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Journal entries for the Jade Regent campaign

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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.

Character: Kali

Kali’s Journal, Pharast 27, 4713

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

We’ve taken the top tier of the pagoda, though we had to torch it until it was a blackened, hollow shell to do it. I am ashamed to admit that I was almost no help at all. I just could not make myself go into that hole knowing what was in there. That may have saved my life. These weren’t just giant spiders and they weren’t in there alone: shadows descended on my friends as soon as they entered. The poison they were ready for, but the life-draining touch of the shades took them by surprise and they were forced to retreat back to the roof. Olmas and Radella looked particularly shaken up. What if I had been down there? Would I even have made it out?

This thing I have—you can call it a fear or a phobia or a repulsion, as all of those fit—it goes back to when we still visited my grandparents in Korvosa. Their home is on the slope in Midland and it overlooks the docks and this strip of the Shingles that runs along the waterfront towards High Bridge. The shanties are a haven for spiders. Sometimes I would see them scuttling from rooftop to rooftop, darting in and out of the shacks people up there used as crude homes. One night when we were out just a little too late, a little too separated from the main crowds, two of them dropped in front of us. Mom skewered one and a city guard who just happened to be in the right place at the right time drove off the other, but not before dad was bitten. I completely froze in terror. That sort of thing sticks with you when you’re only ten years old.

We actually have worse—much worse—in Magnimar. Three-eyed, and three feet tall, the shriezyx are nasty, mean, and aggressive, which, given what I know about the runelords that supposedly created them was probably the whole point. It makes me shudder when I think about it, but fortunately they don’t make it up to the surface very often so, out of sight, out of mind, right? Also, the guard has had plenty of experience dealing with them so those that do make it up are handily dispatched (though the real trick is not burning the city down in the process).

A quick search through one of our tomes told us a little more about what we were dealing with here: aranea, a sort of half-human, half-spider hybrid that can assume the form of either one. They have quickly risen to the top of my list of most disgusting creatures. We’ve seen a lot of vile creatures, of course, but there’s something about a human/spider shapeshifter that just isn’t right. I mean, this shouldn’t even be a thing. Who thought this was a good idea?

And we’re still not done here. There’s—

(later)

If you want to have nightmares, try watching someone slowly burn to death. Not in flames, but blackening like a roast in an oven. Gods. Spiders or not, it’s a terrible thing.

We drove the surviving aranea to the floor below. Qatana and Ivan lit the webs underneath us; I hovered over the hole in the floor, draping it in a spell that suppressed magic  in order to limit their options. That’s when I saw they were grouped just a little too tightly.

I had to keep the opening covered with my spell, which meant I was staring down at them. It was my decision to encircle them with a curtain of fire. Mine. Trapped in a furnace that they couldn’t escape, and unable to penetrate the suppression field, they were helpless to do anything but be picked off and turn to ash.

Gods.

The man I saw the night before was the only one of them left. He put up quite a fight, but from what we can tell he was so high on opium that he didn’t really have a good grasp of what was happening. We tried to get him—and the other aranea before they burned—to surrender, but apparently we said the wrong thing because he became convinced we were allied with the hobgoblins and oni “down below”. We haven’t even seen a down below, but we also haven’t seen any hobgoblins so maybe that’s the why. From his semi-coherent ramblings we got a view of the larger picture of this place: the spider things hold the towers and the hobgoblins and oni dwell underneath.

Held the towers.

That may be premature. We aren’t done. Dasi senses more sentience in the floors below us. He says some feel like the minds of people who are trapped here, while the others exude a malevolence that suggests they’re the captors. And almost certainly more spiders.

There is ash everywhere. We have completely burned out the top half of the pagoda. I’d feel bad about that but the aranea were not exactly kind to it, themselves. They tore out floors, stripped the walls and rebuilt the interior as a gauntlet leading up to their den. I can’t imagine trying to take this place from the ground floor. But I guess that was the whole point. The oni can’t leave, and the hobgoblins can’t fly, so it was an effective defense.

Obviously, they never anticipated an assault from above.

Character: Zosimus

Magnum Opus: Volume 8, Chapter 1

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Welcome Student to the next installment of your learning.  Having demonstrated adequate proficiency with our past lessons, we shall first speak to a matter of utmost importance – resource management!

