Difference between revisions of "Randir"

Revision as of 01:59, 28 July 2023

Play Notes

6/22/2023

We help the people put back together their gate that was smashed by the giant dragon monster
The people of Windrip are like, "Are the knights gonna be okay with this?"
The knights come to town to take taxes
The knights are apparently pushing these beasts south, driving them from the Strand and they have no option but to go south
- Randir asks who protects the town. They have no ranger?
- Do the knights help?
- The people get quiet after this...
Theo wonders if there is a connection between these "drakes" and the Order of the Dragon
- Theo knows of small drakes and serpents, not anything the size of the beasts we fought
- The Koboldlings
Ulertu convinces half the town to stay up late and finish a temporary bridge over/around the rockslide
We all decide to help Ulertu and Luvon tells us more about his history
- Dude tells us about slaying hoardes of drakes and the forest where he used to live
- The forest is the Forest of the Blooming Pools - but before the pools existed
- Randir realizes (because he went to the museum) dude was FROM the city in the forest before it was changed into the blooming pools
- He tells us about hunting dragons and a magical flying machine???
- but... we realize his stories are all lies, or mere bravado
Randir calls him out on this and they go have a talk
Randir tells him off a bit that his stories aren't going to help these people, they need action... something is coming
Luvon tells Randir what he really did with dragons
- He protected the dragons and opposed the Emporer when he came to slay the last dragon
- THIS DUDE BLED THE EMPORER ! ! !
He tells Randir of his final great deed...
- Randir is told about a young Luvon
- He fought along SIDE the Emporer (the elves and the Emporer WERE allies, remember)
- He fought against the rising kingdoms of men - battle, diplomacy, whatever means
- A metaphorical seed is planted... a dragon's blood / venom is POTENT against divine beings
  - The emporer puts out a hit on all dragons to the kingdom, not revealing why
- Luvon has seen the empire grow from a city to a nation...
- Luvon asks, "If the dragons are the current threat, what happens to the next threat?"
- The people go with the hunting of dragons but because they're threats to people! And it's very easy to sway people when their lives are threatened.
- The elves recede from their expansions in the world
- Luvon tells of the last dragon, it lived in the forest and he decided he needed to protect it
- When the emporer learned of this dragon and where it was, he arrived as an emissary asking for his Allies' help to destroy "this threat, this thing that could kill me; kill us"
- Luvon goes into detail on what he believes his actual last great deed, slashing the emporer
- The story gets broader after that
- And then 200 years passed and he's here
Luvon says we may have to make a decision like his... he hopes we have the wisdom to know what the right answer is
Randir asks him why he encourages these people to root against what he once stood for
Luvon thinks it's because he's old... and afraid--to be the villain, to make this town a target.. that he'll make the wrong decision
Randir says that maybe he was wrong to judge Luvon, but he can't let this man lose hope
Luvon appreciates it
Ulertu and Theo finish the contraption
We rest and we wake, prepped to try to catch up to Pallas
We see a group of rangers carrying tools and weapons, they're talking with Luvon
Before we depart, we get some drinks from Luvon
- and we do some trading with him
- Zander's gonna let us know what we get next session
END SESSION

6/22/2023

We rush out to the crashing sound
- And ROB reminds us we didn't have our equipment... so no armor lol
Randir casts Plant Growth to reinforce the city gate where a large number of SOMETHINGS are hammering and breaking through the door
Ulertu tries to cast Revivify... but people don't come back to life in this world
Through a complicated bit of team-based magic, we bring back a man who died who saw over the gate
- Ulertu pulls this guy from beyond the veil... literally?
The man gets brought back to life and he yells, "Dragons are coming!"
At the gate we see small little dragons crawling their way over
We note that there are plenty of beasties of who descend from dragons
And the ones coming over the gate are Kobold-esque
Randir runs towards the gate as these little dudes start setting things on fire, he casts Tidal Wave at the gate to put out the fires, but it cracks the gate
People run away, back into town
Luvon shows up with Egan
AND THEN WE FIIIIIIGHT
A FUCKIN HUGE MONSTER DRAKE THING
AND A SHIT LOAD OF LIL KOBOLDLINGS
Randir gets swallowed with Luvon... but we're saved by Theo
END SESSION

5/11/2023

We wake and head on our way. It's a few days travel.
We settle down on night one and Egan is acking a little suspicious
Randir hears a landslide way off in the distance
Randir takes a cue from Theo and engages Egan in conversation to keep an eye on him
- Egan tells a story about an ogre who had stolen a barrel of whiskey brought down from the mountain to Pella's Wish
- Egan challenged the Ogre to a drinking contest and tricked him into leaving by making him THINK he lost the contest
- And the Ogre never came back
Randir sees something on the left side of Egan's face
- It's foggy... it's on his face
Randir intimidates/charms some info out of Egan to figure this veil out... he shares some stories... about trust
- Egan explains yeah... he's got a veil
Dude's half-elf and half dragon(born?)
- Dragonborn's exist but they're rare
We share a meal
Dragons are a memory of the worst times in the land, which is why Egan hides his true visage
Ulertu asks if the obelisks being destroyed has affected him somehow
And we rest
In the night, we hear howling - Randir knows this to be the wind, howling over the mountain
- We hear an undercurrent of shouting... and then it's silent
We wake in the morning with Egan's true form covered again
And we continue to travel
And we make our way up the mountain - we hear the howling of wind and then... the sounds of life and civiliation, but it's getting dark
We come to a gatehouse and there's a dude with a lantern shining light down on us
Ulertu speaks for us, showing them the letter of reccommendation from Kasara
We give our names
- Ulertu of the Order of Truth
- Randir of the Grove
- Theo of The Strand
- Egan (currently) of the Goldfleece(?)
They ask us NOT to use magic and they let us in
We hand off the letter
We make our way to the Dancing Glass Inn
BIG NIGHT LIFE VIBES
This place is BUSTLING - lots of folks, music, food
We see no Knights in this place, which is pretty cool
- No one is really wearing armor here
We meet Luvon, hand him our letter, then get some rooms FOR FREE
We doff our armor and extra stuff then come down and talk to Luvon
- We share our history and a sanitized version of Pella's Wish and how we parted ways
- Then Luvon tells us his story...
  - 100 YEARS AGO... he was one of the 4 great Dragon Slayers of the land
- Dude's got a killer curved blade
- "It wasn't just me, it was a bunch of people"
- "We fought these things, they weren't as powerful, but still..."
- Randir can tell he's embellishing a little
- Theo, however, knows he's holding something back
- Ulertu is fully believing this guys BIG stories
- And boy does he tell some stories
- He mentions a "spark" that lights their soul... a divine light that carries with it the magic of the universe
- Ulertu talks to him about giants and Luvon mentions his friend who supposedly SAW a giant in Stormwall
The night goes on... and Luvon tells us: The path north has been blocked by a landslide
We're probably gonna have to wait a few days to clear out the landslide... doubling back may take MORE time than we have to catch up with Pallas
Wait. And some musicians came through?
But there's some creatures in the mountains....... The knights have been fighting them back, towards the town
"There's always monsters..." - Randir
Luvon says, "Perhaps something should happen now... a drink, off to bed or... something else"
Suddenly we hear a crashing sound, a gate has smashed open
END SESSION

5/4/2023

We're welcomed to the inn
Ulertu does a little investigation
Randir and Theo DEF need to rest
This area is a pretty central supportting village, it's right between the northern kingdom and the southern region
- they don't have a lot of protective measures because they're just remote enough
The village does well enough, Tasara tells Ulertu on a walkabout
She tells us about a growing force of knights, they wear a sigil of a dragon on their armor, and they've been rousing forces from across the land
- Why? It's not clear, but they're offering adventure?
  - And they seem to have the resourcing to do that... they're offering station; knighthood. This status is important for owning land, having influence
We hear words about Pallas, the knights who were here before we arrived have him
Egan offers to come with us and we excitedly accept
Randir explains to him we're heading to the Strand to stop the end of the world...
- Ulertu explains some info about what Randir means lol
Ulertu gets some info about the town of Windrip, and someone named Luvon Naemaris
- The town is north, but on the rocky coast
- High peaks and cool clouds
We rest... phew
It was such good rest, got 10 temp hp
- Nice
Someone has brought our horses up but Egan is no where to be found
We have some brunch
It turns out Egan needs to do some kind of ritual in town before he can leave???
We have a bit of a skill challenge - strength, chess, wood carving
- Theo tosses Egan, Ulertu beats him in Dragon Chess, and Randir carves a wooden rose through natural transmutation
We best the champion!!
And we make our way out of town to Windrip to deliver the letter to Luvon
END OF SESSION
Epilogue: LEVEL UP TO LEVEL 10

4/27/2023

A BUNCH of dudes come out and we have some talk
Theo talks with these knights about honor and they talk about how they don't need to be good guys outside of the strand and that's just garbage
Theo name drops Simon Barrowcroft and the head of these fuckers is named "Sildar Winterhall" and he's a fucker but Theo doesn't know him --- his surname is recognizable
WE FIGHT AND FIGHT HARD
Theo gets the final blow on Sildar Winterhall
- "For the Black Dragon!" Sildar says as he dies
The town comes to finish off the remaining soldiers
The rain begins to pour down from Randir's storm...
END OF SESSION

