Randir

Randir is a Firbolg

Play Notes

2/1/2020

• Randir wakes up the next day, to help Bram Fairkettle to help make food
• Harold the Ranger has come back from Leef with some militia, he also brought some foodstuffs
  • Fruits, breads, etc.
• Harold meets us and gives us some new clothes to wear, then takes us to meet the mayor (Mayor Lymon Shephard), but before we get there, we run into a woman from the greater government--Merith Noori.
• She's interested in what we found in the mountain
• She hears our story, and lets us go meet the mayor.
• The mayor needs us to help him make a big decision: Should they evacuate or not?
• We tell them they should send out folks who cannot fight.
• We have 3 things to accomplish:
  1. Build a Militia and find a leader
  2. Bolster the town's defenses
  3. Figure out when the evil is going to attach
• Randir says we need to go up the mountain to talk to the monks...
• Harold says there is rumor of a witch in the forests, but he has never seen or heard from her before in all his years out in the forests.
  • It was said that she lived in the west woods, not an hour from Pella's Wish
• We head over to the silversmith, they have some cool shit for us:
  • A wand of Magic Missles
  • A ring of Tiny Servant
• And the boys got Randir something special made:
  • A scimitar with a curved amber blade
• We try to figure out if we need to buy anything with the credit the mayor gave us, but we can't think of anything.
• We head out into the west woods looking for the witch!
• As we walk through the woods, Randir communes with a large, old tree. Asking for assistance and offers a favor in the future to the tree.
  • Some squirrels come down to a lower branch and paw in a direction, making strange growls
  • Randir then sees through the trees, way off in the distance... a huge something.
• Randir meets up with his friends and casts Pass without Trace, explaining this is where the THING is we are seeking in the forest.
• This beast... is a HUGE sized Owlbear
• We decide to follow it from a distance.
• We follow until the bear... DISAPPEARS behind a tree??!
• We approach, the bear is simply gone.
• Ulertu casts detect magic as a ritual
• Ulertu recognizes this as a Druid's Grove. Randir suddenly realizes this as well
• Randir calls out to the forest, asking for help and advice from whoever this druid is
• Suddenly, the witch is visible, an elven woman covered in bark and moss and fungus, sitting in a medatative state in profile.
  • She is covered in branches and moss and tree parts
• Randir introduces the group to her, she nods slightly
• Randir asks for her name, "I have forgotten my name... I have been here for too long. My view of the world has changed."
• Randir explains why they're here, they need her help
• "There is no evil, it has been defeated... the town was already attacked and it will always be attacked."
• "I have already seen the things that will happens in the days that will come."
• She has been corrupted already, she cannot help
• She didn't know Pella or Severin, but she helped to fight the evil in the past
• She was a guardian of a grove long ago, far away. She tried to recreate that grove here, but failed.
• She says the corruption was always here, but it has been sleeping.
  • She kind of sees through time?>!
• Can we get the people out? She says yes, but the corruption must be defeated.
• She mentions the giants, and that they controlled the darkness... "or... someone else could control it."
• "The darkness is steel..."
• "Who do you champion?"
  • Ulertu: Free thought and freedom of all creatures
  • Randir: The greater good of all nature and compromise with those who wish to use it.
  • Theo: Hoar...
• She was sent here by a god??? But he was a man???
• She looks to Ulertu and Randir, "You may succeed where I failed."
• At Theo: "You...you will die here."
• Randir asks WHEN WILL THE ATTACK HAPPEN THO???
• She reaches out, Randir takes her hand
• She pushes out a part of her mind to Randir. She has seen everything, all time, jumbled together all at once. She continues to see this.
• Randir takes this onto him for a short moment, he falls to a knee.
  • "**In 5 days time, the city will be destroyed... or it will be saved.*"
• Randir learns her name: Fate Tinderpool.
• Randir thanks her by name.
• "Save the town."
• She warns Theo that working for a god ain't that great.
• Ulertu makes a little pinecone servant man friend boy
• We get back to town, we're gonna have a big lunch with Baz, Arah, Anca, and Merith
• Ulertu, who is from the big city, organizes this big lunch interview
• The group squabbles and Randir stops it with a threat of what actually will befall Pella's Wish.
• We decide to sent Merith to head out and grab more people from garrisons near bigger cities.
• Theo stands and offers himself to lead the people. Baz will be his second, Anca will help rally the people of Pella's Wish.
• The meeting breaks up, Baz comes up to Theo, "Didn't know you had it in you. Look forward to fighting with you."
• Baz warns that he won't be able to work with Anca. Theo says he'll talk with her.
• We decide to go up to the Ember Peak Moutain that day.
• Ulertu gives some enchantment to Randir's amber blade

