Wealday, 12 Rova

I knew I had been tracking this giant-mage for two days now, and I could sense I was getting closer. The signs were fresher and every now and then I imagined I could actually smell his stench. Sparna was right; you really could smell them if you knew what you were … smelling for. There’d been no sign he knew he was being tracked.

I crept slowly to a clearing. At the far side, there was a small fire, and there looked to be something cooking over it. Perhaps today would be the battle. The others were too far behind to give them time to catch up, but with the element of surprise this was very doable. But first, scout, always scout. Shalelu had certainly taught me that much. I began to carefully, silently circle the clearing, searching for traps or additional enemies.

About 3/4 of the way around, I came across a track too small to be that of any giant. Did he have minions? I had not observed any before today. I studied the track. It was relatively fresh; probably only a couple of hours old, and it too headed cautiously towards the clearing.

Curious, I followed this new track. The small boots could be that of a true elf, or perhaps a small human or half elf. But there should be no others in this area. A disturbed area seemed to indicate a scuffle … did the giant now hold a prisoner? That would complicate things.

I was startled by a booming, stilted voice in Common.

“Ah, you have arrived,” the voice echoed from the far edge of the clearing. “I felt it appropriate to wait.”

Was he talking to me? I had been silent; there’s no way …

“You can bear witness to my success!” I could see now that the giant was indeed facing my direction, and seemed to be holding a struggling, bound figure.

It seemed the element of surprise was lost. From the cover of the woods, I replied, “You will not have success unless you kill ME. And that shall not happen tonight. I will be there when you rest, and I will be there when you sleep. You will die of exhaustion when you find you cannot adequately –”

“Stop your prattle and view your defeat yourself!” As the bound figure swung behind the fire, and the fire’s light shone upon it, it’s face was evident.

It was Ameiko.

That couldn’t be! She should not be here! She .. she … sigh. She was fully capable of moving as quickly and silently as myself. Again, the lure of adventure had taken ahold of her and now in a moment of carelessness …

“I will be rewarded richly for this!” he laughed, and with his free hand, he swung a mighty, spiked club that landed with a sickening, dull thud on Ameiko’s head. She immediately stopped struggling. He laughed again. “Despite the magic at my disposal, there’s something so pleasant and visceral about a good stout tree! I am not so skilled at this as some so I apologize if this will take several attempts!” And he swung again, and there was a dull crack this time. “Ah, that was much better!” he said, grinning. I leapt forward from my place of hiding and
And awoke in a cold sweat. At my side was Suishen, and I was still in my mithril breastplate, which was my standard sleeping garb these days. I was wet, cold, and uncomfortable.

For the last three nights I had had variants of the same nightmare. My responsibility. My failure. In every one of them, Ameiko had been trying to escape my custody like a child from a parent. She was working against me, not with me.

It was still relatively early in the night, but this needed to happen now.

I nodded at this hour’s guard as I walked over to where Ameiko slept. I moved her blade just out of reach before gently waking her, and smiled slightly as her instinctive grab did not find the expected blade. Her eyes narrowed. “Olmas?”

“I would like us to talk,” I said softly. “Alone.”

“NOW?”

With a sad sigh, I replied, “Yes. Now is best if we wish it to be private.”

She looked at my face, nodded, and arose. Together, we moved to a place well within the camp but still away from other sleepers.

“Ameiko,” I began, “I completely understand what it is like to have expectations of you that you did not set yourself. As a half elf, it has been a large part of my existence. But what I have come to realize is that those moments require not simply introspection nor dismissal, but instead, discussion and compromise.”

“My, Olmas,” she said almost mockingly. “You’re talking like some kind of diplomat now. Vying for a position in my court already?”

“Please. I am serious. Until the past few months, I knew you only through Shalelu. I had met you a few times, but I didn’t really know you. I knew of you more than I knew you.

“Then came the revelation that you were heir to a legacy nobody in our corner of the world suspected to exist, least of all you. You do not feel like royalty and you do not wish to be treated as royalty. And yet you find yourself in that role, and with a giant bullseye painted on your back for good measure.”

“Tell me about it,” she almost snapped back. “It’s an incredible shock and change for me. I never pictured myself living up to the expectations of my own father,” and her eyes drifted a bit, “let alone an entire empire.” Her eyes focused again, and she continued. “I need to surround myself with advisors and protectors I trust already.” Looking directly at me, she said, “I’m glad to have you as one of those, Olmas.”

I gestured back towards my belongings. “A few weeks ago, that sword came into my possession. It would seem it chose me as much as I chose it. It bestows upon me a … I will stop short of calling it an obligation but instead, a responsibility.” I took a deep breath.

“However, members of my order take responsibility very seriously. I find myself needing to protect and defend a person who has, so far as I know, never found themselves needing protection or needing to be defended. Someone who feels much more at home fighting for their friends than having their friends fight for them. Someone who abhors being dependent.

“And yet here we are.” I fiddled nervously with my hands.

“You represent both an office, and a person. I want to see you survive to fill that office, but I wish to do so without driving away the person I am growing to know. We can joke about ‘your highness’ and ‘my protector’ but we truly need to have a way that I can communicate to you my concern and you can communicate to me your desires without either getting angry with the other.

“When the day comes when you are truly worried, and truly need help, I want you to be able to tell me that, knowing that I am only there to help and that it does not diminish you, in my eyes, as the brave soul you already are.”

Ameiko paused a moment before replying. “Thank you for your service, oh protector of mine.” As my face fell and I prepared to reply, she laughed. “Yes, I understand well enough that when we are done with this journey we will need to be more regal and watch our demeanor when in public.” She paused again. “Will you then serve me as my personal guard or is it your quest simply to deliver me there?”

“I believe,” I replied slowly, “that that will be your decision, not mine. When you ascend, we should revisit this question.” I smiled at her, and she gave a goofy grin back.

For the first time in weeks, I slept well the rest of the night.

as written by the cavalier Olmas Lurecia, himself.

Wealday, 15 Arodus

Rested, and slightly healed, we quickly discussed what our next steps would be. It was clear the group had a variety of ideas about how to proceed, so we focused on more immediate problems: we had (unexpectedly) rescued Ameiko, and (expectedly) Ulf. The original mission was to return after rescuing Ulf, and nobody disagreed on that.

There was a brief discussion that then focused on what to do with the growly thing behind the cold door. It was evil, we knew, but it wasn’t clear if that meant we should release it, leave it, or kill it. It didn’t seem we’d actually come to a firm conclusion yet when Qatana boldly walked up to the door and began a conversation.

The creature inside had been captured by Kimindatsu, but other than incarceration, not much else had happened. It seemed encouraged to find we’d killed the mage, and offered it was a wolf. We had a brief side conversation about wolves that could talk and how dangerous they may be before Qatana resumed and learned that cold is comfortable for this wolf, and that the reason it got captured was that “any idiot can get a lucky shot once”.

Well, we’ve certainly lived that life.

We concluded, not unanimously, that we would release the creature, but first would take Lute “out of harm’s way” (that is, out of sight so he wouldn’t know). Anavaru took him to a “safe” room which would not be on the direct path out of the building that we presumed/hoped the creature would use.

Finally, Radella unlocked the cold door (the necessary key was on the keyring she had.) The rest of us, but for Ana, stood nervously nearby.

Out came Skygni. He was not just a wolf; he was a HUGE wolf. A “winter wolf”, we were to learn later. Qatana proudly held Kimindatsu’s head aloft, and Skygni sniffed it. “There are fresh bodies in the adjoining room if you are hungry”, said Qatana. I was a bit startled at that, but upon reflection, it did seem practical. We had no use for them and they had been killed in a fair (heh) battle. I’d have had more problem with that if we had left them to be killed or had killed them for that purpose. In addition, bodies that had been gnawed upon would further muddy the trail we were leaving behind us, which would only help.

We told him we would be travelling north in a few days, and he thought about it and said he may meet us on the road. We then parted ways.

Helgarval was positively livid, if it is possible for a celestial being to be livid, but seemed a little taken aback, and calmer, when I pointed out we had cleverly tricked evil into helping us do good.

Qatana put some wards on the obvious entrances to dissuade any unwelcome visitors in our absence. In discussing things with Lute, it became apparent that covering our tracks and the future of Ravenscrag was not going to be a problem at all. He intended to go to the King and rat out the guild, demonstrating all “he had to do” to get free and regain control. If our part in this were to come up at all, it would be as, at most, some nameless mercenaries he’d hired to assist in the cleanup.

No mention was made of the treasure room, and Lute did not ask about any remaining things of value. The “compensation” was left unspoken and uncounted.

For the moment, anyway. Most of us were already thinking about what special, probably expensive, items we would need for the mission over the crown of the world. Radella had given a very rough estimate of each person’s take on what we’d found to be in the neighborhood of over 10,000gp.

It was late, so we slept, knowing, for once, that we were not likely to be awakened by our guards and find ourselves in peril.

Oathday, 16 Arodus

Ivan suggested we simply all float down to the valley below, but several of us felt we needed to test the rickety stairs and determine that it was not a hazard to future owners. The stairs did not prove to be a horrible problem – they were sturdy enough while still looking rickety 🙂 – but the real problem was the insect infestation. Namely, two giant wasp-like creatures which were living in a crevice in the cliff face, and which seemed to consider us as potential food. Etayne labeled them “spider grabbers” and while collectively we exceeded eight legs, the creatures apparently were either quite flexible in their food choice or could not count very well.

Lute quickly asked to be floated down, and Kali complied. He was SO done with the stairs.

Of more importance, however, was a more personal interaction. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Ameiko pull her weapon and prepare to move forward. Even though my companions were in peril and my place is alongside them, paramount to that is the protection of Ameiko. I stepped between her and the danger and said, “Let me handle this, Ameiko.”

Her vaguely mocking response was to look at me and say, “defend me if you wish” as she moved past me. I hurried after her and, although the others had done most of the damage already, landed the killing blow upon the last spider grabber. I whirled to face her, angry, and she smirked. “Well done, brave warrior” she said without a trace of a smile. I glared at her and said, “Your will, my grace” and was pleased to see her flinch and glare.

But only momentarily. We can’t continue this way. In one way, this is exactly the sort of responsibility and duty I’ve been seeking, and in another way it so NOT what I want to do to/for Ameiko. We will need to talk. I do not wish to antagonize her, but she also has a new responsibility and it will take all my tact to try to introduce that idea to her.

Meanwhile, inside the crevice we found a grim sight. An elf lay there unconscious, with dozens of little holes in him. It was apparent that although he was technically still alive, he was nothing but food for the little grubs that had been laid inside him. It would take major magic to rid him of them without costing him his life. Ivan bore the sad task of hastening him to his destiny.

