You're Not In Tycho anymore

Scribe Notes

Summary

GM: Chris Ramsay (Debut)
Season: Winter, 821wk.
Night: Tuesdays
Location: Smiths
Level: Low

Party

1. Kaitva - Dwarf Namer - Anne (Party Leader)
2. Seraph - Human Namer - Connor
3. Arcadia - Elf Celestial - Kita
4. Ashe - Elvish Earth Mage - Jacqui (with Norto the War Dog) (Military Scientist & Scribe)
5. Galantha Nival (Snowdrop) - Ice Mage. Female hobbit - played by Keith
6. Reiner Frosthaamer - Earth mage. Male dwarf. - played by Paul
7. Luther_Luthier (pronounced LOOTer) - nonmage male Hobbit (Thief, spy, cook) - Michael

Employer: Vibius Sulis Tempius, (House Sulis)
Mission: Aid in the formation of good relations with several factions of a new city in an offplane world
Location: Valminia, The Great Exspanse (Plane of Valmi), Tycho (Plane of Alusia)
Pay: Twice Standard Guild Rates, Will be Provided with Greater Enchantments and waters of healing
Days on Adventure:

This Adventure takes place in a tropical, humid climate with current temperatures being between 28-34'c

Scribe Notes

Chapter 1 - Smoke and Bandits

1 Frost
I arrived at the designated Guild Meeting Room to find a table spread with breads, cheeses, sausages, fruits and two bottles of what proved to be excellent wines. Our employer was sitting there, a middle-aged human in Lunar Empire robes. He introduced himself as Vibius Sulis Tempius, of House Sulis, the wealthy Lunar Empire merchant house I’d heard people talking about. Then we introduced ourselves, and he left the room, while the party had discussions. I was designated to be Military Scientist since I was the most skilled in that, and also Scribe. Kaitva was chosen as Party Leader.

Master Vibius returned and described the job he was employing us for. He explained that House Sulis was planning to use Ritual Circles of Rune Mages to create a network of cargo portals linking their vineyards and warehouses. They have a villa about ¾ day ride out of Tycho where they train mages. Their rune mages accidentally created a portal to a tropical island somewhere off plane. This might be a source of jade, vanilla, and other resources. They wanted us to explore through the portal and make contacts with a view to trade.

Ashe (to Snowdrop regarding a Rodrigo sausage): "You should have got someone to DA it before you put it in your mouth."

Master Vibius offered the party twice guild rates for time on adventure as payment, along with salvage. He added that the House will provide necessary magical services for free, including Rank 10 Greater enchantments, and two Waters of healings each. We would be able to purchase restoratives and amulets at cost. They were also preparing special language cordials for us, since the people where we were going speak a weird language. He left us to prepare, though there wasn’t much to be done, other than lesser enchantments and such.

We were led by a servant to the portal to Tycho, inside a gazebo in the Guild grounds at sunset that evening, and arrived in the Guild complex in Tycho, in the usual state of exhaustion. We slept that night in apartments in the Guild complex. There was an excess of perfumery. It made Norto sneeze. There were stray dogs barking in the night. Some kind of canine turf war from what I could tell.

2 Frost
In the morning, we were served an early breakfast of cold cuts, cheeses, fresh fruits and fresh bread.
A messenger came to bring Seraph the amulet of diamonds he’d ordered.
As we headed out, we were approached by a tired looking guard. He explained that the next watch had gone missing. The watch captain was named Brendias. They had gone scouting one or two hours out of the city. Rumours about smoke and fires and bandits. It was all a bit secretive. But our carriage would be heading out in the direction the scouts had gone, so there was some possibility we might be able to find out what had happened to them. I insisted we stop the carriage outside of the city so that I could get out to cast defence spells.

Ashe: I don’t think I can cast in the carriage.
Kaitva: She’s not grounded enough.

