Group:
Blue
Session date:
Fri, 2009-07-24 13:00
Players present:
Andy, Jeff, Jesse, John, Mark, Paul Brief Summary: Eloyes is attacked simultaneously by a horde of orcs, coming from the feywood, and a trio of powerful necromancers with an animation aura, who appeared within the city. The Emperor is slain, and the party meets up in a fortress outside of town, whose inhabitants have been almost entirely slain. The next morning, the horde is gone, and the necromancers fled much earlier the previous night... the city is still sacked, and the party decides to track the origins of this army following the tracks into the Feywood. There, they meet Ed, and Go to the nearest nexus to rest and refresh.
Simone's Journal
I am in Eloyes, a former free city that is in the process of joining the Empire. Or was. I'm not there very long when a massive horde army appears from the Southwest. There really isn't anything from that direction, so it's the least defended side of the city. I went to take a look, but didn't hang around long. Any assistance I could provide wouldn't have any bearing on the outcome.
I'm looking for someone who is to murder the Emperor so off to the nobles' quarters I go. Along the way I see that there are a team of fairly powerful necromancers marching towards the nobles' quarters as well. The captain of the city guard was flying all over the place on her nitemare, and tried to fight the necromancers, but didn't really have much effect. Everyone that fell to them ended up joining their ranks.
I continued to where the Emperor was staying to hear rumors of his demise. I saw the crystal sword that was part of the vision sticking through his dead body. Sigh. I can't say I like the empire or the emperor, but now I need to find whoever did this in this mess.
(Dragonborn were still while the sword was in the emperor.)
I leave the palace, but head towards the nexus. No sign of him, and everyone who can is fleeing the city. I'd never find him in this so I decided to leave as well. (Did I see anything with Mark's character?). On my way out, this voice was asking me a lot of annoying questions. Turns out it belongs to an old (and strange) warforged bard. He wanted to know who I was looking for, but I had no way to describe my mark, so I had to be vague and move on.
I found strange guy with a little grasshopper man talking away from everyone else. The little grasshopper seems to be the guy I'm looking for, as I see the image of the sword in his immediate past. Curiously enough, I don't see anything about the man.
They make their way to a small fort outside of town where many of the remaining guards along with their captain have retreated to. They go in and so do I. The captin organized her guards and then gathered up a group that included me, the man (and the grasshopper) and the bardic warforged. We discussed what we knew. Apparently the death of the Emporer is a rummor that the captin seems to want to ignore.
The grasshopper has remained hidden with the other man throughout the evening. I sneak into the room at night and manage to catch his attention. I take him into my room and while he sits on my shoulder, I show him the scroll that I have for him. To me it just looks blank, but he begins to weep. We chat for a minute and I recommend he stays hidden for the time being. He also agrees to help me
In the morning, we check out the town, and it's deserted. The invasion did a number on the town, but they, and the necromancers have all left. We decided to follow the trail and shortly end up in the wilderness.
Here, the grasshopper decided to play as though he just came across us in the forest, but offered to help guide us. We need his help, as he is obviously Fey, and these words aren't friendly to outsiders. I don't think the captain bought the story. He has his secrets, and if I want his aid, I'm going to need help him keep them.
There was also a notable pillar of smoke from somewhere a little deeper in the woods. We found our way there and discovered the wreckage of a flying machine and broken warforged. His sound of his speech is out of sync with his mouth. He goes by Ed, and is hear as an explorer. He may be able to help me as well.
Quake! Huge Quake!!! I haven't felt a quake that like in a long time. There might be far reaching ramifications, but the only obvious change is that Isaline and her nitemare are gone. In there place is Sahrat and his bear Barnabas. Sahrat is of elven decent, though the exactly linage is blurred.
We followed the robot to the nearest nexus and camped for the night.
Q&A
What I would like to do here is just list the questions that remain after each session and any answers to previous questions that provided. Please add any I may have missed.
B1.1 Where did the invading army come from?
