Report 1: Gathering of the Group

On By ravonlockeIn Journal, SvalaLeave a comment

Meeting convened at The Hearth. Topic: The Room. In attendance: Mr. Shohei Ashfall, Mr. Axel Darkfoot, Ms. Ysayle Lendiel, #13, Mr. Rhys Trisfir, Ms. Ember Rosewood, and myself.

Conjectures:

  • Mr. Darkfoot suggested that the Doors in the Room might lead to what you most want at the moment you opened them. Mr. Ashfall wants to recover things, but says it in such a way, that I believe he may be looking for things of value. Ms. Rosewood is looking for druids from her circle who came here and then went missing.
  • #13 suggested that there is a link between the seven of us and the Room. That it was perhaps designed by some intelligence who was looking to connect with people possessing certain traits. Traits we either outwardly exhibit or that we do not yet understand. The group is unsure what traits we all might have in common, as yet.

The meeting then dispersed to be reconvened at the Room itself.

Investigations:

  • Mr. Darkfoot tries to pick one of the locks, unsuccessfully. He reports that the lock kept changing as he manipulated it.
  • Several members of the group then began studying the magic on the doors, as though we had not thought to do that in the past year since the doors stopped working.
  • Ysayle gets everyone a drink from the tea and coffee service, but all of us drinking at once does nothing to help open any doors.
  • #13 suggests we look in the library for books on the Creators or on other rooms that had been lost and/or found. Mr. Darkfoot has a place we can start, a book called Mazfroth’s Mighty Digressions.

Mazfroth’s Mighty Digression Investigation

  • The book is located in the Research Wing of the Dragon Bones.
  • Mr. Darkfoot and Mr. Ashfall examine the book for magics and find Transmutation, but does not appear explosive or dangerous to open.
  • Mr. Darkfoot and I examine the contents, written in common, which discuss magics of various schools, the Spellplague and the nature of the weave in 150 pages of handwritten, poorly bound text.
  • An unfamiliar voice then speaks in my head saying “Need Life” over and over.
  • The book discorporated into four balls of crackling energy – orange, green. blue, and grey.
  • These balls then began to attack us.
  • Mr. Darkfoot got off some eldritch magic before one of the balls nearly killed him.
  • Ms. Lendiel was badly injured, as well, in their first volley.
  • #13 went to hide from the attack as he is not equipped for such interactions.
  • Ms. Lendiel then came to Mr. Darkfoot’s defense with her blades, as I healed him back to consciousness.
  • Ms. Rosewood summoned a small fire spirit and shot fire at one of the balls of energy, neither set any library property alight.
  • Mr. Ashfall joined the fight with a smoky grey sabre, as Mr. Trisfir began to punch them with gauntleted fists.
  • A masked and caped modron then leapt down from the shelving, destroying one orb and damaging another, saying they were here to protect organics, before disappearing in a cloud of fog once the orbs were all destroyed.
  • A report was then handed over to Fembris Larlancer to be sent up to the Great Readers.

Meeting with V’ziir-Ag.

Also present: Daral Yashenti. Absent: Mr. Ashfall.

  • Two other books have similarly exploded: Dark Hunger & The Fallen Tethamar
  • Previous attacks were managed by Lesser Readers.
  • All are books recently received from supplicants.
  • Two of whom, Valor (Dark Hunger) and Yalerion Highscroll (Mazfroth) are still here and can be questioned.
  • We are requested to investigate and resolve the matter.

Valor Interrogation

  • Tiefling woman (blue), 6’3″
  • Arrived 13 days ago
  • Book purchased in Baldur’s Gate, Upper City, unknown bookshop of questionable character offering 1st edition books
  • Booksellers: Pale, dark-haired man & quiet, stern woman
  • Asked for a good book for trading, but did not specifically mention Candlekeep
  • Unable to pay for the book she came here for without her trade, she is working off her debt reshingling the Hearth.

Yalerion Highscroll Interrogation

  • Human, late 20s, worshipper of Oghma
  • Arrived yesterday
  • Book purchased in Baldur’s Gate, Upper City, The Wide, in a “really neat” bookshop with Dune in the name
  • Bookshop is in a back alley, and has lots of 1st editions
  • Shopkeepers: A very friendly man
  • Asked for rare of 1st edition books – bought the nicest looking one
  • Read the book on the way here
  • Traveled in a caravan and spoke about the book
  • No one else in the caravan seemed to have shopped at the same store

Gate House Inquiry

Avowed: Whisper.

