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Journal entries for the Jade Regent campaign

March 10th, 2018


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January 13th, 2018

Character: Qatana

Qatana’s Journal for Pharast 27 – 28, 4713

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Wealday, Pharast 27, 4713 afternoon
Beneath the House of Withered Blossoms

After slaying the surviving giant we opened the north door upon the balcony and entered another hallway. This too had mutilated human bodies spiked to the walls.

“But why would anyone do this?” Huffy asked in a plaintive squeak.

Beorn gave a chirp of derision, “Don’t be naive. You know why: because they enjoy it.”

A recent addition — the body of a monk — hung on the far wall, and as we entered we heard the sound of creaking bones. A shimmering ghostly form of a spirit drifted away from the body and towards us.

Much like the spirits we had encountered in the forest this one did not appear to be a typical undead ghost or wraith, but none the less we had no desire to be possessed by the thing.

But it was too quick and we too slow, and it melded with Kali, who sank to her knees, crying out in an eerily hollow voice, “You must help, you must help! You must avenge my killer!”

Olmas asked, “Who was your killer?”, to which Kali replied, “Munasukaru!”

The Oni. We could have guessed. Having made its demands the monk remained joined with Kali, probably to see its final request through to the end. But it was not hostile, and Kali found that she could communicate with it, and that she had gained some of its knowledge and abilities.

She found that its… his name was Kusatsu Yuka.

The southern door led to another hall, and beyond we found a dark, vast open space. Kali sent Nihali off to scout it out, and she returned to report that there was a hobgoblin village nearby and a large stone building building further in.

We decided to rest before facing the cavern, and so secured the two doors in the balcony hall, and Kali sent Nihali out once again to check on the rescued humans above.

The raven soon returned and reported that additional hobgoblins had entered the pagoda. Fearing that they would find the humans we had rescued, we made our way back up to ground level, leaving Radella and Ivan to secure our camp.

The rest of us found the hobgobs, whom tried to flee, but three died very swiftly, and the third we captured alive and questioned. He proved to be quite informative after we convinced him that we worked for Munasukaru.

“She be great! I never seen her, but I knows of her greatitude. I good servant. We sent out to patrol and capture more slaves (never enough slaves, which make good sport and good eating). We clever squad and encounter many humans who attack. I kill at least fifty all by myselfs. Companions not so mighty as I and they die in attack. I faithful servant of Munasukaru.”

Convinced that he would soon be rewarded for he service he accepted a prolonged drink of saki from the everlasting decanter — a good long draught that lasted until he passed out. Ivan drew the short straw and got to slit his throat. After what we had seen below there was no talk or suggestion of any action more merciful than that.

While we waited for the hobgob to drink himself into oblivion we took what little he and his companions had been carrying.

533 rope of climbing
534 4 masterwork armor
535 4 wooden shields
536 4 masterwork composite longbows (+3 STR)
537 4 masterwork Morningstars
538 13 arrows

Presently we returned to the balcony hall and found that Ivan and Radella had been busy. They had discovered that the hobgoblin village was in a large crevasse below our level, accessible by a wooden ladder, which they had pulled up.

Oathday, Pharast 28, 4713 morning
Beneath the House of Withered Blossoms

The night passed without interruption. We only require couple of hours a sleep per day, but no one can be alert for all of their waking hours, and so the length of a watch is only two to three hours. This leaves each of us with plenty of time to work on other things.

Early this morning Zos quietly moved over to one of the giant corpses, which we had piled against the southern door to hold it shut. Out came his little case of vials and smelly chemicals and he softly hummed or murmured to himself as he mixed some concoction. He then took needle and thread and stitched together the gash in the giant’s head.

This got my attention and I came over to watch more closely. He injected the now sutured giant body with his chemical cocktail. After a moment or two it opened its eyes and then slowly sat up.

This garnered some concern among my companions, but I had watched Zos during this entire operation. He had performed no magic nor had he used any negative energy to revive the fallen giant.

“So you didn’t use any spells?” I asked.

“Correct.” Zos replied, as he looked admiringly at the dull eyed thing now standing before him.

“And you did not use any negative energy?” I prompted.

Zos quickly answered, “None at all. This is an alchemical construct.”

I recalled a conversation I had a few years earlier, back when I was still an acolyte of Pharasma. Father Jivorus was the head of the Church of Pharasma in Magnimar, and I had asked about the spell Animate Dead.

“Undead are abominations not only because they are created from negative energy, but the souls of the dead are judged by Pharasma and her alone. Souls of the undead are kept from the Gray Lady, and that is blasphemous.”

“Yes,” I had countered, “but Animate Dead does not use negative energy, and surely the souls of the already dead have long since gone to Pharasma.”

Father Jivorus stopped walking and turned to me, “There are some who think that fragments of the soul are called back and forced to inhabit their animated bodies. Would you dare take that risk?”

I replied much more slowly this time, “N-no.” But I was unconvinced. While not a cantrip, Animate Dead was also not a very advanced spell. It seemed unlikely to me that casting it released the power needed to splinter the soul of the departed — one whom had been sent by Pharasma to its final resting place — and bind it to dead tissue. And what of the souls consumed by Groetus? Would their bodies not animate because their souls no longer existed? This restriction seemed arbitrary.

But then another thought sprang to mind. “So if we cannot cast Animate Dead even on the corpses of animals, it must mean that they too have souls, right?”

Father Jivorus had sighed and shook his head, but said no more about it.

It seemed clear to me then just as it did now that a lumbering mindless body was no more undead than any mechanical construct, like a golem. There had to be more to undead then that.

I looked at Zos, who was now busy working over the second giant, and said “Cool.”

Olmas looked questioningly at me, but I simply said, “Relax, he is not creating undead.”

Later we were ready to head out into the cavern, but we would bypass the village and head straight for the more distant, large stone structure. Fly and Airwalk spells were cast and we flitted into the darkness. Zos’ two giant servants were left behind to provide support if we needed to make a desperate retreat.

As we flew out I caught the glimmer of firelight off to the left, and heading Beorn’s advice of, “We should check that out,” I veered over to see a camp fire burning in a smaller cavern, with hobgoblins busily performing various domestic acts.

