An Unknown Onslaught

Scribe Notes

Summary

GM: Anne
Season: Autumn 822 WK
Night: Wednesday
Location: Online
Level: Low-Medium

Will be trying out Foundry paired with Discord as an alternative to Roll20 for online, will be a setup learning curve
Acceptable characters should come out with one medium and one low between mage and fighter in the 1.4 Assessment Excel Program

Party

1. Grimmuck Groz'Gronack - Orcish Fire Mage with powerful magic
2. Seraph - Human Namer with a big sword
3. Lady Arcadia - Elf Celestial with martial prowess
4. Remel - an elderly cook with bad knees
5. Elderan - Elvish cloud mage with devistating bolts

Employer

The Boatmen and Independent Traders of Sandspit

Mission

To stop the monsters coming through the maze

Pay

15,000sp for investigating and another 10,000sp on success.

Scribe Notes

Summary Notes

• Meet employer and sail to the Sandspit. Head into the Maze and prepare for a fight.
• Fight Sahuigen and Sharks
• Arrive at Cecrotis - battle site, magic stones.
• Talk to merfolk. Travel to human village. Discuss Merfolk problem.
• Swim into fortress via underground tunnels, fight eels
• Continue through tunnels in fortress, fight cultists
• Find lake in the underground part of the fortress
• Fight cultists and take alter and sacrificial dagger
• Rest and head back to the fortress the following night
• Fight cultists in fortress
• Loot, celebrate with villages
• head back via cloud and maze. Back to guild

Full Notes

Adventurers Assemble

The party assemble in meeting room six, the one with the wobbly chairs, and make introductions. Theo, our employer, so appears - a young man who is dressed like a sailor, he explains he is from Sandspit and there have been dangerous aquatic incursions from a nearby portal called "The Maze" and he would like to stop these incursions. He has arranged transport on a boat that is leaving on tomorrow mornings tide, we can negotiate payment for our adventure with the locals at the Sandspit.

Under the menacing gaze of guild security we completed the mandatory paperwork with Arcadia volunteering as party leader, and Remel as both scribe and military scientist (and cook). The party then heads to casting chamber eight and the demonstrate unusual magics that have to each other; Elderan snowballs and lightning, Remels fog and Grimgrunks firebolts. Greaters and lesser are then arranged and we agree to meet for predawn breakfast before we head to the boat the next morning.

An expected Journey

Theo meets us at the docks and we all clamber into a row boat which moves by itself at high speed out to the awaiting ship. Looking over the side Remel see the watery face of an elemental staring back. We climb onto the boat and meet captain Jack, who has us taken to our rooms , and we head off. Splashy, the elemental, is propelling the boat and a two week journey only takes three days. Remel and Splashy spend much of the time talking about water.

Arriving at the harbour at Sandspit, Splashy guides the boat through a very unusual route, avoiding defences around the port. Sandspit is a thriving fishing village, the party are lead to the Donkeys Haven Inn, a prominent tavern, and introduced to the a mix of people from the Sandspit and Lake Town (The Boatmen). Edward, the assistant mayor, explains there are incursions into both the Lake Town and Sandspit, they occur every 4-6 hours end up in one of the two towns, that they are fighting off. The creatures are all aquatic, so far they have seen Merfolk, undead, squids, surigren and elementals. They would like us to go into "The Maze" and stop the creatures at the source.

Arcadia negotiates 15k for us to investigate and another 10k upon a successful outcome, as well as Greater Enchantments of R15. We need skill as sailors to help make our way through The Maze, and Theo provides us a special beer to enhance our skill.

Maze Runners

All the party awake the following morning wither hangovers, the previous night is a blur but we all know have skill as a sailor. Following a fulling breakfast from Remel the party head off on a skiff with one of The Boatmen, who will train us to navigate The Maze. We travel to the inlet, with cliffs towering on each side, and into a narrow misty ravine. The route we take defies logic, taking turns that should exist and travelling back on our route to find new waterways. At one point we hear Destinian voices in the distance , and the Boatman explains they wont return back to the Sandspit, having been told how, so they are been left without aid. We eventually find ourselves on a very narrow branch that The Boatman believed all the invaders originate from, and decide to wait to verify this is the right bath to investigate.

Jaws

We wait a six tense hours, but nothing arrives from the ravine we are watching. The Boatmen are getting very uncomfortable, twitching and making odd sounds, and the captain explains they normally don't stay in one place for long and suggests we need to explore on our own as they lover the row boat.

