Fair-bound Ride

Summary

Adventure: Fair-bound Ride
GM: Struan
Session: Spring 808 wk
Night: Thursday - Starting 25/09/08
Location: Chez Ellis
Level: Low

Party

Imri - A water mage played by Rosemary
Rumpelstilzchen a Hobbit E&E played by Philip Binder
Kerry - A bunny Dark celestial played by Helen
Mario - A lover of wine played by Dean
Pierre the Halfling- An Illusionist played by Ian A.
Julius - An E&E played by Barnaby.
Ibrihim - An air mage played by Andrew

Employer: Harold Jr of Harold, Harold and Harold - Merchant House of Flugelheim (and elsewhere)
Mission: Provide Extraordinary security services for the transportation of a couple of items across Alusia.
Pay: Guild standard rates ( 100sp per wk each ) plus potentially some item discounts.

Notes

1st Thaw 808

My first ever mission for The Guild and I get to be scribe!
I get to be the Scribe because my Common is the best in the party. As I am a novice at both adventuring and at keeping records of them please forgive any errors or omissions I might make. I know that first I'm supposed to record the party, who holds what position and what it is we are to do as explained by our employer so here is that information.

The party

Imri Athaliah; an Elvish woman from the Elvish Isles, she is a Water Mage and will be the Party Leader for the sea leg of our journey.
Mario Valentino Pavoni; a male human from the Luna Empire, he is Mind mage and will Lead when we are dealing with merchants and their caravans as he is also a wine merchant.
Ibrihim Al Khalid; a human male from Arabie, he is an Air Mage and a carpet merchant. Ibrihim will be the party's Military scientist and command the party in military matters.
Pierre is a male Halfling and Illusionist, he will be the cook.
Julius a Human male is an E&E; he has a curved sword which seems to please Ibrihim.
I am Kerry Murdock a Human gentle woman from Rank; I'm a Dark Celestial Mage. I will be the Scribe and I don't have a sword, although if I did it would be one like Mario's, a Rapier.

We will also have a Halfling called Rumpelstilzchen joining us but it seems he has managed to get lost some where between the guild meeting and the briefing. Guild Security assures us they will have him at the docks in time to board the ship before it sails tomorrow.

The mission

Our Employer is Harold Jr. of Harold, Harold and Harold a Merchant House of Flugelheim that The Guild sometimes sells unwanted Items to. And our Mission is to provide security during his transportation of a couple of items across Alusia though a portal to the plane of Helvus; to a Magical Item Fair that is being held there, where he will deliver them to his Grandfather; one of the senior Harolds.
The items are a Rabbit with strange magical powers one of its abilities seems to be preventing people from finding out what it does. Harold also believes it is not scryable or locatable and that these properties will help us protect the second item a large Religious Artifact.
Harold Jr. has reason to believe that someone will attempt to steal these items.

The rabbit is here in Seagate the artifact is in Flugelheim; we need to travel by ship with the rabbit to Flugelheim pickup a cart and collect the artifact. We then travel across Flugelheim to a portal, a trip of about 5 weeks, then on for several days more to the Fair.
Harold says that when the fair closes at the end of Seedtime everyone attending will be magically returned home.

Other stuff

Because all Harold's other employees (personal guard, cook and two porters) that were to accompany us have been frightened away by the mysterious magic rabbit Ibrihim and Mario have renegotiated the amount of the party's payment as the services we will be providing have been now extended from those originally agreed with the guild.
We will now be receiving a total of 1400sp per week to be split by the party and a sum equal to 9 weeks payment has been deposited with the guild plus once at the Fair a further1000sp each will be paid to us. A lot of specialist merchant terminology got used to define this part of the payment, but as I understand it the party gets to spend the equivalent value 7000sp of the merchant houses money in local currency at the Fair, if we spend more than that we will owe the merchant house the balance to be paid on our return, however we will not be charged the usual interest, money changing or loan fees.
Harold will pay the travel expenses and for food while we are in his employ.
And the relevant local laws will apply to salvage and recovered property.

Due to the loss of his employees we are to provide security for Harold and the rabbit at the Little Lama Inn in New Seagate tonight and help him get it and his luggage to the ship at the docks tomorrow morning before 10am.

Watch order for tonight is:

Imri and Mario, 8pm until 12 mid night.
Julius and Kerry, midnight thru until 4am.
Ibrihim and Pierre, 4am until 8 am.

After consulting with the rest of the party (except for the missing Rumpelstilzchen) Imri spent 150sp of party funds commissioning a overnight search by a guild researcher of the library records for any information on the plane Helvus and the Religious Cult the Artifact is associated with in Flugelheim. She will collect the report on their findings tomorrow before we sail.

Ibrihim has commissioned an astrology reading this too will be collected tomorrow. [Q:Source of the Darkest Conspiracy we are entangled with]

We will all need Carpets if we wish to fly and after watching Ibrihim's bargaining skills some of us choose to investigate alternate suppliers before committing to purchasing one of his. [6'x2.5' plain woven carpet available for 120sp (wholesale rate, for friends), 4'x2' carpets for hobbits are 80sp. A fine carpet with interwoven blessing of good fortune cost around 5 times that - I have only one of these available]
Several of the party have bought healing potions from the Guild.

