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Erkonin (Campaign #1) [Session 46: Making Deals with Devils is Stupid as well as Bad]
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<blockquote data-quote="prabe" data-source="post: 8268071" data-attributes="member: 7016699"><p>Session 42: Back to Kalmarn. Off to Erlin.</p><p></p><p>Dramatis Personae:</p><p>Orryk - Forest Gnome Monk (Way of the Four Elements, variant)/Wizard</p><p>Mo - Goliath Bard (College of Lore)</p><p>Fiona - Half-Elf Wizard (Evoker)/Cleric (Knowledge)</p><p>Taman - Human (variant) Rogue (Inquisitive)/Ranger (Horizon Walker)</p><p>Joybell - Forest Gnome Paladin (Oath of the Ancients)</p><p>Thneed - Wood Elf Ranger (Hunter Conclave)/Cleric (War)</p><p></p><p>GM - Everyone Else</p><p></p><p></p><p>18 Harfastin 748 (Campaign day 108) (immediately after)</p><p></p><p>Thneed's player, explaining Thneed taking a level in cleric: Thneed had a near death experience and has found religion.</p><p></p><p>As we sat down and re-grouped after the fight, Mo shared some info he’d figured out about teleportation circles with Fiona. Joybell sat next to Taman and had Scooby sit on the other side, so Taman could pet him and warm himself if he needed to.</p><p></p><p>After a bit, Joybell waved Orryk over.</p><p></p><p>Joybell: Those monsters that came up behind us...where did they come from?</p><p>Orryk: Probably one of the side tunnels that branched off</p><p>Joybell: So we’re not worrying about clearing all the things out?</p><p>Orryk: We’d probably just wind out running into something worse.</p><p></p><p>After a while, Fiona made a tiny hut and we took a long rest.</p><p></p><p></p><p>19 Harfastin 748 (Campaign day 109)</p><p></p><p>The next morning, Mo “helped” Fiona cast a teleportation circle to take us back to Stately Kang Manor.</p><p></p><p>Mo: You make a circle…I think the runes look like this. Sort of. It’s pretty close anyway.</p><p>Fiona: Are you sure it’s not this?</p><p>Mo: You’ve got it.</p><p></p><p>While they worked that out, Orryk pulled out the orrery to see where it was pointing. It pointed toward the same corner where we believe the Epiphany Machine had been standing, but not as sharply or strongly as before.</p><p></p><p>We speculated a bit about whether there’s a delay before the Machine reappears, and if there were limits on where it could reappear -- like would it be on Urnod, on Erkonin, on some other world, on some other plane? We realized that he had no real information about any of this stuff.</p><p></p><p>Fiona took over the casting and we stepped into the circle and out into the library at Stately Kang Manor.</p><p></p><p>It was clear that some interior work had been happening in the 8 days we’d been gone -- some painting.</p><p></p><p>Chulty was waiting for us (having possibly heard the teleportation circle firing up).</p><p></p><p>Joybell: Hello, Chulty!! How are things going?</p><p>Chulty: Well.</p><p>Joybell: No orcs?</p><p>Chulty: Based on what you’ve told me, I wouldn’t expect them for another couple of weeks.</p><p>Mo: How is hiring people for the tavern construction going?</p><p>Chulty: We’re getting together a crew, but construction may not be able to start until after the winter.</p><p>Mo: Be on the lookout for a bartender.</p><p></p><p>Joybell noticed that Chulty and his friends were still living in tents inside.</p><p></p><p>Joybell: You guys are welcome to find rooms and make yourself at home.</p><p></p><p>After that we settled down in the library, sadly devoid of books but with some reasonably comfortable furniture, to talk about what we wanted to do next.</p><p></p><p>Mo: Do you, Taman, want to kill the Tundra Queen?</p><p>Orryk: You’ve talked about genocide.</p><p>Taman: I wanted that. Now I don’t care.</p><p></p><p>We started to talk about what we wanted to do next, but got distracted wondering about where Mo’s baboon, Clyde, was.</p><p></p><p>Joybell: Chulty! Is Clyde the baboon around?</p><p>Chulty: He’s around outside.</p><p></p><p>Joybell sent Scooby to find Clyde and herd him back toward the house.</p><p></p><p>With that settled, we went back to talking about plans, specifically what we wanted to ask Nicolana, the Keeper of Secrets, in exchange for the papers we brought back from Turnik Steeltear and the Forge of Masks.</p><p></p><p>The questions we worked out were:</p><ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">The details of Taman’s parents’ deal with the Tundra Queen.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">The details of Auriqua’s deal with the Tundra Queen.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Any weaknesses of the Tundra Queen -- like psychological weaknesses or habits and behaviors that we might be able to make use of.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Lines of succession, or social organization, in the Fey Noble Houses.</li> </ol><p>When Thneed raised that question, Taman told us some of what he’d learned in researching the Fey Nobles and the Tundra Queen. There are three families of Fey Nobles, the Dantes, the Tizianos and the Vivaldis. The structure is generational -- and family relations are a bit loose. So a fey is likely to know who their parents are but may refer to all other fey of their parents’ generation as “aunt” or “uncle”. They may refer to all other fey of their own generation (other than siblings) as “cousin”. Lines of descent aren’t always clear.</p><p></p><p>They take titles or epithets for themselves -- when the Tundra Queen began calling herself that it was more aspirational than anything else. The epithets that the Fey nobles take for themselves define the personalities that they become locked into.</p><p></p><p>For example, the Tundra Queen has defined herself as a person who makes deals and that is a fundamental part of her personality. She has also identified herself with the tundra and the spread of the cold zones.</p><p></p><p>Succession in a sort of human sense isn’t really a thing -- no other Fey Noble felt strongly about the Tundra as their “thing” so she was able to take over that. But she’s not the leader or actual “queen” of any place in the sense that there are princes or princesses who will eventually take over the domain.