Drakonia Logs - Sessions 10 through 24

The Forming of the Shadowbane

Characters in our party over this entire time:
♦ Alvana (deva avenger -> deva pacifist cleric)
♦ Barrus (bugbear rogue)
♦ Sergo (half-elf warlord)
♦ Rhakka (tiefling warlock -> tiefling monk)
♦ Hadarai (eladrin swordmage)
♦ Ilarion (half-orc rogue)
♦ Elerra (drow warlock)
♦ Oshul (shifter warden)
♦ Elessar (goliath barbarian)
♦ Eckseth (warforged artificer/swordmage)
♦ Balasar (dragonborn elementalist)
♦ Riven (revenant sorcerer)
♦ Zibatar (tiefling warlord)

Note: Despite this long list, we were no more than 8 in a group at one time, and even that proved quite inconvenient, so we forced the group size down to 6, which is more manageable. 

Note2: The "->" indicates characters who have chosen to switch builds, while maintaining roughly the same character personality, and personal goals. More often than not, such decisions were necessary for the party to function well mechanically, and also allowed the player to continue playing characters they were attached to.

Our adventures throughout the last few months (real-time, not game-time, in game it's been about a couple of fortnights) have taken us far and wide across Endallion, the continent shared by the Human Duchies, the Fey Kingdom, the sealed Dwarven Strongholds, and the barbarian Lost Tribes.

Battle at the Gates:

Following Barrus' reinstatement as his tribe's rightful heir and chief, he took the bugbears and headed with them stealthily into the forest, as a strike group for the great battle ahead. He had about 200 trained warriors.
Meanwhile, the Omega Company arrived, and we met Durom for ourselves, a gruff dwarf, with a fondness for liquor, but a ready and able crew at his hand. Not quite as able was his aircraft, an ooooold eladrin vessel which was powered by a fire elemental rather than a storm one (like more modern vessels). To be kind, it was a hunk of junk, but the armament on it was front-line. Durom's men were likewise rough around the edges, but excellent and dedicated soldiers. And acting major, Hadarai now commanded the Omega Company, and all its men. Oshul's tribe was perhaps the most defensible position, being on a high hill with a pass through the mountains nearby. We took ornithopters to sweep the coming forces and rid ourselves of some of them, Barrus's met attacked from the safety of the forests, and when they reached the gates we'd built around Oshul's Tribe, they were few and decimated by our small army. We sustained considerable, but relatively few casualties, compared to the massive army that came at us, which was almost entirely decimated, the remaining men captured.
In the aftermath of the battle, we had a group of 2000 men, ready to aid the elven war effort against the Shadow, on the other field. They would take a long time to travel to their new war-front, but would indubitably add much needed muscle to our cause.

Revisiting the Kraken

After the battle, everyone had a while of downtime, a period which Alvana spent in training to become a ritual caster, and to transcribe ritual scrolls in her own book. In the meantime the others met with Elven officials, including high ranking members of the Spider League (Elerra and Kalrethral), and learned of the Shadow's current intent was related to the Dwarves. These creatures had sealed themselves in their underground mountain strongholds a century prior, and they had not been heard of since, but old elven sages knew the dwarves had captured a primordial elemental. Some rumors said this might be Vessuvu himself (although not all rumors turn out to be true, and this one did not). In any case, the Shadow wished to unleash the primordial, so it would do great harm to the dwarves, allowing him to safely peruse their runic archives looking for the Key to the Forge (of which our party had a small piece of a larger image, in the book of Ervaril)
Although the dwarven situation sounded like it required urgent-enough attention, our party, being the adventurers that they are, decided to revisit the Kraken they had fled from before, the one who spoke of its "shinies", and who was no doubt an awkward guard placed there by a mage in his desire to protect his treasure cache. It was Alvana who proposed that a series of well-placed rituals could not only return them to that same location in the mountain, even though a cave had collapsed meanwhile, but even grant them the gifts that aquatic creatures enjoy - such as breathing underwater, swimming expertly, and fighting underwater without penalties.
The battle was still difficult, the fiendish Kraken had been touched by hell, and it was all the more a worthy opponent for seeing us again, and truly wanted us dead. Fortunately, we killed it instead.
Inside the chamber he was guarding, we found a treasure cache of things, gold and gems and assorted treasures of all sorts, but also a Lesser Ring of Feather Fall, a Shadow Warlock Armor, a divine boon known as Nature's Fervor, and a strange dreamcatcher. When Alvana picked it up, it awoke and greeted her, as a a Fearcatcher of Bane, an awakened item. He told Alvana that the Banisher and it were once a set, but sensed that the Spirit of the Banisher was gone now, perhaps it had died. In dialogue with the Fearcatcher, Alvana summarised that its soul was evil, and was resolute to not heed it for advice, although she still tried to obtrain information from it, to little success.
After obtaining the treasure in the cache we made our way towards the Dwarven mountains, and we found two trails heading in opposite directions - one leading up and one down below. We chose to head up the mountain, and we came to a small cavern where we fought ogres and goblins.

