Wanderings in Wokland

Start Date: 06/09/2007

Party Members

• Arkham : Party Leader & Scribe
• Uzi Urksome : Military Scientist
• Belladona
• Sabastian

Diary

06/9/2007

After the last efforts in this area some of the previous party (as above but with Icarone instead of Arkham) stay and train with the Wok Master Wu Fang. Icarone has to leave to attend to some personal business so Sebastian sends a message to Arkham to come and help with the magical weirdness in the area. I fly up to the village below the monastery to meet up with the party. There is a storm around the spire.

The party travels up through the tunnels (now much improved) to the monastery to meet the Wok Master. The Wok of Ice is in his quarters and currently can't be moved (it will float if unsupported). The East-facing window (faces towards the ice covered spire) can't be closed. Belladonna is carrying the Wok of Fire and the weather effects in the area appear to intensify when the woks are within 20 feet of each other. The Wok of Ice contains some sort of elemental cold. Uzi dips the tip of his finger in and it gets snap frozen. There appears to be a stream of heat being drawn into the wok from the direction of the spire, which is causing a breeze and stopping the window being closed. Uzi mage locks the shutters and they explode. It appears that the woks can fit together. Belladonna does a vision of this and sees extremely violent weather effects. It seems that a third wok (of the five) may be in the area? I do an astrology reading about the third wok and get:

The stars will not tell you where it lies

But it does not lie under these stars

I do a precog of us going to sleep and get an uneasy feeling. We set watches and sleep.

07/9/2007

In the morning the two woks are floating one above the other. Sebastian flies out and above the storm to observe and see where the winds going to the wok are coming from. Sees drake riders. Spots an opening in the spire of ice.

Sebastian does an astrology reading asking if the wind comes from the hole and gets the following:

The hole is but a portal to a portal from a portal

Crystals of vision reveal the hole goes in then spirals downwards. We concoct a plan using a noodle net from the Wok Master to fly to the hole, spread the net and use that to land in. Decide to enact the plan at lunchtime when the hole will be most visible due to the light shining across it. We rest and the Wok Master creates two noodle nets for us.

08/9/2007

We go down to the village and practise flying for a while. Then we fly up to the hole. Sebastian goes first and manages to entangle himself in the noodle net and sticks himself to the back wall of the opening. He then deploys the second net and we fly in. We use ropes and crampons to lower ourselves down the spiral tube. It opens out into the roof of a large domed room, which was once a balcony but is iced in. It contains plants and has a preservation magical aura on the area. There is a single doorway with a magical aura on it that witch sight won't see through. It is a portal. Going through the portal reveals a mirror image room on the other side with no ice. It is very breezy and is nighttime. The balcony has stairs leading down to a plaza. There is a line of light across the sky. There is a drop over the edge of the plaza which is several miles down with some lights visible far below. Uzi goes back through the portal and sees a Norn (ice elf) in the other room. As we investigate more the door to the portal is closed behind us. We wait until dawn to get a better idea of the area.

09/9/2007

Daylight shows us to be on the inside of a ring world. There is a vast jungle below the mountain we're on. We see glinting far below. We fly down and land in the mountains near a cave. Uzi talks to a couple of goblins. They warn us of Kijaand Empire patrols. There is a human settlement 10 miles south. There are also Dwarfs nearby. We fly down to the tree line and build a fire. Belladonna does a flame sight vision and gets the following two visions:

• A mausoleum like structure filled with the treasure of empires. Many gold items within.

• A dark skinned elven woman with dark hair. Richly dresses and with an arrogant expression. She wears a silver brooch.

We camp until evening. Sebastian reads the night sky and sees:

• A city with a wall through the middle with a keep/citadel on a hill in the centre.

10/9/2007

We use crystals of vision to the south to find the human settlement. We see a rough camp in a valley. We walk there having to fire arc over a river. We move up the valley to the settlement, Belladonna and Uzi unseen. A brief fight ensues with the bandits and we leave. We return to the camp in the evening. I mental attack a bandit and Uzi saps the slave girl he has with him. We leave and then talk to the girl. She knows of the city. We realise that were on the Dark Elf empire plane (Kanlaoise) that has been visited before by guild parties. She says the city we're after is to the south. We walk down to a road and camp.

11/9/2007

We observe the road to get an idea of the social order of the area in preparation for going to the city. We see Orcs in chain gangs, Dark Elves patrolling and some humans in wagon trains.

12/9/2007

Travel along the road

13/9/2007

Travel along the road

14/9/2007

Travel along the road until we come to a lake. The road goes around the lake and the forest we have been using as cover runs out. We decide to talk to a couple of Dark Elf overseers in a field. We talk to them and Halflings appear to be a separate, neutral group. We ask directions to the city and leave. They are a little suspicious but not overly. We head to the road and talk to a local fisherman. We discover that the new regent is a woman and that there was a big raid on the city recently by humans, dwarves and ogres. Since then entry to the city for free humans is very restricted. Humans casting magic will be killed on sight. We go on the ferry to the city and talk to the guards. We tell them we took the girl from some bandits and that Sebastian is a merchant looking to start up trade. They tell us to come back before the gates close.

We return and talk to a potential sponsor (noble Dark Elf woman, we talk to her head servant). He arranges for us to meet at the cloth market tomorrow to arrange sponsorship. We are then told we should wait in the other half of the city, the damaged section on the other side of the dividing wall. We go there and rent a tent at the back of a ramshackle inn. Much of the area has been destroyed by fire. Belladonna talks to the servants. They tell us to avoid imperial guard and that the new ruler four years ago instigated a purge on humans as it was thought that the restrictions on them were too lax. This caused many to flee into the mountains and return as the large raiding party that tore it's way across the country. This was seen as the ruler's fault for the harsh policy. Belladonna uses the cooking fire to do a fire sight vision and gets the feeling that it is important to talk to the sponsor's man tomorrow. We retire to our tent.

Later investigation revealed the city is called Sa'Surhan.

15/9/2007

We get up early and see a large number of humans leaving the swamp gate of the city. We head to the market and see the sponsor woman plus another woman dressed in white. They are given a wide birth by everyone. Suddenly the woman in white starts rapidly using necromantic magic to cast at Uzi and Belladonna. They both fall to the ground and are left near death. Belladonna experiences the effect of being resurrected and suffers badly due to her death aspect. It appears they were both carrying ice spiders, which were the cause of the attack. We meet our contact. He offers us a boon for the return of the slave girl and the map to the brigand's camp. We carefully ask about the golden wok. He enquires if it has any possible connections to this place and we tell him about the visions of the mausoleum and the woman with the brooch. We talked to him about some other stuff but we somehow don't remember the details of the conversation. He suggests we leave the city as soon as possible. We head to the main gate where we were given something by someone and then we leave.

We fire run through the woods and then fly to the mountain. People pursue us far behind on star wings. We land and find the door is still closed. It has runes on it. Uzi uses an opening spell to unfasten it, revealing that there is a shattered ice block behind it. At this point we realise we have acquired some gems from somewhere as well as the knowledge that the emperor had the wok but is now dead. The wok is in his treasure hoard. The golden wok is connected to the others, which could be used to locate it, as it is normally unlocateable.

We climb back up our rope then fly down to the monastery. We talk to the Wok Master about what has happened. Two Norns show up and offer us 5000 sp for each of the two "skin patches" that are left of the ice spiders. Further investigation missions will be required. We discuss with the Wok Master what he could teach us.