  • Check in records for all three included Baldur’s Gate, but no further location information.
  • 13 Books have come in from Baldur’s Gate in the last month.
  • Note made to be more aware of books from there and to look out for Dune bookshop.
  • #13 has shelved three of the books.
  • We and other Avowed recover all 13 books that have not yet exploded.
  • All seem to be safe at this time.
  • V’ziir-Ag approves a mission to Baldur’s Gate for further investigation.

Travel Report

  • Supplies included walking boots, tents, bedrolls, and a pack animal are acquired.
  • Day One – Quiet. Sleeping on the ground is more uncomfortable than the Room.
  • Day Two – Quiet. Goodberries taste a lot better than hardtack.
  • Day Three – Quiet. I should have bought a horse.
  • Day Four – Quiet. It is raining now and we’re sleeping on rocks.
  • Night Four Addendum: Rats! Giant Rats attacked us in the night! Mr. Darkfoot said there was also a wererat in the forest. #13 hid, as is appropriate, and Mr. Ashfall was slow to respond to the danger. Ms. Rosewood’s fire spirit is also useful for healing. Mr. Trisfir was a good ally in this fight.
  • Day Five – We have arrived in Baldur’s Gate and taken rooms in an inn.

Svala, Cleric of the Arcane

On By ravonlockeIn Backstory, SvalaLeave a comment

Svala’s family was not nobility, but they wanted to be, and they certainly had the money to pretend to be. Life was all about creating perfect connections for her parents (Algir and Avie). They had as many children as they could manage, to create those connections and the Perfection they desired. Eldest son (Dallid) was to rise to prestigious military rank. Eldest daughter (Fain) to marry well into a noble house. Second son (Kavin) to become a renowned scholar. Second daughter (Griya) a renowned arcanist. Third son (Lonar) a famous artisan. Third daughter (Mirella) a famous artist. Fourth son (Rill) a great politician. Fourth daughter (Svala) to be a high priestess in the Church. The fifth son turned out to be twin daughters (Triela and Uvana), and they, it was decided, would be the most talented musical duet ever heard at court. Ten children was the perfect amount, a perfect number, and so it was done. 

Her childhood was happy. The family rejoiced in learning and growing and even in failures, for there was always more to learn. No expenses or experiences were spared. The children were all encouraged to follow their curiosity wherever it led. Avie’s drive was to be the perfect mother and so she gave them everything they could ever want or need. 

Until they came to their twentieth year. Halfway to adulthood for a Vedalken, this was the year when they began preparing for the rest of their lives. The lives chosen for them, and that they had been trained from birth to look forward to. One by one, year after year, they left home to follow their paths. Dallid left to join the youth brigades because officer training starts young. Fain began to learn courtly manners and dancing, attending her first ball that year. Griya and Kavin were sent away to learn from the brightest scholars. Lonar and Mirella were apprenticed to the best Algir could find. Rill began attending council meetings with Algir. And Svala was sent away to become an acolyte. The twins, she guessed, got apprenticeships of their own, but she was no longer around to see. Perhaps they went to a bard college instead. She hoped they were having fun, they were the sweetest of her siblings. 

The church wasn’t bad. They encouraged the pursuit of knowledge nearly as much as her parents had. But they had a very specific bent to the knowledge. Svala, however, once she got her first taste of arcane magic, could not let go. She immediately began studying everything she could find about both divine and arcane magics. Her appetite and aptitude concerned some of the elders, and they started keeping a closer eye on her studies. Sent her out into the city on more errands to try and keep her on a clerical path of service. 

This was, however, not the best plan to keep her away from the arcane, nor other magics. She often passed by the wizard school and saw the students practicing spells. They laughed at her cleric robes, but she was undeterred. She passed by a druid grove quite often, and they were much more welcoming. It was on one of these errands, during the festival of the solstice, that she first saw what magic could really do. Magnificent powers, arcane, natural, and divine were all on display for the festival. And she wanted to know everything. 

She peppered one of the traveling wizards, Idarin Gilmoira, with so many questions, intelligent questions, that he told her of a Library where she might find all the answers she was looking for. She begged him to take her there, to rescue her from a life she had not chosen. She had loved stories of maidens rescued by knights as a child and was not above a little manipulation in the pursuit of knowledge. At first, he declined, she was too young, but she came back to him every day for the entire weeklong festival, and he finally relented when she offered to pay him for his help. She also knew that when manipulation doesn’t work, cold hard cash usually did. 

Her knowledge of her homelands, written down as they had traveled, was enough to gain her entrance. Her insatiable curiosity and her companion wizard’s recommendation, as well as her purse of gold, gained her admittance to the school. She threw herself into her studies, thrilled to no longer be restricted by the elder clerics. The Library was the most wondrous place she had ever seen with seemingly endless knowledge available upon request.

