Scribe Notes
The adventure takes place off plane on the plane of Grymeron.

Summary

Adventure: Shopping on Grymeron
GM: Dean
Session: Autumn 814wk
Night: Tuesdays (See Discussion page)
Location: Chez Ellis
Level: Newtonian

Party

Tsayoi - a giant fire mage played by Chris
Tari - an Elven earth Mage played by Michelle
Roderigo - a sneaky hobbit E&E played by Michael M
Arandor - an Elven mind Mage Guard played by Phil Judd.
Anooke - halfling ice mage by Michael Haycock.
Lady Cher - Suarime Binder played by Sean

Employer: Camdindel
Mission: Three and a quarter years ago there was initial contact with the goblins of Grymeron. Two years ago Camdindel finally got around to looking at the reports on this initial foray from Maelstrom. A year later he gave the task of acquiring certain bits and pieces he was interested in to Lorto. Three months ago he tried to kick Lorto up the arse to motivate him to action the list quicker. Now that he has recovered from that dust up he has decided to pursue a less hazardous source of labour and hire a guild party.

List of bits and pieces available on application

Pay: Depends on what is achieved off the list, min 10,000sp each

Scribe Notes

Day 1 - Guild Meeting, Introductions and travel to Camdindell's vale

We met Legion who explained what we were wanted for. Basically Camdindell has finally got around to reading the notes from the mission 3 Â½ years ago and has had his interest peaked. So we are tasked to go to Grymeron and acquire in any way possible some 'samples' that he'd like to study, observe, use or absorb by himself and his henchmen.

Basically 'samples' of whatever we can find would be good with special bonuses depending on the state (live vs dead), size, lethality and uniqueness of the 'samples'.

Creatures - all are preferably captured alive but if this isn't possible then capturing its 'essence' in one of the 48 soul gems we are provided will suffice. A negotiated visit to Camdindell's abode for a year and a day would work as well for those 'samples' who prefer to be in one state than the other. Note: Soul Gems: these will change colour to glow when full and to release the 'essence' then they can be smashed.

Creatures sought are;

Sarth Dragons - we were dissuaded from actively hunting these sentient creatures unless attacked
Blood Trolls (super dumb 20-45' tall monsters), - we were dissuaded from actively hunting these sentient creatures unless attacked
Dracoslurze. 7 dead and 4 live specimens (including a huge female)
Vindikar (with a special interest in acquiring a queen for its hive mind)
Sarska - very rare - we were dissuaded from actively hunting these sentient creatures unless attacked
Grools - we were dissuaded from actively hunting these sentient creatures unless attacked
Goblin - Sentient and not really the enemy - we were dissuaded from actively hunting these sentient creatures unless attacked
Fungus Warrior (or similar). Samples obtained from the Mushroom assault
Cat Wolf (what is its GTN - Lykroi)

Objects sought are;

Potions of Ignore (time & distance are examples). As many as can be acquired up to a maximum of 20 each
Some un-distilled ignorance (a litre should suffice)
A floating tree seed. Suspected to be sourced from Moonpok specialists who are skilled with this sort of thing. 6 gained, 3 for Camdindel and 3 for party loot.
Mushroom Leather. Preferably a decent amount of unworked mushroom skin but if it must be worked then measurements may be needed.
Seeds from the Haunted wood. Any and all would be useful but rare and/or unusual would be best

Knowledge sought is (can be purchased or 'acquired' as necessary);

Mull Gates, how to find and how to activate. Yes discussion's have been held with local practitioners
Grymeron Magic, how is this done and how do they store it
Mushroom Cultivation, how it works and how do they make armour from it. Started on Day 2 but still more to learn but it will take time.
Minor Shaping, how do they create their little items

Once this list was discussed Cher was heard to utter "but, that's wholesale slaughter" only to have the rest of the party respond with "not wholesale at all, it's very targeted ~~slaughter~~ acquisition of samples"

We ask for a moment from Legion where we assign the party leader to Arandor as he seems so personable or trustworthy but we offset this with the vice-leader (major vice or leading vice) Roderigo. I (Tsayoi) volunteer to be scribe as I must learn the language and idioms of ~~you barbarians~~ the western world as well as continue developing myself through experiences. Lady Tari is made Military Scientist as she has been around a bit and has much martial experience.

Once Legion returns we quickly gather some equipment and by the hour after noon we exit the guild gates and alight a magical carriage for several hours of travel to Camdindell's vale.

We get to Camdindell's tower and have a quick chat with him regarding his wants and we settle down thereafter for a nights sleep in his sentient tower, surrounded by his 'capable' henchmen (including Legion and Maelstrom) and other 'undeady' servants. We do discover that Camdindell's 'dear old dad' is a lich-lord who resides here too and we shouldn't be alarmed should we encounter him here.

Since none of us can access the rainbow/mull gates we have decided to go see Albrecht of Grymeron the Goblin arch-mage who we met during The Rainbow Gates mission and who now resides near Gryphon Pass (he was last found drinking at the nearby Gryphon Inn) where he has set up a trading link to Grymeron and so we will depart for there on the morrow.

