Road to Gory

Summary

This could be the Road to Glory, but the l is optional.

GM Michael P.
Session Winter 810 wk
Night Monday (maybe some Wednesdays)
Location Stephen's, New Windsor
Level Extreme to Demi-God Bothering

Summary

On Purple are some Orcs on their way to taking over the world. One of the key artefacts that will help them take over the world is something that I need so we're going to go get it. Acquisition is our mission, saving the world is incidental.

Party

• Aryan - Human Warrior (Stephen) Mil Sci & Party Employer
• Kern - Elven Earth-Mage Warrior (Chris)
• Caprice - Human Gypsy Illusionist (Kelsie)

Gerald (GM Info) is a male Human Illusionist played by Struan

• Kilroy - Gregarious Cat, Homicidal Bear, Suicidal Bird or occasional Rune Mage (take your pick :-) (Dean)
• Amelia - The World-Destroying Wilderness Tamer (Rosemary)

Pay

• It's an adventure!

Results

Road Builder artefact moved to Alusia to prevent the Orcs from re-building the broken roads or expanding elsewhere.

The Orc invasion of HyBrasil has been thwarted. And some of the link roads broken reducing the amount of power available to the Black Dryads at the end of the road. One Dryad killed.

Indirect contact and trade established between HyBrasil, Amalfi, and Ares Dwarves.

Count Elledor (Duke Rodelle) ousted from his profitable arms trade. One of his men with return-home-device captured, petrified and stored. Can be used later to track Rodelle's inter-planar travel artefact.

Eastern Elven/Fae continent scouted.

Scribe Notes

Chapter 1: High Flying

Aryan briefs the party on the background and the main objective, Amelia fills in the background and current politics of Purple.

• The Dwarves are well informed, wise (educated by the God-Titans), and tough, but also insular and reluctant to get involved.
• The human empire is vast, powerful, and decadent.
• The Drow, Elves and Necromancer are busy dealing to each other on the other continent and hopefully not involved in anything we're dabbling in.
• The Black Dryads (almost unkillable Fey nature spirits - usually three per city), Orcs, and Goblins breed fast, are aggressive (more so since the Dwarves & a guild party blew up one of their cities). Plants grown on dry land are sacred, they are protected and not eaten. Swamp plants (including rice) are fine to eat. Not such a big deal as their lands are all swamp.

The plan is to get the road-building artefact with minimal involvement in the local politics.

Amelia mentions she has seen the road building artefact, it is bigger than the 50' tall, 50' wide road it was building. They didn't investigate closely so can't confirm whether we need all of it.

We spend the afternoon getting together supplies, applying Disguise Mind and Aura rituals, and other preparations.

W'ansday 2nd Frost

Board Aryan's Skiff for a short flight to Slippery Rock for some last minute buffs and setting our Plane of Origin.

Once Kilroy has bound some Air to keep everyone alive, Aryan flies the party to Castle Rising where we disguise ourselves and the skiff and join the merchant train to Purple.

We arrive at Fort Carmine, then split off from the train to portal to Slender Neck.

Isil-Eth's majordomo catches us up on events of the past couple of years:

• By popular acclaim of the people, a former Pirate has become the new Duke of Pascula
• The Orcs have built a road heading directly towards the nearest human city (Newport, Arac) and part-way along have built a new Orc city called Vengeance, but 3 years ago they stopped and have not advanced the road since then.
• Newport (and several other places in that Duchy too!) abandoned a lot of their old agricultural practices and took up fishing, presumably to appease the Black Dryads, to generate a lot of food to bribe the Orcs with, or because the Orcs are already taking over the city in a more subtle kind of assault.
• Some of the Human nobles are starting to take the Orc threat seriously and are organising evacuation plans. Amelia suspects Isil-Eth is behind this.

We fly north-east towards other human-settled islands initially in case anyone is watching then change to fly east over the mountains.

After a couple of hours of Aryan's navigation we end up near the head of the Orc road but the cloud cover is low and unbroken, we can't see anything of the road without descending too low to remain discrete. See

for updated map of Orc Roads & cities.

Flying back towards the mountains we drop down near the edge of the swamp jungle and confirm that Amelia's scent potions will blend us in with the native odours.

Chapter 2: Hi Dwarves, 'Lo Orcs

We fly south at icy (-55c) altitudes and reach the Dwarven City of Altair late in the afternoon.

The heavily armed welcoming committee relaxes a little when they recognise Amelia. The Amalfi Dwarves have been busy restoring Altair for the past few years, fortifications are repaired, the killing grounds have been cleared, and they've even planted some crops.

Inside there are few signs of the goblin looting remaining, at least in the areas we are shown through. Amelia and Dido catch up on gossip, children, and other stuff, then we get to discuss the business at hand.

We tell the dwarves why we're here (to nick the Road-Builder) and they update our maps with the new roads and cities, and what they have seen of the Orc activities.

Newport is definitely trading with the Orcs, fish for not being invaded, so far it seems to be working out well for both sides.

The Orcs have been busy with the RB, putting in redundant roads so their empire doesn't get cut in half again by one road or city being taken out, extending north towards Newport, and building their new city, Vengeance (V).

The new roads they've built up north vary from the standard design used elsewhere. Normally the roads are like a long 3-tiered cake, 10' wide at the top, 10' drop to a 10' wide road either side, another 10' drop to another pair and then down to the swamp floor, with regular arches at ground level to let water, plants, and critters pass by at ground level. The new road heading towards Newport is 300' wide all at the same level. The old road south-west from there has been 'multi-laned'. And they have some sort of new mechanistic cart that runs along the top of the old roads carrying lots of Orcs at up to 10mph, the Dwarves don't know how they work but they'd be interested in acquiring one to find out.

We speculate on what they're up to and where the RB might be, then decide it's time for some fresh first-hand information.

We have dinner, dancing, disguises, Kilroy starts a portal, then we fly down to the mid-point on the road between Orc cities Bridgekirk (H) & Redbridge (I). When we spot a group of four travellers we land near the road and set up a cunning ambush (we walk down the road towards them disguised as Orcs), quickly taking all four alive without incident we withdraw to a spot a couple of miles west of the road, secure it with rituals, then have a chat with our prisoners.

The female, a master Herbalist is in charge, she is travelling north with her idiot cousin and a couple of bodyguards to join the great project. She is from Brighttown (A) city, where humans deliver the fish. Like others of significant (and useful) skill from the other cities she is answering the call to serve. She doesn't know what the great project is and apart from occasional shipments of metal weapons and fish nobody comes back from the project, she doesn't seem at all concerned by this. Neither she nor her companions know where the RB is now, she presumes it is at the Great Project.

While she has no liking of humans, it seems that they are no longer hated: the Dwarves are now the great enemy, the Dwarves are even behind the humans crimes against Orcs (dropping the moon and flooding their cities).

Since these Orcs strike us as innocent and reasonable civilians, an attack of conscience keeps them alive. Instead we fake a mugging by roughing them up a bit more, taking their valuables (steel short sword and a book of herbals), and dumping them back at the side of the road.

We then fly to just north of the new double-city capital Breastcastle & Newcastle (T&U) figuring an Orc from there might be more up to date. When we get there we see a new pair of wide roads heading east on either side of the river, and most of the foot traffic is east along these roads. Scrying 200 miles eas,t the roads are continuing in a straight line and slowly converging.

It's getting towards dawn and we're getting a bit tired so we fly north east into the highlands to find a camp site. En-route we use spyglasses and more crystals to find the end of the road which turns out to be a new Orc city, name unknown (W), a 3-mile high mountain nobody knew about (presumably one of the lost Dwarf cities), and a couple of 2-mile high scaling towers with attendant Air Elementals, probably to keep them stable.

The intent to assault the Dwarf mountain seems fairly obvious and reasonably imminent.

Th'rsday 3rd Frost

We land in the hills, secure a camp site and get some sleep.