Imri can create waters of healing if we need them, also as a safety precaution to help define the location of 'Home' for the party she has convinced the guild to cast some strong magic on her. Because of this Ibrihim has stated we should protect her from serious harm and not let her be killed as his healing abilities only extend to Soothing pain and Curing infections.

Seagate to Port Artz

Departure, 2nd Thaw.

After breakfast Imri and Mario made a quick return trip to the Guild to collect Ibrihim's Astrology reading and learn what the researcher had discovered about Helvus and the banned religion in Flugelheim.
Julius bought a second bunny he named Decoy. Placed in the hutch with the other rabbit Decoy became very upset and panicked (even though we had them physically separated), so it was removed and carried though Seagate to the ship in Ibrihim's coat. A chicken coop was later obtained to use as a second rabbit cage; the chickens it had contained made a nice stew.
Just after the nine in the morning with the hutch, Harold's trunk and six packs loaded on to a hired cart we arrived at the docks to find Rumpelstilzchen waiting for us with his donkey.
Rumpelstilzchen is a very tall slim Halfling, a foot taller than Pierre he is almost as tall as a dwarf. He is an E&E and his best spell is quickness.
Because of the extra animals Imri and Pierre obtained several days extra rations for rabbits, while the donkey and the contents of the cart where loaded on to our Ship.
At 10:30 with the livestock safely shut in the hold we went below to sort out cabins and room mates while the crew set about putting the Ship to sea.
With the crew occupied and under the cover of the noise of getting underway, we were able to share and discuss the results of the divination and research, as well as make arrangements for checking on the security of the cargo during the voyage.

Ship board watches, 6 rotating, 4 hour shifts, one on two off.

Mario, Julius and Rumpelstilzchen, 8 until 12 – morning and evening.
Imri and Kerry, 12 – 4
Ibrihim and Pierre 4 - 8

The ship is seaworthy but not as ship-shape as she could be and still shows some winter damage; in order to leave her northern home port this early in the season they have skimped on her preparation and only the most essential repairs have been completed.

Day 6 at sea, 7th Thaw.

Most of the party adjusted to being at sea within a day or two although Pierre missed a few meals and Rumpelstilzchen still looks a little green.
Over the first few days Rumpelstilzchen cast 3 month Greater Enchantments on the party, and Imri Water Proofed some of our gear (bedding, packs & cloaks), this should still be in effect long after we make port.
We also practiced our skills (or lack there of in my case) with our weapons.

As an experiment Rumpelstilzchen has tried but is unable to locate the Rabbit, its hutch or Imri, he is however able to locate Captain Charles.
It has been discovered that all of us but Rumpelstilzchen have been dreaming a similar dream for the last 5 nights. In my case it involves dark shapes of writhing shadow swirling around a centre of shapeless darkness. But the image of something circling a center is common to all our dreams.
Harold Jr's had been having the dream a few days longer, so with Mario's assistance was able to give the best detail, that was until he was asked if the dream was related to hunters and hunted and then he passed out.
We conclude that these dreams may be tied to the Rabbit in some way as Rumpelstilzchen is the only one not having the dreams and the only one who has yet to formally meet the Rabbit.
Julius tries repeatedly to locate Rumpelstilzchen to see if the two effects are related and after failing more than a dozen times and going deaf in the process it is concluded that Rumpelstilzchen can't be located.

Ibrihim used healer empathy to sense the Rabbits emotions using Decoy as a base line; he said his impression is the Rabbit is frightened and hiding.

Racing the Storm.

Towards late afternoon on the 7th Imri and Ibrihim report that the ship is headed into a storm and even with their assistance the ship would be unable to make Port Arts much before dawn when they were sure the storm would break. After consulting with Captain Charles who has no wish to navigate the harbour entrance in the dark with a storm breathing down his neck, they took a couple of carpets and flew off to lure the storm further out to sea.
Thus having gained a little breathing space the ship sailed though the night and with a little push from Imri was arrived at Port Artz with the dawn on the 8th of Thaw.

Wagon Ho

8th Thaw, Port Artz

Harold Jr. had arranged for transport and supplies for the next stage of the trip to be ready and waiting for him on his return to Port Artz.
As soon as the ship docked Ibrihim, Julius and Pierre went ashore with Harold to collect these, while Imri, Mario, Rumpelstilzchen and I remained with the ship to protect our possessions and livestock and to oversea their safe off-loading.

Within few hours of sailing into port we were safely heading west along the coast road accompanied by two strong carriage horses drawing a covered wagon. The wagon contains enough food and other supplies to support a party of ten for six weeks, as well as all the things we brought with us from Seagate, as a consequence there is currently very little free space left in the wagon and unless it's our turn to drive most of us get to walk along side; the two Halflings are able to ride double on Rumpelstilzchen's donkey.