Day 2 - Depart the vale, go to The Gryphon Inn and Darkwell

We arise, break fast and then by 9am we take flight eastwards to the last known location of Albrecht of Grymeron the Goblin Mage which is The Gryphon Inn. We arrive just before lunch and we enter the familiar Pub/Inn (well familiar to some of us 'regulars' anyway) and look about for Albrecht. We quickly find him and his 2 Fungi warriors at the end of the bar seated at the very short table that has been provided for people of such height. We sit down and talk awhile about our issues, we discover

the Vindikar Queen and her hive have not yet relocated from Shadoot Island in The Sea of Dark Storms.

The old queen has instead birthed a new queen and her hive and has grown her to maturity so that she and her hive are almost ready to travel to Newhome from the island. The journey between these two locations was estimated to have been dangerous and take several months to complete.

We have offered to see what we can do to expedite this and increase the level of safety for all concerned by suggesting we open the Rainbow Gate in the [[Vale of Tears][ (with Camdindells permission of course) and once through to Alusia from the island then escort them to fly to Darkwell where they could use the Noble Gate to transit through to Newhome in a much quicker and safer fashion.

There is a Tower of Learning on Grymeron which is a seat of great knowledge for the people of Grymeron. This is some 2500miles South of Gribbit down through The Haunted Wood.

The recent great war which almost saw the annihilation of the Vindikar at the hand of the Trolls happened at about the same time and the War of Tears on Alusia

The King of the Ice Trolls is attempting to gain access to the gates connecting Alusia to Grymeron to then join forces across both plains and cause much death and destruction

We enquired about being taught how to open the gates but discover that Albrecht and his fellow mages have decided that this isn't a good idea for so so many reasons (for example - see above point) and so that knowledge will remain with the goblins.

Once we have had our discussion Albrecht says that he must tell his brother mages back on Grymeron about our plans and we are invited to join him for the trip home. We all take our leave and pay the bar tab to the lovely but nosy Lyric. Once outside we take flight and with me carrying Albrecht and his guards we fly down to the woods outside Darkwell village, some 10m to the SE of the Inn.
There we land in a flat area outside of the woods and proceed up the narrow path through the woods and beside the Miramar River. 5 miles of brisk walking we find ourselves outside of a wodden pallisade where we are challanged by the Suarime guards on the wall. Albrecht responds for us and we are soon allowed in to the area at the base of the huge stone escarpment which has homes and suchlike carved into its side.
We speak with the elder xxx and we are granted leave to pass through the portal to Newhome. Albrecht undertakes his ritual while the village suarime indulge their curiousity about Cher and soon the other suarime females take her away to tell her tale. The rest of us pass the hour in meditation or simply resting.

Albrecht finishes his ritual and cher is returned to us - unharmed physically at least. We thank the tribe and pass through.

Day 2 - Newhome on Grymeron to Gribbit

We come through the other end of the gate and find ourselves underground in a fountain. We exit the fountain and are watched closely by the guards there until Albrecht shows himself and things return to normal. He speaks with the 4 guard goblins and 2 mage goblins, telling them of our quest. We are given refreshment before we exit the caverns and rise up a natural chimney before taking flight once more, only this time NE across Lake Imboo on route to Gribbit. We land at Gribbit after we had gained some interest from several goblins flying upon Zagwurms and who are part of the Goblin Air Corps. We head up to the palace and leave Albrecht to attend his meeting and arrange to meet her elater in the palace as rooms have been put aside for such as us.

We decide to see what of our list we can do while we wait for Albrecht to return 0 he says he will be a few hours and will wait to meet us if we aren't in the rooms when we return.

So we head down to the Mushroom market and procure some Mushroom leather (a 3ft x 150ft roll of normal leather) from Scram the Mushroom Merchant. We also get 3 x 100ft lengths of mushroom rope as well as ordering a 300ft long strand which will be picked up later when its made to our order. This costs 400sp all up and we also order another roll of high quality leather for 1000sp which we will return later to pick up. We cultivate Scram and learn that there are extensive mushroom farms under the city and we inveigle a tour of these fetid farms as well as dinner with him. We learn much about mushroom cultivation methods and are progressing knowledge in that area.

We return to the rooms in the palace, meet up with Albrecht, share news and decide to sleep before getting on our way back to the portal tomorrow. Night Passes

Day 3 - Gribbitt to Newhome to Darkwell to Camdindel's tower

We awake refreshed and make a quick stop at the fish market but there is nothing unusual there but we do discover that Lake Imboo has a number of denizens in it and that the goblin fishing fleet doesn't go that far from the port as its dangerous out there.

We take off and fly SW to Newhome where we transit the portal through to Darkwell and then fly onto Camdindel's tower at about dusk where we stop for the day as its has been a day of flying across many many miles. We share our thoughts in terms of relocating the Vindikar Queen (daughter) and her retinue and gain his approval. Dear old Dad puts in a request for some of the ignorance water and he'd like Ignore Death and Ignore Life varieties if possible. C is also amiable to trading some of his unique alchemy in return for other unique recipes.

We plan to arrange for the transit of his lands and then encourage the queen and her retinue to spend some time in the Vale of Tears before heading onto her final destination.

Day 4 - Vale of Tears through the Rainbow Gate to Shadoot Island. Negotiations with the Vindikar

An early start sees us pass through the Gate of Tears back to Grymeron where we find ourselves on a narrow (20ft wide) rocky ledge, high above the raging waters of the Dark Stormy Sea.
We quickly go back, get wings and then fly up to the clifftop above us. There we are met by some apprehensive Vindikar until Albrecht shows his face and then we are taken to talk about the new hive. We negotiate through a worker who channels the Queen (mother) through the hive mind connection.