Chapter 3: One-up-Dwarfship

Late in the afternoon we set out to fly to the eastern edge of the highlands, at about 6 miles above ground Kilroy looses some of his bound air and clutches his head; we dive down and he comes right. Amelia tells us she could see a warm white layer that we passed through just as Kilroy was assaulted. Carefully edging back up to 6 miles Amelia can see that the layer extends out from the Dwarf Mountain, DAs and then Divination reveals that the area covered is a celestial sphere extending out and up from the mountain that releases bound elements or Elementals (including light and possibly some illusions) with a backlash against whoever bound them. It was created by the Titan-God Hyperion. It has similarities to the Music of the Spheres, presumably this is one of the spheres, the percussion one. Unlike the MoTS, it doesn't have an exclusion for short people.

We carry-on east at a slightly lower altitude, find a new camp site, Kilroy creates a Rune Portal, we have a nice dinner and dance, Kern digs a bunker, and some defensive rituals are put down. Then Aryan flies Kilroy-Mouse, in a flask, under his shirt, to near the Orc road about 25 miles from the city, at a safe altitude Kilroy is uncorked and Kilroy-Owl flies down to then under the road until he finds a good spot about 300 yards east of the city to do his rune portal on the side of one of the support pillars. Meanwhile Aryan flies back to camp where Kern has 5 tonnes of rock ready to load on the skiff. Kilroy steps out of his portal, we follow him back through towing the laden skiff, and then hanging from it (those of us that don't naturally float) while Kilroy and Kern shape the bound stone into a ledge attached to a pillar, and Gerald covers the sight and sound of us with a discrete illusory terrain.

Perched on the ledge and the skiff we start assessing the city. Kern monitors those going in and out the east gate and the barracks on this side of the city, Gerald gets out his battle table, Aryan, Amelia, and Caprice look through crystals at the rest of the city and the towers.

Like most of the Orc cities they have room for several million residents, unlike most of their cities this one is not built on a river but they do have masses of water storage tanks.

There is a large domed area near the top and centre of the city, we guess this to be their fortified Dryad Grove. Next to it are a couple of tall watch towers.

There are about 80,000 half-breed troops in the city and about 20,000 more arriving today. Assuming a similar rate of daily arrivals and a minimum of 250,000 troops to start the assault, we have about 14-15 days before they attack [these numbers are refined using Gerald's Table]. The table also shows a few scry-proof areas inside the city within the given range.

Caprice spots a large scy-shielded individual come out to the gate and cause a stir, we guess it to be one of the Dryads, she seems to be doing a bit of morale boosting and also casually puts earth armour on a hundred or so half-breeds all at once. Some talk of the Dryads follows and Caprice picks up mention of a Grand Coven of Dryads being present. They normally come in Triads (3) so we guess a Grand Coven to be somewhere between 10 and 27.

Not wanting to push our luck too far, we portal back to our highlands camp to sleep.

Frysday 4th Frost

Setting out in the early afternoon we fly east planning a circuitous route to the mountain to approach the Dwarves to see if they are willing to talk. As we approach the eastern end of our route, we see two flying ships (enclosed boxes with out-riggers) heading north in a straight line from the mountain. They are too far ahead and too fast for us to catch, so we turn and head down the line they came from on the assumption there is some sort of entrance to the Dwarf city there. En-route another flying ship comes out and approaches us, we fly Dwarf friendly flags and symbols, and at their instruction heave-to. One Dwarf wearing a breastplate similar to one we've seen on an Orc, helm and cloak, emerges from their ship, we explain ourselves and he agrees to talk with us, directing us to land.

The Dwarves put on a fine lunch, their clan are inter-planar traders. Their mage-mechanicians are interested in the skiff and where we got it from (Dwarves on Ares) and are horrified at how crude and environmentally hazardous it is. Their cavorite powered ships are much bigger, better, faster, and more manoeuvrable. It's hard to tell if their disdainful one-upmanship is aimed at us or if it's one-up-Dwarfship over the Ares Dwarves.

They seem to have various strict rules and hierarchies about who can trade what with whom. They are not permitted to trade with the main continents of Purple, but a friend from another house could form a trade contract with a nation of Alusia. They are concerned by the impending Orc invasion and would consider actions against them (including confiscating the RB) as excellent tokens of trade. The friend who can trade with us will bring the appropriate documentation and meet us tomorrow morning at dawn, 300 miles east of here (out over the water so we are technically not trading on the continent) and 1 mile above sea level.

We turn around and fly back to our highlands camp to rest until almost midnight, the drumming sphere prevents us from going ballistic with bound air to keep everyone alive, so we'll need about 6 hours to fly to our meeting at lower altitudes.

Reapsday 5th Frost

We rendezvous with two of the Dwarven flying ships and are invited to 'tie-up' and board one for discussions ... and a traditional Dwarveish breakfast of kippers & gin.

Aethelbrecht (Alfred) is our new trading partner, he and Aryan (as Count Ebola) sign the contract, Amelia and Gerald try to work out what the contract says, meanwhile we start talking trade. Alfred is a little more flexible than many of his brethren, he has even traded with Elvish continent (thousands of miles north east), and he intimates that he trades with a Duke (probably Xeno) from our plane. The Dwarves have sent scouts in to spy on the Orcs but several of them have not returned and the council is not willing to send more. They are also concerned about what knowledge those scouts may have been forced to reveal.

Alfred's main trade offering is diamonds, very shiny ones cut in an unusual way that makes them pretty and good for magic. They also make diamond-steel blades, able to cut through normal steel. The breastplates they wear magically protect the whole body as if you're wearing plate all over and protect from some Spec. Grevs. They cannot trade cavorite to us, but may be able to do some repairs.

Though Alfred hints that if we were to be exceptionally successful in dealing to the Dryads that would put us in a more trusted trading partner status and some of these little restrictions might go away. And if there is anything specific we need to help in dealing to the Dryads that they can supply then we only need to ask.

Chapter 4: Road Closure

We spend the morning exchanging information about the orcs, chatting, and negotiating with Alfred.

Alfred too casually introduces us to his fully bearded young cousin who our courtiers work out is a lot more important than Alfred is letting on, probably equivalent to princess (heiress to a significant title). She (Namer) DA's us thoroughly then leaves again.

Caprice and Gerald start to work out the subtle variations in the music of the spheres which seem to announce people of significance.

Alfred loans us a Diamond Hand & a Half with a Rune Banishment ability that his cousin thinks we will need.

He also loans us (with the Aeir Skiff as collateral) a small experimental ship of theirs, it was designed by Alfred's ex-wife (side conversation about Dwarven 60-year marriage contracts) as a scout ship. It should be a lot less visible to Air Elementals than the skiff, and it goes faster. At lower altitudes it should get up to 150mph, at high altitudes it will be limited to 30-40mph but it is a fully enclosed metal cabin (looks a bit like a 100' long whale with a skinny tail) so we won't need magic to protect us from cold, hail, bug strikes, and lightning. It flies a little differently from the skiff or bug but Amelia and Aryan get the hang of it fairly quickly, it also has a couple of special levers which we shouldn't normally use, one will move us to a safe-ish place (over the ocean several thousand miles west), the other will make the ship explode shortly afterwards - we should endeavour to get as far away as possible after pulling that lever.

Gerald - What's the minimum safe distance?

Alfred - If you stop to ask you're not far enough away.

The plan is to break some roads and lure the RB out to fix them. More cautious party members prevail and we take flight for one of the broken roads near the-lake-formerly-known-as-HighCastle to see if we can learn more about how best to break them.

Four hours south-west we land and start poking around. The broken road is like a rotting plant except that it's not a plant, it's rotting magically grown magic rock. The road is grown in one direction, inside the tough outer-shell (bark) there's a softer bit that magic (sap) flows through, the magic only flows in the direction that the road was originally grown. We guess that the Dryads sitting in a city at the end of a road get to use the mana being sent from every road and city leading to where they are. The bits of road we see above ground are secondary to the main runner-root underground, it goes out then sends up shoots which connect to make the road. The runner-root is the bit drawing power from the earth, we guess that the cities would have much bigger and deeper tap-roots under them.

