Homecoming
Summary
Adventure:
GM: Terry
Season: Spring 824 wk
Location: Online
Night: Thu
Level: Med
- Party
- Valentine
- Mirage PL
- Belladona Mil Sci
- Hrothgar Bronzebeard Scribe
- Seraph
- Employer
Escort dwarven smiths from Charity in Brastor to the Superstition Mountains to attend a ceremony.
- Mission
- Pay
Scribe Notes
Chapter 1
A week after the Guild meeting, we were requested to arrive at the guild for a late employer.
A Dwarven Smith by the name of Borhein Flintshield, who was already asleep with a keg of ale next to him and clean tankards on the table. The job is to provide security for a carriage of masterwork items being delivered from Charity in Brastor Holdings to the Superstition Mountains for a ceremony. I will be honest; I certainly wasn’t expecting to heading home so soon. We will be travelling alongside his fellow smiths, Kullmus Hammerfinger and Nuric Smeltgrip. As well as the novices Thuren Bonebasher and Dall Nobleshield. Apparently, they are Raphaelites. Followers of Raphael. As a fellow dwarf, I’m unsure what to think about that.
There’s a concerning rumour from Borhein about a “beardless” curse or illness within the mountain. However, it’s just a rumour. We will see for ourselves if it’s true or not.
The plan was to either travel by Arn’s Ferry down to Charity where the carriage and cargo are waiting for us or have Belladona cast a special knowledge fire spell called Wildfires to increase our speed. The kind of speed where your legs are on fire and leave trails behind you briefly. This meant getting to Charity should be straightforward. The problem is deciding where we will escort the cart. The Filgiso Forest is a no go. Apparently, spellcasting wendigos and a Balrog??? Thus, leaving us with two options. Through either Braegon’s Pass or Calson’s Switch travel across The Sweet Riding to Borovia Hold. Or, back on the boat with our cargo to Regar’s Keep, travel down the road and briefly across The Sweet Riding.
In the morning, our party and employer Borhein readied to travel by Wildfire (Which, out of context certainly sounds strange) outside of New Seagate and run across The Sweet Riding to Charity in Brastor Holdings. We had to pause two thirds of the way there as the spell’s duration ran out. Stopping for a meal and restorative, Belladona’s fatigue was restored, and we were ready to continue onto Charity. As a personal note, being able to run at high speeds? I see what I am missing out.
Arriving just after lunch, we arrive at Charity and follow Borhein over to The Molten Core, a workshop they used when they were helping to rebuild the town. Place of note being the Bronze Bullfrog, the local tavern. Choosing to spend the night at Charity so everyone is fed, rested and ready to begin the journey towards the mountain. The Molten Core workshop reminds me of home, and I am glad to hear they are keeping the guards well equipped. Especially after the events of the Dark Circle.
In the morning, with the carriage ready and loaded with barrels of ale, the enchanted anvil and the masterworks; we make our way towards Braegon’s Pass with the plan being to cross The Sweet Riding to Borovia Hold, travel down the road to one of the entrances to the Superstition Mountain. According to the map, roughly 125 miles from exiting Braegon’s Pass to Borovia Hold.
During our journey, the novices and master smiths speak about forging, processes involved, different metals and so on. This journey is an important one to them, like a holy pilgrimage. I find myself smiling as I listen while keeping watch within the cart, because I don’t have the stamina to keep up with humans and the elf.
The next day, Kullmus stood up during a meal and dropped his tankard. His eyes glowed white and wings sprouted from his back. My Detect Enchantment showed he was under the effect of some kind of visage, lasting minutes. Floating and holding his hand out, he spoke. “Flock is in need of defence, Heroes are required” There was another voice from his mouth, someone praying to Raphael for aid. Valentine touched his hand, and power engulfed him. He vanished into the sky above in a flash of light. Mirage explained they couldn't possibly assist as they were already under contract. The more Mirage talked about contractual obligations the more Borheins anger built, he eventually exploded yelling at Mirage "JUST GO" . After discussing amongst ourselves, and a quickly signed document from Borhein, our party hold hands and touch the outstretched hand. We rocket into the air in a flash of light, our destination unknown.
