Olkedo Session 7

General Summary

The adventurers leave Cross Corners and go to Vultheryol Peak to look for Nieve's brother. On the way they find the body of the mountaineer that lived at the base of the mountain in a majimonster hive. When they reach the base of the mountain they search the mountaineer's house and find his journal. There is no mention of anyone matching Nieve's brother's description. There is mention of someone who caught one of the majimonsters at the peak of the mountain. There is also mention of someone matching Akari Oshiro's description. She shouted at the mountaineer about a missing black stone. The man who caught the majimonster at the peak must have taken it. They encounter a statue on the way up the mountain and leave it an offering. It seems to grant them a boon. At the peak of the mountain they find the remaining majimonster and Nieve captures it.

Detailed Summary

The next day in Cross Corners our protagonists Nieve Powell, Rasputia, Jebedaiah Bateman, Brick, and Toshi Ryoko start planning to leave town and head up to Vultheryol Peak to try and find the large flying lizard monster they have been hearing about and to see if they can find any clues as to the whereabouts of Nieve’s brother, Rayne Powell. Jebedaiah, Brick, and Toshi go back to Evelyn Delacroix’s house to search for more clues and treasures. Nieve waits for them all at the tavern. The door is still unlocked when they arrive at Evelyn’s and no one is home. Jebedaiah goes to Evelyn’s study where her books and her journal are located. Brick checks for other items of import. Toshi checks Evelyn’s bathroom. Jebedaiah finds the Snake Charming Ritual that was used to command snakes to attack them in Evelyn’s journal. He also learns that Evelyn was trying to get Scratch to teach her more spells. Scratch was either unwilling or unable to do so. He wanted her to go to the Drajule Altar north of Cross Corners. He wanted to show her how to use it and have her experiment with it. He also told her to go to the Temple of Knowledge and that she could learn more spells there. She suspected that Scratch had an ulterior motive for wanting her to go there but he would not say what he wanted from there. Brick takes Evelyn’s journal, as he does not trust Jebedaiah with it. Toshi finds a book in the bathroom called the Ripped Bodice of the Duchess Von Bouldersnatch, which he takes. He also finds some bundles of herbs in Evelyn’s desk which he also takes. Back at the inn, Nieve is getting drunk. Sonja Weaver the innkeeper asks if she and her friends are staying for a while. Nieve says that are planning to go up to Vultheryol Peak. Sonja says they get a lot of adventurers in town heading to the Peak. She mentions that the blacksmith and the apothecary have supplies for mountain climbing. She also mentions that there is a mountaineer that lives at the bottom of the mountain named Sangey, who often guides people up the mountain. The group at Evelyn’s goes back to the bar to find Nieve. Nieve drunkenly greets them and creates a secret handshake with Jebedaiah, which makes Jebedaiah very happy as Nieve is usually standoffish toward him. Toshi asks Sonja if she can identify what the herb found in Evelyn’s desk is and she directs him to ask Wilson Wright at Laverne’s shop. Nieve drunkenly tells the others what she learned while at the bar. Sonja describes what Sangey looks like and mentions he always wears a necklace of gray beads. They go to the blacksmith, Floyd Hunt, and pick up some supplies. The blacksmith recommends they take 3.5 weeks of rations. The blacksmith explains that Sangey prefers to receive goods rather than money for his services, and he likes spirits. They go to Laverne Castellani’s shop where Wilson greets them by saying, “I heard you killed Laverne.” They explain to Wilson that she fell in with the wrong crowd and was partially responsible for the disappearances of people in town. Wilson tells them that the herb from Evelyn’s desk was Willow-Herb and sells them some other herbs to help them climb the mountain. Our protagonists now leave town and head toward Vultheryol Peak. A little way outside of town they see a grassy mound with a hole in the side. They peer in and see that the hole is a tunnel leading into the dirt. There is a buzzing coming from within. They go inside and find the mound is full of Beetallions. They defeat the Beetallions with Toshi catching one. They look around inside the mound and find a half buried human skeleton. It has a pouch on it with 3 magic orbs, 180 suls, and an ornate brass key. There is a bracelet around its wrist of red gemstones and a necklace of gray wooden beads around its neck. This last detail tips off the adventurers that this is Sangey, the mountaineer. They continue on to the peak for 1 day. They reach Sangey’s house at the base of the mountain. No one is there. They find 17 days worth of rations in