The party clamber onto the boat and Remel propels them slow forward into the narrow ravine. Very soon the party hear the sound of splashing, and four sharks pulling sahuigen emerge from the fog. We call out a greeting to them and they reply with "Down with the land dwellers", so a fight starts. The sahuigen have a caster, but multiple lightning from Elderan and forbidding wall from Seraph give the party a huge advantage. Remel managed to finally control two of the shark and they devoured the remaining sahuigen.

The party pull up to an rock outcropping and rest for a few hours with their two pet great white sharks. Arcadia examines the moss on the rocks and discovers it can extent life, so we gather some. Some DAs on the sahuigen bodies provide some surprising results - demonic ties and they are from the world of Cecrotis. We follow the river down the ravine for hours passing mostly bare cliff walls, and at one point some frightening large giant claw marks. Like the rest of the maze our route defies logic. Eventually the river end in a fog wall, similar to the maze enterance, which we assume is an exit to another plane – we case spells and bravely pass through.

Lake of death

We come out underneath a waterfall, fortunately our waterproofing keeps as all dry, and into a lake about 200ft across surrounded by a forest. There is a small flat stone island in the middle and, more notably, the lake is littered with bodies of dead Merfolk, Sahuigen (two which are 20ft tall) and giant squid. After the panic passes land out boat and begin examining the area. It appears the Merfolk and Sahuigen fought and killed each other, with the most recent death about 3 hours ago, some killed by magic that includes water bolts and Waterspout. Some of the Merfolk were pacted to Savnok. The island in the middle of the lake is empty except some a folded note under a small pile of magical river pebbles. We cant read the writing on the note, but are able to tell the stones have communication magic on them. Elderan hears a voice from one of the stones, but we do now understand the language.

Having completed our examination we decide not to stay around and head off down a path through the forest and follow it for the rest of the day. The forest thins out and we are approaching plains as evening approaches so we find a campsite and settle in for the night. Night passes without incident and by the afternoon Seraph has divinated some stones.

Infinitude Stones

One of the stones allows a short message to be sent to the holder of second paired stone, and another stone can send a short message to anyone. Remel manages to contact the holder of the other stone, we don't understand their native language and eventually settle on common – which they speak poorly. We explain we found they stone near the lake and they agree to come to us, unfortunately the magic wears out and they cant reply to further messages. We head back to the lake to make it easier for them to locate us, and as we wait we loot all the bodies – we have a small pile of mundane weapons and stabbing weapons (suitable for fighting in water), and some magical kelp armour from the giant Surigren. We settle in to wait for the arrival of the strangers, the communication stone is not yet repowered so we done know how long we will be waiting.

After many hours of waiting Elderan summons a cloud to allow us to search from the strangers. There is no sign of inhabitation in any direction except for a small village to the east on the coast, which the river appears to head toward. We float the cloud east, following the river, and encounter the stranger after a few hundred miles – Merfolk on sharks swimming along the river. We try to talk to through broken common and they get hostile, demanding the stones using their poor common. Retreating down the river we wait at the lake for the Merfolk, Arcadia agrees we should try to talk to them so we leaving out the stones and a fish chowder for them. After some hours the Merfolk arrive taking the stones, they explain they are not from the village, it contains people like us, and their leader does not like the land walkers.

The (Fortress) Rock

Using Elderans cloud we fly through the night, pass crops and cattle as we approach the costal village just before dawn. There also a fortress on a small island a few hundred feet out to sea. We rest until after breakfast and head into the village along a wide, well-worn road that leads to the village. There are humans living in the village and they don't seem at all worried by our appearance. We find out way to the Mayor and, through Grimmucks rude interruptions, Arcadia explains to our mission. The Mayor invites us in to her house and over some tea explains their friendly relations with the Merfolk ended a few months ago, at about the same time the fortress appeared overnight on the island. We suspect the Merfolk have had a change of leadership and are now lead by a worshiper of Savock, who has the power to build fortresses almost instantly. The closest large town is around 1000miles away, so we are the only help the village has against the merfolk. We decide to investigate the fortress - we have birds ad fish to talk to, and stars to read

Arcadia summons and talks to the birds, we learn that the keep away from the fortress due to the storms and eagles. Remel summons dolphins and they explore the area, returning hours later – there are tunnels under the fortress that lead to an underground lake with an island in the centre. They have seen many merfolk. From both responses we think there is magic that alters space around the fortress. We decide to sneak into the tunnels at night, so spend the day resting and shopping with Elderan and Arcidia finding some treasures.

