This Quintessence of Dust

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Please go to the 'Talk Page' to let me know what nights you can play.

This adventure will take place on Tanuel and possibly Nualis and the Risk Factor is 2.25
Treaure will be distributed using the Loot Auction convention.
I run the game under these variations and may add others from time to time.
Some of the information here may be of use.
Players should submit a .pdf or similar file of their character sheet and item list to me at jim.arona - at - gmail.com. You can be as thorough as you like, although I prefer brief and to the point. It is important that the information is readable and organised logically. Trying to use itemry and special abilities which haven't been sent to me is an exercise in futility.

Summary

Adventure: This Quintessence of Dust
GM: Jim Arona
Session: Spring 811
Night: Wednesday
Location TBA
Level: Low-Medium

Three positions may be applied for by signing up below. The remainder of the positions will be determined at the Guild Meeting and the method of selection will involve tea leaves.
This is expected to be a large party, and a wide range of characters is okay.
However
Players who have done their Ranking, produced a readable character sheet and loot list will be given preference. Those who do not will be sneered at.

Party
Employer

Lady Suneth, Celestial Recorder of House Kerberoth

Mission

To find and recover a red agate hand (actually the forearm as well as the hand) from the Dark Continent. This will involve travel to House Kerberoth and then to Nualis, either by way of the House of Fire in Kharthax if the party have sufficient resources, lore and ability. Alternatively, and assuming great courage on their part, Bloodfang Keep. Otherwise the gate near the idol of Molech near Trondheim.

Payment

Lady Suneth will provide horoscopes for those who are not Death-aspected which will last for a season.
In addition, 60,000sp will be kept in escrow by the Guild to be paid on the successful conclusion of the mission.

Scribe Notes

Synopsis

.


Day 1

We meet Sirtekh, a Chaos Lord of House Kerberoth. Grizelda sees him as a flame on a field of darkness in spirit sight.

We are to go a place far to the south of a gate of fire in Karthax to find a forearm/wrist/hand of orange/red agate.

He will take us to House Kerberoth which will take 14 days. He leaves us to our administrative tasks.

Guild Security tells us:

There are no healers on these planes - use the code word "brandy". No-one admits to having any high ranked valuable skills. If you utter the name of a creature of great power it may notice and visit.

Party Leader and Scribe: Dellith. Herald (battle organiser): Lathron.

Risk factor 2.75

Healing potions are bought.

Raimund - Fire mage FIGHTER Shapechanger Tiger (healer 0) (19) Titus - Wiccan CROSSBOW (Ranger - open and urban) Human (9) Tage - Fire PYROTECHNICS (Healer 2, Stonemason) Human (16) Ilmarinen - Air Elf (19) Dellith - Namer Human (22) (Beastmaster, healer 2) (22) Grizelda - Rune (ex Wiccan) (Healer 3, herbalist 4, ranger 4, master chef) Giant 8'3" (12) (Mil Sci) Lathron - E&E/Water (Quickness 8, greater 11 (1100sp for an extra area via Sirtek for Myrrh), sleep) Elf (20) Ronin - Mind (Milsci, alchemy, healer) dwarf (confused) (12)

Rank 15 waters of healing 400sp (I buy 5 @ 2000 sp see SGT) 100sp per 1/2 pint holy water (I buy 5 @ 500 sp see SGT)

Sirtekh is a shapeshifter - grey in colour which doesn't change much. Several forms - battle form is giant sized - can kick and his tail has an axe on the end of it - spurs on his hands - very high mass - tonnes - cannot fly in this form. - can have bat wings and can fly. Skilled in Abyss Lore - can reduce the number of people travelling with him.

Kerberites consider pied kerberites very attractive. "Demons" are not the same as the Demons I have studied.

The Guild counts as a "House" and so you can utter the names of powers without risk.

There is a Lord of Swarms who often appears as a swarm of flies. He has a special attack which means he goes first. There is also a Lord of Serpents. A basilisk is a human 5'6", pronounced widows peak and a small 3-pointed crown in the middle of his forehead.

(Playing Jono's suggestion for quickness).

Days 2-3

Off we go.

Walk for two days from the guild to somewhere empty enough for Sirtekh to create the Astral Gate. We are not to tell anybody. He walks around the hill seven times widdershins, then we all walk to the top, are struck by lightning and wake somewhere misty and greyish - the Astral.

Day 4

We travel through the Astral for a day to the Abyss. The Astral is grey and featureless with strange shadowy creatures.

We are at the edge of a mile deep Abyss. Mostly we featherfall down, but Grizelda summons a lesser Efreet and meets us at the bottom. It's dark down here (late evening) and we can see a huge crack in the sky with red light emanating from it.

Watch out for the Lady of the Abyss who is in a mad decade. There is a Chaos Wind to avoid as well.

Days 5-14

We travel with Sirtekh across the Abyss, and although we have to rest days don't pass. (How long for? 4?) Flash travels as a tiger with Ronin riding him. We don't get thirsty or hungry or need food or drink. Suddenly we are attacked. 6 + 4 + 16 - strips Tage's fatigue - not normal damage (spell casting fatigue?). Lathron can see two small critters which are swathed in shadow. Looks like a very large beetle with a big beak. One has flung itself on Tage's back and savaged him. Lathron raises the alarm and attacks. Second attack 18 off perception (on -9) 10 off WP 12 off MA. The second one attacks Lathron.

GTN: Aberrant long lived sentient: GTN Prime Drainer. Doesn't come from the abyss, but not summoned

They take no damage that is a prime number. We roll a lot of primes. Flash also loses 25 points of WP (on -10). Eventually we batter them into submission, and Lathron coup-de-graces them both.

Sirtekh now returns valiantly to the fray after we have killed them. He says that every three days the injured will recover one of each stat that was lost.

We take the beetles carapaces to see if we something cool can be made from the prime armour.

The carapaces can be made into a breastplate which can increase the bonus for mind mages for WP difference to 2 per rank. If made into a shield then if you take prime damage from your front hexes then ignore it.

Organise buffs:

Fire Armour rank 6 - 28 points ablative armour. Smite Rank 10. Willow Healing rank 6.

Days 15-21

Ten days pass and we get to House Kerberoth. Two Kerberites guard the arch. Looks like a miliary compound with barracks. Then there is a switch back road up the mountain to a battlement. We head up the road. Three humungous dogs, the size of draught horses, are feeding at the pools of deepest green. This is "uncertainty". There is a big Kerberite with them. Klanth, a Chaos Lord. He can make something with the carapaces (for a price since Ilmarenin asks). Klanth tells me that Turf makes Sweet Regret - he lives near here, but is very hard to find. He does visit the Market from time to time - maybe I'll be lucky. Mal'ebonirans might be able to train an air mage. They drive interesting bargains as Lathron tells us. Ilmarenin announces to all that he doesn't know any healing. We go into the house. There are 20 metre high walls, with 30 metre high towers. Seems overly fortified. In the courtyard a caravan is present - arrives on the 14th and leaves on the 21st. Lady S is here, and we will go and see her. Henry the toymaker is here. He sells Pentecost potions (5000), Plover's stones (5000) - invisibility cast on the stone can trigger it later, Blank Phylactery (10,000) - invest into at 5x cost - will be usable once a day - roll x0 it backfires (and normally) - fail to resist backfire, it is destroyed. Resist temperature potions (6000) 8 hours. Turf does show up at the market. There are Mal'ebonirans around - dark skin - light hair - legs that bend backwards - no cloven hooves or horns as a general rule - attractive - they have appetites - there are two to be seen. Ilmarenin approaches, and makes tentative overtures about whether they are Adepts but soon determines that what they would require in return for any training is not within what he is prepared to do or even contemplate. We go up and visit Lady S who will do our horoscopes.