Due to our early arrival (both in the day and a day ahead of schedule) we hoped to be able to get well clear of the city before any potentially hostile parties were even aware Harold had returned, and to further confound them we chose to travel into the storm that was still threatening the area.

After several unpleasant hours of travel in heavy rain and strong cold wind the storm passed (with a bit of a nudge from Ibrihim) and we were able to make a way-house half a days travel out of the city without incident.
This way-house is a large barn like building with stalls for four horses, room to get the wagon under cover and a bunk room with a hearth in the rear.

9th Thaw

From the way-house we travelled on following the coast to Krieger Abbey which is built against the end of a blind canyon several miles off the main road, the turnoff was clearly identified with a stone marker.

At some point during the race with the storm Imri's magic had gone awry and she had become afflicted with the dreaded brain rot. This had been picked up by our healers as part of a routine health check and as the Abbey had the means to cure her, Harold, Imri, and Ibrihim flew ahead to arrange for her to under go a curse removal. Meanwhile Julius, Mario, the two Halflings and I spent most of the day travelling with the wagon.

Once we were all gathered at the abbey we were shown to a reasonable sized internal room in which the Artefact was stored, guarded by four chanting Monks. The Monks' ritual is supposed to keep any surviving members of the cult from locating the object, which is as Ibrihim suspected an altar complete with blood channels.

We all got lesser from the Abbey's earth mage and Rumple acquired some holy water.

10th Thaw

We arranged for the Artefact to be Divinated by Father Harper the Namer who had removed Imri's affliction, after Mario was able to sense the presence of the altar with ESP.
From this we learned that the effect Mario felt was a form of devotion due to its tie to the demons, but the item itself is not an entity. The extent of the Altar's powers were confirmed, and the timing of its last ritual use established. As this was only three months ago it shows the cult has proved difficult to suppress, and seems highly likely someone is still out there looking for this thing.

Mario made a second attempt to question Harold more about the dreams under Hypnotism. This questioning confirms that the effect is caused by the rabbit; she is the last of her kind and is hiding from hunters. She is not native to Alusia, coming here was a ploy to lose the hunters which seems to be working.
We also thought Father Paul the Abbey's senior Earth mage talked to Rabbit itself; while the earth mage had trouble translating some of the things she told him (he lacked context) we learn that the rest off her kind were killed (probably by Demons but not the same ones the artefact is aligned to), and she survived because she is the very best at hiding. She believes she will be safe if she gets 'higher up' and someone has told her that if she sticks with Harold, although the trip might be scary he will take her to this safe place. We also learn that the rabbit understands our speech which will be useful, now if only I could understand her.

As an alternate to slow wagon trip across Artzdorf the feasibility of taking a week or two off our travel time either by a member of the party carrying the both items while flying, or suspending them by rope between two people was investigated.
Father Paul, the Abbey's senior Earth mage is much better with Elemental than he is with his Strength of Stone spell and was unable to provide any member of our party with sufficient extra strength to carry the Items (270-280lbs) without assistance even if they carried no other gear.
Experiments were made with a much lighter weight suspended by rope between two people, and while Imri and I successfully flew with about a third the required weight, Mario and Ibrihim rather spectacularly dismounted their carpets when the rope pulled taunt between them at 30 mph. (They where saved from serious injury because they had a Feather fall too.) Several hours of practice later it was clear that a moment's distraction is enough to cause serious problems and that no one in the party is skilled enough at carpet flying to safely make flights of 3 or 4 hours carrying the items.
Transporting the items by air it was decided, while possible, would be an emergency plan only.

Ibrihim wishes me to record that Mario admitted Ibrihim is saner than he is.
I believe Mario said "Saner heads prevail" as Ibrihim vetoed his plan.

11th Thaw

Last nights Dream was different the perspective has changed I was inside the center there also seemed to be a wider gap between the circling shadows and the center. The others to are dreaming their versions of this new dream and Rumple is now having these dreams too.
We had to rearrange the contents of the wagon so the weight of 250lbs of Marble as well as our other supplies was evenly spread over the load bed and yet we could still get at the items we need, this took some and we left the Abbey at a later hour than we had hoped.
We are still heading west though the foot hills of the Eastern Great Ridge once clear of the ridge we will head north parallel to the Ridge for several weeks before taking the pass to Eltrandor. Our route is slightly circuitous as the most direct roads are not passable by a wagon, only small carts and mule trains.

From this point on our watches on the road will be from 7 pm until 7am.
Julius, Mario and Rumple first watch.
Imri and Kerry second watch.
Ibrihim and Pierre third watch.

12th Thaw
Spent last night in a way-station, but tonight we get to stay in a village Inn. The village is only a small place of around 20 houses on the edge of the plain, but as this is the main route between Port Artz and Artzdorf it has is an Inn.
From here we could either take a longer loop around to the north though Artzdorf, or take a less used road north towards Minerstown.

13th Thaw
Took the less used road, it's shorter and although the roads not as good and therefore we will cover fewer miles in a day, we still save at least one day by not having to pass though the outer areas of the City of Artzdorf.

