Burning of Nihlus

Scribe Notes

Summary

GM: Sam
Season: Winter 824 WK
Night: Wednesday
Location: Massey
Level: High + More

Party

1. Flamis - Mil Sci
2. Phaeton - Scribe
3. Ben - Party Leader
4. Rowan
5. Jaycey
6. Sooty

Employer

Neloth, God of Nihlus

Mission

To save the Nihlus vault from destruction / theft. Saving Nihlus itself is a bonus.

Scribe Notes

Session 1

Day 1
Met up in the meeting room having decided to go on an adventure because Rowan was going even though I still had things to work on. Had already picked up a Greater for that very purpose. There, along with Rowan, was Ben Gaul, Sooty, Jaycey aka Gerald, and Flamis. Military Scientist - Flamis, Party Leader - Ben. Scribe - me.

  Jaycey - 'The Party leader has a dignity stat'

  Guild Security - 'Now the appointment of the obligatory scribe'
  Phaeton, while sighing - 'Where's my pen?'

We met up with Jakos, who most of us had met before. He was here to provide transport and told us that 'horrible horrible things were going to happen to a city in the Empire and our job was to save it' - and it could happen at any moment. The city in question was in the midst of the Empire, it had a population of 20-30 million people in it, and occupied an area of roughly 250 square miles. Our employer was an entity called Neloth and we would be leaving immediately. That caused a mad rush as some of us had things that needed to take care of first but it wasn't long before all of us were ready. Jakos opened a portal gate and we went through.

The Gate popped us out about ten to fifteen miles from the edge of the city - scale was difficult to ascertain but, from what we could see, most of the buildings were three floors tall and were well cared for. Some areas, including the central area were walled off. That turned out would be our destination as fast horses were provided and we rode into that area. As we went, we noticed that many of the buildings were built from blue marble rock with gold coloured streaks in it. Probably not real gold, it just looked like it.

The central area was terraced and ascended up in concentric tiers with a castle like basilica at the very top. It was that which was our ultimate destination. We were led inside and encountered an eight and a half foot tall being, wearing full plate, and working his way through a veritable mountain of paperwork. While we waited, I DAed the floor and discovered that, this room at least, was under a consecration to a deity called Neloth.

It turned out this was the actual deity, not an Avatar. He had built (created?) this city and it was also called Neloth. A month or so ago, he had done a future reading and had seen the city being consumed in flame with the result of complete destruction. He wasn't sure what had caused it but a siege was suspected caused by entities unknown. This led to a side discussion of determinacy and free will and we concluded that there was an extremely high probability of this event occurring in every alternate timeline. Our task was to defend a vault or strong room that should not be opened and ensure that the contents did not fall into the wrong hands. He claimed it could not be opened. Of course Jaycey wanted to test that and I started wondering if it could be penetrated by going through alternate higher dimensions or through planes such as the Ethereal, Shadow, or Astral.

From the last time I was here, this time last year, there had been no stars in the sky owing to some sort of insubstantial dimensional barrier around the plane. The plane itself consisted a sphere that was 43.5 thousand miles in radius, had a day of 24 hours, and accompanied by two moons and a sun. Now, something was causing the barrier to have holes in it. Whether these 'holes' corresponded to a star, or was revealing a star field, was not known at this stage but lots of observations had been done. With the aid of my planetarium I was able to later establish that these 'stars' rotated around at the same rate as the planet so it was like they were geostationary - which seemed rather unusual. The time that the barrier went up was equivalent to our War of Tears and some magical events had occurred as these 'stars' appeared. Whether or not there was a connection or just a coincidence was unknown at this stage.

Basically we could do what we liked as long as if it was relevant to our primary purpose. There were other groups, doing other things which were also relevant to the survival of the city. He suspected that it could be a force from the Old Empire that we could be dealing with. He also offered to make us immortal. In Flamis's case, her soul could move from vessel to vessel.

  Jaycey - 'Ooooh. She could become a water mage'

Once dismissed from Neloth's presence, we were sent to see Landon, our commander. He led us downwards into a large room that was full with documents. On the way down, we discovered that the blue marble rock was magical with a Nature of 'Complicated'. Apparently there used to be a mountain of the rock here before the Sealing.

