Drakonia Adventure Log - Session 5

The Tomb of Ervaril I

Party: 
♦ Alvana (deva avenger)
♦ Barrus (bugbear rogue)
♦ Elessar (goliath barbarian)
♦ Sergo (half-elf warlord)
♦ Hakumen / Vornafein (drow assassin)
♦ Elera (drow warlock)

    The party received a map to the Tomb of Ervaril, and were offered fully equipped ornithopters to take to the location. In the meantime (while the main party had been off on the mission concerning the army of Karaz-Kor), Barrus had been browsing the various valuables of the people in Griffin’s Nest, stealing what seemed shinier and more expensive, while Elessar met with the High King and was introduced to Hakumen and Elera, members of the Spider League. Elessar and Elera decided to forgo the tricky-to-maneuver ornithopters and instead requisitioned griffin mounts. Elessar convinced a black and fierce griffin named Storm to respect him, while Elera accepted a calm beast called Princess, even though she strongly objected to her name.

    Near the entrance to the Tomb of Ervaril, we found fallen undead bodies and dead Gloaming Guard elves, but also a dying survivor, a green haired elven woman with a greatbow. She told us that the forces of The Shadow had been there, trying to plunder the tomb, but after a glorious combat, they prevailed. With her dying breath, she warned us of the sphinx inside the tomb. To our knowledge, a sphinx was a powerful magical beast, which was very passionate about riddles, and who were otherwise very powerful creatures, who could fly and cast spells. Alvana performed a religious ritual to set the souls of the Gloaming Guard to rest, remembering the funerary rites of the elves as if from a distant lifetime.

    The entrance to Ervaril’s Tomb was a large basalt door decorated with a bas-relief of Ervaril, looking quite haughty, while wearing a crown of laurels. It had to be pushed 10 feet (a deed performed by Elessar and Barrus) until it fell. The first chamber was decorated with ivy all over its walls and well lit with a golden hue. Prominent in the stonework were bas-reliefs depicting Ervaril’s daily life. The room seemed new, although there was a pile of corpses in the corner. On a closer inspection, Alvana realized that those were disabled undead creatures, which looked to have been ripped to shreds by a powerful predator, most likely the sphinx, which presented itself as a statue in the opposite corner of the room.

    When we approached the statue it activated, and the leonine creature proclaimed in a booming voice that we had to pass the Test of Wit, and should we fail it, what awaits us is the Test of Brawn. Then he spoke our first riddle:

        The kingdom’s soldiers will look like it,
        When the headsman gives them a lop.
        For then, like it, they will have a neck,
        But not a head on top.
            Our answer: a bottle.

    “Good” the sphinx proclaimed and continued with the following riddle:
        With flashing swords and booming cry,
        With darkness staining land and sky,
        The army comes, prepared to die,
        Soldiers fall in glistening dress,
        As battles are joined without egress,
        Save comfort in the earth’s caress.
            Our answer: a storm.

    The sphinx agreed our answer was acceptable as well, although he was thinking of rain. “Correct” he said after some deliberation. And finally:
        An untiring servant it is,
        Carrying loads across the muddy earth
        But one thing that cannot be forced
        Is a return to its place of birth.
            Our answer: a river.

    The sphinx then moved aside and revealed a passageway to the next room which he was guarding with his entire body. The next room had a similar door, and once we pushed it aside, we had to deal with a room filled with undead – most notably a Zombie Hulk (which would rise again after being defeated) and Burning Skeletons (which had an aura of fire around them, and could hurl small fireballs at us) – and some Stone Harriers, used to guard objects, who could fly, and slow/immobilize their targets.

    After defeating the creatures, we made our way through trapped corridors, decorated with images of Ervaril being flailed by other archmages, and we contracted several diseases (Hakumen fell ill with Foul Rotting, and Alvana subjected herself to a needled trap which made her contract Hell Fever) while deactivating the triggers for the traps. What laid ahead was a door decorated with a bas-relief depicting treasure. Fool's Gold for sure, as Ervaril's tomb was primarily a repository of knowledge, not of actual treasure. In any case, the following chamber was heavily trapped, there was a spiked pit at the entrance, a deep acid pool, statues on the sides which triggered fire blast-zones, a secondary group of two statues which pushed targets towards the treasure or towards the acid pit, and a great pile of treasure, which was quite compelling.

