Aurane Velaryon

Physical Description

General Physical Condition

Tall, fit, manly. You know how it be.

Facial Features

Aurane is basically buff Jon Hamm with a Tom Selleck moustache.

View Character Profile

Children

12/11/22

Q1: Can you keep a secret? A1: If his word is given, it would be trapped behind a steel gate. Q2: Do you like being the center of attention? A2: When it's practically useful. BEGIN SESSION Goal: talk to Holden and sneak Dani out of the city. After a few weeks of recon, they make their move. Rorin procures a cabbage cart and the salesperson's clothing, nailing his disguise in preparation to make a distraction. Two very huffy people (Druss and Melfine) are walking along and get clocked as pissy folks, but frequent flyers that should just be left alone. Marda has to shove Dani's tiefling tail back into cover along the way too. They are greeted by Bellia Lightner (Dragonborn - bronze, engineer) and directs them to the loading dock. Bridget meets them, accompanied by Captain Velma Starmore. Dani is carted off to the elf ship bound for Le'xxaj, the other continent. The crew sticks around for Family Meal, which is spaghetti. [6 MONTHS LATER] DRUSS - He starts up a relationship with Bellia, who is now pregnant. The shop is reopened under the protection of a special-duty cop (Sammael Smith). He made my buckler, with brass scale motif in the center and with some blue dragon scales around the edges. It works like the normal shield +2 to AC. He also works to start up a resistance against Zitz, and adopts Leona. Bellia drops the egg off for Druss to handle for 6 months in the egg incubating. Actual name - Toli, child name - Who likes to listen to lightning. MARDA + MELFINE + SPELEN - Goes to Dawn's Reach. They check the Sanctum there, check out and question some prisoners [DISCORD] and visit the Tipsy Tavern. A human male guard in red uniform (Crimson Dragons) eventually responds them trying to use the password. And then they can clandestine spy orders from random drops over time, as a way to test them. They are trying to do the job just enough to get by, but not hurt innocents. Their fourth target is someone Marda knows, Odiphus Longcloak. Last time she saw them, Odiphus wasn't a caster but is now under suspicion. They are friends from back home, and maybe from the military? They have tea and catch up. The girls catch Odiphus up on the infiltration of the Crimson Dragons, and tell them they've seen the magic shit Odiphus has been up to and the Dragons are on to them. Odiphus is going to prepare to flee town over the coming weeks. Eventually the Marquis calls them back. MELFINE SOLO - also in Dawn's Reach, as above, now plus - study up on the book she has, The Boneturner's Tale, and learn some new spells from it. The fire in her room flares up, and her sister shows up to visit. They're catty to each other, and then the fire dies down and the sister is gone. Melfine goes to one of the suspected casters that is actually a caster, and tries to scare them out of the city for safety. She does poorly but gets the message across. SPELEN SOLO - mostly a secret. Turtle-yeeting is now possible for Helen to do with the turtle corpus. ME - Ambassador training. Then a publicity tour, ending in Tarrytown. Dawn's Reach is a must, I choose the others. I try to hit the other big cities. At the end of the 6-month period, I am announced formally as Ambassador and granted rights and privileges. Kel is taking over the shop, and gets a new novice. This novice is a Myconid named Cellia and lives in the undercity. Rorin - he works with an old friend to get her elected to the head of the Accounting Guild, and her name is Rose Nylund. Her family was old shiner folk in the mountains, but her dad got rich creating a winery using the distilling techniques on the wine. Rose is now in charge of the family company. They concoct a plan to enact this minor coup. He engages in some planning for the wedding. He has Druss and I over for dinner, to ask us to be in the wedding party, and grants us personalized, engraved flasks as gifts. He is also retiring from adventuring to start a family. As the girls get back to the city, they head to meet with the Marquis. As time has passed, the city is different at the end of spring. More myconids are out, and the city has calmed back down. The Marquis lets them in and a familiar goblin is there with important news. Undertow rumors say Druss is looking for Vandren, and their buddy knows who Vandren is. That buddy is a prisoner being transported to Cherwood, their name is Yun, a freelancer with the Bards' Guild. The crew has a big guy with a skull mask as a leader, there are about a dozen of them and they have a few of the cats that can smell magic, and the person knows about our connection to the Undertow. So our new mission is to save this Bard person. We level up to 10! END SESSION Current Stats: 75/75 hp, INSP, +d6

10/15/2022

Q1: Do you want kids someday? A1: Eventually, sure, but that would never be the priority. Q2: Are you a planner or spontaneous? A2: Planner for sure. BEGIN SESSION The meeting has ended. The girls return to the shop via the trapdoor. They have fancy tea provided by Mr. Corben. They update the master copies of the maps with their new knowledge. Back to us, and the meeting is letting out. Vlad brings Garmeeli over to Druss, then fucks off to see his new firstborn baybay. Druss is trying to see why the Hunters' Guild is fucking about with the Temple of Zitz folks. They need to justify their expenses and just bringing in a few deer each year doesn't justify that. The Zitz crew sounds like they are promising more funding and support of the Hunters' if they back the expanded function of Zitz in decision-making. Rorin is considering some increased funding either out of his pocket or via a connection. We are considering a zoo or something like that to generate funding for the Hunters' Guild as well, and it could tie in the Parks Dept. as well. We escort Elon back to the Fireforge Estate to be met by Garfield, then go back to the shop to pick everyone else up. We head to the Babblebrook for dinner with the whole team in tow. There being ten of us, we head into the back area, a special area for the select few, and are seated in what amounts to an outer garden sort of area. We discuss the plan going forward, and it looks like we'll have to start working on shoring up the votes. Druss wisely asks if Dawn's Reach is going to respect the vote either way, and I honestly don't know. We discuss informing Terrytown of the threat, but don't really have a method of communication or anyone specific to reach out to. Druss asks Mr. Corben about the Undertow, specifically the less savory faction that was capturing and trafficking folks. Rich people will engage them to provide sex slaves, performers, and subjects for mutilation. Corben also mentions the Sanctum, and their capacity for assassination. Rorin's fiance is en route home, and will thus pass through Terrytown on the way. We decide to send her a message via the Sanctum and with Sending to compare and test the trustworthiness of the Sanctum system. After dinner we head back to the shop, and Mr. Corben prepares to take his leave. Then it's time to see what Dani wants to do in her immediate future. We settle in for the night, and Kel goes back to her place and Leona goes with her. Dream time! Not for me though. Melfine wakes up with a black owl mask with horns. We wake, I make coffee, Marda makes pancakes from some batter Kel prepared before leaving. Leona and Kel turn up after a little while. Melfine Sends to Ophelia Firebrand to warn Terrytown. Ophelia agrees to stop by the Silver Sanctum. I remain at the shop to work, while Druss, Rorin, Marda, and Melfine head to the Sanctum. The guards check them in, and they are guided along to the tube room. The prepared, sealed message is sent along via the Silver tube. They then ask to go along to speak to Garnet. Melfine is going to look about for stuff about her mask. She learns that obsidian is a powerful magical conduit, often used by demonics. A similar mask with different horns comes up, and are associated with the Erinyes (servants of Asmodeus; fallen Celestials), and research thinks they were casting foci for their charming effects and to disguise their true faces from the eyes of men. She feels that using it would be the renewal of a contract, but it is a +1 focus. Garnet turns up to talk to the party, as requested. They retire to a private room for this conversation. Garnet can't exactly enact the transportation circle to get Dani out, but offers the Sanctum as a place to stay. Dani doesn't want that though, so Garnet says to get her out of the city gates. This will be a variable challenge based on the number and disposition of witch hunters at the gates. Holden's workshop is outside the gates in the burbs, so Druss visiting him on business a few times over the next 2 weeks would allow enough recon to make the plan. After some exchange of news and questions, they all head out from the Sanctum. Melfine wants to take a lap around the city for some recon. Next up: talk to Holden about Steam Guild procedures and putting Elon back in leadership. END SESSION Current Stats: 75/75 hp, +d6

9/17/2022

Q1: What do you like most about yourself? A1: My personal skills. As a shop owner and businessman, the charisma is required to build a loyal clientele. Q2: What do you like least about yourself? A2: After going out into the world with the group, the lack of worldliness I possess grates. BEGIN SESSION We wake in the shop, and gather downstairs. The magic rug we found is laid out and fixed on the table, as well as looking clean and vibrant. Druss, Marda, and Rorin go out to get us breakfast, to Cyd's Candy Confectionaries. Winter is approaching, just FYI. They come back with a loooootttt of food, and what can only be described as pre-diabetes. After brekky, we can hear the guards ramping up their patrols. The more perceptive among us hear the rattle of plate mail as someone comes to the door and knocks. It is Vlad and his deputy, and I welcome them in. They are here to follow up about Elon, and to let us know how secure the Ashforge estate is, and that the employees won't let him in without a warrant or Rorin's presence. The Council wants to talk to me and see Elon, so he's gonna be brought in too. The new head of Lady Almusk's Parthenon of Protection, Abel Rest (trans masc), is a cleric of comparable skill and faith to me. PASTE FROM DISCORD HERE - LIST OF THE PEOPLE THAT WILL BE AT THE MEETING. The security carriage with us picks up Elon along the way, Rorin up front with the guard, Druss and I in the back with Elon. We arrive at the Cultural Congress, and sneak Elon in. Once inside, we see two unfamiliar faces, but their outfits show them to be witch hunters, 1 human male, nondescript face Mulby, and 1 non-binary kobold person, Skullcrusher. They bring me in to a room to interrogate me. DEC check (22), but they ask me about Her. I tell them what she looks like, but I don't know that much. They really don't believe that I resurrected Elon with Divine magic. They demand I bring back one of their sources who died two days ago, Cassidy Caddit. They provide the diamond, and I set to work. Cassidy's soul isn't too keen on coming back, but the force of my spell brings them back. This looks to convince them, and they let me leave, so I fuck off toot-sweet. While I'm being interrogated, Druss meets up with Holden Cockswell and Harold Ravenswood while providing security for Elon. They aren't allowed into Elon's "interview" room, so they just watch the hall. I meet them there after my thing and wait for Elon. The girls want to meet up with Mallo the Myconid using Sending and learn that the Myconid city is under attack. The piss genies have come back for retribution against the Union! They are fighting, and they win. They are taken to an Elder who Mallo says has knowledge of the sewer layout. Garfield is known among the Myconids. The Elder is grown into the city, like Davy Jones' crew. They present their maps, and the Elder gives a complete outline of the sewers as they exist. They explore some new areas on the way back to the shop. We return to the Cultural Congress, and enter the Council meeting chamber. Everyone is from the above list is here. Holden does not appear to be doing well (INS - 20. This is a lot of people for him, and he's touched by the Tism. He just wants to go home). Thatcher is deeply agitated and eying Elon, and staring at General Stoneskin. Garmeeli welcomes Vlad warmly, as he was a Hunter's guild member before being Sheriff. (INS - 27. Leslie and Gariton are putting on brave faces, Garmeeli is sneakily eying Elon as well). (STE 13 - I think I'm being stealthy). I try to alert Druss and Rorin to Garmeeli's eying behaviour. Druss hands Holden a note, and Holden then fucks off immediately, leaving Elon to take his place? Rorin raises a stink after Gariton calls into question Druss and his current rep in the city and bitches the boi. This meeting was a lot of talking and a lot of nothing getting done. They're gonna have another meeting in two weeks. END SESSION Current Stats: 75/75 hp, +d6

8/20/22

Q1: Did you have to grow up fast? A1: Not at all, I had a pleasant childhood with loving parents, friends, and family. Q2: Who did you look up to? A2: Artisan luminaries professionally, HP Temperance and Diligence in faith. BEGIN SESSION Druss gets back to my shop with Charles and gives him the Blanket of Fortitude to set up as Druss isn't able to summon the whimsy required. Charles' version looks more like an actual fort that we can usually do. Druss finds himself in a room resembling Shadowfell, with a foggy darkness requiring an external light source. There is an aurora-type thing going on too. Charles is questioned about the Corruption Stone and destroying the body. He recommends tongs for touching nasty things, and Marda grabs by salad serving tong things. Melfine inquires after a storage/negation option for the stone, and Charles thinks there might be something at the Sanctum that could help, and failing that, a really good lead box with perfect seals. He notes that the veil between planes is thin, and that the last time people tried to punch through is what broke the one moon, as they were trying to get into the Celestial Plane. Moon Facts with Chuck: in the height of the Dark Ages, an entitled group of Solvene followers wanted more power than she had granted, so they were gonna trap Solvene in the Material Plane and siphon her power (this was a goal of many old houses of worship at the time). Ripping gods into this plane fucks shit up ecologically, and someone whacked most of the priests. Then the gods fucked off, and the New Gods showed up. They started off as like warlock patrons, but apotheosis happens and they transcend after a bit. He doesn't remember a ton, but has the feeling that Lady Constance was a lovely woman when she walked this earth. Staying up and talking elicits a CON check (15 - missed out on +1 to history skill, and no exhaustion for staying up). The next morning, Rorin arrives at the shop bearing fruit. Rorin asks to touch Melfine in an attempt to heal her brain. A flood of memories comes back to her. Her sister has a plan to gain freedom. They go to the Nine Hells and make a deal with Asmodeus to better protect Solvene, but doesn't realizer there's a price. She hears of the plan to trap Solvene, breaks her chains to Asmodeus, and kills a ton of priests. She frees her goddess, who makes a promise, but she can't remember the promise. Now that we're in and all, I need to get to Elon to Raise Dead on a motherfucker. Rorin is ok to lead me through his trap field. Druss is going to watch the shop, and the others are going to fetch Spike and Sora from the barrel. Rorin and I head out in a staggered fashion. No one appears to be suspicious. At the mansion, WIS (17 - ok?) then 4 checks (3 pass, 1 fail). Get caught in a snare but escape, take 5 damage. We are in and set to work on the spell. Used INSP to make the PER check (28) to convince Elon to come back to us. He does indeed return, and Rorin questions his last memories. We catch him up and tell him why we need him (the attack by the Crimson Dragons, the disbanding of the Bard's Guild, the coup, the martial law...). We need to have a press conference, which Vlad can set in motion for us. It is a Saturday-equivalent, so we've gotta go work to assemble everyone. Elon is going to hang out here at the mansion while we get the ball rolling. Meanwhile, Melfine and Marda go to fetch Spike and Sora. They are going to traverse the tunnels for a lot of the way. They grab the barrel, the magic rug, and some other pack supplies, then head back across town. They have to travel aboveground here, so try to remain inconspicuous. They get back to the shop and clean up the animals. The animals are going to stay behind at the shop with Druss, while the girls head to the Sanctum. The main doors are closed, so they hop over the garden wall into the Sanctum, to be greeted by many monks. They tell Jericho about finding a way to contain the Stone and their other goings-on, but they weren't supposed to leave and folks are super pleased. Melfine explains the needs for containment and they go to the warehouse. PER checks, Marda notes some tiles are pressed and runes appear briefly before a doorway appears with a stairway leading down. They go down a few stories, straight down, to enter the warehouse. At the desk there, they see a bespectacled female half-elf reading a book. PER checks again, the book is The Dragon's Passion and her name is Cinder. Introductions all around, and Jericho mentions that they are approved to do this by the Marquis. They see lots of magic goodies, and arrive in an area full of chests. ARC/REL checks, they see some runes they know to be written in celestial, which are little prayers for safety, protection, and locking. There's a check-out booklet they have to fill out for the box they wanna use. It is very detailed, and takes about an hour to fill out. They head back up with the lead box and magic box, and Jericho closes the magic door. They head to the library next, SUR checks to remember the path. Jericho opens another secret path with a winding staircase down. About 1 story down, they start to see doors. One of the doors is where the body is, and Jericho is going to let them in and lock it back up. There's a special phrase they have to memorize so that he will let them out (Let me out of this door you little cunt). They smell the dead body, see the glow of the gem, there's a staff, and that's it. They're going to cut the Stone out of the body. Marda uses the tongs to grip the gem and wiggles it free. The corpse's hand grips Melfine and it says "This will never be over." They roll into initiative. Marda gets the gem into the box, then uses Action Surge to attack the body. This thing hits like a freight train. (The room is 15x15 ft). They do enough damage that she falls, but on her turn she pops right back up. After some more fighting, Marda lands a full decapitation. They say the passphrase and are let out. I have to get out of the trap field again, ATH check (22 - pass). We head to the Cultural Congress to find Vlad at his office. We learn he is on patrol, down towards the Sanctum. SUR check (18) to find him on his route, and it takes awhile, but eventually we hear his voice and locate him and his deputy talking to some locals. Rorin tries to lead him into the news gently, but fobs it off to me, so I tell Vlad what's up. We need to talk to HPs Temperance and Diligence next, but first Vlad has to vent, as he is exasperated. Vlad suggests we 1-on-1 with Temperance first, then tell all of the spiritual leaders. Rorin is going to go get Elon with a security carriage. Meanwhile, I talk with Temperance about the ritual's details. When the Zitz temple head shows up, she is deeply agitated at being summoned. Everyone is assembled, and I let them know what happened, and call out Elon. They are shocked and silent, then lots of arguments break out. They can't understand why they haven't been able to do this before. Some also think Elon was maybe not a deserving recipient of this gift. Elon is growing uncomfortable, and I make it known that he needs to rest and recover. We all discuss where he should stay, and every temple head wants him to stay at their temple, which is nonsense. The Ashforge estate looks to be the choice, and the head of Daja backs this too, as well as Kusco and Dem Falic. We're going to do the press conference on the Monday-equivalent, but will be confined to the estate until then. Locomotion was boarded up and locked down, with his estate unresolved but mostly intact. His belongings are acquired and taken with him to the Ashforge estate. It is getting late, and we cut back to Druss and Co. Druss has been looking after Dani, Kel, Leona, and Max in an effort to distract from his own depression. The girls also get back to my shop. Rorin and I head back to my shop, ATH checks (20 and 9, caught in a bear trap, 7 damage) to escape the traps. We get some food on the way back, but see that the Aftermath Cafe is shutdown because of restrictions, supply chain, and staffing issues. Back at the shop, the girls are obviously beat up and Druss is Mr. Poo-p-pants sad boi. After the girls tell of the zombie body, I ask Mr. Corben about the Stone and learn it has some sort of sentience and defense mechanisms. We need to address the purification of the Raven's Wood, and need a high-level druid or some clerics to do the work. Melfine is going to send off a Message to Lenny to update progress and get the purification work moving. We have some healing to do for the girls, and everyone is in need of a self-care day. I spend time with Kel, checking in with each other and just relaxing a little in this lull, while we can. Heading to bed, it's dream time. I feel the proudest I've ever felt in my faith, and there is a lack of completion to it. Always, the next step, how can I do more? I have a feeling of flight, looking over the busy city no longer under martial law. It's expanding, thriving. The Cultural Congress has grown too, and incubates new ventures and business. The railway is operational, and trade thrives. There is a warmth, a familiar feeling, pushing me forwards, towards this future. Then, a sense of warning, a grip on my shoulder, drawing my gaze to Fort Ropucha, a warning there, a black plague throbbing and threatening. The future I want is on a knife's edge, and I have to push to maintain the path. I rest and am comforted, my determination renewed. We wake up. Rorin's trousers have a conspicuous wet spot near his genitals. END SESSION Current Stats: 75/75 hp, +d6, +d6