After travelling for about an hour further, we spotted smoke in the woods. Arcadia cast unseen spells on Looter and I, and we sneaked forward. Which would have been a fine plan, if it wasn’t for the bear the lead orc rode in on. Which must have smelled something because it charged at me.
Luther fired, and Reinar slung a stone from the carriage... Both were great shots. The orc drops one axe, and the sling stone hit him full in the head. He lost control of his bear. Oddly he wasn’t stunned, but frothing at the mouth.
The bear closed on me. I fended them off, they pushed in, and my tulwar took out the orc’s other arm. Yes, he was armless. Norto charged in to help, but ended up in close with another orc. It got messy. Besides the orcs, there were two humans firing from the trees. The turning point was when Reinar hit the bear solidly and stunned it, which allowed me to get out from under. Once on my feet and out of close combat, I was able to cast and got the bear under animal control while the others continued to deal mayhem to the orcs. Then I put animal growth on Norto. It was all over soon after that.

Chapter 2 - Into the Blue

Luther: They’ll think we’re barbarians – well, bearbearians...

First, I had to stop the bear eating orcs. Second, Snowdrop extinguished the fire. Then the party stripped the bandits, and burned the bodies. Meanwhile, I healed the bear. She was a large black bear, obviously trained to the saddle. I cast speak to animals and learned that she had memories of being in the cage – and that she thought the orc who had been riding her was crazy. We agreed on that.

Snowdrop: Oh no, it’s getting unbearable.

The party loot consisted of:
2 x chain 1 x damaged chain 1 x chain parts 1 x partial plate 1 x partial plate damaged
5 x Battleaxe iron +5% SC
2 x Battleaxe iron +1 dam
2 shortbows +5% SC +1 dam
6 handaxes iron +5 sc

The bear didn’t know her name so, I called her Majora. Ursa Majora.

Snowdrop to Arcadia: Are you trained to ride bearback?

In the bandit camp was found a bag of around 500sp plus assorted written notes. Somewhere there was an armourer owed money for two sets of partial plate. There was an address attached.
Majora got to carry the armours, tied to her saddle. The Sulis guard bodies went on top of the carriage, the party inside the carriage. I rode Norto.
We arrived at a palatial Villa at around dinnertime. We were told that it was called Villa Sulis Schola Scriptorium.
Majora was fascinated by a bear statue beside the gate. The Villa staff greeted us. They had been warned that we would be late and had bodies and a bear with us. Soon, there was a second bear statue. Ursa Majora would be safe there and could be collected later. The deceased guards were taken off to be preserved.
The servants told Vibius that it was about 3am on the other side of the portal.
So, we went in and dinner was served. There were flat breads, cheeses, and a fine venison casserole, accompanied by good wines. Then potions were brought in on a trolley. For each of us there was a language cordial conferring Rank 5 Vilm and two waters of healing. We would be getting Rank 10 greater enchantments.
Over dinned we asked many questions about where we were going. Apparently, that plane has a shorter day. There was a mixed population of humans and merfolk, with a form of monarchy. They speak Vilm and they use the merfolk alphabet. The town was on the coast – there were lots of rivers – and a dense jungle – it could be on an island. The merfolk were thought to have some kind of priesthood, but it may be cultural and have no deity. Their government was a religious matriarchy. Possible trade goods included serpentine, jade, and hardwoods. The humans were growing rice and soya. There was known to be a grove of softwoods. The merchants were largely in charge.
They gave us rooms, to get some sleep before going through the portal. Going through the portal we will be tired not exhausted, on about half fatigue.
We decided to keep some items from the loot we’d acquired from the bandits and sell the rest:
+1 dam battleaxe aka tin-opener for Kaitva
+5 sc +1 dam shortbow for me

Kaitva: I am not asking you to undress for me, elf.
Arcadia: I don’t like you.