We reached the horses without further incident, and estimated another day’s journey to return to Kalsgard.

Fireday, 17 Arodus

During the return trip, I tried to have that conversation with Ameiko. It did not go well, in part because I had not counted on much of the rest of the party eagerly watching both our discomforts. Ameiko got defensive, and I got angry, and Suishen threw in a not-so-helpful comment here and there and the end result was, well, at least we did not physically hurt each other. But I felt, in reality, we got farther apart. We will need to work on this more.

We estimate we will need one to two weeks to accumulate gear for our trip north. We know now that we each have 13,255gp of additional wealth with which we can outfit ourselves. For me, this translates to:

First, I paid off the loan from Kali. Since I believe she might actually be offended were I to offer any extra as a token of appreciation, I have instead made a small donation to the temple of Shelyn, to be distributed and used at her discretion. She seemed to like that.

Second, I have been restricted in this chainmail. It has served me well, but now with sufficient funds, I went and bought myself a +1 mithril breastplate. It affords the same protection but is much much lighter.

Third, I realize that the stronger I am, the more dangerous I am. I bought a belt of giant strength +2.

Fourth, I’ve been wearing an amulet of natural armor +1 that we acquired from our foes. I formally purchased that from the group.

Fifth, Suishen will protect me from the elements so long as I have it near or on me, but Kasimir will have no such protection. I paid Kali 500gp to enchant his halter to provide similar protection for him.

Lastly, I feel I’ve been lucky more than I have a right to be. To insure that streak continues 🙂 I bought a cloak of resistance +1.

Later this day we visited Finn, and displayed Suishen (who mercifully was silent). He identified it as the missing sword (unnecessarily 🙂 ) and it seemed to provide a bit of closure for him to know it had been retrieved.

Etayne also took time today to announce, with little ceremony, that she needed to leave us. She has had troubling dreams that she believes may be portends, and she needs to investigate. This will hit us hard, as she has been a strong force for healing. This leaves us only Qatana to rescue us in battle – tactics will have to change and I suspect more potions will need to be purchased.

Starday, 18 Arodus

Qatana was able to Speak with Dead to talk to Kimindatsu and verify that she had killed Silverscore, and also got some noncommittal answers about the Oni. Hard to tell if that’s all she knew, or she was intentionally trying to be vague (the spell only compels truthfulness, not completeness).

Helgarval took this opportunity to celestially exclaim “my work is done here!” and leave us. Since I got the impression he was trapped on this plane I’m not sure where he’ll go, but it’s not like we can stop him. Perhaps we’ll run into him again at some point.

Sunday, 26 Arodus

We are in Turvik, and it is time for Etayne to take leave. She has left us with

2 potions of water walk
5 potions of CLW
2 potions of CMW
[118] 1 wand of identify
2 potions of lesser restoration
[204] 1 scroll of CMW
[214] 1 scroll of remove curse
[207] 1 wand of inflict moderate wounds

A great celebration (well, great for the town of Turvik) was had, and she will be missed.

It is the end of summer now, and we are considered adventurous by most in the town. The last caravan left two months ago to avoid the winter, while we intend to embrace it.

Moonday, 27 Arodus

Today we departed and left what will constitute civilization behind. Life will not get any easier from this day forward.

Toilday, 18 Rova

Skygni appeared today. Helgarval notwithstanding, we seem to have made a friend, or at least an ally.

Fireday, 21 Rova

Today we discussed routes. Ulf mentioned that we could take a “shortcut” straight north, but the price would be a difficult crossing at the river later. We judged the risk to the caravan to be too great and chose to take the longer, but ultimately safer route.

Ulf also mentioned we were entering a valley where, by legend, giants come to die. I have no trouble with dead ones, but I hope any not yet dead will just finish their task quietly.

Moonday, 24 Rova

While minding our own business (!) we suddenly heard a booming voice in the air: “I am Kjaelrulff! Why do you bother the spirit guardians of the giant lands?”

Qatana, as is her style, stopped and asked why they needed to know, and what they intended to do about it.

The voice replied, “The spirits will rise up and destroy you!”

About this time, somebody with detect magic announced that, well, they detected magic. The voice continued, “There are 1000 giant spirits here!”

Qatana asked, “If you’re a spirit, why must you use magic to speak?”

“Oh confound it!” and bounding over a hill came two wolves. They were large enough they might be winter wolves like Skygni. By the way, where was he now? Would he be upset about our fighting the wolves?
We paused.

First wolf attacked Qatana. If this went unanswered, we would need to defend ourselves and we could not do that without blood being shed. But Skygni arrived then and cleared the air by savagely attacking the wolf himself. Then Kjaelrulff himself appeared – a live, not dead giant – and cast an obscuring mist over part of our group. Ivan promptly dispelled it, much to Kjaelrulff’s obvious displeasure.

A magic-wielding giant is unusual, but not unheard of. With Skygni helping to occupy one of the wolves, we had no real trouble dispatching them. Kasimir and I waded into battle, and did not do as well as I might have hoped. Sometimes the fates do not smile upon you. Ameiko, thankfully, did not participate.

When all was said and done, we were left with an old looking, ragged, giant (dead) and two thin, underfed wolves (dead). I guess everyone needs to earn a living but this “waylaying travellers” gig did not pan out well for Kjaelrulff. We recovered

[381] wand of elemental touch (12)
[382] great axe, badly rusted
[383] gold plated astrolabe

We noticed faint tracks to the east. Following them led us to, I suppose, his home. There was a broken wagon there, and a corpse that was pretty well preserved in the cold. Ulf, unfortunately, recognized him as a fellow guide. We found a scroll tube [384] containing a magic map, which would make travelling through the area a little easier.

The battle helped break up the monotony, but you couldn’t help feel that life was very hard here.

Fireday, 28 Rova

We have been travelling through an area generally called the “Bear Leg Lakes”. Here there was the occasional grouping of cabins, as this was known to be a good hunting and fishing area. This time of year, however, the cabins were empty, even though Ulf assured us there was still fish and game available.

And he was right – we were able to actually increase our provisions a little as we passed through this area.

Starday, 29 Rova

Today we crossed the Taraska River. Although this was the “easier” crossing, it nevertheless took us a full two hours to get the entire caravan across. The river was not frozen, so it took some care, but we did well and didn’t lose anybody or anything.

Moonday, 1 Lamashan

Nehali reported we are being tailed by a pack of dire wolves. While the advance notice would allow us to not be taken by surprise, after consulting with Skygni we decided it might be easier to just not encounter them at all. By choosing our route carefully and not presenting ourselves as a target, we encouraged them to pass us by.

Fireday, 5 Lamashan

A most peculiar and grisly sight. We came across a stack – and I mean actually, neatly, stacked – of human corpses. They were frozen, and didn’t appear particularly recent although they had not been fed upon by anything and were, of course, frozen solid. Anavaru looked them over and said that something with impressive claws had torn them up. Some sort of battle had happened here, but then the corpses were stacked afterwards.

I can’t imagine this means well for us.

Starday, 6 Lamashan

Today we saw a large, flying thing off in the distance. It appeared to glisten silver at times, but did not approach us. It may be a dragon. It came from the north, seemed to parallel us for a while, and then flew off to the east.

as written by the cavalier Olmas Lurecia, himself.

Wealday, 15 Arodus

Having picked up Suishen, I felt more powerful, but I also felt a greater responsibility.  While I’d become adept with the great sword, Suishen just seemed to fit comfortably right into my hand.  I felt like life had just gotten a bit more challenging for those that opposed us.

We returned to the stairs we’d found earlier, with Radella and Ivan leading the way. Radella spotted a trip wire, and even though she pointed it out, my feet betrayed me and I tripped over it. That made some bells ring nearby, and we knew we’d just alerted our presence to somebody.

And sure enough, from around the corner we heard noises.  A dozen zombies started lurching toward us.  The good news is, Suishen cut through them easily, although they were giving as good as they took, too, and I was bleeding in several places.   But then, beyond the zombies, we saw a figure gesturing.  It vaguely resembled a troll, but was using a crossbow and, apparently, magic too!

It seemed amused until we mowed through the zombies, Ivan shot at it, and Radella walked up and smacked it just as Kali summoned a lantern archon.  This seemed to discourage it some, and it suddenly created a 20′ deep pit in front of it and moved off down the corridor. I asked Suishen to cast airwalk before Qatana healed us all a little.  I was still pretty bloody though.

Ivan held onto me and I airwalked over the pit.  Qatana cast fly and she and Kali went over, and the archon floated over easily, of course. Etayne still had a little fly left in her, so she also moved over the pit.  With the rope that Ivan had carried over, Radella was able to swing over the pit.  I felt I needed to take a moment to down a potion of healing. Etayne threw a little burning gaze the way of the troll, and Qatana whacked it with her flail. It looked oretty bad as it slumped down in a corner.

However, I had noticed four statues with Tien origins and twisted grimaces on their faces near the door the troll had run to.  When Qatana ran up to thwack the troll, two of these came to life and advanced on her beating her badly. Quickly, she displayed her raven figurine, and the statues, thankfully, returned to their stations.

The troll-thing carried

[330] fugitive bomb
[331] wand of undead control [11]
[332] MW heavy crossbow, 19 bolts
[333] heavy pick

After a brief discussion, we decided to inspect the unopened doors behind us before opening the double doors that the Tien figures guarded. Returning, we found the pit gone now.  One door had boxes of things on shelves, in a vaguely orderly manner.  There was a slightly sickening odor in the room, but Qatana took [334] 6 bottles of Korvosan wine as a trophy.

The next room was locked and trapped, but Radella was able to disable it.  Upon entering the room, we knew we’d found our reward.  There were stacks of coins and bars – so much that all we could do was estimate what was there. However, one trunk was radiating magic, so we went there first.  As we pulled out the items inside, especially those radiating magic, we slowly came to the conclusions that we might be looking at Ulf’s possessions.  If he were still alive, then he must lie further down the corridor somewhere.

As we continued to pull things out of the chest, our happiness started to ebb. When we pulled out the mithril rapier and the gold signet ring, we stopped and looked at each other.  These were Ameiko’s things.  She must be captured too.  The search took on a new urgency.

But there was nothing left to find.  She must lay behind those double doors.

We quickly but efficiently made our plans. When we go in, you go this way; I’ll go that way. You be ready with this; I’ll be prepared with that.  Before we entered, I asked Suishen to give me see invisible, because I had a hunch that if Silverscore was behind this door, he/she/it wouldn not make it easy.  For the same reason, I activated the flame on the sword.