Basically the chain of command was: Neloth, him then us. And his job was to provide what we needed, tell us what needed to be done, and provide us with information. He certainly did the last one - and it was a LOT of information pertaining to the city and what resources we had available i.e. four Kastrian Forges, three coven groves, and ten mercenary groups. This was going to take a lot of time to assimilate so I requested a pianoforte and a supply of tea. But, before we started that, we went to get our Greaters and Lessers from the nearest coven as well as our requested equipment, such as an Amulet of Diamonds etc.

Session 2

Afterwards we headed out looking for a more permanent Base of Operations for the party, settling on a house of the edge of a residential district near the industrial zone.

Day 2
In the morning we assigned some mercenaries to a very important warehouse to start some fortification and defense work on it. With the mercenaries underway we headed out to explore the city, learn travel routes, source supplies and do some counter spying.

Day 3
The next morning Landon turns up with a guy named Ted. Apparently Ted now lives with us for our convenience. Giving Ted some instructions we headed out. Sooty went for a meeting with Neloth and the rest of us headed out to investigate the Ritualistic sites that had been mentioned in our briefing.>br>

At the closest site to us, which happened about middle of the timeline of rituals, we were greeted by a regiment of guards who gave us all a specialized counterspell, and headed downstairs. We found ourselves resisting an aura of Dread which emanated from a waxy ash outline of a person in the middle of a runic circle. Continuing to investigate we learned that the waxy ash, is a formally living avatar of Engliher. A name we recognise from the Towers in the city. The other things we learned was that the circle was last used to preform a ‘disposal’ ritual. At this point Sooty turned back up looking a little beaten and bruised.
Some divinating of the area is done and we got visons of people in barb wire clothes, with implements in their hands, a few of them having to many hands. A skeleton starts to form and muscle begins to form shortly before the form ignites. Rowan comes out with just one sentence:

 “Cultists in Barb wire bikinis”

Heading to the second site, which was created last night, We found a similar situation, expect the aura impact was Fury, the runic circle was huge taking up an entire large room. We also found multiple piles of ash and souls that were not present in the other site. Cause of Death for the ash was Rampant Disintegration. WE also found the Last Ritual used in the circle was, Divine Reforging. During this the souls were yanked away by an unknown force.

Going out to ask the guards some questions we found the entire regiment of 20 guards dead. A voice called out to us so ask some quick questions through ventriloquism we were greeted by a group of Crows who had taken down the attackers. The Attackers were a group of six men associated with Engliher carrying very basic equipment and looking very average, uncomfortably too average. Getting a feeling we went back to check the ritual site and found the ash piles gone and key information had been ‘cleaned up’ and the last magic run through the circle was Disposal.

We did a quick check of the oldest site the answer some hunches, finding a tiny circle with an aura effect of sorrow. Learning all this we made the decision to go and check in with Neloth.

Session 3

As it turned out that's not what we did. We just returned to the small mansion we had been allocated.

Day 4
Next morning we discovered we had been allocated an elven woman by the name of Jill, who was well versed in empowerment and mind magics that we were not, as an assistant. We also decided to go and investigate those mana cleaning towers, known as the Engliher Towers, that were interspersed through the city. It seemed that they were leaking a black sludge like substance that had interesting properties after refinement. Also, each tower was built around a quasimagical crystal core that directed and purified the mana flow. It wasn't advisable to cast near these crystal cores as they strongly affected the local mana flow, directing it through the core. Presumably that black sludge was the impurities found in the processed mana. So, we got a tour of the Tower from one of the attending mages but they weren't able to explain how it worked, mainly because they didn't know. Whatever it was, it was avatar level magic. It does weather control as well. Neloth probably did know but he wasn't telling. Also, any piece of the crystal that broke off the core promptly disappeared so there weren't any samples for analysis. We were able to obtain some of that black stuff though.

Later on that day, there was an explosion, and when we got there we saw that there was a large crater where a building had stood. At the bottom of this crater was a full length mirror. Jaycey and Sooty flew down to investigate and discovered there were figures in the black, reflective, surface of the mirror. The back side was also black and reflective. They tried talking to them. At one point, an arm came out and tried to pull Sooty in but he managed to prevent that from happening. we thought there was going to be an explosion but nothing happened. The Plane of Origin of the mirror was from here, but the souls within it were from a multitude of planes. Nature of Magic: Containment, nature of entities: shards of formally living avatar. The entities within were saying "We wish to be free" "We were taken" and other similar things.