Do not roll your eyes at my text! This is a very important part of every experiment.  Assuming you have all your limbs and faculties still intact and you are reading this means you have survived the tests I have hidden in these texts so far and could distinguish poison from extract and not set yourself on fire.  It is time for you to use your time to advance your magical research and delegate the more mundane tasks to others, namely, assistants!

Assistants can come from a variety of sources both magical and mundane.  They will provide support before, during, and after you spend countless hours seeking to achieve the same level of mastery of this material as I.

The age of such assistants can be of critical import. Finding one young enough to recognize their place is important. Caution however must be applied as youth may subject you to degrees of impetuousness. There is a trade off to be considered as such chaos may disrupt your efforts or may springboard them to heights you did not consider.  Tread with caution but do not dismiss those who may seem too young for their wisdom may exceed their years.  Within them may lie great potential if they survive puberty and do not impulsively burn the valuable rewards of your efforts beyond recognition.

While I deliver this recitation on the the appropriate qualities of those who will serve you, a past event reminds me it is necessary to caution you about the proximity of madness to genius. Be wary of those with too much creativity or diversity in speech or mannerism as it may be madness in disguise.  While history has shown some of the greatest Alchemists were eventually afflicted with a deficiency of the mind, having such in support of your efforts will require you to monitor their behavior. If you are forced to work with such, it is important to quickly identify their calming triggers and keep them ready at a moment’s notice. This can often be achieved through senseless praise or if you simply feign agreement with their menial goals or acquiesce to their assumed importance in your work. Keep in mind when the research is complete, you can simply write them out of the written record of your accomplishments. 

Sometimes you will seek out assistants through traditional means and channels. I counsel you to not overlook those who may come from unconventional means. Only recently I discovered one such student when I came upon them harvesting essential materials from a fallen magical beast. They thought they were collecting such for their use before recognizing my alchemical acumen as superior to theirs, and thus immediately deferred to my control of the operations. Praise their initiative and recognize the value such an asset aligned in interest can serve in your efforts.

Others may simply come to due your bidding through the allocation of a simple bauble or two. This is where your prior instruction in the fabrication of basic alchemical potions and compounds will prove useful. A simple bagful of alchemical fire, for example, can delight the simple-minded and result in their application of such in accordance with your objectives. Anytime you can convince them to exert themselves for such simple things, you have made significant progress without expending great resources. 

It is equally important to recognize the value of those who can support your endeavors. If you are moved by such things as the performing arts, finding one who is skilled in the bardic arts to perform can be inspiring and help in moments where your skills may be challenged by the task before them.  The right application of music has been shown to hone focus when it is critical and can make the difference between success and having to find someone to regenerate a limb.

As one considers the tasks essential to the success of your research, you will eventually come to realize there are some very simple tasks requiring nothing more than strength. If an Ox could fit in your lab and had thumbs, it would suffice for most of these tasks; instead one must rely on the 2 legged version. This student, is a challenging task for one with limited abilities as you most likely have at this time; nevertheless you must continue to rely on such brutes to perform such tasks with as little interaction as possible least you find yourself spending too much time at their level of intellect.

Despair not student because as you are reading this tome, know that such engagements are coming to an end. There lies within your grasp the power to construct automatons to perform such tasks.  Through the right application of the formulas I am about to share with you, you can render such brutes obsolete…

Character: Dasi
Character: Kali

Kali’s Journal, Pharast 12 – 26, 4713

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Pharast 12, 4713 (evening, Forest of Spirits)

We’ve added both a traveler and a wagon to the caravan. It’s like there’s some conspiracy out there to keep me locked in a perpetual cycle of travel planning.

I haven’t seen very many armored wagons in my life. You would think mom and dad would have used them a lot but that’s not the case at all. As dad explained to me once, an armored wagon really draws attention to the fact that you’re transporting something valuable. And while they are certainly harder to break into (and steal from), they are just as easy to disable as any other wagon: you only have to kill the horses. That means they’re best for transporting dangerous cargo, where the armor helps keep something in rather than others out, or  important passengers or items that everyone already knows are inside but might need an extra deterrent to keep them honest.