Timber made a rude noise and remarked, “That was so worth the effort, Beorn.” I shushed him and flew back to the others as a large stone building came into view.

It towered all of the way from the floor to almost touching the ceiling: a height of nearly two hundred feet. A narrow stone bridge connected the top most floor of the tower to a shelf several hundred feet to the north. The sound of a distant waterfall filled the air.

We landed on the building and found that it was nearly a ruin, with holes in the wooden roof and missing stones in the walls. Dasi hovered above the roof and concentrated as he stared down.

“I sense ten minds below,” he said, “all of them of about average intelligence.”

This put ten foes somewhere within sixty feet of where we stood. We thought there were different floors below, with a few hobgobs on each level. As such we thought a slow and stealthy advance downward was the best approach.

We thought wrong.

Radella silently crept down the spiral staircase into a tall and large chamber, where a group of hobgoblins were standing or sitting or laying around. She signalled back to Olmas and and I, who were following, to be silent and cautious.

All of us were floating in the air, and so moving quietly seemed like an easy thing. Until Olmas scraped his armor against the stone wall on the way down.

Up jumped the hobgoblin guards, suddenly at full alert and looking up at the open staircase where Olmas looked sheepishly down at them. Up jumped an enormously fat hobgoblin, who had been laying on a bed along with a foursome of what I assumed were female hobgoblins, “What’s going on!?”

I swooped down and placed a wall of stone isolating the fat one and his harem from his guards. The rest of my companions flew in and we all attacked.

Combat was fierce but not prolonged, and even the “Swine Samurai” fell quickly before us. Actually the pudgy pig prodder yelled out “Munasukaru, I know you are watching! For your glory!” before ingloriously sticking himself with his own knife.

This left the harem on the other side of the wall to deal with, and Olmas and a spiritual ally I had created earlier finished the task.

Ivan had moved over to the stairs and looked down to make sure nothing below would climb up and attack us. He nearly stumbled down the steps from the stench wafting up. The chamber was filled with animal pens and a pair of giants acting as keepers. We sent a large earth elemental and the spiritual ally down to attack the giants, who unbarred the main doors and fled.

I used some channels to heal the party while others picked through the corpses for items we could use.

539 +2 armor (O-yoroi)
540 +1 thundering great axe
541 dagger with gold hilt
542 masterwork composite longbow (+4 STR)
543 20 arrows
544 +4 belt of Giant Strength (Qatana)
545 +1 cloak of Resistance
546 +1 war hat (crest of ancient and honorable house of Minkai)
+1 luck bonus to AC, can negate critical hit or sneak attack 1/day
547 bronze rice bowl
548 carved horned box with 6 spinels
549 carved horn drinking cup
550 6 masterwork morningstars
551 6 masterwork composite longbow (+3 STR)
552 6 masterwork armor (do-maru)
553 6 masterwork wooden shields
554 32 arrows
47 gold pieces

I was delighted to find something I could actually use, and glady donned the belt of giant strength. Star practically purred with enthusiasm.

We carefully crossed the bridge over to a stone shelf from which the walkway plunged into a rock tunnel that steeply descended the full two hundred feet down to the cavern floor via cracked and slippery steps.

The bottom of the cavern was a smooth large rock shelf above a subterranean river. To the left a huge waterfall thundered down from above, crashing onto rocks and collecting into a pool from which the river flowed. The sound of the cataract filled the air, and we had to lean into to one another and talk loudly just to be heard.

On the far side of the river was a stout stone keep, and as we approached we could dimly see hobgoblins watching us from the battlements. A drawbridge provided access to the keep from our side of the river, but of course it was raised.

Kali created an image of Munasukaru (courtesy of Kusatsu Yuka) and we pretended to converse with her. Here the deafening roar of the falls worked to our favor, for Kali did not know what Munasukaru sounded like, and the anxious hobgobs would not expect to hear her above the noise.

Olmas and I accompanied our friendly image of Munasukaru across the river to see if we could lower the drawbridge, but a pair of gigantic water elementals rose up and beat the snot out of Olmas before he could retreat to the near shore.

I managed to escape by shooting upward, and the image of Munasukaru rose with me. She then moved toward the hobgoblins with her eyes flaming an angry red and indicated that they had better lower the drawbridge or else.

One of the frightened guards saluted and ran down to lower the drawbridge. I nodded at Munasukaru and drifted down to the rest of my comrades to cross over the drawbridge. The elementals sunk back into the river, but I think we should take the river crossing at a run to be safe.

Character: Ivan

Ivan Feb Journal

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The door opened into a strange room with dividers creating hallways. I would have blindly walked into the trap but not for the skill and experience of Redella. We have been traveling together all this time and yet I do not know much about her. I have always assumed that she did not want to share private information about herself.  The room was pretty easy for me as I just had to watch Radella, Olmas, and Qatana take out these creatures, I just had to guard Radella’s back. The two prisoners we rescued were at first afraid that we were there to harm them. We had the discussion about getting the two of them safety but it was pointed out that there is no safe place nearby, in the end they finally realized that they would be safest right there, we could have set them free in the woods but I don’t think they would have much of a chance to survive.  We still need to figure out what to do with these people once we get out of here, the kami may or may not allow them to enter the grove.

Finally we are on the ground floor and still more webs but we did find the way out through the front door and a way down. Well its looks like we need to go down into the deep dark hole.  The others could have defeated the spider things without my help. Once again Kali has to be the one to scout so we wait.

Kali returned and began working on a complex plan to get through the gate of the fortress. Kali just loves to make complex plans even when one is not needed. I got bored with the complexity so I just spaced out for a few moments to allow them to finish, they seem a lot happier if I just let them get it all out. My idea is simple just create a new doorway.

The hobgoblins assault was over quickly. Without the protection of their walls Radella, Olmas, and Qatana quickly cut them down. It comes down to the cycle of life, these hobgoblins now become food for other creatures. The humans outside on the pikes would have shared the same fate had Qatana not spared their lives.   Very interesting, Desna clearly had a hand in this.   They took these two up to be with the others, safety in numbers or something like that. I just wonder what my companions will do if the Kami do not allow these people into the grove.

