Brave new world

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Summary

Adventure: Brave new World
GM: Jim
Session: Spring 819
Night: Thursday
Location: Discord
Level: Tangerine

Adventurers Inc*

  • Muse (van Helsing CEO/CFO Lead lute and singer) - a young go getter, out from his fathers shadow,
  • Logan Kai aka The Cardinal (van Halen HR and Communications base lute) - a man of the cloth
  • Naimon - (van Gogh Marketing and Procurement Band manager) - dabbles with Runes

* warning: May contain nuts.

Notes

The author assures the reader these notes are at least 70% correct.

In the beginning

Cardinal, Naimon and Sabastian meeting in the Eisenkirche city, in the county of Palentine. It's a large bustling metropolis with much to offer and part of the Holy Empire. The city contains many competent magicians and many interesting goods. Sabastian discovered they sell bronze which is at strong as steel, and after some enquiries meets with the smiths guild. One must apprentice with them for some years to learn the techniques, but there are exception if a tasks if perform the guild master - and there is one looking for rubies from the chest of pagan idols, Herne the Hunter, located in the north.

Dastardly Ogres

The Margrave of the county hired us to deal with the Ogre menace to the north, which he claims have been recruited by the 'Heathen menace', to protect their worshipers. We are being paid 12 gold shillings a week to do this, plus extra for each kill. After some discussion, and the purchase of red glass, accompany a trade wagon north, and pass through the dangerous wastelands. Arriving the wooded north we talking to the locals we learn of horrific Orge raids, led by a fearsome Orgress, that are raising villages far and wide to steal children. Being great heroes we set off to put an end to these raids. Many weeks later, having searched a small amount of the enormous forest, we find ourselves on the coast having found no sign of the ogres. We camp on a hill for some days and look for signs of habitation. We summoning some owls, which are clueless, but have greater luck with some foxes, once Sabastian assures them he is an authorised hunter.

The foxes have an organised network, we do notice their red colour reflects their political motivations, and report a group of two dozen ogres attacking 7 days to the north about a week ago. Half went in first and once they had overcome most resistance, the rest came in. Some days later we arrive at Winterkeel, a large cove containing three villages - one of which was burning. The survivors reported it has been raised by the ogres on skiffs. The reason we couldn't locate the ogres is they are on boats, which are anchored far from shore. We talk to the inhabitants of the remaining villages, they are enthusiastic for us to stop the Ogres but too terrified to help. We concoct a cunning plan!

The cunning plan

A few evenings later we are being pulled by a giant squid (Hook), under Naimons darkness, toward the ogre vessels anchored some distance offshore. There are three connected boats, one fancy looking and two skiffs. As we are closing the fancy boat disconnects and sails away at an astonishing speed (magic). We spot the heraldry of a Krenchenti (three crescent moons on a shield) a merchant family from Kendrin, the, on the departing boat. They are behind the Ogre raids!

Once we are close, we hear the "grunting" sounds of celebrations. We are revolted. Hook carries Sabastian the rest of the way and he stealthily deposits time delayed grenados on the two boats. There is much panic when the grenados explode and the Ogres cannot extinguish the spreading fires, two Orgres in light armour (mages) leap overboard, into the maw of Hook. The Cardinal begins peppering them with fire bolts, which adds to the chaos. The ogres abandon one boat and all pile onto the other, which is in the better condition. There are many ogres are in the water and Hook begins a feed frenzy.

The large Ogress (wiccan) takes command and start pursuing us, even burning they are faster than us and we begin worrying they'll catch us. Spells and weapons are exchanged until the Ogres are forced to abandon the chase and head to shore before they sink. Some well-placed darts final slay the Ogress and she falls into the sea. The remaining Ogres (about 10) make it to shore and flee into the forest. We pick up the bodies of the mages and head to shore.

Celebration and new plans

We head to the village and tell them of our success, they are overjoyed and much celebration takes place. Sabastian has to fend off the ladies. Naimon is able to identify some of the items we recovered.

Over the next few days, we plan. We want to find and slay the remaining Ogres as they are still dangerous creatures. Summoning some wolves we learn they have not seen any Orgres, but their pack is fleeing a fearsome creature. Divining the stars, after a few drinks, Sabastian learns it is a vampire. Talking to the locals about the terrain the Cardinal decided the stars were wrong as there was lots of flowing water the vampire would have needed to cross. Checking the tea leaves we see it's a were-badger, and well see it in the area again in about 22 days.

