adventurelog

[adventurelog]

Harumans Hill

Dear frightened reader,

last time I left you off we were in the midst of a stomach churning battle.

Cuyn and Jandar (the vampire) emerged out onto the battlefield after he drank her blood to regain some strength. The nightmare was quickly taken care of but Haruman proved to be more difficult.

In the midst of battle Ashe noticed that around us 4 new trees of iron sprung up that showed the names of the ones that dealt damage to him and their crime "assaulting an officer". It seems dear impaled reader, that this Haruman saw himself as some sort of moral correction knight.

Still, Harumans fiery lance dealt some great damage to each companion. Even Curyn who can handle a great deal of damage looked a little worse for the wear until Neema used a powerfully healing spell.

This with no doubt help fuel the final blow Curyn delivered at the end of a hard battle.

With Haruman dead it was unclear what to do with Jandar, who still had Curyn under his charm. Neema suppressed the effects of this curse for a while. Curyn now free of his charm, was understandably angry and moved to attack him. But Jandar seemed apologetic and ready to give up his freedom to be able to stay alive. So he was locked in a cell until we can further decide what to do with him.

We collected the infernal tacks Haruman left behind ans pried the plaques with our names off the trees (dear looty reader you might notice a pattern here). Neema and curyn also teamed up to free the poor tortured souls of the knights hanging in the trees.

After everything was done we decided to make our way to the bleeding citadel. Navigating hell is still a nightmare and we did not end up where we wanted to. Instead we ended back up at the base of the disappearing tower where we decided to camp for the night.

Now this is where I leave you dear foolish reader, but I must say I am exited to see the bleeding citadel, it sounds like a most disgusting place.

Until we read again,

the spiked one

[adventurelog]

The hellriders crypt

Dear impish reader, last we left off RL, me and Layla were on the way to the hellrider's crypt on the hunt for Zariels sword. The area surrounding this crypt can only be described as unsetteling. Set into this barren hil are two monoliths holding a gigantic set of doors with a huge set of stairs made of polished onyx lead. Leading up to the stairs dozends of knights kneel motionless but looking as though they might get up and attack at any time. When Neema inspected them closer she saw that these knights were bizzarre statues made from humans as the armours only contained bones. Leaving the knights behind us with a strange feeling we made our way down the stairs and to the doors which had a huge relief depicting a knight locked in battle with a devil, both blades ablaze. Dear boney reader, had there beem any doubt about us being in the right place, here we had out confirmation that this was indeed the crypt of the hellriders. The hellriders battlecry "for glory" opened the double doors by some mysterious spell. The wizard in the weird tower told us this in one of his tales. Now we were beyond the doors and the exploration of this final resting place of such brave souls filled us with a mix of sadness and tension.

Below the description of our exploration of this crypts i hvae added a map for your better understanding of this space dear simple reader, to make it easier to follow this work. The first chamber contained Urns with various noble symbols of the city of Elturel and ceremonial weapons on the walls. Ashe dectected that the urns were not empty but contained a presence of the poor souls trapped down here. Talking to the ghosts revealed that the oath they once swore to Zariel now bound them here. Odwin and Dashiel, the two fallen warriors pointed us into the direction of Zariels most trusted loyal knights who should be aware of her actions more in depth. Olanthius, a knight of death who was killed and cursed by Zariel now haunts this plane in self loathing agony. The next chamber holds more urns upon which we discover steles with names, binding the ghosts to this eternal not-so-resting place. A wall mural depicts an angelic creature riding atop a celestial mammoth. Leading away from this chamber is a secret door with a small cramped room containing journals, a writing table and a bed. My companions read the journals and collect them in their library (a habit that seems a little strange to me, dear sticky fingered reader). The journals do contain more information about Zariels most loyals. Olanthius blames himslef for what happened with ariel and hopes to rectify the situatuion, while others were always plotting to bring out the dark side she always seemed to hide. The four hell riders Haruman, Olanthiusl Yael and Jandar sunspire are mentioned. Haruman seems to be still supporting his now hellish mistress, and while he and Olanthius are both looking for the sword it seems tha they are working with exact opposite goals.

After the journals are safely packed away we make our way to the next chmaber where we find sarcophagi and urns adorned with iron roses. Ashe dects something magical coming from one of them and fishes for an amulett he sensed. Sadly this amulett was attached to a mummy and a battle enues during which our dear Neema is gravely injured and almost succumbs to the mummys curse. But she recovers and we take a break in the small secret chamber.