A soul flew out and we flew off after it. Behind us, the crater and mirror vanished, replaced by the building that had been destroyed as if nothing had happened. A passing wizard was able to catch and contain it and, given what had just happened, we decided it was time to report to Neloth and tell him what we had found out.

Neloth was able to reconstruct the body that the soul had been in. It was a male vampire elf (the vamperism was also shrived out) and he had been killed, either as a sacrifice or a prisoner in order to contain a shard of Engliher. It seems there are a lot of these shards around and some entity was attempting to gather them up and put them all back together. This, we were told, would be very very bad. It was discovered Jill had a shard as well. Engliher was a skilled architect of magic and and had been following the orders of the Creature of the Barrier, aka the Emperor.

As for the stars, they weren't suns, but globes of pure mana. Getting near one would cause instant death. It seems we have to options, either prevent the recombination or win against the army.

Session 4

Flamis divinated Jill and discovered that she had two overlapping ITNs. So, as an experiment, I DAed Jill for 'number of ITNs' and got the answer '2'. A test subject yielded the answer '1'. So, hopefully, that gave us a way of detecting other shard bearers. Also, we determined there were 16 buildings that were bigger than the last building the ritual had been held in so those buildings were tagged to be watched in order to catch the ritual in progress.

Day 5
It was the next morning when my breakfast was interrupted by a visitor who claimed there were eight branches of the Celestial College but refused to elaborate on this saying I was 'not worthy'. This put me in a bad mood which wasn't helped when the presence of an entity on a nearby roof was detected. We flew up there to investigate. Long lived sentient human, associated deity - Engliher, nature of curse, mutation or gift: Awareness Enhancement. He was also carrying a small metal cage and the volume within it DAed as long lived sentient. The nature of enchantment of the cage itself was personage imprisonment. We figured out that this cage was designed to capture a portion of somebody and the nature of the entity to be trapped was Avatar.

The person wanted to talk, and he had two 'cronies' with him, one of which had a second, similar, cage that also had an aura inside. Unfortunately, the person didn't seem to be answering questions until Jaycey noticed he was using some sort of silent tongue hand symbols that were actually Panjarre Silent Tongue. We managed to figure out he wanted us to take the cage. Jaycey picked it up but seemed uneasy doing so. This one we were told was a trap for Neloth while the other was a trap for Engliher. We also managed to determine that any witnesses that saw these beings were being killed.

The two companions phased through the roof taking their cage with them. The first entity also phased and the cage Jaycey was holding tried to go too but Jaycey held firm.

  "It's MY cage" - Jaycey

The entities then flew out of the windows below heading in different directions. Rowan made a hole in the roof and we jumped down. There were LOTS of dead bodies down on the floor below and all of them had their throat slit by a rather sharp object. Some of the bodies were so deeply cut that their heads had nearly been removed. While I was doing post-mortems, the others flew after the original entity, Rowan with Jill on a table, Flamis on a cup while Ben had grabbed Jaycey and was already giving chase. Those two managed to catch up to that person and, during that skirmish, Jaycey lost possession of the cage. She fought to get it back while Ben went into tiger form and literally mauled the person. Jaycey managed to wrestle the cage back but, when it started glowing, she had to drop it before it exploded. All we were able to retrieve afterwards were shredded fragments.

Session 5

We returned to Landon who had a fistful of notes. "We didn't choose this", "We want to end it all", "Cut them all out", "Help us", "Kill all the witnesses",

A bit later on, the sewer entrance alarm ward went off. Upon investigation, we discovered that a Shell of Silence had been put up, our guard golem was missing, and the sewer tunnel itself had been wiped clean with what was initially thought to be a Flash Flood, but turned out to be the water equivalent of Windwalking. Jaycey also spots a thief marking.

Rowan renews the wards before everyone else to to check out teleport points to the previously identified sixteen buildings. Meanwhile, working on a theory that the magic here was sufficiently different from ours to need researching, I spent most of the rest of the day at the library. On the way out, I nearly got kidnapped but was able to fly away home.

