Category: Svala

Report 29: Behind Enemy Lines

On By ravonlockeIn Journal, SvalaLeave a comment

Another Mythal

  • The Crown would take powerful magics to purify – such as a well of spells.
  • Myth Drannor could be a place of such power.
  • Team Rogue wants to go there anyway, for their own purposes.
  • The Rod of Universal Travel may be there, as well.
  • The city, once a powerful place in its own right, had a Netherese city dropped onto it.
  • Now demons and devils fight for control.
  • There’s a circle in Hillsfar nearby, but we have to go on foot from there.
  • The Rangers protecting the area are unwelcoming, but not outright hostile to our presence.
  • A wall of fog surrounds the old city, and we camp inside to gather our power before entering.

Entering the City

  • Questdrone scouts for a way in, but finds we are on the wrong end of the city from our goals.
  • We circumnavigate through the woods, having to cross a river, before finding an appropriate broken wall to scale.
  • The Mythal’s energy is so chaotic here it makes my skin itch and the air taste sour, not to mention the suffusion of sulfur in the air from demonic incursions.

The Concert Hall

  • Screams, moans and something like music emanate for a large building, and we must investigate.
  • It is still quite beautiful and clean inside, with a large golden organ on the stage.
  • But moaning, bleeding bodies are strung from the balconies and a corpulent devil is on the stage, forcing bedraggled looking gnome to play.
  • The devil has the gall to ask if we’ve bought tickets to this monstrosity.
  • Horned devils drop from the rafters as we make our way to save whatever is left of these tortured souls.
  • I am unsure how things proceeded as I was first stunned and then blinded, though I believe Shohei may have stabbed me at least once under demonic influence.
  • When the demonic director is felled, both the organ and the gnome’s chains corrode and crumble.
  • Kinbeer is grateful and offers to stay with us as a guide, leading us first to the loot these creatures had been hording from other murdered adventurers.

The Speculum

  • The Wizards’ Guildhall is half-ruined with broken front doors.
  • Rogue crew, with a little help from Mr. Trisfir disarm the traps and get us inside.
  • Fiends have definitely made themselves at home here.
  • The first door leads to an imp-filled alchemy lab, so we let them be.
  • The second, a massive library, complete with bone nagas to protect it.
  • The books here suggest the rod might be in the Dwarven vault below the castle, but it is mostly destroyed so we would have to teleport from the Orrery.
  • A closet of this library has a few interesting things, and also a sentient and talkative mimic.
  • The group convinces him to come home with us to The Library.
  • The next room holds seven illithid doing experiments on undead flesh golems.
  • They disintegrate Ms. Rosewood, but we eventually defeat them and destroy their golem creation.
  • The next few doors are destroyed spaces, so we try the stairs.
  • There is a glyph that requires a key to progress upwards.
  • We return downstairs to search for one, Mr. Darkfoot eventually finding a hiding pixie and making a deal to borrow his makeshift key.
  • We return to the library where we feed the regenerating flesh golem to our mimic and then rest.

Report 28: Cleanse the Grove

On By ravonlockeIn Journal, SvalaLeave a comment

Speaking To The Heart

  • Ms. Rosewood explains everything we have discovered to the Archdruid of the Grove and will allow me to accompany them to speak to the Heart of the Grove.
  • Ms. Lendiel goes to speak to the Seneschal about any visitors around the time this corruption began.
  • Though some of the life around the grove has died, there is still life at the Heart, and three druids who are focusing their magics to preserve it at all times.
  • We sit around the Moonwell, remove all weaponry, and meditate on the forces of nature here.
  • Awakening to a field of Treants and Elementals in a weakened and embattled state with desolation beyond, the sound of beetles and smells of rot surround us.
  • Ms. Rosewood and I head to the edges, the front per se, of the battle – we find one giant beetle battling with four Treants and a Dryad.
  • The beetle, glutted on energy, begins to fade back into the surrounding mists, and we follow.
  • We follow it for sixty miles or so in this shadowy version of the world – until it touches down in a dark place, sinking a proboscis into the earth, shrinking in size as it transfers energy into the ground.
  • Ms. Rosewood looks around the area and notices a brook, which we follow upstream to a basin where a large number of these beetles defend a well of energy.
  • This must be the place, so we retreat back to reality.