When the road is broken, the mana flow stops, then the shell starts loosing its magical hardness and gradually eroding. We experiment a bit with cracking the shell (the Diamond Sword and Aryan's Axe will both do so) and cutting the runner-root (Caprice's Salamander does a good job of this). We estimate it will take about an hour to cut through one of the original roads, a lot longer to cut through one of the new bigger roads.

The plan is to cut two roads, between L & Q and between J & R, these two are older (smaller) roads, close together, the mid-points are a long way from the nearest cities, and it should effectively cut their power-flow in half.

We fly north-west into the highlands to rest a few hours, dine, dance, re-disguise ourselves as Drow, then fly north-east to the LQ road, aiming to arrive after midnight.

Kern digs down to the runner root then he and Aryan cut through the outer shell; Caprice and Gerald unleash Aim's fire into the root; Kern re-fills the hole, Kilroy puts down a Rune-ward, some rune-walls, rank 20 Darkness, and Gerald clouds it all in fog and mist.

Back into the ship and we fly for an hour to the JR road just south of where it starts going over the swamp. We dig down, crack the shell, Caprice and her Salamander start burning through the root, the Amelia (who has been on watch) spots some Air Elementals arriving at the LQ road and some large earth elementals coming our way. Kilroy finishes his runeward, Caprice floats off the ground holding her Salamander while the rest of us head up to the road to meet the elementals. Kilroy blocks the road with doubled and tripled rune walls, Kern informs us that there are 5 earth elementals though they are much bigger and faster than normal ones, it looks like they are buffed up with Mind-College Avatar, Quickness, and probably other spells. Not far behind the elementals are a troop of Orcs. Gerald and Kern start damaging them at range and destroy two by the time they get to the rune walls where they cautiously stop and start throwing diamond javelins at us. Aryan charges and Banishes one with the Diamond sword, Amelia charges but is stopped (a lesser halfling would have been killed) by Kilroy's Rune Wall, Kilroy throws his mace. The ranged damage continues while Aryan engages them in melee, 10 seconds later they are all destroyed. The troop of Orcs charges in but is easily dealt with.

We scry that the Air Elementals are frustrated by our magical shielding and are lashing the area and the people presumed to be in there with air magic.

Caprice finishes burning through the root, we board ship then fly up to wait and watch the Orc's reaction.

Chapter 5: Whack and Watch

It's a bit like whacking an insect nest then standing back to watch.

We circle within the cloud layer keeping an eye on the two spots we broke and the gates of the city (L) that we guess they will start repairs from.

Kilroy flies above the cloud layer keeping watch for Air Elementals carrying stuff.

Troops come swarming out of the cities to guard the gates, then they start getting flown en-mass (primarily by high-rank Windwalk) to spread out along the roads, ending up with and Orc Soldier every 3 or 4 yards. Not enough density to protect any part of the road but enough that nobody could attack without taking out a few of the guards which the BDs would presumably detect. We estimate they must have deployed 5 to 7 million Orcs within 12 hours to cover most of their roads to the same level. Though it will take a lot longer to gather them back in as they'll need to walk back to the cities or the BDs will need to go out to them to cast flying.

Lots more bustling, indirect signs of BDs teleporting between trees and casting lots of magic. The LQ road north of the break is showing visible signs of crumbling, a lot faster than we expected it would, we guess that the Dryads up north are sucking the life out of it at a high rate.

Sunday 6th Frost

Around dawn a group of Earth Elementals arrive at the LQ road break and start destroying the surface road north of the break. A large group of Orcs fly in, dig down to the runner-root we damaged, when they're finished Aim's fire is no longer burning and the south side of the break has been 'patched'.

We guess they're clearing the 'deadwood' in preparation for re-growing north from the stump.

We wait, we watch, more bustling Orcs, no sign of the RB.

Early afternoon, we've been watching for half a night and half a day, had some sleep, and some of the party are getting twitchy, must be time to do something, we split up.

Caprice, Gerald, and Kilroy put their Orc and food faces on, Kern summons them some monkeys, then they head into (L) as hunters looking to sell their monkeys, scout the northern part of the city and see what they can find out.

Amelia & Kern take the ship to see some Dwarves about a diversionary attack.

Aryan takes off for Slender Neck to bring back our dangerous demonic and necromantic equipment.

We rendezvous back on the ship west of (L) and well above the MotS level.

The Amalfi Dwarves will launch a bombardment of the cities West of Amalfi on our signal, ideally they would like 48 hours to prepare.

The BDs may have been visibly sending lots of troops out of (L) but they have been bringing more in, the city is full of Orc troops. Morale amongst the civilians and troops is very high, they know that their roads were targeted because of how important their city is; priests are providing regular doses of potions to the troops keeping them buffed up; it is common knowledge amongst the troops that the LQ road must be repaired before the assault against the Dwarves can begin; the market for fresh Monkey brains is very profitable.

Aryan is no longer twitching, now it's more of a contented hum, but he does have all of the dangerous equipment and some extra flammable oil.

Moonday 7th Frost

Scrying the LQ break, we see that the regrowing of the north road has started, the new bit is the new style wide road. We estimate they're growing about 5 miles a day.

We decide to give the Amalfi Dwarves their 48 hours to prepare and fly to Hy-Brasil. There we collect Gerald's fire arrows, update the Dwarves on recent events, get some more flammable oils and tar, talk about some other things, and get some rest.

Duesday 8th Frost

Flying back to station near (L) we scry the north end of the city for parts we can't scry that are likely to be where the RB is sited. We narrow it down to two likely spots and one possible but less likely.

Chapter 6: Feint and Strike

The night's festivities are kicked off with the Amalfi Dwarves bombarding the western branch of the orc cities.

Then (disguised as Drow & an Imp) we fall from our ship to land quietly on the road south of (L), kill the nearest sentries, lash them with some necromantic magic, dig down to the road tap root, order the poisoning of it, protect the workings with Fog, Darkness, and Rune Walls, then covering our withdrawal with more fog, darkness, rune walls and a rain of Hy-Brasil Dwarven Grenadoes, we fly up to the ship while Karrehyn flies south casting a pall of doom and eating the occasional fresh eyeball.

We see the Air Elementals and BDs arrive soon after we've left, hopefully they will be busy trying to find and fix the non-existent poison in the tap root and chasing down our decoy raven.

We fly indirectly to near the north end of the city then Kilroy portals us down to the city.

Moving quietly through the streets avoiding guards and guard-Haguars, triggering a few wards (one of the DTJ wards kills the Salamander), we make our way to the most likely spot for the BD, take out the guards outside and peer in. It is a large (60' on a side) hexagonal room, in the middle are 20 well-equipped Orcs standing guard around a big gold block with silver runes and a Dwarf strapped to the top wearing an odd device around his head - The Road Builder (we presume)!

We charge in and combat ensues, some of the Orcs stay guarding the RB but most relish the chance to leap into melee. Surprise #1, the entire room is affected by a Rune Counterspell, this both stops Kilroy from casting and protects them from Smite and other Rune nastiness we'd had planned. Surprise #2, when we take them out (Killing or Stasis, don't know about other methods yet) a replacement teleports in nearby and joins the fight. Surprise #3, the poison they use was designed to take out Dwarves but is still virtually irresistible, incurable, and slows the target.

15 seconds in we've killed a few of them (who are then replaced), frozen a couple (also replaced), damaged a lot more, slowed 3 of them, our mages have taken some hits and Kilroy has been slowed by their poison. We're doing ok against them but are no closer to dealing with either surprise or getting the RB than when we entered.

Chapter 7: The Prize

Amelia meanders through the packed combat to heal Kilroy, killing Orcs to pass the time. Aryan continues gleefully swinging his Axe and causing mayhem. Kern leans against the wall while duelling with his 4 opponents. Caprice and Gerald withdraw to above the combat and make their way towards the dais. Kilroy casts blinding light over the area around the dais then teleports into the middle of it.

The potted shrubs in the room start to grow and the MOTS gains an ominous tone indicating incoming Military and then something more significant.

