Month: May 2018

21.01.2250 NG

The hulking skeleton advanced on the party, slicing though Erndoal and bringing tulip to his knees under a rain of razor sharp thrusts. To Throkk’s confusion his well-aimed spear jabs sailed through the creatures skull, and the half-orc began to suspect something was amiss. In a last ditch attempt to banish the guardian, Tulip cast invisibility on the skeleton, who blinked out of existence, leaving only an animated sword hovering in the air. The party then realised that the sword was the true enemy, and falling upon it throkk shattered the blade in pieces. Gritgoz spoke with the hound who told him this was his Masters tower, and warned the party to be careful of the flying sword. Throkk offered the mutt some delicious pocket bacon and named his new furry companion “Penelope”. Exploring the remains of the Tower, the party spoke to the prisoner to learn his name was “Taahir” and he had just bought this tower 2 weeks prior at auction for the princely sum of 50,000 gold pieces. Originally owned by a Kossovian wizard named Abel, on his passing the city were auctioning off his possessions. When Taahir went to explore his new home he must have inadvertently activated the towers security system, and found himself trapped in rather comfortable prison (complete with magic refilling ale cup and a plate that regenerated one slice of slightly stale white bread). He had seen Lorth a few days prior, and the toothless guide had agreed to find a way to release Taahir but had not returned. Taahir was quite convinced he was on a hill a few hours ride from Kossos and has never seen snow in his life.

Ascending the stairs that seemed to defy the laws of physics Tulip and Throkk found themselves at a large ornate wooden door – turning the handle to the left opened the doors to allows a gentle breeze caresses the heroes, carrying the sent of saltly air, hots sands and coconuts. Turning to the right opened to a bedroom, covered in books and alchemical equipment, the far wall laden with ornamental weapons including a large 8 foot spear in a glass case, the air heavy with the smell of stale meat. Naturally the party entered the less welcoming of the two rooms, and as Throkk picked his way across the room the temperature dropped suddenly as something triggered within the space.  The shelves and crates burst open and the lumbering form of a Flesh Golem lurched forwards. Turning, Throkk saw the carpet zip out from under the chairs and speed through the air towards Tulip.

Flinging his spear at the construct, well aimed shot sank deep into the mountain of flesh, but the creature reached up and simply cracked the spear shaft away, impervious to the sharpened steel. Tulip rolled out of the carpets grasp as it attempted to wrap and suffocate him, and triggering Varaks ring he doused the rug in a bath of crimson flame. With no weapon, Throkk sprinted across the room , vaulting over a shelf and crashed through the glass case – crackling in his hand the enormous spear sailed through the air and sank deep into the golem’s back. Seemingly unharmed, The creature began to turn as Throkk bellowed with rage – the half orcs scream awakened something within the weapon and the runes flashed white hot causing  the creature to bellow in agony, injured for the first time. Venting its fury on Tulip,  the golem swung his massive meaty fist at the Bard, knocking him out and fracturing a few ribs in the process.  Ernodal dived to Tulips aid and took a heavy blow to the head, preventing him from fully stabilising his dying friend. As Tulip lay bleeding out ,on 2 failed death saves, Throkk reached the Golem, rending the spear from its back. As his counter thrust found its target , the spear wailed vengeance for the fallen tulip and with a piercing explosion the golems head was torn off by the force of the strike.

As the party recovered, they found a hidden alcove with the personal memorabilia of the wizard, as well as a magic scroll that seemed like it might deactivate the towers defenses. Before returning to Taahir the party explored the second configuration of the room and found themselves standing on a beautiful beach, with the sobbing toothless figure of a very distressed Lorth waist deep in the ocean. Circumventing the elaborate puzzle the DM had planned by attaching a rope to the door handle, Throkk lead Lorth out of his beautiful seaside prison.

Lorth was very grateful for his rescue and needed little encouragement to fill the party in on his last few days – He had come to this tower to loot and explore. He was a woodsman and had been hired by a group of priests and judges 2 weeks prior to lead them through the deadwood. It was a dangerous place, full of foglets, drowners, water-hags and roving griffons, but an area he was confident he could safely navigate. The judges had payed him to keep quite, but he did remember an odd fellow with books and flasks who fit the description of the Alchemist Denes. After a little Throkk convincing, he agreed to lead the party through the deadwood the following morning.

Speaking to Taahir, the heroes agreed to deactivate he Tower and release Taahir on condition he would give the tower to them. After some tough negotiation, Taahir agreed to hand over the Tower to the heroes on condition that he could live there as the steward and that when he was able to acquire funds from Kossos he could purchase it back from them. In this way , he felt he was merely paying for his rescue, albeit initially in property.