More or less refreshed we continue our way through these strage spces until we discover another room with urns and ghosts. Away from this room we find anoher secret room which contains nothing but mist and sheets of paper with names written in blood. They turn out to be the names of the eslaved knights. Burning them sets these unfortunate sounls free and we continue with the feeling of having accomplished a good thing. moving on to the next chamber we hear the clanking of someone closing in on us in armour. Carefully nearing thesound we find the death knight Olanthius and strike up a deal with him, since he sees good in us and we freed the trapped suls and promise to restore Zariel to celestial glory. He reveals that Yael hid the blade we searched for and Jandar knows where said blade is. He also tells us that Jandar is currently at the top opf harumans hill and we are to free him and release him from suffering. So we have our next goal: Harumans hill

Curyns expert skills lead us to said hill wehre we percieve iron trees along the path winding upwards towards the hilltop upon which the biggest tree sits. Sneaking up we see that each iron tree holds a plate with the name and "crime" of the person being tortured by the tree. Small stirges (nastly little critter which I hope dear bloody reader you will not encounter during your life) are swarming around sucking blood from the people in the trees and gathering atop the hill. The top of the hill holds the biggest tree with a blode, pale elf like looking creature in it. Ashe communicates with him (telepahtically, I always flinch when he does it to me) and then we reveal ourselves. He is obviously not re4ally alive anymore but a creature of the night (aka vampire). Jandar stil promises to help us, if we help him in return. So he reveals the location of the bleeding cital, where the sword lies. and Curyn expertly takes him down from the tree. Disturbing the tree summons haruman and now everyone is locked in battle with him while Curyn places a struggling Jandar in our cells. Jandar being a vampire, charms Curyn and drinks her blood while the others try to fight against an angered Haruman and his nightmare. Now this is where I leave you dear frightened reader, as the battle is still raging on.

Until we read again, the spiked one

[adventurelog]

The wandering emporium

Dear hellish reader,

I have finally figured out what to do with my time. To thank Ashe and the rest of righteous lot I will write down their many adventures as long as I am privileged to accompany them. Now we left the teleporting tower and his strange inhabitant behind and plotted a path to the hellriders crypt using the strange talking map. Curyn is an expert with vehicles and has the best sense of orientation out of the whole group. But even she is sometimes tricked by the way hell constantly contorts and rearranges itsself. Even natives have troubles navigating places they havent been to so this is in no way a comment on her abilities. So instead of reaching our intended traget, the crypts, we seemed to land in the middle of nowhere. The middle of nowhere turned out to have a small fort of tents and war machines setting up a curious little space one could almost call a market? Curiously this market seemed to be an agreed upon neutral zone, since a crooked sign above the entrance read "All welcome here, no fighting, no spellcasting". No real dangers seemed to lie within this ford so we entered. There was a variety of shops all with different offers increeasing in strangeness (let us be honest devilish reader, who really is in desperate need of buying larvae in the middle of Avernus?). Speaking to some of the proprietors revealed that Mahandi is the owner of this whole emporium, but apparently he is not well liked since someone immedialty offered soul coins in exchange for his head and were warned not to trust him or even take anything he offered us. Neema an Ashe decided to visit a barber who had a small stall here. But something curious seemed to happen to them after having a spirited conversation with the barber, they seemed not to rember anything that they talked about. Which seems very out of charcter since the two ususally have excellent memory. Curyn got a cream from her to keep her smooth Triton skin glowing and hydrated. Now this time they could remmeber her. Dear smelly reader should you have an idea what this is all about please do not hesitate to share your theories with me. But who knows maybe you will aslo forget about this barber as soon as you are done reading this piece. Leaving the barber we spoke to Mahandi, who was certainly most unhelpful and only tried to sell his many services. A little disappointed by the lack of information and truly helpful things we now recharted the course to try and get to the hellriders crypt.

Now this is where I leave you dear impish reader, as the crypt should be told in a septerate story

Until we read again, the spiked one

[adventurelog]

The hunt for the sword

After freeing the planetar from its prison and restoring Elturel to its rightful place the party makes its way back to Fort Knucklebone to give Maggie her ingredient pouch back. In return she offers to take them to the creatures that can take them into Stygia. But before she does so she offers them an exiting opportunity. Lulu the hollifant has been in her "care" for a bit. Lulu was once one of Zariels most loyal companions and she helped to hide Zariels sword when Zariel fell. So the party took Lulu under their wing in exchange for the promise to maggie to kill any warlord than they came across.

Lulu remembered that she spent some time with a wizard and that she probably told him some things about what happened to her. So they went to the Obelisk in search for the wizard. There they found a crusing man in tattered clothes in a stone circle. He claimed not to remember his name and origin but he was doing research. He asked the party to help him but they soon discovered that he was not an old man but a fiend in disguise, trapped here by his nemesis.