</p><p></p><p>The Tundra Queen is believed to be third generation. The Fey are ageless, but can be killed.</p><p></p><p>The three families are not “themed” to the realms they wind up with, though there may be personality threads through the family. Certainly Nicolana, like her mother, makes deals, though she doesn’t feel that they’re zero-sum games in which one person is the winner and one the loser.</p><p></p><p>Taman told us about one he’d read about called The Peaceful Conqueror -- he was killed after the Fiend Wars ended. He was swaying what was left of the mortal cities with guile and rhetoric and was working toward gaining control of all of Urnod. His area of control got to where Ambernock (the city that existed before Embernook in the same location) had been, and he was killed (at least, it is presumed he was killed; the fey don’t talk about him much, either). It is believed he may have been killed by another Fey -- one called the Apostate or, sometimes, the Fratricide. His name was never used in any of the materials that Taman saw, just the epithets. He’s called the Apostate because he doesn’t like Fey.</p><p></p><p>We all immediately had our minds go to the Administrator and contemplated that for a while.</p><p></p><p>After a bit we moved on…</p><p></p><p>Orryk: Fiona, don’t you and your dragonborn friend have something going on?I remember you found something in a library in Pelsoreen.</p><p>Fiona: Yeah.</p><p></p><p>She then pulled out a paper from her bag - written in Celestial, it was a journal entry from an explorer who found an off-shore island, with a table on it. Engraved on the table were the names of the gods -- Moraddin, Wee Jas, Correlon, Tezcatlipoca, Coyote...and other names, not gods widely worshiped on Urnod (or at least not recognized as such by party members): Indra, Odin, the number 10,000. While researching in Pelsoreen, Fiona found a note in a book on the Severance written in the same hand that just said “I’m sorry.”</p><p></p><p>(Note: This is what I have about Fiona’s research in Pelsoreen, copied from my notes for session 11.</p><p></p><p>Back at the library, Fiona was looking for information on the Severance and on pre-Severance history. Working together she and Orryk learned the following:</p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The first tidal wave in Pelsoreen was heralded by the sky going black. People heard a banging or a roaring out over the ocean and then the tsunami hit. This was the first notice anyone had of the Severance -- clerics couldn’t get spells to heal people and deal with the disaster by praying to their gods. Just before the sky went black and the tidal wave hit, prayers for spells had been answered as normal.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">There have been three tsunamis since the Severance which have also been heralded by the sky going black and the banging over the ocean, but there was no additional supernatural effect like the Severance.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Inside one of the history books, Fiona finds a small piece of very old vellum that has written on it, in Celestial, “I’m sorry”. This is the same handwriting as a letter (or document) that Fiona found when she was adventuring with a dragonborn friend in a temple in an abandoned village. The document describes a group of people from another plane finding a stone table with names of the gods carved on the table. )</li> </ul><p>Fiona hasn’t had an opportunity to do more research than that -- though Mo and Joybell are both keenly interested in this and want to help Fiona pursue it.</p><p></p><p>We then went back to thinking about questions for Nicolana.</p><ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Did Alighieri win a deal with the Tundra Queen?</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">What does Nicolana know about the disappearance of the Umbral Circle? Could that connect with the Shadowpool outbreak and the warlocks of Orcus?</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Have the Fey ever gone to war with the Fire Elementals?</li> </ol><p>That last question had in mind the idea that we need to kill a fire elemental to activate Orryk’s Ring of Fire Elemental Command and perhaps we could use the fire elementals and the fey against each other.</p><p></p><p>With our questions for Nicolana sorted out and agreed on, we talked about where to meet her. WIthout much discussion we all agreed that we weren’t comfortable inviting a Fey Noble into our home, so we decided to meet her at the docks in town, the only other reasonably nice place in Kalmarn right now.</p><p></p><p>With that settled, Fiona cast a sending spell to Nicolana.</p><p></p><p>Fiona: We have the information and some questions. Please meet us at the docks at Kalmarn.</p><p>Nicolana: I can be there in 2 days.</p><p></p><p>So we had two days to occupy ourselves until we could talk to her.</p><p></p><p>Joybell took her Manual of Gainful Exercise and started practicing with the exercises in it. Squats, lunges, walking lunges, curls...she worked very diligently.</p><p></p><p>Mo used a couple of the dragon pages to send a letter to his former teacher telling her that there will be a tavern open in Kalmarn in two months that will need entertainment.</p><p></p><p>Mo: Chulty, what’s the name of the person doing the dragon head? I want to talk to them about what’s on the plaque.</p><p>Chulty: Yeah, his name is…</p><p>Mo: Did you warn him that it’s really poisonous?</p><p>Chulty: Yeah. His name is…</p><p></p><p>(The name was duly given.)</p><p></p><p>Thneed spent the time working on a pavilion at the dock for us to meet Nicolana in. And for the comfort of people using the docks. She also fixed up the dock some to make it easier for boats to tie up there.</p><p></p><p>Taman slipped away and went into the woods. When she noticed he’d gone (some hours later), Joybell sent Scooby out to keep an eye on him, but Scooby didn’t intrude on Taman’s ruminations. (Note: Scooby may not have actually found Taman, that was never settled.)