7/16/22

Q1: Are you a good cook? A1: for a single man, yes, but I figure that Kel makes extra for lunch and leaves it in the ice box for me, so I don't often have to fend for myself. Q2: What do you think happens after you, specifically, die? A1: We continue our service, just in another form. As a spirit, one might serve the Lady as a messenger to Her followers, or a spiritual guide to those newly connected to Her Light. BEGIN SESSION The ship pulls into the docks, and we see militiamen on their way to greet us at our dock space. I shore up my mind and hold myself with a very sure attitude. This is my city, my home, and I will not be treated as an outsider, a stranger. STE roll (12), not high, but I'm not hiding. I am the distraction. Rorin alias for now is Wiccan Ivoryhammer. The sergeant is a half-elf and they are interviewing folks coming into town. The half-elf is trying to get the human guards to not be assholes to the ship crew. We move into the city and are given final instructions to take the mounts to the Temple of Kusco where they will be quarantined for 3 days, after which we can get them back. Cerrah enters a cutscene. A voice echoes on the wind, and folks are gathering outside the Temple of Lady Constance. The anxiety, dread, and anticipation drip off of the crowd. Druss and I can see Max in all his height over the crowd. Marda INS (11 - fail, probably). We approach Max, and the crowd is teeming with soldiers. Leona is there with Max, and they're outfitted in lighter armor. Druss INS (9 - fail) but Leona won't make eye contact with him. Garnet and Marquis are surrounded by monks, Melfine INS (16 - pass) Marquis is pissed and Garnet scowls. HP Temperance is in a position of leadership, General-Priestess Stoneskin is a Goliath woman there with her. The stage they are on is the one I built just a short time ago. Rorin locates Garfield. PER (27 - pass) I see a flash of light understage and something moving underneath it. The stage is festooned with icons of Morbus Sempra, and we know this to be an execution. Max whispers to Druss and Leona hands Melfine something. A hush falls and the source of the song emerges. Vladimir Goforth leads a chain of people out onto the stage, and at the end of the chain we see a flash of red, and see Dani as the final prisoner. They make Dani kneel, and she keeps singing. The axe raises, and drops. Smoke bombs pop and I see another flash understage. Garfield flashes through and disappears into the city. Druss hauls me off and tells me what Max had said, about not helping what we thought was going, and heading to my shop. SUR (23) to make our way back to my shop. I am moving with Druss still, and the others split off to meet us. In my shop, Kel is not there, but it is clear that it hasn't been abandoned. Once we've all met up again, I lock up and bar the door. We roll 3 times for our NPCs (19, 15, and 17 (burned INSP from question answering for the third one)). Chaos runs rampant outside. After 45-60 minutes, the noise lessens. Faint rattling comes from somewhere behind Kel's desk and the trapdoor hidden there opens to reveal Kel, very dirty and panting-tired, and she has Dani with her. Garfield, Leona, and Max follow shortly after. I pull Kel up and out of the hole, to see they are all in a state of injury. We set about healing and cleaning, feeding and watering, to help settle them in and calm them down. Max reveals that they'd been planning this for awhile and they couldn't risk us fucking it up. Kel has mapped out the sewers from before (piss-genies) and the connections to ziggurats. Max says they've worked with Bridget, who is also under scrutiny; Leona was questioned multiple times but they avoided any "celestial" influences (for the were- business). Garfield has the estate locked down, but the body hasn't been worked on for 2 weeks (gentle repose is 10 days, so 4 days of decay take us to 5 today days. Raise dead is good up to 10 days). The Sanctum is under lockdown as well, and under scrutiny from the Temples despite being a governing body of those Temples. The Churches who spoke out against disbanding the Bard's Guild were those of Ladies Constance and Daja, indifferent were Unspoken One and Morbus Sempra, dissenters were to Lords Terrance and Zitz, and Lady Almusk. Lavender Thatcher headed this project. Druss wants to head back to his shop, but first informs Max that his dear Papa is coming to town, about now. Max does not like the idea of inviting an Arch-Fey to come for family dinner. Most of the Bard's Guild got out of Dodge the night of the first attack, while Garnet is under the protection of the Sanctum, which is holding her while it investigates any "potential wrongdoing," keeping her from the city. The city's Witch Hunters Guild is out in force, Vandren hasn't been seen but their bindings have been seen. The Guild has only arrested two people, Dani and the alchemist we saw on the stage earlier. Most of the arrests are the militia, which is taking in criminal reports and neighbors' snitching, mostly rumor/word-of-mouth tips. There is an inside man, Vladimir Goforth, the werewolf sheriff of the city. He's having to toe the line since he's a lycan and is under strict review. Him escorting the prisoners was a way to test his loyalties to the city over his lycan nature. Kel tells me that control of the city is going to be up for vote, between the Church leaders and the Guild leaders. They are supposed to vote to represent their constituents, but it is clear that they are not going to vote along those lines. A long-term plan isn't together yet, as the Resistance hasn't had much ability to contact the Marquis in our absence. The Marquis messages in at this time, and Melfine is trying to work out a meetup, as well as collect any and all info. Druss goes upstairs with Leona to have a heart-to-heart. Druss, Max, Rorin, Garfield, Leona, and I go to Myths and Legends (Party 1). The others go to meet the Marquis' guards at the bar near the Temple of Pudge (The Docks). A squad of monks lead by Jericho, who looks worse-for-wear, comes upon Party 2 and mock-detains them as a ruse for the militia guards. They make their way into the Sanctum and move to the Marquis' office, filling them in on our recent adventures with the blight and zombies, but only a smidgen of the Shadowfell part of the adventure. "Shadowfell" elicits an "aww fuck" kind of response, but comforts themselves with knowing that the body is in an anti-magic room and safe from oncoming sycophantic vessels. The Marquis wants to send them to their dormitory, but they aren't going to hang around. Melfine does ask how to help, with murder or otherwise. She finds out that I'm under no scrutiny, which is true of no one else. "Who is trustworthy, outside of the Sanctum?" -- "Followers of Lady Constance, Daja, Dem Felic... Don't trust though, loyalty isn't ironclad, they need plausible deniability." Garnet is in their chamber, and Party 2 wants to see them before they go. Trustable people: Harold Ravenswood (Infrastructure Guild), Robert N0-shoe (Artisan Guild), Maggie Mayhem (Agricultural Guild), Jericho (duh), Vladimir Goforth, someone from the Witch Hunter's Guild who is not to be named. Voters to be swayed: New head of Steam Guild Holden Cockswell, Ebony Velez (Architect's Guild), A'Eiron Longglide (Merchant's Guild) can be bought. Va'Der Moonshadow is against Zitz, but is being challenged for head of Woodworking Guild (and another I missed). For Zitz: Gariton Larel Terrington (Tinker), Lavender Thatcher (Accounting Guild), Leslie Knope (Parks), and Karthen Steeldust (Smith's Guild; can be bought). Garmeeli the Swift is "neutral" and uninterested in politics. Party 1 works out the plan for getting to Myths and Legends. I am to stay inside, unless shit pops off. Rorin is going to watch the shadows and hide in them across the street. The guard density is great, no more than 40 ft between them and minimum of pairs. We enter the shop, while Rorin successfully hides. There is a light on in the shop, so Druss leads the way in. Sitting at the table is an older, well-dressed gentleman drinking something brown and strong. Druss is tense, and falls to attention. The man asks if Max is there too, which he is. The man is dressed in outback chic, and bringing it. He has big, curlicue elf ears, olive skin a la Wood Elves, stark-white hair in a close, practical crop with a widow's peak. His name is Charles Corben. Max moves into the room, and shrinks at sight of his father. Druss talks to Charles, who asks after the one who had been the channel of communication (Melfine), and recognizes and greets Leona. Druss tells of our finding Charles' old items and maybe meeting his old friend/associate. Charles asks after the rug, journals, and other items we'd found in the Haversack. Charles invites us all to sit down and eat some stew he made (beef and barley). He makes it clear that it's safe here, showing protection runes he's worked into the surroundings. Druss is still wound tight as a clockspring. Charles asks after the subject matter of the found journals, specifically asks it of me, and I divulge it all, not wishing to dissemble at all. He focuses on the Corruption Stone, which he got in Shadowfell after falling prey to a Shadow Drake. The Stone gave off a spore-like effect, and he posits if it were to combine with a human host, it would evolve and become more powerful. Druss lets him know that it has found a host, as we saw in the Raven's Wood (we killed the host and kept the body, which was then accidentally sent here to the Sanctum, in the anti-magic room mentioned above). The elf host is known to Charles, she went by Tarathiel Heiwenys. She looked to change pollination patterns with bees, forest reclamation, and such. Druss tells of her last acts and the "killing" of the rakshasa. He tells us that it doesn't really die die, they go and recharge/reform. Since Melfine didn't relay her experience with the dream shadow demon, we think it is good and gone for now, suspecting that it is still reforming. They are master shapeshifters, but he thinks we should be fine, totally fine, no worries, 100% cool. As we're packing up, Melfine's message comes in alerting us to the danger she heard of from the Marquis. Party 2 has to get out of the Sanctum somehow. Through some magic and tumbling, they make it to their chosen exfiltration point. SUR check (24) and Marda is able to finish the sequence and get them back to my shop. Party 1 is walking to the Temple of Daja, carrying a ton of equipment from Myths and Legends. Druss asks Charles to let Druss do all of the talking. We run into some guards, CHA check (16), and they're gonna escort us to Daja's Temple. Rorin shoots his grappling hook, no rope/chain, to cause a distraction. The guards notice the noise, but nothing. Druss begins to regale the squad with war stories, again nothing. We enter the Temple, and Druss really tries for the handshake again, but the sergeant won't bite. We enter the temple. Cut to Rorin, and he's having a hard time getting into any of the alternate entries to the Temple. Inside, about 1 am, we reach a priest and look to send most of this equipment to Smallville (The were-person village). Rorin meets up with us, meets Charles (using his new married name Fireforge), and then the priest shows up. Druss is ok to store his shit here as well as ship it out, when that time comes. I head out, to my shop, and am tailed by the militiamen. Later, Druss and Co are met by some new guards, Vladimir Goforth and his deputy, a gnome female, who has a fucking gun?!? Druss asks to touch it, and is presented with a 6-barrel pepperbox as long as the gnome's forearm. We've never met this gunslinger, who is named Shandra, new to town, a tinker who needed to earn some money after her father passed. They ask to escort Druss to his shop, but he's not staying there any longer. Druss no longer feels this to be his city (I can't hear this, much to my shame) and then Rorin rolls up to converse as well. Druss is willing to be guided, so as to keep the guards he might encounter from dying. Vlad and Co do the escort, surrounding the group, and they traverse the path to The Docks. They will take Rorin back to his estate after dropping Druss+ off. Druss gets dropped off, then Rorin gets to the locked-down estate. Vlad pulls Rorin aside for some questioning about his (Vlad's) wife's needs. Vlad asks Rorin to stay put at the estate, then fucks off. Rorin parkours his way into the estate to find it in Home Alone Mode. In his room there is a large package, an ornate box with a bow. Inside are some dope Brass Knucks.™™™ END SESSION Current Stats: 75/75 hp, +d6

6/4/22

Q1: What do you do to wind down? A1: Sketch and doodle design ideas. Q2: Do you believe in destiny? A2: For sure, our gods have a vision for us, and they work to empower us to meet those goals through hard work and dedication to faith. INSP (+d6) gained for all for remembering mini figs BEGIN SESSION We have 6 days worth of travel left ahead of us. Day 12: Chris rolls an 8. Marda fills us in on what she has found from the haversack and invites us to help identify the items. Spike is moving to go into the sack, but Druss stops this folly. I ritual cast Detect Magic, focusing on the Rune (the faintest hint of conjuration, more like a focus), the armor (abjuration and evocation, lightly), and the tingle stone (Distinct and powerful evocation). Druss checks out the well-made axe, which is an obsidian body with a silvered blade. It is a greataxe for mechanical purposes. The bow is also quite nice, a purple heart wood recurve bow. The string has a silver shine to it. Druss and Rorin share their own magic items, Druss having the Clockwork Amulet and Rorin having a pendant with a barley leaf (Amulet of the Drunkard) that is basically a once-a-day heal potion. I also reveal my Ring of Temporal Salvation to group. Druss is holding the axe when the head glows, then it vanishes (it is a Moon-Touched Blade). Time: there are three moons, one for Solvene (shattered ~10 years before the fall of the old gods. It is slowly becoming a belt around the planet), two main ones under Veizen (one annual and one monthly rotation) Suddenly the boat rocks, and we roll into initiative. An alarm sounds, then stops abruptly. Marda scrambles to return the items to the sack, Melfine listened at the door then moved to the base of the stairs, Druss barrels out and makes it up to the upper deck to see ~20 grung on the ship, Spike is a turtle so does turtle things, while Helen percepted so hard, half of the crew is down already, Rorin runs after Druss and reaches the upper deck, I put the Rune and tingle stone away then move out of the room, Marda moves out of the room and up to attack, Melfine casts Haste and also goes topside to fight, Druss whops, Spelen moves along, the crew comes out to play and thins the herd, the grung attack us, Rorin whops, I cast Summon Celestial in Defender form, taking some stress off the captain, and by Melfine's turn, they're all dead. Day 13: Lily rolls a 5. Sailing occurs, but as dusk looms, a shadow of a bird appears on the horizon, bearing two letters. A charcoal black envelope sealed with the symbol of Rorin's betrothed (Ophelia Firebrand) and a letter from Garfield about the city. Martial law is in full effect, the Bard's Guild is disbanded, Garnet is in the Sanctum, people with unknown religious symbols and magical items are detained at the gates, Rorin's estate is locked down, the Sanctum is locked down, Druss's forge is under constant watch, Leona is repeatedly brought in for questioning, the only safe place to head to is my workshop. Day 14: Victoria rolls a 10. Then a d4 for a 4. From the depths emerges a colossal kraken. ROLL FOR INITIATIVE (16). The evening is stormy and the ship rocks heavily, then lurches to a stop. An alarming scream is followed by an ear-splitting roar. I am in my cabin at this point. Melfine raps on the door and lets us know what is going on. Fighty fighty. (The ship's ballista deals 4d10). My summoned celestial kills the first tentacle. One of the crew casts Banishment on the kraken and we are free, the ship flopping into the water. The crew gets us going ASAP, and we heal up some. The storm reappears, the kraken is back, the ship fades into the storm, enough to cover us from the kraken. We lose a day of travel (6 remain). Day 15: Smitty rolls a 3. Smooth sailing. Day 16: Hally rolls a 1, then a d4 for 4. Smooth sailing. PER (18) - Druss has an opportunity to befriend a ~~lobster~~ Tulu (mini Cthulu). He did well enough that Tulu will be coming back for food and such. Day 17: I roll a 4. PER (24) - I meet a Druk (electro lizard). Day 18: Lily rolls a 1, then d4 for 4. I use INSP for ANI (17) with my new buddy. Melfine befriends a Dreparous. Day 19: Chris rolls an 8. There is another potential companion, and Marda and Rorin both get one. He meets the Mimcat (Mimic + Cat) and she meets the Chamrosh (Bird + Dog). ANI for me again (24). I HAVE SOLIDIFIED MY CONNECTION TO THE DRUK. As we pull into the port, we are greeted with the sight of the warships. END SESSION Current Stats: 75/75 hp, +d6

