Rise of the Runelords - Xen'drik - Episode 3 - Journal of SOS

The Journal of the Warforged known as "SOS":

Day 4: Afternoon -

Notes on Events. Location: Sand Point
Interrogation/Conversation with primary searcher/reptile expert for Sandpoint: Female(? Has chest bumps) Human Ranger.

Discussion Points: No nearby regions known to harbor the recent attackers. Vegetation removal by fire is not considered a viable search option. Sleestack tribes tend to utilize might-makes-right leadership decisions and have limited cooperation without outside direction. Primary expertise is on 'Dark Elves',not Sleestack.

Decisions Made: Ranger will investigate likely sites in order of proximity and likelihood of harboring groups larger than 50. Pink leader is likely humanoid of significant stature or power. After searching for max 3 days, will reconnect with communications here in town.

Day 4: Evening -

Location: Inn / Feathered Serpent

Biological refueling was boring. Used time to investigate knowledge from local magic expert on
necromancy. Acquired useful first-person journal written by young woman who charmed a 'Sparkle'
vampire in the past. (First data on these vampires, but obvious in full daylight due to shimmer of sparkling dust in near vicinity. Must keep watch for unusual dandruff on all haired beings.) Sadly, no information on actual arcane empowerment or resuscitation data for this field of magic was found.

Location : Non-Defunct Temple (Hasn't sunk or burned yet!)
Companions found reason to re-examine past relationships of deceased. Surviving acquaintance
(Designate: High Priest Zandros) gave additional data on history in addition to re-appearance of
female(?) human ranger. Past history indicates activity as troubleshooter and auxiliary guardian against threats in region and acquisition of significant prestige and ability from the dead figure. Apparently nobody else is interested in trying to repair him for continued function in this regard. Some taboo of some sort seems to be involved.

Day 5: Morning -

Location: Inn

Feathers acquired new data source from local informant. Letter indicating possible traitor to town is male half-elf sibling to missing female located in missing female's room. Acquired task to search local glass manufactory for clues.

Location : Glassworks

Successfully located possible invasion point for Sleestack minions.

Sub-Leader: Suto (half elf) located and subdued after difficult fight. This unit was knocked out during battle, but later review of facts established expert in unarmed and deception skills using combat maneuvers. Uncommunicative, but had journal in foreign language with useful clues. (Note: Acquire expertise in this language soon. Appears to be quite common)

Sleestack Minions: No high-caliber opponents encountered

Resources Gained: Funding (platinum, gold/silver dust) , ornamentation, potion(??), MW procurement tools, and magic ring(+1 Prot) acquired. Split of loot left ring in this unit's possession.
Information Gained: Insane female human of mixed human/demonic ancestry took body and utilized it in ritual to remove undesirable human influences. Should be considered highly dangerous, but also likely to possess useful information on arcane topics. Sleestack numbers should be considered at least 1 order magnitude greater than previous enocunters would suggest. (100-500?) Coordinated plan of attack using bridges and underground smuggling route found in Suto journal. No time frame given, but local
constabulary will be making expedited trip to Storm Reach to pull in additional fighters and repair staff.

New Goals: Shut down invasion route 1 (Glasswork's tunnels). Prepare for invasion on Routes 2 and 3 (Bridges across river)

With luck, this synopsis will be useful to local combat planners if we fail to return from the Glasswork tunnels. Leaving this with innkeeper with instructions to share with returning fighters if we fail.

Rise of the Runelords - Xen'drik - Episode 3 - Journal of Hrana

From the Journal of Hrana:

            The tengu, SOS and I finished talking to the ranger about the various sleestak tribes in the area. After that it's about dinner time so we go back to the Rusty Dragon Inn to have dinner. The tengu eats quickly and then goes to talk to Amiko about the previous priest of the Sovereign Host. I stay at the inn and enjoy my meal while SOS goes to have a chat about necromancy with the owner of the Feathered Serpent. The shopkeeper gives him a book that is supposedly a journal written by a girl about her experiences with vampires.  When the tengu returns, he suggests we may want to speak with Father Zantos, seeking more information about the early life of Father Azakian, the previous priest (whose body was stolen from his tomb under the temple.) So we all go to the temple.

