Invasion Route One ends in a Swamp, please explain.

Adventure: Invasion Route One ends in a Swamp, please explain.
GM: Ian Wood
Season: Spring 812WK
Night: Monday
Level: Medium to slightly brown
Location: William's in Glen Eden

Party

1. Lath, played by Jono; MilSci C
2. Sven, played by William (floor rental you know)
3. Nikola, a suiter, played by Bridget (key money)
4. Sooty, a reformed fire mage, played by Bernard; Scribe
5. Silverfoam, played by Michael P; MilSci X
6. Toledo Steele, played by Craig Harper; Party Leader
7. Vychan, A 'new' Hill Giant to the guild, seems to have had prior experience.
8. Tehe, A lizard of some description.

Employer

To be Confirmed, but almost certainly a senior elf from Alfheim

Background

Princess Isil Eth promised us an invasion route to the south.
Which is all well and good, as there are vinyards to the south.
A scouting party found that the route ends in a swamp. Near the sea. Not a vine to be seen.

The scouts however, did number six retired generals, and a sargent.
There is every chance a map would not have been consulted.

Right, now that the cover has been established, it seems that the lizards living in the swamp are leaving said swamp, and making a mess of our invasion route. Not to mention eating our provisions. To top that off, some barons have decided that now is a good time to end some feuds and bury the hatchet. This is causing some humans to become interested in the part of the world that has invasion route one.

Mission

Put the lizards back in their swamp, restock our catches, slap the barons around a bit, decoy any humans wanting to look into it all and sign post the vinyards.

An Aside

The 23rd Regiment of Militia, a new innovation, was paraded recently. 423 retired generals turned up as part of the regiment, and promptly squabbled over seniority on the dais. And a Colonel, who quickly got his son into uniform so that the regiment could march past in review. The march past was rather quick but the review took days.

Pay

20,000sp each

Scribe Notes

Session 1

Day 1, The Guild, Morning

We meet with the Clerk from Lord Chancelor xxxxx of Eidilon. He tells us about the Invasion/Tourism invasion route which is coming down the river from somewhere near Gracht/Borovia. Then heads down to somewhere near Innesburg, then over to the Vineyards in Borderlay. There is also the possibility of the Vineyards being in Dumar. There is also some discussion of lizards coming out of the Fenaurgh swamp. We make some plans to head up and speak to the Lord Chancelor xxxxx of Eidilon taking the Air Ship the Clerk used, as well as confer with the Beltane Elves. We are told the Chancelor won't be available immediatly so the Beltane Elves will be the first stop.

Plans are made, basic tactics are compared, charge is agreed on, and buff magic planned.

A few hours later we board the Elvish Flying boat to head up to Alfheim. With Lath favourable winds it can make 175mph, but appears that it will break up with stronger winds. Lath tries to buy the boat from the Oarsman steering it, then talks to the human captain Yourdi who is a specialist hired on.

Day 1, Alfheim, Lunchtime

We arrive in Alfheim safely after being cloistered for security, landing by Eidilon to drop the clerk off, then continuing on towards Beltane. We are recommended to see Inarthi (Elf, possibly 'The Destroyer', Deputy Governor & Vice Lieutenant, in charge of military & bureaucrats). We arrive in Beltane safely at about 1 in the afternoon and are met by an Elven Guard. Pleasantries are exchanged, he seems surprised at Silverfoam's presence, and we ask for an escort to Inarthi. We meet him in a small office behind a large desk, looking defensive. He dismisses us for half an hour while we inspect the defensive works, which seem aimed at the sky. Returning he has changed the table. We mention the Drow, he asks us to deal with some Goblins while he thinks about it, in return for a 'Favour'. The ship Captain knows where it is, says he'll take us and drop us off while we head down to deal with them, about 20 minutes away.

Day 1, Alfheim, After lunch mint time

We meet the goblins head on, carving them like... goblins. One prisoner is taken, two escape deliberately.

Session 2

Day 1, Alfheim, Afternoon Tea

We return to Inarthi, who wishes us to leave swiftly to avoid having to explain our presence, but we are offered the use of the flying boat to get to the Borovian border quickly. Our money for the most part is changed into normal western kingdom currency.
Mid afternoon on the Air Ship we arrive in Borovia, disembarking near a valley & tower at the elven end. There are a bunch of Elvish Generals doing something with trenches at the start of the Canal, so we bypass them before making a boat. Silverfoam gets a delivery along the way, then we board and head down the Canal. Silverfoam plans to takes us to his Castle, then after warning us to behave thinks better of it and takes us back to the boat, leaving to fly to Castle Borovia. Nickola gets a message on her finger saying 'Beware of the wines in Borderlay'. Silverfoam also gets an additional guild member handed to him, and Teehee joins us.