5/14/22

Q1: Can you tell when someone is flirting with you? A1: After enough of it, yes. Q2: Do you believe money can buy happiness? A2: No, but it helps. BEGIN SESSION We are looking at a 14 day journey, and are rolling each day to determine how that day goes. Crew - Captain Velma Starmore, elf. Boatswain Ember, fire genasi. Quartermaster Margo Merwell, halfling. Cook Echo Southsea, sea elf and banjo player. Garleth Mossmoon, firbolg female. Day 1: Victoria rolls a 3 - as evening approaches, a fog rolls in. I am being helpful, working with Garleth, or under their observation. I can't seem to discern what this person does around this place... Velma walks in and I hear the crew whispering that they need to get the guests below decks because they had work to do. She asks me to go to my quarters due to some oncoming sea hazards. PER check (9) - fail. Nothing happens for a while. Yells and thumps manifest as something hits hard wood. There are some fighty noises, and Druss comes up from the hold to tell us about it. As of now, we're just going to keep doing as we were told, but will ready ourselves for the crew's work to spill down to us. PER again (9) - still a fail. Helen tells us via Melfine that she saw another ship near us. The ship shudders and there are more loud thumps. Helen sees that our crew is raiding the other ship, and the source of the battle sounds. Apparently we're pirates now. This isn't sitting right with me. Helen tells us that the cook is using old arcana to put enemies to sleep. The ship looks to be a luxury liner. After some in-party discussion, the fighting sounds die down and we start moving again. About half an hour later, Garleth arrives to let us know we can leave our rooms now. It is pretty late, and I am heading to bed instead of returning to work. Marda goes exploring in the haversack, pulling out a black flower in a glass container (a la Beauty and the Beast) then a Blackstone Rune, a bottle of Shadowlight Oil, a vial of Night Extract, 10 assortments of flora all in glass containers, 5 scales, 10 teeth, 2 claws of a shadow dragon (a dragon who spent time in Shadowfell and was corrupted; it was originally silver. Dragon society frowns upon visiting Shadowfell), 4 bottles of high-end alcohol, a case of fine spices, a shard of magic stone which causes a tingling sensation when touched, common clothes, a very well-made axe and bow, a scale mail set of blue dragon armor, an herbalism kit, thieves tools, an archaeology kit, and a healer's kit. Day 2: Lily rolls a 9 - the fog turns into a massive storm. Through SUR, INS, and WIS save, I manage to stay in the cabin and keep from getting sick. We lose 2 days of sailing. Day 3: Chris rolls a 12 - We are asked to go below decks again. PER check (8) - fail. CON save (22) - pass. I feel a smaller person hop on my back and cover my mouth with a cloth. I struggle and resist, but they do take me down with Fantasy Chloroform™™™. The rest of our party takes us down to the cabins. They raid another ship. Garleth is a munitions expert. Echo is a sorcerer. Margo (who knocked me out) is a rogue of some kind. Ember is a Way of Elements monk. Velma is a swashbuckler (fighter/rogue). I wake up about an hour later, with a headache. Druss tells me it was the halfling that drugged me. Day 4: Smitty rolls a 7 - a day of smooth sailing. Melfine feels a weight on her chest. In the darkness, she sees a humanoid shape with cat-like ears. Shadow tendrils wrap around her and the rakshasa tells her that it's coming back to our world soon to hunt her down. Other demons are telling it to leave her be, but it won't listen. Day 5: Hally rolls a 20 - she gets to decide her dream encounter on the ocean. Spike hangs out on the figurehead, and we gain two days of progress. Day 6: I roll a 2 - There is no wind and we lose a day of sailing. Day 7: Chris rolls a 4 - a day of smooth sailing. Day 8: Smitty rolls a 17 - Druss PER check (18) - In the distance he sees a familiar shape. It's a Roc, with a narwhal clutched in its talons. The ship is between the Roc and the coastline, so we're in its path. Rorin and Garleth are going to shoot the net ballista, Marda is going to use a ballista, Druss will use Eldritch Blast and I will use Lightning Bolt. The net hits, obviating the rest of our actions. The Roc drops, and the narwhal smacks off of the hull, sinking into the abyss. Druss and Marda fire at the Roc as it drowns, insulting it on top of the beginning of a genocide. Helen cuts the rope and returns to the ship disgruntled. The Roc is now free of the net, but may still die. The ocean be a cruel mistress. Day 9: We arrive at Belladonna Grove. It is a tiny swamp town, with stilted houses and all. There is a general store/pub/gas station called Swamp Mass. I do not leave the ship. Melfine and Marda head into the shop. Sora makes a friend. Melfine gives up some of her blood for a testing. The blood has taken on a golden light, then is mixed with chicken bones and cast for a reading. They discover her divine heritage, and the contract on her soul from Asmodeus. The clerk pulls out an oil-slicked package and unfurls it, spraying blood. It is an arcane object from the before-times, a Butcher's Bib (perpetually dripping in blood, crit 19-20, once per turn you can reroll weapon damage and must take second result.) It costs 1500 gp, which she can't afford. She plans to come back with kraken teeth to pay the expense. They head back to the ship. They can see that this is the port where the stolen goods are fenced. Melfine uses Sending to reach out to the Marquis and see about the martial law they heard about from the shopkeeper. They are aware of it and are saving those they can, but others have been captured. They say that it is safe for us to come back. Hide any holy symbols, this is the work of Temple Zitz and several council members. There is an opposition movement in the city, including the Ashforge estate. Melfine summons us all to her cabin. She and Marda fill us in on the martial law and the hunt for the Undertow. Melfine reaches back out with Sending again to see which council members are to be trusted, and who has to hide their holy symbols. The Marquis says I'm fine and the followers of Daja are too, so Druss is good. Problem council members: Lavender, Gariton, Leslie and... (out of words). Ael Stoneskin (Goliath woman) is the leader of the Temple Zitz (Fort Ropucha). I know when the city was originally erected, there was an issue with it being built around Lady Constance, so they agreed there will be a different prime deity for each city. The Zitz people were unhappy that the crown jewel city was centered around the bureaucracy-centric Lady Constance. The city doesn't have forced conscription, and treats their people well. Each church has their own type of force that they train in. TL,DR: Zitz is enacting a coup here to take control of the city from the bureaucrats. Then, Melfine tells us about wanting to buy the Bib. Everyone lets her use the group fund to pay for the Bib, and I extract an agreement for Melfine to be nicer to me. Day 10: Lily rolls a 5 - a normal day of sailing goes by. At night, PER check (12) - fail. Melfine gets a visit from her sister, who criticizes her choices. She's not asleep now, and feels the weight of the woman's arm around her shoulders. The sister is mad about being abandoned when Melfine fled the contract at her first chance. The sister has been waiting for Melfine to come back to Hell. Their mother (Solvene?) did some divine intervention to get Melfine out of the contract. Melfine offers to try to fix this, asking for her help. The sister wants her old job as an avenging angel back, and really doesn't like humans. The sister reveals that their mother set her to be Melfine's guardian. Then they discuss coming to some accord outside of the arrangement from their mother. The sister also mentions the trouble in the city, contracts being made, their other siblings watching eagerly. Then she departs. Druss and I notice the movement of the sister departing, seeing her disappear into the night sky. Day 11: I roll a 14 - a nice day of sailing, and we come upon an ancient shipwreck around midday. We opt to explore the shipwreck. Melfine SUR (22) - pass. We dock a rowboat and Druss INV (24), seeing within the ship under the waterline, that there is probably a porthole we could get through. We ask the wraith to scout the inside for us, PER (9). It looks murky but unoccupied. It is very old, and was once well-made. ARC (15) - there is a rune at the far end of the ship. It is a type of magic she is familiar with, abjuration. Spelen radios back to Melfine about the rune; Marda heads down to the site. As Helen approaches the rune, nothing happens. INT (16) - protection runes are usually around valuable things. She is a spirit and passes through the walls into a room, with no light. Marda swims towards the wall, and the rune lights up, 4 points of shocking damage. She then heads back up top. Back to Helen - the room is full of stack of ruined papers, vials and containers, piles of platinum, and a beautiful armor set of full plate and helmet. Helen heads back to Spike, and they go back up too. With their info, we know it to be a Glyph of Warding, so I Dispel Magic on the glyph. Then the ship jolts. We still have to get through the wall. Marda and Rorin are INV to find another way into the room. They don't see an opening that we can use. They head back to the wall and try to smash their way into the room. Druss uses some crazy flaming balls (Flame Sphere) to burn through the top of the deck and makes it into the room. Marda heads towards the chest and tries to drag it up, with help from Rorin. Then she goes for the armor. She hears a voice in her head about being a strong warrior. She is compelled to take up the armor and it urges her to wear it. Rorin grabs a bunch of platinum pieces. He brings up a scoop and goes back down. Next he sees a handle, and pulls it out to find a massive morningstar. He passes it up to us in the boat. After hearing about the books, Melfine goes down and Rorin comes back up. Melfine finds a sealed spell scroll and a book that repels water. Marda is acting weird and I use ARC to see if I know enough to use remove curse (18). Meanwhile, she and Rorin struggle over a gauntlet and he gets shocked. I Remove Curse on the armor, breaking the link, and she comes back to herself. Marda, Melfine, and Rorin all work to get her out of it as fast as possible. The armor left her with acid-like burns. I ritual cast Detect Magic and learn: the armor is Elemental magic (evocation), platinum (illusion), the chest (abjuration) and inside is (necromancy), the scroll (elemental), and the book (abjuration - indestructible wizard's book). The morningstar is faintly magical without a school (+1 weapon). I Dispel Magic on the illusion, and the platinum is actually copper. Then I Dispel Magic on the chest's abjuration protection, opening it to reveal another book, blue with a gold filigree and a Vitruvian Man crest on the front. We head back to the ship and end the day. END SESSION Current Stats: INSP, hp 75/75

4/30/22

Q:What is something you work hard on/for? A: Fostering community bonds and togetherness a la Old World villages. BEGIN SESSION We're back in the city now, and I have a point of exhaustion for hoofing it back. Nightmare from the way back: the city is on fire, sacred buildings destroyed, martial law. Rorin, Druss, and I head to HP Impartial and the mayor to fill them in on what is happening out in the East. Melfine, Marda, and Spike take the body to the Sanctum rep Lenny Potts, who offers hit serial killer shed and table for dissection of the corpse. They gather some books on Necromancy and Evocation. Melfine rolls a nat 20 REL based on me taking a suicide shot of the potions Cerra brought. The gem/body combo connects to Shadowfell, pretending to be fey magic. Marda pulls a book out of the sack, written in Dwarvish with pictures, about geology. She also gets a little geode of alexandrite. Then another little book with handwritten notes. It is in shorthand, so not really a language. The Shadowfell realization comes here as well, providing a throughline. Rorin, Druss, and I get back to the Sanctum, but no one answers the door. Laughing from behind the building draws us back, and we see the shack responding to the magic going on inside. I rap on the door, and it opens to reveal Marda. Rorin reads the Dwarvish book, and it's a kids' book on rocks. The other book is about time spent in Shadowfell, written also by Charles Corbin, probably. Shadowfell is a theorized alternate world, within which is decay and rot. Marda pulls out a huge bottle of port in a cock bottle. The girls find a book about Shadowfell on the shelves inside the main building. Helen can't get out of the shack, so when Melfine leaves with Spike in tow, Helen is trapped. The shack gets ready to blow from some bad juju, but Helen gets a nat 20 to escape and breaks the veil of the magic barrier. Rorin steals some keys from Lenny. Marda goes back in, and the staff, focus, and body are all gone. Lenny says they got yeeted back to the Sanctum, the closest one being the Cerulean Sanctum. Marda rushes off to the main building, where there is a message delivery system connected to the Sanctum in Cherwood. She gives them the low-down about the body, the blight that emanates from it, and what we've dealt with so far. At the docks in Lake Town, we find some ships heading west, The Glory of My Fist captained by a Dawn's Reach military man, and the Sea Ghost Coast to Coast, a fishing trawler. Rorin talks to the Elvish The Will of the Stars (20gp, leaving tomorrow at dawn, 2 weeks to Cherwood, Velma Starmore). The city is more somber now that the festival has passed. I meet up with everyone minus Rorin at an inn where we have secured some rooms for the night, and fill them in on the ship prospects. We head back the Glory, and talk to Lt. Lassiter. They are preparing for war, heading west then south. They wanna conscript us, uh no. So we head to the Sea Ghost and greet by Dottie the Quartermaster. (2-3 weeks, leaves 3 days from now, 25gp). We reconvene at the inn and decide to look into Charles Corbin via Melfine using Sending at him. She sends telling him that we need info and he responds, asking where we are. Druss wants our meeting with this guy to have Max present, to soften whatever sort of blow comes with that. Next morning, we load up into the ship with our mounts. Rorin, Melfine, and I are going to meet the captain, and are met with a busty Elven gal, Velma. As the voyage sets off, we end. END SESSION Current stats: INSP, HP 75/75

3/19/22

Start session with INSP, +d6 Q1: Are you more likely to use your fist or your words in an argument? A1: I would certainly start with words for solving an issue; 100% of the time in regular life, and then not resorting to physical violence; however, out here in the wilds, if words fail, violence is fair game. Q2: What is something you're naturally good at? A2: Organization and planning. BEGIN SESSION We come out of the short rest, and plan how to proceed. Melfine wants to get some motivation from the target before killing it. We head out towards the fog bank, about 30 minutes away. As we enter the bank, vision is decreased by half, so 30 feet to see vague shapes, clarity at 5 feet. It is balmy warm in here, like a greenhouse. Druss has to make ARC check, poorly, and just thinks the fog is unnatural. We are moving through the area actively perceiving and not sneaking, but being careful. Group PER, only Druss notices the string of forest creatures, forming a V shape behind our group, which he tells us immediately. This causes the animals to approach us quickly, and Marda asks them to lead us to their leader person. The badger snuffles and walks ahead of us, leading us forward. There is a large stag without one of its legs, a disemboweled owl, and a rabbit missing an ear. We make a group INT, and Helen and Marda realize this is a druids grove. We find ourselves in a derelict courtyard, with stadium seating, filled with critters in various states of decay. They continue to pour in, filling the seats. The fog is lighter here. In the center of the stadium is a throne made of thorns and vines and bones. The bones are all larger, and one looks to be a human femur. The noise dies down, and we see a very pale, elvish woman step out from the left side of the throne. She asks why we are here, and Marda takes point, asking why they're doing this to the forest. The elf is mad at humans, and progress, and civilization. I am trying to make myself small, and use Druss for cover. (PER 13) for something, I don't think I passed. The elf offers us the choice to leave here alive if we serve her, but Marda and Melfine are trying to logic her out of hating us. It looks to be going downhill, and Druss takes a crack at speaking out against violence, but CHA save, fail, become afflicted by Bane (-1d4 from attack rolls and saving throws for 1 minute). Combat begins, and I Bless myself, Marda, and Druss (+1d4 to attack rolls and saving throws for 1 minute, CONC). INS check, Helen realizes the rakshasa is not in control of its faculties. Bane goes away, and swarms of insects fill the area. Used INSP against a CON save from the swarm, passed, 17 dmg. The area is lightly obscured and now difficult terrain due to the bugs. We kill the rakshasa, and the elf wild shapes into a dire bear. Then, some of the small crowd animals come in to aid the elf. Use the +d6 to pass a strength save to not get vined up. Rorin kills the elf (Tharthiel Haneways, level 20 cleric/druid). Apparently, the rakshasa can't be killed for real outside of hell, so we have an enemy for life. The animals in the stands flee, and we search for the source of the blight. Rorin and I check the throne, (INV 20), find: two greater potions of healing; an old, sealed scroll; one chalice valued at 1000 gp. Also, it is not the source of the blight. On the body, Melfine finds: a symbol for Asmodeus; the elf's druid casting focus, a staff that is +1 to druid casting; a shard of some gem, with the texture of bark, that is shoved through the elf's heart. Melfine lays out a bunch of stuff to try to commune to her goddess, getting 3 yes/no questions. 1: Is the shard the source of the blight? Yes. 2: Do you want me to destroy it? Maybe yes, maybe you're not ready for this yet. 3: Are you still on my side? Yes. Marda WIS check, and took some necrotic damage. Rorin and Druss notice a small hobbit hole that leads to an office-type room. He finds an herbalism kit, a potion of some sort, and another bottle, with a grey fog inside, also of unknown type. He calls out that it is not her dwelling, and Druss checks out the trees, noticing something like a treehouse. A flying squirrel tries to dive-bomb the corpse, but Helen kills it before it can make contact. I take the now canvas-wrapped body and carry with the group towards the treehouse, inflicting disadvantage on DEX saves. Rorin yeets himself up the tree, checks for traps (INV 13), seeing some minimalist, low-quality earthenware trappings. There is also a guillotine attached to the door, which totally could have killed someone. Marda finds half-burned plans and schematics; a very, very old rug tied up in the corner; and a very, very, very old backpack made of leather and surprisingly not falling apart. Marda brings me the schematics to study (INT check, 3, mega-fail; we are going to hang onto them to study later). Marda is looking through the bag, namely for something to remove the shard, and finds a glass vial labelled as toxic in Elvish, a container of balm with another Elvish label. She then shakes it and hears nothing. It is a Handy Haversack, which puts the object you're thinking about on top, if it is in there. She thinks about a journal/diary, and boom! there it is. It is also in Elvish. She moves to investigate the rug. Rorin knocks the rug over; he and Marda study it, and are sure it hovered for a hot second there. Rorin throws it out the window, and it lands before us with a fountain of dust and grime. He hangs it over a branch, and Druss uses Prestidigitation to clean it up. Druss and Rorin recognize a pattern on the rug, written in Draconic, saying "Speak...and rise...and you will...horizon." Meanwhile, Marda heads down and shows us the rest of the goodies. Druss sits down, ritually casts Comprehend Languages, and reads the journal. He has a buddy back home (Max) with a dad named Charles Corbin, who is an elf. The journal is dated to about two centuries ago. It is a travel journal with some sketches and ideas. The schematics are for Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion but like a druid version, which is powered by extraplanar magic. We head out and move back towards the city. END SESSION Current HP 38/65. Level up for next session.