12/28/2019

• Randir runs from the "clones" of Arah and Randir
• Theo walks out to the room, he tries to talk to the people who shift into versions of just him, then Arah as she walks up
• The things, made of glass, begin to speak and tell us about how they were created by something BEFORE everything, "the ones who came before"
• They call us "new ones"
• They try to scare us, Theo, Randir, and Arah are not affected, but Ulertu is hit with a wave of fear (his fear of snakes)
• Randir sneaks around the room as Theo/Ulertu talk to these things
• Theo asks how we can resolve their conflict with world above without war
  • Theo is worried his god is too vengeful... especially since it seems like these creatures in the mountain haven't been... violent.
  • The glass thing responds: "Leave this world."
    • "You cannot be here when the creators return... this is not your world."
• Theo: "We cannot leave this world, we must find a way to coexist peacefully."
• The fight begins as one of the figured turns into Theo's father
• Everyone gets scared and goes into to a fight.
• Theo goes down as his "father" slays Theo, but the fight goes on
• The figure of Theo's dad turns to Randir... who fails his wisdom save, describing his greatest fear: Dragons... specifically drakes.
  • The MAN BECOMES A FUCKING DRAKE
• The fight goes on, Randir turns into a badger, and they SLAY the DRAKE!
• Ulertu gives a potion to Theo, bringing him back.
• Randir reflects on the Drake being his greatest fear, he apologizes for his fear being used against them all.
• Arah seems to be okay.
• We take a short rest, and after Ulertu sees a metal skeleton back in the hall
• It asks "Are you a representative of the village?"
• Skeleton: "Were you the ones who found my temple with the snake and the ritual?"
  • Randir smiles, "Oh, yes, the blight on the side of the mountain. We found it."
• The skeleton focuses on Ulertu, "I know that mark, the Order of Truth."
• Ulertu explains, yes, it is mine.
• The skeleton insults the order, Ulertu attacks the skeleton. He nails it.
• The skeleton stumbles but regains, "The attack on the town has already begun." AND HE EXPLODES
• We take a little damage, but the skull survives. Randir takes the skull, wraps it in a cloth to take with him.
• Randir gives a small speech about us not being beaten by the mountain, and that we need to head back to Pella's Wish.
• Randir asks Arah about what the skeleton said. She believes we should go back as well.
• The steel grass in the room has been growing since the fight. It's not waist high... This is not good.
• We investigate the room before we leave:
  • Raw materials (Oddly shaped steel ingots, small pieces of gold) ~300gp
  • A very sharp piece of steel, it has steel-grass-like qualities. Could be fashioned into a tool or weapon.
• Severin appears, but he's slightly confused about the monsters we fought, "I've seen these things before, but they did not exist until just moments ago..."
  • "It's possible I've seen more and forgotten."
• We investigate the rooms as we backtrack, only really seeing the magic caskets we came across before... we decide not to mess with them... maybe we should come back with them.
• We leave the mountain, Severin left behind... he fades as we leave.
• We start our trek back to Pella's Wish in the early morning...
• After a half day of travel, we arrive to the village.
• Kids meet us as we arrive. The market is running, no attack, everything seems to be... normal.
• People are helping rebuild. Things seem... okay.
• We see Harold and Kodiak at the bakery. He's happy to see us.
• We relay to Harold what we saw in visions, he becomes serious... visions are serious.
• He says, maybe the monastary could be a help with our visions (maybe we could chat with Stone) up on the mountains
  • There are also some in the woods who can help us see more into the future.
• Exhausted, we tell Harold about Severin and everything we saw in the mountains.
  • He says he's seen a similar figure wandering around the mountain.
  • Supposedly spirits haunt the mountain area
• The group agrees with Harold that we need to prepare the village... but where we find capable fighters... we do not know.
  • He's going to send word to Leef and to the tribesmen.
• The group decides to rest, Randir needs some more bread.
• Bram Fairkettle baked Randir's BREAD!
  • Randir decides, he owes Bram a debt for this, a bread debt.
• The silversmith has some stuff for Theo.
• We decide to reconvene in the morning with Harold after he sends messages out
• Randir goes to a tavern and tells stories about his home in the forest... anything to talk about something other than the mountain.
• Ulertu and Theo go to check in on the metal we got, Theo gets some nice new armor (but can't wear it...)
  • The silversmith says she can make the grass chunk we got into something for Randir????!
• Randir learns some stuff about the town while he's telling stories:
  • They have retilled several fields, they're all doing well, producing food
  • Construction of the buildings is almost complete
    • The hardest to repair was the tailor's home
  • The Orcs have been super rowdy, they don't mix with the townsfolk well. They're sticking to the Longhouse, but they're not cool when they come into town.
    • The Orcs also don't get along with the townsfolk, because their version of "nice" is probably rough
  • The folks from Leef left after we left, Grayson Applewhite just led them out of town because they thought it was all a lost cause. The younger folks only followed, because the older folks lead things.
  • A few people have arrived to town not knowing the Cherry Festival was cancelled. Some other caravans, too. Sightseers, adventurers, merchants. They're a little weirded out by the extra security.
• Randir puts together WE WERE GONE FOR 2 DAYS. NOT ONE. DUN DUN DUNNNN
• (and we level up to level 4!!!)