Following the plan, Amelia (holding the exit and losing the use of her arm), Aryan, and Kern (losing an eye in the process) continue to engage the Orcs and draw as much fire as they can, while Kilroy and Caprice remove the Road Builder. Caprice teleports away to our ship with the RB, Kilroy teleports back to Amelia with the Dwarf that used to be connected to it, Gerald appears out of a column of mist near Amelia, Kern steps back into solid rock emerging by Amelia, Aryan charges through the orcs taking a nick to the aorta forcing a delay to plug the hole before the full withdrawal.

Covering our departure from the ex-RB room with Fire and Oil, fighting through the streets to where we can take off is fast and fairly one-sided, Air Elementals arrive to disrupt our flight but are banished before they can kill anyone.

Back on the ship we fly through the night back to Hy-Brasil. During the flight Kilroy Divines the RoadBuilder and Amelia patches up Aethel (called Bomber, or Bob for short), the Dwarf we rescued, it turns out he was one of the lost spies from Hy-Brasil. Aethel is a Rk9 spy/Rk10 Mechanician and has the Experimental skill "saboteur" (perceiving & using the inherrent weaknesses in a Mechanician constructs).

W'nsday 9th Frost

We are welcomed into the city as honoured guests and encouraged to go through the purification rituals shaving our beards and hair. Since Aethel has been missing so long, he is legally (& religously) dead; Amelia arranges for his voluntary exile in Amalfi/Altair. Kern eager to learn new skill.

Kern heads off to the healers to get his eye regenerated.

Over the next week we discuss the new trade opportunities that have opened up to us and some civil works we could now bid for e.g. Trashing the Orc scaling towers.

Duesday 15th Frost

We make our civil works bid, then while we're waiting to see if we win, decide that the humans who were selling weapons and armour to the Orcs would like to gift us some cash to aid our trade with the Hy-Brasil Dwarves and make our way to Arac.

Chapter 8: The Count of Elledor

The Hy Brasil Dwarves don't want us taking the secret experimental scout ship out in public again and Aryan's skiff is currently dismantled, so they loan us one of their small more conventional ships.

Changing to a more conservative plan, we fly to Slender Neck get some up to date details on the Duke of Arac and the Count of Elledor who is the one actually supplying the weapons and doing the trading. We eventually guess that Count Elledor is actually the Duke of Rodelle getting into the inter-planar trading business since it has worked so well for his neighbouring Dukes.

We swap info about Rodelle then banish ourselves back to Slippery Rock. A quick portal to the guild, then we get the RB securely stored in the vaults.

The portal back to Purple is tomorrow morning from Gracht, we go our separate ways meeting back at the guild at dawn or later in the morning in Gracht. Some partying and carousing happens in Seagate.

W'nsday 16th Frost

Back to Purple, Kilroy decides to visit Arac as a pet Parrot, that's when we discover that most of us have been doomed by the Dryads. A divination and some experimentation later, we work out that we are doomed to alarm Tree-dwellers within 100 yards and cause them to madly attack within 100 feet.

With Kilroy now disguised as a ground dwelling rodent, we use the human public portal system to travel to Newport (Arac) and there we bully our way in to see the Duke, Amelia's reputation opens most doors around here.

In private audience, we tell the Duke (Artwa d'Arac) that we can stop the Orcs from building the roads which will stop the most devastating portion of their invasion, we want to be paid to do this and he needs to stop selling weapons to the Orcs. The Duke agrees and offers to reward us with a title - Countess Aleksandra of Liberty (Caprice), a town of 15,000 in Northern Arac, and a ship (cargo barge with a sail). We ask the Duke to throw a party tonight so Caprice can meet the eligible noble men (and so we can meet the Count of Elledor).

The Duke's brother-in-law (Elder sister's husband) Barnaby doesn't seem pleased with these changes, we later confirm he is funded by Elledor.

We spend the afternoon acquiring outfits, some from Slender Neck, others (Aryan & Kern) wear nothing but illusions and jewellery.

Fun is had at the party, Caprice is the guest of honour, Kilroy lurks and spies, Gerald cooks then mingles, Kern and Amelia are discrete, Aryan flirts and ruffles feathers, Caprice and Gerald pick up the useful information.

The Duke's older sister (Belle d'Arac) seems to have been pulling most of the strings in Arac via her husband or brother, she is not pleased at our involvement and even less pleased when Aryan won't play the game properly.

Elledor brings an impressive entourage including mages and master courtesans who prevent anyone (especially us) from approaching the Count. His entourage are all from Alusia, we presume he is too though we can't confirm as his aura is reflective.

Barnaby is the only one at the party permitted to speak to the Count, we overhear some whining, pleading ignorance of our interference and talk of potential retirement for the current Duke.

As the party is winding down, the Count (via his courtesans) invites us to talk at the church of light at dawn.

We have rooms within the palace and retire for a few hours before our dawn meeting.

Elledor's guards discretely ensure we are not interrupted while we talk. First he insists that we should buy all of the weapons that he no longer has a market for, we decline. Then he enquires about us changing our goals to maintaining the trade, we ask for too much money, he gets annoyed. While Aryan is negotiating with and aggravating Elledor, Caprice and Gerald pick up on a couple of slips, it seems he places high value on the herbs and animals he is getting from the Orcs and really doesn't want to lose this business.

An unhappy Elledor leaves first, we leave shortly afterwards.

Th'rsday 17th Frost

We portal back to Slender Neck, pick up our loaned ship, then fly to a Dwarven pub in the highlands to talk.

While baiting Elledor/Rodelle has been fun, Caprice insists we should now make a more specific plan.

We decide to hijack one of the ships returning from trade with the Orcs to see exactly what he is getting in return, and not just because Amelia wants the herbs.

Chapter 9: Brave, Brave Count Elledor

Scouting, scrying, and spying up the river and along the jungle trail we see that there is one ship with weapons heading up river, and one at dock waiting for the herb shipment to return (estimated at 4 hours away).

We ambush the crew on the docked ship planning to look like them and wait for the herb shipment. The BD's curse makes a mess of that, the constant attacks by birds, snakes and monkeys make it hard for us to casually wait. New plan, we get the crew drunk and drugged, array them around the deck and as the herb caravan approaches Aryan (disguised as the ship's captain) will be shouting at the lax crew and run out the boarding plank. To encourage the herb carriers to hurry and not ask questions, Amelia flies above and behind them stirring up the fauna.

All goes to plan, we capture them all and the cargo, setting sail up river we anchor mid-river out of sight of the docks.

As we are checking out the loot and waiting for Gerald to come down and hide the ship, a gaseous figure appears amongst us, we quickly render him corporeal and stun him, Amelia relieves him of the grenado he was about to drop, then he teleports away. Amelia warns us of incoming meteors, we spend the next few seconds dodging Rk 20 Meteors, Phantasms, Curses and other indirect magic, we can't see where the attacking mages are, but manage to untie the captive sailors, grab the chests of herbs and fly off before the boat is sunk by the meteors.

Aryan declares that he must avenge his sunk ship so he sinks their ship, noticing as it goes down that the cases that should have been full of weapons are filled with rocks.

By majority vote we declare that Elledor is bad so we'll attack him at his home. We wait until after sunset, dinner and dancing then cautiously approach on foot.

At 1 mile out we start to find Wards set against Allusians, these are all a year or more old, we ignore them and continue. By the time we get to half a mile we find wards cast last night (after the party, before our dawn meeting) that specifically target us. Kern summons an Earth Elemental he informs us that while there are tunnels and rooms under Elledor's complex, none of them extend beyond his walls - voiding the plan to walk in via his escape route. We set the elemental to tunnelling in as a distraction, Kilroy removes our Auras, then we fly straight in. A couple of mages and a guard with a multi-bolt arbalest cause us some pain as we fly in, our return fire and raven assault squad take them out, at which point they teleport away.

Landing between the Hands of Earth we charge in the front door of the tower, Kilroy surprises and takes out a bowman on the first floor, Aryan leads Kern and Amelia down into the basement, spear traps and a fire trap cause a lot of damage. When the smoke clears we look around and find that everyone except the bowman is recently gone.