3/5/22

Start session with INSP, +d6 Character question 1: In the cosmic scope, are you a good person? Probably, but Aurane would say he did well enough, but could have been better. Question 2: Have you ever had your heart broken? Nope, as there hasn't been all that much that he connects to with that sort of intensity. BEGIN SESSION We awaken at dawn to a dreary, rainy day on the edge of the forest (3o ft from treeline). Gain another INSP for a nice joke about burning the forest down for a shopping mall. We proceed into the forest carefully, but not enough to slow our pace. The trip is eerily quiet again. Quickly the rain increases to a downpour. There is a loud roar from ahead. We roll for initiative. I take a PER check to see if there are other threats. There is a mound-like structure that I recognize from before. The roaring figure is an undead owlbear. Marda gets eaten by the mound, but Rorin boldly claws her free from the creature, killing it. The owlbear quickly follows suit, but the weretiger/not weretiger appears, attacking Druss (from invisibility?). Oh no, Rorin is mind-controlled, attacking Melfine and myself. The fucker disappears, for now. Druss and I hold Rorin down until he calms down. Melfine tries to scrape as much of its blood together as she can, searching her memory for details of the creature. It is a rakshasa, a fiend that is resistant to magic, appearing similar to a tiger, and are more often hidden amongst large city crowds. They aren't fighters, but bargainers and conmen, dealing for souls. This one had the moss and shrooms on it, moss on top of the fur, but shrooms growing from the skin. Melfine blood-bonds with it and we track it moving towards the center of the forest. As we travel quickly behind, group SUR check. As her connection fades, the rakshasa is now about 3 miles ahead of us. She looks into its mind, and through its eyes. There is a solid fog wall ahead of it, through which it walks. We travel the rest of the distance to the fog gate at a regular pace, stopping about 100 feet from the gate. We are going to take a short rest, but before it finishes, we are attacked by the earth again, vines this time. Roll for initiative. We kill them and sit down to finish the short rest. Rorin AC 17, current hp 78/78 ki 5/5 My hp 65/65, used 1/8 hit dice END SESSION

2/26/22

Begin with no INSP stuff DM-Goddess grants INSP! Character question 1: Are you a good liar? Aurane doesn't want to lie, unless absolutely needed. He is the type to couch the lie in too much information, which works on fewer people than it doesn't, which makes him bad overall. Character question 2: What is your biggest pet peeve? Vandalism, and those goddamn teens that keep Color Spray (the spell? whatever) painting penises on the walls around Cherwood Character question gain us +d6 dice also BEGIN SESSION We are in the forest and have just finished a short rest. We're about a half day into the forest, but you wouldn't know it from the deep darkness that pervades the area, leaving us in a perpetual twilight. We think that the groups we saw heading west could have some exposure and choose to turn back, to check on them and either cure/kill those who need it. We are a half day into the forest and then another half day behind those groups, so we must make haste. I use Divine Intervention to summon Shadowfax, a horse lord and the keeper of the meaning of haste. I need to roll d100 lower than my level and fail (40), so no Mearas for me. Melfina harvests some samples from the treant and zombies, sequestering some spores in tarp material. (Side note: Rorin is an anti-vaxxer and Fawx News watcher). Spike bites a spore sac and loses, with MED we learn something so small would zombify in 1 day instead of 2. SUR check to lead us out, but our passive observation skills notice shambling forms, including one 4-legged creature roughly the size of a bear. Once we emerge, I homing pigeon us back towards the nearest city. We also have to CON save for us and the horses. My horse and Melfina's fail and become exhausted. I summon a Ghost Horse(TM TM TM) to compensate for mine, and Melfina doubles up with Rorin. We ride through the night, and SUR check to keep pushing. We get into Lake Town about 6 am, the mounts tired, us tired, but we're here. We are gonna split up to go to the Sanctum and HP Impartial to inform them of the risk, and the temple of Kusco to handle the mounts. I go alone to HP; Marda, Melfina, and Spike go to the Sanctum; Druss and Rorin go to Kusco. Druss and Rorin take care of our mounts, and ask after the groups in question. They're going to look into it and follow up. I reach HP Impartial's residence and walk in without knocking. He is in a state of undress, brushing his teeth and brewing coffee. He has his holy symbol on and is half-way to magicking me. He notices who I am and allows me to present the situation. He dresses and prepares to leave, casting Sending to the mayor to call for the other clergy. He asks if this is the same thing that Lenny from the Sanctum had been talking about using sequestration to solve. Yes, as that is the guy Melfina used Sending to contact. Melfina, Marda, and Spike reach the Sanctum, and there is a pop-up sick house next to it. Lenny is assumed to be around there somewhere. They go looking for Lenny and check the security of the site. (Mayor is Sharon Morston). Marda is headed to the mayor's house. Marda tells about the airborne pathogen and spores, the 2 day progression, and getting the city on board with quarantining. The government thought Lenny was just excitable and wrote him off. The Sanctum presence here is small and lacks the weight of authority. Captain of the guard Vick is also there. They see clerics, 2 each from Dem Felic (Love) and Morbris Sempra (Death), show up and get to work. Criers begin decrying the mask mandate and sick house locations. Melfina arrives at the sick house and assesses the situation. The sickest are in the back, progressively becoming less serious the nearer the door they are. There aren't really things to make masks out of, for the most part. Melfina is very matter-of-fact in her delivery of the information about the outbreak, scaring anything with a pulse. The healthier ones comply with her, out of fear. The worse ones are late-stage, and she becomes quite serious about the containment. I make it across town with HP Impartial and am joined by the clerics of Bazil (Fertility), Lord Terrance (Sun), and Pudge (Oceans and Storms) along the way. We get to the temple of Kusco, seeing Rorin and Druss. Autobots roll out to the sick house. Marda eventually gets through to Vick and gets more supplies devoted to the cause. Melfina casts Lesser Restoration on a late-stage that isn't so bad, making a WIS check for effect (22, which works mostly, not fixing the tissue damage, but clearing the infection). INSP used, healed a super sick guy. Then, healed another super sick guy. All super sick are cured, all heavy sick are cured, we're just down to the 1-day folks, maybe. Melfina is observing the standing populace in the sick house, finding one with signs. This person is marked, and a cleric called for. Aurane spent so much of his energy on the two near-death patients, and shambles from the back of the house, barely standing. The 5 folks left are ok, one of them having been the group healer who took care of them even after quarantining. We hand off the light work to the NPC clerics and release the uninfected back into the populace. We head to the inn and get two doubles and some food. My one and only goal is to sleep, then get back to healing. INSP gained for the hard work and focus on what needed doing. I have had a series of stressful weeks, with Cherwood attacked, my exodus into the wilderness, the skyship, and tapping into Her Divinity so deeply, as well as the fear of the failure of the powers and my connection to them. I dream of rot, pestilence, corrupting my city from the inside out. I have hope, that maybe I can stop this thing, but a thin hope it is. The others dream as well, unbeknownst to me. In the morning, we make sure that the situation is under control here and in other cities. From previous discussions, I look into containment units suitable for the samples we've been working on so far. There is a 1 foot by 6 inch container I am able to acquire for this purpose. It isn't perfect, but will serve. We also get some waxy paper business to use for strange samples. We travel back to the forest, and I am on second watch with Spike. 1st watch has a creepy pair of eyes show up. Our 2nd watch begins, PER(25) and halfway through the shift we're good. I look to a different point in the darkness and see new, different eyes. The angle is different and they are also staring at the camp. I cast detect evil and good, and they are too far away, but I know that the ground past the tree line is consecrated. There is a weird vibe to the consecration, not divine but earthen. I won't go into the trees to find the source, as they are ~90 feet away. The feeling is coming from the trees. REL check (17), and I take a moment to connect to the magic. I sense it is trying to grow, the blessing, the protection. Focusing on the consecration and the source, I sense the same source as when healing the infected folk. Another hour passes and we hand off to third, Melfina and Druss. Druss can see 120 feet into the dark, and can see that the first set of eyes is an owlbear in black and white rotting flesh, and the second set of eyes looks to be a weretiger in some form of undeath. Another set of eyes is visible to him as well, a hint of reflective eyes and maybe some horns or a branched head. He brings his findings back to Melfina and she commences note-taking on these fools. There is an arrow flying towards them, narrowly dropping to avoid being hit. It sticks and they find a note attached to it. Melfina views it, avoiding the black ichor on the note, to read: "LEAVE. blah blah blah" She identifies the rest as Elvish. Within 30 minutes, the sun begins to rise and we start making breakfast. As the sun rises, the eyes fade away. It appears no-one can read the Elvish, so I cast Comprehend Languages as a ritual to read this thing: "LEAVE. (Begin Sylvan) You are all parasites leaching off of the land. It is now time for the Earth to take back what is its. You will perish or we will use you as part of our army." I vote to move deeper into the forest. Whatever the consequences are, we'll deal with them. Melfina "Shall we press on?" END SESSION Current tally, INSP and +d6

11/20/2021

Character question: When was the last time you cried? Aurane is a stiff-upper-lip sort of chap, and likely would shed few tears. The exception would be in appreciation of true beauty of craftsmanship. Start with INSP, +d6 We start the day, and crawl from the tent. I can hear the hustle and bustle of the city again, which calms my soul. After performing the morning's ablutions and rituals, we need to go pick up the animals from the stable at the Temple of Kuzco. First, there is a hangover buffet of which we partake. Very few others choose to eat in the common room, most too hungover to be out in public right now. PER check, I notice two older locals eating off to the side, and hear them discussing the old haunted mesa house, which has claimed another victim, the second one this year. It is located on the eastern side of the city at the outskirts, and is seated atop the mesa. I am compelled to convince the group to check it out, and maybe succeed? We go for the mounts, and Mittens has been groomed, killing none. Heading east, the mesa begins, and there is an estate on top. It's tall and narrow, not sprawling like the Ashforge Estate. It has entered repairs and been abandoned several times, leaving many unfinished projects around the property. Rorin leads the way in and knocks, to echoes and deep silence. He picks the lock to open the door, and the wood scrapes along the floor as it opens. Melfina says there were weird vibes but nothing overtly good/evil. The is a large unfinished mosaic being restored, up the grand staircase would lead to the main bedrooms. The hallway on the first floor would have the servants' quarters and such. We do a full sweep of the main estate, and I do a DC 25 INSI check, have to burn INSP and +d6. This building has asbestos, but like magic kind, causing severe coughs and asthma, violent outbursts in people with trauma, and vivid dreams that border on hallucinations. I spend some time to write up a report for HP Impartial, with detailed descriptions of the issues, how to deal with them, and where the house is. From the house, we head east towards the woods. We travel casually and camp on the outskirts of the forest as night falls. It's not dead quiet, but more than it should be. We pass two groups, each with heavily armed guards, coming from a post inside the forest. There is no other traffic. They're covered in scum and ooze, but otherwise undamaged. Marda and Melfina live out here, and are neighbors, so we don't need the lay of the land from these folks. The sun rotates backwards here, west to east. They live a bit further in, about a half day's ride from the main road for Marda and a full day's for Melfina. That is too far for us all to go to one of their houses, and they might not have the space or amenities. It is unnervingly quiet for me, less so for the others. Melfina senses that the ground in consecrated (hallowed, but not the Hallow spell) by someone who speaks for the earth. There is also a sense of great evil, and a sense of the undead. I am on third watch, so head to bed early. PER check, Marda doesn't like the forest, and spots a faint blue glow, hearing the shifting of the branches on this windless night. The light does not follow the shifting of branches, they are two separate things. The shifting sounds crept closer throughout the night, about 25 feet from the treeline at dawn. Dream from asbestos: Dreams of isolation, darkness, things moving in the darkness. Things then fuckiung proceeded to move in the darkness while I was on 3rd watch. We are ready to head into the forest. It is unsettling. Welcome to the Spooktacular Raven's Wood. At the rear of the group, Druss realizes a tree was the same tree we'd passed 30 minutes ago. Roll for initiative! This a twisted, blight-covered treant radiating malice and hate. I roll NAT and am sure this was a treant, but it's dead but alive and angry. Behind us, a humanoid form is shambling towards us, as Druss notices (about 50 feet away). Melfina makes the final blow on the treant. The zombie has a breath weapon and I got a 2 (for the horse). The horse I am riding is down to 1 HP. When these zombies die, they explode in spores, damaging those within 5 feet. Melfina and I perform a MED check on Druss, and see blistering inside his mouth. Lesser restoration fixes Druss and the horse, and the horse is up to 10 HP. Something bout these woods ain't right... END SESSION, WITH NO INSP STUFF Do short rest stuff before session...

9/25/2021

Character question: What is your worst habit? When inspiration strikes, I am compelled to at least sketch it into my workbook, if not fully capture the vision, no matter the location or time expenditure. Start with INSP, +d6, +d6 Begin day 5 on the airship. I take third watch. We remain unmolested for the remainder of the trip it seems. On third watch, Melfina asks me nonchalantly if I have ever heard of Asmodeus. REL check pass, he is the greatest archdevil, lord of the 9th level of Hell and overlord of Hell in general. Daughter of Asmodeus, Glasya, former mistress of erinyes (which are angels that made a pact with Asmodeus to depart Hell, as opposed to harpies which are angels that still serve in Hell and lead armies there.) is another name that calls to mind. INSI from me vs DEC from Melfina, and I lose the rolloff. I am suspicious of her and trying to get more out of her, but it seems she's just asking in something approximating her version of casual inquiry. I burned INSP to try to suss it out, to no avail. Day 6 passes without event. This is now the furthest away from the city that I have ever been. I dream, and am flying through the clouds, no ship, just me. I feel the disconnect, an emptiness, a coldness. Then, one of my spirit guardians appears to guide me on. I see the city before me, my shop, my loved ones. All is well. But a shifting shadow draws my attention, and I try to pursue. It upsets the calm of daily life. I smell parchment and blood, reaching for the shadow figure's shoulder. Just before I make contact, I awake. Day 7, we are slated to arrive in Lake Town soon. Druss is slow to rise; old son must have slept poorly. The airship lands in open water and guides it into the dock, trying to hide the technology of an airship from the populace. ATH check to maintain composure during the landing, pass. It takes into the later afternoon to reach the dock, as we had to land out of visual range and sail in. We see a massive wooden dragon effigy being built right at the docks. We see evidence that a festival is in the offing, but Harvest is over and Winter Solstice is too far off. Lake Town equates to real-world New Orleans in that it is a party Mecca that is often hit by disaster but keeps bouncing back. There are lots of races, but it is still primarily human. There is a small courthouse that is their temple to Lady Constance. We have arrived during the Festival of the Midnight Dragon, where they burn the dragon effigy for calm winter seas, in celebration of their history of being raided by Goliaths (a la the Vikings). We don't need to get rooms, as we're going to stay on the ship. They're leaving at dawn though, so we do have to get a room. The inn is like an old-style plantation home. Once we enter, there is a busy dining area to the right, as well as a bar and check-in area. We are greeted by a race I have never seen, one dummy thicc bunny girl, named Rizzo Ratlan (4'6" or so), who clambers onto a stool so we can see her above the counter. We ask for a room, and she notes Druss's fatigue. Rizzo calls out to "honey" for some harvest soup and sourdough bread bowls. She has a double room for us, and a cot to set all 5 of us up in the room. Rizzo's husband, Gozzy, eventually comes out to help, and he is taller, with ears always on alert. They have kids out and about between 5 and 20 years of age. The captain of the guard is a large Goliath woman. There is no bad blood with Goliaths due to the history of raiding, as even when they were actively doing it, it was a cornerstone of balance in the local economy. I wish to check in with my temple, so I head to the courthouse. I am greeted by High Priest Impartial, also the city's judge (older human male, mellow disposition). I ask for the lay of the land, and he recalls Diligence, who trained under him in the past. He advises that folks get rowdy in the evening. Then he brings up Raven's Wood and Lark's Peak, where there have been a number of disappearances. There is talk of rot, yet oversized plants. The forest seems to be shifting. They don't deforest much, but do need timber, and families hunt to make ends meet. Large search parties end up intact but perturbed, while smaller ones (=<3) disappear completely. He demonstrates the blight on a stick sample he has, where blackened bark peels back to have sickly looking sap. The wood fiber under seems fresh and healthy, but the surface crumbles as moss rubbed between one's fingers would. Folks started going missing about 3 months ago, and the blight has about 1.5 months since the beginning. Lastly, I ask about fauna we may encounter. He lists owlbears, regular bears, and bearowls, which are small bears with wings that will fuck you up. However, they should not be around this time of year. Marda and Melfina head to the Sanctum's little outpost in this town. Everyone returns to the inn, and the party is in full swing. Humans are running the bar while Rizzo is out working the crowd. I go out with Marda and Rorin, and begin to tie one on. About 4 drinks in, I'm buzzed and having a good time. In my euphoria, it seems the lights flicker and change colors, snuff out, and relight. The crowd really enjoys it, and I feel some of that emptiness I felt before recede. The party goes on into the night, and as midnight nears, Druss wants to know why the effigy is a dragon, specifically. In the old world, dragons were a menace (a la Spider-man). A visiting dragon (copper) didn't like the tone of their merriment and burned the town down, then Goliaths raided but, seeing the state of the town, helped rebuild it and fucked off. They came back next year and raided for realsies, but whatever. Druss is roped into providing the flame, and takes one of the four corners to light when the drumming stops. In the revelry, Rorin notices something the could have been part of a Red Dragon tattoo. As well, two of the street vendors and the Mayor (Sharon) have the Arch tattoos. We all eventually make it back to the room. End with +d6, +d6