Each pillar corresponded to a school of magic and caused a different effect on anyone who touched it. But there was no bigger effect to touchen them all and after some time they figured out that the words that also were on the stones said "Give up you fool for I have won". That paired witht he information that Mephisto had riddiculed him with the words "Nothing you can ever imagine doing will set you free" led to the puzzles solution. So he had to give up and swear loyalty to Mephisto. The false wizard then lead them to the real wizards tower, were Ashe did some recon to get some information about what was happening, as there were several creatures standing around waiting for something. Before that lead to fruition the tower arrived and they talked to Urm who told them the legend of Zariel and pointed them towards the hellriders crypt.

[adventurelog]

Fort Knucklebone and running errands for mad maggie

At the foot of the wrecked flying fortress our heroes met bitter breath, one of may warlords scavenging avernus for resources and anything he can get his hands on. They bravely fought him and his troops and escapes with one of his vehicles, which greatley aided them in their trek across avernus to Fort Knucklebone.

They were welcomed to the fort but eyed a little suspiciously. Mad Maggie hadcvv a rag tag crew of diffrent outcasts, some of which were helped by the party. The two Kenkus Chukka and Klonk needed help with one of the infernal warmachines thtat was broken and they couldnt figure it out. Barnabas, a flying skull and former wizard (and one of the infamous clones) was missing one of his theeth, which our heroes promptly replaced with a self - made gold tooth. After the party had proven their worth Mad Maggie she had a special request for them - to find and bring back her bag with ingredients that was stolen when she went to collect ingredients. She believed the thief to be hiding somewhere in Elturel since that was where the bag had been stolen. So once agauin the party set out to cross hell and go to Elturel, the city that was floating over the rives styx.

The infernal machines they borrowed from the fort helped make the journey easier but when they arrived at the spot along the rover where Elturels chains met the ground they saw that there was a battle going on between devils and demons. These kind of things present no real problem if you have a flying carpet and invisibility of course so the party made it into the city unscathed. On their way through the city they rescued mutiple scared citicens out of buildigs, from earthquakes and minor demons to guard them to saftey at the high halls.

[adventurelog]

Returning the necklace, finding Abramo and first steps in Avernus

(a log from the last three sessions)

After doing some minor tasks for the inhabitants of troutbeck the party went and searched for prof. Whitebecks necklace and encountered a morkoth under a stange little island out at sea. They defeated it in a though fight (they were not used to fighting magic useres yet) and returned the necklace to its owner. Where thy found out he had been involved with multiple students who found out about each other (one of them was the reason his necklace was lost since she thew it into the sea) and promptly dumped him (on said remote island). The party then broke into his office (because they couldnt find him anywhere) and ambushed him there. They then returned the necklace and he told them where to find her. The party took the short trek to her house atop a mountain. The party was then very surprised when they found Dr. Aramo in the body of a ten year old child wiht pink hair and blue eyes. Everyone immediately distrusted her (especially neema who had seen a pink haired girl in one of her visions looking out at a burning city). But they still told her about their wish to go to the nine hells. Abramo immediately seemed exited and insisted on going with them. So after a few days of preparations she lead them to an old deactivated portal. Luckliy she had the necessary spell and keys to reactivate it and so the party landed in hell where they were promplty surprised by some Abshai who wanted to bring them to their queen (Tiamat). Ashe opned up about Maphas and his parents to Curyn and Nemma and told them he was ready to die with Malphas should it be necessary. He is also struggeling with the fear of loosing his powers should Malphas be removed from his head. He was fuly prepared for the other two to kill or expell him from their party but instead they ensured him that should it come to that they would find a solution and figure something out. And then there was a long overdue very emotional hug. Then everyone decided it would be best if Curyn who has the best survival skill would take the trek across the mountains to get to the core of Avernus to find mad maggie to help them with transportation to the next level. But since the nine hells are not a level, continuous place she didn't end up where she wanted to go but instead halfway across the map in front of an old flying fortress. Everyone was dying to explore it since the map promised it was "ripe for plundering" Curny now had to rest and went into her shell to sleep a bit, so the others decided to make the trek across a fire-storm swept desert without her. This ended with Nemma, Ashe and Layla badly burnt and deciding to take a short resat and wait until Curyn reemerged to continue. The ispcetion of the old flying fortress revealed that the structure was long oout of use and that several mosnters had started making it their home (some slugs and big necrotic worm and some demonic vultures). Exploring the upper deck revealed that it was once the command deck and the party gained insight into how a functioning flying fortress might work. They also emncountered a transformed, very confused gnoll which they were heavily intrigued by. Starting to leave they heard a devil and his posse arrive on infernal machinery and decided to leave as quickly as possible. but they couldnt leave the secret of the gnoll alone. so they tied him up, took a safe distance on the carpet and dispelled his transformation spell, which revealed an ugly, mutated looking creature. They decided he was not interesting enough to be worth more of their time and wanted to leave, but at that time the leader of the arriving scavengers had spotted their carpet and since he didn't seem to want any witnesses hurled a flame at it.