Questioning the bowman and divining a magic chip of rock we find on him, we find out that the chips of rock relate to the artefact (left-overs from the Ranniterran Mistress) that was used to transport them to Purple, at will or when killed the rocks will end the 'summoning' that sent them here returning them to their departure point on Alusia. They are from Rodelle, but it was not the actual Duke and his paladins, it was alternate/innocent copies that were created by another artefact. Our prisoner is not one of these copies, he qualified for the mission because he isn't pacted. When we charged in, the (copy of the) Duke and his paladins did as much ranged damage as they could before willing themselves back to Alusia.

Before we leave, we bury his bound earth tower and level the walls so that 'Count Elledor' is obviously driven out of town and does not have a base to return to.

Chapter 10: The Two Towers

Frysday 18th Frost - Reapsday 19th Frost

Belle d'Arac is discretely informed that her best interests lie in the continued health and well being of her brother.

The priests of Hyperion modify the Black Dryad's Doom into some different effects that will last a year and a day.

Our contract to 'Clear the obstructions blocking the view from HyBrasil' is accepted. We make plans and preparations to take out the towers.

Kilroy & Aryan head out to do the Slippery Rock, Seagate, Gracht, Slender Neck, HyBrasil loop trip to retrieve a chalice to protect us from the Orc poisons.

Sunday 20th Frost

We rest, recharge our magic, then after sunset share dinner, a drink, and a dance.

Later in the evening we glide down to the 3-mile high tower, Aryan, Kern, and Amelia enter at our selected cutting point, Caprice, Gerald and Kilroy enter 500' further down where there is a small grove of potted shrubs and trees.

Caprice clears the wards, Kilroy kicks down the door and unleashes his Solar Flare. One tree remains (presumably sentient) so Gerald sets it alight with some fire arrows. A few seconds of damage later, the tree is also dead. Gerald deftly banishes the waiting Air Elemental as they exit, blind some Elementals as cover and ascend to join the rest of the party.

Meanwhile upstairs, Aryan has cleared the wards, Kern struggles to open the tower with Tunnelling, it seems the Dryads have consecrated the tower against Earth Magic. Eventually we get in, Kern identifies the bound earth supports and removes the unbound stone, Aryan hacks through the bound earth, Amelia alternates between skewering intruders and cutting bound earth.

A large Air Elemental circles the tower striking at anyone that sticks their nose out until Caprice puts it on ice. A larger one raises a storm cutting down visibility and our exit options. A Dryad in sylph form casts Mind Magic at us from outside the tower. An Earth Elemental is sent at us from above and a boogle (orc-goblin) is sent in after us but both are dealt to by Caprice.

Having limited success from outside the Dryad teleports in, fortunately Gerald has warned us of the change in the MOTS and we are ready for her. We resist her TK Rage and return fire with Axe, Mountain, and Dragon Flames. Out of range of any trees she could retreat to, the Dryad dies.

The big Air Elemental outside is now uncontrolled and heads off to cause some chaos, we finish cutting the tower in half and flee as the top 2-miles falls.

Taking advantage of the chaos caused by the Dryad's death, falling tower, and rogue elemental, we glide to the 2-mile high tower and cut that in half.

The two bits of falling tower caused some damage to the road but they are mostly deflected away by Elementals.

We fly back to HyBrasil in time for some late night celebratory drinks.

The Dwarves are very happy with our civic improvements.

Caprice is taken away by the priests to have the Death Curse removed.

Chapter 11: The good and the bad

Moonday 21st Frost - Reapsday 26th Frost

Somebody mentions the Was-Wolves - they used to be a large were-wolf civilisation until somebody took away the moon then the Orcs hunted them for food. We work out that we could save them from extinction by relocating them so we decide to do it. The HyBrasil Dwarves think this selfless altruism sounds good and loan us one of their bigger Air-Ships for the job. Amelia identifies an uninhabited harbour we could move them to, Kern ensures the harbour has the latest amenities (caves and fortifications), Aryan & Caprice convince them to trust us, Caprice cures them of the Lycanthropy disease, Amelia drugs them for the flight over the highlands, and within a week we've moved the few thousand we manage to find to their new home.

Sunday 27th Frost

Then we start speculating about the Sucky Trees and getting greedy. Before we start to question our shallow justifications too much we load a willow in the borrowed ship and fly 2,500 miles East to the next continent where there are supposed to be lots of Fae.

Swooping down to have a closer look at the forest and rivers we pick up a few passengers (Sylphs, Centaurs, and a Nymph), part ways with the Centaurs, have a near miss with a Dragon, then we pick up a few more passengers (Nixie and Fossegrim) from a lovely looking pool in the forest. Kern (Tree Master) and Caprice chat to them during the flight, encouraging a Sylph to be our local guide.

One of the more interesting things our passengers mention is The Prince of Navarre, a Wild Elf who leads a wild hunt at night and oppressively rules this area. When the weather unnaturally starts to turn stormy we decide to leave the area before our royal audience (we don't want to risk damage to our borrowed ship).

A few hundred miles further north in Elven wine country, we avoid another Dragon, chat with a local Dryad who introduces us to some Satyrs and hear about a more powerful Satyr in the area that offers sacrifices to a local dragon (who also trades with the local Elves). As the conversations continue Aryan entertains our Sylph guide who was getting a bit bored.

Chapter 12: Adiós

Moonday 28th Frost - Duesday 29th Frost

We spend a couple of days off-shore negotiating with our guests, there is some talk of firm negotiations with the local abusive prince but we decide it could be taken poorly if we get our loaned ship damaged. We let some of our guests off near their homes, others choose to travel with us a while. With a farewell to our local guide we set course back to HyBrasil.

W'ansday 30th Frost

Arrangements are made to transport our trees to where we want them on Alusia, then most of us bid farewell to our new friends in HyBrasil and fly to Amalfi in Aryan's renovated skiff.

Th'rsday 1st Snow

A late start after a long session with the Amalfi Dwarves, with a packed picnic basket we fly to Slender Neck, portal back to Alusia, and fly home.

Addendum 1 - Reapsday 3rd Snow

Aryan sustains injuries on Kern's behalf after delivering the message to Kern's wife that Kern won't be back for another 6 months.

Addendum 2 - Th'rsday 8th Snow

Aryan and Amelia get together for open heart surgery and tree planting.

Addendum 3 - Reapsday 1st Ice

After a night of negotiations, the military Governor of Plaz'toro is relieved as head of state and the Count di Ebola declared the new Governor.

Later in the day it is publicly announced that the Counties of Ebola and Plaz'toro will unite to found the Kingdom of Del Toro, King Aryan and Queen Dolores will be formally crowned in the new capitol before the last full moon of spring, at that time the new Barons of Plaz'toro will be invested and form the Baronial Council of Plaz'toro, responsible for the day to day governance of Plaz'toro.