Our plans meet approval in general and where obfuscation about the purpose of delaying in Camdindel's realm is detected the Queen (mother) asks direct questions about why the Queen (daughter) would be so delayed in the Vale of Tears. We muddle through and after explaining C's curiousity the Queen (mother) will brred another queen who may choose to settle in the Vale of tears if she so desires it and feels comfortable. This is a great outcome which fulfills another request of C.

We discuss logistics of how to transport the Queen (daughter) and her retinue of 100 as well as ground conditions, local foliage <yawn> etc before settling down for a nights sleep as this portal can't be opened until the morrow. Legion tells us that the carriage is a bone construction whcih can be melded into a more appropriate shape to transpoirt the Queen (daughter) if needed and that its a repository of Ghost Spirits.

In preperation for the move of the Queen (Daughter) and retinue we propose a tuneel between the current hive tunnels and down to the portal ledge. So a 2 mile long tunnel is joined with the hive tunnels and the portal ledge is modified with an access point to the side big enough for the Vindikar party and also a set of stairs are carved out on the left side of the portal ledge enabling ease of access for different species (up to 12ft tall beings) with lots of steps and landings.

Now we all get some rest and night passes uneventfully.

Day 5 Shadoot Island through to Vale of Tears via the Rainbow Gate and onto Darkwell and via the Noble Gate to Newhome

The day breaks early and we start the last bits of work before the portal gets opened. We note some suuplies that the vindikar are taking with them and it looks likes some sort of liquid. We ask for a taste each and are given a sample each. The two hobbits take theirs and they are buzzed and Maelstrom takes his - see below for Maelstrom and his changes. This is a powerful Amber Nectar. We finish our preperations, the queen and retinue and ready and so Albrecht does his portal through the Gate of Tears.

We pass through back to Alusia via the Gate of Tears

We find ourselves back in the vale with the queen and her retinue (100 vindikar with 40 warriors, 20 type x, 20 type y and 20 type z)coming through at rehular intervals. We despatch M to tell C whats afoot.
Soon thereafter M returns with the carriage, C and L and L and even dear-old-dad hiding in the deep background. Introductions are made, samples exchanged and the start of a future relationship forged. The entire group out of the tower is a most unusual event we surmise. A goves his Amber Nectar to C to test.

We discover that the hive mind can work across plane if an open portal and the physical distance isn't too far. Once the portal closes however the Queen and retinue stop as this has never happened to them before as they have always been part of the Quuen mothers mind. They soon assimilate and the new queen asserts her presence to bring them all to order. C quickly remodels the carriage and the queen is ensconced for her journey across Alusia to her new home. We make our farewells and see C and co depart back to the tower by way of a door that Lorto conjures out of nowhere.

10am sees us depart the vale and travel at speend north, then eatwards into Brastor, then down the pass into Gryphon valley before finally reaching Darkwell where the portal is by 11pm.

Albrecht does his portal and we all pass through to Grymeron and Newhome

Day 6 In Newhome and onto Moonpok for a Jaunt in The Haunted Wood

We camp for the night while the Vindikar set themselves up in their new home. We sleep until early morning (8am), we then bid them good luck and depart (for now) as we have Albrecht accompanying us on our jaunt into the Haunted Woods.

We fly for Moonpok across the lush farmlands and vales of the Goblins between Newhome and Moonpok. We arrive in the Goblin city oif Moonpok at 3pm.
Moonpok is a city built in a stand of trees on the edge of the Haunted Wood. Its built around a stand of enormous giant trees (50ft across and hundreds of feet high) some 30 in this copse.
The trees are joined by rope bridges and wooden walkways across the levels between the trees. There are gondolas/derigibles attached or moored to the upper levels. The city is covered in bright bunting, garish colours, the indigenous population of goblins seem happy and its a bustling and active town. Albrecht relates that the various goblin tribes have specialties in terms of goods made.

Against Cher's wishes we decide to head into the Haunted Wood right away. Some elementals are created and we use them to carve a way into the lowest level. Once we push, shove and thrust our way into the depths of the Haunted wood we find ourselves in a very different world even though we're only 1/2 mile away from Moonpok. The very earth is spongy and fetid with moisture, strange growths are on the floor and trees in this place devoid of light (except for that we have bought withnus) and dead silent. We discover again the phenomom of being able to swim up and down.

We decide to spend the rest of the day (not that daylight penetrates down here in the stygian darkness) and so we press on through the bottom level of the Haunted Woods.

We come across some small lights floating our way, seemingly on the breeze but nothing else. Careful use of light shows that these are the ends of very fine transparent tendrils being trailed down into the jungle towards us by a creature as yet unseen. We prepare for hostilities and Arandor fires a flaming warning arrow upwards hoping for some reaction. The arrow impacts the translucent body of a jellyfish like creature (some 100ft across) and soon the piter-pater of raindrops follows down upon us. Luckily the party is either protected by nearby ice structures of significant armour and fire. The 'raindrops' fall and brun (as acid) into the forest floor and the creature moves off dripping slowly as it goes. We gather a sample of the acid for C and then move on. We call the creature a Medusozoa.

