Red Carpet Massacre

The adventure involves the Isles of Freedom.

Summary

Adventure: Red Carpet Massacre
GM: Mandos
Session: Autumn/Winter 813 wk
Location: Chez Mitchinson
Level: Medium

Party

Icarone - Human Solar Celestial played by Manu Erwin

Teeanna, A Fae Princess and Mind Mage played by Hannah

• Dr Samuel - a Pacifist Elf played by Andrew
• Father Broc - played by Chris Caulfield

Adventure Full

Astrology

There's not so many now, still standing on their feet. The knives are out and singing so sweet. Engaged with sharper minds that cut you when you meet. Ain't the place to mess around. When someone wants to take you down.

Employer

The Guild.

Mission

A boat is noted to be leaving Seagate Docks on the 8th of Fruit 813 with a large number of corpses on board.

Pay

Double Guild Rate plus salvage

Scribe Notes

8th Fruit 813

Teeanna, Dr Sam and I are at Dramus' when a guild security member requests Teeanna's assistance (and ours by default as we happen to there) to approach the D'Abran fae regarding what they know about corpses on a boat leaving the harbour as well as everything else going on in the aisles of freedom. Easy!! The gold dragon Roche is involved. Something about the drow per modern histories. Stone elves that are buried. Oh yes, the world might end in three months or so.

"Madeiras Elvedas" may be the best fae court to talk to initially. Bunt is the "bispothetiste" of the court. We get wings from the Lord of the Bats who seems like he would like some company. I thank him and get triple duration!! We take the slow portal and then fly the rest of the way. Teeanna yells at us to not to land in the open space north of the village and east of the river due to many Fairy rings there. We find a clearing to land in and Sam notices a dragon shaped indent in the ground which also has a ritual on it of "release"!

We spot a pixie trying to steal the gift to Bunt, and once it recognises Teeanna gets really worried. Bunt arrives, welcomes us, and takes us to the court where we're introduced to Timp and Mary who tell us about Roche (their neighbour until five to six years ago) who years ago turned 10,000 elves into stone in preparation for some future battle. A guild party woke him about 5-6 years ago and he released the stone elves and left.

Timp reveals he is under compulsion and cannot tell us some information we likely need so we should visit the wisewomen who may be able to tell us more. We end the day with food, drink and song which Timp assures us will not put us into magical sleep as we are not in a fae realm.

9th Fruit 813

I get up early-ish to purify and enjoy breakfast and a little later Teeanna & Sam also awake. Bunt takes us to the wisewomen, a very old dryad by the name of Trimble and her weeping willow. She has seen the future although also has compulsion so cannot tell all. What she can tell us is as follows;

• a creature trapped in the Isles who others have been trying to free
• there is a small number of Fae in the Isles, some are also trying to prevent the release
• Roche cannot be foretold
• We must ask the dragon elves (fae) about their business
• The stone elves are in a location guarding a great evil and they are where the guild party left them
• Lord Arrindale is active in the Isles, however she does not know if he is seeking to free the creature
• Elder fae spirits know about the creature and placed the compulsion (geas) on Trimble and others as a "racial secret"
• River of blood that needs to be stopped - is near a coast - will happen on a day of power - the most likely is end of "Vintage" as is a time of decay
• Kit knows where or has communicated with the elder spirits
• Haann, Tari, Everan, Kit are some of the people who may know more…..

She speaks in the voice of prophecy:

There's not so many now, still standing on their feet
The knives are out and singing so sweet
Engaged with sharper minds that cut you when you meet
Ain't the place to mess around
When someone wants to take you down

Trimble "glows" Sam's bulb and says it will grow purple flowers.

Trimble gives Teeanna a dryad tree seed to be the host for a dryad wisewoman should she need one.

After we leave Trimble a pixie "Strumble" appears on Sam's shoulder, offering to guide us to where the stone elves were buried, which we graciously accept.

A shortish stroll through the nearby beech forest brings us to a bluff where we find a magical opening. The pixie tells us the stone elves were in this tunnel as it is on a magical line that happens to pass under the village. As we proceed into the tunnel we see it is perfectly square! There are regular humanoid chunks missing from the wall so it seems this is where the elves were.

There is a gap between each approximate group of one thousand.

I ask the pixie if he can help us fly and he sprinkles pixie dust so we can fly!! I am sooooo excited and speed off!! Moments later I exit the tunnel so have to turn around - oh no wrong way! Once turned around I speed back and moments later everything goes black.