We take the river with a Battle Barge into Midheim and spend a two day stop there dealing with tolls and inspections.

3rd Thaw, Borderlay

We get into Borderlay, finally departing the endless weapons inspections of Midheim, and see before us green grass, rolling hills, and vineyards filling the hills. We signpost two of them, then after a hard morning work, we head for lunch, not disturbing anyone at all, and have a picnic drinking the enchanted wine, which appears to have some minor magical narcotic effects as well as being fairly good wine all around. Toledo accidentally insults an Elf by emptying his spittoon on his foot who sticks a blade through him in return. We negotiate fast and avoid deadly results, gaining an introduction with Sylthfyn and his three companions. Silverfoam insists he's on our side. We visit a healer who advises us it will take a couple of days to heal Toledo, or rush job it. Toledo decides we are spending two more days.
During this time, we scout around the place, identifying a couple of elves with odd illusionary aura's that we suspect may be drow. Extending this we guess that there are perhaps 50 or so Drow spying in this area currently mixed in with all the elves.

Session 3

5th Thaw, Borderlay.

There is an earthquake late in the night as we watch, Lath sees it coming from the Hills to the west. When we all get up and healed from the shaking, we have a look at the effects it's had, discovering it's lifted the earth three feet, blocking the river and will over time form a lake of about 5 miles across. A wild earth elemental came out with the binding and does some looking, telling us it's all the way down to the plane of fire under the earth. Silverfoam's divination tells us some interesting things. It is a non colleged blood magic, it has the echoes of thousands of souls in it, and it's not the first time this has happened in this area. That morning a delegation lays an informal complaint against Isel'eth blaming her for it.

We sail west following the bound earth. Sven does humanitarian efforts as we travel. From a crystal of vision, we see the town of Trevell looking very devastated, and another scarp heading up into the mountains crossing the one we are following. We debate methods of extinguishing the fires as we head into the area. Sven summons a water elemental in the end, and starts co-ordinating the rescue efforts. A strange fog starts to roll in about an hour after dawn while we work, and the air goes dead. Silverfoam can see magic in the air. DA's show the magic to be 'weather mastery' very high MA (43), range is 130 miles from the centre of the effect.

Smartest Adventurer nomination. Toledo Steel. "Do we have a DA that will tell us what magic can see through this fog".

Answer. Mage Wind. Lath experiments and it turns out pointing the wind in a direction shows us further in that direction.

Time: 10am.
We arrive at the Barratry river, at a larger town, Bragelonne, which has about 250 dead. A local knight suggests the Elves should stay here, so Lath & Toledo fly off onto the capital while we work in rescue efforts in Bragelonne. Teehee staunchly reads from the book of Spec Grevs to save some people, Vychan decides he's not tough enough to match Teehee's efforts.
Lath & Toledo have difficulty talking their way past the way to the king..... Local Knight. "So what are your names." Lath. "Um....."
Eventually they get invited into a waiting room 12 miles out from the Capital, and told a member of the court will be out to talk to them. 'Viscount' Blitzkreg turns up after a bit. They negotiate for some pay (Access to indeterminate items) in return for helping out the Western Kingdoms by attempting to go after the mages. Though they believe we don't have enough firepower, Lath takes this as a personal challenge.

6th of Thaw, Bragelonne.

We rest the night with interruptions from earthquakes, and head south in the morning. In the first 1 & ½ hours, we pass four of the faults, sailing through early fog. We discuss alternative travels, and decide to take a cloud the rest of the way, observing as we go. Buffs are placed on everyone. As we get close, we head in to land, and near us we see a group of Saurime heading inland at a good pace, grazing on dead horses & cows. Estimated 5-10 miles an hour travel rate depending how much they graze on dead cow.