An hour later we come across a centipede hanging on the side of a tree, we sleep it and then narrowly avoid being crushed by it as the elemental topples over with its weight - it is 30ft long, 8 inches wide and about a foot tall and weighs around 600lb or more. We call the creature Chilopode. My skin change come in handy to make it into a rat which is kept for later stoning by Cher. It's getting later but we want to press on to explore more before heading up the woods tomorrow.

We next come across what appears to be a pool of water in the ground which is very suspicious as it makes our hair shackles rise up with apprehension. We experiment a bit before determining that its some sort of pitcher plant (herein called a Nepenthe) which is a large water filled expanse designed to lure creatures in and then drown them before digesting. We decide to avoid the digesting and so we take a few samples of the liquid and walk around the edges (some 200ft across) very carefully.

It's now quite late so we find a relatively open area and build an igloo beside a tree so we can have a good nights sleep. Night passes

Day 7 - In the depths of the The Haunted Wood

We rise and undertake various purification rituals before we transparent the side of the igloo to find we are now in an area covered in many mushrooms which appear to have sprung up overnight. There seems to be close to a hundred of these ranging in size from 2ft to over 10ft in height. Plans are made to leave, run away etc and I remind the party we're here to talk and find out things especially related to mushrooms so the party leader allows that I head out and look to find the sentient mushroom so that a dialogue can be started while the rest of the party powers up in case.

I travel 50ft from the party and these shrooms show their true colours and start their slow attack with a dozen or so appearing to be warrior types and at the back a 20ft tall disfigured mushroom troll (a Fungasaur) rises and advances. Gouts of flame from Tari saute a number of shrooms close to the party and I spin around the battlefield scything my way through a number of them until only the Fungasaur is a danger. I attacked the creature with my weapon only to have it stuck in the creature and the troll considers getting away with me and so envelops me while turning into a spongy ball, rolling away from the party. Our magic is tested but we end up with me mightily splitting the creature into 3 parts, 1 of which we capture and kill, the rest rolls away through gaps in our hastily erected cordon. After a rest and a decent feed of sauteed mushrooms and bacon we decide to proceed in deeper but up a level.

We find the next level only slightly less dim and daunting with a smidgen more light than the Stygian depths below. We proceed along following the sound of water until we come to a small 20ft waterfall falling down her from the next level meandering along and then water-upping to the next level. We do some fishing and find a bit of food. We then decide to go up beside the waterfall only to be zapped by large electric eels. We scare these away and then head upwards where we stay and do some fishing. We catch some large piranha (3 x normal size) by way of a bubble of force surrounded by a large lump of ice. We also catch a large 25ft long shark which we had separated from it's 13 other pack-mates to stop it being eaten.

We continue trying to catch fish but then something unexpected happens and we get caught in the mouth of 'The giant whale shark of the Haunted Wood'. We find ourselves caught up and scooped into the 60ft maw and then sloshed halfway down its gullet (the creature we estimate at a mile in length and having thick scales skin) before we create an ice-flow to sit upon and ponder our predicament. We identify the means that this creature absorbs its 'catch' in that there are a number of parasitic worms in the creature that 'break down' (through liberal use of acid) creatures caught and ease the absorption process. We decide to get out and on our way we come across a goblin named Gabin (of the Murbatal goblins. 4 and a half ft tall, stocky - even dwarvish build) who had been also caught by the creature when his boat was enveloped some 6 months ago. He had made a home out of other driftwood and lived on local fish and other flotsam. We give him a ride on our berg and we together head up and exit the creature via its huge gills leaving behind our ice-cube to cause it some discomfort or not.

We find ourselves some distance from where we entered the Haunted wood and several hours later and so we find a 'safe' location nearby to make camp and get rest for the rest of the day.

Day 8 - In the depths of The Haunted Wood, The Dracoslurze attack

We arise, purify and then break our nights fast. We then decide that we have had enough of this layer of the woods and want to hunt the Dracoslurze. Gabat recomends that we go up 2 levels in the wood to the under canopy level or layer 3 of the woods where they are more likely to be found. We follow the advice and go up through the tree to that level.

We start to track towards water feeding areas in order to catch our targets but don't find any so we follow the river further in. We come to an area of great danger involving non-specific mind control and other nefarious magic that we can't determine all centered around a seemingly innocuous area of the jungle. After a while we decide to move on rather than enter the area with a known high danger that we can't quite determine. We give the area a wide berth and continue on some way past it. We stop for lunch.

Post lunch we set up some defences and utilise Tari's special magic to summon the dragoslurze to us. Tari is most efficient with this and summons the largest female nearby who comes along with her hunting pack of 10 males (inc her mate), all baying for blood and revenge on someone having the temerity to summon her. The usual jungle noises that were present dropped off around a minute or two before the arrival of the pack as what creature wants to draw the attention of such predators!
A close fight ensues where our forward planning (defences) and superior magic saved us from creatures that are very fast, tough skinned (FT and EN armour), nimble (can jump all over the place quite easily) and vicious attackers. It ends with the mate and 6 other the lessor males dead but the female and 3 other males alive, either through sleep or massive damage.

Once the fight is over the jungle seems very quiet still and we are very tired so we set about trying to deal with what we have. We make camp here and start the work.We have;

6 Dracoslurze essences captured in our soul gems
The female (8ft) of the pack has been skin-changed into a mouse
The healthiest of the surviving males has also been skin-changed into a mouse
The females mate the large 7ft male has been ballooned
A previously live male has also been ballooned
The remaining 7 dead males have been cut into chunks and itemised
The meat from one of the Dracoslurze is converted into Sausage by R with his own special recipe.