11/16/2019

• The spectral form of Severin passes into the mountain.
• We find an entrance to the mountain behind the rock slab Severin passed through
• Arah apologizes for not being more useful in the fight
  • She's afraid we killed something of the land
• We squeeze into the mountain
• We ask Severin who the spectre was that we fought
• He says if it fought us, we maybe threatened it
  • Randir says that Arah was probably right about us unsheathing our weapons too soon...
• We rest and heal a bit.
• Severin asks us why we're here...
• He asks where we came from... he's aware of Pella... she was his friend.
• He knew of this evil under the mountain.
• There were five in his party, they fell. They fought the darkness under this mountain.
• "There's something older than this land... older than the gods."
• "You may not fare well here."
  • Randir: "So be it, but I... we, cannot turn and run now."
  • Theo mentions his promise to his god.
  • Ulertu says we could always gather info, turn back, then regroup and approach again.
    • THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD
• Severin says he respects Randir's courage, for he ran and died... this may be why he's still on this plane.
• Severin leads us forward. He stops at a patch of blackened dirt...
  • Ulertu notices... patches of steely grass, and bones that glint with a steel color.
• We see small glints of steel moving in the earth... the're bugs.
• Severin asks why Ulertu collects things (as he's collecting a bug)
• We see a projection of a small halfling... it's PELLA!
• He doesn't know what became of her, but this is her, alone, after everyone in their party was "gone."
• We follow this "reflection" of Pella as she walked through the same cavern.
• Suddenly, she dashes forward and is gone.
• Randir is confused. The Pella they know of CREATED Pella's Wish from a wasteland.
  • Severin doesn't believe she ever left this place.
• THEN WHO CREATED PELLA'S WISH?????
• Apparently, Severin and his gang were sent in by their god, a living man...
  • "It was normal in my time for gods to walk the earth..."
  • "They had to become one of us to enact great change..."
• Their party feared annihilation of everything... a great fear.
• We start to see more bugs and grass made of steel...
• Randir is scared.
• We start to discuss the power of gods.
• We come to a part of the cave is no longer a natural cavern. Instead, patched stone slabs.
• Severin fades slightly, then away as he tells us to quiet ourselves.
  • "We don't want to alert the others..."
  • "I'm sorry I didn't tell you about the others... some are old, some are new."
• We move forward, silently. The stone feels... lighter some how.
• The walls are perfectly flat. Immaculately carved.
• Randir notices some footprints in a fine layer of dust on the ground.
• We go left on Severin's suggestion.
• Ulertu casts a spell to send an Artificial mind forward to look for us.
• We descend down a set of stairs... there is a magical fire in a sconce with no oil that lights the stairwell.
  • It's a continual flame
• We move down the stairs to a room full of coffins. We move onward, a pedestal, then a room of urns.
• Whoever is here (worshipping this dark god) have changed things...
• Severin shows usa flashback of what this urn room used to be.
• "People spoke to the god through this obelisk" referring to what is on a table now holding urns.
• He knows this stuff but he did not travel this far. Pella did... another friend of his did.
• Randir detects magic, the obelisk glows with faint magic, divination magic
  • The urns and caskets eminate an energy that Randir links with abjration / protective spells
• Ulertu discovers the obelisk uses some kind of Scrying magic.
  • He touches the surface of the obsidian embedded in the obelisk
• Ulertu is taken to a dark room, he hears shifting and movement... Randir, Theo, and Arah disappear.
  • The moonstone still glows for him.
• He removes his hand, and is back in the room
• To Randir and Theo, nothing changed.
• Theo moves in and touches the obelisk, Randir protests but Theo does anyways
• Theo is on a cliff overlooking Pella's Wish, it's daytime, but muted.
  • He sees a wave of steel/ichor creatures approaching the town.
• He goes to run, but is snapped back to the room.
• Theo thinks we should go back, but Randir isn't so sure it's real.
• Randir wishes to dispell this worry, he touches the obelisk.
  • The forest is dead, and he is touching a great oak. The sounds of snarling and creatures moving through the woods surround him.
• He explains this to his group.
• Severin reappears.
  • He explains that blackened trees were what his group passed before they came to fight the evil under the mountain.
  • Perhaps this is what the god wants...
• We move in, we find some locked doors, then a room with a dead body. An elf in rusted armor. He was Severin's friend, Elidor.
• Theo goes to the pedistal, he puts his hand through the light hovering over it.
• He touches the obelisk, and the light goes out.
• We discuss Theo feeling strong and Arah touches the obelisk... "It's just a light."
• We backtrack and go north, then find a room with 3 obelisks that have been cut down.
  • inside each are pieces of metal of green and gold in intricate shapes embedded in the stone like ore.
  • This looks like the ear piece and arm band of the same style that the ranger of East Cliff had
• Ulertu and Theo collect samples of the metal jutting out of the rock. The metal is brittle and sparks when snapped.
• Ulertu tries to fashion a key out of some of this metal.
• We move to the staircase that goes upwards and find a small, empty room with scatterings of metal bits in various simple shapes.
  • They look masterfully crafted into these shapes. Almost PERFECTLY shaped.
• We try the makeshift key, and after some finagling... the door unlocks.
• Randir opens the door... There's a faint light above two caskets.
• No signs of anything that was making noise from before...
• Theo touches one of the obelisks... and a CLUNK noise is heard.
• Ulertu touches the other obelisk... followed by a CLUNK
• THEN THE GROUND STARTS TO CLUNK RHYTHMICALLY
• We run north to try to leave. Theo tries to slide the door open
• He pulls it open with a massive force, breaking the sliding mechanism.
• Ulertu and Theo make it into the next room, Randir hears a noise behind him.
• Theo yells, "There's nothing in this room!"
• Randir sees two figures standing on the dias... Randir and Arah.
• END OF SESSION.