This wagon falls into that first category. Our new addition is a gnome named Zosimus, and he is traveling with an alchemy lab the likes of which I have never seen.

I’m no stranger to gnomes. There are quite a few in Magnimar, and I spent enough time down in Ordellia that I got to know a few fairly well. In fact, I purchased a lot of my sarees from Grahaethelwin and Kyla. He’s obsessed with fabrics, especially those from south of the Inner Sea, and Kyla’s astonishingly talented as a clothes designer and tailor. Their shop is just this side of claustrophobic but what it lacks in space and room to breathe it makes up for in color and texture, it’s walls thick with bolts of fabric and the floor a maze of clothing racks (all Kyla’s tailoring). I think the only reason it isn’t more popular with human folk is the difficulty of getting in and out. And I suppose the vertigo.

Zosi is one of those rare gnomes with blue skin. I have to wonder if it’s natural or a result of experimentation with his lab equipment? No, I am not going to ask him.

He was traveling with a small group of people who apparently hadn’t gotten the memo that they shouldn’t be in here, and they were attacked by hobgoblins that the giants hadn’t already killed and eaten. We came along just in time to be too late to help them; Zosi was the only survivor.

He seems eager to join us. Apparently, he was just hired help and had no real connection to his companions except as a source of income (indeed, his primary concern was not that they had died, but rather that he’s now unemployed). He seems particularly eager to be going southeast. Obviously there’s a story there, but it’s not our business. As long as no one comes calling for him, anyway.

Tomorrow morning I’ll use a spell to create the parts we’ll need to strengthen the wagon’s undercarriage so that it doesn’t slow us down. We’ve pooled the weapons and armor from the hobgoblins and the dead men for use as materials.

That sounds rather cold, doesn’t it?

Pharast 16, 4713 (night, Forest of Spirits)

Zosi asked me about my family tonight. I told them that I grew up in Sandpoint, that we currently live in Magnimar, and that they run a merchant business there and have for most of my life. That got us to talking about all the traveling we did when I was younger.

Then, out of the blue, he asked, “Do they know what you are doing out here? What do they think about it?”

I didn’t answer for a while. What do they think about it? For sure, it’s complicated. They’re proud, but obviously scared and worried. And of course it didn’t get off to a great start. How to explain that?

“They know. When this all began, we had a … big argument. Actually, I should just call it a fight. There was a lot of yelling. I … It doesn’t matter. Things are better now. They are … supportive. But they worry. A lot.”

I spoke with them a few nights ago. I conveniently left out the whole mess with Prince Batsiakhar and I feel guilty about it because I promised them I would … that I wouldn’t hide anything from them. But that’s exactly what I did, right? I don’t know why. Habits are hard to break, I guess.

“Did you work in your family’s business at all?”

“Yes, sort of. I did some of the passage planning for a while. I can tell you don’t know what that is. It’s all about the logistics of how a ship goes form one place to another: the stops en route, customs forms at the destination, and similar logistics.” I smiled. “I was pretty good at it.”

“So why did you leave it?”

“I wanted a change.”

There was an uncomfortable pause as he just sort of looked at me. I knew what he was thinking but I wasn’t up for a conversation about it. “Yes, I am aware of the irony.”

He let it drop.

Pharast 21, 4713 (morning, Forest of Spirits)

We’ve encountered three spirits so far. The latest one was last night and he felt significantly more malevolent than the first, and from what Qatana described, the one they encountered while tracking the tiger as well. Fortunately, our plan to use positive energy seems to work and as long as you can hold them at bay they don’t seem to be a significant threat. But maybe the deeper in we go the worse it gets.

Pharast 25, 4713 (early afternoon)

We’re sitting in a small clearing in some of the densest forest I have ever seen. The trees are so close together that the canopy blots out the sky. Who would have thought that we’d be needing the caravan lights during the day again?

This clearing is a sacred place for the kami and I guess I can understand that. It must be beautiful here in the summer when the sun climbs higher in the sky, but even now we can see the light on the tops of the trees above and it’s a lovely sight. Or maybe I just miss the sky that much.

We’re waiting now for … something. I don’t know what. The other kami, I think. I get the feeling that Miyaro is not really sure herself.