B1.2 Why did they attack and then leave?
B1.3 Why were the necromancers in town?
B1.4 Who killed the emperor and why?
B1.5 What, if any, connection exists between the army, the murderer, and the necromancers?
B1.1 The army seems to have
B1.1 The army seems to have been condensed into a single orc and then teleported through the nexus network trough <city>. Outside of that city is where the orc then multiplied over and over to become the invading army.
B1.2 Could be related to the effects that created or tranported the army to the city wore off?
The grig watches.
The city smelled terrible; they all did. All those bodies pressed close together, the thin coating of filth over every surface five feet or lower from the ground. He never felt clean in a city. Never the nice, good earth beneath his feet. All the big people rushed around, their petty war showing basic savagery and debasement. He'd heard some of them caged animals; right enough they should suffer their own indignities back upon themselves. Still... this was a slaughter. Those were undead. Worth watching; one never knew when the interesting information gleaned from watching silently would become gold in the sack. And besides, it wasn't every creature that could raise the undead.
Nor was it that frequently that the recently slain rose and walked out. Joseph was an unusual person. There was probably not enough time to find out everything about this one, but every little bit helps. And no one looks past the grasshopper legs. It was just as well.
Kith pondered his new companions with growing unease. They seemed bound and determined to pursue a very dangerous path, though he was beholden to the fey-touched tall-girl. Such a look in her eye, and such a request. A favor owed is a friend deferred, they say. Or was it a friend indeed? Perhaps both. Kith would stay close. Very close.
Notes for Blue session #1
First: The below may very well contain spoilers. Second, I slip in and out of character in my notes. Third, I do try to take notes for stuff that's happening which my character is not percieving. Fourth, I tend to do some wild mass guessing in the middle of my notes, but I try to make it clear when I'm just guessing, and when something actually happened. ( might try to clean up the ntes a bit later, but here they are, raw) With those disclaimers out of the way, My notes for this session:
U an ub Wgat us biw jbiwb as Ekites ((<- wasn't quite on home row here))
Rather, I start in Eloyes (seasonal temperature is pretty inconsistent.) The emperor is even here himself. The alarum is raised, and I hover up above the walls to watch.
A bunch of orcs and ogres are assaulting the wall. The imperial folks are outnumbered about 10 to 1. There are a bunch of leaders. The militia and the populace are fighting against undead that appeared within the city.. People getting killed are turning into undead.
The undead are a seperate force from the orcs and ogres. Seems they were just opportunistic.
Andy's character... female elven, bright red hair... fairly dark clothing. She's got hutzpah! And is looking for someone but can't find them. She seems uninterested in Jesse's character.
The Dragonborn guards of the city seem incapacitated for a time, causing the horde and undead to easily move along. The necromancers in control of the undead retreat after a time, and the hordes overrun the town.
We all fall back to the nearby uberfort.
Character descriptions:
The captain of the guard, she wears mithral breastplate gear.. She looks like someone Who has withered to an equivalent human age of 50. She's beefy... throught he right eye there's a long verticle scar covered with an eyepatch. Her uncovered eye is gray and her hair is graying. She has a tripoint hat. Name: Isaline. Her nightmare wears mithral barding. The third outrider of allyria.
Andy's character: bright red hair... makes a very good first impression. She seems nice and is also totally banging hot. She's very friendly. She's kinda chatting with general people. Simone. She's totally memorable. She is totally likeable.
Pauls character: Kith: 16 inches tall, top half is an elf, the bottom half is of a grasshopper. He's got a bit of that presence about him... He is beautiful. Has brilliant green hair and tiny brown eyes. Wears a cloak pinned aound his neck which is shadowy. He has a small belt with some pouches attached... a miniature shortbow.
Mark's character: Wearing light robes under his travelers cloak. He's got the hood down now... He has black hair and gray eyes... he seems to be watching people. Shadows kinda cling unnaturaly to him. He seems a bit shadey. His hood is down.. he doesn't have pointed ears. He's an elf without proper ears... and he's got fat ears. He's got a beard.... but elves don't have beards. Clearly a runemage. Looks in his 20's.