The door that leads into the complex looked dangerous with traps on the floors and dead bodies hanging from the walls. Radella, Olmas, and Qatana entered this hallway of death and began the slow process of detecting and avoiding the traps in the room. For my part I attempted to cover them from the doorway but from my vantage point I failed to see the ambush. As they reached the other side of the room hobgoblins began the attack with arrows on the three in the room. Quick thinking on Olmas’s part and the locked door on the other side of the room was busted wide open by the power of the ring of the ram. For not being a spell caster Olmas has quite a few spells at his disposal. I have to give credit to Olmas for being able to put up with the sword day in and day out. Some of the special abilities of the team shined as they had hobgoblins confused and attacking each other. This was pretty awsome to witness, giant kill giant was the best of the enemy on enemy combat. I do worry about this being used on us at some point in the future, hopefully one of the gods will provide me with to help my companions.

The battle was interesting as Kali used a special ability to perform a mini teleport to take me and her through the now busted door, plenty of hobgoblins targets. I failed to see the giants until one of them hit me with a rock or should I say boulder. Before I could react Kali had a wall of force up. Damn it really sucks that I don’t have the mini teleport or wall of force spells.

Character: Dasi
Character: Olmas

Annals of the Order of the Dragon

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as written by the cavalier Olmas Lurecia, himself.

Wealday, 27 Pharast

Qatana and I went down what we believed to now be the unguarded spiral staircase. Dasi and Zos came with us, while the rest planned to enter by one of the grates.

Radella apparently found their way blocked by traps (which she successfully disarmed) while our way seemed free of such. (Which was good, since we were searching for them largely the old-fashioned way – by looking intently and whispering “TRAP!” when one was triggered.) It seemed maybe the architect of this place was more worried about attack from below than above.

We hadn’t gotten far, though, when Qatana found another of the organ-visible skeletons. Unknown to us at the time, Radella et al had found another as well. Our parties came together just as we made these discoveries and between us, we handily dispatched the creatures. One had some sort of prehensile tongue that snaked out at me and Dasi warned “don’t let it touch you!” He seemed to know something of these creatures.

We returned to the prisoners, both now conscious thanks to Qatana’s healing. They’d been lost in the forest, and had been captured by the aranea and brought here – probably eventually as food. They told us of nobles ransacking villages in Minkai – that’s why they had fled to the forest. They were also able to tell us there were troglodytes and hobgoblins in the pit below us.

We used our wand of CLW on them to bring them back to full, at least physically. I think I caught that their names were Junzo and Udtsetseg. Anyway, we armed them with some of the simple weapons lying around and told them to wait for us, as there was more we needed to do down below. I don’t know if they’ll still be there when we return, but we’ve done the best we could for them. We renewed our dark vision and proceeded to the pit.

As we descended, we encountered more webs, but apparently the aranea or spiders that created them had already been killed. Radella, as always, was trap-alert and found and disarmed one on our way down. Eventually we reached the aforementioned pit.

It’s hard to say how much of this was constructed and how much was natural. Clearly the stairs carved into the rock were not natural, but how much renovation continued below us remained to be seen. But we did run into some more spider-creatures which, while not terribly difficult to kill, were persistent and tenacious, as well as annoying magic users.

Having cleared them out, we could see the pit more clearly now, and with parts of it being quite smooth, it seemed that there may have been quite a bit of engineering involved. I doubt this was part of the original design for the “oni prison house.” Air rising from the hole was warm and fragrant in a bad, sweaty, dirty sort of way.

We carefully and quietly descended and found ourselves looking at an underground fortress. Maybe this HAD been where the oni had been kept. It stretched from wall to wall in this underground chamber, and was fortified as well as any city wall. There were guards patrolling and, to our horror, there appeared to be two humans impaled upon the obvious front doors. We quickly devised a plan.

It was apparent that the only surprise we could offer would be an overwhelming assault. Nothing tricky or clever was going to get us past the archers and massive front doors. The clear area in front of the entrance was an obvious kill zone; anything entering there needed to be prepared for an onslaught of archers and maybe worse. So the plan became:

1) summon an earth elemental to assault the front door
2) Have Qatana stoneshape an opening in the parapets while that was happening
3) Haste all
4) Bring in our more mobile strike force via that means
5) Hope for the best.

This plan proved fluid in its execution, and involved all of us eventually flying up to the opening in the parapet, an illusion of Akinosa scaling the outer wall, and the earth elemental giving his all in destroying the front entrance. But we eventually found ourselves inside, the guards dead, and probably a small amount of time until the next shift discovered the previous shift was dead. We collected

[516-519] Cure Serious Wounds

from the bodies of the guards, and turned our attention to the impalees. They were alive but unconscious, but a little healing made them more comfortable and able to answer our questions. There were apparently more inside, held as slaves, and something or somebody else they greatly feared.

Well, in it was, then. We had a bonsai to rescue.

We collected

[520] MW armor (4)
[521] MW shield (wooden) (4)
[522] MW composite long bows +3 (4)
[523] MW morningstars (4)
[523] many arrows

and started our incursion. Two doors to the north led to two kill rooms. Their only purpose was to lure uninformed visitors (such as we) into rooms with no exits and lots of whirling blades. The impalees had said that the hobgoblins never used those rooms and now we knew why. We approached the eastern door apprehensively.

We (Qatana, Radella, and myself) entered this room to find a torture chamber. No living creatures were here, but there was evidence there had been. Radella found several pit-traps, however, making this room seem unnaturally dangerous even for a torture chamber.

And then from behind the walls, something said “Fire”. And arrows came flying through holes in the wall, striking all three of us.
The Ring of the Ram burst through the door at the end of the room and allowed me access to the archers. Qatana cast one of her magics that make people behave strangely – and thankfully, many of them did. Two giants started hurling rocks from a mezzanine above us, but Kali installed a wall of force that thwarted that and also kept them from joining the fray.

It was chaotic for a bit, but when the dust cleared we again had dead hobgoblins and now dead giants to add to our resume. And a few arrow holes in several of us, but nothing a little healing wouldn’t take care of.

Character: Kali

Kali’s Journal, Pharast 27, 4713

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Pharast 27, 4713 (midmorning, House of Withered Blossoms)

We’ve rescued two people who were being held prisoner here. The aranea placed them in iron cages and left them hanging inside a maze of lacquered screens, guarded—or perhaps tormented—by pairs of mohrgs.

