The Old World Awakens
The followers of the old faith have been hunted for over a century: elven forests burned to the ground, druid circles dismantled, faithful killed and enslaved, artifacts destroyed and sold mainly by the campaign set by the Eagle's Wrath. Now, an ancient prophecy foretelling a rebirth of the old faith courses through hushed whispers, bringing many forces together - to the centre of the old world.
Session Summaries
The Jade Stone
Deep in the Ustarian rainforest near the eastern coast is Almanathea and Walder Barriston camping waiting for signs of a Kobold adorned with a makeshift headdress carrying the Jade stone.
While hidden, they spot Kosef walking the road on their way to the great island of Uspya. Walder greets him and they shortly notice two kobolds further on the road escaping into the jungle. A chase begins and quickly ends when they lose sight of the creatures.
The kobolds ambush the group, hidden by foliage and soon have reinforcements joining in accompanied by their scouting party's leader in the rear. The leader manages to escape with minor injuries but loses a stone with a carved symbol on its face by one of his underlings. The heroes return together back to Walder and Almanathea's small camp and prepare for the night.
While they slept, they were disturbed by a man and his two followers all wearing animal pelts. After some small words exchanged by Kosef who knew bits of their tribal language, they follow the natives deeper into the rainforest. Along the way, they come across standing stones with druidic writing on them and a druidic shrine further on the hidden path.
Finally, they reach the Chitokk village a small hidden tribe in the jungle that grants them safety in the night.
The hidden Chitokk tribe
The party wakes up safely in a large open hut to a lively village going on with their days. They are met with many curious eyes of children that seem wait for strange people to leave their training hut as it was later established.
The adventurers go to the chief's hut where they find his name is Taheton. The heroes seek more information about the Jade Stone and are told to speak to Mochni the tribe elder. Walder proposes an all-out battle between the tribe and the kobolds which peak the interest of the chief who tells them to give him some time.
They find Mochni in his hut and he explains to them the trans-generational war that has been going on since Taheton's father and of their loss of a precious horn during a surprise raid by the kobolds. He admits he does not know much of the Jade Stone but has heard of it before as a powerful item of the old faith. He provides the group with magical healing potions and poisons and later gives a stone dagger with a leaf engraved as a maker's mark to Alamanathea.
They return to the chief's hut where nearly all the capable warriors are in a meeting. They come to the conclusion that these three adventurers will greatly aid them in numbers and they should proceed with their strategy with hurry, planning on attacking the following day and having the new three infiltrate the kobold cave and steal the Jade stone back.
While the tribe starts their preparations, Asuza the man with the snake-head takes the heroes to scout out the kobold cave.
On their way back they are met with three enemy kobolds, one of them that seems much bigger than the rest. They take care of them and return to the village to finalize their arrangements. Almanathea takes some time to inspect the standing rocks near the village and uncovers the story of the Gwlyptir Standing Stones. Together they spend the rest of the evening preparing for the attack on the following day.
Past the stone doors and into the temple
The day prior to the attack is spent in preparation by all. The men in their war meeting and the women weaving nets with leaves and dirt to better camouflage the warriors in the forest. The boys coming of age held in secret a meeting and interrupted the men's meeting to demand taking part in the battle. Taheton chooses for it and assigns them the tames wolves, he also entrusts Hess the wolf to the adventurers to aid them in the cave.
Before going to sleep, the members of the tribe hold a ceremonial feast in the waterfall behind Mochni's hut.
All in position with the heroes stalking the secondary cave entrance, they hear the signals given by Asuza the leader of the vanguard and enter the kobold cave. They manage to pass by the many noxious puffball fungi with relative ease thanks to Hess' keen sense of smell and find a hidden passage leading to an underground tunnel. Dimly lit by glowing underground minerals they find a captive man forced the assist three lizardfolk females in laying their eggs, explaining the bigger sizes some of the kobolds. He introduces himself as Vasquez.
Kosef frees the man and the three lizardfolk, the group runs to the center of the cave where the kobold shaman is thought to be. The heroes are ambushed and a deadly fight is waged but they come victorious in the end but now without many injuries. They loot the place, Almanathea taking most of the gold, Walder finding the Jade Stone (pocketing it) and the Horn of Soul Tree.
They escape from the cave, with a group of kobolds returning from the fight behind their tail. Asuza reenters the cave with from the secondary entrance with a group of men and finishes off the rest of the Kobolds.
Back in the village, the heroes split. Almanathea bathes in the falls with other women of the tribe, Kosef buries Vasquez' body which reincarnates into a kobold with a different light behind its eyes; it introduces itself as Rhauz. Walder reads the late Vasquez' journal and is pulled by the Jade Stone to open the stone doors into the temple guarded by the Chitokk tribe, leaving behind him the Horn of Soul Tree.