A Tangled Web

Spent the night in another way-station these places all seem to follow a similar plan; this one is a large barn like building with stalls for four horses, a bunk room with a hearth, and a hay loft above the bulk room all down one side. There is space to get the wagon under cover on the other, with doors at either end. Rain is collected from the roof and stored in barrels provides a supply of water.

During first watch some spiders tried to trap those sleeping in their beds with webs.
Those on watch had to help us free, the silk of spiders the size of saucers is very strong, and (counting bodies later) there where at least three of them for each of us.
There where six much larger spiders outside the building; these were as big as Pierre (who is 2ft 10 inches tall).
All the spiders were being controlled by an invisible person hiding in a near by coppice; this person fled on star wings when it became obvious that we had the upper hand, for despite most of the party being blinded by a brilliant flash of light we were still able to squish or skewer all his/her large minions.
Rumple tried to cast something at him/her just as he/she took off but it had no apparent effect, and although Ibrihim and Pierre gave chase they lost him/her in the dark, star wings are very hard to see against a night sky.

Imri put the two surviving Large Spiders in a cage and Mario used his magic to revive one of them for questioning. We didn't learn much; it was after all just a big spider and not a sentient creature, but we where able to confirm that its master was part of this banned cult and had been in contact with others who controlled the other creatures, but not in the last week. For the last week the spider and its master had been staking out this road which suggests that they hadn't got a fix on the Artifact up until this point but had been staking out possible routes and that the master may have gone to fetch help.

Plans for losing people who can use wolves to track and ravens to search were made and a new direction of travel chosen.

14th Thaw Traveled west cross country, Ibrihim and Rumple scouting ahead to route find and keep us on course. By-passed the Inn on the main road to Artzdorf and made a rough camp.
The dreams have changed again; the swirling searching mass has a spider web pattern to it.

Mucking about in Boats

Arrived in Ritzsump late afternoon 15th Thaw.
Imri and Harold arranged for passage up the River Ritz on a 60ft river barrage called the Lumbering Larry whose master is a man called Marcus.
By the time it got dark our wagon, horses and donkey had been loaded on board and being drawn by hired tow horses we had left Ritzsump behind, along with our single surviving caged spider.
Zane, the factor for Harold, Harold and Harold in Ritzsump will ship it to the city of Flugelhem in to be sold as an exotic pet. There was a danger the spider could be located and lead the cult to us so it's being used as a decoy.

After dark with the tow horses handed to a relay station, Imri took over hauling the barge up river, by the time she stopped for some sleep we where within 10 miles of Ritzdorf.
Our plan is simple by moving day and night we hope to out run any pursuit; by day the Lumbering Larry will look just like any other barge on the river being towed by horses, so as not to attract attention; at night Imri will take us as far as she can with magic. If agents of the cult spend the next week beating the bushes in the south we will have a good head start on the pass to Eltrandor.

I spent the night practicing my magic Ibrihim would like my witchsight to last a little longer should we run into any more troublesome night visitors or invisible people.
I also practiced creating my own darkness; one day this ability will enable me to cast in the day time.

A Conspiracy of Ravens

Just after dawn on the 16th Thaw Marcus hired tow horses and someone to lead them and the Lumbering Larry passed though Ritzdorf while Imri and I slept. Marcus also showed the others how to steer the barge so it stayed in the proper position on the river for towing, once past Ritzdorf he too tried to get some sleep.
Julius had a person who had been showing a suspicious amount of attention to the barge as it passed though Ritzdorf on locate. When about 10 am his locate suddenly showed this person to be heading east at high speed he and Pierre where sent flying off to follow.
With Rumple to locate Julius the rest of us followed several minutes later, leaving Harold and the Items with Marcus and his barge slowly heading up river to Rhigelhelim.
(At that point Imri and I had only been asleep for perhaps 3 hours at the most and due to the hurried departure had to finish dressing in flight.)
After about an hour we caught up with Julius and Pierre; it seemed that whomever we where after was flying Northeast at about the same speed as the party.
Since it was unlikely that we would over take our quarry before they landed our hope was that we would be able to capture him for questioning once he landed.
Just after noon, having passed far to the north of the city of Artzdorf (its rocky spire was just visible on the horizon) as he landed to approach Minestown on foot we where able to get ahead of our quarry and successfully ambush him and the two large black birds that where with him. We even managed to capture one of the birds alive; an Unseen Mario was able to fly it down and stun it.

A quick search of our captive and his gear proved him to be wearing leather armour, a sabre and main-gauche and two silver rings; he was also carrying assorted standard travel gear along with several days travel rations and what could be ritual components.

We had a seven hour layover hidden in a coppice about two miles out side of Minestown. During this time while those who would be casting our travel spells that night slept our prisoner was questioned using a combination of good old fashioned intimidation and magic.