</p><p></p><p></p><p>20 Harfastin 748 (Campaign day 110)</p><p></p><p>Mo, Fiona, and Orryk went to Embernook, teleporting (with permission) to the circle in Tulmor and Barnett’s library. Thneed, still working on developing her carpentry skills, asked Mo to pick up some holy symbols from the various temples in Embernook, to help her decide which order she wanted to join.</p><p></p><p>Joybell, Thneed, and Taman stayed at Stately Kang Manor continuing their activities of the previous day.</p><p></p><p>In Embernook, Fiona stayed in Tulmor and Barnett’s to learn Scrying from their library. Mo was going shopping, so Fiona gave him some money to buy her a crystal ball to use for the spell.</p><p></p><p>Orryk took the Ring of Channeling we got from Ildna’s treasure to the Lightbringers’ Temple and got, in exchange, a Basalt Amulet, an irregular chunk of basalt on a stout copper chain. It gives advantage on stealth checks and allows the wearer to cast Greater Invisibility once a day. While Orryk was making that exchange, Mo went around Soul’s Rest buying some holy symbols for Thneed.</p><p></p><p>Mo asked around about whether the various orders know the names of the gods -- they know they can’t call on them for power by name, but do they remember the names of the gods. The Lightbringers had more knowledge of the names of the gods than the other orders.</p><p></p><p>Orryk left Mo to continue his explorations in Soul’s Rest and went to talk to the magic merchant, Trannell, who he’s been paying to watch for elemental items on Orryk’s behalf. That turned out to be money well spent, because Trannell had come across a Censer of Air Elemental Command and had kept it aside, knowing it was just exactly the sort of thing Orryk was looking for.</p><p></p><p>It cost 12,000 gp and Orryk bought it on the spot.</p><p></p><p>Orryk: I will go broke to get that.</p><p></p><p>Orryk also collected the spell scrolls -- 2 Longstrider and 4 Protection from Evil and Good -- that we’d commissioned young wizards to scribe for us.</p><p></p><p>Mo, after he’d finished up in Soul’s Rest, went to the docks to see about buying a boat to make it easier for Chulty and folks to get to and from Kalmarn. The boat he found even had a small windsail. The seller was asking 10,000gp. Mo put on a large performance of inspecting the boat, commenting on flaws and pointing out issue. It was a good performance and he got the price of the boat down to 8,000.</p><p></p><p>Having bought the boat, Mo tied the Broom of Flying to the bow and told the broom to fly to Kalmarn, letting it guide the boat upriver and getting by with a great deal of beginner’s luck to figure out the steering. The boat will hold about 10 people, more if they’re small.</p><p></p><p>By the end of the day, Joybell had done 24 (of 48) hours of work with the Manual of Gainful Exercise.</p><p></p><p>Orryk and Fiona teleported back from Embernook and said that Mo was making his own way back. Mo arrived in the boat in the middle of the night. We all chipped in to help pay for it the next morning.</p><p></p><p></p><p>21 Harfastin 748 (Campaign day 111)</p><p></p><p>Around mid morning, we all gathered at the docks and waited for Nicolana. Joybell expected her to arrive from the river, either by boat or just sort of manifesting, but she came up from the path to town to join us in the pavilion Thneed made.</p><p></p><p>We showed her Turnik’s books and records. She was especially impressed with his business records -- who had hired him for what sorts of jobs.</p><p></p><p>Nicolana: Oh, that IS interesting.</p><p>Joybell: I thought you’d like that.</p><p></p><p>We told her that we’d destroyed the information about the high ritual he’d used to kill young children to take the years of their life for his own.</p><p></p><p>Nicolana: So he was casting Your Life For Mine.</p><p>Joybell: I think that’s what it was called. We destroyed that because no one needs to know how to do that.</p><p></p><p>Nicolana, after looking through the papers for a while: He was an unpleasant soul.</p><p>Mo: We had to kill him. Twice.</p><p>Joybell: It is painful to think about the things he did and the harm he caused.</p><p>Nicolana: It is.</p><p></p><p>After she’d looked at the papers for a bit we agreed that we’d start asking her our questions and when she felt we’d reached a fair exchange she’d let us know.</p><p></p><p>Question 1: Taman’s parents’ deal with the Tundra queen.</p><p></p><p>Nicolana did not know the specifics of Taman’s parents’ particular deal - however she told us for free that most people who are not from Auriqua who seek out the Tundra Queen go to her when they’re in some sort of trouble. The Tundra Queen can hide people in her realms temporarily. Generally her price for doing this is to fulfill some obligation of hers to someone else.</p><p></p><p>Taman: Ildna seemed to know, but he was speaking gibberish at us.</p><p></p><p>We sequed from that to an extra question about the Machine and if there’s a delay before it reappears. Also if there’s any way to predict where it would appear. She said no -- also it can travel backwards and forwards in time. So even if there is a delay there’s no way to know.</p><p></p><p>Question 2: What is the tiny print of Auriqua’s deal with the Tundra Queen? We know the broad outline of it and that she is obliged not to directly harm them.</p><p></p><p>Nicolana clarified that she has an obligation not to directly harm the dilyarli. The agreement doesn’t say she can’t harm the children. She had that obligation to Ildna.</p><p></p><p>Mo: Does the Tundra Queen pose as much danger to Auriqua as protection?</p><p>Nicolana: Knowing the Tundra Queen it is plausible she has told her servants how juicy Auriqua is so that when her protection is lifted they are especially interested…</p><p>Mo: So it’s still a protection racket.</p><p></p><p>Question 3: We’d like to know more about the Tundra Queen. Anything that might give us an edge in dealing with her.</p><p></p><p>Nicolana: Making deals is part of who she is. If presented with an opportunity to do so, she almost certainly will. She likes winning deals.</p><p>Mo: What does she consider winning? What does she want?</p><p>Nicolana: She is deeply political. What she wants is influence.</p><p>Taman: Is this why she’s been trying to horn in on Embernook?</p><p>Nicolana: And that hasn’t gone well for her.