All of this takes a while and we aren't disturbed over the next few hours which is a welcome respite. We decide that we'll stay here for the rest if the day and camp is set, watches organised and sleep gratefully received. Night passes.

Day 9 - In the Haunted Wood, dealing with Cat People and taking flight

We arise and plan to get some of the Cat-Wolves and then start hunting for the Lake of Ignorance while looking for other things like seeds, unusual creatures etc.

We repeat our summoning plan with the cat wolves after ensuring we have more cover and protection from attacks above and from the side. The summoning works and 6 Lykroi cat wolves respond to the summons only to be captured, essence stored and killed. These are fast creatures with shaggy pelts and are a mix of cat features along with wolf body and fur. They hunt in packs and are some 2 Â½ ft tall at the shoulder and around 4ft long.

So by 10am we have finished the work on the Lykroi and we decide to head off up to the canopy. We first ask Gabit if he'd like to join us as our guide. We'd take him home afterwards to his village which he says is some 80miles east of Moonpok.

Some 2 hours later we have made our way cautiously up the trees to the canopy layer, looking for unusual seeds etc on the way but finding little of interest.

Noon sees us take flight from the top of the trees where we turn to the south towards the Mountains of Narrabri which rise up from the Haunted Woods to a height of 14,000ft. We look to have around 900miles to cover to get to the Mtns near the place we came upon the Lake of Ignorance. The HW itself gets up to around 5,000ft in height in its centre. We fly for 7 hours (covering 308m) before we land in the canopy and then float/swim down to a sizeable tree which Gabit encourages to allow us to camp the night. The night passes.

Day 10 - In the depths of The Haunted Wood, A day of Flight

We arise early and exit the tree and canopy just after dawn. The day sees us fly all day with a brief stop for lunch around noon. We end up flying for 9hrs before we seek shelter for the night in the canopy trees again. We land in the canopy and then float/swim down to a sizeable tree which Gabit encourages to allow us to camp the night. The night passes

Day 11 - In the The Haunted Wood and the Narrabri Mountains

We again rise early and are in flight by 8am. We fly for 6 hours before we get to the northern edge of the Narrabri Mountains by 2pm. These are quite large and also located further in the forest than the previous map had indicated

The Narrabri Mountains are shaped like a 7 and we have come down from the north to the flat top of the 7 area, around the centre. They are some 600miles W-E along the top in a 150m wide set of mountains and then they turn downwards over a 900m length but the bottom width is around 300miles. The treeline stops around 10,000ft and the highest peaks have snow year round. The treeline gives way to rocky crags and general mountains in which we are told live trolls of various types

We won't get over the Mtns before the magic fails of darkness arrives so we go in for an hour and then look for a suitable camp site. Anooke identifies what looks to be an alpine meadow at around 12,000ft and so we land on the snow when the weather starts to be getting worse. The mana is high and normal for 'fast-casting'.

We decide that being outside isn't the best idea for safety or survival and so being the paranoid survivor types that we are we prepared a layered camp. Anooke digs down through the snow to the rocky mountain floor below and there Tari encourages an Earth Elemental to create a separate bunker for us to shelter in with some level of comfort and security.

Our paranoia seems a good idea as once we are inside our bunker and we send out magic to see what's around, by way of mental and visual (wizard's eye) searches, they reveal something out there which would appear to be part air and snow, perhaps a blizzard/storm elemental as the weather gets worse. Maelstrom lets us known that the winds here are quite talkative and they will be telling others of our presence as we are a change for the area. We are most happy to be in our safe and warm bunker for the night. Night passes.

Day 12, In the The Haunted Wood, looking for a lake

We exit our warm bunker to find the weather has cleared with clean blue sky and little wind. We quickly take flight over the rest of the Narrabri Mtns before descending down to the Haunted wood once more by mid-morning.

We land and go down to the 'normal layer' where we start searching for the lake of Ignorance which as you can imagine is hard to find. We have plans â„¢ and progress them. We search for the rest of the day. We camp and night passes.

Day 13 In the The Haunted Wood where we find a lake

We continue our searching using our plan â„¢ and in late afternoon we rise through some of the wood and get to the Lake of Ignorance. It seems smaller than previously remembered and is only around 100ft across but we find a small shanty built on its edge and inside is a goblin (similar to Gabit) named Keifer (we call him this) who is the Keeper of the Lake. I/We greet him again and introduce the others of our party who are new to here. He offers us hospitality but we sensibly refuse to drink his liquids and instead provide our own more alcoholic beverages for consumption.

We state our intention and negotiate with him for some distilled ignorance. He seeks after knowledge and so some of us give up magical knowledge that we have little use for (R gives up unranked and unwanted Crystal of Vision ritual and Mass Charm, I give up Slow Fire and Smoke creation, Arandor gives up Ltd Precog, Anooke gives up 4 ice spells from his elemental, C gives up frictionless floor) and gain potions as a result which total 50. The lost magic can be re-learned by getting a remove curse (vs 21MA) and expending 1EN pt if so desired.

We also negotiate for several (5) litres of un-distilled ignorance for Camdindel and ourselves which cost nothing, except a duty of care when transporting this dangerous cargo. This is itemised for safe keeping. <br/.