After a few days of recovery, we set off after the Ogres. Logan uses his masterful tracking skills, and a locate spell, to find the breasts. Taking a boat across the bay, past Akon, and trek for many hours through muddy water deep into the woods to finally locate the Orgres - they are asleep in a deep copse of woods. After a brief talk Sabastian offers to sneak in and turn them to mice with the wicker skin change, what could go wrong!

It goes wrong

Sabastian silently creeps into the Ogre encampment and turns the first to a mouse, then pockets it. Moving to the next Ogre things go wrong, it awakes and lets out a shout. Sabastian runs. Many failed castings follow and things are looking grim for Sabastian as the rest of Ogres wake up and plan a late-night Sabastian snack. He finally makes himself unseen and manages to evade the Ogre pack and make it back to the party.

The party retreat a few miles away and rest up for a few hours, letting the Ogres settle down before heading back to bother them again. Logan spots tracks and spore of an enormous creature, he estimates its at least 8ft tall and weighs many hundreds of pounds, and is definitely a gigantic were-badger. Given the enormous difficulty of finding the badger, we decide to leave the ogres alone and track down the Badger

Were "Badger"

Following the tracks for some time we finally come across an enormous muscular creature, with wickedly long claws, feasting on a freshly killed ogre. Logan assures us he was right, it may look like a were-wolverine, but is a very rare species of badger that has similar markings. The sound of eye-rolling is audible as the wolverine turns and charges us. A vicious and bloody fight ensues, the wolverine has strong regeneration and quickly recovers from our blows. Naimon is able to smash its hip, which provides us with a lifeline, but it still manages to down him. Sabastian comes up with a cunning plan to throw the moused Ogre into the wolverine's mouth, which would kill the mouse turning it back into an Orgre in the wolverine's stomach. How could it go wrong!

Things go wrong, again

The wolverine bites the mouse and spits it out, the Ogre body lands on Sabastian pinning him under the body. Logan is left facing the wolverines blows alone! Logan peppers it with fire bolts, from which it cannot regenerate, which gives us a chance. He then manages to get past its defences and deals a deadly dagger blow - the wolverine is downed. A flail of blows overcomes its regeneration and kills the wolverine, reverting it back to a human male.

Return to Akon

Licking our wounds we rest for the remainder of the night, then finally trudge back to Akon. Talking to the locals we discover the village is in a desperate situation. As well as many people dying in the Ogre attack, their food stocks were heavily hit. The village won't survive winter with the depleted food stocks, and the other two villages in the bay won't provide them with any food as they fear winter starvation themselves. The local lords of the land are some weeks away, they may help but are known to be very disorganised.

Resting up

We take some time healing our wounds and talk to others in the village. We talk to Beirtoht(sp?), a local lapidary who has some skills with naming and alchemy, about the situation. He is able to identify that Naimon was infected by the were-wolverine and is able to help us make some alchemical concoctions and some traps with wicker counterspells.

Stomach ache

Having rested up we head back into the wilderness to deal with the other Ogres. We head down the coast for a number of days, its bitterly cold at night with light snow. Logan forages for food, but its slim pickings in the snow and he only locates what he calls "Forest celery". While we eat the cold pie we brought from Winterkell, Logan feasts on his celery, halfway through his delicious meal he starts profusely sweating and passes out. After some minutes of desperate healing, Logan regains conscious, but I can tell he is delirious as he explains he is the leads lute player in the band. The next morning Logan explains the forest celery was actually hemlock, a mistake even an experienced ranger like him can make.

Fearsome action

We travel for a few more days, we are forced to walk long hours to try and catch the Ogres. One evening we are awoken by Evening as she spots a winged figure in the forest, we poke out our heads from the snow-covered tarp and struggle to see anything. Naimon spots spirits of crows circling a tree, and we finally spot a winged warg in the branches that is intently watching us. We prepare for a fight, which is surprisingly short. Luck is on our side - before the first blow is laid the Warg faints from the fear and its quickly dispatched. Examining the tree we discover it's a locus of a crow spirit, and it has a military pick axe hidden in a hollow. Logan is keen to burn down the heathen tree, but it proves impossible in this weather.