We burst in the door with the Ring of the Ram to the sight of 8 ninjas and a human. The ninjas attacked immediately, as Silverscore hid behind a screen.  A ninja downed a potion and became invisible …. but not to me!  I called him out, even as Silverscore did the same thing.  A dire bat appeared as glitter fell from nowhere and revealed Silverscore standing where I’d pointed. I wasted no time in taking out ninjas even while I kept my eye on Silverscore. They were vicious from a distance with their poison weapons, but when they were standing next to you they were not so tough.

She finally assumed what is her actual form,  Kimandatsu, but my vision and ample glitterdust kept her visible for all to see.  She had a nasty cone of cold for me, and although I was close to death I sensed victory and kept fighting.  My perserverance was rewarded a moment later when she finally fell.

We picked off her body

[368] wand of flame arrow [9]
[369] scale mail (tien)
[370] +1 tetsubo
[371] MW Composite longbow, 18 arrows
[372] lesser bracers of archery
[373] ring of 3 keys

We also picked up something that looked valuable: [374] 2 silver braziers.  Also in the room were

[375] 6 fugitive grenades
[376] 9 potions
[377] 16 tindertwigs
[378] 8 jade statues
[379] MW thieves tools
[380] 8 ninja suits
8 dagger
8 MW short bow
8 MW siangam

Radella found a secret door, a corridor behind that, and two more doors.  One radiated cold, and appeared to have evil behind it.  We heard a low growl.

The other was locked, but the keyring was our friend.  Inside, it was dark but we could make out two figures lying on the ground.  There was a small pond, and it too radiated evil.

“I will go in and put myself between the pond and the people,” I told Ivan. And “they” were Ameiko and Ulf, as it turned out.  The creatures that came out of the pond reminded me of large frogs, and lights came out of their eyes which could blind people (they blinded none in our party, however.)  I and the others ultimately slew the frog creatures … safety first!

Both Ameiko and Ulf are dazed and injured, so we are pausing a second to help them recover.

as written by the cavalier Olmas Lurecia, himself.

Wealday, 15 Arodus

Downstairs we did not find bright colors and spacious rooms. Is it any surprise that it got darker, and mustier, and .. well, what would you expect from rough hewn rock? We were descending into the mountain, and our level of caution went up correspondingly.

Qatana seemed to have a high energy level. She aggressively made her way to the front, and, glancing at Sparna, I acknowledged it was my turn to look after Qatana, and moved to the front as well. The stairway down, and the passage we found at the bottom were both narrow, allowing no more than one person to pass comfortably.

As I mentioned, the walls here were carved from rock, and were apt to be moist. Occasionally there would be active drips, and in the distance we could actually hear running water. The passage opened into a chamber with a door leading off to the north, and another door to the west. Opening the former, we found a corridor with a stream running through it, and a plank that might be big enough to cross it on the far shore. Opening the other, we observed pool of water plus a small waterfall from the southern wall. Intriguingly, a small dry shelf of land was on the far side of the pool, maybe 25 or 30 feet away, and there was a door there, along with a small cask or barrel.

Etayne surprised us by simply flying over to the other side, but when she tried to retrieve the plank, she found it was too heavy for her, even with her fly spell. Before we could come up with a plan B, we were inspired by the appearance of a troll on the opposite side. “What going on here?” said the troll in Giant. There was a pause, before Sparna loudly replied, “Prisoner transfer!” And he waved one of the raven figures we’d lifted from the ninjas. “Orders from Runecaster.”

The troll thought hard – really hard, because he was a troll and that didn’t come naturally to him – and finally concluded there was nothing going on here worth getting in trouble over. “No want trouble” he said, in fact, and easily picked up the plank and laid it across the stream.

Looking to the right we saw a room with a huge furnace on one side, and a huge pile of coal on the other. There were four trolls there altogether. Sparna got that dwarven-joker look on his face, and with as innocent a look as he could muster, called into the room, “Do you need more coal?” The troll replied quickly, loudly, and just a mite angrily, “NO MORE COAL!” I saw Sparna quietly smirk.

To the left, the door was locked. With the still suspicious trolls looking on, we pulled out the keys we got from upstairs, but none of them opened this lock. Radella sighed, bent over it for a bit, and suddenly the door slowly swung open.

The room was large, and nicely decorated in wood paneling and art. The ceiling here had to be 20′ high. We entered the dimly lit room, peering at the tapestries, before Ana called out, “it’s a trap!” Clinging to almost unnoticeable handholds on the walls, were six darkclad figures. A couple of them made a throwing motion, and there was a small flash and a big noise as each hit the floor. It appeared from their gestures that perhaps both Kali and Etayne had been close enough to be deafened by the blasts, hopefully temporarily.

With the attackers all being above us initially, arrows were the answer of choice. Ivan, as always, was firing arrows faster than anybody I’ve seen and making them stick too. One of those who’d dropped a thunderegg was among the first to die, at the end of Etayne’s spear. Once on the ground, these ninjas were neither well armored nor particularly hardy, and swords became the weapon of choice. Radella, Anavaru, Ivan and myself all racked up a kill in dispatching them.

However, not before they yelled for help from the trolls. And just when we thought we’d removed them as a problem … But trolls are large creatures. It turns out that the double doors leading into this room made a very nice bottleneck so that we didn’t have to deal with more than one at a time. Don’t get me wrong – the first troll totally destroyed the doors, but had less luck on the door frame. Still, for that strategy to work, we needed at least two of our party to engage them right at the door. That fell to myself first, and eventually Anavaru and Qatana (!).

Kali helped with another aqueous orb like she’d used on the earth elementals a few days ago. That made the troll a little helpless and at risk of drowning, but with others waiting behind it, it wouldn’t be particularly helpful to move the disabled troll around as she had with the earth elementals.

After a short time, Qatana quietly moved away from the trolls, and strategically went searching for other potential enemies in the room, just in case we killed all the trolls, I guess. Being the guy in front had drawn a fair amount of blood from me, but glancing over my shoulder at one point, I was a bit surprised to see Qatana listening at and trying other doors in the room. “Noooo” I roared, and Sparna, now helping me with the trolls, looked at me, surprised. I nodded to my back, and as he saw Qatana opening a door, he grimaced and nodded at me.

But we were both engaged with the trolls at this point, and couldn’t step back without letting them in the room.

I think it was Kali who reminded us that it was not legend: trolls needed to be burned to prevent them from regenerating. Etayne obliged by bestowing alchemist fire upon our first kill, and Kali was able to throw some acid splashes too.

Qatana had cleverly uncovered a secret door, but then left Radella to find the ninja hidden behind it. How does she do that? Anyway, at that particular point, I happened to be troll-free so I rushed over to help. I managed to get a good blow in … only to have her disappear. Crap. Invisibility. She reappeared quickly, though, and surprised me as she cut me up – and apparently poisoned me (again). This time, though, Qatana quickly cast delay poison on me so the damage was minimal.

For the first time in several minutes, the dungeon was quiet.

We took inventory. The female ninja carried several useful items.

[300] vial (poison – stronger than the deathblade poison from before)
[301] masterwork dagger (Tien style, blue metal blade) poison residue
[302-304] shuriken, engraved with image of erupting volcano
earthfire, +1, flaming burst – DC15 reflex or catch on fire
[305] blowgun
[306] 10 darts
[307] 5 plain shuriken
[308] black body suit – MW, +2 AC, +5 stealth
[309] MW Thieves tools

Searching in the room with the coal bin, Ivan and Sparna found

[310] 42 gold armbands
[311] 100 amethyst in a bag

(How the trolls came into the possession of 42 armbands with no evidence of 42 arms is left as an exercise for the reader.)

Lastly, the monks that attacked us left

[312] 10 thunderstones
[313] 6 MW spears
[314] 6 amulets of finely polished bones, found to be +1 natural armor
[315] 4 nice jade raven statuettes

In the room where the ninja had been hidden, there was an ornamental screen [316] and a small leather trunk [317]. Inside the trunk we found

[318] ornate blowgun (jade and lapus lazuli)
[319] 300gp of Tien coins
[320] a scroll- decree to commandeer resources within 2 mi of Kjelsgaard
[321] disguise kit

While we’d been battling monks, ninjas, and trolls, Kali had shoved Lute into a safe room. Now that there was no immediate danger, Lute told us more of his story.

Lute was elected to the RimeRunners Guild council fairly recently, but Silverscore is a daunting political opponent. A young woman joined and was friends with Silverscore, but she died on an excursion (trading voyage to the south .. storm at sea, apparently). Kimindatsu was her name, and this happened within the last year.

Although grateful for our assistance, Lute decided, after having seen the type of people we were dealing with, that he might be better off on his own. I can’t say he might not be right. We escorted him to the cloakroom we’d originally hidden in, and left him with two fugitive bombs and one vanish potion.

Returning to the basement, we again saw ravens congregating on the roof. Left me with a bit of a creepy feeling. I really want to put an end to the aerial surveillance.

And perhaps that distraction left me a little less vigilant than normal, as the air crackled with electricity just before a bolt of electricity ran through our group, hitting most of us. I noticed a flash of red among black feathers again, overhead, and hit it quickly with an arrow.

But Ivan had been waiting for just such a moment, and in a flash he’d pulled out his arrow of Greater Magical Beast slaying, nocked it, and shot at the figure. He hit it square, and it paused for a moment before falling ungracefully from the roof to the ground before us. The ravens on the roof scattered haphazardly.

There was a magic band around its leg, which we later identified as a bird-sized ring of protection +1 [322]. It was bestowed, of course, upon Nihali. Nihali, for her part, remarked that the dead bird was “raven, but it’s wrong.”

Returning to the basement, we continued our exploration – this time as a supportive group rather than simply as a couple of individuals unlocking and opening doors. I had the lead, trying to stay ahead of Qatana. We entered one room where we found what appeared to be a circle of protection drawn on the floor in chalk. I heard a noise from under the bed, and the strangest sight emerged.

Two giant (not giant-sized, but mpnstrously bigger than that) hands crawled out from under the bed. The nearest figure to them was Radella, so they moved to attack her. A bizarre engagement proceeded as a giant hand attempted to attack Radella. It was surprisingly strong and quick, and did draw blood, even without a weapon. The other hand behaved similarly, and had similar success, but it was when Anavaru struck one that it displayed a deplorable capability: upon successfully being cut by Ana’s sword, it emitted a viscous fluid like pus, and Anavaru fell away, wretching.

This added a new element to the battle. Each cut could render the attacker helpless. But they certainly weren’t going to fall over and die on their own, so I pressed on the attack. Unfortunately, during this encounter, the most I was able to do was be grabbed by a giant hand briefly before breaking free. The hands were eventually dealt with, but not without a surprising amount of damage to ourselves. Qatana was able to channel a fair amount of healing back to us.