To summarize we learned that we had caught the celestial agent; he knew about the Illusionist's failed attack and when he had spotted us on the river he had flown to Minestown to meet up with the Air mage agent, who could cast a spell to communicate with the other 3 and summon them together to attack us. He had the same spell stored in two armbands, but these had insufficient range to reach everyone from Ritzdorf (they have a range of 200miles).
We also learned how and where he was to contact the air mage, this information we gave to the town guard in Minestown when we turned our captive over to them. With luck the cult will loose yet another agent, and if he escapes his next few weeks should be spent running and hiding, not seeking us. (We made 1000 silver pennies in bounty on the celestial and another 250 silver for the information on the air mage)
Due to Julius's skillful questioning and a little mind magic, the cultist believes that it was 3 or 4 bounty hunters that captured him. Further he will not remember seeing us on the river until around noon on the 17th by which time we should be back on dry land and heading for the pass.

We then flew back to the barge which was just north of Rhigelheim, and headed up stream while those who had been awake all day finally got some sleep.
Having rested earlier Imri was able to keep the barge moving up river the rest of the night and into the early morning of the 17th of Thaw; by second breakfast we had almost reached the ford where the road from Mennerville crossed the river on its way to Hightown. Only another 15 or so miles up stream from this point are some rapids which are only navigable in times of flood the water level being too low for even so small a craft as we are using most of the time.
Ibrihim had flown ahead alone to see if he could arrange for a bit of a flood, so we could extend our river journey another day or so. It had been arranged that we would rendezvous with him at the Inn by the ford where we would decide whether we would continue up river or take to the road again, therefore Imri kept the boat moving for another hour and around 9am the time Pierre calls brunch we where all reunited at the Inn to have just that.

Moon Magic

After lunch on the 17th of Thaw we took our last trip on the Lumbering Larry. The rain over night and during the morning had caused the river to rise and Marcus our bargeman was able to direct Imri though the now flooded rapids which are part way though a canyon; the river at this point is less than 70ft wide. Maybe 25 miles up river from the Inn is a second ford where we were able to unload our wagon and horses.

Over Lunch at the Inn, Ibrihim had told Imri of a talking cloud he had met during the night it said it was an aspect of Aqua and invited him to visit its home. Aqua's home is a pool at the base of the waterfall that is the outlet of the Lake of the Moon and the start of the Ritz River. Realizing that Aqua was some sort of water entity, Ibrihim had declined to stay and chat since chatting would involve getting into the pool, not exactly the best idea for a lone air mage.
During the afternoon Mario suggested that Imri (with company) talk to this Aqua and see if it was able to get our horses and wagon up the eastern river that flows into the Lake of the Moon saving us many days of slow travel over wilderness. However due to the late hour and the need to assist Marcus in getting the Lumbering Larry back down stream of the rapids this visit had to be postponed until the next day.
Next morning Imri, Ibrihim and Julius went to visit Senorita Aqua in her very deep rock pool at the head of the Ritz River, while she was unable to help us directly her power being mostly restricted to her pool she was able to direct Imri to a being called Selene who dwells on an island in the center of the Lake of the Moon, and give her a clue as to how to over come the disorientating mist that protects the island.
Imri went alone to visit Selene as the trick to getting past the mist is to be deep underwater and neither of the others swim. She returned an hour later with some items and a plan for getting the wagon, horses and donkey up river.

Back with the rest of the party Imri explained the plan she and Selene had settled on for getting us all up a river some ten miles of which flows underground.
Firstly the two horses and the donkey would be turned into Seahorses, the wagon would be sealed inside a water proof giant seed pod, then Imri would use Mage current the same spell she had used to move the barge to move the pod the seahorses and whoever is traveling with her up the river, the rest of the party (the non swimmers) would fly.
When we get as far up river as we want we just cut open the pod and counterspell the seahorses, and carry on our way hopefully having saved our selves another week on the road.
I think Mario thought the plan sounded a bit like one of those tales the troubadours tell where the prince winds up running about with glass slippers looking for his true love, since he wanted to know if we had any. (Well, the inspiration for such tales has to come from somewhere.)

Items from Selene, 4 water chest nut, fruit thingies for turning horses to seahorses; 1 small mangrove seedpod that will grow to about 20ft across when triggered in water.
Imri also has 1 gallon (8 1pint doses) of magical water from Senorita Aqua.

Spent the rest of the day getting to a point on the lake of the moon where we could launch and load our pod.
Once at the lake Imri put the pod into the water to grow over night she was also excused from watch to get as much sleep as she could and I got partnered with Rumple.
The dreams had changed again this time there are webs feathers fangs claws and eyes in the searching swirl and over all is a quarter moon. The feeling we get from the dream is that moon is protective and the searching creatures are far off.

Up and Under 19th Thaw

We amended the plan slightly and Rumple and his donkey got to ride in the pod with the cart, and only the two horses became merhorses.
As aquatic's the horses had horse heads with bodies like sea lions, they had gills but could breathe both above and below the water.
I was a good thing we were to put the donkey in the pod as Imri forgot we needed help to load the wagon into the pod and changed the horses early. It's a lot harder to move a loaded wagon with just one donkey and human muscle, but would have been worse with manpower alone.