Ancient wind courses through the air as the massive slabs of stones move out of the way.
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Foreigners attack the tribe
Walder struggles his way down the long staircase leading him ever deeper into the temple. Almanathea sensing something wrong sees the group of tribesmen gathered at the bottom of the steps leading to the stone doors. She finds out that it has been opened for the first time and knows that something is wrong. She enters the temple and runs down the steps catching up to Walder on the temple floor. An argument begins and he hands Almanathea the Jade Stone.
Kosef sees the commotion of people gathering near the doors and speaks with Taheton. They walk to his hut seeking to speak more privately. A near breath after, Asuza barges into the hut and exclaims that foreigners have stepped into the village. They run outside and find men with ebony skin looking to start violence. The crazed leader speaks up and presents himself as Dravid and exclaims that he and his men are looking for blood. Taheton brings the children and women to safety and Kosef challenges the foreign leader to a duel.
A hard fight with both sides wavering at first but divine magic renewing life to Kosef and a strange ring gives new vigour and fury to Dravid brings the action back. Kosef vanquishes the dark-skinned man and the followers attack one moment after. The tribesmen readied retaliate. Group tactics give the defenders the edge and they finish off the strangers with only the loss of Mir the alpha wolf.
Kosef finds the mysterious ring on Dravid's body, takes a quick rest and runs into the temple, knowing his friends must be there. They meet inside and after a small discussion walk through the first door into a cave covered in spider webs. They are swarmed by smaller spiders while surprised by a giant spider. They finish off the greater one and flee unable to finish the swarm. They rest for the night and plan for the next day.
The next day, the group decides to follow Rhauz that seemed to want to show them something. The small kobold leads them to an underwater cave in a nearby lake. There they find a tribe of Lizardfolk, among them two females they saved from the kobold caves. They are brought to the shaman who gifts them a heavy-club that sparks with electricity when swung. They quickly leave the cave and part ways with Rhauz that seems to want to stay with the Lizardfolk.
Enter the Temple
Back inside the temple, the party decides to try a different passageway. They discover a secret passage whose magic vines clears the way with the word "open" in druidic. Shortly after, they find a great circular stone door similar to that at the temple's entrance with three slots for stone triangles as one they found near the first passage. They insert the first triangle slab only to find later that the entrance of the temple now closed.
They continue ahead and enter a great room littered with bones and find a hulking skeletal figure as that of a standing bull wielding a massive great axe. With preparation, they defeat the skeleton minotaur and return near the first hallway for needed rest after that fight.
They resume choosing the first room and continue deeper in the cave to find an opening with trees bearing light fruits and a small house with a collapsed roof on one side. Walder walks inside the house while Kosef and Almanathea investigate a squawking sound they heard. The noise was produced by a cockatrice that was quickly killed by Kosef when discovered that it meant them harm. Meanwhile, Walder was attacked by a gargoyle that was previously hidden atop the house.
The fight turned sour with the group all falling and the gargoyle stealing Kosef's heavy club. When they came back to consciousness, they rested and later resumed the fight. After finishing the gargoyle, they looked for the magic club but could not find it, deducting that the gargoyle must have hidden it in another room, making use of the open ceiling over the temple rooms.
The ancient temple room
The group proceeds with caution into the various rooms of the temple filled with multiple monsters such as shadows, harpies, slimes and piercers hanging on the ceiling.
Kosef is given back his magic club by merfolk that were trapped in the dungeon by the harpies song for far too long. They left by the subterranean water cave that initially led them to the dungeon.
In the final room, they find ancient trees baring gifts and a great stone slab further into the room. From the tree, Kosef finds an ancient wooden shield with antlers engraved on its front and odd crystals along the rim. Walder takes an ancient dark green scaled cloack that seems to shimmer depending on where the light hits it. Almanathea finds an ancient map embued with energy.
The Great Stone Slab which seemed to be written in an age long ago tells of two prophecies. The first would be of a great change upon the world. The second would be of evil forces upon the world and those from Vertsintos to fight them.
Ill omens and fearful dreams
The group exits the temple to see the leaves on trees and grass on the ground to have lost their colours, the scenery now painted gray. A dead silence reigns and no movement can be found in the tribe. Moments later, they see a dark horseman atop a dark steed. A hound follows it, its eyes fixed on Almanathea. The horseman approaches the fleeing heroes and reveals his plate armour, a chest plate made as a skull's face with rivers of purple from the empty eye sockets. Closer he approaches and they see his eyes, black and starry like the midnight sky.