We suspected this might be Silverscore’s room, but other than finding a surprising amount of research papers and notes, the room seemed a disappointment … until Radella fiddled with a decorative piece of the bed and found a compartment holding [324] 3 scrolls of magic circle against evil, and [325] a vial of powdered silver, roughly sufficient for 3 circles.

Etayne, for her part, took the opportunity to collect a sample of pus from what was left of the now motionless giant hands.

Looking at Qatana’s map, we had hoped this room might have an entrance, secret or otherwise, to the room behind the door in the room with the waterfall. Kali had summoned an earth elemental, and in its waning moments, it examined beyond the walls of this room. That revealed there was no entrance from this room, so we returned to the waterfall room.

There seeming to be no other way about it, Qatana tied a rope to her and waded through the pool. The water did not crest her head, and she came out near the door, where there was also a small barrel. There was room for one more before the door, so Radella made a similar journey.

The barrel, it seems, was a cask. And the cask held … apparently some fairly decent sake! And in discovering that, they found, of all things, a key hidden beneath the cask. A key which unlocked the door before them.

Qatana opened the door. Inside there was a chamber with a tiny well in the floor and a bunch of fungi growing on the ceiling and walls. When Etayne heard there was fungi, she literally flew across to inspect them. She said they were death hoods, known for dropping onto the heads of those underneath, and then killing them.

However, Etayne also revealed that this fungi was repelled by alcohol, so Qatana took some of the sake and spread it liberally around the room. The fungus reacted noticeably to that. Qatana also said her detect magic said there was something magic at the bottom of the small well.

We were stymied for a bit until Kali (by this time, most had come over) suggested an unseen servant might be able to retrieve it. At that same time, there was a burst of flame from the bottom of the well. When the unseen servant came to the top of the well, it brought with it … a sword. A sword that said, “I sense Amatatsu scions”.

Yes. It said that. We had, at last, found Suishen [328].

“The orc threw me away.”

As we all looked at it – it looked quite impressive! – Ivan picked up the sword and hefted it. “Who shall carry it?” he asked, looking at me. “It’s a commitment,” he warned. But I needed a better sword, there was no doubt, and there was also no doubt that a better sword was there before me.

As I took the sword from Ivan, I felt … a surge, I guess. The sword just seemed to thrum. And I heard a voice that I later learned nobody else heard: “So you, then, are the Amatatsu champion.” It was not a question, but had it been I can’t imagine any answer other than yes.

Whereas before I had struggled with how much I should concern myself with Qatana’s welfare, and what Shalelu would think if harm should befall her, I realized now my concerns were much larger. As the Amatatsu champion, I was responsible for the heir – for Ameiko, currently and hopefully only – first and foremost. But because of the line of succession, I was also responsible for each and every one of the scions, too. My responsibility had transformed from a concern and a duty, to an obligation. Despite Ameiko’s position as heir apparent, because of their positions as scions, my concern for Qatana and all of the others suddenly had increased tenfold.

Well, ok, maybe with Qatana it only doubled, because I have been convinced for some time now that she was poised to die about every 15 steps.

I am not a religious person, but I have to believe this is almost what a revelation must feel like. I have new responsibilities. While I don’t disagree with that conclusion, I could also feel that strongly pushed from the sword. It was like being in the room with a very persuasive person. Suishen had been hidden, and disconnected, for a very long time, and the full force of its perceived destiny was now manifest.

As I held Suishen, I came to understand some of its capabilities.

neutral good
+2 defending, flaming katana (1d8+2)
confers endure elements by possessing it
3/day: airwalk, daylight, resist energy (cold), see invisible
darkvision

as written by the cavalier Olmas Lurecia, himself.

Toilday, 14 Arodus

Since we had a number of short duration (~3hr) “rope tricks” at our disposal, we spent the night in another plane (well, four of them for a total of 12 hrs) in the cloakroom, setting guards to peer into the room and give us advance notice of any possible detection. Thus we knew that we were still being searched for, as two of the ninjas did enter during the night and looked around.  The lack of a hanging rope with these rope tricks was blessed indeed.

Other than that breath-holding moment, the night was uneventful.

Wealday, 15 Arodus

Exiting the cloakroom, we attempted to go stealthily toward the alchemy lab at the other end of the building.  The ninjas are so good at hiding in shadows that even moving, slowly, stealthily, and carefully, we walked past two of them before they sprang upon us. They may not have seen us in the cloakroom, but they clearly never believed we left.

The ninjas are quick, well-armed, and virtuosos with poison.  But what they are not, is well-armored.  Although there were eight of them, there were also eight of us.  Nine, if you include the celestial leopard that Kali conjured up to help us.

Being close to several of them when they emerged, I found myself the target of several accurate but not particularly deadly attacks. Although each individual attack was nowhere near lethal, I could see them adding up quickly if I wasn’t careful.  Qatana’s channel of positive energy was particularly timely.  As each ninja found themselves engaged in melee, they also found themselves falling down in a puddle of blood.  As I said, neither well-armored nor particularly robust.

There were still six standing, although few uninjured, when one gave a whistle, undoubtedly a signal for additional help.  As the ninjas began to drop like flies under the swords of our fighters, 6 thugs emerged from a doorway below us. I stepped up to the nearest, but missed.

Kali greased one thug’s weapon, but they were still proving remarkably tough to take down. Swords were doing the job faster than arrows, but we were reminded that they could dish out blows as well.  Still, I was embarrassed to find that I could not lay a blow to them. Fortunately our other fighters were much more successful, and the thugs lay on the ground bleeding out.

We were now free to search the many rooms on this lower floor.  There was nothing spectacular here, just several small rooms that appeared to have been used by the ninjas and the thugs.  In general, we found some higher quality stuff in the ninja’s room, which was also much neater. There we found

[288] 8 fugitive granades
[289] 8 potions

There was an altar here to Yaezhing, upon which we found ~500gp of gems.

In the room used by the thugs, we found an obvious trap door. Opening it yielded a coarse yell in some language: “Enough coal! No more! Close door!”.  Sparna was able to translate it for us.

Radella searched some foot lockers, and we added to our salvage operation:

[290] jade bracelet
[291] ebony antique fan
[292] IOU for Rimerunners, worth 80gp

Another room was cold, with carcasses in it – clearly a room for preserving food.  Two rooms appeared to be recently quarried; it wasn’t clear what that was about.  Each thug and each ninja had little jade raven statuettes … the ninja ones being of higher quality. And of course the ninjas had decent bows.

[293] 6 jade ravens (lower quality)
[294] 8 jade ravens (higher quality)
[295] 8 MW short bows

We realized we had never checked the werebear’s room, so we went back to check it out. We did find some stuff worth keeping there:

[296] under a small oak stauette of a warrior, a ring of keys

There was also a bag of about 40 Chellish gold coins.

From there we proceeded back to the alchemy lab, making sure that Etayne would retain her composure in the face of sucn an interesting room.  There was, of course, the intriguing “corpse under glass”. Looking it over carefully, we saw that its skin seemed to be writhing, as though something was underneath it.  As it beat feebly on the glass, it spoke – “Let me out” – this time in Infernal, said somebody.  We also found

[298] ointment: can be used either as stoneflesh, or as stone to flesh
[299] magic ring of counterspells (empty)

Etayne made a point of inspecting papers and research notes. Most were in common, but a few were in Giant.

Next was a room that was barred (on our side) from entry. Going inside, we found a 5’x10′ cell with a very pungent smell and a dead body with rats. But there was a (barely) live body here as well.  Lute, he said he was named, and he’d been here for maybe 3 weeks.  He gratefully came along with us.

While we were cleaning out the cell 🙂 Etayne found some mention in the notes about Infernal wasps that apparently could take over a body. Whoever was in the glass container was probably no longer really there, and breaking it would prove disastrous for us and maybe others in the building.   She also noticed that many if not all of the plants growing here were of the nightshade family and thus poisonous.  She hypothesized that this may be the source of the poisons we’d been encountering.

As we left, Etayne grabbed what research she could.

Leaving this level, we went downstairs.

as written by the cavalier Olmas Lurecia, himself.

Moonday, 13 Arodus

Knowing now that we were going to assault Ravenscrag, and knowing, too, that it was supposed to be difficult to approach, we discussed strategy. We dismissed Fly as being straightforward but impractical; being able to Fly is not the same as being able to Fly well, and, not knowing the precise geography of the region, it was possible the duration of a spell like that might not be long enough for us to reach our goal.

Clearly we would not be doing this in broad daylight either, and while I have better than average eyesight at twilight, I’m as blind as anyone in utter darkness.

We came to the conclusion that we needed a) Dark Vision; b) some form of protection against falling: Feather Fall, Levitate, or Fly; c) Spider Climb – as we’d decided to assault the position by simply climbing up, as it would likely be unexpected and the spell lasted a fairly long time; and d) good, old fashioned silk rope for when the spells ran out, failed, or simply weren’t what we needed.

Spreading out a bit around town, we purchased 7 Dark vision potions (@ 150gp each), 8 Spider Climb potions (@ 150gp each), 300′ of silk rope (@ 10gp per 50′), an additional 150′ with knots in it to make it easier to hold on to [really, 135′ with the knots) (@ the same rate) and lastly, two grappling hooks (@ 1gp each). We spent a total of 2342gp, which would have left us broke if the RimeRunners Guild had not financed our trip 🙂

I myself picked up 4 travel rations @ 5sp each. I already had 3, and that would give me a week’s worth of sustenance. Just in case, we’re gone that long. Eventually, this ring on my finger will make that unnecessary but it takes a while for the magic to work.

Having returned to the caravan for the evening, we set a guard, per usual, and planned to start our journey in the morning. The watches were set up to be:

1st) Qatana and Etayne
2nd) myself and Sparna
3rd) Radella and Anavaru
4th) Ivan and Kali

But it was as the watch was changing that there was a loud thunk from Ameiko’s wagon. A quick inspection showed an arrow sticking out of the side of it. The arrow tip was coated with what Etayne identified as death blade – a deadly poison. And of course, there was a note attached.

“It was fulish of you to attak a sleping dragun.
Return whut wuz stolin.
Abandun your hopless quest now or those u luv will be distroyed!”

So, really, it wasn’t that misspelled. But at the same time, it was SO cliché it might as well have been. Really? We are protectors of the Regent princess and having read that, we’ll say, “Oh my! I had no idea it was so dangerous! My word, I guess we’ll have to go home now?” What I wouldn’t give for just a wee bit of light so that I could send the arrow back to its sender with a new note attached: “Surrender now and you may yet have a fair trial.”

For some definitions of “fair”.

I believe Ivan retrieved the arrow for later reuse.

Toilday, 14 Arodus

We left for Ravenscrag. As expected, it was just the eight of us: Ameiko, Sandru, Shalelu, Koya and the rest of the crew would wait for our return. We made no secret of our leaving, so if eyes were watching, it would become apparent where we were heading. But we saw no eyes, even though we were looking for them – including eyes from the skies.