Teeanna and Sam bring me around. They walked for half an hour to get here, I must have flown really fast!! The room I awaken in is a big square with golden doors to one side. The walls are covered in carvings in some sort of old elvish that Teeanna says appear to be a story about a hero. There isn't anything else in this room, or the next, apart from more doors through to a final room with a bed and six cots. A guild note (from Kin) advises us the story carved in the walls about the hero is rubbish and there is nothing of value In the rooms.

The pixie tells us of seeing the hero and the stone elves awakening along with some elder elves and some guild members.

Teeanna spends the next 2 days reading the wildly inconsistent stories on the walls.

I practice pixie dust flying until the dust wears off and then am incredibly bored. Thankfully Sam and I are able to discuss plant and gardening theory to pass the remaining time.

11th Fruit 813

Finally Teeanna finishes reading the carvings and they are in fact all rubbish so all three of us also sign the note agreeing there is nothing of value here, Strumble sprinkles pixie dust on us and then speed down the tunnel. Well I speed in seconds and the others take half an hour, they are so slow!

I cast Wings on us all thanks to Sam's amulet and we set off for ??? And twenty minutes later I arrive. And then have to wait 2-3 hours for the others. This pixie dust is fast!! Best way to fly ever!!! I want to fly with pixie dust all the time!!

Then we take the slow portal home to Seagate.

We request the library staff to start researching overnight while we retire for the evening.

12th Fruit 813

A lot of great library research is done by Sam and summarised for Teeanna and I.

"I don't know where we're going, I'm just the navigator" - Icarone 12th Fruit 813

We need to plant Teeanna's dryad tree seed so we head to Asheth. Upon arrival I enjoy some banapple cider and banapple beer that has been brewing from my rapidly spreading banapple trees.  They are spreading well, both here and in Alusia!

Teeanna decides to plant the dryad tree seed near her apple tree near the 2nd heart tree.

We decide to investigate the Temple of the Drow God before heading to Insel der Freiheit by Star Wings.

>> Question for when I DA SAM: where are the rest of his bits?

We arrive at a big obsidian quarry with a structure at the bottom. As we move past the columns at the front towards the door we see two partially hidden dragons, one on either side of the door - and after a minor start, realise they are carved!

Sam and I DA the area to discover the general area out here has a protection magic that is triggered by "evil".

As we are not feeling particularly "evil" we figure we'll proceed into the actual temple itself. As Sam steps through the inky-black doorway (which we assume is magical darkness preventing you from seeing inside), he is engulfed in what appears to be dragon flame! He is thankfully unharmed and one of his fleas reveals (via DA that is) that the nature of magic was "removing taint". As he 'appears' unharmed and I don't think I have anything that is tainted, I step through the doorway and am engulfed in flame. A quick inspection reveals none of my items are missing however Lord Surturs Bane is now slightly glowing (guess the last of the "taint" is gone!).

Now that we can see the room we have stepped into (the magical darkness is only on the actual doorway itself), we observe a mighty carved dragon statue at the end of the room with another inky black doorway between its paws. Sam tells me the dragon flame came from that statue the very moment I stepped through the doorway so there does not look to be any way of avoiding it.

While Teeanna divests herself of some items she is "keeping so that others cannot use them for bad things", Sam and I investigate a smaller antechamber to our right. Inside we find a large table overflowing with evil items, which we conclude are where "tainted" items go. We return to the main chamber and are blasted by dragon flames again, so it looks like items are never leaving the collection chamber.

I hear a scream of anguish and torment in my mind so terrifying that I pass out.

I awake with the worst headache of my life. I cannot remember what we did last night (as with this headache we surely must have been drinking heavily) and it feels like an imp is driving iron spikes into my head. After an eternity the imp changes to only using tacks and I am able to get on with understanding what happened. Turns out Teeanna cast an ESP on the area and because of the amulets Sam gave us, we all suffered the effects. She was only knocked out for a short time and then had a slight headache (which for a Mind Mage is worrying), however Sam and I have no such protection. Upon awakening she came through the doorway into our chamber, tried to bring us around with no success so

TEEANNA MAKES A FIRE AND TEA AND EVERYTHING ALL BY HERSELF!!!

A soothing tea and a nourishing banapple or three help me come back to myself, a cautious DA of the 2nd doorway reveals "preservation" triggered by "type of container" so Teeanna and I venture into the next room. Sam hangs back as he knows some Drow and is worried there is some protection that will trigger based on this.