3 Frost (Vilminia)
They led us down some stairs and into a cellar, with a high ceiling and solid granite walls. It was chilly down there. The portal looks like a vertical ring carved with runes and set into a plinth. Inside the ring was a light blue becoming purple as went goes up. It had GTN portal, and went to Vilminia. There were no alternate destinations.
We needed to wait for the portal to warm up – soaking up some of our fatigue as it did so. It seems to be part of portal network on the other side. It would only send people from our plane back here however. Then, we stepped onto the portal platform and the portal transported us, to another platform on a cliff by the sea. In the other direction was a city divided by rivers. We stepped down from the platform. It was early in the morning, but there were people about. They stared at us, especially at the dwarves with their axes. The guard didn’t seem to know what to do with us. We deduced that iron may be rare and valuable here. The stared at Norto as well. Maybe they didn’t have dogs there.
Master Vibius led us to an inn. We talked to the innkeeper and learned that our weapons were those of 'dead ones’. Dead ones were living people - we were strange because we hadn’t had our funerals yet. They were the members of the vanguard who protected the city at the jungle border. They were counted as 'already dead’, and had had their funerals.
On impulse, I took out my wayfinder. Oddly, its north was about 35 degrees east off ranger north.
We get rooms organised. We’d be meeting some merchants at 11am. We ate breakfast and purified. Vilbius showed us locked boxes of goods he had prepared for bribery purposes.

Kaitva: You have to give me the lock code because I’m the party leader.

Irvin the merchant came in to talk to master Vibius. He was accompanied by a guard, who wore scale armour made of ironwood. This was a heavy material, making his armour heavier than I’d like to wear. He was carrying a spear and boomerang, and stared at my bow. We stood around, doing our best to look like merchant guards. Irvin explained that the royalty were afraid of something to the northeast (ranger northeast). The merfolk were not getting certain materials that the woodcutters need. There were not enough people in the vanguard. They’ve pulled back from a fortified area, and the woodcutters were not going in to cut hardwoods. It was all a bit of a mess, and he wanted us to go in there and fix it. I was beginning to see why we were needed here.
Then a human representative of the merfolk showed up, wanting to arrange a meeting.

Chapter 3 - Bolas and Boomerangs

We followed the representative out of the inn to the nearest canal where a merman was sitting at one end of a long open canoe. He asked politely for Norto to please sit at the other end of the boat. The human was named Steve. And the merman was Seymour. The canal had a slow current which took us to the sea. The sand on the beach was white under the palm trees. We sailed to port along the shore and around a point to a cove where there stood a large conical structure – this was apparently a temple. Seymond explained that we would be meeting High Riparian Jascind, but we shouldn’t be worried about formalities. Inside was an audience chamber filled with ankle-deep water, tiled with jade and serpentine. There was a moon pool in the centre. In there sat High Riparian Jascind and her attendants Clow and Jude. As some discussion, we settled on addressing her as "Your Grace". There was, of course, a problem. The seals were meant to be breeding, but they were being attacked by brown-skinned human savages from the great expanse (that was the jungle). Jude and Cleo were asked to leave while she spoke to us privately.
Some scouts had been sent, and returned with deep dark painful bruising. Similar wounds were found on the seals. These wounds healed but slowly. The injured were in an underwater infirmary and couldn’t be readily moved. All this means that the merfolk can’t spare the labourers needed to gather the required materials for the landfolk. The seal colony was two days journey away. Half a day was through the jungle. There were other islands on this plane, but they are inhospitable. To the north. They had records of dark-skinned elves, but not of dwarves or halflings.
We concluded that we should deal to the merfolk’s problem first, because that would help solve the other problem, and asked to be returned to Master Vibius.

Reinar: I know how to use herbs if you know what I mean...

Back at the inn, we explained to Master Vibius, and he said that he would convey our reasoning to the human merchants. We obtained some machetes in case they were needed in the jungle. Water would not be a problem, and we had plenty of food in the haversacks.

Marching Order:
Reinar Kaitva
Snowdrop Luther
Ashe Norto
Seraph Arcadia
In the morning, we purified and prepared to leave.

4 Frost
It took all day to get out of the city because of all the canals. We camped on a cliff by above the beach on the city outskirts. Night was uneventful.