The Basin

  • Gathering the group back together, we Windwalk over to that basin to investigate, and find it covered by a dome of illusory magic.
  • The Moonwell’s power has been inverted and around it are undead creatures and mounds of beetles, seeming to multiply every ten to fifteen minutes.
  • We engage, destroying these corrupted guardians of the well.
  • Ms. Rosewood sends some magic down the well so we can track it to its source.
  • Mr. Darkfoot has once again fallen in battle, so we bring him back to the Grove before reviving him.

Tracking the Magic

  • Ms. Rosewood and I head back to the Heart to track her magic from the corrupted moonwell.
  • Once back, we see the guardians all dead like we left them, but a large beetle represents the pulsing magic that still remains.
  • Ms. Rosewood spreads her fire through the well to help with the tracking in this world and ours.
  • We return to the group and begin to rest, while Ms. Rosewood keeps her mind on her magic.
  • After three hours, it begins to move, but we wait.
  • Around six hours into our rest, the magic stops moving, but nothing happens to it.
  • We find our rest, and she is still aware of where the magic has gone, waiting to be collected perhaps.
  • We travel back to the basin through trees, and then Ms. Rosewood Windwalks us toward the magic signal to another desecrated area.
  • There is a portal here, into a shadowy realm of bowed trees and thorny heights.
  • As we step through, we see more beetles, but small and not in swarms.

Shadowfell Showdown

  • We find a pair of tents and another moonwell, this one created more recently and also inverted.
  • A voice calls out telling us to go away, as Ordinaus and Salya step forward, their eyes sunken, heads hanging, and movements stiff – these were to more recent additions to the grove that Ms. Lendiel had noted.
  • They are followed by what appears to be a man half transformed into the form of a corrupted Treant, who Ms. Rosewood recognizes at Coal.
  • Ordinaus and Salya transform into young Black Dragons as the ground rumbles and cracks and the three rush to attack us, bringing the very trees along in their wake, a storm rages around us, as well.
  • Ms. Rosewood finds justice in burning Coal down, and Mr. Darkfoot finds a black rock of a heart which once belonged to the Raven Queen.
  • Several other items are gathered including a corrupted crown that Mr. Darkfoot is quite interested in, but I won’t allow him to wear until I get a better look at it – we don’t need a repeat of what has happened here.
  • Fortunately, Shohei also convinced Mr. Darkfoot to return the heart to the dark Goddess Queen shortly after we return to the Library.

Report 27: Research Complete

On By ravonlockeIn Journal, SvalaLeave a comment

My thesis is done!

  • I have taken ROK’s advice to heart – it isn’t about learning everything there is to know about magic, but rather understanding the Weave.
  • Understanding that all power comes from one font in the Universe.
  • And that Divine Power, and thus Divine Magic is the most reliable and powerful way to access it.
  • There’s also a rod of Universal Travel that could get me home for a visit, past the barrier of this Wheel.
  • I defend my these to The Keeper of Tomes, and while he disagrees, I have finally become an Avowed of the Library!