9/28/2019

• Theo was given a "sense" of a place where we can enter the mountain
  • Maybe more of an image
• Theo Attunes to the Amulet of the Titans
• We rest for the night
• Theo has a dream with a series of weird images, a cave marked with death, a forest of living trees suddenly turned gnarled
• The next morning, we get some gear. Ulertu gets more vials, some burning salve, and whiskey.
  • We pull from the credit we had from selling the ring
• Randir buys a spear and two javelin. He doesn't like martial weapons, but their enemy is something fierce.
• The silversmith from Leaf takes the armor we found and begins to work on it for Theo.
• Theo goes to check in on the orcs... like a dorky teenager.
  • Arah is throwing axes at a target
• He asks her to come along with us.
• She says she's down.
• Randir hands Bram a small bit of bread made from wheat of his homeland
• Bram is impressed, and exicted to use the ingredients Randir leaves for him. He gives the group a small basket of bread to take with them.
• And we head out, following the river.
• Randir tastes the water of the river. It seems pretty great. Maybe even magical, full of vitality.
• As we travel, Randir scouts for the group and begins to notice less and less animals as we get closer to the mountains.
  • He sees some ravines, aftermath of a few landslides, some petrified trees.
  • Things look rigid and stonelike. The trees in specific are almost Ironwood-like, but... not good.
  • Below in one ravine, there are bones of animals that could not escape up the walls.
• We get to a place that Theo knows in his mind. We see a giant stone slab... a grave covered in vines.
  • The letters on the grave worn by time, but it's clearly a gravestone.
  • Ulertu senses magic on a cloak he pulls from the covering of the slab - a Cloak of Elven Kind
• Arah warns of us of a spirit that walks this hill.
• Ulertu puts together some logic from Theo's dreams, we are at the entrance to the mountain ("under a sign of death")
• Rain begins to fall, and Ulertu finds a very small entrance into the cave.
• The roots of these vines are petrified, hard to work through
• Ulertu and Randir notice the group is not alone.
  • Ulertu sees a brief vision of a person in the trees.
• They spread out to keep an eye on the area around them
• A woman figure coaleseces out of the mist, warning them of death. she creates figures of men hanging in trees made of mist
• She tells us we should not be here.
• Voices in the mist tell us we will be hurt
• Ulertu assures us this is all a ruse, just magic
• But the voice assures us, this is a place of death and dead
• Theo mentions we are on a mission from Hoar, he has seen a vision that we must be here
• THe spirit tells us we have won our battles, but that has begat death. All things die, even the gods.
• Arah warns us, maybe we pulled our weapons too early. This spirit should be the protector of the mountain
  • Randir staunchly disagrees. If this was a protector, it would not be threatening us with death and preventing us from cleansing the evil in this mountain.
• The spirit screams at us after hearing Randir. WE FIGHT.
• This is a tough fight.
• Randir goes down.
• Ulertu saves him, Theo goes down as the woman attacks and runs away.
• Randir manages to catch up and blast her one more time with a Thunderwave, destroying the spirit.
• He pulls vials of holy water from his pack and pours one on himself. He gives another to Theo to do the same.
• Everyone is terribly shaken, exhausted.
• Randir tells Arah this same corruption he and his friends dealt with before.
• Theo is revived.
• As we settle, a man scrambles onto the scene. He is scared, "I'm not one of them!"
• This man is haggard, he looks as if he's been travelling for too long on very little. Long hair, tattered clothes, long, scraggly beard.
• Theo recognizes this man from his visions.
  • "I think we might be here for you."
• Theo explains we are here to fight whatever lives beneath the mountain. This man us supposed to be our guide.
  • Randir: "What is your name, friend?"
    • WE LEARNIN', FAM!
• The man transforms, rain begins to pass through him as he becomes more clean cut. This man... this man is A RANGER.
  • "My name is Severin."
  • He fought the evil beneath the mountain before, but he failed. He will show us the way if we let him walk with us.
    • THIS DUDE WAS THE NPC FROM THE BIG ONE-SHOT WHO WENT INTO THE MOUNTAIN WITH PELLA!!!!!
    • THIS SHIT IS JUICY
• NOTE: Randir needs to respec his spells for the next day

