Return to Norden

Scribe Notes

Summary

Adventure: Return to Norden
GM: Greg T
Season: Spring 798 WK

Party

1. Aryan, Non-mage Human Male (Mil Sci)
2. Aqualina, Water Human Female (Scribe)
3. Eidolon, Solar Human Male
4. Mebh, Air Human Female
5. Tharkun, E&E Dwarf Male
6. Tsavo, Necromancer Human Male (Leader)
7. Carie, Wiccan Human Female

Time on adventure

01 Thaw 798 to 12 Thaw 798 WK

Employer

Arondel - Namer/Healer - ex-Lord of Norden

Mission

Investigate intra-planar portals that seem to be randomly inter-planar around the related planes: Norden / Lorgos / Chos / Sudar. Find out why people disappear while using the Norden portals.

Plane

Norden/Lorgos/Chos/Sudar

Places Visited

Cities on the top level of the above planes

Major NPCs encountered

Sarn - Lord of Norden

Shaygin - Lord of Lorgos

Original Scribe Notes

Media:Snsp9802.zip

Scribe Notes

The party employer was a person by the name of Arondel. He looked old, battered wearing tattered back clothing and a black, tattered, floppy hat. He told us that rebuilding civilisation on his plane had started even though there wasn’t many people left after the devastations (see earlier scribe notes ‘The Eye of Norden’). However some people had gone missing when using the local portals. Since there weren’t many there to begin with, losing even a few was tragic. The third level was now a sea of mud. As the whirling storms there had stopped, everything fell down in a chaotic mess. No one lived down there now. Any survivors were relocated to the other two levels. Also the storm that had swept the second level every noon was now a mild rain. The members of the party introduced themselves TharKuun - E&E and staunch dwarf. Carrying a crossbow, battleaxe, and dressed in ratty old leathers. He told us he was a ranger. Mehb - “If it’s bad, I’ll hit it”. Airmage. Human female 5'4". Stocky but pretty. She can make arrows go faster. Carried a mattock, hand & 1/2 sword, and a composite bow. Tsavo - 5'2" and heavily built. Mid 50s with greying hair and a world weary face.. He wore rustling white robes and told us he was a scholar and a linguist. Dabbled in magic, necromancy, and doesn’t fight. Sir Aryan - 6'2" and solidly built with short blond hair. Carried a great axe, sabre, daggers, and a club. A Military Scientist and ‘kicks butt’. Has a knighthood. A ranger, thief, navigator, and sailor. He had been listed as a pirate captain by Destiny. Aqualina - That's me. 5'1" human female (there seems to be a trend of short people in this party) with very long dark hair and light chocolate coloured skin. I was currently barefoot, wearing a gold minidress and was wrapped in my feather cloak. I told the others I was a Water Mage with high ranked Water Breathing, Ship Strength, Waters of Healing and Strength. For weapons I had the dagger/maingauche combination and the net/trident although I was learning tulwar. Carie - A plain 5'6", noble looking woman wearing a tidy gown. She described herself as a ‘storm witch’ and had minor curse highly ranked. Eidolon (Sir) - 5'4&3/4". Tall, blond and Nordic, blue-eyed and a crewcut hairstyle. A solar celestial and said ‘I can make the sun shine where ever I like’. We weren’t sure if there’s enough room for him and his ego. After some discussion, Tsavo became the party leader with Eidolon as second. Sir Aryan was the Military Scientist and I was the scribe. Arondel told us he could only take three at a time to Norden by using a technique he described as ‘planewalking’. Each round trip would take an hour. He then showed us his ‘room’ which was accessed by pressing a magical doorknob into the nearest wall. Inside were baskets of bullkelp, brooms, wardrobes, bookshelves with books, and an armchair. Inside the wardrobe was assorted ladies dresses and some boots that Eidolon recognised as being his that he had lost the last time he had been in the room. The walls of the room glowed blue. There is more than one magical doorknob in existence and several groups use the same room but, somehow, they never meet. However goods stored there can be exchanged for other goods. It wasn’t recommended to leave anything valuable in there. Also, the door couldn’t be closed with anyone inside otherwise they’d be killed. That stopped the idea of the room being used for mass transportation. Meanwhile Tsavo was going through the books. Carie went out and spent 500sp on food to take with us but, what with all the weapons and stuff that the other guys were trying to pack into that room, there wasn’t room for all of it. So Carie gave the excess away to the poor. Aryan, and Tsavo were the first ones to leave. I watched as Arondel seemed to form a ‘crack’ in mid-air then they held hands and stepped through. The ‘crack’ closed behind them. Eidolon, myself, and Carie were next. It looked like we were walking through a shifting grey landscape. As we walked, scenes briefly appeared and disappeared. Finally the scene of a grassy landscape appeared and Arondel opened another crack. We stepped through. The first arrivals had already set up camp and Aryan was trying to make coffee. There was a large cliff 3/4 of a mile away. Some herd animals were roaming around. Near the cliff was a cultivated area and we could just make out more trees on the top of the cliff. Windows were cut into the cliff in a zig-zag pattern up it. Behind those were the stairs. By the time the rest arrived, it was late afternoon, although the sun was high in the sky. Arondel suggested that we head towards the cultivated area and camp there for the night. So we did. When we got there we discovered there were some stone buildings and the start of the ascending staircase. Near the staircase was an 8' high marble statue. Also there was a rather morose figure with a hoe. He told us his name was Nev and he had been assigned to cultivate this area. He wasn’t a farmer, and didn’t want to be, but he had been a miner from the third level but what with the current state of that level, all the mines were flooded. I also thought it was rather mean for him to be assigned here all by himself. His food was thrown over from the cliff above. Camp was made and Carie prepared dinner which we invited Nev to share. I then entertained with harp music. 