The Howling Cave

The path towards the dwarves was wroth with peril. We had to deal with an unseelie cave dryad, who was bound to a very beautiful tree that grew at the center of one cave, on an island in the middle of a lake. A vile controlling creature, it kept us far away and kept caging us with the trees roots, that spanned the room, making her nearly impossible to attack outright, which frustrated many of us. After she was destroyed, we searched the area and found a baffled tiefling woman buried at the roots of the tree, barely breathing. We managed to stabilize her and explained that we'd lead her back to civilization if she came with us for now. (We made good on this promise, leaving her at the first real civilized establishment we could find).
Following stairs made of marble and granite, we reached a long chasm, a great ravine. Unknown to us, this location was The Bridge of the Faithful, a defense dwarves had established before reaching one of their secluded monasteries. The real trick was that air currents from above and bellow cancelled each other out, allowing someone who'd run head first into the ravine, and jump, to float safely on the other side. It took us a while to understand he physics of it, but once we realized the trick, we moved safely across.
We traversed a forest of luminescent giant mushrooms, known as deathcaps, and prior to arriving at the dwarven Monastery of the Rolling Barrel, notes on the walls explained and portrayed the principles of the Fists of Zuoken - Discipline, Serenity and Harmonious Perfection. The Monastery itself was located at the top of a mote of earth and rock, with a winding road leading from the exit of the cave all the way up to its gates. Inside, a peaceful, if inebriated, group of 100 dwarven monks welcomed us into their temple and brewhouse.