Mohrgs. What kind of arrangement Akinosa had with these creatures is anyone’s guess. They are foul things: intelligent, malevolent undead that exist only to kill the living, much as they did in life. Maybe asking what kind of bargain was struck is the wrong question. A better one would be, what kind of person would agree to one? This, I believe, says all there is to be said about the aranea, or at least this little clutter of them. I think back to earlier, how we tried to parley with them, to avoid killing them just because they were here and an inconvenience, and it makes me sick. What if we had come to some agreement? What if we had allied with them against the oni down below? Would we have learned what was happening here? What would that say about us?

It reminds me of Zaiobe. I mean, the parallels are pretty obvious, right? Only we did strike a bargain with her, and look how it turned out.

It’s tempting to compromise on principles out of necessity—or worse, desperation—but the thing is, the enemy of my enemy may just be my enemy. What I’ve learned is that you don’t casually form alliances of convenience; that there are consequences and repercussions to willful ignorance. Even if your life depends on it. What is the point in living if you can’t live with your decisions?

One of the freed captives, Junzo, says they were ambushed on the main road several weeks ago. The two of them escaped into the forest and quickly became lost, and it was the aranea that found them. They were captured and have been held here ever since. To what aim? We’ll never know. Probably for food, though I suppose another explanation would be for entertainment. Assuming that human suffering is what passed for entertainment among the aranea. I am sure that is a safe bet.

They were able to confirm that Akinosa really was fighting the hobgoblins for control of the House. The war has raged for years, apparently, and has recently been stuck in a kind of stalemate. Given their elaborate setup and meager numbers, I imagine the aranea were relying on deterrence more than anything else. I’d be shocked if they were doing much more than picking off the occasional hobgoblin that came and went.

Given what we’ve learned, though, I am kind of surprised this has gone on so long. Maybe the hobgoblins lack the numbers to cross the threshold (and more importantly, to hold it afterwards). Maybe the status quo has been the status quo for so long that no one thinks it can change. Or, maybe they just don’t know the sad state to which Akinosa’s opium-addicted army had fallen.

(late morning)

There were so many traps on the lower floors that it was faster and easier to just set them off as we went. It’s a little more clear how the hobgoblins were being kept at bay: the aranea turned the ascent into a withering gauntlet of poison, murder holes, and flying blades. The hobgoblins apparently lacked either the means or the imagination for something other than a frontal assault, and a frontal assault would have been deadly.

Unfortunately, our talent and imagination are only going to get us so far with the complex down below. There’s only one way in and that’s through the front doors. Which is, I suppose, the big advantage of subterranean living: if guests come calling, you pretty much know where they are going to be.

I hate going in through the front door. We’ve done it a couple of times and it’s always kicking a hornets’ nest. These things go much better when we can be discreet.

Worse, these are hobgoblins which means this is going to be a grind. Assuming we don’t end up facing the entire army all at once—that is not a given—they’ll contest every inch of ground. And we can’t just burn the place out like we did here: we’re supposed to be rescuing a bonsai tree—I am not making that up—and learning what we can about the Five Storms. And, I guess it would be nice to be able to breathe, too.

I got a good look at where we are headed and it’s a gods-be-damned fortress. They built an actual stone wall complete with battlements in that cavern, from floor to ceiling (I guess they took this war with the aranea pretty seriously). I was staring up at Brinewall all over again, only, you know, there was no sky. So, we just have to get through that. Without raising an alarm. Of course, we’re a lot more capable than we were back then, too, so we have some ideas.

Normally we’d take the time to plan this out more carefully, but there is some urgency. It looked like they had two human or humanoid people stuck to the front gate. I don’t know if they were impaled or tied or hung or what, but at least one of them may be alive. We’re taking just a few minutes to get organized and then we go. Yes, perhaps it’s a bit reckless, but we’re motivated by the novelty of saving lives instead of just taking them.

OK. We’re going.

(afternoon)

We were right about the people I saw. Two Tian men had been impaled on spikes set into the gate and they were barely clinging to life. Every time I think I have seen the worst thing there is to see, something even more horrible comes along. Like there’s some sort of award for it. This wasn’t a unique event, either. It’s something the hobgoblins do regularly here, having mastered the grotesque art of spiking people without killing them outright.

Once Qatana had healed them up it was time for the interrogation, being the kind and compassionate people that we are. This started out okay—It’s how we learned that there are (or, perhaps, were) others here who were captured in the forest and forced to work before turned into door hangings—but it fell apart shortly after. They said one of the doors leads to “her domain”, so naturally we asked who “her” was. That’s when the panic swelled in both of them; to the point where I thought they might die of fright, right in front of us. They were terrified—petrified—and refused to speak her name, or of anything else.

We let Dasi talk to them, alone, and he was able to calm them down. I don’t know how. But whatever he said, it obviously worked. They said she’s a demon called Munasukaru, and the hobgoblins both fear and worship her. She lives somewhere below, at the bottom of a bottomless pit or something. Obviously the details there are a bit sketchy, and, um, probably of questionable accuracy.

This level is ruled by one called Buto, who—and I swear I am also not making this up—calls himself “The Swine Shogun”. He also—and I swear I am not making this up, either—rides around on a giant pig.  I have got to see that for myself. How can you pass up a sight like that?

We shouldn’t have any trouble finding him as we were given clear directions: first, we go through the Torture Chamber to the Hall of Pillars, which will take us to The Agonies that is just above The Great Ledge. Seriously. I swear I am not making any of those up, either.

Good gods. Who comes up with these names?

Character: Zosimus

Magnum Opus: Volume 8, Chapter 2

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Welcome student to the next lesson in your journey to Alchemical Mastery.  In prior lessons you have been introduced to a variety of amazing experiments and formulae that I have generously shared with you. In this lesson we revisit the philosophical foundation for your pursuit of the mystical power that alchemy shall afford you.  Alchemy, at its core, is the power for transformation!  This is no easy feat, if it was then every wizard with a flask and fire would be able to do what we can… but they cannot.  We harness what is to make our surroundings better.  Sometimes that is delivered through augmentation, sometimes through subtraction. And yes yes, sometimes it is the turn everything to gold trick, which I will not share with you until you are far more advanced; perhaps more advanced than you can truly attain. That, remains to be seen.