9/5/2021

START WITH INSP, +d6, +d6 Question: Do you think you're attractive? Uh, chea. Rorin and Druss head out to Holden's workshop outside of the city to find what amounts to an airplane hangar. Inside they see an airship, with inflated air sac, hovering one foot above the ground. They're gonna take it on another test ride, out to River Town. He's putting together a team, including a chemist of some sort. There are a lot of tieflings and halflings around the shop, and one of the only other dragonborns in the city. Holden is known for employing these disenfranchised races. There is also the oldest elf they've ever seen (Emma Thompson for the film adaptation, if she's free), Gayle Wales (they/them, nonbinary). Gayle is the pilot for this trip. Nagisa is a halfling man that comes up next, he's the chemical engineer. Ageless eyes, blond curls, faintly familiar to Druss. They're about 4 days away from the test flight, which is about a two week trip (River Town = Lake Town on the map). They come back into the city and bring the rest of us up to speed. The morning of the test flight, at the estate a chariot pulled by giant sheep pulls up. A dwarven woman gets out wearing the finest armor we've ever seen. This is Ophelia Firebrand, and is someone Rorin knows from the before times. They had an arranged marriage or something. She's from Le'Xxaj, in the Frostfire Mountains. She's staying at Madame Whitcraft's, a wealthy dwarven woman who hasn't left her estate since her late husband's demise. We brought everything to the hangar, mounts included, and load up the ship. The ship has a name, which we are rolling for, SS Garfunkel (Halle). Druss recognizes Nagisa as someone from ~20 years in his past, and Nagisa hasn't aged a day. We go to take off, with heavy winds and cold temperatures (~late October). The ship is steered with movable sails to change how much wind they catch, and a steam-powered rudder. Mittens is not a fan, and the horses are largely whatever about takeoff. We all manage to hold ourselves together with the jarring experience. A slip has made Aurane into a Rigger, which is like rope kink stuff? During the first night, Druss calls out from the watch site that he sees an incoming winged creature. Enter combat against a Roc. We take it down, with Melfina narrowly avoiding going down. We sleep through the rest of the night, and wake after sunrise to find Druss and Mittens sleeping on deck and the crew tiptoeing around them. Eventually Mittens is coaxed back downstairs. For the third day on the ship, we can now see in the distance the Incatori Mountain range. We find ourselves in a favorable wind this day. For the fourth day, we are now perpendicular to the mountains, flying just off the coast north of the continent. Along the journey, I make an enhanced lesser potion of healing (3d4+5), costing 12.5 GP. END SESSION

8/28/2021

START WITH INSP, +d6, +d6 Character builder question - Cat or dog person? I am not into either, but dogs over cats. I have dreams of the town square, gallows, fire, destruction in the city. I see the statue of Lady Constance, hope and great despair, but light within the darkness. Rorin picks Druss and me up and takes us to the Fort for the execution. The heads of the guilds are all there, Lavender included (not in chains). Vandran isn't there, that we know, since their appearance is unknown to us. The heads of the militia, navy, and air force are also in attendance. Everyone is somber, except Melfina, who is uncharacteristically excited. Most people are avoided Garnet, with a simple acknowledgement of her presence. Lavender is straight ignoring her, and the head of the Temple of Zitz looks with open disdain. Temperance and Diligence are impassive. Maggie Mayhem (agricultural guild) looks sad, and likely talked with Garnet before we got there. Druss talks with Holden to try to put him at ease. I speak with Temperance and Diligence, giving a minor update and paying my respects. They offer to make me whole for doing some pro-bono type work to get the city back up and running. A procession of three guards walk out leading the prisoner, followed behind by three more. Jake is placed in the guillotine, blade raised. The executioner is broad and stocky of build, either a dwarf or buff gnome, wearing a traditional cloaked hood to obscure their face. Some guards have bows drawn as a safeguard. "Do you have any last words?" says the executioner. Jake draws breath to speak, thinks better of it, and lowers his head. Temperance gives the executioner the go-ahead, and the blade drops. Silence follows, the body falling limp. Tension releases, and the crowd dissipates. As we plan the trip to the Raven's Wood, Druss and I acknowledge that we need to stick around for awhile and get the city back in shape. Melfina and Madra are going to keep busy, collecting information and patrolling the city. We do something of a time-skip to cover these two weeks. I spend my time planning and managing my contractors, some of whom are profiteering, angering me into punching one in the dick. We get a lot done, enough to make me more comfortable with leaving for an extended period of time. Earnings for the two weeks: 37 gp (6d6 + 1d4 +8). I'm not here for this next bit. Melfina is tailing Lavender, and witnesses several interesting things. She reaches out to Harold Ravenwood, but he ignores her as the relationship has turned hostile from his end. She also reaches out to Garmele, who does meet with her, begrudgingly. Next she meets with the head of the Temple of Zitz, Dave Cherington (human, old gunny sgt vibes). They exchange some campaign posters geared at removing the Bard's College from the city. Melfina later has a vision from someone she left in Hell, who calls herself Melfina's other half, and says some stuff about them abandoning oaths and taking new ones, and their goddess ignoring them in the past. She shares none of this with me. END OF SESSION

7/10/21

Start with INSP, +d6, +d6 Character building question - What was your first kiss? At a symposium for building codes, he met another new artisan (carpentry?) named Aranea during the cocktail hour and then boom boom pow. Early morning, I leave to check on the guards at their barracks. Along my trip, I see the city ravaged by damage, but the worst of it is already repaired or in the process of becoming so. The barracks is bustling, with a somber air. I meet with a lieutenant and get some details; they are going to investigate and have the Witch Hunters checking stuff out. They are also going to issue a press release with all of their current findings this evening. I thank her, and head to the estate. I arrive at the estate, where Rorin and Marda are already having breakfast. I am closely followed by Melfina. Druss hasn't made it there yet. Rorin sends a palcon (pigeon+falcon) to Druss with a message. Once everyone is together, I share the info I gathered. Right after that, the press release arrives, with 2 additions: 1) the deputy chief Jake Warrenthal, a generational military man, was captured as one of the traitors, and they're going to privately execute him, with some lower names as well. 2) Addressed to Rorin and co., from the Marquis, telling us that we'll talk to the Marquis and attend the executions in the morning. I got my own letter, from High Priestess Diligence co: the Marquis. Rorin, Melfina, and I are going to try to talk to the prisoners before they're terminated. We head to the Marquis. The door to their office is closed, and guarded by a halfling monk. This monk is of a rank, a commander amongst the hunters and guardian of the Sanctum. Marda identifies him as a man of action, and our probable contact if the Marquis were not present, and he is named Jericho Rockfoot. Melfina explains we've been summoned, and Jericho says that the Marquis is in a meeting, and will see us after they have finished their business. After about 5 minutes, several members of the Inquisitors and the Sanctum's IA team exit the room. We enter the office, and find it sparse yet messy, seeming slept it. The Marquis too seems drawn, and clearly slept here. They admit to us that the festival has gone awry, and tells us (Druss, Rorin, and I) that we will be representing the Sanctum at the executions. The IA team of the Sanctum is going out into the city to work, and the Marquis adds that the anti-Bard sentiment in the city is on the rise. They were hard to integrate the first time, and this is very worrying. A knock on the door, and Jericho informs us that Devon the actual falcon has found us here. It has a note that we are going to need written authorization from the Marquis to interview the prisoners, which they immediately give us. The Marquis requests we find out how many of the total Crimson Dragon members are current, active members; to look into Vandren, the mysterious leader of the Witch Hunters; to ask about any future attacks being planned and their overall goals; to see if and how deeply each of the churches may be infiltrated; and what landowners are involved. We travel to the Fort barracks, and a guard escorts Rorin, Melfina, and I to the private questioning area. Pre-rolled checks: INSI- 23, INTIM - 18. We go to work with thaumaturgy, and Melfina uses Zone of Truth in metal fashion, but he passes the DC. Spike poops on his head, in very wet fashion. Rorin tucks in on the persuasion, with some shame and guilt tactics. Questions: Faction leader? No ones knows. He's been in the Crimson Dragons since college. Who recruited him? At a bar out of town, in Dawn's Reach, the Tipsy Tavern, a dwarf named Ronald Rump got him started. Who did you most recently report to? *Spits at Rorin's feet* We then threaten his sister, who is at school at the military academy in Dawn's Reach. He still doesn't know who runs the organization. What about Vandren? Nothing. Jake gets messages in his dreams, some bird correspondence, some notes with meals. The dreams seem like they're from the gods. He was sent a list of who to put on duty and where, and those people had their own orders about what to do in those places. Very cell-based operation. He's seen members of some church groups at events that he has overseen. Some council members too. Lavender Thatcher, head of the Accounting Guild, was one. Priests from Lady Alumask, from the Zitz temple. He didn't even want to be in the military, goshhhhhhh. He did a lot of raping, and is suffering for that, from my hammers. We then bribe a guard to castrate him. After that, I heal him all up, and nobody's the wiser. We head back to the Marquis, meeting up with Druss and Marda after they wrapped up their investigations. Melfina plops the balls on his table, and rants about rape and Bad-Touch Bart and why he deserved this. The Marquis pours some high-test alcohol on the nuts and burns them. We head to a fortune teller, who is a massive woman, maybe over 7 feet tall. The race is unknown to me (a firbolg). Druss answers that we are there for fortunes and gets a standard reading. This woman's name is Madame Zaroni. Free advice: danger in the Ravenswood, natural and unnatural forces at work. She also has the Arch tattoo on her wrist. She advises going to the forest, and that those of faith should bring their most pious beverage. We may find corruption in nature itself. She is going to take her caravan elsewhere, maybe, definitely to be seen again. Endgame question: Do you give people second chances? Yes, when I believe they can be reformed or they have a useful aspect in the progress and development of things I care about. If the crime is against those things in the first place, then no, there will be no forgiveness, and no quarter. END SESSION

6/19/21

Holding 1 INSP, and now +1d6, which must be used after the normal INSP is used Resume in situ with us outside the Aftermath. People around us are dying and injured. Druss and I heal up what we can, and the girls are ready to fight. Druss and I then split off to get armored up and gather his weaponry. The others head toward the stage I built for tonight's performance, seeing ~10 cloaked figures, Dani unconscious, and a goblin holding a potion and sickle over her. Druss and I are way behind, having gone to our respective shops. Combat begins in earnest. Melfina learns how reactions work. Melfina then absolutely freaks. The. FUCK OUT. The group makes some progress against the cloaked folks, while the goblin does stuff of indeterminate motivation. He does appear to be some sort of bard. The group makes a decent effort and whoops some. Another round, and they seem to have it handled. The goblin comes to be named Jerry, short for Jerkinaginosconavichmanotrastovich (sp?). Dani knows the Crimson Dragon and is sure this wasn't all of them. The nearest, safe place for them to go is going to be Druss's place. We get to the stage to find the carnage, and they get to Myths and Legends. There are obvious signs of Melfina and Marda killing people. Then we see drips of blood heading towards our shops. We run off home, and find everyone having tea. The goblin is actually Jerkytin, Jerry for short. Jerry is an alchemist. Dani acknowledges the Undertow/Bard's Guild connection formally, they called in support in the form of vendors. The Crimson Dragon is almost as large as the Undertow. A number are just bloodthirsty hunters, and others are deep agents, employed in the cities and other high places. Dani is sure there are a lot of arcane casters hidden around us, just skilled at passing. After checking with Bridget, Dani assures us there was no direct attack against the Babblebrook. The others had captured one of the assailants. He is about to undergo some efficient information extraction. He points us to the Tipsy Tavern in Dawn's Reach as a focal point of their network. They had tattoos as ID and the phrase "the dawn is bright" where if they say "but the night approaches" then they are a part of the Crimson Dragon. He was drinking there and recruited for this mission. They were promised vengeance on the casters, gold, and city jobs. We take off for the estate, which is also under attack. The attackers are just normies, and are scared away quickly. We look to the flaming tower, where Jerry is staying. There another 12 enemies in cloaks attacking the tower. We see a small figure come into view, chanting. We hear a series of songs, and the outside of the tower lights up in runes. Burn INSP on DEX SAVE. I note the figure is close enough to Garnet, yell out to her to spare us, a young figure comes and runs straight to Madra, saving Sora from death, and then to Spike, saving the turtle from passing. Lillith, that girl, is looking us over and patronizing us. We go inside and note this whole structure has been designed for defense and was readies a great deal of time ago. Lillith is taking us to "the room" and Garnet isn't sure that is appropriate. What we will see is going to put us in more danger and change out standing with the city. I can't promise that it'll stay between us afterwards, since I don't know what it is. I have to forgo the meeting, and wait outside with Garnet. There was a large contingent of traitors amongst the roving guards. We're stopped multiple times to ask why we're out and about, and I talk us through it. We get to M&H, Max sees Lillith, and fucks off. Druss goes after but doesn't see him. She then collects the prisoner and leaves. I ponder over whether to join the hunt or go home, and elect going home to avoid the chance of offending the guards who were loyal, in favor of finding myself an early report as to the status. END SESSION PS - character development question Q: If you could go back in time, what one thing would you change? A: I would have taken that municipal contract for the plumbing designs. I could have found out then about the piss genies and saved myself the trauma. GAIN INSP

5/22/2021

STILL HOLDING ONTO 1 INSPIRATION Character development question notes - Aurane is morning person; the first thing he notices about a person is whether they are a workman-class person (calluses, broadness of shoulders, etc...) ; and if a spider was in a his room, he would relocate it outside of his home. The city is more bustling than usual, as we have returned during the fall harvest festival. We approach the Cerulean Sanctum, which has a buffer of empty space between its grounds and the festival. The door of the Marquis' office is open, and we enter. Umbra is inside, with Priestess Diligence. Melfina sells them some of the hydra teeth for their research, but does not wish to part with the blood. The team recounts our adventure to the Marquis and Co, leaving out some details about the strange folk that helped us along the way. The Marquis rewards us with some money and gems (1 platinum, 1 diamond worth 300gp, 1 diamond worth >300gp), and a potion composed of a bilayer, the top being yellowish, the bottom sediment being black. Shaking resuspends the sediment. It was recovered from some event, and their studies indicate it will explode when exposed to air. POTION OF HANDGRENADE IS CANON. I suggest to the group engage the services of a well-esteemed city alchemist to study the potion, with the intent of getting a recipe for our future use, and for submission to proper academics and libraries around the city. I ask Priestess Diligence for a status update on the preservation of Elon, and she lets me know that all has gone well. There is going to be a council meeting tomorrow before the festival to discuss installing Holden Cockswell as the new head of the inventor's guild. I am going to hold onto the >300gp diamond. We exit the Sanctum, and witness the guards force out a vendor trying to set up too close to the Sanctum. I return to my shop, and Kel is there to welcome me. She walks me through to work that was completed, new accounts, and some festival work that could be done at a premium. Aurane spends the rest of the evening at home. I spend the next day constructing a stage for the festival, which I do well and it is sturdy, but not pretty. This takes me all day. Character decision - Aurane finds the festival to be very important, and a vital feature of the city in this time of the year. It is vital that he help out as much as he can, but the added money for the rush job is not what is important. What he makes above the normal amount he would earn on a job like this will be tithed to the Temple of Lady Constance. Melfina arrives to tell me that the team is looking to meet up about 7PM at the estate. Rorin, Druss, and I go in search of a Meat Stick stand that I had seen on my way to the stage this morning. Melfina has called us here because she noticed a lot of traffic when she visited the Babblebrook Inn, many of whom were wearing things that were covering up tattoos, and these folks were in and out quicker than normal patrons. She also tells us that Marda is fighting tomorrow, and that we should go watch. We also need to figure out what we're doing next. Suddenly Rorin does a jutsu, and the room falls into complete darkness. Rorin just wanted to show off a little and go to bed. We need to finish the discussion though. We are just going to enjoy the festival for awhile now. Melfina had noticed that a lot of the shady folks from the inn were also vendors. Bedtime. The next day, early in the morning but after I awoke, there was a cacophonous blast. I rush to see what happened, and the fireworks were being tested and had a huge mishap. Healers were on site to fix any injuries. We head to the fort where the fighting event will be taking place. A member of the guard, Cassandra Bitterspire, greets Marda as her first opponent. Marda wins her first match! There is a bit of a break until her next match, so we go exploring the festival. Fight two begins, against a wood elf of indeterminate gender or sex, wielding a great axe. Marda loses this round. We go about the festival, have some food, and find a person-chucking game. Druss and I toss Marda, but don't do well enough to score a prize. Rorin, Druss, and I then join the arm-wrestling contest. I take 2nd! The prize is a certificate for drinks at The Aftermath Cafe, amounting to 4 drinks. We go to cash them in at the cafe, and it is bustling. Then it's firework time. During the finale, there is a banging sound without fireworks. Something is flying through the air, then a massive explosion occurs, and we see what is basically a red dragon in the fireworks. The dragon design we see was heavily associated with a disbanded group of mage hunters from the Caster Wars. They were disbanded for their excessively cruel treatment of captured casters. In the distance, Druss and I see arrows flying in the darkness, and they land. Notes are attached, indicating their anger over the citizenry letting "the bards" into the cities, while they "fought and died" for us. END SESSION