Session 4

We engage a couple of war bands of them, slaughtering the first, then capturing a couple of the second, and asking them whats going on. They talk about a Prophecy, and a plan to turn all the lands near the rivers into swamps all the way up to the Mountains. Small ones Saurime, Blue ones Saurime mages, Large ones Greater Saurime (They don't appear to stun easily, if at all, we didn't stun them once). We call our prisoner Olaf and chat for a while, not really getting very far about who is in charge and who's prophecy it was. Then Lath bundles them up and carry them on a rope from the Air Elemental, carrying them back to the Swamp. Armies of them are heading up the rivers, about 10-20 thousand of them up each river. Down near the base of the rivers the Swamp appears to have expanded, and we can see a Ziggurat about 6 miles further into the swamp. The swamp is under a Blessing (Wiccan) and it seems to be a Water Place of power, though dispelling the blessing seems to negate the Place of Power effect.

Session 5

6th of Thaw. The Swamp

As we fly towards the Ziggurat a horde of tangled vines & branches fly up towards us from the trees below (about 4,000' below), exploding in dangerous puffs around us. Taking some damage we loop back towards the N and climb to get out of range. Bunches of flying giant lizards are rising from a thermal above the Ziggurat as we go.
A diversionary winter is created after we land briefly outside the swamp, the heat from the swamp fights back causing chaos, and we move around the swamp a bit in case they aim large things at the middle of the winter. A lot of fog & steam occurs and we skip back into the swamp sneaking about observing.
We see an eight sided Ziggurat surrounded by an eight sided wall, in each wall is a gate which shimmers. There are also four towers at the NE, SE, NW & SW sides. DA's and observation reveal that each gate is keyed to an Aspect. Fire, Air, Earth, Water, Lunar, Solar, Life & Rune. We also observe Lunar/Earth aspects which can go in any gate. Additionally we notice an owl in the area, and talk to it.
Turns out to be a Human Wiccan called Goldilocks, who gives us some information about the wall, there is a magical barrier blocking flying, and it seems to also be drawing on the natural element energy. She invites us back to her house, and we head off that way.
We plan to use a cloud to get there, but after Lath summons it, the winds in the swamp drag it in, so we use Svens Water Elemental to push a barge out of the Swamp before flying to her house, a barrow built in the middle of dragon bones, and treats us to some lovely porridge.

7th of Thaw. The Witches

We discuss things, in return for her help she wants us to deal with a Necromancer and his minions in Aladar, repeatedly desecrating family tombs. We give a non-committal agreement, and in the morning we have Tea & Porridge again, all becoming Lunar/Earth aspect.

 +7 Endurance for 7 hours.
 -5 on die rolls for Earth Magic when in contact with the Earth
 -7 on die rolls at night.

She also appears to be missing 6 ducks in the morning.

 Witch:  'I don't understand it, I had six ducks last night'
 Teehee:  'So did I, *burp....*'

Heading back to the swamp we discover a small fort on the current edge. Looks similar in style to a Bowcourt fort, but in miniature. Inside appears larger somehow, and from the mini tower on top we have immense visibility in all directions. We can see out at sea a thick mist & floating islands, upriver the steps have become more numerous & larger, now about four yards in size, as well as other ziggurats in the swamp. We leave the mini fort, sneaking back in towards the first Ziggurat from the E.

Session 6.

8th of Thaw. Dulamar

Sven and Lady Nikola fall ill to a magical malady, so we return to the Ladies leaving them in their care, and we suspend the hunting of lizards and go hunt some Necromancers instead. Travelling south we get to Dulamar following a magical bone map.
We fly most of the way on a cloud, and as we get to about 15 miles from our destination the cloud suddenly veers off course, and Lath announces that we have no control of the cloud. We bail on flying and land near a copse, and then 'hop' towards the necromancers location. Over to the east we can see all sorts of weather inconsistency going on above the Swamp, and storms appear to be getting sucked into it. Our cloud is heading South, where heavy raining is occurring, South East is our destination. We head vaugly south west as the weather worsens, hail begins and the ground gets mucky. Vykhan notices the ground is funny, DA's it and notes it has a Dominion effect on it. We head in using a barge, in the middle it settles to just rain, with a temple in the middle. We squeeze in past the narrow columns on it, and descend down a staircase into its basement, where we discover a rabbit warren of tunnels. Some exploring and ward removal later (Namer & Mind mainly), we discover a human Shade, who appears to be able to expel magic from invested items. It rages at Lath, then settles to talk once Lath removes herself from the area.

Session 7.

8th of Thaw. The Temple.

Conversation with the Shade says that the 'Domain' still belongs to them, however the drow are trying to Adopt them, meaning the Drow would get the Domain. It gains its power from its Descendants and their worship, however it has very little family left in the area. Stronger in the area are a Phantasm, a Tomb Lord, and three Banshees.