The Monastery of the Rolling Barrel

The Dwarven Monastery, led by a drunken master by the name of Thoril, was a place of meditation and revelation for many of us. We were welcomed to drink the mighty dwarven ale, which put all of us out-cold, as we were unused to the very strong alcohol, and placed us in a common dream, where Thoril joined us, and welcoming our questions. Hadarai's warring attitude did not sit well with the pacifist grand master, and he removed him from the discussion very soon. Hadarai was annoyed by this, and sought understanding among other dwarves, who likewise embraced the ways of peace. He pointed out that people are dying and that their action may help reduce war losses. Hadarai's attempts to make them join the war effort fell on deaf ears, which infuriated him. The angry eladrin rudely changed the composition of the dwarves' beer (ahem. if you know what I mean.), which they did not mind. However when Hadarai spoke ill of the grand-master, and spoke against the teachings of Peace, he was rapidly knocked out, and left to awaken at the outer gates of the monastery. He made a small cut on his hand, with his sword and wrote in his own blood "This is the price of dwarven peace."
Meanwhile, Alvana and Rhakka in particular were rather fascinated by the teachings of the monks. Although the concept of peace seemed somewhat foreign to the deva, exploring the monastery's inner sanctum made her past lives speak to her in an amazing way. Travering the spiraling room, she read about the principles of the unbroken circle, which she clumsily tried to meditate upon:
     1. "Strength lies in knowing oneself."
     2. "A willingness to learn, is a sign of strenght."
     3. "Endure. In enduring, you grow strong."
     4. "Learn to see the whole, or be blinded by the truth"
     5. "Many in unison can accomplish more than many alone"
     6. "Seek balance, or lose sight of your goal"
     7. "Patience is a virtue"
     8. "Focus and discipline are key to strength, division is a key to weakness."
In traversing the wisdom of these words, even though some seemed like foreign notions, and others as truths, close to her heart, Alvana saw a vision of Korevar, the one her sweetheart's confection was attuned to. He seemed almost an ascended angel, and made Alvana realized that she had lived through 100 incarnations to get to the point where she was now. Her current, 101st, would complete a cycle, and she could begin anew. She realized that she could make a powerful statement with her final incarnation, and if she'd embrace the spirit of fate, knowledge, and civilization, of all that is good, and of Peace itself, she too had to become a symbol of peace... A compassionate symbol of life, rather than a steel blade that delivers death. As she reached the top of the spire, her conclusions and inner changes brought forth powerful winds and she radiated, illuminating the top of the inner sanctum like a lighthouse beacon. In a moment of brilliant insight, she realized that the names civilizations have given gods are false, and that faith lies in principles alone. Gods may be illusions, but faith can move mountains and make the spirit soar.

Alvana of the Sacred Heart - Pax Lilium. My own artwork.

Rhakka himself embraced the monastic traditions, although his own experiences were tied to an enchanted book in the monastery's library, "The way of the Desert Wind". Rhakka found it is a way of preserving the body in the most harsh and cruel conditions, it is a way of balancing your mind, body and soul to withstand the lack of resources needed for survival, it was a way of survival. The discipline is meant to balance your life even when darkness swallows you, when you feel the world turn against you and you feel the fear, when even your people want you dead for their own purposes. Rhakka had visions of  the sands of the tiefling deserts on Yiluma-Orod, and found a new monk calling attuning his fiery blood to incendiary daggers.

Rhakka of the Burning Sands. My gift to Dumi on his bday!

The Pits of Molten Death

After a brief time spent in the monastery, we asked where we might find the other dwarves, and Thoril explained that they are beyond the Gates of the Golden Mithral, a door which opens only with the Eternal Flame. They add that it was stolen by an unknown evil (which we all assumed to be the Shadow), and that one more was given to guard and protect by a very powerful guardian. To reach him, we'd need to tread beyond the Mushroom Forest, past the Echoing Tunnel, through the Venting Hollow and across the Pits of Molten Death.

Rhakka in the fiery pits. Drawn by Dumi

 Traversing these chambers was essentially a delve, we dealt with sulfurous gas and aggressively territorial myconics in the first room, then the basalt changed to a crystalline rock that propelled sound, finding ourselves taking thunder-damage from the attacks of destrachans - blind creatures that used sound and thunderous voices as defenses. The Venting Hollows were an area where geysers could pop from almost anywhere and made the aid rancid with an acidic smell. The heat in the air made it obvious that we were approaching some sort of underground volcano.
Finally the Pits were a large cavern with a real volcano, and a volcanic dragon and fire bats, at the top of which was the artifact we were looking for. We battled the shifty fire breathing creature, but when Alvana pacified the dragon, forbidding it to attack, it flew to the top of the cavern, took the Eternal Flame, folded his wings, and plummetted safely into the lava pit below him, thus ending the combat.
Quite upset for our failure, we returned to the Dwarven Monastery.

The Vaults and the Four Paths.

If there's one thing dwarven drunks can do, is confuse you, and send you on a wild goose chance, which you later find out was QUITE unnecessary. Upon our return, Thoril asked us if we have the eternal flame, we commented that we didn't manage to obtain the artefact, and he explained that the Eternal Flame is rather within our own powers, and our quest to the Molten Pits have given us the wisdom and experience to know what must be done at the Gates of Golden Mithral.... Groaaaan.