Imri, Mario, Harold and I travel in the water, Pierre, Julius and Ibrihim travel by Air. The lower part of the river is wide and deep and there was a place just before where it disappeared underground where we could moor the pod and stop for lunch.
The underground section was totally underwater; the passages were easily wide enough for our pod and the only hazards are several sudden turns and a number of hard stone pillars. However by keeping your speed low you will have time to avoid these obstacles even with the limited range of visibility witchsight grants.
Several miles up stream of the place the river flows underground is a large pool and 20ft high waterfall beyond this waterfall Ibrihim reported there where rapids and another waterfall and then a gorge where numerous streams fall over cliffs to create the head waters of the river. These streams are all snow melt judging from the temperature of the water.
Unable to get our loaded pod any farther up stream we unloaded and camped overnight beside the river.

On the 20th we headed east towards the pass to Eltrandor, on our second day of travel we found the overgrown remains of an old trail heading in the right direction which helped us make a few more miles each day.
On the morning of the 25th we cross the river above Hightown by a disused possibly forgotten ford rather than the aging wooden bridge on the main road which we where worried about being ambushed on. Later in the day we found the main road and in the late afternoon three days later found ourselves looking at another bridge across a tributary of the river that we had crossed on the 25th. This time Imri whose turn it is to fly as scout can not locate another ford or alternate route we have to cross this bridge.

The Earth Mage and the Two Bears

We camped a few miles short of bridge and well out of sight; the next day (29th Thaw) Mario spent sometime trying to get a precognition of what would happen when we crossed the bridge and reported that a short distance after the bridge we would be ambushed by the Earth Mage Agent and two bears, the battle in his vision was confusing and he could not tell who was winning, but the Earth Mage was using walls to block the trail.

After some discussion although the bridge seems a better ambush point we decide that the bridge would be bad place for the Earth Mage as he would be unable to use magic and Mario's vision is probably correct.
As Earth Mages can cast Blending and Walking unseen we sent Julius, Imri and Pierre flying ahead Unseen to scout the site of Mario's vision; from the air they can't see the bears or a mage in the early morning light but as the ground is covered in large rocks and bushes and the road lined with trees it wouldn't have been difficult to miss them while trying to avoid hitting a tree or the hillside.
With the information gained from the scouting trip and Mario's vision we form a plan to out flank and ambush our would be ambushers. Leaving Rumple with his ability to put things to sleep with Harold on the cart the rest of us drop out of the sky and a very short while later we had killed the smaller bear, driven off the enormous 13 ft tall one and captured their Master.
As soon as we landed it was evident why our scouts had not been able to spot the enemy from the air, they were hiding in a cave in the steep hillside. Hidden from the above by a large over hanging slab of rock and screened from the road by trees it is hard to see the north facing entrance from any angle until you are almost right outside.
A narrow 7 ft high 30to 40 ft long passage curved down and around to the left before opening out into a cavern where or captive had set up camp.
We searched both or prisoner and his camp, and other than mundane items like his weapons armour and camping equipment recovered a number of magical items (rings, an Amulet and a Bracelet).
Later having moved on and camped early we questioned our captive and learned that Reese the E&E cultist with his snakes was camped at the base of the pass; by using the river and cutting across country we had avoided him.
Ibrihim and Pierre few to High Town and returned with some of guards to take our prisoner off for trial and the reward for his capture and the information on the location of the E&E cultist.
It was also arranged for our names and deeds to be passed on to the Companions a group of adventurous second sons from Noble houses that fancy themselves as some sort of heroes, but many act as couriers; the group runs a number of chapter houses across the country.

On the 30th Thaw we crossed the boarder into northern Eltrandor, there was no guard post but 2ft high whites stones stand either side of the road and in a line every 200 yards across the pass.

The End of the road

10th seed time, over the last ten days we crossed part of northern Eltrandor avoiding major population centers; passed the boarder check into Cauldersfield.
Once we crossed into Eltrandor the nightly dreams that we had been having since Seagate stopped.
Well up a blind cannon Harold takes out a magical Key which he uses to locate and open a 15x15ft door in the cliff. On the other side is the plane of Helvus and a city, the layout and buildings are similar to what one would expect to find in Arabie except that the local stone is of a different colour and the people speak a language which none of our party can place.
Harold says the Alusian portal moves and that his family have the knowledge of where it likely to be found next.
We met Henry, Harold's uncle at the Merchant houses out post in the City.
We get a given a magical Translation Amulet to help us shop in the cities magical market, these devises only translate conversations you are engaged in not the general babble of the market which is useful as the more they are used the quicker these items wear out, it is expected that each one will work for at least a week.

Epilogue

The Rabbit she got sold to a nice home that would take good care of her as the last of her kind.

The fate of the Alter is unknown but the tie to the Ice demons was broken and the whole thing has lost a lot of its icy white glow.

We got paid for 6 weeks work plus the spending money off plane and we also got a bonus, equal to another six weeks pay.
The party all returned safely to Seagate, it seems it is recognizable magically as the home of us all regardless of where we were originally from.