4/13/2023

We ride out as fast as we can, but Twill is being a butthead
but we ride out hard, despite the issues.
The land flattens out, and it gets muddy
Randir notices some footprints
- Randir notices that they're moving at the same pace, but one horse and one rider appears injured
We make our way to a village on the way and are stopped by a man asking for us to not make any commotion in this town
Ulertu remembers that the guy was at Ember Peak and gave Theo an amulet
We talk with the guy and he recognizes us
- Dude's a half elf, he feeds our horses
We introduce ourselves, this dude is Egan
Dude feels destined... for something. He thinks it's fortuitous that we showed up
Egan feels like he can't leave this place, Randir invites him away with them
When Randir asks him about being a ranger (he takes care of the area), he seems a little perterbed by that question
The "soldiers" are taking advantage of this small town and Egan feels like his presence would lead to violence...
Egan thinks with us, we could convince these soldiers to leave
These guys act like soldiers but they have no markings
Ulertu asks about Pallas
Sounds like they got em but they left town
Everyone gets serious: "We gotta take care of this village then go get Pallas"
We're not fuckin around now.
We make our way to the town.
In the town, we see a quaint little square and right in the middle, 5 dudes in armor drinking and being shits
We try to intimidate these guys but they're drunk and decide to fight us.
- Bad choice by them
As the sun begins to set, we hear more steps heading towards the square.
END SESSION

3/30/2023

We decide to take cermoniously move the dead trolls north of the ruined obelisk
We clean and burn Stratus' body
We pick everyone's pockets and find
- A Deck of Illusions (missing a few cards) - 15 cards remain
- An Illuionist's Cloak
- 10 Vials of Poison
Randir spends his long rest investigating the stone he was drawn to (Circle of Stars / Star Map)
- JK mechanically it's actually the Stone of Fates he's been sitting on for FOREVER but story wise it's this piece of the obelisk
We rest, heal up, and we decide we need to go north as soon as possible and as quickly as possible
Randir Skywrite's to the Troll King: "We seek protection of Obelisks, Head to the Strand"
We head back to get our horses from the elf village
The elves assumed we were dead, but they give us back our horses
Randir asks the Elven leader to seek diplomacy with the Trolls
We head north, trying to outpace the group heading north
- Ulertu and Theo map out a shortcut path to get us to Barrowcroft Manor quickly
END SESSION

3/23/2023

Randir wakes to find he's barely fighting off the poison
Ulertu and Theo are unconscious and have been seen to with some sort of medical-friendly moss
We hear the sounds of fighting off in the distance
We heal up, and head off to find it
We approach, but the fight has ended...
Stratus cries as he attempts to stop whatever ritual they're doing
We start a fight with the soldiers the the remaining rangers
The fight continues... but they finish the ritual and the obelisk explodes
We're beated, defeated... tired. The magic of this area is gone.
We lost.
The rangers leave, and the area, once full of life and power, now is a dead husk of itself. The motes of light around the platform wink out and the area falls into darkness.
Slowly, we see there's another source of light
3 motes of light, coming from each of us
END SESSION
For next session:
- Pick a feat of some magical thing that has happened to us
- Zander is gonna give us an ability from a subclass we did not pick

3/16/2023

WE BEGIN IN THE FIGHT
Theo realizes these arrows are "Arrows of Slaying" aka Arrows specifically made to KILL
The fight is B R U T A L
We knock down one ranger, but...
Theo goes down, Randir goes down, poisoned.
- Randir sees a vision of something ancient, massive snakes... (from the poison?)
Tane tells Ulertu, he doesn't have to fight
Ulertu decides to fight back, Pallas too
Theo comes back up courtesy of Ulertu's healing word
Tane goes down, but the other rangers are still coming for us
But everyone goes down.
Randir some how manages to save from death. 2 failures.... 3 successes
Ulertu and Theo wake up at a fire. Randir is on death's door.
Pallas is gone. Stratus is gone.
What happened?
END OF SESSION

02/25/2023

We meet the Troll King
We begin to have a fun translation bit but then Randir stands in as the interpreter speaking Giant
Randir gives them a warning that men are coming, and the gang means the trolls no harm
We want to protect the obelisk, the men do not
The troll asks us if we know the significance of the obelisk
Randir mentions "The Black Sky"
The troll tells us a story about "The Black Sky" in the beforetimes
- The giants lived in this land before, some elves... and Dragons were a problem
- The giants created structures that could withstand the Dragons
- The giants tried to make peace with the more powerful Dragons of the land
- We recall stories telling about dragon venom being the only thing that could hurt Aruman Sur
  - This dude was like fuck that and put bounties on all of the dragons
- Remember session 1? A ranger was hunting down drakes
- Hell, we even fought some drakes which were kind of remnants of nests and societies of Dragons
- The king tells us that "The Black Sky" was sealed away the power of the obelisks, aka sealing away the power of the elder dragons
- This "Black Sky" was a dragon, a HUGE dragon, blotting out the sky -- thunder struck, people would die
- We get the sense that these Trolls are carrying on a tradition of keeping these obelisks safe, but they don't know how they WORK
The trolls have noticed that MORE of the magic these obelisks keep locked away have leaked out in the past month and the trolls are being more aggresive because of this
They suspect that other obelisks have fallen, Randir confirms this in saying "We've come across the remnants of these obelisks in our travels"
The Troll King thinks someone is trying to awaken The Black Sky
Randir gleans that the Troll King is worried about the approaching forces
We part from the Troll king and go off to find Stratus in the night
And we walk for a bit, then come across Stratus and Travertine
We explain the situation to Stratus, and then an old face shows up: Tane Faradon (the ranger from the White Orchard)
He tells us, no one appreciates what he does and he's dedicated to remake a world to fix that
Randir tells him he is not scared of him and if he must do work, then so be it
- Tane implies there's less than 50 dudes with him???
Tane points off in the distance and says, "Kill everyone but the mage"
Randir gets hit by an arrow, 23 damage
Travertine goes DOWN
Ulertu gets hit, Theo gets hit, Pallas gets hit
END SESSION

10/8/2022

Previously on...
- We realize Giants created the obelisks and destroying them is no good, they were put here for a reason
- Lord Blackbriar (of The Strand) and some others have been hiring mages to seek out and destroy these obelisks
- We know that some reinforcements from The Strand to find Stratus and to help destroy the obelisk
- We left to try to find some sort of resolution at the Obelisk before the troops arrive - because the Obelisk is hidden somewhere in the Troll lands
- One of the trolls we cut down called himself the Troll King
We try to sneak into this troll area... we are not that stealthy, even with Pass Without Trace
We come to a clearing where there is water and a center platform, one troll enters the water and splashes water on its arm.
We consider scouting the area, or we just take these dudes here.
We fight the trolls, but keep one alive via Polymorph (as a rabbit)
Ulertu and Theo investigate the stone structure these Trolls were trying to "keep us away from"
This platform is a center of something, it's in great condition, and water flows AWAY from it
- It perfectly aligns with N/S/E/W
- There's a thrumming energy coming off of the sturcture, it's marked with runes down the front
There is a story on the obelisk, a dark time where the changes in the world made this place a powerful part of the land and the world
- Fearing its use as something horrible (aka The Black Sky), the giants sealed this place
- Something is leaking from under this "magical lock"
- Something was sealed away here but because the world is out of balance, this baby is about to bust
We recall this location being from the story Stratus told us about, the betrayal of the Emperor
- aka why the Elves don't dig the Empire, he betrayed them (see previous notes)
Randir is fairly certain, that this place is where the betrayal happened
We try to decide... should we just leave? How can we even figure this whole thing out?
Randir tells the gang: We must figure this out now while we have time, if we go to the Strand with LESS information than we Could have.. we will regret it.
Randir asks the rabbit-troll to take a message to the Troll king that we mean to broker peace and are reverent to the obelisk/shrine
We send the rabbit away and Ulertu goes to work to figure out how to measure/contain the etehereal energy being leaked from this place
Ulertu does some business, we take a short rest, Theo and Randir get healed
END OF SESSION