Drakonia Adventure Log - Session 4

The Army from Karaz-Kor

Party:
♦ Alvana (deva avenger)
♦ Dunov (dwarf ranger)
♦ Sergo (half-elf warlord)
♦ Rhakka (theifling warlock)

    The party would have to take elven ornithopters to the location where the army from Karaz-Kor was situated, ornithopters that would be deployed from Lilianne Caelys' flagship, The Zephir, a majestic vessel whose design was reminiscent of a swan. The ornithopters we were shown had some camouflaging on them, and were stripped down to make them as light as possible, consequently making them considerably harder to maneuver too. In addition, we were given 175 gold pieces for goods requisitioning.

    As Alvana wandered through Griffin's Nest looking for the best way to spend that money she ran into an old woman that she instantly recognized as a Vistani mother, who looked to be in her 40s. The Vistani are gypsies that travel through the Shadowfell... The woman looked at Alvana and addressed her as “Milady Clarick”, and spoke of her having a dark past. In essence she offered to read Alvana's fortunes, in exchange for 500 gold pieces, which was most of what she had gathered since the start of her adventure. Alvana however didn't look at the hefty cost, being entirely too curious to interact with someone who looked like she understood something about her and her past. Alvana met her at the established time in the Vistani campsite on the edge of the lake. Children seemed to want to steal from her, but she kindly offered them the sweetheart's confection she had been carrying since the start and asked to see the Vistani Baba. Upon hearing that the children were afraid to accept even the gift she gave willingly, and directed her to the Baba's tent. The Vistani woman reiterated that she has a dark past, and was entirely surprised to find that she was “new” now. She told her that Alvana was once devoted to Bane (God of War, Civilization and Tyranny). As Lady Clarick, she was an exceptional prelate, who conquered and defeated the Lion Clan of the Dragonborn Shogunate. The Baba added, looking at her hand, that Lady Clarick had been disposed of, redeemed by someone dear to me. Alvana's insight suggested that this someone dear may have been who the sweetheart's confection was related to... But regardless of that, she felt grateful to whomever changed her, because she found this relating of her past to be quite disturbing, being so far removed from her current moral compass. Upon leaving the tent, the children she'd given the sweetheart's confection to rushed to her to return it, explaining that this item was not a toy, and clearly meant for her. When she took it once more in her possession it began to glow, and a faint and distant empathic connection could be felt through the token. While this event had planted in Alvana the seeds of curiosity, and a certain desire to talk to the man who had changed her, she had to put that thought on hold, their current mission entirely more important.

    So Alvana went and requisitioned some goods, namely alchemist fire and alchemist acid, to hopefully throw from their ornithopters and wreak havoc in key places of the invading army.

    After returning to the Zephir, where Caelys was waiting, the entire party was reunited and ready to head off. They travelled on the airship, which was manned by Gloaming Guard Elves, and seemed to be powered by a storm elemental, and for propulsion it used an arcantrik generator (a generator of arcane power), which gave it a halo of silvery light. We were told our mission required 3 stages:
    1. An aerial surveillance of the camp,
    2. Finding out is the enemy army has war documents, and preferably destroying them if they exist, and
    3. Sabotaging the army.

    Additionally, we were told that we were on our own, because it would be 4 days before reinforcements and the Zephir, would arrive again.

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    We were told that the stripped down ornithopters would be difficult to maneuver. Rhakka realized that his visual senses might betray him, so he chose to fly the machine blind, guiding himself only via the controls and dials in front of him. Our ornithopters were deployed from high altitude above the edge of the enemy camp, and were difficult to stabilize. Dunov tried to guide Rhakka, but in the process approached his aircraft too closely, which caused both machines to start spinning out of control. Alvana stayed a bit away from them, and managed to take control of the aircraft and hide it in a low-altitude cloud. She was however powerless to help her companions who, nearing a crash, got ejected in random locations. Dunov and Rhakka were not very lucky, landing in the middle of the enemy camp, however, Sergo, landed far enough outside of it to be safe for the moment.

    Alvana, seeing the situation, tried her best to accomplish the given mission on her own, and succeeded on doing quiet and stealthy sweeps of the enemy camp. The first revealed that they were alerted, having clearly spotted the commotion. In the second sweep she noticed the races of the assailants: ogres, orcs, goblins and hobgoblins. With a third sweep of the campsite she managed to obtain a complete and perfect distribution of the enemy forces, and noticed, surprisingly, that they were a very organized and trained army, not at all what one might expect from the warmongering tribes of Karaz-Kor.