The 2nd room is full of two thousand elven skin banners with individual Drow sigils. The preservation magic is keeping the souls of the Drow who murdered millions in torment. Yet another inky black doorway lies in front of us, this time triggering based on language skills, we assume that is the doorway Sam should not go through so he comes into this chamber to look around.

Teeanna and I go through the 3rd inky black doorway to find a room full of plaques telling the very specific story of the first Drow and why he and his "family" were captured and kept here. There is a fourth doorway ahead of us, although this time nice, warm, bright light streams out with "purification" magic.

Teeanna and I walk through to find the room the first Drow must have been held for slow weakening by the purification light. It is a wonderful room that I could stay in, so lovely and warm and nice and good.

Finding nothing else, we leave the temple and head out of the quarry to the nearby forest to camp for the evening. Sam and I take watch duty overnight to let Teeanna recover from her fire and tea making exertions.

13th Fruit 813 WK

My morning purification is unsuccessful - no doubt the after effects of yesterday's headache. We star wing our way back to the guild, then to the library where our assigned librarian has made a connection of sorts to Mortimers presence and being attacked while flying in Insel der Freiheit. Seems that Mortimer and others were blessed by Roche and a possible cause is an air spirit hostile to Roche.

Party: So as long as we don't travel with Kin, Mortimer, or Father Broc we are all good.
Guild: We have an additional member for your group, let me introduce you to Father Broc.

Sam to Father Broc: No touching me with your holy weapon. Keep it firmly secured.

Guild Security give us bracelets of Exsanguination counters with 3 charges each and advise us to head for "Setagen" as that is the likely port the boat with corpses will pass through.

We make our way to the Filgaso forest via portal and wings, briefly stop for Sam to have a ritual disguise from Chaff's helpers so he looks human, as they don't like orcs here. Chaaff greets us, tells us not to fly back towards his mountain (his counter magics) and extends a special welcome to Teeanna to the island. He advises that orcs on the island are still attacking people, and are generally located in Northern Umshatar.

I miscast Witchsight, lose my hair (all over my body!), Sam smells like sulphur, and Teeanna's eyes look like demons! Oh no, being on a tropical island with no hair, this will be so uncomfortable!

After travelling a great distance (according to Teeanna) as well as a portal, we arrive at the dwarven kingdom and are greeted by Bilmin. The dwarves are happy for us to place portals outside however not in their kingdoms/tunnels. They are also happy for Broc to use their portals, and guide us to their portal to the Devils Claw. Once through the portal we see the dense jungle beyond the tunnel, so elect to stop for food, drink, and the night.

Still the 13th Fruit

Next morning i am distracted from my attempt to purify by having no hair as well as the odd realisation that its still the 13th Fruit because we've travelled to the other side of the world, at least I'm fairly sure. Broc gets the sense that something is assisting rituals, and we find casting magic is easier. Broc wants to check the local stream however the bush/jungle is very dense, so Sam encourages the jungle to let us through, making passing through much easier on our way to the water. Teeanna's plant empathy tells us this area of jungle is "loved". There is no opening in the canopy above the water, so Sam persuades the trees to open a space above us so we can fly all the way up to clear air. It's a huge canopy so that takes awhile so Sam occupies himself with sorting leaves into the right sizes. Then we're up and away, or at least Broc and I are, as Teeanna goes back down to the ground when Sam doesn't come out. She has to strongly encourage him to come with us, however before leaving he casts an uncontrolled Earth Elemental to finish tidying up the leaves for him, and then Teeanna and he join us above the canopy. We all hear a very loud cry of rage as we fly away and are a bit worried we may have stirred up something other than the elemental!

We fly to a cove near Bangkalan so the locals don't see us, and then proceed on foot along the coastline for a few hours until we reach the fishing village. It's recently deserted and we soon realise we are the cause as Teeanna reads some of the local minds who are hiding in cellars, convinced we are raiders, somehow associated with "Banter". Father Broc looks unsuccessfully for the price list of the boat we wish to hire, however with no one coming out hiding, we eventually leave some money and a note, and he announces loudly in the local language "Folksprach" that we are renting the boat and they can pick it up from Setagen.

We sail for several hours, arriving at Setagen after midnight, Broc pays the outrageous docking and other on the spot fees charged by the night port master, Sam haggles a couple of rooms at "The Docksider", along with some welcome food (quite spicy) and ale. The rooms are secure and the night passes uneventfully.

14 Fruit 813

After purification, breakfast and a refreshing cleanse at the bathhouse, we observe a variety of visitors from other lands, with weapons distinctly lacking, and while heading to the docks to track down The Black Rose, notice one of the men from the Docksider common room seems to be following us.