We were arranged with myself and Anavaru in the lead, riding our … mounts …, then Etayne and Kali, Ivan and Qatana, and guarding the rear were Sparna and Radella. We travelled without incident into the foothills, although we noticed that in the valleys between hills it was not uncommon for the ground to be moist almost to the point of boggy.

As the path took us through a particularly wet area, the areas on both side of the path almost looked like very shallow pools with an obvious water surface. And even as I was wondering if anything other than floating plants enjoyed this humid, wet environment, my question was answered for me. A smooth .. arm, or maybe extension, rose out of the water and tried to grab Etayne. Another tried to snag Ivan. Neither one was able to latch on, but we all immediately came alert and drew our weapons.

Radella attacked the creature slowly rising from the water before it could attack, and struck it smartly with her arrow.

And it split. There were now two. Oh drowbreath. I’d heard of these creatures but never met one. They could not be killed with edged weapons; they simply divided in two and provided a new foe with all the same danger as the original one. I glanced at my armament. Dagger. Great sword. Bow and arrow. Longsword. What I wouldn’t give for a quarterstaff about now. I was going to be useless in this battle.

Kasimir snorted below me. Had he read my thoughts? Perhaps I did have a weapon after all. “Do not bite, Kasimir,” I said softly. “They will not taste good and may even do you harm. But kick with your hooves as hard as you can.” I moved us closer to Etayne and attempted to help her avoid the clumsy goo-arm that emerged from the glistening jelly.

For her part, Etayne scorched the creature with a Burning Hands spell. It seemed to almost recoil from that, but that would still not be enough to dissuade it from considering us a form of dinner. Qatana used her “sound bomb” to injure the three jellies (yes, in addition to the one that had split there was another.) The one closest to Radella seemed to grab her, and its grip appeared to be burning. Acid?

Radella was able to break its grasp and step back. But she two was realizing she needed a special weapon to attack this creature. Fortunately for us, the jellies were clumsy. But as Radella could attest, if they ever did get a grab, they were painful and strong. And with that, one tried to grab Etayne and succeeded.

Radella pulled out a wand and used it to send a scorching ray at the one that had attacked her. Sparna had a heavy blunt morningstar at ready, and was able to further damage the one by Radella. I looked at the one holding Etayne, and did a quick calculation. It had been burnt twice and hurt by the sonic blast. It was clearly injured by these things and was oozing a liquid in a manner that suggested bleeding. If I could strike it hard enough, even with an edged weapon, could I kill it before it divided? I didn’t like the thought of Etayne being pulled into the water, so I took the chance and did indeed land a hefty blow to it with my great sword, whereupon it lost its shape and basically sloshed flat to the ground. I heaved a sigh; I had been right, and Etayne was free.

With this new knowledge, we began to use our edged weapons, which could deliver substantially more damage than hitting it with our fists, intelligently; that is to say, only when the creature looked close to death already. And in a short time, the three – no, make that four – jellies were puddles. (It turns out that the spikes on Sparna’s morningstar were enough to, sometimes, cause the jellies to split. But fortunately, they were so weak that it did not prove a danger.)

Qatana healed all – I realized I wasn’t even injured! – and we were able to continue. However, we’d now used up some of our spells when we’d been hoping to have our full complement when we arrived. Well, couldn’t be helped.

We in the lead were asked to keep an eye out for tracks that left the trail .. perhaps avoiding obstacles like jelly-filled ponds. There are some other tracks on this trail, so we are not the only ones to use it.

By the end of the day, we reached Ravenscrag. It appeared to be a building – maybe a house – nestled in the valley between two peaks against the skyline. A long, wooden construct led to, I presume, the front door of the building .. and a volley of arrows or worse, I imagine. The front door was not to be our mode of entry.

Nihali did a little discreet reconnaissance for us, and we decided to use the spider climb to quietly climb up the crag but about 100 feet west of the building. As we came over the crest, we would find a dell, or maybe a courtyard, with a small river running through it and a small pond, that we hoped might afford us a quieter and more secretive way into the building. Nihali reported there were many ravens roosting on top of a small tower that appeared to overlook this courtyard; that might eventually be a problem but we’d deal with it if it came up.

The mission, we decided so as to maintain focus, was to rescue Ulf and kill Silverscore. If other opportunities arose, we were to make sure we stayed focused on those two objectives before going off on other interesting endeavors.

The Spider Climb worked wonderfully, and we were able to not only climb up, but enter the glade and get close to the house without being noticed. From behind the single door that we could see, we heard the sounds of food being prepared – it would seem this door led to the kitchen.

Qatana suggested we hastily use what was left of our spider climb to enter from the second floor, not the first. Qatana, Radella, and Ivan climbed up to what appeared to be giant arrow slits with shutters over them. They were braced from the inside, but not very well, and they were able to unshutter one of them and climb inside. There seeemed to be nobody around. The rest of us quietly followed their lead.

It appeared that not too far from us was a dining area, perhaps of an important figure because it looked down upon a much larger dining area.

The ceiling here was very high; probably close to 40′. It was relatively well lit by light from below and the occasional torch.

Quietly, we searched this floor. We found one room which seemed to be an armory; Ivan found a magic arrow [270] in among all the ordinary ones. I guess, to him, it just glows and it’s obvious, ut it looked like any of the other dozens stored here to me.

Another room contained cloaks and cold-weather clothing. Beneath some furs and bales of raw wool, Kali found rolls of scrolls. Not magical ones, but just written words – a diary, or journal. Reading further, she announced excitedly that it seems to have been written by Snorri Stoneye!

She scanned it. It was rambling, half mad. He referenced how his Eye had shown him the future and the past, and how a great beast would be unleashed. A special cache he had made upstairs in the fireplace flue would be of great help in defeating this beast. He wrote he was going on a long sea voyage to retrieve an artifact that would let him survive the coming catastrophe.

Kali kept this [271] to read it further, later.

Looking down a stairwell we could see what looked like maybe a lab at the base. In fact, it appeared there was a baby in a glass tank or case.

A door near the stairway demanded to be inspected, so Radella and Qatana checked it carefully and opened it. Unfortunately, inside was a large, hairy almost bearish man, who had been sleeping moments before but awoke and yelled “Intruders!”

Kali got a chance to glitterdust him before Qatana, to our amazement, cast Hold Person on him, and he was held like in a web? Radella took that opportunity to see how much blood was in his body (when she was done, the correct answer was “none”.)

But the noise was enough; there were sounds of alarm from above.

Kali was expecting the flock of birds at any moment. They were already making noises. Looking at the ceiling, it appeared there might be sufficient openings to allow them access from the outside. Kali called up 3 air elementals with the idea that they could probably keep the birds busy and out of our hair. (Literally).

And indeed, “a large number” of bird quickly entered the room, and we began to attack the group with arrows and, when they moved close enough, with swords. Kali told the air elementals, “go up and kill any birds you may find.” The birds quickly dispersed, with the remaining ones flying up the stairs (presumably there was no door up there.)

The elementals blew past us, pursuing the birds. We went up the stairs more slowly and carefully, and carefully looked over the edge of the landing.

There were no ravens here. But instead, there appeared to be a number (eventually we found six) ninja tengus, which, coincidentally, had a bird like appearance. The elementals had chased off or killed the ravens, and then turned their attention to these black-dressed creatures, and were already wearing them down. It was difficult, apparently, to injure a strong gust of wind.

The rest of us came up the stairs and deployed. I pulled out my great sword; now this was a battle I knew how to win! From across the room, a ninja pulled out a blowgun and fired a dart at me. The inconsequential barb stuck in my shoulder as, between parries, I reached over, pulled it out, and threw it to the ground. Ninjas and their little toys!

But then my body shuddered involuntarily, and I stumbled a bit. I felt a bit weaker. Glancing at the dart on the ground, the tip looked a little discolored. Had it been poisoned?

I shook again, and started to sweat a little. The ninja I was battling sensed a weakness and lunged at me. But I got a second solid hit with my great sword, and this opponent did not split into two ninjas. Although, with that second blow, I did come close to splitting him in two 🙂

And my vision got a little blurry, and my feet got a little heavy. There was still battle going on around me but it was harder and harder to focus. “I think,” I said a little unsteadily, “I think the dart was poisoned.” As I dropped to one knee, Etayne glanced at the dart and at me and shook her head worriedly. Somebody put their magic cloak on me, and Etayne mumbled a bit and urged me to “resist the poison”.

I felt very weak and was now kneeling on the floor. Everybody’s voice sounded like it was at the far end of the tunnel. Is this what it was like to die? One voice said “scroll!” and another said “not yet! might still be ok!” but as even my vision started to cloud over, I heard a voice chanting something, and suddenly I felt fine again! I looked up in time to see a scroll turn to dust before I suddenly felt nauseous again. Still?

The cloak was placed on me again and Etayne was doing something …

And several seconds passed. I felt .. no worse. I didn’t feel 100%, but at least I didn’t feel any worse. I looked up at my friends. Etayne heaved a sigh of relief. “It either is done, or he has overcome it,” she pronounced. “How do you feel?”

“A little sick,” I replied, “but I’ll get by.”

“You’ll feel better after a couple of days,” she said. “The worst is past. You should feel lucky; you’re one of the few to survive death blade.”

I felt proud. And angry. And lethal. And grateful. And ANGRY. But, looking around me, all the tengus were dead. Kali actually gave a slight chuckle.

“I did SUCH a good job on that!” she exclaimed. “I told the elementals to go after the birds … and these tengus look like big birds! They’d already engaged half of them when we came up the stairs! I did not expect that, but it worked out great!!”

Nevertheless, I was still angry. I supposed it’s hard to be brought to the brink of death and NOT feel angry about it. It’s not a pleasant journey.

We took inventory. From the ninjas themselves:

[272] 6 potions (blur)
[273] 6 potions (disguise self)
[274] whinnes poison
[275] death blade poison – I did not hear how much of
both poisons were left
[276] leather armor (6) – I’ve decided to take one of these,
if it fits, because I dislike being attacked in the night
and having to fight with no armor
[277] blowgun (6) specially constructed for corvids. I’m not sure
if I could operate it properly.
[278] masterwork wakizashi (6)
[279] dagger (18)
[280] climber’s kit (6)
[281] 50′ silk rope (6)
[282] masterwork ninja outfit – dark, tight fitting, +2 to stealth

From the footlockers in this room:
[283] ornate jade raven set with precious stones
[284] garments of fine workmanship (~200 gp)

Off to one side, near an opening in the wall to the outside, was what appeared to be a nest. Within the nest we found several disgusting things like teeth, but also

[285] onyx and ivory necklaces
[286] kit for creating bird messages

Remembering Snorri’s journal, we searched two fireplaces and in the flue of one we found his great treasure that would help him survive the end of the world: [287] boots of winterland.

