Session 53
We make a lot of theatrics in the room to make Xardurok appear erratic. Morn finds out he is infected and prays for divine intervention, but is not heard. He tries remove curse next, which works. Morn casts freedom of movement on Finn. Most people are on the roof when we get there. Morn takes place next to Grendolfa and pretends to be her guard.
Finn gives a speech naming Klondorn as a traitor, and says Grendolfa is the only one he can trust, and then offers her his kingdom. But she is gay. Finn/xardurok jumps off, but he fails to take the body out of the bag before landing. Morn casts fog cloud to obscure this, and Chaos intimidates people to stay away from the edge. The dragon appears. We fight it and get grendolfa to safety. Nefrun tries to get people inside, but some of them get charmed to turn against us. Many fall under the dragons breath.
The dragon is banished. We continue the next turn.
Session 52
We head to Xarduroks chambers: when we move through the chardalyn improvement room, the lady opens the door for us. We enter the mines, where 3 duergar hold an umberhulk captive with a sack over its head. We see duergar harvesting myconid spores in the throne room. We meet Nefruns allies and explain, and tell them to gather people on the roof at first light. We go up with the elevator and meet Dreck on the first floor, who Nefrun recognizes and explains everything to. We move on to the war room, that has a large map of Icewind dale with some things we don’t know yet. There is also another tiny animated chardalyn dragon flying over the map. It is an automated path for just theatric value.
Finn picks the lock on a chest in Xarduroks room. It has a lot of precious stone treasure and a scroll with numbers. We also find a shrine with a statue of Deep Duerga, the same figure as was on top of the titanstone. She was the demigod of conquest, psionics and imperialism.
Spark does some divination and asks: ‘’how can we transport the titanstone away from here’’
Answer: ‘’the stone binds to that which you might not want to be released, transport it very carefully. It is heavy and big’’
When we take a long rest, Finn has night terrors and becomes violent. He scratches Morn, who fails his con save and is infected by lycanthropy. Morn does not know it yet.
Session 51
We subdue Xardurok and stabilize him. Morn ties him up. Nefrun tells us about Grendolfa, who needs to be kept safe. We start a short rest while listening to Nefrun.
Grendolfa is one of the most important people here: Xardurok is in love with her and wanted to make a big chardalyn dragon. He is enhancing many underdark creatures with chardalyn.
Spark takes his crown.
He has a dragon that can move through the air shaft and roam the mountains if the doors on top are open.
She is shocked to hear we killed Klondorn.
We make a plan: we will stage Xarduroks suicide. We put his crown and his body in the bag of holding. Finn will look like him. He will say Klondorn was a traitor and was tortured to death, which killed the two torturers. He will demand Grendolfa is brought to us on the roof in the evening and say we are his new friends. He will make a big show of giving Grendolfa his power and then ‘’kills himself’’ where Finn jumps down and drops his body from the bag.
Morn and Spark say a prayer for him and then Sparks kills him with his hammer.
Session 50
We find a titanstone with a statue of Duera, evil god of conquest and psionic power. There is a tortured mindflayer chained to it. His name is F’iorl. He is too injured to be a threat. The setup is clearly an altar. Temple of the priest Klondorn. He tells us the people here experiment and try to change all of the underdark, but the experiment didn’t work on him.
The left room is stocked with cold weather clothes, the right one with weapons.
Chaos jams the elevator and breaks the mechanism. We jam the doors while the hammerer tries to break through the elevator floor.
We enter the priests room, and try to restrain him. Spark presses him down and takes piercing damage from a mysterious source (we laugh hysterically for several minutes). Morn ties his hands to his desk. He transforms, revealing he is a spiky demon. We beat him relentlessly. Chaos has two crits in one turn. He dies from Morns Wrath of the storm.
On his desk are stone tablets. We have copied 92 of them through rubbings.
I bless the Mind flayer and give him guidance on his passing.
We can see a large hall with workers and guards. There is a pool where chardalyn shards are collected, then make parts and assemble them. There are big monsters with shiny claws that seem to have been altered.
Morn finds the hidden passage door to the room that’s marked with Nefrun. We hear screams and people asking who she’s working with. When we enter, we see two torturers and Xardurok. I cast shield of faith on Chaos and free Nefrun, and give her my knife. She stabs one of her torturers. Xardurok becomes big.
Session 49
We get an expansive map form viscetta and enter the fortress with stone shape in the morning after long resting.
We are attacked by animated chardalyn armors but kill them. Chaos and Spark go down the elevator and are attacked by duergars with mechanical exoskeletons. They have very heavy protection but are suffering inside. We send one of them up through the elevator. Jar and Morn enter next and help out. We kill the one and heal Chaos.