9/21/2019

• Fade in to a dimly lit stone hall, the light from cooling lava
• A dead giant lies on the floor, five adventurers pop into existence
• "Why does it keep bringing us back here?"
• One of the adventurers finds a ring, with three cracked sapphires... they begin to glow again.
• CUT TO: A totally different part of the world. The modern city of Kare-sen.
  • A young Ulertu walks the halls of a university
  • Ulertu's mentor tells him about revealing truthes to the people he meets on his travels to the Frontier.
  • He gives Ulertu a key. "It opens nothing in particular but what you may need opened will do so with this key."
  • He urges Ulertu to help the monsterous peoples of this land who were once enslaved by Giants and are still building their societies in the aftermath of their freedom.
  • He gives Ulertu a stone to take to the east to teach the people of the east.
  • "As much as you wish to discover truth, you must teach others truth."
• CUT TO: Another place, another time... The stone halls of [castle] to a young Theo, aged 13.
  • Theo is racing to train with his father when he sees a door open he's never seen open before.
  • Lord Simon Barrowcleft is unloading books from a recent excavation(?)
  • The lord welcomes him in, he shows the books off to Theo, then takes him aside.
  • He talks to Theo about being a goodswordsman, but he wants Theo to be a good man as well. "Knowing more than just how to weild the sword will help you do the things you need to in time down the road."
  • "Please read these books and prevent yourself from making the same mistakes I did."
• CUT TO: The wind, blowing through trees.
  • A Minotaur (Barken Stouthand) places a trinket on the tree.
  • The man soon to be known as Randir looks to the Minotaur.
  • He apologizes for not being able to help find something to help. He tells Randir he will need to leave the forest soon.
  • He gives Randir a staff, a staff with leaves growing out of it. The staff springs to life flowers of all sorts.
  • Barken promises to watch over Randir's family until he returns.
  • He guides Randir towards an elven town a few days journey, hoping they can help Randir with a solution for his father's sickness.
  • Randir leaves the forest, out into the plains.
• CUT TO: Morning, Pella's Wish.
• The gang wakes up to the sound of travellers arrive to the town. We have breakfast, watching these caravans arrive to the town.
• One of the carriages has the markings of the Galadon fmaily crest.
• Bram Fairkettle believes they may be in town to investigate the attacks?
• Ulertu decides to look into the amulet the half-elf dropped before he left with his dead friend.
  • He knows it has to do with strength, but can't figure it out. It has to do something with "Titans" - maybe it's something extra-planar or religious?
• Theo puts this amulet on but nothing happens... Theo thinks he may need to ATTUNE to him
  • MIGHT BE IN THE RULES GUYS
• Theo calls it The Amulet of the Titan
• We follow the carriage up the hill after breakfast.
  • Bram wraps up some leftovers for us
• We hear some raised voices and unsheathed steel as we get up the hill towards the carriage.
• There is a crowd of people arguing.
• The mayor pipes up, Limon Shephard: "STOP STOP, EVERYONE STOP!"
• A tall, oldern man steps forward, he's mad some folks from Pella's Wish have come to this gathering.
• Randir goes to talk to Anka, an elf tailor who he knows. "Why is everyone here?"
  • The old man is from Leaf, she tells the gang
• A group of Orcs also came to the city by foot. Folks from Leaf are not happy about that.
  • The man's name is Applewhite
• We decide to head in to the Long House to join the meeting with the orcs
• Theo takes a seat next to the half orc leader, Baz Kurbag.
• He introduces himself, and his daughter, Arah.
• We explain what we saw to the orcs with black ichor and corrupted animals. And Ulertu explains the cultists on the mountain who didn't want us to find the beast in the mountain.
• The orcs are VERY interested in this, but we are interrupted by the humans from Leaf and a few others arriving to the conversation.
• Grayson Applewhite, soldier and guard from Leaf.
• Merith Nurie, she is the captain representing the provincial government.
• Everyone argues, Theo interjects and explains the horrors from under the mountain.
• Merith doesn't believe him, he has no proof. So Ulertu steps in.
• Grayson Applewhite agrees. "If it is a creature, we can kill it."
• Merith wants more proof. Randir explains that something, or some spirit, is pushing out from the mountain.
• Randir doesn't want to give up on this and run away. Something must be done.
• Applewhite, goes pale at the mention of gods and spirits. He tells a tale about his grandfather who thought they defeated this evil long ago. "If it is still alive, then it cannot be defeated."
• Ulertu thinks that science and magic has come far, perhaps we can defeat it now.
• Applewhite and his people go to leave. Randir yells at them, calls them cowards. "I pity the town of Leaf for having you as representatives."
• Baz pipes up. He thinks these people are dummies. But he agrees with Randir, something must be done.
• Merith wants more proof. We show her Randir's necklace, A woman walks up, she's Melara Malvaro, a silversmith. She recognizes this necklace... or it looks familiar.
  • Her dad had similar "things"
• We take Merith to see the metal grass, then to the cave. Baz and Arah come with us.
• Merith looks into the grass, Baz looks into the markings on the cave wall...
• We ride back to Pella's Wish, silent. It's evening now...
• Merith is convinced, we can fight this... but we will be on our own.
  • "It would be too long to convince others to help us... we don't want another attack."
• Baz says his people will secure the town, but we three will need to look into the mountain on our own.
• Baz hands us a stone, "For those of you who cannot see in the dark... This is a sunstone, it glows with the light of any source where you are."
  • It glows bright during the day, it glows red at twilight, then blue at night.
• We go to the Green Thumb for dinner. To discuss things.
• Where do we go first? Do we bolster ourselves with items? Do we know where to start our journey into the mountains?
• Does baz have any info? Let's go talk to the Orcs.
• We ask Baz about things. He tells us that stories have been told about this creature in the mountain. But the Giants believed whatever it was could take the world from the small folk.
  • Power, knowledge, and more.
  • It is older than any race, any people... some say it is older than the gods.
• Theo asks if we can take his daughter with us to journey into the mountain.
  • "It is not up to me."
  • Arah thinks on it... and says nothing.
  • "We will see what she decides in the morning."
• Theo gets a cut scene. He meets a man, alone... they speak. The man knows Theo...
• IT'S MOTHAFUCKIN HOAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
• Hoar tells Theo of where an entrance into the mountain exists. Hoar cannot travel there, but Theo will have SOME power.
• Hoar tells Theo of a man, broken in form, terrified and trapped. Long hair, sad face, a raggedy beard.
  • "This is the man you will find beneath the mountain, he will be your guide."
• Hoar will offer help, but this task is Theo's to complete.
  • "What of my vegeance, what of my father?"
  • "If you complete this quest, we will destroy him together."
  • They shake hands.
• Theo snaps back, he knows where to go.
• NEXT TIME ON EMBER PEAK MOUNTAIN