            Father Zantos is pretty forthcoming about the life of Father Azakian, as least as much as he knows of it. Aside from serving during the wars, the Father also was for a time an adventurer, and after retiring from that life he used his money and influence to help found the temple in Sandpoint and to give back to the community as much as possible. Father Azakian was killed when the temple mysteriously burned down, which was assumed to be some weird accident since no one could figure out how the fire started. The temple mostly used continual light spells not candles or lanterns for lighting. So we think his death is certainly suspicious. We also asked about his former adventuring group friends and discovered that the ranger was one of them. The ranger arrived at the temple about this time, having found out that Azakian's body was stolen during the raid on Sandpoint. She confirmed what Father Zantos said about Azakian's adventuring days. She also suggested a couple of places nearby where we could look for the missing sleestak tribesmen and the “pinkskin” who may be in charge.

            After this meeting was over, we all went back to the inn to rest for the night. SOS decided to study the book he got at the Feathered Serpent while the rest of us were sleeping. In the morning, while the tengu and I were eating, he discussed some of what he inferred from the book and suggested that maybe vampires would be attracted to the girls' school in town. The tengu and I have doubts as to the accuracy of the tome he received from the shopkeeper and suggest he may want to get a second source material for further study.

            While we are finishing up our meal, a member of the inn's staff comes over to the tengu and asks him for help. Amiko seems to have left rather suddenly in the night and left behind a note in her language. The tengu reads it, and he seems alarmed. We quickly go upstairs to Amiko's room and try to find out what happened. Her bed was not slept in and her pack is gone. The tengu says, according to the note she left, she went to meet her half-brother at her father's glassworks because he said their father was behind or involved in the sleestak attack and the theft of the priest's body. After assuring the halfling woman that we will find Amiko we take off to the glassworks.

            When we get to the glassworks, it is closed and the doors are locked. While we are trying to get in, a young local girl comes up and starts asking a lot of questions. I divert the girl and keep her occupied while the tengu climbs up to the roof and enters the showroom through one of the skylights. I get back about the time he unbars the door to let us in. We check the front room for snything suspicious but everything looks OK, so the tengu listens at the two doors. He doesn't hear anything unusual so he opens them to have a look. There are two hallways, one short and one long. We take the long one find evidence that things are not OK at the glassworks. There's blood on the wall and seems like some critters have been about because there's poop on the floor as well. And it doesn't smell very good either.

            First door we get to, SOS decides to go through. Good thing it's really loud in here (the furnaces for the glass blowers are still running), because we find a group of sleestak and they don't notice us come in. There's also an elf or half-elf here, farther back in the room.

            First, SOS casts an illusion on the far wall to make the door look like it's in a place it isn't. Then the tengu creates water in one of the furnaces, causing a big cloud of steam to fill part of the room. I run up to the closest sleestak and attack it. The tengu comes up too and we manage to kill it. SOS casts a sleep spell into the cloud of steam to try to put some of the sleestak out of the fight.

            The rest of them now know there's something going on in the far end of the room and one of them steps out of the cloud to see whats going on. He yells before we can get to him. Then the cloud dissipates and we can see that SOS managed to put 2 of the sleestak to sleep but the rest are still up. The tengu runs toward the closest ones and starts attacking. SOS casts a magic missile at the elf and does a little damage, but also unfortunately gets his attention. I'm too slow to get there before he yells, then LEAPS across the room at SOS and starts attacking him. He stuns SOS before anyone can get over there to help. The tengu has his hands full with about 3 of the sleestak, so I kill the one closest to me and turn back around to help. 4 more lizards come through the door at the far end of the room. The elf hits SOS so fast and hard, he's unconscious before I can get there, but I do manage to do some damage on the guy when I can. The tengu casts some kind of weird stoneskin spell and comes over to help deal with the elf, since it's pretty obvious now he's the one in charge. He is really insulting to the tengu, but together we do enough damage to render him unconscious and then mop up the rest of the minions. Some of them get away, but it was funny watching them run into a wall where they thought the door was!