5 Frost
Next day, we walked along the shore, mostly along the cliff-tops. By the end of the day, we had gained a bit of height, and we were on the edge of the jungle. There we camped on the cliff-top. The rocks extended down from the cliff and stretched some distance out to sea. The first watch reported some growling as of large cats, that headed for the city.

6 Frost
That day we marched through jungle, on a slightly overgrown path. There were only small birds, and they flew below the canopy. This seemed to be deliberate, I could hear them chattering about being too high. We saw a plant bearing red bananas. Luther cut some down, and we enjoyed them. As we left the jungle, heading for the beach, I cast animal growth on Norto.
Approaching the beach, we saw some dark-skinned humans clubbing seals. Snowdrop started yelling before we could even get our defence spells off. Still, they were some distance away, so we decided to fire missile weapons and wait for them to come to us while we cast spells. One of them threw a boomerang at Kaitva, which bounced of her armour and returned to his hand. Arcadia failed her spell, but mine succeeded... The magic here was weird, it spread across myself, Norto, Luther and Reinar. We advanced, slinging and firing as boomerangs came back at us. Next cast I only l got the one target, Kaitva. Reinar and Luther slung stones into the enemy. Snowdrop managed to snatch that boomerang out of the air, stinging her hand, but that was impressive.
I called it, and we charged forwards. Three of them went for Norto with bolas, and the third one succeeded in entangling him. Luther ran forward to disentangle Norto and then we were all on them, hitting them with sword and axe and hammer. They fell beneath our blows, and when Luther freed Norto, it was soon over. Except for one who tried to flee in a boat, drawn by a hippopotamus. So, I cast animal control, aiming to bring the hippo to a stop.

Chapter 4 - March Upriver

Only that’s not quite what happened. My control spell went over the top. I was controlling the hippo, my dog, an owl, and a parrot. I instructed them to stop. The owl stopped sleeping. Her owlets started squawking. Then I instructed them to stop again and Norto stopped still. The angry owl attacked me and I lost concentration. Meanwhile, the parrot was shrieking loudly, calling out "Free screech" in Elvish. Needless to say, the man on the boat with the hippo got away. There were four seal corpses on the boat which I estimated would feed a dozen people and the hippo for a week.
We had five seal pups, two of which had lost their mothers. We had one dead seal, and one live seal. The dead one had one of the odd wounds. It had died by blunt force trauma. The three clubs had 'tribal blessing’ magic that did aquatic smiting. And it was permanent. Secondary magic immune to water friction. And they’re blunt weapons. The two boomerangs also had tribal blessing, absolute return, and true strike. The three bolas had tribal blessing of improved animal hunting. We found fetishes in the form of an arrowhead and crossed clubs, but they were not magical. The dead seal got eaten by Norto and the owl. The orphan seal pups were taken by Steve who was heading back to the Merfolk.
We packed the items into my haversack. And headed up river at a measured pace, with the halflings and I riding Norto. As night fell, we found a small stone ruin with a bit of an overhang. Reinar said it was made of celestial marble and our jaws dropped. He added that its purpose was guard outpost. It was magical, its plane of origin was Valminia, and it was\s heat resistant, and somewhat impact resistant. It had been broken by a meteor shower. Long ago. Snowdrop collected fragments.

Ashe: I find it odd that the Ice mage is obsessed with rock.

We made camp in the ruin. The namers set about divinating the loot. There were plenty of jungle noises, but nothing actually happened.

7 Frost
In the morning we came upon the hippo tracks, which were a day or so old. We scrouged mangos from trees beside the path. That night, we found an ironwood thicket to camp in. There were lots of night noises, and we saw some owls.
I cast speak to avians, and talked to one of the owls. I learned that the dark-skinned humans were living some fifteen miles upriver in an old fort previously occupied by paler humans – the vanguard. There were only a few more of them than there are of us. They had the hippo. There was a woman among them who had an armadillo, a strange beast for its kind. She wore less tree than the men. The men had boomerangs – throwing sticks.

