Candyland

Summary

Adventure: Candyland
GM: Anne
Session: Winter 820
Night: Wednesday
Location: Birdlands, Massey
Level: Low

Party

• Seraph - Human Namer Played by Connor
• Vixen - Elf Fire Mage Played by Nikita - Party Leader
• Malga - Human Rune Mage Played by Sam
• Flayre - Human Dark Celestial Played by Annuskha - Scribe
• Sensua - Elf Shadow Celestial Played by Jesse

Employer: Walter, from Children's Playground

Mission: To deal with whatever is infecting Candyland

Pay: 10,000sp

Scribe Notes

Day one: Guild.

We were asked to meet in the kitchen. (Apparently this is quite normal..) Our "employer" was a 14-year-old blonde haired boy with a surfer-boy look, named Walter. He told us that we were off to a plain called Children's Playground because Candyland recently is infected with something and it needs fixing. We will be given greaters (4 areas) plus 10,000 silver pieces each plus can keep whatever else we find as payment. Our party of 5 is made up of: Sensua, Vixen, Seraph, Malga & myself (Flayre)

We arrive in the town/plain of the Valley of the Sun. Candyland is five days walk from here. We are given rank 9 greaters. Walters house is a 3-4 story Tower. From there Walter shows us a road to the east which will lead us to Candyland 5 days away. That evening we set camp and establish a split watch order of:

1. Seraph
2. Malga
3. Flayre
4. Vixen
5. Sensua (with 1/2/3 sharing 1/3 night watches & 4/5 sharing 1/2 night watches)

Day 2: The Road.

We head off again heading east on the road. After a while we hear the sound of a lute playing, and then music and singing. The music stops and a man in red "Monsieur Wood" (who is hairy and gay) and his "hairy men" demand "Road tax" from us. We decline and so end up in a battle. Highlights of the battle included: "Come to the bushes with me" said the pretty boy elf to the pretty girl elf (we affectionately nicknamed them The bushwackers) (context: to hide from the enemies of course) Malga becoming crippled by a nasty left arm injury. Sensua yelling "I got Wood" (context: hitting Monsieur Wood) Monsieur Wood threatening to take Seraphs "stuff" (aka fancy true silvered tulwar etc) and being told "you can take your sword and shove it up your ass" right before Seraph spec revs him in the chest with a battle axe. Three of the hairy men flee for their lives whilst one remaining is concussed and then dies. Having killed 5 of the 8 men, we obtain some excellent loot:

• Five sets of leather armour
• Five hand & a half's (Rank 4) which also have some blacksmith ranks
• A measly 10 silver!
• A set of keys!
• Monsieur woods longbow.

We DA the unconscious Monsieur Woods & obtain that he is a short-lived sentient with a plan of origin of children's playground. We tie him up & heal him just enough to become conscious so that we can interrogate him. Interrogation as follows:

• What are the keys for? A: a chest!!
• where is the chest? A: in the camp
• where is the camp? A: In the forest (during this time Mulga Chops off his index finger to help with ensured co-operation, so Monsieur Woods is screaming).. (Then also his middle finger.. He screams some more and fully co-operates and gives us good directions to the camp) Approximately 50 feet down the road there is supposed to be a path which leads off to the camp. Our healers re-attach (ish) Monsieur Woods's fingers and leave him tied to the tree as we set off to find the camp. We warn him of chopping many other body parts off plus other "tortures" on our return if he is found to be lying, but he was in fact truthful about the paths location. I give Mulga, Sensua & myself a cast of shadow-form during our attempted stealthing along the path towards the camp (We stealthed super un-stealthily!) So.. we "sneak" up to the camp ready for battle but find no one around and no traps. We search the camp and loot all the cool stuff we find! We find a flamboyant rainbow tent which contains the chest. After making it safe to open we find inside;
• six potions (3 red-orange healing, & 3 purple-blue witch-sight)
• a large stack of coinage which we determine to be 1000 silver.

There is a layer of felt between these items and something else hiding underneath:

• A true silver hand & a half with
• A very valuable magical scabbard. (It has a very intricate pattern and is also capable of spell storage)
• Our chest is very ornate & heavy & we estimated it to be between 5000 and 20,000 in value
• Our beautiful tent sleeps four persons and weighs 50 pounds.

Now confident that we have obtained everything of value, we head back to the town. 15 minutes down the track we find that Monsieur Woods is gone from the tree where we had left him. The rope and his two detached fingers remain so Mulga takes the fingers for safekeeping (aka keeping the fingers held captive) We also realize that we did not find any instruments in our looting so we pop by the site of the original music on our way back to town. Unfortunately tho, we find it has already been completely cleared. It is a day & a half back to town so on the trip we all tell Mulga that his fingers stink (they really do as they are starting to rot!)

Day 3: Town

We make it back to the bustling town in mid afternoon and knock on Walters door. He is surprised to see us but agrees to hides our cool loot stuff in a secret extra deep cupboard and locks it so it is very super safe. He tells us that Annabel can heal Mulgas arm, so instructs us to head towards the Townhall since she is located in the building to the left of it. A random Mulga rambling: "No one's a bigger failure than the ones who did nothing at all" We head over to Annabelle's. There is a sign on the door with a bandage, which says Annabel's healing. Annabelle is a 12-ish-year-old girl who tells us that it will take 35 hours to repair the arm and it also requires 2000 silver. Seraph places 2000 silver on the table for her. Us healers want to watch the healing and hopefully learn something, which Annabelle is happy with, but Vixen and Seraph are off to the Tavern together for "a few quiet drinks" (aka spying) Mulga paints colourful beauty on our arms to keep sane during the healing. Day 4 & day 5 are fully spent on the healing, but this work finishes up on the morning of Day 6, so we once again head off down the road. It is Deja-vu except there is no music/singing & no attempted "road taxes" this time. We travel uninterrupted for 5 days to the edge of the candy forest.