            After the fight, the tengu gets SOS healed up, and I search the bodies, and disarm the elf. Got a ring and a potion off of him, in addition to a flute, a book, a bow and arrows, a set of thieve's tools (MW) and some pouches of gold dust and silver dust and 10 platinum coins! After the prisoner was secured, in a humiliating posture (according to the tengu), we explored the glassworks further. There was a recently built wall at the far end of the furnace room, so we broke it down and went down the stairs that were revealed. There's a lot of tunnels down here, but we're looking for Amiko so we don't search the long hallways. Instead we find a place that used to be bricked up on both ends, and she's in one of the rooms in that section. She's pretty beat up, tied and gagged, and unconscious, but we get her healed and awake and after speaking with her for a short time about what happened, took her back to the inn so she could rest. She said her half-brother, Suto, lured her there to try to convince her to join him, and she doesn't know where her father is. She's horrified by the fact her brother is involved in the attack and is working with the sleestak.

            We took Suto to the sheriff's office and had him locked away, with a warning to the sheriff to be extra careful with guarding him because of his skill. Then we went to report to the priest. The book we got off Suto had some very interesting information in it, including plans of another upcoming attack, that there is a succubus involved (Suto's her lover) and she is also apparently the daughter of the former priest, Azakian. The sheriff is going to try to get to Stormreach quickly enough to bring in some reinforcements to protect the town. We're staying to try to make some plans to hinder the attack. 

Rachael Storm - She saved the world, a lot.

So I picked this up today

Is anyone remotely surprised?

I'll post my thoughts after I've read it.

Return of the Killer Shrews!

Thoughts:
1. Yes! The got James Best to reprise his role!
2. Good job on the set design; it LOOKS like the original set.
3. John Schnieder too? I wonder how many Dukes of Hazzard references there will be?
4. Notice how James Best REALLY looks like James Doohan?
5. Wow, that CG is bad. It's almost as bad as the original "dogs with bath-mats glued on".

I think this may JUST BE a bad enough movie for me to enjoy.

Farewell Paragon City

NCSoft just announced that City of Heroes will be shutting down. It's last day will be November 30th 2012.

If you go WAY back to the first few posts of this blog you will see it started out as a City of Heroes blog before I restyled it into a general expression of my nerdiness.

To be honest, it feels like a friend of mine just died.

I started playing City of Heroes a little over 8 years ago. One weekend I bought Doom III and the next weekend I bought City of Heroes. I played Doom III about a week. I played City of Heroes constantly from the time I bought it until July 2007. After that I played it on and off and was getting back into it shortly before Star Wars: The Old Republic launched. Even at that, I kept CoX fully patched and loaded on my system, just in case. I pre-ordered City of Villains and I bought Going Rogue when it released. I have several level 50 characters there including the "Big Bad Boulder Bitch" Rachael Storm - Stone Armor/Super Strength tank. Despite a couple accusations, no, she is not even remotely based on "Rachael Summers" of Marvel's Days of Future Past (I didn't even know that she'd married Johnny Storm in that timeline).

I made many friends over there. With Rachael, I saved Paragon City and it's virtual world hundreds of times over.

I remember when a friend of mine first showed me City of Heroes with his Fire blaster flying over Galaxy City, laying down hate on Skulls.

I remember Rachael (often) getting lost in Perez Park, only to be smacked down by the Vazhilok Eidelons there or the Lost Lieutenant who had a TV on his head (cuz, yeah, that makes you look tough).

I remember "Where are the Lost in Kings Row?"