Indeed, the Dwarven Gates were opened by triggering a specific sequence of runes by infusing them with fire, and the Eternal Flame was merely an artefact that could have accomplished the infusion. All magical fire would have worked, and it did, as our group treaded into the deep complex of mines. A warforged named Eckseth, who had been manufactured by a dwarf named Hex Redbeard, but then lost track of him, asked to join our party as he wanted to find his maker and master.

Inside the dwarven corridors, we found a gruesome sight, thousands upon thousands of slaughtered dwarves, many with burn marks on them. It appeared that inside their sealed gates, none remained, and few answers could be given. We knew the Shadow wanted to steal the dwarven runic keys, but did not know where to start in searching for it ourselves, so Hadarai and Alvana tried to find the body of a dwarven general, and Alvana cast Speak with Dead on its body. After some flattery and diplomatic explanations, th spirit introduced itself as Durambar the Grey, Defender of the Stonefist Clan, General of the Manticore Legion, and allowed us to ask our 3 questions. Firstly, we asked how they managed to chain the primordial in the first place, and why. They used binds of steelsong, forced upon the primordial, Etnassan, by the Runepriests of the Steel Circle. The primordial was their nemesis, for in its volcano he stirred and collapsed dwarven mines, and with fury roared and flooded mine-shafts with lava, sealing them and many lives. Understanding, we then asked, where are the rune keys?, to which the spirit responded simply The Lost Vaults of the 7th clan. Finally, we asked it who could assemble the key, an answer which he did not know - he believed the one who knew the assembling mechanism to be long-gone, but was uncertain about the nature of the rune keys in general. As the information was essential, we agreed to cast the ritual once more, to ask one final question - How were we to get to the Lost Vaults? We were told we'd need to traverse 4 challenges, the Path of Famine, The Path of War, The Path of Plague, and the Path of Death.
The Path of Famine was a lesson in endurance, we walked into an encased dome filled with a mold of rotting, which spoiled our food supplies and turned our water into a poisonous gelatine. We had to wait and allow the mold to make lacerations on our skin, and resist the temptation to eat the fowl thing, for what seemed like days, although an enchanted sphere at the center of the room which controlled the light, may also have controlled the passage of time in the room. Once enough time had passed, 3 doors opened, and in dwarven runes a ritual of Traveller's Feast was awarded to us. Alvana cast Comprehend languages, and also made an Amanuensis ritual to copy the ritual once she understood it, in case it may be necessary later.
The Path of War was a familiar sight to any adventurer, a group of relentless monsters, who attacked us and wanted our final deaths. They were vile ghouls, and they were defeated swiftly. Although the enemies were killed, dwarven tradition also calls for one to honor their ancestors through battle. While the next door did not open, we found the walls covered in a time-consuming religious ritual for honoring the departed. We slowly deciphered each word. The rune of understanding bore with it a message: "Death is not only the end, it is also the beginning." Near it, a rune of opening, which, once activated, opened 3 doors. It was hard to see in the pitch darkness, and our magic light seemed to be absorbed in this eerie area. The runes on the wall read that we were approaching the laboratory of Phadar the Mad, a genius who developed diseases, powerful plagues, and viruses. He was killed by his clan members after accidentally freeing a disease upon his own people. A living gate barred the way into his laboratory however. It demanded blood to open. We fed it our very vitality, and it cackled louder with every drop it absorbed. When it was satiated it opened with an eerie "Welcome to your doom, fools."
Thus we arrived at the Path of the Plague. On a big cauldron, many runes spoke of death. We found Phadar's Scheleton in the room, and his hard to ignore phantom stirring the cauldron muttering "boil boil work and toil" repeatedly. Upon seeing us, the phantom demanded that we drink from the cauldron, and be amazed at the variety of effects his diseased soup would give us. Unsure, but aware that in the Path of the Plague, the soul had to cleanse itself, the four of us drank up our diseased bowls, and Phadar's ghost laughed maniacally, exploring our initial effects, and telling us just what the diseases we manifested were: Lockjaw, Fowl Rotting, Cackle Fever and Blistering Corruption, each affected our bodies, and we felt oozy and weakened. Phadar declared that the antidote was ours to create if we wanted to avoid a most gruesome death, or tremendous impairments in our futures, and a puzzle unfurled before us. Two bottles labeled enhancer and nullifier, and some colored liquids with different labels on them - a red one, fire and speed, a yellow one, high temperature and a nerve ending, a green one, with a tree on it, and a violet one with poisonous acid. Combining the red and green one with an enhancer, and the yellow and violet one with a nullifier created a transparent potion that smelled like honey, and Phadar scoffed, as we drank the potion and got rid of the fowl diseases. In the room. a large book with a big skull on it, which read The Alchemy of the Body, was a useful ritual focus which we took with us.
In Phadar's laboratory, a teleportation circle activated which would lead us into the cavern which would take us through the Path of Death. We were attatcked there by a group of orcs, but when they saw a reddish glow, they used grappling hooks to propel themselves to another area of the cave, and fled, hiding.