The various concepts are explored and we consider Ignore Distance, Ignore Size, Ignore Life, Ignore Death, Ignore Time, Ignore Magic, , Ignore Fear, Ignore Weight and others.
We decide that the party will each take 4 potions of distilled ignorance, 2 will be given to DoD (C's father) and which will be Ignore Death Ignore Life, and 24 for Camdindel which will be 3 of each of the above.

We pass the afternoon and night here beside the lake and with Keifer. Night passes.

Days 14 to 17

We spend 4 days at the Lake of Ignorance, mostly ignoring the boredom and resisting the urge to swim in what appears to be a placid and safe body of water whilst living here in the humid jungle heat. The days pass safely and we have a final night's sleep before bidding our host adieu as we are leaving on the morrow.

Day 18 to 20

These 3 days are spent flying around 400miles a day on our way to Vardoose. The days flow into each other with a few variations. The end of the first day we landed and found a floating/weightless tree nearby from which we managed to get 6 floating seeds. The 3rd day saw us notice a partially camouflaged dragon flying some 80miles to the west of us which some wished to go and stalk but common sense prevailed and we continue on southwards.

The daily repetition of rising, taking flight, stopping for a quick lunch on the wing, flying for the afternoon, identifying a new landing site, getting the party down to the canopy level, moving further into the canopy till we find a sizable branch or tree, Gabit talking with the tree to let us lodge for the night and then once fed sleeping soundly (with a watch of course) until the morning is monotonous but a safe and reliable way to traverse this hostile environment safely.

Day 21

The last day of flight sees us finally land at the edge of a moat surrounding a large solitary mountain upon which the Tower of Knowledge or rather the centre of knowledge for Grymeron is built. We had noticed this mountain as we flew south as it remarkably stood alone surrounded by the dense centre of the Haunted Woods, rising to a snow-capped height of around 15,000ft. We noted that the mountain also had a shimmer around it that forebode a magical effect or barrier to our paranoid eyes and we noted the coiled draconic shape languishing around the upper towers that stretched we estimated around a mile in length. Discretion is called for especially when we ask Albrecht how he and other come here and he replied "by walking from Moonpok in large groups for safety, never by flying here", so landing and walking the last bit seems a smart solution.

On this side of the moat are a number of houses for locals who don't live over the other side but it seems a nice place after all the jungle and danger we've been assaulted by over the last 2 weeks. We decide to leave Arandor here with our various possessions as its safer/better that way and he's feeling out of sorts anyway.

Closer to the boats that ply the passage across the lake we are greeted by the Goblins of Vardoose Tower and we are asked why we're here. We honestly reply that we're looking for knowledge and after some discussion including the fact that this mountain is neutral ground for all creatures and we all agree to behave ourselves (taking on a small geas at the same time) we are taken across the 'lake' / moat to the island/mountain proper.

Once in the lower mountain area we decide to spend some time here and after arranging some accommodation we decide that we will stay for a week while we explore, learn and discover new and intriguing things that we never knew at all.

Night passes

Day 22 to 29

We learn many things over the next week as we meet the students here, chat with locals and converse with professors on many matters. We attend a number of lectures that are sporadically attended by the students and professors alike. We decide to hold a series of lectures telling the locals about our travels, Alusia, the guild and the other planes out there. These are jammed to capacity with everyone keen to hear of the new things, people met, being's encountered and adventures experienced. A number of the locals voice a hope of visiting Alusia and so we designate Albrecht as a Seagate Adventurers Guild ambassador (pro tem) for them to contact should they wish to do so.

We discover many things such as

The lake/moat water is mildly magical with its nature being Bounty, the consumption causing Virility and immersion in it causing bountifulness.
The magical barrier sheen acts to enforce the minor geas of peace on all here and the area is afflicted (in Roderigo's words) with substantive Peace and Goodwill to all, so no thievery is undertaken here (not even on a short-term basis) unfortunately for some
There is around 1000-1500 entities and creatures here.

The mountain/area is quite large with many beings here living in a disorganised rabbit warren of caves, buildings and structures designed for up to 60ft tall giants.
The body of students and locals covers the gamut from the Goblins to Giants and everything in between. There are trolls, Sarska, Grools, Fungus Mages, 15ft tall walking trees, Giant spiders (15ft across, 10ft tall and primary vulnerability is Fire), small dragons, Mossiegong's, walking stone columns and many more all living in harmony.
There is even a Blood troll named Scarza (primary vulnerability is Fire) whom we talk with and discover that unsurprisingly he's the smartest blood troll in years and he came here to better himself (not really succumbing to peer/family pressure to bog off at all) for the future.

We discover that the magic here is mostly ritualised spells of various types.

Ice Magic, this is the sphere of Protection and Healing
Fire Magic, this is the sphere of Strength and Battle
Blood Magic, this is the sphere of Control and Persuasion
Deep Magic, this is the sphere of Defence and Contraint
High Magic, this is the sphere of Illusion, Air and Weather
Ghost Magic, this is the sphere of Black or Dark Magic

We talk with some trees about their seeds and almost all are unwilling to part with their seeds except for one, the Arr Tree. We get suspicious and ask a professor about the Arr Tree and find out that they find a nice location and grow there where they exert their mid control type magic to control a specific area and feed their carnivorous appetites.
They are smart enough that they gather to themselves local predators to serve as guards. We wish we had known this a number of days ago when we had encountered such a tree but wisely stayed away from its control or controlled predator servants.