After a long rest and slow hike through the deadwood ( Lorth painstakingly avoiding the fog which seemed to follow the party through the trees) the party find themselves hidden in the bushes outside a cave entrance in the mountains, the inner torch light sputtering and illuminating the hulking figure of a Judge standing guard, the orange glow dancing of the thick steel plate of his armour.

Journal Updates

Bestiary: Construct/ Flesh Golem, Phantasmal Sword, Skeletal guardian, Rug of Smothering.

Vaul -the world: The Behemoth

Materia Arcana: Chernobog ( First Legacy Item of the game)

Important Characters: Taahir

17.01.2250 NG

Waking around the campfire and gathering their belongings, Celeste and Gritgoz set off ahead of the group to scout the landscape and forage.

Erdodal wakes to find a raven waiting patiently next to him, a missive around his leg. On taking the parchments, the raven bursts into a cloud of smoke, leaving Erndodal to read:

Tarnak reads over his shoulder and reveals to Erndodal that the “Big guy” is not very popular with the other deamons. He is “greedy” and has been expanding and taking over much of the other deamons domains. When asked by Throkk if he knew the Big Guys name, Tarnak simply replied “There are names, and there are names”. He went on to explain that there were a few deamons interested in Erndodal after the events in the forrest that night, Tarnak among them. Tarnak told Erndoal he thought he had great potential, and while Erndoal may have inadvertently summoned him here, that they actually had similar goals.

The party hiked for 2 days towards the town of Caville, towards the best lead they have on the location of the alchemist “Denes”. As they approached the town they found it covered in a small localised snowstorm, despite beautiful spring sky’s above. Enquiring in the Local Tavern (The Mules Hole) they learned that the strange snow only appeared 2 weeks ago, with the arrival of the strange tower outside of town. The Tavern owner (Pim) advised the other villagers to stay away, but was unable to stop a local man Lorth from Leaving to investigate.

A little questioning revels that Lorth is in fact the brother of the Vicetina Baker( Gregory). Lorth is something of a woodsman and the party learned that a group of priests, Judges, assorted civilians( some in chains) moved through the town a few weeks back – they recruited Lorth to guide them through the Deadwood, but Pim knows nothing about where they were going or who they were with.

Tulip performs a tear jerking rendition of a young Elf who yearns to be a human, trying to find his place in the world. The villagers are enraptured.

Deciding to pursue Lorth rather track the priests the party approach the strange Tower, the blizzards growing stronger and stronger. Gritgoz and Throkk scale the tower, Throkk burning his feet on the baking hot stones as he climbs. Inside they find a lavish, exotically decorated tower, with a staircase on the top floor that seems to lead to further rooms despite seeming physically to extend past the roof of the building. As they creep down the tower they encounter a sleeping man in foreign robes who seems trapped behind some sort of magical barrier.

Meanwhile Erndodal walks casually in the front door with tulip. After petting the well fed, friendly dog they begin to explore the study and tower proper.

Picking their way through a storage room with an impressive chest in the corner they pause to investigate a humanoid skeleton seemingly chained to the tower wall, surrounded by weapons and armour. As they attempt to leave the skeleton rends the chains from the wall and the weapons and armour fly from the ground and bind themselves to the creature who advances menacingly on the duo.

Journal Updates: The World/Caville

14.01.2250 NG

Janustag. Raining Heavily.

Investigating the missing alchemist Denes, the Tusks went straight to his house to examine the location and see if Gritgoz has missed anything. Throkk carefully removed the door from its mounting and gently placed it against the wall as Ernodal found an old book of maps with pages missing – these referred to some of the surrounding area. Otherwise the house appeared trashed, with a large Throkk shaped hole in the rear wall. While visiting the house, Celeste was accosted by a friend of Denes who was passing by to check on the place. After a brief and civil interaction with Throkk, the man became more talkative, and under the impression that the players were members of “The Road” he brought them back to his bakery to discuss his missing friend.