I remember the first time I went to Boomtown, just north of Steel Canyon. I was on an eight man team and we were just "hunting mobs"  when suddenly Rachael took, what I thought, was a short leap - but instead fell about 2 stories down and got MAULED by a huge group of clockwork.

I remember when the "Shadow Shard" was introduced. I never cared for that zone, but the launch even was fun as the weird extra-dimensional creatures, the Rularuu, who were very poorly balanced even when there were level 5 versions of them, wandered Paragon laying smackdown on lowbies.

I remember when I first got to Talos Island. It was one the prettiest zones in game at the time, second only to Founders Falls. I was part of another street hunting group beating down Freakshow. I was "shocked" (pun intended) when a defeated boss proceeded to stand back up and start mauling us.

I remember taking my gimped specced version of Rachael to Independance Port for the "Respec Trial". We had to fight Sky Raiders trying to destroy the nuclear reactor in Paragon City. The entire party wiped on the last wave of bad guys except for a Broadsword/Invulnerability Scrapper named "Swordie". She managed to solo the last wave for us and get us the respec.

I remember being sad when many of my first few friends in game quit.

I remember taking my Katana/Regeneration Scrapper Kanpo to Brickstown. At that time, the regen powerset (and scrappers in general) were horrifically overpowered. I had fun soloing large groups of +5 Council and only dying when I didn't manage my end and "Instant Healing" toggled off. I looked at the Ziggeraut (supervillain prison) and wonder why we never had to go in and put down a prison break.

I remember the Hollows introduction - in all it's buggy glory. 

I remember the glory of Striga Isle. To this day, it is still one of my favorite gaming "experiences". As an aside, most of the stories there were written by Shane Lacey Hensley, the man who brought us the tabletop RPG Savage Worlds.

At that time, "Global Chat" was released, and I joined a HUGE supergroup called "The Conglomerate" which defined much of my time in City of Heroes. It was a guild I actually learned a great deal from, not just about gaming, but a number of things that applied to "Real Life."

I remember the JOY of logging on at 4:30 am and running the Statesman Task Force every day.

I remember getting very silly and creating my tribute to anime magical girls - "Knight Flyer", using the Epic AT - Peacebringer and the "shoulder kitty" costume option.

Good Bye Paragon City. Good Bye Rogue Isles.

Good Bye Rachael Storm, Kanpo, Knight Flyer, Demon Hunter Yurei, Cruft, Mary Sladen, 

Good Bye to the "in game friends (and enemies)" (but not their RL counterparts I hope) in no particular order: South Freedom, Cymraes, Maliss, Dr. Opie, Quantum Cat, Tri-Polar, Quantum Plumber, Captain Slap, Zyreos, Red Tomax, Mr. Shivers, GuiltTrip Girl, Lovely LaRose, Bleak Forecast, The Mayhemettes, Bolt Crank, House Call, Rei Kei, Slick Zero, Charisma, Red Vine, Allison, Status Crow, Rasta, and too many more to name.

Good Bye City of Heroes. You were my first MMO and one of my favorite computer games of all time.

P.S. Death Mages, be thankful the game is ending, I *still* hate you and your underground caves in Paragon.

TOROCAST!

Torocast is Star Wars: The Old Republic's longest running fan podcast. I mention this because I've recently been chosen to become one of the new hosts for the show. Give it a listen if you want to hear me!

This site is not affiliated with Torocast nor the Twonkhammer network beyond me being a host on Torocast.

Pathfinder REBOOTED! - Episode 1 - Silent Tide

Because of excessive issues trying to maintain continuity in the Eberron campaign, I've restarted my game (again) as a super episodic Pathfinder campaign. I'm going to be leaning heavily on old Pathfinder Society Modules. Each story will be self contained. This also means that if someone can't show up, I can still run. This also means, because I can write from the summary, that game notes will have far better grammar and be much clearer and complete (and not huge walls of text)!

Instead of being in Sharn, the characters are now in Absalom in the Pathfinder world of Golarian.