Day 11: Candy Forest!

As we near the end of the road, the pebbles become gumballs, and we find occasional sherbet bricks. (They both taste good!) We see the forest... Licorice trees, Candy cane trees etc! (We pack our bags with candy) we head down the path into Candyland and find a handwritten sign indicating that "Gummy Village" is down a side track to the right, and "Candy Castle" is straight ahead (east) We walk to the village first. The air is filled with the smell of sugar. We have seen no wildlife as of yet. Half an hour to 45 minutes later we can see a number of gingerbread houses. There are two gummy guards standing at the entrance to the village. Weird quote from one of the party: "It ain't easy being sleazy" We indicate that we are peaceful tho I do accidentally offend the gummy person by calling it a gummy bear :( we speak to the gummy guards and they send a smaller gummy to speak to the village Chieftain "Gumee Nola". We are then led by the baby gummy to a large gingerbread house where we meet Nola - an older gummy woman with a very thiiiick "French" accent. She explains that any dead here are cremated (explaining the very strong smell of sugar).. She also tells us that a couple of weeks ago non-sentient creatures (bears, birds, squirrels etc) started attacking everything which made it unsafe for their children and people, so they now stay within Gummy Village. She thinks the castle (in a place called sugar rush) is the only place this evil magic can be centred, as this is the only place capable of reaching to every corner of Candy-land. She believes the monarchy a good people, and the queen who has been reigning for 30-40 years looks like us (human) except made of sugar. She advises sneaking in or bribery as our only realistic options. Heroes aren't allowed in the castle normally (tho only since a month ago! - This is a new rule set by the queen apparently?! Suspicious?) We get given cool candy-cane spears by Nola. The plan so far is to head into the town for more intel. Two of us could pass for sugar people apparently, but she says the elves and darker skinned humans would be harder to pass. It is now midday and the party have some banned words amongst themselves: (Cheese, the S word, & the P word) Also, Mulga embarrassing asks Nola about gummy bowel movements which she finds very "rude".

Day 12

After spending the night we are now heading into the town of Candy castle. 15 minutes up the track we find bear footprints... Mulga tests the tracks (since "it's all sugar" anyway) and reckons it is fresh. Our Rangers tell us it is within two hours old so very freshly excreted sugar indeed! We continue to head down the path and sure enough half an hour later we hear growling and then see two Bears. We DA and discover "disruption" is on the Bears. The bushwhackers head into the bushes again "because that's how we roll.." We begin to fight the Bears (with some joking discussion about eating them afterwards, then procreation, anatomical correctness & gum jobs) Both bears stun fairly easily & are eventually killed. Once dead, we DA again & find that the bears nature of creation is reproduction. The disruption also ceases once dead, & the effect upon eating them is: diabetiiis... At nightfall we camp in our rainbow tent. Overnight we hear the noises of bears procreating which is rather disturbing & weird. (The frogs are at it too)

Days 13,14 & 15

We walk for a further three days... On the second day of walk (Day 14) we come out of the forest and into Plains.

Day 15

We can see a large candy-cane castle ahead and a painted brick wall with a large village out front. In the plains there are lots of animals but they all seem to be avoiding the path. We are still a days walk away from the town from here, but as we get closer to the castle walls we see guards firing magic & bows at a mass of animals who are surrounding the walls. Two guards at the bottom are holding glowing swords, & two others standing behind them are casting area affect magic. They are fighting an onslaught of animals including: Dire bears, Bears, A pair of giant frogs & 4 giant snakes. 3 bears & 2 Dire bears are melted in front of us by fire magic, so we melt a Dire bear also. We then stealth forward together and attack the giant frogs. Two of the soldiers are downed by animals. The gate opens and they are dragged inside by squires, who then stand over their bodies. We continue to help fight all the animals until all are dead. The two casters stop casting once the last of the animals are killed. The guardsmen come out and one of the male guards thanks us for helping them. Malga retrieves his axe which he threw during the battle & embedded in a bear. Apparently they have been fighting these animals for hours! We do now notice a great many bodies around, which are melting into the ground. Accelerate decay is in effect (The guards think we are weird since Seraf is staring at the ground) The guard tells us that we aren't allowed in the castle. Also, only a few certain people can even go in to talk to the queen to ask why. Our plan is still to gather information around town at this stage.