Druid Grove Blight

  • Ms. Rosewood finally tells the group what is wrong – her grove has been blighted, like many before it.
  • We go to investigate previous sites – this seems to happen every fifty years somewhere in Faerûn.
  • The most recent past blighted grove is beginning to grow again, but the land is scarred – the townsfolk said the blight ended after all the druids were dead or gone.
  • The oldest site, 250 year ago, contains no signs of the blight, but many trees and much life.
  • Ms. Rosewood senses the power of a current Grove nearby and leads us there, but she is the only one invited to enter their circle.
  • They return to the group and we Windwalk to the nearest leftover blighted section – a cave with petrified remains and strangely empty spaces.
  • Ms. Rosewood tells us she spoke of the blight coming on the backs of beasts in the night, encircling and destroying everything.
  • At the third site, 200 years old, we find a group of goliaths and other small giantkin – we offer to help with their crops and a potion of longevity to their elder and they agree to speak with us.
  • This man invites us all in for a feast and celebration, during which he explains a period of death and destruction of a druid grove at the base of the mountain.
  • They tried to help, but found the only way to stop the blight was to destroy that which was blighted, and even those druids who left the grove to join their tribe died of a rotting sickness.
  • The other sites we visit have no more information to add, one has not recovered at all, the other has some elves who live nearby now.

Candlekeep Resources

  • Great Reader Nyantani investigates the samples of the blighted groves that we were able to bring back.
    • All of the samples are natural materials corrupted by the necrotic energies of the Shadowfell.
    • Planar incursions this severe are rare outside a Spellplague.
    • Something is doing this in a targeted way, needing to destroy these areas and the druids who maintain them.
    • That being could still be nearby or could have set it in motion and gone away, but the power is still going somewhere, to something.
    • He recommends speaking to the remaining life there, communing with Ms. Rosewood’s grove.
  • Great Reader Savikas reads through Ysayle’s notes on the incursion and looks over our samples.
    • She also believes it is targeted and intentional, but not the work of the Raven Queen herself.
    • An object of power somewhere in the area is allowing the one responsible to do this, a very powerful artifact.
    • She recommends looking for beetles closer to the inception of the events to lead us to it.
    • It must be located and stopped before the lands can be fixed.
    • She also tells me that she once researched the Rod of Universal Travel, and that we should look for information in a Netheril Tomb or in the shadow of it, suggesting Myth Dranor as one possibility.
  • Great Reader V’ziir-Ag eats one of the corrupted beetles we brought back.
    • He says they are ingeniously designed, and certainly blighted.
    • Confirms the Shadowfell as the source of their corruption and suggests radiant energy to drive them back.
    • He believes a powerful necromancer could wield such corruptive power.

Report 26: Save the Library

On By ravonlockeIn Journal, SvalaLeave a comment

Planning

  • The Keeper of Tomes is glad to see we were able to retrieve Mordenkainen.
  • They discuss what must be done and Mr. Trisfir and Mr. Darkfoot are recruited to work with them on the single use disjunction.
  • There are three options to power the device – getting Mystra’s help, using the Mythal, or the power of a demigod.
  • I speak with Oghma about these very dubious options, He tells me that no gods will help us break Mystra’s rules, but that there is great danger waiting for us, though using the Mythal itself to power the item is not a direct threat to the Library.
  • The Mythal seems to be our only way, and two tendays later, Mr. Trisfir emerges with a sledgehammer shaped item, which he intends to strike the Mythal with to break the Timestop spell.

The Mythal

  • We head back down to the Mythal with The Keeper’s assistance.
  • Everything is quiet, even Miirrym.
  • Until the living spell room, this time, however it is a vague two-dimensional shape that begins cutting people down – a Blade of Disaster?
  • One of the worst spells we have come across, but we eventually prevail and move along.
  • Once back in the Mythal library, Mr. Trisfir edits the book we used the last time, to allow for easier access inside.
  • Mr. Darkfoot and Ms. Lendiel head inside with the hammer, and she strikes the Mythal a resounding blow.
  • There is a loud crack in the air, and color and light returns to the room even as the hammer dims.
  • I feel a sense of deific anger at our act, but we do not have time to deal with Mystra right now.
  • Power stops flowing from the Mythal as it begins to pulse.
  • The Keeper and Mr. Trisfir fly in to examine the cracked tablet and begin repairs, which takes several hours.
  • Once done, they return and Mr. Trisfir fixes the conduit in the viewing library, returning it to its original state.
  • Slowly, power starts flowing outward again, refilling the library with the Mythal’s power.