I guess it wasn’t obvious why we’re here or what we’re doing in spite Miyaro’s claim to be working as their agent. We were challenged by what I assume is the guardian spirit of this clearing before being allowed to enter. He asked us why we were traveling through the forest, and pointed out that we aren’t supposed to be here. “There’s a better road,” he kept saying. Yeah, there is, but it will get us all killed.

Finally, Qatana just came out and said what we we’re doing and those seemed to be the magic words.

“You specifically seek to undo the oni of the Five Storms?” he asked, somewhat incredulously.

“Yes, we do.”

“Then you may enter.”

I guess we should have opened with that.

(evening)

Kami and small forest animals began arriving around twilight. It was just a few at first, peeking at us from around the trees but as the night settled in their numbers swelled until we were quite literally surrounded. Mostly they were, and I suppose still are, both cautious and curious. A few have risked coming close to us, but for the most part they have stayed back at what they probably feel is a safe distance.

Then one of them approached Miyaro. She translated as he spoke to us.

As usual, the price of admission is doing a favor for someone. I have this feeling that this is what the future holds for us and for Ameiko. Want to earn my trust? Great. Prove your intentions by doing this one thing. Said thing is never easy. If it was, it would already be done.

We are headed to a place called The House of Withered Blossoms. The kami of the Forest had sworn an oath to keep the oni of the Five Storms imprisoned there, but because these are divine bargains the rules of it were needlessly complicated and ultimately self-defeating. The kami weren’t allowed to enter this prison while the oni were within, and that meant they couldn’t keep an eye on what was happening.

Prisons, whether mundane or magical, are not foolproof. Escaping is really just a function of time, and the goal is to make that as difficult as possible through physical and social barriers so that the prisoner dies (or is released) before they find their own way out. And this is the fundamental flaw in imprisoning someone for eternity: they have infinite time. When you aren’t allowed to even look in on the prisoners, then you have also given them free reign to plot and scheme, and that just makes their job easier.

The kami can’t enter to investigate which means at least one oni remains inside. I know how this sort of thing goes. It only takes one oni to keep the kami out, and it doesn’t matter who that oni is or what their capabilities are so essentially they just needed a warm body to stay behind. If I were in the Five Storms’ position, I would choose the oni they are least likely to miss or need. So that is good news for us. The bad news is, these aren’t just random oni: they are what passes as leadership of the Five Storms. So even the loser is probably going to be a hard fight.

The kami can’t enter the House but they can go look at it, and so we asked them what we should expect to find there, other than an oni.

“Hobgoblins,” he said. “And spiders.”

…

Why did it have be spiders?

Pharast 26, 4713 (late night, House of Withered Blossoms)

The House sits in the center of a depression, and we’ve made our camp on the slope leading up to the rim. It’s basically a big pagoda, which would be unremarkable if it wasn’t encased in vines and wrapped with spider webs.

I used a spell to scout the towers from the comfort of our campsite, and I learned there’s a hole in the roof that we can use to gain entry without having to walk in the front door because why would we be so stupid as to walk in the front door?

Inside the tower are more spider webs and, in case there was any question about that, a bunch of spiders, though some of them appear to be spider-human hybrids of some sort. Because of course they are. A couple of levels down there is this filthy, grotesque and very large man. As the eye passed I saw him eat a spider that was scurrying across his face, so, point in his favor, but I am betting that’s all he’s got going for him.

Unfortunately I couldn’t get the eye into all of the building, but we have learned enough to know that we shouldn’t try to go in through the front door. Which we knew already, but it’s always nice to be validated. The plan tomorrow is to drop in through the roof.

The vines around the building have been treating us to a show. At sunset, these giant purple blossoms opened up, and as the night wore on they fell away into a snowfall of petals. That was followed by fruit that are growing at an impossible pace. It is eerie, beautiful, fascinating, and alien. And also filled with spiders.

Some people think the man I saw was the oni, but I am not convinced. The kami said their were both spiders and hobgoblins here, and I didn’t see any trace of the latter. Granted, there are parts of the tower I couldn’t get into, but I get this feeling there is more to this place than what we can see. A lot more.