Session 4

Tavern: We wander down the street towards "The sweet roll" tavern. On the way, we notice a few characters who are a bit shady looking. We approach one and try to get some info out of him, he takes us down a side alley where we ask about the weird happenings in the city. The queens boy got ill he tells us, never been sick before, sugar people don't get sick, and she closed the gates because of it. There's all sorts of conspiracy theories. Illusion as a disguise is an option (for some "coin") Breaking in is not advisable, but sneaking in is OK as there's a secret tunnel. For another "coin" we can be taken to the thieves guild to get permission to use the tunnel or bribe some delivery staff (to hide us inside the delivery) Around the castle is a drawbridge with a strawberry milk moat. Sugar peoples weakness or allergy is water, hence why it never rains here, fire can also melt them. It's heading towards evening now so we look around for a tavern but it looks like there is just the "Sweet roll" around, so we head there.
There is a toffee person behind the bar, which serves ciders, sugar-cane, Taffy Apple alcohol etc. We order drinks and confirm that upstairs is in fact accommodation. When we inquire he says it's "with our drinks" and we get thrown a key. We chat further to him a little bit. The Queen's eldest who is 12, is the one which is ill, and her youngest child is 8 or 9 but not ill as far as anyone we've talked to is aware. We head for an evening stroll through to the drawbridge. The guard's are sugar human, and we chat to them a fair bit about the magical strawberry milk moat etc. They have cool hair (pretty colours etc) and say that no-one ever swims in the magic strawberry milk moat. They also believe the Queen is quite fair and just to work for, and the best people to talk to about meeting her would be the guard captains (who can be found in the barracks) Other things of interest that we learn include: that the milk has magical preservation, and they have a rotating guard because of the animal attacks. We then head back to the tavern to bed.

Day 16

Morning arrives and we have strawberry milk with our breakfast, which is cooked by the tavern staff. We then head off to find our "beggar" friend from the thieves guild. We are lead by him through some alleyways, a canal, a big iron door into the sewer system and then through an almost confusing set of passages. Our rangers north bumps are definitely interfered with during the journey. We arrive in a large room filled with people (mostly candy, some humans)
We talk to "Roger" ("Beof" is apparently our informants name) We learn more intel from Roger. It is not publicly known who fathered the queens children since she is widowed, tho a throne-holder is the only person able to self reproduce. The sick son fell into a coma and went to sleep. Bushwhacker seduces Roger (or attempts to) so now we get to talk to "Madam".. We are led through a door in the back wall and hear a petite voice. In amongst lavish satins and silks with red rich blues and purples sits a petite woman with vibrant blonde hair on a "s chez lounge." "How you doin Sugar" points Sensua to Madam, in a slightly sleazy attempt at romance/seductiveness. The pretty lady does not react and his hands are halstered with a sad face. Roger closes the door and kisses her hand. After some quiet chatting between them he stands in the corner. There is a moment of silence before she speaks to us.
There are a variety of errands/jobs available for us to do in exchange for disguises and help getting inside the castle or using the secret tunnel. Jobs on offer include owed money/debt collection, objects they had taken which they would love returned, and people disposed of etc. We ask for further details but she is reluctant to give too much detail upfront. We ask "is there not an honour amongst thieves?" (to which she responds that "We are not her thieves Deary" ie. that she is being cautious because she does not yet completely trust us. She tells Sensua that "You.. can call me Sugar" ;) and Vixen gags.. We indicate that we are most interested in collecting the missing items needing to be returned. The first, is a Vase made of Sugar. It is sugar crystal in a rare rock candy Pattern, and is basically an expensive decoration which was in the merchants position when stolen. The second item is an amulet made from bronze, with a symbol of a shield on it. This protection Amulet was inside her personal vault when it went missing.
We ask to speak to the boy who collected it and are taken to speak to him. He says that he "had a weird feeling" when he went to leave with the amulet. Roger and Cletus (the namer) both also knew about this job, which was taken from a manor house on the hill. The vault itself is very large and hidden behind the lavish curtain. Bushwacker He (Sensua) gets to view her bedroom/sleeping quarters and finds that her locked desk drawer (containing documentation of the larger jobs) has been broken into. After also investigating the safe, we find that "magical opening" was used to get into the safe exactly 1 week ago. We also check out Rogers room but this seems normal enough and nothing strikes us as unusual in there.

Session 5

Day 16; Market district:

