Hire-A-Hubby

Summary

GM: Stephen
Season: Summer 820 WK
Night: Tuesday
Location: New Windsor
Level: Med-High

Party

Tsayoi - Giant Lava Mage - Chris C
Cronose - Elven - Ciaran
Mario - Human - Dean
Aloysious - Human Air Mage - Nick
Merco - Halfling - Jono
Motlie - Human Earth Mage- Paul
Mindi - Human Fire Mage - Audrey

Employer & Mission: Clean up the King's to-do list, Bandits, Pirates, Barons, the usual...

Deal with Orcs from the forest in the south.
One of the barons has been talking about a new ruler. Find out why and do it softly.
Find out whats up with the missing merchants (who headed up north to the Assassin cult in the mountains).
Try to figure out the timeline on the poison on the rivers which come from the bad lands in the west.
Sort out the piracy problem.
Teach the children about life.
Find the lost city of gold.
Return with the raw gems from the gem mines.

Scribe Notes

Day 1 and 2 - Getting there and needs satisfaction

We met our employers representative and were filled in on our mission. Basically the world saving Aryan hasn't kept up with his obligations at home and his very long-suffering wife has 'needs' that we are to meet to her satisfaction and she's glad we have some big strong, well muscled men for her.

We make plans and gather supplies before setting out via Mario's 'dream points' heading to Ebola which takes a day for half the party and the other half arrives a day later. So its the afternoon of the 2nd day when we arrive at the queen's villa and we have our discussion in person. We talk late into the evening and while some retire for the night, others (such as the known lothario Mario) stay 'up' all night satisfying the queens curiosity and needs. The brother and sister in our party have to slum it in the common guest quarters - much to their displeasure.

Day 3 - Travel South towards the Orc Jungle

We fly down southwards towards the Orc infested jungle which is the 'lair' of a number of Orc's raiding north into the kings lands and are the cause of loss of life and more importantly income. We stop at a watchtower near the wreckers coast for the night.

Day 4 – Travel to southern city

We travel south for the day and at dusk, we land at a perfectly built city made for 10's of thousands but inhabited by only about a thousand tribesmen. We enter and discuss our needs and then spend an uneventful night in a well-made stone home that looks like it hasn't been lived in.

Day 5 – Travel east and down to the Jungle to be a staked goat.

We fly east to talk with the young noble who is with the cattle herds with no real progress and so we travel the last 50 miles south and land just beside the jungle in an advantageous spot where we can hide things from the jungle watchers whilst still appear to be a ripe target for looting/raiding. We make the appropriate ambush preparations and retire for the night.

In the night 3 young orcs attacked us and 1 dies in an unfortunate accident when his head falls off as I lightly tap him to knock him out (they don't make Orc's like they used to!), but we capture the 2 others.
We interrogate them to little avail and so we decide to enter the jungle forthwith. We enter the jungle to seek out their camp using our two-captured Orcs. We considered just wiping the nearest camp out but decided to talk and negotiate instead. An agreement is reached where we would trade booze for the skulls of this tribes enemies in the jungle (we hoped to incite enough inter Orc warfare to keep them from raiding northwards. We do learn about trading port down further south near the volcanoes, which we will investigate. We return to our camp for the rest of the night.

Day 6 – To Volcano and then expeditious move Northwards

At 8 we arise and cloud south over the jungle towards the alleged port by the volcanoes. 11am sees us land on the flanks of a volcano and walk down towards a port well hidden under the jungle canopy. We get there and there is a palisade with guards who greet us gruffly. We scout out the area and the wharves and find little to excite us apart from a .
We hear rumours of a lost city of gold / gems (along with a rich mine) 50m to the NW near the twin mountains.
We make further trading arrangements and resolve to deal with these pirates soon enough. We depart and head back northwards. We land and utilise Mario's dream point and we find ourselves in the more cosmopolitan city of Porto del Toro by 8pm where we stay the night.