Chapter 2
Shrouded in white light, we rocket towards our destination until we encounter a giant red skull, and pain rips through our bodies. Strange symbols then appear appear as we fly at high speeds; Forge, Lute, Dagger, Sword and Pot. I “chose” Pot, unaware what the purpose of these symbols were. Then we loose consciousness.
We would soon find out, as we awake we found ourselves inhabiting bodies that are not our own. Feeling some of the man’s memories in my head, I find out my soul had inhabited Reeve Hernays, human, 63. With a lean, sinewy build that speaks more to his agility than physical strength.
We find ourselves in a stone building. Appears to be a church of some type. Old men and women, and children huddled around us as people were fighting undead near the entrance. My shock at my current situation was broken by my body’s right-side hip. Gathering weapons off the ground since our items are missing, we prepare to fight against the incoming undead. Zombies and Skeletons. A strange skeleton with four arms burst through a side door, making me shout “What in the mountain’s name is that?!”. It earned me a few looks from people, but I didn’t mind. If the party members were here, they would have certainly heard me. The battle continues as something began to break through the roof of the church. A giant bloody skeleton spider, bigger than two horses, joined the fight. During the fighting, I noticed when I took a blow without the armour, I had equipped in my dwarven body, the claw attack from the multi-arm skeleton didn’t do quite as much damage as I was expecting. It felt like something else took the rest of the damage. After putting a pillar of fire through the hole in the roof so nothing can come through it, we finish fighting and begin to talk to the priest of the church.
The priest’s name is Eldritch Stoneforge. Apparently, the village was attacked by the undead about an hour ago. They undead breached the main gate and they have been praying to Rapheal for help. As I look at the other party members, I noticed our eyes are glowing white. According to the priest, we are in Alebrook in the Kingdom of Cornumbria, in the Duchy of Brandenburg. Answering our questions, we acquire more information. They saw the undead approaching their village but do not know where they came from. My dwarven self is annoyed that I do not have my items and now we have to fight with whatever weapons we can find. Once we’re geared up, we can start helping out however we can.
Chapter 3
After spending some time interacting with one of the children and Lady “Cluckington” and telling stories. We tend to our wounded and count our dead. The Spider had been laying eggs in their wounds. A quick removal of the eggs and a few lives have been saved. We head to the guardhouse afterwards with Eldric and meet up with the captain of the guard, Tamsin Thistledown. According to her, there are more bone spiders, and they have been dragging people to the town square. Gaining new weapons, weapons we have training in, we ready ourselves for the next battle and quickly eat a nice warm meal. We make our way towards the town square to rescue the civilians who got dragged off.
Several people, 4 small bone spiders and 2 large bone spiders very much like the one at the church. One of our party, Valentine had rushed ahead to the town square and suffered a fatal wound. Or rather, the host he was inhabiting suffered a severed aorta. At the time of writing, we do not know what happened to the real Valentine. Burning the spiders with Hellfire, slashing them with a controlled Nightmare and a combination of both with a Weapon of Flames, we begin to clear the bone spiders. Once the area was secured, we found Valentine’s host was both alive and dead at the same time… and we managed to restore enough endurance to bring him back to us.
Chapter 4
We escorted the survivors that were captured by the bone spiders back to the church. Orin Blackroot is our contact at the church if we are entering and leaving the church as they are bolting the door to keep the undead out.
We head back to the guardhouse with Eldric to plan our next move with Tamsin. She’s the captain of the guard and she knows this town better than us so her assistance would certainly be valuable. With some nice tea down the hatch and a signed note from Tamsin for any healer should we require healing, we head out to take care of the remaining lesser undead around the village.