We are headed off to talk to a merchant about a missing vase.
We head to the market district to find Harvey-eh (Javier) and find an unattended set-up stall with the sign "Javiers wandering wonders". It has an array of things such as plates & statues etc set out on a table. All are made of candy (in one way or another) Since the stall is currently unattended, we ask the neighbouring vendor where Javier is, and are told that he is out the back.
We head around back and find a dwarf-like candy-man with a beard. "Aye what do you want? He asks us. "A vase..." we reply. He says that there are plenty to choose from, but we indicate we are after a "particular vase" and he responds that we "had best come out back"... Once away from any interested ears, he asks if Madam sent us? and we tell him yes she did. He tells us that he had the vase stored safely inside the case and checked on it two hours before pick up, at which time it was there.. but when they came to collect it two hours later, the case was there but the vase inside was gone. The vase went missing around dusk, from inside the wagon. He believes only the guardsmen who checked his goods and the thieves guild knew about the item, so we DA the case to establish that no magic was used to open it. We find scratch marks on the lock. He tells us he obtained this vase six months ago, quite a few towns over, from a noble boy who wanted some "quick coin" (some Lords son apparently) It is not very heavy but very fragile like glass.. mainly clear in colour with a few coloured rock candies in it (so small streaks of blues, purples etc.) "Licking" a sugar person is pondered.. He seems honest enough to us. He tells us he paid 10,000 silver for it but believes it is worth 6 to 7 digits through the thieves guild. The place he obtained it from was a months wagon drive away for him, but it should only be two weeks walk for us as we would be travelling in a more direct line.
The guardsman who checked his goods on return is named Jeffrey and we are told we can find him at the guards house so we head there to speak to him. At the guards house we tell them we are helping with an investigation and we would like to speak to Jeffrey please. We are let in to a large room which is primarily filled with bunk space, but also contains plenty of tables with various games and card games at play. Jeffrey is yelled for and a young guard steps forward to greet us. We ask him about the vase and he takes us away from the others for a more "private" conversation but essentially can offer no leads. He does, however mention that the Amber family reported an amulet missing recently, so we head to the Amber family home to investigate further. (It is indeed the same gingerbread house we were told about by our boy thief)
Everybody at the Amber family house is very well dressed, including the butler who answers the door. We are led to the office by another man, and behind a large solid chocolate desk sits lord Amber. He tells us the amulet was magical and passed down through generations of his family. He's not entirely sure of the specifics but knows it is some form of protection magic. He shows us the glass case in the office where it lived. There are also two raven figures in the case which are very valuable (in fact the most valuable thing here) The last heroes to visit the castle were a knight and a Mage, which was four months ago. (He knows this because he entertains many travellers) We DA the case and find there is a magical durability on the glass case but it was not opened using any form of magic. Lord Amber has a son and two daughters. We also DA the window but find nothing of significance.
Once we leave, the beggar (Beof) comes to find us. Roger is missing. We return to the thieves guild with Beof. Apparently Roger left 10 minutes after we did. Vixen with that little lock pick and those magic fingers opens the door to Rogers room.. Upon closer inspection this time, we find a large hole underneath the floor boards beside his bed. Upon opening it we find a large f'ing vase shaped hole in the dirt! And an f'ing amulet shaped hole too! "All in the same hole.. That must've hurt" jokes Vixen. We decide that Sensua will need to console sugar once we tell her. We find out that she has been charmed (Cletus is here, so he helps us figure this out) He also tells us Roger was an E&E mage. We consult with him further regarding Locating Roger. Locate is in fact the best way to locate Roger (Locate is an E&E spell) or ranger tracking or celestial ask questions like ask the night sky.. Sugar tells us that the ravens in lord Amber's glass case on the hill are messenger ravens, and that Walter is an E&E also. It is evening now, so we decide to try and read the night sky, but we get less helpful answers such as "he you seek is where you will find him" "The vase is packed away with someone flying, heading west, far away where land is solid and does not decay.." and the Current location of amulet is: "Around the neck of man it does not belong to".. Tracking Roger via rangering works much better, as we find the scuff marks indicating someone who is in a hurry.

Session 6

Day 16; Tracking Roger:

We follow the footsteps through the canals. They eventually lead us to a watergate to the city, and they then take off west. It is very dark now as the clouds are completely blocking the moon. Vixen and Sensua give us some light and we continue on. The tracks get harder (slower) to follow but once we follow them to the forest they become easier again.
We travel for another 2 hours before we see the flickering of light in the distance. Mulga casts Smite on us all, plus Sensua and myself have shadowforms. We backfire one of the E&E counterspells but it turns out to be a beneficial backfire.
As we approach we see the flicker is a low fire burning itself out. There is a tarp pegged up and then down, with a full looking bedroll in it. The elves can see faint invisibility but then Vixens Infra-vision shows a person seated cross legged in the tent entrance! (Not in the bedroll!) 4 out of 5 of us know silent tongue so we communicate this between ourselves.
Mulga throws his Javelin!? (stupidest nomination!) and as it was blindly thrown off into the darkness, he looses it. A second backfire counterspell goes off in the wrong place, and a third (this time a fire college backfire cast from Vixen) leaves her with temporarily disadvantaged stats. Roger stands with glowing red eyes and an evil look, smirks at us and says "I wondered when you would catch up" whilst drawing his weapon. Sensua and myself go around back of his tent and Roger steps forward to hit Mulga. I check inside the tent, but find only adventurer supplies and the vase (Roger is wearing the amulet) We all surround Roger (Sensua and myself from behind and the others on sides and front) and basically he gets "gangbanged" from us all on all sides. Mulga tries to grab the amulet from around Rogers neck. When it is my turn to hit him from behind, the red eyes diminish and he collapses onto Mulga.
We don't want him dying just yet (just incase) so we stabilize him enough to survive. We then all try to DA him to find out some information. Invis is the last magic to impact and we find out that he was infact possessed.. We heal him up enough to keep him alive and stable, then we control entity him. Mulga then retrieves his javelin and we set up our tent and have a hot meal etc. It is less than five hours back to town but we feel it is best to rest here and recover our fatigue since we did travel here through the night. Roger is no longer dying and we have healed him up enough now that he can now become conscious.
When he does finally become conscious we ask him lots of questions.. (We used a ritualized spell so he has to answer our questions, without lying (he must answer truthfully but in the most difficult way possible.. Which he does!) Mulga cuts off Rogers finger and we discover that he is infact Human with an illusion on. He drops the illusion and we nickname Mulga "The fingering thief" Roger is actually a 5ft10 grey haired human man instead of a candy person.
His answers to our questions are as unhelpful as possible but still sometimes prove somewhat helpful. His answers include things such as "Personal reasons" (why did he need the money from stealing the vase?.. lol) Would we find those reasons interesting? No.. etc.. He was born via cabbage patch, in Candyland and his real GTN is Human. He asks something in response and gets an angry "No, you don't ask the questions here!" His spells are: Enchanted weapon Rank9, Counterspells, Charm Rank6, Mass charm Rank6, Invis Rank6, Greater enchantment Rank5, Create poison dust Rank10, Opening Rank6, Mage lock Rank6 & Enchant Armour Rank4. We ask if he has any poison dust on him, which he does (in his boots) so we carefully confiscate this from him just to be safe.