Feeling a bit annoyed at the ninjas yet, I pulled one tooth from each of them and left them in the nest. But Kali managed to one-up me. She wanted to put a poisoned dart in the nest so that if the bird came back – we figured it was Silverscore’s familiar – it would impale itself on it and die.

So it was arranged. Using one in this manner left Sparna and Radella with the only two remaining death blade darts.

There was a trapdoor to the roof, but all we found up there were some cages and evidence that yes, there probably HAD been a messaging system here, but the elementals had taken care of the bird portion of that system. It needed no further destruction 🙂

Now of course, below us, somewhere, there is still Ulf and maybe Silverscore. So as we reminded ourselves, our mission is not yet complete …

 

as written by the cavalier Olmas Lurecia, himself.

7am Sunday, 12 Arodus

This had been an exhausting night. But despite my heavy eyelids, there were still a couple of things we needed to deal with before we could rest.ta

It was Qatana, I think, who commented that Stoney-eye probably had become a draugr which, frankly, is not really a fixable problem. I’d never heard of them before but apparently he fit all the criteria: wet, slimy, foul smelling – although, come to think of it, a fair number of pubs may house this creature then …

Anyway, it was off to Fynn to bring him up to date on things, and then, because we are a curious lot, we spent time identifying the more interesting objects we’d picked up before finally resting.

[258] Snorri’s eye was actually an ioun stone, that would
protect one against the ravages of aging.
[259] the helm … just couldn’t figure it out. Had a faint
divination aura, and good alignment
[260] the 4 eggs were fragile smoke bombs; if broken, they each
provided 12 seconds of fog.
[261] 4 potions of Vanish

Even with our wand of identify, we couldn’t figure out the helm. Against some people’s advice, Qatana decided to put it on. Seemed to fit okay, and although we were concerned somebody might recognize it as Snorri’s if she wore it about town, she was unconcerned.

Anyway, blessed sleep. It was probably 8 or 9am by this time and I had no trouble falling asleep.

5pm Sunday, 12 Arodus

When I awoke, I felt so much better. I was a little surprised to find Qatana still alive, but apparently shortly after I laid down, Ivan had asked her nicely to remove the helm, and she did. So my concerns about harmful side effects were lessened.

Although it was late in the day now, it couldn’t be helped, and it was time to head to the temple to try to find Ook. I was still a bit suspicious about how she seemed to be leading us from conflict to conflict, but then I suppose when restoring a lost princess to her long vacant throne, this sort of thing is expected.

As we got into town, I noticed Kali take one of the many paper foldings she’d been practicing on – I think this one was a bird – and give it to a random person. They looked surprised, but then smiled at her.

And with that, we heard a noise from up ahead, where we expected the temple to be. Rounding the corner, we found debris, we found a prone body, and we found … two large earth elementals beating the temple into dust.

Well, I guess this struck a nerve with Kali – she immediately cast a giant water drop on one of the elementals. Now that sounds pretty useless, but you had to see it. The water completely surrounded the elemental, separating him from the ground and moistening him thoroughly. In effect, he became a blob of animated, angry mud that couldn’t direct itself anymore. It rendered it … completely harmless. With Kali’s control over the water drop, she moved the elemental out of our way and to a position it could not harm anybody or anything further.

About the same time, Radella glanced up and noticed a large raven with a red feather overhead. She quickly nocked an arrow and shot at it while the rest of us were dealing with the remaining elemental. She hit it, and it exploded into a mist and seemed to fade away. She kept one eye to the sky, but never saw it again.

Meanwhile, Sparna and I had sprung into action against the remaining elemental. I got the sense that a magic weapon might work better so I gave up the great sword in favor of the +1 longsword I had. Eventually, it becames I, Sparna, Ivan, Anavaru, and even (sigh) Qatana were beating on the elemental. If one hadn’t been effectively disabled, it could’ve been real ugly. As it was, Etayne and Qatana both had to step back and do a little healing, as the first elemental took some good chunks out of me and when the water drop expired, so did the second. They drew a fair amount of blood from Sparna too.

But when they were finally gone, we turned our attention back to the injured priest and the damaged temple. The priest had been included in some of Qatana’s and Etayne’s heals, and was greatful. When he found out, though, that we were there for Ook, he mentioned how she was safe, as she’d been put in a penitent’s cell at the rear of the temple.

But it became apparent that the elementals, for all their destruction, had been a distraction. The cell was broken, and Ook was gone. In her place remained only a large black feather, and a blowdart. Etayne recognized the poison on the dart as a paralyzing poison. It seemed she was important to somebody. Or maybe our attention had made her important to somebody.

In any case, she was now missing. It was either an elaborate attempt to push us in some direction, or she genuinely was a victim. My suspicions of her began to fade.

Qatana suggested, “Why not go to the RimeRunner’s Guild and just ask for a guide?” which was crazy, of course, since we were pretty sure they were behind making sure we didn’t find one. They would just, um, they would just, well, they’d have to, uh ..

It might just be crazy enough to work. What can they say?

Something strange happened about then. Well, it didn’t start out strange – Qatana said she heard a voice inside her head. (It was strange to hear her admit it.) But it turns out the voice was real. It was the helm.

The helm was alive.

“I was summoned as a familiar, but my master died,” said the helm. Its name was Helgarval. “I come from the plane of Elysius. I have been following an evil plot. I remember everything I see and hear.

“You are walking into a plot,” it continued. “Ani of the Five Storms are active in Kalsgard. There is an organization named the Frozen Shadows that carries out assassinations, and the RimeRunners are only a front for them. But most of the RimeRunners may not realize the extent of their involvement. Snorri was trapped in this somewhat unwittingly, although by no means innocently. He contracted a bad case of undeath. Asvig was a minor ruffian; Helva too. There was a sword that StoneEye talked about sending to the HQ of the Frozen Shadow.”

“The head of the RR guild is Silverscore, who has as a familiar a large black raven with a red feather.”

This tied together a few loose ends for us.

He had hesitated to reveal himself until he could discern if we were good or evil, but he’d obviously concluded we were good enough. He would help us find where the evil lurked, and bring light.

We went to the RR headquarters, but the plan quickly morphed into a more subtle plan. The guild office was closed by this time, so Radella and Ivan were going to try to sneak into the RR guild office and see what they could learn. Meanwhile, I, Anavaru, and Sparna went to a nearby pub to pass the time; Etayne chose to wait outside.

While there, there was a little excitement. An Ulfin guy stumbled up to the pub and Etayne engaged him in conversation. Turns out he was convinced that there were three people inside responsible for the death of his best hound, and it was clear that he was describing us. Etayne recalled that moments before he’d been talking to a dark figure and guessed (correctly) that this was an attempt to cause trouble for us.

As the man entered, he was loudly declaring wereguild for his dog. He walked up to us and accused us, in a beer-breath sort of way, of killing his dog. Other patrons paused to watch this play out.

I looked at him and said loudly, “Man I am glad to see you here! You are sure hard to find!” The man looked a bit confused and then repeated his demand for retribution. “I KNOW!” I replied. “You’d have to be crazy not to, right?” and took another sip of my beer.

More patrons put down their mug to watch this interesting drama.

The man looked a bit confused, and then said, “So, then, that’s what I’m here for!” And I said, “I can totally believe that. Can I help you with that?” “Well you’re the one that kilt him!” he roared. “Oh, no,” I replied. “That was the guy in here before; that’s who I thought you were talking about. Tell you what, let’s go find him together. I can’t believe somebody would kill a dog for no reason at all.” The blurry eyes and slurring mouth paused again and tried to regain control of the situation. “But …”

And then Sparna spoiled my fun by grabbing some gold from his pack, giving it to the man, and saying, “there, get another dog.” He looked at the gold, looked at me, looked at the people, and mumbled, “well, that’s what I was sayin.” And wandered off.

“We don’t want the trouble,” said Sparna to me.

“Really, it would have been no trouble at all for me to help him resolve it,” I said mildly.

Meanwhile, we learned later that Radella and Ivan had actually found Ook imprisoned, managed to free her, AND ransacked the headquarters, recovering both gold and records in the process. From the records we learned that Snorri had sold his family home, Raven’s Crag, to the guild three years earlier. Ook confirmed that she’d heard voices saying that where they were going to take her.

Other records in the ledger confirmed that the guild had rented the boat that attacked us. Another entry detailed a contract to retrieve a “Tien antique” from a particular address that we recognized as Fynn’s.

Large amounts of money had gone to Raven’s Crag, including a “Tien antique” acquired by Thorburg Silverscore.

So it seems that will be our next goal/target/destination.

One other odd thing of note occurred. When Koya was introduced to Helgarval, she gently said, “You have a strange shape.” And Helgarval polymorphed into a small cherub for a while. Koya and Spivey and Helgarval seemed to have a private conversation for a while, but in the end, Helgarval resumed form as a helm.

Moonday, 13 Arodus

Kelda was able to find a bit more information for us about Ravenscrag. It is high up in the rocky crags south of Kalsgard. Only birds and crazy people go there, it is said. “Word is,” she said, “it had a new owner in the last couple of years. Some say it’s haunted.”

Yes indeed.

as written by the cavalier Olmas Lurecia, himself.

Sunday, 11 Arodus

Still need to buy better ink. But I think I know how to make do wi h this for now. Dammit!

Anyway, Kali, called out, in Elvish, for me to come to her. She conjures up two horses, and quietly tells me at least one escaped out the back and we need to make sure they don’t create more trouble for us. Riding quickly in that direction, we quickly came across a mutilated body. It hadn’t reached the perimeter. Does that mean …

Something between a purr and a snarl sounded way too close, and we both turned our horses and rode back towards the house. It turns out that while these magical horses weren’t too bad, the magical lions were better and tended to gain on us. Two lions took up pursuit. On an open field, we’d have been lion food. But we both aimed for the exit with the rune, hoping that if we shot through it the lion would be trapped within. And fortunately for us, we were right.

I had a brief glimpse, I think, of Etayne in the doorway of the house looking first surprised as we approached at a high rate of speed, and then concerned as she saw why. I’m a little concerned myself that her apparent response to that was to close the door.

Meanwhile, Kali talked to Nihali, who told her that the escapees, as it were, had been handled by the cats. But she called them le pards. Dammit!

If I’m not mistaken, leopards are faster than lions. It’s good that they stopped when they did. The only other alternative would have been to try to lead them somewhere harmless (to us, like a party of arriving revelers). Which, it turns out, Nihali said was coming up the road. We took our horses off the road to quiet their hooves, and cautiously rode towards them, as much to check them out as to check for escapees meeting them.