Blackout

  • We head back up to the top, leaving the Undercroft, to find the entryway dark and empty of guards.
  • An explosion draws our attention, and we rush to find Great Reader Ag barking orders as a group fights a Pit Fiend and two Barbed Devils.
  • We join the fight, taking down these infernal intruders, fearful of what else this power outage might have let into the Library.
  • Fighting our way towards the Tower of Exhaultation, we find a Leviathan in the courtyard, which swallows Mr. Trisfir for a short time before Shohei can finish it off.
  • The top of the tower explodes above us and we rush up through the air to find Miirrym in a corporeal form.
  • She is alive and has only the memories of who she was before her death, thinking this is her first attack on the Library those many years ago.
  • We manage to take her down, Questdrone landing the final blow, and the body falls, already decaying to the ground far below.
  • Moments later, power finally reach the conduits in the tower, indicating the Mythal has returned to full power.

Clean-Up

  • Everyone returns below to help with the final mopping up of invaders, Ms. Rosewood and I healing who we can.
  • The final toll in the morning is 40 dead avowed, 3 dead archmages, incredible structural damage and loss of books and artifacts, and a blight on the ground where Miirrym fell.
  • I pledge all of my power to bring back as many of the dead as I am able, while others offer to help with the reconstruction.
  • Back in The Room, another doorway has appeared – this one leading to a dusty room with tattered tapestries and a single ten-foot tall 12-sided crystal with mirrored surfaces.
  • It is a scrying focus, but I cannot see Miirrym through it – I am worried for the dragon.
  • Casting out to Oghma for knowledge, I learn that it is The Mirror of Errant Sight, a lost artifact of Eberron, with a will of its own that does not brook misuse.
  • Ms. Lendiel falls asleep while I study it, and yet, a reflection of her stabs at me so viciously, that I must call Petra for aid in removing ourselves from the room.

Report 25: Mordenkainen

On By ravonlockeIn Journal, SvalaLeave a comment

Shadowfell

  • The Keeper was unable to contact Mordenkainen, but was able to locate his tower in the Shadowfell, just outside Barovia, possibly working on an old grudge against the vampire king there.
  • We are to go and call in his favor to The Keeper, either negotiating access to a current or new artifact with disjunctive powers.
  • He warns us to go well prepared, and not to wander across the mists into Barovia.
  • The Grove’s Druid Nem Qu Kroll is able to send us through to the nearest water in the Shadowfell to The Tower of Urm.
  • With Tuppance scouting above, and Questdrone leading below, and Shohei looking quite at home, we set out for the Tower at a quick pace.
  • Along the way we investigate a ruined caravan and are attacked by a handful of Bodak for our trouble.