Day 6
Another interrupted breakfast because of loud knocking. This time it was a report that part of the city was on fire, basically all the area outside the initial wall. Sooty mutters something about Building 15 and we 'port over there, emerging from a fire in the building next door. A person with a bucket of water was approaching that fire with the intention of putting it out and he was knocked unconscious. Nothing found here but we get a report about Building 8 so we fire-teleported to there. I detected some strange mana flow, nearly buried in the overall background mana so, while the others charged into the third story windows and started a room clearing operation, I followed the flow downwards and determined it was flowing to the basement. So I dashed in the front door, closely followed by Flamis, who had been wondering where I had got to (yes - I wasn't following Sooty's buddy system) and discovered that the basement door was barricaded as well as being secured with a Rank 25 Mage Lock. Ben managed to break it down and we discovered a fifty foot tall mechanical figure seated in the middle of the basement in the middle of a ritual circle with a bunch of cultists ringed around it.

Pandemonium ensured with spells being cast that were designed to obliterate any life forms in the area. Five seconds later, there were only two survivors, the golem was untouched and we were able to investigate - at least after I had treated the guard who had been ravaged by Jaycey's nightmare creature.

We could detect some sort of soul like essence in the golem and it looked like it was the subject of an 'Install Life' ritual. It was then we got another message saying that Building 9 had gone dark, followed in quick succession by Building 2 until all of the buildings from 1 to 12 were out of contact. Ben and Sooty were in the process of destroying the golem by this point.

We discovered that Buildings 1 to 12 were all gone, only the foundations remained. So we fire-flashed back to 15. Lots of wards had been set up around the building but Sooty crashed through them all. This time we headed straight for the basement but then discovered that the mana flow was still going down - 100 to 150 feet below according to my calculations.

Session 6

There didn't seem to be any obvious way down so Jaycey started probing the walls. She found an illusionary brick that was hiding a switch. When activated, the side wall ahead of us, slid downwards revealing a stairwell that descended 100ft in a straight line. Sooty charged down first, discharging and taking all the wards effects on the way. I hung back a bit as he hit the bottom expecting a really big boom but that didn't happen. Instead we saw a passage continuing on but waiting for us was a bunch of undead, behind which was some more of those 'mutants'. On a platform above was arranged some more creatures with bows and right at the back was a really nasty looking entity that I wasn't sure what it was. Jaycey activated her illusion and charged in to engage, with some of Rowan's golems following.

  "Ah, the enthusiasm of youth and halflings" - Phaeton.

The undead were easily disposed off with spells but the entities on top kept summoning more. So we blasted them with spells until there were none left. The ones down below DAed as humans but all our magic was just bouncing off them so we had to melee them. Meanwhile Ben had taken a couple of golems and charged to engage the entity at the back. Once Jaycey and the Nightmare had finished off their target, she ran up to help Ben but, just as she got there, Ben took that creature down. Meanwhile Flamis dealt the final blow to the other mutant.

Now that the combat, at least that one, was over, we took stock. Ben found a sentient talking axe that had been dedicated to Mallager the Devourer. Not sure it would be a good idea for anyone to wield that thing.

Session 7

The doors to the large ritual chamber beyond were trapped with entity magic, and the wall is reinforced with binding magic. Fortunately, Jaycey and Rowan have it under control. Jaycey also laid down some spell barriers along our side of the doors while Sooty put some sort of Protection from Poison on all of us before glowing with some sort of holy light.

The doors get opened and a whole lot of spells go off, bouncing off the spell barrier. Looking through the doors, the whole room looked like it is made of white marble - and there are rivers of blood pouring out of the walls. The ceiling is 200ft tall ceiling with chains hanging from the roof. There is lots of red light and chanting in various languages. We could see more mutants, ghostly looking undead people, a drake, two wizard looking guys. The centerpiece in the room is a large thing in the middle which is a large skeletal and sinew man, screaming in pain with more things being added to them - a rather aggressive regeneration ritual by the looks of it. This entity is 9ft tall and suspended in the air. The pillars around him are covered in runes and most are glowing with power. Most of the room was covered in blood pools but walkways were present.

Ben and the golems advanced. Our initial plan was to take out the front lines first then remove the cultists so the rest of us threw spells into the room. We soon discovered that they too had put up spell barriers on their side of the door. There's also a lot of preparing on their side going on. Their front line had crossbows but were not aiming. I used my Mana Sight and discovered that the room contained chaotic auras, the nearest human has Avatar level aura but the GTN is human.

