Into the Valley

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The Valley


Scribe Notes: Session - Autumn 806

GM: Callum
Level: Medium/High.
Title: TBA.
Night: Tuesday nights.

Party

Pierre erstwhile Water Mage (Party Leader)
Lath Air Mage (Mil Sci)
Erzsabet Namer
Ithilmor Conjurer of the Night and Stars (Scribe)
Toledo Steele Warrior

Mission by:

The guild recieved a note by way of an Elven Courier, that came in the form of a extremely well made polished iron scroll case with very very old runes skilfully set into it. The runes read:

Forged by us
From ash and iron
With a hammer of fire
On an anvil of ice

Inside was a magical book which we used to guide us to the party employers.

People from the small town of Wyverns Bite need a guild party to assist them with finding out why their three mines are no longer sending Ore to them. They are in the extreme north above the permafrost line north west of Jotunheim.

We also found a credit notice to be drawn against the Elven court. The extremely good bank of Choare & Co in Seagate, assisted us in redeeming the note for cash in the form of seven true silver ingots.

Cloud Travel 1st - 3rd

We start at the guild, and are given a down payment for the job and a book that is known as a rutter which will be able to guide us once to the village. We fly for four days on a cloud to an area with standing stones in the northern snow and ice.

Air Lath comes with good in house service including crackers cheese and nice brandy. The scenery is pretty nice too.

Wyverns Bite town - 4th

Once at the Standing Stones we leave the area by following a path for a few miles through the ice and snow, freezing wind blows from the left and right, which has the sound of large wolves on it. The path is made of the bones of an Elder Dragon. Our instructions are to stay on the path. We wisely avoid the ice elementals who try to tempt us astray. It was only a few miles but it was the longest, coldest few miles.

We make it to the village and it's more the size of a town. It is set in the middle of some sort of natural hot area with steam and stuff coming off the waters. There was a faint bad smell. The town is split into 4 quarters, one of which is parkland, and another is a farm. In the centre of town is a large round squat tower guarded by 4 heavily armoured and armed guards - two Elves and two Dwarves. They guard the forge for a month, night and day, never speaking and are then replaced. They are the only armed people in town. Everyone else in town is pretty and human, putting Erzsabet and Pierre to shame :-(

We are met by a nice looking man. They all are :-). It's nice but they all speak slowly in some old tongue, and roll their R's which is nice. I get the nice man with the tight trousers to walk in front of us showing us the way... emmm.

We are told that the mines no longer send Ore to the village and they want to know why and for it to be fixed. The town has a large number of highly skilled artisans. They only trade with people in their charter. The Ore is usually delivered to the standing stone circle we arrived at and they check it once a week. There have been no deliveries for 3 or 4 weeks. The mines are worked by some kind of constructs (no-one asked what they looked like or anything - doh). New constructs were sent but still no ore. The townspeople have never visited the mines, but they do have a map.

The food was well above the standard in Seagate. Everything is town is exceptionally well made, better than the best artisans from the Baronies, but there are no precious metals or stones.

Explore a mine - 5th

Setting out:
The nights are long, about 20 hours, but here in the town it seems to be eternally morning tea time. We sleep the night in well made beds in a disused inn and then have an exceptionally well made, but cold, breakfast. Outside it is very cold, and as dusk approaches (shortly after lunch) we venture out. Lath calms the weather and then summons a cloud. I do a little dance and everyone feels so much better. We head to the other side of the mountain encircled valley and land near where there should be a mine. Lath summons up a wind to speak with, who leads us to a mine. A couple of Ice Elementals surprise us but are quickly banished by Erszabet and oddly we see wisps of cold dark elemental suck northward (in that way that they shouldn't). Another odd thing is that they were summoned by a Greater Summoner.

At the Mine:
We near the mouth of the mine, and carefully scout it. It seems to be guarded by 9 newish skulls, which are in communication with something or someone - who might be watching us - we do not know. We sneak carefully into the mine. It is a long straight corridor which looks like it has been eaten out of the mountain rather than worked by tools. What creature could chomp its way through solid rock? We follow down the tunnel, carefully removing the Necromantic wards as we come across them. After some time we come across the mountain eating creature - it seems to be a mammoth with a skeletal torso grafted onto it. It is eating the rock but only a little goes into its stomach. Maybe this is one of the constructs the villagers spoke of - oh how we wish we had asked what they looked like now.

We continue down the tunnel and there are several side tunnels, but we stick to the straight and narrow. Noxious vapours, Agony, grey flaming arrows, Starfire, grey flaming arrows, Quickness, grey flaming arrows, death.

Ithilmor dies!!! and just so you all know - what a bitch! she even looks good when dead!! but anyway, back to the main story... the rest of the party valiantly fights on and defeats seven skeletons, which are seemingly controlled by another undead skeletal monkey. We capture a few bows, which summon magical arrows that make you extremely tired when you use them. These arrows are particularly good vs 'Pacted' people. We decide that the undead have been guarding here for a few weeks.