02 Thaw ‘98 Mehb went out to purify and nearly got walloped by a descending lunch bag. After breakfast, we said farewell to Nev and started ascending the stairs. The stairs were made out of white marble and, at every landing, there was a window. After a while I wasn’t keen of looking out but Mehb was enjoying the view. Also, as we neared the top, it was getting colder. Finally we reached the top. Mehb had the usual expression of an airmage on top of a mountain. We had emerged in a room with a large balcony over the cliff and two large doors on the opposite side. As I stepped towards the doors it wasn’t cold any more. On the other side of the doors was a flagstone road heading into the centre of this level. So we followed it. On each side was a forest of trees. The trees extended for a mile before the road turned into a causeway crossing a lake to a city built in the centre. In the centre, on the top of a small rise was the central tower - and I mean central. This was the centre of the plane and the sky curved down to meet it. Here, was housed the Eye - the power source of the plane. As we stepped on to the causeway, I was the one with the rapt expression. The lake had extremely clear water and I could see 3-4 feet long carp swimming in it. One of them arced out of the water, like a dolphin. The idea of a swim was getting more delightful by the minute. On the way over we encountered a woman carrying a large bundle. Aryan thought they were spears but it turned out to be a large basket. She was going into the forest to pick apples. Finally we reached the city, entered through the guardhouse, and onto the street. At each intersection was a pedestal but the statues were missing. We later discovered they had been animated in order to assist with city repair purposes. A bit later on we saw one assisting some workmen. Arondel told us that they had been animated by the will of the current Lord of Norden. Finally we found a repaired but unused building near the ‘temple’ where the local portal was and set up camp inside it. There Arondel told us that he wasn’t sure which circle people were disappearing from and when there were more than one, all of the group went. .2 Arondel left us, after asking us to meet him for dinner at the tower square, and we examined the building we were in. It was basically a two story tenement with no interior walls. Upstairs was a balcony and Mehb went there to ‘commune with the spirits’. Aryan and Eidolon kept going on about ‘making the place defensible, even though there wasn’t any doors in both the front and back doorways. A small fountain down the road was our only source of water. The top of the hill with the central tower was about ten minutes walk away. A short while later a middle aged woman arrived at the doorway. She introduced herself as Nilda and was our closest neighbour. She couldn’t stay long as she was involved with the rebuilding project but did answer some questions about the portal. It worked by being stepped on, thinking about the destination and saying the activation word ‘Allushin’. The transfer was instantaneous. Finally she offered to bring us some ‘furniture’ basically stone pallets and blocks. We accepted. After a while a couple of 8' tall stone golems arrived with the required blocks. Apparently stone was easy to get, anything else was a bit more difficult. Unfortunately the noise disturbed Mehb’s concentration. Once they had left, Tsavo suggested we do some preliminary investigations of the temple so we went over and took a look. The building definitely reminded me of the sunken Pasifikan library building with the steps and the row of pillars in front which made up the front wall. Inside, the rectangular building was bare, except for the raised circular dais on which was inscribed the circle. The dais was 15ft across while the building was 50ft square. I was going to examine the area with my ocular but Eidolon strode confidently in - and immediately felt magic impact. Then I detected another one in the corner. “Don’t go near it - it’s mine” Eidolon instructed. So I guided him to the edge and he checked it out. The name of the spell stored within it was Stun. Aryan decided to trigger it - nothing happened. Just then a young man, carrying a basket load of bread, appeared in the middle of the circle. He was supposed to have been travelling from one plains tribe to another on the second level but ended up here. We finally managed to convince him that using the portals were unsafe and that he should stay until Lord Sarn and Arondel could speak to him about the incident. He was also concerned about the freshness of the bread but we soon solved that problem by eating it. We