Character: Olmas

Annals of the Order of the Dragon

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as written by the cavalier Olmas Lurecia, himself.

Toilday, 12 Pharast

Giants, tigers and bears. Oh my!

Well, no bears as of yet.  But hobgoblins.  For a feared and uninviting forest, this area sure seems to have a lot of things that “do not belong.”

We were carefully and reverently going through the Spirit Forest when we heard a commotion up ahead.  Slowing, we approached cautiously.  Ivan, Qatana, and Kali went ahead to see what the ruckus was about.  Ahead, a band of hobgoblins appeared to have attacked a wagon.  It wasn’t immediately clear how many of each there was, but it was a pretty good bet that Ivan, Qatana, and Kali would help the non-hobgoblin side.

They called back to us as Ivan shot four arrows, Qatana caused some snakes to appear, and Kali cast Slow on as many of the hobgoblins as she could.  I told Suishen to flame up but was wary that this could be a distraction for an attack on our own caravan.  Haven’t we gotten paranoid lately!?  Radella had the same thought, and fired off a couple of arrows herself before quickly moving to the rear of the caravan to watch for an attack circling back around.

Meanwhile, the hobgoblins were now not only fighting what was left of those on the wagon, but us as well, and we weren’t doing too badly.  Ivan pulled a surprise move, using telekinesis to grab one hobgoblin and throw him back near us. I moved up and skewered him and Kasimir chewed on him.  A web appeared, courtesy of Kali. Ivan finally moved in closer, and, convinced nothing else was coming in, Radella moved closer to.  I stayed to guard Ameiko’s wagon, but it didn’t take too long for the others to finish off the hobgoblins.

Suishen was, of course, pleased with my staying close to Ameiko, but my duty lies also with the remainder of the party.  Nothing ill happened this time, but the whole series of events has caused me to think hard about my duty to Ameiko and my duty to the rest of the party.

And then they found a small, purple hairedo person who hesitantly identified himself as Zosimus.  He was an alchemist-for-hire that was now an alchemist-with-no-employer, thanks to the hobgoblins.  All he really wanted, at this point, was to survive getting out of the Spirit Forest.  His abilities in dealing with potions (and other things contained by flasks) seems uncanny.  It would seem he’ll be joining us for at least part of our journey.  He gave Qatana a flask of cure light wounds. and she seemed to take a shine to him.

I suppose that because he’s a purple haired gnome, he seems less threatening than the mysterious Dasi.  But while it’s taken some time for us to warm to Dasi, Zos (as he told us we could call him) seems to be more readily accepted. Maybe it’s his small stature – he’s what, maybe three feet high?? – but I mean, c’mon, the man needed a shielded and armored wagon to do his work safely.  How can that not seem threatening?

Oh, and since he IS coming along, his standard-issue-armored-wagon would slow us down if we brought it as-is.  So we’re going to take the rest of today, and a good chunk of tomorrow to improve his undercarriage and make the wagon itself faster (and smoother – judging from Zos’ description of how he works, I suspect this is not a wagon we want jostled around!).

Wealday, 20 Pharast

It had been an uneventful week or so when, around midnight or so, Dasi called out.  Another spirit had appeared and seemed to want to move with Dasi, who was showing off his dance moves in simply eluding the spirit.  His avoidance (and no doubt Ivan’s mass cure light wounds) made it angry, and it eventually turned its attention to Kali – not really a better choice if it was looking for acceptance and flowers.  (Maybe origami flowers …)  Qatana’s use of positive channelling and greyflame finally made it fade away.

Of course this happened during the one two hour period I’m scheduled to sleep each night, so I barely had a chance to wake up, stand up, and grab Suishen before it was all over.  But I don’t think swords are how you defeat these shades anyway.

Sunday, 25 Pharast

This morning started with an interesting question for Miyaro. “How do you move through the Spirit Woods without running into all these spirits?”

You might as well have asked one of us “Why do you have two arms but tend to favor one?”  It was apparent this was a question she’d neither been asked before, nor spent any time pondering on her own.  She finally responded, “I just don’t – they don’t – it hasn’t really been a problem.  I’m known here.”