Calendar

	Moonday		Duesday		W'ansday		Th'rsday		Frysday		Reapsday		Sunday
Winter: Frost (7)
		Samhain	1	Guild Meeting Seagate	2	Purple: Slender Neck, Altair, Northern Camp.	3	Scouting Orc front line, N. Camp.	4	HyBrasil 1st Mtg, N. Camp.	5	HyBrasil 2nd Mtg (Alfred), Cut LQ & JR roads.	6	Party Splits: L, Altair, Slender Neck.
	7	Waiting, watching, HyBrasil.	8	Night assault on L, get RB. Mission 1 Complete!	9	R&R at HyBrasil...	10		11		12		13
	14		15	Slender Neck => Alusia	16	Alusia => SN => Arac	17	Piracy, B&E vs C. Elledor	18	HyBrasil / Alusia	19		20	Tower Assault
	21	Was-wolf rescue begins	22		23		24		25		26	Was-wolf rescue completed	27	Visiting Fae
Winter: Snow (8)
	28		29		30		1		2		3		4
	5		6		7		8		9		10		11
	12		13		14		15	Solstice	16		17		18	Yuletide
	19	Days of Chaos	20	2nd DoC	21	3rd DoC	22	4th DoC	23	5th DoC	24	6th DoC	25	7th DoC
	26	8th DoC	27	9th DoC	28	10th DoC	29	11th DoC	30	Twelth Night	1		2
Winter: Ice (9)
	3		4		5		6	First Plough	7		8		9
	10		11		12		13		14		15		16
	17		18		19		20		21		22		23
	24		25		26		27		28		29		30

Reference Information

The Doom

The priests advise that Hyperion cannot remove the Fey Doom that the one of the City Triad has given the partymembers, but he can ameliorate it both in duration (from forever to a year & a day) and, potentially, in effect. treating the Fey Doom as a musical note, the afflicted party-members may individually select another note, the gift of Hyperion; but both the name & the sound (as you perceive it) are important. Do NOT select a note that reinforces the Triad curse; seek rather to resovle or subvert the curse. Other than this the priests can give no further advice, since it must be your choice. Moreover, the same name may never be chosen more than once, so you will choose in turns. Again, you choose the selection order, since it is your fate. Although you may discuss and conjecture amongst yourselves, you cannot know the effect of a choice until you have made it. However if an indivual doesn't like their first choice, and about a third of the choices are highly undesirable, they may select another name if it is available, but their second choice will be final

Technical term	NAME	Equitempered semitones from Doh
Unison	Doh	0
Augmented  Unison	Dee	1
minor  2nd	Rah	1
Major 2nd	Ray	2
Augmented  2nd	Ree	3
Minor  3rd	May	3
Major  3rd	Me	4
Augmented  3rd	Ma	5
Diminished  4th	Fey	4
Perfect  4th	Far	5
Augmented  4th	Fee	6
Diminished  5th	Say	6
Perfect  5th	So	7
Augmented  5th	See	8
Minor  6th	Lay	8
Major  6th	Lah	9
Augmented  6th	Lea	10
Minor  7th	Tay	10
[Major]  7th	Tee	11

ARAC: their motivation & trade

1. Not to be overwhelmed, killed, or eaten by the Green Orcs or Black Dryads.
2. Arac therefore receives herbs, orchids, etc —and peace— from the Orc Empire and, in turn, provides fish and development tools ... which is to say (Shhh! It's a secret, for which the Duke of Arac has total deniability) weapons.
3. The tools/weapons come from off-plane, via C.E. (Party does not know details) in exchange for the Orcish herbs & flowers.

HY BRASIL: their motivation & trade

1. The Governing Council of HyBrasil prohibits trade with certain unclean places (e.g., N & S continents), states, peoples (e.g., Drow pirates), religions, ...
2. The nominal governor is the High Priest of Hyperion. The rest of the council are religious advisors, certain guildmasters
3. Other than that, Free Market Rules! Authorised trading houses pay no taxes except inspection fees & purchase of Trade Licences.
4. The council inspects all imports and classifies them. In theory, the council may prohibit the importation of certain items but, in practise, never does.
5. The council also legislates the price of local products to ensure that local producers get a living wage AND that local goods, while in stock, are available at only a modest price (or even cheaper) to HyB citizens. Moreover, every trading day, any imported goods that have been decreed as "similar" to locally produced items or food may NOT be sold until the domestic supply has been purchased. In practise, an importer buys up all competing local products, giving them to HyB charities (or, in rare cases, trading off-plane), then sells their imports to status-sensitive Middle & Upper-class citizens for as much as the market will bear. Suitable charities include monks, orphans, & the poor.
6. The council is responsible for defence against the orcs (including bastions, warships, S-T, etc), public parks, "entertainment", sanitation, etc. Of course prominent Houses or coalitions are encouraged to "bid" for council contracts — usually at a significant loss. However, such civicly minded Houses receive significant status for their activities, including the less frequent need for inspections.
7. TBA.

Restricted trade items from HyBrasil

The following will only be traded to nations of the highest moral probity, and by special licence of the Governor & council ... apparently certain guild-members & Duke X are all of a sufficiently high moral standard.

SUCKY TREES

Purpose: to trap fey; indeed, the higher a fey's WP the more likely it is to be trapped.  Trapped fey are powerless but may be released on granting a "wish" or promising a service to the treemaster.  Alternatively ALL the trapped beings in a particular trees are released by performing a Remove Major Curse ritual [MA of the ritual is the highest WP of the trapped beings].  A released being is expelled 10' beyond the range of the sucky tree or others of its grove.  Sucky trees come in several flavours including prison pine & reaping willow.

Fey includes all sentients labelled as "Fairy folk" including Brownie, Centaur, Dryad, Elf, Fossegrim, Leprechaun, Nixie, Nymph, Pixie, Satyr (Faun), and Sylph. However Fey of the sea, ocean, or very deep lakes (e.g., merfolk) are beyond the control of the tree, even were it to be in range of them.

Special cases:
(#1) Beings using fey magic count as fey (but with +1 WP modifier) !!
(#2) Other than that, elves or drow count as fey (but with +2 WP modifier) !!

Anything fey within 60' of a sucky tree must make a 0xWP roll (greater permitted), with the following modifiers:
-1 WP "fey" is using magic on a target or area within 60' of a sucky tree
-1 WP caster/trigger/invoker is mindmage, illusionist, or near-enough
-1 WP death, damage, or charm magic is being cast
NB: DA, ESP, Telepathy, etc, count as being targeted on beings (for the purpose of sucky trees).

Tree mastery One masters of a masterless tree by purifying under it, becoming its master for

• [Rank] months, or permanently at Rank 20,
• Or until Tree-master's death
• Or until Remove [minor] Curse is performed on the tree-master (MA is the Tree-master's)

... whichever comes first. One may "queue" mastery (i.e. re-purifying before the current mastery runs out) only with the specific assent of the Tree-master. Queuing mastery permits an extension/renewal one's mastery or enables the transfer of mastery to a chosen successor without releasing the prisoners.

Trees of all sizes may trap an indefinite number of pixies or similarly small fey; a sucky sapling may only trap one creature of elivsh size or greater; but medium to large trees may trap an unlimited number of fey. Trapped fey are powerless to effect anything, including their own release despite college or innate/inane abilities, items, etc -- but they may communicate with anyone able to Speak to Enchanted or communicate with plants.  The trapped creatures are permitted to threaten, plead, bargain, even bore ... but may not, of course, charm, awe, compel, etc.

Other than Remove Curse, a trapped creature may only be released by

• the tree becoming masterless, or
• agreeing to a specified service, or
• granting a wish if possible (as per leprechaun), or
• temporarily transferring a racial or college talent or spell at extant rank for a year & a day (when fey has it at Rank-0 but may re-rank), or
• permanently splitting a racial or college talent or spell at half-rank to Tree-master; fey retains half- rank, but may re-rank).

RESTRICTIONS on transferring or spliting

• a purely physical body part (e.g., sylph wings or nixie gills) is not possible
• a learned skill (e.g., archery) is not possible
• a psychological tendency (e.g., violence, anthropophagy, arrogance) is not possible
• the GM may place specific restrictions on the "gifts" in the interests of balance or BDE
• the tree-master may renounce a transferred "gift" at whim
• a split or transferred 'gift" may be removed from them by Remove [minor] Curse (MA is the tree-master's)

At any one time, the Tree-master may never have more that 1 "gift" per 5 full points of MA.
A sucky tree will also trap sentient fantastical avians or fantastical land creatures, provided they are Gargoyle-sized or smaller; but such fantasticals may only be released for a service.

TITAN-METAL

A rustproof, extremely strong metal for making cogs and rods that are highly resiliant and durable ... but nearly impossible to cut or work. It may also be coloured by special methods. Titan metal is very popular, especially alloyed with gold or silver, as a mounting of diamonds & other precious stones.
The eveyday currency is nomally based on weights of pure Titan-metal; and the currency comprised special tokens of thin titan-metal alloy that symbolically represent nominal values of the pure metal. The party will be paid in this currency, but may get it exchanged when they leave into gold bullion ... although it would be worth more to trade it for locally produced goods, such as mundane glass, diamonds, jewellery, optical instruments, or metal items for your own use or to trade in Alusia.