even provided the jam to put on it. Of course he got some. Carie took him away to divinate him to see if there were any clues while the rest of us pondered the problem (apart from Eidolon and Aryan who went outside to spar). There was a little square wave design around the edge of the dais but it wasn’t magical. From what we could determine each portal linked to all the other ones, one on this level, 3 on level 2 and 9 on the lowest level. Was there a 14 portal in the link or had one of the portalsth become one way only trapping people at the other side. Also, since the Eye was powering the whole thing, had the Eye itself gone slightly flaky while it had been captured. Tsavo summoned a shade but didn’t find out anything useful. When Carie returned she reported that he had Dimensional Magics on him and that the magics had terms that could be interpreted as ‘generally’ and ‘usually’. Does this imply that the originally built setup was starting to decay? Arondel had already told us that we would be meeting Lord Sarn that evening so some of us decided to dress for dinner. We then headed up the hill to the ‘marketplace’. As we walked, the line between light and dark swept over us. However, since we were so close to the central tower we could walk faster than the line and we could see the half of the city that was light. Basically half the plane is dark and the other half is light. The terminator rotates around the plane using the central tower as an axle. Also there’s a band of rain that keeps pace with it so exactly halfway between ‘dawn’ and ‘dusk’ there is a rain shower. At the top of the hill was a large open area surrounded by buildings and the occasional street leading off it. At the centre of this area was the central tower, surrounded by a wall. There was a rather impressive view of the town which stretched in all directions down to the lake. Three long tables and one smaller one had been set up and people were loading them with food. We soon ascertained that it all had been magically created, presumably by the Eye. Other people were also filing in. All appeared to be ex-miners and there were fewer women than men. Many of them were still dressed in work clothes and several were covered in stone dust. They appeared to be congregating in family groups. We soon spotted Arondel and went to join him at the shorter table. Once there we told him what had happened at the temple. His reaction about the wards was a simple ‘Oops’. He had originally set them all up when the Sudarians invaded to protect the portal and had thought he had removed them all. As for the person who had arrived, Arondel confirmed we had done the right thing and suggested that we allow him to go back the next morning with Lord Sarn tracking him to see if anything else happened. He also mentioned that there are some catacombs under the city which was a place of power and was usually used to make major changes to the plane. There wasn’t a portal there and if anyone had shown up there, Lord Sarn would have surely known about it. Dinner was a collection of meats, vegetables, and fruit. During it, I asked Arondel about the carp. He said they could be fished for. However no one does at the moment. After dinner, Arondel led us across the square to a set of large gates in the wall. On the way, I asked him about the local calendar. There is a set hot day, corresponding to mid-summer, and a set wet day, corresponding to mid winter. The day and year length is the same as ours. It’s easier for the weather to be kept constant than to go changing it all the time. The gates led into a foyer area between the wall and the tower. As we entered we could hear a slight scraping sound. I surmised that was the sound of the sky moving. The doors and arrow slits in the tower were bricked up, in order to protect from intruders - and for safety reasons. Also in the courtyard was a wooden, two-roomed house. This was where Lorn Sarn lived. A young looking man answered Arondel’s knock. He welcomed us and asked us to keep quiet as his wife was in a ‘delicate’ condition. When people had disappeared, which had been going on for two weeks now, he had been asked to use his powers to locate them on the plane. He couldn’t find them. None of the portal towers are broken. If they weren’t on this plane could they be on another? This could lead us into subjects that seemed to be unable to be thought of on this plane - such as who made it. So we squeezed into Arondel’s room to discuss this further since, technically, it isn’t part of the plane. Arondel told us that there was a group of seven planes that Norden was a member of, sort of an archipelago of planes. The planes were: Norden, Sudar, Eradon, Virym, Lorgos, Chos, and Korax. Arondel had only been to Sudar but it seemed reasonable that many of the other users of the room came from the other planes. So spot DAs were done. It turned out that the bull kelp came from Lorgos. So could the missing people had ended up on one of the other planes? To try to find out it was decided to do divinations when we returned. .3. That night, Tsavo did an astrology reading. His question was ‘Have the people who have disappeared from the Plane of Norden, while using the portals, gone to one of the other six planes? The answer was: If a man had a plan to get out of the rain Then a hill with a ball might just do the trick But his plan is a sin in the eyes of the sane What he does to himself will affect another six.