Walder instantly submits, Kosef stands his ground and Almanathea jumps in as a wolf trying to attack the hound. The horseman quickly turns it's complete attention to the elf and with three quick strikes with his flail brings her to her knees. He demands for the Jade Stone. The group seeing his power obliges without much more resistance. He leaves atop his steed, hound at his heel leaving behind him a trail of withered grass.
The heroes find the tribespeople inside the waterfall and try and comfort them. They ask about the Brother-Fear ritual which they found about written on the stone slab in the temple, explaining that this ritual would be required to wield the powers of the ancient artefacts, Mochni tells them the tribe only performs the ritual as a coming of age event or for people they accept as one of their own.
A week goes by with the heroes slowly gaining the amity of the tribesmen and women through friendly social interactions and helping fix and improve the huts. At one point, Alma turns into a squirrel and gets swooped up by a hawk ad brought to its nest causing a small search party for her...
Eventually, the village feels close enough to the heroes and decide that a great celebration is in place. The group hunt a giant boar and bring it back to the village with their help.
They begin the ritual and along with Tohon, the son of the chief, dream together of each of their own's pasts and fears. They come out of it feeling a sense of oneness with each other but also other strong negative emotions from looking into the darkest parts of each other's pasts. Kosef is strongly affected by the dream of a barren landscape devoid of any hope and goodness and fall into an apathetic state. They find that Walder was part of the Eagle's Wrath and took part in the killing of Kosef's mentor, resulting in Kosef eventually killing him in his sleep in the past.
Almanathea and Walder spend the next day coming to terms with what they experienced and slowly accepting what they saw. Kosef lays in a corner of the cave behind the waterfall with no will to get up, and Tohon restrained by his father, screaming, out of reality.
The Girl Running Through the woods
The adventurers arrange to say their final goodbyes and arrange to meet at daybreak at the entrance of the tribe. Walder visits Asuza who was injured by the dark horseman. He sees the tribal warrior with a deep infected wound eating at his flesh. Together with Mochni they perform a ritual that allowed Asuza's spirit into the great tree at the entrance of the village using the horn of soul tree.
They leave the tribe behind and are joined by a Rhauz who was happily swimming in a stream. Kosef allows him to follow them and they continue on their way.
On the path towards the capital of the Ustarian province, they are met with screams calling out for help. Walder acts fast and jumps off the road followed by a reluctant Almanathea and Kosef. They intersect a young woman running from a group animals turned monsters. The adventurers stand their ground and defend her, defeating most of the monsters until the rest turn and escape them.
At rest, she introduces herself as Skyla: a ranger on a quest. Together with Walder, they come to an agreement for a temporary association, against Almanathea's aversion to having another human and Kosef's indifference, on the condition that they would help destroy some bells along their path whenever they might come across them and in return she would hunt and provide food on their travels. Now a group, they return to the location where they found her, following her lead towards a bell she had found in this jungle.
They find the bell and are attacked again by the twisted animals. Skyla fires an arrow at the bell but does not manage to destroy it, the fight begins. One of the giant crows takes her bow and flies away with it before the rest of the animals sink back into the forest.
She explains the purpose of her quest relating to the cursed bells and Walder takes aim and destroys it. They spot the animals in the corner of the forest stalking them, returning back to normal and leaving.
Skyla fulfills her end of the bargain and hunts a doe further into the jungle now cleansed of the darkness tainting it using the skills taught to her by her mentor.
Camping for the night, Almanathea, Walder and Kosef together have a shared dream. In it, they see a young woman with white hair running through the woods searching for someone. She seemed to be speaking to a male that they could not see. Their names were Serayah and Solthis.
The Old Man
The group sets out once again on the road to the capital of Ustaria. On the path they are confronted with a mother bear walking across the road with her cubs. A tense moment turns into a confrontation. The mother bear wounded runs off into the forest with her cubs, Rhauz following them, hurt by the group's violence.
Walder stalks him for a while until the creatures reach a cave. Suddenly, antlers glow from Rhauz's head and his touch seem to heal the mother bear's wounds. Walder manages to approach Rhauz and get the young kobold to follow him back to the party.
A day later, they are met on the road with screams of pains sound together with mocking jeers. They investigate to find a group of men pushing a kicking an old man around. After a short fight, they make the road bandits flee, finding in their belonging that they were dishonourably discharged from the Ustarian army. They speak to the old man and uncover that he has little recollection of where he is and what he is supposed to be doing, but he shows signs of a connection to the old faith and the ways of the druids. They begrudgingly take the old man with them and find that he does not seem to have any problem keeping up with their quick pace.
The next day they spot a caravan of travellers on the road ahead of them, a group of about two dozen men, women and children most walking alongside a horse-drawn carriage. On the sight of the approaching travellers, they hood themselves and most enter the wagon. Walder and Skyla approach and a man comes to greet them. He presents himself as Nilmas and allows the old man to step inside the carriage accompanied with Skyla to rest his feet.