6/17/2022

Cederleaf asks us to... seek out and kill the Trolls
"They kill us, so we must kill them"
Randir sees this as VERY black and white... Randir observes Master Cedarleaf...
- He sees hints of magic, slight imperfections in Cedarleaf's skin...
- This elf is older than any elf he has ever met
- His appearance is held together by magic, this guise is a glamour
- This matches to stories he's heard about "the oldest elves" -- this is one of those elves
  - LORE ALERT: Elves CAME to this land, they were not born here
  - If an elf ties themselves to some sort of magic, they can live for MUCH longer than other elves
- Cedarleaf has VERY little patience for things he has determined "evil" long ago
Randir sees this quest as something we can take on without distracting from our goals
We ALSO need to talk to Cedarleaf about assassins in Caer Sen with markings associated with this camp
We get healed for 15 hp
Lots of questions here:
- Should we leave Pallas here to infiltrate the monks while we head off to find the Trolls?
- What's the beef between Cedarleaf and the Empress?
- Is this some old blood fued between the former king and the first elves?
Suddenly Stratus falls out of a trance, "2 days and there's gonna be 60 guards here and we're gonna destroy the Obelisk"
- Shit
WELL we need to get to the obelisk before the guards get here, so we're gonna do some investigatin' in the city
- Theo wants to learn some fightin' techniques
- Ulertu wants to make some acid vials
  - He gets a bundle of 20 sling bullets of acid, nice
- Randir wants to learn the history of this city ala the walking history of Isildur in Rivendell
The city is beautiful and ornate, masterfully manicured
Everyone in the city is elven and looks fancy
THIS PLACE HAS EVERYTHING (for sale)
Randir gives Ulertu 10gp for components
Theo goes and trains with some of the warriors, he asks about their sigil to understand their history / what they're trying to protect.
- One guy tells Theo about the war 300 years ago when the Emporer wanted to unify all kingdoms, the Elves in the forest were trying to protect the oldest things in the forest and the Emporer was with them
  - This dude has some distain for the northern kingdoms who were fighting back against the Emporer
- He tells Theo the story of the Great Betrayal - The Emporer turned on the Elves, spilling his blood on the land, creating the Blooming Pools -- permanently scarring the forest, turning it more into a swamp
Randir finds a walking history
- He is struck by the idea of the railing, stairs, and balcony are roots from the tree
  - Purposefully grown and fostered over decades with meticulous care--maybe over generations
- He sees carvings in wood and metal, as an exhibit created a long time ago by Valdana Coy
- Made by the elves to NOT forget their history (or for some, to remind them of what already happened)
- Randir sees an exhibit of enormous boats crossing the great see from their homeland (300-400 years ago)
  - The time of the giants was CENTURIES ago -- the giants were not here when people arrives on the continet
  - The elves were not the first to this land, but they came because it was going to be a valuable place
- There is an exhibit of the tree being planted
- The elves came to this continent as planters, to grow the land
- The history of elves changed quickly -- they went from planters / growers to warriors
- Randir sees historical weapons
- There is an exhibit of the great dragon hunts 300ish years ago
  - The Emporer, Aramon Sur, initiated the dragon hunt
- For ~100 years, the Elves became monster hunters, masters of the hunt
- Then another change, less historical objects from outside of the woods
- Then there was the betrayal by the Emporer, followed by a time of isolation
- History becomes stagnant after this, some visitors, but most people stay and they didn't develop much beyond the city for ~200 years
Randir wanders back to look more at the Betrayal of the Emporer
- The elves were a big part of the Emporer's army, and he wanted to unite the land by using their fighting skills
- Something changes, but Randir cannot suss out what it is, but the Emporer wanted to burn the forest
  - This was everything to the Elves, and they were not gonna have that
We regroup for the evening
Stratus is a bit toasted and starts to talk to Ulertu about Obelisks
- He's been studying the runes, a language no one seems to know that the Giants seemed to have made up (but Ulertu translated before... something about The Black Sky)
Travertine shows back up with the monks who went to fetch the dead monks we saw in the forest, they party a bit in celebration of life
Someone leaves a little tray of potions for us, 3 potions of Greater Healing
Theo gets a gift from some of the kids in town, a little box
- Inside is a handwritten note, they thank him for coming by and a small glass vial of blue potion
  - It's a potion of heroism
Pallas took care of some business in town
- He met with some folks to get some answers to things
  - He was curious if we could trust the folks here
  - Randir surmises what Pallas talked about he wants to keep to himself, but it seems to have fueled him and steeled his resolve
  - Randir recalls Theo's story about being in the Ember Vale, the caravan where Pallas and Theo lived was attacked and Pallas is looking for those attackers -- which was Theo's father and the Order of the Dragon. Pallas seems to have found some answers.
The night winds down... and we take a long rest
Pallas wakes us in the morning and Randir casts Pass without Trace on everyone and we make our way out of time
- Pallas shows off his new prosthetic on his leg, grown from trees, and a glint of light coming off of a bead he pulls out of a pouch and gives to Randir
  - A Pearl of Power.
  - Fuck yeah.
We sneak out to find the trolls and, more importantly before Stratus can get to it, the Obelisk

5/7/2022

Overview notes:
- Stratus has been hired to destroy these Obelisks
- We don't want to destroy the Obelisks...
After a night's rest, we set off and Randir immediately finds the Monestary, it's a beautiful, manicured area
We come to a small hill where a trio of buildings live, some people are collecting berries, others working on the buildings, sheparding sheep
Beyond the hill, we see HUGE trees - built into the trees are structures of immense craft and design
Ulertu notes (with a history check): They have grown the trees around them, and as near-immortals, the world grows around them the same way
Randir notices everyone is Elven in SOME way (elf/half-elf), maybe a few humans
- Randir's history with elves that he met in his past were separate from the societies of elves, they were isolationists
We approach the group, tell them about their fallen, they offer us food
We have a bunch of q's, so they take us to a small place to talk to the Abbot
Stratus and Tavertine go to talk to The Abbot
We give the monks directions to their fallen, Theo notices that their buildings are damaged and some people are injured
The folks around here love the Abbot, he's well traveled and knows a bunch
Theo thinks we should have Travertine go with the monks to fetch their dead
We meet the Abbot, dude is "statuesque"
- He calls himself "Sellivus Cedarleaf"
IS THIS GUY A SUPER DRUID???
WE MET THIS GUY 7 MONTHS AGO????
- This guy was at the monestary at the top of the Ember Peak
- He gave us some serious inspiration
He doesn't remember us... or what we did?
This dude is a traveler, bad memory, he wishes to spread knowledge and help people
- yeah, okay fine
Randir explains what we're looking for - the Obelisks. Our goal is to learn from these things Obelisks in order to heal the fraying magic of the lands
The Obelisk of the forest is being held by the Trolls near here
This Cedarleaf dude does NOT like the Trolls
- Randir asks him why he can't do it?
- he basically says, "We're above violence."
Trolls have been attacking at an increasing rate starting ~3 weeks ago
- Hold on, that lines up with the first obelisk we interacted with
- Shiiiiit
We sit down to discuss what could be next:
- Are things gonna be even more complex in The Strand?
- What can we do to prep for facing The Trolls?
Troll Facts
- Former giants
- Trolls live near magma, in icy tundras, in unbreathable air
  - They mutate with whatever magic has been imbued to them at birth
  - Lots of mutations
- Heal their own wounds
- Super Strong
- Mutation/healing can be halted by fire/acid/necrotic damage
- Not super smart, very survival/meal focused
  - They know that if they eat/assume something, they can assimilate that into themselves
- A troll imbued with raw magic, it might accelerate these natural physical properties
- Randir recalls a story of "The Destroyer" a troll that many killed, but did not die
  - Many slayed this Troll, but the gods spat them out of the underworld
We finish our conversation by talking about the bigger puzzle:
- Why does this keep coming back to Giants?
- And how does this factor in to the balance of power the Empress asked us to look into
We head back up the hill to rejoin the group.... but Randir hears wolves...
...no a 10ft long hyena held by a 4 armed troll with a pack of Gnolls
We fight. We survive. We manage to stop the Trolls from regenerating
In the conclusion of the fight, Cedarleaf has been watching and begins to clap
END SESSION

3/26/2022

Second day of travel into the forest of the Blooming Pools
We watch along the path as we move through the forest
Randir up front, Ulertu in the middle, and Theo in the back
Stratus talks to Randir about magic
- Randir describes it like forming language from your mouth, over time you can change the flow and speed and direction and shape of a word as you hear it or experience it
We find some Gnolls chompin down on some dead dudes
So we gonna fight em
They call out to more dudes
A troll comes with them... and it can cast spells???
Theo gets healed a bit by Pallas
The troll had an Amulet of Absorb Elements
We investigate the dudes who were attacked by the Gnolls
One of the dead dudes has the same symbol from the Monks we saw in Caer Sen - this is the monestary that is supposed to be in this forest
We investigate a bit and see that the Gnolls came from the south, and these travelers came from the north... Maybe that's where the monestary is?
We go back to get our horses and head north towards where we believe the monestary is...
We camp in the woods in a safe space that Randir finds with a survival check (and take a long rest)
END SESSION

2/13/2022

Notes from Last session that I missed:
- There's at LEAST 5 obelisks
  - We've encountered 2: The Giant King's Tomb, the Tower
  - 3 more in: The Strand, and... PLACE AND PLACE
- Stratus was hired by Lord Blacbriar(?)
- Maybe we don't want to break the power in these obelisks? (whoops)
- Other folks hiring mages to destroy the Obelisks: Lord Dracos
- Trolls have been a problem for this area more recently hence the combat
- And we rested
We make our way towards the town of Scalewater
Stratus tells us about the legend of how the Blooming Pools came to be: Spilling of Emporer Amon Sur (sp?) and his anger thrashed against the land
We make our way into Scalewater to see a man speaking to a crowd, the folks of this town are a bit mad at the "monks"
We go talk to the angry man
He says there was a peace with the trolls brokered by the elves of the forest, but if something happened to them, it may be a bigger issue -- might have something to do with the Troll King? Need to investigate
- But the details of this are foggy, no one is really old enough here (in their 40s) to know the history because this town is young
- This dude is Barret
Stratus is waiting for an escord from The Strand being sent to fetch him (some guards, a ranger, maybe more -- maybe 20-3 guards)
- He's surprised they aren't here
We talk to Stratus about us going into the forest to investigate the broken peace with the Trolls and the Elves
Stratus tells us about the region
- He knows about the Troll King (Stratus calls him 'leader') but thinks the garrison is being sent to fight off the trolls to get to an Obelisk deep in the woods
  - Well shit
- "It might be near a monastary of some kind" aka this is what Barret was yelling about when we came to town
Maybe we all want to go together and leave word for this garrison
- SURE
We poke around the town:
- This place is like 15 years old
- Uletru gets a feel for WHY these people are here
  - They trade a lot of materials/vegetation specific to this forest with folks outside of the forest
  - 2nd gen families mostly
Stratus leaves word with the town
He buys a huge workhorse for him and Travertine
And we ride into the forest
We get through a half day of riding and Randir finds a ruined stone building to set up camp for the night
Ulertu casts an Alarm on the area before we rest
Stratus tells us a story about the elves that used to live here
Randir fucking puts it together: Maybe "gods that walk the land" = "The Emperor/Empress" and we've been seeing them as separate entities which is WRONG
- FUUCK
We sleep
Theo has a dream of fighting, the darkness, a sword in the dark.... his FATHER
- Theo Slays the phantom of his father and wakes up in the dark...
We wake and have a lil breakfast
As we move further into the forest, Randir is trying to be more aware of the forest... it seems that we are coming close to a grove, if his DREAM from before is correct.
- Randir tells everyone about how groves are magically encouraged forests/natural areas that are "guarded" / "watched over" / "protected" by druids and how we should all be wary of how much we take from a grove lest we anger the druid who protects it
  - every druid is different... so we need to be careful especially if the fuckin "child of destiny" is involved, whatever that means...
- Randir is a little spooked
END OF SESSION