8/9/2019

• Pella's Wish is partly on fire
• We make our way in to get villagers out
• We come across some buildings on fire, and a fire-spirit walks out
• We begin to talk to it, Ulertu speaks Primordial, the same as this spirit.
• It says it is trying to defend the world from all who harm it.
• It says WE must be gotten rid of. UH OH
• Theo throws water on to the spirit. The fire goes out and it cringes.
• Then it opens its eyes and they glow blue... like Theo's sword.
• We fight, beat the first one. Then five more run down the hill. Shit.
• We beat them. Barely.
• We talk about what this old spirit was trying to tell us.
• Randir understands the idea of "protecting" a place. He did that in his past.
• Perhaps these creatures are evil, though? Maybe their "world" they're trying to protect is not good.
  • Maybe they belong to some greater being... an evil being?
  • Theo agrees. They are corrupting nature. That's never good.
• Randir suggests that maybe Pella's Wish is an abombination to these creatures. It was created by magic, and these creatures wish to change it back to what it was?
• Ulertu wants to investigate Randir's pendant. He casts Identify. It was created by the pattern of magic.
  • The patterns on the amulet are used to channel power
  • The amulet has no magic, but is a part of something that uses this amulet to pass magic through it(?)
• The first monster had summoned the other monsters. Whew.
• We go up the hill looking for the Rangers. The village is pretty messed up.
• We see 4 individuals: Ostrick, Harold, a wood-elf and his partner.
  • The latter two are the two we saw before! That dude game me the pendant!
• The wood-elf is dead!!1!!
• Randir has a moment with the Halfling/Human dude, he apologizes that they didn't get to speak more to prevent the death of his friend.
• That night, Randir can't sleep. He's wandering around Pella's Wish "on guard" but also unable to sleep. Shocked by the horrors of these unnatural beasts.
• The Rangers don't know where these things came from.
• Ostrick is kind of getting affirmation that the beast under the mountain is real.
• Harold sends Ostrick off back to East Cliff, "They need their Ranger."
• Theo pushes for a 24-hour watch. He organizes it. The people of the town appreciate it, despite the fear it creates.
• In the morning, we see steel grass growing where the ichor was left after beating the baddies.
• Maybe people who got ichor on themselves were changed??!?!?!? OSTRICK WHO HAD ICHOR ON HIM WHEN WE MET WITH HIM??!?!?
• People are looking at us differently in the morning. But not in a good way...
• We see Stone, the Dwarven monk, preparing the dead... he calls over to us to help.
• On the mountain they burn their dead, down here they bury them.
• "It's as if we conspire to hide death, because we have no answer for it."
• He asks us if any of us have died before.
• There's going to be a ceremony tonight to attend the dead.
• He's died before. He doesn't remember. He remembers a time when he was someone else, something else. He can't see but glimpses of it...
• He thinks something is different about us, mostly Theo and Randir.
  • "The darkness touched you..."
• "They can see that darkness on you..."
• he gives us some holy water. "Purge yourself."
• Randir drinks it.
• We spend the day helping the town.
• That night, we go to the ceremony for the dead.
• The town kind of comes together in this day, the night goes by much easier.

7/19/2019

• We hit level 3 WOOHOO!!
• We wake on day 3 of the festival, it's a week long festival
• Before we start, Theo gives us some serious backstory (meta) as he swears an oath to his deity (Hoar)
• Ulertu reads into some of the books he bought from the book seller, history about the world. History about THE WAR.