An adequate alchemist will spend their life replicating what has been done for generations and take no risks. Their transformations merely mimic the work of others. If such mundane pursuits tickle your fancy then please throw this and any other volumes of my works you may have on the nearest fire because you are as oblivious to the potential of your studies as adventurers are to arrow slits in a kill box when distracted by lustful murals.  The difference being those adventurers have something more to live for, where you when you abandon your studies, hold no more value than a rock to a confused hill giant behind a wall of force. But I digress….

Augmentation is often sought because in some way it motivates others to do your bidding. Make them stronger, prettier, or some such and they will pay good coin.  Again you can chase such paltry sums and insult the work of alchemists before you; or instead you can pursue elixirs that can sustain the talents of those you come to rely on.  When they grow weary, you can revitalize them. When they cause unnecessary damage to their fleshy frames, you can mend their ills and restore a brute to brutish working order. Restoring to prior states of being merely undoes entropy and are the accomplishments of lesser persons; as an Alchemist you can instead look to extends those around you past their own endurance. You can empower them to heights they could not accomplish through their own training and natural limitations. By understanding the essential components of their being that serve as the fundament of their abilities, one can increase their efficacy by enhancing those primal reserves.

Consider for a moment that not all  transformations need be ephemeral. Matter can be reused regardless of its nature, organic or inorganic. That which was once animated by the soul can be re-mobilized by alchemy.  Large or small, such reanimation can server a variety of uses limited only by your imagination and, unfortunately, the moral code of those who do not grasp the complicated process you enacted to reuse the organic material that would otherwise be next destined for worm food. Be mindful that such transformation can easily be mistaken by the feeble minded for necromancy but stand fast in your knowledge that what you accomplish is no simply dark magic cantrip.  You introduce no negative energy nor dark divine providence into your constructs.  When their witless perception of the world screams Zombie in their lizard brain, you need to train them to think Golem.  It is a slow, tedious process, but worthy of reducing anxiety in those around you.

With this lesson delivered, I shall not impart to you the procedure for transforming intact organic materials into semi-organic golem constructs…

Character: Qatana

Qatana’s Journal for Pharast 27, 4713

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Wealday, Pharast 27, 4713 afternoon
The Spirit Forest, House of Withered Blossoms

The day is barely half over and already it feels as if weeks have passed since waking this morning.

Olmas and I crept down the circular stairs, and Dasi and Zos followed after. At the bottom was a small pillared room with a four gibbets hanging from the ceiling. Two of the cages were occupied by a pair of Tien looking humans (at this point in time almost everyone we meet is Tien, and I suppose there is no point in mentioning ethnicity unless someone is not).

They appeared to be unconscious and in rough shape and Huffy was cooing his concern so I channeled to heal them. The woman opened her eyes and said, “I hate it when they do that.” She was startled when she saw Olmas and I, but kept quiet when I motioned for her to hush.

We cautiously moved out into the maze of partitions.

At the same time Radella, Ivan and Kali lifted up one of the grates and dropped down before a metal door, which they opened and continued on into the partition maze.

I drifted up to look over the walls and saw the others as well as a pair of “Morg” skeleton/zombie things. After a brief encounter the creatures were dead and searching the area revealed no additional hazards.

We returned to the captives and set them free. They had been traveling along the forest road some weeks ago when their party had been attacked by the spider kin and dragged back here. They were traveling north to flee the nearly regular raids upon the rural villages in Minkai. This sounded odd, but they thought it normal.

We led them up to the ground level above us, and armed them with some simple weapons that were lying around.

We then descended down the next stairway to a web cluttered hallway that led around a large square room. Four pillars held up the ceiling, but the floor tilted down towards the center where a large dark hole dropped into darkness.

Kali and I drifted nearer to the pit as the others filed in, keeping well back from the center. A quartet of aranea spider beings scuttled out from the webbing and attacked, but they were seriously over matched and soon fell twitching to the floor.

Kali became invisible and flit down the hole to quickly scout around. She returned and reported that the pit dropped down some fourteen fathoms, but after the first three were stone steps circling around to the floor far below. The steps landed in the corner of a vast cavern, at the far end of which stood a mighty wall reaching to within a couple of feet of the ceiling. Hobgoblins could be seen patrolling the top of the wall along the parapet behind battlements.

She paused for a moment before saying a double gate was set in the wall, and a couple of humans had been impaled upon the large spikes protruding from the gate.

Other than a soft angry chittering from Star, all of my friends (even Beorn) were dead silent.

We discussed our options and decided to go for a two prong approach. We would all fly down the pit where Kali would summon a large earth elemental, which would rush through the wall and attempt to unbar the gates. Once the elemental appeared we would all fly toward the wall, and Ivan would use Stone Shape to lower one of the battlements by a couple of feet to provide us with easier egress to the courtyard beyond.

The plan mostly worked — certainly well enough to get us inside, where we made short work of the half a dozen hobgoblin guards within. In the courtyard two large doors were to the north and a smaller door was east.

Radella and I opened the gate and lowered the two men impaled on the spikes. I healed them, and they volunteered some useful information about the fortress.

“Nobody goes through the northern doors. At least we’ve never seen them. The guards on the wall change every twelve hours. They impale prisoners on the gate with less regularity, but more than often enough for us.”

“The single door leads to ”her” domain — I’ve never seen her and from what I’ve heard I don’t want to. She’s truly awful.”

Dasi pressed him for a name, and he finally sputtered out, “Manusikaru.”

The other fellow continued the audio tour. “First there’s a torture chamber, and beyond that is a walkway where stone giants patrol: it is called ”The Balcony of Pillars.” Why? Well because it is a balcony with pillars. Further in you’ll come to ”The Agonies” and the ”Great Ledge”. This is what the hobgoblins call a pit with no bottom. That’s where it is rumored that ”she” dwells. Most of the hobgoblins live around the pit, and they are led by a Budo, a great hobgoblin who rides a great big pig. He calls himself ”Budo the Swine Shogun.””