1/29/2022

We make our way towards the Blooming Pools
We know that this area is home to some of the first elves in the forest, including the monestary associated the assassins we saw in Caer Sen
We begin to see the pools, and the area becomes bog-like... but not decomposing like a bog
We come across the remains of a castle, overrun by growth
- Randir knows that this forest is old and Elven
- The elves are providing the greenery with renewed life and reclamation power
We continue on the road, it's well traveled and well kept
Ulertu hears some fighting ahead, we move forward to investigate
We see a person in Order of Truth robes fighting off a Troll
- Based on what we hear, it sounds like there's more of these Trolls
We get into the fight and it's a big ol fight but mostly us flexing our new skills
Looks like Statrus Stormwall (the blue skinned fella that Ulertu knows) is off to investigate an Obelisk...
Randir finds it odd because, well, the gang is investigating them too...
Stratus seems a bit absentminded about who hired him
Stratus says, "It's great that we're gathering knowledge to share" (sort of)
- Randir has genuinely not thought about the time "after" this adventure... after this goal of stopping the evils of the world.
- Would he find a partner? Would he settle down? How would he even pass this information on?
  - In song? In story? In practice?
Starus talks about magic with everyone and Randir realizes **Druidic magic basically does not exist**
- Meta wise: This is because of choices made in Ember Peak and in the one-shot we did
- Stratus basically says: Magic isn't innate, it MUST be taught (ie. Sorcerer's / Druids)
Is this the first time Randir has talked in depth about magical theory with other magic users
Travertine Rise is Stratus' buddy and he kind of INNATELY casts spells, and Stratus keeps them around to learn more about this innate magic
Randir expounds about how magic kind of CAME to him, the Druidic language suddenly was in his mind
- All of Randir's power flows in and around nature, it's at the core of all he does
Stratus is studying OLD magics of life and death
We're about a half day to the next town...
END OF SESSION

1/8/2022

We prep and head back to Fennel Ridge
Randir is thinking about how much he DOESN'T know...
Getting to Fennel Ridge, we tell the excited kids of the town what we've been up to
- Seems Cas has hidden the Eagle's existence from the town
And in town, they're butchering a whole bunch of drakes in the middle of town
Cas tells us that they cleaned out the drake nest that was disturbed by the Eagle
They found a few items in the nest...
- Randir gets a new staff: Staff of Healing
- Theo gets a ring of spell storing
- Uletru gets a tome of clarity
Turns out our damn horses just came back to town?
- SUSPICIOUS
A blue-skinned guy and a dude with pointy teeth came through town a day after we left
- Not the mage...
Randir is offered some scales from the killed drakes... to make some Dragon Scale Mail (AC 15 + Dex)!!
We know we need to go north, and the Obelisks we've come across and broken are important -- 2 of (at least) 5
- Everyone's seeking to destroy them... but we need to gain the knowledge they give us before others find them and destroy them
Next, we need to head through the Forest of the Blooming Pools
- As a note, we're reminded that there's a Monastary of folks who attacked us in Caer Sen somewhere in that forest
We spend the night relaxing for a bit, maybe doing a bit of partying
And we rest...
AND WE DREAM
- Theo dreams of Hoar and a growing darkness in the sky
- Randir dreams of a grove, a druid's grove
  - He sees people walking about, carelessly, with ignorance
  - He recalls hearing the voice of Elena telling him about the Chosen One, a tool to push destiny towards a better outcome
  - This is Randir's charge, but it doesn't jive with his idea of destiny
  - Randir sees "destiny" beyond comprehending and damaging to try to seek, "Whatever happens, happens"
  - But Randir, on Elena's ask, needs to find this chosen person... even if it goes against his own belief
  - This grove is special, and he needs to find it
  - In this grove, Randir hears fragments of what the people here are saying... it's prayer -- prayer to spirits, gods, nature, etc.
    - This is some kind of holy place beyond being a druidic grove, lots of power here
  - Behind Randir is a giant tree, the same that he saw in his previous vision... but there are also motes of light like we saw in the Limbo world
  - The light washes over Randir, and he briefly wakes up then falls back to sleep
We wake up the next day and are rested, ready to move forward on our journey on our horses
We do a little scouting to see if the mage came near here, Ulertu looks into the two other dudes who came into town
- Uluertu remembers the blue-skinned mage, he was a little obsessed with Revival / resurrection magic
The town gathers together to see us off and it's real nice
END SESSION

12/18/2021

We follow Barrowcroft to his camp
- Randir is only going along with this business of killing the elk out of respect for Theo
Barrowcroft has been keeping a lot of notes at his camp (making ink, etc.)
Randir feels like this guy's behavior is wild and erratic (insight check)
- Randir notices vials of herbs scattered around, and he's been burning random things he finds in the forest
This dude has been "taking" back from the forest
But he's able to cast a makeshift "Locate Creature" which shows that his former companions are still here but live as motes of light that we saw before
Randir is confused, this feels like fate... we were on a path, but now we're in a grove
- Is this the grove mentioned in his dream?
  - If it is, who is the child of destiny? What will he need to choose?
Randir asks about a giant red tree... does it exist?
- Barrowcroft says it's not here, but it's somewhere far from here. A place he'd visited in his youth.
Barrowcroft says there's a meadow in the center of the forest, there are 3 pools and 3 large trees-- it's here where the giant elk sleeps
- Dude wants to kill the elk with our help
Randir doesn't want to kill this elk, but maybe we can reason with it
- He doesn't want to make the same mistake he made with the Eagle
We decide to try to trap the Elk so maybe we can reason with it
Randir and Ulertu go off to get Pallas to bring him to this camp where the magic seems to be less potent and stealing
- Also to get the armor and weapons they left
Theo and Barrowcroft have a talk, a talk about death...
Randir and Ulertu approach the grove where we left Pallas and the fuckin ELK is there
Randir tries to speak with the Elk
The elk moves and Pallas is not there, but his belongings are gone too
We hear a voice call out to us and we run over to where Pallas was
The Elk is gone off into the forest
Randir don's his things again and expresses his worry about Barrowcroft
Maybe we just follow the elk and split the party
Yeah, shit. Let's go.
- We're going Two Towers, baby
But... Randir can't find any tracks of this elk... he thinks it's tracks are being masked
- He believes this Elk has the ability to mask its tracks, like a spellcaster... maybe this IS a druid?
Ulertu and Randir decide to head to the meadow without Theo and Barrowcroft
- Maybe they can figure out the ordeal with this elk before Theo and Barrowcroft get there
- Randir is worried that Barrowcroft may be hunt-hungry even if we trap this elk to try to reason with it
We follow a path for a long while, the sun begins to set... the starts begin to reveal themselves
There are 3 pools in the meadow, reflecting light
We see movement outside the edge of the meadow and Randir casts Pass without Trace
Ulertu creates an extradimensional portal for us to hide in
Theo and Barrowcroft go searching for us (thinking us taken by the elk)
- But Barrowcrowft says he needs Theo by his side to kill the elk... Theo says he will if there is no other choice
The gang all arrives at once
Combat starts... Barrowcroft casts a hold creature spell, randir frees the elk and yells he wants to understand the elk... MID BATTLE
Suddenly, Randir sees a vision
- People come to the forest here... when they are looking for something
- This forest is a place to help discover where they need to be next
- A vision of another group trying to understand... when they understand, they turn into light and drift away
  - Others in this group do not find understanding, and stay... for a long time. They are tied to the past, but they leave another way, going back to where they came from
- One person remains, he can't go back, back to where he came from and refuses to move on... this place becomes a prision for him. He makes this place his life because he refuses to move on.
- Those who go back, wake up and this was a dream. Others who go back are never seen again.
  - Those who cannot go back are already dead... like Barrowcroft
- This elk is the avatar of this whole place
We gotta stop Barrowcroft... he's already dead
We fight and... Barrowcroft falls
Randir relays what the elk showed him and leaves Theo to Barrowcroft to talk
We hear a voice... "Randir! Theo! Ulertu!"
It's Pallas!
We all wake up... Randir wraps him in a bear hug
And we pack up to make our way onto FENNEL RIDGE
AND WE HIT LEVEL 9
- Randir understands that the spell that we were all under during this "dream" was caused by the spell "Dream"
END OF SESSION

