exterminated. Xana was vexed while the men were being pressured to allow Beldibeerge to travel with them. In the end, the crew elected to send Ilvenian's familiar to the boat docks and request another boat. With that, they left Envoy Beldibeerge and his daughter on the shore as they passed back into the river toward the mountain pass that would hold the Weeping Woman. > Session 4 < The crew settled into the river and saled into the evening. Yahn, with the aid of a magical ring, proclaimed that he would need no sleep and would pilot through the night. A few hours more into their journey, Ilvenian's arctic bird familiar returned with a report that the fishing village that they'd originated from was gone. With no more information than that, Yahn decided that after he dropped them off at the mountain with the Weeping woman, he would return to his home. The crew bedded down, but not before they discovered that they were being followed by something that was swimming behind their boat. As the night wore on, they began to notice small settlements in increasing degrees of disarray. When they happened upon a small, but new settlement that was still smoldering and burning, they stopped to aid the survivors but were only in time to save four. A young woman who was mourning her husband, two young boys and an infant lizardman. Ilvenian put the fires out by manefesting another magical sleet storm as the rest piled the bodies of the villagers. As they deliberated on what to do, the woman and older boy decided to leave and a disturbance was heard on the boat. When they looked, Yahn had been tied up and something was diving into the water. Quick thinking Xana held the thing magically as Ilmenmenon grazed it with an arrow. After diving in, Xana emerged with a dark-skinned aquatic elf. After some interrogation, they found that he was in search of the General, who was late for his meetings in Yokatta. The General confirmed his identity and he was let go, to give notice to his people that the General would soon arrive. Xana decided that she would take the infant's mother along until the next day, when she would raise her from the dead. Yahn characteristically milked the opportnity to charge for an additional passenger and the group prepared to leave. Just then the remaining young boy ran up to the ship. As he arrived to tell the group something, an arrow exploded through his head and hit Ilmen in the chest. The group sprung into action in a flurry of magic. An archer perched atop a hill near the village was firing flaming arrows at the group. Yahn ducked for cover and Ilvenian was struck down with an arrow to the throat, and two to the chest. If not for for divine healing of Xana, his falling would have turned to passing. Ilmen closed and began his onslaught as a recovered Ilvenian and Xana rained the fire of the gods on the archer. Ilvenian constructed a wall of flames around him and created a hailstorm to finish the job. Xana summoned a column of divine fire from the heavens that washed over and incinerated the archer. After nearly a minute of quiet, the wall of fire died down to reveal nothing but slush and ash. The archer defeated, the group re-embarked on their river journey with the lizard child and the body of his mother. During their journey, The General revealed that Yahn was planning to kill the Lizard child and his resurrected mother when the group left. They had decided that the best plan of action was to teleport to Yokatta, based on scrying into Ilmen's dead wife's parents home. Before that, they would study the mountain where the Weeping Woman lived so that they could return and fulfill their promise to the lizard folk. Once Xana revived the lizard woman, they gifted her with a sword and sent her on her way. As they arrived at the docks where they would deboard and travel to the Weeping Woman's home, they were greeted with threats from two guards at the docks who warned them to move on. When they found out that the guards were from different lands, but wore the same sash as the slain archer they encountered earlier and were the same guards who had killed all of the previous lizardmen emmisaries, they attacked and handily dispatched them. With that, Ilvenian studied the locale and then the group teleported to Yokatta, and into the home of Ilmen's inlaws. They greeted him with divine thanks and told him that they had been hoping he'd return for in his sword was the spirit of their daughter, and they wanted it back. > Session 5 < Not, in fact, in Yokatta, but on a ship off the coast of Akatta and in the quarters of Ilmen's dead fiance's (Iskalasse) parents, the group had unknowingly become the end of a quest. They had been sought by her parents in Ravensfall as well as by a mysterious female monk who was seeking them to deliver a package to Ilvenian. The package had been given to her by her own master, who had not told her from where it had arrived previously. The package, an envelope stamped with the silver seal of a dragon, was also branded with the message "Open upon your ascendance", inscribed in Draconic. As the package was being delivered, the group found that Iskalasse's parents were travelling with a cleric of Fafin who would be exorcising her spirit from the blade and resurrecting her, if it was her wish. While they waited, Xana went topside to get supplies, and the freshen the General's water. As Ilmenmenal and Ilvenian spoke with Iskalasse's parents and their new Monk companion, Rayella, they heard the metallic sound of a Dwarven horn. Coming to the deck, they were met with the might of a dwarven warship, painted with the colors of diplomacy. Ilvenian was quick to act, placing a wall of ice between the two ships, preventing the immediate boarding of the Dwarves. After one of the dwarves swung over onto their deck, the captain of the ship, Ilvenian and the Dwarf heatedly discussed the Dwarves' search of the ship, Ilvenian delivering a threat to sink the ship of the Dwarves if they boarded. The Dwarf said that they only wished to discuss politics and how the Dwarven people could help the Shuvarr gain sovereignty in exchange for mining rights to the ocean floor beneath the Shuvarr nation. When Xana asked the General if he would meet with them, his response was that they should sink the ship if the Dwarves would not take no for an answer. When the Dwarves were rebuffed once again, they attacked. A Dwarven druid rained a storm of fire down upon the ship as Ilvenian, Ilmenmenal, Xana and their new monk compatriot defended. When Xana was nearly struck down, Ilvenian teleported the group onto the distant, shore of Akatta. There they witnessed the onslaught from afar. Everyone