Day 7 - Northwards we go

We arise and find out via the hobbit bakery network that a baron named Iashallah is being naughty and is on our list for talking to at some time. We then dream point to Ebolo and check in with the Queen Delores who advises us to check out some issues north of North Watch, which involves some subterfuge and mystery deliveries. We fly there and land at the Tower of North Watch by 3pm.

We garner information and find out about missing wagon trains who haven't officially passed this way on their regular route and have thus failed to return unofficially from their trip northwards.

We can't fly anymore and so we start trekking into the highlands and towards another jungled area. We travel on chariot and other means and after a bit of travel come across petrified creatures which causes us some consternation and we are on our guard even more. Our Earth mage gets some wolves to question and they tell us of creatures coming from the hills to the west and a smell-less horror that we call 'Clean Freak'.

We find a campsite and spend a night outdoors watchfully

Day 8 - into the Northern Jungle and then back to Ebolo

We follow the trail (such as we have) into the Northern Jungle. The feeling of being watched increases and we come across fey traps and find dead wagoneers.
Vicious fast creatures and nasty trees attack us and so a bit of magic is used to kill the creatures and a swathe of jungle is blasted by fire.

We travel through the wreckage of the devastation, finding the path again and then we continue along. We come to an illusionary wall and almost all of us pass through except Merco. Those of us inside see Merco and realise it's an illusionary wall that he failed to resist and thus can't pass at this time. He stays outside while the rest explore. We discover the living area of the training camp and are called inside by some survivors who warn us of the nasty shadows detaching from the trees and ground. We fear for Merco and encourage him and then he manages to resist the shielding around the area and enter with us.

Inside we talk with the survivors and discover; This is a training camp belonging to the master and that there were 6 teachers and 44 students here, but there are now 18 students left and the teachers are all dead. The teachers died when they entered the secure/forbidden 5 sided tower with some prisoners some 8 weeks prior. The shadows and ground 'lurkers' have killed off the students who attempted to flee. The students know nothing of the master only they must obey. The students are being taught to live well and happily in the world and are likely part of a well organised spy network.

A ploy to see how the opponents react is employed using Mario who returns intact but with valuable intelligence about our foes.

We through brute force managed to get all the students away from the camp and evacuated back to Ebolo where we spent the night after our exertions (we in the Cliffside villa and the students in an unused guards barracks) and excessive talking.

Day 9 - Return to Seagate

We discuss events with Queen Delores the following day and failing to gain much insight apart from a bit of information from her about the camp but we need more and so return to Seagate to find out about this "old friend of her husbands who uses the area for exclusive training purposes".
We resolve to return to Seagate to dig into this long term associate of Aryan's from 810wk. We spend the day returning to Seagate via various means.

Day 10 - In Seagate

The next day back in Seagate the mind mages start asking questions around the area with little apparent avail. However late afternoon Aloysious gets a note from his Spy Trainer at the guild from someone who'd like to meet us later that night at a local tavern.
We pass the day and then that night we go to a tavern to drink and there later we are met by someone who advises us to stop asking questions about his business and spreading news of what we'd found.

We explain to him the situation and he gives us some insights to the camp.

Yes it's a training camp for individuals trained as social interactors in the Superior People Yard's world
The two 'hungry' minds in the ground are some 'tame' ancient vampires who provide security for the camp and other services as long as they are fed regularly
The camp receives prisoners who have been legally sentenced to death for heinous crimes (by local lords) so that their sentence can be undertaken and provide a service as a by-product of their death.
There's a Shadow Portal in the camp so the dangerous shadows that are lurking in the camp have probably come though that portal. What exactly they are is still unknown
There are up to a dozen spirit phantasms in the camp and assigned as guardians under the control of the teachers. These have obviously become uncontrolled since the death of the teachers, hence our encounters with some of them in and outside the camp. We have killed off 5 of these 12.
The loss of the teachers is terrible and the lack of leadership is obviously causing the problems
The camp was secret due to the nature of its training

We explain the problems of the camp, in that;