Raum has been in the area (Songs of Pain and Sorrow - implicated with Blackrod and his familiar Waxbite (Armourcrafter), built cold iron armour for Raum which meant when he was summoned he could stay longer - also couldn't be banished. Blackrod used Runes of Doom to send letters which summoned Raum (who would then travel to Blackrod and get into the armour). Can study in the library and eventually learn his ITN and also rank demon lore (even though it cab't be normally). Where Angels Fear to Tread Serenapses is a human wizard with a Seraph's wing carpet, who is undying, and has weather magic. He's often near House Tintagel, but likely to be at Karthax.

Gods:

Gods are different here. A god is usually tied to a city. Chaosites don't have much religious structure, but humans do, so gods exist where there is a concentration of humans. They are quite weak in comparison to other powers, but they can do supernatural stuff. Their power is more pervasive and minor, not lightning bolts across the sky, but modifying the weather, increasing harvests and fertility etc. They gain power by the people acceding to their structures. If people fail to meet the stricture then they are spiritually unclean, and need to be seen by a priest (and pay them) who will perform a rite of redemption.

Priests don't care about spiritual well-being, but they care about keeping rituals. Their aim is to make sure that rites are performed accurately and well. A few are capable of minor spell casting. E.g. a very powerful priest might be able to cast whispering wind as his only spell.

Lady S tells that the red agate statue is of a god named Harbul. His forearm and hand were torn off and made off with. The thieves then threw it into a rift and fled when the god took exception to this. We are to go find it so that it can be re-attached to the statue. To get to where the rift is we can either:

EITHER

Go through House Kerberoth to a middlemarch into a land of fable, walk the round road, and by luck or good management end up at the pass near where Bloodfang Keep was. Dangerous, but fast. Bounty on our notes on our return. (21 days) NOT DOING THIS

OR

Go through to via Lands of Chaos to Karthri on Tanuel and use the Shadow of the Ziggurat to pass into the Step Pyramid, thence to the Ring Keep could be transported by means of towerport to Karthax itself. Or via a Gate of Fire to somewhere even closer. (10 days)

OR

Go via the portal to Trondeim on Nualis, and catch a boat (46 days) to Karthax. TOO LONG!

Flash is slowly coming back into conciousness - He's up to 1 WP!

The GMs insane idea is that we go through Gates of Fire

We can catch a boat which will take us very close to the rift. There are two Gates of Fire.

Grizelda has had her nose down in the library all week and has found out more about where we should go.

(Did Lady S hire the original thieves?)

Nualis: Don't practice magic unless your hideously powerful, or a priest who has taken the 4th vow or you will be burnt at the stake as a witch.

Le Comte de Versillac is a priest-killer.

We borrow 40,000sp from Lady Suneth to buy 8 Pentecost potions. We buy 8 Tinctures of Aconite and Passionflower, in case they are useful. Lathron takes the other 8. Klanth makes us two Shields and a Plastron. Other shopping occurs (spell racks for Ronin and Titus). Dellith drinks sweet regret from the chalice of regret.

Now we need to get to Karthri.

Days 22-35

Take a (Sura-bound) caravan to Jiroth. Rangers get a "route" from HK to the "heights of chaos" (except Dellith who seems confused) Takes 14 days.

Griffins attack as the caravan descends slowly from the heights (takes 2 days). They knock people off the slope, and tear out their hearts. Ilmarinen casts feather falling on us. The griffins pull one of the caravan people off the slope on the first pass. On the second pass, Grizelda kills one with one shot from her crossbow/ballista, and the rest of the griffins fly off - Huzzah! We get two shillings each as a bonus as a result. The caravan leader gives Grizelda a fetish bag which allows her to subtract 5 from her die rolls when making stat checks.

It takes two days to get to Jiroth. The walls are in a bad way - unnatural rents (maybe two years old) in the wall and the walls have obviously been taken down and rebuilt in the past. The walls are six metres high wth a six metre wide platform at the top. The river runs through the city (well, more of a stream at this point). The houses are build on stilts. There are internal walls in the city, which have also been breeched in the past (not by any seige weapon we can imagine). I smell a little brimstone and suspect the Earl of Theft and Destruction has been in the area.

Day 36

We rest here for a day, and I am touchy and have the hairs on the back of my neck risen for the whole time. We visit the temple; there are singing bees there and Grizelda visits them. Blackrod has killed one of the priests who look after the bees. They want to breed with Grizelda to make warriors for killing Blackrod. Lathron asks after Anathel, and she is not in town.

Days 37-44

The next day there is a carriage leaving for Sura. It will take 8 days and cost 80sp each for the journey.

Three days in we see very tall spires near a town which look like 1/2 a mile high entwined fingers. They make us a bit nervous. The inn has a small elvish looking host (no aura dammit). Grizelda sees he is accompanied by a fox spirit. The food is great. Ilmarinen decides that this is too good to be true and eats rations instead and is thrown out for offending the chef; he sleeps in the stables. 5 pt meal. The host takes a shining to Flash. I rescue him before he has to look at the unperforated stamps and drink some madeira.

Five days later, we see the Moving Mansion. We go into the inn. The barman is a 5'5" dwarf. He serves us some beer and we see Florien. He is Bevy-less. They are under a MA30 curse for (Florien: Avatar; level he is involved in the curse in some way; 12MA). He is as thick as two short planks and has verbal diareohh. Grizelda speaks to him and swoons. I take several steps back. Flash talks to him and they show off to each other. And summons a salamander. A fire mage of very little brain. Grizelda beats the salamander into submission. Flash is fed into the house.

I suppose we better go and rescue him. With luck he hasn't yet wandered away from the door. Some tentacles start to come down the corridor towards him, and instead of running for the door in terror Flash says, "Oh, how interesting!". He is pummelled and slept and dragged out of there.

(Dwarf gruel is a very disgusting meal, but if you can stomach it for 3 days then you will have 3 more endurance so long as you eat it every day. 1 x WP to eat the stuff after the first couple of times.)

Just after 6pm there is a knock on the door. Six roman legionnaires arrive at the door.

Ilmarinen gets plastered with the Legion. Lathron sleeps him before he can be drafted into the Legion. They move onto Ronin. Then onto Titus. They don't take women.

We are given us a room for the night.

Day 45

We walk up to Sura which takes all day.

There is news of Nephilim in the area. Their strikes are one step better (miss = hit, hit = endurance etc). Only miss on > 70+MD. They can be very clever and some are magic users. Not a safe area for flying unless high ranks in aerial affinity.

Sura is at the top of a mountain pass, and looks down in Karthyria.

We are invited into see the High Priest (Thewain Upa (sp)) Corpulent man with a shaved head dressed in very light robes and surrounded by lots of nubil young girls. We are served honeyed dates and sherbet. Ilmarinen again refuses the food. The girls entertain the males of the party.

Astral gates: Sura, Anathel's house, Juross

Cainan is the God of Smiths and a Solar Deity - the high priest seems my mark and thinks I am a Canite. They have a very nasty death curse. Some of them are thaumaturges. Magic takes a long time, but is bound into things - not magical items as such.