Talen is now a Gun-Mage
Kal-Torak is still (and will always be) Risen Demon Magus

With that in mind, here is the most recent episode!

Kal and Talen are dispatched by the Pathfinder Society to find Yargos Gill in hopes of securing an ancient tome he recently uncovered. To cover his tracks, the crime lord Nessian has sent a group of goons to kill Yargos, as well anyone else who might know about it.


They intercept Nessian’s minions, the War Hounders, just as they are about to shove Yargos and the rest of their chain gang of captives off a sea cliff. Kal and Talen intimidate the War Hounders and make short work of them and rescue Yargos and his friends. Yargos reveals that the codebook represents the remnants of a failed attempt to invade Absolam hundreds of years earlier. However, the invaders, known as the Black Echelon, have returned from the dead due to his work on the codebook in an attempt to complete their ancient plan.

Yargos tells them about the codebook and the need to stop Nessian. As they head out to try to find Nessian, deep in the distance, they witness a flickering red signal light. Yargos realizes that the light signals the undead Black Echelon to launch a team of operatives to poison Absalom’s central granary, and our heroes take a diversion to stop Black Echelon from tainting one of the city’s most important food stocks.

After surviving their first encounter with the silent skeletal killers, Kal and Talen, using judicious gathering of information,  discover the location of Nessian’s new base of operations hidden among a ruin of siege towers on the beach just outside of Absalom.

The heroes find Nessian's base of operations and defeat him! Furthermore, they recover the code book and return it to the Pathfinder Society.

Ivarkian Campaign Episode 5 - I'm Mister Hatemonger! I'm Mister Mad!

Eighteen Months later.

Indra is now Swordmaster for Jalen Whitecloud.
Moscato has become chief curator of the official library.
Chet is now a Lord Chet MourningManSavageWood, steward.
Baretta Walther is still swordmaster for Jala Whitecloud.

Inception has grown to be the shining jewel, eastern doorway to the west.

Innermost ring is called "The Dawning Spawn", and where the whiteclouds share power as co-rulers. The outer layer is the "academic center" - The Dawning ring. It has it's own Mage college.  There is a trade sector as well.

Indra has been on a mission and returns with a man from the "Coast of Eternal Starlight". He is known as The Hitman Jangleman - aka  Ambassador Nixus.

Moscato, Chet, and Baretta are waiting for the "emissary from the elves" to arrive. The Whiteclouds are nervous about the reception.

Nixus' hair is tied back and is dressed flamboyantly in mismatched dark colours. Moscato and Chet recognize him as a "Dark Elf" or "Death Elf" - one of the commandos of the original Elven army.

Baretta makes conversation and asks about the Coast. Nixus describes it and it's history.During the meal, Baretta is told that someone wishes to meat the ambassador. Baretta excuses herself and is brought out. Two guards with griffon symbols flank "Katyana Thorvold". She indicates she is the newly appointed sword mistress of Jeness Thorvald (enemies of the Walther family), Jarl of Westspire.

Katyana barges in and sits at the table next to Nixus. After some verbal parrying, Nixus excuses himself and talks with Moscato. Katyana excuses herself as well.

The party notes a man who seems familiar in the hall witnessing. Baretta steps aside to talk to him. He introduces himself as "Lord Thaddeus Truevillain". He says he came here on behalf of his order to monitor the situation. Specifically, that the Thorvalds have a history with the Whiteclouds and Baretta. He is cagey about who he is and who his order is.

Nixus comes to visit Baretta before the evening is over. He says we have impressed the sorcerer Uguri. and he gives Baretta a case and leaves. Baretta opens the case carefully. The case has elven writing on it (Starpiercer) and contains a long blade. It has the imagery of a Quetzalcoatl. It's a thin Masterwork rapier style blade. She finds out it is an Elven Thinblade.

Chet is given a package from "Blackfang", the gnoll who Chet resurrected the child of. The package contains a perl - a "Perl of recalling."