(My phantom steed kinda supertransposes over the mount.)
There is no really good explanation for the appearance of the horde attacking form this angle: They -must- have been magicked there. Identifying the attacking hordes or such is a good idea. We'll be rewarded, of course... There is a specific... I happened to see a list of all of the banners of roaming tribes, but This tribe was working for this particular group of orcish warlords who are messing with the empire a lot. Find out how the horde and necromancers got here.
The runemage suspects that these undead were already here in town.
Isa was given a warning not to return to the empire.
The Necromancers seemed in no great rush. The undead assault was an attack of opportunity,not a large scale assault. There may have been a consipiracy. all of the dragonborn were enervated. The emporer was just here for diplomancy.
The runemage has seen one of the necromancer... saw the necromancer dwarf kill a man with animated bones... wears bone armor (Effective and magical!). He may use this enchanted bone as a catalyst of sorts.
Come the morning, the orcish activities in the hordes seem lessened. We check out hte town... It looks like it is gone... so is the siege weaponry. The Horde is just suddenly gone. The necromancers were gone before the horde got there, probably.
The nexus looks life... it's clearly Alright.. it clearly wasn't a target. There are no tracks of a horde exiting the city. The city was properly looted, though.
The three necromancers teleported away. To get here... Well, they've been here, looking for something. Then they thought they found it, then they found out it was gone. They were going after whatever it was, and it was already missing. The orcs simply scattered and fled... some had magic of some sort... THey may very well have just cast Pass without trace on their whole army to escape. And they had a whole night to move away. Still, how they got there in the first case is the question. It wasn't a quake that put them there. They just kinda scattered to leave. (All along west to southeast... that is, away from the fort...) The tracks head south, towards the feywood.) It does not look the tracks appeared out of nowhere.
The tracks were not of an army of 40000... there were parts of siege engines. Maybe 5000-10000 troops. They appear to have come out of the feywood.
We decide to travel toward the feywood. It takes a few days on astral steeds. We notice that the feywood is burning. Kith comes out and introduces himself to us... And we know the runemage was about it...
The smoke... there is a smoking wreckage of a large machine (This is. There is a humanoid warforged who is very broken nearby).
John's character: ABout 5'6"... looking really dinged up... It's a warforged. Translates to approaching drums. He goes by 'ed'. Mouth is out of sync with the sounds coming out of it. Black eyes, no pupils. (Ed)
The machine crashed more recently than the army's passing through, easily.
Ed is exploring the feywood.
There is suddenly a large quake... and Isaline is gone.
In her place and the place of her nightmare, is A black bear, and some kinda ranger... he's got leather armor, a bear... dressed in forests greens... long sunbleached hair. Glowing eyes... He's half eladrin or halfelf or something... or He looks pretty confused. He then screams in fear, then to frustration. "Sahrat". This kinda quake is unusual (People switching places). The bear's name is Barnabas.,
We reach the next nexus which is deeper into the woods... it's one that John's character hit.
A Brief Retrospective
A Necromancers Lament
Journal of Joesph Vernor
(The book itself is written in a code of sorts, and some pages are nothing but scetches and ideas of modifications and ideas for rune spells.)
Entry 1: Eloyes
Here I find myself, trapped behind the walls of Eloyes by war. While not the worst city to be trapped in, and while I do prefer the soldiers between me and the uglies, this means I will have to conserve my gold and wait out a damnable seige. I'm so bored by the downtime that I'm writting about how bored I am. I guess it gives me some time to work on my runes. I can't afford to spend much time with the locals, too many questions. I am hoping a journal might help me keep from going stir crazy.