We go into the temple proper and step onto the altar. The altar stone is circular, and 6m across. We stand on the altar and he ritualises, and we are transported to the astral and go to Anathal's house. It looks like a ginger bread house. Flash wants to eat a corner of the building, and we all say "no". We are invited in by a dumpy witch and settle down in her kitchen for a chat. Serenapses is in the area (staying in the inn in the village). She sees my mark as well, and commiserates. She is pacted to Nix, the Spirit of the Night. The shadow of the ziggurat that we are travelling through must be entered at the correct time (the ziggurat is a gnomen). The shadow maps onto a step pyramid belonging to the Master of Hands (an immortal) who is surrounded by children who he strokes and uses as ablative armour. On Feralie killing innocents has an impact on your soul. His name is Skeme. She cures Flash remaining 6 points of WP loss. She can make amulets. She is a combination of a spirit binder and a sorcerer. Other things to consider in the ziggurat are defense against the Master of the Mind and the Lord of Madness. Ronin needs to be careful about casting mind magics. Lothran knows their creche. Heckertonkyron are flying things that look like harpies, but aren't. Don't need to worry about the dragon. Getting out of the rift at pace without attracting attention. Then get to the Ring Keep. If you kill a faerie then the Lord of Rings (Judecca) will know. Serenaspes can teach a non-standard lightning bolt.

Ilmarinen talks with Serenaspes who seems impressed by his name...must be another Ilmarinen around somewhere. Serenaspes sounds very interested on hearing that there is a lack of seraphs in Seagate and would like to come to stay. General chatter ensues. Anathel has only recently become undying, but she is very powerful. There is a priest in town, a quiet, very dark, small human. His name is rather unpronouncable - we call him priest. He is the priest of the Ziggurat. He doesn't want to be the priest, but he wandered in from the desert, and was declared the priest against his will. He would rather be a potter. If you are lucky then you could end up in the house of the Master of Hands. On the other hand you could end up with the Hounds of Tindalos. We interrogate him further and he tells us that we have an hour (while the shadow falls on a particular section of land) to pass through the shadow. There is an astrologer in Jiroth who could tell us when is the right time to do so. But then again Lathron has done this before so we could do the same thing he did last time which was in the same season. There are crystals in the ziggurat which glow in the presence of psionic magics. Tage waves his hands, and we can see that the ziggurat is in a middlemarch.

Serenaspes offers lilac wine - is addictive - when you take it you can see whatever you can imagine. Good for fighting horrors. Lathron, Flash and Ronin all take some against Grizelda's protests.

More gossip some of it rather ill-advised.

Sweetwater turns eight times it's volume of fluid into potable water - don't drink this stuff! The Master of Hands has some sweetwater. It is a hundred times as effective as normal water at extinguishing fires.

Blunts are a nasty gravity trap found at the Master of Hand's house. If you find them you are going the wrong way (or is that the right way). They are a guard for him which tell us when we have got to the point where we want to stop going up and start going down. Well, that is what it will feel like. At that point when going up we would really be going down and vice-versa. Feels up (actually down) is into his house which is where we don't want to. Feels down is actually up and is what we want to do. Confused yet? I am.

Silent water floats an inch above the ground. No idea where to find that.

The party is reminded not to ask the Master of Hands for anything - we do not wish to be in his debt in any way shape or form.

We spend the night at Anathel's.

Day 46

In the morning we head up to the Ziggurat. Each floor is about 15ft high and is build out of black wood, but it has stone dowels holding it together. You would expect it eat away at the wood, and for the flexing of the structure to beak the stone. WHy it doesn't fall over in the next breeze I don't know. It has strange carvings on it. Some of the strange beasts have obsidian eyes. The base is a diamond shape. Behind the ziggurat is a triangular shape with rows and planks of the same dark wood at an angle. Lathron ponders if it is a star field. If we enter at a particular point between the planks and walk along the row when the shadow is at the right point, we will be able to travel into the Master of Hand's step pyramid. 10:30 in the morning is the time to do this, so that's when we do it.

We see a corridor with stone floors, walls and ceiling - a different type of stone - basalt. We see sconses in the shadow and we can't see anything in them, and yet it is not pitch black. We can see 75 feet. Flash can see a faint glow from all around with his infravision. I see a very faint magical order which is slightly reminiscent of a trap/ward/curse. We move forward and travel on for 50 ft and see a T-intersection 75 feet ahead. We send Flash to reconnoitre. He looks back and can't see us, but we can see him. We follow on up and when we get within 10ft he can see us again. While he can't see us he can see crystals in the sconces which disappear when we are with him. We head to the right and after a while (125 ft) the corridor turns 90° to the left. As we got to the apex of the corner the corridor gets narrower so the shape is not quite square even though the corners appear square. Another 125 ft to a Y intersection. 75° turn to the right and 120° turn to the left. At this point the corridor widens and becomes much higher. We are going very slightly up to the right, to the left is going down. We decide we still want to be going up and head right. Go another 125 ft. Flash who is ahead looks back at the party, and sees a humungous spider folding out of the wall.

He fails to warn the party, but instead prepares a spell. The spider attacks Grizelda. Another much smaller (but still pretty large) one attacks Ronin. Another spider comes up out of the floor preparing a spell. Grizelda resists the poison (but will feel some effects later) but Ronin is poisoned - no effect yet! The little spider tries to impregnate Ronin. Lathron kills the dinner plate sized one with a single blow. Flash fears Ilmarinen who screams like a girl. One of the spiders runs away. Grizelda is eviscerated (but fortunately has a bandage that will fix it). Lathron kills the other one. I punch Flash.

We get three pins which are power words:

Spell breaker
Stagger
Ignite

We can all see crystals in the sconces now. We decide that the only thing now that the alarm is no doubt raised to move as fast as we can (we don't think we can get out if we go back).

Grizelda and Ronin's physical stats are halved over the period of 30 minutes. Grizelda will naturally recover (rest back most stats, endurance must be cured). Ronin loses a point of endurance until cured. He resists at dawn and if successful can be cured. Otherwise he loses another point of endurance and tries again the next day.

Inside the small spider is some dust and a ring. Nature of the magic is illusion. We carefully loot it.

Grizelda sees the spirits of children wandering the corridors.

We continue upwards to a narrowing turn. Corridor is more steeply up (15°), but Ronin thinks it is shallower than I do. Then another turn now going up at 30°, but Ronin thinks it is no steeper. We carry on to another narrowing turn. And then to a gateway. In front of the gateway there are 4 blunts. They are about 70 ft away. We look for another way to go.

Tage finds a long lived sentient secret door! Flash throws a stone at it and it runs away. Murder fills my heart. We hear skittering approaching from the rear.

We can suppress the blunts with counter spells. Grizelda has a wand of opening.

Tage casts Fire Armour on us all (and makes himself itchy). I suppress the counter spells. Grizelda opens the door (using three charges).

We send Flash in first just in case something goes bang. Grizelda notices a huge number of hands skittering across the floor approaching from the rear. Flash sees a pair of very large cats in front of him. Once again Flash chooses not to warn the party coming up behind him. The cats attack Flash. They are smiledon - sabre tooth cats. The hands have smaller hands on them. We get through the door and into the melee. The other cat attacks me.

Flash dies. His cat attacks Lathron.

I become unconscious. My cat attacks Ilmarinen.

"Goblin and Goblin Fleshworks" is written on the bands around the wrists of the hands. We are all through the doors along with some (quite a lot really) hands. Tage looses a fireball on the hands and they crumble to dust. Grizelda thumps the cats to unconsciousness. We prevail. There is the sound of armoured hands coming towards us.

There is an emaciated boy in a cage. He has a vulpine cast to him. He looks a bit elvish, but his aura is very different. Something very odd about his seasonal aspect. His name is Nightquill.