We resurrect Ithilmor with a herbalist potion. The party rests for an hour after the battle. Erszabet divinates some of the monkey bones which have done a number of magic type things around 5 weeks ago which was an odd teleportation magic and mostly Namer and E&E magics. It is also an Undead Construct.

A little later we feel strong enough to travel into the mines some more. We travel in for another fifteen minutes then come to a corner which we slow down to explore up to the edge of. We hear some sounds which results in a fight where both Pierre and Toledo die, but we are victorious.

Lath uses the last of her three restore life potions, and we cast some protection magics and leave the tunnels with our loot by way of Wind Walking. We summon a cloud outside for an hour and leave the area for the town.

Return to the baths - 6th to the 9th

We arrive at town, and take a warm bath. Beon the major of Wyverns Bite comes and takes the body of the fallen warrior we defeated from us; after a while he tells us that this man was a servant of Death and comes from the Valley of the dead. Toledo and Pierre go with him to the forge to talk with Beon's brother (the leader of the peoples of the Valley of the dead) about the warrior. It transpires that the warrior is his son, Beon's nephew. The warrior and two of his brothers are tired of serving Death, have left the valley and are stealing from the mines so as to set themselves up with a new life. Pierre and Toledo bargain for new Lessers and Greaters. Using the forge we all go to the Valley of Death while they get the rituals cast upon them.

Erszabet finds out how to use all the magic items with her mystical skills taking three days.

9th day of clarity

The fight:
We fly back to the mines on Lath's cloud. We scout the first mine and find some loot. We then enter the second mine and are quickly attacked by two huge balls made up of six skeletons, which have one of the nasty caster/fighter mage guys we are looking for in the centre of it. A hard fight happens and all the mages melee the nasty fighter, as Pierre and Toledo watch but we still manage to win!!! One of the enemy had run off with Toledo's face with an evil magic item, and he was fading fast so we need to quickly pursue them, before they got away. We tied up the one of the allies/men of arms of the 'Brothers' from the Valley of Death, that we had captured, and he died and the Fates turned up as three large black ravens and ate his soul. That was a surprise!!!

We head down the tunnel and find a large area covered in dust from the lands of the dead. The second brother, an E&E mage of awesome power, is waiting for us with his elite guards. We are extremely lucky and we win. Just as he dies time stops and he stabs himself with a hideous dagger which captures his soul. We loot and leave.

The Intervention:
Outside flying back to the village on the cloud we divinate the dagger. We find out that the dagger is, in fact, a living noble elf sheathed in liquid metal and she is in extreme pain. The party agrees that none of us would keep such a hideous thing and Ithilmor summons Varda, an elven goddess, in the hope that she can remedy the situation. As the dagger touches her hand the Fates appear, they take the dagger.

It all becomes clear:
Back at the village Beon takes us to the central forge. Beon's brother comes from the Valley of the Dead through the forge to talk to us. The Fates appear to speak with Beon and his brother about the dagger. They seem very unhappy about this weapon and cleave the dagger in half; all the souls captured in the dagger are released and the Fates drag one off. The elvish woman who was part of the dagger lies dying on the ground, so Pierre uses powerful magic to save her.

The brother leaves for the Valley of the Dead, however the Fates reappear and bar the way back. We hear a loud cawing and flapping of wings. Beon and his brother under duress from the Fates explain things to us. They are being punished for creating these weapons and are now the servants of the elder gods and have been for time immemorial. The weapons take you "out of the weave" of fate making you invisible to the fates and worse yet can slay the elder gods. The dragon bones outside the village are from an Elder dragon killed in this way. Apparently the last brother has one of these weapons on him which is hiding him from the Fates.

10th - 12th

Erszabet finds out how to use some of the magic items. We spend some time healing and resting.

13th day

In the middle of the night Pierre wakes up to tell us he has been dreaming of women. Lath goes back to sleep in disgust. Pierre tells us in fact it was not just Ithilmor but also the fates he dreamed of and they would like us to leave immediately to assault the 3rd brother. We quickly prepare ourselves and as we are readying ourselves Beon comes to rudely tell us we must go collect the weapon from the last brother.

The weather is particularly good and we know that magic is afoot. We make haste and fly on winds to the mines. While en route high above the mines we come across a cloud carrying lizard men, we try to talk but they are hostile so we slay them.

A cold wind blows down the tunnel, and we know it will go well for us. We see 3 sets of footprints leading away into the darkness; everyone is on high alert. We quickly work out that the Lizardmen on the cloud were here to help the last brother escape the area/region for his new life.

We consider laying an ambush for them and then head inside into the dark damp tunnel, we hope for one last time. After 2 hours of walking we hear something ahead down the tunnel.

We set up ready for a hard fight, as we know the last brother knows we have come to collect his soul to be constantly torn apart forever by the Fates once we capture him.

A long hard fight ensues, but we prevail in the end, although Pierre dies again. The fates take the soul of the oldest brother.

We travel back to the town to report in.

14th - 16th

After recuperating for a little while, head back to the Guild on a cloud, taking the poor mad elf with us.

The End

Loot

Into the Valley.