3rd Thaw

The next morning we prepared for some portal hopping after Arondel showed up. It was Waterbreathings all around with Witchsights on those who needed them. I then did a precognitive Waters of Vision to see where we might end up. I saw a vision of us standing in another circle which was surrounded by snow. Once dressed, I put on a Resist Cold. When we were all ready we followed Arondel into the temple, stepped into the portal and formed a defensive circle around him. Arondel then said the magic word and we found ourselves standing on a platform in another 25ft circle. The platform was on top of a tower and there was a long drop to the sea of mud below. The smell was incredible and indescribable. Hop two took us to another tower near an enormous cliff while hop three took us to an identical tower in the ‘night’. Eidolon tried Daing the portal for ‘chance of failure’ but got no answer. Hop four was into the middle of a ring of standing stones. A circle was also inscribed in the ground. The stone circle was located on grassy plains. So far all had gone well. We had earlier wondered if the problem was because people had been incorrectly visualising their destinations so Aryan decided to put that to the test and took over from Arondel. He visualised the city but added snow. *Flash* And there we were, back in what appeared to be the city temple but the entire landscape was thickly covered in snow. It was so cold, I could even feel it through my cold protection. Arondel quickly summoned his room and we piled inside, grateful for the added protection. We noticed no footprints leading from the circle. While I put Resist Colds on everyone else, Carie decided to try a ritual in order to raise the temperature in the local area. We feared that the local eye would block that but, after a while, the temperature began to rise. By now Eidolon had determined we had blinked over to the Plane of Chos. I drank a three point Restorative as I was feeling very tired, while Tsavo spoke to a spirit. From what he could determine, the local Lord, who was new to the job, had managed to cause the entire plane to suddenly go cold. He was unable to stop it, once started. The Eye wasn’t involved in the onset nor was the Lord compelled or influenced to do it. Also, as far as the spirit knew, the Eye was still there. It took at least an hour for the temperature to rise to a point where we could venture out even though it was still below freezing. Aryan kept trying to warm his hands on me so I kept well away from him. Same with Eidolon. Tsavo tried to detect undead but didn’t sense any. We tried a nearby tenement, the equivalent to the one we were staying in. This one had a wooden door which was stuck. Aryan smashed it down and we looked into what had been a living area. Everything was still laid out. Upstairs was a single bed in which two frozen bodies were huddled together. Time since death was around 250 years. We then ploughed our way through a foot thick layer of snow, up to the market place, and the tower. The view from the marketplace wasn’t very good, it was all grey and hazy. There was still no sign of undead but someone spotted a lump in the snow near the outer courtyard gate. It turned out to be a body, frozen solid and dead for nearly 250 years. Tsavo summoned its spirit and discovered it was the local Lord. Tsavo determined that it was something the Lord had done which had caused the cold, but he didn’t know exactly what caused it and he didn’t want it to be cold. He had been a Celestial Mage and the Eye was still on plane - and no, he didn’t have another doorknob. When Aryan discovered that this was the Lord, he immediately thought ‘Loot’. Tsavo determined that there were two items somewhere on the body. So Tsavo, Eidolon, and Aryan set about the task of getting them. This turned out to be rather messy as the body had frozen solid and had stuck to the ground. Arondel, Carie, Mehb and I decided to leave them to it and examine the area of the courtyard towards the tower door (which was slightly ajar) for any wards. We didn’t find any. However we were forbidden to examine the tower itself until they had finished. They finally retrieved a ring containing flying magic and a brass or bronze breastplate containing protection magic. While we waited, I asked Arondel to describe the tower of Norden. It was built in five levels and surrounded the earth pillar on the first two, and the sky pillar on the last two. The middle level was where the two met and this was where the Eye was. When we finally got inside we discovered that the tower of Chos was identical. Access between levels was provided by a five person wide sweeping staircase which went around a quarter turn then stopped on the next level. The next staircase started diametrically opposite where the last one ended. Each pillar narrowed before they met in the middle. The earth pillar looked like it was made out of rock while the sky pillar was some sort of blue translucent crystal. At the apex, in the tower’s third level, the pillars stopped and were three feet across. Between them floated a crystal ball which was surrounded by a multicoloured coruscation. We could clearly hear the grinding noise and it was still very cold in here. The tower itself was completely empty and no wards were detected. The only other thing we found was a pile of rubble on the fifth level. We determined it was the remains of a table, books, and some tools. Only the metal bits remained to be identified. None of it was magical. Carie tried to divinate the Eye but failed. Arondel then summoned his room and we waited inside while he tried a divination. As far as he could tell, this was the Eye of Chos and it was working normally but it seemed to be under some sort of curse which implied the whole plane was cursed. The MA of the curse was 30+. Also the Eye consists of raw mana and is not sentient. We headed back to the temple. On the way Aryan tried to use his shield as a toboggan but didn’t get far. I had a go as well but had equally little success. Once back at the temple we entered the circle and attempted to teleport back to the city on Norden. .4. Nothing happened. So we blinked back to the stone circle where we first appeared on Chos then tried to