Sore Feet

More long days of travel continue as we follow the location. Sabastian summons some wolves, they are very cuddly but are unable to provide any useful information. As the Ogres seem to be heading north Logan finds a quicker route and we are able to get ahead of the Ogres. We rest, exhausted after the many days of hard travel, and awaiting the arrival of the Ogres.

As the ogres camp for the night Sabastian sneaks in and drops the hemlock into their cook pots, the ogres are large so it won't have much effect - but every little bit helps. Some hours later we attack. Many darknesses, fears and weapon blows later 6 ogres are dead or turned to mice, four escape. Logan is nursing a vicious stomach wound. We decide they will not return and we head back.

Back to town

Some days later we arrive back at Winterkell and rest up, sleeping in a bed seems luxurious after the many days of sleeping on the cold, snow-covered ground. Turning a mouse back to an Ogre we interrogate him - its explained that dark skinned people in flying canoes and wielding powerful magic tasked the Ogres to kill all the humans. Their plan was to magically breed quickly and kill every human. Dispatching the Ogre we turn our sights to the food shortage. Some wagons of food have arrived in our absence, but more food is required. We decide to head to Eisenkirche and assist their contact, Peter, with arranging further wagons. Heading to Eisenkirche shout take less than a week, but it takes almost three due to some strange magic - we discover it is also making the distance to the north of Eisenkirche shorter, which would make the Ogre invasion easier.

Eisenkirche During our trip we take precautions on the night the full moon to protect against Naimons change. We bury him neck up in the ground and watch him change, feeling secure knowing we'll be safe - until he begins to dig his way out. We beat him unconscious and use a skin change to transform him from his fearsome wolverine to that of a man, which is far more manageable.
We arrive at Eisenkirche and locate Peter, he is preparing a second wagon train of food for Eichelhorn and would welcome our assistance guarding the wagons. We spend just over a week exploring the town, it has a large bustling population, and learning about magic, trading and getting our reward for Ogre ears.
Amber Network We depart, leading the wagon train. The Cardinal is a skilled ranger and finds a quick route back through the hills. We locate an arch with a black amber keystone, after some further investigation we learn its part of an "Arch" network that allows quick travel to each arch. Just passing through the arch increases our speed, that and the Cardinals directions get us back to Eisenkirche in two weeks. The locals are extremely happy with the new shipment of food and celebrate as they will now survive winter.

Ogre Hunting

Given a potential Ogre invasion we decide to head north and to see how we can disrupt it. We set off for a long trip, one evening many days later the length of the horizon becomes a vivid orange, its most unnatural. It cant be a fire, as the entire north would need to be burning. The air does seem cleaner and refreshing.
The following day we stumble across the signs of a fight, it looks like wolves fought a large creature and an icy breath weapon was used. The tracks lead to a large forest. Naimon stares into the spirit realm and sees spirit dragon over the forest, so we definitely need to investigate. In the forest the Cardinal has a spiritual experience and locates a spirt weapon embedded in an alter covered in stag symbols, it is powerful against dragons. The dragon above the forest roars and flees. We locate a few items hidden in the alter.

Spiders

A group of wolves, probably the ones involved in the earlier fight, approach the Cardinal and treat him with great reverence as he has the sword. They tell us to head north to another shrine. We head off and travel for some days, one evening on watch the Cardinal wakes us> It appears there are eight gigantic spider legs stepping over the horizon. We decide is a hallucination, or we are all due to die, so we go back to sleep.
After a week of travel, the terrain slowly changes from forest and grass to hilly, rocky ground. There are some unusual critters around, we see tracks of large four-legged creatures.

Gothenburg.

Some time, and much walking later, we make our way to the coast and arrive at the large bustling town of Gothenburg. Many languages are spoken here, but we only understand a few, but they have a fantastic variety of fish for sale and an amazing library. Many religions are present here and we hear the leaders want to keep the city free of exclusively one religion, the rumours are that a cabal rule the city through the puppet city leader.

Making use of the library, Naimon learns much of dragons. Sabastian collates information about the ogre and learns of an Ogre village many days north in the fjords. We sail to the town of Trondheim and meet a friendly Bishop that looks after the town. The village of ogres is a week away by boat, it has only recently appeared but has brought a history with it - some think it has been around for years. We recruit five dim, but eager, axeman and are sailed many days up a fjord to the Ogre village and slip of the boat under cover of night.