Later, we arrive at the broken main gate and meet up with Tamsin and her guardsmen who are trying to make a barricade. After coordinating with the younger men, we managed to prop up one of the gates up and I used Binder Mending to repair it. Although, the other gate’s hinges were destroyed. New hinges had to be created to repair the other gate.
With the village secured once more, we make our way to Preston’s house. Preston, being one of the bodies habited by a party member. While each of us “had” a house to return to, we didn’t want to split the party, so we chose to sleep over at Preston’s house. Plenty of rest and noisily making food in the kitchen in the morning, we recover our fatigue. We talk amongst ourselves as Valentine uses a spell to check for any nearby undead. He discovered a small bone spider “trapped” in the space under a house. Opening the boards, I fired bolts at it with my crossbow until it leapt towards us and the other party members strike it with their weapons. Slightly concerning that there was a small bone spider hiding under a house. More concerning that “dark spheres” and “meteor strike” also came up in the conversation. Side note, how would that look? They pray for heroes and the heroes obliterate their village. One thing is certain. We need more information.
Chapter 5
We headed back to the guardhouse to inform Tamsin about our discovery. They had sent a rider for reinforcements, but we shouldn’t expect any for a few days. They currently have a long list of responsibilities. Burying bodies, tending to the wounded and so on. We’ve been asked to collect Fairy Mushrooms from the nearby forest so that the herbalists can make a salve for the wounded. Belladona was suggesting using a spell called “Flame Sight” which requires burning something. They’ve been dragging the undead bodies into the town square so they can be dealt with. I’m not surprised at this point that a fire spell requires something to burn. Before we use the spell, we head to the tavern for a meal. While we have our food, we start talking with various people around the tavern. Although, we get a few odd looks of “You should know this friend?”.
Apparently, we attracted someone’s attention as they asked to meet Belladona’s host out back. I would like to note at this point that Belladona was in a male body. On the unknown man’s collar, there is a tattoo of two daggers in a row. Apparently Belladona’s host is called “Silk”. Possible code name? He belongs to the same organization as Belladona’s host who had retired from. The host has 5 marks on his collar bone. A “council” was brought up but no additional information about it. After our meals, we head to the town square for Belladona to use her ritual spell “Flame Sight”. According to her, it allows one to attempt to see through another fire, a vision of the past (by burning the object. “Ah yes, the life of a shirt”) or a premonition of the future.
Burning the Large Bone Spider, she received a vision of the past. A courtyard, a Rune Portal and an alive metal armoured Orc casting some kind of magic, presumably involved in whatever was going on in the vision. Focusing on the fire again, she attempted to receive a vision of the future. A dark cave. Silhouette of something quite large. A large pool of water. Something large and grotesque “Ogre with Wings” (9 to 10 feet tall), bathing in the water. It charged towards her and the vision ends. According to my host’s memories, the description of the cave possibly matched in the forest, near where the Fairy Mushrooms were.
Exiting the village, we make our way through the local woods with me being the guide as I use the host’s memories to manoeuvre through the woods. We found a circle of the mushrooms we were looking for. A memory sprung to the surface that I had forgotten something important. These mushrooms were protected by Faeries, and I didn’t have any tobacco weed for the exchange. Instead, a deal was made. One of the Faeries had a bad reaction to the mushrooms and… well… Turned into the creature from Belladona’s vision of the future. In exchange for turning Sprinkle back to normal with the antidote, the Fairy will allow us to pick as many mushrooms as we require.
Note to self: Be sure to write a note to Reeve about what happened and the story of the adventure for the fairy before I return to my actual body.
The plan is to Walk Unseen, Create Semi-Real Rabbit meals and pour the antidote into the last one, and move the meals inside the cave using Mirage’s Image to lure Sprinkle out. The plan worked mostly, resulting in a tired Sprinkle. With Sprinkle returned to the frollick of fairies, we collected the Fairy Mushrooms we required (with a promise to Reeve to come and visit again with the usual amount of tobacco weed). Returning to the village, we handed over the gathered mushrooms and checked in with everyone at the Sun and Moon tavern.