Anooke the cautious hobbit returns to the tree and gets a seed to take with us after much gnashing of teeth in the party but in the end we decide that we may take the sample back to Camdindel to mull over.

We learned that Elves are ancient legendary beings last here before the war of tears period on Alusia and no-one knows why they haven't returned.

We learn that the Sarska here were/are allies of the goblins and giants in the last 'Great War' and that 1 Sarska is worth 3 trolls on the battlefield as they have the gift of precognition albeit only a short term into the future which enables them to avoid blows and such like. We make them the offer of passage to Camdindel's with the promise of truce for at least a year and a day and they might take us up on the offer. Again we nominate Albrecht to arrange things if they so wish.

After a pleasant time here we decide that we should drop off our current store of collectables and so we take our leave.

We collect Arandor and one of the mages summons the moving rainbow gate, called Tiana Gate from the depths of the forest and so Albrecht creates a portal and we pass through back to Alusia leaving the humid tropics for the Fastness of Girwyllan. We grab 30 crystal leaves and take flight to Camdindels where we arrive safely before dusk.

We discuss our progress with Camdindell, hand over the 24 Distilled Ignorance varaties to him and the 2 for his father, we give Lortho 6 of the crystal leaves and divest ourselves of various skins, meat, skeletons etc. We pass the night in Camdindel's welcoming tower.

Day 30 (30th of Fruit)

We awake and discuss our next options and with Arandor continuing to be sick we decide on a bold course of action. We depart Camdindel's tower and head south to Neptune's gate by the Falls of Varusha. There we negotiate with Lord Neptune to allow our portal to be opened in return for 2 litres of undistilled ignorance which he gets us to put in the water.

Note for the future, beware of the waters advanced properties of forgetting, ignorance and possible offensive capabilities should you be on Neptune's bad side.

We pass through the portal to a small cave beside Lake Rhinius and we're half way up a 400ft cliff down to the deep lake water below.

Lake Rhimius is a mountain ringed lake over a 100miles across and ovoid. The surrounding mountains are all tall and snow-capped and so we judge ourselves to be around 5-8,000 ft above sea level judging by the crispness of the air here.

We've decided to very cautiously explore this area so maximum caution is employed while we are here. We first get an earth elemental to help us create a tunnel away from the waterfall cave and then create a safety bunker for us to use as a place of last resort in case things go truly pear shaped.

We then carve out a horizontal tunnel inland for around 600ft and then build a set of rock stairs spiralling upwards towards the surface 200ft above. Once we get to 20ft below the surface we create another bunker a little along from the end of the stairs as another safety refuge.

We espy the land from here and identify where we are going next. Once rested up some after lunch we dig a horizontal tunnel along some 500ft and then up under a rocky hill, rising up some 500ft before again creating a secure bunker inside the rocky hill.

We use wizard eye, and transparency to see the area around us. We identify a lot of flying creatures including a Sarth dragon some 80ft long and 15ft wide.

We watch and something alerts the sarth dragon to a change in the environment so she flys down to the waterfall cave and emits a sonic shriek which shatters some ice that Anooke left down there but doesn't affect us so far away and safely hidden. We become more determined to be sneaky, subtle and discrete up here in this wild land.

We hatch plans to try and locate where the Sarth Dragon is nesting in order to possibly grab a young one or an egg - we dare to dream!

A night of caution passes.

Day 31 (1st of Harvest) to Day 36

We stay under hard cover and observe the wildlife here. The Sarth Dragons (we see around half a dozen of these) are the top predators in the food chain and there are many others below them. We also see lots of activity in the open once the Sarth Dragons have hunted, been satiated and then returned to digest their food. We see Grools, Giants (Ice, Blood and Stone) and many other creatures keeping themselves fed once the threat of the Sarth Dragons have been alleviated.

We note that the Sarth Dragons are omnivores although the rich lake is teeming with fish which the SD's harvest by swooping down and releasing a sonic blast onto a patch of water, they then fly on before wheeling back to recover the dead or stunned fish they have 'caught'.

We decide to go hunting something easier tomorrow when we will head off towards some of the underground passages that riddle the area providing safe passage and havens for the land bound creatures away from the SD huns etc.

Day 37

We start making a tunnel through the mountains towards a 'hunting trail' exit/entrance we had identifed some Blood trolls using nearby.

After a few hours tunneling (which is slow as we are directing the elemental to avoid the other passages in the area) we come across something unusual. Our passage had been detected by a group of 6 Sarska who ask us to accompany them in/on their moving tunneling. We readily agree and we are taken to their underground complex and have wide ranging discussions, the result of which is that we are going to suspend any further 'safari-ing' activity and take what we have as its not a good idea to hunt up here and possibly disturb the balance of the area which may have unfortunate reprecussions far and wide if certain races get upset and their blood up so to speak.

We spend the rest of the day and night with them talking and making offers as we have done before. Also arrange for them to hook up with Albrechts Noble gate guards - the Vindikar who they are most interested in seeing once again after so long in isolation.

Day 38

We portal back to Alusia and thence to the Noble Gate, from there we visit Gribbit and make our goodbyes for now as well as uplift our goods. We stay the night.

Day 39

We travel to Moonpok and have discussions about seeds, parasites and such like. We pass the night here.