Splash

Some hours after an enormous dinner of poached fish the party slip into the water. The dolphins are still in the bay and offer to take us to the tunnel in exchange for fish. We find the space around the fortress is enormous, the last thirty feet seems to be hundreds of feet in distance. The party swim through the underwater tunnel and surface, climbing out of the underground river just before giant eels descend upon the party, we control two and kill the rest.

With the two controlled eels we delve further into the tunnels. We creep into a cave that has six cultists, all dressed in robes marked with symbol of Savnok. The cultists are made up of a number of races; orcs, humans and elves. We dispatch them without too much trouble, Seraph suffers an injury to his arm and which is healed by Elderans powerful skill. They carry witchcraft amulets as well as a wand and an amulet that allows mana flows.

Wearing the robes of the cultists to disguise ourselves, we continue deeper into the tunnels. We encounter another three cultists who seem confused to see "us" no longer in position, we use their confusion to quickly dispatch them. They also carry amulets, a wand and a communication stone. One of the cultists was wearing robes with different symbols, we suspect this is a leader of the group.

Continuing our exploration, we enter a larger room and are quickly attacked by six eels, four sharks and four cultists. Elderans lighting, weapon spells from Arcadia and friendly sharks allows us to defeat the cultists without too much injury. There are two cages in the cavern that have traces of merfolk blood, soom of it appears fresh. After healing up and scratching the sharks bellies we continue exploring the complex.

Lake Unplacid

Following a narrow corridor we find ourselves in an enormous cavern containing a lake, which has five cultists, spread out around the lake, standing on the water. In the middle of the lake is in 30ft wide island with an altar at the centre with a merfolk lying on it. The altar is surrounded by six cultists and it appears that some dark ritual is being performed.

We engage the evil cultists in battle. The sharks fill their bellies with the cultists on the water, Elrean and Grimmuck fire off bolts while Seraph and Arcadia get close and personal with swords. Some of the cultist keep chanting while the fighting rages around them and one of them pull out a dagger when the altar begins to glow. Fortunately, fire and light bolts strike him before he can make the sacrifice. After a savage fight one cultist is unconscious and the other ten remainder dead.

The merfolk on the altar has been drugged, which Elderan removes, and Arcadia speaks to her. We learn that the Bubbles travelled from her village to meet allies, other merfolk, a week ago near the village on the coast, they were all going to head off together on another tasks. They all fell unconscious at their feast and she awoke in the cells, she has not seen any of her allies. We loot and examine the bodies, learning that their "master" will claim the souls of the senior cultists in less than an hour so make haste. The altar is magical and, after some discussion, we depart and return with a row boat which allowing us to take the itemised altar, and other loot, with us.

Arriving back at the village less than an hour after we departed, we return with wounds, loot and victory. We bind up our prisoner and feed Bubbles, after a short discussion we decide to get a good nights sleep before heading back into the fortress. The upper levels are still to be explored. Seraph starts divinating the items.

The Raid

Following a well earned sleep the party start the day with a hearty breakfast accompanied by orange juice. We decide Seraph should divinate the items we found before heading back into the fortress, as they many be able to help us fight the remaining cultists. Ancient divinations are long and difficult, we learn about the dagger, alter and earring. There is much ice cream passed around to keep some party members from interrupting Seraph. We have a very mild fish curry for dinner, and Remel prepares some healing toffies. Seraph continues his ancient divinations and we decide to head back in around 3am.

In exchange for fish our friendly pod of dolphins carry us into the fortress, taking us through the underground tunnels and dropping us of into "lake" room. After some searching Arcadia finds a secret door that leads to a tunnel, Elderan has a little scouting golem that follows the tunnel up a slope to a trap door. We sneak down the tunnel, supressing a hellfire ward, before climbing a ramp and to a trapdoor. Sneaking through we find ourselves in a room which appears to be on the ground level of the fortress, with a guard on the other side of one of the two doors. We open the door, quickly dispatch the guard, and find ourselves on a balcony looking over a courtyard – we've been spotted and the alarm is raised.