Session 48
We had a long rest at the camp. We wonder if Jars morning drinking habits are problematic. Around an hour to go before the mountains. Its not a full wall, but it’s a gradual incline. We find some outposts along the road, a small one that seems recently abandoned, and a larger one with stables, barracks and an office area. From here, we see a bigger fortress in the valley behind the mountain. There is also a similar watchtower on the other side of the valley.
Chaos checks out the barracks. Not very large, not recently slept in, and did not seem to have been left in a hurry.
Morn and Spark investigate the office and find some logbooks. It is written in dwarvish and describes how many travellers have been past the road, goes a year and a half back. Less and less traffic over the days. There is some trade with other peoples. Last couple of weeks, there are people leaving. Later entries will say names or nicknames of people -> they were known. Xarduroks kids are also named. Most recent entry: no more entries after the start of the dark.
There are some stamps, Morn takes them. Chaos stamps them on her head. Symbol of a sun with a band over it. ‘’Xardurok allows you in’’
There are some forms as well.
There is an alcove that was some sort of altar.
We want to tell the following story: Nildar has recruited Chaos, who is bringing spark and Vyth as a mechanical gift. Nildar died and we are returning now as survivers of the submarine attack.
We fill out the forms.
Chaos: treesa trunk
Jar: Raj
Morn: dave the holey
We discuss a plan at length. We will say we have been at the outpost to get stamped in but found no one there. We stamped our ‘’goods’’ and wrote them in the book. Then we walk to the fortress in the valley. We end up at a large entrance gate. It opens and we see a corridor behind a portcullis.
A duergar(viscetta) guard appears and speaks in undercommon. She does not understand common or dwarvish. Two invisible guards appear. One of them does understand dwarven, Morn is translating and the other guard translates to the leader.
She says she thinks nobody would be well received. They had a plan, but things have gone awry: xardurok found out. He has the leader of the guards, Nefrun. Nildar knew something was wrong with his dad and he is now insane. Only a small group is in the know. They tried to restore normalcy, but almost everyone left.
Viscetta will make us a sketch and some info. She will toss it over the wall and we can get it later. Its around 3 o’clock.
Session 47
Chance of snowstorms. We lay anchor on an iceberg, and wake up when finn shifts. We take a short rest instead. Next morning, we get to the shore before the storm hits.
We find paths and an encampment. We are attacked by coldlight walkers. We find on them a letter from the third son Jasper to Xardurok, starting with fuck you dad, gonna live my own life, hope to never see you again. Kindness is more important than power. Implied that he met a lover because he changed his last name to nightskye.
Morn can dispel the storm with call lightning. He also draws a dick in the sky.
Session 46
Duerth had 2 brothers and a sister.
We start our travel and meet a group of merrow that we fight
Session 45
Spark asks Gond if we can trust Duerth not to tell his dad. The answer is yes. Also he wants power for powers sake.
We give magic stones to little tom, he has the skill now. We go to talk to duerth to see how we can find xardurok. He has a ring of mindshielding so he doesn’t show up on the compass.
Duerth tells us his siblings got sent out in the world. Xardurok might very well be the closest.
Evelyn: might have done what he asked.
Most of the others are probably still out.
Sunblight is a castle/fortress. Encrusted between the spine of the world.
Session 44
we learn titanstones are only breakable by specific blessed tools, they contain titans that were locked up by giants, xardurok wants to harvest their power somehow. If he knew we had a big stone he would want to have it
Session 43
We return to emberhold. Arcturis and Morn exchange presents. The fishermen are afraid of Sparks bear and Panem and file a complaint with Harper. We agree on a week trial period. The Fishermans Defense Force.
Morn talks to lots of people to influence opinions on the dragon (Daero, smith, Klothark)
Jar and Spark want to build a nice place for panem and chaos.
Spark asks Harper for plans on the floating city. She wants us to find the lost city. Arcturis is working with Duerth to find Sunblight. Note: duerth comes from sunblight, and can try to find it. Arcturis is trying to find the lost city with info from the codicil of white.
I tell chaos to talk to little tom as a relatable yet responsible role model, I go to work in Arcturises room for a name plate with an engraved image of panem sleeping on chaos’ lap.
The bear brings back lots of fish. Morn is worried about upsetting the local economics with free fish. We decide to build a barbeque for the town.
Spark proposes to make a room for finn where he can punch things and lock the door for privacy.
Session 42
The party decides to capture the bandits and send them away with the remaining dragonborn guard, but they keep Mimi with them as a guide. The group takes off with the carts, but Finn, Chaos and Panem stay behind to look for prey animals to test Finns poison knife on in the shrubbery next to the path. They quickly find a gazelle carcass, that Panem takes a bite from. Then a large creature with a sailfin on its back emerges from the sand below. Panem barely manages to escape, but Finn gets grappled by sand and gets stuck on the back of the creature as it sails away at high speed. Then they hear a terrifying howl as a group of Howlers attacks the carts, which are around 8000 miles away by then.