Encountering none, we turned back before reaching the group. Returning cautiously to the perimeter of the yard, it appeared that the leopards had disappeared. Although, I suppose they could have been hiding in wait, but we both had the impression they were there for protection, not ambush.

We encountered the rest of our group exiting the house. Apparently they’d questioned Asvig and he’d died rather than answer their questions. And from all appearances, it was not his choice. His wife at first held us responsible but realized from our questions that perhaps he was wrapped up in more than she knew. Technically, the wereguild had been satisfied with Asvig’s death, but we still didn’t have the sword. We had more work ahead of us. When the rest of the group had left, they had left with the understanding that business between us and Asvig’s wife was concluded. Neither of us was happy with the result, but neither could dramatically improve on it either.

An uneasy truce. She did not know where the sword was, but if Snorri had it, it would probably be valuable. And a funeral boat is not just a means of saying goodbye .. it’s a means of taking it with you to the afterlife. Could the sword be on the boat?

About this time we heard the other party coming closer. We all hurried off into the bush. They had been preparing for the party (and a couple of them were already well prepared, if you get my meaning) so they weren’t really looking around much. We did overhear some comments about Stone-Eye that suggested whatever he’d died of had not come up suddenly, but rather had been noticeable for a while. “He ain’t been right for a few weeks” is what I recall hearing.

Moonday, 13 Arodus

Technically, it’s now Moonday, but yesterday is running smoothly into today with no interruption for sleep. We decided we needed to go to Flyn’s and let him know of our failure, but we were surprised to find when we got there that light shone from within. It was after midnight by this point, and although we’re not familiar with Fynn’s normal sleep habits, it seems late by almost any standard.

He was still awake, talking with someone by the name of Ookshaka. She looked bruised, or battered, andwsa worried that her husband Ulf had gone missing and that Asvig might be responsible. We grimly told them both that if he was responsible we’d never get a confession now …

Our interest in this was doubled as we heard more of the story fro Ookshaka. Two weeks ago, in response to our need for a guide through the north (we suspect) Asvig had imposed upon the guild for the guides to be busy for a while. Now Ulf had chosen to remain independent and claimed no allegiance to the guild, but Asvig had asked to hire him specifically for a special job over the next several weeks. Asvig was not happy when he’d refused.

And now he was missing.

But there was no body, no blood, just a strangely missing person. And it occurred to us that if the sword was on Stone-Eye’s funeral boat, maybe they’d try to get rid of Ulf the same way. It cemented our belief that we needed to inspect that boat.

Fynn and Ook looked at each other. The boat, it turned out, would be set ablaze at sunrise. There’s a good chance it had already launched, with a lengthy “fuse” so that it would be ablaze at sunrise. Ook said she could bring kayaks, however, for us to paddle out if we wished. Since the boat would be solely drifting, at the mercy of wind and tides, we stood a good chance of catching it.

Sigh. But still no rest. This will take its toll on us eventually; our spellcasters must be feeling it even more acutely.

And since, technically, that ends another day I shall report, again, that Qatana is still alive.

4am, Moonday, 13 Arodus

We found ourselves at Spearshaker’s Point, with Ook quickly explaining how one uses and balances in a kayak. Reluctantly, I left my armor at the caravan because armor and water simply don’t mix. Aside from the maintenance required after any lengthy exposure to water, there’s the whole idea that it makes me dozens of pounds heavier, in a medium where walking on the bottom is a poor choice. Ook said she’d meet us at a temple afterward and wished us luck.

The kayaks were all two-person, and we were bringing an extra one on the assumption that we’d be bringing back a sword, an extra person, or both. That meant two of us were riding solo – Sparna and Etayne. I rode with Qatana, in a half hearted attempt to keep her, well, I don’t know, I guess safe. Or maybe to stop others in the group from being annoyed by her. Or maybe to punish myself for some past or future misdeed.

Before we could launch, however, I noticed something in the water. It actually wasn’t too subtle. A giant crab was lying in the water near our kayaks, and rose up as we approached the shoreline. Apparently we looked like food, but food doesn’t bring sharp objects to dinner like we do. A tremendous amount of crab meat is available to us now … I wonder how long this will remain edible? I do like crab the few times I’ve had it.

Focus. Need to stay focused. But a little melted butter … focus.

We finally boarded the kayaks and took off, which allowed me to experience Qatana talking to me about the importance of Groetus. I reminded her that the end of the world was not happening at this instant, and that we should stay focused. But in terms of focus, I fear she had the better of me, because all I remember is replacing her words with visions of a great seafood breakfast. And regular, synchronized stroking to get us closer to the future funeral pyre that was our goal.

Etayne tipped over, and needed a little help. Otherwise, nothing of significance happened.

Finally we reached it, tying three kayaks to port and two to starboard. First item of importance was killing the “fuse” of embers that would otherwise burn through and set the boat on fire in a couple of hours. We hoped to be long gone by then, but why take the chance?

Radella and Ivan thought they heard something down below and went to check. This was an ordinary longboat, but with some planks laid across the gunwales to create an upper ‘deck’ and of course a lower one as well. Since we felt particularly vulnerable out here – none of us are really sailors – we (myself, Etayne, Kali, and Anavaru) stayed up top watching for unpleasantness while they (Rudella, Ivan, Qatana, Sparna) went under to find what was down below. We heard noises and the “corpse” topside was nothing but a mannequin.

It wasn’t too long before I spotted two boats in the distance, approaching us. They looked to be camouflaged to approach secretly, and each held four people dressed all in black. I doubt it was any local fishermen. Meanwhile, down below I caught bits of sound indicating there was a battle of some sort. Kali and I discussed how to best address the advancing figures. What we came up with (mostly her) worked very well.

When the figures got within range, she dropped rocks on them. That damaged some of them individually and their boats generally. At the same time, Nihali had been convinced to try dropping some alchemist’s fire on one of the boats. We held our breath as the flask bounced harmlessly off one boat, but then onto the other, shattering into flames.

Attackers started drinking potions of invisibility, but not being at the boat yet meant that as they entered the water, it was still apparent to our archers where they were. One, then another, then more found themselves at the gates of whatever afterlife they believed in. The very last one did in fact reach the boat, but when we offered him the opportunity to surrender, he replied, as though a mantra: “We are the shadows of the night. We are not the first and we will not be the last to come for you.” So we shot him.

Meanwhile, I was a little surprised to see our companions emerge from below carrying … well, a lot! They had not been counting, of course, but Sparna thought we’d brought up at least 12,000 gp worth of items and coins. Old Stone-Eye had apparently been some sort of undead, but true to funeral pyre form, the boat had indeed been loaded with his wealth and belongings.

But not the sword, and not Ulf. However we were able to recover from the four ninjas who had not sunk too deep …

[260] 4 things that look like eggs with delicate shells
[261] 4 potions
[262] 4 tindertwigs
[263] 4 daggers
[264] 4 MW shortbows
[265] 4 MW short shaft w/point
[266] 4 closefitting suits (MW)
[267] 4 jade raven statues
[268] MW thieves tools

We set the ship ablaze, Etayne gleefully using a spark, and made for shore. I don’t believe we got everything that was on board, but we got a good fraction of it and time’s just working against us. I am ready to take a good sleep, even though now day is breaking. Closing my eyes is all the darkness I need …

as written by the cavalier Olmas Lurecia, himself.

Oathday, 8 Arodus

Ugh. Ink vial cracked at some point.  Made a mess in my pack.  Can probably be clean d, but running low now; must be brief. Qui l not
work ng right.

Went to Ullerskad. Small.  Q tana still alive.

Fireday, 9 Arodus

Is Gorum temple in Ul erskad. Corpses not touristy.

Got maps. Ka i worr ed.  All normal.

Qatan  st ll al ve.

Starday, 10 Arodus

Arrive Kalsgard late.  Kel a happy.

Population seg egat d by caste here.  Noth ng new ther .

Qa ana  till aliv .

So ebody must sell ink he e. Th s is f c ing anno i g.

Sunday, 11 Arodus

Kelda g ne. Bumm r, she was gr win  on me.

No camp ng. City rooms! (Kas mir with car van.)

Amei o bei g touristy.  Went with to gu rd her.  Kali to .  Others went elsewhere; saw stuf .  Talke  abo t it.  Raven . Migh  find F yn.

Bought ink; not good.  Less pig ent than I’m used to; still hard
to  ead. Better tha  none at al  I s ppose.  Stil  annoy  g.

So much to rec rd. Frus rati g to b  out  f ink!

All wer  fol owed toda . Wor isom .

Kelda brou ht presen .  Nic ! Magic s abb rd!

Aft   talk, prett  sur  we ca  find  Fly .

Lots of st pid rave s ever whe e.  Nihal  says “ord nar “.

Qata a expl de birds.  B rds fly of .

Hey! Local cus om say  we can kil  Asv g Longt ews! Whol  gro p in
fav r!  Off to kil  him and r cov r swor .

Find plac .  Sneak up. Party. Battl ! Subdu  Asvig. Dies whe questioned, but not voluntarily.  Suspect magic – geas?

Wait, that last is all legible.  What’s up with …

Stupid ink. Pigment settled out?  Must shake

That’s just great. I apparently must stopper it, and shake it every single time I want to dip the quill,  and then if I’m quick to dip teh quill, it actually loads useful ink onto the quill.  If I don’t shake it, whatever they used for pigment settles back into the vial within about fifteen seconds and I get the results above.  NOW I find out.

BTW, Qatana is still alive.  Another good day.

[Apologies to you, the reader of the annals.]

as written by the cavalier, Olmas Lurecia, himself.

Oathday, 19 Erastus

The unusual (and hard to kill) deck-a-pod lay in pieces before us. I quickly examined the alcoves and sarchophagi, and found this seemed to the remains of various commanders at Brinewall. Was this our “secret behind two seals”? Were the seals the hidden doors, or perhaps a sarcophagus?

In any case, there was more cavern to explore. The deck-a-pod seems to have been carrying/wearing

[242] wand of scorching ray [30]
[243] circlet of +2 charisma

The caverns were lightly aglow with what Etayne exclaimed were phosphorescent spores. He giddily collected some.

Kali commented that deck-a-pods were normally not this big.

To the south we followed the cavern to a room with a flat table upon which sat a number of items, the most disgusting of which was a still pulsating leathery pouch from which goo was leaking. Etayne looked at it thoughtfully, and poked, discovering there was enough liquid associated with it yet that it was able to make a loud plooook sound.