Flaming Ogres

The Ogre village is small and dominated by two longhouses, it also has a port with four longboats. We sneak about the village and find the majority of Ogres are sleeping the longhouses, including three Ogresses. We plot. We start by quietly sabotaging all but one of the boats, and sneak under and on the roof of the longhouses. We use various magics to set them alight and the chaos begins. Much fighting later, we have slain 2 Ogresses and 12 Ogres - the others fled to the woods.

Leaving the village to burn to the ground we clumsily sail back to Trondheim in the liberated longboat, our journey takes much longer than it should due to our lack of people and inexperienced sailing abilities. Our trip is interrupted by tentacles that lunge over the side of the boat and try to sink us, but we manage to slay the beast and take its body back with us. The alchemist pays highly for its parts.

Bear Island

We travel to Trondheim and then Gothenburg. We learn some additional magic and hire some sailors, we head out to Bear Island - the rumoured headquarters of the Ogres. We travel for a week at sea, a tiring and wet journey, and approach the cold and windswept island in the dark. An Ogre village is on the east of the island so we land on the west coast and walk many hours across the island. The arctic conditions exhaust us.

The Ogres have built an enormous single longhouse that is L shaped, it was made with bound earth and it sits on stilts, it holds about a hundred Ogres and four Orgresses. They seem to take orders from a magical portal on the wall. The other structure is a Graving dock, with four longboats. We plot and decide to return back to Trondheim to make magical earth tremor traps, and learn some magic.

A month later we sneak back on to the island, half of the Ogres and two boats are absent. We set the earth tremor traps, which all trigger at the same time, and stay back to watch the building collapses. The elite guard, with their plate armour and halberds, stagger out of the eastern door and are beset by a hellfire before the Cardinal engages them in combat. It's going our way until a strangely likable human staggers out of the wreckage and fires bolts of ice. The Cardinal and Naimon have almost slain the last elite guard when Ogres and the witches stagger out of the north door.

We engage the Ogres and the Ogresses witches, battling through a rainstorm, and the Ogres surrender once the witches are slain. The eight surviving Ogres make the wise decision to join us and we loot the bodies and wreckage of the building. With the extra Ogres and our sailors, we are able to sail the two additional boats back to Gothenburg and sell them.

Svarlbard Island

The Cardinal had learnt that knowledge of Houses of Life might be located in a remote and difficult to locate island. We head off with our enhanced crew and locate the island surprisingly easily. It's cold and windswept, with polar bears and seals on the coast. We trek our way, from a convenient shore along the coast of a natural harbour and find a strangely trapezoidal shaped building, with a worn wooden frame and black glass walls. The building is huge inside, with a huge number of levels going up and down. The top-level ends in the astral and the bottom of the abyss. Whilst there are windows in the library, they would need to be broken to exit which would almost certainly result in the destruction of the entire library. After many days of study, we learn various things; knowledge of the Crescenti family, the location of an astral event (very close) and some incantations - but no knowledge of the house of life. We depart and sail to a mountain on a close island, we climb and wait for the astrological event - which reveals the location of etheldum, which we mine. It's a busy night and difficult task, but we locate 10oz.

Going legit

We return to Gothenburg and talk about our next steps. With our boat and sailors, we spend the next six months trading and make significant money. We head to Seagate via a nexus in Eisenkirche to spend our money.

Undead Hunting

Following our return, we discuss the vampires with the Bishop. They are quiet at the moment but will be active again in Winter. Loading up on equipment we head across the maintain range to the east and begin looking for bolt holes of the vampires. We detect three hidden underground under a burnt-out hut, their bodies are desiccated and in a torpor state. Unable to dig them out that day we head off and stay overnight in a village in a lake.

The next day murders are reported at a close-by village, the vampires have arisen and slain. We located a ghoul minion in the village that we track for the day, and that evening confront it and a vampire in the basement of an alchemist hut. We slay they both and discover they have foul potions to collect the souls of those they slay. Returning to their 'lair" we discover the vampires all gone, but the help of demonic magic (Signot - Marque of Corruption) - they may have traded them spirits. Through some luck, we discover they are almost 7000m to the east.