He introduced himself as the Baker, Gregory. He was a supporter of the Road, and an old drinking buddy of Denes. Denes and he had planned a trip to Caville to visit relatives a few weeks ago, but Denes cancelled this  last minute and make Gregory swear not to visit the village. He disappeared shortly thereafter. After swapping some sourdough starters and making friends, the Tusks sneaked out the back door and made their plans. As they entered the main street they were stopped by a handsome mustachioed man, dark haired man, with an intense stare – he introduced himself as Mario, a detective and told the party they were under arrest for the murder of a number of individuals in a nearby alleyway (see Mario in previous fiction / fight with Baron). A number of Judges were present, including the hulking figure Throkk first met on the bridge in Fairharbour (episode 0). He remembered Throkk’s Orcish gesture and replicated it again, taunting him. A crowd gathered and Celeste managed to win them over with her natural charisma and before long stones begin to fly at the judges (thrown by Conan the librarian who seems to be a real rabble rouser). A fully-fledged Riot breaks out – in the chaos a member of the Road (who met the part on the Bridge previously) emerges from the crowd and helps the group escape into the sewers, but not before Throkks manages to stamp onto a spear lying on the group, catch it mid-air and fling it through the outstretched arm of Mario.

The Tusks find themselves exploring a section of the sewer – avoiding the explosive mycotic spheres they notice “thieves cant” on the walls, but not being able to understand this , continue along and stumble  onto a poorly hidden stash containing: some gold coins, empty whiskey bottles, a crude map with entry points into the city marked off, a potion with an enormous finger nail floating within and finally what appears to be an empty  wand case.

Following a light source, the party find themselves blinded by shafts of light in a large underground chamber, only to realise they have stumbled into 5 Risen (Gjenganger) chained up and pumped full of those foul black slugs. A melee erupts, and the party fight off the first wave of the attack but no sooner have the creatures fallen than the sewage churns and froaths and they assemble into a large heaving monstrosity of animated dead chunks and debris: the “proto bone-powder”. The party have seen the fully-fledged version of this in episode 0 on the beachhead when they fled on the Walrus(RIP) and fired the cannons into it. Midway through the battle, Tulip notices hundreds of rats fleeing behind him, just as Erndoal realises the water level is rapidly rising. (it has been raining heavily for days now, remember?)

The water level rushes up as the party battle on, Celeste is knocked out and with his last Eldritch blast Erndoal is completely submerged underwater and begins to hold his breath. With 1 HP remaining, Throkk manages to leap clear of neck high water and drive the creature into the ground with his spear, slaying it. The party swim for freedom, and all in their own suboptimal way find themselves falling 30ft out of the sewage pipe into the moat outside Vicetina. Exhausted they hike a few hours and set up camp to sleep. 

The party witness Throkk’s Dream: A young half orc boy flees through a burning village, his family and friends mutilated around him. Figures snatch at him, but he fights them off and crashes through the streets. One figure looms above all others, is around every corner, in every doorway. Pausing to catch his breath, a wall explodes behind him as the figure bursts through and grabs him. He drags the boy to a dead tree in the centre of the village, a tree decorated with impaled corpses and limp figures swaying from their hempen nooses. The boy is thrust into the hollowed tree and the tree set on fire. Screaming Throkk wakes.

Journal updates:

Characters / Vicetina / Mario

Places / Caville

Bestiary/ proto-bonepowder

NEW RULES! Baking!

The Baker’s Primer: Saving the world one loaf at a time (filed in journal under rules + references)

To attempt to bake goods, you must be proficient in cooking or Bakers kit.

If you have 2 hours and a usable heat source (fire, oven, lava etc) you can make some bread. The following recipes are know to Ernodal already, and more can be discovered throughout Vaul, some common, some rare, some legendary.

To bake bread, simply make the DC required – you can make 1 portion of bread during a suitable time period, ( e.g. long rest will allow you make 1 loaf and the rest). The bonus from bread applies to 1 player of the bakers choice, who obviously needs to eat the bread. The bread only stays fresh for 24 hours at which point the bonus is lost.

Only one bread bonus can be active at one time.

13.01.2250 NG

ThruthStag. Raining Heavily.

The party drank the dreamstalkers brew (despite the multiple warnings on the labels) and entered the Dream Eaters dreamscape. Throkk stood guard over their sleeping bodies.

During the battle the beast summoned crystals which seemed to materialise from the substance of his dreams, and in doing so weakened himself slightly with every new crystal. Noticing him weakening, and thinking back on the poem the party realised

“…the world he shapes is his quarrys soul ,

and when stalked within his own domain,

 he consumes himself, his powers drain…”

Likely referred to the dream eater using their victim’s own essence as fuel for its powers, allowing the creatures to control the dream they were visiting. When attacked in their own dream however, the only fuel must be the creatures own essence. The party emerged victorious after the gods of random numbers smiled gently on them and both 3d6 breath attacks managed to cause 5 damage in total.