12/4/2021

It's noon... We're a few hundred feet from our camp, tired on the beach
Someone hired these mages and it was probably Theo's dad.
- These guys are looking for these giant stones of power and break them / open the seals on them
- We've done that to two of the seals...
- One is in the Strand and one is in the forests by the Blooming Pools, North East of where we are now
Maybe we need to head to The Blooming Pools next
We're a day's ride from Fennel's Ridge...
Our horses are no where to be found
We take a short rest
Randir catches the trail of the horses, but after some time, it seems like they were moving with purpose... someone took our horses.
We settle to rest
Pallas thanks Randir for his kind words in the underwater lab
- Randir reminds him, "Every day is a success. Hold to that. Let that momentum build."
He hears a rustling in the distance... and suddenly, he feels overwelmingly tired... and falls asleep
In his slumber, Randir is pulled into a sideways dreamscape
- Lights move around him, he sees Theo, Pallas, and Ulertu pulled along side of him
- He's in a dark meadow, save these moving orbs of light
- He's suddenly at a campsite similar to the one he was at...
As he comes to his senses, he's at the base of a tree, but only he is awake
He casts a charge of the Staff of Flowers to "protect" his friends who are unconscious
Randir moves to the center of the meadow
There is a clear pool of water, it's moving from beyond the tree
We all drink from the water and recover HP and spell slots, exhaustion is removed (this isn't a long rest)
Randir feels like this is almost a religious experience... there is a reverence to this place
We see some movement beyond the trees
Randir feels like there isn't someone here to hurt us, and he decides to move towards it
We move up the 5ft ledge and an ENORMOUS elk walks out from the treeline (antlers as wide as Randir is tall)
Super elegant, it regards us
Randir nods to it, greeting it in beast speech
He asks, "Did you bring us here?" it doesn't respond
Randir tells his friends, "Maybe we need to follow it?"
Suddenly, there is a loud bark, and a huge arrow hits the elk in the neck
It runs and we follow... follow for 20 mins
Finally the elk slows and lays down next to a pool of water
It behinds to heal as it drinks from this pool of water
Ulertu notices something glistening in the water
Randir reaches in and pulls a metal helm out of the water and an empty scabbard
- The helm is cracked along the side
Theo has seem helms like this in the Strand, the blacksmith worked at Barrowcraft Manor
The elk leaves and Randir calls out, "What was the point of this? Why did you bring us here?" and it leaves
We hear movement coming towards us, an animal sniffing
Randir goes to head off the movement, and he comes to see an older man and his dog
So.. he asks us if we've been here long.. Randir says no but that he has friends
The guy asks if one of us didn't make it, Randir says sort of... one of us is still in a slumber
This guy thinks the elk is what's keeping people here
"I am Simon Barrowcroft" he says
And he thinks we're going to help him kill this elk, Randir is a little confused but decides to take him to Ulertu and Theo
Randir brings his guy to the group and Theo kneels
Looks like this dude has been gone from the Strand since Theo left...... WEIRD
Well shit, this ALSO is pointing back to Theo's dad and the Strand
This dude is dead set on killing this elk, he says it will take us one by one... like it did Pallas
Randir cannot accept this, "I cannot believe this. I won't. He is saying pallas is dead, I will not accept this"
And he runs off to the grove
Simon drops Theo's armor in front of him, "We must kill this beast."
Randir and Ulertu run to Pallas, Randir frantically trying to figure out how to save Pallas
We feed some of the water to Pallas, it helps minorly
Ulertu tries mixing some of the water with ichor... they won't mix
Randir is frantic. He needs to do something for Pallas.
He clears the flowers and wildlife from around Pallas and wraps him in the Cloak of Elvenkind to protect him from the forest
- "I hope this will protect him from the forest trying to take from him"
- "It's likely the forest is taking from us as well, we just have more to take compared to Pallas"
Simon and Theo show up, Randir is... pissed
Simon seems to really not care for this forest
Simon barrowcroft leads us off to the forest where he has a camp. He wants to plan a hunt.
END OF SESSION

11/20/2021

Despite being injured, we explore a bit
We come across a giant monster ichor dude who is dead and a Giant skeleton
There are two large containers in a room off of the laboratory
They maybe look like sarcofigi
There's an enormous canister in the center of this room that is full of swirling grey liquid (or surrounded by it)
We decide to take a short rest (PHEW)
We do a little investigation:
- The big dead ichor-like dude who hasn't vanished looks like he was made OF the ichor, not a corruption of something by the ichor
  - Randir knows that when these things are damaged, they will likely go away or be disintigrated
    - Randir's sword, made of the mountain, the Amber blade will dispell these dudes
  - This guy died from other means
- Ulertu discovers some warding magic on these sarcofigi
  - TLDR; warding magic, to keep things out? or in?
We find a journal that has some info about the mage who ran off and a vial of something the Mage was using... a sample of metal glass?
- They had a fucking bet about doing some nasty deeds???
- All things seem to be pointing to the North... to the Spire
- Theo walks off, this mage was hired by his dad???
Randir says, "We must do something to stop them, and quickly"
Randir asks Pallas for a read on things as Theo walks off, concerned about the journals
- Randir reads from him: Pallas is someone who has lost everything and he hasn't had the chance to take his own power back
- Randir has bonded with this dude, and maybe his words have given Pallas more hope for the future
Pallas points out that the only thing out of place in this summoning spell is the plant...
Randir begins to conclude a whole myriad of ideas:
- What if this metal plant allows mages to tap into a power beyond their means?
- And the Empress can innately tap into that power?
- And the giants found a way to tap into it as well...
- But then something showed up to stop it... what if it was the "Ichor"?
- Someone told us a while back they they were here to cleanse the land; what if it wasn't to cleanse the NATURAL world but it was this power that these mages are tapping into?
- And the Empress is old, her power is old... What if there is a balance and these mages are tipping it?
Randir notices a word in the spell circle... in a language rarely spoken, hardly written... Druidic
- The word is "Death"
- Whoever wrote this does not know druidic
- The mage memorized the shape of the sigil, but the druidic is like a copy not someone who knows the language...
  - He got this knowledge from somewhere
We decide we probably need to make our way to the Spire ASAP.
We check out the cage on the south side of the room
- We surmise that this was where the giant eagle was being held
But the eagle was here when this lake was a valley
We look at the wall of water... which looks to be a tank
- Dimly, we can see there is a another wall beyond this one
Randir casts Daylight in the murky water
The glass on the opposite side is cracked...
Below our level we can see water has filled in the floor below us from the crack
An enormous grey-blue body is below us with a huge dark eye... (A shark, but Randir doesn't know what that is)
- This huge thing moves SUPER quick out of the building and out into the lake through the crack
We try to decide if we want to open the sarcophagi...
- Ulertu does a bit of reading from the books the mage left
- He comes across a bit about a dude from the one-shot campaign we did for the bachelor party!
- The dude wrote about four standing stones... we've seen two of them before!
- The mage wrote some notes: These standing stones exist for a reason and are powerful, they exist to HOLD something back (and his boss is looking for them)
- The mage's boss wants these stones destroyed
- There is one in the top of the tower, one in the strand, one in the old forests by the Cinder Root, one that hasn't been found (but Ulertu knows it's in the tomb we were in)
- The standing stones seems to have been built in a rished fashion
But no info about the sarcophagi...
We go to try to open them, but we can't seem to figure out what to do?
Theo reads the runes with his Paladin powers. He knows exactly what these things are / what they do:
- They seem to be inert magical devices that are mean to protect and clean the liquid that's in the chamber in the middle of the room
- Whatever corruption occurs in the chamber, they purge it
But the magic has faded
Now, though, theo knows that with working with Ulertu... they could purify the black ichor!
And Randir recalls that the Eagle asked us to either protect or destroy this place...
We decide to flood the place, so we break the giant glass with Magic Stone / Eldritch Blast to swim out through the other side
And the glass shatters
We swim out...
Ulertu sees that the chain we followed down is now gone... eff
Ulertu feels a prescence in the water, a familiar feeling from beneath Ember Peak
- He feels that presence circling around him... it's the shark!!
We swim up..... and the fucking SHARK SHOWS UP
We fight, barely managing to escape
- Thanks to Randir's summoned Water Elemental!
We manage to swim back to shore, all gaining a level of exhaustion
And the sessions ends as we all lay exhausted on the shore of the lake...