Session 7

Day 17 continued: The outcome of Roger:

Roger struggles and drags his feet the entire way to town, which was about 3hours (so it is now the afternoon) he also tries to slip away down an alleyway to freedom at one point, but as we are onto it adventurers, we easily stop him. When we arrive at the thieves guild door, the guards all look startled, as does Cletus. Madame is in her Lounge and has absolutely no interest in Roger now whatsoever (he is basically like a piece of trash to her now).
We have the Swords etc divinated and discuss some disguise options. She also lets us keep the amulet. There is a disagreement about if we are killing Roger or not between the party. Before we have even finished the discussion or reached any decisions Mulga decides to leave with our prisoner and starts killing him by himself in the sewers (earning himself yet another stupidity nomination..) Vixen follows and instead of bringing them both back she joins in. Cletus returns with a crate for us to put our prisoner in and mentions that he just passed Roger being "bonked" and "butchered at" by our two party members!
I rush out to stop them (as I think Roger may be of some use to us later) and arrive just in time to see his eyes flaring red again and him taking a defensive withdrawal into the milk. I catch up as he climbs out the other side and bolts off into the sewers. Vixen chases after him and Mulga follows. I yell out to Sensua and Seraph that "Roger is loose now!" and Sensua rushes out to help follow. Seraph assumes it's likely to be taken care of before he gets to us so he just remains at the thieves guild.
Mulga then beheads Roger and I am suuuuuper super pissed off at them both! (Mulga especially!) I express that I am extremely annoyed at what they have selfishly done and they are told that they now get to carry the body back without my help. Sensua arrives and kindly gives them a hand carrying the head. Mulga is absolutely drenched in Roger blood. Sugar (Madame) tells us that sugar people bodies normally just dissolve in the milk, but as Roger was a human and won't do the same, we decide that burying him is the best option. We bury his body in the forest edge at nightfall. Mulga badly requires a bath now so some of us stop for a bit of a river bath before we head the 2hours back to town. We arrive back in town 3hours after nightfall.
Random quotes: "Sugar people are warm". "Sugar people aren't real people so fuck it!.. I mean don't fuck it.." (Sensua)
We decide to try and obtain the messenger ravens to communicate these latest happenings with our employer Walter, as he may know if they have any major significance. (Part of why I am so annoyed at Mulga for taking this decision into his own hands is because I felt Walter should have been party to this decision, and Roger also had insider intel we can now never obtain - he was the person who delivered the infection to the caste but we still know very little about what to look for)
We decide to see if it is possible to employ Yohan (the young boy thief who broke in originally to steal the amulet) Vixen and myself head off to jokingly "sample the local goods.. lol" We arrive at the little boys dorm and knock politely. A girl answers and we ask for Yohan. As he has met us before, we mention that we would like his assistance with something and we quietly discuss the "job" further privately outside. He is really keen to help us and only wishes for 20 silver pieces in return. He expects he will take 4-5hours to complete the job, so Vixen and I head back to join the others for a few hours of shut eye.
We are expecting that we need to return to see him in 5hrs time to collect the ravens, but he in fact comes and delivers them to us the next morning instead. Day 18: We give him a little more silver than he had asked for, and the party then uses a raven to send an "update" scroll to Walter letting him know the events which have happened since we last saw him, and seeing what helpful info he may be able to offer also. We have decided that night time is the best time to sneak into the castle and it is smart to also have physical disguises to back up our illusionary ones. We plan to spend the next 3 days planning, sleeping and training etc whilst we wait for the raven to return from Walter.

New Loot:

• Messenger Ravens x2 (shiny metallic sheen),
• Leather Armour with a permanent enchant armour on it and 10+ defence,
• Saber with permanent duration enchant weapon,
• Short sword with permanent duration enchant weapon (can be overwritten)
• Amulet (+1 armour and +10pt defence)