Flamis moved into the room and her Drgonflames took out a lot of spectrals and some other entities. Three skeletal blood covered hands emerge from the blood pools. The undead don't seem to be doing anything either.

  "These people really do need a better interior decorator." - Flamis
  "I think they've decorated it in the style they prefer at the moment. Eldritch Horror" - Phaeton

More spectral figures appear near the back while blood started creeping up the non glowing pillars. Fire bolts and three of my Rainbow Spray missiles get reflected back by the cultists, even though they are affected, It just gets ignored by the mutant chaos knights. Jaycey took out a cultist and it sort of dissolves into the blood, leaving a cloak behind. She announced that with "I gooped one". The dead ones that we killed earlier came out of the blood, climbed up the pillars then were 'donated' to the giant entity as reformed body parts. Those giant blood hands cast some sort of demonic rendering on us that ripped into our ablative armours - I ended up with only little bit left (like one point). By now the blood crawling up the pillars had reached the ceiling.

Sooty took off into the air. The drake flew up to meet him. Sooty then impaled the cursed spear in the growing creature's head, while the drake pursued. I managed to clean up the rest of the undead with a Sunray while the creeping blood had reached the centre of the ceiling, pooling there, and dripping onto the creature. (Battle at the Basilica - musical soundtrack). Sooty got pummeled with magic as he attempted to pull out of the dive while being pursued by the drake. The drake somehow managed to follow. The meat giant thing tried smacking and casting at Sooty as he went by. It missed with the melee. but Sooty crashed with style.

As I hurried to help him, the blood starts pouring down from the ceiling engulfing the body. Plus the non glowing columns turned on. It seemed they're trying to speed things up. The additional humans jumped into the blood pools while the chaos knights closed on Sooty.

Just then, all the blood stopped pouring into the room. Before I reached him, Sooty took off and flew out the door, only to discover that more entities were charging down the steps. Ben charged into a cultist, knocking it off the pillar into the blood. Ben took it's place on the pillar.

With nothing better to do, I thought it was a good idea to learn as much as I could. Hand: GTN: Daloth, Avatar strength. Vulnerabilities - remove power source. Sentient entity: not yet. It is associated with the growing entity. Just then cultists start exploding while those that were left, started casting at the giant entity. Clearly something was going very wrong. Name of Entity- Engelhier with Daloth's spirit. The pools of blood start draining off. Best method of destruction - Extreme violence. Major vulnerabilities - betrayal wrenching removal of soul. Known minions - nobody yet. Motivation of spirit - personal growth and power. Direction of moral compass, opportunist, manipulative. I tried throwing a Sunray at it but that didn't work. Cold iron could. Meanwhile Rowan sent golems out to meet the incoming. Things to harm this entity - reuniting soul and body.

it looked as if those entities that were left decided to evacuate while they could. The drake flew out and all the souls had vanished. Just then, Neloth turned up.

The glowing runes turned out to be teleportation runes as we found ourselves ourselves in a large courtyard in the Trade city. Neloth did not come with us so we decided to group resurrect Engleheir with the hope of forcing the Daloth part out. This we succeeded in doing by locking in Engleheir. The Daloth part was crushed and disappeared. Englehier then vanished.

  "Can we go back to Alusia now?" - Phaeton
  "I seriously don't think it's over." - Flamis

Session 8

Englehier then activated the the ritual sigils in the sky and vanished. So do the 'stars'. To make things worse, it started raining. Ben tasted the water and said it tasted 'fizzy'. Also bells were ringing at the Basilica. We took the High Roads to get there, warning Landon we were coming. On the way we discovered it was raining crossbows as well - horizontally. Fortunately they all bounced off our shields and other protections.

When we got there, a lot of important people had gathered along with Neloth. Basically the message was 'Active threat, some being infused with magic, city on high alert, and the walls were surrounded by hundreds of thousands of entities'. So, with the help of an Enhance Circle, we buffed back up and headed for the city walls to take a look. It was raining harder by now and, when we got there, we could see hundreds of people setting up camp. They had left a thirty kilometer gap between the outer edge of the wall and their encampment. Most were humanoid sized entities but a few were larger.

So we made our way out there with an escort. The people we met were wearing full plate, and the larger entities looked like trolls or ogres. Their leader had an avatar strength aura and his college of magic came back as magic. They were also buffed up to the max with protection spells. Another was 'long lived sentient - elf' and a third was 'long lived sentience - dwarf'.