The group on the carts fights off the howlers, while Finn, Chaos and Panem manage to escape from the Dunesailer by flying away. They reunite with the group just moments before the Dunesailer emerges. They manage to kill it with a combination of shadow magic ninja moves, clever use of spirit guardians, and generally beating it with various weapons. When the Dunesailer sinks back into the earth, all of us are beat up but still standing, and a sad howl disappearing in the distance signifies the howlers abandoning their now perished master.
We safely deliver the goods and return to Ka’rhashan. Jar receives a letter from Sophia from a messenger just before they arrive. Inside is a drawing of one singular dick.
Image: The Dunesailer attacks!
Session 41
Chaos gets her last lesson in draconian and is now beginner level in the language. The egg starts to hatch. Dragon: what am I? Chaos: you can be whatever you want but you are loved. Says I am your mommy and gets sniffed by dragon. Rolls a 3. Dragon looks green first, becomes a bronze dragon. Morn declares a baby is born to the gods and shoves jar in to meet it first. The dragon bites him but then gets pet. Vyth comes in too and they play together. We play with fire with it and it does its first firebreath. Chaos calls it Panem.
Finn is working on alchemy stuff.
Magic rope, headband of intellect, winged boots and poison resistance armor for Chaos, periapt of wound closure(immedeately stabilized if at 0) for Finn.
Finn wants to learn woodcarving so Morn will teach him. Buys some wood blocks and a bejewelled knife.
Morn buys many scarves in different colors as souvenirs and stores them in Finns bag of holding.
The next morning, we travel to Ka’rhashan by teleportation circle, and load up the carts with batteries and goods. Tova sent 3 guards with us, but Jar sends two of them home when they turn out to be inexperienced. The third stays out of desire for revenge. We travel for about 5 hours and then encounter Mimi’s bandit group when passing the Endworld mountains. They attack us, but we overpower them and they surrender. Mimi tells the group they used to be hunters but their prey disappeared and the plains are no longer safe, so they started robbing the dragonborn merchants and selling their goods to buy food. She shows a long scar that she got when she was pulled under the sand by a mysterious creature. Morn thinks the injury was caused by a thin, flexible plane, like a sharp sail(29 medicine check, possibly my highest roll so far). The group debates what to do with the bandits, but do not reach a conclusion yet.
Session 40
We meet Tova. Finns mission is approved. Tova and Finn bond a little and tells him to stick with Morn to keep him alive. She asks Spark to keep Sophia under his guide, and tells him that after his contract ends, he can go to the high north dwarven citadel or the dragonborn town in the south.
She asks Morn about his glove, he lies and Spark supports him so she doesn't notice. She says she is keeping the battery. Lots of stuff going on, we debate how to deal with the prodigy.
Tova also talks with Chaos about it and gives her a potion to understand her baby(took the telepathic feat)
Spark has made his skeleton Jack set up a stall to collect scrap metal, uses it to make a bunch of armors and makes components for the summon celestial spell for me.
Finn proposes we tell the prodigy we have the original to use for research and ask him if he will allow us to use it to help the dragonborn untill they have a better version. We agree on it.
Finn gets nice clothes for his family acceptance ceremony. Finn gets really stressed and we support him. Morn says he will always have a family and finn immedeately chooses the money because morn is his family. They hug for the first time. Morn cries. Jar awkwardly makes it a group hug.
We convince the prodigy and decide to go with the battery.
Image: Jack and his scrap metal collection stand.
Session 39
Finn gives the paper to one of the constructs, who holds it up very high. Chaos uses command to try and make Silverquill confess. Spark uses silvery barbs to make her fail the save. She says ‘’we might use magic to achieve our means, but that doesn't mean….’’
Some people in the crowd notice her saying this.
Mayor is drawing symbols on the ground, Jar notices what they are: sigils for teleportation circle.
Morn convinces some of the bystanders that she is selling magically tampered goods.
‘’those are just tokens they are just for identification’’
Mayor finishes his spell and makes the stone defenders arrest us and give us antimagic bracelets. Finns features are not affected by them.
Chaos tries to get to her egg and pretends to have to pee to go back to it, and one of the stone defenders accompanies her. She gives it some blankets and plays a song.
A trial starts.
Spell scrolls are partially intact.
First one is ‘’bestow…’’
Second one is ‘’…value’’
I notice one of the judges is strangely eyeing Silverquill as if he is losing money.