11/6/2021

We get a little healing from Pallas who is VERY winded by using his magic
Randir does some sneaky sneaks to try to see where these other cultists are
He goes invisible then sees there's a LOT of these dudes
He moves to a hidden corner and casts Spike Growth around a bunch of dudes
WE GET INTO A FIGHT
The cultists are doing some sort of ritual
We fight some dudes, and Randir flies over a great eagle to try to interrupt the end of the ritual
But we don't stop it and some nasty fucking dog gets summoned from a ritual circle
Randir gets grappled by a cultist and the dog burns then poisons him
- Lowers his HP max by NINE
- Can make another save against this every 24 hours
- The poison makes him feel like the bleakness of the world was always meant to happen. It feels like the darkness of the world will take over...
Randir goes down, so does Theo...
The mage gets away dammit
We do a bit of healing and Theo removes the poison from both of us
We end on the four of us (including Pallas) in the silence of this Giant Laboratory

10/2/2021

We're woken up by Pallas, he saw figures and a boat out on the lake
Randir casts Water Walk (1hr) and Water Breathing (24hr) on everyone
We walk out to the boat, but it's actually three boats tied together, no one is in the boats
Randir surmises that this lake is DEEEEP
The boats have a few empty crates, the crates are marked by a diving bird
We make our way into the depths, using the boat anchor to pull us downward
Randir senses movement a distance away in the water and informs the group via hand signals
It starts to get dark...
Theo pulls out his sword, giving us enough light
We get to the bottom and see that someone has knocked a hole in the side of a HUGE building
The "hole" looks to be a tunnel
We decide to go around the building and Theo notices a second floor
Randir turns into a giant octopus and swims up
He sees torches inside, figures moving inside dressed in dark clothing
- There are 4 vats of liquid on the other side of the window, an ENORMOUS skeleton beside it
5 figures walk past, 2 stop by the skeleton and look into the vats
We make our way back to the tunnel and into the building (2nd floor)
Randir casts Pass Without Trace on everyone and we move in
We're being real sneaky
We come across a giant skeleton that apparently collapsed here, not in a fight...
- Ulertu takes a shaving of the bones
We find a HUGE Basin, Theo climbs up to look into it
- Immaculately carved, but empty
- Randir asks, "Why would they build this for smaller people to climb?"
We find another Giant skeleton, slumped in a corner
We come across some dudes... well, cultists. Similar to the dudes we ran into under the mountain WAYYY back when
We beat the dudes up
Ulertu looks into the contents of the desks
Randir looks at some of the mushrooms, some appear to be growing out of a grate where moisture is collecting...
We get in some fights with some dudes and it only partially goes our way.
There are more people beyond where we are now... and they're ready to fight us.
END SESSION

9/9/2021

Ulertu scoops up some of the ichor from the mage -- who is completely made of ichor it seems
The rest sinks into the ground...
Randir offers to heal the eagle, but it doesn't seem to trust us
But the thing is: We came here to "deal" with this Eagle
Pallas casts some sort of spell to allow Randir to speak to the Eagle
- Randir passes along a memory of who he is: A wanderer, a traveller, someone leaving The Forest with no certainty of when he would be back
- Randir gets a memory of the Eagle's life, becoming a warrior, the shiny new tower, and then darkness as it sleeps.
- The memory continues with the bird waking, fighting through stone and water, and then atop the tower
  - So it does what it was trained to do: It watches, it retrieves things, it kills, it protects
So Randir asks what the bird still needs to do
- He gets images of whoever took the bird in the first place, in a cold building... somewhere
  - The bird is worried about the weapons it was building
Can it take us to this cold building?
- But it shows him an image of struggling out of stone and water
The building is in the fucking lake
We decide to rest
Pallas has trouble sleeping and takes over watch from Ulertu
Theo has some DREAMS
- Hoar has some info to give to Theo
Randir has some DREAMS
- Randir is in a forest, everything else is silent
- He hears a stream, so he heads towards it
- There is a hooded figure across the stream, but the stream is deep and wide
- This dude asks about who randir is and what it is he wants
  - Randir wants to know what his place in the universe is. He needs to seek out the greater world because he was touched by something MORE and needs to understand what his place in the greater... everything.
- The voice warns him that Randir must do what they could not. They point, and there's a giant red tree. Suddenly the river is full of dead fish.
- Randir must find the child of destiny
  - He asks, "Why me?"
  - "If not you, then another would come along."
- The face turns.
  - IT'S A SKELETON. IT'S ELENA???? Kind of???
- They say: There is a grove, a place where a god's blood was spilled, there you will find the child of destiny, there you will know what it means to choose
- The wind rises and the real Elena cries out, "I'm not gone!" as everything is washed away into darkness"
Ulertu has some dreams
- Ulertu sees some business about a building
Pallas wakes us up, it looks like someone took a boat out into the lake... UH OH

8/12/2021

Randir squirms out of the claws of the giant bird
Randir notices markings on the eagle's neck
Ulertu, Pallas, and Randir run to the pit trap as Theo fights the eagle from its back
We get the bird's attention at the pit trap
Theo notices that the eagle has a large leather strap around its talon, like a holder
We fight, we trap the bird...
but SUDDENLY a nasty, no mouthed, yell eyed person, covered in black ichor, comes out of the lake with 3 corrupted wolves
We fight, and this dude is counterspelling us and wrecking SHIT
- Eating spells left and right
Randir heals the bird
The bird joins our side and fights the dude, but the mage is POWERFUL
Pallas almost dies
The mage captures Randir's Call Lightning and casts it back at him but Pallas manages to cast Counterspell to stop it, then collapses
- HELL ON WHEELS
In Randir's last ditch attempt to kill this thing, he pulls the Amber Blade, runs 20 feet and slices the mage.... in twain
Ulertu gives everyone a potion of healing
End on silence as the Eagle looks us over

7/31/2021

We enter the room with the noon-day sunlight
The whole room's ceiling is gone
In the middle of the room, there's an enormous pile of oversized kindling.... aka a nest
It smells nice but there's a putrid smell... a dead wyvern
- A pretty big wyvern
There's a bunch of scattered feather... some longer than we are tall
Randir sees scattered pieces of metal and glass...
- The glass looks like it's pieces from a bowed disc
- The glass looks worn
- The glass and metal were originally part of something HUGE
Ulertu reads some runes, they mention "The Black Sky"
- The Giant King (from a previous session) opposed the Black Sky
Ulertu finds a locked box and uses a key he's been holding on to since before this gang got together
Inside the box
- A cloth pinned to a piece of metal, an ororoboros sigil on the cloth
- A Clutch of Letters
  - The letters seem to be correspondence between three parties???
    - Someone is trying to investigate the glyphs here
    - There two runes on a letter, a sigil for the Black Sky and an arcane lock
    - The last letter mentions "people camping in the woods" aka US
- A small stone that looks very worn / handled
  - A Stone of Good Luck (+1 to saves, +1 to ability scores)
- A Scroll Tube
- Inside, a scroll of Daylight
Ulertu gives Randir the Stone of Luck (aka a Luckstone)
Theo gives Ulertu the scroll of Daylight
Theo and Randir go to investigate the nest
- Why does this bird stay here? Is this bird super duper natural?
- There isnt anything magically enhanced here
- There's a strong thrumming of magic coming from the rock slab nearby that Ulertu read from
- The bed of the nest is very soft and cool from grass settled in the base of it
Pallas passes over a feather
- 8ft long
Randir surmises that this bird is going to have a wingspan in the triple digits
We ponder the magic coming from the tablet / rock slab
- Is it keeping the bird here?
- Is the bird guarding the slab?
Theo does some DIVINE SENSE on this bad boy
- The air becomes sharp and crisp as Theo pushes his will out to the stone
- Theo sees images of Giants performing magic on this stone sometime in the past
- The power in this stone isn't good or evil, but it is protective
We perform a ritual to remove the power from the tablet
- CHARISMA SAVING THROWS
- An explosion of light and energy and power washes over uses
Suddenly, Randir is in the woods... the sun is setting
- It reminds him of home... it's not his forest but it feels like home
- There's a fragrence of life
- The pendant of petrified iron feels like it's moving under his shirt
- He pulls it out to look at it... it feels warm like it's full of life but looks black, void black
  - The pendant begins to change, the heart of the wood becomes... seeable, feelable. It's glowing
- The wood is more stone than wood, but life comes in anything
- The orange power blossoms from within...
- Randir sees a moment coming where there is danger, Randir (or one of his friends) are in danger
  - A calamity befalls them
- But Randir KNOWS how to prevent this from happening
Jump back to Theo and Pallas and Ulertu...
Similar bits happen to Ulertu, Theo simply sees us blink away
Back in the real world, Randir's Pendant is now amber and speckled with starlight
- It's a Stone of Fates
Everyone gets some goodies
Theo saw the magic of the tablet dissipate
- He's confidence anyone in the area also saw this happen
AND THEN THE BIRD APPEARS ON THE HORIZON
Don't worry, Randir just turns into a Giant Eagle and Ulertu elarges him
- Ulertu and Theo get on his wings, Pallas gets into a claw
WE FLY
Ulertu and Randir use some BRAND new abilities to MAX OUT THIS ROLL
- DC 25??? MORE LIKE WE ROLLED A 26 and get to the ground, saving everyone
- But the Eagle tears at Randir as the giant eagle
Randir pops back to himself but is still grappled by the eagle
END OF SESSION

6/26/2021

We head into the cave
We try to sneak around some lizards..
BUT IT'S A BIG FIGHT
RANDIR GET'S SWALLOWED WHOLE
But we survive
We head onward but discover a scroll in a small alcove (there's a +1 dagger and 5gp 3cp)
It seems some folks writing in elven say that they want to protect the tower and the giant eagle....
Pallas finds ash and asks, "Could this have to do with the assassins from last night?"
Shiiit. It might.
Pallas asks, "Should we destroy this place?"
- Theo: "If it has to do with my father, then yes."
We gotta see why the Order of the Dragon has to do with this place
We head out of the cave, upward
We pass through a hole in a wall where a slab of stone used to sit
We enter the tower....
A huge circular room... looks like it may be made for giants.
We take a short rest (and get some HP + spells back)
In our rest, we look around a bit.
- Climbing the stairs here is gonna be a bit tough
- The large door of this room heads to a building attach to a building at the base of to tower
The only ways out of this room seem to be:
- Through the big door
- Repelling down the side of the building
- Back through the cavern
- Up the stairs
So we head up the stairs that are very worn (just from time)
We make our way up the stairs... BARELY
We get to a cracked door, the light of noon-day sun shining through
We squeeze through... and we're in the highest room of the tower
END SESSION