A person in robes then came out to speak with us, surmising that we wanted to know their demands. He told us that they had been summoned here but don't know why and they all followed Englehier. The last magic to impact on this person was 'Greater Empowerment', that had been cast by a god like being.

Just then, one of the Englehier towers exploded. We then noticed that there was a clear patch above another tower so it wasn't being rained on. Main magic in effect on the rain - conduit. Neloth was already flying out there to investigate.

We went over to the tower that we had first visited and discovered that the mages were frantically trying to get a ritual to work and they were seeking the help of a scholar called Stevens. A guard had been dispatched to fetch him but he came back all bloody and bruised. I helped him as best I could although there seemed to be some disguise illusion in play, which made us really suspicious. Clear spots were beginning to form above a few other towers as we headed off to Steven's place. I must have been feeling rather annoyed at this point, as when we discovered that the door was locked, I booted it in - much to the surprise and amazement of some other party members.

Steven was found inside a closet and, he too had an illusionary aura, which again, made us suspicious. It turned out all he was hiding was an artificial arm. So he was whisked off to the Basilica - and again the weather forecast proved to be rain with a chance of crossbow bolts.

Once that was done, we headed back to 'our' tower before receiving a message to meet Landon at a particular building. When we got there, we discovered three humans stapled to the wall and their aura told us that divine retribution was coming in fifteen minutes from Englehier and the nature of the retribution was incarnation. The incarnation arrived, we had a conversation, then left.

Session 9

Day 7
We had Crows in our living room and their featherhounds (a type of dog) guarding the grounds outside. It had stopped raining by now but, at least one more tower had exploded. As far as I could surmise, the rain, which was slightly acidic, had been carrying mana designed to overload the cores. At least that was my theory and I was sticking to it until I knew more. We then got a message that Neloth wanted to see us.

When we got there, present was him, Landon, and 11 others. He asked us to check out these people. Two of them were found to be under some sort of compulsion, hypnotism, control or similar magic. The trigger as any hostile action towards Englehier or associated magic. Magic being triggered, Mind Control. He then led us into a secret stairway to a secret room that contained a table and thirteen bowls. Each of them put blood into the bowl in front of them and this opened a hidden door into another secret room. In here were a lot of traps that needed deactivation. Apparently this is the way to the Vault.

We also discovered that some members of our mercenary groups were dopplegangers, They were being dealt with.

The sentient axe we had found in the ritual chamber earlier was divinated. It had once been the main weapon of Nulugar the Devourer and was cursed to be permanently invisible. It can twist the personality of it's wielder and eats the souls of it's victims. It will also ensure it leaves the possession of anyone that does not share it's thirst for destruction.

The golem was a convoy golem that is missing it's motivation coil. It can be made into an instant iron golem.

The armours are associated with Englehier and the wearer gets 100% resistance to Colleged magic. It also resists any other magics by thirty points. Those not associated with Englehier are vulnerable to magic.

Day 8
There's a parade of people in the street outside. They are all surrounding a man glowing with a golden light who are heading towards the center of the city. Landon reports there are six such emissaries and we should meet one. That's when Jill ties to exit through the front door, clearly under some sort of compulsion. She gets knocked out, tied up, and placed inside a Bubble of Force in the panic room. I volunteer to stay and watch her. Sooty and the others go to meet this person who calls himself Valdar.

By the time they get back, Jill is having what looks like an epileptic fit inside the bubble. When Rowan dispels the bubble, Jill disappears into what looks like a pile of dust.

Sooty and co have managed to establish the following - that Englehier wants to live. This can be achieved in three ways: 1) Use the contents of the Vault to heal himself 2) Use the Towers for a ritual vto enhance his life then seek out a better solution 3) Destroy the city and use thousands of lives as blood sacrifices.

This to me seems to be a two cup problem so I decide to make a cup of tea to mull things over. That was when we discover that the city water supply is poisoned. So we head off to the Basilica - again.

Session 10

On the way there, things got even stranger. An entity allied to a power called 'Kevin the Mischief' wandered up to Jaycey and handed her a magical square. A bit later on, a golem handed Rowan a magical cube. Both had Finding magic on them. Ben then received a paw medallion from a cat with an avatar aura strength and associated with a power called Cuddles.