Indra is given a box with two blades.

Next evening there is another banquet with Jarls from other cities to celebrate the anniversary of the founding of Inception. While Chet makes a speech a mist rolls in and forms into a being which attacks Moscato. It very quickly becomes apparently, only Moscato saw this. Baretta escorts Moscato out of the hall to "Show him something" and as soon as the door closes, she lightly smacks the back of his head.

Nexus asks to "Play something" and pulls out his musical instrument. He plays a haunting melody and a few other songs.

After this Chet calls Indra and Baretta over and notes that Nixus and Truevillain have been chatty. Baretta assigns a couple of house guards to keep an eye on Nixus and Truevillain.

The week continues somewhat uneventfully. Nixus meets and entertains and sees the sights of the town. At one point he meets with Timeran. Many people are in town.

Moscato does research on the sword "Burning hatred" that Nixus sang about in one of this songs. It was probably one of the first artifact weapons. It is thought to be so dangerous as to kill it's wielder.

A couple days later, while watching a performance, Moscato, Chet, Baretta and Indra note guards reacting. They follow. They hear and crazed gutteral voice. They look and people are starting to transform in beings with yellow eyes and claws. The party is separated and makes their way to the podium where the Jarls are. Nixus, the Jarls, Moscato, and Chet run through the tunnel through a trapdoor on the podium.

Upon arriving a wolf-like being appears and starts attacking.

The swordmasters jump down and follow. The party makes their way to the central spire. They manage to get in. They look out the top of the tower and see fire and chaos. On a nearby building a mysterious figure looks on.....

Ivarkian Campaign Episode 4 - The goddess "Snooty-kins".

Moscato suggests that we leave Taraza behind, but the Ogre disagrees.

The party asks Taraza where the monument is. Taraza asks the Ogre something and he points north.

Baretta asks for a description. The Ogre says that no one has seen it in several hundred years. But we will know it as things there both die and live simultaneously. Taraza indicates thats we must amuse the guardian. The party asks for more information. Uguri leaves without answering.

The party departs. They travel for the better part of a day. The party follows the path the Gnolls would take. The path appears to be heavily travelled. Eventually, the party comes to the first major signs of water - a lake that feeds the river going east. They see a large fairey.

They use it to cross the lake without incident.

They continue on, and find a large field where they camp. First night passes uneventfully.

Two days later, they come to a valley where there is a large wall surrounded by huts. It is very quiet. There is no evidence of working hearths. They soak a shirt in fabric which Baretta uses to cover her mouth before scouting. Moscato looks through his spyglass and sees a few small gnollish figures but mainly women and children.

Baretta heads down and the smell of death is overwhelming. She sees 4 long rows of bodies covered with sheets and skins and anything else. The town is very quiet and the few gnolls she encounters are laconic and dazed, but do not seem to have noticed her.

She attempts to inspect the bodies. She witnesses a gnoll bringing a small body out and leave it amongst the dead. She returns to the group.

She reports that the plague appears to have killed most of the town. They decide to bypass the town and continue on.

A couple days later, they run across villages in similar states. While travelling the party speculates that Ogres may be immune to the plague as various areas around the villages are sharpshooters.

The party makes camp and sets watches: Moscato, then Baretta and Taraza, then Chet. Taraza and Barretta talk. Taraza indicates the mural is dangerous as it is a window from another times of  things "better left forgotten". There was a time before the human empire when "They" were watching. Baretta suspects that "They" were something of an apocalyptic nature such as a dragon or dragons. Baretta notes that during the conversation, Taraza refers to Timeran as "The Mindbender". During the war with the elves there was a "weapon" the elves used called "the Mindbenders" who were spellcasters. Baretta notes that Timeran is human. Taraza suspects that Timeran's mentor was an elf. Baretta suspects Taraza can read her thoughts, but Taraza indicates that she is very good at reading people. The rest of the night passes uneventfully.