The sound proves to be a long thin creature covered in bronze rings. It is about 6 ft high at the shoulder, has a serpentine neck, four legs, two "horns" which end in transparent balls, and a long horn at the end of its nose. There is a wound at its neck with eyes floating in the puss and blood. There are arms coming out of the wound as well sometims holding an eye. It is a 3 hex creature. Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.

It unleashes a lightnight bolt on us, and heads towards us. Grizelda puts up a rune wall and we attempt some ranged combat.

Eventually we get into melee and Ilmarinen stuns it by his amazing fumble. More mayhem ensues, and Grizelda fells the foul beast. Lathron kills it permanently. The eyes in the puss shrivel and die. Nightquill does a sensible thing.

Scimitar +30 BC +10 DM Can choose to win initiative (except against certain abilities) every 4 pulses.
Short Sword + 20 BC +2 DM can be used in close.
From the horn can make a sword +10SC, +2DM & +10 BC to lightning spells.
The syringes come in a box. They have little bodies inside them. They have faerie creatures which preserve the effect. You can learn certain incantations without EP cost. Three incantations of walking unseen which makes things forget you. Mind blast incantation. Levitation - mass limit but much much faster.
A disquise which becomes real of a devil???
Power word - Life surge.
There is a book. Contains mind magic. Spell and an individual true name. Mind mage spell which changes the nature of your body and makes it more resiliant and you can turn into a rubbery ball. Take fatigue instead of endurance from falling. While a ball you can bounce around at higher TMR. You can develop an adventuring skill called ricochet and can add +5SC +5Def for each surface you bounce off (eg off the floor, the wall, the ceiling, another wall - take penalties for charging though. Chance of ricochet = 3xEN + 3xPC + 12xrank for the first bounce, halved on each successive bounce - fail any bounce and fail them all.
The name is the name of a swan, a blue swan. The spell lets you assume the form of the swan and move as a swan. It is the colour of the sky unless the sky is very dark clouds. If anyone else knows this name and ranks it then you lose ranks in the name.
Version of runes of sight to divine objects after 3 hours casting.
There are 3 crystals (aside from the ones Nightquill ate - 7) they have magic auras and a magical storage devices. Let you store fatigue if you are a mind mage. Can only attune to one. Max you can stick in them is 17 FT. The amount stored is always a prime number. It takes twice as long to recover as normal.
3,000gs of gems (=36,000sp) including 4 gems worth 500gs (6,000sp) or more.
Glyph of fire - rune warding ritual take a 10% penalty to cast resist or take rank damage.
Get six rings from the snaky thing - elemental bronze from the bones of earth dragons as hard as steel can make them into chain or banded mail - the Lord of Rings could help.
Bracer with leather straps - left fore arm - made from chalcendony 3 points of armour stacks with any non-metal armour
Take the fangs, the tails, and a front paw from each of the cats.
There is a staff with 13 charges of Invested silver sprays (Rk 12) There is a wand with 17 charges of Invested darkness, which can only be cast as a curtain, regardless of the usual definition of the spell. This wand may be recharged, keeping this geometry, by means of the Investment ritual. In other words, if you have the darkness spell and you can invest, then you can store the spell with this new geometry. A large carpet embroidered with gold thread which provides a bonus of +10 to cast Instilling Flight and makes the spell durational (removing the concentration requirement). 3 x psi-crystals
Amulet of Amethyst that gives you an extra hour of sleep.
Amulet of Luck that grants +2 MR and =3 DEF, stacking with a standard amulet.

Grizelda makes Nightquill vomit up the gems he swallowed.

We manage to head down but up and come out on the third tier of the step pyramind. Huzzah!!!! It's made of strange dark glass.

To the East and Weat are enormous cliffs - we are in a rift valley. To the North are mountains. There are strange creatures which are cylinders covered in hands with huge mouth with triangular teeth. The nearest rift wall is 12 miles away. It is midday.

The step pyramid is a nexus and is from many planes.

We have a hot meal. Nightquill casts witchsight on us and Lathron casts unseen on us. We sneak across the valley (can rank stealth at 80% EP cost and no time).

Days 47-52

It takes a week to get to the Ring Keep. We go through the forest which has many game trails cut through it luckily. It has a definite edge and we are then in extremely lush croplands. The walls of the Ring Keep are 20 metres high with 30 metre towers. There are no joins in the walls and they rise from the ground as if grown. Extremely defensible. Surrounded by a huge (90,000) town. 50 km radius farmland. There is a lake on the southern side of the keep. Copses of roses around the lake each of a different colour. Lots of other flowers too. There are tribes of combative fairies associated with the flowers. Lathron does deals.

Days 53-66

After a week we meet Judecca who is the Lord of Rings. I do lots of divining.

The gold ring - if you wear it in your ear or nose you will appear to be a pirate. Light crystal of thought. If it enters the area of a telepathy, ESP, mindspeech it glows.

Rings made into banded plate mail: 9 pts of armour 3 pts DR summonables that attack you add 3 to their die rolls. Heavy. -20 to stealth

The book itself is a magical item. Once the spells are discharged from the book it has 8 empty pages which can be written on. You can write an ITN on each page. Every rank you increase the name on the page anyone from an immaterial plane (e.g Hell) loses a rank.

Days 67-80

A week later Darkshade arrives riding in a black raven. Judeca greets his father. He is so dark that he has no features. They can only be seen in profile. He feeds us mushroom potions. To cure the disease of turing elves into orcs we need to see the Nuldoran elves in the Timely Hill. Florien could also cure them (he invented the spell cleansing fire). Florien is related to the Mistress of the Winds.

Nightshade's bird takes us to the Timely Hill. We fly high to avoid the Lord of Serpent's house which runs the length of the World Span Mountains. Nightshade sends tendrils of darkness into the sky and we see rings in the sky which stars are dependant from. The stars are gems. When darkness falls a door of darkness opens at the top of the hill. A tall elf steps through with an odd headdress. He waves over the stream and horses rise up from it made of water. He cleanses the elves but they can never return to the Timely Hill. Nuldoran elves are Makers. They specialise Ring-Lore. Nightshade now takes us to the Lord of Thread's house. He lives in a city called Purity's Folly. A normal walled city. There is a church to no particular god. There is a clean (!) stream running through the town. There is the House of Reeds. This is a place of healing and once a century you can be cured of any wound. It is run by a monk called Hyronimous. You are healed by lying in the stream for about a week. The streets in the town are arranged in a web and the Lord of Thread's house is at the centre of the web. It is not a palace. We meet Mrs Fang. She toys with Ronon. Lathron gives her his calling card and we are taken in to see the Lord of Threads who sits at a very high table. Nightshade introduces us. Ronon and Mrs Fang get up to something but we shall draw a veil over the proceedings.

She heads off to a warehouse full of spinning spiders.

We negotiate with Nightshade. In return for giving him the gold ring he will make us some potions to enhance endurance and allow us to walk around the Timely Hill. Nightquill enters into an agreement with Nightshade to serve him. He offers him a spell called Solid Darkness. The darkness is solid but has no mass (so can be knocked over/moved easily).

We also meet up at the Ring Keep with a couple of giants, the Lord of the Mountains, and some pale dark eyed dwarves. Lathron talks to the Lady of Mirrors. We are not allowed access to the Library.