Broc arranges with the harbour master to hire sailors to return our borrowed boat and also asks about the vessel we are searching for. Upstairs we are interviewed by an elderly gentlemen Ligur Egnatius and joined by the following man Sulla Cordius who turns out to be representing the prince, who doesn't actually live here (the governor does though).. Once they establish we are from the guild, they become friendlier to deal with and we discover that The Black Rose was stolen approximately 9 months ago, the captain and first mate pushed off, pursued by Insel Der Freiheit ships, however disappeared in the same manner as described to us by guild security. We are reminded that overt displays of magic are discouraged and I discover Ligur Egnatius is a water Mage and Sulla Cordius a rune Mage. We decide to visit Vidal the "bone man" as he often tells the future for the local families.

We head to the palace via our lodgings so we can wing away without being seen. We fly north to the small basalt island that we name Basalt Rock Isle where Broc creates a portal, TEEANA MAKES TEA, Sam makes lunch, and I plant a banapple seed in the meager soil. I am confident of its future.

We narrowly avoid crashing into the canopy when our wings give out, however I just manage to recast them to prevent Teeanna, Broc and I crashing, and Sam somehow lands safely and stands on top of the canopy! Cast on Sam and we're away again!

We arrive at Vidal's boneyard, figure out Sam changed to a duck to avoid plummeting to his death, however we didn't see that due to the more powerful illusion cast by Chaff's helpers. No wonder he was able to apparently stand on the canopy with all his gear, he was actually a duck!

As we try to work out how to change him back, he is suddenly reverted to normal (still under the human illusion) by an "everything" counterspell, followed by Vidal greeting us on mind speech (without Teeanna targetting him!) and inviting us to come in.

His current form is that of a cherub and ever interested in the bargain he offers:

• Broc: 3 enquiries for a drop of his blood
• Teeanna: 2 enquiries for 5 minutes of her time
• Sam: 3 enquiries for a favour
• Me: 1 enquiry for the banapple seed I gave him earlier (I offered out of politeness of course) and 2 enquiries for a drop of my blood

Vidal tells us that an enquiry is not a single question, rather a general matter he will provide information about and we don't have to worry about specific wording as he will know what we are seeking.

Our enquiries are:

Broc

1. What is the best way to find The Black Rose? The Life or Death Shaman should be able to detect it. He warns Sam and I not to visit the life shaman as we will age very quickly. The life shaman is south of Lake Amar (a blue lake)
2. How do we prevent the end of the world? Continue on our current path. He adds that preventing the use of the corpses would delay an evil that would impact the Isles.
3. How can I make my two long spear weapons easier to carry? Vidal gave him a token to speak to his brother Romache who should be able to help

Me

1. Who is the agent behind the corpses/evil/everything going on regarding the end of the world? The Death Shaman (Lord Arandell) and the Cult of Exsanguinationists seem likely
2. How to fly like a pixie with pixie dust? At the moment you would never become an actual pixie, however could become fae with own dust powers
3. Can you start me on the path to becoming fae? Yes. He took me aside, drained a lot of blood from my arms, changed into a tree guardian like I've seen in Asheth, drained and mixed sap into my blood which he then had me drink. Apparently my eyes sparkled a bit when the others see me and I'm quite pale from blood loss, however Sam empathies me and says I'm fine!

We retire to the nearby temple for the evening, and while the rest of us set up dinner, Broc creates a portal in case we need to come back here easily. Vidal joins us for dinner in angel form, and Broc prays in the temple to invite Ijel to dinner and briefly vanishes, reappearing with Ijel as well as Chaff. We have three dragons to dinner! I obtain permission from all three to plant banapples here on the isle, happy day :)

Ijel relates how long ago he and his brothers gathered, trained, and guided some acolytes who became what we think of as the Powers of Light, in order to even the balance against the Powers of Dark.

We engage in polite dinner conversation as well as Sam's "favour" with Vidal. In order to tame the wild ork tribe he would have to fight the local ork chief to the death for control on the tribe so he could then begin the civilisation of the local orks. Given violating his pacifist oaths would mean losing his Earth magics for some time, Sam determines it best to pursue this course after we save the world. Ijel gives him a copper egg to break in order to proceed. My banapple tart goes down a treat, probably should have made three!

Once the dragons depart, all of us except Broc get down to some serious drinking as we've been through a lot today. It must be the excitement of the days events but I feel like I drank a lot more than normal before turning in.