8 Frost
So, the next day we hustled, hoping to cover a full ten miles. After five miles we came upon another ruin. There was a staircase going down... We could see spider webs. And writings on the wall in a strange Elvish-like script. Reinar cast a spell and said that there was a maze of passages down there. There was only one entity in contact with the stone. A large void with a bridge extended beyond the range of his spell. The passages were quite wide.
We decided that we would investigate this ruin. We rested first. Arcadia cast witchsight, successfully targeting both halflings and both elves. I cast armour of earth, targeting first myself and getting Luther and Arcadia also, then Norto only, then Reinar, and got Kaitva.

Chapter 5 - Spiders in the Dark

We entered. There were spiders. And webs. As we stepped from the staircase through a doorway into a large room, we formed a fighting wedge with Norto in the centre, flanked by the two dwarves with Seraph and Arcadia on the ends by the wall on either side. Behind them stood the halflings and I, attacking with ranged weapons and spells. The first spider went down to Kaitva who slashed it open on a riposte. Looter knocked one off the ceiling with a slingstone. One of the spiders bit Reinar hard, and he was poisoned briefly. Seraph cast a wall of forbiddance that held the spiders back, and the party whaled into them. The last spider, that was already full of my arrows, fell beneath Arcadia’s sword. Under the webs we found a very dead half-drow half-something strange, wearing an Amulet of Amethyst, and carrying two empty crystal flasks. He had been dead some nine thousand years. I healed up Reinar and Arcadia. Seraph found a shiny well-made bronze tulwar some 9500 years old.

We headed down a corridor, the walls glowing slightly with a blue sheen. More celestial marble. It was not magical, nor was it bound. We found a broad doorway and continued down the corridor, past another small door to where we found a cave-in blocking the way. So, we went back. Through the broad door we saw the cavern that Reinar had told us about. We threw in a torch and saw far beyond the bridge was an enormous spider, long-lived, but not sentient, over 4000 years old, its only weakness being extreme heat. Its strength was in its extreme physical strength and impact resistance. We closed those doors and marked them with danger signs. Then we went through the smaller door, and found what must once have been an armoury. Most of it was useless, but there was another shiny bronze tulwar and two very damaged ones, plus an estoc, a rapier and two others. There was a locked door at the end of the hallway and some sort of workshop. There was a rumbling and a stone golem came towards and stopped. Then it spoke, greeting us in Elvish.