Day 81

Heading to the House of Fire. There are two unsafe areas on Nualis. One under the influence of the named Devil Decorabia, and another under the influence of the named Devil Kermages. Judeca won't enter those realms. He will take us to the House of Fire. We take our hats off and turn around. We awake in a temple with lumps on our heads - ouch. There is a huge brazier made of copper with a fire burning in it, and an old priest wearing white linen. He leads us out of the temple. Sphinxes seem to be unusually active. One should not ask questions as they may be taken as a riddle posed. They are gate monsters and will attend gates. Not all gates are man-made. There are concealed gates. There are three in the river. We head down to the river. We buy a boat (felucca) made of papyrus and reeds for 30 gs. The river is quite shallow - at most 18ft feet - and quite wide - 300m across. We travel at about 11-12 knots with Lathron's mage current. It takes us 4 hours. Most of us sleep to avoid the asking of questions. We arrive at another city. The population is about 12-15,000. Not walled. Most of the buildings are adobe with flat rooves. There are groves of olive trees and some carefully kept orchards of frankincense.

Days 82-88

We sell the felucca for 15gs. Cost 10gs per person to take a ship to Axom. The sailors are oriental. We sail through the Red Sea. The mind mage goes off and the air mage notices a strange wind. We alert the crew to wind and they seem to know what it's all about but won't utter the name of the entity. The captain tells us "he comes from the West" so Lathron takes us East. Lathron takes us to a cove. We anchor the ship. We cling to planks and Lathron washes us ashore. This takes about 20 minutes. We are in a very sheltered cove. There is a sea cave 70m long, 20m wide, open at both ends. It is a flesh eating wind. Lathron now casts Water Breathing on us and the crew and we hide out under the water. We see rotting skeletel zombie seagulls flying through the air. After about an hour they appear to leave. We stay under the water for a total of 3 hours. The current takes us back to the boat. Lathron levitates on board and throws down ropes for us to get back on board. We sail on to Axom. The buildings are made of red clay brick. A big city 24-25,000 people. We sail into port. We are boarded by two large black guards and a small official. We get arrested as spies. The captain objects as Lathron is a powerful priest of Orma. A religious discussion ensues. It costs us 10gs each in bribes to enter the city. Quite a bulit up area of town with 3 and 4 storey buildings. A very smelly town. Towards the docks there are shops which sell glass. Some is coloured. There is alchemical glassware. There is something in special glass barrels which is very vaulable to some guy in Venice - one barrel of this stuff returns six barrels of gold. Lathron buys a glass jar for 10gs.

Days 89-91

We wait for a camel train heading our direction. Suddenly we can't talk to anyone. Rummaging through our packs we discover two more potions of Pentecost which are given to Lathron and Dellith. We can rank Swimming for no time. We have immersion in Hebrew for 2 weeks. 16 weeks for Thari (1/2 EP). 1 week for Nagian (the guys on the boat). 2 weeks for Sura. 20 weeks for Spelta (1/2 EP).

Days 92-95

We head with a camel train to an oasis. We travel at night. We arrive near the Rift valley. Iml talks to a wind spirit, but when he tells it his name it leaves. Lathron reads the night sky. "moonlight deceives you" is the reading. Nightquill reads the night sky and it does not go well. Grizelda looks into her crystal of vision and sees a figure carrying a strange hafted weapon (looks like an antique archaic bill hook) with a mark on his forehead. Behind him she sees the moon and then her vision fades. The mark is a hebrew word. He is a golem. Alchemical not made by a binder.

We featherfall into the valley. Grizelda hurts her elbow landing. Grizelda sees an ancient mighty forest in the spirit world. Nightquill casts Witchsight on those of us who need it. Lathron tries to talk to the forest. He gets a sense of sorrow and loss. They were struck down by moonlight. Which fell like a hammer from the sky.

We continue down the rift valley. We travel at about 5km/hr for 6 hours until dawn. We can see that the cliffs to either side of the rift valley are over 700ft high. We walk another 2 hours and then set up camp. Sadly not much cover here but do the best we can. Iml summons up a wind which cools us down and dries us out. Nightquill suggests we dig small shallow trenchs to lie in which helps significantly. This means that after our days rest we are only totally exhausted and not dead.

We walk for 2 hours towards water and it is full dark when the mind mage sounds the alarm. I can't sense anything but the air mage smells something rank. A large pack of very tough hyenas attack us. I lose an eye, Lathron loses an arm, Nightquill and Iml nearly die several times but Tage fireballs valiently and Ronon heals judiciously. We win the field but are bloodied and battered.

Lathron is able to glue on his arm most effectively and Grizelda bandages up my eye. We discover we are diseased by the hyenas' bites. Grizelda goes looking for herbs to help us fight this infection.

We bleed the hyenas and purify their blood for water. This leaves behind a vile black substance which I divinate. It is a "substance without form". This cannot be stored long term in any normal container. It can be stored in "form without substance". Together they can be used to make a proper golem. Lathron puts some in a special glass container where it will probably last a month before eating through.

Grizelda heals us. Well she tries. This disease is tough.

Day 96

We sleep the night. The morning comes and we are no better. Grizelda tries again. Still the disease persists. We walk to the spring. There is a troop of baboons there (about 50 strong). We wait for them to leave. My spec grev is cured. We make camp. With judicious use of water and wind we pass the day safely and cool. A lion comes to visit the waterhole. It is an avatar with GTN Devil. It is associated with the Marquis of the Dark Continent. It leaves footprints which suggest it is much larger than it appeared.

We travel in the afternoon and early evening. The dwarf smells treasure, Iml smells brimstone and Grizelda sees a silvery spirit ovoid. She senses that it is made of two parts opposite - married to form the ovoid with no joining line. We follow it across the rift valley for 2 hours. We see a complex with a low wall (4-5ft) around it covered with writing. We back off and spend the night in a defile. At about 4am we are attacked by a swarm of small vermin - snakes and scorpions etc. They are unnaturally tough but from this plane. There are thousands of the damn things. Then Lathron turns into a water elemental and is distracted by some interesting water. Nightquill doesn't warn us. Something fills the end of the defile with a wall of iron. Hmmm that interesting - maybe that "silent" water is going to fill the defile. I climb the walls. There is a shadow moving on the opposite wall. I fling my axe at it and it becomes visible. It's that lion again. Should have killed it the first time.

We do battle. Ronin falls to the lion. It is a devil with a trident, shield and sack. The shield follows you around and becomes an umbrella which protects you from rain storm.

As luck would have it we find a crystal which can ressurect. We ressurect Ronin. There are also a bunch of potions of troll skins. There are rune rods which are triggered by being broken. They contain investeds - one of which is sacrifice.

Day 97

We heal up and move out of the defile. There are no caves about so we head out into the valley and saturate the earth and rais a fresh breeze. I notice a body in the mud. It is a mummified body with dark green fur. It is a Mal'eboniran from the lands of chaos. She was astoundingly beautiful but has all of her beauty removed. The mummy has also been well looted. Nightquill tries digging with his hands in the clay and it is very easy work - it is very soft. Grizelda lends him a shovel. I divinate the Mal'eboniran. She has been dessicated - some sort of dust magic (a combination of Earth and Air). The hole Nightquill digs does slowly fill with waterbut the clay is reluctant to give up its water. I divinate the dust. It is "boundary" dust. You could think of it as on the bounds of planes or realities. It determines what will be bound. E.g. it binds water to it. It blurs the boundaries between planes and we believe if we travel further down this rift valley we will end up in the Abyss.

After the heat of the day we return to the compound which is built into the side of the valley wall. An opening in the valley wall has a door fitted to it and is surrounded by low wall covered in arcane writing. The wall has a strange ward on it which doesn't have have the normal area but is just on the wall itself. It would seem to be a binder ward. Grizelda reads the word Silverspray in the runes. She can also see the spirits of 12 human rune mages, they are walking endlessly backwards and forwards along the wall. The intent of the spell passes through the counter spell and it would cover everyone in the area with molten silver which then dissapates. The silver passes into my eye socket - eek.

