Sunday, Arodus 12, 4712 morning
Kalsgard

Back when Kali and I were kids we used to stay up all night, scuttling through the dark alleyways of Sandpoint in pursuit of what we used to call “adventure.” It is not nearly as enjoyable as it was back then, and the excitement of pulling an “all-nighter” has been mostly replaced by drudgery, stress, and exhaustion.

After crashing Asvig’s party, watching him die in a fountain of blood, confronting his wife, learning how to kayak, sneaking aboard Snori Stoneye’s funeral barge, battling giant crabs and undead, and fending off an invading squad of ninjas we have had a busy twentyfour hours.

We were not done quite yet, and after updating Fyn on all we had done and seen, we discovered that his friend and our primary source of information, Uksahka was missing.

Okay, there’s another mystery to solve, but it will need to wait until morning… no wait, it already is morning. It’ll need to wait until after we have slept. Of my little friends, only Star still seems keen to go on, and I can hear her constant murmur of vengeance punctuated by an occasional squeak of, “Go for the eyes!”We returned to the caravan and pulled out the more interesting objects we took from Snori’s boat to identify them.

[258] Stoneye’s stone eye: grey sphere ioune stone, which provides immunity to magical aging, and protects against ability penalties caused by aging
[259] winged helm — this item was not identifiable, although it had a faint divination aura and a good alignment
[260] magic eggs: when broken each egg provides 12 seconds (2 rounds) of Fog Cloud, and a single tendril of mist provides access to a Rope Trip sanctuary, but the tendril vanishes after it is used
[261] four potions of Vanish (1 round)

We puzzled over the unidentifiable helmet for a bit, until someone wondered out loud if we ought to wear it to see its effects (or affects). This was a reasonable proposal, but everyone seemed reluctant to put it into practice. A sleepy Badger mumbled, “Oh just put the thing on already so we can go to bed,” and so I did.

The helmet fit nicely, and I felt sure it would offer some much needed protection the next time I was in combat, but my team mates seemed overly worried about me walking about the city with it on.

I hope I can sleep through the bright light of the day and the noise of the city.

Sunday, Arodus 12, 4712 early evening
Kalsgard

Well I needn’t have worried. As soon as my head hit the pillow I was out like a lamp and did not wake up until after the rest of the party.

“Ask for me at the Temple of Shelyn.” This was the last thing Uksaki had said before departing, and so naturally that’s where we needed to start. Along the way Kali spotted the large raven with a red feather, but it flew off before she could react. Soon we had more pressing issues on our minds, because a pair of large earth elementals was demolishing the Temple of Shelyn!

A robed figure was lying face down beside the substantial pile of rubble that was once the temple, and the elementals were pounding the remaining sections of wall that were still standing.

Both Star and Beorn were screaming, “Attack!, and indeed Olmas and Sparna had already moved in. I quickly joined them, although I found myself mostly limited to healing my team mates.

Kali helpfully caught one of the elementals up in a giant blob of water, and pushed it well out of the way, leaving us to face only the one.

Etayne was busy tending to the fallen robed figure, while the rest of us battled the elemental, which gamely fought on until it dropped and seemingly dissolved into the cobblestone street.

Summoned. No big surprise there. We turned our attention to the remaining elemental, and Kali dismissed the water blob spell and then summoned the aid of an archon lantern.

The ensuing fight was fierce, but brief, for the earth elemental vanished in a puff of dust and flinty flakes. No doubt the spell that summoned it had expired.

During the fight Radella had spotted the large red feathered raven perched atop a nearby building. She managed to hit it solidly with an arrow, but it turned to mist and dissolved into the red roof tiles.

The priest, Yin-po, stood near the ruin that was once his temple. He was shaken, but had benefited from the group healing Etayne and I had dispensed during the fight. I thought to ease his distress by pointing out that the temple looked no worse than many of the churches I had seen devoted to Groetus, but Huffy’s fierce whisper of, “Not now!” stopped me.

Most of us already suspected that the earth elementals had been summoned to distract us from finding Uksahka, and with some trepidation we gave Father Yin-po the stone tablet that she had told us to bring to the temple.

“Ah, you seek Uksahka. It is fortunate indeed that she came to us, for we have hidden her in a safe place.” Yin-po led us down a narrow alley to a door which had been smashed open. Yin-po gave a loud gasp and rushed inside, calling out for Uksahka. We joined him, but already knew she had been taken.