 Area stats.
 Shades * ?
 Phantasm
 Tomb Lord
 Banshee * 3
 'Not Elves' * 53
 Lizards, 'Some'

The shade then apologises as the other doors around open, and we come under attack by six spectral undead. Three die in a few pulses, the party takes a lot of damage in return, an agony goes down, a few of us are still operational, the most dangerous appears to be a Banshee with 'lots' (500+ possibly, 28 Silverfoams or so). The Agony gets dispelled, one of the Middling tough ones dies, the Banshee and the other entity retreat.

We set off towards the believed drow location eager to disrupt their ritual after some very fast healing, encountering a Forbidding set against 'Living'.

 Lath "Once a day I can reroll, this is one of them"

Session 8.

8th of Thaw. The Temple.

We push on up the corridor dispelling the Forbidding, coming under massed fire through the walls, the Undead must be using life sensing to target us, and push through a number of Namer & Necro walls along with Mind magic attacks to get into the next room, where Teehee shows his valour crashing straight into the room without looking discovering three drow engaged in a sacrificial ritual on a large undead, along with a number of spectral undead guarding them & launches straight to the middle, covering the sacrifice victim with his own body, as the knife descends and his arm is taken off.
We launch into the fray in a messy fight, Laths Eddy saving us from a whirlwind vortex, a Diamond wall taking out large numbers of undead at the back of the room, and general mayhem ensues. The lead drow gets taken out, the undead remaining are beginning to withdraw, or weakened are dying, it's hard to tell, and Lady Nikola pours holy water on the Altar, resulting in a large explosion. As we flee the temple waves of magic ensue, causing more damage to the more resistant people, we aren't sure what effect if any they have on the others, but we do manage to escape along with some of the items from the temple for later divination.

Session 9

As we get to the entrance, the undead sacrifice stands up and talks to us a bit, asks us to escort it away while it possesses a quill, and offers us some rewards. Lath exercises Diplomacy by not being there. We head off to the witches with a pleasant hourish long boat trip, leaving him there with the understanding he is a guest, and head back to storm the Temple in the Swamp. Three miles out from the swamp magic suddenly stops and our spells fall off, talents deactivate, and the boat crumbles back to ruined shrubberies, so we beat a hasty retreat back to where there is magic to get spells back on to survive the bitter cold that is in the area. Setting up a bonfire, Nikola talks to the void wolves we believe started the no magic zone, I summon an Elemental, and Silverfoam divinates the area.

 Before four weeks.  Normal blessings
 Four weeks ago Mage Current/Bound Water/Water Controls/Sinking Doom variant.
 Two weeks ago: Weather Control.
 Two days ago: Earthquakes (Bound Earth, Blood Magic)
 Three hours ago: Stopped over there.

A little later an elfish person jogs towards us from the east bearing a communication stick that connects us to his Master (A Void Wolf). The void wolf is 'Lost in the mists of time'. Or possibly he just has no name. They believe Laths magic did this, rather than the Lizards magic. We discuss things with them and they indicate that the drow were killed by the Lizards, and most of the Lizards are now dead. The anti-magic area will fade after they leave. This matter resolved, we decide to pursue whoever is responsible for the earthquakes.

 New greaters.
 Sven, Nikola, Teehee, Sooty:  Rk 21 (+22% all area) Greaters. Permanent till death,
 Everyone else:  Greater as above queued after their next death (Or if an odd magic removes their current permanent greater).

The witches are able to give us locations for them, in an earth place of power, if we head up the river, then take a turn SW at the nearest Scarp and follow it, we will come to an earth place of power which this is being done from. Most of the group head that direction while Sooty carries missives to Blitzkreig and the Guild to bring them up to date with ongoing events to better direct any reinforcements.

We decide to attack the Drow who are shaping the land.
We flew for a while Then snuck up on the drow camp in a boat. Sending in 3 Flash Floods we take out the Drow camp. 12 Drow fly into the air. Quickly mowed down to 7 they decide to parley

Session 10

The ritual creating the escarpments and damming the rivers has been interrupted. The Drow say we have unleashed some entity on the area but they are not specific about its name or effect.

The land of the escarpments is mostly unbound. Where it meets the water the binding is still in effect. Large lakes have formed and new river paths have had to be carved. The lakes are very swampy.