Inside the wall are upside down truncated cones made of pale grey transulcent material with a fluid inside. Ronon is drawen irresistably to them. They contain mercury. This is a cinnabar mine. Just one of these barrels would be worth a small kingdom. But we couldn't move it. There has been a wagon here perhaps a week ago. We open the door and see about 20 bodies which have been "toyed with". This has happened over the past week. Their spirits have been harvested. Now we see that it is a brimstone mine with the mercury as a byproduct. I check the bodies. Spirit Wrack has been used. The bodies have not decomposed in the normal way. We make a pyre in the courtyard and burn the bodies. They burn very well. They appear to have had oils and salts rubbed into them pre-death.

Day 98

We spend the night safely!?! We head into the mine. We can see more shore works but no workings. How odd. We continue down. The corridor is small for Grizelda. We go down 2-300m into a large chamber. We are on a gallery and Ronon can see a pool of water with stalagmites just breaking the water. Eventually we come to the door of Hell. The mine was dug from the Hell end. We look out onto a valley with towers on the peaks. My silver eye shows me a different view of hell. Summonable entities don't benefit from defence spells against me. And with a talent I can penetrate their disguises. I divine the brimstone. A barrelful has the same value as a soul. We find a copper scroll. Discussion occurs and the name of the Fire Duke is mentioned so we beat a retreat. We move on and make camp. Nightquill reads the night sky and tells us that the red hand lies under a crimson sky.

Day 99-101

We again pass the night safely!?! Nightquill at last recovers from his disease. I divinate my eye again. A pass action will trigger a silverspray which does similar damage to a dragonflames especially against devils (no fire armour). We travel into the Abyss. We send Tage off home beforehand. The sky is black and featureless except for the big crimson crack. How to find the red hand. Iml thinks of talking to the winds. Sounds like a good idea until it seems that this is going to summon the winds of chaos. Ronin and Iml are caught in the wind and mutated. Cloven The wind has only seen two red things - a part of itself and the crack in the sky. The only hands it has seen are a large group of stone hands. Hmmmph.

Lamenting having failed to go to Mecca and see the original statue (oh to have the right knowledge at the right time) we decided to just have a look around - you never know your luck. With luck we find it in a forest of stone hands in a crack in the floor of the abyss about 15 metres deep and 20 metres wide at its deepest and widest. The hands would seem to be a constract of the Master of Hands.

We TK the hand out and the other hands start to clap and run for the rift valley. As we get near the entrance we see a beautiful Asian woman with long black hair. Behind her we see a crescent shape and can feel water playing across it. She warns us "beware of the unmade one" and disappears. We leave the Abyss and quickly again our feet are covered in the unnatural dust. A couple of days seem to have passed. We head up the rift valley. The elves see a vague shape. We decide to sneak around and cast witchsights and walking unseens. The creature turns to face us. It moves towards us and we see that there are 4 jackel headed 8 ft tall giants carrying a palanquin. We try running but they are gaining on us so we stand and fight. There are strangely behaving bats flying high above us. There is a mummy. Eventualy we prevail but Iml falls. We find a cool bow, some giant weapons, a serpent staff and a dagger. The golems' eyes are garnets which we take. There is a comatose body of a long lived sentient in the planquin. It is a sundancer. I divine it. These bandages are magically healing. They are a cocoon.

Day 102

Day breaks. We slide the sundancer out of the palanquin and rest in there which is very cool. Under the rays of the sun the sundancer emerges from her cocoon consuming Iml's flesh in the process. She grants us a boon and ressurects Iml. She tells us there are Kenites around here. She changes my armour to chain. She fixes Ronon's feet. She charges the ressurection gem with two uber-ressurections. In return for a couple of gems she also imbues Lathron's shield with true sunlight.

We rest the day in the palanquin, which is very pleasant. We think of ways to take it with us, but cannot come up with one. The veils around it protect from sunlight so we take them with us when we leave. We sink the palanquin in the floor of the rift.

We travel to the East side of the rift and head North. We look for a way up the wall but don't find one.

Day 103-104

We continue to travel up the rift for two days. In the afternoon we find a spot which is 200ft high where we can climb up. Grizelda summons an Efreet and gives it a strength potion. It flies her to the top and she lowers down a rope. Iml has cast featherfalling on us. In the end we have to haul Ronon up and Lathron levitates up. Iml, Nightquill and I climb up. We find a layer of clay which on further investigation is mighty strange stuff. This is form without substance. Lathron uses it to make a container for the substance without form. It has strange and charm properties. It repels things that are near.

We follow a path and then set up camp. We set watches.

Day 105

At midnight architecture starts to appear. Lathron wakes me up. It is magical with a GTN of Nightglass. It was made by the Dark of the Moon. Iml wakes up everyone else. Grizelda can see 7 robed figures with her spirit vision with a strange hats. They are Councillors of Darkness - Free Sendings. Nightquill casts a wall of starlight and they leave. So sad. What a pity.

In the morning we head to Akxum. It has been sacked. We see no children. Not many people out and about. Everyone is wearing red armbands. There is a huge golem (8ft tall) made of substance without form and form without substance. It is pulling apart the temples. The party manages to hold me back and we decide to wait for darkness and then try and sneak past the city under cover of darkness.

A piece of wall breaks away and follows us. It is the golem type thing which it turns out is merely the shroud for a Shoggoth. Run away, run away. Which I do. After the event others tell me that Grizelda was almost killed by her patroness and Ronin animated her unconcious body and got her to carry him away from the horror. Between Lathron's two seige grenados and Meg's lightning strike the shoggoth and its armour were blown into very very tiny bits.

We notice two unseen people leaving the city. a young man leading an old man. They tell us that the mad bitch judith has taken over the city. The Comte de Vessiac is searching for priests. The old man is am abbott called Gembrez. We tell him about killing the golem and he wishes to flee immediately. But first we convince him to heal Grizelda first. Gosh healing is hard around here. We run into the forest with him. Judith probably knows where the ring of solomon which acts as an artorios stone for any demon. You can use it to bind a demon to your will without knowing the ITN. We sleep the night.

Day 106

We head on towards the port with the Abbot leading us. We only manage to cover 5 miles through the forest so it will take us another 3 days to get to the port. We find a strange rock in a clearing with a very big spirit. The spirit is hiding the priests. The abbott speaks to the spirit and is possessed. The Marquis of the Dark Continent cannot be banished within his area of Africa. He is disguised as S. Mark and is trying to trick Judith into giving him the whereabouts of the Ring of Solomon. We discuss his desired demise but decide we are unable to effect this at this time. We sleep the night.

Day 107

We travel 10 miles today and Grizelda finds some cat shit. And a dead ROUS. We travel on and make camp further on. On the midnight watch Nightquill sees a fascinating stone which reflects light in a very pretty way. While he is examining the stone he is attacked by a viscous beast. It is a giant panther with tentacles coming out of its shoulder. The party valiently fights the beast without disturbing my sleep. Ahh well I do get woken. Nasty displacer beast is killed eventually by Lathron, but it has a good go at Nightquill and Grizelda.