The following minute is a frantic blur of combat as cultists flood from other buildings to the courtyard and the part comes under withering fire from magical bolts. Seraphs deadly axe blows take the lives of cultists, Arcadia delivers viciously attacks with her sword and crossbow, Eldern devastates the battlefield with him bow fire, Grummuck returns fire with his fire bolts and Remel hobbles around with his bad knees and casts fogs. The two surviving cults run, escaping through the underground tunnels, but the party chase them down.

The End

Following some healing the party spend a few hours searching the fortress and island, of interest are some notes kept in the captains office – although no one can read the language they are written in. The bodies of the cultists are stacked outside the fortress and burnt. Its very late and, as we have no further business on the island, we head back to the village and sleep for the rest of the night.

Waking late the next morning we meet with Athtar and provide her an update of our activities. She can read the notes, they're in merfolk, they are a collection of military orders covering a number of months. The old orders have the previous kings signature, and the notes starting about six weeks ago contain the suspected demonic working replacement. There is great concern as the merfolk are now ruled by a suspected demonic worshiper and become very reclusive. We rest of the afternoon and have a party with the villages that evening, there is much celebration and drinking!

The next morning we make our goodbyes and pack up. Elderan summons a cloud to take us back to the lake, and we are all surprised when a Cloud dragon turns up that is known to Elderan. Grimmick earns the dragons ire, but fortunately is not eaten. The dragon offers to take us home and takes us on a tour of the land, we pass an enormous city called Vine, it has farms within its boundary, before we are enveloped in cloud and find ourselves is strange world, reappearing in blackness with stars in the distance and floating rocks around, some which have buildings – this is the Void, the place between worlds. Enveloped in cloud again we appear over the Sandpit back on Alusia. We are unceremoniously dumped off the dragons back and fall, with feather falls taking effect only a few feet above the ground. We meet with our employers and update them with the activities of the last week. With our rewards we head back to the Guild on a cloud, following a treasure split and round of drinks we bid goodbye to each other.

Info

Places

• The Maze – a nexus point near Sandspit that can be entered by traveling into an inlet that is surrounded by high cliffs. The nexus leads to many other planes and its is easy to get lost in the maze and end up in one somewhere you didn't expect.
• Sandspit – a costal village near the five sisters. There is an establish trade route between Lake Town and Sandspit via The Maze.
• Laketown – a costal town in the Valley of Trinity. There is an establish trade route between Lake Town and Sandspit via The Maze
• Cecrotis - the plane of the Merfolk
  • lake - battlesite with Merfolk and Sahuigen
  • Village (needs name) - costal village.
  • Fortress - fortress built on a small island a few hundred feet out to sea from the village. Cultist of mix of races (Orcs, elves, humans), Red robes are senior, green middle and brown low. Water and earth mages, the earth can cast when on water. A single fire mage.

People

• Splashy – a friendly holy water elemental that lives in the sea around the Sandspit.
• The Boatmen - guild of navigators from The Laketown, they know how to navigate the maze.

• Sahuigen (maze) - plane of origin Cecrotis. One of them is associated with the power FurFur
• Furfur - Earl of storms and lightning, create great storms. power in the are of air and water. Some Sahuigen are pacted to it.
• Savnok – Macquie of corruption. Earth power. Some Merfolk are pacted to it.
• Athtar - mayor of village
• Merfolk - We believe 6 weeks ago the king was deposed and the new King is an agent of Savnok. The Merfolk have become reclusive and have become a danger.

Things

From the lake;

• Kelp armour – permanent R10 durability
• Communication stone 1: can send a 25 word message to the holder of the paired stone (returned to Merfolk)
• Communication stone 2: can send a 25 word message to anyone you know on the plane (returned to Merfolk)

Shopping;

• Elderan item
• Arcadia item

From the cultists;

• first group - witch amulets, wand, mana flow amulet, robes with durability
• second group - witch amulets, wand, communication stone, robes with durability

From the cultists near cage;

• Earring - allows casting from EN
• 2x shiny stone

From the cultists at lake;

• Ornate, sacrificial dagger – magic. Most powerful magical ability – ritual of sacrifice.
• Altar – aura strength of magic, no GTN. Highest ranked magic in effect – no answer, nature of magic – enhancement. 7x5x3ft = 105ft
• Pretty Pebbles - (messaging rocks)
• Various potion vials; ceramic, glass, waterskin
• Red and brown cultist robes

Mil-Sci

Daily pattern

How much time does the party spend sleeping, eating, traveling, doing rituals, etc each day

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.