Information

Wines of note

Carzala wines; While not of any real note, their rarity factor causes them to be of some value in Alfheim as gifts for people you don't know, and conversation starters. Don't expect to see your gift of a local wine actually opened and drunk though.
Borderlay Wines; Good quality, old grape land.
A particular vintage has a minor enchantment giving a narcotic effect. Best drunk at the vineyard where the specially placed herb gardens add scent to the flavour.

Strategy

Charge

If we can't understand the plan, it must mean charge.

Buffs

Thanks to Lath, buffs are sharable, meaning everyone is paying the fatigue for their own buff spells. So everyone gets to enjoy being a buff mage a bit and being down a little Ft to start the day off.
Caster of a particular spell will pay the cast cost twice, to get the whole party.

Standard Buffs

Total Ft cost: 10
Caster: Vykhan.
Strength of Stone (+20 End, 20h) 2ft
Armour of Earth (+42% Def, +1 DR, 10.5h) 2ft
Caster: Sooty.
Elemental Armour (+80 Ablative vs Elemental Sources, 16h) 1ft;
Caster: Lath
Vapour Breathing (Can breath gases, 8h) 1ft;
Flying Rk 13 (43 Mph, 7h) 2ft;
Resist Heat & Cold (5 Gauge, 5 less damage, 17h) 2ft;
Caster: Sven.
Water Breathing
Water Proofing

Other Buffs

Silverfoam
Mind Clock, 25 hrs (Rank 12)
Lady Nicola
Strength of Stone (+12 End) 2ft;
Sooty
Ash Shroud (+4 Endurance armour) 2ft;
Quickness (+10 IV, +3 TMR, 1h) 2ft;
Lath
Barrier of Wind (10.5h 42% Defence) 2ft;
Barrier of Wind+Eddy (10.5h 48% defence) 1ft;
Fast as the Wind 15 (42 min, +6 TMR (max 15), 12 IV)

Wine
+2 Ft (with the fatigue cap being removed for: Tee Hee, Nicola, Silverfoam, Sven)

Item Loans

Amulets of Jasper; Lady Nicola, Sven; Grant a resistance check (No Counterspell applies) vs Draining.

Loot and other gains

• Blitzkrieg rewards with favours to the value of 50 arcane points with the mages of Freeport..
• Being taught one magic of our choice by the elves.
• Using the Drow device to move stat points.
• 19 Weeks of training time.
• 3 or 4 items to the value of 100K from the Drow encampment.

Fights with Lizards

• 4 hand & a half swords, Rank 10 Weaponsmith +2 damage
• 16 short swords, Rank 5, +1 damage
• 23 hand axes, Rank 5 weaponsmith, +10 to hit when thrown
• 4 bucklers, worn high on forearm. May wield a weapon two handed, which halves the shield's defence bonus. May not also wield a second weapon such as a main gauche.
• 30 small round shields.
• 40 spears
• 10 short bows

• 89 arrows, barbed. Always does at least 1 point of EN damage, ignore armour, in addition to any other damage. 10 quivers - 49 Sooty 40 Teledo
• 19 healing potions: heal 10 point of EN or 5 points of FT damage.- 2 each (16) and 5 to Silverfoam.
• 6 Waters of Strenght, Rank 8 - Vychan
• 17 Trollskin potions, Rank 8 - 2 each (16) and 5 to Silverfoam.

• 2 Bracelets of Free Move: worn on the right wrist. If the wearer has 22+AG then they are able to move one additional hex before an action, and one hex additional hex after an action. For convenience these all count as part of the same Action. If the Wearer has 21-AG then they get +4 AG. This ONLY stacks with Bracelet of Move Freely if the wearer's AG (without a bracelet) is 22+. - Steele, Nikola

• 2 Bracelets of Move Freely: worn on the left wrist. If the wearer has 22+AG then they are able to move without regards to normal restrictions (except enter or leave Close), such as they may leave a melee zone even if engaged, may move through another's melee zone without stopping. If the Wearer has 21-AG then they get +4 AG. This ONLY stacks with Bracelet of Free Move if the wearer's AG (without a bracelet) is 22+. - Steele, Nikola

• 4 Hairties: Worn as a pony tail at the rear of the head or body (if a tail), the wearer's Rear hexes count as Front hexes, so that people behind them don't get bonuses. - Vychan, Tee Hee, Nikola, Steele

• An Earing of Command: an earing of Crossed Bones in truesilver, magical. All Military Scientist actions are Free Actions and their range is doubled. - Silverfoam.

Maps