Session 28 Report

General Summary

Moon Planter's Log

  Dolan lead us deeper into the mine. I had expected Duk to be much farther away, but she was literally just around the corner. She's quite ditsy, but a sweet heart. She came up to all of us and gave us warm hugs. I was unsure of how to respond. Most of us weren't keen on receiving affection today. Tangent most of all who tried to stop her, but Duk hugged her claws. We took a moment to explain Duk's situation regarding her slavery. She didn't want to believe it, but Dolan assured her we were telling the truth. Duk became furious and agreed to join us in Bleakburn. We'll need to make good on our promise of her bakery. She's been taken advantage of too much, and we need to show her that the Bannermanes can be trusted. The Foremanes have done great damage to our organization's reputation. It might be time to perform an audit as our newest member Sarsaparilla suggested. Our newest Bannermane from Dakilai has joined us. She's a fellow Leatherwing and a Ranger just like me. Quite beautiful too. She managed to track us down without drawing attention from Karat or the other Foremanes. A shame we didn't meet her sooner. Her accent is from the southern mountains.   Duk's fellow slaves have all succumbed to the Mycena. No lasting memories and only the knowledge of digging. They're happily singing and going about their work, though they seem disgruntled at Duk. Perhaps her chipper attitude is too much to put up with. Duk lead us to a section of the cave where she had found the Aetherstone sample shown to Karat back in Weldstone. Cher used her magic like a dowsing rod and found the direction I needed to dig. It also lined up with the Aetherstone vein. I began mining and cut through the cave walls. The walls broke through and revealed a very large piece of Aetherstone sticking out of the ground in an open cavern. Inside with it was a sand creature that looked very imposing. This was just the start of our problems. The creature spoke, but in a gargley language I couldn't understand. I set the pick down and attempted to communicate with it. It spoke in the same pattern as before, but I couldn't understand. Tangent has the means of casting a spell to speak to it, but it wasn't prepared. We thought we could sleep in the cavern with the Aetherstone, but as soon as I stepped inside, another sand creature appeared. These things looks poised to defend this stone. I wanted to reason with them and try to negotiate, but these creatures are in our way. We don't have time to waste talking to creatures who get in our way. This Aetherstone is going to be ours. Tangent Blessed me and we decided to attack them. Big mistake.   2 sand creatures quickly turned into 4, then 5. The battle lasted for what seemed like hours. They're punches landing hard and blinding us with sand. They teleported through walls and cut us off when we tried to run. If we didn't fight them, we were going to die. Little Duk began singing and I suddenly felt a rush of inspiration. I was able to block their incoming strikes and hit back. Sarsaparilla showed tremendous courage and flew right into the cavern surrounded by enemies. She landed on the stone, and drew their attention.   From there she suffered one attack after the other, but never fell. Even in her blinded state, she did severe damage. She's an expert with her bow, and an excellent addition to our team. The battle was arduous, but we overwhelmed them and succeeded. Were it not for our healers, we'd had died right there. Once the first sand creature fell, we were able to gang up on the others and take them all down. That has been the second toughest fight of my life. I drew every ounce of inspiration and moxy I could to strike true. With the fight done, Cher picked up the pick and collected the Aetherstone herself. We now posses 4 bulk out of the 5 needed to activate the teleporter in Dakilai. The magical interference lessened only slightly. That means there's more Aetherstone here to collect. If one formation of stone gave us 3 bulk, that must mean we could collect a lot more. We may even find enough to supply 2 portals instead of one. With the battle over, we need to regain our spells and store the stone we have. Karat and the Foremanes do regular inspections of the caves, and we need to get what we can. I offered several suggestions to store the stone in several sections of the cave, but we ultimately decided to store on the ship. Upon leaving the caves, we saw 3 Gem Gnolls forcing their way onto our ship and searching all of the clockworks on board. They were yelling about how ponies can't be trusted with gems. I mean they're right, but that's still racist to assume.   We have to act fast. If we get caught, we're going to have to fight them. We're not giving up these stone under any circumstances. Our mission comes first. We have to decide if we're going to sneak the stones on board, or return to the caves to hide. Frankly, I think we should fight them. These Bannermanes have betrayed the core tenants of our order. I think it's time we sabotage everything they've built here. Free the slaves and take all the stone for ourselves. We shouldn't kill them, but disabling them and leaving them to the mercy of their slaves would be justice of the highest order.   When we arrived, I cared nothing for the slaves. The Foremanes are self serving pieces of garbage. They've turned their backs on the other members of the order, and must be punished. Freeing the slaves from their mental prison by destroying the Mycena will do nicely. With the stone removed, and the slaves revolting will serve our purposes. The Foremanes will lose everything for the mistakes they've made, and the Bannermanes will be made stronger by cutting this cancer free. Cher has been the most vocal opposition to this plan. If I convince her, I'll sway the party.  

Swift Sail's Log

  Dolan, the small duck that had been boarded upon the mallard mare from the bar told us he wouldn’t tell the dogs about us taking the Aetherstone so long as we helped the mallard mare escape slavery. Fine by me! I’ve _loathed_ slavers and this wouldn’t be the first time I’ve helped one escape. He waddled and we trotted, a quick trip to the very little mare. Introductions were made and hugs were given, an enthusiastic one she is! It’s unfortunate the situation she’s found herself in, though blissfully unaware of the truth. It took just a moment of convincing before she was willing to listen and see to reality. With Duk, and our newest crewmember Sassaprilla—I’m not sure how it’s spelt and I don’t want to try her last name either—we were ready to find more aetherstone! Little did we know it was just a skip and a jump away, but even less aware were we of the troubles it would take to get it. In hindsight seeing lumbering sand elementals pop out of the ground at our presence should have been a red flag, but Shabaka told us they were relatively unintelligent. I’m not sure if we would’ve stood down either way, Moon Planter is steadfast in his determination to clear out this entire mine, but I stand by his side at the mouth of the cave holding cover for our allies. And just like the spiders we’d brute our way through, I was sure of it!   And how quickly was sense knocked into us. I was quickly bombarded by a trio of sand soldiers, barreling onto me with their sand fists until my lights were out put out. The rest is still a bit hazy, it was like a blink as the next thing I knew my hooves were under me and I was next to Moon Planter with a headache that would give a bottle of Moxy’s Rum a run for it’s money. With sand in my eyes I couldn’t see much either, but instincts kicked in, we’d made a mistake. Moon Planter and I barreled our way past our allies like the lasses we were, only to be cut off by one of the soldiers who moved through the walls to meet us. There apparently was no running, and worst of all we’d left our allies open! Between Tangent’s determined healing and Duk’s desperate songs of encouragement, not to mention Sasprilla’s courage to toss herself onto the Aetherstone like a martyr, how could we not rise to the occasion??   Moon Planter and I quickly refocused, taking down the elemental before us as our team continued to support in the efforts. I was surprised to find it had a heart, which I had ripped clean out. We squeezed our way back through the narrow cave to support our new ranger, who put on an impressive display before the soldiers to stand her ground. Moments later we had them all vanquished, and 3 more bulk of Aetherstone to put away with Cher. Even after all that, Moon Planter still wants to keep going in the cave, but we can’t be here forever. As we were leaving the cave to rest, it was as I feared finding three of the Foremanes aboard our vessel, harassing our crew about us and the stones. We’ll see to it they regret instigating the Bannermanes!

Rewards Granted

3 Bulk of Aetherstone

Missions/Quests Completed

Gathered more bulk of Aetherstone

Character(s) interacted with

Duk, Dolan, and the Weldstone Bannermanes