  • THE WAR was the settlers vs. the people already settled.
• We investigate some of the items we got from the priest
  • Wand of healing - like a healing potion 2d4 + 2, 3 charges, it comes with a cool sheath
    • Regains 1d3 charges every morning
  • The bag is "pretty dope", it's a Handy Haversack
  • Ring of Resistance: Radiant - we're gonna sell this in East Cliff
• We decide to go to East Cliff to get more information about the notes Ulertu found, and to find out more about this metal grass stuff
• As we leave town, we run into Stone. He explains to us that if we wanted to get to the Ember Monastary (where he lives), coming from Pella's Wish might be easier to get there.
• He does some sort of blessing to us and bids us farewell.
• The road is dirt and well travelled.
• Some wolves begin to follow us, in the evening, Randir goes to speak with them and warn them that "We mean you no harm." The wolves are persuaded to leave.
• He arrives back at camp silently, then tells the tale about his life back in his Forest where he had a wolf pup friend. Lion King style. Randir was Timon. lol
• In the morning we come to East Cliff.
• Lots of buildings and a GIANT mine entrance. Lots of old, sturdy buildings.
• We meet the mayor - Mayor Bulf. A Dwarf. Because. CONNECTIONS.
• We're looking for a craftsmen and a ranger.
  • Mayor Bulf says every town has a Ranger
• We are directed to the blacksmith, Rastor.
• The ranger lives out in a tent on the cliff, his name is Osdrick.
• We go to see the Blacksmith. We sell the ring for 250. Ulertu gets some solvents and we take 40 gold
  • Ulertu and Theo take 14 gold
  • Randir takes 12 gold
• We show him the square amulet, it's fancy and precise. He's MASSIVELY impressed.
  • "This is beyond anything I've ever seen."
  • He's heard stories of pieces like this, it's ancient.
  • The dwarves found caches like this hundreds of years ago.
  • This is an artifact? Someone wears things like this... Osdrick!
• Osdrick is a dwarf.
• Rastor sends the 200 gold to the rest of town as credit.
• Osdrick has a little hut just on the outskirts of the town.
• We see Osdrick has a band clamped into his ear, it's jade-ish in color, copper & gold in color.
• Osdrick is VERY concerned about the cultists with their mouths sewn up.
• Osdrick VERY much believes in this monster under the mountain stuff. The more we tell him, the more we affirm his belief.
  • Osdrick is going to go meet Harold tomorrow to discuss this.
• We decide to talk to the mayor.
  • "Much of this town's history wishes to be forgotten..."
• There were creatures in the town... a long time ago.
• Armies would go into the mountain, and half would come back.
• But the rangers came. And they helped the town.
• And they faced the beasts. These demons.
  • But this was before Mayor Bulf's time.
• After the monsters were defeated, the trees and plants began to grow again.
• Rangers went into the mountains, on a final push. Only one returned.
• A woman, she told the story of the sacrifice of her friends. And the valley was healed.
• He can't remember her name. A human.
  • Half-related: Pella was a halfling.
• We show him the amulet. He's blown away.
  • "This is from within the mountain, isn't it?"
• They found a CHUNK of this metal in the mountain.
  • "As if the mountain had grown around it."
• We see Osdrick leaving the city, we chase after him. We figure, if rangers are getting together to figure this out, we should be with them.
• We camp a bit with him on the way to Pella's Wish, then get to the village.
  • Osdrick reads the land the way Randir does naturally, it's respectible.
• We crest a hill towards Pella's Wish, and the city is on fire.
• Osdrick BOOKS it towards the city, handaxe in hand.