Session 8

18th - 21st

We sent our raven off on the morning of the 18th day, so we spend the rest of days 18,19 & 20 (plus the morning of the 21st) doing training, learning spells, learning tips from Cletus, etc. At midday on day 21 there is a furious banging sound on the thieves guild door! The guardsman opens it and our beautiful raven flies in and lands in front of me with a scroll attached to its leg! :) Contained is a long reply letter from Walter just as we'd hoped.
He believes that by the sounds of what we told him, Roger may have delivered a nightmare to the castle. In this world nightmares can be very powerful, and can corrupt the dreams of young children, so it also quite potentially is the source of poisoning Candyland creatures. He sais that we will require either silver or magical weapons to kill it, and it has a physical form usually but will take very little damage from other sources. They can take basically any form they wish, including having very little form at all. At the end of his letter there is a Ps. Very funny about the bird, (continually saying his name haha!) I turned it off after an hour.. haha!
We are pleased with the info obtained from Walter, so now ask Sugar some finer details about our illusionary disguise (in particular the length it will last, which is 11 hours) it has the potential to vary our height by 11%, weight by 22% and pb increase by 6 if they (the illusionist) so wishes. We also learn some facts about Koalas. A women arrives bringing us a neatly folded stack of uniforms and she then also draws us a nicely detailed map of the bottom 3 floors of the castle (She obviously works in the caste as she tells us she is unable to give us a map of the 4th floor, since that is the queens personal level and she only knows the lower levels well).
We complete our preparations late afternoon and are then led by a man through the alleyways of town into a smaller sewer system, onto the interior side of the moat. We have arrived at a sewer grate with a crown symbol. Our guide takes a few moments opening the grate and ushers us through (into another sewer system) before farewelling us with instructions to follow the crowns there and then the arrows back. He then slips away back into darkness leaving us. This new sewer system we are now in has ok lighting, with a walkway on either side and milk running between. It is lit along the left side only. We start along the walkway and before long come to a T junction where we find our first crown symbol by ourselves. We travel on for about an hour, until coming to a somewhat collapsed looking area of the system where a large pond has formed. I notice that there are alligators hiding in the milk so caution the others who seem to be unaware. We decide to proceed with caution and to keep facing the alligators, weapons ready at all times. We get most of the way around before we get hissed at but none of them actually try to go for us.
We travel for another 1/2hr before coming to a ladder which leads up to some smooth rock candy flooring. Vixen and Sensua both try but give up at finding the secret to opening. Seraph also tries, and is eventually able to open it by finding a small latch and then a tile which lifts off. Through the secret opening is light grey rock candy walls. Our secret entrance is also extra hidden by the fact there is a pillar and pot plant placed strategically in front of it. The coast appears to be clear at this stage, so we venture forward into what must be the room.
There is a large very regal chair and a few pew seats, as well as 6 doors leading out in various directions. From our Map we believe these are dining, hallway, hallway, library, an unlabeled and a stair room. We take the stair room and come across a large floating Crystal which is glowing purple and has a slight crack in it.
Our magic appears to be at a bonus here as all our DA'ers are able to obtain at least one question each. My question tells me I will experience a force pulse if I touch the crystal.. "it's a good thing I didn't lick it then", says Sensua! Seraph decides to attack it with his tulwar so most of us scramble outside the room and use Vixen as our meat shield. Sensua stays in the room but backs up against the wall to watch. Seraph tries to hit the crystal but just before actual impact is thrown backwards into the wall with Sensua. Both Sensua and Seraph sustain 19 points of fatigue damage. The rest of us outside the room also feel it but are unhurt. There is now a larger crack in the crystal and a red light emitting from the room but we can't tell from where. I ask if "please can we not do any more dumb shit!?" But am told "no, where's the fun in that!"..
I now hear the faint sound of approximately 6 guards headed our way, so I motion that we need to leave urgently and lead the party in the opposite direction towards the tower stairs. We stealthily run up a staircase into a corridor with two doors. We take a peek out through the corridor windows on our way to the furthest door, wishing to put some distance between us and the guards, and end up in what appears to be an accounting office containing books and records. After we are confident that the coast is clear and we haven't (hopefully) completely blown our cover, we venture out and continue exploring the 4th floor.
At the furthest end of this floor we can hear two guards discussing what just happened downstairs (they are putting the alarm down to probably just being a false alarm caused by some maid, and mention that the guards down there will have already dealt with it) The two guards appear to be standing guard outside the queens bedroom, so we head off to explore elsewhere in the meantime. We head back down towards the 3rd floor but find it still crawling with guards actively searching, so we wait for an opportunity to slip down to the second floor. Our opportunity comes as a door opens and the guards are turned away from us speaking to a boy (who we think is likely to be the queens youngest son) Upon arrival at the second floor we find it has a lot more maids and butlers, so we indeed fit in very well down here.

Session 9

Day 21 continued..

Exploring the second Floor:

Vixen and Mulga decide to investigate what we think to be one of barracks rooms. They come across two guards playing cards who look sheepish and abruptly pack up and leave.
Seraph, Sensua and myself check out one of the other barracks rooms and then Vixen and Mulga head off to see the winch room. Vixen walks into find a very bored looking guard who tells her she is in the wrong room and the toilet is the other.
I check out the bathrooms and then upon exiting try to listen in on some passing servants conversation but they notice me so I pretend that I am actually just on my way to the winch room. I make some small talk with the guard there and pretend I'm looking for the bathroom also and leave. A couple of the party overhear a few interesting snippets of conversations also but they don't attract any attention. Whilst I am checking out some small kitchenware rooms (full of servery/silverware and general kitchen stuffs) Vixen joins me and says that her and Mulga overheard some interesting points about a suspicious "bad juju" red teddy bear.
Meanwhile Seraph notices the winch room guard leave the winch room and head towards the guard room so keeps an eye on things from around the corner. When he sees that the guard is returning with 4 friends he hurries to nab us all and we scarper quietly upstairs to level 3. There are three guards that we can see patrolling this area of the level, so we decide to see if two of us heading to the store room attracts any suspicion. We pass the guard without any trouble and start checking out all the chests in the store room. We open one of the chest locks ok but have to break the other two open. We find a cool array of unusual toys such as knuckle-bones, a well loved teddy bear, a heavy metal toy cart, A wand, and one other item. I pocket the knuckle-bones as soon as I see them because they are awesome but then we also end up taking all the items as well as a book we find hidden inside a second chest of clothing even though we cannot read it.
By now the others have snuck past the guard during his patrol walks and have joined us, so we sneak a few at a time through the door opposite and into the room straight across the hallway (we imagine this may be a "prince bedroom", so we send the two super sneaky elves first since they are both super quiet and can see in the dark) We are given the all clear to join them and find it is a seating room but has doors through to each of the princes bedrooms (there are the names Louis and James on the two doors) We enter Lois's room and using some light on the end of our wand, we see there is a teddy bear on the bed facing towards the sleeping Louis. We have some group tounge (most of the party speak silent tounge) quietly in the next room and we decide to hit em (the teddy) where it hurts. When we go to re-enter Louis room it is now unusually dark but the darkness clears and we find the bad teddy now awake and facing us, with 4 smaller minion teddy helpers also now out in front.