return to Norden from there, in case there was only one link. Still no luck. We ended up back in the city on Chos. We then blinked back to a snow filled stone circle. Aryan tried taking over again. When he said the magic word, we suddenly found ourselves fifty feet underwater in a stone circle. Thank goodness I had put Waterbreathings on everyone this morning. The stones were covered in marine creatures. Glittering seaweed grew nearby. Small fish swum about nearby. While the others discussed what to do next, I floated over to one of the stones and began a shift into merform - just in case. Just then we noticed two squid-like creatures watching us. They looked like large, normal squid but had two arms with hands. I was about to wave to them but they swam off, rapidly. One of them was DAed before they got out of range, and it was discovered that it was a Mind Mage. Also some of the nearby life-forms were DAed and we discovered we were on Logos. A short time later, a large metal object, trailing a rope, was dropped. Some sort of anchor we suspected. Once it snagged on one of the stones, a wicker basket was lowered. By now my change was complete and it was recommended that someone go up and have a look. Aryan volunteered to come with me so I cast Buoyancy on him, so he could swim in plate mail and we swam to the surface. By the time we got there, the anchor had been raised and all we could see was a small sailboat, with a triangular sail, heading north to what appeared to be a waterspout in the distance. All that was left was a large glass ball floating on the water that had the rope down to the basket attached to it. To the south I could just see another glass float. To the east was some sort of disturbance, a school of small fish feeding as far as I could make out. After arriving back at the bottom, Arondel sent us to the local city portal. The building was full of water except for a small gap near the roof. When we got outside we discovered that the entire city was flooded. Only the rooftops protruded. So we headed to the marketplace and the central tower. As we ascended up the slope the water got shallower until it was only a foot deep at the top. Since I was still a mermaid, Eidolon picked me up and carried me. Also we noticed that this tower was fatter than the others as if bits had been added to it later on. The usual courtyard wall was gone but in it's place was a smaller, 5' high wall, designed to keep the water out. As we approached the tower someone called out "Oy!. Who goes there!". Aryan's response was "How long have you guys been flooded?". There was silence for a while then a platform was lowered (which smelt of fish) and we were carried over the wall to the dry section. Waiting for us were three men in tatty clothing wielding very functional tridents. They also appeared to have gills. Eidolon passed me to Aryan because, as he put it, he might want to use his hands for 'talking'. We were led upstairs where a man wearing blue and green robes. He introduced himself as Shaygin, the Lord of this plane. From what he said it soon became apparent he was a Water Mage as well. He told us that dinner would be served in half an hour and we could get our wet stuff dried. A pile of blankets were in the corner we could use. I used some to hide my lower half as I changed back from merform. While we prepared, an old lady arrived with some hot fish broth. Arondel summoned his room and while the others got some dry clothes I dried myself off with a towel then looked out the window. Everywhere I looked was water, broken only by the roofs of nearby buildings and a couple of single hulled sailing boats. Shortly dinner was served, consisting of white fish paste and chopped green seaweed. Delicious. Shaygin was obviously as curious about us as we were about him as they didn't get many visitors. He told us that about 400 years ago, the Great Rains came, which lasted 3 odd decades. Most of the people perished and, at the moment, there were only thirty left. The entire plane was completely underwater. The second level was submerged to a depth of thousands of feet but Shaygin had managed to raise the ground below the portals to the fifty foot mark to give anyone who did appear a chance of survival. There had been one visitor from Norden recently. Shaygin warned us about the squid creatures which he claimed to be extremely dangerous. There weren't any before the rains although there had been smaller squid-like creatures in the lake. Must remember to ask Arondel if there are any in the Norden lake. They all had mental magics and had originally attacked survivors without provocation although there had been an uneasy peace for the last 120 odd years. Even with the Eye he couldn't detect them. We figured they were mind- cloaked. We also wondered if they were related to the Calimar. We also discovered that Shaygin also had a doorknob. It was him that was putting all the seaweed in the room. Apparently it was edible. Finally I asked him if he had any ingredients for making permanent Waters of Healing he could sell that I could take back to the Guild. He offered to give me some. After a while he admitted that he knew why it had started raining which could have been to do with something he investigated. However he didn't want to talk about it here. It was suggested that Arondel open up his room but we thought it might not be prudent if another doorknob was brought in there in case there were 'unpredictable results'. Once we were inside Arondel's room, Shaygin commented it was very similar to his own, even down to the couch and the half eaten cheese sandwich. Soon him and Arondel were comparing their opinions on the books in the bookcase. The only main difference was that Arondel had green walls while Shaygin's room had blue. We managed to convince Shaygin to tell his story. He had got curious about the geas and, after several years, he had finally managed to word a question in such a way to bypass the geas and find out about whatever power had created the plane. However, as soon as he did it, it started raining. He did get an answer but it horrified him so much that he destroyed it. Tsavo still wanted to know what it was though. Finally we settled down to sleep the rest of the night.