Long Haul Flying

After much discussion, we decided the better way to get that far east was for Sabastian to fly and carry the other two as mice. We created a small cage to hold the mice and stop Evening munching on them. Almost three weeks later, with spasms and migraines, a grump Sabastian land a few hundred miles from the destination. He notices an enormous crater (25 miles across) some miles away

Not so nice old ladies

The ground is swampy, but Sabastian is able to find a small dry hill to land on and turn the mice back to part members. Some hours in a watch he detects a dark presence nearby and wakes Logan and sends him off to investigate. He finds a nice old lady, miles from anywhere, transporting wood. She tries to charm him and rip out his throat. The party come running and find Logan in close combat with an insanely strong vampire (strength of 5 normal people?) who is about to rip his limbs off. Some lucky casting of magic and well-timed blows brings down the vampire. We stake it out on the hill and let the morning light destroy it.

A nice soft bed

We find a small village a few miles away and get a room and soft bed, a nice change after weeks of travel. Talking to the local alchemist we take some experimental potions that fortunately heal the migraines and shakes. We learn the crater is rumoured that house a black dragon, it has been seen but does not bother the village. The mountains further to the east contain many iron deposits and are said to be extremely dangerous. We rest for a week.

Dragon hunting

We head about 20 miles east to explore the crater. There we encounter some wolves that speak of a dangerous figure, smaller than the dragon, that leaves an emptiness in their scent detection and seems to live in the mountains - they fear it more than the dragon. Looking at the stars they tell us the dragon will attack us on sight.

Under the cover of stealth, we approach the lip of the crater and watch for many hours. On the eastern side of the crater is the hole, near the center of the impact. We see 20 frost giant, digging foundations, which are supervised by 6 Ogre Magi. Eventually the dragon appears, about 40 ft long and whose scales are crimson around the edge, and appears to give orders to the Ogre Magi.

As night arrives the group retreat into the hole. The party move to the edge of the crater, closest to the hole (about ¾ miles away). Sabastian sneaks down into the crater and into the hole, they have dug it out and they live there. There is writing in yellow outside the entrance and when in the hole a shadow form the black sun can be seen

Finding the dragon's lair it sleeps on a pile of blue "silver coins", there is a small pile by a niche. With some masterfully lucky stealthing Sabastian examines the niche, which is a summoning circle, and steals a "coin". Heading out back to the party we retreat to a forest about a mile away to discuss the findings, the more we talk the more concerned we are.

Fighting Retreat

We decided to retreat and plan for how to attack and work our way quietly through the woods aiming to head back to the village. The wolves approach us and tell us of a frost giant patrol, with giant polar bears, nearby. The wolves flee as the dragon fly's overhead and drop a package to the giants. We were not sufficiently hidden as the dragon then head our way and strafes the area with flame. We flee and fortunately, the dragon doesn't spot us.

We still have the issue of the vampires and we check on them with an astrology reading. They've fled and we so we decide to clear out of the country. "The ones you sought have long since fled
Returned to the place they keep their bed
Refreshed, sated, toughened no longer unfed
Raised, renewed, improved, undead"

The next day we spot the patrol and ambush it. It's a tough fight, but we end up with two polar bears skin changed to mice and the rest of the patrol dead or fled. We make out way to the village and find it destroyed by dragon fire. .

Village

We help the survivors pack their good and heal their wounds. Naimon located rune portal in the basement of a house and it leads through to a new world, appearing in a lush forest. We convince some of the villagers to head to this new world, and we stay with them for a few weeks to help them establish themselves. The area contains London_Plane_Trees that we think have caused the instability and allowed the cross-plane portal.

More Dragon

Returning through to the decimated village we quickly take to the air and head away. The dragon was watching for us and we see it following us a few miles in the distance. Its magically accelerates and is suddenly only some hundreds of feet from us, we see it has riders, what turns out to be Incubi and Succubi, which turn to wind and accelerate toward us. .

A tough aerial fight ensues and we manage to kill most of them, capturing one, and flee. The dragon heads away. We land and loot the dropped items, the dead creates have returned to hell. We discuss what to do with the 'captured' Succubi, she's too dangerous to hold so Logan immediately attacks her (no need for a plan), fighting one on the ground and up close it tough, but she is dispatched. The dragon can summon her again in a year and a day, and as a high ranked spy she will have intelligence on us.

Travel

We fly to a town about five hours to the south, rest there and obtain passable on a junk heading to Kazakhstan. The Junk has many interesting passengers, including Monks that have interests in luck, health and prosperity.

Kazakhstan has bustling markets and we make a number of purchases, we spend a small fortune on pearls to trade back in the east. We hear a tale of a magical peach in Kunlun mountains (near the Crater) that if eaten will kill you, but will make you undying when you're resurrected.