Watch Order

1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
Remel		Grimmuck Groz'Gronack				Elederan
Arcadia				Seraph

Marching Order

Skirmish Formations (Front)
Double File Seraph Arcadia Elederan Grimmuck Groz'Gronack Remel	Single File Seraph Arcadia Grimmuck Groz'Gronack Elederan Remel

Vision

Seraph - Witchsight
Arcadia - Witchsight
Grimmuck Groz'Gronack - infravision 150ft
Elederan - Witchsight
Remel - Witchsight

Buffs

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	GG	SE	AR	RE	EL
Water Breathing (Re)	18	Gills. Breath and see under water	19h	?	Y	?	?	Y
Feather Falling (EL)	9	????	5 Hours	?	?	?	?	Y
Hot Wind (EL)	6	17% v range/11% v melee/close def. 7 points of fire/ice ablative (doesnt stack)	3.5 Hours	Y	N	N	Y	Y
Water proofing (Re)	8	protects completely from all forms of non-magical water damage.	27h	Y	?	?	?	Y
Buoyancy (Re)	8	float at whatever depth they choose. Change depth 21ft/action	9 hr	?	Sit	?	?	Y
Cold Resistance (Re)	8	protects the target from the effects of temperature down to -16C. -3 from cold based attacks	9hr	?	N	?	?	Y
Waters of Healing (Re)	6	neutralise vemon and heal 1 EN. If no venom then heal [D-5]+6	9hr	?	Y	?	?	?
Fireproofing (GG)	6	Protects against non-magical fire and heat effects up to the equivalent of a bonfire. Also protects against smoke effects, heatstroke and sunstroke.	7 Hours	Y	N	?	?	Y
Fire Armour (GG)	6	Protecton from 28 points of Fire Damage	7 Hours	?	Sit	?	?	Y
Witchsight (AR)	6	See invis. Vision in the dark of 150 feet under the open sky, and 75 feet elsewhere	3.5 Hours	Y	?	?	?	N
Coriscade (AR)	6	Defence 14 half in close	3.5 Hours	N	Y	Y	N	N
Name (??)	##	????	? Hours	?	?	?	?	?

Short duration buffs

Magic	Rk	Effects	Dur	GG	SE	AR	RE	EL
Arrow Flight (EL)	11	+4 Dmg + 12Sc missile & thrown	16 Mins	?	?	?	?	Y
Swords of Blazing Light (AR)	10	Base damage + extra to creatures of dark	15 Minutes	?	?	?	?	Y
Name (??)	##	????	? Hours	?	?	?	?	?

Other effect

Magic	Rk	Effects	Dur	GG	SE	AR	RE	EL
Sense danger	##	sense the presence of a hazard to the Adept's life or wellbeing	Always	?	?	?	49%	?
Detect Hidden (ranger)	##	In a natural setting a ranger may notice hidden entities, or recognise an ambush or trap before they walk into it	# Hours	?	?	?	66%	?
Recognise danger (Navigator)		recognise non-magical danger at sea before subjecting the ship to it.	# Hours	?	?	?	57%/71%	?
Name (??)	##	????	# Hours	?	?	?	?	?

Calendar

Autumn
	Moonday		Duesday		W'ansday		Th'rsday		Frysday		Reapsday		Sunday
	Lugnasad
Fruit (4)
			1	Guild Meeting	2	Sail to Sandspit	3	Sail to Sandspit	4	Sail to Sandspit	5	Head into Maze. Sahuigen and shark fight. Cecrotis and battle site. Camp in forest	6	Communication stones. Back to lake.Talk to Merfolk. Fly to village
	7	Talk to mayor. Swim to fortress. Fight many cultists, rescue sacrifice. Escape	8	Rest up and divinate	9	Back into the fortress before dawn	10	Return to village. Debrief mayor. Party that night	11	Back to Sandspit then cloud to guild	12		13
	14		15		16		17		18		19		20
	21		22		23		24		25		26		27
	28		29		30
Harvest (5)
							1		2		3		4
	5		6		7		8		9		10		11
	12		13		14		15	Equinox	16		17	Seagate Autumn Fair	18	Seagate Autumn Fair
	19	Harvest Moon	20		21		22		23		24		25
	26		27		28		29	Michaelmas	30
Vintage(6)
											1		2
	3		4		5		6		7		8		9
	10		11		12		13		14		15		16
	17	Blood Moon	18		19		20		21		22		23
	24		25		26		27		28		29		30	Beerfest