Inside, Skyla discovers that they are elves hiding their identity. Walder also puts it together from his conversation with Nilmas but finds his attempt at joining the group together unsuccessful. Skyla is told to leave the carriage but allowed to leave the old man inside as she wishes to.
Almanathea finds Skyla's hair braided in a traditional elven way from a little girl inside the wagon and goes up to speak to Nilmas. She reveals to Nilmas her elvish bloodline and gains his trust.
Nilmas' Travelling Sideshow
Now tasked with protecting the caravan, made partners with Nilmas' travelling sideshow, the adventurers scout ahead to spy any potential danger.
They spot a curious giant humanoid moving towards the caravan from afar. They wage a long and exhausting battle against the monster whose wounds would closed themselves.
Eventually Nilmas and Yuneasa the elf child (Naurthuildiss - maiden of fire breath) join to help, proving themselves as capable fighters. Nilmas showing grace and dexterity with his sabre and Yuneasa revealing her bloodline's destructive fire magic.
During the next week travels they meet the other members of the caravan. Stefa (Maelaeril - Soft Song), Ara (Hithycenidil - misty sight), Solfie & Suna the half-elf performers and the Merlin the human stealth artist.
Arriving at the city of Felvyne they are met with the city's great polished stone walls and closed gates in front of their paths. They camp in the surrounding slums in the outskirts of the city and wait in line for their turn to enter.
Kue & Esof
While waiting for the guards to open the path to them, they meet two travelling bards named Kue and Esof who introduced themselves to Nilmas. They found that they had struck an agreement of partnership to gain a percentage of profits in trade of paying for the caravan's entry free into the city.
Kue held himself with an attitude of grandiosity himself paying the fees for the entrance, presenting himself as an entrepreneur of sorts. Esof more reserved shared with the group Pi's Poem, a book he stole from the Grand Library of Anoiktipoli "The open City".
During one of the nights waiting for the city to open to them, the group has another shared dream, this time clearer than any other time. They see Tohon, with great mastery of the dream room, something they believe they could understand how to control themselves.
Into the ball and into the depths
Inside the city they find the reason for the hold back from entering. The princess of the Heavenly Wyrms visiting the city of Felvyne caused the security to tighten. They come across the chief of the royal guard Marculus Proculus Tiberius on the streets escorting the princess.
They are told of a rich man named Fable Apré that owns multiple elvish slaves that include Yuneasa's parents. Esof hatches a plan making use of Kue's status and wealth to have a ball held for his honour hosted by Fable.
In the ball through various challenge the party was able to save 11 of elven bloodline.
The next day they prepare and eventually enter the city's underground through a secret entrance guided by Merlin. Down in the depths they discover deep underground, a dwarven city. A complex maze of winding tunnels only a native Dwarf could hope to understand. Lost in the tunnels they met the friendly Mountainsong, a dwarf that would show them the way. This dwarf led them to his store and equips them generously with various tools and magical artifacts. He explained that a blight had cursed his land rending the neighbouring giants feral, and he hoped these bright-eyed adventurers would solve it.
Soon after, Mountainsong takes them to the Bridge of Grohgsyd and tells them that this would be as far as he would take them and bids them godspeed.
The Dreamscape
The heroic adventurers brave the depths of the Mines of Guldendruw, a land of once peaceful giants now corrupted by the power of the bells.
They travel as safe as their feet can carry because they were met with dangerous foes that were unlike the many they've faced before. Until Walder was petrified by a group of scouting half-giants and their chained gorgon. The rest of the group finished off the sentries but could not bring walder back.
They carried Walder's statue along with them easily with the help of a mysterious fibrous fluff seemingly weightless that lightened the burden of inorganic objects.
When they went to sleep, they realized they were still able to speak to Walder in the dreamscape which prompted his understanding of the importance of this newfound skill and dedicated him time petrified in honing his dream shaping.
The Dreamscape
The heroic adventurers brave the depths of the Mines of Guldendruw, a land of once peaceful giants now corrupted by the power of the bells.
They travel as safe as their feet can carry because they were met with dangerous foes that were unlike the many they've faced before. Until Walder was petrified by a group of scouting half-giants and their chained gorgon. The rest of the group finished off the sentries but could not bring walder back.
They carried Walder's statue along with them easily with the help of a mysterious fibrous fluff seemingly weightless that lightened the burden of inorganic objects.
When they went to sleep, they realized they were still able to speak to Walder in the dreamscape which prompted his understanding of the importance of this newfound skill and dedicated him time petrified in honing his dream shaping.
The corruption of the ring
The
To live a life well lived with people well loved, this is what I dream of. -Brandirk Jahkesh