From there we sail to Guangzhou on an enormous junk, it contains about 500 people. Sabastian meets a princess who is taken with him, she is an avatar or beauty and he becomes an ally of hers, she dresses him in beautiful clothing and displays her to her entourage. She can offer us advantages when fighting a dragon.

Next, we head to Axum (Ethiopia) then to Socotra (south of this) via very expensive tickets on another Junk. The island contains trees, whose oils grant enormous bonuses when casting runic magic.


We spent the next month travelling back to Gothenburg, Naimen trades as we travel and he boosts our coffers significantly. When passing through Asquelon Logan notices there is a thriving trade in grimoires. Stop off in Venice and learn about the Crescenti family, Logan researches the Crescenti family book and learns the local language (Raetia) so we can read the book.

Planning

Back in Gothenburg we rest up and plan. Making use of our astrological talents we discover

  • The construction the dragon is working on will be functionalin Spring of next year (its almost the end of Autumn)
  • The creature in the mountains with no scent is in charge and controls the dragon -

"It walks in chaos on all fours Venom on the tongue, venom on the mind
This ungainly beast attending doors
Red in tooth, claw and spined
This ungainly beast attending doors"

  • The function of the device they are creating

"A calling to things of elder malice
Riving through the rime and voids
Bring the Hounds of Tyndalos
And the ship of asteroids"

  • The plane of hell is involved. Special relationship with Savlock (Marquis of corruption - necromancer) who can create towers and forge a connection between them
  • The Dragon is a greater summoner (so we should not attack at the beginning of the month)
  • Who is organising all of this

Time bends as ages fray
Fire gutters, darkness grows
One in one and two in trey
Birthing beasts and dying rose

We head to Tromtine and talk things through with the Bishop, and purchased some investments from him. From there we head to the library on Svalbard, but learn little more about the dragons and its machinations. We do learn the recipe for 'Fumes of Night' potion and discover to learn the draft of Ambrosure requires twn ingredients, one of which is amberants - and a poisonous herb that survives in the fields of Asverdal.

Heading back through Eisenkirche we find the Emperor is in Court and they are preparing for the days of chaos in two months, three will be a 12 day festival. We spot Count Ganalon and think he may be up to no good. We head to Seagate for magical resources in preparation for the fight and begin our long journey to see Apricot Blossom.

Slow trip and distraction

We decide to sail to the Court as its such a distance, and will be safer than flying. Some weeks into the journey We sail past the mountain range that is the rumored to location of the peach tree so we stop to investigate. We fly to the bottom of the mountain and are attacked by half a dozen Buzzard like creatures, they have wickedly sharp claws. We defeat them and find bronze feathers on their bodies can be used to enhance armour.

We decide to climb the mountain as the winds may make flying difficult, and we may miss something. Its a part climb and we fund ourselves climbing through snow. We notice snow on the 'moving' which turns out to be a pack of winter wolves that are stalking us. A tough fight follows but we destroy most of them, a few escape and we capture one. The captured wolf explains they are hunting for the peach tree for their master, a tall Gaunt man who makes hybrid animals.

We continue our climb and head to a waterfall, near the top we see a lush valley and we make a challenging climb down to investigate. There are birch trees around the edge of the valley and a river (from the waterfall) running through it. When we are walking back up the river toward the waterfall we are attacked by an Ogre Magi (the one from Bear Island). Its a brutal fight and the Ogre Magi retreats (fortunately) and we lick our very deep wounds. We maintain a locate on the Ogre Magi and he returned the following day, we hide in the river at the base of the waterfall in preparation for an ambush. It doesnt land in the valley and we spend the next few hours tracking it, only to be ambushed by it. Fortunately we were prepared and kill the creature. Its has a number of magic items, including a deck of many things - Naimen and Muse draw from this with success.

Peachy Discovery

We find if the valley is approached from the north a pocket place can be accessed which contains a number of gardens, including the Peach tree. The tree will wither once peaches are picked, and when eaten the person will drop to 0 EN and 0 FT, recovering 1 EN every three days. We eat the peaches and Evening heals us to stop us dying. A few weeks later we are on our feet, still weak but able to move. We slowly head back to our boat, all now undying.

Back in Court

Some weeks later we stop and as we need to travel inland. Making a teeth clenching trip over a few mountain ranges we finally make it to the imperial court [next SESSION 22]