the kitchen. On the bookshelf Toshi finds a wooden box with an ornate brass lock. In the box they find a journal written by Sangey. The journal seems to mostly be a record of people Sangey guided up the mountain. They don’t find entries for anyone matching the description of Rayne or the mysterious stranger they met in Faversham. There is a man with golden brown hair in a ponytail and a scar over his right eye who was guided up the mountain. This entry is from 6 years ago. This man wanted to visit a cave near the top of the mountain. Sangey took him to it, the man went into the cave alone and came back out sometime later. Then the man went to the summit and caught one of the monsters up there. They also find an entry for a woman with pale skin and long black hair from a year and a half ago. This sounds a lot like Akari Oshiro. She also asked about the cave near the summit and Sangey took her there. When they got there she went in the cave and came out angry and accused Sangey of stealing the stone. Sangey did not know anything about any stone in the cave, but the woman became angry and left in a huff. This was the last entry made in the journal. The adventurers suspect that this woman may have had something to do with Sangey’s death. In the journal the mountaineer also mentions someone named Rantha Helia a lot, saying things like, "I wish Rantha was here to see this." It seems she used to adventure with Sangey and then settled down in Bismuth. They look around some more in the house and find some more climbing gear. They examine the books on the bookshelf and find a book of knots that they take with them. The journal mentions 3 paths up the mountain: Mine, Wind, and Rock. There is an abandoned mine on the Mine Path. It seems there is another person living on the Wind Path. Sangey wrote things like, “I visited Ventus today,” when traveling on this path. The Rock Path is very rocky and Sangey seems to take the most rugged adventurers up this path. The adventurers decide to go up the Wind Path. They are able to determine which path is which from the trail signs. The party faces many obstacles and challenges on the way up the mountain. The first one they come to is a rock wall at a 105 degree angle about 30 feet tall. They manage to climb it with no problem with all their climbing gear. Next they come upon a still pond with lilies floating upon the surface. There are many berry bushes along the trail here and 4 Majimonsters eating them. Toshi recognizes them as Mysticac, which is one of the Majimonsters Isidora Blackwood told them could teleport. The adventurers decide to try and catch one but as soon as they attack the lilies pop their heads out of the water and 3 Nelumbus join in the fray! They defeat them and capture 2 Mysticacs and 1 Nelumbus. They now have several Majimonsters they could use to turn in for the reward mentioned in A Flier from Fygmal. Further up the trail they cross a crevasse using Wurmdra and ropes. On the other side they find Jalamar’s Chain under a tree. Some time later come upon a statue of a winged man. It stands about 10 ft tall. The man is wearing a toga, his hair stands up from his head in a fluffy cloud, and he has a knowing expression on his face. There is a pedestal at the base of the statue with a gray stone orb in it. There are several items around the statue left as if in offering. Sangey’s necklace feels more active here and is faintly glowing. They decide to place Sangey’s necklace around the neck of the statue using a flying Majimonster. They leave some other various things at the base of the statue. The winds die down after they do so. As they have met no one else on this path, the adventurers guess that this must be Ventus that Sangey mentioned visiting in the journal. Further ahead they narrowly avoid an avalanche, and the winds seem to help push them to safety under a rock ledge. They notice that Nieve seems to have an easier time breathing at this altitude than everyone else for some reason. (Mystery Condition) Finally they come to the place where the paths converge and around the next bend they find a cave. This must be the cave from Sangey’s journal that the ponytailed man and the dark haired woman were interested in. They enter the cave and find a thick sheet of ice along one side. The ice is translucent and Nieve notices that there appears to be a layer that someone hacked into and a new layer has formed on top of it. They melt the ice and find 3 greater archdrajules. They hear a deep rumble coming from above outside the cave as if a large creature is breathing. They exit the cave and continue to the summit. On the summit they see a large black winged lizard lying in the snow dozing. They decide to cook it some food to try and tame it. The dragon eats the food and then attacks the intruders. The battle ends with Nieve binding the monster that her brother probably left home to find.