His friend chimed in, “Yeah, but we prisoners call him something else behind his back that doesn’t sound as nice. Rumor has it riding isn’t all he does with pigs.”

Bless his little heart, but this gave Beorn a bad case of the giggles, which we had to endure for the next hour or so.

We took them up to the ground level where they joined with the other couple to wait for our return, or if things looked desperate, to escape out the front door.

In the meantime our companions had taken various useful items from the corpses of the hobgoblins.

516-519 potions of Cure Serious Wounds
520 4 masterwork amour
521 4 masterwork shields
522 4 masterwork composite longbows Str +3
523 71 arrows (black with red fletching)
524 4 masterwork morning stars

We discovered that each of the two northern doors opened onto a trap room with a dummy door at the far side. Radella disabled the traps, thus making the rooms useable to us.

The small eastern door led to a long narrow room with bodies in various states of decomposition hanging from the walls and a door at the far end. Radella entered and I followed, floating six inches above the floor. It was just as well that I did not walk in, because Radella found several pit traps in the floor.

My interest was taken up by the series of small holes in the wall. I almost thought a felt a breeze coming through one, and had called Radella over to look when we heard a loud shout of “Fire!”

Both of us were peppered with arrows fired through the holes. Radella ran for the door at the far end, which was locked. I drifted to the center of the room and began to emit an aura inspired by Groetus which I find calming but others usually less so.

Olmas used some magic device to blast the door from its hinges and the gang all rushed past me to attack the attackers. Steps led up from the room beyond to a pillared balcony where a pair of stone giants looked over at us and yelled.

I blasted them with a Confusion spell while Kali put up a wall of force at the top of the stairs.

Things weren’t going well for the hidden archers. Sure, a few continued to fire, but some stood and stared, others shot their comrades, while still others poked themselves with their arrows. This plus the onslaught of my companions made quick work of these hobgoblins.

The giants had not fared much better. While one wandered about bashing the invisible wall, the other first injured himself and then took exception to the other giant’s presence (can you blame him — have you ever smelled a giant?) and began to beat on him.

Soon one giant fell, and Kali dropped the wall so the rest of us could finish off the survivor.

And so here we are surrounded by more dead hobgoblins and a pair of dead giants.

Character: Ivan

Ivan’s Jan journal entry

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“Well now that we have made it to the top of the building I can see that there are a lot of spider webs in the hole.”

“Wow even with all the burning there are still a lot of spider webs. I wonder if we can clear this out before fly ends.”

“Oh their goes Radella down into the hole. How brave of her”

“Well I see that Olmas and Qatana are brave as well. I guess we will destroy the webs after they finish killing everything. Oh well I’ll just wait here and provide backup support.”

“Holy crap Radella just lost a chunk of her strength”

“Oh shit Olmas just lost almost half his strength as well. I sure hope that they are both smart enough to get out.”

“Ok there’s Radella and now Olmas, why is Qatana still down there. Damn. Ok let see if I can get a wall of fire in place around her without catching her or her clothes on fire”

“That will work nicely, there is nothing like a good fire”

“That is one tall room, let’s put another wall of fire right there. Ok that will get the job done. I wonder if the fire with burn the drugs out of the air , it’s a good thing Qatana suggested life bubble. Once again the gods knew which spell that I needed.”

“That’s one room cleansed. Damn the next floor has webs as well. Should I just start with fire? Maybe I should save wall of fire for later.”

“Damn those spiders are big. My armor is not good enough for close combat. Over here is much better.”

“Well that’s what I get for not starting with fire. Burn”

“What the hell is with the lighting hitting everyone but Radella? Ok I better do some healing. Kali already put up the second wall of fire so now we wait for the burning to complete its job”

“Where did he come from? Oh good there aren’t any more spiders. Let’s see if I can remove a few of these illusionary versions of him. Ok now I can leave him to the others.”

“Wow he had an endless flask of sake, that’s pretty cool. That could be very useful.”

“Dasi are you still reading minds? Can you hear me now? I guess not. I wonder how he can tell between victims and those causing the harm. ”

“I wonder who built this grill going all around the room. This gives those up here a huge advantage. The skeletons down there almost seem to be walking with a purpose.”

“Redella seems pretty intense about the undead. I hope this new spell works well.”

“Oh that died quickly. I still don’t know if daybreak arrow is good or not. But they are dying quickly or is that actually true death.”

“I better follow Olmas and Qatana down there. Damn there are prisoners in cages. I better get the others in place before they do something crazy in the name of rescuing the prisoners”

“Come on, come on just open up stupid grate. I’ll just move the stone out of the way. That’s a strange look on her face, at least she doesn’t look mad. “

“Ok now we are all in place”

Character: Olmas

Annals of The Order of the Dragon

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as written by the cavalier Olmas Lurecia, himself.

Toilday, 27 Pharast

We arose early – scratch that.  We were hiding inside a rope trick.  We descended early that day.  With the aid of the previous day’s scouting, we knew exactly what we were doing and how to prep for it.  We had decided upon a top-down approach … that is, we had spotted a hole in the roof yesterday and thought that entering there might give us more surprise than the obvious front doors.  Fly spells were cast upon those who needed them (I used airwalk from Suishen). We were also bestowed with dark vision, life bubble, and delay poison. All of these would last 3 hours or longer, which, our experience suggested, would be more than enough.

Quietly arriving at the roof, we peered down.  What greeted us was a tangle of webs below.  Well, we were warned there’d be spiders.  Zos thought a vial of alchemical fire might help clear a path, and nobody disagreed.  Dasi began to sing and we all felt a bit more confident about our chances.  Nothing like a bard singing around a fire atop a deserted prison to inspire a bunch of travellers.

Meanwhile, below, a disoriented voice said, “Get that.”  Another voice responded lazily, “Why?”  I stood near the hole, waiting for something to come out so I could smack it.  Kali cast resist fire on herself, apparently a little concerned in view of our increasing use of fire.  Below us, the fires continued to burn the webs, unimpeded.  Peering over, we could see it was now a longer drop to the “floor”.  What we’d previously thought was the floor had simply been a thick layer of webs. “Intruders!” rose lazily from beneath us.

And a dagger flew up to hit Qatana. Ah!  Finally a battle!