Note to self: While I have tried to stay true to my host’s memories and person from what we’ve heard, I do not wish to ruin his life with my choices. Unfortunately, I cannot say that about the others.
Chapter 6
The party asked around for information about the first sightings of the undead forces. Gareth being a notable figure who was wounded from the fighting. The vision of the past from Belladona’s Flame Sight would most likely be the source of this undead invasion however we have no clue where it’s located. A Castle? A Temple? A stone courtyard doesn’t tell us much. A runner approached us and said that Tamsin wanted to see us. Before we turn in for the night, we visit her. According to her, a “strange” mist had rolled into the courtyard where the bone spiders were burned. We check out the courtyard and confirm the mist is indeed of a magical nature. It’s obscuring something as its primary magical purpose. Placing a Necro Counterspell and moving Mirage’s Image into it to see if anything leaps out to attack it. The bonfire that used to be there was missing and, in its place, a hole. A hole with an old staircase. Mirage’s illusional Gorilla headed down the stairs and returns safely. This illusion would have broken upon receiving a single hit.
We slowly move down the stairs, checking for traps as we wander. Detect undead picked up 2 Wights (Greater Undead). According to Valentine, they are dangerous and hard to even hit. We buff ourselves and carefully walk around, spotting carvings on the wall and checking the doors for traps. The door is thankfully not magically trapped or warded. However, the door contains three locks. Using Transparency (One-Way), we view through the door and Mirage uses his image to look further in. (He can move his image to anywhere he can see and can see and hear through his image. Good combination). The 3 locks are mechanically trapped, wrong key will trigger something. For now, it’s as far as we could go, and it was already late. We planned to ask the priest Eldritch about our discoveries and get some sleep. Belladona sets up a Hellfire Ward just in cause the detected Wights come out of the locked doors. We also send a runner off to warn Tamsin about the hole and recap what we’ve found.
After a night’s rest, we check in with Eldritch to see if he uncovered something from the journals of previous priests (We asked him to see if there was any mention of the area beneath the town square.) The name Elgen Hern is mentioned. With new information available to us, the undead may be here to free and retrieve the wights that are underground. I consider this possible. I just wish our items came along with us, we might put up a better defence and stand a better chance. Valentine disarms and picks the locks on the underground door. Although we had to brute force the final lock that refused to open. Detect Undead revealed 4 Wights! Buffing ourselves and looking around, we slowly make our way down the hallway and find some kind of black water.
Chapter 7
A “creature” leapt out of the black water and attempted to eat at Mirage’s Image. It looked like a Boney Humanoid creature that will haunt my future nightmares. After dealing quite a bit of damage, it dove into the black water to escape. In an insane move, Valentine dives into the Black Water after it. Even after Mirage sent two Nightmares after the creature. “The man dies once and thinks he’s immortal. I worry for his host” I spoke after seeing Valentine dive in after the creature. With the plan to just send more Nightmares and Hellfires after the creature in the black water, I wait. Whatever the creature was, it had enough physical strength to easily resist my previously attempted Adhesion. Moving on, Valentine emerges from the black water victorious. The creature was dead, especially after the Nightmares kept attacking it to make sure.