===Day 108===`

Places

A map that vaguely resembles Nualis

Paths

People and Creatures

Character Studies

Information and Rumour

Stuff to Read
Directions from Alusia to Sura to Karthri
From Alusia through the Astral to the edge of the Abyss is a day of travel. Through the Abyss to House Kerberoth at the edge of The Lands of Chaos is a full week, at any speed. A caravan leaves Kerberoth on the 15, through the Lands of Chaos, to the city of Jiroth in Lameth, a Kingdom of Tanuel. From there, we head north up a large valley past Anthari to Sura, high in the mountains overlooking the northern gateway to the rest of the Seven Kingdoms, starting with the Kingdom of Karthyria, whose closest (southwestern) province is the Karthri of 'Anathel of Karthri'.
Healing
There is very limited supply of healing in The Lands of Chaos and Tanuel, with supplies of healing potions, waters of healing, Earth/Mind/Rune healing magics, eagerly sought (and taken). Sadly the guild has little or none of these services either. However, we do have a large supply of brandy which we use instead. Instead, our Earth, Mind, and Rune mages cast brandy magic! Wiccan Restoratives also seem to be in short supply.
The Abyss
The Abyss is a flat featureless plain covered by eternal night (darkness 80%). The sky is rent by a huge crack, from which crimson light edges through. The land is filled with wandering bands of daemons, creatures of chaos with ITNs but no GTN, as they do not belong to any genera. If seven or more people are within 1000 yards of each other in the Abyss, then daemons are summoned by the presence of life. Encountering another group of travellers in the Abyss can be extremely dangerous. While you neither hunger nor thirst in the Abyss, regular meals help with energy and breaking up the monotonous journey. Sleep and rest are necessary, and of course dangerous.
Particular entities to avoid in the Abyss include the Lady of the Abyss, who is insane by chaos daemon standards. The scream of horses and clatter of carriage wheels is the only warning the Lady approaches, and advice is to flee at maximum pace, for its not just devils who take the hindmost. The Chaos Wind is a rainbow-streaked storm which shreds powerful locals and travellers alike. Carnage is a 30' wide red metal demon with wide spinning blades in front of a lobster-like body. Rampage is a 7'6" demon who runs fast, and doubles his mass every step he takes, resetting every 5 seconds; it is better to run up to him than be run over, but better yet never to have seen him at all.
The border between the Abyss and the Astral is a mile-high butte dropping into the Abyss. The border between the Abyss and The Lands of Chaos is a steep slop, at the bottom of which is a wall, guarded by a garrison town, through which passes an archway covered in glyphs and runes. The road passes through this archway and up to House Kerberoth three-quarters of the way up the precipice.
Daemons are creatures of chaos, with mo moral dimension - some are good, many bad, some pleasant, many dangerous. They are not from Hell, nor Unholy (unlike evil devils from Hell). You can reduce or break them, but not kill them. Once broken, other daemons (or others?) may consume than to gain their power, through the talent of "Devouring". Daemons hold grudges, as once reduced, that power is never recovered, no matter how powerful the daemon later becomes.
The Paths of Sheol
The Paths of Sheol pass through the desert in the sandy wastes to the southwest of the Seven_Kingdoms, and lead to Hell. These Paths are patrolled by Thrones, Angels in the form of 8' Wheels of God, with eyes all around their rim. These implacable followers of order have no moral dimension, so are neither good nor evil. Endgame, a very tough person known to the guild, was accidentally run over by a Ophan, and lived despite multiple crushed limbs and organs.
Travelling in the Astral
In the Astral it is misty, you can dimly see archetypes of the place you are at and places nearby. There are no particular routes - instead you navigate by intent. It usually takes 1 hour to get anywhere on the same plane (even different planets). Getting to the edge of the Abyss takes one full day. This differs from the Void, which many also call the Astral.
Caravans
Caravans to and from Kerberoth through the Lands of Chaos are quire common. There is one leaving from Kerberoth around 15th of the first month, and another leaves around the 15th of the second month. Caravans contain up to 300 merchant factors, each with typically 3-9 camels. Many travellers without highly skilled rangers also travel with the caravans. They cost around 5sp/week.
Seraph Wing Carpet
If you get a seraph wing then (a) you can make a flying carpet, although you leave a trail of blue footprints behind you, and (b) you have one annoyed five-winged immortal and all its friends hunting you. Details in here. Not that you get a real flying carpet!
Wines
Weird drinks that are known here include, Shadow Wine, Wine of Sorrow, and Tincture of Aconite and Passionflower.
Wells and Mills
A Well is a source of a Power - e.g. a Well of Fire. The owner, by sacrificing some fo the lifeforce, gains a supply of that power which is refreshed annually. A Mill is similar. Le Comte has a Mill of White.
Actorios Stones
Using Binding magics, you can make a jewel, engrave the ITN of a daemon and a compulsion rune on it, and you have a daemon servant.
Potions using Blood of Ophanium
Restorative + Blood gives a potion that restores all FT and EN except that lost through spell casting.
Leprechaun vital organs + Blood gives a luck potion (read the two dice in D100 roll either way).
These alchemy tips brought to you by Pretty Flower.
Lord Florian
Great chap. Friendly, affable, likeable, handsome, dresed in red/orange/yellow flame-themed silks. Women swoon, men follow him. We were all happy to help him and hang around him, without thought of risk or reward. He is also lucky and very thick (his words, but we agreed). A Fire mage of only middling competence, and experimental mechanician with mad, but not sane, skills. He is probably immortal, but only because bad stuff bends space/time/mana to avoid affecting him. His sister is the much scarier and smarter Lady Aquillon. He took some Djinn from her without realising what they were. We agree to tell his sister "Florian was abroad doing charitable and mighty deeds" if we meet her, but I suspect we'll just grovel and beg.
Legionnaires
In the West Wing of the Inn at the foot of Sura, dwell Legionnaires wearing lorica segmentata and armed with sarissa, pilum, and short sword. They also cary pistols from the plane of Perfidious Albion, which work like thunderclap-powered stone-throwers. They were fighting Dire Reflections in the Great Hall, and some squids. Lord Florian will provide grenados to them, and they seemed to know him well. They drink the finest Massilliot wine from sealed amphorae.
Blood Wolves
Ruddy, Dire-wolf-sized lupines. Can shape-shift into lupine centaurs. Both met had colleges (Mind, Earth). Led packs of wolves as ruthless bandits. If a blood wolf injures you, that night you become marked. If a blood wolf dies, they may possess anyone that has been marked by their bloodline, and which is on a plane connected to the astral. Bad juju to be injured by these guys. It also means they are more prone to fight to the death that others, and more prone to casually injure promising candidates and then take off. More info?
Kenites
A nomadic people who ply various tradeskills in and around the area of the Seven Kingdoms. Largely involved in whitesmithery and tinkering, nevertheless, they often number a few Artificers in their midst. They travel in family groups of up to 300, and usually have a traveling altar. Kenites are easily distinguishable by the complex tattoos on their foreheads.
Some Kenites are born able to deliver a Death Curse of MA 49 to those who murder them. The curse is best described as 'ambush bad luck'. In the event that something can go wrong, the curse will cause events to conspire such that they go wrong in as lethal a way as possible. The curse does this seven times before it is depleted.
Spider Folk
Large spiders the size of men, and with the same kind of strength. Can move along walls, and have a venomous bite. Onset is about an hour, halves physical stats (PS, MD, EN and AG) unless a 3 x EN check is made. Apparently fills heart blood with peculiar influences, often connected with astrological Aspect. One caster, seemed to cast wiccan magic, possibly a witch. Aura strength was weak, possibly undead, possibly some odd kind of construct. Cooler than the air around them.
They appear to be entities created artificially by the Lord of Threads and the Weaver of Dreams. They were based on Sparlainth but some escaped to a plane called Nualis many thousands of years ago. These were forced to flee and some or all of them ended up under the mountain about 120 miles south east of Karthri.
Ogres
Of usual appearance, these had unnatural healing properties. If they eat human or humanoid meat, the flesh lies beneath their skin but provides no sustenance. If they receive a wound, the flesh slithers beneath the skin to the afflicted part and heals any specific grievous injury there, and about 5 or 6 damage points. Ogresses who eat the flesh of children come into oestrus.
The Panther
A set of fangs that appear about 6 metres above the ground, and are proportinate to a panther of that size. It et the ogres and then sauntered back into the jungle about 120 miles south east of Karthri. It's breath smells of mace and spikenard, and it is destined to defeat the Serpent. It is a personification and its signature is the Moon and the Hunt.
The Phoenix
A bird made up of swirling purple, gold and scarlet butterflies. It Incinerated Jeroboam of Jesurea, a servant of the Savage Duke. Its nest is on top of a huge palm near Wadi-al-Hram, and decorated with mace, cinnamon, spikenard and myrrh. The space at the top of the palm is bigger than it should be.
Its egg is a middlemarch to an oasis. It mentioned that it was to fly soon, and that on the occasion, it might grant wishes. It flies about once every 500 years or so, and the world changes as a result of it. It is a personification, and its signature is Change and Fire.