    After finding this, Alvana continued looking around, and eventually spotted Sergo. She landed the ornithopter away from the camp, and traveled on foot to meet him. Together, they at first hid upwind while orcs came to investigate Alvana's ornithopter, and then continued with stage two of the plan, to find out about the documents of war. They were quite lucky to find a marginal tent which was only loosely protected by goblinoids. After a quick combat, they entered the tent to find an old scared goblin inside, and on the table documents in all sorts of barbarian languages, and a general order written in Common: “Forced march to Illithiria. Arrival within 3 days.” Among the papers Alvana could also find a ritual of comprehend languages as a scroll, which she cast in order to better understand the documents in the strange languages. They were indeed war-documents, with details about the army's placement in combat (orcs and hobgoblin overlords on the flanks, which made up the bulk of the army; goblins were trained as a group, bugbears acted as infiltration teams and ogres were shock troupes). All in all the army was very well organized, which was very disconcerting. Alvana manages to intimidate the old goblin, who by chance turned out to be the army's scribe, into delaying the army a day, hopefully giving the Zephir enough time to gather reinforcements.

    Alvana and Sergo then returned to Alvana's ornithopter (they were thankful the orc patrol left it alone) and attempted to use the communicator inside it to contact the Zephir, or the elves, to share all the information they had gathered, and warn Griffin's Nest of the incoming assault. The elven forces thought the four of them were lost for good, and were surprised to hear from Alvana. She wanted to continue on with the mission, attempting to sabotage the camp but the elves told them to stand down; they were too few.

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    Meanwhile, Rhakka and Dunov had been captured by the barbarian army and taken to their leader, a half-orc female war chief with exceptional good looks even by human standards. Rhakka was the first to be interrogated by her, and she essentially probed his mind. She warned him that should he resist, it would hurt him more, but he defied her, making the probing exceptionally painful. Through this invasion of his mind, the woman was able to see all that Rhakka had seen of the elven defenses and even the Zephir's mechanisms. She thanked him mockingly and sent him back in stockades, where goblinoids mocked and humiliated him for the duration of the entire day.

    The war chief's probing of Dunov was kinder, because he chose not to resist her, but the information she found from his keen dwarven mind was all the more dangerous.

    The following morning, Rhakka was washed and taken to the war chief's tent, where she told him that he should please her. After the deed was done, she appeared content, and ordered that Rhakka be put in a cage, one alongside Dunov.

    When the chance for escape came, Rhakka realized that his cage's locking mechanism was easy to crack, and he stealthily unlocked his cage, then unlocked Dunov's as well, and went back into the cage waiting for a better occasion, and intent on revenge for his humiliation. While Dunov took the quickest occasion to stealthily escape from camp, Rhakka sneaked back into the war chief's tent, wanting to assassinate her. He thought he saw her between the veils of her bed's canopy, sleeping quietly, and planted his knife deep into the female looking shape. His dagger however found only soft pillows, and when he turned around, she faced him, casting a powerful Blasphemy spell, which knocked him unconscious.

    He awoke later to find his body opened up as part of an evil ritual. Each of his muscles was neatly dissected and cold iron was being poured, in a runic pattern, on his bones. This was, once again, exceptionally painful, and Rhakka could not realistically understand how he was still alive, how he had not yet perished from internal bleeding. When the ritual was complete, she sealed his body, and Rhakka could still see the cold iron under his skin, like a second set of veins circuited over his entire body. The war chief commanded that he attack her, and he resisted. A shock-wave of pain surged over his body as his hand, no longer under his control, attacked her. She then summoned a goblin to her tent, and then commanded Rhakka to attack him. This time he did not resist, and with a swift blow killed the small creature.

    “Good, my pet. You're learning...”

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    Alvana and Sergo managed to find Dunov, who shared all he knew about the half-orc female general and the army itself. Alvana reported a second time to the elves, and tweaking around with the ornithopter, realized that its engine could be jump-started. She did so, and allowed Dunov to ride away with Sergo on the ornithopter, to find the Zephir, or at least safer ground. She would walk on foot.