At the bottom of the black water, there are torn apart bodies. Mirage used an illusionary octopus to transport us across the black water onto the other side. Among the bodies, we find a magical ring and a magical amulet. The Ring had the general effect of “Storage” with Permanent Duration. According to a Detect Aura, the Ring has a trigger (Not when worn). And the Amulet had Poison Resistance when worn according to Detect Aura. Reminder to use Item Divination on the Ring of “Unknown” Storage. For now, the Amulet was given to me and the Ring given to Mirage. The creature we fought was a Greater Undead called a “Soul Stealer”. Moving forward, we encountered a dusty damaged room. It hasn’t been touched in a long time. Inside, there was another door, and Mirage looks through the keyhole, sending his projection through to see the final room. It’s small… with a floating head in a jar. Asking to confirm its identity, it spoke “You are not the Master” and remained silent. After a slight argument over lock picking the door and smashing it, Valentine smashes his battle axe into the door and destroys it within a minute. Taking the jar back to the Priest, I examine the jar from a Mechanician point of view when the head spoke up. It “recognizes” my host as a member of the House of Hern. His former master being Elgen Hern. The stairs going underground used to have a house above it before it was demolished. The head does not know about the Bone Spiders, and apparently the former master was planning the creation of an undead army. The Wights underground protect an Artifact of some kind, a vase. Through a hidden door we just missed. According to the head, I should be able to take the Artifact without the Wights attacking me. Returning to my host’s house, I recall a tale from my host’s memory. A tale of great shame. Hern was changed to Hernays after this “great shame”.
Chapter 8
Divination on the Ring, we discover it can store a charge of “Flying”. A caster can use the Ring in a similar way to Spell Containment. Then anyone can activate the charge. It acts as a rechargeable invested. The Necklace decreases the amount of damage caused by poison. The Jarred Head revealed a Necromantic Nature of the magic, but the exact nature remains unclear. The Jar itself can preserve and keep alive any recent head you put it. Although the mental state is unclear.
With plans to ready ourselves before we head towards the Wights and the Relic through the secret door in the underground library, we inform Tasmin and get the healers on standby in case we need fatigue restoration. We also received some healing paste from the herbalists, made from the fairy mushrooms we recovered. After a good night’s rest, and double checking, we ready ourselves and head for the underground library. Moving through the secret door, we discover four statues (Detect Undead revealed the four wights inside). I attempted to use my host’s connection to their former master. No visible results. After checking the other rooms with Transparency, we make our way to the Relic. The Urn (Correction since it has a lid).
In the room with the vase, there were shelves of skulls, some cracked. Taking the Urn out of the room, the Wights reacted and appeared from their statues. I attempted to order them to halt but they didn’t listen. However, they seem to ignore me and focus on the others. “If they won’t listen, then they need to be disciplined. Weapons free” I spoke as the fighting began. I held onto the Urn to keep it safe.
After the party deals several severe Weapons of Flame, Hellfires and Nightmare attacks, the Wights had begun to fall one by one. Then, one of the remaining two Wights attacked the party with a mass Black Fire. Belladona’s, Valentine’s, and Mirage’s hosts fell in combat due to the mass Black Fire. Seraph’s Host was heavily injured. I back away from the now uncontrolled Nightmare so it’s targets are the remaining Wights. After the Nightmare dies, I attack and slay one of the Wights as it attempted to munch on Valentine’s body. After taking a drain blow, I slay the remaining Wight. Observing the unconscious bodies of my fellow party members, I worry for their condition. Yet another thought arises…
“How am I going to get them out of here?”
Chapter 9
After using the herbal paste and awaking Belladona up, she uses her Healer knowledge to help everyone else. I will admit, I panicked a lot. Watching four party members get flooded in black fire and three go down isn’t great for the mind. Crossing the black water using a bookshelf as a makeshift raft, we head for the surface and get the healer’s help since Valentine hadn’t regained consciousness. Some time was spent Improving Mirage and Belladona’s health so they could use their Healer magics. Through Item Divination, we discovered the Urn can capture souls of those who die near it and those same souls can be raised into powerful undead. Belladona conducts a ritual to predict the future as we’re debating what to do with the Urn. It revealed destroying the Urn would free the trapped souls and sever the link between the souls and powerful undead. Agreeing to break the Urn, we decided to find a safe place and bring over Eldritch Stoneforge to oversee the process. We were unsure if the released souls would go to Raphiel… but better safe than sorry. I liked my idea of breaking the Urn in front of the armoured orc’s face… Maybe another time, another adventure.