The spirit phantasms getting away from the camp and into the surrounding jungle which could cause 'issues' for the locals
The 5 sided tower is emanating evil and despair which could also spread
The hungry minds are getting hungrier and need to be fed to keep up the bargain that constrains them
The nasty shadow creatures
Other nasty surprises that we hadn't yet been exposed to

He asks us to fix the problems and offers;

220,000sp to solve the issues of the camp and restore it to normal. Weirdly enough, the bulk of the party, including all three mind mages, balk at the moral implications around feeding the vampires to keep them in line, and sacrificing prisoners to power various itemry, so we collectively decline.
25,000sp to track down the wandering spirit phantasms and deal with them to keep them from spreading far and wide.

We agree to offer 2 and think it will take 2 weeks of quartering the surrounding area to track them down as they seem to be devolving away from the camp in a circular or spiral fashion.

We take our leave and return to the guild to prepare for departure on the morrow.

Day 11 - Travel back to Ebolo

Day 12 - 26 Jungle Hunt

We spend 2 weeks going around the area close to the camp and we track down, attract and destroy the creatures so that they no longer threaten the local area. We leave the issue of the camp to the mystery spymaster and his minions to resolve. We end back in Ebolo where we rest and prepare as we are going pirate hunting next.

Day 27 - Planning

We spend the day planning and then enacting our plan. We gain access to a lessor ship and get it loaded with apparently valuable treasure and goods in a secret location hidden from prying eyes (in reality where 'valuable' cargo is normally loaded on secret dock #7 in the port caverns of Ebolo) and then ship out of port heading northwards with our secret cargo.

Day 28 - 30 - An exciting day sailing

Nothing much happens as we are still too close to presumed support from the Ebolan Navy and so the days are spent familiarising ourselves with sailing etc.

Day 31 - We find something on our Pirate hunt

We are in the eastern shallows and innocently sailing along when we (via bird spy - aka the Eagle Axe) espy 2 ships close together, either transferring cargo or some other nefarious activity and so we change course, lay on speed and deploy our dolphin depth sounder (aka Mindi the Dolphin) to keep us clear of the areas likely to sink us while we pursue these ships. Once we are 15 miles away they spot us and so split up with a faster ship (the smaller of the two) heading south and the bigger and more relevant ship turning eastwards. We decide to pursue the easterly and send Cronose to deliver a warning for them to stop. Cronose closes and drops a magical trap a little too close to the ship. He turns around when flying back and sees the ship severely damaged and sinking with a lot of bodies so returns to report what he saw.

We continue on towards the eastern bound ship and deploy our mind mage phantasm squad to slow the ship down, whilst staying out of range of the ship based ballistae which can fire @ 1000 yards or so. This is successful while they can see targets but teh crew erect canvas to hide themselves from sight whilst still peering out looking for targets. The enemy turn north in an attempt to lure us onto shoals but we see through this ruse and along with our dolphine guide continue in deeper channels. Mario tags a crew member so that we don't lose them in the night.

We prepare to deploy the next phase of our plan. We get closer in the night while they are anchored in the shoals and then using Aloysious skiff we close and board them which involves a good fight and a standoff with a Hindi God/Goddess Avatar who departs once we fight it to a draw.

We find ourselves with a ship full of 40 slaves (recently transferred from the other ship) and captive crew. We discuss and bicker about what to do next. NIGHT PASSES

Days 32 to 35 - We head back to Ebolo with our prize

We sail the ship uneventfully back to Ebolo after much bickering about 'The East Hindia Trading Company' and not starting any "land wars in Asia"
We arrive back in Ebolo on the dusk tide where we report to the Queen and free the slaves.

Day 36 & 37 - Resting and Recovery

We spend 2 days recovering from our sea voyages and Mario samples the local 'delights' until he recovers some sanity.