6/22/2019

• We move through the door which was magically locked (the puzzle was to turn off the lights!)
• We come across a man with his mouth sewn shut!
• We fight the guy (because we had no choice!) then find some scrolls and books in a chest.
  • His body has flecks of metal in it?!
• We investigate the hallway and hear chanting coming from a room. A fight breaks out!
• 5 priests (mouths sewn shut) + a big baddie show up. WE FIGHT!
• Randir turns into a badger, burrows and flanks the fight!
  • The head priest gets bit by Randir and his bark-armor gets pulled out, there are bits of metal dug into his skin beneath the bark?!
• We find
  • 4 daggers (not great)
  • Priest's Scepter
  • A bag of arcane components - the bag is dope, the components are not
  • A worn (broken?) wand in a cool sheath
  • A super ornate squarish talisman
• Randir mentions he met a blacksmith/arcanist in Leaf who was very talented with metallurgy
  • His name is Gregor McFarland
• The room we found the priests have a summoning circle in the middle. Lots of tools and implements.
  • But we also see metal fibers growing out of a pile of stones in a corner
  • Lots of rudimentary symbols and images of a spirit/deity/god below the mountain
• Randir touches some of the fibers. They're sharp, serrated even, but also springlike. And cold
• We discover some tombs in this ritual room, but decide to not disturb the dead...
• We move on and find a room with a diagram that has some working notes on it trying to figure it out
• We find the priest's room and a chest in it: Fine clothes, fine shoes, boots, ring, notebook, papers and journal
• We leave the cave... fresh air, whew
• We see a cow and a dwarf on the road, the dwarf is Stone (yes, like the rock). Randir finds this to be HILARIOUS
  • Stone lives up on he mountain at the Ember Peak Monastary, "It's a way to live. We decide to live simply."
  • He doesn't know of any gods living in the mountain, but the metal shard/grass... that seems slightly familiar.
  • People settled in this area trying to escape "the war"
  • Many monsters lived in this land... they're mostly gone, but "we don't travel much at night for a reason."
  • Two folks from the city came up the mountain, they were exploring the eastside of the peak near East Cliff

6/15/2019

• The festival is beginning
• We meet a warrior (Human) and a half-elf druid
• Randir warns the half elf about the bad monster (corrupted mountain lion)
  • Randir is very freaked out by this corruption of nature
• Before they leave to "go adventure", Randir warns the half-elf that he must heed his warning
• The half-elf gives Randir a pendant of petrified Ironwood, in the shape of a a teardrop
  • He senses some kind of power in it, but not FROM the wood.
  • He puts it on and senses a presence of home...
• We decide to head out into the mountains towards where we think the clay came from
  • We bought some poison cure and a potion of healing
• We travel for the rest of the day and rest
• In the night, Harold the Ranger shows up and let's Randir (who is on watch) that he has been investigating the caves and have marked the ones he cleared / investigated
  • He warns them about the mountain being perilous for people who are not prepared to climb
• We push into a cave, and find it worn...
• We discover a few rusted bits, but then... A SNAKE! IT'S CORRUPTED!
• We kill the snake and find some papers! And a DOOR!!!!

Side notes

• Ironwood is a holy tree in the forests for Randir
• The trees are never harvested, but instead are used when branches naturally break or lightning strikes
• Speaking to Ironwood trees is like speaking to an old wizend monk who only speaks in high metaphor
  • If you can interpret these trees well, you are something of a holy person in the forest