I don’t know if that question guided her thinking today, but by about midday she had led us to a clearing … an unusually quiet clearing.  The treetops here blocked the sunlight, but a feeling of … restfulness seemed to emanate from it.  What appeared to be a gate marked the entrance to it, while dense underbrush seemed to provide an enclosure around it.  With the sunlight blocked, the clearing was never brighter than twilight during the day.  The gate seemed wide enough to admit the wagons.

It would be unusual for us to stop this early in the day, but the place seemed to be a safe haven in a land where we’d seen none yet.

Qatana, of course, was the first to run to the gate, and suddenly a warrior appeared.  “Hail, travellers” it intoned.

“Hail warrior” responded Qatana.

“Where goes you?”

“Thru the forest, on the way to Minkai” replied Kali.

The warrior seemed unimpressed.  “What is your business?”

“We are just passing through. We have no business in the forest. We seek safe passage.”

“The road to the south, along the river, would serve you better.”

“That road,” said Qatana, “we believe to be controlled by the Oni, and they attack us when they find us.”

The warrior seemed interested again. “Do you oppose the Oni?”

“We actively seek to displace them from Minkai.”

If he could smile, I sensed he would.  But instead he stood aside. “You may enter.”

Once we were in the clearing, I could confirm. It was peaceful.  It was quiet.  It was … hmmm.  Watchful.  Now I was a little nervous – again, I realized we were now trapped.  If we were attacked, how powerful was that warrior?

As if reading my mind, Miyaro offered, “This is a place sacred to the Kami.”  She had been here before and said she found it restful.  So I guessed we were indeed stopping for the day.

As time passed, and the light faded more, I could have sworn I heard faint whisperings or rustlings.  At first it was just me but it didn’t take long before several others noticed it too. Miyaro seemed unconcerned: “The Kami are curious.”  After a while you could actually see the woods move – bits of the surrounding forest were entering the clearing and we were reminded that almost everything in the forest had an associated kami.

And at last, one deigned to speak.

Our statement that we opposed the Oni had drawn a great deal more attention than we’d thought.  The Oni, after all, had been imprisoned here in the Forest before escaping and taking over Minkai.  They had escaped from their ‘prison’ over 150 years ago, but the Kami didn’t really understand how.  By their original arrangement, they were forbidden from entering the place where the Oni lived while they were there, even now that the Oni had broken out they were unable to enter. That meant at least one remained.

They would consider it a favor if we could investigate.  One Kami in particular asked if we might be able to retrieve a bonsai tree that was tied to him – it had been taken by hobgoblins and thought to be at the House of Withered Blossoms – where the Oni used to be.  It is about a day’s travel away.

We are told there are spiders, hobgoblins, and Oni.  What’s not to like?

Moonday, 26 Pharast

We decided to leave the wagons and the non-combatants in the clearing.  Non-combatants included Shalelu and Ameiko and while Shalelu offered no arguments, Ameiko looked like she had something to say.  In the end, though, Suishen had more to say than Ameiko.  He seemed concerned that I would be leaving the heir unprotected, but I pointed out she was NOT unprotected.  In this clearing, the whole of the Kami were prepared to defend, and while many of them may be physically small, collectively they represented quite a power.  Gripe gripe gripe – he kept bringing it up the rest of the day. Twice I almost walked into a tree while arguing with my sword. What has my life become?

We arrived late afternoon.  We were of one mind in that nobody wanted to enter the building in the dark.  We would do a little scouting, sleep inside a hidden rope trick, and approach first thing in the morning. Kali sent an arcane eye out, revealing that there was at least one human-appearing person, and there were spiders around him.  While the eye looked on, he picked one off and ate it.  Ugh.  We found a room full of screens, as well as stairways.  The Oni appeared to be one floor below the top; that is, if the Oni had a spider like form with a huge clump on its back.

The ground floor had front doors made of bronze, but the roof also had a hole.  We figured that entering by the front door would be expected; so we’d enter through the roof via fly and airwalk spells and gain the benefit of surprise.

I’ll tell you this – watches are a lot easier when everyone is inside an extradimensional space.  The plants surrounding and covering the House of Withered Blossom seem to flower, fruit, and reset each night.  The smell in the morning was both pleasant and unpleasant … definitely distinctive.