Chapter 6 - The One Who Designs

She – it was plainly a she - was made of fine marble fitted together, almost elfin in appearance, and about 5’ 6" tall. She was a sentient construct and was a stone golem who had been first activated some 9800 years ago. Her primary college was Celestial, and her secondary was Binding and Animating Magics. The magic in effect on her was preservation, durability, and binding permanency. She was made of celestial marble.
Someone: It’s sentient, of course it has a college.
Ashe: Not necessarily, many a peasant doesn’t.
When asked who she was, she explained that, "I was the one that designs." Her master was a famous Binder. Her name was Cecile. Then she touched the walls and muttered, so they began to glow softly. She asked what we were doing here and we explained that we were exploring. Arcadia asked what had happened to her master, and she said he had petrified himself. He had been despised for his heritage.
We looked around. There was a long-cold furnace in one corner of the workshop. There were mechanician tools, hand-pumps and other devices. There were shelves, and a glass-fronted cabinet with phials inside. These were four green phials, two orange and three red. Their magical effect was overwhelm of memories, life-linking linked to stone golem, rank 20 permanent and their range was infinite.
There were nine of these golems. She was the first of nine. The others of the nine were elsewhere. The colour of the vial indicated the status of the golem linked to it. Green was active, red was inactive, and orange was unknown, but probably damaged.
The One who Destroys - green – named Kine
The One who Analyses - green – named Weiss. Last known to be on an island to the south – setting up a portal there.
The One who Designs – green – named Cecile
The One who Searches - green - Named Neiren
The One who Oversees - red – definitely destroyed
The One who Distracts - red – unknown fate
The One who Leads - red - destroyed
The One who Cares - orange - unknown
The One who Protects - orange - unknown
There was an empire here long ago. We needed to speak with the One who oversees, but she went red long ago. It was run by the Alluvian Desert Elves. There was a library – on the other side of that gigantic spider. There was more than one gigantic spider in this complex. This was not a small island – but a small continent. She was surprised that there was jungle out there. She remembered it as an oasis in the desert with a river that ran to the sea. She would need to put things in order before leaving.
She pulls a beautiful tulwar from a drawer. It had extended strike range. +10SC and multi-hex. All the weapons we found here were made of hardened bronze. They were made for increased accuracy. Next was an estoc. It had +10SC, and moving finesse giving it +20 on a half-charge.
The teleport rings were built by the Empire. One of Nine helped design the network. Far to the north, they found another set of islands. Then they were attacked from the sky. Falling rocks and monsters, that were not dragons (as we described them). The celestial marble came from the meteors.
We settled down to eat and to rest for the night. Seraph set about divinating. Looter made a copy of our map for Cecile. The tulwars were divinated. We persuaded Cecile to be divinated also, by explaining the benefits to her. She was a rank 20 stone golem. Her construction took 6 ½ years. She has always been sentient, her MA is 20, and her PB is 25. The celestial magic (mostly star) came from the material, the binding from her creation. She cannot learn to fly. She can use adhesion to walk up walls. She is a master craftsman, having many skills, notably mechanician, weaponsmith and armourer at maximum rank.
There had been elves in the Empire and other races were spoken of, including merfolk. But humans were unheard of. Paper had been rare because there were no trees.
We slept uneventfully, except went a lone spider poked its head in and was squished by Cecile. She was going to pack up her things, and then later catch up to us.

9 Frost
In the morning, we headed out once more into the jungle. We arrived at the fort quite late in the evening. We decided to rest and attack under cover of darkness in the early morning.
Everyone got Armour of Earth
Witchsight on Norto Snowdrop Seraph Arcadia Looter

Chapter 7 - The Fight at the Fort

10 Frost

The fort wasn’t really that much of a fortification. It was a ruin surrounded by a low wall and palisade, perhaps five foot tall. A gatehouse stood to the north. Guards stood on watch, three of them, and the place was lit by torches and fires.
We decided to approach unseen, and have Reinar breach the wall. Snowdrop cast extinguish, and at the same time Arcadia created a bright pink light at the other end of the wall, distracting one of the guards. Norto went straight over the wall and Luther leapt on top of the wall. The guards retreated further back behind the wall, and were joined by others from inside a tent on the far side, including a witch and an tribal obvious leader. Reinar dropped the near wall, and I shot the witch, stunning her. More of them came out of the near tents as the party advanced. We stunned the witch again with missiles. Snowdrop snuck through one of the tents and stuck her short sword into the back of the one who came out of it. Seraph dropped an area effect counterspell under the witch to stop her from casting. Norto was engaged by an armadillo, the witch’s familiar.
First kill went to Kaitva (again). Luther kept pelting the witch to keep her stunned, while I swapped to melee weapons and charged in. Snowdrop killed the one she had snuck up behind. Then one of the warriors behind the wall threw a boomerang at Snowdrop which she tried to catch and got stunned, and a second one knocked her down unconscious. Seraph and I got the next kill on the other end. Then Looter knocked over the witch with another good shot. Arcadia got her revenge back stunning the leader with an endurance blow. And then Kaitva killed him, nearly taking his arm off. Finally, Norto finished off the armadillo – and insisted on eating it. It was apparently very tasty.