Searching the room we found two clues: a large black feather and small poison dart. Yin-po thought the feather was from a Tien daemon, an Oni. Etayne thought the poison on the dart was extracted from plant called blue winnis. “The poison is used to paralyze and not kill,” she said.

We now seemed at have reached a dead end. We had no guide for our trip across the Crown of the World. We had no local local informant. We had nothing.

“Why not go to the Rhimerunners Guild and just hire a guide?” I asked. We suspected the guild was behind or involved in much of what had happened to us since arriving in Kalsgard, but it seemed like a direct approach was all that was left to try.

The others agreed, but before we could leave I heard someone softly calling my name. “Hmm,” I thought, “my little friends are usually not so subtle.” I then realized the voice was coming from my pack.

It was the winged helmet I had tried on earlier! He said his name was Helgarval, and that he was a servant of Desna who had been summoned from her plane to serve a powerful cleric. His master had died, leaving him stranded in our world.

We had obtained it… him from Snori’s boat, where he had gone to investigate an evil organization known as the Frozen Shadows. He suspected that this group of ne’er do wells was working for the Oni of the Five Storms, a powerful band of daemons who in the not too distant past had had become interested in Kalsgard.

Snori Stoneye was a major player in the Frozen Shadows, at least until he became undead, and his home served as their headquarters. Unfortunately some of the city elites were members of either the Rhimerunners or the Frozen Shadows. A man named Silverscore was head of the guild, and a nasty user of magic. His familiar was a large raven with a red feather.

Helgarval was not familiar with Suishen, Ameiko’s family sword for which we were searching, but he had heard talk among the guild members about moving an heirloom to the Frozen Shadows’s headquarters.

He seemed content to work with us, and so I placed him on my head where I imagine he will prove most useful.

We made our way into the Jade Quarter and over to the Rhimerunner’s Guild, but it was closed. We quickly formulated an alternative plan. Radella and Ivan would sneak into the guild and snoop around for whatever interesting and useful information they could find.

Kali and I waited in the shadows nearby while the two snuck up to the rear door, picked the lock, and slipped inside. The rest of our party awaited new of their progress from the comfort of a nearby inn.

Some minutes had passed when the rear door opened again, and Radella and Ivan escorted someone out of the building. It was Uksahka, who had been locked inside the guild hall since she had been kidnapped. I wrapped my cloak around her, and we waited while Ivan and Radella snuck back in to see what else they could find. Kali sent Nihali to the inn with a status update.

Uksahka said that while she was captive she heard a number of people talking, and they had said they were going to take her to their headquarters, a place called Ravenscrag, to be with her friend, whom she guessed must have been Ulf.

Presently Radella and Ivan crept back out from the building and urged us to silently move away. We picked up the rest of the gang at the inn, where they had been having a little adventure of their own (from what I could tell it involved a dog, true love, and a lot of alcohol), and returned to the caravan.

Once we were all gathered safely back at our camp Radella brough out what she and Ivan had found: a large chest that contained no small amount of gold bullion, but more importantly it held important guild documents including an expenses ledger.

It seemed that Snori had sold his home, Ravenscrag, to the guild three years earlier, and they had spent a lot of money since then on “development costs.”

Helgarval volunteered that Ravenscrag was a day’s ride on horseback to the south, and had been so named because only ravens could access it.

Koya looked surprised at the helmet as it spoke, and we introduced the two. She smiled and said, “Hello little angel, it is an honor to meet a servant of Desna.” Helgarval fluttered from my head for a moment and transformed into a small winged humanoid, and bowing replied, “The honor is mine.” Spivey too seemed interested, although unusually shy for having just met a fellow exile from Desna’s home plane.

It is too late in the day to set off for Ravenscrag, and several of us have plans for things to do in the city tomorrow.

Moonday, Arodus 13, 4712 afternoon
Kalsgard

While the others went in search of equipment and supplies, I returned to the Fire Quarter and found an inn in a poorer part of the district. There I ordered lunch from 60 and hired out a table and a serving boy to assist me spread the word of Groetus while handing out soup and bread to the masses. It went well, and some of townsfolk actually appeared to be listening to me as they ate. Or maybe they always have that dull vacant stare..

Soon it was time to meet up back at the caravan and arrange for horses for our trip to Ravenscrag.