6/2/2021

We wake up and decide to set a bunch of traps for the giant eagle
A pit + magical plant growth (Randir)
A fire-bomb ewok-style trap (Theo)
A crossbow trap with 20 bolts (20d6) (Ulertu)
We sleep again and wake before dawn
Pallas noticed splashing in the night, Randir (as a badger) goes to investigate
He sees tracks but can't figure out to what, some sort of large, stinky lizard
We head to the tower with Pass without Trace
We come to an underbrush and Randir notices the same smell he noticed from the stinky lizard... and a huge impact as if something fell from high above
We figure something was dragged in to an opening under the tower...
We look into the opening and see that it eventually slopes down to water
Ulertu notices some bits noted on the walls written in "Academic Cant"
- To go up, go down
- The notes are above
Randir says, "nah, let's do waterwalk"
- Cast as a ritual
Pallas gives us a little boost and we see a large reptile
It slips into the water
Theo knows that we're in a lizard den...
And the session ENDS

5/8/2021

The townsfolk show up to the end of the fight and Kass tells us we should chat
She suggests we go off to the tower without her
Randir suggests that we try to reason with the eagle...
She says it might be possible... but good luck
- If it does come to blows, she tells us that we should plan with some traps
- She's dropped some traps in the area already
Randir knows (after some thinking) that reasoning with this GARGANTUAN eagle might not be possible
He suggests surveying the area tomorrow as a beast
Ulertu reads a cool book that he has
- An old Giant had a rookery of fuckin eagles!?
We get to the ruins and seek out Kass' trap materials
Randir turns into an elk and investigates the area, heading toward the lake
- Randir sees footsteps walking along the beach
We camp for the night and then we get JUMPED
We blast these dudes to hell but we leave one alive
Turns out these dudes work for Theo's dad
This dude only wants to talk to Theo, so Ulertu and Randir walk away a bit
This guy believes humanity is not permitted in the world
- The older races shape everything and control the lesser races
- "Even the gods seek our demise"
- The Order of the Dragon is a promise/will to show the older races that we are capable
- Their goal is to make a mark on the world like the old races did
- Not as individuals but as a people
- They want to create a place for humanity
- "As long as the empress lives, humanity will not be able to choose their own destiny."
Theo kills the dude.
We ask a lot of questions about... everything in the world
There is a silence in the forest a long while
Theo's dad is a bad dude. Pallas vows to stand by Theo if it means bringing that man to justice.
We rest. Phew.
AND WE LEVEL UP

4/3/2021

We make our way towards a village on the trail
- The sign we see reads: Fennel Ridge
The village is around the widened river we've been following
A woman with a boat pulls himself across the river to us using a slack line
- She has a raven on her shoulder
- Her name is Kass and she's a Ranger
Randir tells her that we ran into some Drakes up river
She seems a little concerned and asks if she needs help can she call on us
- Randir is MORE than willing to offer their help
We walk into town and see everyone gathered near the tavern, a huge party kind of thing is going on. Everyone is eating and having a good time.
We meet Lang, he's a little confused by us
Turns out he runs the [Something Cabbage]
Dude's impressed by Theo's armor
Turns out two Order of Truth guys came through Fennel Ridge not too long ago
- Young guy, blue skin
- Big man, pointy teeth
- Ulertu knows these folks
- They were heading north
Two other cloaked individuals came through as well
- Nursing injuries, paid in full, left the next morning
Could those two dudes be League of Assassin dudes???
- OH SHIT THEY MIGHT BE
We do some canoodling in the town, folks seem to like us
The two dudes had gone to see some nearby ruins
- The Lonely Tower
- The river opens to a lake, and the Lonely Tower is nearby
Lang says there's a beast that hangs out in the Lonely Tower
Lang says some odd things have been happening since the two dudes came through
- Kass says there were footprints that folks should be on the lookout for...
We talk to Kass
- She tells us about beasts that have been attacking... maybe Wyverns?
We ask about the Lonely Tower
- There might be a GIANT EAGLE in the tower?
We decide to sleep, we'll meet Kass tomorrow
We walk the village in the morning
And then some dude comes running into town, something's attacked a farmer
We get to this farm, and there's fuckin drakes and goddamn wolves
They're attacking Lang who came to get fooD!!!
WE FIGHT
A WYVERN SHOWS UP
IT ALMOST GETS AWAY
KASS KILLS IT
AND A FUCKIN GIANT EAGLE SNAGS IT OUT OF THE AIR AND FLYS WEST
It's heading to a dark spindle.... The Lonely Tower

3/28/2021

The flames pouring down these statues become two spectral figures made of ETHEREAL FLAME
WE FIGHT
- More spectral creatures show up
- Randir loses some permanent HP (long rest will fix)
Thank the gods for Moonbeam and a Paladin
After the fight, Randir's sword is still slightly vibrating
What else lies here?
We walk for a bit and find another room
There is a seal on a rock... on the ground
We investigate
Randir medidtaes and casts Detect Magic as a ritual
- He sees into the "magical ethereal realm of magic"
He hears a voice, sad, "Free me...."
Randir pushes, "Why?"
"I have been trapped here for so long, please release me..."
Randir breaks from his trance and tells Ulertu and Theo what he heard
- He believes whatever is being held by this seal is trapped, chained by the magic
We decide tobreak the seal and free the spirit
AND THEN THE PLACE STARTS TO CRUMBLE
Randir casts Haste on everyone
We manage to make it out alive
- Thanks Haste!
We run out of the collapsing hillside
Pallas is very confused
We head over to a creek to rest
Pallas says, "Perhaps you releasing this power was releasing something back to nature itself..."
Randir ponders on this, "This power was great... larger than a creek, a bird... something... " He can't find a way to describe it
We think on this for a while
Randir feels a breeze and notices a type of reed he can use to make into upgraded armor
- His focus on this is peaceful and intent on the task
A small white fin swims up the river and JUMPS OUT AND ATTACKS Randir
FUCK
We kill two of these monsters... and there is silence.
They were drakes
- They served larger, greater serpents
Ulertu knows that the Giants bent the lesser serpents to their will
There have been rumors from the rangers that they need to deal with monsters like this...
- Remember the dude in White Tree?
We figure out that if there's two here... there's probably more.
Pallas heals us a little
Pallas also notes that there is a town near by. Perhaps we should head there
We pack up and head toward the town on our horses as the sun sets
AND WE LEVEL UP (7)

2/13/2021

We run off of the street knowing the city guard would be after us for killing two of the monks
We take a short rest
Randir makes a promise that he will see those monks die by his hand
He's not sure if they can continue with the Cinder Root Trio...
but we need to tell Bell and Dove what happened, at least
We head back to the inn... sneakily. Trying to avoid the guard.
We go back to the inn where Elena died
We sneak in and find a notebook on Elena's person
- She's been tracking these weapons being brought into the city (as she said)
- She was following up on the containers
She was investigating the Shipping guild
- She was looking for a dude for Avadon Mar
  - This is the dude we kind fought when we FIRST got to the city
- But Avadon Mar isn't the head honcho. She was looking for his boss.
She scribbled the sigil of House Grey
- Also within that sigil is a serpent??
- The serpent resembles dragons of olde (in a circle like an Ouroboros)
  - Ulertu knows more about this
We take Elena's body back to the Cinder Root Trio
- There's a montage of emotions, fading to us on a hill on the North side of the city.
- We give Elena a proper burial, there's a lot of crying
They're going to bring Elena back to the Cinder Root
Randir refuses to travel with the Bell and Dove as they head back to the Cinder Root
- He's clearly very upset about Elena's death but he pushes them away claiming they need to do bigger things and doesn't want to endanger them
Dove presses a locket into his hand, a locket that Elena wore.
- Randir weeps as he hugs Bell, and he apologizes...
- In his mind he's crying he's thinking about Theo and how he came back and why Elena didn't and why did this happen and why now and why not her and...
- Bell leaves him with parting words, "There will be times when you feel alone, but someone is there."
We leave the city on horseback
Theo and Randir talk
- Theo tells about his past... which is... dark.
Randir gives a speech about how strange it is who you connect to and who connects to your life... He's overwhelmed with emotion.
- Fuckin hell, Randir is very emotional about the people of this world
- "The forest is all ebb and flow in life, but in the civilized world... there's something different." Life is more precious to him here.
We make our way to the Sunfields
- This is the place where the Great Emperor was first injured and his blood was spilled
- Takes a few days to cross through the Sunfields
OH and Pallas is with us
We come across a very angular, not-natural looking, 40ft+ tall, grass covered... thing?
Randir casts Detect Magic as a ritual
Ulertu climbs the hill thing?? He gets to the top and it's weirdly flat.
Randir detects Conjuration magic.
Ulertu digs down about 2 feet and finds solid stone
Ulertu and Theo hammer into the stone and.... fall into the space within the obelisk thing
- Randir warned them...
Randir creates a climbing rope to get down to meet Ulertu and Theo
- He stabs a javelin into the ground and ties a rope to it
This place is full of old, crumbling carpets and niceties
Ulertu thinks this either a home or a tomb for a giant.
We travel into the tomb futher, Ulertu finds some text:
- "Here lies Lord Dobvir, King of the Sunfields, he who faced the black sky"
A feeling of unease rushes over us as we see some sort of movement in the eyes of these huge statues...
The Amber Blade begins to shake.. he unsheathes it and it gives off a soft amber glow.
- Randir remembers: "This blade is of the mountain"
As Randir looks up at the eyes, dark flames POUR out of the eyes of the statues......... FILLING THE CAVERN
UH OH