4th Thaw

I was woken by the sound of Shaygin saying 'You gotta see this'. Turned out him and Arondel had been playing around with their doorknobs and had created a room with blue and green walls and a door in two opposing walls. They had opened a door in two different rooms at the same time and now had a room connecting those walls. We just hoped they didn't try using the other doorknob inside the room. We were offered some brown bitter tasting concoction, the local equivalent of coffee. I then renewed my Waterbreathing and Resist Cold. Meanwhile Carie did a Mindcloak on herself while Shaygin concentrated on her using the Eye. As the Mindcloak took effect, he couldn't locate her anymore. Just then there was a call to arms. Far out to sea were four black dots, surrounded by lightning, approaching the tower rapidly. Were the squids attacking again? .5. It wasn't the squids. Instead, as they approached, we could make out four black humanoids. Eidolon thought they were from Sudar but I wasn't going to take that as gospel until we had proof. As it turned out, he was correct. They were flying on some derivation of shadow-wings and were all surrounded by a coruscade, formed from the lighting that kept striking them from the 'sky'. It didn't seem to be harming them though. As they approached over the exposed roofs of the city, they slowed down. There were no visible weapons. I was hoping this was going to be a peaceful encounter but, instead, they started waving their hands, as in spellcasting. TharKuun and Mehb fired a crossbow and arrow respectively which hit their targets. At the same time, an agony field went down, affecting TharKuun, Mehb and a couple of local defenders while two other defenders were affected by Hands of Death. Necros! Another defender was manning an oversized crossbow and his bolt neatly skewered one of the attacking necros, knocking him out of the sky. Meanwhile Tsavo dropped a Quickness on himself, Eidolon, Carie and Aryan. At that time I managed to get a Rainstorm above the next necro in line while Carie cursed another with PMS (that's periodic muscle spasms). Unfortunately one of the defenders being affected by Hand of Death collapsed. Eidolon's Solar Flare went off, cutting through the remaining three necros. One of them vanished. Turned out Arondel had banished him. Bad move. That means he's escaped and can report back to whoever sent him. I started heading to the stairs. Halfway there, the other two dropped out of the sky. By the time I got there, the bodies of the fallen necros had been retrieved from the water. They were naked, apart from a loincloth, jet black in colour, and hairless. There was a large rune on their chest tattooed in red paint. Each of them had three rings: a gold one, a silver one, and a bronze one, all magical. The loincloths weren't magical. They also had some sort of deathcurse. Eidolon remembered it did something to them and their killer so we checked the person who fired the crossbow. Yep. He was cursed too. Meanwhile Arondel took the bodies of the two defenders, who had died, for resurrection. A short while later, there was a shout from upstairs. "The Eye's gone!". And sure enough, on the midday rain line, a storm was starting to brew. No one else from Lorgos was missing and the Eye isn't on plane. So it wasn't an inside job and the outside attack was only a diversion. But how did they get in there in the first place? While we were trying to sort out what was going on, Arondel returned and reported that he was able to resurrect one person but the other was too far gone. Tsavo questioned their spirits and discovered that the lightning protection was the gold rings. (According to the previous notes they were Wraithcloaks. The silver were Wings and the brass were Hand of Death) The attack was a diversion to get the Eye and they have other eyes beside Sudar's but he didn't know where from. They're being used to power a rather large machine, that the leader believes will save Sudar, which is located outside, in the city, on the top level. The nature of the curse is to serve the Lord of Sudar even after death by turning them and their killers into wraiths. Already the shade had a bluish aura around it which Eidolon described as a wannabe wraith. They turn into wraiths at midnight. Curse Removal can prevent this as well as removing the tattoo. The Lord of Sudar knows what damage he's done to the other planes but he doesn't care. The machine is heavily guarded by mages, a mixture of mind, celestials, and necros. They have been grabbing populations from other planes as slaves. This plane needed to be evacuated so Arondel and Shaygin decided to try opening their rooms, one on Norden and the other on Lorgos. So Arondel started his planewalk ritual then slipped through. Meanwhile Shaygin got everyone to gather up all the valuables and stack them ready for transportation. Carie went upstairs to do a ritual while I kept an eye on the storm. Tsavo started using spells to warp the skin containing the tattoo off the bodies. The whole procedure looked rather gross. Shaygin opened his door. Eidolon wanted to make more room by moving stuff out but Shaygin refused as much of it wasn't his and he didn't want to annoy any other users. We were able to create a path to the opposite wall. Just as we finished, the opposite wall opened up and we could see a sunny marketplace on Norden. So a mass evacuation started and soon a human chain was passing stuff though from Lorgos to Norden. Then Eidolon saw heads coming out of the water near the submerged buildings. We suspected it was the squid. Finally it was just us and Shaygin left on Norden. The original scheme was that Shaygin would lent Eidolon a ring of Banishment, Eidolon would close the door after everyone was through then banish himself to Alusia where Arondel would planewalk to fetch him. The ring could only be used twice. The first time it sends you to your plane of origin, the second was to your specific birthplace and a subsequent use meant oblivion. So we tried it but discovered that Eidolon couldn't use Shaygin's doorknob. Obviously they were keyed to the owner. This meant Shaygin had to use the door but he couldn't go anywhere else and it would take over an hour before Arondel could repeat his ritual and come back to fetch him. Aryan offered to stay and help fight off the squids but it was agreed that it would be a futile gesture. Finally we gave Shaygin a lightning protection ring and Eidolon cast Wings on him while I put on a Waterbreathing. The flying should keep Shaygin out of reach of the squids until Arondel could meet him at the portal we came through. So I gave Shaygin a hug for good luck, which he appreciated, then we went into the room. Shaygin closed the door behind us. We emerged on Norden where the Lorgos refugees were being made welcome. I put Waterbreathings on Aryan and Arondel and Arondel started his ritual. I was getting fretful worrying about Shaygin and hoping he was going to be okay so I was spending the time pacing while the others discussed means of going to Sudar and getting the Eye back. Finally Arondel stepped into a 'gap' and soon returned with Shaygin. His skin was blackened, he was hairless, but at least he was alive. He still had his doorknob tightly clutched in his hand and it was warm to the touch. The skin underneath it was red and burnt. .6. Arondel whisked Eidolon away for divination. Meanwhile I went to see how Shaygin was doing. He was rather depressed about losing his plane and was considering an idea for training his people to be Water Mages so they could survive in the water and deal to the squids. An hour or so later, Arondel reported that Eidolon had two death curses on him, the first at Rank 5, the second on 10. The first said 'Once you die you will rise as a wraith at the following midnight and serve Lord Sarn' while the second stated 'You are doomed to die at the hands of darkness'. While Arondel rested, fortifications were being erected under Aryan and Eidolon's supervision in case the Sudarians attacked Norden. The Lorgosian who had fired the big catapult was very keen on repeating the feat so he was busy building another. Incidently he also had the 'rise as a wraith' curse on. Meanwhile Carie was discussing with the local alchemist about the possibility of making Mind Cloak potions. While he checked ingredients Carie, Mehb, and TharKuun went to rank spells. I decided to stay out of the way so I went for a swim in the lake. I was told there was a rumour of a giant kraken in there but no one had seen it in living memory. I decided to let sleeping krakens lie. Instead I just relaxed in the water for a while. Getting close to the giant carp proved to be rather difficult as they were very wary. That evening Arondel came for Eidolon to attempt to remove the wraith curse while Carie and the alchemist started to make the potion.