Finally the 15th Fruit

I awake with no hangover! It must be Vidal's influence in the area which is nice of him. My main gauche and other iron things feel uncomfortable to my touch this morning, must be part of the change to a pixie, so I carefully discard my daggers and shortsword here for some future traveller who may be in need. I'll keep my main-gauche for the moment as will be good to have the defense until the very last!

Vidal kindly transports us via tree portal to a village near the Life Shaman. Broc and Teeanna go to meet her while Sam and I remain at the village so we don't age faster than normal and I look around for suitable banapple planting locations.

Apparently the Life Shaman Garserril appears as an Erelheine wearing a dress which appears to show life and death all over the isle. She advises The Black Rose is near the mouth of the river Kota. Teeanna and Broc relate how their hearts beat faster than normal while visiting her, so am glad Sam and I didn't go!

I planted some banapple seeds while we waited so the villagers can be fed for a lifetime!! After Teeanna and Broc return, Broc finds the villagers have need of axes and saws for the local hardwood, and we lunch with the villagers before leaving for Kota.

Flying south along the river, Broc is attacked by an air spell (seems to confirm the librarian philosophers theory about people "favoured" by Roche) so we water land quickly. We elect to rune portal to Basalt Rock Isle and fly on to Kota. Sam provides me a crab claw to use as a crab claw clock!! Unfortunately crabs can't tell time, so it's a useless clock!

So we don't crash while flying at night I cast Witchsight at a reduced rank so it will run out before wings, and just as it does run out, Broc sees a pillar of light that is red (normally white) which he thinks is Banter.

We fly most of the night and a few hours before dawn Sam crashes into the sea from exhaustion. Broc and Teeanna rescue him before he drowns while I circle above and finally we land on the nearby coast to take a much needed break.

16th Fruit

Sam and Teeanna are exhausted from the nights events (Teeanna did have to carry her own gear for quite a while!) and collapse into sleep while Broc wards around our campsite which is slightly back in the jungle. I get a fire and food started and then also get some sleep.

After what seems mere moments, I awake to the high pitched scream of Teeanna being stolen by a winged creature who dropped in over the top of Broc's rune wards. Broc manages to get a crossbow shot off and wings it slightly while I cast StarWings on us to give chase. We are slightly faster than it and after a few minutes of flying, it dives down through the canopy and we follow as we can't let Teeanna get lost in the jungle! The creature turns out to be a man with shapechanged arms as wings and four of his accomplices are waiting in the clearing and attack us. We defeat them (although I'm knocked out with a big chest wound, Teeanna is very wounded by the cold iron belt of her attacker and Broc narrowly avoids losing a hand). "World Painted Blood" is the transport spell that brought them here. They were all hired in a pub XXX (name to be provided by Mandos) by "Koren", had a ritual cast upon them (which made them blood brothers so got bonuses when any of them died), instructed to guard against odd things, and woke up here.

We fly back to our original camp and then towards Kota, stopping for the night a small distance away so we can walk there tomorrow.

Appendix

A - Individuals we Met or Heard about

• Trimble - Spoke to her about the secrets of Insel der Freiheit
• Ligur Egnatius - Met the Harbourmaster at Setagen
• Sulla Cordius - Met the advisor to Prince Caelistis Pescenniu Paetas
• Vidal
• Chaaff
• Ijel
• Garserril

B - Locations we Went

Madeiras Elevadas

C - Loot we acquired or expenses we incurred

• Rock of Integration - Sam - Gift
• Dryad Tree Seed - Teeanna - Gift
• Dryad Ability - Teeanna - Gift
• Investeds - Party - 5400sp

Calendar

Autumn 813 WK: Fruit
	Moonday		Duesday		W'ansday		Th'rsday		Frysday		Reapsday		Sunday
			1	Guild Meeting	2		3		4		5		6
	7		8	Hired and travel to the D'Abran area to meet local fae	9	Discover information about our future from a fae wisewoman.	10	Spend a boring day while Teeanna reads rune stories.....boring	11	Another boring day......Then travel back to Seagate	12	Teeanna plants her dryad tree seed, I taste my banapple cider and beer, we investigate the temple of the Drow god, but most importantly TEEANNA MAKES A FIRE AND TEA AND EVERYTHING ALL BY HERSELF!!!	13	Back to the guild to Exsanguination counters, then to Imsel Der Freiheit by way of Filgaso. Let an earth elemental loose, make our way to Setagen.
	14	Welcomed by the harbour master and a representative of the prince, decide to seek out Vidal for more information about The Black Rose.	15		16		17		18		19		20
	21		22		23		24		25		26		27
	28		29		30