</p><p></p><p>Question 4 was skipped because we already had that information.</p><p></p><p>Question 5:</p><p></p><p>Orryk: Has she ever made a deal with Alighieri?</p><p></p><p>That question was followed by 2 seconds of hysterical, shocked laughter, then an inscrutable stone face.</p><p></p><p>Nicolana: “No.”</p><p></p><p>Question 6:</p><p></p><p>Joybell: Do you know anything about what happened to the Umbral circle of planar druids?</p><p>Nicolana: The Umbral Circle was a group of druids mostly dedicated to reducing the influence of the Shadowfell on Erkonin. My impression, based on incomplete knowledge, is that someone or something that would or was getting power from the Shadowfell broke the Umbral Circle.</p><p>Mo: Was it an organized group or individuals?</p><p>Nicolana: I don’t know.</p><p>Orryk: Could this tie to the Shadowfell incursions in Embernook a few months ago?</p><p>Joybell: Do you know when they might have been broken?</p><p>Nicolana: I haven’t heard about them for six months.</p><p>Mo: That lines up.</p><p>Joybell and Orryk: Yeah.</p><p></p><p>(Note: The Shadowfell incursions in Embernook were three and a half months ago.)</p><p></p><p>Mo: We’ve run into warlocks of Orcus. We’re sure they were connected to making Shadowpools in Embernook. Do you know of followers of Orcus that might be lurking around somewhere?</p><p>Nicolana: There are often people who think they can get power by bending fiends to their will. They are often wrong.</p><p>Joybell: Is there an organization or cult?</p><p>Orryk: If you were to go to a city to look for these people, where would you go?</p><p>Nicolana: New Arvai.</p><p></p><p>Question 5.5:</p><p></p><p>Mo: Back to the Tundra Queen and Auriqua -- how can we get her to break her deal? We don’t want her turning kids to dilyarli.</p><p>Nicolana: I’ve been a dilyarli. It wasn’t fun.</p><p>EVERYONE: You were? And you’re not now? It can be undone?</p><p>Nicolana: She can undo it.</p><p></p><p>Question 7:</p><p></p><p>Thneed: Is there a history of war between Fey and Fire elementals?</p><p>Nicolana: There isn’t a source of conflict there. Elemental planes are more interested in the prime material than they are in the Feywild.</p><p></p><p>Question 5.5 (again):</p><p></p><p>Joybell: Going back to Mo’s question. What would it take to get her to break a deal? Ildna said that people completing their deals with the Tundra Queen were making her more powerful and that is maybe not a good thing. Do you know what he meant?</p><p>Nicolana: That’s the closest to the truth that the Epiphany Machine’s revelations ever get. Whenever she makes a deal her plan is to increase her own power and to anyone NOT HER that is not a good thing.</p><p>Joybell: Is it not nice being a dilyarli?</p><p>Nicolana: Remembering being one, while not being one now…remembering not being yourself is painful. While you are a dilyarli, it is not painful or traumatic. It becomes so when you are not again and can remember.</p><p></p><p>With that, Nicolana declared that we were even now.</p><p></p><p>Orryk: Is there anything we can bring you from New Arvai?</p><p>Nicolana: You know me well. If you find something, let me know…</p><p></p><p>Joybell walked out of the pavilion with her and through the empty town.</p><p></p><p>Joybell: I had a question for you, but I can’t remember what it was right now.</p><p>Nicolana: <<just looked at her in a bemused way>></p><p>Joybell: If I remember, I can send it to you on dragon paper. Will that find you?</p><p>Nicolana: Yes.</p><p></p><p>Then she patted Joybell on the shoulder and walked off through the town.</p><p></p><p>After she left, we talked about what to do next.</p><p></p><p>We decided that our next step was to take a boat down the river to Erlin (about a week down the Hochor River) -- Irlua at the Primal Atoll told Orryk that there was some sort of fire incursion or instability there and we’re hoping to find a fire elemental for him to kill.</p><p></p><p>After that we can see what day it is -- we want to be in Auriqua at the Feast of Stars in two and a half months -- we can either teleport back to Kalmarn and go to Auriqua or proceed on downriver to New Arvai to see what we can learn about the Umbral Circle and whoever’s doing these Shadowfell incursions. Also to break into the library of the School of the World to retrieve Adnorga’s Staff.</p><p></p><p>We checked in with Chulty -- asking if he needed to go to Embernook (he could teleport along with us, or we could all go down in the boat). He did not. We told him we were leaving Clyde. He said they were already building a pen and kennel for him in the yard.</p><p></p><p>We named our boat the Weirdness Magnet and left it for Chulty and his friends to use as they need it.</p><p></p><p>Then we checked with Tulmor and Barnett to make sure it was okay, then teleported to Embernook. We asked them if there was anything we could do for them in Erlin and they said no. Mo asked about crime in New Arvai (since we’ll be going there eventually to break into the School of the World’s library).</p><p></p><p>Mo also talked to Taman about thieves’ guilds and asked if he’d have any insight.</p><p></p><p>Mo: When we get there we can leave Joybell behind and find people to help us.</p><p>Taman: If they help us, they’ll want to be paid.</p><p>Thneed: Or maybe they’ll turn us in for the reward.</p><p></p><p>When we were still at Tulmor and Barnett’s place Taman sensed for Fey in town. He detected one. In Centerkeep. In the Administrative Offices Building.</p><p></p><p>Taman: Oh, naughty word!</p><p>Mo: Well isn’t that interesting information?</p><p>Taman: Much is explained.</p><p></p><p>Joybell, thinking that maybe the Administrator needed to know that we thought he was Fey, or that someone in the city administration was and we strongly figured it’s him, went to talk to Thalith while the others arranged for our trip to Erlin on a boat. She signed in on the sheet as always and tried to figure out how to say that without saying it -- because folks in the waiting room can sort of hear what’s being said in Thalith’s office sometimes.</p><p></p><p>Joybell, when Thalith called her into his office: We have solid information that there is a Fey in town.</p><p>Thalith: I’m sure the Administrator knows.