Etnassan is coming. Drawn by Dumi.

Down the corridor the fabled Etnassan was stirring, making his way towards us. Anybody could have seen by his looks that we were no match to defeat him, so we too fled, down the opposite corridor. The earth was cracked, and narrow bridges traversed the lava filled ravines bellow. As we tried to walk across them they broke, pillars supporting the bridges forcing us forward, in a most dangerous display of athletic skill. Hadarai attempted to speak to Etnassan from across the chasm when we landed safely on the other side. Etnassan furiously demanded their lives. Hadarai flat out told the primordial how he may reach the Monastry of the Rolling Barrel, since it was truly the dwarves he had his qualms with, and dwarven lives he hungered for. In reaction, Etnassan quickly turned away and left, heading towards the Monastery. Alvana was outraged. Had Hadarai trully ensured that the last community of dwarves in the land would be erradicated? How dared he? And over what? The simple fact that they refused to join the war effort? "Their peace is paid for with the blood of my people", Hadarai flatly stated, and Alvana argued that they had a right to stay out of the war if they so pleased, but to send a dangerous primordial after them was far more than spiteful, it was downright vile.After a prolonged argument, Alvana and Hadarai had little more to say, although they carried heavy resentments towards each other.
In the room we were now located, an important rune could be read, a Ward of Power, which protected The Lost Dwarven Archives.

The Dwarven Archives. 

Deactivating the ward, we made our way inside the Lost Archives. Eckseth found himself able to understand the secret indexing method of the dwarves. We walked towards the middle of the archive, the walls along our trip detailing the creation of the dwarves. At the center, a black orb caught in some claws, A password to access the archives was necessary, and it had to do with a date. Important world history is to be remembered, but we did have to base ourselves a bit on luck when it came to translating the date of the event (a great storm), into the Dwarven calendar, which begins with their settlement in the mountains. In any case, we used Eckseth's console to connect to the archive of the clan, and guessed the password via a dangerous trial and error attempt. Fortunately, we were able to gain access. We found that the extremely large archive, also kept a runic imprint of the key. 6 layers of stone, stretching over 3 square kilometers, contained the detailed version of the entire fractal - an undertaking so great, that only dwarves or dragons could attempt it. We tried our best to copy the fractal key via a magic ritual, after downloading the files into Eckseth. The information surrounding the key in the archive spoke of a foresign continent, The Mists, where Terrenis of the Hands of Fate once journeyed, to unlock the forge, and she returned with great power. We now also had a key to this location. Using a teleportation circle we manage to teleport to Gunner's Pride, the Omega Escadron flagship. Unfortunately, we teleport in the middle of an attack...

The Leviathan of Dis

To be continued.