We use a wall of starlight to protect the young unconscious prince and battle the teddies. As we kill each one, each teddy turns into a cloud of low lying black mist. The prince then starts convulsing and seizing so I start to try to heal him. The guards choose this point to all arrive through the bedroom doors. The royal healers are called for and when one arrives the prince is taken away. "Take me to the queen" says Sensua.. Now we are being accompanied upstairs by the guards to speak with (aka explain our actions to) the queen!..

Session 10

Day 22 - The wee small hours.. (Aka meeting the Queen):

We are led towards the queens chambers. The guard knocks and a groggy but well kept queen in a robe answers. They speak briefly in Folksprach language, and we are led to an adjoining waiting room whilst she gets dressed. She returns shortly after in an elegant but not over the top extravagant dress. Her beautiful bright pink hair is perfect. She speaks to us in Folksprach at first, and then at the advice of the guard switches to common. Vixen straight away pisses the queen off by telling her she had a problem and we have fixed her problem for her so she should be grateful. The queen is shocked at such rudeness and tells us so. She acknowledges that she is grateful for us having dealt with the nightmare but is not happy that we snuck in using her secret passages and disguises. Not wanting to risk execution I apologise for the parties bluntness and explain that some of us feel any punishment is too harsh and unjustified. so persists that there must still be a punishment of sorts (to keep up appearances and act as a deterrent to others) so we agree to a compromise of a 2 month banishment starting from the end of next month.
The queen is completely unaware of how and what things have happened, we just informed her of the nightmare and of the seizures. She pauses briefly to ask the guards how Louie is doing and he confirms that he is currently under the healers care. She confirms that Lois had been bed ridden in a coma since being found unconscious in the crystal room and also tells us we are welcome to use the 3rd floor guest room which is set up for guest adventurers. One of the party cheekily asks the queen for payment for our services but she is smart enough to realise that we will have already been offered payment elsewhere. We realise that it is indeed 3am so we decide leave the queen to get some rest.
Before we do the same, we stop to check in on James. James is sleeping and there is a book laying on his bed - like he has fallen asleep reading it. Now it is also sleep time for us in our nice soft plush comfortable beds (apart from mulga, who opts to sleep on the floor) I really enjoy the beautiful soft cotton candy beds and can't help but nibble a little!

The following morning (Daytime of Day 22) after a nice little sleep in, we head down to the 1st floor healing quarters where all of the nurses are wearing pale yellow. We arrive to hear the head healer woman telling off a very energetic young boy who apparently won't stay in his bed! It is great to see louie awake and recovering so well. We confirm that the teddy is indeed his and so we gift him back his old well adored teddy. He remembers very little apart from the fact there was a water noise coming from the crystal before everything went black.
He is astonished when the nurse tells him that he has been asleep for so long. We also very carefully show Louie a main gauche (which he greatly enjoys) but the nurse is not keen on any larger weapons being welded by the young prince.
We now head to speak with James. Unsurprisingly we find that James is in the library surrounded by books. James tells us he also heard the Crystal hissing and he felt that something was off inside the room at the time. He says that Jarvis had mentioned that the crystal alarm had been set off, but that upon investigation they only found a box and that the crystal was damaged. This was the day before Louie then got hurt. Also when Louie was found he was found with the new (nightmare) teddy which James found very odd and did not trust because "Things don't just appear like that."
We ask if James is happy to accompany us to the crystal room now to check on the crystal and he happily obliges. When we get there he says that he thinks the magic has shifted yet again and he can't figure it out but that it is not necessarily a bad change. We return James to his beloved library and then we send a second silver raven letter to Walter with an update on both Louie and the nightmare, plus asking for his thoughts on James.