The next day they travel. Moscato spies something off in the distance. It appears to be ruins of some type. They head to the ruins and scout the area. The ruins seem to be granite. Baretta asks Taraza if these ruins are what they are looking for. Taraza indicates that it isn't, but is nonetheless important.

There is creation text upon the ruins. Taraza and the party read the ruins. She tells the party the information they have learned could cause gods to mark them for death.

Taraza and Beretta hear a sound. A LARGE group Gnolls attack. While at first the battle seems difficult, 3 heavily armored Gnolls appear to assist, scaring off the gnolls. Baretta turns and see the gnolls who assisted.

The gnolls tell them that while they are not friends, they are not enemies. Baretta notes her wounds are healing and the forest is especially lush. They approach the shrine.The soil oddly seems dry and dead and littered with bones and corpses. Upon stepping on the soil, they start taking damage. They back up and heal immediately.

The gnolls give them healing potions. They RUN. Once they reach the inside of the shrine, they stop taking damage. Party quaffs healing potions. The party searches and finds the staff - a long staff with scales, on one side a skeleton and the other side overgrown plants. A large stag walks up behind the party. The stag talks to them. Taraza notes the stag is the guardian of life and plagues. They ask if they can have the staff. The stag suggests a proposal.

The stag takes human form, but one hand is a skeleton. "I think if you can take it then take it."

The Staff turns into a dire owlbear and jumps upon the deadly soil. It starts flying when Chet "commands" it to "Stop". Baretta runs and tries to grab it and misses. The party attempts to attack but fails. The owlbear hits Baretta and combat begins.

The battle is very difficult, but the party barely defeats the fiendish owlbear. The stag being is about to congratulate the party when suddenly a ring comes off of his finger and he falls into the negative energy zone and dies. Taraza has his ring.

Taraza tells them to let the Jarl know that expansion to the west will be unchecked for now.

The party returns to one of the plagued villages. They arrive at the home of one of the gnolls who'd saved them. His family is dead. Chet attempts to use the staff of healing on one of the dead gnolls. He brings an infant gnoll back to life. Chet heals every gnoll village on the way back. They note that Zora are in each city they pass through.

They return to Ugiri and the goblin warrior. Chet returns the staff to Ugiri and hands them the missing sealed box. The goblin with Ugiri says, "There was a time before the empire, an old time. A time of the paladin city and the paladin king. The mural that you discovered is the only known picture found in 6 millenia of the paladin king. Ugiri doesn't know much of him, but that Zora fear his name because of the power he wielded across the world."

Ivarkan Campaign Episode 3 - Do you remember that Ogre who threw a house at us?

Three months later.

First group of guards have been deployed, possible names of guard captains are being considered.

Chet has been promoted to senior clerk.He is now the steward under Jalen Whitecloud.

Wealthy families are coming in, first wall has been built. Stone masons guild have come in. Inception has been growing, many new people are arriving. The burrows are being demolished and higher end buildings are coming in.

Moscato has continued investigating history, areas before the fall of the human empire.

Chet suggests that Baretta would be a good choice for captain of the guards. He approaches her. She asks about money but has also been approached about being Whitecloud's House Swordmaster.

Baretta wants to talk to Whitecloud about his offer. Along with general security work, there is the occasional find out information for damage control. She decides to accept the position.

Chet goes on to talk to Moscato to see if his research has uncovered anything important. Moscato notes that the mural (last adventure) predates the last human empire. Moscato points to evidence that elves are apparently very long lived.

Chet meets with Baretta and asks her to gather a team of people because Moscato and he are doing an expedition to check out a wall that has been discovered (previously mentioned). Baretta picks 3 people (Bleys, Brand, and Corwin) to go with them.

Chet, Moscato, Baretta, and the three head out.

Three days later, they stop at an inn. A man walks in and picks up a package with the imperial seal from the barkeep and walks out. They get rooms for the night.

Baretta finds out that the package was delivered by official courier. (Symbol of hawk under the sun)

Night passes uneventfully.