The End is Just a New Beginning

On By ravonlockeIn Jin, JournalLeave a comment

The room at the top of the tower, with a floating, but not on fire, skull, four creepy one-eyed guys Sammy calls Not Thick, or something, and a moaning and floating rectangle of darkness. As usual, Eggy starts shooting, the four attack, and the skull screams. How does it do that, I wonder, without any breath?

The rectangle must be a doorway because Sammy goes into it. Doc and I jump down and fight the four guys because my daggers don’t hurt the skull. He throws a the guys into the pit for me to fight, but mostly they just squish. I fall asleep waiting for a live guy to show up, or something, I hurt real bad when I wake up. But I find the scroll for the Aunties, and by the time I get out of the pit, there’s even more dead bodies in it. I wonder where they came from?

But everyone is dead that was trying to make us dead, so we look around and take some treasure. The Mage lady reads a few books. But she doesn’t find anything special enough to power the make winter go away orbs. Sounds like we did all this for nothing. Oh well, we can go back to that Island and have a talk with the stupid goddess lady, I guess.

Doc and I have to go deliver the scroll, though. So, we head back to the bottom of the tower, but there’s fighting outside. Then the forcefield out there explodes as this weird big owl-ish lady flies in and heads for the top of the tower. Sammy say’s it’s the goddess lady and they need our help, so we lock the front door and back up we run.

When we get up there she’s not an owl thing anymore, and then she’s not a person anymore, because she’s a big shiny ice crystal. We smash that to dust, too. She’s a bad lady (I really need to explain this to Saalym, it’s not good and evil, it’s good and bad. Good people help each other, bad people don’t help.)

Doc and I go back downstairs and there are lots of dead outside, and the undead are running away. We sneak out and back to the Auntie’s tower. They are quite surprised to see we are alive. They thought for sure we’d have died. But we have to keep our promises, don’t we? They’re going to tell my Mom I was reliable and kept my word to them. I do miss her. I hope I can go home soon.

We get back to the Tower and the Mage lady says we didn’t really kill the goddess, just are avatar, whatever that is. But that it was probably enough to stop the winter outside. We should get back to the big head and give it back to it’s body. And we have to find Saalym’s master vampire. And the Dryad is thinking about getting planted at Good Mead. So much still to do!

Sammy wants to try out the fancy staff he got before we go, though. So, we go to the big thing in the center of the city and he makes big magic. And it is bright and sunny again, and we’re outside. Flying through the sky. On the city, which isn’t a ruin anymore, and all the people are back and alive. He said it was time magic, did he travel us through the time soup? Or did he travel the whole city?

Oh well, new adventure. Mom will have to wait.

Tall Dark Tower

On By ravonlockeIn Jin, JournalLeave a comment

There’s another blue person guarding the door and telling us to leave. Only they didn’t even Lock the door, and then exploded into nothing pretty quick after they tried to attack us. A very bad Door Warden.

There’s a ballroom full of people inside, dancing, drinking, and eating little treats. The treats are nice light things. I cut in on one of the dances, at least I learned how to do this right at court. She doesn’t seem to know the city fell out of the sky and is buried under the ice. She also says the Lord of the Tower has not arrived because he likes to make a fancy entrance. She says they have a new ball every week here.

Nothing to learn from them, so we move on to a room full of staffs. There’s really pretty purple crystal one that I take for my Mom. There’s also a demon rock one, but we leave that one alone. Though some want to take it to break it, but we’re busy now. The next room is full of weird equipment and a suit of armor with a brain in a jar on top of it. They won’t talk and don’t like being poked and both attack us, but we break them both open so they’ll stop. Eggy finds a paper that says it’s the Lord’s staff that can control time.

We wander around a bit and back through the ballroom to a sitting room with more folks eating and talking. I check their pockets, but it’s all weird coins, so I take a few. We find a whole box of wine that nobody is drinking, too. These people don’t know that the city is fallen either. They’re just gossiping.

We keep going and find a big split down the middle of the tower, but we have some more places to look on this side first. Back through the ballroom and more treats, to a room with folks smoking and eating fruit. There’s a fancy chest in the center of the room. The people say you ask it for anything you want, anything simple anyway. I ask for some food and it does it, then I ask for a diamond and it gives me one. Leshy really likes that, so I ask for a bunch more. But when we leave the room, they start disappearing.

We find some office rooms, but all the books and scrolls fall apart. So, we go back to the split and Doc and I get everyone across. We climb up some stairs, but then we’re trapped in a dome with some shadow blades outside it in front of a door. Sammy, Leshy, and the Mage lady examine it and after some talking, Sammy makes it go away and we all run for the door.