At 3pm that same afternoon, after our raven has left, a messenger boy comes running up the gate (completely booking it) and after a few very quick brief words to a guard he is promptly let through to see the queen. We ask the guard what is wrong and he tells us that animals are attacking the castle gates again so we offer to head down to help. We head down with the 20ish available guards and it feels very similar to when we arrived in town.
One of the castles main casters looks very hurt already so Sensua and myself attempt some healing on her. I also offer her a potion and she does not hesitate to accept it without a word and swiftly drink it. Mulga casts smite on the new guards weapons on their way out the gates, and Sensua and I start talking to some of the animals (Deers and Bears mainly) asking them why they are attacking. They tell us they being called. The party also do some DAing. We are told that "they must answer the call" and we establish that it is the crystal which is calling them.
Vixen, Mulga and I rush back up to check on the crystal, leaving Sensua and Seraph to keep helping the guards with the fight. We find James sitting in a meditating type of trance inside the crystal room. Naturally he is quite startled to wake and see us asking him what he is doing. James tells us that he has not been able to get the weird change in the crystal out of his mind so has been sitting here trying to figure it out. We notice that the crystal has somewhat repaired itself since earlier (it looks a little like a bad welding job currently) so we decide that it is safe to leave James here to continue and we go back to check on the others.
The fight is definitely being won against the animals. Sensua and myself talk to some of the animals again and this time we tell them to run away so that they don't die (thankfully they do listen, and the last few animals retreat off into the forest.
We head up to tell the queen about the crystal calling the animals and see if she knows why. We also tell her about the crystal repairing itself slightly (so we sorta accidentally let slip about James, just slightly) but she seems ok with this and acknowledges that James its likely having some positive effect there but she will still also get someone in to ensure the crystal gets perfectly and fully repaired.

Day 23

On the 23rd day, a Raven letter comes (we are surprised that this reply is so quick as the raven has only been gone a day!) In Walters reply letter, he agrees that James is a little odd but it is indeed in a good way, and that he thinks that things will be ok with him there, now that the nightmare is gone. He believes we have completed what we need to and that things can now hopefully fully return to normal.
We spend the rest of the day wandering around checking out the castle thoroughly and then also reading the night sky. We get some very helpful answers as well as some slightly more cryptic ones. "A black presence missed in nature, magic fades like a fog in the wind." "No evil influence influencing the crystal", A second read of the night sky: is the black mist the nightmare? "Yes." Will the animals stop attacking once the crystal is repaired? "Animal nature quick return, old habits restored once cracks are no more." We are pleased with these answers in particular as it indicates we have pretty much done all we need to once the crystal is finished being fully repaired. Now it is beautiful candy floss bed sleep time again yay!

Session 11

Day 24 - 28: Sensua is Sticky

We spend the next few days generally exploring and enjoying life at the castle, there has been some secret night swims, as well as some general Candyland sightseeing and souvenir shopping. Vixen buys a beautiful candy keychain and I enjoy adding to my personal little rainbow array of different "Souvineur candies" to take back home.

Sensua Continues to attempt his charismatic aura on the queen and although all the advances we witness are ignored but he does come home sticky and smelly.. (for he got to joyously swim in the queens milky moat..)

Day 29 - Day 33: Home

On the 29th of the month we leave Candyland and head the 5 days travel back to the valley of the sun to see Walter. There we are handsomely paid, plus given some bonus healing potions by Walter too. He leads us back through the cellar door and takes us home to our guild where we are checked for curses (yay there are none!) and have our loot valuables assessed. I thoroughly enjoyed our little Candyland adventure and am still currently enjoying all of my delicious candy!

Loot

• Five sets of leather armour
• Five hand & a half's (Rank 4) which also have some blacksmith ranks
• A measly 10 silver!
• A set of keys!
• Monsieur woods longbow.
• six potions (3 red-orange healing, & 3 purple-blue witch-sight)
• a large stack of coinage which we determine to be 1000 silver.
• A true silver hand & a half with
• A very valuable magical scabbard. (It has a very intricate pattern and is also capable of spell storage)
• Our chest is very ornate & heavy & we estimated it to be between 5000 and 20,000 in value
• Our beautiful tent sleeps four persons and weighs 50 pounds.
• Messenger Ravens x2 (shiny metallic sheen),
• Leather Armour with a permanent enchant armour on it and 10+ defence,
• Saber with permanent duration enchant weapon,
• Short sword with permanent duration enchant weapon (can be overwritten)
• Amulet (+1 armour and +10pt defence)
• Knucklebones
• Book
• metal Toy cart
• A wand
• 1 x Toy Soldier
• 1 x Gold Duck on a string

Mil Sci

1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12
Seraph				Malga				Flayre
Vixen						Sensua

Calendar

Winter
	Moonday		Duesday		W'ansday		Th'rsday		Frysday		Reapsday		Sunday
	Samhain
Frost (7)
			1	Guild Meeting, Portal to Candyland	2	Ambush on The Road	3	Return to town	4	The Road Part 2	5		6
	7		8		9		10		11	Candy Forest	12		13
	14		15	Candy Castle	16	Tracking Amulet/Roger	17		18		19		20
	21	Explore the castle.	22	Meet the Queen	23		24	Sightsee	25		26		27
	28		29		30
Snow (8)
							1		2		3	Return to the guild.	4
	5		6		7		8		9	Moon enters "The Camel"	10		11
	12		13		14		15	Solstice	16		17	The Duke of Carzala's Winter Ball	18	Yuletide
	19	Days of Chaos	20	DoC 2	21	DoC 3	22	DoC 4	23	DoC 5	24	DoC 6	25	DoC 7
	26	DoC 8	27	DoC 9	28	DoC 10	29	DoC 11	30	Twelfth Night
Ice (9)
											1		2
	3		4		5		6	First Plough	7		8		9
	10		11	Wotan exits retrograde. Thunor enters "The Spear"	12		13		14		15		16
	17		18		19		20		21	Freya passes "The Lovers"	22		23
	24		25		26		27		28		29		30