    Soon after she departed from the enemy campsite, Alvana heard, through the sending stone she took from the scribe, “Prepare to depart, all armies, all formations”. The Zephir arrived, fully battle ready, and started effectively bombing the barbarian campsite. Unfortunately, it seems that they were ready for an airship attack, because they uncovered ballistas and targeted the Zephir. After a powerful exchange of fire, the Zephir is touched and it retreats, and the camp is dispersed.

    Alvana continues on her trek back to Griffin's Nest, and at one point, surprisingly, Rhakka appears next to her, with his items near him, and otherwise naked. Not expecting any foul play, Alvana concernedly asks him how he survived, how he managed to teleport to her, and equips Rhakka. He does not manage to explain much, when he feels the half-orc woman's intrusion in his mind, making him attack Alvana. She shielded herself with a layer of vitality, and attacked Rhakka with some of her strongest powers, hoping that divine light will cause him to regain control of himself. It does not, but a few seconds later, he is able to regain enough mental leverage over the woman that he tells Alvana “Save me, please, save me” and drops his weapons. Alvana ties his hands and removes the more dangerous of his equipment, taking him back on the road to Griffin's Nest. The Zephir however spots Alvana and Rhakka, and picks them up while they are retreating.

    On it, Archmage Pynar tells the party that Rhakka is a liability and that they should probably end him. Dunov readies his crossbow and aims her at Rhakka, waiting for a word from the elven legate. She tells the party that it is their decision, and Pynar explains that the Tomb of Ervaril may hold the key to undoing the foul ritual cast on Rhakka. The party agrees to go search the tomb, and Rhakka is placed in a temporal stasis device which looked a great deal like the vats Alvana and Barrus awoke in. While Rhakka is taken to the GEARS's laboratories in stasis, the rest of the party heads to the Tomb of Ervaril.

Drakonia Adventure Log - Session 3

The Fey Lands of Illithiria

Party:
♦ Alvana (deva avenger)
♦ Barrus (bugbear rogue)
♦ Elessar (goliath barbarian)
♦ Rhakka (theifling warlock)
♦ Dunov (dwarf ranger)

    Having saved the refugees and evacuated them safely out of Pridemaine, the party now was charged with safely traveling with them to some dolmens where a passage way may be set up to lead them all into Illithiria. Lancelot assured us that the journey should not be too perilous, but that he was also protected by the charms of his lady. The party of adventurers may indeed have taken to the journey without much difficulty but having the 50 refugees with them made things considerably trickier. Alvana tried to aid the group with a heartening prayer, or by scouting ahead to ensure a safe passage, and her efforts, coupled with those of the other adventurers led the group safely on the first day. At night however the characters felt watched by something not of this world. They shrugged it off, set up camp and allowed the humans to go to sleep, setting up a watch between themselves. That night they were attacked by 3 insubstantial hounds of ill omen which marked them and cursed them with their howl. The refugees panicked about the combat, and a few fled right past the hounds, who tore through them. Luckily, for the rest, Elessar was able to intimidate them, thereby saving their lives, as we battled the hounds and dispatched them.

    On the journey the next day, Alvana found in an old and battered house a beautiful Githyanki Silver Fullblade. When she took hold of the weapon she instantly recognized it as her sword, the Banisher, and the place as an old sanctuary of some past reincarnation of hers.

    The sky was a beautiful purplish color as we finally reached the dolmens with the refugees, and Aalana told us that she must perform a ritual at each of the 5 dolmens so that everyone may travel safely to the fey lands. The ritual had to be uninterrupted, so our ranged combatants, Rhakka and Dunov, placed themselves on two of the dolmens, and the others readied their weapons from the ground. We were met by an envoy sent by The Shadow, led by one Azara Iceborn, an unseelie fey who might have been affiliated with the Prince of Winter. She was a fierce ranged combatant herself, but our tactical positioning helped considerably, and we prevailed without considerable losses, even though in the heat of battle, one of the dolmens was destroyed.

    Rhakka, the only one of us skilled in the arcane arts, had to withstand incredible pain, as he channeled the arcane energy needed to complete the passageway to Illithiria through his own body, completing thus the network of Dolmens. He survived, but almost just barely, as arcane voltage shot through him, and he resisted as the refugees passed into the passageway 5 by 5, and finally all of us, including him crossed over to the Lady of the Lake's domain. Rhakka collapsed from sheer exhaustion on arrival.