4/17/2021

CARRY OVER 1 INSP FROM LAST TIME BEGIN IN CAVERN BY LAKE We take our leave of the cave, and go back to the tent where the shapeshifter had been staying. PER and INV checks to look through their stuff. PER gives that it's about the same as last time we left it. INV gives plans and notes on the construction, that a lot of the key paperwork is gone (probably from the fleeing workmen, not anything sinister), coinage valued at 80 gold scattered about (50 of which is paper money for use back in town), and a unique blueprint (crossbow) in a buried dossier. Time now is mid- to late-afternoon. We utilize the rest of the day to get some travel underway. We camp for the night in the blankie. On 2nd watch, I pore over the ring and notice symbols similar to healing magic. I don't get a full idea, so I slip it on. Fuck it. The Ring of Temporal Salvation - Attunement - If you die while wearing this gray crystal ring, you vanish and reappear in an unoccupied space within 5 feet of the space you left (or the nearest unoccupied space). You have a number of hit points equal to 3d6 + your Constitution modifier. If your hit point maximum is lower than the number of hit points you regain, your hit point maximum rises to a similar amount. If you have any levels of exhaustion, reduce your level of exhaustion by 1. Once the ring is used, it turns to dust and is destroyed. Druss offers to upkeep my hammer for me, and we get to talking about equipment. I can't use a shield, but he tells me of a sort of shield called a buckler, and offers to assemble one for me. The shift ends without further event. On the second day, we stop for some constitutionals, and Rorin locates a mound upon which to micturate. It shifts under him, and starts with a surprise round. Rorin retreats towards us screaming. We brace ourselves and ready for combat. It is shifting mound of earth? Melfina manages to get herself eaten by the damn dirt pile. We manage to take down the nature beast. We come to camp at the second night, and I take second shift again. Third sees an owlbear with some cubs, but they're not here to fight, just moving back into the area now that it is safer. On the third day, we have another encounter with some (4) large bird creatures. They die very quickly, due to a gross overuse of power. We then make it back to the caravan. Druss checks to see who made it back here from the camp, to find only 5 or 6 had done so. As we approach the center of the caravan, we notice others have come in from the other side of the caravan. A large, opulent wagon pulling something analogous to a modern-day camper or RV. It's super weird. We enter the main tent, Melfina first. Jericho Tinkerbottom is there to welcome us, with Isabelle and some unfamiliar folks. A tall tabaxi and short human male are speaking with Jericho. The human appears to be quite an ass. His name is Holden Cockswell, and he is part of the inventor's guild, here to take over command of the project. The tabaxi is Oliver and is Holden's assistant. We go into his fancy wagon to talk. The blueprint we found was for a grappling hook launcher. The project is proceeding apace, with Lake Town laying track out in their neck of the woods and making a bridge. We camp near the people for the night. The head of security offer still stands, but I'm waiting until I can wash up the gibbly bits and such. We're gonna head back ASAP. First day of travel, nothing crazy. We camp for the night, and I am on second with Spike, who can talk to me and chooses not to. I hear some rustling in the woods, and a stork-like bird with glinting blue accents to its plumage shows itself. It does not appear to be menacing. The blue is maybe actually fire? Day 2: Rain, lovely. Druss spots 3 blue spots come down from the clouds every now and again. Night 2: We can see the blue lights, and they appear to be closing in on us. I NAT check to know, it is a bird, like a crane, and maybe from an elemental plane that came to the material plane. We pass on to 3rd and hit the rack. Day 3: Dawn, the weather lets up, and the birds are less visible against the bright sky. We completely lose track of them over the day. Night 3: 1st watch, the birds are back, and Rorin feeds them again, while approaching them slowly. He feeds them and lets them do them. He notes that one is injured, and is sleeping outside near them. I cast healing word on it and it seems pretty happy with this. Druss attempts to talk to it. The birds fly off in the direction we are travelling, probably towards water (the ocean). Day 4: Day goes off well, and we reach Smallville about half a day into the journey. Alaina is there to greet us, and we stop for lunch and to catch up. The werewolf Hank spots us on our way out of town. Night 4: 4 humanoids approach during 1st watch and ask to join the camp. The group isn't pleased about sharing and declines. The visitors press the request, and are intimidated when Melfina makes her way outside as well. They move on and head back to the main road. It appears they were thinking of robbing the smallfolk they could see, but knew they couldn't take us all. 2nd shift, we don't notice much, but rolled poorly, so whatever. 3rd shift, they see a lot of eyes, a family of 6 raccoons, which start to pick through our saddlebags, and Melfina tries to get them to fuck off. Day 5: We can see the blue lights over the bay, and enter the city upon arrival. We return the moorbounder, head to the sanctum to debrief the Marquis. END SESSION

1/16/2021

BEGIN IN TOWER WITH STRANGE MAN The man thinks that we are here as new recruits to the Undertow, sent by Evangeline. His name is Eladamril (my character from the one-off with monsters) and he tells us to go into the parlor to meet with his sister. The parlor has a great many house plants, herbs and such, as well an eclectic mixture of books, and furniture for sitting. Eladamril later enters the parlor, giving Spike a small blackberry plant to munch on. He's a bit put out by us being from Cherwood, but rolls with it. He is a big to-do in the Undertow, protecting what sounds like fugitives of some sort. Druss tells him of the happenings of the last few days. He isn't much a fan of the train project. Then we are lead to some guest rooms, which are not opulent, but workable. Druss and Melfina have a private conversation to which I am not privy, but is about Spike and the wraith form. After some time they return, and we smell some wonderful aromas coming from the kitchen. Eladamril calls us to the dining hall on the other side of the kitchen. The hall is gorgeous, but has been drabbed down. We sit at a long wooden table, well-worn. Eladamril is not a stunning conversationalist, but will respond when engaged. After dinner, Druss explains how Garnet has aided us so far, and that the organization has been helpful in our quest. Eladamril is none too concerned about the hydra doing what hydra's do, and stopping the railroad work. His sibling (they/them) took Spike long ago, Adrian was their name, and this person assisted Melfina during past troubles, and Melfina later became Spike's caretaker. Spike is having a mild temper-tantrum while they are conversing. Melfina asks for aid, and Eladamril begrudgingly admits the hydra has too many heads, giving us 4 bottles of oil to work with, noting they don't like fire. Melfina continues to act like someone is talking to her, but the rest of us cannot hear the other half of the conversation. We all go to bed for the night. We awaken for the morning to the smells of breakfast. We mount up and get ready to leave, when Druss asks me to check out his shoulder, which is itchy and shouldn't be. It looks like a brand, stretching from the center of his chest, where the diamond was set, up to his shoulder. The pattern looks like flames, and I relay this to Druss. Melfina is called to inspect her work, but she doesn't recognize the symbol. I sketch out the pattern and pocket it for later. A MED check reveals that dragonborns shouldn't look like that, and it isn't necrotizing because the scales aren't sloughing off. I note the marking extends below the scales to the fleshy underbed. We set off to the camp from before, and see the wreckage of the hydra being a pissy little bitch. SUR check to see if the tracks in fact lead back into the cave. Entering the caves, it's about 20 feet across, and it's deep out of my frail human sight. The walls are clearly man-made and smooth. We make a combo of fire bolts and fire spears. I have 4 bolts, from my store of 20. We send Rorin ahead, as the rabbit. We wander deeper and deeper into the cave, 20...30 minutes pass. Around 40 minutes, the walls begin showing signs of being more natural and rough, with stalactites and stalagmites, and dripping water sounds in the distance. We come upon a natural bowl, and after a moment the water begins bubbling. Roll into initiative. I have a lit torch, btw. Rorin goes down immediately after the hydra surfaces; the rabbit technique didn't work so much. It all ends with a Babe Ruth homer from my spiritual weapon, over the Green Monster. Melfina collects ~25 teeth and some blood. I shot zero bolts, so I now have sixteen normal bolts and four fire bolts. Druss looks into the lake for loot, and I part the water so that he can get down there. Instead Rorin jumps down like a godsdamned maniac. He finds ~50gp of gems, 1 set of shackles with runes in good condition, and a very nice amulet with the symbol of an alehouse. My ring from last time looks like a grey crystal set in a tarnished silver band. I then cast detect magic, showing 5 indicators of magic. 1 around Druss's neck (Divination), 1 in Rorin's pocket (Evocation), 1 in Druss's sack (Conjuration), my ring (Necromancy), and the shackles (Abjuration). --END SESSION--(Still sitting one 1 INSP point)

1/2/2021

Gain INSP from previous journal entry IN MEDIA RES... "Elon" is walking up to us, and Druss approaches him with a firm handshake in greeting. Elon left the city about two weeks ago, leaving word with his assistant to tell people he'd be out of town. Druss informs him of the dead eels, and Melfina adds that there was something else dead too. Melfina then blurts that we found Elon dead there, and asks to examine this Elon. Melfina does some heretical praying and gets a signal from somewhere outside of the tent where we are speaking, about a mile away and not moving. Telling Elon who all knows about the other dead him, once we mention Danarei, he grows concerned. We go to find Firecrotch, who is the source of the signal Melfina was receiving. She has yet to share this with us, so we greet FC with the same cordiality and trust as before. FC bolts, roll into initiative. Marda lands a big hit, and the form of FC flickers to the white dragonborn, which Aurane does notice. He takes some damage from those of us who acted early, then thunder steps away. He gets master-blasted by my lightning bolt. Druss knocks him out with non-lethal damage. Melfina ties him up and we drag him back to camp. We go back to the tent where we spoke with Elon before. Melfina claims more of his blood, and stores it for future use. Short rest and then we wake up the captive, who does nothing immediately. Rorin fingers the wound, and the dragonborn disappears. Elon is now also MIA. So we then go find him, he's fine. We're going after the warlock, but this time we are keeping Elon with us. Spike the phantom is going to watch over him from behind. Melfina tracks his blood again, getting a signal on the other side of the camp, about a mile out, heading into the mountains. As we decide what to do, a voice speaks to Melfina and it sounds like it knows her from the past. After Melfina's hour has gone by, he has gone a good ways to the NE into the mountains, but hasn't made it out of the 10 mile range yet. Speaking about the hydra, it is revealed that it is up to about a dozen heads. Sleep for the night. THE NEXT MORNING Note: The army is very sex negative Druss suggests the workers head back to the supply camps, where they will be out of hydra danger. Druss SUR check, navigate through the wilderness, taking about 60 minutes to travel 30 minutes. Aurane SUR check, moving 90 minutes in 60, so we're back to even. We approach a clearing. Melfina SUR check, a voice in her head guides her back towards the lake. We see a figure laid out along the bank. Roll into initiative. Spike wraith hovers near Elon. Rorin hits and awakens the dragonborn, who then gets up and fireballs the shit out of most of the group. After taking some damage, he disappears again. We fan out and prepare. Bubbling begins to appear in the lake. Warlock is fleeing while the hydra makes itself known. Druss receives its first attack and outright dies. Elon bursts with magical energy, something like spiritual guardians, in the form of small cloaked figures. Fuckin Elon has turned against us, but it seems to be that who-/whatever this is was in league with the warlock the whole time, in some greater scheme. Warlock goes down. Magic lady appears and moves Druss's body up to where I am and gives me a large diamond and a ring. Madra takes down "Elon" with a savage beatdown. As the body falls, it shifts back to a changeling, which we've never seen before. So the corpse back home is actually Elon. I drag Druss and the diamond to Melfina, who casts revivify. Druss returns to us with difficulty. I receive a voice in my head showing me a tower 3 miles north into the mountains. I share the vision with the group, and Melfina and Madra are familiar, and Spike knows the tower exactly. We go in through the servants' entrance, hobbling the mounts. The door is locked. Batdwarf unlocks it for us. He pushes it open and stands aside as it opens. A bell tinkles, and it moves a silver thread. Rorin walks under the string, and checks for traps. Melfina casts light, which seems to trigger the wall sconces to light themselves. After a bit, we notice the sconces aren't sconces but a series of runes; arcane runes from a school we don't identify. We arrive at another locked door. Rorin picks it again, more challenging this time. There is another string and bell on the other side. There is also a lone zombie. Through some more rooms, we find a colorfully and well-dressed man, humanoid, with a hint of scales, blending into his head and beard, along with rainbow feathers. This is his home... END SESSION

12/19/2020

The Day Begins... We are going to spend 14 gp to buy supplies for the were's and leave those supplies on the side of the road for them to pick up. This amounts to 2 weeks of supplies for the 5 of them. We also trade the dozen tonics to purchase livestock for them. A very large crow is waiting on the side of the road while we drop off the supplies. It does not speak to us. We also see a greying red-coated timberwolf (Hank) start picking up the supplies. Off to the races... Approaching the Incantori Mountains, we see encampments full of equipment that I recognize as the equipment for building the railroad. There is a heavy water supply which the equipment requires. There are small merchants hocking their wares, underprepared engineers as their main customers. As our camp is getting set up, I follow along with Melfina in reconnoitering the encampment, in the interest of talking to the tradesfolk present. ~6PM so there is 30-45 min of sun left. Melfina and I are looking for different things amongst the camp, she for dangers, and me for folks to talk to, foreman and the like, to gather intel. Note: the trees are different here, more ancient. My PER allows me to see workers, not tradesmen; low-level folk at first. There are some craftsmen spotted upon prolonged observation, and I identify a gnomish guy who seems to be carrying blueprints. I approach the gnome and begin to talk to him, trying to ask questions. I assist him in carrying his load back to his camp. People do seem to get out of his way. His name is Jericho Tinkerbottom, and works for Locomotion. He's the on-site foreman. We go to the work planning tent, and I fill him in on what has happened back in the city, with Elon. Two other gnomes and a human are inside. He initially is shocked, then angry because Elon was supposed to be out there way earlier and now Jericho has to deal with all of this shit. I ask him about the dragonborn, which he has seen none of, because he's busy as shit. There is some sort of security (Isabelle, an intern, can maybe point us there). The team has been held up here for a few days because of an issue at the worksite, maybe with a dragon. He thinks it may just be goblins or pissed-off elves instead. Jericho calls the human in the tent to go find Isabelle. Melfina is talking to a male person named Daisy, and asking questions about our quarry. At some point Spike bites him. It doesn't go well, but Melfina does learn something. As the sun goes down, I'm getting drunkish. Rosy-cheeked Isabelle comes into the tent, in a merry mood. Jericho makes a PLB sound. She offers to lead me to the Head of Security, at a brisk pace. Head to a dour tent, greeted by a stern half-orc woman. Her name is Grokna, HeadSec. I send Isabelle off to hang out with Melfina. I ask her about the dragonborn. 5 nights ago, a pale HUMAN man came through, who was standoffish and kept himself apart. I get all that I can from her, and head back to share the information. Melfina is going to ask some more questions. The person is shady and hiding something. We all head back and debrief. Rorin and I are on first watch. There are not the same woodland noises, but we do hear continuous movement from the other camp near the end of our shift. On to second shift, Melfina and Madra. Before third shift, we pause for me. Sleep has come easier to me than it has since leaving the city, but I'm still out-of-sorts. The noise of the nearby encampment reminds me of home. I have an urge to leave, to escape, an oppressive force around me. A pale white fright approaches me, appearing as a single one of my spirit guardians. It's eyes are voids into endless reality. It prompts me to follow, down shifting, turning, endless forest paths. There is a gap, a way out! I see the familiar walls of my city. The world fast-forwards around me and I am before the statue of Lady Constance. I stare upon her, and she shifts, and speaks to me. "You have wandered far, my dearest. I can see the wilderness has taken to you. I am still with you, even out there in the wilds. Your path may lead you to question your faith, and my history may not be perfectly clean. I see the shadow in the halls of my temple, a shadow I know. Take care with who you trust. You will be a good source in the future. Until you come back to my domain, know that your home is safe and in good order. (the shop flashes before me, and seems well-off) Just be careful..." I feel more rested than I have in ages. I take so much solace in the care of My Lady. Out in the wilds, I have been adrift, without toilet paper. 3rd shift we come back and roll for initiative. Druss hears some chittering noises. Gnolls are afoot. We absolutely demolish them. Rorin, Madra, and I go check on the main camp. Grokna has also savagely murdered some gnolls. She expresses concern that these gnolls are so ragged, and wonders that there may be something wrong in the woods, then takes her leave. We have a short rest with breakfast and head out. As we exit the camp, we can see it goes on a lot longer than we thought it would. It seems to be a network of camp burbs all sort of connected loosely. About a half-day of travel in, and we reach the end of this network. Hailed by some merchants, only Druss stops to talk to them. They mention that they were told not to go forward any more until the soldiers returned, as there were rumors of a dragon ahead. The road ahead of us is completely vacant. The forest and such is preternaturally quiet. Ominous. End the days travel about 4 hours from the actual work site. I again struggle to try to put up my tent. Rorin and I are on first watch again, and it is super duper hella quiet. The night feels gross and icky and cold. Our watch is uneventful. The girls go second again. They eventually hear the soft crunching of leaves and quiet footsteps. A familiar female hooded figure sits down at the fire with them. It is the merchant girl that Melfina spoke with earlier. She claims to have many names, and Melfina sees some Elvish ears peaking out of the hood. She calls herself Evangela at this point. She's sure that there isn't a dragon, and thinks it is probably hiding in a lake in the mountains. It is an aquatic creature for sure. She says to be quick with our swords. The area has been inhospitable to humanoids a long time, so creatures have flourished here which otherwise would not have been able. She reveals herself to be an associate of the Undertow. She moves her hand and shapes the fire into a multi-headed lizard with no wings, a hydra. She shifts it again into a tower with a massive peak, nearly hidden in the mountains around it. It shifts another time, into a mountain pass that has been damaged or altered, akin to demolition work. She waves again and the imagery disappears. Druss is up for third shift. A female figure sits down with him as well. She seems to know Druss and moreso Max, this time giving the name Lilith. Morning time brings another breakfast. About a half-day of travel to get to the work site. It's getting colder the more we make it into the mountain area proper. We can hear the operation at work from a good bit out. We then see a sprawling encampment, populated sparsely by about a dozen people. They go defensive as we approach until they note our humanoid appearance, and then they return to their jobs. Firecrotch approaches us and asks about Elon and the Marquis. Elon is here? And alive? SUS. We can certainly see a figure approaching that looks to be Elon. END SESSION