We searched and looted the place, finding...
7 jaguar fur sleeping bags
5 leather armour
Tanned seal hide
Black jaguar mage robes that add 5% to Cast Chance
Ironwood scale armour
Magical quarterstaff +2 dam and +5% defence + 1% per rank
Magical quarterstaff +2 dam and + 1% per rank to Cast chance
Obsidian throwing stone 3lbs
Ancient luck amulets x 2
Jet Amulet

Chapter 8 - Jaguar, Jaguar in the Night

We made sure that all of the seal-murderers were thoroughly deceased. Then, we searched around the ruins and found a pool to the north-east This was a small place of power for the Colleges of Celestial, Greater Summoning and Witchcraft. It had been active for 9500 years. There was a demon symbol in the stone, which was identified as the symbol of Malphas, President of Deceivers. Reinar said the stone was corrupted celestial marble, and had actually been made by the President of Deceivers. The sand at the bottom didn’t look like beach sand, more like desert sand.

Reiner: Everyone says that the bed is where the magic happens...
Snowdrop: Because dreams are magical...

Reiner: What’s the difference between beach sand and desert sand?
Luther: In a desert it’s a lot longer to get to the water.

We camped in the ruins until the following morning, waiting for Cecile. She arrived at about 2am in the morning. Only, she got more than a bit stuck in the mud. She was up to her waist.

Arcadia: Sounds like a 'her’ problem.

Snowdrop woke us all up. Kaitva pulled Cecile out of the muck as Norto dug her out. It took a while.

Ashe: I don’t generally eat animals that I have conversed with.

11 Frost

We followed along a track of sorts. At mid-afternoon we came upon birds, and I spoke with a cockatiel, a bird with a magnificent crest. It told me that there were cats in the jungle, but it hadn’t seen one for two days. It had seen a detached arm. It was a pinkish colour, so probably that of one of the vanguard or the city folk. The bird liked Arcadia, and attached itself to her. It showed us the way to a cave, just off the track where we could. We arrived shortly after dark, and found it was a decent shelter. It had been used by animals at some time in the past, but was not currently a den.

Snowdrop: Damn, the bird’s luckier than I am.

I was on watch when the cats came. Norto growled, and I could make out five or six feline forms. I alerted the party and cast an armour of earth, targeting myself, Norto, Reinar and Snowdrop. The leopards pounced and two of them jumped on Norto. Another closed on Arcadia, while the fourth stayed in melee range. Norto got in an endurance blow on one that was attacking him, stunning it. Kaitva slashed an ear off the one in melee with Arcaia with a solid blow that rendered it unconscious. Snowdrop slashed from melee into the close combat and took the other jaguar on Norto to unconsciousness. The stunned one was shortly unconscious too. And then the other one in the other combat. I looked into the jungle and saw other leopards in the trees, one white-furred big one and two smaller ones. As I started to cast control, they took off. Snowdrop shot a final arrow into the dark, and elicited an angry hiss.
Kaitva collected one left jaguar ear as a souvenir. Then we skinned the beasts and gave some of the meat to Norto to eat and the rest to Luther to render more-or-less edible.

12 Frost

Midmorning the next day, we came upon a pair of Vanguard. They carried spears, falchions and a strange weapon like a scythe/machete. They had jade axes. They agreed to take us to their leader, their division commander, John Ford Kenny.

Chapter 9 - The Commander

That afternoon we reached a small fort. We were led to an office, where we met Commanded Kenny. He gave us all a long stare, and we stared back. I learned from his aura that he was an Earth mage, whose highest-ranked skill was Military Science, and that he was not pacted. He said outright that we were not from this plane, which explained much to him. Then, he went on to explain something of the situation. Over the last twenty years they have been under threat from enemies to the north and so the Vanguard were under-resourced here. They weren’t getting enough volunteers either. Some were merfolk.

We were allocated a barracks room to spend the night. I judged that the fort could accommodate 180 comfortably, twice that at a squeeze, Now there appeared to be only 120 or so. Definitely appeared to be undermanned. We settled down for the night, and were woken by noise in the camp before 7am. In the mess hall, we were served a breakfast of fruits and breads.