</p><p>Joybell: He knows everything that goes on in town. I just wanted to make sure.</p><p></p><p>She and Thalith got into a talk about how Chulty and his friends were doing in Kalmarn. He was disconcerted that Chulty’s old adventuring party friends had joined him there -- not that they were untrustworthy people, just that he wanted Chulty leaving that life behind.</p><p></p><p>After that, Joybell left, unsure that Thalith had received her actual message.</p><p></p><p>At the docks, she found that we had taken passage on the Glistenspray, a small vessel captained by Zellora, a female water genasi. The Glistenspray is a more cushy ride than the Gellyan -- better food and better cabins. Zellora will take us to Erlin and drop us off -- her ultimate destination is New Arvai.</p><p></p><p>By the time all this was arranged, it was late afternoon. So we went to our various lodgings in town. Joybell did a bit more work with the book -- exercising in her room and in the yard at Queena’s.</p><p></p><p>The night passed without incident.</p><p></p><p></p><p>22 Harfastin 748 (Campaign day 112)</p><p></p><p>We met at the docks and head out on the Glistenspray toward Erlin for what we hoped, but didn’t expect, would be an uneventful trip.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="prabe, post: 8268071, member: 7016699"] Session 42: Back to Kalmarn. Off to Erlin. Dramatis Personae: Orryk - Forest Gnome Monk (Way of the Four Elements, variant)/Wizard Mo - Goliath Bard (College of Lore) Fiona - Half-Elf Wizard (Evoker)/Cleric (Knowledge) Taman - Human (variant) Rogue (Inquisitive)/Ranger (Horizon Walker) Joybell - Forest Gnome Paladin (Oath of the Ancients) Thneed - Wood Elf Ranger (Hunter Conclave)/Cleric (War) GM - Everyone Else 18 Harfastin 748 (Campaign day 108) (immediately after) Thneed's player, explaining Thneed taking a level in cleric: Thneed had a near death experience and has found religion. As we sat down and re-grouped after the fight, Mo shared some info he’d figured out about teleportation circles with Fiona. Joybell sat next to Taman and had Scooby sit on the other side, so Taman could pet him and warm himself if he needed to. After a bit, Joybell waved Orryk over. Joybell: Those monsters that came up behind us...where did they come from? Orryk: Probably one of the side tunnels that branched off Joybell: So we’re not worrying about clearing all the things out? Orryk: We’d probably just wind out running into something worse. After a while, Fiona made a tiny hut and we took a long rest. 19 Harfastin 748 (Campaign day 109) The next morning, Mo “helped” Fiona cast a teleportation circle to take us back to Stately Kang Manor. Mo: You make a circle…I think the runes look like this. Sort of. It’s pretty close anyway. Fiona: Are you sure it’s not this? Mo: You’ve got it. While they worked that out, Orryk pulled out the orrery to see where it was pointing. It pointed toward the same corner where we believe the Epiphany Machine had been standing, but not as sharply or strongly as before. We speculated a bit about whether there’s a delay before the Machine reappears, and if there were limits on where it could reappear -- like would it be on Urnod, on Erkonin, on some other world, on some other plane? We realized that he had no real information about any of this stuff. Fiona took over the casting and we stepped into the circle and out into the library at Stately Kang Manor. It was clear that some interior work had been happening in the 8 days we’d been gone -- some painting. Chulty was waiting for us (having possibly heard the teleportation circle firing up). Joybell: Hello, Chulty!! How are things going? Chulty: Well. Joybell: No orcs? Chulty: Based on what you’ve told me, I wouldn’t expect them for another couple of weeks. Mo: How is hiring people for the tavern construction going? Chulty: We’re getting together a crew, but construction may not be able to start until after the winter. Mo: Be on the lookout for a bartender. Joybell noticed that Chulty and his friends were still living in tents inside. Joybell: You guys are welcome to find rooms and make yourself at home. After that we settled down in the library, sadly devoid of books but with some reasonably comfortable furniture, to talk about what we wanted to do next. Mo: Do you, Taman, want to kill the Tundra Queen? Orryk: You’ve talked about genocide. Taman: I wanted that. Now I don’t care. We started to talk about what we wanted to do next, but got distracted wondering about where Mo’s baboon, Clyde, was. Joybell: Chulty! Is Clyde the baboon around? Chulty: He’s around outside. Joybell sent Scooby to find Clyde and herd him back toward the house. With that settled, we went back to talking about plans, specifically what we wanted to ask Nicolana, the Keeper of Secrets, in exchange for the papers we brought back from Turnik Steeltear and the Forge of Masks. The questions we worked out were: [LIST=1] [*]The details of Taman’s parents’ deal with the Tundra Queen. [*]The details of Auriqua’s deal with the Tundra Queen. [*]Any weaknesses of the Tundra Queen -- like psychological weaknesses or habits and behaviors that we might be able to make use of. [*]Lines of succession, or social organization, in the Fey Noble Houses. [/LIST] When Thneed raised that question, Taman told us some of what he’d learned in researching the Fey Nobles and the Tundra Queen. There are three families of Fey Nobles, the Dantes, the Tizianos and the Vivaldis. The structure is generational -- and family relations are a bit loose. So a fey is likely to know who their parents are but may refer to all other fey of their parents’ generation as “aunt” or “uncle”. They may refer to all other fey of their own generation (other than siblings) as “cousin”. Lines of descent aren’t always clear. They take titles or epithets for themselves -- when the Tundra Queen began calling herself that it was more aspirational than anything else. The epithets that the Fey nobles take for themselves define the personalities that they become locked into. For example, the Tundra Queen has defined herself as a person who makes deals and that is a fundamental part of her personality. She has also identified herself with the tundra and the spread of