Information

The Items

The Rabbit

The Rabbit is very large mostly white in colour with a broad uneven stripe of black from one shoulder to the opposite hip and a slash of black across its face.
It is housed in a small sturdy wooden hutch some 4 ft long 3ft wide and 1 1/2 ft high with a rush strewn floor.
Kerry tried and failed to DA it, although Imri believes it may have DAed us all.
(It should be noted that I'm not very good a DAing and my failure should not be seen as an indication that it can't be DAed.)
Nor did it respond to attempts to Speak to Creatures of Dark or Speak to Enchanted Creatures although these did get more of a reaction than just talking to the rabbit in Common.
Mario was unable to sense its mind.
Julius and Imri could both see a slight blue sheen around the rabbit.
Pierre also detected the presence of illusions on the creature.

The Religious Artifact

The Religious Artifact according to Harold large and a cart is required to transport it, although he is not sure just what IT is.
The religion with which it is associated is currently illegal in Flugelheim and has been so for the last 5 years. Its practices and priests have been suppressed and its followers strongly encouraged to convert; basically they have killed the priest and any that refuse to convert. Harold can't tell us who these people followed only that their religion was deemed bad and outlawed; hence the need to investigate Guild records.
Ibrihim suggested the artifact may be a Sacrificial Alter, which if the case means we had better not let Pierre touch it, given his track record.

IT is an alter a low white marble Sacrificial Alter with the five animals associated with the Ice demons carved on its sides. Its quite small for an alter being about 3ft long and maybe a little less than that wide, more something to bend a victim over than to lay them out on.

It is still attuned to the Ice demons but removing it from this plane should break this tie.
The alter is indestructible, and an Ice place of power is created by its presence; it is also hollow but the Namer at the Abbey said it didn't contain anything except a lot of mana which resulted in the place of power effect.

The marble has been infused with a form of bound Ice.
Due to the indestructibility of the alter it seems unlikely that the mana will inadvertently escape in the event that the item suffers and accident during transport.

Astrology reading

Question: Source of the Darkest Conspiracy we are entangled with.
Answer:
Simple knowledge and unsimple people,
Lasting places and ephemeral thoughts,
Fanaticism abounds with considerable plans,
To thwart those who are unopposed.

Research results

Helvus: Very little hard information except that like the hells are lower planes, Helvus is a higher plane than Alusia but only by a step or two. Things there are likely to be more magical and fantastical but similar.

The Banned Religion: it believed to be related to the cult of Five Ice Demons previously encountered by several guild parties.
Between the winter of 803wk and the autumn of 804wk Five Ice demons and their agents attempted to turn Flugelheim into there own private Icy plane. Most of the populace was abducted and trapped within the plane called Icehaim, it seems a very experienced group of guild members was able to thwart their plans, and rescue much of the populace including the Royal Family.

The Ice Demons were:

Haze – whose animal minions were ravens, and whose agent was a Celestial.
Picturesque – whose animal minions were spiders, and whose agent was an Illusionist.
Storm – whose animal minions were polar bears (12' tall), and whose agent was Earth mage.
Chill – whose animal minions were wolves, and whose agent was Air mage.
Apathy – whose animal minions were furred ice snake, and whose agent was E&E

Spiders

The big spiders had an animal level aura, and had been collected from a nest that the Master kept, the smaller spiders came from a different nest near by; the spider couldn't find its way back to its nest or to its master.
Normal prey for its kind would be large insects and mice, Halflings even ones as small as Pierre are too big.
No one took particularly sick from spider bites, and any ill effects wore off quickly.
The spider knew that the Master had had dealings with Masters of other creatures namely Birds, fury worm things, large 4 legged creature and even larger 4 legged creatures.

People and Places

Harold Jr

Harold Jr is a human male in his late teens early 20s, he is about 5'8 or 9" tall while not strictly over weight he could kindly be described as soft, and a little on the heavy side.
(If anyone has any more to add to this description please do so)
As a Merchant he was no match for the party's negotiators although Mario was impressed by Harold's ability to evaluate the more subtle qualities of his fine wine.
This is definitely his first assignment outside of Flugelheim and if it's not also his first solo assignment, he certainly hasn't had very many prior ones.
He has however previously been though the portal to the Fair with his grandfather, so we are not relying on inaccurate maps or vague instructions to find our way.

In the first few days after arriving in Flugelheim it was noted that Harold could see though the various forms Invisibility in the party, and had obviously flown before. (I wish I'd been able to see his Aura)

Father Harper

A priest at Krieger Abbey Father Harper is a Namer.

Father Paul

A priest at Krieger Abbey Father Paul is an Earth mage.
He put seasonal Lesser Enchantments on the party, has slightly higher than midling ranks with Strenght of Stone and is an expert at with the Earth elementals which he uses for plowing.

Senorita Aqua

Selene

The Little Lama

An Inn located in new Seagate, is while not exactly slumming it is definitely for those traveling on a budget. As an Inn it has little to recommend it by way of fine dinning, notable beverages, or interesting ambiance.
It is however a sound structure with good shutters on its windows, the surrounding alleys are reasonably clear of refuse and vagrants and the general area well patrolled. The buildings walls are not conducive to climbing and the depth of the roofs over hang is enough to make entry or exit that way challenging, its one security weakness is the proximity of a lean to stable to a second floor window.