PERPETUAL MOTION DEVICES

Constructed by Master rank mechanicians using materials usually only available to HyBrasil and powered by cavorite, these mechanical devices resemble a very small windmill, but with very heavy sails/blades mounted inside a short but wide-diameter metal tube. On one side the cavorite causes the bades to fall up, on the other they fall down naturally. This turbulence-engine (or turb-ine) is mounted inside another tube on pivots with incredibly strong titan-metal ratchets & locks, so that the turbine can be tilted: decreasing the speed at which the blades turn.

In the Hybrasil aeirships, the PMD becomes an "airscrew": the wind is generated by the moving blades, instead of vice versa for the widmill. Alternatively the axle may be fettered with titan-metal cog & chain to turn cartweels (etc) enabling carts to move without employing donkeys, horses, peacocks, or other draft animals.

HyBrasil's Metal Aeirships

Like, their wooden or stone Aerean counterparts, the lift comes from Cavorite (usually in titan metal alloy) but HyBrasil ships are much more stealthy because they have a second layer of cavorite that matches & negates the excessive uplift. Conversely Aeran vessels lift everything over the cavorite, including the air over the ship: this creates the uplift & updraught that makes it impossible to target missiles at people onboard; but that same updraft makes the ship blindingly obvious to hovering avians (including Rocs or dragons) and air elementals.

Communication Diamonds

When a communication diamond is near (within 1 foot) of your mouth, anything you whisper will be heard by those within 200 yards that have another diamond from the same set near their ear.

• 1 x 2 diamond set @ 4,500 sp for the set.
• 1 x 13 diamond set @ 2500 sp per diamond.

DIAMOND WEAPONS

A& B class only; a microfine amalgam of high-quality steel & diamond; only manufactured by Rank9+ smiths of Hy Brasil, requiring high temperature & pressure in special atmospheres. Obviously these weapons are expensive and extremely rare outside Hy Brasil.

Extremely light, resilient, & preternaturally sharp/pointed, Diamond weapons are best wielded using dexterity & skill rather than brute strength: they may NOT gains bonuses from over-strengthing. The weapons are highly resistant to breaking and immune to high/low temperature and to acids — even dragon's blood.

MAGIC:

1. The weapon channels and deflects magic -- giving the wielder +10 MR that may be combined with other MR bonuses ...
2. However, NO weapons spell may effectively increase strike chance or damage of a diamond weapon — although magic that increases the wielder's statistics, etc, is still effective.
3. A rank10 smith with special knowledge and effort may imbue the weapon with a rune that bestows a specific ability either on the weapon (e.g., to damage insubstantial opponents; to leap into its possessor's hand under certain conditions; discharges a magical effect on the thing/target struck; etc) or on the wielder: e.g. to see invisible; to run on air; to be fearless; immunity to a specific spell; etc. Other than base chance, which is usually automatic, the effective spell-rank of the Rune is the weapon rank of the wielder.

DAMAGE: Once a warrior, assassin, or someone greater than Rank4 in that weapon, has practised with a diamond weapon for an hour, they may use it to its fullest advantage. Specifically:

1. Increase BC & Initiative by 1xMD of wielder
2. The Assassin increased chances of criticals are DOUBLED, and any damage (Fat or EN) stated in the Grievous Injury table (§51) is also doubled.
3. The Warrior damage bonuses are DOUBLED
4. If the player rolls under their character's rank when rolling the damage D10, that dice roll is deemed to have been ([Rank of weapon]–1) instead.
5. any effective fatigue blow is also a bleeder for [an additional] 1-point (Fatigue if the victim has Fatigue, otherwise Endurance, until staunched or killed) because the weapon is so sharp ...
6. and any effective endurance or grievous wound is also a bleeder for [an additional] 1-point per pulse (Endurance, until staunched or killed).

It is usual for Diamond weapons to be give or sold only on certain conditions —e.g., no poison; not for use by undead or demon-worshippers; etc.

People

Alfred

Alfred of Hy-Brasil is of House Fain, personal name Wiseman, called Aethelbrecht, CEO (whatever that is)* of Miracle Holdings, a listed Association.

Travelled in (personally owned or house boat?) the Dwarven Vessel Craftsmanship; accompanied by the smaller vessel Apprenticeship.

* Amelia's best guess is that, although CEO could be an abbreviation for Ceorl (i.e. Churl, but that seems unlikely) it is more likely to be shorthand for something, e.g. Commander Extra-Ordinary

Places

Purple

Hy-Brasil

A large (and previously concealed) mountain north-east of the Orcs. Home of the Inter-planar trading Dwarves that follow the Titan Hyperion.

Note on pronunciation: Hy-Brasil has the emphasis is on the middle syllable, not the last.

The Dwarves seem to be organised into some sort of clan/house bureaucracy with strict rules regarding trade and interactions with other peoples and planes.

Skilled craftsmen, particularly jewellers (at least of Diamonds), armourers, weapon smiths, cavorite smiths.

Shield of Hyperion

Ceiling Altitude (feet) by Distance (miles) from Hy-Brasil

Distance	Altitude	Distance	Altitude
0	13,200	160	31,400
10	14,300	180	33,700
20	15,400	200	36,000
40	17,700	220	38,400
60	19,900	240	40,800
80	22,200	260	43,200
100	24,400	280	45,600
120	26,700	300	48,000
140	29,000

On the slopes, just below the lower fortifications is a band of titan-ore; this projects the Shield of Hyperion (which may be seen by Dwarvish or Halfling infravision when in or just beside it) — an almost planar cone of sub-visible light/heat just a few feet thick that projects at least to [what was] the Lunar sphere. Anyone controlling an elemental or any bound element becomes automatically unconscious when they &/or their bound element(al) cross the shield. Even beings that don't sleep are affected ... although immunity may grant a 0 X WP roll per pulse to remain conscious. Either way, the element(al) is dissipated in a few pulses.

Navigational/Mechanistic/Philosophical Estimates:

NB the critical 40,000' (7½ mile) distance is at about 240 miles from Hy-Brasil; at Amalfi, the ceiling is about 30 miles, and at Altair or Slender Neck it is over 40 miles.

Mil Sci

Skirmish Formations			Watches
Default Aryan Kern Amelia Caprice Gerald Kilroy	Double File Aryan Amelia Kern Caprice Gerald Kilroy	Single File Aryan Amelia Kern Caprice Gerald Kilroy	Amelia & Caprice Aryan & Gerald Kern & Kilroy

Loot and Expenses

• The opportunity to commission Diamond Weapons from HyBrasil (to you 20-24k Seagate SP; normally twice that price)
• Sucky Trees (anti-fey). Reaping Willows or Prison Pines @30,000 Seagate SP: one each, except for your drow, which might be taken as an insult ... you know how snippity they can get, no offence.
• Industrial-sized Perpetual Motion device, nominally for your Drow, @35,000 Seagate SP (including free installation & 7-year warranty.
• Two sets of communication diamonds (1 x 2 diamonds set @ 4500 SP) (1 x 13 diamonds, individually @ 2500 SP) sets can be split, but a solitary diamond is of minimal use.
• Three months use of the Road Builder each (after Duke Xeno's turn)
• A four way trade agreement between Ebola, Gracht, Amalfi and HyBrasil, with permanent portals in Gracht and Ebola to HyBrasil (Aryan & Amelia)
• A county in Arac, including the town of Liberty (Caprice)
• A ship from the Duke of Arac (Coastal fishing or ocean-going trader. Can we sell this or should we lease it to someone on Purple?)
• A book of minor herbal recipes from provincial Orc Herbalist, in Dwarvish @2500sp
• A load of magical herbs and plants, also Several cages of Parrots @120,000sp the lot
• Gliding Cloaks: 1 each @ 15,000SP
• Some 1000's of silvers for the destruction of the invasion towers (approx 2000 each?)
• Dooms, varying in details. (Caprice, Gerald, Kern & Kilroy)
• Black Dryad/Sylph dust valued at 2,000SP as alchemical ingredients, but an excellent quitessential additive (in small quantities) to manure
• burned tree bark: curiosity value only

1. Use of Chalice 5,000sp

Flying Monkey Coat (@15,000 SP)

This is NOT a trade good, but something that most aeirship hands (in the better trade associations) are given when they sign their first contract. The party has been given them as part of an under-the-table deal. The cloak smells faintly (artifically) of banana and appears to be strips of tattered light brown leather, although other colours are known.