SGT Snippets & Nominations

What's Hot What's Not
Magic daggers Fear
Sentient secret doors Stones (the throwing of at sentient doors)
seige grenados Shoggoth
calling master summoning demons

Stupidest: Flash - constantly trying to do over the party - flooding us with smoke (luckily he backfired and his brains leaked out instead) - fearing us all and everyone in the whole ziggurat alerting them all including the Master of Hands to our presence. Ilm is actually feared as well as one of the enemy. Then he throws a stone and scares away the secret door and forces us to travel through the Master of Hand's house instead. He dies due to this. Later Nightquill fails to warn us of an ambush and instead casts a useless spell. Dellith: saying the name of a demon while in an area of his dominion, from where he could not be banished.

Buffs

Magic Rk Effects Dur Dellith Flash Grizelda Ilmarinen Lathron Ronon Tage
Rune of Willow Healing 6 Heals 3 EN/Pulse for 8 Pulses 12 hrs
Enchantment (type) 11 all
Enchantment (type) 11 all but magic 3 mths
Enchantment (type) 11 all but combat 3 mths
Enchantment (type) 11 resists + combat
Enchantment (type) 11 resists + magic
Fire Armour 6

Treasure

Treasure Distribution on adventure.

Item # Wt Dellith Nightquill Grizelda Ilmarinen Lathron Ronon Tage
Tincture of Aconite and Passionflower 16 ¼ lb
Potion of Pentecost 8 ¼ lb
Blank Phylactery 5 -
Stone from a Plover's Nest 4 -
Circle of Protections vs Spells 1 -
Circle of Protection vs Undead 1 -
Phylactery of Spellbreaker 1 ¼ lb
Phylactery of Stagger 1 ¼ lb
Phylacter of Spark 1 ¼ lb
Spider Dust 7 1 oz 7
Lilac Wine 12 ½ lb 9 3
Lightning Strike 1 3 lbs
Stabber 1 1 lb
Fulminating Blade 1 4 lbs
Chalcedony Bracer 1 4 lbs
Crimson Ovipositor 1 10 oz
Shield of Primes 2 3 lbs
Plastron of Primes 1 8 lbs
Pyrogenesis-Burning Figurine 4 -
Ring of Gold 1 ¼ lb
Major Amulet of Amethyst 1 ¼ lb
Tiger Amulet 1 ¼ lb
Wand of Darkness 1 8 oz
Flying Carpet 1 8 lbs
Walking Unseen - Unremarkable Appearance 3 -
Reserve Crystal 3 2 lbs
Gremlich Disguise 1 6 lb
Phylactery of Lifesurge 1
Light Crystal of Thought 3
Wand of Darkness 1
The Swan of the Pavilions of Summer 1
Mental Attack - Mind Blast 1
Levitation - Accelerated Lift 1
Rune Wall - Rune Bridge 1
Spell of Name Change 1
Rebounding Spheroid 1
Personal Ricochet 1
Glyph of Fire 1
Rune Stick of Sacrifice 3 5 oz
Greater Heart Rune Stick 13 5 oz
Brimstone 9 12 oz
Hydrargyrum 7 12 oz
 
 


Supplies Bought

Of 60,000sp held by Lady Suneth, the party have spent:

Experience & Other Awards

Dellith Nyquil Grizelda Ilmarinen Lathron Ronon Tage Titus
47341.25 28118.75 36313.75 38073.75 45196.25 44563.75 10931.25 4950
After racial tax:
47341.25 23432.29 24209.17 31728.13 37663.54 40512.5 10931.25 4950
After bonuses:
53241.25 28744.79 32559.17 32128.13 43113.54 43962.5 10931.25 5150
After Loot Auction:
51241.25 26644.79 31959.17 33028.13 44013.54 43862.5 10931.25 5150
Income (less expenditures):
18,633.33sp 29,708.33sp 21,833.33sp 28,208.33sp 23,328.33sp 17,013.33sp 600sp 200sp

Final Awards

Dellith's Award
Nightquill's Award
Grizelda's Award
Ilmarinen's Award
Lathron's Award
Ronon's Award

Calendar

Spring: Thaw (10)
Moonday Duesday W'ansday Th'rsday Frysday Reapsday Sunday
Candlemansa 1 Guild Meeting 2 Leave Guild 3 4 Travel through the Astral 5 Travel through the Abyss 6
7 8 Encounter prime drainer 9 10 11 12 13
14 15 Arrive at House Kerberoth 16 17 Speak to Lady Suneth 18 19 20
21 22 Caravan to Jiroth 23 24 25 26 27
28 29 30
Spring: Seedtime (11)
Moonday Duesday W'ansday Th'rsday Frysday Reapsday Sunday
1 2 3 4
5 Arrive at Jiroth 6 Rest at Jiroth 7 Take a carriage to Sura 8 Rites of Thunor 9 Stay in a good inn 10 11
12 13 14 Visit the Moving Mansion 15 Equinox Walk up to Sura, take an Astral gate to Anathel's house 16 Adventures in the Ziggurat. Flash falls. 17 Eostre 18
19 20 21 22 We arrive at the Ring Keep 23 24 25
26 27 We meet Judecca 28 29 30
Spring: Blossom (12)
Moonday Duesday W'ansday Th'rsday Frysday Reapsday Sunday
1 2
3 4 5 6 7 We meet Darkshade and travel to Purity's Folly 8 9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16
17 18 19 20 Walk around the Timely Hill 6 times 21 Floralia Travel to the House of Fire and then by river to another city. 22 Head on a ship to Aksum 23
24 25 26 Encounter an undead wind (not sure which day) 27 28 Arrive in Aksum 29 30 Walpurgisnacht

Calendar

Summer: Meadow (1)
Moonday Duesday W'ansday Th'rsday Frysday Reapsday Sunday
Beltane 1 2 Get a camel train towards the rift valley 3 4 Arrive at the rift valley around midnight 5 Battle with the hyenas after dusk 6 Battle the Devil/Lion in the night
7 8 9 10 11 12 13
14 15 16 17 18 19 20
21 22 23 24 25 26 27
28 29 30
Summer: Heat (2)
Moonday Duesday W'ansday Th'rsday Frysday Reapsday Sunday
1 2 3 4
5 6 7 8 9 10 11
12 13 14 Midsummer Eve (Faerie Day). 15 Solstice. 16 17 18
19 20 21 22 23 24 25
26 27 28 29 30
Summer: Breeze (3)
Moonday Duesday W'ansday Th'rsday Frysday Reapsday Sunday
1   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
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