10/17/20

in medias res Druss maintains his perch upon the moorbounder post-taint poke. We ride out for the day's travels. Coming to the end of our second day, it's getting dark, and we see the crest of a small town. Hear the pitter-patter of dinosaurs being used in place of typical work animals, and ridden by halflings. Enter the town for the evening. We are stabling ourselves and the horses in Mrs. Mayflower's barn for the night. Madra has a pseudodragon pet. I just thought that cat had psoriasis. We head to the inn, ceilings are 6ft. so I must duck my way in. Alaina is the captain of the guard and now speaking with us. Folks round these parts are very proud, and have experience fighting bandits in the past. Disappearances of townsfolk and livestock are on the uptick. Alaina is growing concerned about the remaining people and the potential losses. ~6:30PM Melfina asks if the folk have noticed the dragonborn warlock we're hunting passing through this way, and Alaina admits to having seen a suspicious creature she believed to be a large kobold having been through, a creature of milk-white skin tone. It passed through here 3-4 nights ago. The party was heavily cloaked and passed right on by the town. Ask about the reports of the hydra. One of Mrs. Mayflower's farmhands has been a later disappearance. Melfina is stealthing after some folks, heading to the barn and then off into the fields. Melfina makes Madra who makes Rorin and I aware that there are things in motion. As I leave the building, into the moonlight (CON SAVE PASS) and a feeling washes over me. It feels as when a project is already on overage but a room still needs to fit, and it can't work but it must. The frustration and anger passes and I am relieved. As I approach Druss, Melfina orders a hold. There is snuffling coming from between Druss and Madra, who leads the later pack of herself, Rorin, and me. The hog skedaddles, Melfina commands halt, fails, commands again, succeeds, then I truss it up successfully. INSP gained. A grumbling voice tells us to put the pig down and let him go, they just want to get by until the harvest moon passes. The voice is unwilling to reveal the meat from which it emanates. Cast detect good and evil, Melfina celestial, Spike undead, consecrated object on the other side of the barn. It still doesn't want to show itself. The boar is the voice's friend, and wants him released. We untruss the boar on the understanding that it will not hurt us or run until the conversation ends. From the far side of the barn, a very large, hirsute man with large paws, claws, a snout, and rounded ears emerges, the hybrid form of a werebear. The boar chills out and switches to its hybrid wereboar form. Bear = Harold, Boar = Jared. They are from the village, but family is unaware, just assumes they're missing. They saw the white dragonborn before their shifting-night, walking along the main road. **I missed a bunch cuz I can't hear shit** The were's have a compatriot named Carol at the base. There are two others with Carol that have always been were's, changed maybe 200 years ago. Carol is a wereraven. We're going to go back to their base, to talk to Carol about the dragonborn. Alaina has been a good guard captain, but looks to be staying in her position to avoid family responsibility in running the inn. The elder shifters are Gertrude and Hank. Head to the base, in a quiet glen, with a small creek running by. The woods shift from the run-of-the-mill to something more, something magical. We can feel the love and warmth as we enter the glen. Jared signals us to enter, and we walk into a swirling archway of trees that morph together to form a natural hut and canopy. We go inside to see a worn and well-loved tableau of cozy furniture. There is a weresheep, who is Gertrude, and a werewolf, who is Hank. The sheep has lots of jewelry and massive chains, and a heavy set of spectacles. In the far corner we see Carol the wereraven, in hybrid form, currently knitting. Gertie looks to be a druid, using shape wood or some such. Begin inquiring about the white dragonborn, Carol saw him passing through about 3 days ago, very shifty. The cloak the dragonborn wears is a relic of before the Wars, that of a magic initiate. Druss inquires after a method to supply the were's without inconveniencing the town. Gertrude plans to send potions and concoctions back to town to cover what they've taken in livestock during the transformative period. Ask if they've heard of The Undertow, which she finds interesting. Her protege (probably misspoke and meant mentor) was part of the group, taught Gertrude about her gifts and nature. This person was concerned about saving casters. She was a beautiful elven woman who largely went by Madame Moonweaver, also as Rin. We're looking to outfit the shifters with supplies to make it through the harvest moon, she offers potions in trade, 3 greater, 2 basic healing potion. Also, a dozen tonics for various problems. We keep the 2 greaters at 30gp cost, use the rest for trade. Harold hands a sealed letter to give Alaina on our way out. Harold is Alaina's brother and the letter lets her know that he's fine and needs no assistance. Return to the barn and bed down for the night. The town is named Smallville. We sleep late into the day to get the full rest. Awoken about 11:30am by Alaina in training garb, and see she has a duck marking, a la Totem Warrior. WRAP SESSION

9/26/20

INTO THE WILD YONDER ~~minus my city powers~~ Take the roads as far as is feasible. Cart paths are extra-wide, something to do with Elon having been building a railway. As we get further and further from the city, I am losing my shit bit by bit, but a glow of warmth from my holy symbol reassures me of My Lady Constance's love and support. Melfina scouts and finds us a nice place off the road to camp. Druss unravels his gift from Max. I struggle to put up my tent, and the Blood Whore finds this amusing. While distracted by my tableau, the gift springs forth into a different tent, toppling the one Druss had previously set up. This tent is markedly shittier. INT roll to identify, I'm certain that tent is weird AF. Druss invites us inside, and we are greatly by a nice cabin setting. He invites us to share the space, which I graciously and immediately accept, as my alternative was sleeping on the ground at this point. 1st Watch Rorin alone, encounters a crow raccoon. 2nd WatchMe and Melfina. Rorin fills us in on the creature. Hear quiet skittering throughout the shift. Talk with Melfina a bit, before eery silence settles. Melfina detects presence around the tent, roll into initiative. It's a feline quadruped with a tail ending in an eyeball. It bites into my shoulder, hard. Luckily its swipe missed me, or I would be down. INT check after Spike lets out the wraith again, I now know that Melfina didn't summon it. It's getting rough and I go wake up the others. We manage to down the beast, which was an Aeorian Absorber, hunter of magic created by experimenting on abominations during the Caster Wars. We head to bed and begin... 3rd Watch Madra skins the beast, and the pelt sucks. In the morning, the magic tent undoes itself after 8ish hours, shunting the pot we left in it back out before falling to the ground. Rorin pokes the moorbounder in the taint with his staff while Druss is mounting. I HAVE TO FUCK OFF EARLY FOR WORK

8/15/2020

Late afternoon in medias res At the Ashforge Estate, most of the crew have been daydrinking. We're all back at the Estate now. The monks at the Sanctum were supposed to prepare files for us based on the interrogation of Caleb and Co. Head to the Sanctum to get the files. Arrive around 5:15-5:30 PM. Head to talk to the Marquis. I notice that they throw a silk scarf to cover a crystal sphere, grapefruit-sized. We request the files, which they pull out, such as they are. Stack seems awful thin, also full of redaction. Basic info like how long they've been with the crew, but most info we would use to make connections between people is missing. The files do have the names of the kidnapped, but can't glean much else. Odathwyrm the Majestic is the white dragonborn warlock we've run into. Looks like he wasn't the full on head, but the head of the local cell, a lieutenant. Elon's worksite is outside the city, up in the Incatori Mountain range. Druss asks after info from the site. Elon had left the site one night prior, getting back to the city in remarkably short order. Someone named Holden Cockswell, young human male, was consulting with Elon out in the field. Need to find a cleric to watch over the body while we're gone, CHA check to find one, success. Stay in town tonight to try to catch the meeting. Head back the Estate from the Sanctum. 7:45 PMGreeted by buzzed Garfield, putting the carriage in order. Inside the party is swinging with Danarei playing a sea shanty-style song. Chillax for a few hours until it is time to go to the meeting under the Docks (Temple of Pudge). Melfina talks to Danarei in celestial, Druss talks to Danarei in draconic. Rorin fills Garfield in on the plan for us to be gone. Druss fills Max and Leona in. I fill Kel in, suggesting she does mostly legwork on projects and housekeeping while I'm gone, so that upon my return I can bang out final approvals and check her plans for glaring errors before enacting the work order. Rations for a month trip, but need to get a horse for Druss since he's 29 stone. Druss checks out some amulet. It's a Clockwork Amulet. Let's Druss forgo a d20 roll to just take a 10, once until next dawn. Head to the Docks for the shiz. Have not yet found the secret entrance. INV to find, Druss (22) gets it. I lift and we descend. I replace the stone on the way. Light on my hammer. Stealth in to spy on the meeting. Melfina hears voices, 3 and likely male, also sees a flickering candle light. Melfina and Madra don't recognize the language. Spike can understand what they're saying, mostly talking about the others having fucked up with the prisoners getting rescued, then they talk shit about us, and are baffled that we are handling fucking up their shit being normies. Admit to killing Elon, paying off guards, the train still being on-schedule, mention a "he" they hope is not involved, a "her" they don't like working with and give a coin to make shit go away. Spike then fills Melfina in on this, and she tells us. I still don't know the turtle is anything but a turtle, which I forgot. Roll into initiative. We see Melfina go down, but a visage of death remains, giving us the first hint that it doesn't come from her. Kill two guys, Madra convinces the third to surrender. Loot, gimme the loot, gimme the lute. Largely garbage (2 regular leather armor, 1 studded leather armor, 2 rapiers, 10 daggers, 1 diamond at 500gp, bag of gems at 100gp, 150gp, 57sp, 39cp). Prisoner isn't actively resisting us, I hit him with that Zone of Truth business. How many people in org? bs Where is Odathwyrm? bs Where are you from? here Ronin hits him. who is "he"? nothing who is "she"? nothing What is on the coin? doorway coin for Undertow After his first death, find his name is Vaughn. Madra reminds us that the Sanctum could maybe elicit the information for us. Ask Druss how he is doing, get no response. He won't be able to help me get the guy up the ladder. I should be able to get the guy up myself, he's only about 11 stone. Melfina hangs out to talk Druss out of his thing. Exit the zone about 12:30AM. The Sanctum is visible in the distance. We head there and follow a guard in after his partner heads to fetch the Marquis. It is clear their office was just prepped for the meeting, since it's the middle of the night. After 15 minutes or so the Marquis enters via a side entrance in a dressing gown. They notice our guest. Madra explains what happened and that we need them to extract his information, also explaining the business about his worship of the cat god of death. The Marquis agrees after Vaughn has had time to recover. Madra then lets them know our plans outside the city, since we're leaving in the morning. Offered a bonus upon killing something while out and about, I missed it. Head back to the Estate after cleaning up at the Sanctum. Greeted by Max, who notes Danarei left shortly after we did. She should be back towards the morning. Currently 2-3AM We all have some drinks and head to bed. Next Day Head over to PETA (Temple of Kusco), which have a small collection of moorbounders that could take Druss' weight. They're very aggressive, very fast, can carry decent weight, Druss and halfling or some saddlebags. Can lease it for 100gp down, return it after a month, charge is 2gp a day as long as there is no damage. If not returned, 100gp remaining cost charged to Myth&Legend. Pay 100gp deposit out of party fund. The third of three options is the only one that doesn't dislike Druss, seems to think he's a toy or something. It likes his shiny scales. Taught command words, this one is Mittens. We now have all of the mounts required for our trip. 3 riding horses, 1 pack horse, 1 moorbounder. Unique Boat plans from last time look to be some sort of flying ship with a balloon for suspension. Before we leave in the morning, Max pulls out and hands to Druss a very worn and tattered blanket. It is Max's security blanky and good luck charm. Druss is supposed to use it when we make camp the first night. It is the Blanket of Fortitude, which we do not know yet.

7/18/2020

---BEGIN--- still 8-9PM Marquis begins by asking us what we brought the people to the Sanctum for, which is because they are independent and capable of taking care of these people. Marquis' people drag in Caleb, and ask after his crew's beating, which we vouch for and they continue to imprison. Hallways around us have been cleared. Need to claim our assistants, PERS to do so. He pulls out files on Druss and me. My file has a description of my position in the church and my education background. He's trying to drop some dick with having this info. Go into side office to talk to Kel. Kel was closing up shop and leaving, approached by an Elvish woman wanting to work with me on a project, then she loses consciousness. She also knows white Dragonborn Warlock was the one who escaped during our fight. Druss then takes Leona into the room to talk to her. After our talks, they are interviewed by the Sanctum people, and emerge very tired. Not like a bad tired though. Benefits of short rest now. Want to escort Kel home after her ordeal. Instead we are going to take Kel and Leona to the estate. Actually it's 7PM Get to Kel's place, it has been looked over also, but not to the degree of the shops. Get Max too, and he's in full battle gear. Notice that Leona's armor has lots of flex space... Get to the manor and disseminate the information we've gotten from Kel and Leona. Sleep through the night. Next Morning Breakfast time, Melfina gets ready to track the blood from the Dragonborn Warlock. We navigate the carriage with Melfina pointing the way. As we near Locomotion, Melfina gets a cold feeling and we screech to a halt. Her vibe is a warning from her goddess. Dude's signal is still way north, >10 mi, so we don't pursue him. Inspecting the area around Locomotion, the door is unlocked and the building is empty. Papers are scattered everywhere in the waiting room. Melfina smells blood. Aquarium is shattered, paperwork is everywhere, and Elon is dead, shredded by weapons, defensive weapons, beaten after disarmed, and dead about 8 hours. We also find blueprints for Unique Boat. Aurane ritually casts gentle repose to preserve the body. Head back to the estate with the body. 1PM Arrive back to manor and red tiefling (Danarei) is waiting for us. We go inside. Danarei reacts poorly to seeing the corpse. Garfield takes the body to repose in the cellar. Danarei performs death rites of Solvene (blood goddess) and then plays an instrument and sings in celestial. It's a blessing and a warning. Melfina gets a vision of carnage, then of her goddess. Aurane goes to tell the Temple of Lady Constance immediately, since they're like law enforcement. Rorin comes with me, Druss stays with Danarei at the manor, and the girls go to the Sanctum. Aurane takes this issue to Vladimir, the head of the Guard. He is a bear, the ooooh rawr kind, not the ROAR kind. Rorin fills Vlad in on the investigation, and the murder. They want to investigate the body, but we try to PER them to a minimal version so as to not disturb the coins for gentle repose. The girls take the issue to the Marquis. We reconvene at the manor and show Vlad the body. Head back up into the drawing room. END SESSION

6/6/20 pg 1

---BEGIN--- the Temple of Dreams, the Gypsy Jamboree, the Temple of Pudge, ~~the Solstice Study~~, ~~Eros Choza,~~ and the Temple Forge. Druss is checking out his place, Max is out of commission, assistant Leona missing. Nightshade or Milk of the Poppy maybe knocked them out. Druss calls out for help to no response. He can't help and goes to bed. Back to my shop, ground level mostly OK, but one window is unlatched. INV fail, lock it and go upstairs. My shit is tossed, they look to have been inspecting me as a person. Nothing missing, but moved about. I sort all of my stuff and get to bed. Rorin's estate is all fine, Garfield has noticed additional people watching the manor. The girls get rooms there and head to sleep. We sleep and I do into the early afternoon for long rest. Sleeping for benefits of the level up. Druss needs to find missing Leona, the assistant. He picks me up from my place and we exchange info about the places being tossed. Head to manor. 1 PM Girls and Rorin are at lunch. We knock, Druss tells Garfield about his niece Leona being missing. There some suspicious back-and-forth between Druss and Garfield about Leona's nature. Aurane hears it and is quite confused, but says nothing. Garfield relays the situation to Rorin and gives permission to do something about it. We fill the group in on the sackings and kidnappings, as well as me giving the details of them looking specifically at my personal documents. Note needing deciphering: Max labifxgm bl lmbee hg mktvd. Maxr lahnew ux tkkbobgz bg t pxxd. Iextlx kxtwr max vtkzh yhk mktglihkm. Rhn’ee ux kxvxbobgz nax lniiebxl bg t wtr hk lh. Wnx mh max ixklhgl lghhibgz tkhnw px lahnew fhox max vtkzh ghp matm rhnk lniiebxl atox uxxg wxeboxkxw. Pabex ynkmaxk ykhf max ibvdni, B uxebxox px lahnew fhox max vtkzh mh max Wkxtfl. Uxmmxk mh dxxi tg xrx hg matm Vxknextg Ltgvmnf. Px’kx mh fxxm gxqm tm max Whvdl bg max ghkmaxtlm jntwktgm bg moh dtrl. It is a Caesar cipher. Key is a -7 or +19 shift (X above means E below) DECRYPTED VERSION The shipment is still on track. They should be arriving in a week. Please ready the cargo for transport. You’ll be receiving the supplies in a day or so. Due to the persons snooping around we should move the cargo now that your supplies have been delivered. While further from the pickup, I believe we should move the cargo to the Dreams. Better to keep an eye on that Cerulean Sanctum. We’re to meet next at the docks in the northeast quadrant in two days. Dreams is the Temple of Dreams, the Docks is the Temple of Pudge. Melfina channels her blood from the bad guy to try to track the dude. Signal is across the city, about at the Temple to Pudge, about 10 miles. Sample is unknown to be from a victim or perpetrator. Druss suggests we bring Bridgette and the BC to take the place we don't. Go to Babblebrook, signal has faded out by now, and it didn't appear to move far while under observation. Melfina pulls Bridgette to the side to talk privately. B agrees to reach out to contact in spite of her minimal role in the organization nowadays. Head to the Temple of Dreams and look for the key cobblestone to get down to the ziggurat. Aurane PER then Druss INV to find it. Druss applies crowbar from Rorin to provide pressure, lifting the cobblestone and exposing the ladder. Druss, Aurane, Madra, Rorin, and Melfina descend in that order. Druss goes back up to close the entrance. STR check pass. Come down on a landing, to the side of the ziggurat. Druss trying to figure out if this area is used much. Cannot determine. Group stealth time. Pass, maybe, and proceed down the hall. We may have made a miscalculation. Dis gon b gud. We manage to pass the stealth, and hear some voices. See the ziggurat, but it has a different tone to its shape. More alien. It's very well-designed and appealing to Aurane. 6 total figures, 3 patrol, 3 central. Can see Kel and Leona, Leona's chains are silver. Melfina is in the lead, and walks on in. Roll for initiative. Marjorie got her ass hammered. Melfina seemingly projects a wraith, actually Spike. Living embodiment of death and sucks the air out, very chilling. Combat gets rough. Aurane goes down in the third. Combat ends after a bit. Madra chases down fleeing guard for questioning. We get the girls back from the cages, and loot the room. Find an arcane amulet from Abjuration, via Melfina's detect magic spell. Amulet has a faint ticking to it. Having old magic stuff is expensive and status-based. We take the captive slaver and the freed people back up topside. 8-9PM We are still pretty visible to the passing crowds. March to Cerulean Sanctum, meet with Marquis Kelton L'Vore. Move to private meeting room since most of us are covered in blood and viscera. ---END SESSION---