5th Thaw

After doing some contortion exercises in the morning, I dressed in my kraken skin armour and went looking for Aryan to see if he was free for unarmed combat practise. However he was heavily involved in sorting out the chaos that was the defence setup so I spent most of the day doing trident practise with the Lorgosians - and whomever else they roped in. Meanwhile Mehb and TharKuun had got roped into helping test the new giant crossbow. Eidolon turned up after lunch and immediately started trying to sort out the mess that Aryan had made. Unfortunately the curse removal had failed so Arondel was going to try again after resting. That night Carie suggested that Sarn create a thin beam of sunlight, just after the midnight line, that could catch any just risen wraiths. That seemed like a good idea so he went to see if it could be implemented.

6th Thaw

Basically the same as yesterday. The Mind Cloak potion (Rank 1) was successfully made and it was handed to Arondel in case he had to sneak in first. The alchemist had enough ingredients to make a second one so they started on that. 8th Thaw More of the same really. Arondel finally got the wraith curse off Eidolon but the second Mind Cloak potion fizzled. However, two strangers had appeared at the portal, a man, Caran, and his twelve year old son, Timothy. They were cloth traders from the plane of Korax and had been aiming for the city there from the second level. Both of them had rather dark skins and were dressed in off-white robes and turbaned head gear. They told us that a few hundred people had disappeared off their plane, mostly mages. Mind you, since the mages were the ones most likely to use the portals that seemed reasonable. Their lord, Lord Nebran, wasn't a mage but they had E&Es, Air, a writing mage and healing mages. On Korax, the bottom level is swamp and the second level is desert. I asked whether or not anyone had mysteriously appeared. Caran said no but I managed to find out from Timothy that a frozen body had appeared in a desert portal. Had to be someone who got on Chos and hadn't managed to get out in time. Mehb and I took them away and helped them settle in until Lord Sarn could sort something out. I still reckon that the Sudarians have something to do with the planar breakdown in order to kidnap slaves. We also had a look at their cloth samples, some of which were rather nice. A bit later on, Arondel took us down to the underground cavern so we could have some necro special counterspells (rank 12) put on. They would last three months. It was then decided that Arondel would planewalk to Sudar, with a volunteer or two, to have a quick look around. Aryan and Eidolon diced for it and Aryan won. So we powered them up with everything (at least the subtle stuff) we could think of: Waterbreathings, Waters of Strength, Resist Colds, Vapour Breathing, etc, etc. Then Arondel did his ritual and the two of them stepped through. They didn't emerge on Sudar but, instead, peered through. Their first look revealed darkness so they tried again somewhere else. This time they were looking down on a city street in what seemed like moonlight. Arondel seemed drawn to something close by so they took a look. What they found was the edge of a set of what appeared to be black steps. Standing nearby was a black skinned person dressed in only a leather loincloth. The most striking feature about him was his face, it was paleskinned and badly deformed. He then turned and looked right at Arondel as if he could see him through the planar boundary. Arondel suddenly felt very fatigued so he and Aryan left the vicinity of Sudar and managed to reach Norden, emerging somewhere on the second level, several days walk to the wall. They couldn't open the room as there was nowhere to draw the door (there was chalk in the doorknob). So Eidolon got this idea of flying out there with a slab of stone. To do this he stripped down to a loincloth, used one of the lightning protection rings, then cast StarWings on himself. He then just managed to lift this slab of marble and flew off with it. Unfortunately he crashed into one of the nets that had been erected to stop incoming fliers. That resulted in waves of laughter from nearly everyone. Finally he was away, being blasted by lightning as he rose above the level of the buildings. When Eidolon finally found Arondel his skin had turned black with charring and his hair had burnt off. Additionally his cloth loincloth had also burnt off leaving only his leather codpiece. We concluded from this that leather was required for protection. The slab was propped up, the door drawn, and Aryan and Arondel's equipment was passed through (Shaygin had already opened his side). Arondel was going to fly back with Eidolon. All he was now in was a leather skirt and the doorknob was placed in a small leather bag. Once prepared, the door was closed and the pair flew back. It was suggested, before they left, that Arondel splashlands in the lake so we headed down there, even though they would land long before we got there. As it turned out, Arondel made a really good landing and was soon ashore. That evening we discussed what we could do. .7. A while later, Arondel arrived. Tsavo was still interested in what Shaygin had discovered so a short while later, Arondel, Shaygin, Tsavo, and myself were planewalking. I initially thought we were checking out Sudar but we ended up in a place that reminded me of a small island. Both the sky and sea were a metallic grey and there was no