At the mine.

As the party continues their journey they encounter a party with the emperor's seal on a standard. They encounter one of the headmasters of the sword school. He greets them (and is pissed at the emporer's group) and leads them in to the mine.

As they head in, there is a woman who they encouter wearing a simple outfit. A Zora (think Bene Gesserit).The Headmaster informs her that she and Zora have no authority here. She turns and walks back in. Two of Timeran's come in who have been researching. One of them indicates to Moscato that she knows what has been going on.

Moscato and Chet examine the mural. Baretta notes the Zora isn't looking directly at the mural. The Zora asks, "And what are your impressions." Baretta says, "It's a nice mural". The Zora turns and walks out.

Moscato starts studying the rest of the room looking for clues.Moscato notes that spells do not function in the room.

Timeran says he will post guards. He asks to speak to Baretta aside. Timeran psychically tells her that there is a situation. A package was being sent from Prince Havisham Sunlighter. On it's way to them, it was stolen by Gnolls. Lady Taraza is going to tell them she is going to accompany them. We need to make every effort to recover the package.   Taraza  needs to witness that we've made every effort to recover it. The Zora is very good at manipulating circumstance to get what she wants. We cannot leave any recourse to allow her to  manipulate the situation.

Meanwhile, Moscato is overcome by a feeling of dread while looking at the mural and he runs out.

Baretta witnesses the Zora talking to another woman. Baretta hears that the younger woman "hasn't finished her task for the Zora". Furthermore, the "southern amazon tribe are unwilling to give them an embassy because of risk of reprisal from the Silver Talon". Zora notes that Baretta has been overhearing them.

Zora tells Baretta that she (Baretta) is "Angela Bell's Granddaughter".

Timeran updates everyone.

The townsfolk show the party some Gnolls who'd been killed.

Baretta tries to follow up with the couriers about the package. The couriers indicate that they never recieved the package. Baretta asks the barkeep who handed an imperial package off. He doesn't remember anything.

Moscato investigates the stables. They notice a saddle with the seal of an imperial courier. Chet rummages through the bags. He finds rations, and water but no horses. They attempt to track where the horse that would have had the saddle went.

They do find the horse and the courier that was stomped. The Zora follows them. They follow the trail and find a settlement that appears to be made by gnolls.

The gnolls are afraid of the party and they hide. Taraza notes them to back away from the water and 4 ogres move out of the water.

The Ogre says that Uguri wants to speak with them. Taraza speaks to them in another language (Moscato has cast comprehend languages and understands what was said and that they have passage into the "singing circle"). The Ogres leave (apparently they breath underwater). The party leaves the settlment and goes to talk to Uguri. Moscato asks about the sickness the gnolls had. Apparently Chet knows about this illness because this is what the the secret item the caravan had. Moscato observes that the gnolls have it and that it will spread. Chet advises that the cure/disease is secret.

After several hours of walking, they hear a sound. Baretta shudders due to the haunting quality of the sound. The party makes camp near the area that Taraza describes as "Sacred". The party sets watches. During first watch (Moscato's) there is an unusual wind that comes up. Moscato is hit with something. Moscato cries out.

The party wakes. Baretta and Chet are hit. Taraza appears to cast something. Moments later a huge winged lion pads up to the camp and walks around. Taraza indicates that it cannot see them and they have a round to attack

The party attacks. After a few rounds the manticore flees.

The next morning, after the party wakes up, there is a loud thud. Four ogres materialize.

The Ogres lead the party up to a stone circle with a Ogre sitting in the center. After discussion, the Ogres believe that the humans have brought the wasting disease to destroy the Gnolls. Chet offers healing medicine for the gnolls. The Ogre leader tells them that if they do what he wants, they will get the "item they want".

Uguri tells them to go to an old monument. The old god of plague and healing has a guardian in the area. Inside is a staff. If they bring it back, past the guardian, he will give them what they seek.