We suggest to use zone of truth, but the Goldrinsings protest and they compromise on using zone of truth for closing statements.
But garments of goldrinsings are examined and found to be tampered with, and Silverquill is caught trying to remove her cuffs. Goldrinsings will be arrested and Cesarnicars are excempt from charges but we get a fine for unlawful magic use.Grandma Tova appears and promises to pay the fine.
Image: Morn in antimagic shackles.
Session 38
Today, Tova arrives and merchant events start. We have breakfast.
Sophia has to run errands, staff has arranged the market stalls for the merchant event. There will first be a sale of raw materials, a quality control by the burgermeister.
Sophia runs off, is suddenly wearing a symbol of Gond, which Spark notices and shares with Morn. We decide to go to the temple together. Finn stays to hang out with Jar, Gemma goes to oversee the stall setup.
Finn takes jewelry sessions to add his name to his brass knuckles.
Chaos has a second language lesson. Its going well.
Morn hears about a letter to him circulating the Helm circuit.
Spark meets Sophia, but then shrine to gond is pushed over by a goliath named Gor who mocks his religion. He throws something that looks like a gold coin.
Spark and Morn restore the statue and talk about the wearing gloves thing, but Morn does not reveal exactly why he does it. Jack has a scrap metal collection stand.
We go to the merchant event. We see Silverquill pledgemage, and Gor seems to be her bodyguard.
Mayor has stone constructs. I use detect magic and notice necromancy and illusion. Mayor greets Gemma and thanks her for hosting the trading event. Necrotic energy going from Silverquill to the mayor when they shake hands.
Gor proposes to go first on inspection, notices Finn before the inspection starts. He teleports away. Spark announces they are simply tourists. Nobody pays attention to him. I see no magic. Necromancy and illusion is all around Silverquill. Approves the first one, is oozing necrotic energy. Illusion magic on the second batch. We end the spell on the mayor. Still approves the illusioned batch and the third one too.
Silverquill panics, bows to him and holds his hand, necrotic energy happens but Gemma counterspells it. Gemma talks to the mayor and asks him if he knows he was enchanted. Morn helps her and gives her guidance by pointing out the moment that he saw him snap out of the spell. The mayor doesn't take action.
Gor goes to the back of our tent, drops to the ground, crouched down to pick up his token, pulls out a scroll and touches one of our silks. Finn calls us and I notice illusion magic. Gor comes up behind the mayor when he is inspecting our stuff. Chaos steps inbetween them and has to make a wis save. She intimidates him and he walks away. Finn is running after Gor, attacks and stuns him. Spark turns into a giant and Morn casts thaumaturgy on him to be more loud when he exposes the scam. Finn finds paper in his mouth, pandemonium breaks out. Mayor wants a trial.
Image:Spark and Morn discuss architecture on their walk to the temple.
Session 37
We go through the portal, arcturis stays behind. We arrive at the ashwald port and travel to a mansion, where we meet Genma, the rich dwarf guard (guest player) and Sophia, Jars sister. Its very warm, but morn is still wearing his gloves and warm clothes. People convince him to wear lighter clothes and offer him linen gloves, he accepts. This is the hub of a trading port city. Grand mistress tova.
Rivaling Goldrinsing company is earning more money on embroidery sales. Finn has to find out why as a challenge to be adopted.
We find out a rivaling company uses illusions to sell better, we want to prove this to help Finn succeed his challenge. We go to a reinforced room and Morn tries calm emotions before going to sleep.
Chaos has to speedrun learning draconian for her hatching dragon egg.
Finn wakes up screamin as a shifter but is not violent.
Jar, spark and Gemma try to recreate the battery. Works for one minute and then falls apart, powered by spellslots.
Session 36
Jar wants to smuggle out battery found in the ship without morn or the prodigy knowing. Finn had a night terror but was not violent and went back to sleep. Jar tells Finn to come with him to his family so he can be adopted.
Spark and I notice Jar is being shady but settle on it being private affairs. The prodigy will arrive at 1.30. Spark animates a skeleton and convinces Morn it’s all right. Jar convinces Morn to join him to go to his clan, all of us plan to go there. Jar does not want to use spirits, but will use the battery that already has a spirit in it. Morn does not know he has it .
Prodigy approves our trip.
Ezekiel: guard of the prodigy.
Session 35
We pick up after the frostmaiden fight, just leveled to lv9. Finn has night terrors. We have spent around 10 days on the frostmaiden quest.
We leave Finn in a room in the tower. People are wary of us, we are a bit like celebrities. We take Cora with us. Got half plate, met with Harper, Jar got letter from Daero. Harper will contact prodigy for codicil of white and maybe hire spark. Gave flowers to smith and Arcturis.