horizon. The sand was also grey but the grass was blue/grey. Nearby, a wooden jetty jutted into what I thought was water until I used my dowsing talent. No water at all. Arondel said that we were just beyond the edge of the bubble worlds and described the seven planes as being in a line - like pearls in a necklace - and this place was at one end. He also warned me not to touch the 'water' as it was something he called 'proto-matter' or 'chaos-stuff' i.e. stuff that planes are made from. This place seemed to be a baby plane and it had no name of its own. Shaygin then told us that he was an astrologer and had managed to do a reading asking the question on how he could contact the creators. It was that act that started the floods. He told us the answer that both Tsavo and I memorised. He didn't want us to write it down - just in case. It was: I give you a coin that I made from a stone I give you a song I stole from the dirt I give you a knife from under the hill And a stick I stuck through a dead mans eye I give you a claw that I ripped from a rat I give you a name and the name is lost I give you the blood from out of my vein And a feather I pulled from an angels wing I summon with poison and I summon with pain I summon you with the names of the old lords Chos, Sudar, Kerax, Eradin, Lorgos, Virym, Norden From the Dark they call you Into the Dark they call you Coin and Song, Knife and Stick Claw and Name, Blood and Feather Here in the Darkness, I summon you together. The answer appeared to be some sort of summoning ritual. The references to pain and blood also implied it wasn't very nice. Both Arondel and Shaygin had concluded that the gods just didn't want to be known - so why had they created and populated the planes in the first place. Plus it also implied that there was a different creator for each plane who had named the plane after it. It was believed that the Sudarians were also cursed. Maybe they were trying to complete the summoning ritual? Arondel then told us that when the Eye of Norden had been stolen, he had, in an act of desperation, summoned enough energy in order to fling himself out of Norden in order to get help. He found himself on this proto-plane and then realised he was stranded. Fortunately he encountered some entities who taught him how to planar travel on the condition he didn't reveal who they were. I wondered if they were the mysterious creators but Arondel didn't think so. Another thing that was interesting was the angel that Eidolon had evoked on the earlier mission. The invocation was found beneath the base of a sundial. The thing was, why would there be a sundial on a plane where the sun doesn't actually move. I wondered if there were sundials on the other planes and whether they also had inscriptions. The inscription had been: Call upon the Eye for light When weeping in the falling night. It might control the starry poles And summon angels, burnished bright. It was six hours later by the time we got back. I went straight to bed and was soon lulled to sleep by the sound of the Great Sea. 9 Thaw The rest were up early this morning. They had come up with the idea of questioning the shade of the ex-lord of Sudar. Unfortunately the place of death was inside the Norden tower so Lord Sarn arranged for part of the tower to be unbricked so we could get in. Eidolon wanted to spend the waiting time sunbathing. That sounded like an excellent idea so I climbed up onto the roof. It wasn't long before I was joined by Eidolon and Aryan. Just around lunchtime the message arrived that everything was ready. So we trooped to the tower. When we got there, a small hole had been made in the bricked up door. Once inside, we had to ride the golems up the stairs as they were all warded. The place of death was at the top of the second flight, at the Eye room. Six golems were spaced around the pillar all facing outwards. Tsavo's attempt failed so Carie pulled out a tarot deck. Yes, this was Lord Garn. The magic that allowed Sudarians to cross planes turned out to be some sort of mask which they have to wear but it doesn't travel with them. However it's a two way trip as they can return by an act of will. The plane is indeed cursed but not by darkness. He had sought forbidden knowledge. The stolen Eye was required to power some sort of machine that would allow the entire population off the plane and out of the planar group. There was no particular destination in mind. He only required one foreign Eye. The only other major item required for the machine was the mask. The curse was the reason they were leaving. From what we could determine, now he had an Eye, the machine could be ready to go at any time. We then wanted to know what defences they had. On the plane there was more than 20 but less than 100 Greater Undead and more than 20 followers have those tattoos. Between 200 and 2000 people live within five miles of the tower. The mask is kept near the centre of the ziggurat and the Eye is located nearby. Sudar doesn't have a sun but has a moon instead. We decided we were going to go to Sudar and see if we could negotiate some sort of settlement for the return of Lorgos's Eye. Maybe they could use Chos's one instead. I was also wondering if Chos's Eye could be transplanted to Lorgos instead. Arondel had divinated some of the rings so we could use them. Two were: 4 charges of Rank 5 Agony - 60% BC 5 charges of Rank 10 Hands of Death - 65% BC Three of the others had ShadowWings. It was decided to rest up and go early the next day.