But still nothing tried to climb up.  We could see figures moving around below, though, and I was sorely tempted to descend.  I was stayed by the fact that while the daggers wouldn’t hurt me much, I wasn’t sure what else may be in play down there. I reluctantly held my position at the top of the jagged hole.  Qatana pulled out one of our old fireworks and shot it down there, creating more fire and flashes of light. Looked like there might be 5 or 6 spiders down there, but between the flashing and their skittering to the shadows, it was hard to say.  Radella and Ivan broke out their bows and sent some pointed greetings down at the dagger-thrower.  Ivan also found a simple Spark would ignite webs, while Qatana continued to find more fireworks in her bag.

One spider died and audibly fell to a stone floor 20′ below.

Radella, Qatana, and I felt it was time to take the fight to them.  We had the delay poison still operating, so whatever poison they may have would not slow us.  This allowed all of us to clearly see that when the spiders skittered to the shadows …

… there truly were Shadows there.  They came at us as soon as we were on the floor, and as two of them touched me I felt barely half as strong as I had before.  Bad time to not have my distance weapon close at hand. Radella and Qatana were also affected and we all immediately returned to the roof.

It looked like Qatana might be attacked again before she could make it safely to the roof by creating a circular wall of fire with Qatana in the middle and the heat facing outside.  We suddenly realized this was a wonderful way to clear the room of creatures.  We used the wand of lesser restoration to get our strength back while the room below us was cleared of webs and sterilized. Kali sent down two fire elementals to help “attack the spiders”.  This seemed like overkill, but Dasi did remark that he could sense there was still things alive below us. As if by cue, a scream came from below and was cut off.

Ivan ended the wall of fire and we descended en masse.  As we expected, we found very little webbing and heavily charred bodies, as expected.  However, we did not expect, or rather forgot to think, that some valuable items on that level were also nothing but ashes or at best, charred lesser versions of their former selves.  We retrieved

[467] magnificent screen (charred)
[468] bolt of charred fabric
[469] charred tapestry
[470] pair of charred shoes
[471] pile of soot
[472] porcelain tea set with silver and platinum (400-500gp)
[473] jade dragon brooch
[474] 4 jade hairpins
[475] carved soapstone pig
[476] jade belt buckle with demonic face
[477] jade belt hook in the shape of a heron

We found the body of a female spider who had crawled away from the flames a little (and thus less badly burned).  She also had some things.

[478] potion of blur
[479] potion of CSW
[480] 8 MW daggers
[481] black porcelain mask

There was an opening leading down to the next level, and a quick glance suggested more webs.  Much to my surprise and almost delight, large spiders started coming up to attack us.  THIS is something Suishen and I could handle!

There was a brief but active battle, and words were exchanged.  It was hard to tell when we were being spoken to, and when we were simply overhearing parts of another conversation.  But I did discern that apparently the oni and the spiders had some sort of arrangement – the spiders lived here and a little below, while the oni lived farther below.

This time, though, a reply came up from below: a pretty nasty bolt of lightning hit Qatana, and then arced to the rest of us.  This inspired us greatly, and we redoubled our efforts by sending down spiritual allies and firebombs and the occasional flurry of arrows.  In response, Kali set up a lesser globe of invulnerability to block other rude surprises, and then installed another  wall of fire.

The mighty wizard then teleported up to our level, and this quickly became a strategic error.  Although he cast mirror image, those images fell quickly.  Kali did something new where she moved me right next to him and I was able to immediately smack him (well, his image.)  But ten seconds later I  unleashed a flurry of swings that put him down … and when he died, he took on this bizarre form of another spiderlike creature.  This time, at least, the goodies weren’t charred.

[482] wand, lightning [23]
[483] 4 doses of med spider venom
[484] dagger of venom
[485] MW blowgun
[486] 10 darts
[487] cloak of resistance +2
[488] endless flask of sake – 1 gallon/round, plus once/day drink for random potion
[489] silver sake cup
[490] magnificently carved Earth being eaten by a dragon
[491] silver mirror (~1000gp)
[492] 2 doses of opium
[493] set of keys

The fires had created a sharp drop to the floor below which, we could see now, and on the solid floor below there were spikes. Fortunately we all had fly or air walk running yet so we could easily avoid them, but falling from the opening above down to the floor would have been nasty indeed.

At this level, which appeared to have maybe been the corpse storage level, we saw a number of grates in the floor which allowed us to look into the level below us.  It was while quietly looking through these grates that we observed two creatures which looked to be some form of undead: skeletons that seemed to still have some intact organs.  Down below us, they seemed to be hunting, or maybe on aggressive guard duty for something.

Meanwhile, up here, we were finding miscellaneous items and gear among the corpses. In some broken cabinets we found

[494] 3 flasks (magic)
[495] saffron (~200gp)
[496] 4 opium pipes
[497] 8 doses of opium
[498] 3 bamboo chests
[499] string of ancient coins

Among the bodies we found

[500] MW nunchuks
[501] potion (magic)
[502] fine teak carving of a Tien nobility
[503] battered breastplate
[504] fine leather shoes, one with [505] small opal inside
[506] delicate silver snuff box in the shape of a turtle
[507] rhinocerous horn drinking vessel
[508] jade belt hook
[509] silver altar set with lotus flowers
[510] red lacquered trunk with 3 bags of silver and 2 of gold
[511] leather document case
[512] scroll (magic)
[513] plain wooden box with 10 opium doses
[514] elaborately carved jade and ruby pipe
[515] huge drum (magic)

We determined we could probably unleash quite a few arrows from above before a target could move away. Based on that, we decided to ambush one of the skeleton things at a time, while I stood by the circular staircase near the middle of the room in case anything decided to come up.  This worked marvelously; we were able to kill them both without danger, and (apparently) without anything else raising an alarm.

With the apparent danger removed, Qatana and I headed for the staircase to head down.

Character: Qatana

Qatana’s Journal for – Pharast 27, 4713

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Wealday, Pharast 27, 4713 morning
The Spirit Forest, House of Withered Blossoms

We were treated to a spectacular show of vegetarian delights in the wee hours this morning. The vines of ivy that cover the house sprouted shoots that rapidly spread and put forth buds which just as rapidly bloomed. The flowers opened and blasted out great poofs of pollen that engulfed the house, obscuring our view. Presently the flowers wilted and dropped, presenting us with the same scene that met us when we first arrived.