Day 40

We travel back to the Noble gate and pass through back to Alusia for teh final time. We fly onto Camdindell and discuss our actions/activites and rewards.

Calendar

Autumn 814wk: Fruit (4)
	Moonday		Duesday		W'ansday	Th'rsday		Frysday	Reapsday	Sunday
	Lugnasad		1	Guild Meeting	2	3		4	5	6
	7		8		9	10		11	12	13
	14		15		16	17		18	19	20
	21		22		23	24		25	26	27
	28		29		30	1		2	3	4
Autumn 814wk: Harvest (5)
	5		6		7	8		9	10	11
	12		13		14	15	Equinox	16	17	18
	19	Harvest Moon	20		21	22		23	24	25
	26		27		28	29		30	1	2
Autumn 814wk: Vintage (6)
	3		4		5	6		7	8	9
	10		11		12	13		14	15	16
	17	Blood Moon	18		19	20		21	22	23
	24		25		26	27		28	29	30	Beerfest

Buffs and Mil Sci

Magic	Rk	Effects	Dur	Arandor	Anooke	Cher	Tari	Tsayoi	Roderigo
Armour of Earth	20	+42 def, +1 DP	12 hrs	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Weapon of Ice	18	+19%/+5DM	Minutes	?	?	?	?	Y	?
Fire Armour	7	32pts of Fire Armour	Hours	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
TBA				Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Spell	0	effects	? hrs	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Spell	0	effects	? hrs	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Spell	0	effects	? hrs	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Spell	0	effects	? hrs	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Spell	0	effects	? hrs	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Spell	0	effects	? hrs	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Spell	0	effects	? hrs	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y

People met or interacted with

Major NPC's

Camdindel, is a dark elven sorcerer (mind, necro, E&E, some elemental and soul magics). He is a semi retired battle mage, preferring quiet pursuits around furthering his alchemy and soul magic master works. He is callous and amoral, but also loyal and honest. He has a wicked sense of humour. He likes his seclusion, but does not mind the occasional visitor, as long as they behave. He has employed guild parties on a few occasions, so has a good working relationship with the guild.

Albrecht of Grymeron, Albrecht is a goblin mage from Grymeron. He stands almost 5 ft tall (inc his 2 1/2 ft tall hat)

Minor NPC's

Scram, A mushroom merchant in Gribbit
Brett, a local helpful Goblin in Gribbit
Camdindel (snr) aka 'Dear old Dad'. A lich-lord who hangs around the tower in the catacombs doing this and that.

Creatures or Races that we encountered

Mushroom Trolls, 20ft tall mushroom infested trolls which are able to detach the fungi on them to throw or use in various fashions. Strong and very angry types. Don't like fire much. Attacks physically and using spores.
Wild Mushrooms, Don't like fire much
'Chilopode', a 30ft long 'Centipded' some 8 inches wide and about a foot tall, weighs around 600lb or more.
'Medusozoa', a translucent 'jellyfish' like creature (some 100ft across) whose interior fluid acts as acid upon other creatures and flora.
'Nepenthe', a 'pitcher plant' which presents to us as a large water filled expanse designed to lure creatures in and then drown them before digesting. Size of some 200ft across

Locations we survived going to

Camdindell's Vale: Camdindel lives in the Superstition Mountains, specifically on the River Rumble. It is located in the tiny plains area on this river (small area of white/cream on the map). This flat area has the river breaking up into multiple paths across, before rejoining at the exit northwards. At this point there is a small man made dam, creating a small round lake (about 500 yards across). There is a well cared for, but little used, cart track on the east bank of the river where it enters the mtns. This leads to the lake, then fades away into the valley area. There is a small jetty on the lake, but no boat tied up. In the middle of this lake is a building on a small island. The building is made of black obsidian, has a 30ft tall, 200 by 200ft main building with a tall tower rising from the centre. The tower is 150ft tall, 25 ft radius. There is a platform at the top, which always has something that looks a large bonfire there. The tower is known to have ~~some~~ lots of magical elemental based defences and suspected to have even worse protection that we don't know of.

Darkwell Village

.

The suarime settlement of Darkwell in the area of Northern Insel Garsi and the NW of Gryphon Pass , this is 10 miles SE of The Gryphon Inn and it is 100 miles NE of Novadom. The settlement is surrounded by dense forest and is based in an old dwarven complex carved out of an steep stone escarpment on the northern edge of the forest. The the base of the escarpment is a small fortified enclosure with around 200ft of flat open ground enclosed by a sturdy wooden pallisade.

Fort Gryphon

The Gryphon Inn, Run by the Henrikson family of Dwarves who are also guild members.

Rainbow Gates that we traversed

Gate of Tears

Noble Gate

Neptune's Gate

Things we 'acquired'

JellyFish Acid
A large centipede
Samples from the Pitcher Plant
assorted fried mushrooms

Amber Nectar

This product of/source for the vindikar is made somehow. The following is some information gained from empirically testing it;

Note initial tests were on 2 feckless hobbits

It provides a pool of liquid FT equivalent to 2xFT over and above normal FT for 15min x gained FT. So a 20FT human gains a pool of additional 40FT to use up within 10hours.
The downside is that you ~~should~~ are advised to use up the extra energy in the alloated time period as the downside is potentially fatal whereby unused points transalte to EN damage

Shopping on Grymeron