the cold zones. Succession in a sort of human sense isn’t really a thing -- no other Fey Noble felt strongly about the Tundra as their “thing” so she was able to take over that. But she’s not the leader or actual “queen” of any place in the sense that there are princes or princesses who will eventually take over the domain. The Tundra Queen is believed to be third generation. The Fey are ageless, but can be killed. The three families are not “themed” to the realms they wind up with, though there may be personality threads through the family. Certainly Nicolana, like her mother, makes deals, though she doesn’t feel that they’re zero-sum games in which one person is the winner and one the loser. Taman told us about one he’d read about called The Peaceful Conqueror -- he was killed after the Fiend Wars ended. He was swaying what was left of the mortal cities with guile and rhetoric and was working toward gaining control of all of Urnod. His area of control got to where Ambernock (the city that existed before Embernook in the same location) had been, and he was killed (at least, it is presumed he was killed; the fey don’t talk about him much, either). It is believed he may have been killed by another Fey -- one called the Apostate or, sometimes, the Fratricide. His name was never used in any of the materials that Taman saw, just the epithets. He’s called the Apostate because he doesn’t like Fey. We all immediately had our minds go to the Administrator and contemplated that for a while. After a bit we moved on… Orryk: Fiona, don’t you and your dragonborn friend have something going on?I remember you found something in a library in Pelsoreen. Fiona: Yeah. She then pulled out a paper from her bag - written in Celestial, it was a journal entry from an explorer who found an off-shore island, with a table on it. Engraved on the table were the names of the gods -- Moraddin, Wee Jas, Correlon, Tezcatlipoca, Coyote...and other names, not gods widely worshiped on Urnod (or at least not recognized as such by party members): Indra, Odin, the number 10,000. While researching in Pelsoreen, Fiona found a note in a book on the Severance written in the same hand that just said “I’m sorry.” (Note: This is what I have about Fiona’s research in Pelsoreen, copied from my notes for session 11. Back at the library, Fiona was looking for information on the Severance and on pre-Severance history. Working together she and Orryk learned the following: [LIST] [*]The first tidal wave in Pelsoreen was heralded by the sky going black. People heard a banging or a roaring out over the ocean and then the tsunami hit. This was the first notice anyone had of the Severance -- clerics couldn’t get spells to heal people and deal with the disaster by praying to their gods. Just before the sky went black and the tidal wave hit, prayers for spells had been answered as normal. [*]There have been three tsunamis since the Severance which have also been heralded by the sky going black and the banging over the ocean, but there was no additional supernatural effect like the Severance. [*]Inside one of the history books, Fiona finds a small piece of very old vellum that has written on it, in Celestial, “I’m sorry”. This is the same handwriting as a letter (or document) that Fiona found when she was adventuring with a dragonborn friend in a temple in an abandoned village. The document describes a group of people from another plane finding a stone table with names of the gods carved on the table. ) [/LIST] Fiona hasn’t had an opportunity to do more research than that -- though Mo and Joybell are both keenly interested in this and want to help Fiona pursue it. We then went back to thinking about questions for Nicolana. [LIST=1] [*]Did Alighieri win a deal with the Tundra Queen? [*]What does Nicolana know about the disappearance of the Umbral Circle? Could that connect with the Shadowpool outbreak and the warlocks of Orcus? [*]Have the Fey ever gone to war with the Fire Elementals? [/LIST] That last question had in mind the idea that we need to kill a fire elemental to activate Orryk’s Ring of Fire Elemental Command and perhaps we could use the fire elementals and the fey against each other. With our questions for Nicolana sorted out and agreed on, we talked about where to meet her. WIthout much discussion we all agreed that we weren’t comfortable inviting a Fey Noble into our home, so we decided to meet her at the docks in town, the only other reasonably nice place in Kalmarn right now. With that settled, Fiona cast a sending spell to Nicolana. Fiona: We have the information and some questions. Please meet us at the docks at Kalmarn. Nicolana: I can be there in 2 days. So we had two days to occupy ourselves until we could talk to her. Joybell took her Manual of Gainful Exercise and started practicing with the exercises in it. Squats, lunges, walking lunges, curls...she worked very diligently. Mo used a couple of the dragon pages to send a letter to his former teacher telling her that there will be a tavern open in Kalmarn in two months that will need entertainment. Mo: Chulty, what’s the name of the person doing the dragon head? I want to talk to them about what’s on the plaque. Chulty: Yeah, his name is… Mo: Did you warn him that it’s really poisonous? Chulty: Yeah. His name is… (The name was duly given.) Thneed spent the time working on a pavilion at the dock for us to meet Nicolana in. And for the comfort of people using the docks. She also fixed up the dock some to make it easier for boats to tie up there. Taman slipped away and went into the woods. When she noticed he’d gone (some hours later), Joybell sent Scooby out to keep an eye on him, but Scooby didn’t intrude on Taman’s ruminations. (Note: Scooby may not have actually found Taman, that was never settled.) 