At the lower Basilica we found Neloth writing things down. I got the impression he was multitasking with duplicates. We told him what we had discovered and Neloth said there was a fourth option i.e. Englehier consumes Neloth.

Jaycey proposed that Neloth and Englehier co=operate in a ritual using the power in the Vault in a way that would benefit both of them. Unfortunately Neloth is adamant that won't work and insisted that we kill Englehier. Also, we had discovered that Landen had vanished, presumably as Jill did and we needed a new point of contact. Neloth suggested a person called Kalar.

Just then there was a loud explosion coming from the industrial area resulting in a huge mushroom cloud. Was that the Vault? We were also informed that a lot of people have come in unconscious in some sort of magical sleep. Was that a result of the poison in the water? To complicate things even further a voice came over the message stone that was paired with the one Landon had which said 'We wish to parley'.

So we headed off to Kalar's location but, no Kalar. All we found were papers strewn about. An imp then popped in, threw a hot rock at Flamis and popped out again.

We headed for the parley place. A four armed person carrying a book came in and said 'We need to stop them fighting or the city will burn'. Two lanterns are produced, similar to the cages we had encountered earlier, one attuned to Neloth, the other to Englehier. We need to put them in close proximity to their associated entity for thirty seconds to allow them to siphon off enough power from them to allow them to kill each other without collateral damage. The Englehier avatar we had met earlier then turned up and told us to meet him at the Town Hall. There we were told that Englehier was Neloth's creator and that Neloth was holding a grudge about something. Plus Jill had been teleported into the camp outside the city.

Back at the house, we DAed the rock that Flamis got. It was a tracker beacon associated with The Ash. Rowan's box was associated with Vasa the Maker and also a tracker. Plus she could put things inside it. A small owl tapped and the window and I let it in. It gave me a small caduceus which was associated with a power called Nife. The owl then said "Keep them close, we'll get you out" before disappearing.

It was decided to enter Jaycey's extraplanar hidey hobbit hole to take stock of the situation.

Mil-Sci

Daily pattern

‘’How much time does the party spend sleeping, eating, travelling, doing rituals, etc. each day’’\

• Morning and Evening one hour ritual time each.

Travel Magics

‘’What travel magic options does the party have, how far per cast/or per day if duration is longer than usual travel time.’’ ‘’Can the party eat/sleep/etc on the mode of transport.’’

• Wings: 45 mph, 300+ miles range.
• Wildfires: 50 mph, 350+ miles range.
• Instilling Flight: 60 mph, 600+ range Duration 10.5 hrs.

Watch Order

Day Watch. ‘’Used when stationary, or on a larger transport such as a ship’’
First - ??
Second - ??
Third - ??

Night watch
First - ??
Second - ??
Third - ??

Marching Order

Skirmish Formations (Front)
Double File	Single File

Buffs

Rowan has Circle Magic which means long term buffs maybe cast as a group ritual, each participant may contribute a spell and each covers the fatigue cost of the buffs on themselves.
(Same spells 'add' increasing rank until 20 then extra ranks act like Enhance Enchant.)

General Buff Notes

Buffs listed in the table don't need to be detailed, other buffs not on the table must be mentioned at the time they are cast.
Y means always on, N/- means never on, 'Sit.' means when the party has time for buffs before a fight.
Weapon Spells which weapon/s it is going on normally should be noted also

Long duration buffs

Magic	Rk	Effects	Dur	Flamis	Phaeton	Ben	Rowan	Jaycey	Sooty	Rowan's Golems	Jaycey's nightmare	?
Disguise Illusion	15	Ht +/- 15%, Wt +/- 30%, Voice and Clothing, Gender or Race. PB +5	16 Hrs / 12 Days (Perm)	?	N	?	?	?	N	?	?	?
Iron Shield (So)	20	+42% Defence if using a shield, +21% Defence if not. Extra counterspells	10.5 / 18 Hours	?	N	?	?	?	Spc	?	?	?
Thermal Control (So)	18	5 towards gauge 7, reduce fire/cold by 5.	19 / 34 Hours	?	Y	?	?	?	Tal	?	?	?
Primordial Armour (So)	20	125 Magical ablative.	21 / 36 Hours	?	N	?	?	?	Y	?	?	?
Armour of Ithan (Ro)	15	160pts ablative	16 Hours	?	Y	?	?	?	N	Y	?	?
Shadowform (BG)	20	+42/21 defense	10 1/2 Hours	?	Y	?	?	?	N	?	?	?
Ash Armour	##	EN Armour, doesn't stack with other sources.	? Hours	?	?	Y	Y	Y	Y	?	?	?
Inner Flames of Purity	##	Some stun/poison stuff.	? Hours	?	?	Y	Y	Y	Y	?	?	?
Eleutherian Ward	##	Less encumberance.	? Hours	?	?	Y	Y	Y	Y	?	?	?
Strength of Stone	##	Extra EN	? Hours	?	?	Y	Y	Y	Y	?	?	?
Name (??)	##	????	? Hours	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
Name (??)	##	????	? Hours	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
Name (??)	##	????	? Hours	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?