13 Frost

An officer came to take to a meeting at 8am. John Kenny waited at his desk. First, he told us that the supplies we’d found at the fort had been written off months ago and were therefore ours as spoils of war. He then asked to hold us here for a week to assess our abilities in a series of training exercises, to which we agreed.
The first couple of days were focused on basic drills. Then they went on to look at our specific abilities, and to see how we function as a group. This was followed by an excursion into the jungle. We were called back into the office, and Commander Kenny seemed quite pleased.

Mil-Sci

Daily pattern

'’How much time does the party spend sleeping, eating, travelling, 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

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

Night watch
First - ??
Second - ??
Third - ??
Night Watch order:
Looter
Kaitva
Arcadia
Ashe Norto
Seraph
Reinar
Snowdrop

Marching Order

Skirmish Formations (Front)
Double File	Single File

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	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
Name (??)	##	????	# Day	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
Name (??)	##	????	# Hours	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
Name (??)	##	????	? Hours	?	?	?	?	?	?	?

Short duration buffs

Magic	Rk	Effects	Dur	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
Name ???	??	????	? Mins	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
Name ???	??	????	? Mins	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
Name ???	??	????	? Mins	?	?	?	?	?	?	?

Loot and Expenses

SP & other cash value loot

• 1 x Destroyed chain armor remnants
• 500sp pouch

Significant Loot Items

• 3 x tribal Blessed Boomerangs (2 beach, 1 encampment)
• 3 x Tribal Blessed Crude Clubs
• 5 x Tribal Blessed Bolas (3 Beach, 2 Encampment)
• 2 x Crystal Potion Vials
• Amethyst Amulet
• 7 x Jaguar Fur multipurpose bedroll
• amulet of Jet
• Guardian Quarterstaff
• Shaman Quarter Staff
• Jaguar Fur mage robes
• Ironwood Fullscale Armour (minor damage)
• 2 x Ancient Luck Amulets (4 defence, 5 magic resistance)
• Obsidian throwing stone (weapon type rock)
• 4 x Invested Malachite Whetstones (Enhanced Diamond Weapon Rank 9 - 3 charges each)
• 2 x Potions of Shadowform (rank 9)
• 8 x Potions of delayed troll-skin (rank 6)
• 5 x Potions of water of healing (rank 8)
• 5 x Potions water of strength Rank (6)
• 1 x poorly treated beast-mastered bear, currently petrified
• 2 x Tropical seal pup's
• Tanned Tropical seal Hide, 12 Armour Sizes Worth
• Jaguar Fur Pelts, 15 armour sizes worth
• Clean Cut Jaguar Left ear (Rare Beastmaster Ingredient)
• 1 Tropical Cockatiel

Gifts

• 14 x Waters of Healing (rank 8) - House Solus
• Jeweled Gilded Bronze Tulwar - One Who Designs
• Gilded Bronze Estoc - One Who Designs

Purchases

• 2x Diamond Amulet - Seraph, Luther

Minor Items

• 2 x chain
• 1 x damaged chain
• 1 x partial plate
• 1 x partial plate damaged
• 5 x Battleaxe iron +5% SC
• 2 x Battleaxe iron +1 dam - 1 Taken by Kaitva
• 2 x shortbows +5% SC +1 dam - 1 Taken by Ashe
• 6 x handaxes iron +5 sc
• 2 x Blemished Bronze Tulwar +10SC
• 7 x Tribal Warclubs +2 Damage (2 Beach, 5 Encampment)
• 1 x Blemished Bronze estoc +10SC
• 10 x rank boomerangs +2Damage

Calendar

Winter
	Moonday		Duesday		W'ansday		Th'rsday		Frysday		Reapsday		Sunday
	Samhain
Frost (7)
			1	Guild Meeting	2		3		4		5		6
	7		8		9		10		11		12		13
	14		15		16		17		18		19		20
	21		22		23		24		25		26		27
	28		29		30
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