Surrounding it, though, we found

[244] +1 light steel shield w/image of Brinewall on it. Later analysis
revealed it was magical +1 75% of the time, and ordinary 25% of
the time.
[245] +1 returning star knife
[246] a magical pearl which would allow a wizard to recast a spell he’d
cast earlier even if he’d not had time to relearn it
[247] Ring of the Ram [10 charges] – With the group’s permission,
I took possession of this one.
[248] a compass of sorts, silver w/gold accents. On command, can shine
per light spell. +2 on survival checks to avoid getting lost. It
also has room for an ioun stone which would then function as
expected for that type of stone.

There was also a pile of gold (later found to be 2620 pieces) as well as a pile of gems (later assessed to be worth about 1750 gp).

While counting and assessing the gold and gems, Qatana also came across

[249] darkwood + silver disk under a moon (faint transmutation). A
similar disk (with a sun) had been taken earlier. The matched
set was likely to be important at some point.
[250] stone statue of Paizuzu which grants the bearer +4 CH

Qatana was less interested in a +4 bonus and more interested in destroying anything of Paizuzu, so she took up the statue and made to dash it to the ground. But in an awkward movement, she drove it all the way to the ground and broke off it’s wings; having done so, it reappeared, whole, in her hand. As she moved away from the spot, she felt a great heaviness. The statue had been cursed, and seemed to burden her as much as a large heavy rock would.

Thus burdened, Qatana asked the group if anyone had remove curse. None did. I caught Sparna’s eye and it was clear we were both thinking the same thing – this might be less of a curse than one might think.

We explored the remainder of the passages and discovered Qatana tended to stay to the rear of the group and was almost always the last to enter a room. I believe Sparna actually grinned at me. Well I don’t recall the actual physical expression but I could feel the grin from across the room.

Returning to the kitchen, we started working on a door that had resisted opening earlier. It seemed not to be locked, so much as just stuck. Radella and I threw our bodies into it, and it sprung open. Once opened we discovered the smell was awful. This may have once been a laundry room, but it was now full of fungus or mildew. Water seemed to be running down the walls, the was a green mound w/purple mushrooms in the center of the room. Etayne commented that the purple mushrooms looked like some that are known to throw spores that …. We quickly decided there was nothing to be gained in exploring this room, and closed the door.

It was probably my imagination, but it seemed that the green mound w/purple mushrooms had started to move closer as we were closing the door.

Consulting the blueprints she’d snagged, Qatana remarked there was only one staircase we’d not yet explored. We crossed the castle to reach that staircase, and descended. An iron lattice, fitting into the ceiling and floor, blocked our advance. We noticed a pair of slight depressions in the wall, and in a flash had pulled out the two disks we’d discovered. They fit perfectly, and the portcullis lowered into the floor.

The dust before us swirled in an unfelt wind and then formed the not-quite-solid figure of a samurai warrior in a defensive posture. Some in the group recognized it. Kali was the first to say, hesitantly, “Rokuro?”

The figure paused and its posture changed. The shoulder slumped and it suddenly looked tired. “I know that name,” it said, in a voice that was both a whisper and a question. The sword pointed at a place on the wall. “Take this to my child. I’m no longer worthy.” And in a swirl, but again without any obvious wind, the figure evaporated.

Radella searched the area that the figure had indicated and did indeed find a secret alcove. Inside lay three darkwood boxes. We found box #1 was unlocked by Radella and found to contain 4267 gold Tien coins and two rings:

[252] ring of chameleon power
[253] ring of improved climbing

Chest #2 had seemed locked but yet seemed to open to Radella’s touch. It contained only one thing: another box (which radiated magic) but defied Radella’s attempts to open it.

Chest #3 also needed to be unlocked but yielded a variety of magic items.

[254] bracers of defense +1
[255] necklace of fireballs (1 5d6, 2 3d6)
[251] bag of holding [type 1]

Since Radella took the ring of improved climbing, I took her ring of climbing [123].

A full day, indeed. We went back to the cemetery, and asked Spivey: no, it turns out she couldn’t remove the curse from Qatana. Kali sent Nehali back to the caravan, and Nehali returned with a note stating that Ameiko still slept uneasily.

We slept only slightly more easily. We felt we had recovered important artifacts but were unsure of how they should be used. Tomorrow we would go back to the caravan.

Fireday, 20 Erastus

Upon returning to the caravan, we found the first order of business was introducing Spivey and Kelda. Then we went to see Ameiko, who was still asleep/unconscious. We laid her hand upon each of the chests and the mysterious box, but her touch evoked no change in either her or the objects. Then Kali figured out it was a puzzle box, and if you pushed there and pulled here, it would –

I had time to see there was a small stone statuette resting in the compartment she opened before there was a flash and –

There was an army of monsters, with glaring eyes, and tusks, wearing strange armor and wielding exotic weapons, emerging during a storm from a vast forest, then attacking a country I somehow knew to be Tian, and –

My head hurt, and –

There was a young royal stood with a friend by his side. Suddenly, the friend grows nearly three times in size and is wearing a suit of jade armor. The jade warrior draws a sword and kills his friend, then holds the bloody sword aloft in triumph, and –

My heart hurt, and –

There was a young Tian man selling a beautiful sword to an Ulfen man in exchange for a bag of gold. And –

My soul hurt, and –

There was Ameiko! waking from her deep sleep, but she was dressed in royal garb. She was within the arms of a jade throne.

And my body hurt, and –

The fog cleared and I was staring at the astonished faces of my companions, but then I felt like someone had tried to put an entire bucket of water into a single cup, and I was that cup, and –

I knew. Somehow I knew, and I knew that they knew.

I knew that the land that had been invaded was Minkai,

and I knew that the man I’d seen murdered by the warrior was Emperor Shigure of Minkai,

and although I had barely known Ameiko before we started this journey, I knew Ameiko Kaijitsu’s true family name was Amatatsu, and that that was royal blood,

and although I had no reason to because I’d never met him, I recognized the young Tian man selling the sword as Ameiko’s grandfather, Rokuro Kaijitsu,

and I knew that he was formerly Amatatsu Tsutoku,

and I knew he had sold the family’s sword Suishen to the Ulfen merchant Fynn Snaevald in the city of Kalsgard to finance his family’s flight from Minkai,

and I knew that Suishen is intelligent, and could tell us much more about the Amatatsu family if we were to find it,

and I knew –

I knew – Ameiko is the heir of her line.

And I knew all this like you know in a dream things that you have no right to know, but you do, as casually as you might draw a breath.

And with a blend of horror, fascination, and disbelief, I understood that I and all my companions were also now heirs to the throne, should Ameiko fail to reach it.

And I understood all that the Seal was capable of, and that others still sought it even today, even after all these tens – hundreds? – of years.

And … and … Ameiko awoke.

She too had had the visions and as overwhelming as this experience was to me, it had to be even moreso to her. It was her family and her heritage, just when she thought she’d understood it.

We were all a bit stunned for a moment by the amazing amount of information we’d absorbed.

A quick but intense discussion was had. Ameiko recovered quickly and the adventurer in her was quick to assess the situation and decide the right thing, for her, was to go reclaim that throne. Not that she had ever dreamed of being a princess, queen, or empress – in fact she commented she’d kill the first person who addressed her as “your Highness”. But given what she knew now of her heritage, she was confident of her path.

The rest, less so; hence, the discussion. It was fair and right that everybody have a chance to reassess their goals and desires in light of the flash flood of information that had just been pushed into our brains.

In the end, it was decided a few (Ameiko among them) needed to tie up some loose ends and/or make some arrangements for a trip that might take weeks or months and from which we might not return. But each and every one of our original party did commit to following Ameiko. Kelda offered no opinion; she’s a quiet type and perhaps she’s still looking forward to going home to the north.

The Seal was able to issue remove curse to Qatana and we decided to move on to the next largish town, which is Riddleport. From there, people could get teleported back to Sandpoint or Magnimar or wherever they wished to take care of whatever they needed to take care of.

Watching my companions, I’ve decided that I need to upgrade my weapon. I’ve been watching Ana using a great sword and admiring how it seemed adept at dispatching opponents more quickly. I like my great axe, but I have to be able to pull my weight, as it were, in defeating foes, and I need to use every advantage I can.

Starday, 28 Erastus

So while we paused in Riddleport, I acquired a masterwork great sword [400 gp] (I’d like to get it enchanted some day), as well as cold weather gear for both myself [16 gp] and Kasimir [32 gp]. As much gold as we have acquired, I still feel poor whenever I go to a shop that sells anything other than stone knives or apples. How do people afford some of this stuff??

Today we left Riddleport. We will have days between cities, again. Jol, I think, is the next.

Fireday, 3 Arodus

We will arrive late in the day. Supposedly this city is known for its formidable odor.

===

Um, yeah. It has an odor.

Starday, 4 Arodus

Relatively boring trip, except there is an unusually large black bird .. a raven? … that seems to be following us.

Now that we have this artifact-that-evil-things-scry-for, every bush looks menacing, every animal is a familiar, and every person is a potential instrument of death. But still, that raven looks odd.

Sunday, 5 Arodus

Okay, this is a little freaky. We just entered and exited a dark woods (in a single day) and the raven was waiting on the other side. Immediately after we left the forest, it flew off. Someone noticed it had a red feather or two and sure enough it did. Same one. Ominous.

Moonday, 6 Arodus

We’ve arrived at a crossroads late in the day, and decided that this was a good place to stop. Kali went on and on about how this was too exposed, but we’ll set guards. It’s fairly flat here and you can’t move an attack force by river noiselessly.

I admit that the raven is unnerving, but you can’t be jumping at shadows.

===

Well, yeah. Who sends 40 soldiers to attack a caravan of maybe 15 people at most?

While Kali is trying to emphasize we didn’t heed her warning, she’s missing the point that I was right too. We had guards, so we received advance notice because the guards (kelda, I think) did indeed detect the force approaching camp. And you couldn’t actually move that force noiselessly – we heard their boats approach. And the rivers did technically limit the attack quadrants, since they couldn’t fight effectively standing in water.

In any case, Kali was instrumental in the defeat of the forces. We faced about half of them, while Sandru, Ameiko, and the rest of the caravan faced the other half. Kali cast a spell which made the ground rough and uneven and sharp; simply walking it on it caused them to injure their feet. Ivan field-tested that necklace of fireballs, to good effect. Qatana used her sonic burst. These area effect spells helped start the invaders bleeding before they ever got close to us, making them easier to kill once they did.

Unfortunately, one thing I had not considered is that everyone who was on guard was also not in armor – including myself. This made me a bit more vulnerable than I wished. There is something called “sleep armor” that I may have to look into.

But they are dead. No clue who sent them, other than they all wore golden armbands with an engraved lion head on them.

After a brief discussion we decided that although boats and oars probably had value, there was more value in having the source of the attack wonder what happened than in letting them know they failed by selling the boat and oars on the open market.

And back to sleep.