[adventurelog]

the sea journey and arrival at Troutbeck

After the last preparations for the journey the party boarded their ship. Bored as they were they quickly put on a show of their talents colleting a bit of money. On the fourth day of their journey the ship suddelny stopped in the middle of the ocean. Being suspicious as they are the party spied on the captain and found a card with the coordinats they currently were at and the same mysterious symbol that Curyn had also found in her new sancutary. After a short wait a shopping/casino island came seemlingly out of nowhere. Curyn had already been expected and Gilliver a talking fish in a mobile fish bowl accompanied her to the offices of Zuasferez the honest. Curyn met Egoria, a waternymph who offered her a contract that exchanged powers for occasional work, which she decided to take (after careful consideration and talking to her partymembers of course). Arriving in Troutbeck the party made their way to the nearest inn. Looking at the notice board they decided to take a few odd jobs and swiftly went to rescue 15 year old Katie who had been turned into a rabbit by drinking an untested potion. Another job was clearing out a mine of Ogres and escorting a big gem back to the city. Searching for Prof. Dr. Abramo truned out to be more difficult than expected since no one wanted to talk about her or even knew her exept for Prof. Whitebeck. He only agreed to talk about her if the party in return would recover a lost necklace for him. The whole conversation was very uncomfortable for everyone and the party left annoyed.

[adventurelog]

City Guard Tornament

In the morning Curyn decided to cook a meal with all fresh ingerdients she collecterd herself from the sea. When they finished their meal they decided to go see about the tournament. They registered with a old city guard named Claudius who then vetted their weeapons and magic items.

In the evening the tournamnet topk place and Curyn was able place first in both (armed and unarmed) in the professional division and Ashe placed first in the armed tournament in the advanced division. The party made a little cash from both the prize money and betting on the party members that werer fighting.

[adventurelog]

The big party

Since the party missed the big celebration the night before, they decided to throw another party that evening. So the day was well spent with loads of shopping (furniture, fabric and various items) to make their protable prison into their portable home, although the shopping was a little dampened by the storm still howling across the island. It couldn´t stop them from spending a lot of money in their new favourite shop that is run by an old woman named Sorscha, who, with the right amount og money and time can procure or produce any item.

Ashe also went to buy cake and wine for the party and bonded with Spikey. The party also was handed a key to Jerases house, which they promptly took as an invitation to claim it as one of their homes. During the party they talked to Lorenka about researching hell, and she pointed them in the direction of Professor Dr. Layla Abramo who lives in a country not far from the Island called Myundun. Riorin also surprised Curyn during the party by inviting her to the tournament of the city guard the day after tomorrow. The next day the party made a sweep through the castle to make sure it was safe for Isabella. Leaving the castle the party was surprised by some weird invisible creatures, they didn´t really pose any threat to the party and after a quick fight they returned to Jeras' house to give the key to Isabella. Lorenka was asked about the creatures but did not know any answeres.

So then they ended the day by returning to their home, using up the rest of Neemas spell slots and sleeping in their newly decorated prison-home.

[adventurelog]

The election

With Mr. Swiftwhistle in tow (or better said in portable prison) the party headed back to Jeras’ house where Curyn and Mr. Swiftwhistle went to sleep after a quick meal. Ashe and Neema then went to get Mrs. Swiftwhistle. She was very glad that they had rescued him although a little upset that they had done so against her wishes. It took some convincing but in the end Nora agreed she would vote for Isabella in the upcoming election. She also informed that there was an emergency council meeting to be held this evening to discuss what had happened to Jeras and that the city was preparing for a big storm that was expected soon. The party suspected Ansell and Crawford to try and get in an emergency election. So they headed to the hospital to get Jeras’ vote transferred to someone else. They woke him up and he was still quite loopy but did transfer his vote to Captain Westbrook. The party went to pick up their earrings of whisper at their favourite magic shop where Curyn asked Kalia the shop owner to keep an eye out for any giant belts.

In the evening the council meeting was held and as suspected the election was held. It ran very long, so when the party got bored they decided to hunt some owls (which are somewhat of a plague) and flirt a bit with a cute town guard named Riorin. When the meeting finally ended they saw Crawford and Ansell leave the building very upset. When the others came out the mood shifted to very relaxed and celebratory since Isabella had won the election. Everyone headed off to Jeras’ house to celebrate but the party decided to work on their house where they fell asleep in their cave with the storm howling outside.