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    The Lady of the Lake did not show herself until Queen Aalana did not speak a greeting in elven. She then appeared, white haired with very dark, dark eyes, with aquatic plants from the lake's depths clothing her, stepping on water so softly that it provoked no ripples. She wielded a beautiful scimitar.

    The Lady thanked the adventurers and Aalana, and welcomed them. She was particularly moved by Rhakka's efforts, and she helped awaken him.

    The Lady then proceeded to speak to each of the characters, who in this moment of respite longed to hear about their past, of what had happened to their homes and loved ones in 120 years. For Alvana, the Lady of the Lake recognized a past life of hers when she wielded a staff with a swan on top of it, and had brought news of dire consequence from the land of the dragons.

    She explained that The Shadow had renounced his or perhaps her name. By killing the Hands of Fate he had achieved dragon apotheosis. After the Shadow's campaign against the humans, 10 years had passed, in which he was still. As for the battles on other continents, the tieflings are now scattered houses, trying to reform the empire, the Dragonborn Shogunate was bickering, and the barbarian horde from Karaz-Kor is always warring between themselves. Illithiria itself wasn't doing gloriously better, as the High King was sick with an unknown ailment.

    The Lady of the Lake told us to travel to the capital – Griffin's Nest – to seek an audience with the High King, and gave us an ever-blooming rose as a fey token. The refugees remained with the Lady of the Lake, who would ensure that they were taken care of.

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    Griffin's Nest was presented a big clear deep lake, and above the lake, on an earth mote, stood the great city. There was no apparent way of entering the city, but when we presented the fey token, a beautiful rose bridge formed towards it. Its gates were made of marble, lined with silver and mithril.

    We were greeted by a contingent of elves and were taken to the palace, where we were greeted by the King's majordomo, a very difficult, haughty and condescending woman, who explained that we may see the king after we have been “educated”. What followed was a difficult lesson on order and rulership in Illithiria, difficult not due to its content, but because the majordomo was doing her best to treat us as though with our simple minds and weak intelligence we would not be able to follow her explanations about the fey history. All of the boys did their best to hasten the lessons and disrespect the woman, but Alvana saw her as a fount of vital information and paid as much attention as possible to her explanations, apologizing for her companions, even though inside she found the exchange excruciating as well. She simply had the wisdom to not act ridiculously upon that, and when the King's majordomo had to leave momentarily, she gave her party a summary of the explanations they had essentially blocked out of their minds.

    Essentially the fey kingdom was organized in 3 factions:
      ♦ the Gloaming Guard, which were the elven protectors of the kingdom,
      ♦ the Spider League, made up of mainly drow, but also some gnomes, which dealt in information brokerage, and was a network of loosely affiliated agents scattered throughout Illithiria
      ♦ the most esteemed of these organizations - GEARS – The Griffin Elementary of Arcane Research and Study

    All three of which together with the High King and the Senate made up the Court of Stars. The Senate was made up of each noble across Illithiria, and they were the ones who appointed the legate, a general in times of war.

    Finally, the Office was the term used for the conglomerate of leaders from the aforementioned organizations.

    We were told the king would receive us after the evening meal, and we were given fine elven clothing worth around 500 gold pieces to wear on the occasion. The receiving chamber of the High King was a large round room, lined as a library, with fey lights offering bright illumination.

    The King and his Office were sitting comfortably, drinking tea and smoking pipe, in a casual and relaxed atmosphere which was a welcomed change from the majordomo's rigid stance. The King greeted us and then introduced us one by one to his staff:

   ♦ Miss Eveline Pynar, archmage and head mistress of the GEARS, a pretty gnome lady.
   ♦ Daevis Calrethral, chief of information from the Spider League, who was a serious drow male, who had a cane near him and a belt sporting a skull with spiders on it.
   ♦ An elven lady, named Jocelyn Varlanna, who was presented as the leader of the Gloaming Guard.
   ♦ And the legate, a young eladrin woman named Lilianne Caelys, who wore short black hair, a bit unusual for an eladrin, and wore a fullplate and a holy symbol with a sun and a book upon it. She was most likely a paladin.

    The king proceeded to explain that there are two things that the elven kingdom could use the adventurers’ help with, namely with the barbarian invasion from Karaz Kor, which required a small taskforce to infiltrate and sabotage the army, or with the tomb of Ervaril, the sage, which held weapons, arcane secrets, and treasure. After some debating, the party decided that the army was the greater threat, and decided to be part of the task force to disable it.