*several pages are nothing but complex runes, sometimes copies where it seems Joesph is trying to tighten up the design or try something new*
Entry 2: Trouble
Anne is being grumpy today, and she threw my bottle of wine across the room, smashing it against the wall during one of her moments. That was damn good wine too. Spent the rest of the day trying to convince her that she shouldn't do things like that. I had to explain to the inn keeper why I would do such a thing, without getting myself kicked out of the inn. I sometimes wonder if her 'fits' are really just part of her status as a restless spirit, or that she is trying to punish me in her childish way. Sometimes I wish I had died in the wastes inste-*rest of page is scribbled out*
Entry 3: The Hunt
The Empire has taken it upon themselves to save this city. How convienient. The word on the street is that they are going to annex Eloyes, but there is no suprise there. I spent the past few evenings going after a fairly nasty piece of work who I'd heard has been causing trouble for the locals. Apparently he was a mercenary for one of the caravans, and was making a play for a piece of Eloyes. Several buisness's had been damaged, and people hurt. There is a man I hear that looks the same as myself, but withered. If its another human, he might not be able to refresh as I can, and I thought a gift might be in order. Well, depending he deserved it. I feel a bit sorry for Anne, as she never seems to like it when I go hunting. I have to admit that if it weren't for her I would probably fully wither more targets, but she just looks at me with her big eyes and I can't do it. This one was a partial, he had simply gotten it in his head that he was better then civilians. So after a few warnings, he didn't stop, infact he sent a young boy to the healers. So I figured he had earned a bit more of a lesson then a few cheap scares. The whole thing almost fell apart when he took the wrong alley and I lost sight of him, but for once Anne was on board and she scared him my direction. This is often the best part of the hunt, when he comes staggering straight into me exhausted only to find he has run right too me. I have to admit I felt he was a little too dumb to deserve much of the treatment, so I mearly swipped a modicum of his lifeforce before leaving him to ponder his deeds. I won't lie that it feels amazing to wither, but I think I enjoy the mindgames so much more. These fuckers deserve more usually, and nothing is better then when a plan comes together.
*several notes follow, but no specific entry's*
Met the human, but he was warry of me. I should have taken more out of that damnable merc, he was already on his feet and blabbing to the whole city about the monster who had attacked him. He also remembers enough to identify that I was a runemage. While most have dismissed his story, he's withered enough that people are warry of my peers. I'll have to try again after the rumors have dispersed.
Spent last night just talking with Anne, she's hard to talk to, but she is more cognizant then I gave her credit for. She still doesn't want to discuss anything about her predicament, and she went into another fit when I tried to bring up that night.
The Seige is broken! And the emperor is coming here himself! Only a matter of time before caravans start going out again. Still haven't gotten the man, Jack, to trust me enough to share some of my secrets. But it seems he doesn't have similar abilities.
Entry 4: Death of Eloyes(the Fort outside Eloyes)
I'm still trying to understand what exactly happened. I think I died today. I'm...not sure exactly. But I suppose thats what happens when you act like an idiot and try to confront mysterious necromancers who just got up after getting messed up by the captain of the imperial guard. That thing...it just pointed at me and I fell. If I had not had the idea of filling Anne with essence she probably would have been helpless to protect me. Somehow she walked my fallen body outside the city before allowing me to return in control. I guess I didn't realize how much she cared. I owe her, a great deal. Especially now that she has saved my life, almost in return for her undeath. The city...I don't think I've ever been so close to so much senseless death and destruction. And I think I recognized one of the Necromancers, the one who attacked me when I took Anne. To top it all off, an impossible attack by orcs also felled the soldiers guarding the town.
During my flight from Eloyes, I encountered a strange creature, a fae I believe. I have to admit I wasn't sure the books I'd read on them were entirely accurate, but there he was, asking my how I survived actual death. I have to admit I probably would've been more freaked out had I not just seen three men kill hundreds, get killed, and then brought back by the dead girl I am trying to give some kind of messed up childhood to. The fae introduced himself as Kith, and thankfully was willing to not mention my little jaunt to others just yet. But he did mention some kind of favor I would owe him, but I feel that is less dangerous then another necromancer hunter.