The dome snaps back in place and the swords attack. They hurt people really bad, but we break them and the green gem that’s making the dome. The next room has eight doors with those magic symbols above each one. Doc and I go in, and it feels funny in there. Doc starts turning to stone, but then he stops messing around and we go look at the first door. The Mage lady says we’re supposed to name our Master to get through. So, I name the Queen and open the door.

It’s really dark inside, really dark. I try my driftglobe, but it doesn’t help. Then the darkness stabs me. I stab it right back, then Doc drags a spiky devil out into the room. I kill him dead. We try different names at all the doors, but nothing works, and it’s dark behind them all. So, Doc and I go exploring, tied to a rope, to see if we can find anything.

We find a really pretty room full of stars and chairs with those magic symbols on them again. There are lots of doors in here, but everyone is really interested in the stars and the chairs. So we look for a while, and then try the doors. The first one has a big tall floating rock in it. It won’t move or turn or swing or anything. The Mage lady is really excited about it and wants to look at it more while we go explore more.

We find some locked doors then – but they just lead onto a balcony. It’s a really fun balcony, though, makes your voice really loud. Doc and I had a lot of fun with that. The next room we find has lots of books and scrolls and a key. Not The Scroll, though. It tells us how to use the star room, though, so we go back. People have to sit in chairs that have the symbols of their own magic on them. When we get people on the right chairs another door opens into a really big room full of books.

Deals and Deceptions

On By ravonlockeIn Jin, JournalLeave a comment

The Mage lady got a message in her head from Avarice wanting to meet. Sammy got a message, too, asking him to help kill the Mage lady, but I tell him not to because Avarice is bad and a coward. Doc and I will go with her, and the rest will hold back unless we need them.

But first, they want to go deal with the Hags. That means they want to kill them, which is still a dumb idea, so Doc, the Mage lady, and I go off to explore a big building. Turns out to be a prison. It’s pretty empty, till we find a medical room. It has an invisible person strapped to a table. We unstrap him, but he doesn’t move. Mage lady says it’s powerful staying magic. We find a book that says it’s a doppleganger who murdered somebody. We wrap him up and put him in my bag, maybe the Queen can sort him out. I also find a couple potions, and the Mage lady says they’ll change our skin color, so Doc and I drink them. But it doesn’t really work on me. Doc’s now yellow!

As we head out, Sammy whispers that Doc and I need to come talk to the hags about a scroll they want and not to tell Saalym what the scroll is. WHAT?? They Talked to Them? Without US?!?! UGH! We don’t have time, though, it’s time to go see the coward lady.

Avarice shows up with a couple gargoyles to chat with Mage lady. She’s really mean and wants us all to leave or she’ll kill us. Mage lady says no and threatens her right back. So Avarice leaves, like always. Doc and I follow her, to catch her, but we hit her a little too hard and she turns into a pile of snow. The gargoyles fly away after that. We catch up with everyone and try to figure out where she went.

Eggy sees movement over across the city, so we go there, But it’s just bad men, goats, and more gargoyles. We have to fight them though, cuz they won’t leave us alone. They don’t have much on them, but we get another floating light and bodies to burn for the key into the tower.

Doc and I go back to the hags to make a deal. They want a summoning scroll and we all promise no hostilities after it is delivered. They say to do the ritual by one of the bridges, like the one by the prison we were at earlier, or by the big crystal. And they give us the last part of the ritual, too. We have to light a fire in our hands.

We’re still missing the final word, so we head to the eyeball tower. Saalym asks the orb of eyes what the last word is and finds out it’s poison we have to consume. So, then we go to the greenhouse and Eggy makes up some mild poison for everyone. Then back to the prison gate to try it all out.

Leshy does all the things. Put the wand in front of her heart, lights her hand on fire, tells us a secret, gets Eggy to tell us a secret, and then puts his hand out. Makes a circle of the dead guys’ ashes, looks up to the ceiling, and then drinks the poison. But nothing happens.

Sammy says there’s something wrong with the “show your face to the sky” part. We talk about how to get the sky down here, or send a copy up to the sky with the floaty room place. Then we remember the laughter at the tower with the mist. It must have been a wrong clue. So, we go back there. It’s really hard, we can’t see anything to do! Sammy flies up to the ceiling and says the words feel different. Leshy finally makes the magic go away, so Mage lady can see what it says. We have to hide our face behind a mask not look at the sky.

Back we go to the tower and everybody does the ritual and gets through the forcefield, sharing lots of secrets. It’s really fun! Even if some of the secrets are really sad. We’ve gotta go get Sammy’s family out of Hell and bring all three of them to the Feywild. I think he’d like it there.