As soon as it was light we took to flight and hovered above the roof of the structure. A large hole had been blasted in, and peering down into the dim morning light we could see a wall to wall tangle of webs.

None of us much liked the idea of dropping down into that matted sticky mess, and so Zos tossed down a vial of alchemist fire.

Beorn chortled out a diabolic song of, “Burn, baby burn!” while my other friends tittered nervously before joining in the chorus.

A pair of voices wafted up, speaking in common.

“Get that.”

“Get what?”

“The fire.”

“Oh, hold on.”

Neither speaker seemed overly concerned that their lair was being set alight like a roman candle. Zos seemed to think the pollen from the flowers was some sort of opioid. It was a good thing Ivan and I had protected the party with Air Bubble.

We became a bit impatient and continued to set more webs on fire, and yet the only reaction we got was a somewhat disinterested exclamation of, “Intruders.”

Finally we saw a half spider and half humanoid creatures scuttle into view and Ivan, Radella and Zos promptly shot it dead.

Taking advantage of our active fly magics Olmas, Radella and I dropped down. This was a mistake. In addition to the spider things there were shadows, which floated over and began to sap our strength.

Ivan provided cover with a circular tube of flame and we fled back to the roof top, where Radella and I used wands of Lesser Restoration to undo what the shadows had done.

We then set about torching the space below with some serious fire. Soon most of the webbing had been burned out and I entered and verified that the shadows and spider creatures had either perished or fled.

Dasi said he had detected the thoughts of others below us… and moving down and out of the range of his ability to detect them. We then heard a scream suddenly cut off.

We searched the space we had cleared and found a stash of loot, mostly burned to char. Sometimes you have to choose between prudence and profit, and in this case most of us agreed the loss had been worth it. We did manage to salvage a handful of things, and found a few additional items on the one spider corpse.

[467-471] Scorched loot
[472] porcelain tea set with silver and platinum handles (400 – 500 gp)
[473] jade dragon broach
[474] 4 jade hair pins
[475] carved soap stone
[476] jade belt buckle depicting a daemonic face
[477] heron jade belt hook
[478] potion of Blur
[479] potion of Cure Serious Wounds
[480] 8 master work daggers
[481] black porcelain mask

There was a wide hole in the floor and more webbing beyond. While the others gathered the loot Ivan and I lit the area on fire using Spark.

Someone below called up that we should give up and leave. I called down that the oni had sent us to help out, but this sent the voice into a fuming rage — well, not really a rage exactly, but more like a “you’re really bumming me out, man, but lets not make too big a fuss about it, and could you go away and leave some munchies while your at it” kind of general unhappiness.

Apparently the spiders controlled the part of the house above ground, and the oni were supposed to stay below ground in the part they controlled, and we were putting a serious harsh on his mellow.

Large spiders clambered out and attacked, but we made quick work of them. We could see more half spider half humanoid creatures below, and so Olmas and I sent down spiritual allies to beat on them.

Things appeared to be going our way when a bolt of lightening arced up from below and struck me, and then exploded into a other arcs that zapped my companions.

Suddenly the humanoid in filthy silk robes that Kali seen with her Arcane eye teleported up to us, and was immediately met by a serious combination of psychology and extreme violence, but without the psychology.

In short, he dropped like a sack of potatoes.

“Dude, ” squeaked Badger, “are you sure that air bubble spell thingy is really working? You sound a little spaced out yourself.”

“Badger,” I calmly replied, “I’m writing it that way so folks know how these guys sounded.”

We pawed over his corpse and removed everything of value.

[482] wand of Lightening Bolt (23 charges)
[483] vial of medium spider venom (4 doses)
[484] dagger of venom (magic)
[485] master work blowgun
[486] 10 darts
[487] +2 cloak of resistance
[488] flask of endless saki (up to 1 gallon per round): you can drink directly from the flask to get ethe effect of a random potion
[489] silver drinking bowl
[490] magnificently carved wooden ball depicting the earth and sky devoured by a dragon
[491] silver mirror worth 1,000gp
[492] opium (2 doses)
[493] set of keys

We could see nothing living down below and so we drifted down and explored, mindful of the spikes sticking up from the floor.

I found a series of iron grills set in the floor around the perimeter of the room, through which shown a dim light. I saw some sort of skeleton that still had its vital organs pumping and pulsating in its rib cage. It moved stealthily as if it were hunting something.

Meanwhile the others had been busy searching all of the debris that littered this level of the house.

[494] 3 flasks of liquid (magic)
[495] saffron — “I’m just wild about it!” Pookie said.
[496] 4 opium pipes
[497] opium (8 doses) — “Do you sense a theme here?” asked Timber.
[498] 3 bamboo chests
[499] string of ancient Tien coins
[500] master work numchucks
[501] potion (magic)
[502] teak carving of Tien noble
[503] battered breastplate
[504] fine leather shoe, one with an opal hidden within
[505] small white opal
[506] delicate silver snuff box in the shape of a turtle
[507] rhino horn drinking vessel with heron motif
[508] jade belt hook
[509] silver altar set with lotus motif
[510] red lacquered trunk: 3 bags silver, 2 bags gold
[511] tooled leather document case
[512] scroll (magic)
[513] wooden box with opium (10 doses) — “I feel trippy!” snickered Star.
[514] silver and jade opium pipe
[515] huge drum on iron stand (magic) — left on the floor

Nobody was too happy upon hearing about the skeleton thing below, and with all of us looking through the grates we found that there were two of them, and that they were patrolling along a set route.

We made a quick, but efficient plan. Most of the party would concentrate on one of the skeletons while Olmas guarded the circular staircase that led down, and I kept track of the other bony fellow.

The archers quickly blasted the one into flinders, and I charred the other with a Flame Strike before the others finished it off.

Where to go next? Well, down, obviously.

The others are fiddling with one of the grates, which lifts up just before a door in the metal wall.

Olmas and I are standing before the stairs, and he’s looking at me and I’m looking at him, and it is as clear as day that we’re heading down.