Port Artz

One of several major trading ports in this part of Alusia Port Artz covers a good part of the northern shore at the end of the sound, the south shore is undeveloped. There are Light houses on both sides of the ports entrance, at the end of the sound a river flows into the sea over a sizable waterfall. Another thing observed during our short visit was the width of the streets, these being at least three cart widths (room for two vehicles to pass and footpaths either side) which aided our swift departure against the incoming morning traffic.
The city has some sort of weather controlling spell over it as it was observed that the weather was much calmer in that area as the storm passed over.

Krieger Abbey

Is located about a days ride (one and a half by cart) west of Port Artz. Built against the end of a blind cannon several miles off the main road, the turnoff is clearly identified with a stone marker.
It is not an Abbey of the western church, the priests there wear a circle divided into eighths with a dot in each eighth they call the Wheel of Life which we where told represents the eight gods and eight stations in life.
At least some of the Priests are mages; we had dealing with Father Harper a Namer and Farther Paul an Earth mage, but it was implied there where others of other colleges at the Abbey as well as their apprentices.
There where no Water mages however, to help Imri recover what the brain rot may have erased.

Ritzsump

Is a walled port city at the mouth of the Ritz River.
The wall is only low 6 ft high and 3 ft wide, there is a patrol on the wall.
Inside the wall the city is like most other ports, it does not have the unusually wide streets we saw in Port Artz.
Grain from the interior is exported though this port; it is barged down the river in barges up to 200ft in length and transferred to sea going vessels at the docks by cranes.
The river barges use teams of either horses or oxen to tow them up river, these teams are often hired from specialist companies and changed at relay stations and don't work after dark. The tow companies don't like competition from magic.

Ritzdorf

A walled city on the east bank of the Ritz river.
Only one bridge crosses the river; on the west bank is a graveyard surrounded by a matching wall, this wall has no gates.

Minestown

Is a medium sized walled town on the edge of the eastern Great Ridge? A trading town it deals in mundane and precious metals.
The gates are shut at night, but there is a postern gate with a peephole so late arrivals can not be that uncommon.

Rhigelheim

Is a walled trade city on the west bank of the River. Tariffs are charged to river traffic passing the city. The River runs though a gorge along side the city and is spanned by a wide bridge 50ft above the water level; there is a gatehouse at the east end of the bridge.
There are elves among the guards on the walls of this city.

The Inn at the Ford

Lake of the Moon

High Town

Not a walled city however there are guard post on the main road.

Helvus

All that was seen of this plane was a single large city; the layout and buildings were similar to what one would expect to find in Arabie except that the local stone is of a different colour and the people spoke a language which none of our party could place. It also seemed to be autumn on this part of the plane where it had been mid spring on Alusia. The population was made up of Humans Elves Halflings and a Lizard type. The magical market was huge with Weapon, Armour, and allsorts of magical oddities, on one side of the market were Merchant Guild Halls and on the other a Slave market. The Slaves seemed to be mostly of an economic nature and it was not permitted to remove them from the plane.

Items collected by the Party

2 Silver rings
a Sabre
a main-gauche
assorted standard travel gear along with several days travel rations and what could be ritual components
2 Armbands with Wispering Wind 200 mile range
1250 sp from the bounty on cultists
4 water chestnuts -used two on the horses.
1 plant pod - used to get up river and sent back to the lake.
1 gallon (8 1pint doses) of magical water from Senorita Aqua- 2 used during trip up river
3 Silver rings
An Amulet
A Bracelet
a Sabre
a main-gauche
Soft leather Armour
assorted standard travel gear along with several days travel rations
A second 1250 sp from the bounty on cultists

Calendar

Spring
	Moonday		Duesday		W'ansday		Th'rsday		Frysday		Reapsday		Sunday
	Candlemansa
Thaw (10)
			1	Guild Meeting	2	Depart Seagate	3		4		5		6
	7	Storms	8	Arrive Port Artz	9	Kreiger Abbey	10	Flying practice	11	On the road...	12		13	Spiders Attack
	14		15	Ritzsump	16	Raven Attack	17	Breakfast at the Last Inn	18	Lake of the Moon	19	Seahorses & the Pod	20
	21		22		23		24		25	Ford Pass River	26		27
	28		29	Attack Bears	30	Cross boarder
Seedtime (11)
							1		2		3		4
	5		6		7		8	Rites of Thunor	9		10	Portalled off Plane	11
	12		13		14		15	Equinox	16		17	Eostre	18	The Seagate Spring Ball
	19		20		21		22		23		24		25
	26		27		28		29		30
Blossom (12)
											1		2
	3		4		5		6		7		8		9
	10		11		12		13		14		15		16
	17		18		19		20		21	Floralia	22		23
	24		25		26		27		28		29		30	Walpurgisnacht