We rested and waited for the sun to rise as we didn’t want to do this at night. Valentine used Cleansing Flame to purify the Urn, which resulted in the Urn cracking. Valentine backed away, which caused us to back away as the Urn cracked and fell apart. The trapped souls escaped and left. Eldritch informed us of a vision he had from Raphael. A Dark Forest, a Totem of Bone. Sounds like our final fight was within these dark woods and there would be serious consequences if nothing is done about it. According to my host’s knowledge, it sounded like it was a day and a half away from the village. And burning the forest wouldn’t work. Need to remember to finish writing that note.
After gathering provisions and preparing for our journey, we head into the wood towards our goal with Tasmin by our side. We lost a few hours after I forgot which way to go. We decided to camp and delay our approach towards the final fight so we can arrive with the sun in the sky. Around 4 hours away. We make plans to disrupt their efforts with an option to use Itemisation on the bone totem. Whether it works or not, we will have to see. After buffing ourselves, we sneak towards the 15ft bone totem with rings of bones. Current itemisation will not work, but a spell to turn one’s hands into effectively “tools” will do the job.
Beginning our assault on the Bone Totem, a wall of fire is placed on some skulls with the plan to destroy the skulls surrounding the totem so we can get closer. The wall of fire melts three of the skulls and triggers the alarm. As we get surrounded by skeletons and bone spiders, Valentine in a flash of Light appears in his true body, empowered by the Archangel Raphael.
Chapter 10
People and Places
Buffs & Mil Sci
Buffs and Abilities
| Magic (caster) | Rk | Effects | Duration | Be | Hr | Mr | Se | Va |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Project Image | 20 | Adapt becomes invisible (G4), Illusionary duplicate image can be moved in range, can talk+see thru it. Mirage can swap places with it (10') | x |
| Magic (caster) | Rk | Effects | Duration | Be | Hr | Mr | Se | Va |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Multiple Images | 10 | Three images, give random chance to be targeted instead | 11 mins | x | x | x | x | x |
| Disguise illusion | 15 | Change or duplicate appearance, +/- 10 PB. Mirage can swap places with willing target (10') | 16 hours | x | x | x | x | x |
| Magic (caster) | Rk | Effects | Duration | Be | Hr | Mr | Se | Va |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Immolation | 12 | Def +20 | 6.5 hrs | 
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| Magic (caster) | Rk | Effects | Duration | Be | Hr | Mr | Se | Va |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Infravision | 10 | |||||||
| See Invis (Rk) | Effective rank for seeing invisible | 0 | ||||||
| Enhanced Vision | 6 | see better, detect illusion 48% | x | |||||
| Stealth (%) | 0 | Std / Ranger Outdoors | 160 | 63 |
- Greater Enchantment
- +21% if from Uzi_Urksome
- Mil Sci Raise Morale
- +1 WP
Watch Order
| Hour: | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Std Watch | xxx | xxx | xxx | |||||||||
| xxx | xxx | xxx | xxx | |||||||||
Marching Order
| Skirmish Formations (Front) | ||
|---|---|---|
| Default
xxx xxx |
Double File
xxx xxx |
Single File
xxx |
Calendar
| Spring: Thaw 824 (10) | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Moonday | Duesday | W'ansday | Th'rsday | Frysday | Reapsday | Sunday | ||||||||
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Candlemansa | 1 | Guild Meeting | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | ||||||
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7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | |||||||
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14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | |||||||
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21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | |||||||
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28 | 29 | 30 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |||||||
| Spring: Seedtime 824 (11) | ||||||||||||||
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5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | Rites of Thunor | 9 | 10 | 11 | ||||||
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12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | Equinox | 16 | 17 | Eostre | 18 | |||||
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19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | |||||||
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26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 1 | 2 | |||||||
| Spring: Blossom 824 (12) | ||||||||||||||
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3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | |||||||
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10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | |||||||
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17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | Floralia | 22 | 23 | ||||||
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24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | Walpurgisnacht | ||||||