Before waking the party found themselves standing in a woodland glade, witnessing a dream of Celestes. They were invisible spectators, unseen by Celeste, but aware of each other. An enormous bark covered humanoid figure, easily 60ft tall approached Celeste and asked her to try to remember who she was, and to remember her Oath. He seemed familiar and friendly to Celeste, as if they had known each other for a long time and acted concerned about her lack of memory. Celeste seemed somewhat defensive however and accused the figure of not helping her enough and claimed her power didn’t come from him. This comment seemed to amuse and sadden the creature slightly. As celeste began to ask more questions she was woken by Throkks bell ringing and the ceremony of the severed heads.

Celeste didn’t seem keen to discuss this dream and Ernodal and Gritgoz seemed to both acknowledge they were present to witness this. The party harvested scales from the creature and took a horn as proof of the kill. They explored the temple to find a room of debris and loot (see update log). The final room contained a sculpture at an ancient altar- a vile and misformed horned face, which had more than a passing resemblance to one of the two figures on the ripped parchment found earlier ( in journal). The party were not able to decipher the runes surrounding this face.

Leaving the temple, the party encountered a deranged old farmer, quite mad but friendly – the party then identified themselves as the “Walrus Tusks” and learned this farmer was the original owner of this land and excavated the temple. He had warned the family that the party encountered in episode 1 (whos journal Erndodal still has) not to sleep near here due to strange deaths in sleep. The family had seemed to be taking a strange and circuitous route around the area when Ernodal asked about their travel. The party learned a mysterious hooded figure with grey hair, claiming to be a water diviner had passed through some months back and offered his services for free – and advised to excavate at this exact spot. The farmer claimed to have no way on contacting him and promised to fill in the site when he had enough coin. Celeste cured his sciatia.

At Vicetina the party received payment from Tilda (1000g) who was deeply grateful and exhausted after days of not sleeping and promised Ernodal to help fill in the excavation site. Luca happily nodded off knowing he was now safe to do so.

A visit to Lorenzo found Gritgoz explaining his theories of skulduggery and deceit and the Goblin advised the leader to stockpile fire weapons and be wary of the Church of Namthar. It seems Lorenzo has no love for the church and didn’t invite them here – they had arrived en mass under the pretence of discussions for troop movements/ security due to the increasing tensions between Namburg and Kossos. Gritgoz asked that Lorenzo tell his niece Sofia(guard captain) of the suspected “Fake Dave”.

Lorenzo brought the Tusks into his confidence and asked that they help him track down a very close friend – Denis the Alchemist. Lorenzo felt Denis would know what to do about these Risen, as he was a colourful man with a checkered past (a supporter of the anti-Namtharite group “The Road”, something of an arsonist, a trader in illegal antiques, illegal potion (A glamour potion for the potions shopkeeper for example but a good man Lorenzo insisted). His only leads were that he is missing some weeks now, he gave the location of his house (which Gritgoz has previously pillaged) and said he was close friends with Gregory the Baker also.

Erndodal enquired with the city steward about the Grave-Digger pay offs from last night, to learn that the shift pattern is a week on, week off (6 staff). Thus, it seems likely only one was paid off to allow the graves be disturbed shortly before the Throkk + co disturbed things.

Tulip asked around about the disturbed graves and learned they belonged to a middle aged couple who had died separately some months back, and the other 3 were unrelated to them. Nobody seemed to know or care much about them.

Finally Gritgoz, confronted Max, the doctor in the royal infirmary. Terrified of the Goblin, Max revealed she knew quite a bit about RedRot – she helped create it. She had help – Denis the alchemist and a strange robed man who used bring her reagents, decoctions and specimens. Goblins. She was tearful and remorseful for creating the plague, and claimed she had only done so as a means of creating a weapon against the Elves. The figure had convinced her such a weapon would save thousands of lives by avoiding an all out war, and the elves needed to be eradicated – she babbled about gateways and daemon armies in her fear, and indicated she thought that stopping this was a worthy goal. When pushed, she told Gritgoz there was no cure, and the plague was certain death … except for one atypical case. Specimen no.59 had seemed to recover and cure himself somehow. When she prepared to attempted further inoculation he escaped and fled. She wasn’t sure where he came from, but suspected he was from a Goblin Tribe in the South.

Bestiary updates: Dream eater, Carrion Crawler.

Important Character updates: Max

Materia arcana updates: Varaks ring, Gauntlets of the Emerald Brawler, Cu Chulainns revenge.