When the wearer is in the air and spreads their legs OR their arms (OR both), their body is magically covered with a long warm furry coat —meaning a piece of clothing, not hair all over their body— and membranes appear between their arms & legs and between their legs & tail (surprise!). The enables the wearer to Glide, as per Air magics S-8, at whim (at any rank between 0 & 20, as desired).

The coats are allways called Monkey suits, even though they are actually made from flying lemur pelts, so as not to upset the actual flying lemurs which are indigenous to HyBrasil and often adopted as pets. This is why the coats are always dyed and given false odours.

Gratuity from Amalfi Dwarves

Picnic Hamper @ 2,500: Bearing the Arms of the Dwarven Kingdom of Altair[-Amalfi], 1'x1'x2'; appears to be made of painted, fine wicker work with gilded rope handles at the side. Apart from the painting on the lid, it is actually made entirely from woven filaments of fire-resistant rock and padded with "wool" made from the same material. Protects contents from natural and magical fire; conversely may be used to contain magical or mundane fire without burning the hamper.

Wiccan Preserves: Inside are a selection of small glass pottles, all of different shapes and colours, obviously of HyBrasil origin. The pottles have been filled with Weird Alchemy preserves obviously commissioned from Halfling subjects of Amalfi: the runic labels are in both Dwarvish & Halfling. Each pottle contains 7 doses (a teaspoon full); each preserve is at Rank-20 effect unless otherwise indicated and will remain viable for 3 years until opened. Once the wax seal is broken, the preserve must be consumed within 4 weeks or it loses its magic. The "doses" in these preserves do NOT count towards the 100 maximum — if anyone is still playing that rule.
The pricing is that of the guild, which is probably above the actual production cost, but excludes the extreme difficulty of getting so many "aunties" to agree who was to produce which preserve and what recipe should be used. Most pottles have different flavour jams & chutneys ... some very different; but others are repeated, especially Sloe, Papaya, and Cinnamon-Hawthorn.
[Weird Alchemy is a Wiccan special knowledge ritual that converts single spell-castings into a caldron of potion that conveys the effect to the imbibers. At higher levels, the potions may be reduced to preserves, which are more durable & convenient]

• Cat-vision, S-5 (Rank-10) @500sp
• Converse with Animals, S-7 @1000sp
• "Transform into Tree-frog", S-10 (Rank-6, 20 MA) @1800sp
• Virility, S-18 @ 1000sp
• Unlocatability, S-* @1000sp — Immune to being located (via E&E spell G-6) for 21 hours; if imbiber was currently under Locate spell(s), they appear to veer off in a random direction at very high speed, for a minute or so, and then pop out of range.
• Unlocatability [S-*] and Virility [S-18] @ 2000sp
• Triple Blessings on Unborn, S-2 (+7 MD, EN, PB) @6000sp
• Witchsight, T-3 @2000sp, lasts for 20 hours
• Lose smell & taste, G-1 (Rank-10) @ 1000sp
• Mind-cloak @2500sp
• Walking unseen @1000sp
• Wind whistle @1000sp
• Walking unseen & Mind-cloak @1000sp
• Storm calling @ 2000sp [normally not potionable]
• Blessing on Unborn (S-2, for +7 AG) and [hopefully "or"] Virility @3000sp (a.k.a. who let Aunty Meg near the cauldron again)
• Counter Wiccan General & Special counterspells @3000sp [+90 MR]
• Counter Earth General & Special counterspells (Rank 10) @1500sp [+60 MR]
• Counter E&E General & Special counterspells (Rank7) @1050sp [+51 MR]
• Namer-style Detect Aura (Rank 16) @ 600sp, duration 16 hours
• South Savage beast (Rank 15) @1500, misspelt on label, actually Bardic G-9
• Ventriloquism (rank 15) @1125, as per Bardic G-10
• Speak to enchanted (Rank 10) @500, as per E&E G-5 [normally not potionable]
• Blending (rank 11) @275, as per Celestial G-1
• Shadow form @1500, as per Celestial G-4
• Tracking (rank 15) @750, as per Earth G-11
• Lesser Enchantment @1250, as per Earth G-12
• Bouyancy (rank 10)@500, as per Water G-1
• Cold resistance (Rank 15) @1125, as per Water G-2
• Cold resistance (Rank 15) & Virility @2125, as per Water G-2 & Wiccan S-18
• Navigation (Rank 12) & Virility @750, as per Water G-2 & Wiccan S-18
• Water breathing (Rank 15) & Virility @2125, as per Water G-2 & Wiccan S-18

Also included are 3 x Restoratives (@500sp), Rank-20, of Cocaine flavoured Ginger-beer of indefinite duration; and half-a-dozen straw & oyster muffins Rank-25 (sic!) of Virility that must be eaten in the next 2 days (@600 the set) — obviously someone relayed the "Stud muffin" comment to Aunty Meg.

Specifics of loot not covered elsewhere

to come shortly

Standard Buffs

Armour / Defence / Protection

• Kern: Earth Armour on up to 3 people 42% Def -1 dam +Magic Protection (on Kern, Aryan & Amelia)
• Kilroy: Rune Armour 25% Def +5 AP (on Kilroy, Caprice, & Gerald)
• Glass: Multiple Images +2 Images for Combats (Only lasts 8 mins)

Stats

• Kern: Rk 20 Strength of Stone - up to 21 pts split between PS and EN (on everyone, -Amelia)
• Caprice: Dancing - at night: +17 MR & Ft (88 for Caprice) at night
• Amelia Herbals: WP potions - 14 doses of +4 WP for 2 hours

Combat

• Quickness
• Aryan: Melee Only: +12IV +12SC +12Def +1 Pass Action at End of Pulse
• Kilroy: Smite Rk 20 - Res or D+21 + Prone & Stun on first hit (on person, not weapon specific)
• Kilroy: Rune Weapon Rk 20 - Acid/Poison D-5 + 8 for D pulses - 25 mins
• Aryan: Raise Morale +6 WP (should be running most of most fights)
• Amelia: Can absorb B class specs on friendlies within 15'

Other

• Enhance Enchant 13 (Rk 20 available before we depart Carzala)
• Aryan: Witchsight Rk6 on 1 target (Kilroy)
• Glass/Caprice: Disguise Rk 15 (16 hrs or 8 days if have 1 hour(ish) to permanent)
• Glass: Disguise Mind - makes telepathy far less effective (same duration) on all but Kilroy
• Amelia:
  • Suppress Scent Potions: 24 doses, lasts 24 hours from application
  • Disguise Scent Potions: base for making potions to change our scent to something local. Will need to be finished on Purple with local ingredients.
  • Hot meals +4 FT; Rose Hip Tea +5 FT

Transport

• Aryan: Aeir Skiff 13 mph or up to 35 mph with Kilroy's Bound Air. Ballistic: effectively 130, 350, or up to 500 mph.
• Glass: Mist Walking up to 750 miles at 100mph (Ritual + 6FT)
• Kilroy: Rune Portals & Banishment
• Amelia: Aeir Scooter 13 mph (& can take magic to go faster or be towed by other flyers). Carrying capacity: Amelia + 150lbs (which can be another entity). NB Amelia has Airmanship skill so she can pilot/crew Aryan's Aeir skiff.

Situational (may be in play)

Amelia's Highlands Bonus for the whole party only in effect when in a highlands terrain type

• +10 DEF vs melee or missles
• +10 INIT vs melee or missles
• +10 Strike chance with melee weapons
• +10 Perception