When we reached some kind of outpost, the captain of the imperial troops invited me and several others to dinner to discuss events. I couldn't help but notice that she was as human as myself, and again withered. If she knows anything about (Hometown) she hasn't mentioned anything yet, and I don't recognize her. However its hard to tell with the scars and wither, so it may be prudent to take her pain, if not just for the ally I might make in the process. The womans name is Isaline and she wants us to investigate the source of this Orc army.
Also at the meeting are a very odd Warforged, who seems more music box then sentient. He seems to ride a warforged cat of some kind, which he can superimpose a phantom steed of some kind. Without the mount he would likely move very slowly. He calls himself Biger OPece. He seems to be some kind of bard.
Simone was the Elf, seemingly a ranger of some kind, she is very beautiful. I have to admit I was quite taken with her and her charm. If Anne were not recovering from the ordeal of preventing my death, I'm sure she might have words with me though. She always seems to get in the way of amourous persuits... Anyways, I might be able to trust her with the truth about my abilities, but only time will tell.
Entry 5: Empty
The city was deserted! No orcs remained, it was as if they had vanished as quickly as they had arrived. I have to admit that this Phantom Steed seems to be very useful, I should perhaps try to learn such a spell myself. I'm sure I saw some runes for something like that in one of my scrolls. We are continuing to track the Horde army to its source, its likely we will spend quite some time doing so, and I'm not quite sure how I am getting roped into this. I thought I might try to help protect some people from this attack, but now I seem to be on some kind of foolish quest.
The necromancers seemingly disappeared soon after the horde breached the walls, so I have no leads there sadly. While I have no wish to join such monsters, I do want to explore my unique constituition further and I have a feeling I should start with darker arts. But few leave such books just lying around. I am pretty much literally in the dark about most of this stuff, and I have no idea why Anne is different then the others. If she's different, can I help her protect herself better? How would I go about doing so, other then just dumping energy into her?
*there is a page of loose scrawls, much of which is scribbled, but one can make out the following*
What if I hadn't met Anne? Would I have been a reluctant to wither again? Would I have made it a moral goal? Or would I have just given into the pleasure? I'm some kind of monster who just makes excuses for why he should be able to get his damnable fix.
Entry 6: Feywood
I am happy to have a Fae traveling companion, not only for the rare opportunity, for tomorrow we enter the Faewood. Sprits protect us, I hope I don't get skewered by Isaline when I have to summon to keep from dying.
Entry 7: The Big Quake
Isaline is gone. We don't know where to. But in her place now stands an odd elf and a bear. Maybe not losing my whole childhood, and even today doubting some of its existance... but we did just lose our opportunity to get paid for the job here. I like keeping people safe I suppose, but I don't really feel like working for the Empire without getting paid by the empire.
Backing up, before Isaline's disappearance we did find something interesting. We found a broken down warforged, without any noticable oddities, namely weapons. Great, another useless robot, at least this one can hold the weapons we give it. It calls itself Eidylol Pes, well once Biger was able to repair it adequetly. It appeared to have fallen out of the sky, and next to it was undoubtable the gnomish creation that put it there.
And then suddenly, Isaline was gone, and in her place there was now this man and his bear. He also started screaming his disatisfaction with his predicament the moment he arrived. Odd.
It seems his name is Sahrit Doubain, and his bear is named Barnabas. There is something oddly compelling about that bear...as if he could be king of the bears. After the figure first appeared I thought it prudent to run the basic magic checks on him. On his shoulder is a blinding aura of undeath! It's...bizarre. Other then that I'm not totaly sure what to make of him. He seems interested in the talk of the necromancers, perhaps he might be someone I might be able to discuss my nature with?
However I'm not going to jump into it. Once we calmed down, we decided to make our way to a nearby Nexus for those of us who need to refresh to do so.
(cont. in session 2 notes)