20 Harfastin 748 (Campaign day 110) Mo, Fiona, and Orryk went to Embernook, teleporting (with permission) to the circle in Tulmor and Barnett’s library. Thneed, still working on developing her carpentry skills, asked Mo to pick up some holy symbols from the various temples in Embernook, to help her decide which order she wanted to join. Joybell, Thneed, and Taman stayed at Stately Kang Manor continuing their activities of the previous day. In Embernook, Fiona stayed in Tulmor and Barnett’s to learn Scrying from their library. Mo was going shopping, so Fiona gave him some money to buy her a crystal ball to use for the spell. Orryk took the Ring of Channeling we got from Ildna’s treasure to the Lightbringers’ Temple and got, in exchange, a Basalt Amulet, an irregular chunk of basalt on a stout copper chain. It gives advantage on stealth checks and allows the wearer to cast Greater Invisibility once a day. While Orryk was making that exchange, Mo went around Soul’s Rest buying some holy symbols for Thneed. Mo asked around about whether the various orders know the names of the gods -- they know they can’t call on them for power by name, but do they remember the names of the gods. The Lightbringers had more knowledge of the names of the gods than the other orders. Orryk left Mo to continue his explorations in Soul’s Rest and went to talk to the magic merchant, Trannell, who he’s been paying to watch for elemental items on Orryk’s behalf. That turned out to be money well spent, because Trannell had come across a Censer of Air Elemental Command and had kept it aside, knowing it was just exactly the sort of thing Orryk was looking for. It cost 12,000 gp and Orryk bought it on the spot. Orryk: I will go broke to get that. Orryk also collected the spell scrolls -- 2 Longstrider and 4 Protection from Evil and Good -- that we’d commissioned young wizards to scribe for us. Mo, after he’d finished up in Soul’s Rest, went to the docks to see about buying a boat to make it easier for Chulty and folks to get to and from Kalmarn. The boat he found even had a small windsail. The seller was asking 10,000gp. Mo put on a large performance of inspecting the boat, commenting on flaws and pointing out issue. It was a good performance and he got the price of the boat down to 8,000. Having bought the boat, Mo tied the Broom of Flying to the bow and told the broom to fly to Kalmarn, letting it guide the boat upriver and getting by with a great deal of beginner’s luck to figure out the steering. The boat will hold about 10 people, more if they’re small. By the end of the day, Joybell had done 24 (of 48) hours of work with the Manual of Gainful Exercise. Orryk and Fiona teleported back from Embernook and said that Mo was making his own way back. Mo arrived in the boat in the middle of the night. We all chipped in to help pay for it the next morning. 21 Harfastin 748 (Campaign day 111) Around mid morning, we all gathered at the docks and waited for Nicolana. Joybell expected her to arrive from the river, either by boat or just sort of manifesting, but she came up from the path to town to join us in the pavilion Thneed made. We showed her Turnik’s books and records. She was especially impressed with his business records -- who had hired him for what sorts of jobs. Nicolana: Oh, that IS interesting. Joybell: I thought you’d like that. We told her that we’d destroyed the information about the high ritual he’d used to kill young children to take the years of their life for his own. Nicolana: So he was casting Your Life For Mine. Joybell: I think that’s what it was called. We destroyed that because no one needs to know how to do that. Nicolana, after looking through the papers for a while: He was an unpleasant soul. Mo: We had to kill him. Twice. Joybell: It is painful to think about the things he did and the harm he caused. Nicolana: It is. After she’d looked at the papers for a bit we agreed that we’d start asking her our questions and when she felt we’d reached a fair exchange she’d let us know. Question 1: Taman’s parents’ deal with the Tundra queen. Nicolana did not know the specifics of Taman’s parents’ particular deal - however she told us for free that most people who are not from Auriqua who seek out the Tundra Queen go to her when they’re in some sort of trouble. The Tundra Queen can hide people in her realms temporarily. Generally her price for doing this is to fulfill some obligation of hers to someone else. Taman: Ildna seemed to know, but he was speaking gibberish at us. We sequed from that to an extra question about the Machine and if there’s a delay before it reappears. Also if there’s any way to predict where it would appear. She said no -- also it can travel backwards and forwards in time. So even if there is a delay there’s no way to know. Question 2: What is the tiny print of Auriqua’s deal with the Tundra Queen? We know the broad outline of it and that she is obliged not to directly harm them. Nicolana clarified that she has an obligation not to directly harm the dilyarli. The agreement doesn’t say she can’t harm the children. She had that obligation to Ildna. Mo: Does the Tundra Queen pose as much danger to Auriqua as protection? Nicolana: Knowing the Tundra Queen it is plausible she has told her servants how juicy Auriqua is so that when her protection is lifted they are especially interested… Mo: So it’s still a protection racket. Question 3: We’d like to know more about the Tundra Queen. Anything that might give us an edge in dealing with her. Nicolana: Making deals is part of who she is. If presented with an opportunity to do so, she almost certainly will. She likes winning deals. Mo: What does she consider winning? What does she want? Nicolana: She is deeply political. What she wants is influence. Taman: Is this why she’s been trying to horn in on Embernook? Nicolana: And that hasn’t gone well for her. Question 4 was skipped because we already had that information. Question 5: Orryk: Has she ever made a deal with Alighieri? That question was followed by 2 seconds of hysterical, shocked laughter, then an inscrutable stone face. Nicolana: “No.” Question 6: Joybell: Do you know anything about what happened to the Umbral circle of planar druids? Nicolana: The Umbral Circle was a group of druids mostly dedicated to reducing the influence of the Shadowfell on Erkonin. My impression, based on incomplete knowledge, is that someone or something that would or was getting power from the Shadowfell broke the Umbral Circle. Mo: Was it an organized group or individuals? Nicolana: I don’t know. Orryk: Could this tie to the Shadowfell incursions in Embernook a few months ago? Joybell: Do you know when they might have been broken? Nicolana: I haven’t heard about them for six months. Mo: That lines up. Joybell and Orryk: Yeah. (Note: The Shadowfell incursions in Embernook were three and a half months ago.) Mo: We’ve run into warlocks of Orcus. We’re sure they were connected to making Shadowpools in Embernook. Do you know of followers of Orcus that might be lurking around somewhere? Nicolana: There are often people who think they can get power by bending fiends to their will. They are often wrong. Joybell: Is there an organization or cult? Orryk: If you were to go to a city to look for these people, where would you go? Nicolana: New Arvai. Question 5.5: Mo: Back to the Tundra Queen and Auriqua -- how can we get her to break her deal? We don’t want her turning kids to dilyarli. Nicolana: I’ve been a dilyarli. It wasn’t fun. EVERYONE: You were? And you’re not now? It can be undone? Nicolana: She can undo it. Question 7: Thneed: Is there a history of war between Fey and Fire elementals? Nicolana: There isn’t a source of conflict there. Elemental planes are more interested in the prime material than they are in the Feywild. Question 5.5 (again): Joybell: Going back to Mo’s question. What would it take to get her to break a deal? Ildna said that people completing their deals with the Tundra Queen were making her more powerful and that is maybe not a good thing. Do you know what he meant? Nicolana: That’s the closest to the truth that the Epiphany Machine’s revelations ever get. Whenever she makes a deal her plan is to increase her own power and to anyone NOT HER that is not a good thing. Joybell: Is it not nice being a dilyarli? Nicolana: Remembering being one, while not being one now…remembering not being yourself is painful. While you are a dilyarli, it is not painful or traumatic. It becomes so when you are not again and can remember. With that, Nicolana declared that we were even now. Orryk: Is there anything we can bring you from New Arvai? Nicolana: You know me well. If you find something, let me know… Joybell walked out of the pavilion with her and through the empty town. Joybell: I had a question for you, but I can’t remember what it was right now. Nicolana: <<just looked at her in a bemused way>> Joybell: If I remember, I can send it to you on dragon paper. Will that find you? Nicolana: Yes. Then she patted Joybell on the shoulder and walked off through the town. After she left, we talked about what to do next. We decided that our next step was to take a boat down the river to Erlin (about a week down the Hochor River) -- Irlua at the Primal Atoll told Orryk that there was some sort of fire incursion or instability there and we’re hoping to find a fire elemental for him to kill. After that we can see what day it is -- we want to be in Auriqua at the Feast of Stars in two and a half months -- we can either teleport back to Kalmarn and go to Auriqua or proceed on downriver to New Arvai to see what we can learn about the Umbral Circle and whoever’s doing these Shadowfell incursions. Also to break into the library of the School of the World to retrieve Adnorga’s Staff. We checked in with Chulty -- asking if he needed to go to Embernook (he could teleport along with us, or we could all go down in the boat). He did not. We told him we were leaving Clyde. He said they were already building a pen and kennel for him in the yard. We named our boat the Weirdness Magnet and left it for Chulty and his friends to use as they need it. Then we checked with Tulmor and Barnett to make sure it was okay, then teleported to Embernook. We asked them if there was anything we could do for them in Erlin and they said no. Mo asked about crime in New Arvai (since we’ll be going there eventually to break into the School of the World’s library). Mo also talked to Taman about thieves’ guilds and asked if he’d have any insight. Mo: When we get there we can leave Joybell behind and find people to help us. Taman: If they help us, they’ll want to be paid. Thneed: Or maybe they’ll turn us in for the reward. When we were still at Tulmor and Barnett’s place Taman sensed for Fey in town. He detected one. In Centerkeep. In the Administrative Offices Building. Taman: Oh, naughty word! Mo: Well isn’t that interesting information? Taman: Much is explained. Joybell, thinking that maybe the Administrator needed to know that we thought he was Fey, or that someone in the city administration was and we strongly figured it’s him, went to talk to Thalith while the others arranged for our trip to Erlin on a boat. She signed in on the sheet as always and tried to figure out how to say that without saying it -- because folks in the waiting room can sort of hear what’s being said in Thalith’s office sometimes. Joybell, when Thalith called her into his office: We have solid information that there is a Fey in town. Thalith: I’m sure the Administrator knows. Joybell: He knows everything that goes on in town. I just wanted to make sure. She and Thalith got into a talk about how Chulty and his friends were doing in Kalmarn. He was disconcerted that Chulty’s old adventuring party friends had joined him there -- not that they were untrustworthy people, just that he wanted Chulty leaving that life behind. After that, Joybell left, unsure that Thalith had received her actual message. At the docks, she found that we had taken passage on the Glistenspray, a small vessel captained by Zellora, a female water genasi. The Glistenspray is a more cushy ride than the Gellyan -- better food and better cabins. Zellora will take us to Erlin and drop us off -- her ultimate destination is New Arvai. By the time all this was arranged, it was late afternoon. So we went to our various lodgings in town. Joybell did a bit more work with the book -- exercising in her room and in the yard at Queena’s. The night passed without incident. 22 Harfastin 748 (Campaign day 112) We met at the docks and head out on the Glistenspray toward Erlin for what we hoped, but didn’t expect, would be an uneventful trip. [/QUOTE]
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Erkonin (Campaign #1) [Session 46: Making Deals with Devils is Stupid as well as Bad]
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