quickly healed, but Ilvenian insisted on returning to try and save their ship and its passengers. He made himself and Xana invisible and recalling teleport with Mordenkeinan's Lucubration, he teleported the group back into combat; this time onto the Dwarven vessel. Everyone surrounded the druidess and slew her quickly. With the tides turned, the rest of the dwarves fell as well and Ilmen and Rayella were able to save most of the passengers of their own ship as it sank into the deep. The last to be saved was the cleric of Fafin, who was nearly ready to free the spirit from the sword, but had been trapped in his quarters. As they watched the ship sink, Iskalasse's parents and the cleric of Fafin prepared to end their quest, as the group saw a new chapter of theirs begin to unfold. > Session 6 < When ready to begin the ceremony, the dark cleric summoned the party to the cabin beneath the deck. As he began, the sword glowed with swirling energy and the room was bathed in divine luminescence. The chants increased in volume as the swirling moved through the room, and its inhabitants could see a human form emerging from an epicenter coalescing in the center. Suddenly the room grew silent as the naked presence of Ilmen's lost love materialized, wrought with profound sadness. "You have made a grave mistake..." she said, trying to reach back into the blade. "I was merely governing the rage of the sword, but it remains in the spirit of our unborn child still trapped there." Ilmen's grief could not be expressed and as his love turned to the cleric of Fafin, and replied "No" to the unasked question of resurrection. The glow faded from the room and the sword began to vibrate. As they all looked on, the sword flew into Ilmen's hand and forced him to attack the cleric, but it's fire was no more. Electricity sizzled with blood as the strike hit home. Ilmen regained his senses and stopped the attack, only to find the cleric had not stopped babbling since the end of the ceremony. His attempt at resurrection had failed and the spirit of Iskalasse had been sent into the abyss. In punishment for this recklessness, Fafin no longer spoke to, or granted him powers. He walked out of the room a ruined man. Moments after, the group went looking for him on deck only to find that he'd thrown himself overboard. In an act of selflessness, Rayella dove in and began looking for him where Ilvenian's bird had located some bubbles. When Rayella finally found him, she focused her energies to step through a dimensional door to the surface. Unfortunately, she miscalculated and arrived still a hundred feet below. Fiercely she tried to swim to the top, but she too succumbed to the will of the deep. Fortunately, she was close enough to the surface that Xana was able to see her. Unable to reach her in time, Xana used the only magic she knew would save Rayella and used her word of recall to transport the group back to Ilvenian's icy home. There she healed Rayella as the group realized that Yahn had never left. Harp music played from Ilvenian's bedchambers and Ilvenian found Yahn there with the young silver dragon maiden in elven form. After ushering them out, the dragoness left and all relaxed until it was time to go. The mountain began to shake as Ilvenian began the spell to transport them back to the beach where they'd landed before. As they disappeared, they saw what appeared to be the destruction of Ilvenian's home at the breath of a dark dragon with billowing white breath. Back on the beach they traveled to the local port city of Koso. There they decided to send Rayella ahead to Yokatta, her running speed vastly superior to any other method of travel. Once she arrived, they teleported again to her, but not before witnessing the skies above Koso growing dark, the city bracing for battle. Rayella arrived at Yokatta, greeted by a line to get into the city. Once there, Xana used the General's name to clout the rest of them into the city. They were met with a half-orcish driver who carted them through town, peopled with a group of Dwarves and another group of Halflings, intent on escorting them to the summit. Ilvenian created chaos in the streets until he surmised that they would not be trouble, and then all rode ahead (except Ilmen, who took only side streets) to the summit. A block from the square that held the summit, a tall aquatic elf with a great sword stopped them, demanding the General. After a bloody battle, the sea elf escaped into the square and the group proceeded behind him, trying to locate the building where the General must plead his case. As they were admitted and walked through the archway, each could feel the resonance of halls of power and the impending end to a quest that had nearly cost them their lives. > Session 7 < While Xana and Ilvenian made the case before the council for the Shuvarr's sovereignty, Ilmen noticed that one of the council members surrounded by an aura of black flame. As he approached the councilman, the sword of rage summoned itself into his hand while all of the onlookers in the council and gallery gasped. Quickly regaining his composure, he tucked the sword away once again, but the disruption had further accented the fact that they were not fully prepared to argue the case for the Shuvarr. Ilmen's expressed the opinion that they had fulfilled their quest by simply delivering the General here, but while Ilvenian and Xana agreed that they had fulfilled the letter, they had not fulfilled the spirit of the quest. The spokesperson for the council gave them time to prepare and allowed them a room in the building to collect themselves. When they consulted the General, it was apparent that time was running out for him. Convulsing and bleeding red into the water, the General was too weak to speak for his people. At that moment, a knock came at the door. A regal looking dwarf offered to speak on their behalf in exchange for mining rights to the Shuvarr's land. Outside, Beldibeege, the halfling representitive was giving an appeal for a halfling seat on the council. When they rebuffed the dwarf, they noticed the General's condition degenerating and rushed onto the council floor to ask for assistance, interrupting a red skinned elf's appeal. When the council refused to help, Xana threw up her hands and left the General there. When they all left the building, they split up to buy different items throughout the city. Upon returning, they witnessed three eight legged black dragons land and transform into a male human, dwarf and a female drow elf. The trio entered the council building, leaving the party to decide where they would proceed and what quest they would take up next. |