Day 38, 39 and 40 - Into the Badlands

We head NW to investigate the poison river and badlands. We get closer and the cloud starts playing up some we land and surmise the area is full of fractured mana which plays havoc with magic effects, duration etc. The river is very poisonous but there is actually moisture there which can be filtered out by the hardy few farms we see along the way. We end up walking a lot of the way finding interesting things. We come across a patch of moss growing and it shows signs of filtering the river water into potable water so we will keep that in mind for intensive growing later. Much walking and camping above the water in the low hills. A storm comes unexpectedly one night and it doesn't have the impact we'd expect and it gets broken up quickly and doesn't last that long, just like its theoretical summoner!

The nights pass a distance from the river as the dehydrating/no real sustenance effect of the river affects our goods too.

Day 41 - Vorpal Rabbits and a mysterious road.

We decide to firerun in a distance and come across a mysterious bridge in the middle of the area which shows no signs of aging and is mysterious. We cross over to the south side of the river as we detected a mind there. We (Tsayoi) are attacked by a blindingly fast vorpal rabbit which almost takes out Tsayoi's throat but it is stymied due to a doll. Mindi hoses down the area the rabbit went to and we soon find a dead rabbit of unusual aspect.

We look around and head back to rest with the impact of the wild magic <night passes>

Day 42 - full travel across the area

We try to and succeed in travelling right across the area to the nice plains area the other side of the river on the western border of the dead/poisoned lands. We end our day luxuriating in lovely water and eating roasted antelope. <night passes>

Day 43 - We find the center and the dead city (or is it the city of the dead?) / tombs

Deciding to be rigorous in our searching we once again return to the crossroads north of the Bridge and turn NW where we end at a tower growing up from nowhere and surrounded by the ancient remains of a town. We use our intelligence and use ancient elven to speak words of opening on a doorway which reveals a hole in the floor leading a long way down and a narrow very long (8000ft) set of steps descending downwards.

We descend and after a very long time or vertigo inducing panic we get to the bottom of the stairs and we are in a dead city with Ghosts and full of bad feelings. We explore a bit but only find sealed building that we fear to break open to get answers and so we walk a lot.

We finally figure out how to open the buildings but each takes at least an hour for Psychometry related divinations to give us the information which includes passwords for the door, roof and floor.

We enter the first one and get a bad but indeterminate feeling. After a bit of searching a Spectre emerges and launches magic at us. A lot of fear, quaking of boots and some damage occurs which ends when my holy sword extinguishes it forever. We find some loot.

We do this for a number (4) of other buildings before we take a rest for 10 hours, realising that we are becoming more dehydrated whilst we stay in the area. We awake and do another 4 buildings finding some more loot and then we depart back to the western edge of the lands to recuperate. We stay there the remainder of the day and the next.

Day 28 - xx

Logistics

Buffs & Mil Sci

Long Term (assumed always on)

Merco's war dogs - Bite IX & Guard IV

Magic (caster)	Rk	Effects	Duration
Heroic Aura (Ma)	15	Mario:+16SC,+3Dmg,+16vsFear; Allies:+5SC,+1Dmg,+8vsFear;Both +5Def,+1DR	480 mins
Strength of Stone (Ts)	15	+15 EN	8 hours
Vapor Breathing (Al)	10	Let's you breath the armpit of Murio and live.	12 hours
??	Can anyone cast a defense spell??.	??

Short Term

Merco's war dogs - Bite IX & Guard IV

Magic (caster)	Rk	Effects	Duration	Ti	Ce	Ma	As	Mo	Cw	Me	Bi	Gu
Mind Speach (Me)	20	Lets you hear the voices in your head.	210 mins
Weapon spell? (??)	??	Can anyone cast a weapon spell??.	??

Watch Order

1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12
Tsayoi		Cronose				Motley				Tsayoi
Mario				Crew & Guard IV				Merco & Bite IX

Marching Order:

Skirmish Formations (Front)

Default

Mario
Tsayoi
Cronose
Motley
Tsayoi
Crew
Merco, Bite IX & Guard IV

Double File

Tsayoi / Cronose
Motley / Tsayoi
Mario / Crew
Merco, Bite IX & Guard IV

Single File