2/13/2021

We run off of the street knowing the city guard would be after us for killing two of the monks
We take a short rest
Randir makes a promise that he will see those monks die by his hand
He's not sure if they can continue with the Cinder Root Trio...
but we need to tell Bell and Dove what happened, at least
We head back to the inn... sneakily. Trying to avoid the guard.
We go back to the inn where Elena died
We sneak in and find a notebook on Elena's person
- She's been tracking these weapons being brought into the city (as she said)
- She was following up on the containers
She was investigating the Shipping guild
- She was looking for a dude for Avadon Mar
  - This is the dude we kind fought when we FIRST got to the city
- But Avadon Mar isn't the head honcho. She was looking for his boss.
She scribbled the sigil of House Grey
- Also within that sigil is a serpent??
- The serpent resembles dragons of olde (in a circle like an Ouroboros)
  - Ulertu knows more about this
We take Elena's body back to the Cinder Root Trio
- There's a montage of emotions, fading to us on a hill on the North side of the city.
- We give Elena a proper burial, there's a lot of crying
They're going to bring Elena back to the Cinder Root
Randir refuses to travel with the Bell and Dove as they head back to the Cinder Root
- He's clearly very upset about Elena's death but he pushes them away claiming they need to do bigger things and doesn't want to endanger them
Dove presses a locket into his hand, a locket that Elena wore.
- Randir weeps as he hugs Bell, and he apologizes...
- In his mind he's crying he's thinking about Theo and how he came back and why Elena didn't and why did this happen and why now and why not her and...
- Bell leaves him with parting words, "There will be times when you feel alone, but someone is there."
We leave the city on horseback
Theo and Randir talk
- Theo tells about his past... which is... dark.
Randir gives a speech about how strange it is who you connect to and who connects to your life... He's overwhelmed with emotion.
- Fuckin hell, Randir is very emotional about the people of this world
- "The forest is all ebb and flow in life, but in the civilized world... there's something different." Life is more precious to him here.
We make our way to the Sunfields
- This is the place where the Great Emperor was first injured and his blood was spilled
- Takes a few days to cross through the Sunfields
OH and Pallas is with us
We come across a very angular, not-natural looking, 40ft+ tall, grass covered... thing?
Randir casts Detect Magic as a ritual
Ulertu climbs the hill thing?? He gets to the top and it's weirdly flat.
Randir detects Conjuration magic.
Ulertu digs down about 2 feet and finds solid stone
Ulertu and Theo hammer into the stone and.... fall into the space within the obelisk thing
- Randir warned them...
Randir creates a climbing rope to get down to meet Ulertu and Theo
- He stabs a javelin into the ground and ties a rope to it
This place is full of old, crumbling carpets and niceties
Ulertu thinks this either a home or a tomb for a giant.
We travel into the tomb futher, Ulertu finds some text:
- "Here lies Lord Dobvir, King of the Sunfields, he who faced the black sky"
A feeling of unease rushes over us as we see some sort of movement in the eyes of these huge statues...
The Amber Blade begins to shake.. he unsheathes it and it gives off a soft amber glow.
- Randir remembers: "This blade is of the mountain"
As Randir looks up at the eyes, dark flames POUR out of the eyes of the statues......... FILLING THE CAVERN
UH OH

1/23/2021

We spend a week in Caer Sen to chill, make potions, buy a map
Randir gets a new fancy Wooden Flute with the help of Dove
- He plays some music with the Cinder Root Trio
We decide we're going to travel with the Cinder Root Trio
But also before we leave...
- Elena thinks she may have info on who smuggled weapons and poison into Caer Sen
  - May be connected to the shipping guild
Pallas is gonna be travelling with us, dude got left behind by his crew
- HMMMMMM
Randir runs into Torbin Lockewood before we leave
- He apologizes for how he acted
- He wants to be better about how he feels
- He remembered his grandfather coming back as a monster...
  - Dude probably was brought back as a zombie
- Two dudes hug
- "If you ever have anything you need in the city, I'd be happy to help you."
ON THE NIGHT BEFORE WE HEAD OUT OF TOWN
Elena drops an animal messenger on our door
- She knows who snuck in the weapons to Caer Sen
We go to investigate
- Randir turns into a horse so Theo can ride, Ulertu takes his horse, Twill
Elena tells us via squirrel to head to a tavern at the end of the docks
We get to the tavern and unsuccessfully bully a tavern worker into telling us where Elena is
We see two half-elves eying us pretty hard and go to speak to them
It doesn't go anywhere as Randir hears a crash upstairs
We run upstairs see two more lves with the same tatoos as the other two we saw
We push past them, and find Elena. Dead.
Randir remembers: these are league of assassin elves.
Randir casts haste on himself.
We run and run and run catching up with these elves
We fight. We go all out. Theo and Randir end barely alive.
Two go down, two escape.
Randir cries out. Chasing after the elf. Unable to come close to catching him.
Someone has called the city guard.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 == Play Notes ==
+=== 6/22/2023 ===
+* We help the people put back together their gate that was smashed by the giant dragon monster
+* The people of Windrip are like, "Are the knights gonna be okay with this?"
+* The knights come to town to take taxes
+* The knights are apparently pushing these beasts south, driving them from the Strand and they have no option but to go south
+** Randir asks who protects the town. They have no ranger?
+** Do the knights help?
+** The people get quiet after this...
+* Theo wonders if there is a connection between these "drakes" and the Order of the Dragon
+** Theo knows of small drakes and serpents, not anything the size of the beasts we fought
+** The Koboldlings
+* Ulertu convinces half the town to stay up late and finish a temporary bridge over/around the rockslide
+* We all decide to help Ulertu and Luvon tells us more about his history
+** Dude tells us about slaying hoardes of drakes and the forest where he used to live
+** The forest is the Forest of the Blooming Pools - but before the pools existed
+** Randir realizes (because he went to the museum) dude was FROM the city in the forest before it was changed into the blooming pools
+** He tells us about hunting dragons and a magical flying machine???
+** but... we realize his stories are all lies, or mere bravado
+* Randir calls him out on this and they go have a talk
+* Randir tells him off a bit that his stories aren't going to help these people, they need action... something is coming
+* Luvon tells Randir what he really did with dragons
+** He protected the dragons and opposed the Emporer when he came to slay the last dragon
+** THIS DUDE BLED THE EMPORER ! ! !
+* He tells Randir of his final great deed...
+** Randir is told about a young Luvon
+** He fought along SIDE the Emporer (the elves and the Emporer WERE allies, remember)
+** He fought against the rising kingdoms of men - battle, diplomacy, whatever means
+** A metaphorical seed is planted... a dragon's blood / venom is POTENT against divine beings
+*** The emporer puts out a hit on all dragons to the kingdom, not revealing why
+** Luvon has seen the empire grow from a city to a nation...
+** Luvon asks, "If the dragons are the current threat, what happens to the next threat?"
+** The people go with the hunting of dragons but because they're threats to people! And it's very easy to sway people when their lives are threatened.
+** The elves recede from their expansions in the world
+** Luvon tells of the last dragon, it lived in the forest and he decided he needed to protect it
+** When the emporer learned of this dragon and where it was, he arrived as an emissary asking for his Allies' help to destroy "this threat, this thing that could kill me; kill us"
+** Luvon goes into detail on what he believes his actual last great deed, slashing the emporer
+** The story gets broader after that
+** And then 200 years passed and he's here
+* Luvon says we may have to make a decision like his... he hopes we have the wisdom to know what the right answer is
+* Randir asks him why he encourages these people to root against what he once stood for
+* Luvon thinks it's because he's old... and afraid--to be the villain, to make this town a target.. that he'll make the wrong decision
+* Randir says that maybe he was wrong to judge Luvon, but he can't let this man lose hope
+* Luvon appreciates it
+* Ulertu and Theo finish the contraption
+* We rest and we wake, prepped to try to catch up to Pallas
+* We see a group of rangers carrying tools and weapons, they're talking with Luvon
+* Before we depart, we get some drinks from Luvon
+** and we do some trading with him
+** Zander's gonna let us know what we get next session
+* END SESSION
 === 6/22/2023 ===

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Difference between revisions of "Randir"

Revision as of 01:59, 28 July 2023

Play Notes

6/22/2023

6/22/2023

5/11/2023

5/4/2023

4/27/2023

4/13/2023

3/30/2023

3/23/2023

3/16/2023

02/25/2023

10/8/2022

6/17/2022

5/7/2022

3/26/2022

2/13/2022

1/29/2022

1/8/2022

12/18/2021

12/4/2021

11/20/2021

11/6/2021

10/2/2021

9/9/2021

8/12/2021

7/31/2021

6/26/2021

6/2/2021

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