Tower of Urm

  • The tower has no visible entry except a small window high up one side.
  • Ms. Lendiel is in a foul mood after Questdrone comments on her success rate at finding traps, and there is an argument over people’s skills and aptitudes.
  • Eventually, Mr. Trisfir casts knock and a door appears.
  • Entering into nothing, we are shocked to find a room being built around us as the entryway behind disappears.
  • A stairway leads upwards, but Ms. Lendiel and Mr. Trisfir look for someway to notify the owner of our arrival, as though the cacophony would not have already alerted him.
  • Finding a golden bell, Ms. Lendiel rings it and an invisible force brings her a cup of tea.
  • Finding a pull rope, Mr. Trisfir pulls, and is greeted with opened cabinet doors while another unseen servant takes his cloak and offers him a robe and slippers.
  • A curtain is erected around him and the rest of his clothes taken, cleaned, and returned to him.
  • The books on the shelves of this room are about various cities of the multiverse, and I ring the bell for tea while I peruse them.
  • Mr. Darkfoot, impatient as always, shouts for Mordenkainen to no avail, and Shohei nearly blinds himself looking at all the magic around us.
  • Mr. Trisfir finally realizes he may be wearing the wizard’s own robe and quickly puts his own clothes back on.
  • Shohei, starts opening drawers, and then disappears – a look reveals a shiny red button in the last one he opened, of course.
  • Questdrone suggests we stop messing around and head up the stairs.
  • Upstairs, the room built around us contains taxidermized or stased specimens from all over the multiverse – including a miniaturized Astral Dreadnought with a tiny Shohei and Tuppance directly in front of it. Oh dear.
  • Questdrone insists we touch nothing and head further upstairs to ask the wizard himself for their release.
  • The next floor is an art gallery and the images are so impressive and unique, the must be from the planes they represent – I wonder if he uses them to shift between planes.
  • The next floor is a storage room filled with spell components, even my hands itch a little bit, perhaps it is good that Shohei is not with us as we traverse this tower.
  • The top floor is an observatory of sorts, though the telescope has no way to see outside and the ceiling looks like the Astral Sea.
  • An image of a dark castle is projected onto a wall from one end of the device, and a bald, annoyed looking man in exquisite dress stares at us.
  • Mr. Darkfoot and Mr. Trisfir explain our presence, and about Shohei, who he brings back to the party, and then he invites us to sit and eat with him.
  • While eating, Mr. Trisfir explains all about the troubles Candlekeep has been having with the Mythal.
  • Meanwhile, Ms. Rosewood recognizes two of his servants as her lost druid friends – Mordenkainen says he found them wandering the Shadowfell and took pity on them as they remembered nothing of who they were.
  • Mordenkainin agrees that we need a disjunction, but not something like the helm, just a single use item should do it, but we need to go to the Far Realms to procure the antimagic for such a device.
  • He can get us there and back, but we must do the harvesting ourselves.
  • Mr. Trisfir gets him to agree to come back to Candlekeep with us if we are able to obtain the antimagic, to help with the Mythal in person.

The Far Realm

  • First, he creates an oversized syringe for us to use to collect the antimagic from a sphere at a crossroads without breaking it, using our own magic to stabilize and protect it.
  • Mr. Trisfir takes responsibility for the Syringe with Mr. Darkfoot and Ms. Rosewood to back him up.
  • Then, he takes us to his gate room where he will maintain a portal until we return, but we must do so as quickly as we can, even his magic has limits.
  • It is HORRIBLE there.
  • Everything feels Wrong and like it wants to change us into its Wrongness, devour us until we become part of it.
  • Things that look like buildings made of rotted flesh have faces and horns.
  • We pass through a thickening of the air into a circle, with a giant sphere at the center – the crossroads we were meant to find.
  • The sphere is roiling black and white with what appears to be more solid stone beneath it than the fleshy landscape we stand upon.
  • Mr. Trisfir and Mr. Darkfoot enter the circle to approach the sphere, the rest of us spread around it to protect them from whatever might come.
  • When he plunges in the syringe, hundreds of ichor covered, spiky, ruby-eyed tiny horrors rush towards us from all around, followed by four larger horrors of almost humanoid shape and three squid-like creatures fly from above.
  • During the fighting, I will discover they are called skitterers, foul spawn, and mooncalves, but their initial appearance was simply a terrifying moment.
  • As the fight continues, and more power is drawn from the sphere, Ms. Rosewood falls, but Shohei revives her, and Ms. Lendiel is killed, but we are able to revive her, too, on our way out.
  • The syringe filled, we fight and race our way back to the portal, chased by something far worse than what we have already faced.
  • Afraid to lead it back to the portal, we make a stand, defeating it and then running back and through the portal just before Mordenkainen has exhausted his power.
  • We tell him all that we faced, and he agrees to take his entire Tower back to Candlekeep after we all get some rest.