5/16/20 pg 1

--BEGIN SESSION-- We immediately fuck off from the sewers to go buy some heal pots. Go to apothecary, meet Sage Darton, who may or may not be 5 kobolds in a trenchcoat. Get 2 for 75 gp. Now we're poor. We now head back in, ready to go. Get back to the last area we were, and all of the battle viscera is still there, but it shows that something had moved through it. This means the few remaining gelatinous cubes hadn't gotten there. I make a bad Dex check, Melfina passes. She doesn't even try to catch me as I slip, and I notice. We start in, and as we get deeper, there are a number of branches, only the left side ones are passable. I feel that we are somewhere on the south side of the city, under the residential district. Lose the trail, Melfina tracks her leftover blood from the previous encounter. She points us in a direction, and it gets dark, only our magical light remaining. Sense a shift in the atmosphere from sewer-y to more natural, moss underfoot, with a musty, earthy smell. Another, maybe final, perception check. We notice a creature approach, about 4 ft tall. Thick humanoid, it approaches. Mushroom man, like Toad. It shies away from the light on my hammer, so we dim it a bit for its comfort. Druss/Melfina Int checks. It is a myconoid. Not usually evil, live in colonies, usually speak Undercommon and Common, normally seen as servants. We begin to talk to it, it is named Mellow. It had seen some people a day ago, and we ask from whence they came and to where they went. History: Bard fucked a shrinking mushroom, and now these people exist as slaves to the Drow and Duragar, until this colony moved here and the city takes good care of them. They are tax-paying almost-citizens with the ability to vote on the horizon. They have a master, Harold Ravenswood. They aren't supposed to call him the master. We ask Mellow to guide us to the central location where the humans down here last were. It wishes an offering, and the girls produce loose vegetation and jerky. It accepts, and we follow deeper into the sewers, turning right and moving back away from their colony. Head down a series of passageways, and pass Wis check, to make sure we could remember the way. We are rising gradually and moving towards the center of the city. The passage gets pretty narrow, but we squeeze through. It opens up into a well-made meeting chamber. High vaulted ceilings, great craftsmanship. Realize this is right under the fountain in front of the Cultural Congress. Perception/Investigation checks to see what else is in the room/figure out what's going on in this room. INV - purposely crafted tribute to Lady Constance. Pedestal for sacrifices (not blood, but like consumer goods). PER - Madra and I notice around us that at least a dozen crossbows are pointed at us. They haven't shot us yet, and I call out to them. They don't answer, but some are lowered. 2.5 ft hunched figure Garnet the Tonedeaf walks towards us. She wonders what we're doing in this neck of the woods, she was also investigating stuff. Before their arrival this room had been vacated, assuming that the kidnappers used this room as a hand-off location. They are still in the sewers as of this point. Them having been through yesterday per Mellow meshes with her info. They knew we were coming because of Caleb getting away. Danarei is there too. The group investigates the upper wraparound of the room, looking for evidence of where the villains have gone. Rorin finds a hidden alcove with a coin purse (30 gp), a note, and a key. Melfina finds some dried blood to use for her witchcraft. Lastly Druss finds an old chalk message "Your princess was in another fucking castle!" Also an ornate scroll. Druss hands it to me, and I read. Has a series of unrelated phrases, I think we need a code breaker. Aurane cannot come to that conclusion though. Rorin opens his note, it is a letter written in a similar code to the scroll. His note includes the cipher. He tells us about the stuff. His note was in Thieves' Cant, so he can read it. It was about shipping out the kidnapped people, it was written about a week ago. The shipment out was delayed, to a date one week after this point. Apply cipher to the scroll, break down coordinates of (6) possible bases that they may have relocated to, all under separate temples, under the Temple of Dreams, the Gypsy Jamboree, the Temple of Pudge, the Solstice Study, ~~Eros Choza,~~ and the Temple Forge. Share this info with Garnet, her people are going to continue to patrol the night to protect against further kidnappings. 10 PM We go to exit the area, and I ask Mellow if we can visit the Hive later, yes as long as we bring better offerings (money). Head topside and have to get out from under cobblestones, Melfina in front fails to lift it, she falls to the floor. Marda was in second position and tried to stop Melfina's fall. She hurts herself in the attempt and loses position. I make no attempt to catch Melfina, repaying her earlier slight. I got a little smack on their way down. Make a second attempt with Druss going first to do the heavy lifting. Hear some metal snapping somewhere (his arm?), then he gets it open. We're topside and go to Eros Choza. Enter manhole nearest the temple. Another sewer channel with water on the right as we move east. Hear rats, begin combat. Victory. Rearrange party so that I'm not in front cuz squish. Continue on carefully, observing for more rats. See an opening and step in, water is on the left, find a small ziggurat that this chamber is located in. PER - Fairly certain no one else is here now. INV - Foot traffic, not recent, 2-3 days ago. Go to leave out of the ziggurat, SUR check to find exit, I find hidden stairs, to ladder, to cobblestone again. Druss goes to open with me behind for Guidance, first time fail and metal snaps again, it's the ladder rung disconnecting from the wall. Second time it works, and upon opening he gets pissed on. I mend the ladder on my way up. Melfina is the last one out and PER - nothing out of the ordinary? Make our way to the Solstice Study, no manhole this time, but there is a well. We go down the well one at a time. Madra, Melfina, Druss, me, Batdwarf. Successes across the board. Land on ledge in the well that leads to some caverns. The path is very narrow. Move into more common sewer entrance. Notice that Rorin and Druss are not with us anymore. They got stuck in the passageway. Get them loose and continue on. Next fight, fluttering of wings is heard. Swarm of bats attacks. And insects at the back. Victory. Stealth into the narrow passage that leads to the ziggurat. PER - Scan room with distinct feeling that someone is in the room, but can't see them. INV - Find a letter and give to Rorin. Mellow appears to be the thing we felt as being in the room. The villains left like 40 minutes prior, heading east. The note says the shipment is on track to arrive in the next 7 days, that some of their members have noticed people looking into their group, worried that the Cerulean Sanctum may know what they're up to, but that this city is not, and that their base is still secure at this time. Mellow says there were more than (4) of them. 1 AM Climb up and out from under the Study. Head back to the estate. PER - check for watchers/followers. No one appears to be watching. Druss and I head back to our places, run into Danarei who checks on our progress for the night. I head in to my joint for the night. Danarei escorts Druss home. He goes up to find his room ransacked. --END OF SESSION--

4/25/20 pg 1

DAY THE THIRD (Wednesday or Thursday) Morningtime Head over to Locomotion to update Elon on the Undertow business while we wait on Bridgette to get back to us. Get there and see same receptionist, who is swapping out scrolls of blueprints and whatnot as the shop is busy today. None of these people stand out too much, but some are known to be other businessmen in the city. Nothing to draw our attention in suspicion. Receptionist finally guides us to the back, into the warehouse. We see the basic forms of locomotives mid-assembly. Melfina mentions the disappearances too loudly, Elon takes us to the office to speak privately. He believes the Undertow to be a fairy tale. Relay finding of the coin and Bridgette's former status. If they were going to take another engineer, "Firecrotch" is the likely one. He knows enough to be a valuable target. He lives in the residential district as most do. His is the little house on the map, west side, directly north of the lighthouse. Elon is very busy at work, not going to be available again until about this time next week. He then asks us to leave, politely. Druss survival check, narrows it down to two routes that Firecrotch might take home, so that we can plan our stakeout. We head towards the Aftermath Cafe, being a possible stopping point for FC on his way home. Looking out for potential useful features of the city, ones that the kidnappers could use to their advantage. I get a successful survival check, working with Melfina, determining some suspect alleyways that could be useful, and find out where they go, many revolving around some of the temples, in which there are tons of hiding places with few guards. Marda is in on it too, the three of us determining, between the shop and the Ashenforge estate, about a dozen potential sites. 10-11am Arrive to the cafe, dwarven female bartender, partner of cafe owner Maven Mathis. They're not "out" to the city, and her name is Sappho (eye roll so hard). Sappho feeds us her lesbian nectar, beer. Ask some questions of Sappho about FC under pretense of new menu item. Seems like he's there more often now, 1-2/week. He largely cooks for himself at home, and stays there when not working. FC real name is Fredrick. The group then has lunch. We head on over to the estate, Garfield meets us with a letter, addressed to "You Silly Miscreants" advising us to come see the performer she has coming in that night. Before the show, we go do our day jobs. Kel is working on some sketches and trying out new tools. No new contracts. Do the money earn roll, got 12 gp. Early evening Druss and I roll up to the Babble Brook Inn, meeting the others. Performer isn't here yet, but Bridgette gives us a less than warm welcome. Rorin hands off the painting he brought by way of apology, very tasteful nude ladies. Danarei is the performer. She has my borscht to eat, and some rye. The Russki is pleased. Danarei's performance starts about 8pm, goes off without a hitch. Set ends 10-11pm. She's known as a premier bard, and her being at the Inn is maybe out of place. She says some BS in celestial that only Melfina gets. She picked a song (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpHVY16CKw0) which has some Undertow references in it. She thought we knew more than we did, and the Bard's Guild has replaced the Undertow, per her anyways. They are still taking the magic/arcane folks and getting them to safety. It's harder to disappear people, so Garnet (?) pivoted. She has a matching coin to the one we found. Druss asks if she knows Oliver. She prevaricates, and is just here to make sure that we don't stick our noses into the wrong areas. The information we want is to expensive and she's not likely to betray the organization. So Rorin tries to bribe her with 3 gold, to no avail. Melfina speaks to her in celestial, and sweetens the pot. She says warglebargleflargle I don't speak that fucking language. The kidnappers aren't leaving the city, at least by sea, as they're not using the Undertow/BG ships. BG leader Garnet is watching the City Council for who has the means to do some of the disappearances. Interested in Lavender Thatcher, Harold Ravenswood, and Garmeeli the Swift. The records of these 3 are too squeaky-clean, which makes them suspect. She assures us that the due diligence has been performed. The sewers are likely good ways to move people around. They've been inaccessible for 10ish years, and the new method is very dangerous. More so than the gelatinous cubes that were used before. So she fucks off after telling us all of this, and Druss refuses to bathe even after we go into the stank-ass sewers. End of night Head back to the estate for sleep. Things are following us, max of 6. Only Druss sees them all, I get 3. Druss goes after one, running down the alleyway, about 60 ft behind. We follow and close, beginning to attack him as he runs away. We knock him the fuck out. It's a small ginger boy, probably Caleb. We take the unconscious boy back to the estate for interrogation. Tie up the body and wake him up. I cast zone of truth. Begin questioning 1) Why following? Told to. 2) By? His leader, King of the Undertow. Doesn't know name or physical features. 3) Handler goes by Margery, the elf girl we saw at the Babble Brook Inn before. 4) Big guy called Arms, Beejee, a Cookie, and Charlatan. End Questioning END OF DAY

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BREAKFAST TIME IS HERE Wake up to fuck boi Caleb being gone, because he's a rogue and got out of the restraints. Cool. Go to Cerulean Sanctum to get info. Then head to Cultural Congress. Bad charisma check, so bureaucracy sets in, but Druss saves us with a bribe and some slick words. Receptionist brings us the blueprints, and we need to make a copy, which we succeed in doing thanks to my dope roll and skills. Closest entrance to the sewer is near the Sanctum, next to the well. Maintenance tunnel gates are locked, Ronin picks the lock, we go down the stairs. Melfina detects no traps. There appears to be a light source down there. Find where the different water sources being to merge together. Know not to bother with them due to my map. Starting to get dark, smell changes to earthy tone, in an odd way. Light on my hammer. We march forward into the dark. Get into combat against 2 murlocs(?). Swirling of water and air forms below them and they rise, wearing bronze bracers as well --> Melfina Int check as to what this means. They are called a marid, a type of djinn. Water-type djinn. Took one down, nearly died. Got the second one, and it was a near thing. --END SESSION--

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NEXT DAY Get to mansion of Rorin, greeted by penguin (Oswald Cobblepot). Follow pengy boi into mansion. Lavish and dwarvish in size, tight for us large folk. Wayne Manor inspired. No one goes in the East Wing. No one goes in the East Wing. Melfina relates having seen at least four shadowy figures that moved as one in the night. They fled upon being noticed. About noon. We go to check out the area in the morning, at least four identified by foot size differences. One of the points of interest heads into the Babblebrook Inn, in the NW sector of the city. Greeted by half-elf Bridgette. Ask about anyone coming in around midnight last night, they left around 2am. Human, male, very slim, athletic-ish, dark hair, basic scruff, largely nondescript. A number of individuals sitting alone are taking too much interest in our conversation. Two of these get up to leave. Melfina and Madra follow. They pursue the one that left first after the perps split in the crowd. They get away, but pursued was a human ginger male, green eyes, farmer boi-chic. Other was elven female. One that didn't leave was a blonde human male. He has now left by the time they return. Ginger boy is named Caleb, no name on the elf girl, and the blonde boy is named Oliver and works at the docks. 1 in the afternoon Head to the docks, asking around after Oliver. Talk to the dockmaster, he knows Oliver, try to get where he lives (outskirts of the residential district). He will be back to work on the 4th if we don't find him before then. Oliver is taking care of his family after his parents' passing. Approach boy on the docks to "return Oliver's wallet." Meanwhile, Melfina notices dockmaster is friendly genuinely. Also, that people are generally watching us, but not in specific for any odd reason. Druss offers to track anyone that shows undue attention to our group. Jasper is a dock boi that is willing to speak with us. Same info that Oliver will be back around the beginning of the following week. Ask Jasper for Oliver's address too. Don't get anything concrete here. 3 in the afternoon Melfina, Madra, and Druss go to Elon Tusk's shop to get info about more missing "shipments." Get to Tusk, some halfling girl went missing just outside of the market district, just a few blocks from Elon's shop. Gives her name and file to add to our stuff. Give him our info about shadow bois and Oliver. Ronin and I in the residential district. Get into poor part, smells worse. Approach the worst looking building, talk to stoop kid and get his apartment number. Oliver isn't home. Check for other entrance, there are some hallway-accessible windows that could serve as other points of entry. Go into the building, but main door is locked. We go in the other way and break into the apartment, with me on lookout. Simple, small apartment. 3 total sleeping mats, follows with the sibling angle. Pretty empty, just poor or cleared out? Effects all point to teenage sorts for all 3. Find a coin with a foreign mark, one gateway and one skull/crossbones. I don't recognize the symbols on sight. Return to the mansion. Carbonara for dinner. Noice. Melfina knows what the coin is, used to be the calling card of the thieves' guild known as The Undertow. Used to take hold of cargo ships, branched into the city. Has been defunct for a while, at least 100 years ago, supposedly. Melfina and Marda go to Ronin's library to look for the info, find an old tale about a band of sea pirates from the Dark Ages, considered eradicated. The band worked in any good they could steal, even people. The specifically wanted magical items. Head back to the Cerulean Sanctum. Check their library for info on The Undertow. Advised to check 3 books, on their collapse and aftermath, on organization/leadership, and on the general history. Collapse book is a puff piece bit of propaganda. There are some small nuggets of useful info too. Lead by a silver dragon disguised as a human, who was later caught and killed. Unsure how good dragon was with criminals. General history book didn't pan out with much. Leadership book is follow-up to collapse book, of propaganda and such. Lots of contradictory info in the leadership book, as to who comprised the group. Maybe there were different branches over the ages, leading to the confusion. Disliked due to their familiarity with casters and their employ. Research Complete Nighttime Go to the Babblebrook Inn in smaller groups. Been there a few hours now. The painting isn't for sale, it's a family painting of the bar. Ronin goes to steal the painting off the wall. He takes it off of the wall and moves towards the door. The left side of the frame was on hinges and behind it there is an alcove to store items, currently closed. Melfina checks it out but can't open it without notice. She rips it open, containing regular small safe things, and gets caught. All but her leave the bar, and she gets locked in with Bridgette, to try to explain her way out of this. Bridgette used to be apart of The Undertow, and would smuggle arcana-type folk out of the city. She has the gateway symbol on her wrist under a bracelet. She's agreed to reach out to her associates to see if they're back up and running. I use mending to fix everything, finish around midnight. --END--

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--BEGIN-- Passive income, once a week we get paid so long as we are doing nothing else within the business. There are also other action during downtime to earn more money. Mine is 3d6/week. Begin with Melfina and Marda getting into the city. The go into the Cerulean Sanctum. Charismatic tiefling (grey, male, long black hair, stark white eyes) enters, dressed very well in foreign fashion. They go into his office, more like a study. Marquis Kalton Lavore is giving them a task, contact is Elon Tusk. They're looking for missing persons and Elon is the coordinator of the search. Rorin up next, summoned to meet High Priestess of the Temple Forge. They're having lamb stew for dinner, lucky fucks. He heads to the temple. Druss is also summoned to that priestess. He arrives first. They are greeted by Marcus Marathus, and he tells them one more is coming. 30-40 minutes pass and Rorin arrives. Temple is magically cooled. Rorin and Druss are taken back to an office. There is an old lady behind the desk, she greets them with sad news. **Rorin's parents likely murdered** They're tasked to go after people, who are likely to have something to do with that murder. They're going to be working with the Cerulean girls, and Elon. I am summoned to meet Priestess Diligence. Go back to her office, very spartan decor, with a splash of church crimson. Wait 5 minutes and she shows up. One of my contractors has gone missing. I am assigned to help out with the search, since I have skills and contacts. I agree to help, gratis. I have to meet with Elon too. Girls headed back to Elon's office. Rorin and Druss go to the Aftermath Cafe. I go separately. We meet up, and I join their table. We all head to Locomotion, Elon's office. Greeted by young human assistant, gives us the business about having an appointment. Girls show up. Tall, well-dressed man enters the room. He's 6'7" with a top hot and goggles. Half-orc with massive mutton chops, wearing a nice vest. Shitbird sounds French. Enter his lab, he's working on electricity stuff. He has a massive aquarium, with an eel in it. We ask him what he can give us to get started with the investigation. Gives list of missing personnel and where they're taken. All taken while out in the streets at night, mostly in the residential district. All alone while taken, use the buddy system champ. Split up for the night after taking Elon home.

Aurane Velaryon

Aurane Velaryon

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