Short duration buffs

Magic	Rk	Effects	Dur	Flamis	Phaeton	Ben	Rowan	Jaycey	Sooty	?
Enhance Enchant	15	15 Ranks to Duration, Damage, Range, Area	17 Pulses	-	-	-	-	-	-	?
Heroism (JC)	15	+16% Def 16 Die modifier to Fear Checks, +16% to reaction rolls	150 Mins	?	?	?	?	Y	?	?
Weapon of Steel	12	Can hit incorporeal, ignore 4 protection, +13% strike chance.	? Mins	?	?	?	?	?	Sit	?
Durability	15	+3ft +2en	160 Mins	?	?	?	?	?	N	?
Strgnth of Darkness	20	+11 ST	210 Mins	?	?	?	?	?	Sit	?
Light/dark Sword	20	21sc 5 dmg	25 Mins	?	?	?	?	?	N	?
Name ???	??	????	? Mins	?	?	?	?	?	?	?

Permanent Effects the GM needs to know

Magic	Rk	Effects	Dur	Flamis	Phaeton	Ben	Rowan	Jaycey	Sooty	?
Rank of See Invis	??	????	? Mins	?	?	12	20	20	20	?
Ranger Detect Ambush	??	-5% per opposing Ranger rank.	? Mins	?	?	94	93	?	143%	?
Sixth Sense	??	????	? Mins	?	?	?	107%	110%	131%	?
Counter-Shadowing	??	-5% per opposing Spy rank.	? Mins	?	?	?	/75%	~95%/71%	126%	?
Name?	??	????	? Mins	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
Name?	??	????	? Mins	?	?	?	?	?	?	?

Buffs for the Mercenaries

Magic	Rk	Effects	Dur	Golem Handlers	The Once Dead Legion	Lady Zavarins' Tested	Scorch Marked Battalion	Heavy Earth	Bargus and Jargus Demolition	Clockmakers of Darus	Xaviers' Titan Slayers	Hidden March	Bob and Bob	Jill and Jill	TBC	TBC
Defence Magic	??	????	? Hours	N	Y?	Y	Y	Y	?	?	Y?	?	N?	Y	?	?
Travel Magic	??	????	? Hours	N	N?	Y	Y?	N	N	?	Y?	?	N?	Y	?	?
Mechanician Skill	??	????	? Hours	?	?	?	?	?	20	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
Warrior Skill	??	????	? Hours	?	?	?	?	?	20	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
Name?	??	????	? Hours	?	?	?	?	?	20	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
Name?	??	????	? Hours	?	?	?	?	?	20	?	?	?	?	?	?	?

Calendar

Winter
	Moonday		Duesday		W'ansday		Th'rsday		Frysday		Reapsday		Sunday
	Samhain
Frost (7)
			1	Guild Meeting	2	Explore City	3	Investigate Rituals	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
Snow (8)
							1		2		3		4
	5		6		7		8		9		10		11
	12		13		14		15	Solstice	16		17	The Duke of Carzala's Winter Ball	18	Yuletide
	19	Days of Chaos	20	DoC 2	21	DoC 3	22	DoC 4	23	DoC 5	24	DoC 6	25	DoC 7
	26	DoC 8	27	DoC 9	28	DoC 10	29	DoC 11	30	Twelfth Night
Ice (9)
											1		2
	3		4		5		6	First Plough	7		8		9
	10		11		12		13		14		15		16
	17		18		19		20		21		22		23
	24		25		26		27		28		29		30